The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 279

Camilla was flustered by Azadin’s sudden words.

“This is awkward. I came out with my younger brother, and you’re looking at me so passionately.”

“…Sister.”

“Ah, no, Kuntachi. It’s okay. It’s nothing.”

“No, Sister, it’s not that. Look over there!”

“Huh?”

Azadin was looking at the alleyway next to her.

A beggar who had been begging in the city of Fireglyph was staggering out.

Was he drunk?

However, a drunkard’s body is hindered by the alcohol, disrupting his will.

But this man was staggering out, driven by the whip of pain.

The expression of pain distorted his face as if the muscles were about to tear through the skin, and his twisted body made even the onlookers feel distressed.

“Ah… Ughhhh!”

He was tearing at his hair, blood streaming from his eyes.

Surprisingly, the blood he shed froze as it hit the ground, growing like stalactites.

“What?!”

Azadin was shocked and rushed forward, but he couldn’t bring himself to approach him.

Blood and ice were pouring out of the beggar’s body, starting to engulf the alley.

And a cold magical power emanated from his body.

“What is this?”

“It’s Elemental Wailing! But…”

Camilla was sweating profusely.

“This isn’t a disease that develops and bursts this quickly!?”

*********

The Herald Clan, the Emperor’s Heralds, were swords sharpened to cut down kings and nobles.

That meant they needed at least a basic understanding of the mistakes of kings and nobles and the political repercussions their absence would cause.

The Aragasas were born with an innate sense of space and physical strength.

Azadin was an exception.

So, by the age of ten, they could string a bow that adults would use and often hit their first arrow with their second.

Azadin was an exception.

However, knowledge and experience had to be hammered in through education.

That’s why the Herald Clan trained their children with their own secret methods.

If a child who wasn’t a member of the Five Great Families lacked knowledge, they would be beaten or starved.

If they were a member of the Five Great Families, magicians would stick to them, using mental enhancement and concentration magic to help them quickly acquire knowledge and learning.

Azadin was an exception.

Although he wasn’t born into one of the Five Great Families, he was lucky enough to catch the eye of Elder Kazas, so he received benefits comparable to those of the Five Great Families.

He even received the same benefits (?) given to children who were not members of the Five Great Families.

If they didn’t show results after receiving mental enhancement and concentration magic, they were punished.

‘It’s okay if you don’t have talent. You can do it if you hammer it in. Those who can’t endure it die.’

That was his teacher Kazas’s theory.

However, there were problems that could not be solved even with such knowledge and experience.

Reasoning is ultimately guesswork.

If you blindly reason and guess when there is no material, it becomes prejudice and stubbornness.

For the Emperor’s Heralds, who risked their lives, or for any human living in this Hybris [a term for the world or realm], prejudice and stubbornness were sometimes a poison that threatened their lives.

When there is no material, you must not blindly guess, but gather sufficient data and grounds for judgment.

However, the Knights Order could not be trusted.

They had gained fame by defeating the formidable figures called Oguls [powerful monsters] one after another in the Chadra Highlands (although Sir Sok had defeated him, he had returned alive, so let’s leave that out), but the Chadra Highlands were originally a covered pot of the Knights Order.

It was a place of exile where they had put away disgusting things, and there Azadin was just a training knight.

Moreover, since he was from the Herald Clan, they would not give him core high-level information of the Knights Order.

But wasn’t there an excellent informant here?

*********

“So. You broke into a woman’s bedroom in the dead of night?”

The woman in front of him frowned and lit the lamp.

Around the woman in a thin gown, her guards and doppelgangers were lying unconscious.

“…Doppelgangers’ transformations are undone when they are knocked out. I didn’t know that since I didn’t kill them, just knocked them out. Anyway, you have guards and doppelgangers, so it’s a bit much to say it’s a woman’s bedroom, don’t you think?”

Azadin had entered the bedroom of Dilia, the Fireglyph branch manager of the Van Dyke Merchant Guild.

“You should have some common sense, Azadin. If what you say is right, then I’m a woman who sleeps with guards and doppelgangers? I’d suddenly become a promiscuous woman, wouldn’t I?”

“…How you position yourself depends on your mindset. But in my opinion, Dilia, you don’t seem that promiscuous.”

“No, don’t talk nonsense. Why are you here this time?”

“I need information from the clan. The clan knows now, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, I’m talking about the information of the world. Information about Korasar, Butuma, Tarasar, etc.”

The Herald Clan had an artificial spirit called the Emperor’s Voice.

This spirit would stick to the Heralds, talking to them, controlling small mice, birds, and other creatures to deliver messages, scout the surroundings, and provide various conveniences.

It was also the manager of the Emperor’s gold coin contracts.

There was one additional benefit to having such an entity, which was the ability to deliver information very quickly throughout the Hybris continent.

Because information could be transmitted through the Emperor’s Voice from any distance, the Herald Clan used that information to buy food before anyone else when there was a drought, medicine when there was an illness, and tents when there was a fire, making huge profits.

It was very useful not only for minor profits but also for their businesses and great undertakings.

“The Emperor’s Voice is gone. Now we have to communicate by letters and messengers, so it takes a long time.”

“Don’t treat me like a fool, Dilia. From the moment the Council of Elders decided to turn their backs on the Emperor, they would have prepared for the disappearance of the Emperor’s Voice. Isn’t the fact that the Van Dyke Merchant Guild is running so well proof of that?”

In fact, this wasn’t Azadin’s brilliant reasoning.

The Van Dyke Merchant Guild was just running too well.

The day Azadin stirred up the Van Dyke Merchant Guild, a normal merchant guild would have been sending messengers here and there, and the people in charge would have been racking their brains to come up with countermeasures.

But the work was proceeding smoothly as usual.

‘There is a tool to deliver information in place of the Emperor’s Voice.’

It was as if they were saying that.

At least, it was very clear to Azadin, who had stirred up the Van Dyke Merchant Guild and sent several doppelgangers to their doom.

“No, even if that’s true, why should I help you, who betrayed our clan’s dream and everyone else? You were excommunicated, Azadin. You are no longer one of us Aragasas.”

“The Council of Elders may hate me. No, you probably hate me too, Dilia. But regardless of whether you hate me or not, you need me.”

“What…”

“Sir Zekt has been appointed as the Guard Master of the Fireguards. Do you understand what that means? Dilia. If you want to live in Fireglyph, you will need my help in the future.”

“Are you threatening me? Are you going to sell my identity to the King’s Church?”

“I didn’t mean it that way, but you can understand it that way. But Dilia, the threat I’m talking about isn’t the King’s Church. It’s something beyond that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What I’m asking is the answer to my question. You already know.”

Azadin didn’t know exactly what was going on, but he noticed that ominous things were already happening all over the world.

The fact that Sir Zekt came here and volunteered to be an advisor to the Relief Knights meant that things were happening so important that the proud King’s Church couldn’t even match their ranks.

And aren’t you afraid of that?

That’s what Azadin was saying.

“Damn it. A traitor to the clan…”

Dilia was so angry that she gritted her teeth, but what Azadin was saying was true.

The reason why the King’s Church had to lower its high nose also instilled fear in Dilia.

“It’s not for nothing that the King’s Church has joined hands with the Relief Knights now. Elemental Wailing is sweeping the world. And Butuma and Korasar have been captured by the Nagas [a reptilian race], and the Inquisitors of the King’s Church who had recovered the throne have been killed.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s not all. According to reports, the southern sea has frozen over.”

“The southern sea?”

“I heard that a huge iceberg is drifting from the Andaz Inland Sea, where Netherstrom is located.”

The coast of the Andaz Inland Sea was a subtropical sea with a mild climate even in winter.

It was a place where it was hard to see snow in one’s entire life, let alone salty seawater, but the sea was frozen and icebergs were floating around?

Dilia frowned as she relayed the information collected by the Herald Clan from all over the world.

It would normally take months to get this kind of information.

Of course, the King’s Church and the Relief Knights also had means of transmitting information, so they could deliver such information quickly, but the more sensitive the information, the less they would share it with the general public and lower-ranking people.

“I wondered why the King’s Church came to the Relief Knights…”

“Yes. The King’s Church also thought that they couldn’t recover Butuma and Korasar on their own, so they withdrew. It was a place that could have been our clan’s land, but you ruined it.”

“Looking at that, it seems that the Council of Elders is also unable to find a direction at the moment. Has the alliance with the Nagas been broken?”

“You killed the leader who was the center of the alliance, didn’t you? And you even used up the copies of the New King’s Scriptures that the clan had worked so hard to collect. Hatiir, Araiel, all of them, you made them all die, I can’t stand you!”

Dilia was trembling as she said that.

She was also afraid.

An unknown, unprecedented threat was rapidly attacking the world.

It would be more insane not to be afraid.