The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 114

“…He’s, he’s powerful.”

Guillaume Valois was astonished as he watched Azadin confront the giant spider woman without flinching.

‘I’ve heard that the Messenger Clan are assassins who even kill kings, and it seems they are. How terrifying. To take down that monster so easily.’

He would be even more surprised if he knew that Azadin, who made him tremble, was considered a useless outcast among the Messenger Clan.

Ismail, who was watching Guillaume Valois’s expression from the side, spoke calmly.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. It’s just that because it’s so big, there’s more space to stick arrows.”

He had noticed that Guillaume Valois was afraid of the Messenger Clan’s power.

Azadin’s performance was amazing, but it was normal for the Messenger Clan. He wanted to give that impression so that Guillaume Valois wouldn’t dare to look down on them.

“Because we brought the palisade on the wheelchair, the spider woman couldn’t recklessly engage in close combat, and as a result, she became an arrow target,” Midiam added. Originally, the attendants’ job was to indirectly gain experience as messengers by reviewing the actions, tactics, and strategies of the messengers. Her actions were a review of Azadin’s tactics and strategies, so it was a reasonable action as an attendant.

“Couldn’t she have attacked from the side?” Guillaume Valois asked.

“To go around, she would have had to avoid the spiderwebs and buildings and come to the open ground, which would have been a burden for the spider woman as well,” Midiam said with a smile, moving away from the palisade. Jibek swung his sword, cutting down the approaching spiderlings.

The spiders were helpless and were being defeated by Azadin’s group without much resistance.

*********

The spider woman, France, who had fallen to the ground, was struggling, unable to recover from the shock.

“Ah. No! That woman is laughing! If I die, that woman will take you!”

“Seriously, what’s so handsome about that old man…”

Azadin sighed.

Originally, many commoners had a vague longing for nobles. Their position as nobles, their superior economic power, and experience. It wouldn’t have been difficult to brainwash a woman who didn’t know the ways of the world using such a superior position.

“France. It’s unfortunate, but you can’t think straight right now, and there’s no way to reverse this curse that has mutated your body. Atra’s infection is turning you into a spider beast. Living as a beast while retaining your humanity would be miserable for you and those around you, so I’ll end it here. Do you have any last words?”

“Ah… Brock. I just wanted to save you from that woman. I’m sorry.”

Even at this moment, she believed in Lord Brock’s lies. Brock was heartbroken at the sight.

“F, France. No. That’s… I was just pretending to be a victim and lusting after your young body. Most of what I said was a lie. I’m just a despicable, greedy piece of trash!”

“Brock. Then did you love me?”

“O, of course.”

“……”

Azadin, who was watching, shook his head.

‘If he cut her off harshly, she would give up her obsession. Does he not want to be the bad guy? Well, she’s going to die today anyway, so it might be better for her to believe that his love was true.’

The spider woman struggled as if having a seizure and barely managed to get up.

“Then please end me with your own hands. At least that way, I can remain in your memory forever.”

“……”

Whether the beastly nature that controlled her had fallen asleep due to her injuries, she rationally asked Brock to execute her.

Lord Brock approached the spider woman after hearing those words. The woman named France calmly bled as she watched Brock approach, and she put her hands together as if praying.

However, her spider half thrashed and suddenly lunged at Lord Brock with its front legs.

-Thwack!

Jibek and Azadin came forward, swinging their swords and cutting off the front legs. They both knew this would happen and were waiting.

“Eek!”

“Be careful, old man. That woman, France, and the spider beast are coexisting. If you get caught by the front legs, they’ll take you straight to their mouth, chew you, and inject venom. If you’re careless, you’ll die.”

“I’d rather die by her hand.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. It’s the spider part that’s trying to kill you, and that woman has no intention of killing you. If you die, you won’t die by her hand, but by the great evil that’s eating away at her. Dying here won’t atone for your sins. Don’t run away, and face how pathetic you’ve been.”

Azadin scolded Brock, who wanted to die to escape the situation.

“That’s right. What a mess this is because of a foolish infatuation,” Brand also said, swatting away an incoming spider leg with his spear.

“I understand that you’ve done something foolish, Lord Brock. But please grant her last wish,” Jibek also didn’t like the situation, but there was no way to return the transformed woman to her original state.

“Ah… yes.”

Lord Brock approached France, who had her eyes closed, and stabbed his sword into her heart.

-Kroooaaah!

The spider torso part rose up in a rage and went berserk, but Azadin’s arrows had already riddled the spider, and with several legs cut off, it was difficult for it to even gauge its own weight.

The spider thrashed and fell, and Brock slumped down.

“Ugh… ughh. What have I done!”

“You seduced a young woman who didn’t know the ways of the world with your status and sweet talk and made her your lover,” Azadin said coldly.

“This woman’s death is entirely your fault. Didn’t you thoroughly deceive her into loving you? It’s not a one-night mistake caused by lust or drunkenness, but the price of enjoying an affair even after getting married.”

“I, I didn’t know it would turn out like this. If I had known, I wouldn’t have done it! What, what should I do? Poor France!”

“Well, it seems like you’re regretting it, but I hope that regret changes the rest of your life. Let’s go. Your wife is still waiting.”

At Azadin’s words, Lord Brock’s expression hardened even more.

*********

“Okay. We shook them off!” Shati sighed in relief.

“This place is protected by magic.”

In the town’s brothel, there was a door hidden by the magic of the Nagas [a race of serpent-like humanoids]. Shati confirmed that the protection magic on the door was still in place and carefully used the opening spell to enter the building.

Inside the building, there were Nagas who were injured, though there was some blood.

“Kuh. You are…”

“Aren’t you a traitor!?”

Surprisingly, the Nagas who had hired Scott McGreene to attack Count Lantarique’s stronghold were here. She thought they might have fled nearby, so she thought they might be here, but she never expected to meet them like this.

“No, no. I was a Salasma infiltration agent. I was captured by the enemy and escaped.”

“Captured? That’s a joke.”

“Weren’t you actively cooperating? We’ve already reported your name to the higher-ups, so be prepared.”

“Please don’t do that. If I had betrayed you, would I have come here alone? More importantly, what happened? I heard that a Nether demon was summoned and became uncontrollable.”

“It’s not a matter of whether it’s controllable or not.”

“It hasn’t fully manifested in our world yet. If it does, this place is finished.”

“What?”

“Ugh… it’s cold.”

The Nagas groaned. It seemed they had suffered similar injuries to the were-rats they had seen on the ground earlier. The injured areas were freezing, and even their blood was freezing.

“This is…”

“We have to kill the caster woman. The Nether demon is interfering with the present world through her.”

Even though they had accused Shati of being a spy, they were telling her what they knew.

“But the caster woman has also been dragged into a dimension similar to the Nether demon, so she doesn’t manifest easily.”

“Can’t we defeat the Nether demon?”

“Defeat it? Heh…”

“A giant walking around with a body bigger than the Caragala bell tower?”

Caragala was a great city of the Nagas in the past, said to be larger than any human structure. A giant bigger than the Caragala bell tower? Shati swallowed hard.

“I didn’t see anything like that?”

“It appears occasionally in the cold and fog.”

“Every time, its minions pour out.”

“Our magic is lucky if it can pull out a single hair from that guy.”

The Nagas, who were always arrogant, were surprisingly self-deprecating.

“Are there any other survivors? In here?”

“…We, we were going to offer the Divine King’s Scripture to the Cobra Queen.”

“There’s a crazy orc who says that the Divine King’s Scripture must be returned to the Light of the King’s Flower to banish the Nether demon.”

“He killed the were-rats and ran away underground with the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“The Light of the King’s Flower… you say?”

Shati was horrified at those words.

This place was like a branch office of the Naga Empire, and there would be copies of the Divine King’s Scripture that the Nagas had collected in this area, which would have been the hope of the Naga Empire, the Kurt Pantheon, and all who worshiped the Kurt gods.

But is the Nether demon so terrifying that an orc would step forward to use it to strengthen the Light of the King’s Flower, that cursed thing?

“There was a city here before. It sank and became an underground waterway, and a village was built on top of it. The reason we chose this place as a safe house is because there are many underground spaces that can be used without any special construction.”

“So there’s an underground passage connected here. But be careful. Inside, besides the orc who betrayed us and stole the Divine King’s Scripture…”

“There’s the witch who summoned that Nether demon, the wife of the lord of this place!”

“I understand. Then I will definitely… ah?”

Shati noticed that the Nagas’ reactions had stopped. The cold that had been eating away at them had reached their hearts and bone marrow.

“They’ve stopped breathing.”

Then, a voice that shouldn’t have been heard came from behind Shati. Azadin, who had somehow approached Shati, was examining the state of the Naga youths.

“Huh?!”

Shati was startled and turned around, but Azadin calmly rested his chin on his hand and said,

“As expected, sending Shati first made it easy to get information. If I had talked to them, they wouldn’t have said a word even if they died.”

“W, wait a minute!”

Shati was horrified by Azadin, who was next to her without a sound, but a knife was already being held to her neck.

“Shhh.”

Midiam gestured for her to be quiet.

“The underground passage is echoing,” Ismail also said, holding his breath.

“Huh?”

Shati realized that not only them, but also the others, the human paladin, the brass knight Brand, and even the arrogant orc necromancer Scott McGreene, were holding their breath.

“You guys, could it be?”

“Yeah. We saw what they call a Nether demon.”

Azadin also had a serious expression.

“The Caragala bell tower, the Nagas seem to be very proud of Caragala.”

“Huh?”

“A mountain was walking around. The Caragala bell tower isn’t that big, is it?”

“……”

Seeing Azadin say that, the Nether monster seemed like something they really didn’t want to deal with.

“You saw it? What was it like?”

“What was it like? Hmm, okay. I’ll tell you while we’re getting ready.”

Azadin explained to Shati what happened when he encountered the Nether monster.