CH 30

When a promise was made to someone from the Messenger Clan, it went like this.

If someone made a promise with a rock on the road, should they be punished for breaking that promise?

A promise made with the Messenger Clan was the same. They were soulless beings, rocks on the road.

No, rocks wouldn’t even bother anyone. As followers of the Emperor, they were worse than rocks. Any serious promise made with such scum would be meaningless. They would be excused if they broke a promise or treated them with prejudice as long as the target was the Messenger Clan.

In this way, the people of Hubris claimed the Messenger Clan were soulless beings. They refused to give them even the minimum amount of respect and honor.

In such a situation, even if Azadine had made them promise, would the trainee knights even keep their promise? Still, he sympathized with the common people of Hubris.

“The people of Hubris would be in trouble if we didn’t deal with them properly. These people would be forced to abandon their lands and flee in exchange for acting against the knights. It would be a tiring life for them, so I could not make that decision.”

“If you say it like that, it seemed like you didn’t want to kill the knights.”

Azadine nodded at Ismail’s words.

“It is painful to know that an opponent who is lacking would die. It would be no different than an unnecessary murder.”

“….”

This confidence that he was showing. It wasn’t easy for a messenger to show such confidence against the church’s holy knights.

Actually, the knights had slashed away Mediam and Ismail’s arrows and avoided the spear that Azadine had thrown. The trainee knight who had been hit by the spear had been caught by surprise.

How did this man have such calmness while dealing with such high-skilled holy knights?

“Living as a wanderer is hard. Didn’t we want to deal with it under Hubris’ system as much as possible?”

“That’s right. Um, by the way, the funeral is finished. Where did that one go?”

After a few moments, Tarki returned.

“Ah, looks like it is done.”

“You are back? I thought you’d just run.”

“No, that’s because I can’t fight against holy knights from the King’s Church.”

“If that is the case, it’d be difficult to keep moving with us.”

Mediam said this bitterly. Traveling with a messenger was heresy enough to be executed over… from Tarki’s point of view, traveling with Azadine was bad.

Tarki couldn’t say much and felt slightly taken aback at Mediam’s words. He had intended to travel with Azadine because he was afraid. Now that the mercenaries protecting him were gone, he would need to travel alone and deal with bandits, monsters, and assassins sent by his half-brothers.

Yet Azadine also needed Tarki?

‘Didn’t his mother give him an Emperor’s gold coin? Besides, she also hired mercenaries for him. I need to investigate this. He has also become a petitioner once he offered the gold coin, so he would not betray us. He avoided fighting the knights since he is a noble; there is nothing we can do.’

Azadine understood the situation and gave Tarki instructions.

“For now, let us finish cleaning up and handling everything as much as possible. Go wash, change your clothes, pick up some arrows…”

Azadine made sure to do as much maintenance as he could while the farmers were still collecting bodies.

The survivors from the farm were preparing to depart along with their valuables. They had participated in the killing of holy knights and had made a deal with Azadine, one of the Messenger Clan. They could not stay here any longer.

“All because of you!”

A young girl who was leading a sheep yelled at Azadine.

“If you didn’t come to our farm! Mom and Dad wouldn’t have died!”

“Shhh.”

A young man who appeared to be her brother came and covered her mouth.

“Excuse her for this. She is just a child, so…”

The farmer’s son looked at Azadine in fear. He was worried that Azadine would retaliate at the girl’s harsh words. However, Azadine didn’t seem to care.

“So what will you do now?”

Mediam asked the farmers in curiosity.

“I will go to a relative’s home nearby and take refuge there. I will marry off the children who can marry and ensure they can get jobs… This land… the drought has worsened with time, so even farming has become troublesome.”

The farmer’s son pointed toward the direction he was going, which was southwest.

“Then we must part here. We will leave too.”

“Yes. May the messenger be blessed by the Emperor.”

When the boy said this, all the children looked at him in fright. Perhaps it was because he spoke of the Emperor’s blessing. It was scary enough to make the children deathly afraid.

[The people are treating me as if I’m some kind of plague. I simply tried to bring civilization to the land and wisdom to the people.]

The Emperor’s Voice seemed a bit taken aback.

“Those that were in power and didn’t decide on a succession structure would be criticized, no matter how wise they are.”

[I acknowledge that. Yet even a single generation of peace that I achieved was priceless. Not to mention, a single generation for the Yaegas clan is quite good.]

“Sure.”

From the current location of Azadine’s party, there were two ways to Salasma. One was a path north, and the other was a path west. The path north went along the Gray River, which ran through Korasar. Azadine decided to head west before taking a northerly route along the Gray River.

“It is a bit of a detour, but since a lot of refugees move this way, it would be easier to mix with them. We can also determine the drought’s severity by seeing how much the river’s water has decreased. As a messenger, obtaining information is important.”

Azadine decided on the path and walked along the road.

The eastern part of the Backbone of the Desert mountain range was less affected by the drought, but some effects could be felt even here. Even though it was spring, the grass, and trees were dry and twisted along the road.

Tarki had begun to flatter Azadine even more now. It was as if he didn’t want Azadine to hold ill thoughts of him for running away during the fight.

“How amazing it was! The holy knights of the King’s Church were full of life since they were young, and you managed to kill them all.”

“Did you even see how we fought?”

Mediam asked curiously.

“No, I didn’t see it with my own eyes….”

“I guess you didn’t see because you ran away.”

“Euk.”

Tarki was taken aback when Mediam lobbed this accusation at him. If it was his original personality, he wouldn’t have stayed silent. Still, he couldn’t recklessly show off his temper to Mediam, who was a member of the Messenger Clan, in his current situation.

“Hmm. Be quiet. I am tired.”

In Azadine’s case, it would be too much to reach the destination while riding on a Kerim Goat that was carrying a large number of weapons and equipment already. So he had simply grabbed the reins and walked. Yet, no matter how strong Azadine was, he was exhausted from the repeated battles.

“So many people are passing by, so don’t speak of such nonsense. Saying things like killing holy knights or something…”

Azadine mimed a slitting move across his throat. However, the merchants around them began to speak to Azadine.

“The people who are walking there, come have a cup of tea.”

They were normal street peddlers selling tea.

Tea was a popular drink throughout the Eight Kingdoms. In fact, it was considered a daily necessity. Except for a few exceptions where the water was clear, most of the water in the kingdoms was harsh and contained a lot of impurities. People would become sick from drinking it straight.

When water was boiled with tea leaves, the water would become purified and drinkable. Therefore the Gods of Yaegas encouraged the drinking of tea.

Peddlers often made tea for travelers on the roadside and received payment for it. They would set up a stove on a table that could be carried by a single person and boil water there to brew some tea. Some also sold sweets made of mugwort and sugar.

However, the merchant stall that had called Azadine over bore the flag of the Korasar Peddler Guild.

“Come on, the path ahead is long, and there isn’t much water. Let us have a cup of tea.”

Azadine took the tiny wooden chairs from the stall, placed them on the side of the road, and nodded as he sat down.

The merchant glanced at Tarki.

“This knight?”

“A petitioner of the gold coins. It is fine. There will be no leakage of information.”

Azadine vouched for Tarki. A petition made on the gold coin was a form of oath, and those who used it could not betray the messenger of their own will. If not, why would they stay patient with Azadine’s personality?

“Ah, is that so?”

The merchant’s expression, which had been smiling, became stiff. There was a look of relief as he felt no need to maintain a business smile.

“So, this person who ignored all procedures to become a messenger three months ago, where are you headed?”

Those words were laced with sarcasm. Originally, the Messenger Clan changed its ranks only during the biannual summer solstice.

At that time, the old or injured who could no longer serve as messengers would retire. The vacancies left by those who died or retired were filled with young and capable people or those who had been recommended as servants of messengers.

However, Azadine had ignored such things and became a messenger three months ago as a special case. It had happened because of the active and pushy recommendation made by Kazas, an elder in the clan. However, Azadine was the son of a traitor and was well-known as incompetent within the clan.

What threat was worse for crying children than making them marry Azadine?

Was that why even a peddler who was nothing but a servant was being sarcastic to Azadine?

‘This merchant wouldn’t be so disrespectful if he saw Azadine’s skills.’

Mediam thought this, but she had never heard rumors about Azadine’s skills. Bad rumors had spread about him since childhood and continued circulating within the clan, making even servants ignore him.

“We are on the way to Salasma. Is something happening?”

“Yes, it’s a mission you cannot refuse. Yet I’ve heard that you’ve rejected many missions from the district chief, and he hates you? Why are you a messenger if you want to refuse requests?”

“I only work for the Emperor’s gold coins.”

“Haha. There won’t be many of those.”

“…”