CH 38

‘But what will happen if he really persuades her?’

Mediam surprised herself with this thought.

After all, she hadn’t even considered the possibility.

What if Azadine really managed to persuade the spell caster? What would happen then?

[I’ve waited for 10,000 nights.]

The spell caster said this.

At the same time as her voice, the wyverns under her control were surrounded by dark energy.

[Ever since I was a young girl until today, I have waited for so long. For people from my clan to come find me and liberate me from this wretched life…]

It was the delusion of a girl who had suffered all her life. However, she could endure the constant abuse and humiliation since it had been her one ray of hope.

[But you people never came.]

When the wish she had prayed for in her heart for 10,000 nights never came true, a sense of betrayal and resentment must have begun to fill her mind. The extremity of those negative feelings was what caused the undead to rise.

The wyverns, who had been instantly killed by Azadine’s arrows, rose up again as undead beasts. The bear, which had also collapsed just moments ago, rose up as undead as well.

“I am sorry. I am sorry that you had to endure the insults and abuse inflicted on those of our clan all by yourself.”

Azadine offered her his apologies. It had only been three months since he had become a messenger and taken on those duties. Before that, he had never had such responsibilities on his shoulders.

He was, therefore, completely ignorant of what had happened here to this woman.

The circumstances were where no one could take responsibility even if they wanted to.

Yet, Azadine couldn’t allow himself to make any excuses.

Considering the suffering she had gone through, no excuse would have made any sense to her.

[…]

Was it because of Azadine’s apology? The undead that had been raised simply stood in a daze, not attacking anyone around them.

[As I thought, I can’t forgive you. I’ve now dabbled in black magic and will rid everything from existence by killing all that is living. Only death will comfort this suffering and pain of mine.]

The wyverns and the bear that had transformed into undead began to release unpleasant and tumultuous energy.

Were they getting ready to attack?

Azadine let out a sigh.

“Where were your children sold and sent to?”

[I didn’t give birth to them because I wanted to! They were children made from the people of Hubris who raped me!]

“But those children would have to suffer as well simply because they have the blood of the Aragasa flowing in their veins. Like you, they would live as slaves for ten thousand nights or more. They would have to endure the same humiliation and disgrace. Like you, they will loathe the clan that didn’t come to save them. If you don’t wish your children to suffer the same pain and suffering… surrender to me and tell me about them.”

[…]

“I swear I will find and rescue your children in the name of Emperor Yaeslat. If you spent ten thousand nights in pain and suffering, do you not wish something different for your children?”

Hearing these words from Azadine, the darkness began to shake.

[You mean, I-I… my children? I can save my children? Is that possible?]

“Yes, it is possible. I told you, didn’t I? We, the Aragasa, can bring down the stars and even kill the Heavenly Kings. The people of Hubris may loathe us, but that’s because even under their contempt, we do not lose sight of our faith.”

“…”

“…”

Mediam and Ismail, who heard Azadine’s words, were rendered speechless.

‘Look at him. At least don’t lie, won’t you?’

‘Faith? Have we ever had such a thing?’

As a member of one of the founding families of the Messenger Clan, even Mediam could say without hesitation that the clan Azadine spoke of simply didn’t exist.

A messenger’s duty was only forced upon them because of the curse.

The Clan’s founders had merely chased after money and power.

Once they recovered the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth, they would lift the curse of duty that had been enforced upon them. Then, with their overwhelming power, they would take over this land. Afterward, they would pay back the agony and suffering that they had gone through under the people of Hubris.

In all of that, there was no pride in their actions, only greed. Yet Azadine tried calming down the spell caster by acting like an honorable Emperor’s messenger who had pride in his position.

Liar.

However, Azadine’s words seemed so sincere that even they wanted to believe him.

Honor and pride would transcend even the most painful hurt and loss.

If one had that, then perhaps…

[I will surrender.]

Everyone doubted their ears at that moment.

A broken container could never return back to its original state. Someone could make a world’s worth of effort to fill it back up, but it no longer held any value.

A broken human was even more so.

Moreover, if black magic is involved, that human’s soul gets corrupted and damaged, and it would be impossible to be of any use ever again. But the spell caster, who’d been subjected to hatred and violated her dignity, filling her with resentment, let go of any animosity and surrendered to Azadine.

[I put my trust in your pride and honor and request you to rescue the children I gave birth to but couldn’t embrace.]

She made this petition to Azadine, the Emperor’s messenger. As she surrendered to Azadine, the undead collapsed, and the fog around the forest cleared away.

It was an astounding victory. Of course, the price for it was a grave promise. The promise to rescue her children. This promise made with the name of the Emperor, honor, and pride could never be broken.

A woman walked out towards Azadine from the forest and kneeled in front of him politely as she held out both her hands. Looking at her kneeling in full supplication, Azadine approached her.

“Rest assured. Your children are a part of our clan, so how could we turn a blind eye to the pain and humiliation of our people?”

Azadine lowered himself into the same posture in front of her and held her hand with his head bowed. A wound on her hand had something similar to black mycelium growing out of it.

It wasn’t just limited to that… they were growing all over her body. It was beyond what a human would be able to tolerate.

She should already be dead, though she didn’t seem aware of this.

“How many children do you have? Do you remember who or exactly which merchants from what company bought and took them away?”

[Yes. I don’t remember it all perfectly, but I wrote down some notes and hid them in the warehouse so I wouldn’t forget. It’s just that…]

“How did you get your power?”

[I received it from a magic book that kept whispering to me. The book called itself a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.]

“… did you just say the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth?”

Azadine was puzzled by those words. Was she saying she learned black magic through the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth?

That was impossible. Black magic was strictly forbidden, whether it was the Heavenly Kings of Yaegas’ Church or the Rescue Knights.

So how could there be a power of black magic from the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth?

[I’ll return the Magic Book. Kindly…]

However, she wasn’t able to finish her words.

-’ Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon! Flames of Autumn Fields!’

Suddenly, the forests around the sawmill began to catch fire.

—-

[Aaaaah!]

Already in a state close to death, the heat of the flames caused the woman to scream and collapse in pain.

“This!”

As soon as Azadine stood up, a clear voice rang through the air.

“Ah, hahaha. How idiotic of you, Azadine. That woman is not one of our people. What, is it because you couldn’t use magic that you couldn’t even realize that?”

A messenger wearing a hawk mask had a bone wand in their hand. It was a bone wand imbued with a searching spell to find the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.

That in itself was surprising, but behind him were members of the Korasar Peddler Guild. Members of one of the founding families, the Savan, stood there armed with weapons in significant numbers.

“Ah, it seems that you didn’t recognize me since I didn’t attend the summer festival. I will introduce myself. I am Calypso, the 106th messenger.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“As you can already see, I am exorcizing evil and gathering copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.”

“But I’m pretty sure this is my jurisdiction.”

“Yes, yet according to rumors I have heard, you are so incompetent that you couldn’t bring about any results. On top of that, you could also not stop your servant from acting recklessly.”

As he listened to Calypso, he noted a few familiar-looking servants standing behind him. Among them were Azadine’s peers, who Mediam had threatened with a knife. The tea merchant they had before was also in attendance. The common factor around them was that they all belonged to the Korasa Peddler Guild and had been humiliated by Mediam after she threatened them with her knife.

Those who despised Azadine and had been embarrassed by Mediam had come to find them alongside Calypso.

“Um.”

Azadine looked at the spell caster at his feet. The culprit behind this Black Magic Chaos was already dead and had returned to her original appearance.

“That woman’s body doesn’t contain the magic book of Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon. I have already searched for it, and she is not Aragasa. You can thank me for that. I mean, there is no need to sort out the mess between the people of Hubris for no reason, is there? How dare you use the Emperor’s name for the people of Hubris. Hoo, hoo.”

Between Azadine and Calypso appeared a pure white piece of paper. It had come out from the dead spell caster, to be exact. A copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth had appeared.

“Ah… so it came out. As expected.”

Calypso placed the bone wand into his inner pocket and stretched his hand toward the page, but…

As if choosing its own owner, the copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth floated towards Azadine.

“…”

Calypso’s lips twitched.

“I guess it recognizes its true owner after all. It is magical indeed. Well, that’s expected of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth!”

Mediam teased as she placed an arrow on her bow.

-’ Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon! Rain of May!’

The arrow she shot landed in the middle of the fire in the forest, and within a moment, a rain shower descended, extinguishing the fire on one side in one go. However, because it consumed a large amount of magical power, Mediam broke into a cold sweat.

“…ugh.”

Regardless, she didn’t want to lose, so she didn’t collapse and pretended to be fine while turning around.

“You people too, if you’re really Aragasa, stop burning the Emperor’s land for no reason and extinguish the fire! Aren’t you the least ashamed of setting fire to a forest when there’s a drought?”

“Shut it, daughter of the Ethar. Who do you think you’re preaching to, you little rascal?”

“What?”

“I’m a messenger, and you’re a servant. I don’t care if you’re an Ethar or whatever. How dare a lowly servant tell a messenger what to do, huh?”

The servants who had accompanied him were happy at Calpyso’s words. How angry must they have been at being humiliated by Mediam to bring a messenger, Calypso, with them?

Mediam had used her position as a servant of the messenger Azadine to suppress those servants. Now it seemed that the opposing side was planning to do the same using Calypso.

However, Azadine came forward.

“I’ll train my servant according to my own judgment, Calypso. I’m pretty sure you were… one grade lower than me, right?”

Calypso was a year younger than Azadine.

‘So it’s a fight between old men.’

Ismail found this absurd situation hilarious.

When Calypso had used his position as messenger to dictate a servant, Azadine had replied by using their respective ages.

“While that is true, I rank higher than you.”

“The problem here isn’t a ranking among messengers. More importantly, if you actually conducted an investigation, you must know where this woman’s children were sold to, right?”

“…What? You’re really going to do that? That woman is a person of Hubris. She’s not Aragasa.”

“But I’ve received a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth. One could say it’s a treasure of equal or even higher value than the Emperor’s Coins. Ignoring and gobbling it up by ignoring the wishes of the person I received it from after they made a request is…”

Azadine clicked his tongue.

“My pride wouldn’t allow it.”

“How amusing. The clan’s biggest incompetent actually has pride, huh?”

Calypso stared at Azadine.

“I can tell you if you hand over the copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then how about betting it over a duel?”

“A duel? Between messengers?”

“Yeah. You bet that copy of Heavenly King’s Book of Truth along with that daughter of Ethar. I’ll bet the information you want about the current whereabouts of that woman’s children and my rank. If you win against me, you’ll be the 106th messenger.”

“And if you win? What’s the point of betting on the daughter of Ethar?”

“I’ll obtain a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth and take that rude servant of yours as my servant. I will teach her a lesson to respect those above her and to respect the clan’s businesses as well.”

As those words left Calypso’s mouth, the servants standing behind him smiled wickedly.