The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 83

#84. The Brass Knight 4

“Boss, you can’t fight that guy.”

“What?”

Donear was puzzled by his subordinate’s remark, a fellow operative of Count Rantaric. Having been with him for a long time, the subordinate immediately advised Donear upon seeing him try to test Azadin’s skills.

“If the rumors are true, they say that Marquis Salasma transformed into a giant Naga [a mythical serpent-like creature] and died fighting something. And now, a Messenger Clan member comes to buy that Naga woman. Do you know what that means?”

“You’re saying that guy is the one who killed Marquis Salasma?”

“Probably. If so, he must be incredibly skilled. They say the Messenger Clan are all mysterious mages who have killed kings and nobles with their power… We, who are not even nobles, can’t possibly stand against him.”

As he said this, the bandits who had been dragged along by Azadin all nodded, their eyes pleading not to start a fight.

“I’ve heard the Messenger Clan is impressive… Amazing. Understood.”

Donear also chose to negotiate rather than fight the Messenger Clan.

“A wise choice. Would ten silver coins be enough for their ransom?”

“That’s not enough. It seems like you killed a lot of our guys, so I need to get their blood price to save face.”

“What?!”

Midiam, who was listening, was furious, but Azadin stopped her and smiled.

“So, what’s your blood price?”

“……!”

The bandits were momentarily flustered.

‘What’s with this guy? W-what am I supposed to say to that?’

Donear also felt a chill run down his spine at Azadin’s relaxed attitude.

‘If I ask for too little, I’ll lose face with my men, and if I ask for too much, he might not negotiate and just attack. Damn it. Am I really getting intimidated by these punks?’

Just then, they saw smoke rising behind them.

“Huh?!”

“W-what is it?”

“That direction is our base!”

The bandits began to murmur. Their hideout was on fire.

‘A stranger appears, and suddenly our hideout is on fire? Is this a coincidence?’

It was actually a coincidence, but the bandits didn’t seem to think so.

Suddenly, arrows flew from the forest. Azadin tried to catch one, but he noticed the strong force behind it and dodged.

Usually, when Azadin caught arrows and threw them back, it was when the opponent was using a short bow or a light hunting bow. But the one hiding among these bandits was using a full-fledged ashwood longbow.

This was something only truly skilled archers could use, and in mercenary groups like the Sellsword Guild, they would be recognized as ‘Doppelsöldner’ [a term for highly skilled, double-paid mercenaries], skilled archers who received more than twice the pay of ordinary soldiers.

‘So, there are Rantaric’s warriors among these bandits.’

Azadin realized that they were Rantaric’s warriors when he saw the professional archer among the bandits.

Not all of them, but those who gathered and led the bandits were operatives of Count Rantaric. Count Rantaric, who had been aiming for Salasma from the start, had created and sent the bandit group to disrupt Salasma’s security. That was how it had to be seen.

“Damn it! Attack! Attack!”

Seeing Azadin easily dodge the preemptive attack, Donear felt that things were going strangely, but since he had already made the first move, negotiations were out of the question.

“I wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible… but it can’t be helped.”

Azadin also regretted the situation and drew his sword.

“You bastard!”

The bandits approached, but Azadin used Earthwalk [a technique to move quickly] to quickly close the distance to Donear.

“Huh?!”

Donear was surprised and tried to counterattack, but Azadin easily grabbed his wrist and twisted it.

-Crack!

His elbow was dislocated.

“Kaaak!”

That wasn’t the end of it. Azadin grabbed his helmet, twisted his body around, and used Donear as a shield against the incoming arrows.

-Thud!

The arrow fired from the ashwood longbow pierced through Donear’s armor and deep into his thigh. As Donear groaned in pain, the attacking archer hesitated for a moment. Azadin pulled out a dagger from Donear’s belt and threw it at the archer.

“Kuaak!”

The dagger cut off the archer’s fingers.

“Ughhh! My hand! My hand!”

The archer despaired at the loss of his fingers. He had spent his whole life drawing a bow, and now he could no longer use his skills with such a hand.

‘This guy is really ruthless in these situations.’

Midiam clicked her tongue as she watched Azadin intentionally inflict permanent damage on his enemies. As Azadin neutralized the skilled archer, the bandits were completely terrified.

“That’s why I told you not to…”

The bandits who had already tasted Azadin’s wrath resented the other bandits’ rash actions. Meanwhile, Azadin leisurely grabbed Donear and secured a path of retreat.

“If you follow, you die.”

Azadin pushed Donear back towards the bandits. While the bandits were catching and supporting Donear, Azadin, Midiam, and Ismael quickly left the scene.

There were clearly more bandits, but they didn’t dare to pursue due to the amazing combat abilities and situation control that Azadin’s group had shown.

*********

“Kuaaaak. You bastards!”

Donear writhed on the ground.

“Messenger Clan! Those bastards… Aaaak!”

He was in pain, touching the wound caused by his comrade’s ashwood longbow. The arrow was deeply embedded in the wound, and every time he moved, the shaft would poke at the injury.

He had hastily broken the arrow shaft to make it shorter, but to pull it out any further, he would need a pincer, not a human hand. The problem was the other bandits’ attitude.

“……”

Donear, the bandit king, was a former non-commissioned officer of Count Rantaric. He was far superior to others, and he was a figure of fear due to his cruel swordsmanship and his brutality of killing people and feeding them to others.

In other words, he had been controlling the other bandits through fear.

However, that fear was also Donear’s weakness. Because he had been dominating the other bandits with force and fear, not popularity, and had been thoroughly monopolizing the spoils of their banditry, his subordinates had been accumulating dissatisfaction.

Or rather, there might not have been any dissatisfaction in the past, but now that Donear was injured and his most dangerous confidant, the ashwood longbowman, could no longer hold a bow, even the non-existent dissatisfaction was rearing its head.

‘Wouldn’t now be a good time to strike?’ The bandits’ eyes began to roll.

“You bastards, can’t you lower your eyes? I can see what you’re all thinking! Who was it that provided you with a hideout, connected you with slave traders, and made you look like people when you were just beggars and highway robbers? Have you already forgotten?”

Donear glared at his subordinates, who were looking at him with the eyes of a pack of hungry dogs looking at meat.

However, the bandits were no longer afraid of Donear. Rather, Donear’s threats were proof that he had lost his combat abilities.

‘He used to threaten to kill us…’

‘Now he’s threatening us that we won’t be able to trade with slave traders without him?’

‘It seems he can’t fight.’

They were ferocious beasts with prey bleeding in front of them.

If they thought about it calmly, Donear was right. If Donear, who had organized them into a proper bandit group and opened up a distribution network for stolen goods and slaves, allowing them to earn higher profits with a single robbery, were to disappear, they would eventually scatter and become highway robbers again.

However, just as Donear had felt a sense of liberation from Rantaric’s army, they too longed for the freedom to do as they pleased rather than the strictness of the bandit group he controlled.

-Shing.

As someone drew a sword, everyone else began to draw their weapons.

“You bastards…”

Donear and the bandits from Rantaric’s army who supported him also drew their weapons. It was then.

“Hmm…”

A man in golden armor had appeared behind them.

“Huh?”

“Ah, am I interrupting? Please, continue what you were doing. Don’t mind me.”

The man in golden armor said with a smile, patting his helmet.

“I just happened to need human flesh. I was going to use it after you all fought and shed blood and flesh, but…”

“What, who are you?”

“I’m a passing paladin. Have you seen a young man with a boy and a girl around here? They’re from the Messenger Clan.”

“……”

“Oh, it seems like you have something in mind. Everyone…”

“No, what is this? We’re already in a bad mood.”

“A paladin?”

Donear’s bandits had already had experience fighting the paladins of the King’s Church.

Ordinary bandits, no matter how many there were, could not stand against the armored monsters, but the bandits led by Donear were not ordinary. They had already captured a paladin using their superior group combat abilities.

So, they regarded the paladin in golden armor in front of them not as a threat but as something to loot.

“Oh?”

The paladin in golden armor was amazed at the bandits who were openly showing hostility towards him.

“I think it would be better to step back.”

“Hehe. Step back? Seriously?”

“Why should we listen to you?”

“Because…”

At that moment, a loud boom suddenly echoed. A huge figure fell from the sky, crushing one of the bandits who had been wary of the paladin.

A monster with a human torso but elongated waist and limbs, transforming into a grotesque shape, crushed the bandit and tore his flesh apart while he was still alive. The bandit struggled like a person being mauled to death by a bear, but it was no use.

“Ugh, ughaaak!”

Biting and tearing at the struggling bandit, it raised its head ferociously. As the bitten bandit was lifted up, blood splattered due to gravity.

A beast eating a living human. The horrific spectacle of violence assaulted everyone’s retinas and optic nerves.

It was a terrible scene that they wanted to turn away from. But if they did, they didn’t know when they themselves would become victims of that monster, so they couldn’t turn away and had to watch the scene of a person being eaten.

“That’s why.”

The paladin in golden armor said with a smile.

*********

“Sir Zekt, if you go ahead like that…”

A pair of male and female paladins who had emerged from the bushes behind him paused. The two paladins were Zibeck, a former squire of Zekt, and Meiya, the former chief administrator of Salasma.

“Ah, no, why…”

Meiya was horrified by the sight of Sir Gazrek transforming into a terrible monster before her eyes. It was clear that at first, he was just a moving corpse, but he had gradually mutated and was now an indescribably hideous monster.

“Sir Zekt, is it really okay? My fath, no, Sir Gazrek is getting bigger and bigger?”

“This is all due to the curse of an unjust death. The forces that killed and buried your father did not give him a proper funeral, so the curse of dark magic is continuing to transform your father.”

“……”

Meiya was also a paladin, so she roughly knew why this was happening.

Not all wraith knights undergo such mutations. In order for an undead to continue to mutate and maintain its existence, it needs human blood and flesh.

Judge Zekt was having Sir Gazrek kill and eat those people in places she couldn’t see, or even in front of her, in order to maintain him as a wraith knight.

‘Is a paladin allowed to do this?’

She had such a question, but she was in no position to say anything in front of Sir Zekt. At that moment, a bandit who had heard their conversation raised his head.

“W-wait a minute. If you’re Sir Zekt… are you Judge Zekt?”

A wounded man wearing high-quality armor, who seemed to be the leader of the bandits, interrupted the paladins’ conversation.