The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 202

The Betrayer of the Clan (1)

Even though Azadin and Karchen were gone, Manza-Zadek still had many guards.

The regular Butuma army guarded the royal palace in three shifts, and warriors from each region, the Sellswords, entrusted their safety to the Golden King. [Sellswords are mercenaries who sell their services to the highest bidder.]

Warlocks, blood mages, and necromancers persecuted by the King’s Church flocked to the Golden King’s court, and the Golden King accepted them as guests. His palace was an impregnable fortress that no assassin dared to breach.

But the ones who were invading today were different.

*********

Inside the throne room of the royal palace, a middle-aged man, as light as a bird, flew in and landed gently before Manza-Zadek, who was guarding the throne with his massive, walrus-like body.

Outside the window, a storm raged, but not a single drop of rain touched the man, who was attended by black-masked shadows holding long umbrellas.

The middle-aged man had graying, half-white hair, and his eyes emitted a subtle golden light.

“Who dares to enter the Golden King’s presence without permission?!”

The royal guards protecting the throne room shouted at the sudden intruders, but instead of an answer, a waterfall of corpses and blood poured in from the windows.

The cold corpses were the royal guards who had been guarding the palace. Surprisingly, the Messenger Clan had silently eliminated most of the guards.

After the blood and corpses had poured in, about ten shadows had descended into the throne room of the royal palace.

Black shadows wearing bird masks, each with a quiver on their back, indicated that they were from the Messenger Clan.

The middle-aged man who had landed first declared,

“I am Hatir, son of Emperor Yaeslat. The rightful heir to the eight thrones. I have come here to claim my right.”

“Rightful?”

Manza-Zadek, who was listening, gave a bitter smile.

“The teachings of the King’s Church state that the Emperor is not the rightful owner of the throne. And wouldn’t it be important to prove that you are truly the Emperor’s child first?”

“Are you mocking my birth now?”

“We should start there. But yes, let’s stop with the pointless insults. You are indeed the Emperor’s child.”

Manza-Zadek already knew Hatir’s identity, so he did not deny his lineage.

“But aren’t you a bastard?”

“How dare you! You mock me again.”

“No, a bastard is a bastard. And anyway, isn’t true legitimacy determined when one sits on the throne? Yes, the light of the royal flower.”

Manza-Zadek said, pointing to his throne. Hatir’s eyes sharpened.

“So, are you at least going to give me a chance to sit?”

“If you can truly protect this world with the light of the royal flower while sitting here, I will gladly give up my throne.”

“Your Majesty!”

The retainers were horrified. The Yaegas royal family would never give up the throne to anyone, fearing that the light of the royal flower might recognize them as the true king. [The Yaegas royal family is the ruling family of Butuma.]

When the rightful king sits on the throne, the throne itself makes the judgment.

That was the policy of the Yaegas gods, but the structure of power in the human world was not like that. That was why no one who could threaten the king’s authority had ever been allowed near the throne.

But was Manza-Zadek telling that man to sit on it?

Of course, he wasn’t.

“But one who brings the Nagas and uses magic to summon the messengers of the Nether cannot be the rightful king.”

Manza-Zadek picked up the royal scepter that was placed next to the throne.

It looked more like a rafter than a scepter, but to Manza-Zadek, who was covered in fat, it looked like an ordinary baton.

Manza-Zadek, holding the royal scepter with his thick, elephant-like arm, took a deep breath. His body swelled even more, and veins began to appear in his flesh.

“What do you intend to do by taking the throne?”

“We are only reclaiming the rights that we, who have been persecuted, deserve.”

“You have such a base spirituality. You don’t think at all about those who suffer because of your actions.”

“Did you ever think about the suffering of our clan?”

“At least I did. That’s why one of your subordinates joined my army, didn’t he?”

Indeed, Manza-Zadek had lifted the curse of servitude and promised a future, which was why people like Karchen had left the Messenger Clan and become the Golden King’s crows.

However, Hatir only scoffed.

“Do you claim to be righteous with the betrayers of our clan?”

“If they weren’t betrayers, they would all think like you, so is there no point in arguing?”

“Yes, that’s right. Manza-Zadek. Hand over the throne.”

“You’ll have to step over my corpse.”

Manza-Zadek swung the royal scepter. The massive scepter tore through the air with terrifying force, aiming for the leader, Hatir.

But Hatir unfolded the twilight of the flower and moon. Dizzying shadow illusions danced, effortlessly evading all of Manza-Zadek’s attacks. [The twilight of the flower and moon is a technique that creates shadow illusions.]

And when he clapped his hands, black steel arrows flew towards Manza-Zadek from all directions. Surprisingly, Hatir had the Messenger Clan attack without using his own hands.

“Hmph!”

Manza-Zadek swung the royal scepter to deflect the incoming arrows and used divine magic to create a barrier, but…

-Crack!

The massive, rafter-like royal scepter broke against a mere arrow. The black arrows that flew from all directions easily pierced the barrier and entered his body.

“Y-Your Majesty!”

“H-How dare you!”

The guards drew their swords and stepped forward, but they all fell without being able to withstand a single blow from the Messenger Clan’s blades.

“You’re no fun. To dispose of me, the god-king of Yaegas, like this. Isn’t it too uncool?”

Manza-Zadek sat down heavily next to the throne without even pulling out the arrows embedded in his body.

If he pulled out the arrows, he would die from blood loss.

Perhaps because he had too much fat, only a little blood was oozing from where the arrows had hit.

However, these arrows were made of black steel and contained a curse, so even if he left them in his body, he would soon die.

Manza-Zadek let out a hollow laugh as he felt death approaching.

Surprisingly, his mind was at peace.

When he was so desperately trying to preach the pleasures of the flesh to the ancestral gods of Yaegas, he was in unbearable pain no matter how much his body was steeped in pleasure…

Now that he had fallen because his strength was not enough despite doing everything he could, he felt so refreshed.

“The arrows shot into your body are black steel arrows worth a thousand gold each. I have shown you some respect by concentrating so many arrows on your body.”

Leader Hatir said, gathering magic in front of his chest and creating ominous characters. They were evil dark characters made in the language of the Nether, and just looking at them made one’s mind dizzy, so no one dared to look at them.

Manza-Zadek, who had already disregarded life and death, clicked his tongue as he looked at the evil Nether characters.

“You’re the Emperor’s son, and yet you’re doing this…”

Manza-Zadek was shocked, but there was no one who could stop Hatir now.

Hatir ascended the throne.

The throne of Butuma was made of massive ebony wood, like a stage that could support even an elephant, so that Manza-Zadek could sit on it. But when Hatir raised his hand with the Nether characters floating above his head and brought it down, the ebony wood all shattered as if explosives had been used, and a quartz throne appeared.

As the power of the Nether language that Hatir had created seeped into the quartz throne, the throne began to emit light.

“Ah…”

The light flickered. The light that the throne itself possessed was gradually being consumed by darkness and fading away.

*********

The light of the royal flower of the Golden King Manza-Zadek was actually exceptionally powerful among kings.

The fact that people could live in Butuma, the heart of the Naga Empire, was thanks to the majesty of the Golden King. [The Naga Empire is a powerful empire that controls the region.]

But now that majesty was gone.

In its place, an evil Nether aura emanated from the quartz throne.

“Why are you doing this?”

Manza-Zadek asked Hatir, who was occupying the throne and corrupting it with evil power, with pure curiosity.

“With your abilities and talents, you could have rightfully taken the throne and made Butuma your own. This place is prone to endemic diseases, but… even if you had just occupied it, it would have been a great benefit to you. Why are you destroying it? Was the wealth and glory of Butuma so worthless to you?”

Since Hatir had corrupted the throne with Nether magic, Butuma would no longer be protected by the light of the royal flower. This place, already suffering from endemic diseases, would soon become uninhabitable.

Why was he committing such destruction?

Then Hatir opened his mouth.

“At first, I… I intended to create a paradise on this land by ruling well when I took the throne someday. It was something I was even prepared to do with reverse discrimination. Because if I didn’t cherish and love the people of Hybris even more than my own clan, they wouldn’t accept me, who was from Aragas.”

“Yes. If a conqueror wants to integrate with the conquered, they must provide a better environment than before and treat the conquered people so well that it feels like reverse discrimination.”

“That’s the problem.”

Hatir sat on the throne and crossed his legs.

“The population of Aragas is too small. They are a race that arrived on this land with only five immigrant ships, and their blood has already mixed with the locals, so their hair, skin, and race have already assimilated with the locals. If reverse discrimination is added to this for smooth governance, all the Aragas people on this land will disappear.”

“So, you bound them with the curse of servitude?”

“Yes. Restrictions create bonds. If I hadn’t imposed such restrictions, they would have already abandoned the name of Aragas, abandoned their pride, and mixed in with those Hybris people, and our people would have disappeared.”

Hatir openly confessed that he was the one who maintained the curse of servitude, even in front of the Messenger Clan.

“Aren’t you sorry for those who will be sacrificed by your nationalism?”

“It’s something we do to survive. I feel sorry when I slaughter cows and pigs, but in the end, we have to slaughter them, don’t we?”

Hatir answered without any hesitation, as if he had already made up his mind.

Listening to those words, Manza-Zadek gasped for breath with his injured body. The power of the curse flowed through his blood vessels from the black steel arrows. It gnawed at his nerves as if a deadly poison was burning through his blood vessels.

But he got up.

“It seems I can’t tolerate you at all.”

“Don’t do anything pointless, Golden King. Actually, I quite like you. Among the Yaegas god-kings, you’re the only one who has some decency. So, I wanted to let you go without pain if possible, but are you deliberately hastening your death?”

“Yes. At least… I have to buy some time.”

“Pointless…”

Hatir sneered at Manza-Zadek and took out a dagger from the throne.

At that moment, a black arrow flew towards his temple. A black steel arrow was aimed at the leader, Hatir.

‘Ugh!? It’s because of this!’

Only then did Hatir realize why the battered Manza-Zadek had suddenly risen and challenged him, but it was already too late.