The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 492

“Captain, what if no one loves me? What if my own kind tries to kill me?”

Azadin knew well how miserable a life lived without love could be.

To tell him to endure that life was too easy a thing to say.

“I don’t know. Maybe I spoke too easily. Yes. I understand your fear of being hated and betrayed by your own kind. But isn’t it also painful to live abandoning yourself?”

“Captain, can you forgive me? Can I be forgiven? I caused people to die. I didn’t stop the looting and torment, and even joined in. I closed my eyes because I was afraid of being hated by my own kind!”

“It might sound rigid, but a true sinner isn’t someone who atones after receiving assurance of forgiveness. It’s someone who tries to correct their wrongdoings even if they aren’t forgiven, that truly knows the weight of their sin.”

“Ha, hahaha.”

Selim laughed through his tears.

“However, believe in the virtues of the Knights. To admit weakness and confess sin is courage. And to forgive a sinner who has confessed is mercy. If there is virtue, there will be forgiveness.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Selim picked up his battle axe.

“You fool, Selim. Do you see the child here, pregnant with your child?!”

The Matriarch brought a minotaur woman forward and held a blade to her belly.

“The gods of Yegas [a region or pantheon] have also exhausted their power and disappeared. If we survive this cold, our masters, the elves, will reorganize the world under a new order.”

“How can the teachings of a false emperor and an angel who has already fallen and turned to stone overcome this night?”

“Come back now. I don’t want to erase my grandchild with my own hands.”

The Matriarch, fearing Azadin’s charge, used several subordinates as a shield and threatened Selim’s child as a hostage.

“Hey.”

As Azadin moved, the Matriarch slashed the pregnant woman’s belly with her knife. The sharp blade cut through the thick leather clothes, drawing blood.

“Oops. Emperor. Don’t move. Well, it’s just the child of one of the emperor’s countless subjects, so it doesn’t matter if I kill it.”

“Haa.”

Azadin shook his head.

“Selim. Is it okay if I take care of that Matriarch? She’s your mother, after all.”

“Yes, Captain. She has many children besides me anyway. I’m just one of her many children, but foolishly, I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“Hmph! Yes. You are indeed an abandoned child!”

The Matriarch stabbed the pregnant minotaur’s lower abdomen with a dagger as if it were nothing. Even with the strength of an old woman, the force behind the dagger was enough to split minotaurs and ogres.

However, the dagger was blocked by a golden shield of light.

The holy magic of the Rescue Knights, Celestial Guardian, had been activated.

“Huh?!”

Surprisingly, Selim had used a spell to block her blade.

Until now, Selim had been unable to use spells, even when he was a legion commander in the Imperial Army.

However, by facing his weakness and confessing, he had gained the power of the Rescue Knights.

Before the Matriarch could realize this and react, an arrow pierced her head.

-Thwack!

“Ugh, kill… kill them! No matter what, kill Selim’s child!!!”

The Matriarch collapsed, shouting with a voice thick with blood and phlegm.

“I won’t let that happen!”

Before the other minotaurs could react, arrows and magic struck, killing the minotaurs around the pregnant minotaur.

Before Azadin could draw his bow again, the minotaurs charged.

Azadin picked up a spear from the ground and cut through the minotaurs’ noses, mouths, and jawbones, piercing their hearts.

The minotaurs, confused, fell in an instant.

“You, a mere human!”

A furious minotaur swung his axe down, but a small dwarf jumped out and parried the minotaur’s attack with a war hammer.

‘Celestial Strike!’

The holy magic of the Rescue Knights activated, sending the minotaur’s axe flying into the air.

Then, a holy light struck the minotaur’s head, knocking him down.

That was the start, and the residents all rushed at the minotaurs.

*********

The battle ended, and all the hostile minotaurs were defeated.

The younger minotaurs and the female minotaurs gave up the fight and surrendered.

“Good. I accept your surrender.”

As Azadin accepted the minotaurs’ submission, the residents cheered.

Although Azadin had done most of the work, they had achieved a great victory by defeating the minotaurs who had been tyrannizing them.

“Hahahaha!”

The dwarf who had led the first rebellion laughed heartily and approached Selim.

“Oh, you drug addict. Ah, no, Carson.”

He was Selim’s adjutant.

He had parted ways with Selim after he was corrupted by his own kind, but somehow he had ended up here in the shelter.

“Carson, it’s been a long time.”

“Yes, Your Majesty! I’m glad you seem safe, and so is Legion Commander Selim.”

Selim bowed his head to his adjutant.

“I’m sorry. I was foolish.”

“Well, it’s not like the Captain being foolish is anything new.”

“……”

“But Captain, no, Your Majesty. Please accept our confession.”

“Confession?”

“Yes. We were impiously made knights by the Empress, yet we abandoned our beliefs and became slaves, submitting to them. We abandoned virtue and submitted, committing dishonorable acts that knights should not.”

These were the people whom Midiam had appointed as knights. In fact, most of the people here were knights appointed by Midiam.

When it was said that anyone with faith could become a knight, most were distracted by the power of miracles and holy magic. When the great cold and night of despair came, they all abandoned their faith like old shoes and hid.

They were excited by the miracle Midiam brought, and they vowed to be loyal to virtue, but…

Faced with reality, their vows were easily broken.

Even against the minotaurs, whom they could have fought and defeated with the power of holy magic, they were helpless and had to be oppressed by their tyranny.

They were so miserable that it was absurd even to think about it.

“Then you’ve come to the wrong person to seek atonement.”

Azadin turned to the residents gathered in the shelter.

“I am sorry. It is because of my inadequacy that you have suffered such pain.”

Selim also knelt beside Azadin and bowed his head before the residents.

“I don’t even have the face to ask for forgiveness. I’m sorry, everyone. I was also afraid. I was afraid of losing the kin I had finally found… Even though I’m so big, I lost my faith and wandered.”

“We were also afraid. The Empress appointed us as knights, and at the time, we were excited by the power of holy magic and miracles. We threw away the faith and vows we made at that time like old shoes, and we just hid and abjectly prolonged our lives in front of the rioters.”

Azadin, Selim, Carson, and many other soldiers came forward, confessed their sins, and begged for forgiveness.

They were excited by the miracle and swore loyalty, but they abandoned their vows like old shoes and succumbed to the tyranny before their eyes. They also felt ashamed.

Of course, this did not heal the people’s wounds.

Their families were murdered, tortured, and enslaved, forced to work outside the cold shelter.

However, since Selim had not actively killed the residents, they could all look back on themselves and wash away their pain with hope.

“Then, Your Majesty, what are you going to do now?”

“I will go to Caspar to gather information and gather my comrades. The more people gather, the stronger the power of miracles will become.”

Azadin said that they could win, that there was hope.

Although the situation was desperate, those who had experienced victory saw hope in Azadin’s words.

“But Your Majesty, you came from the Central Capital, right? Where are the adjutants who escort you?”

“Well, that’s the thing…”

Azadin revealed the fact that he had not been able to convince anyone so far.

“Well, Your Majesty’s sermons are rigid.”

“There are things that are hard for ordinary people to accept.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Azadin affirmed his subordinates’ words, which were spoken like jokes.

Azadin had moved people with words until now.

If necessary, he had deceived and manipulated them, and he had absorbed countless enemies into his own forces.

It wasn’t that his eloquence was lacking.

The reason he had failed to persuade people was that Azadin himself was exhausted by despair.

How could he convey a hope that he himself did not believe in to others?

That was why his voice could not move people.

However, when he met Selim here and saw that Selim was a lonely being who had lived with the teachings of the Knights as his light, Azadin was able to forget his despair.

That was why he was able to persuade people and reignite the power of miracles within them.

‘Ah, I thought I had come this far alone. I believed that I had come this far by deceiving and manipulating the masses if necessary, and by using schemes and strategies. But in the end, I too was anxious and lonely, unable to endure unless I confirmed that there was virtue in the hearts of others.’

Even a superhuman who tried to achieve the great task of unifying the world alone cannot cover the world with faith by himself.

If there is no echo to confirm my faith, no belief that others share the same faith, then the cold of this night will immediately swallow up the flame of an individual.

“Then I’ll go and persuade the others.”

Selim patted his chest.

“Are you sure? It’s cold. Ordinary people won’t be able to endure it.”

Thanks to his deal with Sok, Azadin had raised his cold resistance magic by several levels, so he was relatively free to move. This was possible because Azadin had overwhelming magical power compared to others.

Selim also knew this well, but he still tried to move forward.

“Of course, Captain. People who you couldn’t persuade might listen to a fool like me.”

“I’m sorry.”

Azadin smiled bitterly at Selim’s words that he would persuade those whom he had failed to persuade.

A true atoner is one who confesses and atones for their sins even without the promise of forgiveness.

True hope is to continue to uphold faith, taking hope itself as salvation, even if salvation is not promised.

The night was still howling outside the barrier, and the cold was endlessly freezing the world, but Azadin had regained hope once more.