Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Sarasma's Darkness 8
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"Damn it!"
Azadin took the black gale head-on with his body.
"Ha... a knight has emerged. Blocking it with your body for the lady? Hm?"
Azadin endured it without much effect. A normal person would have withered away in an instant, but Azadin looked perfectly fine.
"Ah, right. Sorry about that. I'm somewhat resistant to dark magic."
"What?!"
"Anyway, everyone! I know you're exhausted, but hang in there just a bit longer! We'll finish this guy off!"
Azadin called out that warning to the bound captives, then first leaped backward to grab the rope from which the baron's wife hung.
"You bastard!"
The holy knight tried to pursue Azadin, but Azadin swung the rope like a swing and launched himself sideways. Then he jumped to the next rope.
"Sneaky...!"
The holy knight turned to chase him, but Azadin had already leaped to another rope by then.
'You're too fast! You rat!'
Azadin moved faster than the holy knight could turn. Moreover, with the people hanging from the ropes, it was hard to get a clear view from behind them.
"Urk!"
Azadin shifted from rope to rope around the holy knight, speeding up as he went. It was as if the holy knight were trapped in a massive whirlpool.
"Wh-what is this?"
While the holy knight panicked, Azadin suddenly flew in from behind and latched onto his back.
"You little shit!"
The holy knight was shocked, but it was already too late. Thanks to the momentum Azadin had built up, the wave of rats collapsed under the force.
"Did I keep you waiting long? It's over now."
Azadin said that to the holy knight, then grabbed his body and leaped backward.
Fearsome power and speed!
All the acceleration Azadin had gained swinging around the ropes transferred directly into the holy knight.
-'Clear Day Pine, Lone Night Purity! Kazas Hasse!'
The grimoire of Flowers, Birds, Wind, and Moon was originally structured in linked verses, allowing skilled sorcerers to chain spells evoking images of birds and flowers, winds and moons into even more powerful magic.
'Clear Day Pine, Lone Night Purity' was an enhanced version of the Clear Day Pine spell to begin with, but what Azadin unleashed was a brutal vertical drop that slammed the tremendous kinetic energy straight into his foe.
-BOOM!
The holy knight was smashed into the floor with devastating force. Azadin had hugged him tight, spun once in the air, then drove him headfirst straight into the ground.
Plummeting from the height of a massive wine barrel to smash crown-first into the earth—even a bear or an ogre would die instantly from a fall like that.
Sure enough, the holy knight's spine shattered completely. As it broke, his ribcage collapsed, and the bones tore through his organs in a gruesome mess.
"Gah! I... I'm not done yet... I haven't used all of Mezzeri's apostle power... I couldn't even transform!"
The fallen holy knight apparently still had plenty of hidden power as one of Mezzeri's apostles. But no power could compensate for a shattered spine and shredded guts.
In the end, the holy knight breathed his last without pulling off any final trick.
"If you had something like that, you should've used it sooner. Should I have waited for your transformation?"
Azadin let out a sigh and stood up.
"Ow, my aching bones. I'm about dead from exhaustion."
He'd taken on too many enemies single-handedly.
"Ah, damn. And those rat swarms..."
There were still plenty of rats around Azadin. Having tasted human flesh, they remained feral even after their master, the Mezzeri apostle holy knight, died.
The rats charged at Azadin. On the ground, he had nowhere to dodge. At that moment, the replica of the New King's Scripture floating in the air descended, radiating intense light.
-Squeak!
-Zzzzt!
Flames erupted on the rats' bodies. Those near the New King's Scripture replica died on the spot, and even the distant ones went blind and fled. For all the rats there had been, they ebbed away like the tide.
"What the hell?"
Azadin reached out toward the replica of the New King's Scripture hovering before him. It flew into his hand as if drawn by a magnet.
"Have you chosen me as your bearer? Whatever the case, thanks."
Azadin stored the New King's Scripture replica in the bracelet Aldis had given him, then freed the people bound to the ropes.
"Whew. That's three tomes now? I'm beat. Totally beat."
Supporting Baroness Nort, Azadin retraced his steps along the path he'd taken to arrive.
"Ah... my benefactor."
Baroness Nort's cheeks flushed. Though she was Tarky's mother, she looked no older than her early thirties—a golden-haired beauty.
"Ah, sorry. We're not supposed to touch like this between men and women, but I took the liberty..."
"No, please, keep supporting me. I can't stand on my own.... I'm just worried that you don't seem well yourself, benefactor."
"Nah, I'm fine. Haven't been sleeping much lately, and taking down all these guys solo just wore me out...."
"Alone? You mean by yourself?"
"It was a stupid move."
That was when Azadin said it.
"Mother!"
Tarky had been waiting at the entrance. Furious Midiam was with him.
"Azadin! Even for you, what the hell was that?!"
"Why?"
"Why'd you go in alone?! We agreed to pick them off one by one! Charging in solo like that..."
"There were kin among the enemies. They recognized my face."
"What? Kin?"
"Yeah. Unintentionally, I'm kind of famous in the clan. Even guys I didn't recognize knew me."
"Anyway, don't push yourself. You're not on your own anymore."
Midiam said that as she supported Azadin.
"Huh? Not on my own? You mean...?"
Baroness Nort looked back and forth between Azadin and Midiam in confusion. It was the perfect setup for a misunderstanding.
"Ah, well, it's like this. Uh, this is a weird situation to explain?"
Azadin inwardly cursed Midiam for complicating things with her needless joke.
"Anyway, what about the other people captured here?"
Azadin worried about the others who'd been dragged into the wererat den.
"They're fine for now. Can't do anything about the dead, but the living ones all escaped on their own."
"Escaped?"
"Well, it wouldn't do to stick around if the King's Church comes investigating—they'd interrogate everyone involved. Claiming they might've become wererats..."
The King's Church holy knights and inquisitors would execute a hundred innocents before tolerating even one heretic.
In other words, suspicion alone meant execution. The more executions, the easier it was to seize the victims' assets. So even though the hostages had been injured by the wererats, they'd all fled before the King's Church could handle the incident.
"But there are a lot of badly hurt people inside. To save them..."
"Leave the cleanup to the Rescue Knights. It's their job anyway."
"Yeah, better that way."
Azadin agreed with Midiam and caught his breath.
*********
Those who could walk had left on their own feet, but plenty of people remained in the wererat den. The severely injured couldn't be moved carelessly, so Azadin's group decided to call in the Rescue Knights for evacuation.
Azadin immediately found the doomsayer he'd won over with a single biscuit moments ago and asked him to contact the Rescue Knights. Only after watching the situation stabilize did he withdraw to Baroness Nort's mansion.
"It's an honor to host guests in our home."
Baroness Nort guided Azadin's group to her mansion.
"Ah, um..."
Entering Baroness Nort's mansion, Azadin remembered the imperial gold coin.
'I should ask for the gold coin, but everyone else got freed without demanding anything, so hitting her up alone feels off.'
While Azadin hesitated like that,
"When we saved you, your son promised an imperial gold coin for your life."
Midiam bluntly demanded the imperial gold coin. Azadin admired her boldness.
'She's handy in ways like this. Or am I just too spineless?'
Azadin turned his head while thinking that and happened to meet Baroness Nort's eyes.
"Your name is... Azadin, was it?"
"Yes."
"Your old name was Asahdin, right? The Blind Dragon of Mu-an. From the ancient Anukian myths? Asahdin and Arael."
"Ah, you know it?"
"Yeah, a little. I studied some myths while learning magic. Embarrassing."
She straightened her posture demurely, blushing.
Exhausted from being bound, she still carried herself with such grace. Just sitting there, she was picture-perfect—a beauty so youthful it was hard to believe she had a grown son. Her looks made it impossible to think she had an adult child.
"But where did you get that imperial gold coin?"
"It had been passed down in our family as an heirloom."
"I see. Then how did you hire that mercenary band?"
Baroness Nort possessed magic items from the Spider Queen Atra. The Spider Queen Atra granted her female followers abilities specialized in seducing minds and assassinating rivals amid court intrigues.
Books mentioned that quite a few noblewomen worshipped the Spider Queen. That mercenary band had been her kin too. It wasn't like she'd just hired random mercenaries off the street.
"They were adventurers who procured the magic items I wanted. Was there a problem?"
"Yes. Those guys..."
Azadin explained what had happened.
"Oh my! So that's what occurred. Are you all right, Tarky?"
"Yes, Mother. Luckily, thanks to the gold coin you gave me... they spared my life."
"Thank goodness. Goodness, benefactor, you've saved not only my life but my son's as well. How can I ever repay such grace?"
Baroness Nort smiled as she said that, her radiant beauty shining through.
'Something's off.'
Azadin sensed a strange aura from her.
'Does she really not know she hired corrupted kin of Atra? But she wouldn't fill out a mercenary band for her son with Kurt divine race cultists, would she? It's contradictory.'
Suspicious in every way. The beautiful, seductive elegance emanating from her—was it a gift from the Spider Queen Atra?
Yet she didn't seem like a monster herself, one of Atra's kin. If she were, she wouldn't have been captured by wererats so easily.
As Azadin's thoughts grew tangled, Midiam stepped in.
"Five imperial gold coins should do it."
Azadin wanted to scold Midiam's rudeness for interrupting him and the baroness... but honestly, he coveted those imperial gold coins too.
"Midiam, this is my job. Don't butt in."
"But you look tired, Azadin. The baroness seems worn out too, so let's settle up quick and rest."
As Midiam said that, Baroness Nort asked.