The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 225

The Night of the Soulless Heretic – Episode 226 (226/514)

#226. The Pilgrimage’s Ordeal 1

The annual pilgrimage.

It was a yearly event for the Rescue Knights.

Usually, the Rescue Knights trained in their respective sectors of the Hybris Peninsula, but once a year, they embarked on a regular pilgrimage. This journey served a dual purpose: to monitor the forces of evil and to carry out their noble mission of providing aid across the land, protecting people from poverty, suffering, and dark magic.

However, as the Age of Jupiter [a mythical era of prosperity and peace] had not dawned for a long time, the true meaning of the regular pilgrimage had become twisted.

The Rescue Knights, who occupied the Hybris Peninsula, the world’s most fertile land, exported vast quantities of food to various parts of the world each year.

The pilgrimage acted as an escort for these food shipments. After reaching various destinations, they performed relief work in name only. They then selected vagrants, drifters, and criminals who had lost their land to cultivate and brought them back under the guise of reformation.

They claimed that some of these people could become knights, but in reality, it was a source of serfs. [unfree laborers bound to the land]

Knights needed serfs to manage their manors, and the demand could not be met solely through marriages and births among the existing serf population. This was because countless serfs perished under the harsh working conditions.

Thus, those who knew the truth about the Rescue Knights’ regular pilgrimage despised them, calling them legal slave traders.

Of course, such contempt had to be kept hidden. If they revealed their true feelings, the Rescue Knights’ blades would not hesitate to punish them.

Even if the Rescue Knights were considered inferior to the knights of the King’s Church, the fact remained that they were armed with steel armor and sharp spears and swords.

However, there were times when even the Rescue Knights’ spears and swords could not protect their honor.

Harabos, nestled in the southern tributary of the Kerim Mountains, was a city of dwarves.

The pilgrimage, having arrived in Harabos on ships laden with grain, sold their cargo, completed their perfunctory relief activities, and parted ways with the ships, heading towards the Hybris Peninsula by land.

They visited every village, gathering the children of farmers who had no land to inherit, those imprisoned for committing crimes, and those accused of witchcraft but who lacked the means to pay for their burning at the stake, thus swelling their ranks.

However….

In the wilderness far from the symbols of human civilization, the great cities, they suddenly began to feel strange gazes.

Someone was following them.

Everywhere they went, blatant traces of camps were left behind, along with the discarded corpses of beasts and monsters.

The leader of the pilgrimage chose one of his squires and sent him as a scout. However, after waiting for half a day, the scout did not return. When they proceeded as planned, they soon found the squire hanging from a tree, his body torn to pieces.

And then, suddenly, the tree rose. An evil spirit had possessed the tree, transforming it into a giant monster.

With a single blow from the tree spirit, a horse collapsed, and the squire riding it was shattered.

The surprised pilgrimage fought against the tree spirit and ultimately prevailed.

A heroic battle and victory against a giant tree monster—a proud tale that the Rescue Knights would usually boast about over drinks—but they were not happy at all.

This was because the attack was just the beginning.

From that day on, their pursuers openly attacked them. Every night, a thick fog rolled in, and the sentries, as if possessed by something, were dragged away, only to be found dead soon after.

And that wasn’t all.

In the thick fog, the seductive laughter of women could be heard, and when they came to their senses, the number of the pilgrimage had dwindled.

The serfs and farmers who were free to move disappeared one by one in the fog, whether they had escaped or been lured to their deaths by the monsters of the fog. Eventually, only the prisoners in the prison wagons and the pilgrim knights remained.

The pilgrimage leader immediately halted their journey and headed towards the nearest city to request aid, but the fog only thickened, and the enemy’s attacks grew more powerful. Soon, they lost their way.

Then, a young female knight of the pilgrimage suggested a dangerous alternative.

She produced the Emperor’s gold coin.

*********

The leader of this pilgrimage, Beljuan, was a seasoned Rescue Knight.

His rank within the Rescue Knights was Hospitaller-Paladin, the leader of a cavalry squadron.

Although the Rescue Knights were considered inferior to the King’s Church, a Hospitaller-Paladin was by no means an easy opponent.

It was not a position that could be achieved by luck; one had to be recognized for their extensive combat experience and leadership skills to become a Paladin.

However, the pilgrimage leader, who had accumulated such diverse experiences, was now feeling fear.

He had fought against monsters and countless followers of the Kurt gods [a reference to a fictional religion], but he had never experienced anything like this.

He could not even identify the nature of the threat, yet the enemy was clearly pursuing them with malice and obsession, cutting them down bit by bit, and there was no way to retaliate.

In such a dire situation, a subordinate proposed a reckless plan.

“Please, Commander. Allow me to use this.”

A beautiful girl with black hair and blue eyes was looking directly at him. The girl held an item of heresy.

The Emperor’s gold coin.

It was a sinister gold coin said to summon the evil spirits that the Yaeslat Emperor, who once ruled the Hybris continent, used as his messengers, the Emperor’s Heralds.

“Lady Izmilla. Do you understand the implications of this?”

The girl’s name was Izmilla. Her rank was Hospitaller-Errant, a knight in training.

However, she was clad in full dwarven armor and armed with an azure steel shield and a ceramite longsword. [a type of advanced ceramic material] It was not equipment that a mere trainee knight could acquire.

Perhaps she was from an incredibly wealthy family who had joined the Rescue Knights for some reason. That was the only explanation for why she possessed the Emperor’s gold coin.

“That is the Emperor’s gold coin. It is a tool to summon the Emperor’s evil spirits, the soulless heretics. The moment we use it, our pilgrimage will be defiled. There is no guarantee that we will survive even if we use it….”

Of course, the pilgrimage leader did not truly harbor a strong aversion to the Emperor’s gold coin.

No, it was true that he felt aversion, but it was not so strong that he would disregard his own life. If he could survive this situation, he would do anything.

However, as the pilgrimage leader, it was the same whether he died at the hands of the mysterious enemy or was later purged for using the Emperor’s gold coin.

‘Izmilla. If you take responsibility, then maybe, but am I crazy to approve that? You fool. Just use it and report it after the fact.’

The pilgrimage leader was exasperated by Izmilla’s naivete, which lacked political cunning. It seemed like it was time to demonstrate his experience.

“Why wouldn’t I understand the desire of my young subordinates to live? However, my faith compels me to devote myself entirely to virtue rather than borrowing the power of such heretics. Originally, I should scold you just for possessing it, but I understand the hearts of the young. However, wandering in delusion is the privilege of the young, not something an old man like me should do. Lady Izmilla. Only someone young and promising like you can break the mold. An old man like me….”

‘I can’t do it, but if you young ones do it, the higher-ups will forgive you. Above all, you have a lot, so no matter what you do, the higher-ups will look favorably upon you.’

He was rambling on with that intention. Just as he was making excuses to avoid responsibility as much as possible, hail suddenly began to pour down on their heads.

“Ugh!”

“W-what is this?!”

“B-blood hail!”

“What is blood hail? Hick?!”

The knights, who were holding up their shields to block the falling hail, screamed. Ice made by freezing blood was pelting them.

“Commander! I beg you again! Please allow me to use the Emperor’s gold coin!”

Izmilla pleaded with the pilgrimage leader, holding up her azure steel shield.

At that moment, a young woman’s voice rang out from among the criminals trapped in the wagon.

“Hey, you stupid woman! That old geezer is basically saying, ‘I don’t want to take responsibility, so you do it yourself!’ Can’t you understand?”

“What?!”

Izmilla glared at the criminal who had insulted her. A young woman with a scar on her face was sitting cross-legged under the shelter of a large man’s body.

“Ah, it hurts. Sis.”

“Shut up and do it, you oaf. I won in rock-paper-scissors. I know this much is nothing to your sturdy body anyway.”

In fact, this man had a muscular body like a giant ancient statue.

Half-orc. Among those born between orcs and humans, there were cases where they inherited only the muscular body, the curse of the orcs, instead of their amazing intelligence. This man was one of those unfortunate cases.

“But that game. Isn’t it too much to say that my pinky finger doesn’t count as a ‘bo’? You keep winning, sis.”

“That’s because I’m good at the game. You have to spread five fingers to show ‘bo.’ Got it?”

“I don’t like that game.”

“It’s our family tradition. Shut up and do it, you idiot.”

This woman was using her giant half-orc brother as a shield against the blood hail while sitting under him.

“Hey, you. Are you talking to me right now? It’s one thing to insult me, but to insult the faith of Sir Beljuan, the leader of the pilgrimage and Hospitaller-Paladin….”

“Ahem. Lady Izmilla. This is not the time for that. Stay and protect your comrades. We don’t know when the enemy will attack.”

“Yes?”

Izmilla was bewildered by the pilgrimage leader’s reaction, which suppressed her questioning in this situation. Didn’t this make it seem like what that female thief was saying was right?

“Ah, Commander. Does that mean I can use this Emperor’s gold coin?”

“Ahem.”

“…….”

Izmilla began to hesitate, observing Sir Beljuan’s reaction.

Although she had produced the gold coin, she also felt uneasy as the commander was openly showing that he did not want to take responsibility.

A young squire, unable to watch any longer, stepped forward. A young man, not a Hospitaller but a clerk of the Order, drew a triangular magic circle on the ground.

“Lady Izmilla. I apologize for being presumptuous, but may I dare to use the Emperor’s gold coin instead and bear the responsibility?”

“Ah, Mr. MacDougall.”

“If summoning the Emperor’s Heralds is a wicked sin that sells one’s soul, then I will bear all the sin. I will also take responsibility. Of course, I don’t know if someone as lowly as me can take all the responsibility, but how can I wish for my own well-being when everyone’s lives are on the line? However, if the Emperor’s Heralds are indeed the demons of the gold coin, as rumored….”

“…….”

He was talking too much.

Unable to bear it any longer, Izmilla placed the gold coin directly on the magic circle.