CH 40

Calypso woke up with a bitter expression on his face. His head was dizzy, and he felt nauseous.

“Did I lose?”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly losing…”

The servants from the Korasar Peddlers Guild found themselves in an awkward situation.

Should they tell the truth as it was? That he was knocked out in a single blow?

At that moment, Azadine spoke,

“Keep your promise now, Calypso.”

“Ye-Yes, I will.”

Suffering a crushing defeat from a single blow of Azadine’s surprise attack frustrated him to no end, but… there was no way he could fight again in his current condition. The injuries inflicted after just one swing of Azadine’s fist were no joke. He didn’t have the courage or confidence to go against him in this state.

“Take the children on this list to Sanctuary and become their guardian. If they say, they won’t go to Sanctuary and are living affluent lives, look into their guardians. I trust there are no hard feelings?”

“Not at all. I’m a messenger, after all. I won’t just go back on my words that easily.”

Calypso clicked his tongue while he was grumbling.

“What’s with you now? That’s unexpected of you. You’re being respectful. huh?”

“I gave it some thought and realized that it was only right to treat you as my senior since your generation preceded mine.”

Calypso was in a position now where if he insulted Azadine, it would be the same as laying down on his back and spitting into the air. Instead of that, it would be better for him to respect Azadine.

“Bu-But how’d you become like this? I mean, Senior, you can’t even use the powers of the Beauties of Nature, Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, can you? Or was it really …Elder Kazas?”

Azadine’s master, Elder Kazas, was an enigmatic elder in Sanctuary as not a single person there had ever seen his face. Even in the Senate, only his name was written down, as he had never made an appearance.

So when someone like him suddenly appeared to force Azadine into the position of messenger and then disappeared again, it was inevitable that people would curse at him. Yet, after being knocked out in a single blow by Azadine, Calypso was sure this was due to Elder Kazas’s teachings.

“Well, I’m not at a place to tell anyone about Master. When the time comes, he’ll make his own move. More importantly, thanks for your cooperation. On my end, I will check on the kids in the area on the way to Salasma. I’ll leave the other side to you.”

“Yes, Senior.”

Was it because he had been defeated so soundly? Calypso was immediately obeying Azadine’s orders and even calls him Senior.

“Ah, right, I almost forgot. Where’d you get that bone wand?”

“Some followers of the Kurt clan had it. I killed them and confiscated the wand.”

“Is that so? Um, as expected, it is a mass-produced item.”

“I guess you must have gotten one too, Senior. Then, this one.”

“Use this one for yourself. As you move around, you still need to retrieve the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth.”

“Yes. Okay then. Let’s strive to end this mission as soon as possible.”

Calypso gave Azadine his greetings and respects before leaving first alongside his subordinates.

Azadine, who saw Calypso’s party off, moved to carry the injured into a carriage from the Korasar Peddlers Guild and departed from the sawmill.

“But it was all extremely unusual.”

Mediam grumbled as she looked at the devastated sawmill.

“The dead came back to life, causing a chaos of black magic that killed the living. Well, it’s not like those particular people didn’t deserve it. A copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth popped up, and the Kurt Clan also caused that mess. This whole region is suffering from drought. Doesn’t all of this seem like bad omens forecasting an impending catastrophe?”

“They’re not just omens. The catastrophe’s already started.”

As Azadine touched the copy of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth inside his inner pocket, he had a hunch that the future would not be smooth.

Maya was shocked as she heard the chatter of the Korasar Peddlers Guild members inside the carriage.

“You mean you rescued us? And also defeated those undead?”

“Yeah. Fortunately, we had some hired mercenaries with us. Not to mention that you guys had already handled a lot of the undead.”

The members of the Korasar Peddlers Guild were sharing a story they had planned with Azadine.

They had arrived right after Tarki, Kaka, Chico, and Maya collapsed, and the undead had immediately fled the scene. They had also found a woman’s corpse buried under an old, dried-up tree. Digging the body up cleared the dark energy engulfing the forest.

That was the story they agreed upon.

“So the cause of the black magic chaos was that woman’s corpse, huh? Hm… Ah! Do you happen to know what happened to my horse?”

“The wyverns ate your horse, but we did retrieve the saddle bag.”

“Ah.”

Maya sighed as she looked at the saddle bag, the only remnant of the ordeal. The saddle bag the merchants had retrieved had also belonged to her father, Sir Kazrek.

“…”

It was probably too difficult to find Sir Kazrek at this point.

“So, for now, I’ll have to return to Salasma. Are you people going to Salasma?”

“We’re peddlers and work close to this place, but at the junction of the roads, we’ll introduce you to merchants headed to Salasma.”

“That’d be great. Thank you for your kindness.”

“Don’t mention it. With the other merchants out of the way, our profits are going great.”

That part wasn’t just lip service. The black magic chaos over the sawmill had caused the other farms inside the forest to be quarantined. When the Korasar Peddler Guild arrived and sold goods at low prices, they would earn plenty of profit.

“We’re about to get to the Continental Road, so it’d be better for you to rest in an inn or someplace like that if you’re feeling better now. After all, the carriage is just…”

For merchants, any empty space in the carriage was equivalent to losing money. Instead of keeping their goods, they allowed the injured on board. With just this one act, they had already incurred a huge loss simply to aid them.

Even though Kaka and Chico’s conditions hadn’t exactly improved, the party could no longer depend on them after hearing that fact.

“By the way…”

Kaka turned to look at Azadine.

“No matter how we look at it, you definitely don’t seem like a normal pilgrim. See, my younger sister… this is a bit embarrassing, but she’s a bit of a fortune teller and can foresee the future.”

“Huh?”

Azadine expressed his confusion through his face. People who claimed they could see the future or tell someone’s fortune were typically fraudsters.

But Chico said this to Azadine.

“You’ll probably become a Great Knight in the future. Or maybe you already are one.”

“A Great Knight?”

Azadine was a messenger of the Emperor, someone who could never become a knight in his lifetime. Not to mention, a Great Knight simply does not exist in this era.

This was an age where chivalry was ridiculed. For her to tell a person who could never even dream of becoming a knight that he would become a Great Knight…

The Korasar Peddlers Guild members found this claim so preposterous that they could only laugh. Yet Mediam’s chill gaze made them quiet down quickly as they recalled the memory of her knife at their throats.

‘Damn it. All this because Calypso’s too injured.’

‘That Azadine can’t use magic, so he must’ve at least mastered martial arts. How could he foolishly agree to duel him in a close-range fight? That moronic punk.’

The members of the Korasar Peddlers’ Guild now had a grudge against Calypso for upsetting the apple cart with such an absurd mistake. However, one among them had a different thought.

‘But even if Calypso was caught off guard, could someone like me still have knocked him out with a single blow?’

Calypso still hadn’t recovered from the attack.

‘Azadine couldn’t even perform basic tasks when he was young, yet how…’

Azadine might have had the most horrendous reputation. Still, at least the people present there were well aware of his truly extraordinary skills.

“Okay then. We’ll be departing to report this to the Cell Sword Guild, so we’ll see you next time. Brother, aren’t you going to head for Salasma?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Then you can leave together with the Captain.”

“Ugh.”

Tarki was hesitant to answer. Azadine and his party, being people of the Messenger Clan, wouldn’t want to travel with a Holy Knight Captain. If Tarki traveled along with Maya from there, it was highly likely that he would have to part ways with Azadine.

He could return to Salasma with either his party of merchants or the Holy Knights. However, he was scared of dying at the hands of his ambitious siblings if he happened to meet them on the way.

Traveling with the merchants would keep him safe from thieves and bandits, but there would be no way to avoid any attacks from his half-siblings, who would spare no effort. Under no circumstances would the Holy Knight or the merchants fight the Count’s other children just to protect him.

However, thankfully, his would-be companion Maya rejected that proposal.

“No. After all, I… will have to go look for my Father, who might or might not be close by. Please, all of you, leave for Salasma first without me.”

Having said this, Maya started her journey on foot along the path that the party had come from. She was headed toward the direction of the gateway that was blocked by the Rescue Knights.

“…will a woman be okay all on her own?”

“Well, she is a Holy Knight, after all, so she should be okay, right?”

At that moment, Azadine’s expression darkened.

“Huh, what is it? Azadine? No way, are you worried about that Holy Knight?”

“No, it’s not that…”

Azadine was in utter astonishment.

‘I can’t hear the Emperor’s Voice,’

The artificially created spirit, The Emperor’s Voice, was at the base of the Emperor’s system for messengers.

It was an extremely useful spirit that would give advice within the limitations of the Emperor’s rules, find and convey the location of the petitioners to the messengers and inform them of the date and time as well.

Yet, for some reason, he hadn’t been able to hear the Emperor’s Voice since that morning.

‘I can’t even talk about this with anyone. What’s happening?’

Azadine was in complete confusion as to why something like this was happening.

Calypso was traveling along a side road after leaving the Emperor’s road with his subordinates. Merchants from the Korasar Peddlers Guild, but not the servants, followed him.

“By the way, are you really going to give in to Azadine’s demands?”

“You even secured the bone wand that can search for the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth… Wasting time on finding these children who’re not even our people could leave you behind in the race against other messengers searching for the Book right now.”

In the case of Calypso, his father was a servant affiliated with the Korasar Peddlers Guild. At the same time, his mother was someone of Hubris.

His promotion to messenger at a young age was unprecedented, as neither of his parents were messengers. Calypso was someone seen as overflowing with talent.

Due to that, however, he had even more of a desire to rise in status. He had managed to become a messenger with his own talent, but he was still among the bottom of the hierarchy rankings. That was when he learned it.

It was a blessing to train in an affluent environment with great parents.

Therefore, Calypso put in a lot of effort. His effort was already partially acknowledged within the clan after becoming a messenger. However, if he could retrieve more of the Emperor’s Gold Coins or copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth, he could distinguish himself and even marry someone of high rank within the Savan family.

That would mean acceptance as a member of the Savan, a founding family of the Aragasa.

To accomplish this, the messengers sincerely devoted themselves to following high-ranking superiors to gain merit instead of completing their missions.

Yet, at a perfect time to collect merit, why would he take on a task that would do nothing to help him distinguish himself?

“Nothing to be done about it. I lost the duel.”

“But it wasn’t an official duel where the messengers bet their ranks, was it?”

“That’s even more of a relief. Or else I’d have to go through even more humiliation. Ah, Korasar Peddlers Guild people, keep your mouths shut.”

“Why so?”

“What do you mean, why? I don’t want to be the only one to suffer. Senior has the worst reputation in the clan, so countless punks will pester him sooner or later. So, as more people will be beaten up by him, the news of me losing a duel and suffering a crushing defeat will turn into a trivial matter.”

As he said that, Calypso couldn’t help but chuckle.