The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 158

‘Am I crazy? What difference does it make if you have regeneration magic or not? Why would I let you go? Besides, you already know too much about me, and your standing among the Nagas isn’t high enough for me to just release you.’

Regeneration magic that could heal injuries was incredibly valuable.

Moreover, Shati’s position among the Nagas wasn’t very high. Even if Azadin released her, she wouldn’t be able to exert any positive influence on the Nagas. Instead, they would just try to extract information about Azadin, and then use that information to relentlessly attack him, since he had obtained so many copies of the Divine King’s Scripture.

For Shati’s own sake, Azadin had no intention of letting her go.

“That Nagaraja [Naga King] may seem like a nice person, but that’s only because he’s on an outing. Once he returns to his kingdom, he’ll never leave you alone, Shati.”

“I was prepared to receive some punishment. A few lashes, having my eyes and tongue pulled out, and maybe losing a limb or two…”

She could endure that much. It would be a horrific punishment for a human, but Nagas had regenerative abilities, so such punishments wouldn’t cause permanent damage.

“Don’t you get it, Shati? I don’t want to let you go.”

“……”

“I want to be with you.”

‘I want to travel with a regeneration magic user.’

That was what he meant, but everyone who heard it couldn’t help but think differently.

“Th, then. Have a safe trip.”

Dehares bid farewell to Azadin and sailed away.

*********

“He’s a Naga who’s really easy to talk to.”

Zibeck was inwardly impressed by the dignity Dehares exuded. Then Scott boasted.

“But they’re Nagas, so they eat humans, right? Humans are also on their menu. I’ve been eating everything that isn’t human, so they’re probably starting to need to eat human meat, but they didn’t want to show that in front of humans, so they made us get off.”

‘No, but if you trace the cause, isn’t it because you ate all the food that was supposed to be served to the guests? Why are you boasting like you did something great?’

It wasn’t easy to defend the Nagas, who were monsters that ate human flesh, and considering Dehares’ consideration, Scott’s behavior was subtly annoying.

“Anyway, this is a coastal cliff area, how are we going to get up?”

The terrain had a small sandbar below the coastal cliff, and there were no signs of human habitation or even animal trails nearby.

“To drop us off in a place like this.”

“We have the Kerim mountain goat, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

Azadin said that and looked at the cliffs. After a while, he found a path.

“You want us to climb that?”

“Wait. I’ll go up first.”

Azadin removed the saddlebags from the Kerim mountain goat to lighten the load and then mounted the goat. The goat skillfully climbed the steep slope, which was almost a cliff, without much difficulty.

“Wow.”

“Okay, then now…”

Azadin untied the rope from above and lowered it down, then secured the rope to a nearby rock and connected it to the goat’s saddle.

“Okay! Tie the horses!”

“H, horses? They’re going to be really heavy, though?”

Zibeck was skeptical, but he tied the warhorse to the rope as Azadin instructed. Then…

“Hup!”

Azadin was pulling the warhorse up from the cliff! The surprised warhorse stepped on the wall, but it was able to climb the cliff without colliding with it.

“Okay, next!”

Azadin pulled up Zibeck, Scott, and Shati in that order.

“Whew. Amazing, Captain. That’s incredible strength. Did the Hwajopungwol Kazas [a martial art technique] get stronger with the Divine King’s Scripture copy?”

“That’s part of it, but of course, I didn’t pull it up alone. My mountain goat helped.”

“Even so, it’s incredible strength. With that much, I could make a wheelchair again and ride around. Or how about a jiggeh [a traditional Korean A-frame carrier]? We could make it out of wood, and the Captain could carry it on his back, and I could ride on top.”

“You call me Captain with your mouth, but you treat me like a porter.”

“It’s about using the right person for the right job. The physical Captain uses his body, and the brainy me uses my brain.”

“You only use your brain, why did you use your mouth so much that you got us kicked out? If you had eaten a little less, we could have gone comfortably by ship.”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough. What’s important now is to replenish our food and fodder. For food…”

Then Lord Zibeck took out some dried fish. While on the ship, Zibeck had diligently fished, giving some to the Nagas and drying the rest in the sea breeze to make dried fish.

However, the amount was enough for Scott to eat in a day.

“The problem is that we’re out of fodder.”

Scott said that shamelessly. It wasn’t entirely wrong. The beans and oats they fed when fodder was scarce were all gone, and the sacks were empty.

“We need to find a nearby village.”

*********

Young men wearing blue hoods were raiding the village’s merchants and warehouses, loading valuable goods onto carts.

“We are the Blue Hood Gang!”

“We are requisitioning supplies because we are short on military provisions, not stealing!”

“You are safe because we are fighting monsters and bandits on the streets! You should consider this as a tax!”

They were looting the villagers’ food and supplies, giving them requisition slips written on paper in return.

A receipt that the army would give when they urgently procured local supplies during a war, promising to pay them back later—that was a requisition slip. But what were these people doing issuing requisition slips?

A merchant, who was dumbfounded, stood up as a representative and questioned them.

“This requisition slip, it doesn’t say when or where we’ll be paid!”

“Ahem. If the world becomes peaceful, come to the Blue Hood Gang headquarters, and we’ll pay you!”

“Where is that headquarters?”

“Well, when the Blue Hood Gang’s world comes, it will be everywhere!”

“No, but you, why are you so distrustful! Are you perhaps a Kurt cultist?!”

The self-proclaimed Blue Hood Gang members threatened the merchant who questioned them with swords and spears.

“F, food is one thing. What’s with taking the silverware?!”

“We’re just taking it because we’re short on utensils during our camping.”

“But wooden utensils would be enough, wouldn’t they? I’ve been in the military, so I know. Taking pots and pans is understandable because you need to cook in the field, but why the silverware…”

As the merchant continued to question them, the clerk who was issuing the requisition slips chuckled.

“Hey, old man.”

The merchant, who was called an old man, flinched.

It was because his tone had changed to a sinister one, as if his tongue was coated in poison, and every breath he exhaled was poisonous.

“What do you want to hear from us? That we’re a band of thieves? Is that the path you want to take? But if you do, you’re done for. You know? Looking at you, is that your daughter over there? Or a concubine?”

“Th, that’s my daughter.”

“She’s pretty, what if we just become a band of thieves? We’re trying to maintain military discipline. Do you want to see what happens when we lose our minds?”

“……”

“Quietly accept the requisition slip and hope that our Blue Hood Gang rises to power. Then we’ll return all of this later.”

“But only half of the supplies are listed…”

“That’s the tax. We’re working hard to defeat the bandits and monsters in this Adirof region. Shouldn’t you pay this much tax considering our hard work?”

“……”

“You should be happy. If we’re reducing the tax on the requisition slip, it means we intend to pay you back, right? Don’t you think so?”

The clerk, who was writing the requisition slip, smiled while subtly threatening the merchant.

Then, a voice was heard from behind him.

“But if the world is ruled by guys who take half as tax, it doesn’t seem like merchants would be very happy about it?”

“What?”

The clerk turned around and saw a young man wearing a helmet sitting on top of the cart of loot, or rather, taxes, behind them.

‘Huh?’

‘When did he get here?’

They looked around, bewildered. There was no one else, only this young man was there.

“So, what do you ultimately want? Are you planning to become the lord of Adirof?”

“Who are you?”

“A traveler passing by.”

“A traveler?”

“Haha. You bastard.”

The Blue Hood Gang soldiers grabbed their spears by the shaft and tried to hit the masked young man, who called himself a traveler. But the spears missed.

The young man had already gotten off the cart, and the spears naturally missed.

“Huh?”

“It seems like you won’t answer me if I just ask. Okay. Then, shall we create a peaceful atmosphere for conversation?”

The young man said that and picked up a stone from the ground.

“Aren’t you going to put that down?”

The Blue Hood Gang soldiers tensed up, but the young man threw the stone very lightly, using only the snap of his elbow and wrist.

But…

-Thwack!

The helmet of one of the Blue Hood Gang soldiers was crushed, and his body fell backward. It was a terrifying destructive power that didn’t match the throwing motion.

“Th, this bastard!”

“Is he a mage?!”

While the surprised Blue Hood Gang soldiers were panicking, the self-proclaimed traveler asked them.

“What is the Blue Hood Gang fighting for, and what is your purpose? Is Lord Guillaumebalt, the Count of Lantarik, the Baron of Adirof, your lord?”

“You bastard!”

“Is the atmosphere for conversation still not right?”

Another soldier fell backward from a stone throw.

“G, get that bastard!”

The soldiers rushed at him, but the self-proclaimed traveler circled around the cart, dodging the soldiers who were approaching him.

“Split up left and right! You morons!”

At the clerk’s command, the soldiers with spears and swords split up left and right to try to attack the traveler, but… now that there were only two soldiers left, splitting up left and right wasn’t very threatening. Moreover…

-Thud!

Another soldier fell from a stone throw.

“Damn it!”

The last remaining Blue Hood Gang soldier, enraged, thrust his spear, but the traveler grabbed the shaft of the spear with one hand. The spear was stuck as if it were caught in a rock and couldn’t move at all.

“I won’t cause permanent damage since you didn’t kill anyone after issuing requisition slips. If you had harmed people, I would have castrated you.”

The masked young man said that and struck the spear shaft with the side of his hand. The spear shaft, which was well-oiled, elastic, strong, and tough, broke cleanly in half.

“Huh?”

-Swish!

The blade part of the broken spear flew and passed between the clerk’s legs.

As the traveler had said, the spear didn’t harm his groin, but if it had flown just an inch higher, there was a high possibility that the clerk’s reproductive ability would have been damaged.

“Ugh… Th, this bastard.”

Cold sweat ran down the clerk’s cheek. It had flown so fast that it was impossible to dodge, block, or even perceive it.

The moment the spear blade passed between his legs, the clerk realized that this traveler could really kill them all if he wanted to.