The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 372

“Why? Are you full? Or is it that, as you’ve been arguing, it’s not some king, god, or hero who should save people, but that people should cultivate their own virtues and, as a result, save themselves?” Zibeck posed a rather sharp question. He knew that Azadin held beliefs belonging to the so-called cultivation school of the Rescue Knights.

The belief of the cultivation school was that instead of worshiping the blood of angels, one should uphold virtues, and each individual should cultivate their martial arts, scholarship, and virtues to save themselves.

It was certainly a morally excellent belief, but it was also a very weak belief to hold in a world where gods and demons roamed.

Right before their eyes, the demons of the Nether were tearing people apart and killing them; how could they cultivate themselves to save themselves in such a time?

“Oh my, Zibeck. You’re sharp. Scary.”

“This is no time for jokes, Count Azadin. I respected you, and I still do, but I cannot forgive you for rejecting this great miracle. If I could stab you right now and take your place in that miracle, I would. Don’t laugh. What’s so funny?”

“No, it’s not that I’m laughing, but I’m just embarrassed. I don’t know what kind of expression to make. If you don’t like me laughing, should I cry?”

“That won’t do either. Don’t make any expression at all.”

“That’s an unreasonable request.”

Azadin shook his head and put on his mask.

“Don’t put it on!”

“What do you want from me?!”

Azadin was bewildered by Zibeck’s unreasonable demands, who was telling him to do neither this nor that.

“I don’t even know my own mind. I feel the urge to cut you into pieces with a sword. So, Sir Azadin, did you perhaps reject this miracle for the sake of the ideals of the cultivation school?”

“No, it’s not that I rejected it because I’m a member of the cultivation school. I’m asking why it has to be Banreung.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even if the Light of Kingship is spread in Banreung, it won’t save the people.”

Azadin stated so definitively.

“Huh?”

What on earth was this guy talking about? Zibeck now doubted if Azadin was in his right mind.

If he had rejected it because he was a member of the cultivation school, Zibeck would have hated him but at least understood, but he had no idea what he was talking about now.

Azadin scratched his head and began to explain.

“So, even if the Light of Kingship is spread in Banreung and we can farm there, this is a barren land. It’s a place that usually imports food. Even if people flock here to escape the winter, it won’t be able to save many people.”

Unlike Chadra, the barren throne of Banreung could not protect the people who flocked to it.

“The spirits of Yaegas called it a selection and a lesson. They knew well that the King’s Church and the Yaegas royal family had fallen into corruption, so they intended to punish them accordingly, leave a lesson that would forever shackle the survivors, and then make a new promise.”

“You’re saying you opposed that. Hmm.”

Zibeck tilted his head.

“Why did you oppose it?”

“I told the spirits of Yaegas. No matter how much you whip and teach, people naturally forget. Even though the archangels of the Trinity sacrificed themselves for humanity, it didn’t last a few generations, and even though the spirits of Yaegas borrowed human bodies and left their incarnations, they eventually fell into corruption. The intervention of the gods only turns this hubris into a battleground for various divine races. With the Kurt Pantheon [a collection of gods worshipped by the Kurt people] and the formless gods of the Nether, who don’t even have a pantheon, constantly aiming for it, how can people change just because you occasionally come and whip them and throw them miracles?”

“……”

“I want to combine and integrate the cultivation school of the Rescue Knights and the Yaegas faith. I want to grow humans as beings who save themselves and cooperate with spirits and angels. Not just as beings who worship gods, but as beings with distinct personalities and egos who assist even gods and angels when they reach their limits. That was the truth and salvation that the archangels of the Trinity had already revealed to humanity long ago, and I want to put it into practice. If the spirits of Yaegas agree to this, I want to make this the new promise of the King’s Church, the doctrine of the New Testament.”

Azadin spoke of his long-held desire. Surprisingly, in that respect, Azadin was similar to the Northern Empire.

The integration of the Rescue Knights and the King’s Church’s faith.

The desire to unite the will of humanity and gather the strength of mankind to fight against the constantly encroaching hordes of evil gods was, in fact, a natural one.

It was a conclusion that anyone who pondered the history and future of this world, whether they were a king or a great noble, would eventually reach.

However, Azadin was willing to reject even the glory given to him right now to achieve that goal, while Cohen Lionheart of the Northern Empire tried to seize the results with his own hands, no matter the means.

That was the difference, and that was why Zibeck was supporting Azadin, but…

‘It would have been better if he had been on the side of the Northern Empire.’

Thinking about him spouting such nonsense in the glorious place where he was receiving the spirits of Yaegas made him furious.

“So, is that why you broke the throne and rose up? To put it nicely, but to put it badly, it’s because you’re a believer of the Rescue Knights, a believer of the cultivation school, that you rejected a clear miracle and destroyed the throne. It’s a terrible act of heresy.”

“I didn’t break it. To be precise, the spirits of Yaegas broke it.”

“Why?”

“The will of the spirits of Yaegas was divided. Some were positive about me, and some were negative about my intentions. Those who were positive about my intentions gave me the Divine King’s Scripture to show my will and gave me this power of blessing, while those who were negative about my intentions disliked that I had the sign of miracles and wonders and would eventually solve everything with the authority of the Yaegas faith. I already had the sign of the Holy King chosen by the spirits of Yaegas, and if the throne was still intact, the people of the King’s Church would submit to me no matter what nonsense I spouted, right? So they broke the throne.”

“…Are you saying you’re the Holy King?”

“It’s embarrassing, but it would be a lie to say no here.”

As Azadin pointed to his head, the holy halo reappeared.

“…Haa.”

Zibeck covered his face with his hands.

“No, why are you making it so difficult when you could have gone the easy way? If you were worried about dying as a medium for the Light of Kingship, you should have agreed on that point and figured out a way, but instead, you broke the throne and brought a new doctrine and are going to declare that this is the New Testament? Are you crazy? Look at Edir. Even someone who witnessed it right in front of his eyes is making such a fuss…”

“Still, it will be a fun and rewarding thing, Zibeck. I need your help, you who are from the King’s Church. I need you.”

“…Don’t smile like that. What’s so great that you’re smiling like that? I want to punch you!”

Zibeck was genuinely annoyed as he looked at the smiling Azadin.

*********

After barely managing to calm Zibeck’s anger, they left the Heart of the Mountain Fortress, leaving Edir tied up.

The place where Azadin’s group emerged was not the coast that the Celestial Fire Knights had invaded, but an old abandoned mine to the north, towards the Kerim Mountains.

“Hmm… Bishop Akenar should be here, originally.”

Bernard had placed a location imprint on Bishop Akenar using blood magic. It was a simple magic that would allow him to know her location when he got close, but for some reason, Bishop Akenar was nowhere to be seen.

“Isn’t that it over there?”

Niselda pointed to a broken pillar in the abandoned mine.

Hanging on the broken pillar was Bishop Akenar’s robe, and ashes were scattered around it.

Could it be that the Light of Kingship that manifested when Azadin sat on the throne had burned her, a vampire, to ashes?

“Oh, my goodness.”

Azadin approached and examined her robe.

Around the robe and ashes, there was a letter, which he could tell was written in Bishop Akenar’s handwriting.

Azadin picked up the letter and read it.

*********

Bishop Akenar, born as Princess Hawol of Chitai, was an innocent girl.

She read fairy tales and romance novels and longed for the love that was to come.

However, having to live a life like a nun, she had no opportunity to meet adult men other than her father and the palace eunuchs, even when she reached puberty.

When she first showed her face in society, Prince Sram, who had visited as an envoy of Arangi, was amazed by her beautiful appearance and informed his home country of this fact.

Prince Sram had asked his father to allow him to take Princess Hawol as his consort, but King Karnago IV of Arangi had expressed his intention to take Princess Hawol as his own queen to the Kingdom of Chitai.

The fate of a young girl, barely in her mid-teens, was decided by a few letters.

However, this was relatively good.

The royals who inherited the blood of the gods lived longer than others, and the youth that lasted for a long time led to a strong sexual desire and many offspring.

There were kings who cherished their children, but most kings did not. So, the princes of Yaegas had to either escape their fate and become adventurers or sellswords, or they had to join the church and become holy knights.

And it was the same for princesses.

They either fought to win their fate or were consumed as someone’s possession.

Princess Hawol of Chitai was too young and innocent to know that fact.

*********

Hawol didn’t know why people pitied her.

It was certainly something to be pitied to marry a king who had lived ten times longer than her and become a queen, but unlike his actual age, the king of Arangi was an ambitious young man.

Unlike ordinary humans who were tanned by the sun and suffered from parasites and diseases, aging quickly even in their 30s, he was a beautiful being who maintained the appearance of a young man even after 100 years, thanks to the blood of the gods flowing through him. A king of noble lineage who held wealth and power in one hand.

He was a sufficiently attractive spouse for a girl who didn’t know the ways of the world.

The 10-year-old girl could not even imagine what color the soul of someone who had lived as a powerful person for 100 years would be stained.

And the price of that ignorance had to be paid very dearly, with her body and life.

*********

“Are you telling me now to leave for the Rescue Knights?”

Queen Hawol of Arangi was dumbfounded as she looked at the silver mask placed in front of her.

“Because the king is going to marry a new woman?”

“It has become necessary to form an alliance with Asander. I have to marry the daughter of Cohen Lionheart of the Northern Empire, and she wants to be the queen, not just a concubine. Blame the rules. The old-fashioned rules of our ancestors who could only have one queen.”

“……”

“Considering our past relationship, I will give you the position of bishop of the Rescue Knights instead of a nunnery. It would be good for you to enjoy your life within the diocese.”

Princess Hawol was bewildered by the king’s vulgar remarks, who was throwing her away and recommending that she enjoy her depravity.

She knew that the king had other concubines and lovers.

It would be a lie if she didn’t feel anger and jealousy, but everyone had been like that so far.

Her father, the king of Chitai, had also been like that, so Hawol had silently fulfilled her duties as queen.

But was this the result?