The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 53

Soldiers had already searched the area once, leaving behind traces of their boots. Because they were poorly trained, their clumsy search had actually erased many of the traces.

“Seriously, these guys. How dare they barge in and ransack everything?”

Tarky was furious, seeing the signs of soldiers invading his mother’s house.

“Were any valuables taken?”

“I, I don’t think so. My mother was relatively frugal and preferred swords or armor to jewelry.”

“So, she wasn’t defenseless after all. That’s a lie.”

Azadin said this, implying that Tarky was less impressive than the Baroness, and looked around.

Overall, the house was restrained. Except for being a bit spacious and clean, it didn’t feel like a noble’s mansion. Considering she hired so many mercenaries for her son, she must have been quite wealthy.

Soon, they found something suspicious in the Baroness’s bedroom on the second floor. There was animal fur stuck in the doorjamb.

“This is…”

“Hmm.”

Azadin carefully examined the fur.

“It’s rat fur. Seeing this, the soldiers really did a sloppy job.”

It wasn’t the soldiers’ fault, as Tarky’s attitude made it clear. He was so angry that soldiers had even entered a noble’s house, how could they have conducted a proper investigation?

“Rat fur? Could it be?”

Tarky was shocked by the words.

“A were rat? We need to test for silver.”

Azadin took out a board he used for applying wax when making arrows, rubbed a silver coin on it to create silver dust, and placed the fur on top. Upon contact with the silver dust, the fur began to split at the ends as if it were being scorched by the silver.

“It’s a were rat.”

“Are you saying a were rat kidnapped my mother?!”

Tarky was horrified.

Were rats.

Rat-men were cursed creatures, belonging to the Kurt god clan, the retinue of the Rat King. They were incomparably stronger than ordinary humans, greedy, violent, and enjoyed eating human flesh.

If she had been captured by them, the chances of his mother being alive were extremely low.

“And it seems like there’s more than one. Hmm?”

Azadin looked under the bed in the bedroom. There was a spiderweb there.

“A spiderweb.”

“W-what about it?”

“It’s a spiderweb with magic. Do you understand what that means?”

“Ah!”

Tarky was startled by Azadin’s words. Come to think of it, the mercenary captain who had mocked Tarky was also a spider demon.

“Where…”

Azadin lifted the bed and found a trap door underneath.

“A trap door on the second floor?”

Opening the trap door revealed not a door but a small empty space, and underneath was a copper plate engraved with the symbol of the Spider Queen Atra.

“Your mother was a Kurt god cultist.”

“What? That’s absurd. My mother is a noble.”

“There are many nobles who are. Especially the Spider Queen Atra, I’ve heard she’s popular among noble women.”

The Spider Queen Atra grants the women who follow her the power to seduce and dominate men. In a world where faith in the God-King is strong, the reason why cultists continue to emerge despite the Kurt god clan once butchering and eating humans was precisely because of this.

It was a threat to all of humanity, but it was an advantage to me right now. That was why there were so many cultists.

“But the ones who kidnapped my mother were were rats, weren’t they?”

“That’s right. If they’re were rats, they would serve the Rat King Mezeri, not the Spider Queen Atra. Hmm, the Kurt god clans fight among themselves. I don’t know the exact reason.”

Azadin headed towards the study instead of the bedroom.

“Huh?”

“Is something there?”

“Just a moment.”

Azadin removed a portrait hanging on the study wall. A hidden safe appeared on the wall. Azadin used a lock pick to open it and took out a few gold coins.

“Huh?!”

“Imperial gold coins?”

Midiam and Ismail were amazed. There were five imperial gold coins, which were usually very hard to come by. In addition, the safe contained various documents and treasures.

“Your mother seems to be an amazing person?”

Azadin said this and looked at the imperial gold coins.

Azadin, who usually had no desire for material possessions, was an exception when it came to imperial gold coins. The rank of a messenger increased depending on the number of imperial gold coins they obtained, and they could earn the respect of their clan. Moreover, obtaining them as physical currency without a contract made them even more valuable than ordinary gold coins.

‘Those from good families try to buy these with huge sums of money.’

Having physical gold coins allowed for merit pushing. They would use the gold coins to have their servants push merit to a specific messenger. By doing so, messengers from good families could artificially raise their children’s ranks, making their value immeasurable.

“T-these gold coins are not for you! I’ll give them to you if you save my mother.”

Tarky also knew the value of these imperial gold coins to the messenger clan. Even Azadin, whose expression was hidden by his helmet, seemed to show signs of unusual interest.

Then, Ismail gestured to Midiam.

‘What if we kill him now and take them?’

Ismail signaled with his hands that it would be better to kill Tarky.

“No.”

Azadin stopped him.

“Yes?”

Tarky, who hadn’t seen Ismail’s gesture, was startled when Azadin said no.

“N-no, what do you mean?”

“No, it’s not that. Okay, I won’t touch them. I have the dignity of a messenger, how could I possibly loot?”

Azadin smacked his lips, put the gold coins back, and closed the safe again.

“Since you’ve been dismissed, doesn’t that mean you don’t have the dignity of a messenger anymore?”

Midiam, oblivious, mentioned the dismissal even in front of Tarky.

*********

Leaving the mansion and looking around, Azadin found another clue at the mansion’s well.

“A piece of a dress.”

A piece of a woman’s clothing was torn and stuck in a crack in the rocks.

“The well?”

“It’s all dried up at the bottom. There seems to be an underground passage here.”

“Then, are you going to go save her?”

“Wait, I don’t know how many enemies there are right now.”

Azadin stopped coldly.

If he recklessly charged in and saved the Baroness, he could get five gold coins, but that was only if he succeeded. If he failed, Azadin’s life would be in danger.

It was dangerous to go in without knowing who the enemy was, how many there were, or what traps were set.

“Considering that people around here keep disappearing, there must be quite a few Kurt followers. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to kidnap so many people.”

“Then, what are you going to do?”

“Full armor.”

Azadin came out of the well and called for his mountain goat. Then, he took out chainmail and plate armor from the saddlebags.

“It’s heavy, so I don’t usually wear it…”

Azadin put on the thick armor and equipped gauntlets and steel boots.

“I’ve never seen a messenger carrying armor like this before.”

Usually, the Emperor’s messengers preferred light armor.

‘He carries so much stuff on his mountain goat because of this heavy equipment. That’s why he doesn’t ride the mountain goat and walks while holding the reins.’

Midiam understood why Azadin didn’t ride his mountain goat and walked instead.

“Armor is the best in tight spaces. If you recklessly enter a tight space with light armor, relying on your agility, you’ll be in big trouble.”

Azadin put on his armor, reinforced the rope in the well so that he could climb up even if the bucket rope broke, and only after making sure everything was ready did he begin to descend into the well.

Reaching the bottom, Azadin examined the dry well. Sure enough, there was a passage wide enough for a person to pass through.

“Hmm.”

There was fur on the floor too.

“Ugh, I can’t see!”

At that moment, Tarky chanted a spell from above. He was casting an ignition spell to light the lamp.

“You can see even without fire?”

Midiam noticed that Azadin had examined the floor even before the fire was lit, realizing that his eyesight was not affected by the presence of light. Instead of answering, Azadin picked up some fur from the floor.

“It’s were rat fur. There are footprints too. This way seems to be the right one.”

“Ah, I see.”

Tarky, who had descended to the bottom of the well, shone the lamp on the floor and looked for footprints. There were countless footprints scattered everywhere.

“Let’s go.”

Azadin took a direction and walked. As they moved through the well, they could see the bottoms of other wells, and most of them also had footprints.

“Hmm?”

Azadin found a trap on the way. There was a string at ankle height with bells attached to it.

“What’s this?”

“Shhh.”

Azadin silenced them. If there were bells on the trap, it meant that someone was waiting within earshot of the bell’s sound.

If a bell trap was set up and not managed, it would be meaningless and would only reveal that someone had artificially tampered with it.

Sure enough, a presence appeared ahead.

“Huh?”

“Who’s there?”

Two refugees holding torches had entered.

Azadin gestured to Tarky to cover the lamp hood. The light went out, but it was already too late.

“Is anyone there?”

“I think I just saw a light? Am I mistaken?”

“Who are you?”

It seemed they had been discovered. Everyone in the group looked at Azadin, waiting for him to make a decision.

Azadin gestured to Tarky.

“Hey, use your status to intimidate them.”

“Me?”

Tarky understood Azadin’s intention and stepped forward.

“Ahem. I am Tarky, the son of the Count of Salasmar!”

“Ah! A, a knight, I see.”

“What brings you here?”

The refugees seemed wary after Tarky revealed his status.

‘He’s such a bad actor.’

Azadin was certain when he saw that their eyes showed more annoyance and irritation than fear of a noble, and a sly smile they shared among themselves.

“I asked you first. What are you doing here?”

“We are just wandering refugees looking for a place to hide.”

“Yes. We were just trying to find a place to stay…”

They were saying that, but Tarky scoffed.

“That’s a load of crap. Hide the greed shining in your eyes, you were rats.”

“Ah.”

“Hahaha.”

The refugees began to laugh.

“If they want to die, we don’t need to be nice.”

“Let’s kill the men and eat the women!”

“Isn’t that the same thing? Hehehe!”

The refugees crouched down and began to transform.

“You bastards! What did you do to my mother!”

Tarky charged and struck the head of one of the transforming were rats with his sword. It was an attack made in the hope that they would be defenseless while transforming.

However, the were rat refugee raised a mace he had pulled from his chest and blocked Tarky’s longsword. It was a display of incredible strength and speed.

“Ugh!”

They weren’t defenseless even while transforming! Tarky was hit hard in the first clash. The were rat’s strength was too much.

“Kikiki! Coward! I smell a coward.”

The were rats also noticed that Tarky was afraid of them.

“Break the lamp! Darkness is on our side!”

The were rats began to attack Tarky. But…

-Swish!

With the sound of wind cutting through the air, an arrow pierced the were rat’s mouth. Midiam had shot an arrow, piercing the were rat’s snout.

The arrow pierced through the palate and into the brain, causing the were rat to stagger and collapse. It was a fatal wound for an ordinary person, but this were rat was not dead and was struggling to pull out the arrow.

“Ugh!”

The one who screamed was Tarky.