The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 184

From Shati’s perspective, it was better for Azadin’s wishes to be fulfilled than for Dehashuram, the water snake Naga’s, schemes to succeed.

But Azadin himself… until just now, he seemed focused on saving Butuma, but as soon as the duty of the Messenger Clan came up, he quickly changed direction.

“What if Butuma is already under attack when we get there? I don’t know what a petition means to the Messenger Clan, but it must be important. But isn’t it more important to go to Butuma first?”

Shati advised him to give up the petition and go straight to Butuma, but Azadin shook his head.

He began to dismantle the hilt of his azure steel longsword, ‘Bluey,’ to remove the broken nails. The wooden parts that fit into the tang and absorbed the shock from the hilt were broken.

Azadin grumbled as he repaired his sword.

“Hmm, that sounds like excessive heroism. It makes it sound like I’m going to save Butuma. I’m not that great of a person.”

“You can’t say that now.”

“If Butuma is going to be destroyed while I’m dealing with one petition, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had gone earlier. I do my best in every moment within my capabilities, but I have to distinguish between what I can and cannot do.”

Shati felt a strangeness in Azadin’s words and actions.

“You were going to go to Butuma alone and stop the massacre that’s about to happen, but now you’re expressing doubt in your own actions?”

“It’s not doubt, but rather a rational assessment. Shall we go to Bell Hoda then? You must be tired, so I’ll do the rowing.”

“Are you alright? I was struggling to row, which isn’t my forte, but you, Master…”

Jiswa had seen Azadin knock down a huge number of soldiers.

Although he had fought one-on-one several times, using the undead wall of the necromancer Scott to avoid being surrounded by enemies, his stamina must have been severely depleted. A half-day’s rest wouldn’t be enough to recover from that fatigue.

Yet, Azadin took the oars.

“It’s okay. Let me row. It seems like it would be nice to row through this starry night sea.”

Due to the shock of Kazas’s attack, Azadin wanted to release his energy by rowing.

He felt muscle pain from the continuous battles and hard travel, but it was more painful for him to stay still.

Moving somehow was less painful for Azadin.

*********

Bell Hoda is famous for its sugar industry.

Sugarcane was originally a specialty of Butuma, and the Bell Hoda Delta was a particularly good place to grow it.

The Bell Hoda Delta used to be a place with no jungle and vast reed fields, but when it was turned into a sugarcane farm, its production was so enormous that it exported sugar all over the world.

Butuma’s gold, ivory, and sugar were the sources of wealth that sustained the Kingdom of Butuma, despite the various endemic diseases, the threat of the Naga Empire, and the threat of monsters swarming in the jungle.

However, this sugar industry required a huge workforce, so Bell Hoda was also famous for something else.

That was human trafficking.

The human hunters of Bell Hoda.

Slavery was legally prohibited everywhere in the Eight Kingdoms, but the plantation owners of Bell Hoda hired mercenaries to directly attack villages and kidnap people.

They would raid villages and fishing villages far from Butuma, kidnap people, and lock them up in workers’ dormitories inside their plantations, forcing them to work to death. So, even if a family was lucky enough to find them, there was no way to find the person who had been taken.

Many people criticized and tried to improve this human trafficking practice in Bell Hoda, but the enormous funds generated from the sugar business were being used to bribe the nobles of Butuma, and huge donations were being made to major religious organizations such as the King’s Church and the Rescue Knights, so the plantation owners’ human hunting did not face any meaningful resistance.

The sugar industry of Bell Hoda brings enormous wealth to the Kingdom of Butuma.

The sugarcane plantation owners here formed a union, lobbied the nobles, and tamed the clergy with money, while also hiring many mercenaries to arm themselves with private forces.

Among these plantations, Randa Banema became the new head of the small sugar plantation family, Banema.

That Randa Banema was the petitioner of the gold coin.

*********

Randa Banema, who had studied abroad at the Rescue Knights, refused the arranged marriage set by the sugar plantation union, as befitting a returnee, and began to manage the plantation independently.

She first freed the workers who had been captured through human trafficking and decided to pay the free workers a wage for each sack of sugarcane they harvested.

It was an innovative system where the more they harvested, the higher their wages would be.

Other sugar plantation owners laughed at Randa Banema’s actions. There was no benefit to trying to motivate workers in such a way.

If you give more money to the workers, the manufacturing cost will inevitably increase.

In Bell Hoda, where there are many other competitors, even if you cut costs and motivate workers to produce more sugar, it’s useless if the merchants don’t buy it.

The merchants wanted sugar that was even a penny cheaper, and they had no interest in how the sugar was made.

However, as rumors spread that Randa Banema’s plantation treated people well, problems began to arise in other plantations.

Workers began to desert and go to Randa Banema, or they began to strike, demanding that they also be paid like the Banema family.

Until then, everyone was the same, so they would listen if they were whipped, starved, and threatened, but now that there was an alternative like the Banema family, the workers’ resistance became unusual.

As other plantations began to experience production disruptions, the Banema family’s deviation became a problem that could no longer be ignored.

*********

“Hahahaha!”

The sugarcane plantation owners were gathered at the Bell Hoda Sugar Union’s clubhouse.

They were indulging in luxury tobacco, drugs, alcohol, and pleasure to enjoy the enormous wealth that the sugar business had brought them.

This clubhouse was a kind of competition venue where such plantation owners competed in their decadent pleasures and shared ideas on how to enjoy life more.

Recently, a common enemy had appeared to them.

Randa Banema, a plantation owner who had studied abroad and rejected pleasure, was ignoring the traditions of the sugar union and managing her plantation in her own way, and was now facing a major crisis.

“Did you see her appearance? Hehehe. They say there’s a hole in the pot, and she’s trying to find a tinker quickly, hehehe.”

“Unless they have multiple lives, no one would try to fix the pot on that plantation.”

“Still, Randa Banema has requested the Rescue Knights to secure a tinker.”

“Not knowing that the Rescue Knights are also giving us information?”

“Hehe, how much do we donate to the Rescue Knights every year? To think that just because she studied at the Rescue Knights, they would be on her side. What a fool.”

The plantation owners of the sugar union burst into vulgar laughter, enjoying the downfall of their competitor.

But then, the door of the clubhouse opened, and a young man walked in.

“T-terrible news. Randa Banema…”

“What’s the big deal now?”

“Hey, if you come here, you’ll be exposed as a spy, won’t you?”

“That’s not the problem. Randa Banema, well… she called the Messenger Clan.”

“What?!”

“The Messenger Clan? You mean that?”

“Yes. The one you call with the Emperor’s gold coin. The soulless blasphemer! The king slayer!”

“Hmm…”

The union’s plantation owners groaned.

“If it were the old days, it would be a good opportunity.”

“We would have contacted the King’s Church and had her dealt with as a heretic.”

“Hey, let’s not kill her. She’s about the same age as my daughter.”

“And isn’t she the same age as Lady Salco’s youngest wife?”

Then the union leader clicked his tongue.

“But we can’t do that these days. Have you heard the rumor that Korasar was eaten by the Messenger Clan? Korasar is already close by. If we make enemies with the Messenger Clan here, when the king changes later…”

“That’s right.”

The plantation owners were well aware that the Messenger Clan had taken over the Kingdom of Korasar.

It was better not to do anything that would incur the wrath of such Messenger Clan members. The sugar business in Bell Hoda existed only because it clung to the powerful and provided them with huge funds.

“Let’s talk to that Messenger Clan guy when he comes. Surely the Messenger Clan members, who are all said to receive harsh training, aren’t so stupid that they can’t distinguish the importance of things.”

There was a saying in Butuma that money could even make a Naga work.

And the sugar plantation owners, who had so much money that it was rotting, believed without a doubt that they could do anything with their money.

*********

As they sailed into the Bell Hoda Delta, endless fields of plantations spread out.

“Wow. Is this all sugarcane?”

Azadin, who was rowing, found a sugarcane floating in the water and used his oar to pick it up.

He cut off a small piece and put it to his nose, smelling a sweet scent.

“Here.”

Azadin carefully bit into the inside of the sugarcane, and sweet sap flowed into his mouth.

“Wow. It’s sweet. Try this.”

Azadin cut the sugarcane and shared it with his companions, and they all took it and tasted it.

“Oh.”

Those who tasted the sugarcane were all impressed by its sweetness.

Even though this sugarcane that had floated in the water was not of proper quality, it was very sweet.

“But the fiber is tough. I’ll just suck out the sweet juice and spit it out.”

As Azadin said that, Scott showed his sugarcane.

“Boss. Mine is…”

Inside the sugarcane stalk that Scott had, there was a hole eaten by a bug, and strange bugs were swarming around it.

“Sorry. I guess the ones that floated in the water aren’t so good.”

“……”

“Did Scott want to eat sugarcane too? Eat this.”

Azadin handed what he was eating to Scott and spoke to the Emperor’s voice.

“The petitioner is nearby, right?”

“[That’s right, Azadin.]”

“Hmm. Ah…”

Azadin found a pier where sugar transport ships were docking.

On the crane of the pier’s docking facility, there was a man’s corpse hanging, with a tablecloth written in blood that said, ‘One who tried to escape with vain hopes.’

“I guess this is the place.”

Azadin clicked his tongue as he looked at the corpse and then docked the boat at the pier.

A tall woman with black hair was frowning on the pier.

“I think that woman is the petitioner.”

“[That’s right. She is the petitioner, Randa Banema.]”

“Randa Banema?”

“[She is the head of the Banema family. You can hear the details from her.]”