The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 299

Driven to madness, she pointed her flag at Azadin, not knowing what had happened.

“Azadin! I challenge you to a duel! If you’re a man, you’ll accept a fair duel!”

“Yeah. No thanks.”

“Well, you did become a member of the Order anyway. Uh… what?”

Maiya was momentarily flustered. *Isn’t it normal to accept in this situation?* She came to avenge her parents.

Besides, even though she doesn’t acknowledge Azadin, didn’t he join the Rescue Knights?

A so-called Holy Knight of the Rescue Knights is refusing a duel?

“First of all, have you been sleeping properly lately? You’re talking about a duel with your hair a mess and your eyes bloodshot. What nonsense is this?”

“You have no reason to care about my condition, do you?”

“No, that’s not it. You already challenged me in the past and lost, yet you were spared and left. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to dirty my sword with someone who has already lost and is now coming at me in such a pathetic state.”

“You’re my father’s enemy! I have the right to avenge him! You, a murderer, have no right to refuse a duel!”

“Really? Didn’t your father already become a wraith knight by the King’s Church? They acknowledged his crime of accidentally massacring civilians, so the King’s Church made your father a wraith knight, didn’t they? Or what? Is the King’s Church such a ruthless organization that they would insult the bodies of those who died honorably in the line of duty?”

“Ugh…”

Maiya couldn’t find a response to Azadin’s words.

To claim her father’s innocence would be to insult the King’s Church, and to acknowledge her father’s guilt would mean that her request for a duel was an act of villainy.

Every word Azadin spoke hit the mark. Above all, her mind was in a haze.

Her memory was hazy, as if her mind was clouded with fog.

So, while she had no words to answer, her emotions were even more inflamed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think you can get out of this situation with your silver tongue?”

“But that’s the truth, isn’t it? It was Lord Jekt who made your father a wraith knight. Isn’t that right?”

“No, that’s… ugh.”

Maiya suddenly clutched her head and staggered.

She, who was at least neat in appearance as the chief officer of the Salasma Diocese, was now disheveled and staggering like a madwoman. Azadin’s words were like a saw, grating and stimulating her madness and anger.

“This is bad. Don’t do anything pointless and step back to rest. I’ve already sent a messenger bird to Lord Jekt anyway. I won’t run or hide, so come back after you’ve had a good sleep. Or you can come at me with Lord Jekt, too.”

Azadin gestured for Maiya to step back.

But at that moment, a flash of light suddenly darted in front of Azadin’s eyes.

A terrifying thrust.

Maiya had stabbed Azadin with the flag she was holding.

The end of the flag had a small, formal spearhead, but it wasn’t for actual combat.

The flag would sway in the wind anyway, so if a combat spearhead was attached, it would be too heavy to handle.

However… even if it was a ceremonial spearhead and not for combat, it was a different story when it was thrust so quickly and powerfully.

Azadin was startled and twisted his body to avoid the attack.

Seeing Azadin off guard and staggering, Maiya repeatedly thrust the flag, driving him back.

“Ugh!”

“Eek!”

Other pedestrians passing by were startled and made a fuss. Azadin knocked away the flag spear that was flying towards his neck with his hand, but…

-Thud!

With a heavy thud, the foot Azadin was standing on broke through the bridge deck and got stuck.

“Ugh?!”

A tremendous force was transmitted from the spear, trying to damage Azadin’s body.

Azadin tried to deflect the impact, but he ended up stepping hard on the ground, breaking through the bridge and getting his foot stuck.

‘What? Why has she improved so much? Did she drink dragon’s blood while I wasn’t looking?’

Azadin was flustered by Maiya’s sudden increase in strength and tried to pull his foot out.

“Die!”

Maiya didn’t miss the opening and tried to strike Azadin down, closing the distance.

But then, Azadin’s left hand opened.

-Whoosh!

In Azadin’s grasp, Grimslaw’s mace, no, an axe, was spinning.

Like a windmill, the axe spun in the air on its own, and the axe head made of Azure Steel, the Executioner of Azure, turned into a disc of light.

The disc of light shot out, striking Maiya’s sword and hitting her with the back of the axe handle.

-Thwack!

“Ah.”

He tried to handle it non-lethally, but it hit too hard.

Azadin was worried that he might have killed Maiya, but…

“Huh?”

Maiya was bleeding from her head, but she smiled eerily.

Even a bear would have been dazed by that blow, but surprisingly, a human withstood the brutal attack.

‘This isn’t human?’

Azadin pulled his foot out and stepped back in the gap.

“My father’s enemy!”

Maiya shouted loudly and swung her spear and sword at Azadin.

Ignoring the rules of swordsmanship, her spear and sword poured down like a storm.

Azadin blocked the attacks with the Executioner of Azure, but his hand was numb and tingling.

‘How can this be? Even if my Kajas Hessa [a type of magical power] has weakened, why am I being pushed back like this?’

At that moment, Azadin realized that Maiya’s body had grown larger.

The leather straps connecting her plate armor were creaking and tearing apart.

As the muscles inside her body became hypertrophied, the armor couldn’t withstand it and was screaming.

Not only that, but wiry, reddish-brown hairs were starting to sprout on her smooth face.

“A boar-human??”

Maiya had transformed into a large boar-human, a wereboar, and was using that power to push Azadin back.

Azadin was flustered as he deflected Maiya’s relentless attacks.

He understood why she had come this far looking so inhuman.

But…

‘She’s not just stronger because she’s a wereboar, is she?’

Among Azadin’s subordinates was Legion, a half-elf werewolf. Based on his experience fighting Legion, Maiya was stronger than Legion right now. In other words, there was more to Maiya’s strength than just becoming a wereboar.

Azadin drew his ceramide longsword, Aurelia Dawn. With that sword, Azadin deflected Maiya’s spear that was trying to strike him and slashed the blade into her armpit.

Then, as he spun his body…

-Swoosh!

Maiya’s arm was cut off and flew into the air. Those who lack experience in fighting, losing their reason and blindly attacking, might be killed without being able to show their skills.

However, Azadin was already a veteran of fighting all sorts of monsters.

“Kuh…”

Maiya grabbed her arm and pressed it against the wound to stop the bleeding.

The wound was burned by the flames of the ceramide longsword, so it didn’t regenerate immediately, but the bleeding stopped quickly. If she kept it pressed like that, she would probably recover enough to move her arm again.

But no matter how much of a wereboar she was, she couldn’t fight in this state.

“I let you go because I thought it would be too much to kill the daughter of the man I killed, but becoming a wereboar is going too far.”

Azadin had a clear principle when it came to permanently injuring or killing an opponent. Until now, Maiya hadn’t crossed that line, so he hadn’t killed her, but becoming a wereboar was definitely crossing the line. There was no guarantee that she hadn’t killed and eaten civilians in places Azadin couldn’t see.

“You…”

Maiya trembled as she watched Azadin draw his sword and approach to cut her throat. The wound where her arm was cut off had already stopped bleeding due to the wereboar’s terrifying vitality, but she was not in a state to fight.

The shock from the severed arm and the fallen nervous system was still shaking her. The lights were flickering in front of her eyes, and it was hard to see things.

But then, an arrow flew.

Azadin deflected the arrow flying towards him, but the arrow was enchanted.

The magic of the Vermilion Bird, a terrifying magical impact, paralyzed Azadin’s arm and pushed through, trying to pierce his neck.

Azadin turned his head to avoid the arrow and flew backward.

“Is this for real?”

In the meantime, an arrow hit Azadin’s hippogriff, Firewinter.

Kieeeek!

Firewinter was thrashing, causing Scott, who was riding on top, to fall off, and the surroundings became a mess.

Taking advantage of the gap, the wereboar, Maiya, threw her body away with her severed arm. And in her place, assassins from the Messenger Clan appeared on the bridge.

“Traitor of the clan! Azadin! Prepare yourself!”

“We will kill you and avenge the enemy who interfered with the clan’s long-cherished wish!”

“…Are you kidding me?”

Azadin clicked his tongue as he saw the still young messengers of a lower rank than him attacking.

There were so many people who considered Azadin their enemy that those seeking revenge would have to consult with each other and decide on a turn.

*********

Azadin’s existence was bound to become famous.

The fact that the self-proclaimed ‘Soulless Blasphemer,’ the mysterious King-Slayer who had left the Messenger Clan, had joined the Rescue Knights was enough to make his name known throughout the world.

But after that, Azadin’s actions were truly bizarre.

Azadin had recovered the sword of the Death Knight, Lord Planck, Aurelia Dawn, and had Archbishop Akenar of Coxhall as his patron.

And in the Chadra Highlands, he had successively defeated or recruited those who were famous in the era, so it was impossible for gossipers to leave Azadin alone.

Azadin’s rumors were now spreading all over the world, and from the Messenger Clan’s point of view, it was an insult that a traitor who had betrayed their long-cherished wish was being talked about like this.

There was already a subordinate organization of the Messenger Clan called the Van Dyke Company in the Chadra Highlands, but the branch manager of the Van Dyke Company had sent a report that he could not do anything about Azadin with his own abilities.

How dare they not touch the great traitor of the clan? But to punish the Chadra branch as incompetent, many messengers had already been defeated by Azadin.

Since the former leader, Hatir, was also killed by Azadin, they couldn’t punish the branch manager of the Van Dyke Company, who wasn’t even a messenger, for not being able to do anything about Azadin, who had grown into a warlord in the Chadra Highlands.

Instead, they sent an assassination squad to assassinate Azadin when he left the Chadra Highlands.

However, perhaps because the Messenger Clan was also short of talent due to the calamities happening all over the world, these assassins were of a lower rank and less experienced than Azadin.

They must have thought that it would be difficult to subdue Azadin with their own strength alone, so they jumped in after seeing Maiya attack Azadin to weaken him.

“Everyone be careful! Even if he is Azadin of Muan, he has already killed the former leader Hatir…”

“But is that really true? I saw that guy when I was a trainee, and he was always a weakling.”

The assassins, who were of a lower rank than Azadin, surrounded him on three sides and fired arrows.