The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 391

Baron Buitra, having confirmed Azadin’s movements, asked Count Polchen,

“What shall we do? Shall we charge straight in?”

“Hmm, but since it’s a plain, the enemy has likely noticed our movements,” Baron Calma warned.

“Then we shall charge, openly denouncing the heretic. After all, those rabble won’t be a match for us.”

Count Polchen, his eyes blazing with anger, lowered his helmet’s visor.

“Heretic Azadin! You soulless blasphemer! I, Count Polchen, have come here by royal decree to judge your sins!”

Count Polchen shouted, and his men echoed his cry as they began their charge.

*********

“Hmm.”

Azadin clicked his tongue, observing Count Polchen and his men trailing behind.

“King Arangi is certainly cautious.”

“My father is a bit too cautious,” Prince Sram, who was leading the cavalry unit this time, frowned, thinking of his father.

“The trap we prepared wasn’t rendered useless, but it’s disappointing that the valuable bait was snatched away. But their numbers aren’t that great, will they really attack?”

“They will attack. Judging by the flags, it’s Count Polchen and Baron Buitra. Oh, and Baron Calma is there too.”

“Who are they?”

“Fervent believers of the King’s Church. They are so narrow-minded that they were deeply offended when the Messenger Clan became counts, outranking them, even if it was just in name.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. So, wouldn’t they rush in to attack?”

“Goodness. I am the master of the throne of Banlung. Everyone will be lower in rank than me, yet they hold such grudges over that.”

“……..”

Sram fell silent at Azadin’s brazen words.

To say that he is the king of Banlung, that it is a certain future, is incredibly audacious.

Well, being this audacious is probably why he came out with a new divine medicine, claiming to be the new prophet of the Yaegas gods [a local pantheon].

Just then, Count Polchen began his charge, shouting.

“Ah, instead of introducing ourselves or trying to negotiate, they just charge straight in.”

“Because they hate you.”

“Right. I’m used to being hated. If someone hates me for no reason, I might as well do something to deserve it, so I don’t feel so wronged.”

At Azadin’s signal, soldiers who had been lying in ambush on both sides of the road revealed themselves.

“Hah!”

Count Polchen’s army was visibly shaken.

An ambush in a plain with little cover?

However, even in what appears to be a plain, there are always gentle hills, and by using the slopes of those hills to find hidden spots, there are surprisingly many blind spots.

Moreover, while repairing the road from Coxhall to Banlung and rebuilding structures, Azadin had created several ambush positions.

This is the difference between those who are familiar with the terrain and those who are not.

It’s not for nothing that those who were called great generals tried to gather on-site information from locals, even if the road seemed familiar to them.

Azadin was now about to teach them that lesson, for a hefty price.

“It would have been better if King Arangi had taken the bait. It’s a shame that the harvest from this elaborate bait is so small.”

From the moment he heard that the Inquisitor had landed in Visen to the north and was gathering people and troops, Azadin had been worried about being surrounded from both the north and south.

He had to deal with the Inquisitors, who were few in number and had brought up religious issues, first, but that would mean turning his back to King Arangi.

What if King Arangi, Karnago, acted unpredictably in this situation?

The solution was to prepare for every possible scenario.

If the Arangi Kingdom army didn’t take the bait, the infantry could be sent back to their original mission, and only the advance party would go to deal with the Inquisitors as originally planned.

King Arangi Karnago’s intuition that Azadin was trying to negotiate with the Inquisitors first was accurate.

However, Karnago’s audacity in not attacking Azadin was also spot on.

“They’re just rabble! Sweep them away!”

Count Polchen encouraged his men to charge, but at that moment, Count Azadin’s forces began to display surprising mobility.

They turned the supply carts sideways to block the road, and the cavalry guarding the carts split into two groups, spreading out to the left and right.

At the same time, refugee soldiers on both sides threw stones with slings and advanced with spears, effectively trapping Count Polchen’s army within their own encirclement.

Even if they tried to break through with their momentum, the supply carts blocked their path like obstacles.

In fact, this was Azadin’s last resort.

Just a few days ago, after pitting the Arangi knights against his own cavalry, one fact became clear.

Count Ibchek’s knights were incomparably weaker than the Arangi knights.

Of course, strictly speaking, Count Ibchek was also a vassal of the Arangi king, so his men could also be called Arangi knights, but they were no match for the Arangi knights of the central nobility.

Therefore, he had taught them only one formation, the dispersed formation, to avoid direct clashes between knights as much as possible, and they had rehearsed it several times.

‘Please, don’t engage them directly.’

Azadin created an obvious semi-encirclement to keep his knights alive and unharmed.

It looked like an encirclement, but in reality, it was a formation that hid the cavalry behind the supply wagons.

“This is…!”

“Re-retreat!”

Azadin’s plan worked, and before the knights could even clash, the stones thrown by the refugee soldiers sent Count Polchen’s army into a panic.

It was too late when Count Polchen’s standard-bearers turned their horses to retreat from the semi-encirclement.

The refugee soldiers’ spears began to press in on Count Polchen’s army from both sides.

And the movement of the cavalry from the rear, though Azadin had forbidden them from charging, even the mere pretense of charging sent the enemies into a frenzy.

“We are not that weak.”

Count Ibchek seemed slightly dissatisfied.

“No, it’s just that we have a long way to go, so let’s conserve our strength.”

Azadin calmed Count Ibchek’s dissatisfaction and watched the battle unfold.

The tide of the battle had now completely turned in their favor.

*********

In the end, Count Polchen, Baron Buitra, and Baron Calma were captured as prisoners.

“Whew. That’s a relief. The battle ended before it could be revealed how weak we are in a clash between knights.”

“We are not that weak. It’s because the ones we fought then were the Arangian Guard.”

Ibchek was disappointed to see Azadin trying to avoid a fight because his men were too weak.

It was true that they had shown a disgraceful performance back then, but the enemy at that time was Prince Gisling’s unit, which was among the elite of the Arangi Kingdom, wasn’t it?

In that sense, when he said Arangian Guard, Prince Sram, who was a real Arangian Guard, snorted.

“Haha. There were some Arangian Guards mixed in with them. Not all of them were Arangian Guards.”

“Hmm.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s stop this petty pride contest and figure out how much ransom we should demand.”

Azadin diverted their attention before the relationship between Ibchek and Sram could turn sour.

*********

“……..”

King Karnago IV sighed as things unfolded exactly as he had predicted.

The fact that Count Polchen and his friends, who had charged out so boldly, were captured as prisoners… was also as expected.

“I knew it would turn out like this.”

“I apologize.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll pay half of the ransom. The other half will come from your personal assets.”

King Karnago IV declared that he would pay half of the ransom for Count Polchen and the barons.

They hadn’t gone to war under official orders, but rather with the king’s ambiguous permission, so as an army gathered through vassal contracts, he needed to take responsibility.

However, only paying half was typical of him.

‘If you’re going to pay, why not pay it all?’

‘So stingy.’

‘As expected of our king.’

Some disrespectful individuals were amazed by King Karnago IV’s stingy generosity…

Regardless, everyone had no choice but to highly evaluate Azadin.

‘Count Polchen is a fool, but he is a brave knight.’

‘And he was captured so easily? It was a trap, wasn’t it?’

‘That soulless heretic is quite the character.’

In fact, Azadin himself had been trembling with anxiety, wondering if his plan would work, but once it did, Azadin’s reputation soared.

A strategist of undefeated ascendance. A mastermind of divine calculations.

Whether Azadin was burning inside or not, from the outside, it appeared that he had achieved a perfect victory with a brilliant tactic and without any losses.

‘The tactic itself is a common ambush tactic. Well, if you keep winning, you’ll naturally gain a reputation, even without boasting. And if that reputation doesn’t fade, then it becomes the truth.’

King Karnago IV calmly assessed the situation, even though his own army had become the sacrifice of Azadin’s achievements.

“Hmm. Good. Now that he has won, he will really go to face the Inquisitors. Coxhall will be empty.”

King Karnago IV thought that Azadin would have headed north this time.

“Pardon?”

“Th-then, should we attack Coxhall while it’s empty?”

They said that, but all the vassals looked hesitant.

Count Polchen, Buitra, and Calma had rushed in and been humiliated, and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t suffer the same fate.

“According to the scouts, there are still many troops in Coxhall.”

“That guy has taken in all the refugees, so there are bound to be a lot of people. No matter how much the scouts look, there will be many troops stationed in Coxhall. But they are not equipped, so no matter how many they are, they are just rabble. You can tell by the fact that he uses slingers.”

Slinging stones is a weapon that can be effective even against knights wearing plate armor, but there are many difficulties in using it as a regular army’s weapon.

There is a reason why it was used in ancient times and gradually disappeared in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the fact that Azadin uses slingers in regular warfare showed his struggle to provide jobs for the refugees.

King Karnago IV also saw through that point accurately, but…

‘There’s no rule that a guy who has used a trick once won’t do it again. It’s either waiting until he moves all his troops to deal with the Inquisitors, or taking the risk of attacking Coxhall first…’

King Karnago IV’s problem was that he had no reason to take risks because he was born a king.

What he would lose by taking risks was the dignity of the king, his own face, and the peace of the kingdom, and what he would gain was something that would come to him anyway, so why would he take the risk?

Moreover, his vassals were also intimidated.

“Ah, that ungrateful Azadin is not someone who has formally studied military strategy, so he shamelessly uses all sorts of tricks that go against common sense.”

“We cannot be certain that he won’t use such unconventional tactics this time either. He is different from ordinary generals, so we must be especially cautious in our strategies.”

“It seems like it wouldn’t be too late to move after seeing the Inquisitors move.”

‘Hmm. This is the problem with having too many people. They only think about their own safety, making it difficult to make bold decisions, and they all offer similar opinions. My gut feeling is telling me that Azadin has left Coxhall…’

After being persuaded by his vassals, King Karnago IV eventually decided to leave Coxhall alone.