The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 294

The Night of the Soulless Blasphemer – Episode 295 (295/514)

#295. Zibeck, the God-King Slayer 1

Fatigue weighed down on Azadin. He felt an irresistible pull, as if the floor were a giant magnet and his body had become a lump of iron, stuck to the ground.

However, Azadin pushed himself up from the bed, struggling to rise.

He hadn’t changed his clothes, so he was covered in a foul odor, but there were no clothes to change into, nor time to wash.

Azadin stepped outside, still drenched in sweat.

In the middle of the village, a pot was hung, and in it, beans, vegetables, and meat were being boiled. It seemed everyone was having their meal by ladling out the soup and eating it with bread.

Azadin approached to eat the soup as well.

“Ah, please sit here. You’re awake, Lord Azadin.”

Izmilla recognized Azadin and gestured to him.

She wasn’t the only one who welcomed Azadin.

All the other Celestials beside her looked at Azadin and greeted him with delight.

“Welcome!”

“Lord Azadin!”

“……”

Azadin surveyed the faces of the Celestials who were welcoming him.

They all seemed to be young men and women in their late teens.

Unlike when they were wearing armor and helmets, seeing their youthful faces made it understandable why Aramis’s command was so immature.

‘But I can’t get used to it. To have such friendly expressions.’

The Celestials were welcoming Azadin as one of their own.

Azadin accepted their welcome and approached Izmilla, sitting down beside her.

“Well. First of all, to the Celestial Fire Knights, thank you for the rescue last night. I truly owe you my life.”

“Oh, come on. Lord Azadin wouldn’t have died there.”

Izmilla said that because she knew Azadin’s skills well. She firmly believed that if Azadin wanted to, he could always take care of himself.

“No, I was given a life-saving grace. Really. But what about Brie?”

“Brie is fleeing in defeat,” another female knight said, handing Azadin a bowl of soup.

As Azadin bowed to her in thanks and received the bowl, her hand touched the back of Azadin’s hand, her index finger lightly circling between his fingers.

Azadin paused for a moment, wondering what she was doing, and she was marveling at his hand.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It was unintentional.”

“Unintentional?”

“Um, may I touch it too?”

Another female knight spoke to Azadin.

“Touch what?”

“Well, yes. It would be an impolite request, wouldn’t it?”

“No, well, since I said I was given a life-saving grace, if you want to touch it, you should. But why?”

“My brothers and sisters, well, all of the Rescue Knights are brothers and sisters, but besides us, we’ve never seen anyone so handsome and skilled. So, we made a bet on whether you’re really a Celestial or not. If we touch you, we can tell if you’re a Celestial.”

“Uh. What?”

Azadin felt dumbfounded.

So, they were suspecting that Azadin might be a Celestial because he was so handsome and skilled.

“I’m not a Celestial.”

“But sometimes people don’t even know their own origins, do they?”

“Then. Is it okay with just my hand?”

Azadin, flustered, held out his hand to her.

A silver-haired girl, who looked to be in her late teens, touched Azadin’s hand and shook her head.

“I can’t tell because of the glove.”

“Oh, for goodness sake.”

Since he had to eat anyway, Azadin took off his glove. Then she happily grabbed Azadin’s hand and touched it.

“Hmm. No. I still can’t tell. If it’s okay, can I touch your face?”

“I haven’t washed.”

“Oh, we haven’t washed either.”

“……”

It was absurd and somewhat rude, but Azadin had said he was given a life-saving grace, so he had no reason to refuse.

“You can touch it.”

“Yes.”

The silver-haired girl stroked Azadin’s cheek and looked him straight in the eye.

“Wow.”

“How does it feel?”

“You’re not a Celestial?! Oh my. But why are you so pretty?”

“Pretty?”

Azadin was bewildered by the girl’s absurd words, using a modifier that was not suitable for a grown man.

He looked at the gazes pouring down on him.

Every one of the beautiful young men and women had the same expression. Azadin suddenly felt a sense of fear.

Ignorance and innocence, when taken too far, can even feel alien. It was like seeing another race that humans couldn’t understand.

‘Izmilla is quite worldly.’

Azadin felt a strangeness in the gap between their youthful appearance and their even more childish minds.

Then, Izmilla clapped her hands.

“What are you all doing to our guest!? Step back so he can eat.”

“Tch.”

“Izmilla is hogging all the fun.”

“I am not.”

Izmilla chased away the other Celestial Fire members.

They all returned to their seats, but they were still glancing at Azadin.

“Were you surprised? Our brothers and sisters don’t know much about the world because they’ve only been in the monastery.”

“It’s more than that, isn’t it? But why is the Celestial Fire here?”

“We came to protect the grain to be contributed to the Fireglyph [a sacred symbol or object]. And recently, there have been many people attacked by monsters in various places, so we are also here to defeat them and soothe the people’s hearts.”

In other words, these Celestial Fire members were envoys demanding food contributions to the Fireglyph.

But they were also defeating monsters and saving residents along the way. Although they were tax collectors who took away unreasonable taxes from the Fireglyph’s perspective, they were nothing less than heroes to the residents.

They would firmly imprint the existence of Celestials on the people and inspire loyalty to the Knights.

“So, Lord Azadin, do you have any thoughts of joining us?”

“Join? I’m not a Celestial.”

“That’s not what I mean. As you can see, we have a collective cavalry operation system. But that means we don’t have anyone to command the infantry or archers.”

Cavalry must gather with other cavalry to be fast and meaningful as a tactical group.

So, the problem was that they needed a commander to lead the infantry… and they were asking Azadin to take on that role.

“Are you asking me to become a retainer?”

“To become the head of the retainer corps.”

“Are you seriously suggesting that to me?”

“Well, of course, it’s not decided yet. It’s up to Lord Karna, the commander, to decide, not me. But the soldiers’ reputation of you is extraordinary, isn’t it?”

The soldiers here had clearly witnessed Azadin saving the sentries and single-handedly blocking the initial offensive.

It was the Celestial Fire members who spread their angelic wings and charged that left a deep impression on the villagers, but the soldiers remembered Azadin’s figure, who had fought without regard for his own life to save them.

“So, I’m going to recommend you to the commander. Is that okay?”

“Hmm? The head of the retainer corps of the Celestial Fire.”

From a political point of view, it was a groundbreaking offer that he had no reason to refuse.

The world’s attention and praise would be focused on the Celestials with angelic blood and wings, but the position of governing the infantry, archers, and heavy infantry would be the second-in-command position, practically next to the commander.

The people’s support and worship, and the real power of the Rescue Knights, would all be concentrated on the Celestial Fire, and they were asking him to take on a major role in the Celestial Fire?

“Hahaha.”

A laugh was heard.

“Lord Izmilla. You’re too hasty.”

The commander of the Celestial Fire, Karna, was approaching.

The residents were startled and rose from their seats, bowing their heads to him, but he simply waved his hand lightly, walking comfortably while receiving their respect. It was as if a king were inspecting the people’s actions.

But how could that be so fitting?

“Lord Azadin. As Lord Izmilla said, I’m going to offer you the position of head of the retainer corps. Will you accept it?”

“Are you sure? As you know, my birth status is…”

“I heard the soldiers’ testimonies that you commanded in the crisis. If it weren’t for the alarm lines you set up, no one would have survived the enemy’s night raid, and your command was appropriate for the situation. All of that is your merit. Frankly, Lord Aramis might be skilled as a warrior, but he was a bit unstable as a commander, and you filled that void. You were excellent.”

“Haa… You flatter me.”

Azadin sighed.

The guy in front of him, Karna, was a handsome young man with fiery red hair, and there was nothing to criticize about him.

His personality was also gentle, and he didn’t question Azadin’s origins.

He was aware of his high status and subtly treated him as inferior, but wasn’t his status actually that of royalty?

Azadin didn’t usually use honorifics to others, but he was subtly using them to Karna.

Perhaps it was because he himself acknowledged that he had been rescued by him.

‘But why do I feel such a fierce sense of rejection?’

Azadin didn’t like the concept of Celestials from the start.

The Rescue Knights’ belief was… if you uphold virtue, you can be saved.

But if a being with angelic wings stands directly before people and rescues them, the virtue of individuals loses its meaning.

The reason why the Rescue Knights had been ridiculed by others was not only because their Holy Knight was weaker than the Holy Knight of the King’s Church, but also because they had neglected virtue.

However, the existence of the Celestial Fire Knights, with their power, beautiful appearance, and noble lineage worthy of worship, was suppressing the mission of virtue and only inspiring worship.

That was why Azadin felt a sense of rejection towards the Celestial Fire Knights.

An organization intentionally created to inspire people’s worship, and if the glory of victory was added to that, individual humans would disappear, and only worship for the sacred blood would remain.

For Azadin to join this would be a betrayal of his beliefs.

‘But I wonder if I’m just being stubborn, using my beliefs as an excuse.’

As Azadin hesitated, Karna gave a wry smile.

“Hmm, I see it’s a difficult question to answer right away?”

“Yes. It’s a bit… difficult to answer right here.”

It was then that Azadin spoke.

Suddenly, a commotion arose from the southeast.

“Catch him!”

“What is it?!”

As the soldiers’ commotion arose, Azadin turned his head and saw a bluish disc flying towards him.

“Huh?”

Reflexively, Azadin reached out his arm, and the disc stopped rotating and was sucked into Azadin’s hand.

It was… the head of an axe-spear made of Azuresteel [a fictional metal].

Beneath the head of the Azuresteel axe-spear was a modified wooden handle filled with sap.

The weapon Azadin had used before, the Executioner of Azure and Grimslaw’s Mace, had combined to become a large axe, and that very axe had flown to Azadin.