The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 149

Then Azadin asked,

“The Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon doesn’t have any water breathing magic, right?”

The magic book, Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, did not contain any water breathing magic. That was the reason why they were all so flustered.

“And you guys wouldn’t be the only ones here. There must be someone performing a ritual near the Korasar throne. Who is it?”

“Huh? Th, that’s…”

The members of the Korasar Merchant Guild, the servants of Aragas, were bewildered.

Was Azadin an enemy? Should they fight?

While they couldn’t make a decision, Azadin was confidently approaching them.

Like an army without a commander becomes a rabble, those without a decision-maker are easily swayed by someone who acts with certainty.

Azadin very naturally took charge of the situation and asked Scott,

“Scott, can you cast water breathing magic on these guys?”

“Boss, damn it. It’s cold, and my body is stiff. My, my muscles.”

“Can you cast water breathing or not? Just tell me that.”

“Of course, I can.”

“Water breathing?”

The servants were taken aback by Scott’s words.

The underground passage was flooding due to the rising water level, and now they were being offered water breathing magic. It was like a rope suddenly descending from hell.

‘Come to think of it, even if Azadin is Lord Arael’s younger brother, isn’t he just a messenger?’

‘We can’t win against him anyway. He’s just a messenger.’

‘He’s Lord Arael’s younger brother, so even if he has the ability to harm us, he shouldn’t.’

‘Is there even a need to fight?’

The servants’ minds were leaning towards avoiding a fight.

“Okay. Scott! Cast the magic.”

“Yes, Boss.”

Scott cast water breathing magic on them.

“I’ve killed the alligator, so you can just go back. It’s not a long way. If anyone questions you about my involvement, go to Elder Sebali and ask for protection.”

Azadin was passing them off to Elder Sebali, but from the servants’ perspective, they were moved, thinking that Azadin had made an agreement with Elder Sebali to help them.

“Th, thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“But who else is left inside? Who’s in charge here? Are they near the throne?”

Azadin subtly asked while sending the servants away.

Everyone might have been suspicious, but when Azadin mentioned Elder Sebali, they naturally assumed that he was already on their side.

“It’s Lady Dimia.”

“Dimia of the Flowers?”

“Yes.”

“Is she the only one there?”

“There are Nagas and Lord Krasley.”

“Krasley… who is that?”

“He’s a former messenger and our combat instructor for the Korasar Merchant Guild.”

“Ah. I see. Okay. How many Nagas are gathered?”

“About 30 or so. And there’s a leader called Nagaraja.”

“Okay. Raja and the rest of the Nagas? There should be some big ones too, right?”

“One out of ten is huge.”

“One out of five takes a human form, probably a mage.”

“Okay. I understand. Be careful, everyone.”

Azadin extracted the information and sent the messenger clan’s servants back into the water without a fight.

*********

“That was impressive.”

Jibek was amazed by Azadin’s actions.

At first, he was prepared for a fight. The problem was that the water was too cold. Even now, his hands were so numb that it was hard to grip his sword properly.

In that situation, would he have been able to perform at his best if he had fought those servants? And there were even more troops deeper inside?

“To persuade them with words instead of fighting.”

“If you put it that way, it sounds like I deliberately deceived them.”

“Wasn’t it a deception?”

“I did manipulate the situation a bit.”

“How did you do it?”

“It’s nothing much. Always act confidently and friendly, but never say anything that would clearly define our relationship as enemies, and speak ambiguously. For example, if I mention Elder Sebali, they’ll think I’m on Elder Sebali’s side, which means I’m on their side. And when they go to their superiors, they’ll say that I said I knew Elder Sebali, and that they thought I was on their side. Of course, they could ask me right now, ‘Are you exactly an enemy or an ally of the Arael faction?’…”

“But they didn’t.”

“That’s because they’re also afraid. They’re afraid of clearly opposing me in this situation. So, I made it so that it could be interpreted as positively as possible in an ambiguous state. They only gathered information that was advantageous to them and believed it.”

“Isn’t that a deception?”

“Let them believe what they want to believe. I just responded to their inner voices. In fact, they could have sent some people to Dimia to report. But they didn’t.”

The servants from earlier didn’t want to fight Azadin either. And if some of them had gone back to Dimia to report, and Azadin turned out to be an enemy? They would have lost their way back to the surface after receiving water breathing.

“Ah, more importantly, let’s rest since we sent them away. It’s cold. I can’t even fight like this.”

Azadin said that and took off his clothes to wring out the water. His breath was cold, probably because he had come out of the freezing water.

“Is there anything around here to make a fire? It doesn’t seem good to go on with my body temperature so low.”

Azadin looked around, but there was nothing to make a fire. There were only burnt ashes and traces of where pots had been hung.

It seemed that the servants from earlier had also been making a fire and cooking meals to endure the sudden drop in temperature.

“They’ve already used up everything that could be used as firewood. To raise our body temperature, let’s do that, Boss.”

Scott suggested something.

“Do what?”

Azadin was taken aback by Scott’s sudden suggestion.

“You know, that thing? That thing.”

Unable to hold back, Shati asked,

“…Something lewd?”

“No, I mean the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“Ah.”

When Azadin took out the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, the light that had been used before had recovered to some extent.

“Y, you’re not suggesting we make a fire with the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, are you?”

Jibek asked in a panic.

“It’s not that, but when I infuse my body with magic using this, it gets quite warm. Last time…”

“You’re trying to warm your body that way… Achoo!”

Jibek, who was saying that, was also sneezing. Everyone was in bad shape after coming through the icy water.

“Hmm. But wouldn’t it be better to keep it charged in case of an emergency?”

Azadin asked, looking at the glowing copies of the Divine King’s Scripture, but Scott shook his head.

“I’ve been watching you, Boss, and you’re the type who can’t use things when you save them.”

“No, I used it in a moment of crisis and caught you right away. I broke your shadow demon with the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“And how much did you gain from that, Boss?”

“I gained you as an ally, so it’s a big gain.”

“Hahaha. A 120 out of 100 answer. This is great. You’re a boss I like.”

“Right?”

“But still, let’s use it. The copy of the Divine King’s Scripture. We need to raise our body temperature anyway…”

Scott had Azadin hold the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture and began the ritual.

He made Azadin absorb the white magic charged in the Divine King’s Scripture. This not only raised Azadin’s body temperature quite quickly but also warmed the surroundings.

“Uh… it’s much stronger than before?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious since we’re close to the throne?”

Scott said that and helped Azadin’s magic circulation.

Inside Azadin’s body, there was a modified version of the Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon magic book, which rejected the intrusion of other magic, but by suppressing that Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon magic book and circulating the white magic from the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture along the body’s magic channels, Azadin could feel the minor pains in his body disappearing, his stamina recovering, and his strength surging.

Moreover, the heat could be felt by others around him.

“Oh…. It’s warm.”

“It’s not as good as a bonfire, but it’s quite warm.”

“Can I touch it?”

Shati was curious and touched Azadin’s body without his permission.

“Wait.”

Azadin tried to stop her, but Shati was stroking Azadin’s skin and enjoying it.

“It’s warm! And your skin is so nice. No wonder some Nagas keep humans as pets. That’s why…”

“Shati. It’s cold. Please, I’m embarrassed, can you step back?”

When Azadin asked that, Shati was startled and moved away from Azadin.

“But this copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, wouldn’t it be more enhanced if Jibek, who is a paladin of the King’s Church, read and wrote it?”

“The magic books of the King’s Church are similar to the Divine King’s Scripture but different. Perhaps… this is something far too difficult for my wisdom to understand.”

“How about trying to read it?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try. Lord Jibek.”

Azadin handed over a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.

Jibek, who received it, hesitated. It was a great sacrilege for a paladin of the King’s Church to read this.

The secret of the kings that had been illegally leaked, an unjust magic book that damaged the authority of the Yaegas gods [Yaegas is the name of the gods in this world].

But thinking about his past self, who had overlooked Kozel’s atrocities because he was bound by the rules, he thought that to achieve true justice, he had to become a being that transcended the rules.

“Let’s see…”

Jibek concentrated on reading the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture and was startled.

“Ugh!”

He felt a terrible headache. Jibek took his eyes off the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.

He hadn’t even read a single word, but just concentrating on looking at it made his head spin, and lights flickered before his eyes.

“Whether it’s fortunate or unfortunate, I can’t read it.”

“It’s unfortunate. What’s fortunate about it? Don’t be so spineless. You should be disappointed that you can’t possess such an amazing magic book.”

Shati was disappointed that she couldn’t possess the magic book even after seeing it.

Meanwhile, Azadin had cleanly absorbed all the white magic from one copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.

“Wow… it’s working so well. Unlike last time?”

“It’s partly because you’re used to it after doing it once, and this place is good. Boss. It seems like it’s because the Korasar throne is close.”

“Hmm. But am I perhaps sucking up the light of the king here? We came here to stop that…”

Azadin became uneasy and asked Scott.

“Ah. Um.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it okay since your body is warm, Boss?”

Azadin was taken aback by those words.

“Wait. Is this sucking up the light of the king right now? Huh?”

Indeed. Azadin could understand the situation.

The copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, which Azadin had clearly just absorbed and depleted, had begun to glow faintly again.

Compared to the usual light of the Divine King, it was like a firefly, so faint that you wouldn’t notice it unless you focused, but even so, it was an incredibly fast recovery speed.

It seemed that the Korasar throne was nearby, causing the white magic to recover quickly.

“Wow. That’s amazing…”

“No, wait a minute. Isn’t this that?”

Azadin frowned.

“This is how they weakened the light of the king?!”

How did Arael’s group weaken the light of the king? Azadin could now understand the method.

The Arael faction must have a considerable number of copies of the Divine King’s Scripture, and they were depleting the power of the Divine King’s Scripture here while drawing white magic from the throne.