The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 66

“Hmm. You’re not exactly adorable, but thanks for the help. Having a subordinate isn’t so bad. I can use you when I need to.”

“…….”

“Ah, Azadin. If you say that in front of him… he’ll get hurt.”

“You?”

“Ismael, I mean.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s a kid.”

‘Well, you’re a kid too,’ Azadin thought, but Midiam, who was excited, spoke first.

“Lately, Ismael has been feeling inferior to Azadin.”

‘Isn’t saying that in front of him making it worse?’ Azadin wondered.

Azadin looked at Ismael’s expression, and indeed, his face was contorted as if he had bitten into a bug.

“Still, he has areas where he’s better, and he tried to taunt you with that, but if you accept it so coolly as if he’s no match for you, he can’t help but get hurt. If I provoke someone and they don’t even show a sign of being hurt, that’s even more humiliating.”

As Midiam said that, Ismael was genuinely hurt. In fact, most of the reason Ismael dislikes Azadin is Midiam’s fault. Her opening up to Azadin and sticking to him so much is the root of his inferiority complex.

Ismael had acted like her right-hand man as Midiam’s servant, yet he hadn’t gained even a sliver of her attention. On the other hand, Azadin had won Midiam’s favor so easily.

But Midiam, the person involved, was only talking about the fact that Ismael felt inferior… Does she not realize why he feels inferior at all?

“Hmm? Inferiority? To me? Why is that?”

“Maybe it’s because your martial prowess is too outstanding? We actually challenged you to a duel and lost.”

“To be precise, it was just you. Well, I don’t think there’s anything I need to apologize for. Ismael, I just said you were good at using foresight magic [a type of magic that allows one to see into the future or distant places] at your age. If there’s any misunderstanding, cheer up.”

Azadin sincerely apologized to Ismael. From Ismael’s perspective, it felt like his insides were burning. In the end, both Midiam and Azadin were just playing with Ismael’s feelings.

“I-It’s okay.”

Though he was fuming inside, Ismael had no choice but to say that. He couldn’t possibly admit that he was jealous of Azadin and Midiam’s good relationship, even if his mouth was torn apart.

“Then I’ll stretch and rest. You guys should rest too.”

Azadin stretched and relaxed in the Blue Rose Manor’s room.

*********

In the evening, instead of a soldier, the page Belldon came to visit.

“Here are the materials you requested.”

Belldon brought a roughly marked map. It was a hand-drawn map of the Count’s castle and the night duty positions of the servants.

“I don’t know how the troops are deployed, but the Count is in his office during the day and spends his nights with his lovers in the annex of the back garden. I don’t know where he is in the annex. The path to the annex has been completely blocked recently.”

The information about the castle was quite thorough, but the information about the annex of the back garden was completely missing.

‘So, it’s safe to assume that something is happening in the annex of the back garden,’ Azadin thought.

Azadin analyzed the information he had obtained.

‘Is this information that Prince Kozel brought himself without informing his mother? Or is it really information that the Countess is involved in?’

Given Prince Kozel’s style and personality, he is not the kind of person who would be popular with the servants in the castle.

‘This is information that could only be obtained with the help of the maids. It must be that the Countess is involved, right?’

Thinking that, Azadin decided to test the page.

“Seeing that you brought this, it seems the Countess has made up her mind. Then there’s something you need to give, isn’t there?”

“Yes. The Countess requested it. But what do you mean by something to give? Is there anything else you want besides the information?”

“The advance payment, I mean.”

“Ah, that’s what you mean. U-Um, here.”

Belldon handed over a pouch. Inside were silver coins, but the amount wasn’t that much. It was worth about one gold coin at most.

“This was the money to give to those rogue refugees, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. That’s all the budget we had.”

“If the job has grown into a 50 gold coin request, you should give a bit more as an advance payment, shouldn’t you?”

“That’s a bit difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“Yes. The Countess has had a lot of expenses recently.”

The soldiers that Prince Kozel had were very well-equipped. It must have come from the Countess’s purse.

She must be feeling bitter since she had such expenses, and her son came back crippled without any particular gain. Still, Azadin demanded an advance payment.

“The Count hasn’t been leaving the house much these days, has he? This isn’t just a simple ambush on the street. If you don’t pay attention to the advance payment, we can’t start either.”

“But if you receive the advance payment, then we’ll have no choice but to interfere to avoid being cheated out of our money, won’t we? Our employers don’t want such difficult transactions. Our employer says that since you came to us, you have to bear with that much. If we were the ones looking for an assassin, we would have to pay an advance payment, but since you proposed it first and interfered with our side’s employment, this is the advance payment for now…”

“We’re risking our lives here, and it’s difficult if you’re asking us to take this amount as an advance payment.”

“Ah, I understand. I’ll talk to my master about it for now.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Azadin allowed Belldon to leave. He hurriedly left the Blue Rose Manor. Negotiating with an assassin to reduce the advance payment without giving it was a terrible thing that Belldon, a mere civil official, would never want to do again.

“Trying to use an assassin without an advance payment, how absurd. Well, it seems the Countess isn’t that meticulous of a person. The Baroness of Nort seems to have more capabilities.”

Azadin gave a low evaluation of Prince Kozel and his mother, the Countess.

“If they give us a lot of advance payment, it’ll be hard for them to control us. For example, even 10%, which is 5 gold coins, is a huge sum, right? Even if they get cheated out of it, they can’t go anywhere and complain that they were cheated out of the contract money when they were trying to assassinate the Count, right? It’s understandable to be passive to some extent.”

Midiam understood the other party’s position.

“If you provoke the other party too much, won’t they just cancel the request? Originally, you were going to attack the Baroness of Nort’s residence, but Azadin, you changed it to assassinating the Count by selling your services to them, right? Honestly, it’s not about the money, and since it was something you did to steal the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture anyway, isn’t achieving the primary goal just by extracting their information enough?”

Since they had obtained the map of the castle and the servants’ duty information from the Countess, the primary goal had been achieved. However, Azadin shook his head.

“No. There’s still something else to be careful about.”

“Yes? What is it…”

“It’s Derrick’s group.”

It was at that moment that Azadin said that.

“Ah.”

A group of soldiers was caught in the foresight bird magic that Ismael had cast. Knights and soldiers were seen moving in an orderly manner to one place. It was the Baroness of Nort’s residence.

“Troops are heading to the Baroness of Nort’s residence!”

“As expected. It’s Derrick’s doing.”

Azadin concluded that this was Derrick’s doing.

“Isn’t that too much of a leap in logic? Can you tell me why you think Derrick did it?”

“Okay. First, the fact that they backed down so easily after I insulted them.”

“Yes?”

Midiam, who was listening, was flustered.

“Actually, when I insulted them, I was planning to teach them a lesson on the spot. Considering Derrick’s personality, it was a provocation that he would have more than enough reason to attack. Especially Derrick, whose leg was just fixed by Araelle. A guy who had to retire from being a messenger because of an injury, wouldn’t he want to use his strength again now that his body is healed?”

“W-Well, that’s true. But is that all?”

“Araelle tried to win me over, so Derrick’s group couldn’t attack me with their own hands. Then, isn’t it a natural course of action to think about taking advantage of the situation?”

“Ah.”

Midiam, who had been opposing Azadin, was persuaded by those words.

Araelle is trying to win Azadin over. Those who follow Araelle are following her words, but they don’t want Azadin to be won over and join their organization and take a position just because he is a blood relative.

However, if they leave traces that they eliminated Azadin, they are afraid of future repercussions… Naturally, they would think of a method to make others fight each other.

“So, you’re thinking that Derrick reported you to the Count, and that’s why the soldiers are heading to the Baroness of Nort’s residence to capture you? What are you going to do?”

“I can’t let the Baroness of Nort, who became the guardian of the orphans I brought, be harmed.”

“Why on earth is a messenger doing such a thing?”

Ismael asked out of curiosity. From the perspective of the persecuted Aragas, they couldn’t understand Azadin, who was even taking care of the Hybris people who were persecuting them.

“Why? Because taking care of the Hybris people is the real duty of the Emperor’s messenger?”

“But that’s…”

“Even if it’s not that, it’s because it’s the right and beautiful thing to do. In my aesthetics, that is.”

“Aesthetics, you say?”

“Yes. In that sense, protecting the Baroness of Nort, who became the guardian of the children, is my mission. Now, shall we begin?”

Azadin took off his helmet and put on the hawk mask, the symbol of the messenger.

“Let’s go, Midiam, Ismael!”

“Yes!”

“Bring a lot of arrows and follow me.”

Azadin said that and burst out of the Blue Rose Manor.

*********

Derrick’s group conveyed the following information to the Count.

The night before last, the apostles of Mezeri moved through the underground waterway, and they had a copy of the Divine King’s Scripture. The apostles of Mezeri were trying to obtain the power of the Divine King’s Scripture by kidnapping people and making them sacrifices, and this can be confirmed by the testimonies of those who were captured and rescued.

In the meantime, a man defeated the apostles of Mezeri and rescued the people, and the Baroness of Nort invited him to her residence.

If they said only this much, the rest would naturally flow as Derrick wanted.

As Derrick had expected, the Count sent soldiers and knights to the Baroness of Nort’s residence.

“What’s going on, knight?”

In front of the Baroness of Nort’s residence, children were still cleaning, wearing servant clothes. They were the orphans who had been moved here by Azadin.

“Get out of the way, kids.”

“T-This is the Baroness of Nort’s residence. She is also the Count’s lover.”

“Don’t you know why? We came to investigate because of the news that suspicious people have infiltrated here.”

They pushed the servant children aside and entered the mansion, starting to investigate the surroundings.