Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Curse of Service 1
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Calypso woke up with a sour expression. Her head was spinning, and her stomach churned.
“Did I lose?”
“It’s not exactly losing…”
The servants of the Korasar Freight Guild looked awkward. Should they tell her the truth? That she went down in one hit?
That was when Azadin spoke up.
“Then keep your promise, Calypso.”
“R-right.”
She felt wronged after getting ambushed and taken out in one punch by Azadin… but her body was in no condition to fight again right now. The damage from that single punch was no joke. She didn’t have the guts to charge back in like this.
“Take the kids on the list who are living as slaves to the Sanctuary and become their guardian. For those who refuse to go to the Sanctuary or are in comfortable circumstances, investigate their current guardians. No regrets, right?”
“I’m a Herald too, you know. I don’t take back my word that easily.”
Calypso grumbled and clicked her tongue.
“What now? Why the sudden formality?”
“Well, I thought about it, and since your rank is higher, I should treat you like a senior.”
From Calypso’s perspective, going down in one hit to Azadin meant insulting him would be like spitting while lying down. It was better for her to show him respect instead.
“B-but how did that even happen? You can’t use Flower Bird Wind Moon, right? Was it Elder Kazas after all?”
Elder Kazas, Azadin’s supposed master, was a mysterious figure no one in the Sanctuary had ever seen. His name was just on the council rolls; he never showed up for meetings.
When he suddenly appeared, forced Azadin into becoming a Herald, and vanished, everyone cursed him… but after Calypso got knocked out cold by Azadin’s punch and thought it over, it was clearly Kazas’s doing.
“Well, Master will act when the time comes. It’s not my place to talk about him. Anyway, I’m counting on you. Oh, and I’ll handle the ones on the way to Salasma. You take this batch.”
“Yes, Senior.”
It seemed losing had straightened her out. Calypso called Azadin “Senior” and followed his orders cleanly.
“Oh, by the way. Where’d you get that bone wand?”
“Found it on some Kurt cultists in my sector. Killed ’em and took it.”
“I see. Yeah, mass-produced model, huh.”
“You got one too, Senior. Here, then.”
“You use it. Gotta recover any New King Scripture copies I find while I’m out.”
“Got it. Let’s wrap this up quick.”
Calypso bowed to Azadin and left first with her subordinates.
After parting with Calypso’s group, Azadin loaded the wounded onto the Korasar Freight Guild’s wagons and departed the lumber camp village.
“But that was really unexpected.”
Midiam muttered as he looked around the ruined camp.
“The dead rising from death to unleash a black magic disaster and kill the living. Not that they didn’t deserve to die. And now New King Scripture copies are showing up, Kurt zealots are stirring, this whole region’s suffering droughts. Looks like the signs of a great cataclysm.”
“Not signs. It’s already started.”
Azadin touched the New King Scripture copy in his pocket and sensed that things wouldn’t go smoothly from here.
*********
Mayya woke up in the wagon and was shocked to hear the Korasar Freight Guild members’ story.
“You rescued us? And drove off those undead?”
“Yeah. Lucky we hired some mercenaries. And you all had already taken out a good number of undead yourselves.”
The guild staff explained the situation as they’d coordinated with Azadin beforehand.
Everyone collapsed, they arrived, and the undead fled. They found a woman’s corpse buried under a dead tree, dug it up, and the forest’s poison cleared.
That was the agreed story.
“So that corpse was the source of the black magic disaster. Hmm. What about my horse?”
“The wyverns ate it. We recovered the saddlebags, though.”
“Oh.”
Mayya sighed at the lone saddlebags. The merchants had salvaged not just hers, but also her father Sir Gazrek’s.
“…”
Finding Sir Gazrek would probably be impossible.
“Guess we head back to Salasma for now. Are you all going there?”
“We’re haulers working this area, but we’ll introduce you to some Salasma-bound merchants at the junction.”
“Sounds good. Thank you for your kindness.”
“No trouble. Other merchants dropping out means more profit for us.”
It wasn’t empty talk. The black magic disaster at the lumber camp had isolated the inland farms, and when the Korasar Guild arrived, they bought goods dirt cheap for huge profits.
“Now we’re almost at the continental highway. If you’re feeling better, rest at an inn there. The wagons are… well.”
Empty wagon space meant money to the merchants. Carrying wounded in cargo room was a massive loss they’d eaten just to help.
Knowing that, Kaka and Chiko couldn’t impose further despite their conditions.
“But…”
Kaka turned to Azadin.
“You don’t seem like an ordinary pilgrim. My little sister… embarrassing as it is, she can read fortunes and glimpse the future.”
“Huh?”
Azadin’s face grew complicated. Most who claimed foresight or fortune-telling were frauds.
But then Chiko spoke to Azadin.
“You’ll become a great knight. Or maybe you already are.”
“A great knight?”
Azadin was an Emperor’s Herald—he could never be a knight. And great knights didn’t exist in this age.
In an era where chivalry was a joke, calling someone who could never be a knight a “great knight”…
The absurdity made the Korasar Guild members burst out laughing, but Midiam’s sharp glare shut them up. They recalled him threatening their throats with a knife.
‘Damn. Calypso got wrecked so badly.’
‘Azadin can’t use magic, just trained in martial arts, and they fought up close like idiots? What a moron.’
The Korasar Guild members resented Calypso for fumbling a sure thing. But some thought differently.
‘Even off-guard, could I knock out Calypso with one punch?’
‘And she’s still recovering.’
‘Azadin was a total nobody as a kid. How’d he…’
Azadin’s reputation was trash, but those present now knew his skills were no joke.
“Then we’ll head off to report to the Cell Sword Guild. See you next time. Brother’s not going to Salasma?”
“Oh, r-right.”
“Go with the Chief Officer, then.”
“Ugh.”
Tarki hesitated. Azadin’s group were Herald kin—they wouldn’t want to travel with a Chief Officer. If Tarki went with Mayya here, Azadin might split off from him.
He could tag along with merchants or holy knights back to Salasma, but Tarki feared running into ambitious siblings en route and getting killed.
Merchants would deter bandits, but not a count’s determined bastard offspring.
The holy knights or merchants wouldn’t fight them just to protect him. Fortunately, Mayya refused to join.
“No. I… I need to search for my father, who might be nearby. You all go ahead to Salasma.”
Mayya headed on foot back the way they’d come, toward the checkpoint blocked by the Rescue Knights.
“…She’ll be okay alone?”
“Well, she’s a holy knight.”
But then Azadin’s expression darkened.
“What? Azadin? Worried about that holy knight?”
“No, not that…”
Azadin was bewildered.
‘The Emperor’s Voice isn’t responding?’
The foundation of the Emperor’s Herald system was the artificial spirit “Emperor’s Voice.”
It advised within the Emperor’s legal bounds, found petitioners for the Emperor and relayed them to Heralds, informed Heralds of dates and times—immensely useful.
Yet for some reason, since this morning, the Emperor’s Voice had gone silent.
‘What the hell? Can’t even explain it.’
Azadin couldn’t understand why this was happening.
*********
Calypso was traveling a side path off the Emperor’s Highway with her subordinates—not servants, but Korasar Freight Guild merchants following her.
“But are we really submitting to Azadin?”
“With that bone wand for finding New King Scriptures… wasting time on non-kin brats unrelated to merits? Other Heralds will snag Scriptures and climb higher meanwhile.”
Calypso’s father was a Korasar Guild servant, her mother a Whubris native.
Neither parent a Herald, yet she became one young—an anomaly. She must be overflowing with talent.
But that fueled her status ambitions more. Herald by talent, but bottom rung. That’s how she learned.
How blessed those with good parents training in luxury from childhood.
So Calypso worked hard. Becoming a Herald earned family respect, but amassing Emperor’s gold or New King Scripture copies for merits could land her marriage to a high-ranked Sabban.
Accepted into the founder Sabban house.
That’s why many Heralds diligently pursued duties for merits. And now, at prime merit time, saddled with unrelated busywork?
“No choice. I lost the duel.”
“Not a formal duel wagering Herald ranks.”
“That’s why I’m lucky. Otherwise, bigger humiliation. Oh, tell the Korasar Guild to keep quiet.”
“Why?”
“Why? Don’t wanna suffer alone. Senior’s got a crap rep in the clan, so tons’ll mess with him, right? More get beat, my duel loss becomes small potatoes.”
Calypso cackled as she said it.