The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 463

While Sebalhan’s army attacked, the Azadin forces rescued the White Tiger Gate’s soldiers and residents, retreating to the supply base set up in the rear.

Meanwhile, the Chitai nomads, who were the Azadin army’s penal unit, sacrificed themselves to defend the rear, all volunteering to be the scapegoats.

“This is truly strange,” the centurion of the nomadic tribe muttered, a pipe in his mouth, as he watched the approaching monsters.

“I don’t know how we ended up here, ready to die.”

“You said it. This fate of ours is truly baffling.”

The nomadic leaders took turns lighting their pipes with the burning fuse for their matchlocks.

“We used to kill men and rape women, that was all. We believed without a doubt that killing those who lived better than us in better lands was our rightful due. But why are we here now, willingly sacrificing our lives without anyone telling us to?”

“Maybe the king’s blessing and magic are bewitching us?”

“That’s unlikely.”

“Heh heh heh.”

The nomads chuckled as they shot their arrows.

The arrows, blessed by the king, emitted golden flames upon impact, burning the flesh of the enemies.

It was a power that was hard to believe came from arrows, but the number of enemies did not decrease at all.

It was like shooting a cannon at a wave, making a hole. Surely, one wave is broken, but the water keeps rushing in.

Yet, these nomads were chuckling as they watched the approaching monsters.

“At first, I thought he was crazy.”

“This guy is going to cause big trouble. How dare he insult His Majesty.”

“You know that just saying that means you’re talking about the king, so you’re going to cause big trouble too.”

“Well, it’s true though. Our king.”

They were now calling Azadin ‘our king’.

Their hearts had wavered since the esteemed scholar Garasan began to serve Azadin, but they were completely won over when Azadin went up to protect the soldiers of the White Tiger Gate.

The moment they saw him going up because he valued the lives of the enemy, the soldiers had one question answered.

They had not understood Azadin’s actions until now.

Why the hell is this guy doing this?

Why does this guy act like this?

They could not understand the principle behind Azadin’s actions.

Of course, Azadin wrote down the principles of his actions in the New Testament and spoke through the priests.

But those words were so flowery that they could not be felt.

It was an era where ideals were ridiculed and virtues were only found in books.

But the conqueror of the South, who had built a nation, was truly willing to shed blood to uphold the virtues he spoke of?

At that moment, the soldiers understood all of Azadin’s actions up to that point.

This man is sincere.

What he is doing is true kingship, and it was they who had been looking at him with prejudiced eyes.

They realized that Azadin had been sincere with them every moment, at least until now.

And then the nomads finally felt the weight of their sins.

How trashy must they have looked, slaughtering and plundering innocent people while boasting to a man who was trying to protect even the enemy soldiers?

Yet, Azadin did not grind the nomads to dust just because they were a penal unit.

He managed the troops reasonably at an appropriate level and never allowed their lives to be wasted.

That is why they volunteered to stay here.

“Strangely, I feel more like ‘let’s do it’ than fear.”

“If we die here, our king will take good care of our remaining brothers and families. He will not only forgive the sins we have committed but also make us legendary heroes.”

“Haha. I don’t know about that. Let’s do it.”

The nomadic unit leaders exhaled blue smoke and drew their curved swords to face the rushing monsters.

*********

The White Tiger Gate was burning.

Even though the sun had set and darkness had fallen, the White Tiger Gate was ablaze like a giant lighthouse, hinting at the fierce battle within.

The occasional thunder of exploding gunpowder sounded like death throes.

“Hmm.”

Azadin looked at the White Tiger Gate, which was burning the horizon, from a distance in the rear.

It was the first retreat of the Azadin army, which had been winning in Chitai, a magnificent first defeat.

Azadin cut off the king’s blessing. No one in the White Tiger Gate was using his power anymore.

Every single member of the White Tiger Gate’s suicide squad had fallen.

And the moment he cut off that power, Azadin also lost his balance and fell from the hippogriff’s saddle.

“Your Majesty!”

Niselda turned into mist and rushed to support Azadin.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing, Your Majesty. But there is something I don’t understand. May I ask?”

“What is it?”

“I hated the nomads. They were smelly, filthy, and those bastards who slept with sheep and goats.”

Niselda, in the guise of a nun, blurted out harsh words.

“Because they killed and plundered the people. Many of the people from the Chadra Highlands under my command were also from Naisandokar. Their terrible atrocities were something that could not be considered the work of humans. They were terrible atrocities that the apostles of Mezeri or the goblins, the apostles of teeth, would commit.”

Many of the residents who had stayed near Niselda’s convent had participated in the Naisandokar reclamation project and were massacred by the nomads.

The nomads’ attacks were truly horrific, including a child thrown alive into a hearth and burned to death, and a woman who was raped in front of her family and went insane.

Azadin’s decision not to kill them all but to make them serve as soldiers on the front lines was understandable as a soldier, but in her heart, she still hated and resented them.

But at this moment, Niselda could not understand why they were staying behind to fight for everyone.

“I still hate them, but for some reason, I also feel grateful to them.”

“That’s only natural.”

“Is it natural?”

“Yes. People cannot be defined in one word. What they sacrificed today and what they cruelly murdered the people are all rooted in the same source.”

“What is that?”

“Warriors.”

“Are you talking about the warrior spirit, the military spirit?”

“Soldiers only obey the orders of their superiors. But unlike soldiers, warriors are made up of an organizational logic that is difficult to discuss in terms of good and evil, telling them to be cruel to the enemy and loyal to their allies. So, they sometimes commit more atrocities than necessary, but sometimes they are inspired by it and make noble sacrifices.”

Azadin shook his head, thinking that his words were harsh.

“It sounds too cold when I say it like this. Right now, I just want to honor their sacrifice without judging them. Isn’t humanity truly amazing? If it shines even for a moment, it becomes eternal in our hearts.”

“If it shines even for a moment, it becomes eternal in our hearts?”

“Yes, Niselda. Having seen their light today, they will have become complex human beings in your heart, not just simple plunderers. It will be an experience that will forever change your perspective. In other words, they will now live forever in your heart as complex human beings, not just villains.”

“Your Majesty.”

“It’s the same for me now. I take a moment’s flash of light, that warmth, as a starlight in my heart, and I live in this moment and in the future. Isn’t it amazing? That a small act of kindness or goodwill, which has no real meaning, becomes a lifelong milestone for someone?”

“……”

“Of course, the evil deeds of the wicked will also be a lifelong wound for someone. Both good and evil sometimes leave an indelible mark. The motive is trivial, but the result is so great.”

Azadin is by no means a pushover.

He knows the darkness of the world all too well.

Yet, he does not despair and keeps his faith.

Not to despair of humanity, not to become lazy under the guise of faith, but to cleverly achieve faith.

That was Azadin’s belief.

“More importantly, Your Majesty, how is your health?” Jibek asked about Azadin’s condition. If he fell off his horse, he was definitely not normal.

The king’s blessing he had unleashed today was so powerful that even if a normal mage maintained such a wide-area spell for that long, they would die from it.

The king’s blessing was a great feat that even hundreds of mages could not handle.

“I want to say I’m fine. But to be honest, I’m not.”

“It’s a relief that you’re alive. The king’s blessing you unleashed today was truly an incredible magic.”

“But this is a big problem. Something unexpected has happened, and it seems like we need to retreat further.”

Azadin admitted that he could not fight Sebalhan’s army at the moment.

The Azadin army had reduced the numbers of the enemy significantly, but Sebalhan’s army did not seem to tire.

“Then are we going to die without a chance?”

“No. Those Nether forces tend to become unstable, so they show explosive vitality for now and transform into monsters larger than their original size, but if we buy some time, they will not be able to handle their own size and collapse on their own. The problem is that we have to buy time until then. And the one who corrupted Sebalhan knows this too.”

“The one who corrupted Sebalhan…”

“You mean Kohen of the Northern Empire.”

“Probably? But I can’t say for sure.”

Azadin considered that the one who corrupted Sebalhan might not be the Northern Empire.

*********

The Azadin army was defeated.

King Sebalhan personally raised his army against the Azadin army, which had been conquering Chitai with unstoppable momentum, and won a fierce battle that burned the White Tiger Gate to the ground.

The news quickly spread around the world through the King’s Church.

Many followers of the King’s Church gloated that the false king, Azadin, the soulless blasphemer, had been stripped of his gilding when the real king, Sebalhan, stepped forward.

Moreover, riots of cultists broke out in various parts of Azadin’s territory.

The cultists attacked Azadin’s food warehouses and succeeded in destroying some of them.

This was a fatal blow to the Azadin army, which was operating by confiscating the massive food production of the Chadra Highlands and the assets of the Dwarven Arrow, a drug organization.

Many people rejoiced at the news of the Azadin army’s defeat in Chitai and the attack on the assets that had been the foundation of the army by the cultists…

Even amidst all of this, ominous news continued to spread from mouth to mouth.

‘The scholars of Chitai, Garasan, support Azadin as king.’

‘Since the day of the solar eclipse, the darkness seems to be alive and breathing. If you don’t light a fire, don’t go into the basement of your house carelessly.’

‘An entire city has disappeared in Karasar.’

‘The darkness is spreading its power so ominously, and only King Azadin is fighting against the darkness.’

Even though they were happy about Azadin’s defeat and decline, the winter and the power of the Nether that threatened them were getting stronger.

And a terrible thing was happening in the Southern Relief Knight Territory.