The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 148

It was a step forward that Jibek had begun to question the rules.

“That’s a relief. So, I spoke with the King.”

“You had an audience with Ansetus IV himself?”

“Yes. Ansetus IV must be desperate now. He’d talk to anyone who might support him, even a so-called blasphemer without a soul.”

Azadin then shared what he had learned from Ansetus IV.

“The throne in Coral Sahar has its foundations exposed in the underground part of the royal palace. According to the King, someone might have approached it and tampered with it. That’s what he believes.”

Shati scoffed at Azadin’s words.

“That king is shameless. Is he blaming someone else for the weakening of the kingship’s light, which is due to his own lack of virtue?”

“That’s not it. It’s definitely not about virtue.”

Jibek shook his head with a wry smile.

“Ansetus IV may not be the best at running the country, but most kings are similar or worse. At least Ansetus IV isn’t a tyrant.”

It was considered blasphemous for a king’s holy knight to objectively evaluate the king’s policies or character.

Jibek’s words alone showed that he was no longer a rigid holy knight and had begun to change.

“Hehe. It seems the holy knight is experiencing a lot of new emotions.”

Shati teased Jibek after hearing that.

“Well, as Jibek said, the light of kingship has always been active to some extent, even if the kings weren’t great rulers. It’s just that it’s never weakened to the point where a magical storm is raging in the royal palace like this.”

Azadin pulled out the bone wand.

“Shati, use this to track the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“Okay.”

Shati glanced at Jibek. This bone wand was a type of dark magic from the perspective of a holy knight of the King’s Church.

“Go ahead.”

Shati simply activated the bone wand and tried to track the Divine King’s Scripture nearby.

But….

The flames of the bone wand sprouted in multiple directions.

“There are a lot of them very close by?”

“Right? I thought so.”

Azadin nodded.

“If the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture are the light of kingship itself, and they merged to strengthen the weakened light of kingship, then, in other words, if we can manipulate the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture… like piling up and removing sandbags on a dam… wouldn’t it be possible to weaken that part specifically?”

“It’s possible, Captain.”

Scott nodded.

“If we return the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture to the light of kingship, the light of kingship here will strengthen for a while… and then it will be distributed across the kingdom. If we take out the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture then, this place will be in a state where the light of kingship is particularly weak. If they summon the Nether being at that time, they could cause this kind of thing.”

“You think so too?”

“But it would have to be an incredibly skilled magician. Finding and extracting the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture from the light of kingship is quite difficult even for me. If it’s hard for me, an orc, it’s almost impossible for humans, whose average intelligence doesn’t even reach the tip of an orc’s toe.”

“…….”

“Is that woman, Arae, involved?”

Scott sighed.

“She’s a formidable enemy. I guess I have to use my charm here. As a beautiful and noble orc, mixing blood with a hideous human is a terrible insult, but if I think that the Captain might become my brother-in-law, it’s not so bad.”

“Hold it. What charm? Charm is….”

Azadin stopped Scott, whose self-aggrandizement was endlessly expanding.

“Well, half-joking.”

“If it’s half-joking, does that mean half of it was serious?”

“It’s an undeniable fact that I’m handsome. Anyway, Captain, I think we need to investigate the underground passage. If they’re trying to temporarily weaken the light of kingship using the copies of the Divine King’s Scripture, they’ll have to approach the throne.”

“The problem is that the underground passage is flooded, so it’s impossible to get in. We don’t know if it’s still flooded or if there’s a space to breathe after swimming for a while. We could just go into the water and drown.”

As Azadin said that, Scott looked around and found a pile of trash and began rummaging through it.

“What is it? Are you so hungry that you’re going to eat trash?”

Ignoring Shati’s sarcasm, Scott picked up a fish bone from the trash. It was a piece of food waste that someone had eaten and thrown away.

“Hup!”

Scott made a hand seal and infused it with his energy. A bluish glow formed on the bone, and it began to move as a fish ghost.

“…….”

Jibek’s expression was not good.

“Is it okay?”

Scott had already done it and asked Jibek later.

“Umm. It’s, it’s okay. Do it. It’s necessary for the greater good.”

“By the way, that’s amazing. You can even turn food waste into an undead?”

“Actually, this is a bit difficult even for me, a genius of the era. It takes a lot of magic, concentration, and mental power. But with this, we can investigate the water, right?”

Scott sent the fish ghost into the water to investigate the pitch-black flooded underground passage.

“There’s a space in the middle.”

“Really? That’s a relief. Are there any monsters inside?”

“I don’t see any, but it seems like there are people. I can hear voices. Ah?”

Scott clicked his tongue.

“An alligator ate my fish ghost.”

“An alligator, huh?”

It was good news that the flooded underground passage was not completely flooded and could be breached by swimming for a while, but it was terrible news that there was an alligator inside.

“It’s not a very big alligator. It doesn’t seem like there are many either. Above all, the water temperature is quite cold, so the alligator’s swimming speed will be very slow.”

“Okay, then. Shall we try to enter, being careful of the alligator? Can you use underwater breathing?”

“Of course.”

“A Naga [a serpentine humanoid] can’t not use it. Even if they are a dryland bloodline.”

“I can also use underwater breathing magic.”

Scott, Shati, and Jibek all nodded.

“That’s good.”

Azadin, who couldn’t use magic, felt a little envious of the group who thought underwater breathing was nothing.

*********

The water in the flooded underground passage was so dark that its depth was unknown.

Moreover, it was as cold as ice when touched. Even with underwater breathing magic, it was hard to even think about going in.

The surroundings were dark, and wood and stone were submerged, so it was impossible to know what the inside of the water was like. With alligators appearing, it was not a place that could be entered with ordinary courage.

“Ugh, it looks cold just looking at it.”

“Can everyone swim well?”

“I’m a Naga!”

Shati released her human form and returned to her true Naga form.

“Even if I’m a dryland bloodline, I’m confident in swimming.”

“What about Scott?”

“Um. I’m in a bit of trouble, Captain.”

It wasn’t about whether he could swim or not, but that he just didn’t want to swim because he would gain muscle.

“Shati! Tie a rope around Scott’s waist and pull him.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? He doesn’t want to because he’ll gain muscle. Are you going to indulge him like that?”

“Considering what Scott has done so far, let’s indulge him a little. You’re in Naga form, so you’ll be strong. Just pull him.”

“Tch. Fine.”

“Then, Sir Jibek?”

“I have some talent in swimming. It’s a natural result of my hobby of fishing.”

“Okay. Let’s go then. Ugh. The water is as cold as ice.”

Azadin grumbled as he entered the water.

There were so many foreign substances in the water that it was impossible to keep your eyes open. However, Azadin didn’t have eyes, so he didn’t have to worry about water getting into his eyes and could see well in the water.

‘There’s an alligator.’

It was less than one *jang* [a traditional Korean unit of length, roughly equivalent to 3 meters] in length, but an alligator was a deadly enemy to humans. It was even more terrible to encounter one in the water.

Was it a good thing that the alligator was slow because the water was as cold as ice? But the alligator was slowly moving towards Azadin’s group, as if it could withstand this cold water.

It was definitely approaching as if it saw them as prey. Its movements showed its hunting intent.

‘If it comes, I’ll kill it.’

Azadin threatened the alligator, but there was no way the alligator would understand such a threat.

Shati was the closest to the alligator, but she swam away leisurely in her Naga form, avoiding the alligator.

In the end, the alligator approached Azadin, who was the closest.

‘Damn it.’

Azadin grabbed the slowly approaching alligator’s snout, wrapped his arms around it, and prevented it from opening its mouth. The alligator tried to twist its body with tremendous force, but Azadin overpowered it and stabbed Wendigo’s dagger into its spine and twisted it.

The alligator’s breath was cut off in a single blow.

“Puhah! Ugh, it’s so cold!”

Shati screamed and jumped out of the water.

“There are people, so be quiet… Huh?”

Inside the underground passage, there were people shivering from the cold. They all had crescent moon bows, so they must be Aragasaim [a group of people].

But why were they all so bewildered when they saw Azadin’s group?

“A, a Naga?!”

“What is it? Are they allies?”

They were already working with the Nagas, so they didn’t seem to think that Shati, who was a Naga, was an enemy even after she jumped out of the water.

Then, Azadin followed Shati and came out of the water.

“What is it? Who are you? You don’t look like messengers.”

“We are, uh, the Korasar Merchant Guild.”

“Are you servants of the Etar bloodline? I’ve heard of you all, but I am Azadin, the 108th messenger of the Emperor.”

“You’re that….”

“Azadin of Muan?!”

Even if they didn’t know Azadin’s face, they had all heard the rumors.

The son of the traitor Acre, the cursed messenger Azadin who was born from a curse and had no eyes.

It wasn’t a good rumor, but it was a famous name that Aragasaim couldn’t not know.

‘Wait. If it’s Azadin, didn’t they say he was on the side of the Council of Elders?’

‘Arael’s younger brother, but he refuses Arael’s grace?’

The servants felt bewildered as they looked at Azadin.

‘Is he an enemy?’

‘Then what is that Naga?’

Moreover, Azadin’s attitude was very confident.

“So. What happened? Why are you all so… Ah. You were assigned to wait here, but it flooded because of the rain?”

“Y, yes. There’s an alligator in the water, and we didn’t know how deep it was.”

They said that, feeling bewildered. They didn’t know how to treat Azadin.

‘What should we do?’

‘We were told not to harm him because he’s Arael’s younger brother….’

‘But the master said to kill him on sight because of that.’

Sion Etar, the elder of Sebali, who controlled the Korasar Merchant Guild, and other executives of the Arael faction had tried to eliminate Azadin in advance without Arael’s knowledge to prevent future problems.

However, those who remained could not decide that on their own.

There was no decision-maker, and the other party was in an ambiguous relationship as Arael’s younger brother, so they couldn’t carelessly lay a hand on him.