Chapter 23
Chapter 23
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Atra Follower 5
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Eh?!”
*Splash!*
The enemy had already climbed onto his back.
“You bastard!”
He lashed out at the foe with spider legs.
But… they didn’t connect.
“Spiders can’t scratch their own backs.”
The Herald sneered as a flash of sword light gleamed.
*Thwack!*
The mercenary captain’s head flew off. Tiny spiders poured from the wound where his neck had been severed, trying to seal it, but it was futile once the head was gone.
The Herald who had decapitated the mercenary captain in one stroke tilted forward, trampling the body and draping his cloak over the neck stump.
*Squelch!*
As he stomped on the cloak, blood gushed out, soaking it.
“Uh… urgh.”
Tarki stared in shock at the one who had ambushed and slain the troublesome mercenary captain in an instant.
“Is this bastard the leader? He didn’t lose his reason even after turning into a spider… He must be a fairly high-ranking familiar.”
With those words, he turned to look at Tarki. Tarki hadn’t lost his reason either. And as the employer of the mercenary band, he looked suspicious no matter how you sliced it.
“Ah, w-wait a second. I’m over here…”
*Shing!*
The sword that had slain the mercenary captain now targeted Tarki.
“No, you’re a Herald, right? Then you can’t kill me! Because… l-look at this!”
In his panic, Tarki yanked a necklace from his bosom and shook it. A small leather pouch dangled from it.
“Ah, you can’t see it like this. Hold on a sec.”
Tarki pulled something out from inside.
It was a gold coin.
“…….”
The Herald froze in place.
“See? Just like Mom said! You Heralds can be controlled with the Emperor’s gold coins!”
“Even a gold coin has no say if the plea isn’t made properly.”
“Ah, damn it! Fine!”
Grumbling, Tarki tossed the gold coin into a nearby engraved triangle. The coin vanished, and golden light illuminated the triangular shape.
The approaching Herald sighed and sheathed his sword.
“S-so? I’m your employer now, right?”
“The precise term is not employment, but plea. So, what is the content of your plea?”
“I got infected by those spiders—save my life!”
“…….”
The Herald sighed again.
“Ah, damn…”
[The plea has been accepted.]
The Emperor’s voice announced the acceptance in his stead.
*********
Azadin let out a sigh.
“Why do we have to accept trash like this as a petitioner?”
“That’s too harsh.”
Tarki, who had been listening, protested, but he shut his mouth when Azadin glared at him.
“Where’d you get the gold coin?”
“Mom gave it to me.”
“And the mercenary band?”
“Mom hired them…”
Tarki was a bastard child, but his mother came from a well-off family.
She had pulled strings with her in-laws’ money, hired the mercenaries for him, and even procured an Emperor’s gold coin to hand over.
“A guy who was gleefully plundering the village goes around with ‘Mommy, Mommy’ on his lips? What a little shit.”
“What? You little punk, that’s how you talk to your employer…?”
*Shing!*
Azadin’s blade whistled past Tarki’s nose.
“Eek?!”
He felt the brush of his peach fuzz being sliced. It had been a paper-thin margin. A fraction more, and his head would’ve been clean off.
“Paying a gold coin doesn’t make you my master. The Emperor’s plea isn’t about hiring slaves with coin as payment. It’s about yearning for the protection of the law.”
“Th-then what are you gonna do for me?”
“First off, can’t you use magic?”
“Nope.”
“Your half-brother Kozel could at least do dazzling lights, though?”
“You know Kozel?”
“Whatever. Even if you’ve fallen low, as a descendant of the Eight King Gods, you should be able to use some magic. Ah, damn it.”
Azadin twisted his body around and glanced back at the girl following him.
“Midiam.”
“Yes.”
“Lightning Wall, weakly. Please.”
“M-me?”
“Yeah, please.”
Azadin had asked Tarki if he couldn’t use magic, but he himself couldn’t either.
‘I’ve got some trump cards, but even with those… it’s hard to kill just the spiders without harming the person.’
So Azadin turned to Midiam. She hesitated.
“No, as a fellow from a distant land, of course I can help. But helping with a gold coin contract on top of that, while refusing to take me as your servant… don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
“…….”
As expected, when Midiam pointed it out, Azadin felt ashamed.
“Y-yeah?”
“Wouldn’t it be time to acknowledge me as your servant? Not that it matters—I’ll cast Lightning Wall anyway.”
Midiam knew how to prick at his conscience.
If she said she wouldn’t cast it unless he acknowledged her as a servant, Azadin would surely scramble for another solution.
But she’d cast it regardless—though it’d be nice if he acknowledged her.
Refusing when she put it that way was just too much, wasn’t it?
“Agh, you too. What would you even do as my servant? Fine. I’ll take you on as one.”
“Ah, th-thank you! I’ll work hard!”
Delighted, Midiam cast Lightning Wall.
*********
“Ugh.”
Ismail groaned. Every word and action Midiam directed at Azadin tore at his heart.
They might seem trivial, but up until now, Midiam had never shown that kind of attention to any of her peers.
Midiam had always been like that. She paid no heed to those around her; her gaze was forever fixed on the wider world.
That’s why Ismail had admired her.
Arael might have been hailed as the clan’s top genius, but she was on such a different level he’d never even met her. Midiam was pretty and bold, skilled to boot, and as a member of the Etar bloodline, she wielded significant influence within the clan.
That’s why, as a child, Ismail had once jumped off a waterfall to catch Midiam’s eye. She’d remained utterly indifferent.
Yet now, that same girl was practically fawning over Azadin. Seeing it crushed his spirit.
“What’s with this kid?”
Azadin sighed, noticing Ismail’s odd state too.
*********
“Gaaahhh!”
Tarki screamed and collapsed, struck directly by Midiam’s Lightning Wall. Spiders died throughout his body, black ichor oozing out.
As expected, Lightning Wall wiped out the spiders infesting his body clean. It damaged the host too, but it was far better than being tortured by the spiders.
“Phew. Adjusting the power to not kill him was pretty tough. Anyway, mission accomplished. Not bad, right?”
Midiam said that to Azadin before staggering and collapsing forward. Azadin caught her in alarm.
“You okay? Sorry, I pushed you too hard.”
“N-no. I’ll be fine after a rest. Daughters of Etar aren’t that fragile.”
Midiam flashed a bright smile as she lay there.
“Now that the plea’s resolved, shall we kill him?”
Ismail asked. He seemed irritated by how chummy Midiam was being with Azadin.
“What the hell, man? Ack?!”
Tarki jolted in surprise, but Lightning Wall’s power still lingered in his body, leaving his limbs limp. Even if this kid came at him hell-bent on killing, he couldn’t fight back in this state.
Plus, seeing that young girl just cast magic… he wouldn’t have stood a chance even in perfect shape.
‘They’re insane? Nothing like a nobody like me. As expected of the Godslayer King’s kin.’
The one who’d taken down the mercenary captain he’d found so vexing in one go, and now this… Tarki realized he had no means to resist them.
“Ismail, don’t say useless things.”
“We granted his plea. Can’t we take his life now?”
“No. Once someone becomes a petitioner, we serve them with utmost sincerity even after the plea is fulfilled. Killing them right after isn’t sincere. Besides, the Emperor’s voice draws vitality from petitioners.”
Azadin rejected Ismail’s request.
“Even though he broke the Emperor’s law and sacrificed the people?”
“If that were all, no amount of gold coins would let him plead with us. It at least means he won’t flagrantly break the national law going forward.”
The gold coin plea wasn’t simple magic. The petitioner had to make it with true desire. It wasn’t triggered just by tossing a coin into the triangle—the Emperor’s voice comprehensively judged their earnest wish, their goal, and decided whether to accept the contract.
Otherwise, if holy knights or inquisitors from the King’s Church got their hands on gold coins and set traps, it’d spell disaster for the Heralds.
Once someone made a plea, they effectively became an ally of the Heralds, like it or not.
‘That’s why I provoked him to try pleading, but he actually went and did it.’
Azadin didn’t like Tarki one bit, but with the plea succeeding right in front of him, he had no grounds to ignore it.
‘Well, thinking about it, it’s good. Already earned two gold coins in one day?’
The village had been raided, and a local resident had made a gold coin plea. But he’d died before Azadin arrived, so that coin went straight to him.
Then Tarki’s plea, which Midiam resolved with Lightning Wall, freeing him from the parasitic spiders. Two Emperor’s gold coins in a day—an incredible feat.
‘The poor sap who wasted his coin and lost his life… well, taking down these guys will be some payback. But this one really rubs me the wrong way.’
Azadin eyed Tarki with displeasure.
“W-wait a minute. Isn’t it overkill just for plundering some settlers?”
Tarki realized even Azadin, who’d opposed Ismail, didn’t like him, so he started making excuses. But his excuse was utterly ridiculous.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Come on, settlers are just lazy, incompetent, brainless peasants, right?”
Tarki revealed the full noble prejudice against settlers.
*********
The inhabitants of frontier reclamation lands had to till barren soil while exposed to dangerous beasts. Thoughtful lords who wished to expand their domains would lower taxes for such settlers and station troops to ensure their safety.
They did harder work than others, so even if profits were low, they deserved consideration.
Once enough people gathered, fields matured, and wildlife or monsters were driven out, the reclamation land would match other cities’ productivity, repaying the investment.
But most lords didn’t think that far. To them, reclamation lands yielded little yet demanded much from lazy vassals.
They ignored that these were people carving out farms from untilled wilderness in remote, trade-poor areas, fixating only on lower yields and scorning settlers as indolent and inept.
This wasn’t unique to Count Kazel. It was a common noble misconception.
That’s why Count Kazel had been cold toward refugees fleeing drought by abandoning reclamation lands.