Chapter 229
Chapter 229
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 229
Chapter Title: The Pilgrimage Corps' Tribulations 4
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Since the Emperor's gold coins circulated at such a premium, there were many who thought that using one was like summoning a fool of a demon from an old tale—one you could work to death bringing worldly riches and glory until it collapsed.
“As the name ‘Emperor’s Herald’ suggests, we’re just heralds. Once we’ve delivered the message and the will, our job is done. If you want to squeeze more out of us, bring more gold coins.”
“But...”
Izumira panicked.
She had paid with an Emperor’s gold coin, but it was one she’d received from her patron, so she couldn’t just procure another one now.
“Looks like you don’t have any more gold coins. In that case, as an Emperor’s Herald, this is where I step off.”
The young man named Azadin said this and drew his longsword.
“Huh?”
The heraldic officer stared in confusion at the longsword the young man had drawn.
“What is it?”
When Yeodojeok asked, the heraldic officer replied.
“It’s a Seramite longsword. Only the knight order can obtain them, so how did one end up in the hands of an Emperor’s Herald? It can’t be a fake... it looks unmistakably genuine.”
“What’s that?”
The heraldic officer answered Yeodojeok’s question.
“A Seramite longsword is made from an alchemical alloy of silver and angel’s blood. It has exceptional effects against evil, and in the hands of a righteous deliverance knight, it unleashes heavenly flames that burn evil to the bone. Moreover, the blade possesses a life-like power, so even if it’s damaged, it repairs itself bit by bit. Its blade strength and sharpness are rated lower than very fine steel and slightly duller than a well-forged steel sword, but thanks to its self-repair ability and heavenly flames, it’s evaluated as the pinnacle weapon. Above all, it’s manufactured and held exclusively by our Deliverance Knights, so not just any knight can have one. Every Seramite longsword made so far numbers fewer than 150 in the entire history of the Deliverance Knights.”
“......”
Azadin listened to the explanation and examined the Seramite longsword in his hand. He’d never been particularly impressed by its sharpness or strength, but was this blade truly that exceptional?
“Thanks for the detailed explanation. Then, shall we proceed together as brothers of the Deliverance Knights?”
“What?!”
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I want to join the Deliverance Knights.”
“......”
“What!?”
Heraldic Officer MacDougal and Squire Knight Izumira were stunned by the Emperor’s Herald spouting such an absurd notion.
“You want to join the Deliverance Knights? You?”
“That’s right. Why? Can’t I?”
“The Deliverance Knights isn’t a place just anyone can join! It’s a gathering of honorable and righteous knights.”
The heraldic officer insisted vehemently. Then Yeodojeok poured cold water on it from the side.
“Dragging in slum rats and prison criminals, and now claiming it’s not a place just anyone can join? That’s pretty pathetic.”
“That’s...”
The heraldic officer, who talked too much for his own good, fell silent.
You weren’t bringing them into the Deliverance Knights—you meant to use them as serfs.
He couldn’t say that outright.
The pretext for the pilgrimage corps rounding up people during regular pilgrimages was always recruitment for the Deliverance Knights.
It wasn’t that they were openly admitting a shortage of labor and dragging them off as slaves; it was that the uneducated inevitably ended up as serfs working the knight order’s farms.
“Why do you want to become a deliverance knight?”
Izumira asked out of curiosity.
“I heard that under the virtues of wisdom, courage, and mercy, anyone diligent can become a member of the Deliverance Knights. Ever since I heard the tale of the Three Great Archangels descending to this land for the common folk, exhausting all their power and remaining on earth to save humanity, I’ve admired them and wanted to join as a deliverance knight. Why?”
“Well, that’s...”
It was absurd that a legend even the deliverance knights no longer believed in had come from the mouth of a soulless blasphemer.
Even Izumira, who didn’t know much of the world, heard Azadin’s words not as sincerity but as mockery.
“W-what do we do?”
“Absolutely not, Lady Izumira. This man is...”
A soulless blasphemer. The words rose to the heraldic officer’s throat, but he barely held them back.
On second thought, without this man’s help, there was no way for the pilgrimage corps to survive and return. No—if they refused him outright, might he turn hostile and attack?
“How about letting him join the pilgrimage corps for now? You’re the pilgrimage leader now, right?”
Yeodojeok cut into the conversation between Izumira and Azadin.
“Even if he joins the pilgrimage corps, whether he becomes a knight can be decided later, yeah?”
“Th-that’s...”
Izumira felt flustered by Yeodojeok’s reminder that she was now the pilgrimage leader.
She was still sorely lacking in experience in every way. And now she had to lead this pitiful little group that could barely be called a pilgrimage corps.
“A-alright. Then, Azadin of the Herald Clan. We’ll provisionally accept you into our pilgrimage corps.”
Izumira, suddenly thrust into the role of interim pilgrimage leader, had no choice but to make this risky decision.
‘Haa. The future looks bleak.’
Azadin felt a pang of dismay seeing the distrustful expression on the squire knight who had accepted him.
Soulless blasphemer.
The weight of that term struck him anew, painfully.
The Aragasa were thorough outsiders in Hybris, untouchables and pariahs.
Even in the Deliverance Knights, who stood opposed to the King’s Church that served the Yaegas divine kings, the Aragasa weren’t treated well.
‘The Deliverance Knights are rivals to the King’s Church, so I thought they’d be better, but they’re Hybris folk after all. It doesn’t seem like the full story from Btuma has spread yet, but they’re already this hostile.’
Even though the tales of Aragasa committing massacres in Btuma, allying with vile forces of evil, and committing horrific dark sorcery hadn’t fully spread, the animosity was intense.
Could he really join the Deliverance Knights and stand with them like this?
Should he just give up?
Return the Seramite longsword to Sir Plank and leave pretending he didn’t know?
‘But if I do that? What then?’
He’d lose Aldis and let Arael die, leaving only a wretched soul behind.
What had been Arael’s intent in arranging for Sir Plank and Azadin to meet?
Azadin thought of his sister, with whom he’d barely exchanged words, and sheathed the Seramite longsword.
“Then I’ll take that as permission to join. Lady Izumira. Since it’s done in your name, I hope you’ll uphold this promise on your honor.”
“Provided you uphold the knight order’s dignity and fulfill your duties. But where did you get that Seramite longsword?”
“Lady Izumira, how can you ask that? He’s the infamous Emperor’s Herald, demon of gold, soulless blasphemer. He must’ve killed some noble, upstanding knight and stolen it, right? Only holy knights recognized by the church can have Seramite longswords.”
Heraldic Officer MacDougal whispered to Izumira so Azadin wouldn’t hear. But Azadin’s ears were sharp, and he caught every word.
“But in our pilgrimage corps, I was the only one with a Seramite longsword. And there don’t seem to be other knights nearby.”
Seeing Izumira and the heraldic officer whispering pointlessly, Azadin spoke up to dispel their suspicions.
“This was given to me by my late master. It’s not what you’re thinking.”
“Ah.”
“Let’s prepare to depart. Staying here isn’t wise. Let’s move.”
“Understood.”
Izumira realized Azadin had overheard their whispers and felt embarrassed.
‘He knows shame, at least. But that heraldic officer seems to know something?’
Azadin eyed the heraldic officer, who appeared to know more than the squire knight.
*********
Dawn broke, and the fog began to lift.
Traces of the horrific massacre lay strewn about. Most were escaped prisoners and peasants, people the pilgrimage corps had meant to drag off as serfs.
The knights, being mounted, had all fled successfully, it seemed.
And among them were the attackers’ corpses.
“This is...”
Izumira spotted a corpse slumped with a bundle of javelins on its back.
A small-statured man with his neck cleanly severed—could he have been the one throwing the javelins?
“A were-rat.”
Azadin said this and rummaged through the man’s corpse, pulling out a seal to show. It was the holy emblem of Mezzeri, the were-rat god among the Kurt divine race.
“Cults? Why would cultists attack the pilgrimage corps?”
“Less cultists and more an assassination squad disguised as such. Easy to frame them if things go south. Though these guys are probably real cultists—money can hire anyone, right?”
While Azadin spoke, Yeodojeok rummaged through the corpse, gathering useful items and handing them to her younger sibling.
Seeing her scavenge every body so thriftily made it clear how she’d survived, how she’d ended up caught and swept into this place.
Azadin asked Yeodojeok.
“By the way, you lot don’t seem to be knight order affiliates. What are your names?”
“Oh, me? I’m Camilla. My little sibling’s Kuntachi.”
“This one is Bernard.”
“Got it. Nice to meet you. So, what do you think prompted this attack?”
Yeodojeok Camilla grinned.
“Looks like this young lady’s someone important. Probably targeted her, and hit the pilgrimage corps to get to her.”
“To kill her?”
“Not so much to kill as...”
“Wait! That’s a vital church event—how dare you speak of it to outsiders?! Don’t forget you’re still an untamed, brazen criminal! This is exactly why the knight order’s reeducation is needed! A prisoner who stole others’ goods without shame, now blabbing the knight order’s secrets publicly!”
MacDougal raged and tried to silence Yeodojeok, but then her half-orc sibling, Kuntachi, stepped forward.
“You... insulted sis? You did, right?”
“N-no, you...”
MacDougal tried to retort, but the half-orc’s fist flew first.
“Anyone who insults sis gets a beating!”
But Azadin intervened.
“Hey, hey! Enough!”
Azadin caught the half-orc’s fist—which could crush boulders—with both hands, while kicking MacDougal away with his foot to separate them.
*Flower Bird Wind Moon, Azure Day Pine of Kazas Manor.*
The grimoire frenzy inside Azadin’s body had been purged, so it lacked its former power, but it was still enough to control the brute force of the half-orc.