Night of the Soulless Heathens – 144



#144. Reader Route 3

Elder Sebali warned Azadin.

“Arael… is not ordinary. I do not want you who defeated me to throw away your life for such a reckless act. Can’t we reconcile? It does not seem to be out of loyalty to the Senate.”

“….”

“Of course I understand. You must be doing this because of your pride and philosophy. However if you live long enough you will realize one thing. There is no need to risk your life for philosophy or ideology. It is not a thing to be criticized to simply live according to your instincts.”

“In order to live like that I will stop messing with the old gods of the Nether.”

“Even though all of Aragasa is longing for it? If you do something like that it will be hard to leave anything behind. As you can see from my presence here the Senate will eventually recognize the Arael tribe. If the Arael tribe only acknowledges the vested rights of the five great bloodlines to some extent the agreement will be reached. Even so you say?”

Sebali was surprisingly genuinely concerned about Azadin. If not then there would be no need to mention it.

There was a rebellion by Arael but the Senate would recognize Arael’s rebellion. That is to resist Arael’s vision is to resist all of Aragasa.

He was warning Azadin about it.

“First of all thank you for your concern.”

Azadin expressed his gratitude to Sebali.

“No. You defeated me so now my honor rests on your shoulders.”

“I don’t think you would tell me such a valuable story just for that reason.”

“I once dreamed of merging with the Hybris. Because the blood of the Emperor flows through our veins. I thought we could easily harmonize with them.”

“….”

The elder who seemed stubborn and unyielding was a young man who dreamed of ideals in his youth. Aragasa’s hatred for the Hybrisians is so deep that even the heads of the intelligent are covered in a fog of hatred.

“I’m worried that everyone in Aragasa will turn their backs on you.”

“Are you really saying that no one has a conscience?”

“Haha. You really take after Aldis. I heard Aldis raised you with great care. Well I’m a loser so do whatever you want.”

“All right.”

Meanwhile Azadin arrived at the royal palace of Coral Sahar.

The outer wall with its lowlands submerged in water and its gates submerged to a height greater than a person has already fallen to the Nagas and the people inside the castle have moved to the inner wall.

There were a huge number of Naga corpses on the surface indicating that many Naga had died but it was clear that Coral Sahar was a beacon of light.

“So. What do we do now?”

“We must infiltrate the castle and meet with King Korasa. In addition the Aragasa of Arael are probably wreaking havoc right now so we must deal with them.”

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“What should I do?”

“I’ll let you go. I can’t take you over the wall.”

“Are you okay? If you release me what’s the point of being a hostage…?”

“If you know honor don’t let them harm my fellows.”

“Is that all you ask of me?”

“yes.”

Azadin said so and indeed released Elder Sebali.

“You are truly an elusive person.”

“Then please.”

Azadin said so and ran to the wall alone leaving Elder Sebali behind.

The sea serpent nagas were startled but Azadin shouted that he was a messenger and flew up the water-soaked wall easily jumping over it and entering.

*********

Coral Sahar Castle is a castle with tremendous defensive power built with the best fortification technology of its time.

It is built on a coastal cliff to monitor the Kora River Delta area making access from the water nearly impossible.

Approaching from the land you will come across a terrifying triple wall. This triple wall is usually designed so that you can move along the top of the wall using a drawbridge but if you remove the drawbridge you will have to circle around the bottom of the wall which will bring hell to the attackers.

However due to the continued heavy rain the castle walls had become vulnerable in many places and Aragasa’s agents who ran along the castle walls as if they were flat ground easily infiltrated and opened the castle gates.

And then the Naga army which could move freely on land and water invaded and they lost the first wall of the outer wall so easily.

There were still two bulwarks left inside but the messenger clan agents kept coming in day and night shooting arrows and running away so everyone was extremely exhausted.

And as fatigue built up like this problems began to arise.

“Eww.”

“Oh it’s coming!”

Exhausted soldiers were scratching their faces with their hands drawing blood.

When we sleep we all have nightmares of madness.

And when such people were placed as sentinels on the walls they had a hallucination that a huge monster was looking down on them from the sea.

“I hate poetry!”

“The god of the Nether is coming!”

“Save me!”

When those who are possessed by madness and confusion cause a ruckus other soldiers are brought in to stop them and they become tired along with them.

“This is driving me crazy. Well I don’t think we should say that in front of crazy people but we’d rather be crazy!”

“Damn. But me too… sometimes when there’s lightning I see the shadow of a giant on the sea side.”

“Don’t look. It’s because I’m mentally weak. Just wait a little longer. Reinforcements will definitely come. I’ve even sent a messenger to request reinforcements and with the usual number of traders coming and going I’m sure reinforcements will come.”

At that moment didn’t a strange young man climb up onto the inner wall?

“uh?”

“Reinforcements?! Reinforcements?!”

The soldiers who had lost their minds in the continued harsh environment regarded the sudden appearance of these men as reinforcements.

Since they had already lost their outer wall due to the repeated infiltration attacks by the Herald Clan they usually assumed that anyone who came up was the Herald Clan. However since everyone was singing the song of Reinforcement they probably wanted to believe that it was Reinforcement.

“What about reinforcements! They’re the messenger clan!”

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On the other hand the platoon leader who was still somewhat conscious thought that the person who had come up was a messenger. He thought that he was wearing a helmet on his face but upon closer inspection he realized that it was a mask.

“You’re wearing a mask on your face! Among the messenger clan this is the real messenger!”

“for a moment.”

Then the young man who had climbed up the wall raised his hand.

“I didn’t come here to fight. I came here to talk.”

“What? Aren’t you the messenger clan?”

“Yes I am a messenger. But I would like to see King Korasaar.”

“Don’t make me laugh.”

The Herald Clan are also the best assassins. If someone like them were to ask to see the King it would be natural to refuse.

“Disarm! If you disarm….”

But the young man of the Jeongnyeon clan did not even pretend to listen to the recommendation to disarm and suddenly sat down in his seat.

“Huh? This kid!”

“What!?”

They were puzzled by the young man’s unexpected behavior.

The young man pointed to his mask not caring whether they were aiming their weapons or not.

“You don’t look like a knight but a non-commissioned officer. You don’t have the authority to disarm me. Tell your superiors. I’ll wait here until then. Hurry up.”

“Oh no! This kid!”

The platoon leader was indignant at those who turned a deaf ear to his advice to disarm but when the messenger clan waved their hand rainwater sprayed from the air and a biting wind blew towards him.

“Ugh!?”

“It was hard for me to get here. Let’s rest.”

The young man from the messenger clan who said that took out some dried food from his bosom and started eating it.

“uh.”

Eating in front of an opponent means that you have no will to fight. The soldiers already didn’t want to fight but when the opponent ate in front of them they lost their tension.

“Call people and have them watch me.”

“…What about you? What should I say?”

“I am Azadin the Emperor’s messenger number 108. I am a hostile force to the Arael tribe that is attacking you.”

“….”

“The Herald Clan is not one. We too are having a power struggle within ourselves. Do you know what I mean?”

“Ah I understand.”

After listening to the words of this young man from the messenger clan they deployed their soldiers and retreated.

*********

‘Good. You listen well. Perhaps you have fought against the Herald Clan?’

Azadin knew full well that the sergeant was afraid of him.

The sergeants and knights had already suffered from the assassination operations of the Heralds when the outer castle fell and they knew the fighting ability of the Heralds in detail. So they trembled in fear as soon as they saw Azadin.

In addition as the power of the Nether grew stronger the condition of the soldiers worsened.

Given the circumstances I would want to avoid a fight if I could. There’s no way I’d rush in without Azadin trying to attack first.

He said he would disarm me but that was just a bluff.

“But the situation is really serious.”

Azadin was eating his rations when he noticed a soldier looking at him. He looked like a young boy wearing an ill-fitting helmet and sucking his thumb while looking at Azadin.

“Would you like something to eat?”

“…uh.”

When Azadin handed him the dry food the boy soldier took it and stuffed it into his mouth in a hurry. Azadin was taken aback when other soldiers ran over and begged for some too.

‘What if I took some medicine? Did the supply get cut off?’

If you have your eyes on food whether you’ve taken medicine or not… that means there’s a food shortage due to a supply cut off.

That’s ridiculous.

Even though it is said that the royal castle is rarely the target of a siege it is still necessary to stockpile at least a year’s worth of food so it is impossible for food to run out so soon after starting the siege.

“We didn’t run out of food but we ran out of fuel.”

“ah.”

It seems like the environment is not conducive to cooking by lighting a fire.

At that time a messenger from Coral Sahar Castle came to see Azadin.

“An audience is permitted. However… large weapons are not permitted.”

“good.”

Azadin put down the Naga sword he was carrying on his back.

“Activity…..”

“Okay.”

Azadin also put down his iron bow. The iron bow was originally a part of a heavy crossbow so it was incredibly heavy.

The soldiers and knights accompanying the messenger of the castle handed Azadin’s iron bow without much thought but he was surprised by its weight and dropped it on the castle wall and the sound of it clanking like thunder echoed.

The soldiers were terrified when they saw that.

‘You mean you climbed up the wall with this?’

‘Is this guy a monster? Can a human hand pull that thing?’

Azadin had laid down his main weapons but he still had the Wendigo’s dagger the captain’s halberd head and a few throwing knives.

Fortunately the heralds and knights of the castle did not ask for that.

“Then follow me.”

“Okay.”

Azadin followed their guidance and passed the inner castle. The multi-walled Coral Sahar still had one more inner castle left and as he walked into the castle he saw many refugees.

‘The disease is spreading.’

People who emerged from the dirty water were suffering from a disease that was rotting their skin. Since the land was flooded and there was no place to hide people with such diseases shared their rooms and food with other people spreading skin diseases that were not contagious.