Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: New Holy Knight Azadin 5
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Cinnabar mined from Vermilion Fortress was an indispensable material for alchemy, to the point where calling it essential wouldn't be an exaggeration. Originally, this place was the most coveted post that every holy knight dreamed of serving at.
Just siphoning off a little of the mined cinnabar could amass enormous wealth.
Bribing and offering sexual favors to secure a posting at Vermilion Fortress was an everyday occurrence at the Knights Order headquarters on Chadra Plateau.
Even so, it was a remote outpost, especially one filled only with men, so naturally, dissatisfaction built up.
That's why the holy knights stationed at Vermilion Fortress would buy slaves, breaking the Relief Knights Order's precepts.
"Slaves? Have you lost your mind?"
Azadin was appalled upon hearing the ugly truth about Vermilion Fortress.
"It's something even the higher-ups know about. There have been plenty of incidents where they've messed with farmers' wives and daughters, causing accidents."
"The Knights Order leadership turned a blind eye?"
"Well, isn't what the Knights Order does basically slave trading?"
It was already common knowledge that the Relief Knights Order brought in people under the pretext of human reclamation, relief, and poverty aid, then put them to work.
Moreover, Vermilion Fortress was one of the most remote spots on Chadra Plateau, making the slavery there even more rampant.
Cinnabar was highly toxic, and workers at the mining site inevitably contracted fatal illnesses and died. Despite this, the Knights Order, blinded by the profits from cinnabar, kept throwing in more laborers.
"So? What happened?"
"The previous holy knight posted here brought in a female prisoner who was quite a beauty—a witch."
"A witch?"
"A Nether magic user. Everyone was afraid of her, but at the time, she and the holy knight platoon leader got along well and were basically living as husband and wife. Then..."
"The platoon leader died, and a new guy took over. More precisely, the new guy was the previous platoon leader's superior, and he coveted the woman and the revenue from Vermilion Fortress, so he killed the previous one and stole his position."
"The woman fled into the wilderness and vanished. Afterward, the newly posted holy knight was torn to shreds and killed. Since that day, every new platoon leader who arrives meets the same fate a week later—whispers in the darkness every night..."
"Legion. You must have checked it out yourself, right?"
Azadin turned to Legion, who beamed with joy.
"Of course, Platoon Leader! You know how brave I am."
"No, a werewolf wouldn't fear the night. So, what was it?"
"It was a Shade Hag."
"A Shade Hag?"
"Yes. In the wilderness of Chadra Plateau, witches who use Nether magic get corrupted by Nether power and turn into demons with hooked claws and hooked noses. The female slave was quite beautiful originally, but now she's become a complete monstrosity."
"......"
Azadin sighed upon confirming the Knights Order's ugly deeds. Breaking precepts and sacrificing humans to filthy desires, turning them into monsters.
"So that's why everyone treated me like a dead man walking. Because the Shade Hag is sure to kill the knights. How many have died so far?"
"Six so far."
"What? Then the curse should be over."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, no. The very first platoon leader who died wasn't killed by the Shade Hag, so effectively, five have died by her hand."
Azadin did the math.
Not just hags— in Nether magic or primal magic systems, 6 was a sacred number, one of completion.
If the female slave had prayed to the Shade Hags and begun transforming into one of them, she would need six sacrifices to complete the change.
If she'd started killing platoon leaders as revenge, she'd aim to reach six. And ironically, the final one was Azadin himself.
"Tough luck."
"Pardon? Tough luck? Surely you're not pitying that witch, sir?"
"Yeah. To end the curse, she needs to fill the Wild Magic number of 6, and to complete that number, she'd have to kill me—but unfortunately, I can't oblige."
"......"
Everyone listening was stunned. Such arrogance!
But Azadin had merely done the conservative calculations before deciding.
Shade Hags couldn't harm him. He was the emperor's one and only herald, the younger brother Arael had revived at any cost.
"What about the soldiers relying on drugs?"
"They tried to run, but the Shade Hags have this village surrounded widely. They won't let anyone involved with Vermilion Fortress live. So instead, they use the revenue from selling cinnabar to buy luxuries, indulgences, and fine silks from various regions. Without that, they'd all have gone mad by now."
"And merchants can come and go?"
"Yes."
"From that, it seems not just holy knights wronged that woman."
"Hahaha. Not me."
Legion said this while gazing at Azadin in rapture.
"R-right. Not you, of course."
"Hmm? Platoon Leader, don't fall for it. This guy's into women too."
Karran warned Azadin.
"Into women too...? Ah, no, I have zero interest in your sex lives, so shut up. My head hurts. But if that's true, why does the Shade Hag only attack holy knights and spare the soldiers?"
"She kills anyone who leaves Vermilion Fortress, so maybe she's trying to trap us here."
"And merchants?"
"Merchants never touched her or her husband."
From the story, a woman who hated Vermilion Fortress and the Knights Order had become a Shade Hag, then spent the last half year killing every newly posted knight, leaving the place lawless.
"Haa. Alright, now that I know the situation, I'll clean it up."
Everyone was impressed by Azadin's words.
Even after crushing their mutiny with sheer skill, he harbored no grudge and promised to save them—they couldn't help but see him in a good light.
Legion especially gushed.
"My god. How beautiful."
"Shut your mouth."
Azadin called for Herald MacDougal.
"Yes. Coming, coming. Wait, what the hell is going on here?"
MacDougal, unaware of last night's storm, was flustered to see all the squad leaders prostrating before Azadin.
"MacDougal. Halt all cinnabar mining operations for now."
"Pardon? Stop operations? The losses would be massive!"
"Cinnabar is so toxic it kills people. Stopping now saves lives proportionally."
"Platoon Leader, I appreciate you caring about people, but the Knights Order has a cinnabar quota. If we don't deliver..."
Azadin would be punished. MacDougal pointed that out, but Azadin remained unflappable.
"Conveniently, I have a solution."
"You can solve it?"
"Yeah. But to do that, I need something done. MacDougal, can you investigate the villagers for me?"
"The villagers?"
"Yeah."
MacDougal and all the soldiers felt puzzled.
*********
Instead of stopping cinnabar mining, Azadin reassigned the laborers outside.
"From now on, we'll clear the surrounding land. Repair the prison and reclaim the abandoned fields."
"But what about the cinnabar?"
"Farming won't make nearly as much money as cinnabar."
Intellectuals knew cinnabar mining led to deadly poisoning, but laborers didn't.
Cinnabar's toxicity didn't manifest immediately—it built up over time. Back then, mine workers didn't live long in any mine anyway.
In short, laborers were unaware of cinnabar's dangers.
Meanwhile, with the platoon leader absent for half a year, soldiers and laborers had embezzled the revenue from mined cinnabar at Vermilion Fortress.
Soldiers with spears and swords took the lion's share, but laborers got a cut too.
Seeing money roll in proportional to mining, laborers lusted after the profits over the risks.
"Don't worry. We'll mine cinnabar. Just not with you..."
Azadin clapped, and something approached with creaking sounds.
"Gasp?"
A group of skeletons marched in orderly fashion, picks in hand.
"Skeletons?"
"U-undead?"
Everyone panicked. Azadin was using necromancy to summon undead.
"These undead will handle cinnabar mining from now on."
Herald MacDougal freaked out at the sight.
"Have you gone mad? What do you take the Relief Knights Order for? Using undead?! Necromancy is evil magic!"
"Then it's fine for people to get poisoned and die? Forcing humans to mine cinnabar seems far more evil."
"So that's why you had me check for unmarked graves—those without living family or descendants! To use necromancy!"
Azadin had ordered MacDougal to identify unmarked graves—those without surviving kin.
Indeed, these undead had no descendants or family ties. Necromancy repulsed people, and no one wanted their relatives' corpses doing forced labor.
"I agonized over it a lot. I even considered paying families weekly corpse usage fees instead of using ones with kin, but it still felt wrong."
Azadin said that, but people were suddenly excited.
"That sounds great!"
"How much would you pay?"
"......"
People seemed willing to accept their family corpses mining cinnabar if properly compensated.
"Even if I ignore precepts, I'm still a holy knight—that's too much."
"Not too much at all!"
"Absolutely!"
"That's too much."
Azadin repeated himself like a broken record.
To prevent villagers from dying of cinnabar poisoning, Azadin gathered usable corpses, made undead from them, had them mine cinnabar, then began expanding housing and farms.
Unlike cinnabar mining—simple repetitive tasks programmed in—construction required constant improvisation, impossible without humans.
It also provided wages to those without farmland.
Many laborers would starve without mine income, so giving them jobs to improve Vermilion Fortress was beneficial.
While refurbishing the fortress, Azadin prepared for the Shade Hags' curse.
He considered seeking them out, but as a new arrival, wandering off to find their lair would be foolish.
The Shade Hags would come for him soon enough anyway.