Chapter 261
Chapter 261
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 261
Chapter Title: Whereabouts of the Angel's Blood 6
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"Wait a moment, Sir Azadin. This won't do."
"What do you mean?"
"This potion was likely made from the Angel's Blood that scoundrel Giacomo fled with. The Angel's Blood is the utmost secret of the Salvation Knights. We can't let it leak outside, even if it's been altered. Why do you think we must absolutely recover the Seramite longsword?"
Items made from the Angel's Blood must never leave the knight order.
But could he say that outright to a man prepared to sacrifice everything for his daughter?
'That's why he killed the investigation team. What a frustrating fool. If I tell him no right here, he'll fight to the death.'
Azadin sighed as he watched Sir Pavel interfere.
"I was a fool to trust the Salvation Knights after all. That's just how you lot always are!"
Giacomo took Sir Pavel's words to mean there was no way to save his daughter and assumed a fighting stance.
"I'll kill you all, escape, and save my daughter myself..."
But the moment he opened his mouth, a stream of water poured into it.
"Mmph!?"
"Open wide, Giacomo. Shut your mouth and I'll rip your face off."
It was Bernard pouring a water spell into Giacomo's mouth.
"Mmph."
"Sorry, Giacomo, but this is for your own good. Even if you attacked my captain, you'd just die like a dog. You can't even beat me."
Bernard subdued Giacomo effortlessly.
But it was true that Giacomo had tried to resist, so Sir Pavel drew his sword with righteous fury.
"Demonic sorcerer! You've finally revealed your true colors! I won't let you go unpunished!"
"Sir Pavel!"
Azadin raised his hand to silence Pavel.
But Izmira slapped Sir Pavel across the face first.
"Gah?!"
She'd struck with her gauntlet on, sending Sir Pavel tumbling in a spray of blood.
"Wh-what are you doing, Lady Izmira!?"
"Ah, sorry. I just..."
Izmira seemed to have lost her temper at Pavel's nonsense and slapped him without thinking.
Even she looked flustered by her own actions afterward.
Seeing that, Azadin played it cool.
"Wow. Looks like we had a transparent imp here."
"Transparent imp?"
"You didn't know? It's a ghost invisible to the eye that makes people spout idiocy to sow discord. They must've planted it to provoke Giacomo into triggering his seal and shutting him up. Otherwise, how could the investigation leader Sir Pavel be dumb enough to push a guy with an unstable seal like that?"
"......"
"As expected of a Celestial. Impressive senses, Lady Izmira. Alright, let's restrain Giacomo like this for now and search this place first."
Azadin said that while slyly pocketing the vial.
*********
"We won't get anything out of Giacomo himself for a while, so we'll have to check his research journal in the meantime."
"Hold on."
Sir Pavel, his face a bloody mess from Izmira's gauntleted slap, tried to intervene.
"This man accessed the Salvation Knights' secret, the Angel's Blood. Reading his research journal would be leaking classified information..."
"Then who has the authority to access classified info?"
Azadin asked pointedly.
Neither Sir Pavel's talent nor his position as an ordinary Hospitaller gave him clearance to authorize secrets.
Sure enough, Sir Pavel looked troubled and replied.
"Lady Izmira does."
"Wow, Lady Izmira. What a high rank."
"Sh-she's a Celestial, so of course."
"The knight order's doctrine says to treat all souls equally regardless of birth or status. Yet why do its humans always devolve into worshiping rank and bloodlines? The scriptures aren't even that complicated."
Azadin sneered and fell into thought.
'From the looks of it, they didn't send this investigation team expecting success. Sending the leader without clearance for secrets... They assembled it just to hand Lady Izmira over to the enemy? That means there are traitors higher up who sent the team.'
He couldn't even guess how many traitors infested this knight order.
It was a miracle the organization still functioned.
"So, Lady Izmira. Who will you pick as your aide for the task?"
Azadin clasped his hands with a sly smile.
"......"
Izmira panicked at how cute he looked.
"Uh, um, Sir Azadin?"
She already trusted him completely, so it was a given.
"Then Sir Pavel, since you lack clearance, please inspect the Fireguards and do a headcount. We'll seal the supplies and research journals here in the meantime."
"...What?"
Sir Pavel stared at Izmira in shock.
She was the investigation leader, but clearance rested with the Celestial Izmira, and actual command was Azadin's—a total mess.
With clearance-holder Izmira siding with Azadin, Sir Pavel was left out.
'Hmm, he's capable but seems reckless. He'll definitely peek at the secrets during sealing. Lady Izmira doesn't seem to care. But if I object, I'll have to deal with him? The guy who made Chapter Master Hexenmeyer look like a fool in one go?'
Sir Pavel feared Azadin. His skills were overwhelming, and the knight order headquarters was far away, so he had no choice but to let it slide.
"Then we'll leave it to you, Sir Pavel."
"Hmm. Fine."
In the end, Sir Pavel reluctantly agreed.
*********
"Alright, Lady Izmira. Shall we talk just between us?"
Azadin had shooed away Sir Pavel, who was useless for solving the case and only a hindrance, to speak with Izmira alone.
"You can take that vial. If it saves a girl suffering from an incurable disease, the Great Archangels would be pleased too."
Izmira seemed sympathetic after hearing about the girl tormented by the illness.
But with Sir Pavel and the other investigators around, what about the fallout from smuggling it out?
And there was no guarantee the potion would even work.
Above all, Elemental Wailing was a money pit.
More would value elemental magic stones over one girl's life, so treating her wouldn't be simple.
'This girl's too nice without a plan. Sure, it's a mutated elixir beyond raw material recovery, so I don't like the knight order's policy of reclaiming it either. Still, shouldn't I suggest some countermeasures before taking it?'
Azadin chuckled at Izmira's naive kindness, but considering the Salvation Knights' unusually lenient policy toward her, they might allow it.
"Hmm, well, that's part of it, but not all. Lady Izmira, can you use any more healing magic?"
"Pardon? Ah, yes, but only for minor wounds right now. Why?"
"I want to cut out Giacomo's tongue."
"Pardon? His tongue? Why?"
"The seal's on his tongue, branded with a burn that can't be dispelled magically. Healing it now would trigger the brand the moment mana penetrates. Cut the tongue before it activates, and we can save him."
"Hmm. That sounds incredibly painful. Does he consent to something so gruesome...?"
"Bernard will anesthetize him. Quick healing should keep him alive without dying."
"I-I have to look at the wound?"
"Don't like blood?"
"N-no, I have to. I will."
"Good. Then the Seramite longsword should do it, right?"
Azadin drew his Seramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn.
The blade ignited.
Nothing surprising yet, but it burned fiercer until the metal softened and drooped.
"Ah!?"
While Izmira panicked, Azadin's sword morphed into something too long and thin for a blade—like a metal skewer.
"Have to reshape it so it only cuts the tongue and nothing else."
"Th-that's possible?"
"Here goes!"
Azadin thrust Aurelia Dawn toward the mouth of Giacomo, bound by Bernard's spell.
-Shing!
With a whistle like cutting wind, Giacomo's tongue severed.
Blood gushed out.
"Eek!"
Izmira nearly fainted at the sight.
But Bernard staunched the bleeding by adjusting Giacomo's blood flow with blood magic.
"Now, Lady Izmira!"
"Ah, yes!"
Izmira steadied her pounding heart, narrowed her eyes, reached into Giacomo's mouth, and cast healing magic.
"Ahh!"
Giacomo's severed tongue stump sealed, new flesh budded, and the wound healed.
"It's shorter, but a few more healings and he'll be able to talk."
"Get back, Izmira!"
Azadin pulled Izmira into his arms and stepped aside.
The moment the severed tongue hit the floor, it spewed pitch-black nether energy and began mutating.
The fingertip-sized piece swelled instantly into a tentacle mass as thick as a man's forearm.
But starting small, its growth was slow.
"This thing!"
Izmira drew her sword to slice it, but Azadin blocked her.
"Wait."
"Yes?"
"Let it grow to Giacomo-sized."
"What..."
"If it can become a monster Giacomo's size, would a mere tongue tip really get that big?"
Bernard released the water bindings holding Giacomo.
"Cough!"
Giacomo, tongueless, hacked up blood and water.
"Send him to the knights like this, and he's dead. Have Vermilion Fortress take custody, Captain."
"That's the idea. Got it, Izmira?"
Izmira caught on to Azadin's intent. Let the nether magic on Giacomo's tongue mutate the remnant huge as evidence, then smuggle Giacomo out.
That was Azadin's plan.
It was bigger than just smuggling Angel's Blood elixir.
But Azadin's doubt—could they trust the Salvation Knights' upper echelons?—Izmira shared.
'No clearance for the investigation leader. Without Azadin's help, I'd be...'
Giacomo's disappearance was a trap to drag her from the order's center.