Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Black Magic Disaster 9
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Calypso seemed to expect Midiam to serve as her subordinate and be continuously tormented.
“Respecting those above you…. But if we’re talking herald ranks, you’re my junior, so shouldn’t you start by treating me as your superior? Barging straight into my territory and messing with my business.”
“It’s not messing—it’s helping. I told you, that woman isn’t one of our clan.”
“No. She is one of our clan.”
“What?”
“She endured ten thousand nights in the name of Aragasa. If we discard someone who bore the insults heaped on our clan all alone just because she’s not blood-related, then Aragasa’s honor would be sullied.”
“…….”
Midiam was awestruck by Azadin’s words.
‘How to put it… it’s hard to explain, but… one thing’s clear.’
Midiam didn’t particularly like the Hybris clansmen as an Aragasa. But when she saw Hybris knights plundering and tormenting civilians, then fleeing when things got dangerous for them, Azadin had said:
‘Protecting the people of Hybris is beautiful.’
Back then, she’d thought it was foolish talk. She was Etar, after all. A noble among the herald clans, so she’d found it pathetic that other nobles failed to fulfill their noble duties.
But now, watching him strive to honor a vow he didn’t have to keep, upholding his own aesthetic… she found it beautiful.
‘I won’t abandon someone who endured insults in the name of Aragasa, even if no blood binds us.’
It wasn’t false pride and honor adopted just to appease the ghost of the long-dead…
Midiam sensed a sublime aesthetic in his genuine commitment to pride and honor. But in this era, aesthetics became objects of ridicule. Calypso and her underlings just sneered.
“You, deciding Aragasa’s honor? The clan’s biggest fool?”
Azadin shook his head slowly.
“No matter what you say, I’m not dueling. Get lost. I’m busy.”
With that, Azadin turned toward Midiam and Ismail.
“She left a journal, right? Let’s find it. Once we do, those guys won’t have anything to offer us.”
“Wait. You bastard! You gonna ignore me? The Korasar Peddler Guild’s information network is way superior to that woman’s! You can’t find it without my intel. Duel me!”
“The replica of the New King Scripture has already chosen me. No matter what you say, I’m not staking it.”
“Ugh….”
Azadin saw right through what Calypso craved most. In the end, these guys’ goal was to pick a fight with him and take the New King Scripture replica.
“Fine, you win, Azadin. Duel me with the New King Scripture replica on the line! If I win, you hand it over. If I lose… I’ll find that woman’s kids—who aren’t even clan—and free them from slavery, and if possible, bring them to the sanctuary. How’s that? Tempting offer, right?”
“Hoo?”
Azadin was surprised by the proposal.
“That’s definitely tempting.”
“Hahaha. So you’ll duel with the New King Scripture on the line?”
“Hm, alright. Then specially… I’ll stake the replica. But in return, you don’t just rescue this woman’s children—the kids sold into slavery after enduring shame in Aragasa’s name—and bring them to the sanctuary. You become their guardians and raise them into fine Aragasas. Deal?”
“Oh? Sure. Not a big deal.”
Calypso was delighted to see Azadin show signs of agreeing to the duel. Now he could legally take the New King Scripture replica from Azadin. He looked down on Azadin and rejoiced.
‘Even if he trained under the mysterious Elder Kazas, this guy’s the clan-wide laughingstock idiot, right? Thought he came all this way for nothing, but lucky break. Opponent’s a moron like this.’
Calypso never considered the possibility of losing.
Why would he? The whole clan treated Azadin like a hopeless fool. Losing a duel to Azadin was unimaginable.
“So, how do we do it? Step back a hundred paces formally?”
“Nah, too bothersome. Let’s do it now. We’re only staking the scripture and this one thing, right? No throne or anything else, so keep it simple.”
“Sure? Got it.”
That instant.
-Pak!
With a bang, Calypso’s head hit the ground.
“That’s it. Keep your promise.”
Azadin snorted and withdrew his hand.
*********
“Gasp?!”
Meiya, the shift supervisor of the Salasma parish in the Church of the King, jolted awake in shock.
“Ugh….”
Every part of her body ached without exception. She had clearly cast her one and only offensive spell, Strike of Heavenly Punishment, and gotten caught in it, spectacularly self-destructing.
The Strike of Heavenly Punishment itself wouldn’t harm the King’s Church holy knights, but the problem was the shockwave exploding alongside the released power. Swept up in it, she had passed out.
“What happened?”
She looked around. She’d blacked out fighting the undead, so she should be dead by now, but this was the inside of a small carriage. Too vividly real for the afterlife or heaven.
“Ugh.”
“Ow….”
She saw the Kaka and Chiko siblings stirring awake.
“Ah, you’re up.”
The carriage driver sighed in relief.
“What happened?”
“Well, about that…”
*********
The members of the Korasar Peddler Guild, though servants, took pride in being the true power behind the herald clans in practice.
Backed by Sabban house—one of the five founding families of the herald clans—they earned actual money, unlike the heralds who just spent it. With that money, they hired mercenaries, bought land, and lived without want.
But Midiam had scratched their pride.
‘Don’t talk back to a herald, you mere servant.’
An outrageous insult already, and the one saying it was Midiam of Etar house, rivals to Sabban. On top of that, the herald in question was Azadin.
Azadin, son of the traitor Acre. The one who scattered the New King Scripture replica that the entire herald clan had labored for, spilling much blood to acquire from the World’s Heart Mountains. A great criminal against Aragasa.
They couldn’t punish the son for the father’s sins, but Azadin had since shown weakness, drawing the hatred of many, and his eyeless freakish form alone earned everyone’s disgust.
Treat a guy like that as a herald?
Enraged, they linked up with Herald Calypso, who happened to be nearby.
Herald Calypso knew well the money and power of Sabban house and maintained good relations with them—a shrewd herald. But…
-Thud!
That Calypso went down from one light punch by Azadin. Or at least, it seemed like a punch—pure conjecture. The other servants hadn’t even seen what Azadin did.
From a distance too far for his arm to reach, Azadin just lightly swung his hand, and Calypso collapsed.
‘Huh? Not within arm’s reach?’
‘Hidden weapon?’
It took them a moment to snap out of it.
“Now, keep your promise.”
“W-Wait a sec!”
“A-Ambush!”
They wanted to cry ambush, but for an emperor’s herald, losing to an ambush was shameful, same as being poisoned.
“No, you begged for a duel right in his face, agreed on surprise attack and format, and now claim ambush? You wouldn’t be trying to tarnish Herald Calypso’s honor, would you?”
Midiam mocked them openly.
“No, it was an ambush.”
Azadin admitted it was an ambush.
“Since it was an ambush, I knocked him out clean in one hit. Hit wrong, and his face would’ve flown off.”
“…….”
Midiam and Ismail knew Azadin wasn’t joking—he meant it. Calypso got lucky dropping clean from the ambush; if they’d fought properly and he took a hit from Azadin, permanent damage was certain.
“No way that’s just bluffing….”
“Huh?”
The servants, thinking Azadin was bluffing, noticed Midiam and Ismail’s expressions turn serious and sensed something off.
“Alright, then, Korasar Peddler Guild folks! Hand over the records.”
“Records?”
“Yeah.”
“W-We didn’t imagine losing, so we didn’t bring any.”
“…….”
Then Ismail brought a small wooden box from the warehouse.
“This it?”
“Let’s see….”
Inside were umbilical cords wrapped in bandages, with birth dates and the names of the caravans they’d been sold to.
“This the one?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
“This jogs my memory. Roughly speaking…”
The Korasar Peddler Guild members racked their brains and jotted down the approximate fates and whereabouts of the sold children.
No matter how much they were mistaken for herald clan, keeping slaves in big cities was tough, so the kids were sold as slaves to rural areas, villages frequented by caravans with transaction records.
“Surprisingly close.”
“Yeah. The King’s Church holy knights won’t tolerate using Aragasas as slaves, so excluding the big cities they haunt… yeah, similar spots. Can’t sell slaves openly like that.”
“Good. Time to tend to the wounded?”
Azadin checked on the Kaka and Chiko siblings, Tarky, and shift supervisor Meiya. All were injured and groaning faintly.
Tarky had clashed head-on with the bear’s charge but wore full plate armor, so luckily no major injuries. Just knocked out from the impact.
“Hm.”
Azadin focused his vision. His eyesight had unique properties: the farther he tried to see, the narrower the field of view; the closer, the wider, eventually reaching full 360-degree awareness.
With full concentration, he could see through to beneath the skin.
“Internal bleeding, but no fractures. He’ll be fine.”
Azadin then examined the Kaka and Chiko siblings. Unconscious and breathing raggedly. The issue was their spear getting shoved back during the bear collision, striking their abdomens. Lighter-armored than the flung Tarky, their injuries were worse.
“Still, they won’t die. Full recovery’ll take time, though.”
Azadin next checked Meiya. Physically fine, but mentally shaken. Caught in her holy magic explosion, she’d spectacularly self-destructed.
‘The King’s Church holy knights don’t teach systematic holy magic to boost combat power right away—they focus on a few suited to the individual first. So this girl only learned a few, used Strike of Heavenly Punishment even up close, and paid for it. Warehouse had other holy magic, she could’ve broken out barehanded.’
As Azadin inspected Meiya’s wounds, Ismail asked:
“Do we really need to keep the holy knight alive?”
“I killed this girl’s father too… don’t want to wipe out her whole family for no reason. And if we kill the holy knight, we’d have to explain to the Kaka and Chiko siblings—or kill them too?”
Killing the holy knight meant either explaining to the siblings or killing them as well, but Azadin, a believer in the Three Great Archangels, preferred to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
So he’d kept them alive and arranged transport via the Korasar Peddler Guild’s carriage.