The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 256

‘No, why me….’

Sir Pavel was perplexed by Azadin’s decision to exclude him, but the atmosphere here was already completely dominated by Azadin.

The other knights silently cut off some of their hair and showed it to Azadin.

*********

There were no other doppelgangers besides the two Azadin had cut down.

However, the investigation team had psychologically completely submitted to Azadin.

They couldn’t carry out this mission on their own. They had been caught off guard while two of their members were replaced by doppelgangers, so any claim to act independently would lack credibility.

Thus, Azadin seized command of the investigation team.

“Now then, let’s start by hearing what you came to investigate.”

“That’s not something we can tell a mere trainee knight.”

“You still haven’t come to your senses. The enemy already knows the investigation team’s purpose and personnel, everything. And Lady Izmilla revealed her wings in the middle of Fireglyph Street.”

“Hmm. But secrets must be kept.”

“Being attacked in a place as deep within the Knight Order as Fireglyph basically means there’s a traitor within the Knight Order who’s in league with the enemy.”

Azadin’s pointing that out made the other knights flinch.

Even if it was true, they were filled with a sense of defiance at being pointed out by an ‘outsider’ like Azadin.

“Now, now. I understand that you brothers want to keep things confidential, so let’s organize the situation. The first option is for you to give up your mission and return to the Knight Order headquarters. Then, my companions and I will escort you until you reach a safe place.”

“Hmm.”

Sir Pavel groaned deeply.

The first option was completely unacceptable.

As members of the investigation team, they were ordered to investigate the situation, so abandoning the mission halfway was out of the question.

It was absurd to abandon the mission when no members had died or anything. They needed a loss that everyone would recognize to justify abandoning the mission.

But that loss meant losing their one and only life. Who would want to die?

“What’s the second option?”

“The second option is to continue carrying out your mission. If you want my help for that, you need to share at least some information about the mission. Well, if you want to carry out the mission without my help, I can’t stop you, but personally, I absolutely wouldn’t recommend it.”

It might have been an arrogant statement, but those who were already on the verge of mission failure had nothing to say, even if they had ten mouths.

Psychologically cornered, they couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by Azadin’s confident attitude.

His incredibly attractive appearance, his immense confidence, and his unwavering demeanor. In every aspect, they were psychologically suppressed by Azadin.

“…….”

“So, which one will you choose?”

“As for me, I already experienced failure during the Pilgrim Order attack, and I won’t be able to forgive myself if I run away this time as well. I’m grateful that my brothers and sisters cherish me as a Celestial [a person with divine powers], but originally, Celestials were arranged by the Knight Order to be beacons of hope when the darkness of this world comes. But it wouldn’t do for me to be a hindrance.”

Since the Pilgrim Order attack, Izmilla had been repeatedly failing in operations and felt a sense of crisis about being a protected subject of the Knight Order. Rather than continuing to be protected as a protected subject of the Knight Order, she wanted to become a proper knight.

The investigation team members felt Izmilla’s strong will and were at a loss.

“Alright. Let’s prioritize Lady Izmilla’s wishes. What we’re looking for is a man named the alchemist Giacomo.”

“The alchemist Giacomo? What kind of person is he? There must be a wanted poster, right?”

“He’s a man who looks like this.”

Sir Pavel took out a notebook from his pocket.

Inside was a folded portrait, and when he unfolded it, there was a strange man with half of his head bald and the other half with white hair.

“He was originally a prisoner, but his talent was recognized, and he participated in various studies in the Knight Order of Wisdom. As an alchemist, he was useful in many ways. But he joined the geological survey team in the Chadra Highlands, killed the entire geological survey team, and went into hiding.”

“Hmm, why do you think he didn’t die when the other geological survey team members were killed? Couldn’t it be that his body wasn’t found?”

“No, Giacomo’s magical traces were strongly left on the bodies of the geological survey team. He definitely killed the geological survey team.”

“What does Sir Hexenmeyer say? If that happened, he would have been ordered to pursue and capture Giacomo, right?”

Since it happened within the influence of Fireglyph, the order to capture Giacomo would have been given to Hexenmeyer, the chapter master of Fireglyph.

“Sir Hexenmeyer said he was doing his best, but he couldn’t catch Giacomo because he was too elusive.”

“They couldn’t achieve any significant results, so they dispatched an additional investigation team. And Lady Izmilla, who didn’t play a big role in the Pilgrim Order attack, joined the investigation team to make up for her mistakes. Hmm. Suspicious.”

Lady Izmilla was also surprised by Azadin’s words.

Azadin was suspecting that this investigation team itself was an organization created to send the Celestial, that is, Lady Izmilla, out.

“Who decided on the members of this investigation team in the first place? Who decided to include Lady Izmilla in the investigation team?”

Sir Pavel was flustered by Azadin’s blatant question.

“Are you perhaps suspecting the brothers of the Knight Order?”

“Yes. Even if they are brothers, we must have reasonable suspicions. If you refuse such suspicions, wouldn’t that mean you don’t consider me a brother?”

Azadin was right.

Sir Pavel was uneasy about Azadin’s identity, the fact that he was the Emperor’s messenger.

He didn’t want to reveal the flaws of the Rescue Knight Order to such a person. In other words, Sir Pavel himself did not recognize Azadin as a member of the Rescue Knight Order.

And yet, he was criticizing him for suspecting his brothers.

“Alright. It seems you don’t want to mention the person who included Lady Izmilla in the investigation team. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. It’s not important right now.”

“Y-yes, that’s right. It’s not important right now. After all, you’re just a border paladin. There’s no need for you to pry into the affairs of the center.”

Sir Pavel said that with a sense of relief as Azadin backed down first.

Of course, the other investigation team members were dumbfounded.

“I heard it was definitely Bishop Sehnath.”

“Ah.”

The investigation team members groaned at the mention of that name.

Bishop Sehnath was clearly one of Lady Izmilla’s patrons, and before she revealed her identity, there were rumors that Lady Izmilla was actually Bishop Sehnath’s illegitimate child.

And now, the person herself had made a statement suspecting Bishop Sehnath.

“Bishop Sehnath, I’ll keep that in mind. So, what did you do after coming here to find this alchemist Giacomo? Let’s go over the investigation team’s timeline.”

“First, we received information about the investigation from Sir Hexenmeyer. We need to read and organize these reports from now on.”

Izmilla took out a bundle of documents and showed them.

“Let me see.”

Azadin took the bundle of documents from Izmilla and flipped through them, reading them roughly.

Most of them were useless reports from the Knight Order members stationed in the villages and fortresses under Fireglyph’s command.

It seemed that Hexenmeyer had only circulated the wanted poster for the alchemist Giacomo and had done nothing, just collecting the reports from the wanted poster and submitting them as data.

“Hmm. He’s either lazy or in cahoots. Just asking, are you prepared to take down Sir Hexenmeyer?”

“W-what?!”

The investigation team members were shocked by Azadin’s question.

Even though the investigation team members were guaranteed authority beyond their positions for the sake of the investigation, impeaching a chapter master was out of the question.

Moreover, Azadin was a trainee knight who had only been in the Rescue Knight Order for a little over a month, almost two months.

And he was a soulless blasphemer!

“Are you crazy! You’re showing your true colors!”

Sir Pavel was furious, but instead of answering, Azadin pointed to the soldiers running towards them.

“Look over there, can you see that? Sir Hexenmeyer made the first move. You’d better choose wisely.”

“What?!”

Sir Hexenmeyer’s soldiers, the soldiers of Fireglyph, were running towards the group.

*********

“Greetings. Are you Sir Pavel of the wanted person investigation team? We are Yan and Tamin of the Fireguard, in charge of security and internal affairs of Fireglyph.”

“Please come with us. But….”

The knights who introduced themselves as Fireguards discovered Azadin’s group.

“Who are these people?”

“I am Azadin, the squad leader of Vermillion Fortress. We are currently under attack by shapeshifters.”

“Hmm?”

The Fireguards were confused when they saw Azadin, who was said to be the squad leader of Vermillion Fortress.

“Shapeshifters, you say?”

“Yes. And they were disguised as Fireglyph soldiers. Not only that, but some of us were switched out while being investigated by the Fireguards.”

“…….”

“So, we can’t blindly trust even the Fireguards. There’s a reason for this, so please understand and do this.”

Azadin showed them how he cut off a little bit of his hair with a dagger.

“If you cut off your hair and show it to me, I can tell if you’re a doppelganger or not.”

“No, this is such an impolite….”

“Hey, if you’re the squad leader of Vermillion, aren’t you that soulless blasphemer? Your rank is only Hospitaller Errant [a low-ranking knight].”

“Y-yes. You might have a noble lineage, but a lineage like the Yegas gods doesn’t mean much in the Rescue Knight Order.”

They assumed that Azadin had a noble lineage because of his handsome appearance.

In fact, Azadin was of the Emperor-Hatir lineage, so he was indeed of noble lineage even for the Yegas gods.

“Hurry up. We’re already angry from being attacked by doppelgangers repeatedly. We were attacked by those disguised as Fireglyph soldiers! Look here, can’t you see this?”

Azadin said that and showed them the doppelgangers’ corpses.

“If you refuse to cooperate, we’ll have to force you, and that will only hurt our feelings. Or does it mean we can just assume you’re doppelgangers?”

“Ugh…….”

Yan and Tamin, the two knights, had no choice but to cut off some of their hair and show it to Azadin.

“Good. You’re not doppelgangers. But I refuse the Fireglyph’s request for control.”

“What?!”

The Fireguards were furious at Azadin’s self-serving statement that he would refuse control after making them cut their hair.