Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

Binaeril only realized that Starfall had vanished after confirming that Callisto had drawn his last breath.  

“Starfall has returned to Yunnaeril. It seems there’s a significant battle happening on the other side.”  

“What about Sister Priya? The Inya Khan? Are the Elfenbine people safe?”  

“They’re still alive for now. But with Starfall in your brother’s hands, they could be killed at any moment.”  

“Then I must hurry…”  

He needed to move quickly.  

Thanks to the pre-shared strategy, he could easily guess the location of the ongoing battle.  

“I just hope nothing happens until I get there.”  

Binaeril spread his wings. He was about to fly west but hesitated.  

“…Sir Callisto.”  

His body lay sprawled on the ground.  

He couldn’t just leave him there. Binaeril owed him at least the minimum respect.  

Stomping his foot, Binaeril created a pit large enough to bury a person.  

He carefully placed Callisto’s body inside.  

“I’m sorry. And… thank you.”  

Callisto’s last words lingered in his ears.  

There was no time left to grieve.  

Binaeril quickly took flight, heading west.  

Meanwhile, Yunnaeril, who had lost his weapon in an instant, was struggling to regain his balance.  

The Inya Khan’s fist was inches from his face.  

But Yunnaeril did not panic.  

He knew that his double was in motion.  

Scylla had appeared and driven a dagger into the Khan’s right wingbone.  

The sharp pain weakened the Khan’s punch.  

Yunnaeril deflected his fist and retreated.  

“Annoying fly…!”  

Having successfully wounded the Inya Khan, Scylla quickly distanced himself, looking for another opening.  

The ambush had happened so quickly that the Khan couldn’t even tell who had struck him.  

“Impressive, Inya Khan,” Yunnaeril remarked calmly, assessing the Khan’s skills.  

The Khan wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug expression off Yunnaeril’s face.  

The man had no weapon. If he attacked him directly now…!  

But just then, the ground beneath Yunnaeril’s feet began to tremble.  

Swords started to rise from the earth, like an inverted fountain from Elfenbine.  

“That sword…!”  

It was Starfall.  

A look of dismay crossed the Khan’s face.  

He had experienced Starfall’s power firsthand.  

As Yunnaeril swung Starfall, the distance between them became meaningless.  

The Khan hastily raised both arms to block the incoming wave of starlight.  

*Clang!*  

His bracer screamed under the pressure.  

The Khan’s body slid backward from the force.  

This was on a completely different level from when that other paladin had wielded it.  

Even a simple swing carried this much power…  

The front of the Khan’s bracer, which had managed to block Starfall’s sword, was now tattered like a rag.

“Ugh!”  

The Inya Khan pressed his palm against the ground, spitting out the blood that surged up from within him.  

“Hah… ugh…”  

Even though he had only blocked a single attack, his insides were completely churned.  

Dark red blood poured out like a waterfall.  

With Starfall in hand, Yunnaeril had subdued the Inya Khan in just one strike.  

Having wrapped up the fight, Yunnaeril lifted his head to survey the battlefield.  

“Who are they?”  

A newly arrived third force, the Church’s army, was demoralized by the unexpected intruders.  

Everywhere he looked, Church soldiers were falling dead.  

The soldiers who had been so desperate to kill the mages were now hesitantly retreating.  

“Do not retreat! Charge! Trust in the paladins!”  

Lieutenants were frantically trying to rally the troops, but their efforts were in vain.  

Something needed to change the tide of battle.  

“Captain! Captain Yunnaeril!”  

As the battle between Yunnaeril and the Inya Khan reached a lull, someone ran towards him, shouting.  

“Captain! We must retreat!”  

It was Paladin Pascal, who always saw Yunnaeril as a thorn in his side.  

“The identity of the force leading these soldiers is none other than Duke Torben Dux of the Empire!”  

“Duke Torben Dux?”  

Yunnaeril knew who that was—a Grand Duke whose name resounded not just across the Empire but the entire continent.  

But what was someone like him doing here?  

“The Duke’s forces are pushing through. The soldiers’ morale is at its lowest! We must retreat and regroup…”  

Yunnaeril met Pascal’s gaze head-on.  

The unwavering look in the captain’s eyes caused Pascal to falter and swallow his words.  

“Retreat? Where do you suggest we retreat to?”  

“Are you seriously asking that? We should pull back to a position where the Duke’s forces can’t reach us! Continuing this battle will only lead our soldiers to a pointless death!”  

Pascal, in his heightened state of agitation, was mixing formal and informal speech haphazardly.  

Yunnaeril’s brow furrowed slightly.  

“Paladin Pascal.”  

The calm way Yunnaeril addressed him made a vein throb in Pascal’s neck.  

“Yes! What is it?”  

“We are facing the Duke’s army. Torben Dux’s ‘Duke’s army.’ The entire Empire hasn’t mobilized to support Elfenbine, it’s merely the Duke’s forces.”  

“But it’s not just any Duke’s army; it’s Duke Torben Dux’s forces…”  

“I don’t want to hear it. Are you seriously advising that we retreat the entire Church’s forces because of one noble’s private army?”  

A clear-headed assessment showed that the Church’s forces still outnumbered the Duke’s.  

As long as they kept their wits about them, this battlefield was one they couldn’t lose.  

“Yunnaeril! If we retreat, we can request reinforcements from the Church and bring in more troops!”  

Yunnaeril clicked his tongue in frustration.  

A knight of the Church suggesting retreat without even properly assessing the battlefield, using morale as an excuse…  

If they retreated now and regrouped within the Church’s domain, at a place like the Duchy of Pigny, could they retake Elfenbine?  

No, Elfenbine wasn’t the issue.  

If they retreated now, could they ever again create such a perfect opportunity to corner Binaeril?

A third force supporting Elfenbine had revealed itself.  

If this information were to reach the ears of the old fox of an Archbishop, he would never engage in direct conflict with them.  

Retreat was not an option.  

“There will be no retreat.”  

Pascal’s eyes instantly turned ferocious.  

“You fool! It’s because you refuse to follow my orders that the frontline is in such disarray! Pull back the troops immediately!”  

Pascal had finally crossed the line with Yunnaeril.  

Up until now, Yunnaeril had tolerated his insubordination.  

But no more.  

Yunnaeril raised Starfall.  

Without hesitation, he thrust the sword into Pascal’s abdomen.  

“I’ll say it again. There will be no retreat.”  

“You… you…”  

The surrounding soldiers were stunned, covering their mouths in shock at Yunnaeril’s actions.  

“Mutiny is punishable by death.”  

The soldiers felt a chilling terror.  

Their commander had finally lost his mind.  

Yunnaeril wiped the blood off his face with indifference and kicked Pascal’s lifeless body, sending it flying.  

“Captain! What have you done?”  

Other paladins shouted in horror at the sight of Pascal’s brutal murder.  

“Killing a fellow paladin! Are you not afraid of the Church’s punishment?”  

Yunnaeril did not so much as glance in their direction, ignoring their accusations.  

Instead, he raised his sword high.  

“What are you trying to do now…?”  

Ignoring the angered stares of the soldiers, the blade of Starfall began to emit a radiant light.  

In an instant, everyone on the battlefield was captivated by the rising beam of light.  

The brilliant white glow emanating from the sword was a symbol of divine power—a mark of the Church’s authority and the very symbol of the paladins.  

Yunnaeril slowly lowered the sword.  

The white light scattered into multiple layers, drawing gasps of awe from the onlookers.  

It was a beautiful sight, entirely out of place in the gruesome battlefield.  

The direction Yunnaeril pointed his sword was towards the mass of hundreds of Duke’s soldiers.  

Yunnaeril swung Starfall slowly, deliberately, as if putting on a show for the audience.  

The sword’s trail cut through the center of the Duke’s forces like a meteor shower.  

The soldiers, entranced by the dazzling light, were sliced apart like straw as soon as they touched the light of Starfall.  

What was a beacon of salvation for some was a brilliant death for others.  

Nothing remained alive where the starlight of Starfall swept through.  

Those who had even briefly been mesmerized by the light were struck speechless.  

“A… a miracle!”  

One of the Church’s soldiers cried out.  

Indeed, the divine power displayed by Yunnaeril seemed like a miracle to them.  

The sky was still adorned with the enchanting starlight that Starfall had drawn.  

“Soldiers of the Church!”  

Yunnaeril’s voice, imbued with Starfall’s magic, echoed across the battlefield.  

“God is on our side! Do not fear!”  

“A miracle! The paladin’s divine power! God is watching over us!”  

Scylla, perfectly in sync with Yunnaeril’s dramatic display, shouted at the top of his lungs from amidst the soldiers.  

“A miracle! The Knight of Salvation!”  

“The Knight of Salvation is with us!”  

Uwaaah!  

Like embers reigniting from the ashes, the morale of the Church’s forces began to turn around.  

Individual soldiers can never grasp the entire scope of the battlefield.  

They can only see the enemy before them and the comrades at their side.  

Thus, even though they had the numerical advantage, the sudden appearance of the Duke’s forces had shaken their morale.  

The battle was not in their favor, not because they lacked the numbers, but because their spirits had faltered.  

“This is unbelievable…”  

Duke Torben Dux muttered in disbelief.  

Could a single person truly change the tide of an entire battlefield covered with thousands of troops?  

If someone had asked him before, he would have undoubtedly said no.  

But Yunnaeril was proving that it was possible.  

With his hair billowing and his figure bathed in radiant light, he was proving that his legendary reputation was no mere exaggeration.  

The Knight of Salvation.  

Standing tall in the midst of tens of thousands of soldiers, Yunnaeril looked like a figure out of myth.  

The Duke begrudgingly acknowledged that if this man were not an enemy, he might have felt a deep sense of reverence for him.  

But that near-miraculous knight was their adversary.

Yunnaeril began to move his sword again.  

[Everyone, take cover!]  

A meteor shower filled the sky, descending upon the mages of Elfenbine.  

Even a mere touch from those falling stars meant certain death.  

However, in a battlefield packed with people, evading such an onslaught was practically impossible.  

The mages of Elfenbine, sensing their impending doom, closed their eyes.  

And at that moment,

“Yunnaeril Dalheim!”

A mage appeared from the sky, intercepting the path of Starfall’s deadly trajectory.  

The worn book at the young mage’s waist flapped wildly.  

Binaeril’s magic began to push back against Starfall’s overwhelming power.  

The mages who had been saved from certain death murmured in disbelief.  

“Who… who is that?”  

“He’s flying!”  

“It’s Binaeril! Binaeril Dalheim!”  

Someone recognized the young mage.  

Cries of relief and astonishment rang out.

“Binaeril Dalheim has returned!”