Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Atra's Followers 4
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Azadin snorted at Midiam's demand.
“If I take you on as my attendant, then everything that happened here today becomes my responsibility too. Beating up the servants like that without a second thought. You knew they had Sabban Ga behind them, didn’t you? Were you trying to pit me against Sabban Ga?”
“Ah, no, that’s not it.”
Midiam panicked as Azadin pressed her.
“I just couldn’t stand how they were insulting and belittling you.”
“Of course I’m grateful for that. But for that gratitude to last, you can’t become my attendant. If Ehtar’s Midiam beat them up, then I owe you thanks. But if my attendant beat them up, then I’d have to correct your behavior. I’d have to bend you over and spank you, wouldn’t I?”
“Ugh, that’s too much. You’re so kind to the people of Whibres, but why like this to me?”
“Because you’re not one of the people.”
At that moment, Azadin stopped in his tracks. The Emperor’s voice had spoken to him.
[A petitioner has appeared. But…]
“Dead? Direction?”
[West. Ah, their breath just stopped.]
“Damn it.”
Azadin rushed toward the western gate. A horrific slaughter had already unfolded there. Soldiers lay murdered, and mercenaries turned monstrous were devouring the corpses.
“Grrrk!?”
“Meat?”
The mercenaries, deeply mutated, had four spider legs sprouting from their bodies.
“They only had two earlier.”
“They seem to change more drastically as time passes.”
Azadin removed his cloak and wrapped it around his arm.
“Prepare fire.”
With that, Azadin stepped forward.
“Grrraaah!”
A mercenary fully transformed into a spider beast lunged at him. But the moment it entered Azadin’s range, he unleashed a lightning-fast kick to its jaw.
*Crack!*
So swift it was like a blurred shadow passing by—the mercenary’s neck snapped, and it tumbled backward. Its cervical vertebrae shattered, nerves severed, sending its body into spasms.
But the attack took a toll on Azadin too. Exerting such immense force in one go made the strike and recovery quick, yet his body shook from the recoil.
Another spider mercenary seized the opening and charged.
“Hup!”
Azadin drew the curved sword at his waist and swung it while collapsing like a spent top.
*Slash!*
The spider mercenary’s arm and spider legs were severed, spraying blood. Azadin hit the ground, rolled to dodge the gushing blood, and sprang up.
He had felled two mutated mercenaries in an instant, but…
“Keeek!”
“Kehok…”
The mercenaries coughed and rose again.
The one with the broken neck writhed with spiders swarming inside its throat, replacing its nervous system. The one with the severed arm had spiders clinging to the stump, staunching the blood.
Despite wounds that should have killed them outright, they lived.
“Looks like I need to chop them to pieces.”
Azadin glanced at the sight, then at the curved sword he’d just swung. Its blade was chipped in places.
The price of severing an arm and two spider legs in one stroke.
“Hmm.”
Azadin flipped the blade and gripped it properly again.
“Keeek!”
“Kraaak!”
The spider mercenaries charged once more. They clutched weapons in their hands and swung spider legs as they rushed, but Azadin lowered his stance and moved.
*Whoosh!*
His form blurred, darting through the spider mercenaries in a flash.
One was bisected at the waist, split in two. Another was half-severed, but the blade snapped and lodged in its body.
“Damn. Good sword wasted… It breaks here after all.”
Azadin clicked his tongue, gripping the half-remaining blade.
The bisected mercenary twitched and crawled on the ground but died from the massive wound. The one with the blade in its torso ignored the injury and leaped at Azadin.
In that instant, an arrow suddenly struck it.
*Thunderbolt!*
Lightning crackled, frying the spiders inside in a flash.
“Kieeeek!”
The mercenary flailed and collapsed, unable to rise.
“As I thought! If they’re weak to fire, they’d be weak to lightning too! The spiders inside them are so small…”
Midiam said that, but dizziness hit her, and she staggered. As she nearly fell, startled Ismail reached to support her, but Azadin was faster.
Azadin propped her up with his foot to keep her from collapsing. It was like bracing a rotting doorframe.
“Be careful. The Book of Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon is colorless magic. Spells like Thunderbolt that generate lightning are terribly inefficient. Just because it’s in the grimoire doesn’t mean you can spam it. Still, impressive that you can cast Thunderbolt at your age. Truly Ehtar’s prodigy. I’m impressed.”
“!”
Midiam perked up her shoulders at his words.
“Right? Not many my age can cast Thunderbolt. Hehe. With this beauty and this talent, I really am a sinful woman when I think about it.”
“Rest a bit. Your head must ache from overusing magic.”
Azadin praised Midiam, then gathered the mercenaries’ dropped weapons from the ground.
“Shall we set the spiders ablaze then?”
Azadin gathered handfuls of hay from around, scattered it on the corpses, and lit it with a torch. The hay burned quickly, scorching the bodies lightly, but it was fatal to the spiders.
“This method works well, but what if too many enemies come at once?”
Ismail asked coldly.
Two was manageable. But more than that?
Azadin couldn’t use magic, so body techniques alone had limits.
Wouldn’t someone like Azadin need attendants who could wield magic all the more?
“Why not finally accept us as your attendants…”
“We’ll do what we can. No way my kin from a distant land would abandon me, right?”
Azadin steadfastly refused to take them on and picked up the mercenaries’ weapons from the ground.
These were in poor shape too. Damaged by the superhuman strength the mercenaries gained from the Kurt God Tribe’s spiders.
“Axes or halberds might be better.”
Azadin grabbed those weapons and headed for the western gate.
*********
The western gate had become a slaughterhouse. Once the mercenaries tasted blood, they lost control in excitement, killing and devouring human flesh.
Their bodies mutated faster as a result—six spider legs now sprouted from their backs.
The Mercenary Captain and Tarky watched them.
“Hey, is this okay? You said we were looking for the Divine King Formation copy? Then we should be more…”
Tarky pressed the Mercenary Captain.
“Hmm. It’s a bit different from expected… but it’s going well.”
“Going well?! Hey, if it’s like this, no one with the Divine King Formation will come to this village! It needs to look peaceful on the surface to draw people in!”
“We’ll clean up the bodies. Crush the resistance quickly and clean up.”
As the Mercenary Captain said that, passing corpses, he noticed a triangle drawn on the ground.
“What’s this?”
“A triangle on the ground…”
Blood stained around the triangle, and a mercenary gnawed on a corpse nearby. Tarky muttered in sudden surprise.
“The Devil of the Gold Coin?”
“The Devil of the Gold Coin—the Emperor’s Herald, right? The Herald Clan?”
The Mercenary Captain tilted his head.
“Come to think of it, the Divine King Formation copy was scattered by the Herald Clan, wasn’t it? They must be desperate to find it. Maybe… one of them has it.”
“You’re not thinking of fighting the Devil of the Gold Coin?”
Tarky asked in panic.
“Of course. Think about it—the one who sneaked into our camp and cleanly stole our stuff? It’s gotta be one of them. No ordinary thief could pull that off.”
The Mercenary Captain kicked a fellow mercenary eating a corpse. It screamed and rolled away.
“Let’s see. No gold coin. They used it? Good—if they did, a Herald will come.”
The Mercenary Captain laughed.
“If we know when the enemy’s coming, we have the advantage. Shall we set a trap?”
But before he finished, an arrow flew toward the Mercenary Captain’s head.
“Hmph.”
He easily caught and blocked it with his hand.
“Interesting. Too fast? They’ve been watching us too.”
The Mercenary Captain flung the arrow back, and another shot toward his face.
“Don’t you see it’s useless?”
He sneered and grabbed the incoming arrow, but this one was different. The shaft was slick with oil, impossible to stop by gripping.
And stronger than the first. The first had been deliberately weak to lower his guard; this was the real shot.
“Ugh?!”
*Thwack!*
The arrow slipped and embedded precisely in his face. It crushed the bridge between his eyes, severing control to both. The muscles focusing the eyeballs—the internal ocular muscles—were cut.
At the same time, a man in a hawk mask charged. Startled Tarky grabbed his sword, but…
‘Huh? Do I really need to protect these guys?’
Seeing Tarky hesitate, the man dodged him and lunged at the Mercenary Captain.
The sword flashed toward the Mercenary Captain’s neck.
*Kwachak!*
But only the blade flew. Instead, a spider leg sprouting from the Mercenary Captain’s chest pierced the man’s torso.
“Ha, so this is an Emperor’s Herald. What an entertaining bastard.”
The Mercenary Captain gloated, twisting the spider leg side to side to tear the wound wider.
But…
*Plop!*
The spider leg fell off.
“…”
He’d thought it pierced the man’s chest, but the initial clash had already severed the Mercenary Captain’s spider leg.
Powerless from the cut, it merely dangled from the man’s leather armor.
“You’re an entertaining heretic too.”
“Fuck.”
The Mercenary Captain yanked the spider leg from his body and reached for his sword, but the opponent was faster.
The hawk-masked man snatched the Mercenary Captain’s sword hilt from his waist and delivered an uppercut with his other hand.
*Crack!*
One blow shattered the jawbone and blasted consciousness away. But the Mercenary Captain recovered instantly. The spiders parasitizing his body reflexively awakened the stunned flesh via spinal reflexes.
“A monster!”
The obvious monster Mercenary Captain was shocked by this Herald’s power. He gathered his full strength, extending spider legs.
Two to the back, stabbing the ground to brace himself; the other two forward, attacking the foe before him.
But the enemy had vanished from sight.