The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 318

On the transport ship that had run aground on the sandbar, Azadin leaped into action.

“I’ve never used Garura before, but it’s incredibly effective.”

The arrows that had struck Garura returned to Azadin’s quiver. Though the shafts were damaged from colliding with other arrows, the arrowheads remained sharp.

Azadin used his dagger to remove the azure steel arrowheads, discarding the rest of the shafts.

-Thud, thud….

But as he discarded the shafts, red spots began to fall on the deck.

Blood began to flow from Azadin’s nose, eyes, and fingertips.

“Hmm….”

Azadin looked at his bleeding body and gave a wry smile.

He had tried to reduce the burden on his body by lessening his magical power, but the magic within him continued to rage. It was good that he had become stronger, but it was unstable.

Azadin wiped his nose and turned his head.

Jibek and Scott approached Azadin. Scott was panting, having overexerted himself fighting the naga using their corpses. He seemed to be suffering from hyperventilation.

“Huck. Hack. Cough, cough.”

The sight of him suffering from the limitations of a race whose balance had been ruined by being given too many high-performance functions was both comical and pitiful.

It wasn’t as if Scott had asked to be born this way.

To suffer from hyperventilation because he got too excited while using magic.

Jibek, on the other hand, was calmly observing the Celestial Fire Knights.

“Young, beautiful… a truly ideal knightly order, like something out of an old storybook. So ideal that it’s almost repulsive.”

To Jibek, a fallen paladin who had been expelled from the Order, the Celestial Fire Knights were so dazzling that he suspected they were gilded, not genuine.

No, he knew their true nature from what Azadin had told him, that they were gilded. [Gilded here means that they are beautiful on the outside but corrupt on the inside.]

Even knowing this, their appearance and finery were so beautiful that he was captivated.

“Anyway, what are we going to do now, boss? We helped without thinking, but aren’t we still wanted criminals?”

“We’ll have to sort that out through conversation. Fortunately, the Celestial Fire Knights are the type you can reason with.”

Azadin replied nonchalantly.

The Celestial Fire Knights swarmed around the transport ship that had run aground on the sandbar.

“Sir Azadin!”

Izmilla recognized Azadin and was delighted.

“Thanks to you, we were able to protect the transport ship! Thank you. This is a great achievement! Sir Azadin, you are the best hospitaller!”

“But, Sir Izmilla, he is a wanted man….”

“We were ordered to retrieve the scroll.”

The other Celestial Fire Knights were perplexed.

Azadin’s achievement and the orders from their superiors were in conflict. If they were ordinary humans, this wouldn’t even be a matter of debate. Azadin’s martial prowess and achievements deserved to be praised.

However, the orders from the Wisdom Order were absolute. They approached Azadin with complicated expressions, unsure how to act in this conflicting situation.

“Sir Azadin, please lay down your weapons.”

“The orders from above are to take you into custody.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then we have no choice.”

The Celestials drew their weapons in unison.

Despite Azadin’s contribution to saving the transport ship, they prioritized the Wisdom Order’s orders without hesitation.

This showed how well the Celestial Fire Knights were controlled by the Wisdom Order.

Only Izmilla was bewildered by their actions.

“What are you doing! Brothers! Sir Azadin was just joking. How can you take that seriously?”

“No, Izmilla. I’m sorry, but I wasn’t joking.”

Azadin said with a wry smile.

“Sir Karna! Please do something! My brothers are being rude to Sir Azadin, and they won’t listen to me!”

Izmilla cried out in desperation, and their leader, Commander Karna, stepped forward. Karna stopped the conflict between Azadin and the Celestials.

“Everyone, step back. Secure this sandbar.”

He pulled back his forces, but not so much that the encirclement was broken. It seemed that he didn’t want the Celestials to hear his conversation with Azadin.

Azadin asked Karna.

“Is there really a need for that? They’re all ready to throw away their lives for the Wisdom Order’s orders. It’s not like they’ll betray you now that they know the Celestials’ secret.”

“…….”

Karna was silent. From what Azadin had said, it was clear that he knew the Celestials’ secret.

In the first place, the order from the Wisdom Order was to secure the scroll of the previous life from him, so it was undeniable that Azadin knew the Celestials’ secret.

“Sir Azadin. First, I have seen your heroic deeds. I am deeply impressed. But I heard that you stole a scroll from the Wisdom Order and ran away. Is that true?”

“Never heard of it. But you wouldn’t believe me if I said that, would you? Is there any point in asking?”

Azadin did not deny it.

“First of all, Sir Azadin, I admire you. You could have clearly avoided us, but you came to save the transport ship. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t have met like this. It was a truly selfless and admirable act.”

If Azadin hadn’t tried to save the transport ship, he could have just passed by. In other words, Azadin had risked his own safety to rescue the transport ship.

“But I have a mission to fulfill. Sir Azadin, surrender peacefully. I don’t want to turn a hero like you into an enemy. We don’t have to be enemies. My offer to give you the position of infantry commander is still valid….”

“First, I thank you for your kindness, Sir Karna. But I don’t have the scroll right now. The Courage Order has already taken it.”

“Hmm. You want me to believe that?”

“If you’re impressed with me, why don’t you believe me? There’s no reason for me to lie. What would I do alone with that scroll? I’m from the Herald Clan, despised by everyone. Even if I tried to speak the truth, no one would listen. They would just laugh at me, saying that a lowly being like a Herald dares to slander the noble bloodline of the North.”

After hearing Azadin’s explanation, Karna believed that Azadin truly did not have the scroll. But if that were the case, it meant that the Courage Order had obtained the scroll of the previous life….

“Why would they do such a thing?! Why, Sir Azadin? Are you also one of those fools who deify the angel statue itself? The angels are already dead. Their remains are just useful magical tools. We need living power to fight against evil, not worship of dead angels!”

“Are you only thinking about the angel statue? What about the children who are sacrificed in that ritual?”

“That child….”

Karna was speechless.

Karna and everyone else were only concerned with defiling the angel statue, and they didn’t even care that a young child was being used in the ritual of the previous life.

“The newly born Celestials are the reincarnation of a child who has changed their form….”

The child who was put into the ritual of the previous life was not dead but reborn as a Celestial.

However, as he said that, Karna knew that his excuse was very poor.

Indeed, Azadin pierced through that poor excuse.

“Of course, other Celestials might be that child. But the reincarnated are different. The nobles of the North’s bloodline are taking the lives of young children and being reborn. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s not true. I know because I am a reincarnated one. Azadin, the memories of the previous life are not perfectly connected as one. I wish they were. It would reduce the process of learning and training again in a new body. I am… a reincarnated one, but at the same time, I am that child. It’s not sacrificing the child’s life!”

“No matter what you say, the child did not consent to the ritual. The secret art of Celestial reincarnation, the secret art of the angel’s egg, is a dark art that sacrifices human babies.”

“How can you get consent from a newborn baby? Half of the naturally born children die before they become adults anyway. If I were a child, I would prefer to become a Celestial rather than be born as a human child who could die at any moment! This is not a dark art!”

In an era with weak public health, the survival rate of babies was only half. In such an era, the lives of babies were not considered as valuable as the lives of adults. So, if the lives of those babies were used to create holy Celestials?

Some people would be repulsed, but many others would not.

Azadin was just being too fastidious.

That’s what Karna was thinking.

“If that’s what you think, you should have made the facts public?”

“Don’t laugh! Evil is so vast, and the angels are not responding, and the blood of the Yaegas gods is diluted! What means should we use, and now you are trying to deprive us of even the minimum means? Are you telling us all to die?”

“Ah, Karna. Karna.”

Azadin shook his head. Thanks to using the Hwajopungwol Garura, the blood that had been flowing began to drip again. [Hwajopungwol Garura is a technique that Azadin used earlier.]

“You believe in the bloodline of the angels but not in their promises and teachings. And yet, you believe in the will of the North. That’s such a biased belief. Is the North’s Cohen Lionheart such a trustworthy person?”

“He is the only one who can save this world from darkness. Not because he is my relative, but who else would have gathered the power to fight against this darkness?”

“So, even if many innocent people are sacrificed in the process, you would consider it a necessary sacrifice.”

“Yes! That’s right.”

“Then fine. The North’s Cohen Lionheart is a hero. So, he should be able to easily overcome obstacles such as assassinating his mentor, Sir Planck, or using the dark art of grinding angel statues to reincarnate nobles as Celestials.”

“…….”

“It’s not like it didn’t happen. It’s just a matter of making public what he did. Shouldn’t a hero be able to overcome such obstacles? Instead of resorting to murder and extermination.”

“Yes. He must overcome it. In a heroic way!”

Karna gave up on persuading Azadin and drew his sword.

At that moment, Izmilla approached.

“Sir Karna?! What are you thinking?!”

“Sir Izmilla, I told you to step back!”

Karna knew that what Azadin was saying would not be good for the Celestials, so he tried to push them all back. But Izmilla did not back down.

“Sir Karna, you are in danger alone. And I want to know what’s going on.”

“…….”

Instead of answering, Karna spread his wings and raised his sword.