The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 326

Because it might be Niselda’s fault, or perhaps due to severe stress, Azadin decided to talk to Bernard properly later and declared a break for now.

“Then, shall we stay here for a bit? Let’s take a rest.”

“…….”

It was an inn filled with corpses that had been brutally tortured to death.

Of course, the corpses had been taken down, embalmed, and given a proper funeral, and even their souls had come out, creating a friendly atmosphere, but as Scott said, the souls and bodies were separate matters.

Resting in such a gruesome place? However, Azadin didn’t care at all, closed his eyes first, and fell asleep.

*********

The Banreung Kingdom was a united kingdom of the Dwarf Dynasty and the Yae-gas Divine Clan. Under them, human nobles and dwarf clans theoretically lived in harmony.

The southern gateway, the County of Sandokar, was ruled by Count Sandokar. It was connected by land to the Knights of Salvation Territory and the Arangi Kingdom, making it a place where they could collect a huge amount of toll revenue.

At the three-way intersection south of the Sandokar gate, dwarves were currently moving busily.

Even though the sun had set and it was curfew, they were moving around busily, fully armed.

“Damn it. Why are there so many dwarves today? And they all seem armed. Shouldn’t we be inspecting them?”

A human soldier guarding the Sandokar gate grumbled, watching the dwarves passing by.

His jurisdiction was here at the gate, but he couldn’t help but be concerned about the dwarves walking around, violating curfew right in front of him.

“Shhh. Those guys are the Dwarven Arrows.”

“I know.”

The Dwarven Arrows were the name of a certain drug organization, but now people were collectively calling all dwarf criminals ‘Dwarven Arrows’.

A common noun becoming a proper noun. Just like how a brand name of a certain product becomes the name of the entire product, what people use frequently becomes the name.

“I know, but are we doing the right thing?”

The gate soldier grumbled.

The soldiers of the County of Sandokar did not touch the Dwarven Arrows.

Since the time when Chashan operated a drug farm in Chadra, a large amount of drugs had been distributed through this Sandokar gate, so what had been feeding the County of Sandokar all this time was the bribes from the Dwarven Arrows.

However, being told to endure while seeing the blunderbuss soldiers openly carrying guns was a strain on the soldier’s conscience.

“No, why do we have to watch those criminal bastards like this? If they were hiding and moving around like usual, I wouldn’t mind, but they’re acting like a regular army! Even if it’s their world, isn’t this a bit shameless?”

Indeed, the Dwarven Arrows were moving busily now, and this was not normal movement.

*********

“Are you telling me this is all that’s left of our forces?”

Chashan felt like tearing his hair out.

For dwarves, their hair was a precious gift from their parents, and it was not to be cut or pulled out carelessly.

So, for dwarves, wanting to pull out their hair was another way of saying they wanted to die.

“Honestly, this is the boss’s fault. In the first place, you were too busy torturing those humans…”

The subordinates openly criticized Chashan’s incompetence.

Chashan was largely at fault for wasting time torturing human caravans and failing to gather his forces.

But to point this out so openly.

That was possible because Chashan was now a guest leader of the Dwarven Arrows.

The one who confronted Chashan was an executive of the Dwarven Arrows, but not Chashan’s direct subordinate.

He was just the leader of a dispatched unit sent to Chashan by the Dwarven Arrows to ensure a smooth drug supply chain.

“Are you saying it’s my fault? You don’t know what kind of guy Azadin is! Think about it. He’s taking down our dwarves one by one! Are you daring to criticize me just because we suffered some losses while dealing with such a guy?!”

“Then it’s even more the boss’s fault. If you had considered the enemy’s capabilities, shouldn’t you have prioritized bigger tasks rather than petty revenge?”

The commander of the Dwarven Arrows harshly criticized Chashan.

Azadin’s group was strong enough to take down dwarves one by one? Then that was also Chashan’s fault.

In fact, his words made sense, so Chashan could only open and close his mouth like a goldfish, unable to properly argue.

“Hey. Can you use foresight magic instead of earth-sensing magic?”

Chashan, at a loss for words, looked at the earth-sensing mage.

The magic of foresight was a magic that created a spirit in the form of a bird that shared consciousness and sent it flying into the sky to observe the surroundings, and it was closer to blue and black mana [mana is a form of magical energy].

It was difficult magic for Dwarven sorcerers who mainly enjoyed destruction magic and earth magic.

“Are you ignoring the magic of the earth-shaker? I clearly warned you properly, didn’t I?”

The earth-shaker mage expressed his dissatisfaction. He had clearly warned that the forces were engaged in combat and their numbers were decreasing.

As the earth-shaker mage said, the forces had suffered losses, so he had a right to feel wronged. However, from Chashan’s point of view, he didn’t clearly say what had attacked them, but just…

‘There was a sound of fighting.’

‘So the forces decreased.’

‘Am I right?’

Chashan didn’t like the earth-shaker mage who was giving such useless information. He was only giving information that was not very helpful for strategy and tactics.

But then… suddenly, something fluttered and flew between Chashan and the earth-shaker mage.

“Huh?”

Chashan touched his cheek.

Blood was flowing.

“What is this…”

Small bird-like things were flying around. Their numbers were so great that the sound of their wings flapping began to grow louder and louder.

The dwarves, startled, turned to where the sound was coming from and saw a swarm of bats filling the eastern sky.

“Damn it!”

“Kill them!”

The blunderbuss soldiers all raised their blunderbusses at once.

But then, a dwarf appeared in front of them.

“Stop! You fools! Are you going to shoot your master?”

At his shout, the blunderbuss soldiers all flinched in surprise.

“Master?”

While they were confused, the bats gathered, and behind them, a dwarf wearing luxurious clothes appeared.

He was a dwarf dressed like royalty, with black silk clothes and decorations embroidered with gold thread and jewels.

“Chashan. You’ve lost a lot of blunderbuss soldiers. You fool.”

The dwarf who appeared counted the number of blunderbuss soldiers as if looking at his own possessions and glared at Chashan.

And Chashan was trembling as he looked at him?

“Your Highness Kalzmatti…”

“…Your Highness.”

Chashan’s cousins, the Dwarven sorcerers, all bowed down before the person who had just appeared.

The one who appeared before them was Kalzmatti, the prince of the Banreung United Kingdom, the true master of the Dwarven Arrows.

*********

The Banreung Kingdom was the most despised of the eight Yae-gas kingdoms.

In the past, when the Yae-gas Divine Clan descended to the Hybris Continent, they rooted eight quartz thrones into the earth and descended through them as a medium.

In the other six kingdoms, the Yae-gas Divine Clan occupied the thrones without much difficulty and gained power based on them, fighting and winning against the messengers of the Nether and the Naga Empire of the Kurt Pantheon.

The problem was the two kingdoms, Banreung and Asander.

The thrones of Banreung and Asander appeared in the territories of the dwarves and elves, respectively, and the Yae-gas Divine Clan formed alliances with the dwarves and elves to reclaim those thrones.

The reason why the dwarves and elves who had served the messengers of the Nether and the Naga Empire were incorporated into the order of the Yae-gas Divine Clan even after the fall of the Naga Empire was because of the covenant at that time.

After that, Asander was turned into the territory of the Yae-gas Divine Clan, but Banreung became a united kingdom, where the bloodlines of the dwarves and the Yae-gas Divine Clan took turns governing the state.

Therefore, the Banreung Kingdom was an alien existence in the order of the Yae-gas Divine Clan, and because of that, it was discriminated against by other countries.

For the dwarves, who were already self-righteous and vengeful, this became a reason to antagonize the whole world.

The dwarves made drugs and plotted to make the whole world sick with them.

In other words, the activities of the Dwarven Arrows were a national policy carried out under the patronage of the Banreung dwarf royal family.

Of course, officially, the Dwarven Arrows were just a criminal organization created by Chashan, and then he was deprived of his power by other subordinates.

Even if the damage caused by it spread, the Banreung Kingdom would just play dumb and claim that they couldn’t do anything about it…

But now, Prince Kalzmatti of Banreung had personally come to the Sandokar gate.

“Chashan. Your incompetence truly moves me. You remind me of my ignorance of this world every time.”

“Your Highness…”

“Don’t worry. Even you incompetent fools will be useful now.”

Kalzmatti stroked his beard and said arrogantly.

At that moment, bats gathered next to him and transformed into humans, elves, and dwarves.

“…….”

‘They’re vampires!’

The dwarves were horrified to see the things that had appeared next to Kalzmatti.

“Excuse me, Your Highness. Who are these? Could it be…”

Vampires had the ability to bewitch and control the people they had bitten.

Could it be that Kalzmatti was being controlled by vampires?

Chashan asked with such a question, but the vampires who appeared next to Kalzmatti paid their respects to Kalzmatti with the utmost sincerity.

And Kalzmatti’s eyes glowed red. Kalzmatti was also a vampire, and surprisingly, the ones gathered here were vampires of a lower rank than Kalzmatti.

In other words, Prince Kalzmatti had been a vampire long before them.

‘That’s impossible! I’ve seen this prince before. No, high-ranking vampires can hide their identities. But then why is he revealing his identity now?’

Chashan’s mind became complicated. Perhaps the reason why Prince Kalzmatti was openly revealing that he was a vampire was because the conditions had finally been formed where he no longer needed to hide his identity.

That was how it should be understood.

Indeed… Prince Kalzmatti opened his mouth with joy.

“Now that the research on Elemental Wailing is finally complete, I will share its results with you.”

As Prince Kalzmatti stretched out his hand, countless bats surrounded Chashan and the Dwarven sorcerers.

“Huh?!”

“Ah, no!”

“Don’t resist! It will be harder to transform!”

Prince Kalzmatti’s sharp voice commanded.

At that command, the blunderbuss soldiers flinched.

For dwarves, where the class system was strong, the command of Prince Kalzmatti, even if it was revealed that he was a vampire, could never be ignored.

Even if he attacked them as a vampire and tried to turn them into vampires, they could not dare to resist the prince.

However…

“You vampire bastards!”

Things were different for the soldiers of Sandokar.