Chapter 252
Chapter 252
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 252
Chapter Title: The Knight Order's Secret Weapon 6
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When the lights were on, no doppelganger dared challenge her due to the Herald Clan's abilities specialized for murder. But in this darkness?
Should she light a fire to draw out Bernard's magic attacks?
Or heighten her senses to guard against approaching foes and wait longer in the shadows?
But then, flames suddenly erupted.
Kuntachi had knocked over a lamp.
It was the lamp Bernard had just extinguished with magic, but this one used a metal wick. The heated metal wick fell onto a pile of paper, igniting it.
"Oh, fuck."
Camilla, who had been watching, spat out a curse.
"Run!"
Bernard used blood magic to send a doppelganger corpse charging backward while he headed for the exit.
"Damn it! Those bastards are starting a fire! The goods are burning! We have to put it out!"
The female manager of the trading company cried out in alarm as the flames spread to the merchandise.
*********
"What the hell is this?"
Azadin, arriving at the entrance of the Bandike Trading Company, encountered Kuntachi and Camilla with arrows embedded in them, protruding outward, along with Bernard.
"Hey, Azadin!"
Camilla was furious.
"You knew this was a trading company run by the Herald Clan, right?"
Otherwise, there was no way he would have sent his subordinates in first. If so, he could have at least given them a heads-up, but Azadin had thrown them into the dragon's den without a word.
"Shh. Quiet. You're talking like you're asking for trouble."
Azadin said that as he checked Kuntachi's condition.
An arrow was lodged in him, but whether due to his rock-hard muscles or the archer's feeble strength, the wound wasn't deep.
"Bernard. What happened?"
"We encountered doppelgangers inside."
"Doppelgangers?"
For a moment, Azadin's mind grew complicated.
Doppelgangers disguised as Firegliff soldiers had attacked Izmira and the investigation team.
And in the end, it was the northern Aragasans who kidnapped Izmira.
Azadin had naturally assumed the northern Aragasans and doppelgangers were in cahoots, but it turned out they were separate factions.
'Those guys just reaped the benefits. No, this is ridiculous, isn't it?'
Azadin had already betrayed the Herald Clan. Or from his perspective, the clan had betrayed the Emperor's Herald. Currently, the only one with legitimate claim as the Emperor's Herald was Azadin.
The clan had betrayed him.
Even so, his pride stung at the fact that the northern Aragasans and those bizarre cousins had stabbed the clan in the back and snatched the prize.
'No matter how much they've turned against me, the northern Aragasans shouldn't have won. No, and here I am, getting upset over this.'
The human heart is a complex thing. Azadin had been tormented as a straggler, but he found it hard to stomach the Herald Clan—those who had bullied him—being played by the northern Aragasans and the North King's forces.
But now was not the time to be swayed by such strange emotions.
"Bernard. Take care of Kuntachi."
"Yes. Pull it out."
"Alright."
Azadin yanked the arrow from Kuntachi's body in one go. Kuntachi screamed, but Bernard cast a spell and tended to the wound, forming a scab in an instant.
"Oh no! Kuntachi! You okay?"
"He's got such strong vitality, he'll be fine. Let's get out of here."
"No need for that."
Azadin stepped forward.
As the servants scrambled to extinguish the spreading flames, the female manager of the Bandike Trading Company appeared.
"Huh...?"
But upon seeing Azadin's face, she panicked.
"Ah, Lord Arael?! No, that can't be? You..."
"Delia, is that you? You've grown a lot."
Azadin recognized her and furrowed his brow.
She was two years younger than him, a junior two cohorts below.
A female junior who admired the outstanding Arael in appearance and ability, and accordingly despised Azadin.
It seemed she had survived by failing to become a Herald and instead becoming a servant involved in running the trading company.
She snapped out of it.
Even if Azadin's face resembled Arael's, his voice was distinctly different.
"Ugh. Azadin!? Why the hell do you look like Lord Arael?"
"Twins, so we look alike."
"No! That's not what I...!"
"More importantly, answer my question. Why target Lady Izmira?"
"The clan traitor speaks so shamelessly! Do you even know where you are?!"
She loosed arrows at Azadin, but he casually caught them and stuck them into his traditional belt.
Delia's ordinary arrows posed no threat to Azadin.
*-Flame Bird Wind Moon: Heron!*
Realizing her normal arrows couldn't stop Azadin, Delia immediately enchanted them with Heron magic.
The arrows moved freely, their power surging dramatically.
Delia fired the Heron-enchanted arrows on a wide arc while casting Flame Bird Wind Moon: Earth Spider to appear in front of Azadin.
Arrows came from behind Azadin, while Delia herself struck from the front with her sword.
But from Azadin's perspective, Delia's skills—barely even Herald level—were laughable.
"Are you insane?"
Azadin seized Delia's wrist and used her sword to swat the incoming arrows from behind.
"Kyaa!"
The steel sword shattered into five pieces in Delia's hand.
The broken blade fragments spoke volumes about the monstrous power of the Heron-enhanced arrows and the shock transmitted straight to her arm.
Delia immediately drew a new dagger to fight Azadin, but he lightly shoulder-checked her torso, sending her flying back about three meters to roll on the ground.
"Urk! No, this can't be!"
Delia realized in shock that Azadin's skills far surpassed hers.
Back during regular training days, Azadin couldn't even beat her, a junior two cohorts below.
The half-wit Azadin, the useless Azadin, the laughingstock who lost to even juniors—now turned into this powerhouse?
And taking on Arael's appearance to boot made it all the more astonishing.
"To steal even Lord Arael's face and power, you clan traitor!"
"Are you loyal to Arael or the Elder Council? Pick one. More importantly, you okay with this? Pedestrians are watching. Fighting here will disrupt your trading operations."
"......"
With all the passersby in front of the trading company watching, any further fight would indeed cause issues for the business.
But Azadin was a clan traitor—why would he care about the trading company's operations?
As Delia wavered in confusion, Azadin walked toward her.
"What..."
"Let's talk more inside. Everyone, come in."
"Huh? For real?!"
Camilla was stunned.
They had just escaped from there—going back in made no sense?
Yet Azadin actually placed a hand on Delia's shoulder and dragged her inside the Bandike Trading Company.
The doppelgangers who hadn't escaped froze in surprise.
"What are you doing? We have customers—bring out some tea."
Azadin barked at the doppelgangers instead.
"Hiss..."
A doppelganger hissed like a snake and swung a blade at Azadin, but he countered with a light slap.
*-Slap!*
The lightning-fast slap spun the doppelganger's face, and Azadin snatched its blade before it could touch his skin, tossing it into the air.
The sword embedded in a rafter pillar supporting the trading company's roof, its hilt quivering.
"Next."
"You!"
*-Slap!*
"Next one after that."
Azadin slapped the doppelgangers away nonchalantly, his hand so swift and vicious that one hit left them dazed and collapsing.
After slapping each doppelganger once, Azadin dragged Delia to a table and sat.
"I am Azadin, the Emperor's First Herald. What's the Bandike Trading Company's prime directive? Isn't it to assist the Herald's missions? Loyalty to the Elder Council comes after—bring some tea first."
"......."
Incredibly, Azadin was invoking the Herald and Herald Clan's ancient oaths right here.
The Herald Clan had already discarded the Herald's mission, vowing to live for their own selfish desires. But Azadin shamelessly wielded those old pacts to claim his rights, subduing them with non-lethal force.
With the skills he'd just shown, Azadin could kill them in seconds if he tried.
In other words, Azadin was delivering a very dignified threat(?).
Would they acknowledge the relationship based on the old oaths?
Or die by his hand right now?
Recognizing the old oaths meant submitting to Azadin and providing various conveniences—not humiliating at all.
It was simply their original duty.
Resisting Azadin?
They'd all die.
Of course, Azadin didn't want to kill them. They were clan kin, after all, and he needed something from them.
Above all, now a member of the Rescue Knight Order, Azadin slaughtering the trading company's staff out of nowhere would put him in a tough spot.
'What do we do?'
'Should we submit?'
'This bastard can't kill us. How's a newbie holy knight gonna massacre a trading company without evidence?'
'But we're the ones betting our lives on this gamble....'
The doppelgangers' gazes focused on Delia.
"Damn it. Do it. Serve them."
At the on-site leader Delia's command, the doppelgangers picked up their dropped weapons from the floor and actually began preparing tea.
*********
The doppelgangers suffering this were going mad, but Azadin's subordinates watching were equally dumbfounded.
'No way they're actually doing this?'
'Doppelgangers... aren't they those nightmare-inducing demons, the shapeshifters?'
'No way that tea's meant for us to drink, right?'
With things turning out this way, Camilla, Kuntachi, and Bernard had no choice but to follow inside.
"Sorry about this."
Bernard apologized to the doppelgangers while looking at the corpse he had been controlling.
As the doppelgangers prepared the tea, they asked Delia.
"What the hell happened, branch manager?"
"Branch manager? You've climbed the ranks, Delia. So, are those doppelgangers who targeted Lady Izmira part of your crew? There was a fight at the village inn earlier."
"...Hilarious. You think I'll answer that?"
Delia glared at Azadin, but her face quickly flushed red. Having so admired Arael, she couldn't keep her composure around Azadin's near-identical face.
"That reaction is answer enough. Doppelgangers aren't that common, after all."
"Then why ask me? Just figure it out yourself."
"To enjoy watching your reactions."
At Azadin's words, the female bandit Camilla burst into laughter.