The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 136

“Azadin! This boat can’t stop! The wind is too strong; it’s dangerous to dock!” Sion, gripping the helm, warned. “Keep going, Sion! We’ll handle the ones coming! Damn it, my hands are tied up dealing with the sails too.” Azadin told Sion and quickly furled the sails. Just then, the Nagas clambered onto the gunwale [the upper edge of the boat’s side]. “What are these things?” “You. An Orc! And that woman?” The Nagas immediately recognized Scott, who was using illusion magic, and Shati, who had transformed. “Actually, we’re your allies.” Azadin tried to play it cool, but the Nagas reacted unexpectedly. Flustered, they looked back at who seemed to be their leader. “Nonsense! Even if you’re from the messenger clan, the order is to kill any newcomers!” “What?” Azadin was taken aback by those words. So, these guys had some kind of deal with the messenger clan? ‘That’s something I need to hear more about!’ Azadin tied the sail rope to a pin on the ship’s railing, freeing both his hands. However, fighting on the deck of such a small boat wasn’t easy. With their path blocked, the Nagas rushed at Jibek first. “Hya!” “Hup!” Jibek drew his longsword and parried the curved blade swung by a Naga. At the same time, he thrust his sword into the Naga’s neck, scoring a hit. He had successfully countered while parrying the opponent’s attack. Moreover, he wasn’t satisfied with just one stab to the neck. Even on the swaying deck, he effectively executed a pivot step, changing his angle and slashing the Naga with a powerful zone-hau [a powerful diagonal sword cut] diagonal cut. The Naga who had charged at the front sprayed blood and fell into the river, creating a pillar of water. “Huh?” The Nagas, who had been charging fiercely, were taken aback. ‘Jibek fights really well. His swordsmanship is considerable. The name Skalabes is common among the northern nobles, but I wonder if there’s a story behind it?’ Azadin was thinking that when- -Thump! A pillar of water suddenly shot up from under the boat. While Azadin’s group was focused on the Nagas who had boarded the deck, other Nagas had fired magic bullets of air cannons, hitting the boat. The boat shook violently, and Jibek was swept away by the rain and fell off the deck. “Ugh?!!” “Damn it!” Shati, who was holding a rope and pretending to be a prisoner, threw herself and grabbed Jibek, who was about to fall into the river. “Ugh! Th-thank you!” “What? Who is that?” The Nagas frowned as they watched Shati, whom they thought was a prisoner, jump to save Jibek. “Looks like she’s from the dryland tribe.” “As expected, a vulgar dryland tribe.” “If we catch her, we’ll make her a slave!” They were thinking of making Shati a slave. “Since it’s come to this, let’s destroy them all!” Shati yelled, and Azadin chuckled. “You don’t have to tell me that!” Azadin shot an arrow. “Such an arrow….” -Thwack! The arrow was sucked into the mouth of the Naga who had opened it. “Huh?” “You’re all dead! You water snake tribe bastards!” Shati said, as if she had given up, and at that moment, Azadin shot another arrow. -Thwack! “Wh-what!” The Naga, who had tried to block the vital point with his sword, had to watch as the arrow, creating a spray of water, tore through the rain and flew in a curved path. “Kuh!” “I guess I should earn my keep too.” Scott grabbed a fish from the fishing basket, stabbed it to death with a dagger, cast a spell on it, and released it into the water. The corpse fish that Scott had created charged towards the Naga who was continuously shaking the boat by using air cannons. “Ghoulification!” As Scott cast the spell, ghoul horns, thorns, and sharp teeth sprouted from the fish’s body. “Berserk!” “Ugh! Wh-what is this!” The fish that charged at the Naga bit him relentlessly. Of course, it was just a small fish, and the Naga was horrified as he grabbed the fish and tore it off his body, but…. “Corpse Explosion!” As Scott made a hand seal, the fish corpse exploded, covering the Naga’s eyes and face with blood. “Tsk. It looked like a tasty fish.” Scott consumed the fish with necromancy and felt regretful. “Wh-what are these guys?!” -Thwack! Another arrow pierced a hole in another Naga’s head. Unlike the arrows of other messenger clan members, the arrows that Azadin shot flew with terrifying power and speed, and even the Nagas who were considered skilled could not dare to respond. It was also dark and stormy, so the arrows were hard to see. Even if it was stormy, the accuracy of the arrows should have decreased, but that wasn’t the case. Every shot hit its mark, and each time, it inflicted a massive fatal wound. “N-no… Let’s run away!” The Nagas began to retreat. ********* “Alright, then.” Azadin captured one Naga as a prisoner. It was the commander Naga that the other Nagas had looked back at. “Kuh. You warm-blooded creatures!” The Naga commander cursed while tied to the mast. “Warm-blooded creatures, whatever, but you! Woman of the dryland tribe! How dare you betray the great Cobra Queen?” “No, I don’t really know what’s going on yet.” Shati said that and clicked her tongue. “We’re not really friendly with you water snake tribe, are we? I don’t even know what you guys are doing, so why is that a betrayal of the Cobra Queen?” “Shut up. May eggs get stuck in your cloaca when you lay them.” “How can you say such a terrible curse!” “What does that even mean?” Azadin, who was listening, was dumbfounded. It seemed like a very harsh curse among the Nagas. “Hey. Naga friend. You mentioned the messenger clan earlier, right? What kind of deal did you make with them?” “Do you think I’ll tell you that?” “If you tell me, I’ll let you live.” “What?!” “Huh?!” The captured Naga and Shati were surprised at the same time. “No, you’re going to let him go?! Then that’s not right! What about me? Do I have to keep being your medicine pot?” “Medicine pot? Anyone would think we’re boiling you to eat.” “Just boil me and eat me instead, you bastards.” “Boil you and eat you? Well, if I get hungry, I might consider it.” “…Are you joking?” Shati, surprised by Azadin’s reaction, quickly regained her senses and appealed to the Nagas tied to the mast. “P-please save me. I’m not cooperating with them willingly. They’re forcing me to cooperate by controlling me. So, if you’re released, please don’t call me a traitor….” “Do you think I’m a fool? May eggs get stuck in your cloaca. Two eggs.” “No, you son of a… Why did the number of eggs increase?” Azadin chuckled at the sight. “It doesn’t seem like you’re willing to talk.” “We can just kill him and ask with necromancy.” “That’s not right. Forcibly extracting information from the dead with necromancy is a very evil thing to do, and it disrupts causality. It goes beyond what I can tolerate.” Jibek was horrified when Scott suggested using necromancy. Even Azadin, who wasn’t so resistant to necromancy, was against it. “That’s too dangerous of a magic, isn’t it? If you ask by summoning a soul, it’s like creating an evil spirit on the ground, and manipulating the brain fluid of the dead to read information will leave madness in you, Scott?” “You know quite a bit about necromancy, surprisingly.” Scott was surprised that Azadin understood both ways of obtaining information from the dead. “Well, yeah. Hmm?” “It’s the Sahar Gate!” Sion, who was holding the helm, shouted. Near Coral Sahar, there was a large bridge, which was the Sahar Gate. Originally, there were soldiers and gate staff on top of this bridge, collecting taxes from merchants passing over the bridge, and controlling the entry and exit of ships passing under the bridge using nets. But now, the bottom of that bridge was full of garbage, and huge pieces of wood were swirling on the surface of the water. “If we approach, we’ll be shattered. The current is rough, and there’s a lot of debris. And there are things scraping the bottom of the boat.” The state of the water was terrible as buildings collapsed and were swept away. In fact, it was a feat to have sailed this far in this weather. It was only possible because Sion, who was holding the helm, was a very skilled navigator. “There should be people here, but there aren’t.” There should have been staff and soldiers at the Coral Sahar Gate. “Maybe they took shelter because of the storm? If you’re on a bridge like that, you might slip and fall into the water.” Ismail said that, but Azadin shook his head. “Even so, it doesn’t make sense that there’s no one at all. There aren’t even any troops near the bridge.” “That’s true.” It was strange. A major city, the capital of a kingdom, and there were no people at the gate. “From here, let’s use the land route. Let’s get the boat to land….” “Let’s look for a place to dock.” Sion steered the boat, looking around. Even the docking facilities were all flooded, and there was no place to dock the boat. Still, Sion found a hill and steered the boat towards it, throwing the anchor into the water. “Swim to land! I can’t get any closer!” Sion said, and everyone was taken aback. “What about these Nagas?” Midiam asked, and Sion sighed. “If they don’t talk, we’ll have to kill them here.” “Wait.” Then, the Naga, who had been silent until then, opened his mouth. “So, if I really talk, you’ll let me go?” “Yes.” “That’s right.” “That’s right.” Azadin, Sion, and Jibek answered at the same time. It was just a verbal promise, but the Naga had no choice but to believe that they would really save him. “So, our water snake tribe was competing with the sea snake tribe. Sometimes fighting, sometimes cooperating… But one day, a woman from the messenger clan came, introduced by the sea snake tribe.” “What was her name?” “She called herself Janice.” “So. What did she propose?” “She said she would temporarily turn off the light of kingship of this Coral Sahar, and told us to take the throne.” “What?” Jibek was shocked by those words. The throne of the Yaegas gods was not just a chair. It was a source of immense magical power and a turning point of fate that encompassed all people. When a righteous king sat on it, the light of kingship would protect the world, and the king sitting on the throne would be given the magic book of the Divine King’s Scripture, transforming the king into a more powerful magician than anyone else… It was the very ideology of the King’s Church. And the followers of the Kurt gods were going to take it for themselves? “Is that possible?” Azadin asked, curious. “I don’t know. Our water snake tribe doesn’t know much. But the sea snake tribe agreed… They killed our tribe leader and took his family. The sea snake tribe has become strange. They suddenly became stronger, more ferocious, and more disgusting.” “Disgusting, huh. Hmm. In my opinion, Nagas are basically a bit disgusting.” When Scott said that, everyone looked at Scott. “Don’t be too infatuated with the beauty of Orcs. If you get used to my charming appearance, your sexual desire for your own kind will decrease.” Scott took a pose to show off his muscles, then clicked his tongue, realizing what he had done. “I flexed my muscles for a moment. I have to be careful. Muscle gain incoming.”