The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 305

This was not a decision a single cleric or holy knight could make.

It was a critical juncture that could ignite a war between the two largest factions of humanity.

Even though Hayne had been granted authority by the high-ranking clerics of the Mercy Order, she couldn’t act impulsively in this situation.

‘What should I do? I need to stop them, but… the opponent is exhausted from fighting the Angel of Corruption. But still, if we fight and lose, we’ll take all the blame and die.’

As she was paralyzed by the pressure, Azadin stepped forward.

“Oh, Sir Zekt. Fancy meeting you here. It seems we have a deep connection. I apologize for interrupting your reunion with Sir Jibek, but may I inquire as to what you’re doing right now?”

“…As you can see, I’m witnessing the ugly truth of the Rescue Knights. Look at this Angel of Corruption.”

Zekt gestured towards the Angel of Corruption.

“The Rescue Knights obtained the angel’s blood by actually killing an angel. And this here is the corpse. The Angel of Corruption is the result of the magic and curses that have taken root in the corpse from which the Rescue Knights extracted the angel’s blood.”

“I beg your pardon, but please don’t jump to conclusions, Sir Zekt. The Angel of Corruption is a relic of an ancient war that died long ago. The Rescue Knights killing an angel? Such blasphemous remarks cannot be tolerated, even from you, Sir Zekt.”

Hayne refuted Zekt’s statement.

Zekt gave a wry smile.

“But isn’t that why you came into this underground passage as well? To uncover the secret behind the creation of the Celestial Fire Knights?”

“Oh, so Sir Zekt came here to uncover the secret of the Celestial Fire?”

Azadin asked, feigning ignorance. Of course, Azadin, Zekt, and Hayne all knew each other’s intentions, but they were not in a position to state them openly.

“We were merely conducting a routine subjugation of the cultists who have been hiding in this underground area.”

“What a coincidence. We also came down here to subjugate cultists and investigate the strange noises that have been occasionally heard in the underground passage.”

Hayne retorted with the same words.

“And what about you, Sir Azadin?”

“Sightseeing…”

“Sightseeing?”

“I’ve always been interested in Saint Mallory. I’ve been living with the Rescue Knights’ books since I was a child.”

“………”

Zekt thought Azadin was mocking him, but Jibek knew that Azadin was being sincere.

‘Did he just say that coming to this underground passage is part of his sightseeing? Is he crazy?’

Hayne was half-doubtful, but she had to admit that Azadin was genuinely interested in sightseeing in Saint Mallory. He was actually paying a tour guide to show him around the city!

“So, what are you going to do, Sir Azadin? You and I have a lot of unresolved issues. Would you like to settle them now? When I’m exhausted and my subordinates are injured and struggling?”

“Unresolved issues…? I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The copy of the Divine King’s Scripture.”

“I told you, I used it all up to restore the function of the Throne of Btooma. How many times do I have to say it?”

“Are you telling me to believe that?”

“Yes. Just believe it. How many times do I have to say it?”

“……”

Zekt showed his anger at Azadin’s blunt words and slowly drew his sword.

But then, the surface of the sewer suddenly began to shake.

The rats and insects began to move busily, startled.

“…This is.”

“It seems there’s more than one.”

They could feel another Angel of Corruption becoming active.

“It might sound strange to say this in this situation…”

Azadin spoke up.

“Instead of wasting our energy fighting each other here, why don’t we explore the secret of the Celestial Fire first? It seems more reasonable than wasting our strength here.”

“Can you trust me enough to leave your back to me?”

Zekt scoffed at Azadin, saying it was nonsense.

However, Azadin nodded.

“Of course!”

“?!”

Zekt doubted his ears for a moment.

“So, Sir Hayne.”

“Yes?”

“How about… we form a formation like this?”

Azadin rearranged the team’s formation. Azadin’s group would be at the front, followed by Hayne, and Zekt at the very back.

‘What is this… Is he crazy?’

Hayne was horrified by Azadin’s arrangement. If Zekt betrayed them and launched a preemptive attack, Hayne would be the first to be killed by Zekt.

In other words, Azadin had thrown the untrustworthy Hayne into the buffer zone with Zekt.

And if Hayne were to stab Azadin in the back? She would naturally have to reach an agreement with Zekt, who was behind her.

Using a three-way battle to place Zekt and Hayne behind him. Could there be a more daring arrangement?

‘It’s theoretically possible, but what kind of madman would entrust his back to such a theory?’

Zekt was just as bewildered.

‘To act so boldly? Now that he’s said it first, he can’t say it was a joke. But does this guy really not have a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture?’

Zekt had no doubt that Azadin had embezzled the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, judging by his own standards. Apart from learning the magic written in the Divine King’s Scripture, the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture was a medium for gathering the faith of the King’s Church, a magical treasure that was a source of powerful magic. He thought it was impossible for a mage not to embezzle such a thing.

The thought suddenly occurred to him that Azadin was capable of doing just that.

He also had a sudden thought that his claim of being here for sightseeing might not be a complete lie.

“Well, isn’t this a formation that everyone is satisfied with? I’m glad we can cooperate. Shall we go then?”

Azadin pointed to the heart of the underground passage where the Angel of Corruption was causing magical vibrations.

“………”

Hayne and Zekt were both speechless.

“S-Sir Zekt, what…”

Zekt’s subordinates were also at a loss.

They wanted to resist, but they had no justification and no energy. They had already suffered many casualties and deaths in their fight against the Angel of Corruption, while Azadin’s group seemed to have suffered no losses. Above all, Azadin’s relaxed attitude frightened them.

From the King’s Church’s perspective, Azadin was a major criminal who had destroyed Corasar and the Kingdom of Btooma and seized the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, and the more his infamy grew, the greater the fear of him became.

Azadin gave a wry smile as he saw them frightened by the false image they had created.

“You guys stay here and take care of the injured and the dead and contact the higher-ups.”

“Sir Zekt?”

“I have made a statement, so I will act with them.”

Zekt accepted Azadin’s proposal to keep his word.

“Good. Excellent choice, Sir Zekt. I welcome your joining us.”

Azadin really entrusted the rear of the group to Zekt.

*********

The one who contributed the most to exploring the underground passage was the necromancer, Scott.

Scott McGreene used his special vision to identify the auras of living creatures, checking for monsters and undead around him. He then moved the corpses first to prevent any possible traps and cleared the paths blocked by sewage and filth, guiding the group along the shortest route.

Even Hayne, who disliked undead and necromancy, couldn’t say anything because Scott’s work was so quick, accurate, and clean.

“Hmm.”

Zekt couldn’t say anything about Scott’s necromancy since he was even using it himself.

Then Azadin spoke to him.

“By the way, Sir Zekt, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Your subordinate, that knight, Sir Meya, she followed us all the way here and became a lycanthrope?”

“I allowed her to act independently to get revenge on you, and it seems she was infected in the meantime. I haven’t seen her since.”

“I saw her recently in Saint Mallory. It seemed like she was waiting for me, knowing I was coming. You really haven’t seen her?”

“We did share the information that you were coming, but it seems she got the information from that communication network.”

Zekt answered, pretending not to know.

In other words, Zekt had instructed his subordinates to prepare for Azadin’s descent from the Chadra Plateau, and Meya had learned of this through the subordinates’ communication network.

However, Meya becoming a lycanthrope was beyond his control. That was his excuse.

“You take your subordinates’ lives too lightly. Well, since you’re from the Yaegas god clan, your subordinates will follow you even if you treat them like that. In a normal organization, you’d get stabbed in the back. If you’re born with too noble a bloodline, you’ll be ignorant of the world even if you live a long time.”

Azadin half-ignored Zekt’s excuse and gave him that advice.

Hayne, who was listening, smiled faintly.

‘He’s still a madman who speaks without thinking… but what he says isn’t wrong. It’s quite satisfying?’

She was secretly pleased to see Azadin subtly messing with Zekt.

Then, Scott, who was controlling the undead at the front, shouted.

“Boss! We’ve come out into a wide area!”

“Really?”

“There’s a ladder and a lot of magic potions thrown away? It seems like this is the underground of the Wisdom Order!”

As Scott said, Azadin’s group arrived at the bottom of a huge sewer passage.

A huge iron ladder that seemed to soar into the sky was attached to the wall, and below it were the remains of structures built in the giant era, countless test subjects and drugs, and traces of magic that had been discarded.

They had reached the heart of the Wisdom Order, their laboratory, without encountering the Angel of Corruption.

‘What luck… why now of all times?’

Hayne didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about this situation.

Until now, the Mercy Order had formed several elite exploration teams, but none of them had even come close to the Wisdom Order’s laboratory.

This was because the more they approached the Wisdom Order, the more frequently powerful monsters, including the Angel of Corruption, appeared.

However, Azadin’s group had arrived at the bottom of the Wisdom Order without any resistance.

‘We did all the work for them.’

Zekt also understood the situation and clicked his tongue. Thanks to Zekt and his subordinates sacrificing almost all of their lives to fight various monsters, including the Angel of Corruption, the underground was cleared, and Azadin’s group had taken advantage of the situation.

Perhaps it was a coincidence created by the recent influx of unseen Knights of Courage, adventurers, and treasure hunters.

Azadin’s group had arrived at the heart of the Wisdom Knights’ secret laboratory much more easily than expected.

‘Is it okay? The secret of the Wisdom Order… even if it’s revealed to an Inquisitor? Even if the Wisdom Order is our rival faction, he’s still a Rescue Knight, but that guy isn’t.’

Hayne suddenly felt uneasy.