The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 340

“What do you mean, Lord Azadin?”\n\nTriodana reacted nervously.\n\n”Strategically, it would be better to abandon Sandokar and return to the Rescue Knights’ territory for defense. The Rescue Knights’ territory has much more rugged terrain than the plains of Sandokar, making it easier to defend. Also, putting some pressure on the Arangi Kingdom might encourage them to cooperate more actively, don’t you think?”\n\n”That’s… too big of a picture for someone on the ground to judge. I’ll retreat to report to the higher-ups. Lord Azadin, may you have good fortune in the meantime….”\n\nTriodana said this and turned to leave, but then suddenly stopped, his hand still on the tent flap.\n\n”By the way, Lord Azadin, who knighted you?”\n\n”Lord Planck.”\n\nAzadin answered Triodana’s question honestly. He realized that Triodana was asking even though he already knew, so there was no need to hide it. There was no reason to lower his own standing when everyone knew each other.\n\n”There’s a prophecy that the last person Lord Planck knights will become the flower of chivalry, are you aware of that?”\n\n”That’s news to me. Is that something they say even after you die? Even after becoming a Death Knight?”\n\nAzadin replied with a feigned nonchalance.\n\nAt least, Lord Planck had never told Azadin about that prophecy.\n\nOf course, it wasn’t that Azadin didn’t know about it. Since becoming a member of the Rescue Knights, he had often heard the story from those who recognized Aurelia Dunn.\n\n”But the flower of chivalry, huh? That’s a strange thing to say. If someone is truly a paragon of chivalry, wouldn’t they wish for justice, courage, wisdom, and mercy to fill the world, so that they themselves wouldn’t be special? Rather than hogging some grand glory of being the flower of chivalry all alone.”\n\n”Hmm.”\n\nTriodana felt shame and anger at Azadin’s words.\n\nProphecies were not important. What was important was to fill the world with virtue.\n\nRather than being called the flower of chivalry alone, he would rather have justice and virtue flow like water throughout the world, even if he himself was buried in obscurity.\n\nAzadin’s words could be heard in a good light. But from the perspective of the Northern Empire’s Cohen faction, who were obsessed with such prophecies and murdered their master, this was a mockery and insult to them.\n\n‘How dare this lowly bastard insult my father? Why did Lord Planck….’\n\nTriodana was furious at Azadin’s words, but his priority was to leave this place on good terms.\n\n”Then, may you have good fortune, Lord Azadin. I will be sure to convey your innocence to the higher-ups.”\n\n”Yeah. You stay safe too.”\n\nAzadin wished Triodana well in a perfunctory manner.\n\n*********\n\nSir Gares, the commander of the Tersio [a military unit] of the Courage Order, remained in Sandokar with his troops, cooperating in the repair and defense of the gate while investigating the circumstances that led to Azadin’s control of the Sandokar County.\n\nOriginally, Sir Gares and his troops were also supposed to go to the Banlung Kingdom to rescue the merchants who were sending a request for aid, but the Tersio troops led by Sir Gares were a mixed unit of humans and dwarves, which meant they had the disadvantage of slow marching speed.\n\nAzadin’s warlord had already requisitioned all the carts and wagons, so they were stuck in Sandokar, unable to move forward or backward.\n\nFrom Azadin’s forces’ point of view, it was incredibly reassuring to have the Tersio troops, who used gunpowder weapons, guarding the fortress walls.\n\nIn addition, the blunderbusses and cannons that Azadin had confiscated from Chashan’s subordinates were also deployed, making the defense of the Sandokar Gate quite formidable.\n\n”Well, it seems we’ve ended up guarding someone else’s fortress for free.”\n\nSir Gares was inwardly impressed as he took on the defense of the Sandokar County. To Azadin, he was an ambiguous figure, neither clearly an enemy nor an ally, but rather a nuisance.\n\nHowever, Azadin had even conscripted Sir Gares to use him as part of the Sandokar defense force.\n\nThe problem was that the world was becoming increasingly ominous.\n\nGares, standing on the ramparts of the Sandokar Gate fortress, felt a cold wind.\n\nA cold wind, not befitting the summer, made his beard tremble.\n\n”Sir Gares, it seems more refugees have arrived.”\n\nGares’s aide, a dwarf paladin, pointed his staff towards the road in front of the gate.\n\nRefugees, carrying all sorts of belongings, were gathering along the road.\n\n”What about Count Ibechek?”\n\n”He is also opening the gate and accepting the refugees.”\n\nIt seemed that Ibechek and Azadin had already discussed it, as they were accepting all the refugees.\n\nAzadin’s infantry commander, the half-elf Legion, and the dwarf Kalan approached these refugees and selected soldiers from among them.\n\nRather than simply providing aid to the refugees, they selected those who were fit to be soldiers, trained them, and paid them wages so that they could support their own families.\n\n”Hmm. So, he’s building up his forces like this. It seems like we’ve woken a sleeping dragon. We’ve done a foolish thing.”\n\nAfter examining the situation in Sandokar, Sir Gares was convinced that the inquiry against Azadin was wrong.\n\nThe refugees were all talking about the fall of the Banlung Kingdom, and they were talking about vampires and mutants.\n\nIt was proven that Azadin had not gone mad and executed the Banlung prince, but that he was indeed a vampire.\n\nOf course, the Rescue Knights’ inquiry was more of a ritual to harass and eliminate those the organization disliked, rather than a genuine search for right and wrong.\n\nHe was a member of the Messenger Clan, which they already disliked, and he had tarnished the face of the Justice Order and caused political trouble by killing the Banlung prince.\n\nWhether the Banlung prince was a vampire or a demon, they could have punished him sufficiently.\n\nHowever, Azadin’s influence in Chadra and the Sandokar area prevented such mindless punishment.\n\nAzadin’s warlord was absorbing strong men from among the refugees and was growing to an enormous size, and he also had high support from the people.\n\nIn this situation, if they were to punish Azadin with an unjust inquiry, would Azadin just stand by and take it?\n\nNo, even if Azadin himself were to submit to the inquiry, his subordinates, the refugees who had become soldiers and were making a living from his wages, would not stand idly by.\n\nTo secure their interests, the Knights Order had to hold Bishop Sehnath, who had initiated the groundless inquiry, accountable.\n\n‘Well, it’s good for us. Isn’t Bishop Sehnath a puppet of the Northern Empire? We don’t owe him enough loyalty to stop him from self-destructing. If we can sow discord between him and the Wisdom Order, it’s a win-win situation. The problem is….’\n\nSir Gares also had a lot to do. Now that Azadin had been proven innocent, he had to mend his relationship with him and return to continue the Courage Order’s work.\n\nThey couldn’t continue to act as mercenaries for the Sandokar Gate for free.\n\n‘I wonder when they’ll return? It should be about time for news to arrive?’\n\nAs if reading Sir Gares’s mind, a horn sounded from the watchtower. Azadin and his troops had returned to the Sandokar Gate.\n\n*********\n\nAzadin returned to Sandokar, protecting the caravan and the refugees. The Triodana party that had gone with him was nowhere to be seen.\n\nSir Gares went to greet him and asked with a sly tone.\n\n”You’ve returned safely, Lord Azadin. But what happened to Sir Triodana? You didn’t kill him, did you?”\n\n”Haha. You’re saying things that shouldn’t even be joked about with a smile, Sir Gares. Sir Triodana returned first on a hippogriff [a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a horse]. He’s not dead, so why don’t you contact the Wisdom Order?”\n\nAzadin laughed off Gares’s harsh words from their first meeting.\n\n”So, what did you find out from your investigation in Sandokar?”\n\n”The charges have been dropped. The evidence that the Banlung Prince Kalzmatti was a vampire is clear, and it has been revealed that your occupation of the Sandokar County was done through proper procedures. The inquiry is over.”\n\n”That’s a relief.”\n\n”However… apart from the inquiry, as a member of the Courage Order, I must express my concern about how a trainee knight like you has built such a massive warlord. Moreover, why are you gathering refugees to raise a standing army? Are you planning some kind of war of conquest?”\n\nMost knights struggle to cultivate even the single fief they are given. However, if someone like Azadin were to absorb multiple fiefs and build a massive force comparable to a great noble, they could increase productivity by expanding the cultivated area per person and shift that many people to manufacturing and commerce.\n\nThe problem was the standing army.\n\nSoldiers who were constantly in combat readiness and training were bound to become elite.\n\nTo continue raising so many elite soldiers like this.\n\nWhat was a trainee knight thinking, training so many troops?\n\nGares asked him directly.\n\n”It’s to better resist the coming Fimbulwinter [a great winter that precedes the end of the world in Norse mythology]. And they prefer to earn wages by working rather than receiving unilateral aid. There are many beasts and monsters in this area, so there is a constant need for patrols and subjugation to ensure the safety of the roads. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”\n\n”I also hear that you’ve created caravans, handicraft workshops, alchemy factories, and blacksmiths?”\n\n”Well, there are still people left over even after putting them all to work.”\n\nThat was indeed the case. As refugees poured in from all over, the Knights’ territory was overflowing with manpower.\n\n”Lord Azadin, what would happen if the higher-ups of the Rescue Knights were to give you an Errantry Quest [a mission or task given to a knight]?”\n\n”An Errantry Quest in this situation? What kind of quest are you talking about?”\n\n”For example, to investigate the fall of the Banlung Kingdom, or if the higher-ups of the Order were to exercise their personnel authority and send you to another region.”\n\nThe Rescue Knights could give Azadin an Errantry Quest, a mission of the Knights Order, or exercise their personnel authority to weaken Azadin’s warlord. However, Azadin shook his head.\n\n”The Count of Sandokar did not surrender to the Rescue Knights, but swore allegiance to me. I have integrated the territories of the Chadra Plateau, but each territory belongs to the Chadra Five Lords.”\n\nIf the Count of Sandokar had sworn allegiance to the Rescue Knights, then even if Azadin were deployed elsewhere, the Sandokar County would remain under Azadin’s control.\n\nEven if they were to drive Azadin out of this place, the Rescue Knights would not be able to control the Sandokar County. Of course, they could hinder Azadin from directly managing the Sandokar County, but what would the Knights Order gain from that?\n\nPublicly declaring their open hostility towards Azadin?\n\nAzadin’s acceptance of the Count of Sandokar’s oath of allegiance, which had political implications, was both a heavy burden placed upon him and a shield that protected him.\n\n”I believe you understand what this means, Sir Gares?”