The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 490

A division commander was someone Azadin had met before.

In Azadin’s army, they were loyal, brave, and had achieved great feats. They were considered the kind of people who would show the will of humanity even as the winter of destruction approached.

But despair had rusted them.

“I told you from the beginning. We’re fighting Pimbulbert. But you’re just giving in to despair and scrambling for your own selfish gains. Has despair become an excuse for you to throw away your honor?!”

“Uh… th-that’s…”

The drunken division commander stammered.

He still seemed too drunk to be in his right mind.

“Gather all your subordinate officers. Is there a supply clerk?”

“Th-that’s…”

The division commander was flustered. The supply officer and clerk who managed the supply base were civil officials, and seeing how they were taking supplies as they pleased, they must have killed the civil officials and taken over.

Then, the division commander’s soldiers rushed in.

“D-don’t be ridiculous! Whether you’re an emperor or whatever!”

“I heard you were sick and dying…”

The strict military discipline was nowhere to be found, and in an instant, they had degenerated into a mere band of thieves. Instead, their attacks were savage and brutal.

But in this dark environment, they were blind, while Azadin was a being from the void.

Darkness was no different from broad daylight for Azadin.

A spear that had fallen to the ground bounced up from Azadin’s kick.

The moment Azadin grabbed it, the spear transformed into a living creature, swaying and flicking its metal tongue.

It slashed past the eyes and groins of the charging soldiers, and they collapsed, screaming.

The division commander paled at the screams of pain and the smell of blood from those who had fallen, blinded and with damaged genitals.

The alcohol seemed to have worn off.

“Your Majesty, it seems your strength has returned.”

“Yes.”

“Is it because the light of the King’s Aura disappeared that you recovered? Because you no longer have to bear the burden?”

“I didn’t want it to disappear. It just happened.”

Azadin answered the division commander, but he pointed out that he was worried that it might be misinterpreted that he had thrown away his mission for his own recovery.

“Then, it’s inevitable that Your Majesty will sit on the throne again? Ha, hahaha.”

Upon hearing that, the division commander burst into a hollow laugh, then raised his sword to his own neck.

“I apologize for throwing away my honor in despair. But I don’t want to live any longer.”

“Stop it.”

Azadin’s spear tried to knock the sword out of the division commander’s hand, but the division commander slit his own throat first.

-Thwack!

The spear shattered in Azadin’s hand.

The frozen spear shaft couldn’t withstand Azadin’s grip and broke.

“Haa.”

Azadin turned away, watching the division commander’s body fall.

Even though Azadin had dealt with the soldiers and the division commander, the people around him, the wounded knights, only gave him cold stares.

“As the rumors say, you have incredible martial prowess, Emperor. We are sick and weak, so how could we dare to challenge Your Majesty, who single-handedly achieved the unification of the world?”

The despair and anger were too great; they were not in a state to listen.

“There is still hope. I ask you all. I…”

Azadin closed his mouth at the cold cynicism and despair around him.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak.

Azadin had always managed the morale of his soldiers by putting on a brave face, even in the most difficult and dangerous situations.

But now, it wasn’t easy to even utter the words hope and faith.

“I won’t ask you to believe in me. But please, protect yourselves from the cold and don’t give up hope.”

Azadin left those words with them and retreated.

Then, the female knight who had been rescued by Azadin asked.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to find my comrades. And I will restore the world.”

“Even in this situation? Is it really possible?”

“It’s possible if you help me.”

At Azadin’s words, the people around him snorted and chuckled.

They didn’t seem to believe him. Asking them to believe without a concrete plan.

“The magic of the Rescue Knights is still with you. If you protect your honor with wisdom, courage, and mercy, you will be reborn as beings that even the gods will help. That is in this age of despair…”

Azadin said that, but the more he spoke, the less confident he became.

Would Azadin’s words even reach those who had fallen into despair?

Then, the female knight spoke up.

“Your Majesty. I heard that your division commanders are still in Kaspa.”

“Kaspa?”

“Yes. I heard that this division commander was also a subordinate of those division commanders.”

“Kaspa, you say. I understand. Thank you.”

Azadin thanked the knight who had given him the information and retreated from the wooden barrier created by Grimslaw.

*********

In fact, Azadin had no idea what to do.

Was it even possible to solve this?

He didn’t know for sure.

However, Azadin was not allowed to stop in despair.

The world was cold and dark.

A star still shone in Azadin’s heart, but that star was darker and farther away than a flickering candle, and it pained his heart.

He steadied his breaking heart and headed for Kaspa, relying on his memory. While running through the wind, he discovered another dwelling of Grimslaw.

Madness was unfolding here as well.

Despairing people fought over supplies, plundered castles, and broke humans to make them slaves and exploit them.

Sometimes people ate each other, and sometimes they all committed suicide together, leaving places filled with ghosts and demons.

Azadin’s heart ached as he watched this.

He had never had the task of unifying the world in his heart.

But because of that, he didn’t know what his subordinates would feel when he was right on the verge of unifying the world.

From the beginning, he had embraced everyone in order to grow his power too quickly.

As a result, he had always harbored danger within, and the result of running while hastily patching up the organization was this.

Was he really not interested in unifying the world?

If he really wasn’t interested, he wouldn’t have needed to rush like this.

If he had been a little more careful, a little better, wouldn’t he have avoided this result?

“No! It would have been the same no matter who did it. There was no other way! Ah! I’m telling others not to despair, but I’m blaming myself and despairing!”

Azadin tried not to regret what he had done.

But it was too much to ask him not to suffer when the result of his hard work had borne such terrible fruit.

[Ahahaha. Azadin. Azadin. So it has come to this.]

Shade hags appeared from the darkness and mocked Azadin.

They appeared and disappeared in front of Azadin in the forms of Midiam, Araiel, and Aldis, clouding Azadin’s mind.

[Come on. Give up. You don’t owe this world anything anyway. Even the Aragasas [Azadin’s family] who shared your blood hated you, and there’s no need to mention the others. You once deceived yourself by adorning yourself with the excessive title of Emperor, but you were an outsider who was not accepted by anyone. So, is there any reason for you to continue this struggle, even at the cost of all your energy?]

[Give up everything and lie down here. We will give you pleasure.]

Ignoring the temptations of the shade hags, Azadin silently drove the sled forward.

The angels and the spirits of Yaehgas were silent, but only the shade hags were chattering loudly, trying to mislead Azadin.

There was only despair and pain in the world.

How much time had passed?

Another refuge appeared before Azadin, who had been running through the darkness, only accompanied by the voices of the shade hags.

Inside the refuge created by Grimslaw’s power, people’s screams could be heard.

Azadin stopped the sled and headed inside.

Inside, minotaurs were hanging people on iron hooks, treating them like meat in a butcher shop.

They were pulling out their intestines and draining their blood to make the meat taste better. While dismembering humans to make meat, the minotaurs were also engaging in orgies among themselves.

It was like a hell filled with horned demons.

And among those horned demons was a minotaur with a broken horn.

To humans, all minotaurs might look the same, but Azadin could recognize that minotaur.

It was Selim, one of the Chadra Ogres, a division commander of Azadin, and the commander of the heavy infantry.

*********

Selim, who had rescued the minotaur clan, received a reward.

He had regained his lost brothers, sisters, and matriarch, and they had recognized him as the best male of the tribe.

With wives and a clan, Selim was able to live among his own kind for the first time, instead of being an outsider among humans.

And his new wife was pregnant.

As a division commander of Azadin’s army, it seemed that only happiness and glory remained for him.

But suddenly, the Emperor’s protection disappeared, and the sun vanished.

As Jupiter replaced the sun, eternal night arrived, and the Emperor and Empress disappeared.

Selim led his subordinates and his clan to find refuge.

But then, a fight broke out between the clan and the humans.

There were those who had picked a fight over the fact that the clan had taken the good spots and good supplies.

The minotaurs, who had prided themselves on being Selim’s close aides, were enraged and killed the humans.

It was an act to protect themselves, but they were slaves of the evil Telvarin elves.

They didn’t know how to interact with others except for how to rule slaves.

They returned the way they used to communicate with whips and rule with fear to the people, so the refuge was immediately divided into minotaurs and other races.

Selim held a trial to punish those involved in order to resolve the situation.

But Selim’s trial, who had never learned the law, was as awkward as a judge’s play, and it only created a conclusion that neither the perpetrators nor the victims could be satisfied with.

And during that time, the gazes of his human subordinates, the heavy infantry, who had been loyal to Selim, turned as cold as the current air.

Before, the fact that Selim was a minotaur had not been a problem at all.

But now that the conflict between minotaurs and humans was becoming more frequent, the fact that Selim was a minotaur became a problem.

‘Minotaurs are monsters. They can’t possibly be with humans.’

Selim was hurt by the attitude of those people, and the minotaurs also felt threatened.

So they attacked people even more, and duels to the death under the pretext of honor became rampant.

No matter how well-trained an elite soldier or knight was, they were bound to be killed if they engaged in a one-on-one duel with a minotaur.

Duels, and more duels, people died, and the minotaurs processed the corpses of those dead humans into meat.

Selim tried to punish the minotaurs who were committing murder, but…

This time, he faced resistance from the minotaurs.

And that was when he first felt the power of his own kind and became afraid.