The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 30

Kozel was a piece of trash who massacred the people, but Tarki wasn’t much different in that he also plundered the people.

Well, these Kaka and Chico siblings are so friendly that they say nice things. If they met Kozel, they would say they would sell him the Divine King’s Scripture and that they support Kozel.

It was an obvious act, but their behavior of trying not to make enemies was not unpleasant.

“So, where are you headed, brother?”

“I’m trying to go back to Salasma. I lost my mercenary group, so wandering around alone… I’m traveling with them since they’re also going to Salasma.”

“Hmm, if we go this way, the Relief Knights are stationed there.”

Kaka and Chico looked at Midiam and Ismail.

“…She’s beautiful. A girl like that might be taken by the Relief Knights. It’s better to avoid them.”

The Relief Knights take in orphans from various places and conscript them, and there were rumors that they sometimes kidnapped perfectly healthy children. Since a girl with outstanding looks like Midiam is in demand everywhere, Kaka and Chico warned the group.

“Are you saying we should participate in wyvern hunting to avoid the knights? We’re not warriors, just pilgrims.”

Azadin’s group was currently disguised as pilgrims, powerless civilians who had asked Tarki for protection. But now they were being told to participate in dangerous wyvern hunting because Midiam might be taken by the Relief Knights?

“Well, I’m not saying you should participate in the hunt. I’m saying you should join a group that’s taking a detour. If there are a lot of people, bandits or monsters won’t attack easily.”

When avoiding beasts and bandits, even strangers would gather to increase their numbers. But… it was surprising that they were trying so hard to avoid the Relief Knights even with that much threat.

If monsters and bandits were uncertain disasters that might or might not appear, then the Relief Knights were a confirmed disaster.

“Even if it’s a wyvern, it’ll avoid places with a lot of people. We’ll hunt the wyverns separately, but for now, we can just travel together.”

“Hmm?”

However, Azadin, who had faith in the Three Archangels, asked out of curiosity.

“But do we really have to avoid the Relief Knights that much? Even to the point of leaving the main road? Surely they wouldn’t forcibly take a child who doesn’t want to go?”

“……”

The Kaka and Chico siblings, and even Tarki, were surprised.

“Well… you must be a very devout believer.”

“Oppa [older brother], are you stupid? That’s why he’s on a pilgrimage. What are you saying that’s so obvious?”

“Anyway, the leader of the Relief Knights blocking the road here is a very corrupt and wicked person, so it’s dangerous.”

“Ah.”

Azadin understood after hearing that.

“It’s inevitable that there will be deviants in any organization.”

“Ahaha. Y-yes, that’s right.”

Kaka gave an awkward laugh.

“Then let’s go this way for now.”

Azadin’s group asked to join Kaka and Chico, and the siblings got permission from their employers, the merchants, for Azadin’s group to travel with them.

“Well, it’s good to have a lot of people. Bandits and monsters won’t attack easily if there are many of us.”

The merchants gladly welcomed them.

*********

While staying overnight at the inn, the merchants and adventurers called Azadin to a drinking party.

“Aren’t you pilgrims traveling safely thanks to us hiring adventurers? So come and join us to build camaraderie.”

They said they wanted to build camaraderie, but they were subtly implying that they were sacrificing and losing out. It seemed they thought that they were paying for security by hiring adventurers, and Azadin’s group was getting a free ride.

‘Even if we were really powerless pilgrims, wouldn’t it be important to have more people to avoid bandits and monsters, as they said? Are they regretting the cost of hiring mercenaries? They don’t seem like very good merchants.’

It was already like this from the start, so he was worried about what would happen later. Of course, he was a bit drunk now, so he was speaking without restraint. Still, they must have been doing that kind of self-serving calculation normally for them to say such things to Azadin.

Azadin refused the drinking party. He was wearing a helmet to hide his scars, and if he joined the drinking party, he would have to drink, which would mean he would have to reveal his face. The scars on his face were so distinctive that he didn’t want to show his bare face to others.

“I’m a pilgrim, so I’ll have to decline.”

“Oh, come on. A young man shouldn’t be so rigid.”

“If you’re already that rigid, it’ll be hard to finish your pilgrimage.”

“Well, I’m not doing a pilgrimage with a set period or place. I’m doing it to receive revelations and accumulate merit.”

“Ah, I see. You must have caused trouble back home.”

“Did you perhaps mess with a noble’s daughter?”

Everyone assumed that Azadin was a young man who had caused trouble back home and was using the pilgrimage as an excuse to run away.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough. Don’t bother this boring pilgrim friend. Don’t expect any answers or anything.”

Tarki tried to stop them, fearing that Azadin or Midiam might explode, but the already drunk merchants kept trying to ask Azadin questions.

Then Azadin took off his helmet. Since he was traveling with them, he couldn’t keep wearing his helmet while eating and drinking. If he had to show his face eventually, it was better to show it from the beginning. So, he was wearing an eye patch inside his helmet.

“Huh? What’s that?”

“I have a wound. It keeps oozing pus.”

In fact, the eye patch was wet with something that looked like pus. It was made to look like blood and pus by applying goat wool oil, wax ester, from the Kerim mountain goat.

Of course, the merchants who didn’t know the truth just assumed that was the case and asked Azadin.

“But can you see?”

“I can see through this gap. It’s small, though.”

Azadin made that excuse. Since no one touched or paid attention to the eye patch that was wet with blood and pus, they all passed it over without looking closely.

“Here, have some wine!”

The merchants and adventurers offered Azadin wine.

“If you drink alcohol when your wound is severe, it will get worse.”

“But you said it keeps oozing pus anyway? Then it doesn’t matter whether you drink alcohol or not, right?”

“Hehehe.”

They were all drunk, so they were speaking carelessly.

“Oh, are you not going to drink? Well, we might have to reconsider accepting you as part of our group. You’re traveling with those children, you wouldn’t want them to be taken by the Relief Knights, would you?”

“But are they your son and daughter? Or your younger siblings? The girl is very pretty.”

“They’re my younger siblings.”

“Is that so? They don’t look alike. Their hair color is different too.”

“They’re relatives.”

“Are you taking those young children on a pilgrimage too?”

“Yes. But they have other reliable relatives, so I’m thinking of meeting them and talking to them.”

“Hahaha. If it’s okay with you, how about sending them to us as adopted daughters?”

“……”

Sending them as adopted daughters could mean literally raising them as adopted daughters, but it could also be a shameless proposal to raise a pretty young child to be their lover in the future.

Therefore, when making an adoption proposal, it was necessary to be polite and considerate to avoid misunderstandings, and to have a serious discussion about how to raise the child and what to do with them in the future.

Even considering that these merchants were drunk, their character didn’t seem very good.

“Okay, okay, drink anyway!”

The drunkards were determined to make Azadin drink, so they kept forcing the glass on him.

“W-well, I’d feel bad if I kept refusing.”

Azadin accepted the glass.

*********

After a few rounds of drinks, the merchants, who were drunk, were chatting and giggling.

“By the way, I heard there’s a pretty good woman where we’re going?”

“Oh yeah. There’s a good woman at the lumber mill.”

“What? What good woman would be in such a backwater place?”

“She’s from the Messenger Clan.”

“……!?”

“What? A Messenger Clan?”

“To be exact, she’s a Messenger Clan woman who was sold as a slave, and the lumber mill owner bought her.”

“A Messenger Clan woman was sold as a slave? That doesn’t make sense. Those guys are monsters.”

“Have you seen them?”

“Yeah. When I was young. They’re terrifying. How did they catch such a woman?”

“Ah, to be exact, it’s not that the woman is from the Messenger Clan, but her father is from the Messenger Clan. A guy who was wandering around as a messenger got a woman pregnant and had a child, and then he got caught by his parents.”

One of the missions of the Messenger Clan was to find successors or spouses from outside. The clan that was shipwrecked on five sailing ships would eventually weaken if they only mixed blood within the clan.

If they only married within the clan without mixing external blood, they would inevitably weaken due to inbreeding, so the Messenger Clan, like the Yaegas Gods, had no choice but to mix blood with the Hybris people.

If the illegitimate children born in such circumstances were not taken to the Messenger Clan’s sanctuary, this kind of problem would arise.

“Hehe. Is she really from the Messenger Clan?”

“Isn’t it just that a daughter had an affair with some bum and had a child, and then they sold her as a slave, claiming she was from the Messenger Clan?”

Neither the Emperor nor the kings of the Eight Kingdoms allowed slavery.

From the perspective of the rulers, recognizing slaves would only reduce productivity. In the Eight Kingdoms, where they could not continuously acquire slaves from wars with other countries, recognizing slavery would only breed cultists.

With the Kurt Gods and other dark forces constantly targeting humanity, there was no need to create traitors within themselves.

However, to the Hybris people, the Messenger Clan were soulless, unholy beings. They were no different from stones on the road. Just as kicking a stone on the road does not constitute assault, making a Messenger Clan member a slave was not a crime.

Being called soulless meant that. The violence inflicted on them was not recorded as bad karma in the cycle of reincarnation. Against the Messenger Clan, any illegality, injustice, violence, or fraud was all justified.

In other words, it was possible to falsely accuse someone of being from the Messenger Clan in order to make them a slave.

“Anyway, that woman is quite pretty. And they say you can sleep with her if you give the lumber mill owner just one bottle of alcohol.”

“What? Is that true? Any alcohol?”

“Hehe. I want a slave like that too?”

“You can buy the Messenger Clan child she gave birth to. But that would cost quite a bit.”

“But isn’t the Messenger Clan blood in her almost non-existent? Then?”

“Who cares? We’re getting a slave.”

It was then, as they were giggling.

-Crash!

Suddenly, with a loud noise, one of the adventurers who had been giggling with them just a moment ago was sprawled on the table. Azadin stood in front of him, his face flushed with alcohol.

“Ugh. Y-you bastard!”

“What?”

“What? You wanna fight?”