The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 227

The Pilgrimage’s Ordeal (3)

The Relief Knights’ regular pilgrimage also served as a grain convoy, typically consisting of a single squadron of cavalry.

Composition:

Commander: Hospitaller-Paladin, 1 person.

Vice-Commander: Hospitaller-Bannerlord, 1 person.

Regular Members: Hospitaller-Knight, 7 people.

Lower Members: Hospitaller-Errant [a knight in training], 7 people.

Plus 15 Squires, light cavalry, forming a cavalry squadron of 30.

This was a force more than capable of turning one or two small territories into a wasteland. Including the infantry that accompanied the cavalry, even powerful nobles like counts or dukes would have cause for concern.

But now, only Hospitaller-Errant Izmilla and the squire, the clerk MacDougall, remained.

“What is this….”

Izmilla was in shock, realizing the Holy Knights had abandoned her and fled. Then, voices began to echo from beyond the fog.

“Hahaha. A wise choice.”

“Izmilla! Izmilla of the Relief Knights! Surrender and come with us. It will all be over then.”

“W-Who are you?!”

“If you come with us, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“What is….”

But then, the female bandit stopped Izmilla.

“Idiot, don’t answer. The enemy can pinpoint your location by your voice!”

Indeed, a javelin flew towards the area where Izmilla’s voice had come from.

The female bandit and her brother quickly raised their shields to protect Izmilla, but the javelin missed its mark, striking a nearby rock and sending sparks flying.

“Oops. My bad. I didn’t mean to kill you. I just thought it would be easier to drag you away if you were injured.”

“Rest assured, we don’t intend to kill you, Lady Izmilla.”

The voice from beyond the fog sneered. It was a display of dominance, like a cat toying with a cornered mouse.

In this precarious situation, the female bandit urged Izmilla.

“So, about that. Holy Knight Princess. Will you promise us a reward?”

“But I….”

“Your authority is more powerful than you think, you know? Or what? Do you expect us to be devoted without promising a reward? We might as well run away then?!”

“No! If we scatter now, that’s exactly what the enemy wants!”

At that moment, a man emerged from the prisoners’ jail. The emaciated man had somehow acquired a dagger from the corpses and approached, coughing.

“I saw you use the Emperor’s gold, so you have no right to criticize me for using blood magic.”

“That’s right.”

“Wait, just a moment.”

Izmilla was flustered, but with only she and MacDougall left in the pilgrimage, there was little she could do.

“This blood fog and mist are blood magic. It’s magic used to separate us, and its effect is incredibly powerful.”

The female bandit asked the emaciated prisoner mage.

“So? Are those guys better mages than you?”

“No, rather, blood magic is getting stronger these days. It must be because the age of Jupiter is approaching.”

The prisoner mage said this and cut the tip of his finger with the dagger, drawing blood.

“Thanks to that, my blood magic is also getting stronger.”

From his blood, a red spider appeared. The spiders quickly scattered, attacking and devouring the nearby leeches, and sucking their blood to increase their numbers.

“…….”

Watching this, Izmilla became thoughtful.

The blood mage, this bandit woman, and her half-orc giant of a brother were all extraordinary individuals.

“Come on, promise. Holy Knight Princess. If you don’t promise a reward, we’ll run away too.”

“Ah, I understand. If you help me, I will pardon you and promise you the position of a retainer as a reward. Just don’t call me princess.”

“Ah. Retainer? Good. That.”

The half-orc man, who had received a sword from his sister, seemed pleased as he swung it at the approaching undead.

“What’s so good about it? You’re just going to be a lackey of the Hospitallers.”

“A retainer is given a house where they can raise a horse and three serfs. It’s a decent reward. Not bad if you’re thinking of settling down.”

The blood mage said this and gestured to the half-orc.

“But don’t pop my blood spiders. Cough, cough.”

“But I hate spiders. They climb on my body. I hate it.”

“My spiders are helping you by attacking the leeches on your body. If you pop them, I’ll be in trouble.”

“Is that right, sis?”

“It’s true. I know you hate spiders, but bear with it.”

The female bandit confirmed it.

“Okay, so how do we escape….”

“Since we used the Emperor’s gold, won’t a messenger come?”

“There’s no way the Emperor’s messenger would be so close. I heard they recently robbed Korasar.”

Then, suddenly, a strange sound began to be heard from beyond the blood fog.

“Kuh-erk!”

“Agh!”

People’s screams were heard, and then the blood hail that had been pouring from the sky subsided.

“?!”

“What’s going on?”

“W-Well?”

But after a while, wasn’t a person’s voice heard from beyond the fog?

“Did someone call for the Emperor’s messenger?”

A young man’s voice pierced through the blood fog. Everyone froze at the casualness of his tone, like a clerk announcing that an order was ready at a busy restaurant.

“Uh. Here….”

Without thinking, Izmilla tried to get up, but the female bandit stopped her.

“Are you crazy? Who goes running out when they’re called?”

“But isn’t it the Emperor’s messenger?”

“I don’t know. What do you think, blood mage?”

“…That guy is killing my spiders. Seeing how quickly they’re decreasing, he’s quite strong.”

“Really?”

“It seems the others are retreating. But it might be a trick.”

In the meantime, the fog was also disappearing. The fog magic was vanishing.

Either someone had eliminated the caster, or the caster was withdrawing the magic and plotting against them.

As they were unable to do anything, a person’s voice was heard in front of them.

“There you are.”

A young man wearing a bird mask approached.

“Hey! Catch that guy!”

“Okay! Sis!”

The half-orc youth got up and rushed forward, swinging his sword. At the same time, the female bandit flew to the side, creating a wide angle, and threw a hand axe.

If you respond to this hand axe, you will be defenseless against the half-orc’s charge. Conversely, if you respond to the half-orc’s charge, you will have to take this hand axe.

But.

The young man wearing the bird mask lightly caught the flying hand axe with his hand, and without even drawing his sword, he used the hilt and handguard of his sheathed sword to receive the half-orc’s brutal sword.

It was an attack with tremendous power, like an axe that could cut down a giant tree, but the young man casually received the sword with the hilt, then lowered his body.

At that moment, something amazing happened.

-Whoosh!

The half-orc’s huge body flew into the air and then crashed awkwardly to the ground.

It was a technique that had reached the pinnacle of martial arts, using the opponent’s strength to throw them, but to those who didn’t know, it looked like magic.

“Ugh!”

The female bandit jumped in to save her brother, spitting saliva from her mouth along with daggers in both hands. Small iron balls flew from her mouth, aiming for the young man’s mask, while simultaneously making flashy cuts from the left and right, but….

The young man sighed and held out his sword.

This time, he held it out without drawing the sword from its sheath, and it seemed like a casual reaction, but the iron balls that the female bandit spat out bounced off the hilt.

And.

-Swish!

The young man twisted his sword while it was still in its sheath, and the slashes flying from the left and right were futilely brushed aside.

“Huh?!”

Then, the young man’s arm went towards the female bandit’s chin, and he flicked his middle finger, hitting her chin.

It looked like a ridiculous attack, but suddenly the female bandit’s eyes spun.

“Huh?!”

The female bandit collapsed.

“S-Sis!”

The half-orc was terrified and got up.

“Sis?”

The young man, who was about to draw his sword, stopped his hand, startled by those words.

“Stop it!”

At that moment, Izmilla stepped forward.

“It’s true that I called you! Emperor’s messenger!”

“Hmm. Then. Calm this guy down.”

The young man dodged the half-orc who was rushing at him, swinging his sword.

“Ugh! That bastard hurt my sis!”

The half-orc charged, tears and snot streaming down his face. He swung his sword like a club, and even when he hit a rock and the blade broke, the fragments flying and making his face bloody, he didn’t care and continued to swing the broken sword like an axe.

“Hey. Stop Kuntachi! No snacks?!”

“S-Sis?!”

The words “no snacks” made the half-orc flinch and stop attacking.

“Ah, has he calmed down? That’s a relief. I didn’t want to kill him because I didn’t know who the client was, but I was starting to get annoyed.”

The young man said this and shrugged his shoulders.

“I am Azadin, the 1st Envoy of the Emperor.”

“The 1st Envoy?!”

“Well, you could say I’m the best among the Emperor’s messengers. You guys are very lucky. It’s only because I happened to be nearby, otherwise you would have died.”

“Ah. So.”

The blood mage clapped his hands.

“That’s a relief. I was quite confident in my skills. Honestly, if you were the lowest of the Emperor’s messengers, I would have lost my confidence.”

“If I were the lowest?”

The messenger, who introduced himself as Azadin, gave a wry smile.

He was dumbfounded by the blood mage’s arrogant pride regarding the messenger clan. But this was not the time for a pride battle.

“So, who is the client?”

“It is I.”

A man who looked to be in his late teens or early twenties stepped forward. The clerk MacDougall was claiming to be the employer of the messenger.

“Mr. MacDougall?”

“Lady Izmilla. Using the Emperor’s gold to call that person was a noble choice for the pilgrimage. However, borrowing the power of others within the Knights, especially relying on the devilish beings known as the Emperor’s messengers, will surely cause problems later. So, please leave that responsibility to a lowly person like me, and Lady Izmilla should walk a clean path without a single stain on her record.”

The Relief Knights, like the King’s Church, did not forbid the Emperor’s messengers in their doctrine, but they shared the same prejudice against them.

The members of the Relief Knights were also, after all, people of Hybris [a region or kingdom].

There was no reason for them to have good feelings towards the messenger clan, who were called the King Slayer and soulless blasphemers.

“But the client is that young lady, right? Now that I look at it, I can tell for sure.”

The messenger seemed to have the power to recognize the client and pointed at Izmilla.

“Yes. I am the client who used the gold.”

When Izmilla said that, the messenger nodded.

“Okay. I saved you, so the request is complete, right?”

“No. You have to get us out safely….”

“I think I did enough for one gold coin, you’re too greedy.”

Azadin shook his head.