The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 104

As the Nagas fled, the Orc necromancer dusted off his clothes and approached the broken wheelchair, beginning to repair it.

“Hey.”

Azadin spoke to the Orc necromancer, who replied,

“My name is Scott McGreene, descendant of the great Greenswald.”

“Aren’t most Orcs descendants of Greenswald?”

Among the Kurd gods, Kanak, the god of the Orcs, had one champion, and his name was Greenswald. He was known as the first and last great Orc warlord who made the Orcs prosper in this land.

After Greenswald, there were no Orcs who could be active for long periods. Most of them suffered from Kanak’s blessing and curse, losing their homes and wandering around as mercenaries or employees for other races, selling their skills.

Even in such circumstances, most Orcs claimed that their ancestor was Greenswald.

“That’s why he’s great. The great warlord who sowed seeds for all of our race. Being one of his descendants means we can also become like Greenswald. It’s hard for inferior races like you to understand, but what can you do? You probably wanted to be born smart too. A smart guy like me has to understand.”

“……”

“Should we kill him? Is he worth keeping alive?”

Midiam, who had arrived late, asked Azadin about his intentions.

“No, we let the Nagas escape, I don’t want to lose an informant we just got.”

“Right. My smart brain has a lot of information you might want.”

“Wait. You, don’t tell me.”

Shatty, who was listening, was flustered and glared at the Orc.

“Are you going to change employers so easily?!”

“That’s ridiculous. Are you worried about that in this situation? I saw you betray your own kind, and so did they. You’ve become a traitor to the Nagas. I don’t expect intelligence from a snake head, but if you’re going to talk, you should at least be able to reason.”

“What? You little…?!”

Shatty was furious at Scott’s provocation and was jumping around.

The funny thing was that Scott didn’t think it was a provocation. Although his words were harsh, what Scott McGreene was saying was right.

Azadin had orchestrated Shatty to become a traitor to the Nagas. Now, if she went back to the Nagas, she would surely be severely tortured. It would be wiser to quickly change employers like Scott.

“What were you doing here with the Nagas?”

“I’d say it was the extraction and manifestation work of the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“What happened to the Divine King’s Scripture?”

“Hmm. I don’t know how simply I should explain it to you idiots. But before that, why don’t you introduce yourselves? I know you’re from the Messenger Clan, but…”

“Hey. If you’re a prisoner, watch your mouth. And stop your hands. What are you working on now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m repairing the wheelchair. Surely you’re not so stupid that you can’t even see this?”

“You don’t seem to have any problems with your body? Can’t you walk on two feet?”

“You don’t know anything. If I walk on my feet, my muscles get too big.”

“Muscles? Isn’t the more the better?”

“That’s true when they’re on your limbs. But if muscles grow in the heart, it reduces the heart’s capacity, which degrades its performance. If the amount of blood sent from the heart decreases in a body that already has a lot of muscle, I’ll suffer from lethargy every day. The heart keeps beating violently to try to supply more blood, and then more muscle grows, creating a vicious cycle that eventually kills me. Ugh! Just talking like this is making my heart beat. Oh, no.”

Scott McGreene said that and then collapsed to the floor.

“P-please assemble the wheelchair for me. If the operating time gets too long, I fall into this hypoglycemic state.”

“……”

He’s a guy with a lot of demands as soon as he becomes a prisoner. Azadin sighed and looked at Ishmael.

“Me?”

“Yes. I’ll recover the Divine King’s Scripture.”

Azadin recovered the Divine King’s Scripture and the black steel arrow he had wrapped around it. The tip of the black steel arrow was still sharp.

“I can use it again.”

Azadin put the black steel arrow back into his quiver and checked his surroundings. There was a lot of grain in the garrison that could be used for food and feed. There was enough for Azadin’s group to use and still have plenty left over.

And there were mummy soldiers who seemed to be the Nagas’ guards, and they remained even though the Night Crawler had disappeared.

“We need to burn them. Hey, Orc. Can you move these mummy soldiers?”

“Of course. It’s easy.”

“Then move them to gather the corpses. We need to cremate them all.”

“You’re going to hold a funeral for these people? A Messenger Clan member? You’re a strange one. But if that’s your request, I’ll do it. In return, you guarantee my safety.”

“You killed innocent people like this, and you want to live?”

“I didn’t kill them directly. What’s here are the traces of you humans killing each other. Well, my undead soldiers did kill the soldiers, but they were killed by the villagers they killed, so it’s their own fault, isn’t it?”

“Okay, okay, just gather the bodies.”

The mummy soldiers and the still intact undead began to move and gather the corpses. Meanwhile, Ishmael repaired the wheelchair and set it up again.

“Good. You have some skills. I heard the Messenger Clan members are very talented.”

“Shut up, Orc.”

“What? You just received praise from Scott McGreene, the genius of this era. If the day comes when you’re surrounded by your descendants, lying on your deathbed, and reminiscing, you should tremble with emotion and joy as you remember this day.”

“……”

“Shouldn’t we kill him? Do we really need the help of a guy like this?”

Ishmael seriously asked Azadin.

“Let’s get the Divine King’s Scripture first.”

Azadin said that and looked around. At that moment, Jibek and Brand arrived.

“I heard the undead fell, so you must have won.”

“Ah, Sir Jibek. What about the soldiers?”

“…Some have fallen, and some have fled. I tried my best to prevent the damage, but the undead suddenly became stronger.”

“How is Elder Brand?”

“Well, I’m fine.”

“……”

Even though the soldiers and knights were dying or fleeing, Brand was surprisingly fine. He seems to have been born with very strong power.

If he had become a warrior, he would have been famous in his youth, but he lived as a scribe, lawyer, and writer. Did he discover his talent late?

“But what is this Orc? He looks like a necromancer?”

“Scott McGreene.”

The Orc, Scott McGreene, revealed his name.

“He seemed to be a necromancer hired by the Nagas.”

“That’s right. And from now on, I’m going to be hired by you.”

“What? You’re going to hire a necromancer?”

Jibek looked at Azadin as if to ask if he was serious.

“No, let’s hear what this guy has to say first. Orc. Why do you think we won’t kill you?”

“Because you’re looking for the Divine King’s Scripture. I can manifest the Divine King’s Scripture. And I can estimate its location with higher accuracy. If you want to find and collect the Divine King’s Scripture, you wouldn’t want to sacrifice a talent like me.”

Certainly, if that was possible, this Orc’s value was too high. It was too good to kill.

“And everyone knows that erasing my brain from this world is unacceptable as long as spirituality exists. Ah, of course, you might express your inferiority by killing me, but if you do, you’ll suffer from guilt for a long time. Can you really bear the guilt of committing the grave sin of erasing one of the great intellects that can exist in this world?”

“If what you’re saying isn’t a bluff, you’d be useful, but I don’t deal with guys who kill civilians indiscriminately. Let’s start with the funeral.”

The mummy soldiers controlled by Scott gathered the corpses into a pile. Azadin recited a prayer towards the pile of corpses.

“Oh, great archangels of the Trinity. Embrace the resentment of those who have met an unjust death and guide them to rest. People of Hybris. May you escape this cruel world and find rest!”

As Azadin prayed and set fire to the corpses, a dazzling light began to shine above the burning corpses. It was a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture that had manifested.

The copy of the Divine King’s Scripture flew directly to Azadin and landed on his hand.

“Well. You manifested it? Your usefulness is gone, isn’t it?”

Midiam was excited and teased Scott.

However, Scott was calm.

“It appeared so easily because I had done the groundwork for manifesting the Divine King’s Scripture in advance. I can manifest the Divine King’s Scripture even more easily without having to do all this.”

Even after seeing Azadin manifest and receive the Divine King’s Scripture right in front of him, this Orc was confident without showing any signs of being intimidated.

“You’re very confident?”

“My talent is more than enough to shake the whole world. If you can do at least basic arithmetic, you’ll know that you shouldn’t treat a treasure like me carelessly. Of course, I understand that you feel inferior to my talent, just as the sun erases the starlight, but at least your leader doesn’t seem to harbor any dark jealousy towards me.”

“Hmm.”

Azadin was troubled as he looked at the Orc who was so confidently believing that he would be spared. In fact, he was the type of person who couldn’t spit on a smiling face, so even when Shatty betrayed him and asked to be spared, he couldn’t bring himself to kill her.

‘I can understand Shatty’s position to some extent.’

She was trying to find a way to return to her own kind while being threatened with her life by Azadin. Azadin had taken away Shatty’s way back, so it was practically a death sentence or a life sentence.

The problem is this Orc.

“So. You’re saying you didn’t participate in killing civilians?”

“Haha. Only fools try to enjoy their superiority through violence by killing people. Those who are confident in themselves, like me, don’t compare themselves to the lowly. If you were even half as smart as me, you would understand. Asking such a stupid question makes me worry about your future.”

“……”

“Hmm, I’ve talked too much, and I feel like my tongue is getting muscle-bound. But it seems like I need to prove my usefulness now for you to be convinced?”

“It’s hard to accept keeping an evil necromancer alive. Even if Count Lantaric killed the civilians here, they must have played a part in the killings. When they attacked the soldiers, didn’t the prisoners and civilians that Count Lantaric was holding also die?”

Jibek said that to Azadin.

Just as Shatty became unable to return to her own kind after becoming a prisoner of Azadin’s group, Jibek also became in a difficult position. While Shatty, who was clearly a prisoner, was one thing, if he accompanied a group that was taking a Orc necromancer with them, his qualifications as a paladin would be questioned.

“Yes. Certainly. Count Lantaric’s soldiers massacred the residents of Salasma here, but there must have been prisoners or people who were captured. You wouldn’t claim that you didn’t even kill them, would you?”

Azadin glared at the Orc necromancer, Scott McGreene, with a cold expression.

At that moment, Scott said,

“I can interpret the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.”