CH 6

“Ah.”

Azadine looked disappointed as he brought the can to his mouth. It only had a drop or two of water which barely moistened his lips.

“This is bad.”

He sighed and placed the can back into his backpack.

“Why did you claim that we’d arrive in two days? Now I have to take responsibility for your mess, you stupid spirit.”

[To say such things to the Emperor’s Voice.]

Voices appeared from around Azadine.

They were known as the Emperor’s Voice. This spirit listened to petitioners’ petitions and connected them to the artificial spirit created by the Emperor. Its power also extended throughout the Continent of Hubris.

The spirit’s power remained strong without decline even after the passing of hundreds of years since the death of the Emperor. This was proof of the Emperor’s strength, of how much he was like a god.

However, Azadine of the Messenger Clan was sneering at the Emperor as he followed the spirit.

“To put it bluntly, people from all around the world hate us since we are the messengers of the Emperor because he died without giving a proper solution! The Heavenly King Slayer and the Soulless Blasphemers, that’s what we’re called. Since you made a promise about the petition, I had to leave all my things to run and play with you. Thanks to you, I am now dying of thirst. Everything I eat is dry, but if I don’t have this right now, I won’t be able to digest it, and I will die.”

[…. I am sorry about that, but do not worry. Your servant will soon arrive.]

“Servant? I don’t have one, though?”

Not every member of the Messenger Clan could serve as messengers. Only 108 were chosen to be members, in accordance with the 108 orders made by the Emperor’s Voice. The rest either become servants to help the messengers or earn a livelihood to preserve the clan itself.

However, Azadine was so unpopular within the Messenger Clan that no one had agreed to be his servant.

[Two people had recently applied for the job. They are young and talented.]

“Hmm… no sane bastard would apply for it. You said they’re talented? I can’t believe it.”

Azadine grumbled and stopped in the middle of the dusty road. A devastated village with the remnants of a well came into view. At the entrance, human-like shadows could be seen.

“Spirit?”

Azadine placed his hand on his waist.

[Not an enemy. It’s a petitioner.]

“… really?

As Azadine approached closer, a face emerged from the shadows. It seemed they were the people that had been hung from the cottonwood trees at the village entrance that he had reached after receiving the petition.

A young girl, her lover, and their family stood on the side of the road like travelers. When Azadine approached, they clapped their hands together and greeted him. Azadine, too, responded with a light nod.

“This land has neither the light of a King nor the protection of the Archangels. Staying here for too long isn’t good for any of you. I have paid for your grievances, so please go to the other side.”

Azadine made to move, but the spirits pointed towards the well of this abandoned village.

“Ah, would you like me to take some water? No, it was true that I wanted water, but… I also need to rest soon.”

He said this, but Azadine took the can from his bag and excitedly approached the well. When he pulled the bucket out, it felt heavy.

Such heaviness from a well was normal when it had dried.

“Haa… it is a dry well anyway you look at it. But the spirits must have worked hard to get some water out.”

Azadine was excited and continued pulling up the bucket… but the only thing inside it was a piece of paper and some sand.

“…”

[Ah, that must be the copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.]

“Copy of what?”

Azadine was shocked.

“Why is that….”

Azadine felt his lips tremble, but something flashed in front of him at that moment.

“No, well, thank you….”

He turned to the spirits as they greeted him and walked towards the storm before disappearing. They had found a copy of the magic book and left it to Azadine. He, who had granted the petition of the dead petitioner, didn’t need to hear anything more.

It was good to repay a favor, even when one had become a ghost, but Azadine licked his lips with a pained expression. As he moved his tongue over his dry mouth, his lips cracked to the point of bleeding.

“Thank you for this but… for me?”

Azadine clicked his tongue while holding the page from the magic book. The paper, which had something written on it, was shining, but reading it with a human mind was impossible.

That was at the core of the magic books. It was impossible to fully comprehend books of magic without prior knowledge. Therefore, most books had to be learned indirectly through interpretation books called the Haeso.

[Are you not happy? Isn’t this what a messenger yearns for?]

The Emperor’s Voice asked this calmly.

“I am not in a position where I could be happy.”

Looking at the page of the magic book in his hand, Azadine felt the odd touch of fate.

The Messenger Clan was descended from a people called the Aragasa.

They were descendants of a shipwrecked people that had gone through a typhoon from a continent similar to Hubris. They had sworn allegiance to the Emperor, who had welcomed their arrival and appointed them as his messengers.

The Emperor bestowed upon them a magic book called the Flower and Bird Tempting Moon and also gave them a spirit named the Emperor’s Voice.

That was how the Messenger Clan became the Emperor’s sword and executioners. They directly executed and prosecuted reckless nobles who violated the Emperor’s Law.

However, following the death of the Emperor, the empire began to disintegrate, making things incredibly treacherous.

The people of Hubris believed in an afterlife. If one accumulated enough good karma, they were reborn into a noble in the afterlife, as nobility and royalty were considered the highest levels of reincarnation. To harm them would be to destroy the very bonds of the soul.

So, no one could resist even when the kings and nobles plundered and killed the common people. The kings and nobles were also powerful mages, and the faith of the common people considered going against those who had inherited the blood of the divine to be a sin.

However, the Emperor needed someone to commit such acts without a second thought. In order to govern over the Eight Kingdoms under the Emperor’s Law, he needed someone who could punish members of the royal families and nobility who became corrupt.

That was why the Emperor warmly welcomed these strangers, the Messenger Clan, and gave them power by bestowing upon them books of magic.

They didn’t know, or perhaps they did, but they were intoxicated by the Emperor’s favor. Those of the Messenger Clan who smeared their hands in the blood of the gods without a second thought were called the Heavenly King Slayers. They were also despised by all.

People began to discriminate against them by referring to them as soulless beings who committed blasphemy that was unheard of within the faith held by the people of Hubris.

There was even a belief that any crimes committed against the soulless members of the Messenger Clan would not be considered karma. Once the Emperor passed and they lost their power, this hatred was paid back in full against the Messenger Clan.

The oath they made with the Emperor also became a problem. Even after the Emperor’s death and the collapse of his empire, the oath and promises made to him continued to bind them for generations.

Even after his death, the Messenger Clan continued to perform their mission as messengers of the Emperor. If the clan wished to cancel their contract, they would need to pay 100,000 gold to the Emperor. However, the empire had fallen and vanished, and the coins disappeared along with it.

When it became impossible to collect the gold coins to break their bonds of servitude, the Messenger Clan began to make other plans.

What was the source of the Emperor’s power?

For Kings of the Yaegas clan, their power came from the magic books which were handed down alongside their thrones. The Emperor must have exercised his power through these books. In other words, if they could obtain and study the book, they could overcome the oath made through the Emperor’s magic.

The clan then made it their goal to retrieve this book. They searched for the book while carrying out their service contracts with the aim of being freed from their curse.

Such was the goal of the Messenger Clan.

In other words, the book was an important thing that any member of the Messenger Clan would risk their lives to attain. Azadine, however, did not look too pleased.

“I appreciate what the spirits did for me. It is nice that the dead are giving me presents before they seek their rest. I am just worried that this will end up unraveling the world. After all, the reason why this was released into the world is…”

He looked down at the paper and rolled it as he placed it into his backpack.

“Well, thanks to them, I found it. I cannot leave it here, so I will take it.”

Azadine left the village and began to walk on the road. The road would take him two days to return to his original path. He had moved in a hurry without thinking of dehydration and moved to villages with no water remaining. He had to properly conserve his physical strength before moving again.

‘But if I can cross the mountain… there should be water over it…’

Azadine looked at the mountain path before him and felt dizzy at the seemingly unending road.

How much more did he need to cross in the future.

Would he be able to return safely without dying?

Just as those doubts began to fill him…

-swish!

An arrow suddenly flew at Azadine.

Two goats the size of ponies were moving steadily down a mountain path. Saddles were on their backs, and a boy and girl who appeared to be in their early teens were riding on them. Even though the road was steep, their bodies didn’t seem unstable.

“Wow, this is so desolate.”

The land below the mountain road was a wasteland.

“I heard there hasn’t been a drop of rain in a month. I guess it was true.”

The girl stuck out her tongue as she watched the dust rise. At the bottom of the mountain, abandoned villages and farms were slowly being covered by dust.

“Miss Mediam!”

The boy shouted after the girl.

“Let us head back! It isn’t too late now!”

The boy followed the girl before him and tried to change her mind.

“I don’t want to. What are you talking about after coming all this way?”

“As someone descended from the founder, why do you have to be a lowly servant to the lowest-ranking messenger?! Just say that you refuse and head back.”

“No. Do you want me to just sit and suck my thumb in the boring sanctuary? Don’t speak such nonsense. I want to see the world.”

The girl insisted on this but clicked her tongue as she looked back at the scene in front of her.

“But the situation doesn’t seem so good. Can you say it is better than the sanctuary?”

The eastern side of the continent was where crops had dried up with no rain in sight. It was a wasteland on the edge of crumbling.

Of course, when the twilight cast shadows on the wastelands, their appearance stimulated images of the supernatural. Youths of both genders were more interested in things that were achieved by human hands instead of the wonders of the land.

“If we go further, it will become dangerous as there is no water. The goats we ride drink ten times more than an average human..”

“But that stupid messenger went in, right?”

“He must have released the goats and decided to walk.”

The Kerim goats had great endurance but were vulnerable to heat and dry weather. One could not enter barren lands with these goats who drank ten times more water than humans.

“Then you head back. Once we meet the messenger and tell him I will be his servant, I will not return. Besides, isn’t our target ‘Azadine the Cursed’?”

The boy shuddered at the mention of Azadine’s name.