The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 260

“Hold on a moment, Sir Azadin. This won’t do.”

“What do you mean?”

“This potion is likely made from the Angel’s Blood that Giacomo stole. The Angel’s Blood is one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Rescue Knights, and it cannot be leaked to the outside, even if it’s been altered. What do you think is the reason we must recover the Seramite Longsword?”

Anything made with Angel’s Blood must never leave the Knight Order.

But how would it sound to say this outright to a man who is prepared to sacrifice everything for his daughter?

‘So, he must have killed the investigation team. This guy is so frustrating. If I say no right now, he’ll go berserk until he dies.’

Azadin sighed as he watched Sir Pavel interfere.

“I was a fool to trust the Rescue Knights. You guys are always like this!”

Giacomo, hearing Sir Pavel’s words, seemed to think there was no way to save his daughter, and he prepared to fight.

“I’ll kill you all and escape, then save my daughter myself…”

However, the moment he opened his mouth, a stream of water poured into it.

“Ugh!?”

“Open wide, Giacomo. If you close your mouth, your cheeks will tear.”

Bernard was pouring water magic into Giacomo’s mouth.

“Ugh.”

“I’m sorry, Giacomo, but this is all for your own good. You’ll just die in vain if you attack my captain. You can’t even beat me, can you?”

Bernard easily subdued Giacomo.

But the fact that Giacomo tried to resist was also true, and Sir Pavel, seeing this, drew his sword.

“As expected of an evil magician! You’ve shown your true colors! I will punish you!”

“Sir Pavel!”

Azadin raised his hand to silence Pavel.

However, before Azadin could, Izmilla slapped Sir Pavel across the face.

“Guh?!”

Since she was wearing a gauntlet, Sir Pavel was sent sprawling, covered in blood.

“W-What are you doing, Sir Izmilla!?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just…”

Izmilla seemed to have just gotten so angry at Pavel’s nonsense that she raised her hand. She was actually embarrassed by her own actions after hitting him.

Azadin, seeing this, played it cool.

“Wow. There was an invisible lace.”

“Invisible lace?”

“Didn’t you know? It’s an invisible evil spirit that makes people say foolish things and causes discord. It seems the enemies laid it to provoke Giacomo and trigger his curse to shut him up. Otherwise, there’s no way Sir Pavel, the head of the investigation team, would have been so foolish as to push someone with a curse that could explode at any moment, right?”

“……”

“As expected of a Celestial [a being of divine origin]. Sir Izmilla’s senses are amazing. Well then, let’s keep Giacomo restrained for now and look through the journals here.”

Azadin said this while subtly pocketing the vial.

*********

“It seems difficult to hear from Giacomo himself for the time being, so we should look through his research journals in the meantime.”

“Wait a moment.”

Sir Pavel, who was covered in blood after being hit by Izmilla’s gauntlet, stopped them.

“This man has accessed the Angel’s Blood, a secret of the Rescue Knights. Looking at his research journal would be leaking a secret…”

“Then who has the authority to access the secret?”

Azadin asked that question.

Considering Sir Pavel’s talent and his position as just a regular hospitaller [a knight responsible for medical care], he had no authority to access secrets.

Indeed, Sir Pavel said, looking embarrassed.

“Sir Izmilla does.”

“Wow. Sir Izmilla. Your position is amazing?”

“W-Well, I’m a Celestial, so it’s only natural.”

“The Knight Order’s doctrine states that they do not discriminate based on birth and treat all spiritual beings equally. I don’t understand why the humans under them end up falling into faith in miracles or worship of bloodlines. The doctrine isn’t written that difficultly.”

Azadin said sarcastically, lost in thought.

‘It seems this investigation team wasn’t sent to succeed. They didn’t even give the head of the investigation team the authority to manage secrets… They set up the investigation team to hand Sir Izmilla over to the enemy? Then we have to assume there’s a traitor among those who sent the investigation team.’

He couldn’t even guess how many traitors there were in this Knight Order.

It was amazing that the organization was still functioning.

“So, Sir Izmilla, who would you choose as your aide for this task?”

Azadin deliberately put his hands together, giving a sly smile as he asked.

“……”

Izmilla was momentarily flustered by his cute appearance.

“U-Uh, Sir Azadin?”

Izmilla already trusted Azadin completely, so it was a natural result.

“Then, Sir Pavel, since you don’t have the authority to manage secrets, please do a roll call of the Fireguards and check the personnel. In the meantime, we’ll seal the supplies and research journals here.”

“…What?”

Sir Pavel looked at Izmilla in confusion.

He was the head of the investigation team, but the authority to access secrets was with Izmilla, a Celestial, and the actual command was being done by Azadin. It was a mess of an organization.

But since Izmilla, who had the authority, was leaning towards Azadin, Sir Pavel was left out.

‘Hmm, this guy is capable but seems frivolous. He’ll definitely peek at the secrets during the sealing process. And Sir Izmilla doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping him. But if I say something, will I have to deal with this guy? He’s the one who made Chapter Master Hexenmeier look like a fool in an instant.’

Sir Pavel was afraid of Azadin. The skills he had shown were tremendous, and since the Knight Order headquarters was far away, he had no choice but to let things go as they were for now.

“Then I’ll leave it to you, Sir Pavel.”

“Umm, I understand.”

In the end, Sir Pavel had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

*********

“Well then, Sir Izmilla, shall we talk amongst ourselves?”

Azadin got rid of Sir Pavel, who was not helping with the case and was only getting in the way, and talked with Izmilla.

“You can take that vial. If it can save a girl suffering from an incurable disease, the archangels will be pleased.”

Izmilla seemed to sympathize with the story of the girl suffering from an incurable disease.

But if they took this while Sir Pavel and the other investigation team members were there, how would they deal with the aftermath?

And there was no guarantee that this medicine would work.

Above all, Elemental Wailing was a disease that made money.

There would be many who valued elemental magic stones more than the life of a single girl, so giving her the medicine would be a very difficult task.

‘This lady is too kind without any countermeasures. Of course, this is already a changed elixir that can’t be returned to its original form, so I don’t like the Knight Order’s policy of recovering it. Still, you should have some countermeasures before taking it, right?’

Azadin chuckled at Izmilla’s naively kind attitude, but considering the Rescue Knights’ unusually lenient policy towards Izmilla, they might agree.

“Hmm, well, yes, there’s that, but that’s not all I wanted to say. Sir Izmilla, can you use more healing magic?”

“Yes? Ah, I can still do it, but currently, I can only do small wounds. Why?”

“I’m going to cut off Giacomo’s tongue.”

“Yes? His tongue? Why?”

“The curse is on his tongue, and it’s branded with a burning mark, so it can’t be undone with magic. If I use healing magic on his tongue in its current state, the mark will activate the moment magic penetrates it. If I cut off his tongue before the mark activates, I can save him.”

“Hmm. That sounds very painful. Did he agree to it? Such a terrible…”

“Bernard has agreed to do the anesthesia. If I heal him quickly, I think it’s possible to save him without killing him.”

“S-So, I have to look at the wound?”

“You don’t want to see blood?”

“Ah, no. I have to. I will do it.”

“Okay. Then it would be best to cut it with the Seramite Longsword, right?”

Azadin drew his Seramite Longsword, Aurelia Dawn.

The sword began to burn.

Up to this point, there was nothing particularly surprising, but the blade burned even more fiercely, and now the metal was melting and becoming limp.

“Ah!?”

While Izmilla was flustered, Azadin’s sword had turned into something that looked like a long, thin metal skewer rather than a sword.

“I had to change its shape to make sure I didn’t cut anything other than his tongue.”

“T-That’s possible.”

“Then I’ll do it!”

Azadin thrust Aurelia Dawn towards Giacomo’s mouth, which was restrained by Bernard’s magic.

-Shick!

With a sound of cutting through the air, Giacomo’s tongue was severed.

An enormous amount of blood gushed out.

“Kyaaak!”

Izmilla almost fainted at the sight of the blood.

However, Bernard used blood magic to control Giacomo’s blood flow and stop the bleeding.

“Now! Do it, Sir Izmilla!”

“Ah, yes!”

Izmilla calmed her pounding heart, narrowed her eyes, and put her hand into Giacomo’s mouth to cast healing magic.

“Agh!”

Giacomo’s severed tongue was reattached, and new flesh grew slightly, healing the wound.

“His tongue is shorter, but if I use healing magic a few more times, he’ll be able to speak.”

“Get out of the way, Izmilla!”

Azadin grabbed Izmilla and moved her to the side.

The moment Giacomo’s severed tongue fell to the floor, it began to mutate, emitting a pitch-black aura.

The tongue, which was the size of a finger, swelled up in an instant and turned into a huge tentacle mass the size of a human arm.

However, perhaps because the main body was small, the speed of the change was not that great.

“This!”

Izmilla drew her sword to cut Giacomo’s tongue, but Azadin stopped her sword.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s leave it until it’s the size of Giacomo.”

“What…”

“If it can swell into a monster the size of Giacomo, that is. Will a tongue the size of a finger grow that big?”

Bernard said this and released the water binding spell that was holding Giacomo.

“Cough!”

Giacomo, whose tongue had been cut, coughed and spat out blood and water.

“If we send this man to the Knight Order as he is, he will die. I’ll have him taken care of at the Vermilion Fortress. Captain.”

“That’s what I mean. Do you understand, Izmilla?”

Izmilla also understood what Azadin meant by that. If the remnants of the Nether magic on Giacomo’s tongue grew huge, they would present it as evidence and smuggle Giacomo out.

That was Azadin’s intention.

It was more than just smuggling out an elixir made from Angel’s Blood.

But Izmilla also doubted the question Azadin raised: whether the upper echelons of the Rescue Knights were trustworthy.

‘They sent an investigation team leader without the authority to access secrets. If it weren’t for Azadin’s help, I would be…’

The very incident of Giacomo’s disappearance was a trap to lure her out of the Knight Order’s headquarters.