The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 145

It was an impious thing to say to a king, but sometimes, the truth can only be reached by speaking without ceremony.

King Ansetus IV gave a bitter smile at Azadin’s brutally honest assessment.

‘That’s a frank evaluation. I’m not a wise or virtuous king, but I’m not a tyrant either. Though I suppose I am a dark ruler.’

‘Actually, you just left Salasmar and Count Rantaric to run wild.’

‘…….’

‘I was worried you might let your guard down too much.’

‘You’re an impudent one, Azadin, was it? I’ll remember that. Anyway, just allowing someone like you to approach the throne would cause the priests of the Royal Church to have a fit. Officially, I can’t permit it.’

‘Officially?’

‘Unofficially, we can cooperate. But before that… I think you need to prove your loyalty to me as well.’

‘What do you mean by proving my loyalty?’

‘The Messenger Clan has infiltrated the food storage and is poisoning it. Would you catch them for me?’

‘Hmm.’

Azadin was troubled by those words.

Azadin also hated Arael, but he didn’t want to become mortal enemies with the Arael faction.

If he killed his own people for the sake of the Korasar Kingdom, the Ara Gasa [Azadin’s clan] would never forgive Azadin, even in the midst of a civil war.

Perhaps the king was aware of this, and that’s why he was making such a condition.

But if he refused here, the king would have no reason to trust Azadin.

‘I understand. I’ll investigate the poisoning and stop it.’

‘Good. If you accomplish that, I’ll allow you to investigate the throne separately.’

The king had given Azadin a difficult task.

*********

Azadin also wanted to meet the people of the Arael faction at least once in this situation.

‘I need to see if my companions are safe. I’m worried because there’s no reason to keep Sir Jibek, Shati, or Scott alive.’

From the Messenger Clan’s perspective, there was no reason to keep Jibek, a knight of the Royal Church, Shati, a Naga [a serpent-like humanoid], or Scott, an Orc, alive.

Even if Azadin was Arael’s twin, it didn’t seem likely that they would make the ‘concession’ of keeping them alive just to avoid upsetting Azadin.

‘They have to be safe.’

Azadin thought as he investigated the food storage.

‘Is this what they mean by poisoning?’

‘Yes. Actually, as you can see, it’s more like…’

They said it was poisoning, but it was more like they had contaminated the food.

At first, they tried to set the storage on fire, but because it was so damp, the fire wouldn’t catch. So, they brought animal carcasses and excrement and poured the blood on the food to contaminate it.

After seeing this, they captured and killed a guard, took out his intestines, and spread them on the food to contaminate it again.

King Ansetus called this poisoning.

‘It’s ambiguous. Isn’t this just sabotage? They’ve already hit once, so there’s no guarantee they’ll come back here.’

‘That’s right, isn’t it?’

The soldiers agreed.

‘But if we say it’s poisoning, we have an excuse to investigate the inside. I’ll investigate the soldiers, residents, and maids.’

‘What?’

The soldiers were taken aback. Wasn’t Azadin, a member of the Messenger Clan, saying he would investigate the people inside the royal castle?

‘Isn’t it the king’s order? Do you have a problem with that?’

‘No, well…’

The soldiers understood Azadin’s intentions after hearing his words.

This Messenger Clan member was going to interpret the king’s orders broadly to investigate those inside the royal castle and weed out those belonging to the Arael faction.

In other words, he was going to twist the king’s orders to achieve what he wanted. The problem was that there was indeed a royal order, so the soldiers had no right to stop Azadin.

‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to investigate in my Messenger Clan form.’

Azadin said, putting on his helmet.

‘From now on, call me Inspector Epes.’

*********

The refugees inside the castle were mobilized to make arrows, move stones, and fetch water.

To resist the constant rain and wind, and to prevent the madness of the Nether [a chaotic realm] from seizing them, the person in charge of the castle’s defense called in civilians to work and distributed food as compensation.

Thanks to this, the castle was lively, and the madness was less prevalent, but it was also a good environment for spies to operate.

Azadin began investigating civilians under the name of Inspector Epes.

There were about 20,000 civilians who had taken refuge inside the royal castle, and it was impossible to investigate all of them.

However, Azadin knew that the Messenger Clan would take an environment where they could enter places close to the throne at any time, so he began to narrow down those who had access to the core facilities inside the royal castle.

‘Let’s investigate the maids.’

‘What? The maids?’

‘Yes.’

‘The maids are people with confirmed identities. And some of them are of noble lineage, so they are not people we can investigate so easily.’

Being a royal maid was something that required a confirmed identity, and it was a good job for noble children who didn’t have the magical talent to become priests or knights of the Royal Church.

Therefore, the soldiers could not imagine that the Messenger Clan had infiltrated among the maids.

But Azadin shook his head.

‘Is that so? On the contrary, isn’t it a place where you can easily infiltrate if you’re beautiful and look dignified?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘If a beautiful woman who knows difficult etiquette appears with a recommendation letter from a reliable person and says she’s a noble child, would anyone check?’

‘Still, you can’t inspect the maids…’

‘That’s right. How can you when men and women are different?’

The soldiers said, but Azadin pressed down his helmet and swaggered.

‘I am Inspector Epes now. Ahem.’

‘Is this guy for real?’

The soldiers were bewildered by Azadin’s absurd behavior, but they couldn’t stop him. Although it was a bit distorted, it was true that the king had ordered Azadin to investigate the incident.

‘…….’

Azadin received the list of maids from the head maid and began to move.

‘Shall we go to the maids’ quarters?’

‘The maids’ quarters?’

‘No, absolutely not.’

‘I’m not going inside the quarters. The agents will approach the maids.’

Azadin said and headed near the quarters. And… he found a familiar figure.

A large stonemason wearing a leather cap was fixing a wall near the maids’ quarters… and his appearance was somehow familiar.

‘It’s Kahsan?’

Kahsan, the Messenger Clan member who breaks bows, was disguised as a stonemason and working here. Perhaps he had taken a job that made it easy to come near here to share information closely with someone who had infiltrated as a maid.

Kahsan was focused on his work, not recognizing Azadin, who was wearing a helmet.

But the soldiers following Azadin said.

‘Even if His Majesty has ordered you, we cannot tolerate you being rude to the maids.’

‘That’s right. It’s absurd to think there’s a Messenger Clan member among the maids.’

‘…….’

At that moment, Kahsan inadvertently looked at Azadin.

-Thwack!

Kahsan threw the chisel he was using to fix the wall at Azadin.

‘Tch!’

Azadin felt that things had gone wrong because of the soldiers’ careless remarks and knocked away the chisel flying towards his face.

‘Hick?!’

‘Get out of the way!’

Azadin took off his helmet and swung it, catching the pieces of stone flying towards the soldiers.

‘Azadin?!’

‘Kahsan. If you’re here, then I guess Nefti is here too?’

‘Tch!’

Kahsan turned around and began to flee. The bear-like giant moved so quickly that he disappeared in an instant.

‘Stop!’

As Azadin chased him, Kahsan threw whatever he could grab behind him. Azadin unfolded his cloak to deflect the flying objects and chased Kahsan, closing the distance.

‘Damn it!’

‘Eek!’

A maid and a servant carrying laundry in front of Kahsan collided with him.

As if to show Azadin, Kahsan grabbed the maid and threw her down the stairs.

‘Ugh!’

Azadin threw himself to grab the maid and save her. At that moment, Kahsan cast a spell.

He cast ‘Hwajopungwol Hwanghak’ [a spell that manipulates wind and trajectory] on a small stone and shot it out. It curved greatly sideways and flew towards a vital point.

It was a magic that was usually cast on arrows to make them change direction greatly sideways, but it also increased the piercing power tremendously, so this stone was like a spear.

Azadin raised his magic resistance and kicked the stone with his foot, but Kahsan used that opportunity to increase the distance even more.

‘Hey! You bastard! Ugh….’

Azadin felt his leg go numb after kicking the stone with Hwanghak on it, and as he limped, Kahsan escaped.

‘Damn that big guy. Ugh….’

Azadin clicked his tongue in annoyance, put the maid and servant on the corridor, and sighed. The soldiers belatedly followed Azadin.

‘Huff… huff huff…’

‘Y-you’re unbelievably fast!’

‘W-what happened? What about the Messenger Clan member?’

‘Seriously… would you shut your mouths? Are you going to advertise that we’re looking for the Messenger Clan? Because of you, the opponent noticed!’

‘Because of us?’

‘Yes. You were talking about looking for the Messenger Clan, so the opponent noticed and ran away without me even having a chance to hide my face.’

‘T-then, will you report this to the higher-ups?’

The soldiers were terrified. If what Azadin said was true, then they would be responsible for this failure, and they could be beaten by their superiors.

The punishment for soldiers, the pillory, was to tie them to a wooden pillar and whip their backs, which was so harsh that they never wanted to suffer it.

‘It’s okay. I didn’t do well either. I’ll report it to the higher-ups, but I’ll cover up your mistakes.’

‘…….’

The soldiers were bewildered by Azadin’s unexpected words. A Messenger Clan member was taking care of them.

‘Then what will you do? Will you investigate the maids?’

‘No. The commotion just now would have alerted the one who infiltrated as a maid, and they would have escaped. Instead, question the stonemasons.’

*********

Kahsan ran quickly and shook off Azadin’s pursuit, but suddenly running inside the castle was enough to attract attention.

Moreover, he was already a giant. His impression was so strong that he attracted people’s curiosity. He killed a person, threw away the body, and hid in the gap to disappear.

Azadin, accompanied by the soldiers, met the head stonemason.

‘…He, he was very skilled. I believed him when he said he was a stonemason from Rantaric.’

The head stonemason said, sweating profusely.

‘Who did he usually meet?’

‘It’s Litherua, a maid. I thought it was because she was from his old master’s house.’

‘Litherua? How tall is she? What color is her hair? What are her features? Why was he working near the maids’ quarters? Who gave him the work order?’

Azadin asked quickly, and the head stonemason was flustered.