The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 80

Azadin and his group traveled west for a day. Reaching a high hill, Azadin had Midiam and Ishmael use their clairvoyance magic, while he himself climbed a tree to watch the rear.

There were no pursuers, confirming that they had successfully evaded Judge Zekt.

‘Whew. Good.’

Confirming that there was no pursuit from behind, Azadin let out a sigh of relief.

‘It seems the warding doll is working properly.’

‘So, what are you going to do now?’

‘First, let’s chase after the Naga who escaped from the Count’s territory. They should have a significant amount of the Divine Scripture.’

‘You needed time to recover, and there was also the time spent fighting that holy knight, so they’ve probably already escaped by now.’

Ishmael counted on his fingers.

‘You wasted four days recovering. Four days is a lot. Do you still think it’s possible?’

‘I admit that the chances are slim. But we don’t have any other information about the Divine Scripture copies, do we? Let’s follow the Naga’s trail; maybe we’ll get some other information along the way.’

Azadin decided to follow the Naga, not expecting much.

‘Ishmael, use the bone wand.’

‘Huh? Now?’

‘Yes.’

‘It won’t be very useful.’

There were many ways to evade detection magic, and the Naga who had already escaped from Count Salasma’s castle had used those methods. Using it now would be pointless, only wasting the bone wand’s magic. Ishmael said that and used the bone wand, but…

‘Huh?’

It indicated that a copy of the Divine Scripture was nearby.

‘What is this?’

‘I knew it.’

Azadin wore a triumphant smile.

‘It’s not just us who suffer from unexpected accidents.’

*********

The Naga were a proud race. From the human perspective, they were a cruel and terrible race that raised humans as livestock and held blood festivals every day. But from the Naga’s perspective, they were proud to have ended the Nether’s rule and established the first civilized nation on the land of Hybris. [Hybris is the name of the continent.]

Just as humans worshiped the Yaegas gods who ended the Naga’s rule, the Naga worshiped their empire that had ended the rule of the heteromorphic gods, ‘Nether,’ who had dominated the Hybris continent before them. [Yaegas gods are the gods worshiped by humans.]

The Ortesia sisters, as members of the Naga, became subordinates of Count Kazel to ensure that the Naga would once again become the main power of this land, no matter the cost. They aimed to obtain a copy of the Divine Scripture, uncover the secrets of the Yaegas gods’ power, and rebuild the Nagashura Empire. [Nagashura Empire is the name of the Naga empire.]

However, Count Kazel was killed by the hateful Emperor’s messenger, and two of the Ortesia sisters who had been assisting him also died. The youngest of the Ortesia sisters, Shati, escaped the collapsing Count’s castle with a copy of the Divine Scripture.

But why was she now in a damp basement?

‘Where is this…’

Shati looked at the iron bars in front of her, puzzled. A shabby basement, with rusty iron bars embedded in the earthen walls, but thick and sturdy enough to be impossible to escape with human strength. Her head ached.

‘What happened?’

When she opened her mouth, stomach acid rose up.

‘Was it a drug?’

Only then did her memories return. She had clearly eaten the meal provided at the inn last night and fallen asleep, only to wake up in a prison.

‘Those trashy bastards…’

Shati realized that she had fallen victim to the schemes of human villains and gritted her teeth. She usually avoided eating food given by others. But this area was suffering from drought, and she had to escape so suddenly that she had no choice but to accept the meal, and this was the result.

‘Damn warm-blooded monkeys! If I ever get out of here…’

She gathered all her strength to break the iron bars. But then.

-Bang!

A commotion began.

‘Ugh! W-what is it? This!’

‘Damn it! M-monsters!’

‘Krrr!’

A commotion was happening in the basement. It seemed that the Naga agent who had escaped with Shati was fighting with the humans.

‘Martin?!’

Shati called out the Naga agent’s name and struggled to break the iron bars.

By the time she barely managed to break the iron bars and get out, the basement was already silent. When she came out of the prison in a panic, she found a large slaughterhouse, and human corpses were hanging on the walls.

‘Ugh!’

These inn people were attacking their own kind, selling the women and killing the men to make meat. It was clear from the fact that all the hanging humans were men and most of them had been butchered for meat.

In the middle of the slaughterhouse, there was the corpse of a Naga pierced by a spear, and around it were the dead inn people. It seemed that these guys had left Shati alone to sell as a slave because she was a woman, and they had tried to butcher the male agent for meat.

In his haste, the agent had revealed his true form, but he couldn’t fight properly because of the chains the humans had tied him with. The fight between the Naga fighting barehanded in that state and the armed cannibals ended with both sides dying.

‘Oh, my god.’

Shati frowned and looked around. Soon, she found her bag in a closet. Fortunately, the copy of the Divine Scripture was safely inside.

‘These cursed warm-blooded monkeys… Huh?’

But when she came out of the basement, there were many armed robbers gathered there.

‘Huh?!’

‘That woman, wasn’t she in prison?’

‘Damn it!’

They were all overly cautious and pointed their spears at Shati. They seemed to be the companions of the robbers who had died in the basement earlier.

When the man they thought was human transformed into a Naga and fought, they guessed that the woman with him was also a Naga and called for reinforcements. Not knowing that, Shati had come out of the basement defenselessly, thinking that all the inn’s villains were dead.

‘Ugh…’

Shati was flustered by the gazes of the robber gang staring at her.

There were too many of them. And the lustful looks in their eyes were unbearably disgusting.

‘My sisters had to give their bodies to that Kazel guy to win him over. But that was for the greater cause of obtaining the Divine Scripture copy. These dirty and disgusting warm-blooded monkeys… They dare to covet me, regardless of the Divine Scripture copy?’

However, there were too many of them, and long weapons like spears and six-foot staffs were dangerous even in the hands of those who were not skilled in martial arts.

‘This woman is very pretty. Is she really a monster too?’

‘Or what?’

‘It’s too bad to kill her…’

‘Hey! Don’t underestimate the Naga. A little while ago, even with both arms tied, he spat poison from his mouth and killed people.’

They had already fought another Naga, so they didn’t let their guard down and approached Shati while surrounding her. Then, the one who seemed to be their leader spoke to Shati.

‘Hey, surrender, Naga woman.’

‘Huh?’

‘Boss, what are you thinking?’

‘Lord Lantaric will buy her for a high price. Naga woman, wouldn’t you have a better chance of escaping there than becoming a skewer here?’

‘……’

‘How about it? If you surrender, put on this collar.’

The robber leader said that and held out a restraint reinforced with iron on a piece of wood. It was a restraint that would fit around the neck and one hand on the same plank.

‘You want me to put it on myself?’

‘Yes. Once you put it on, the lock will automatically lock, so it’ll be easy.’

‘……’

Shati sighed and grabbed her bag. This bag had a protective magic on it to defend against magic that tracked the Divine Scripture copy.

Under normal circumstances, there was no reason to deliberately release this protective magic and attract the flies that were after the Divine Scripture. But in a situation like this, it would be better to attract anyone, right?

‘I need to attract those who are after the Divine Scripture and make them fight these robbers. I still have the effects of the drug. Rather than fighting and dying, I have no choice but to surrender and look for an opportunity later.’

Shati released the protective magic on her bag and handed the bag to the robbers.

‘Okay. I will put on the collar.’

When Shati put on the collar herself, the robbers were finally relieved.

‘Wow, as expected of the boss. You’re amazing.’

‘No. It’s not something to be happy about. Seeing her comply like this, this Naga seems to have some other plan.’

‘But what do we do with the Naga corpse?’

‘Hmm, it looks terrifying, should we taxidermy it?’

‘If we say we caught a Naga, other guys won’t believe us… I want to leave something behind to brag about.’

‘No, we’ll use it for meat.’

‘Huh?’

The robbers were surprised, and so was Shati.

‘You barbaric warm-blooded monkeys. What did you just say? You’re going to eat Martin?’

‘Yes.’

The robbers hesitated and asked each other.

‘Is it edible?’

‘The Naga are monsters that eat humans.’

‘We’ve been making and selling humans as meat, so why not a Naga now…’

‘Ah, the problem isn’t eating it, but it could be poisonous, right?’

‘If it’s snake venom, it’s fine if you boil it. We boil and eat poisonous snakes like that, so what.’

The cannibalistic robbers who killed people and sold them as meat were thinking of eating the Naga too. For Shati, it was an unbearable farce that made her furious.

To think that the descendants of the glorious Nagashura Empire would be eaten by these warm-blooded monkeys!

‘Ugh. You dirty warm-blooded monkeys!’

Shati was enraged at the sight.

‘Stay still, miss. The reason we sacrificed this friend in the first place… is because of you. We tried to sell a pretty woman, but who knew she was a Naga. We suffered a lot of damage too.’

The robber leader said that and gestured to his subordinates.

‘Prepare the iron-barred wagon. We need to sell the slaves quickly.’

*********

Shati arrived at the warehouse where the slaves were kept, still wearing the collar.

There were women locked up in the warehouse, but none of them had collars around their necks like her. They all had shackles on their ankles and were connected to each other.

‘Look at these guys, they haven’t eaten anything. Eat when we give you food. If your body gets hurt, your value as a product will decrease.’

The robbers clicked their tongues as they saw the porridge left untouched in the bowls in the warehouse. But it wasn’t ordinary porridge.

‘Are you planning to feed humans to humans? You’re out of your minds. You guys!’

‘Aren’t you a Naga? You used to eat humans.’

‘I’ll tell you in advance, that’s an old tradition. Young Naga these days don’t really like eating humans. You guys are a kind of repulsive food!’

‘Hahahaha.’

The robbers burst out laughing at Shati’s reaction.