Chapter 257
Chapter 257
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 257
Chapter Title: Whereabouts of the Angel's Blood 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“No, why me...”
Sir Pavel was troubled by Azadin’s decision that excluded only him, but the atmosphere here was already completely under Azadin’s control.
The other knights silently cut locks of their own hair and showed them to Azadin.
*********
Aside from the two that Azadin had beheaded, there were no other doppelgangers.
But the investigation team had mentally surrendered to Azadin completely.
They couldn’t carry out this mission on their own. They had been wide awake and still let two of their own get swapped out by doppelgangers, so claiming they could handle it independently would ring hollow.
In this way, Azadin seized command of the investigation team.
“Alright, first let’s hear what you came here to investigate.”
“That’s not something we can tell a mere squire knight.”
“You still haven’t come to your senses. The enemy already knows your team’s objective, your personnel—everything. And Sir Izmira revealed her wings right in the middle of Fireglyph district.”
“Hmm. But secrets must be kept.”
“Getting ambushed in a deep internal area of the knights’ order like Fireglyph basically means there’s a traitor inside the order colluding with the enemy.”
When Azadin pointed that out, the other knights flinched in surprise.
Even if it were true, they bristled at the idea of having it called out by an “outsider” like Azadin.
“Come on now. I get that you brothers want to keep things confidential, so let’s lay out the situation first. Option one: abandon your mission and head back to headquarters. My comrades and I will escort you until you’re safely there.”
“Hmm.”
Sir Pavel let out a heavy groan.
The first option was utterly unacceptable.
They had been ordered as investigators to look into the situation—abandoning the mission midway was inconceivable.
No casualties had occurred en route, so giving up now would be absurd.
Even to abandon it without backlash, they’d need some obvious damage that everyone acknowledged.
But that damage meant losing their one and only life. Who would willingly die for it?
“What’s option two?”
“Option two: continue with your mission. If you want my help for that, you’ll need to share at least the bare minimum of information about it. Of course, if you insist on going it alone without my help, that’s your call—but personally, I absolutely don’t recommend it.”
It might sound arrogant, but for these people already teetering on the brink of mission failure, they had no retort even if they grew ten mouths.
Overwhelmed psychologically, they couldn’t help but be cowed by Azadin’s confident demeanor.
His stunningly attractive looks that made one question if he was even human, his immense self-assurance, and this unshakable attitude—every aspect left them mentally subdued by Azadin.
“......”
“So, which will it be?”
“For my part, we already failed at the pilgrimage ambush. If we run away again this time, I won’t be able to forgive myself. I’m grateful that my brothers and sisters dote on me as a Celestial, but Celestials were originally placed in the order to become beacons of hope when darkness comes to this world. It wouldn’t do to hold you back instead.”
Ever since the pilgrimage ambush, Izmira had been repeatedly failing in operations and growing anxious about becoming a protected object of the knights’ order. Rather than remain under their protection like this, she wanted to become a proper knight in her own right.
The investigation team felt troubled by Izmira’s strong resolve.
“Very well. We’ll prioritize Sir Izmira’s wishes. What we’re looking for is a man named the alchemist Giacomo.”
“Alchemist Giacomo? What kind of person is he? Surely there’s a wanted poster?”
“He looks like this.”
Sir Pavel pulled a notebook from his breast pocket.
Inside was a folded portrait, and when he unfolded it, there was an odd man with half his head bald and the other half white-haired.
“He was originally a prisoner, but his talents were recognized, and he participated in various studies with the Knights of Wisdom. As an alchemist, he was useful in all sorts of ways. But he joined the Chadra Plateau geological survey team, killed them all, and vanished.”
“Hmm. What makes you think he didn’t die along with the others? Couldn’t his body just not have been found?”
“No, his magical traces were strongly imprinted on the geological survey team’s corpses. He definitely killed them.”
“What does Sir Hexenmeyer say? If this happened, surely he received orders to pursue and capture Giacomo?”
Since it occurred within Fireglyph’s sphere of influence, Chapter Master Hexenmeyer of Fireglyph would have gotten the order to apprehend Giacomo.
“Sir Hexenmeyer said he’s doing everything he can, but Giacomo is so elusive they haven’t caught him.”
“No results, so they dispatched an additional investigation team. And Sir Izmira, who didn’t shine in the pilgrimage ambush, joined to make up for her mistake. Hmm. Suspicious.”
Izimira herself was startled by Azadin’s words.
Azadin was suspecting that the investigation team itself had been formed to get the Celestial—Sir Izmira—out of the order.
“Who decided the members of this investigation team in the first place? Who decided to include Sir Izmira?”
When Azadin asked outright, Sir Pavel panicked.
“Are you daring to suspect the brothers of the order?”
“Yes. Even brothers deserve reasonable suspicion. If you refuse that suspicion, doesn’t that mean you don’t see me as a brother?”
He was right, just as Azadin said.
Sir Pavel harbored unease about Azadin’s identity and the fact that he was the emperor’s herald.
He didn’t want to expose the Rescue Knights’ dirty laundry to someone like this. In other words, Sir Pavel himself didn’t recognize Azadin as a member of the Rescue Knights.
And yet he accused him of suspecting his brothers.
“Understood. You don’t want to name who added Sir Izmira to the team. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. It’s not important right now anyway.”
“Y-Yes, exactly. It’s not important now. You’re just a border fortress knight anyway—no need to pry into central matters.”
With Azadin backing off first, Sir Pavel said it with glee.
Of course, the other investigation team members listening in were floored.
“I heard it was Bishop Sehnaht.”
“Ah.”
The investigation team groaned at the name.
Bishop Sehnaht was one of Sir Izmira’s guardians, and before she revealed her identity, rumors swirled that she was his illegitimate daughter.
And now the person in question herself was voicing suspicion toward Bishop Sehnaht.
“Bishop Sehnaht. I’ll remember that. So, what have you done since coming here to find this alchemist Giacomo? Let’s go over the investigation team’s timeline.”
“First, we received handover of the prior investigation reports from Sir Hexenmeyer. We have to read and organize these from now on.”
Izimira pulled out a bundle of documents and showed them.
“Here, let me see.”
Azadin took the bundle from Izimira, flipped through it with a rustle, and skimmed it roughly.
Most were useless reports from knights stationed in villages or fortresses under Fireglyph’s command.
It seemed Hexenmeyer had merely circulated the wanted poster for the alchemist Giacomo, done nothing else, and just compiled the responses as his “materials.”
“Hmm. Lazy or in cahoots. Just to check—are you prepared to take down Sir Hexenmeyer?”
“W-What?!”
The investigation team was shocked by Azadin’s question.
Even with authority exceeding their rank for the investigation, impeaching a Chapter Master was absurd.
Moreover, Azadin was a squire knight who’d barely been in the Rescue Knights for a month and change, approaching two.
On top of that, he was the Soul-less Blasphemer!
“Have you lost your mind? Showing your true colors!”
Sir Pavel raged, but instead of replying, Azadin pointed at soldiers charging toward them.
“See that? Sir Hexenmeyer made the first move. You’d better choose wisely.”
“What?!”
Sir Hexenmeyer’s soldiers—Fireglyph’s soldiers—were rushing toward the group.
*********
“Greetings. You must be Sir Pavel of the wanted fugitive investigation team? We’re the Fireguards, in charge of Fireglyph’s public safety and internal affairs. I’m Yan.”
“Fireguard Tamin here.”
“We’d appreciate it if you’d come with us. But...”
The knights who introduced themselves as Fireguards spotted Azadin’s group.
“Who are these people?”
“Azadin, platoon leader from Vermilion Fortress. We’re currently under attack by shapeshifters.”
“Hm?”
The Fireguards were puzzled upon seeing Azadin, the supposed platoon leader from Vermilion Fortress.
“Shapeshifters?”
“That’s right. And they were disguised as Fireglyph soldiers. Not only that—some of us got swapped out while we were being questioned by Fireguards.”
“......”
“So we can’t blindly trust Fireguards either. We have no choice but to ask for your understanding and cooperation on this.”
Azadin showed them him slightly cutting a lock of his hair with a dagger.
“Cut a lock of hair and show it—we’ll know if you’re doppelgangers or not.”
“What insolence is this...”
“Hey, the platoon leader from Vermilion? Isn’t that the Soul-less Blasphemer? His rank’s just Hospitaller Errant anyway.”
“Y-Yeah. He might have noble blood, but in the Rescue Knights, something like Yaegas divine clan lineage doesn’t mean much.”
They had prejudged that his handsome features meant noble blood.
In truth, Azadin carried the emperor-Hatir bloodline, so it was indeed noble by Yaegas divine clan standards.
“Do it quickly. We’ve been repeatedly ambushed by doppelgangers and we’re pissed. We got hit by ones disguised as Fireglyph soldiers! Here—don’t you see this?”
Azadin said so and showed them the doppelganger corpses.
“Refuse to cooperate and we’ll have to force it, which will sour things on both sides. Or are you saying we should just assume you’re doppelgangers?”
“Ugh......”
Yan and Tamin had no choice but to cut locks of their hair and show Azadin.
“Good. You’re not doppelgangers. But we’re refusing Fireglyph’s control request.”
“What?!”
The Fireguards were outraged at Azadin’s self-serving declaration, after making them cut their hair and all.