Chapter 239
Chapter 239
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: And to the New Mission 2
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I had known that from the very beginning.
Soulless Blasphemer, God-King Slayer.
An outsider among outsiders.
A being unwelcome anywhere.
“If you join the Salvation Knights, they’ll send you to the Chadra Plateau.”
“The Chadra Plateau?”
“Yes. The northern part of the Hybris Peninsula, a hellish land where the blood of ancient gods spilled from Netherstrom mixes with the rain. That’s why the Salvation Knights conduct annual pilgrimages, gathering prisoners and serfs from all over.”
A land where monsters endlessly spawn. Because of it, many kings abandoned the fertile Hybris Peninsula and left this territory to the Salvation Knights.
“If you give up becoming a Salvation Knight, I could offer you the position of guard captain in the Coxhall diocese. It’s not a knight’s role, but it’s stable and decent work. Under my protection, no one would dare look down on you. There are heretics, murderers, and kidnappers threatening people here too, so the duties would be rewarding.”
Akenar offered Azadin the position of captain of her personal guard.
“And if I insist on joining the Salvation Knights anyway?”
“Then I’ll become your patron... but I can’t control the order’s personnel decisions. They’ll assign you to a penal unit and send you to the Chadra Plateau.”
Would he become a Salvation Knight and dance to the tune of the upper echelons who despise him—and probably those under Northern Command’s influence?
Or would he become Akenar’s personal soldier, live comfortably under her clear goodwill, and stay in Coxhall?
It was a no-brainer.
“I’ve already been ordained, so I can’t claim now that I’m not a Hospitaller.”
“Even if they send you to a penal unit hoping you’ll fight until you’re spent and die?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Frankly, the order isn’t worth someone like you devoting yourself to.”
It was blasphemy a bishop of the order shouldn’t utter. But it was also unvarnished truth.
Akenar, the former queen forced into divorce by the king’s outrage and saddled with the bishopric against her will, had seen enough of the order’s filth to sicken her.
These people were in bed with power—no, they were power itself. So why?
“I’m a sinner.”
“A sinner?”
“Yes. I killed my loved ones with my own hands and destroyed a great number of the Herald clan with my own hands.”
“......”
Bishop Akenar seemed shocked by Azadin’s words.
He looked so young— what horrors had he endured to speak such words with that weight?
Azadin fiddled with the shoulder strap of the Seramite longsword’s scabbard.
He felt the emblem of the Salvation Knights: the three-winged chariot wheel.
“If sailors navigate the night sea by the stars, I destroyed my own guides, my own stars. Lost and wandering without a path, I remembered how as a child I dreamed of joining the Salvation Knights. The Salvation Knights of that time, their teachings—they were truly my salvation...”
“But the Salvation Knights now can’t be anyone’s star. And yet?”
“Yes. Please don’t worry too much about me. If it gets really bad, I’ll run away.”
Azadin gave a wry smile.
He wasn’t a fool. He knew the current Salvation Knights weren’t such a pristine organization. Even so, he wanted to live up to Sir Plank’s expectations, the man who had ordained him.
“Very well, Sir Azadin. If that’s your will, I can’t stop you.”
She said that, then shot him a glare.
“But in exchange, report to me by letter every week. To protect you from the other order executives too.”
“I’d be honored. Thank you, Bishop.”
Azadin bowed politely to Akenar and withdrew.
*********
The annihilated pilgrimage group was reorganized, but it had shrunk so much the word felt hollow.
They gathered survivors who fled the attack and mixed in Coxhall vagrants to form a new group. Bellinz, who had arrived begging for salvation, was appointed pilgrimage leader.
Bellinz, a prickly-eyed man in his forties, eyed Azadin sharply.
“You’re part of our pilgrimage group now too, Sir Azadin... And here’s your squire to help you adjust to the order. Headquarters assigning a squire to a squire knight is an exception... but you must be that exception.”
“Uwaaagh! Damn it! Why me! Why!?”
The one introduced as his squire was MacDougal, the herald of Izmira. He’d apparently been newly assigned as Azadin’s aide.
“I was supposed to finish squire training and become a squire knight any day now! That’s what I was promised from the start...”
“What?”
“Not that I’m in a position to say it. Anyway, I was promised I’d become a squire knight once this mission ended safely! So why the hell do I have to be this soulless blasphemer’s aide?”
As MacDougal fumed, Azadin, watching, chimed in.
“Because you failed this mission?”
“Huh?”
“It wasn’t a success, was it?”
Bellinz nodded too.
“You’re demoting me because the pilgrimage got wiped out? That’s ridiculous! It wasn’t my fault.”
“That’s how accountability works in an organization. You know that.”
“Uwaaagh! Shit!”
MacDougal tore at his hair in agony. Azadin smiled at him.
“Heh. So you’re my squire, huh. Hey, squire. I need you to run an errand.”
“......”
“Go buy some peppermint candies with this.”
Azadin flicked a silver coin to MacDougal.
“You’re serious...?”
MacDougal was stunned that Azadin would order him around like this, especially while so openly showing his dislike.
But Azadin just smiled shamelessly.
“Better hurry back.”
“Gah!”
MacDougal bowed curtly not to his commanding Azadin, but to the veteran knight with the most seniority there, Bellinz, then left to buy the peppermint candies as ordered.
“Alright, the noisy one’s gone. So what’s next for the pilgrimage group?”
With the noisy herald out of the way, Azadin asked the new leader.
“We’ve been ordered to wait here for a ship. The pilgrimage is over. We’ll head back to the order’s headquarters, Saint Mallory Fortress, just like this.”
“You know what Saint Mallory Fortress is, right? As a holy knight, you must.”
Sephield, a survivor who had fled with Bellinz—a man a bit younger than him—asked with a smirk, ready to mock Azadin openly.
“The holy site and headquarters of the Salvation Knights? It’s also where the Hill of Lamentation stands, with the Three Great Archangels and angels turned to stone after exhausting their power.”
“Well, well, you know your stuff.”
“But waiting for a ship? Does that mean Nisraf’s coming?”
Azadin’s voice brimmed with excitement.
“The flagship Nisraf. The Salvation Knights’ greatest treasure: six hundred sixty-six feet long, made of self-regenerating material that keeps it pristine without a single barnacle after a millennium. A mystery vessel without sails or oars, yet the only ship that can cross Netherstrom. They’ll probably send it, right? After the pilgrimage’s humiliating wipeout, the order needs to show its strength to restore faith. Few things demonstrate the order’s power and mission like Nisraf. It’s a miracle they can show right away. I’ve dreamed of seeing Nisraf with my own eyes since childhood—heck, I might even get to ride it. Heh.”
“......”
“Uh. Um.”
The Salvation Knights were flustered seeing Azadin rattle off Nisraf’s specs from memory.
“Y-yeah, probably. Impressive that you know about Nisraf too.”
Bellinz said that and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Anyway, Sir Azadin. You’re appointed squad leader, and these are your squad members for now.”
Pirate Camilla and her half-orc little brother Kuntachi, plus blood mage Bernard, were assigned to Azadin’s squad.
“And your squad’s first mission is to escort the surviving farmers and vagrants to Vermilion Fortress on the Chadra Plateau.”
“Hm. Just one squad? And it’s barely even a full squad.”
There were at least fifty farmers and vagrants to move—absurd to think such a small group could handle it.
“Don’t worry. We’ll escort you as far as Saint Mallory.”
“Hm?”
Suddenly, commotion erupted outside the window. The whole city of Coxhall was shaking.
“Oh my god!”
“It’s Nisraf! Nisraf’s here!”
The Salvation Knights’ flagship, Nisraf, was entering the harbor.
As Azadin predicted, the order had sent the flagship Nisraf.
After the pilgrimage’s ambush shattered their reputation, they sent the living legend to show the people the order was still strong.
Azadin had hoped he might board Nisraf, but no such luck.
“Hospitaller Knight Sir Bellinz. You are appointed company commander of the escort company.”
“Yes?”
“All knights on this list are transferred to the escort company. Transport the farmers and prisoners to Vermilion Fortress on the Chadra Plateau. Then report for duty there...”
“Y-you mean...?”
“We’re being sent to the Chadra Plateau too?”
Azadin had known he was headed to the Chadra Plateau from the start. But the other knights freaked out at their assignment.
“N-not even to Saint Mallory Fortress, but overland?”
“That’s right. Saint Mallory is a sanctuary, after all.”
The knight delivering the orders eyed Azadin pointedly. With Azadin in the group, they had no intention of letting them near Saint Mallory—or boarding Nisraf.
“We’re going to the Chadra Plateau anyway. But seeing the other knights’ faces fall apart like this—why’s it so damn fun?”
Camilla laced her hands behind her head and grinned.
“Well...”
Azadin grinned back.
“With so many companions and such a harmonious vibe, how could it not be?”