The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 105

“What?”

“I can significantly enhance your paladin’s white magic. And that’s not all,” Scott said, looking directly at Azadin.

“I can also strengthen that strange power you use.”

“……”

“It just so happens that my contract with the Nagas has ended. Choosing you as my new employer wouldn’t be so bad.”

“You’ll serve me? Is that what you’re saying?”

“It’s a give and take, an equal contractual relationship. But yes, the initiative is yours. As long as you don’t do anything too stupid.”

Azadin sighed. In truth, even if only half of what Scott McGreene said was true, Azadin had no reason to refuse this offer. He had to accept it.

“Alright, Orc necromancer.”

“Scott McGreene.”

“I accept the contract.”

“A wise choice. Make sure to boast about today’s decision for generations to come.”

“I’m already starting to regret it a little?”

Azadin began to wonder if he was doing the right thing.

*********

Azadin connected the wheelchair to his mountain goat and began pulling Scott along. Azadin was walking while Scott was sitting comfortably in the wheelchair.

“For a prisoner, you’re traveling too comfortably, aren’t you?” Midiam said, clearly displeased. Scott responded,

“Then give me some of those corpses you’re carrying for burial. I’ll use necromancy on their muscles and bones to propel my wheelchair.”

“Desecrating the dead is unacceptable,” Jibek immediately opposed. Azadin, a follower of the angel faith, also opposed the idea.

“It’s fine. Just let him ride the wheelchair. He says he’ll die if he gains muscle.”

“It’s not like I’m just going to sit here. I’ll share some of my knowledge as we go. I don’t know if you guys can understand it, but those born as geniuses must also learn to live among the ordinary and the mediocre,” Scott McGreene said, as if he was doing them a favor.

*********

There’s a saying that seeing an Orc makes you want to kill them.

If you’re a sane person, you’d want to run away from these evil creatures who have muscular bodies that are frightening to look at and who have even mastered magic. An Orc’s forearm is thicker than a person’s thigh. The muscles all over their body make you think of violence, whether you like it or not.

Yet, according to rumors, seeing an Orc makes you want to kill them. It was hard to believe until you actually met one.

But now that I’ve met one, I understand.

“Wow, every single thing he says is so infuriating that I want to kill him,” Midiam said, unable to hold back his murderous intent.

“Trying to resolve minor frustrations with murder. How many people have you killed so far? You were born with that intelligence, and you must have met many people superior to you, so if you were seized by the urge to kill every time, tsk tsk. Your evil deeds are greater and deeper than mine, a necromancer.”

If only he couldn’t talk, he wouldn’t be so hateful. Midiam was furious, but Azadin stopped him.

“If you keep talking to him, you’ll only get more annoyed. Just let it go.”

“Huh?”

“More importantly, let’s hear about the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture. First of all, why did the Divine King’s Scripture disappear? Where did the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture go, and why is it starting to appear these days? How are you guys trying to find the Divine King’s Scripture? What does it mean to manifest the Divine King’s Scripture?”

When Azadin asked, Scott scoffed.

“You’re a greedy one. Asking so much. I’ll explain it calmly. First, I can’t help but talk about the Light of the King and the Divine King’s Scripture. The Light of the King used by the Yegas gods is a system that circulates white mana under powerful restrictions. It’s a massive system that turns people’s faith and respect into power, and the Divine King’s Scripture is the blueprint and the essence of the restrictions. The Divine King’s Scripture is another form and essence of the Light of the King. Can you understand that much?”

Scott was doubting Azadin’s intelligence. Could he understand if he said this much? That doubt was more insulting than outright cursing in front of him.

Azadin sighed as he pulled the wheelchair connected to the mountain goat with a rope, the wheelchair that Scott was riding in.

“I understand that much. I was a mage’s disciple too. So?”

“When your messenger clan stole the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, the Light of the King was already severely damaged. The Yegas gods, that is, the kings and nobles of you humans, were corrupt, and the Light of the King was weakening, so your messenger clan made a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture at great sacrifice. But it ended up being absorbed by the Light of the King.”

“What?”

“That’s an unacceptable story,” Jibek, who was listening, said indignantly. In fact, for Jibek, a paladin, this entire gathering was an intolerable blasphemy. To be with Nagas and Orcs, followers of the Kurt gods.

Of course, they were Azadin’s prisoners, but Scott was calling Azadin his employer, and Shatty was also walking on her own two feet without being restrained.

What if another paladin saw this? His position would become difficult. That alone was enough to drive him crazy, but this arrogant Orc prisoner was blaspheming the paladin and the king’s church right in front of him.

“Hmm, do you think the kings and nobles weren’t corrupt? Paladin?”

“…They were corrupt. That Orc is right,” Brand supported the Orc’s words.

“Ah.”

Jibek also knew Brand’s circumstances.

Yes. The idea that the kings and nobles were not corrupt was just Jibek’s stubbornness. In fact, many kings and nobles were corrupt, and even Jibek’s teacher, Zekt, was corrupt, wasn’t he?

“Wait, the Divine King’s Scripture was absorbed into the Light of the King? Not that someone blew it away in the wind at the end of the world?”

“What? Did you think the Divine King’s Scripture was flying around in the wind and appearing all over the world? Seriously, I knew humans were stupid, but I didn’t know it was to this extent. A stupid person’s imagination always amazes me.”

Azadin was fed up with this Orc who spoke so carelessly.

‘Is this guy really crazy? He’s a prisoner, so why is he talking so recklessly? Isn’t he afraid of losing his head?’

But if what this Orc was saying was true, then what was it that Azadin had heard?

Azadin’s existence was the cursed child born during the theft of the Divine King’s Scripture copy. Azadin’s father was the very person who scattered the Divine King’s Scripture all over the world, the traitor Acre, he had heard it so many times that it was ingrained in his mind.

But it wasn’t that, it was just something that happened because the Light of the King was weakened.

‘It wasn’t my father’s fault? Then?’

Azadin thought so and asked.

“Then why didn’t it appear before and why is it appearing now?”

“Because the Light of the King has weakened that much more. The Age of Jupiter is approaching, and the descendants of Yegas are aware that their blood is thinning. More and more nobles and royals are betraying and abandoning the Light of the King, and as corruption accelerates, the Light of the King is weakening even more, creating a vicious cycle.”

Scott also mentioned the Age of Jupiter.

“Do you, who serve the Kurt gods, also believe in the Age of Jupiter?” When Jibek asked, Scott clicked his tongue.

“Those of you who serve the Yegas gods seem to believe that the Yegas gods defeated the darkness of this world and opened a new era. Originally, that was the myth of our Kurt gods. Your myth is a usurpation and plagiarism of that. It was our Kurt gods who made this land a land of life against the evil gods of the Nether. When they were weakened due to that battle, the Yegas gods came and usurped the position that we rightfully deserved.”

“Then you must also fear the Age of Jupiter.”

“Isn’t that why everyone is running around so diligently these days?”

Indeed. Azadin had met many followers of the Kurt gods so far. It was a movement to somehow secure power and influence in the face of the prophecy of destruction called the Age of Jupiter.

“So. How can we find the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture?”

“The Divine King’s Scripture is fused with the Light of the King. And the Light of the King is about restrictions and oaths. When the people are in danger, the Divine King’s Scripture will appear.”

“So you’re trying to manifest it by abusing and massacring people?”

“This is something that many of the Yegas gods, your human nobles, already know. Don’t you have something in mind?”

Was Count Lantaric’s massacre of people also part of that?

Come to think of it, the Margrave of Salasma also prioritized punishment over relief, even though the residents were suffering from drought. That might have been a means to manifest the Divine King’s Scripture as well.

“Rather, I use a much more intelligent method. In places where many people have died and the Light of the King has weakened rapidly, I can manifest the Divine King’s Scripture with my magic.”

“So you’re claiming that you didn’t participate in the civilian massacre. How can I believe that’s not an excuse?”

“I hate irreversible choices. I can manifest the Divine King’s Scripture with my magic, so I don’t want to kill humans and make them irreversible.”

“As a necromancer?”

“Magic that manipulates corpses for efficient use is rational. And there are plenty of corpses in this world without me having to kill them myself. Necromancy is a very reversible magic and can be used without having to kill people. But yes, I admit that the prisoners held by the soldiers may have been killed by the undead I created. So, it’s impossible for me to make you believe that I didn’t kill people. I don’t know either.”

Azadin clicked his tongue at those words.

‘This guy really wasn’t interested in civilian massacres.’

“So what are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?”

“No.”

Azadin shook his head.

“I won’t kill you. I’ll just keep you with me as a prisoner until you pay for your sins.”

“You could call it a contract of employment.”

“No. We have a paladin on our side. If I say I’m hiring you, he’ll be in trouble.”

“Well, I understand. I, being smart, can easily consider the positions of you who are not.”

Everyone was speechless.

This guy had just been on the verge of death. If Azadin had charged him with the crime of civilian murder and killed him, no matter how muscular the Orc was, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand Azadin’s attack while sitting in a wheelchair.

“By the way, I’m hungry. My brain needs a lot of nutrients. You guys may not understand, but intelligence blossoms on top of nutrients.”

“You’re being pulled in a wheelchair and you’re saying you’re hungry? Just hold on.”

“No, I’m really hungry. It’s an Orc thing, you know?”

Scott McGreene demanded food, but Azadin looked at his other companions. Everyone was not very hungry.

“Let’s talk after we cross the river.”

Azadin’s group found a hidden boat far from the garrison. They crossed the Kora River on that boat and arrived in Count Lantaric’s territory, where they began to camp.

Until then, they had to listen to Scott McGreene whine about being hungry several more times.