The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 143

Elder Sebal warned Azadin.

“Arael is… not to be taken lightly. I don’t want you, who defeated me, to throw your life away in such a reckless act. Can’t you reconcile? From what I see, it doesn’t seem like you’re doing this out of loyalty to the Elder Council.”

“……”

“Of course, I understand. You’re doing this because of your pride and philosophy. But if you live long enough, you’ll realize one thing. There’s no need to risk your life for philosophy or ideology. Living according to your instincts isn’t something to be condemned.”

“Even to live that way, I will stop you from playing with the old gods of the Nether.”

“Even though all of the Ara Gasa [a powerful clan] desire it? If you do that, you’ll have a hard time finding a place to stay. As you can see from me being here, the Elder Council will eventually recognize the Arael faction. If the Arael faction acknowledges the vested interests of the five great bloodlines to some extent, an agreement will be reached. Even then?”

Sebal was surprisingly genuinely concerned about Azadin. Otherwise, why would he bother saying such things?

Although there was Arael’s rebellion, the Elder Council would recognize Arael’s rebellion. In other words, resisting Arael’s vision was resisting the entire Ara Gasa.

He was warning Azadin about that.

“First of all, thank you for your concern.”

Azadin expressed his gratitude to Sebal.

“No. Since you defeated me, my honor is now on your shoulders.”

“I don’t think you would tell me such valuable information just for that reason.”

“I, too, once dreamed of reconciliation with the Hybrids. Because the Emperor’s blood flows in our veins. I thought we could fully reconcile with them.”

“……”

Even the elder, who seemed like an obstinate and unyielding person, was a young man who dreamed of ideals in his youth. The Ara Gasa’s hatred for the Hybrids was so deep that even the minds of the most intelligent were clouded by the fog of hatred.

“I’m worried that all of the Ara Gasa will turn their backs on you.”

“Is there really no one with a conscience?”

“Haha. You really are like Aldis. He cherished you so much. Well, I’m a loser, so do as you please.”

“Understood.”

In the meantime, Azadin arrived at the Coral Sahar royal castle.

The outer castle, where the lowlands were submerged and the gates were submerged above human height, had already been captured by the Nagas [serpentine humanoids], and the humans inside the castle had moved to the inner castle.

There were a large number of Naga corpses floating on the water, indicating that many had died, but it was clear that Coral Sahar was in a precarious situation.

“So. What are you going to do now?”

“I need to infiltrate the castle and have an audience with King Corasar. In addition, the Ara Gasa of Arael are probably carrying out sabotage, so I’ll have to deal with them.”

“What about me?”

“I’ll release you. I can’t take you over the castle walls.”

“Is it okay? If you release me, my value as a hostage….”

“If you have any honor, please make sure they don’t harm my companions.”

“Is that all you ask of me?”

“Yes.”

Azadin said that and really released Elder Sebal.

“You’re a very unpredictable person.”

“Then, I’m counting on you.”

Azadin said that and left Elder Sebal behind, running towards the castle walls alone.

The sea serpent Nagas were flustered, but Azadin shouted that he was a messenger of the clan and leaped, climbing the water-soaked castle walls and easily jumping over them to enter the inner area.

*********

The Coral Sahar castle was a fortress with immense defensive power, the culmination of the best fortification techniques of the time.

It was built on a coastal cliff to monitor the Corah River delta, making it nearly impossible to enter from the water.

Approaching from the land, one would encounter a terrifying triple wall. These triple walls were usually connected by drawbridges, allowing movement above the walls, but if the drawbridges were removed, one would have to circle around the base of the walls to enter, creating a hellish situation for the attackers.

However, due to the continuous heavy rain, the castle’s foundations were weakened in many places, and Ara Gasa operatives, who traversed the walls as if they were flat ground, infiltrated and easily opened the gates.

And the Naga army, which moved freely between water and land, invaded, and they lost the outer wall 1 too easily.

There were still two inner walls remaining, but the messenger clan operatives were attacking day and night, shooting arrows and running away, so everyone’s fatigue had reached its limit.

And as this fatigue accumulated, problems began to arise.

“Ughhh.”

“O-One’s coming!”

The exhausted soldiers were scratching their faces with their hands, drawing blood.

When they fell asleep, they all had nightmares of madness.

And when these people were placed as guards on the walls, they all saw hallucinations of a giant monster looking down at them from the sea.

“N-No, I hate it!”

“The god of the Nether is coming!”

“Save me!”

When those who were seized by madness and went into delirium caused a commotion, other soldiers were dragged in to stop them, making them tired as well.

“I’m going crazy. Well, I shouldn’t say that in front of crazy people, but we’d rather go crazy too!”

“Damn it. But I… sometimes see the shadow of a giant on the sea when lightning strikes.”

“Don’t look. It’s because your mind is weakened. Just wait a little longer. Reinforcements will surely come. We sent a messenger to request reinforcements, and there are so many merchants who usually come and go, reinforcements will surely come.”

At that moment, a strange young man appeared on the inner castle wall.

“Huh?”

“Reinforcements?! Are they reinforcements?!”

The soldiers, who had lost their minds in the harsh environment, thought that the person who suddenly appeared was reinforcements.

Since they had already lost the outer castle due to the repeated infiltration attacks of the messenger clan, they should have thought that anyone who came up was a messenger clan member. But everyone was singing the song of reinforcements, so they wanted to believe it was reinforcements.

“Reinforcements my ass! It’s a messenger clan member!”

On the other hand, the squad leader, who was still somewhat sane, thought that the person who had come up was a messenger clan member. He thought he was wearing a helmet on his face, but when he looked closely, it was a mask.

“He’s wearing a mask on his face! Among the messenger clan, this one is a real messenger!”

“Wait a minute.”

At that moment, the young man who had climbed onto the wall raised his hand.

“I didn’t come to fight. I came to talk.”

“What is it? Aren’t you a messenger clan member?”

“I am a messenger clan member. But I want to have an audience with King Corasar.”

“D-Don’t be ridiculous.”

The messenger clan members were also the best assassins. Of course, they couldn’t refuse such a person who said he wanted to have an audience with the king.

“Drop your weapons! If you disarm….”

However, the young messenger clan member didn’t even pretend to listen to the disarmament recommendation and suddenly sat down in place.

“Huh? Th-This bastard!”

“What is it!?”

They were flustered by the young man who was taking unexpected actions.

The young man didn’t care whether they were pointing their weapons at him or not and pointed to his mask.

“From what I see, you don’t seem to be a knight, but a non-commissioned officer? You don’t have the authority to disarm me. Tell your superiors. I’ll be waiting here until then. Hurry.”

“N-No! This bastard!”

The squad leader was furious at the person who ignored his disarmament recommendation, but when this messenger clan member flicked his hand, a gust of wind, as if cutting flesh, blew at him, spraying rainwater in the air.

“Ugh!?”

“It was hard for me to get here too. Let’s rest a bit.”

After saying that, the young messenger clan member took out some dried rations from his pocket and began to eat.

“Uh.”

The act of eating in front of an opponent meant that there was no intention to fight. The soldiers didn’t want to fight in the first place, and when the opponent ate in front of them, their tension was gone.

“Call people to watch me and go.”

“…You? What should I say?”

“I am Azadin, the 108th messenger of the Emperor. I am a force that is hostile to the Arael faction that is attacking you.”

“……”

“The messenger clan is not one entity. We are also having a power struggle internally. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Y-Yes, I understand for now.”

They listened to the young messenger clan member’s words, deployed soldiers, and then retreated.

*********

‘Good. They’re listening well. It seems like they’ve fought against the messenger clan before?’

Azadin knew well that the non-commissioned officer was afraid of him.

The non-commissioned officers and knights had already suffered from the assassination operations of the messenger clan when the outer castle was captured, so they knew the combat capabilities of the messenger clan in detail. So, they trembled with fear as soon as they saw Azadin.

In addition, the fact that the soldiers’ condition had deteriorated as the power of the Nether grew stronger also played a part.

In this state, they would want to avoid fighting if they could. If Azadin didn’t try to attack first, they wouldn’t dare to attack him.

They said they would disarm him, but that was just a bluff.

“But their condition is really serious.”

Azadin was eating dried rations when he noticed a soldier looking at him. A young boy, who still looked like a child, was wearing an ill-fitting helmet and sucking his finger while looking at Azadin.

“Do you want some?”

“…Uh.”

When Azadin handed him the dried rations, the boy soldier took them and hurriedly stuffed them into his mouth. Azadin was flustered by the sight of other soldiers rushing over and begging him to give them some too.

‘No, what if I had poisoned it? Could it be that their supplies are cut off?’

If they were so desperate for food that they would eat it whether it was poisoned or not…. It meant that their supplies were cut off and they were short of food.

That didn’t make sense.

Even though the royal castle was rarely the target of a siege, they would still have stockpiled at least a year’s worth of food, so there was no way they would run out of food so soon after the siege began.

“The food hasn’t run out, but the fuel has.”

“Ah.”

It seemed that they couldn’t cook because the environment wasn’t suitable for starting a fire.

At that moment, a messenger from Coral Sahar Castle came to find Azadin.

“The audience has been granted. However… large weapons are not allowed.”

“Okay.”

Azadin put down the Naga curved sword he was carrying on his back.

“The bow too….”

“Alright.”

Azadin also put down the iron bow. It was originally a part of a heavy crossbow, so its weight was enormous.

The soldiers and knights who were accompanying the castle’s messenger casually received Azadin’s iron bow, but they were surprised by its weight and dropped it on the wall, and the clanging sound echoed like thunder.

The soldiers were horrified when they saw that.

‘He climbed the wall carrying this?’

‘Is this guy a monster? Can a human pull that?’

Azadin had put down his main weapons, but he still had the Wendigo’s dagger, the halberd head of the guard captain, and other throwing daggers.

Fortunately, the castle’s messenger and knights didn’t ask for those.

“Then, please follow me.”

“Alright.”

Azadin followed their guidance and passed through the inner castle. Coral Sahar, which had multiple walls, still had one more inner castle inside, and many refugees were seen while going to the inner castle.

‘There’s a disease spreading.’

The people who had been submerged in dirty water were suffering from a disease that was rotting their skin, and because the land was flooded and there was no place to avoid it, people with such diseases were sharing food and lodging with others, and a skin disease, not an epidemic, was spreading to people.