CH 35

“Huh, was it you people who did this?”

The Holy Knight Captain, Maya, panicked and grabbed her mace. Azadine shook his head.

“We’re just a group of merchants, adventurers, and pilgrims.”

“Ah, I see. Is-is that so? Then what happened here?”

“It seems the villagers were attacked by black magic. When we arrived here, we found that they had been transformed into undead and attacked us.”

“Huh? Are you talking about the residents of this sawmill? Oh, my goodness. But all of you managed to keep them away?”

“Ah, it wasn’t just us. There were other merchants and mercenaries, but they didn’t even enter the village and said they were going back.”

“I see. Had you not come here, I would have been trapped there for who knows how long.”

“Are you okay? How long were you locked in there?”

“I’m not sure… Though I could endure it because there was food and water inside the warehouse…”

“Could I take a quick look inside?”

“N-No.”

Maya quickly resisted Azadine’s request to look inside the warehouse.

“But we could probably find a clue about this incident inside, don’t you think?”

“There’s nothing like that in there!”

“Why are you so sure about that?”

“Uh, th-the thing is…”

Mediam chose that moment to speak.

“The Holy Knight probably had to take care of any nature’s call inside the warehouse in a corner somewhere. I’m sure she’s taken care of the big business, but since one would have to go often for the little business…”

“Waaaah!”

Maya dropped to the ground with a thud. Apparently, she had wanted to keep the fact that she had to relieve her bladder inside the warehouse a secret. That was why she had blocked Azadine and the others from entering the warehouse.

“That’s not a big deal. May we please go ahead and investigate the warehouse?”

“No. Before that, excuse me, but who are you? Investigations like this were originally the specialization of the Holy Knights. Rather than making useless speculations, it’s better for someone trained for this to control the situation.”

Maya’s words made complete sense. After all, she didn’t want anyone to see any traces of waste that she had left behind. Of course, Azadine, as an Emperor’s messenger, had received investigative training.

The Emperor’s messengers did not only receive martial arts training but also had to study and memorize various types of accidents, murders, criminal cases, and so forth as part of their training. However, since his opponent was a Holy Knight of the King’s Church, he couldn’t exactly reveal that he was a messenger, could he?

At that moment, Mediam chose to come forward instead of Azadine.

“That trained person would still be locked in the warehouse had we not come, so isn’t it okay to leave this incident to us? Rather, we’ll take responsibility for this investigation, so please follow us inside.”

“…”

At the reminder of her involuntary imprisonment, the captain quickly fell silent. That disgraceful memory would end up being brought up again, so she had no choice but to stay silent.

“L-let’s do that.”

Maya gave up and permitted the party to look inside the warehouse.

Azadine looked inside and found that the warehouse had served as a food storage area and also had a large tub of water. She seemed to have managed to survive due to these things being in storage. Judging by the mess she had left, she had probably been trapped inside for about a day.

Looking at the door, there were traces of it having been struck by a sword. Nearby was also a broken short sword that had been tossed away negligently.

‘So this captain had more than just that decorative mace on her.’

She had been armed with a short sword and a shield when she entered this warehouse and became trapped. She seemed to have tried to use her short sword to open the door but had broken it and thrown it away.

“Were you trapped here for around a day?”

“Yes.”

“Before that, the villagers were still alive, yes? The moment you were trapped was when the village was raided. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Maya, who had given that reply, was examining the undead corpses nearby as if she was looking for something.

“Ah, by the way, apart from me, did you see any other Holy Knights?”

“Holy Knights?”

“Well, I had been sent here to subdue wyverns under orders from the Bishop. Of course, to hunt these evil beasts, we needed hunters.”

In the Holy Knights Order, there were many trainee knights who had to perform a variety of deeds to gain enough merit to become formally promoted.

“At the same time, my Father was in a position where he had to supervise the trainee knights, so I came here together with them.”

“Father?”

“Ah, yes. My Father is a Holy Knight of the Church too. From one generation to the next, we are upholding the Law of the King’s Church as father and daughter!”

She proudly stood with her chest pushed forward.

‘It’s not something to be proud of at all, though?’

Azadine inwardly laughed at her words. According to the tenets of the King’s Church, a Holy Knight was not allowed to have children. Otherwise, sending those who lost a battle of inheritance to the King’s Church would be meaningless. It would be better to kill them. Otherwise, they could have children, regain secular power, and reinstate themselves.

To prevent such situations in the past, these fallen nobles would have been forced to either join the priesthood or be castrated. However, as the rules of the Holy Knight Order became more lenient, the rule of castration was the first to be removed. So as the more immoral Holy Knights indulged in carnal pleasures, they would occasionally have children. However, children born this way would simply be illegitimate children that would be given to the Church.

In other words, this female knight, Maya, was born an illegitimate child.

‘If she was a child born before he joined the priesthood, her father would have become a priest, not a Holy Knight.’

That was why being a father and daughter pair of Holy Knights was not something to brag about. As he had a hunch, Azadine asked about the appearance of her father and his trainee knights. Once he heard their description, he came to a conclusion.

‘So they were the ones that I killed.’

This forest and sawmill bordered the farm that Azadine’s party had left the day before. The Holy Knights dispatched to hunt the wyverns probably had accidentally killed farmers with arrows while shooting them in the forest. To cover up the incident, they had tried to kill the witnesses, but one had run away, leading them to decide to massacre the whole village and meet their ultimate end when they met Azadine’s party.

But a person involved in that incident was still alive. Salasma’s Knight, Captain Maya, was the daughter of Sir Kazrek, who Azadine had killed.

“I don’t know what happened, but my Father is an extremely outstanding Holy Knight. He’s skilled in martial arts and has a righteous character. He’s not someone who’d struggle at the hands of just some undead.”

“Is that so?”

Azadine laughed. Sir Kazrek had certainly been a strong opponent. Azadine had killed him with an unexpected attack, but he would have been a difficult opponent in an official duel.

But was he really an outstanding Holy Knight?

‘If he was truly an outstanding Holy Knight, he wouldn’t have a daughter.’

He had broken the rules of the church and fathered an illegitimate daughter. How could he be an outstanding Holy Knight?

Aside from that, the knight he saw and his trainees were a gang that had recklessly shot their arrows and killed civilians. They were also caught trying to cover up their mistake by committing mass slaughter.

She might be favoring him as they shared the same blood, but he was in no way an outstanding Holy Knight.

‘He may have been an outstanding father, but I should keep my mouth shut about this. I don’t want to get involved with this woman for no reason. I don’t want to end up fighting with her just because I killed her father. That’d just leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth.’

Therefore, he decided to keep his distance from her.

“Are your weapons and tools with the horse? I didn’t see a horse that became an undead. If you think it’s safe, you can scout the nearby area with the merchants and the knights to find your horse. You never know. You might even find your colleagues.”

“Then what about you?”

“We’ll investigate the warehouse here and the village a bit more.”

Azadine said that and sent her to survey the surrounding area.

Azadine examined the warehouse a bit more but found nothing special.

“So what should we do now?”

Mediam asked.

“Should we make this sawmill our base and explore a little more? Or should we retrace the path we came from like the other merchants are doing?”

“We’ll take this sawmill as our base. If the phenomenon occurred here was the spell caster’s act, we’d need food and water supply.”

“And if not? Usually, matters related to black magic occur because of a grudge held by someone who was murdered and turned into a vengeful spirit.”

The living needed a lot of training and talent to use black magic. However, those who became vengeful spirits would immediately be able to use black magic. Disasters like these were usually caused by those kinds of spirits.

“Then do we have to keep acting like powerless children? It might be very burdensome for you.”

Mediam said this with the female Holy Knight in her mind.

Azadine had forbidden Mediam and Ismail from using their bows. If the children used their bows with evident skill, they’d be immediately identified as members of the Messenger Clan.

They had to hide it from the merchants, but it was even more important to hide it in front of a Holy Knight. More than that, however…

“If the person who committed this incident here is a human, then that person probably…”

“Right?”

Mediam could roughly guess who Azadine had in mind as the culprit.

Disasters involving black magic were usually caused by a vengeful spirit. If a person went through mortifying experiences throughout their lives and did not get a proper funeral at their death, perhaps due to being murdered, they would typically return as evil spirits. Such evil spirits also brought with them a curse.

However, sometimes there were incidents where the black magic used was of such extreme power that they truly became disasters. If this was such an incident, the most likely culprit was the woman who had been enslaved because she was a member of the Messenger Clan.

They would have to see if she was murdered and had become an evil spirit.

“I don’t know if she died and became a vengeful spirit or if she is alive and learned to practice black magic. The probability of the latter is…”

“The latter is possible to some extent.”

Azadine said this as he considered past cases of similar incidents.

Black magic spells required more talent than formal study. If she had truly inherited the blood of a messenger as well as the magic book of Flower Bird Wind Moon, it would not be strange for her to have suddenly awakened as a black magic user.

“Then, considering your personality, wouldn’t you want to try to persuade her?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you value nature and its beauty. But if it was me, I’d kill her. Though having sad memories and an agonizing past makes me sympathize with her, you can’t use a broken container out of sympathy. Isn’t using a new container more effective and less expensive?”

Regardless of how pitiful one’s past was, there was no need to use a broken container out of sympathy. The human spirit, once broken, was hard to recover.

Sometimes, people who have strong minds may go through terrible pain and do not lose themselves in them but rather forge themselves to become stronger and sharper. However, those who cannot do so end up being broken and crushed. While you could sympathize with these broken people due to their circumstances, it was not wise to trust them.

Mediam, who had spoken her piece, then smiled.

“Regardless, if you succeed at persuading her, I’d respect that.”