The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 288

A rumor travels a thousand miles even without feet. No matter how powerful a ruler may be, they cannot stop rumors. Given Azadin’s unconventional actions, word about him had already spread quite far.

“Kwoo-errk!”

The Bree were furious that Azadin was ignoring them and talking to the farmers.

The Bree at the front swung his stag-horn axe and approached Azadin. He was likely trying to deflect Azadin’s arrows and then attack.

“Ha, you think you can deflect my arrows?”

Azadin’s pride was stung by the Bree soldier’s blatant actions. The Aragasa [Azadin’s clan, known for their archery] were proud of their archery, so when someone so openly tried to deflect their arrows, it was hard to resist the urge to plant an arrow in their weak spot.

However, Azadin glanced at his quiver. There weren’t many arrows left. He hadn’t prepared many arrows because he wasn’t out to fight.

“This won’t do.”

Azadin put away his bow and whistled. Then, a huge shadow fell over the Bree soldiers. The creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a horse, the hippogriff Firewinter, swooped down from the sky and attacked the Bree soldiers.

Firewinter tightly gripped the Bree soldier’s body with its front claws. The Bree soldier desperately resisted, but he couldn’t overcome the hippogriff’s strength.

-Crunch!

Hungry, Firewinter devoured the Bree soldier’s torso, eating him alive. Horrifically, the Bree soldier’s nerves were still alive, and his limbs twitched and convulsed as he screamed in pain.

“I haven’t seen this race before… Since they have deer or goat heads, they probably aren’t poisonous, right?”

Azadin took off his mask. His purple eyes, inherited from his sister Araelle, shone like flames even in the shadows of the dark forest. Azadin picked up the severed arm of the Bree soldier and examined it with his magic-sensing vision. He was checking to see if there were any magical contaminations or toxins in the flesh that would make it dangerous to eat.

“It doesn’t seem to have any magical contamination.”

The Bree couldn’t understand the human language Azadin was speaking, but they could tell what he was doing by examining their comrade’s corpse.

‘Wow, even if you cursed at them, it wouldn’t be as annoying as this.’

The farmer’s son, Duns, watched Azadin, who was unintentionally provoking the Bree. The Bree seemed to agree with Duns on that point, as a dryad, unable to watch any longer, opened its mouth.

“You… don’t even think about going back alive!”

At that moment, a spiderweb was cast over the forest, blocking the sky.

“Hmm?”

They had cast a spiderweb to block the hippogriff from flying away, cutting off its escape route. The Bree showed their determination to not let Azadin and the hippogriff live.

“What? Do you think you can handle this?”

Azadin was amazed at the Bree’s actions, who seemed to underestimate him and the hippogriff. Of course, if you consider the numbers, there were more Bree soldiers. Just from what he could see, there were more than ten. There would be more reinforcements in the forest, so if they attacked with all their might, even a hippogriff would be in danger.

‘They don’t seem to be undead, so how can they be so reckless with their lives? They’re a strange race.’

If they were human soldiers, their morale would have plummeted the moment they saw a hippogriff slash someone with its claws and eat them alive. No matter how much the commander urged them, no one would bravely charge. The first one to charge would be torn to pieces, so who would ignore their own life and charge?

Azadin didn’t know anything about the Bree, so he couldn’t understand why they were acting like this.

“Die.”

With the dryad’s sharp voice, the Bree soldiers charged all at once. Firewinter also thrashed around, knocking down the charging Bree soldiers. Its massive size and powerful, wild violence were truly terrifying, and any normal creature would have been intimidated, making the damage even greater.

However, the Bree soldiers continued to charge at Firewinter, ignoring even death, and a siege was quickly formed. The Bree soldiers thrust out their obsidian spears and stag-horn axe-spears to slaughter the hippogriff.

However…

“They’re enemies, but I have to give them credit!”

A sword burning with golden flames danced around the hippogriff’s body. Azadin grabbed the hippogriff’s saddle straps and flew, deflecting the incoming weapons. It was easier said than done to move while hanging onto a 120-stone (about 762kg) monster that was going wild.

Azadin, in a situation where he could be crushed, stayed close to Firewinter like a nomad performing saddle acrobatics on a running horse (the Aragasa were actually a nomadic people), blocking the attacks of the Bree soldiers who were trying to attack any opening. It was truly a sight of man and beast as one, and the Bree were swept away, their blood and flesh scattering in all directions.

“Hmph, you’re quite skilled, human child. But… we are the hunters, and you are the prey!”

The dryad raised its staff. Then, two large bears with stag horns on their heads jumped out of the forest. The Bree soldiers cheered and made way for them. Azadin’s hippogriff, Firewinter, who had been slaughtering the Bree, was also startled by the sudden appearance of the two bears. Unlike the small Bree, the presence of the bears, which were as large as itself, seemed threatening.

“Kekeke!”

The being disguised as a dryad let out a sinister laugh.

However…

-Thwack!

Azadin pulled out his bow again and pierced the vital spot of the stag-horned bear with an arrow. The arrow pierced through its eye socket, skull, and into its brain. The bear screamed and collapsed.

“……”

While the Bree were bewildered, Azadin shot another arrow. This arrow flew low to the ground, then suddenly shot up, piercing the bear’s jaw and digging into its brain. It was also an instant kill.

The Bree had confidently summoned what seemed like their ultimate weapon, but it was sunk by a single arrow from Azadin.

“So? Do you have any more tricks?”

Azadin, still hanging onto the hippogriff, calmly looked at the dryad.

“Y-you. The hunt has already begun. When the old gods return, you will…”

However, the dryad’s words were cut short. The third arrow Azadin shot tore through the dryad’s temple from the side.

“Kuaaaa!”

The dryad didn’t die from this attack. But with half of its face torn off, separating its eye and mouth, it was now staggering and unable to keep its balance.

“Grrr.”

The Bree soldiers, who had been fearlessly charging at the hippogriff, were completely subdued by Azadin’s archery skills. In the meantime, Azadin made the hippogriff run on the ground and reached out to the farmer and his son, Digun and Duns, shouting.

“Pull out the arrows stuck in the bears and collect them! They’re clear steel arrows!”

“Huh?”

“Hmm. Is it too much for civilians!?”

Azadin gave up on the farmer and his son, who were too shocked to move, and put them on the saddle. The hippogriff ran on the ground, breaking through the Bree’s encirclement and escaping.

“…This is bad.”

Azadin looked at his empty quiver and worried. Even if you shoot a strong bow, if the arrowhead is dull, the penetration power will decrease. He had used up all the clear steel arrows he had brought to fight the Bree’s stag-bears, and he hadn’t even been able to collect them. The remaining arrows were cheap iron-tipped or wide hunting tips, which had poor penetration power. There were only three left. It was fortunate that the Bree were intimidated, but if they had continued to attack, he would have run out of arrows and had to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

“Well, I’ve run into strange things from the start.”

Azadin glanced back from the hippogriff, and the Bree didn’t even dare to think about chasing him.

*********

“Y-you’re amazing. It was like a feat from an old tale! You are indeed Sir Azadin of Chadra!”

After getting some distance from the Bree and reaching a quiet place, the farmer’s son, Duns, finally spoke. He seemed to know Azadin’s rumors well, as he even guessed his name without Azadin revealing it first.

‘This idiot is talking to a holy knight so carelessly. What if he has a bad temper?’

The farmer, Digun, was flustered to see his son speaking to a knight so casually. The holy knights of the Chadra Highlands were in a situation no different from exiles. Even so, a knight was a knight. They were of a status that could not be compared to a farmer. He understood his son’s excitement at seeing a knight like a protagonist from a story, but he didn’t know what would happen if he spoke carelessly and angered the other party.

“More importantly, do you know what those deer-headed things were just now?”

When Azadin asked, Digun hurriedly answered.

“They’re Bree.”

“Bree? I’m not from this area, so it’s the first time I’ve heard of them.”

“They’re called the children of darkness, the forest people. I’ve heard they worship an evil god older than the Kurt Pantheon [the main pantheon of gods in this world]. People in this area often talk about them, but it’s the first time they’ve attacked a place where people live like this.”

“I saw quite a few of them from the sky, what about your house?”

“If you follow the stream there, you’ll find our village where the water mill is. Ah?”

In the distance, where the farmer Digun pointed, black smoke was rising.

*********

The Bree were dark races living in the forest. They had their own language, but they were considered barbaric and uncivilized, never having properly formed their own civilization or kingdom, let alone a tribal confederation. They lived with forest spirits and primordial spirits, hated fire that could burn the forest, and only obtained metal tools, which required fire to make, through looting. In other words, the village was on fire not because the Bree had set it on fire, but because the vigilantes had set it on fire to protect the village from the Bree.

Originally, they had tried to overcome their numerical disadvantage with fire attacks, but… the vigilante force had already been completely destroyed in the first clash with the Bree soldiers. The Bree soldiers, who were much larger than the farmers, were enough to make the vigilantes’ courage shrink and their souls leave their bodies just by swinging their long obsidian axe-spears. Fortunately, while using fire attacks, the fire spread to the food storage, allowing them to escape safely. The Bree’s original goal was the food storage. As soon as the fire spread to the food storage, the Bree shaman began to extinguish the fire with magic, and the Bree soldiers also focused on putting out the fire by fetching water from the stream, ignoring the residents. In that gap, the villagers were able to escape safely, but their future was bleak, having escaped with only their bodies, without any household goods or food. But then, they met an unexpected ally.