Night of the Soulless Heathens – 113



#113. There are too many corrupt nobles 6

Before entering the foggy area Azadin gave Scott a word.

“Once you get inside there will be those from the Naga Empire. We need to be sure that you won’t betray us when we engage them.”

“I will not betray my employer.”

“The Naga Empire hired you but you surrendered to me?”

“I wasn’t hired by the state but by the people who were there at the time. If you say that surrender is a betrayal isn’t that applying the term too broadly? So what do you want from me?”

“That’s right.”

Azadin was in a difficult position. In fact what Azadin wanted was for Scott to take the oath of ‘I am a half-orc’.

But if you think about it that act is an act of orcs looking down on and insulting humans and asking for it is like spitting while lying down.

Besides wouldn’t that really betray you? Wouldn’t that be a useless thing to do?

“No that’s fine. Just believe me.”

“What a worthless guy. Shouldn’t he be worrying about that woman more than me? He’s probably thinking of running away at any moment.”

“Shati what? There’s no way to convince her not to run away.”

She is Nagai so there is no way she will disappear just because you tell her to get rid of her loyalty to the Naga Empire.

“I have to kill him to prevent him from running away or betraying me but I don’t want to make such an easy choice anymore.”

“…is it an easy choice?”

Orc Scott seemed deeply moved by Azadin’s words.

*********

“Then I will guide you.”

Sir Brock stepped out through the fog.

“So Sir Brock what kind of person is your wife?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m asking because I might shoot you with an arrow the moment I see you. Not out of curiosity about your married life. What do you look like?”

“I am Bthumaine dark-skinned and dark-haired. I am a young woman.”

“Hmm. Okay I see.”

Azadin nodded at those words.

Get notified for updates: https://discord.gg/93rmBjgP6B

In order to pass through the fog Azadin first sent Ismail as a scout and Midiam as the rearguard. The abilities of the two messengers were much more reliable than sending others as scouts or rearguards.

‘Because I can use foresight magic.’

But then Ismail blew the whistle from the front.

“Everyone please stop.”

“What’s going on?”

“There are spider webs.”

“ah.”

Everyone was convinced by the news of the spider web. It was common for noblewomen to become followers of Atra. Atra the spider queen of the Kurt tribe gave youth vitality and beauty to her female followers.

Many court ladies fall for Atra’s seductions to increase their power and beauty. Wasn’t Baroness Norte who was Count Salasma’s mistress at the time also a follower of Atra?

“If a spider had made a web this big… it must have been huge.”

Azadin clicked his tongue as he discovered a corpse wrapped in a spider web. The web had been hung from a large wooden pole that had been erected as a signpost along the road and a nearby building and the corpse of a dog was wrapped in the web.

It was a fairly large breed of dog called a Bully Mastiff the size of a small calf but the dog which should have been muscular all over had its body fluids sucked out leaving only its skin.

“Here are some footprints. Judging by the size… there was a spider bigger than an ox.”

Ismail showed Azadin the spider’s tracks.

“Okay. The fog is thick so cancel the reconnaissance formation. Let’s gather together.”

Azadin transformed the formation.

“Scott!”

“why?”

“I need to get out of the wheelchair.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“Your wheelchair will come in handy when dealing with spiders.”

Azadin lifted Scott out of the wheelchair and went to a nearby building to get some wood to make a sharp spear. He made four spears out of wood and connected them to form a fence.

The spear is placed on a wheelchair and moved on wheels. It is too big and heavy for a person to lift and move but it is somewhat movable when placed on a wheelchair.

It was a sufficient tool to block the advance of cavalry or large monsters. Here goats were tied with leather straps so that when the goats walked the spear moved along with them.

“And the other knights will remain in line behind the spears. Our archers will be behind them.”

Azadin had them take up a combat formation from the start and walked forward. Scott grumbled as he had to walk on his own thanks to the wheelchair he had been given.

“Ugh every time I walk I feel like my leg muscles are getting tense… I use a wheelchair because I hate gaining muscle so isn’t this too much?”

While most humans worry about muscle loss Scott an orc worries about muscle gain. Ser Brok stood in front holding his shield and sighing.

“So my wife turned into a spider. Is that what you’re saying?”

“She might not be your wife but your lover or concubine.”

“….”

“Sir Brock. Did you have a concubine?”

Guillaume Wald asked Brock.

“I’m embarrassed to say this but I don’t have a concubine I have a lover.”

“What a shameful story. It is a sin to become a cultist but do you know how much the flame of jealousy can devastate a person’s soul? Her soul was desolate and corruption seeped into it and you are responsible for this corruption!”

Brand heard Brock’s words and began to criticize him.

“No I understand. Doesn’t everyone have a lover?”

Join our discord and ping me to update more chapters. Discord: https://discord.gg/93rmBjgP6B

Guillaume Bald defended Brock because he wanted to win over his vassals who held important routes like Brock.

“What are you talking about? The laws of the King’s Church also recommend monogamy. When people give in to their lust and have children indiscriminately problems with inheritance arise wars and conflicts occur and the people suffer every time.”

“No that’s….”

The laws of the royal church recommended monogamy but not many nobles kept to it so this was not a major flaw.

However Brand was furious with the knights for their principles of honor and justification.

‘Originally a brand secretary would never talk back to his superiors like this. But now he’s different.’

Brock felt embarrassed and apologized to Brandt who was furious.

“Brand Secretary. I’m sorry. Even if I had ten mouths I have nothing to say. Just because a hero has three wives and four concubines….”

“You had three concubines before you became a hero. How pathetic. So what are you going to do? Are you going to kill your wife who has become a cultist and pretend not to know? Or….”

“I would like to recover her if possible but it is impossible right?”

“I have never heard of a man who became a spider bigger than an ox and then came back to normal.”

As far as Azadin knows there is no way to save someone so severely mutated. If it were possible it would be a miracle but miracles are something that even the god-kings who occupy the thrones of the Eight Kingdoms would have to pay a huge price for.

“Then I will kill her and turn myself in.”

Then Shati who was listening to that grumbled.

“Why are you killing them as you please? Couldn’t that woman be happy after becoming a spider-human?”

“….”

You might think so because I am a member of the Shatiya Kurt tribe but it was a story that was difficult for humans to accept.

“Shati can I talk to you for a moment?”

Azadin called Shati aside and asked her.

“Where is the Nagas’ base?”

“I can’t say that.”

“Even though we’ve already come this far?”

“I am just a prisoner who was captured because I lacked strength. I did not betray my people.”

“In this situation I don’t think searching for the base would be betraying your own people. Don’t you think something has happened to you Nagas?”

“What are you talking about? Do you think we’ve dealt with those Artra clans one by one?”

Shati was confident that the Atra clan was no threat.

“Can’t you see it now? There are too few human victims.”

“What is that?”

“You’re an idiot. How much loyalty do the Nagas have to the humans that they just kept raising fog until all the humans ran away? This is proof that things aren’t going the way the Nagas want.”

“….”

“Okay. If you don’t want to tell then I understand. They probably built a base disguised as a storehouse or a trading company anyway.”

“Ugh don’t pass me over!”

Shati protested but was secretly surprised.

‘How did you know you brat? As expected the messenger clan is not one to underestimate the emperor’s messenger.’

“hmm?”

At that moment Azadin stopped.

“ha.”

As Azadin exhaled his breath froze white. The season was past the beginning of summer. Rantarik was a warm region so it was impossible for breath to freeze in this season.

“This is…..”

Everyone has noticed by now that the air has gotten colder. And the fog is getting thicker.

“be careful.”

A human shadow began to approach from within the fog.

*********

“Huh?”

Guillaume Wald who had been on guard let out a deflating sound.

“Krrrr!”

What appeared from beyond the fog were the mummy soldiers that the Nagas mainly dealt with. But their entire skin was covered in frost and their limbs were frozen so their bodies seemed to break apart little by little with every step they took.

Before he could even get near the spear the frozen bridge gave way and the mummy soldier fell forward shattered like a porcelain doll.

“Grrrrrr….”

And behind the mummy soldiers there were more corpses and wererats that were still alive but frozen to death.

“What is this place? Is there a Wear Rat?”

“This is Saenogi Village. It’s my fiefdom… but what is this?”

Azadin walked ahead and examined the still-living wererats.

“Hey. What happened?”

“Ugh. This guy.”

“…A blanket. No a goat!”

Azadin brought a Kerim goat and sat on it wrapping it around Were Rat’s body. The goat’s fur and body heat wrapped around Were Rat and the chill that had been bothering him must have eased a little.

“You little brat. Do you think I’ll speak for you guys just because of this?”

“You don’t know anything. The girl over there is Shati an agent of the Naga Empire.”

“uh?”

“And that unlucky guy is Scott McGreen the orc necromancer.”

That’s not wrong. But it was a story that was easy for the listener to misunderstand.

“You can’t judge by what you see. Mejeri’s family. Speak quickly.”

“Umm… A nether monster appeared during the meeting. It was the work of a human witch!”

“The work of a human witch?”

“Yeah. Ugh… It’s so cold.”

Even though the Kerim goat was wrapped around his body the Wear Rat continued to tremble. His teeth chattered and his front teeth collided and broke spewing blood. But even that blood froze.

“What kind of woman is a witch?”

“Here is the lord’s wife.”

The moment he heard those words Sir Brock was startled.

Your own wife is a witch? Isn’t that what Mejeri’s apostle Wear Rat said?

“She cursed her concubine because she had her husband stolen from her. We kidnapped her and made her a member of the Atra clan.”

“To the Atra clan?”

“Yes. But the concubine who had become part of Atra’s clan attacked her and while the two were fighting the witch summoned a Nether monster but failed to control it!”

“….”

“The plan to summon Nether monsters to weaken the Light of the King and destroy the eight kingdoms of humans… should be scrapped! It’s not something we can afford!”

Even as he tells that story Ware Rat’s body begins to freeze from the inside out. Eventually the cold reaches his bone marrow and Ware Rat dies.

“You want to summon a Nether monster and destroy the human world?”