Night of the Soulless Heathens – 231



#231. Northern Aragasa 2

A prisoner transport carriage is stopped in the middle of the intersection.

The horses had already been taken by thieves as the harness on the carriage had been cut off and the corpses of peasants and prisoners were strewn around.

“This is…..”

“This is where we were attacked.”

The thief Camilla frowned.

We’ve been walking for quite some time and now we’ve finally reached the place where we were first attacked. The problem was that only the knights were on horseback and everyone else was walking.

“Heeeeelp.”

The horses were also suffering.

“I guess I need to drink some water.”

Izmila got down from her horse and looked around.

There was a place where the road had sunk and muddy water had accumulated. There were mosquitoes flying around and there were a lot of crickets in the water so it didn’t look like good water for horses to drink.

“Sir Izmilla you should not feed this to a horse. It will make you sick. It may quench your thirst for a moment but it will soon cause an upset stomach and you will surely die.”

Despite MacDougal’s attempts to stop her Izmila cast the spell.

-The nature of purification!

As the blue spear struck the surface insects and mosquitoes burst out and the muddy water quickly sank to the bottom separating the clean and dirty water.

‘You use divine magic to make a horse drink water?’

Azadin was astonished at the sight.

You must be running low on energy because you’re being chased by enemies but you use magic so easily. What are you going to do if you waste your energy here and meet the enemy?

But Izmila was calm. It seemed that using this much magic didn’t cause much damage.

‘You have considerable ability. You’re not at the level of a mere trainee knight are you?’

Azadin sensed that Ismila had quite noble blood.

“Once a horse dies there is no turning back. We cannot let a horse die just to save our magic. Mr. MacDougal. You should also give your horse some water.”

“That’s right.”

“Then I guess we should rest here for a bit and have a meal.”

Azadin knew that the female thief and the blood mage half-orc needed rest. They had all lost a lot of stamina from fleeing through the fog all night.

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It wasn’t just a one-night thing. The pilgrims were constantly being chased by an invisible enemy and their nerves were on edge so fatigue had built up over several days.

As soon as Azadin declared that they should rest the half-orc and the blood mage immediately fell to the ground.

The female thief seemed to have some energy left so she went around searching through the corpses and cargo to find food and other useful items.

But then….

“hmm.”

Azadin felt Arael’s voice detect the approaching enemies.

‘You are taking on the role of the Emperor’s voice.’

After the Emperor’s voice disappeared leaving everything to Azadin Arael’s voice took over the role that the Emperor’s voice had previously played.

Announces the contract for gold and scouts the surrounding area to alert them to the presence of enemies.

And that ghost goat it is also called by Arael’s voice.

I don’t know if it was originally created for that purpose or if Arael is using an artificial spirit she created to serve Azadin.

‘Arael is really talented. She created something like this. I wish we could have talked more.’

But Arael was no longer there. Azadin concentrated his mind and looked at his enemies.

The northern Aragasas armed with moon-bow and moon-bow swords were approaching.

Since there are no other monsters around is this a test of Aragasa’s skills? Or is it just a conversation?

The latter is probably more likely.

indeed….

A man who appears to be the commander of the Northern Aragasa prepares a bow.

A siege bow used by two people with one person lying down and supporting the large bow with his legs while the other person pulls the bow places a javelin on it and shoots it. This was the identity of the javelin that had been harassing the pilgrims in the fog.

-Wedge!

They fired a javelin. The javelin flew farther than anyone could have imagined and landed on Azadin.

‘They’re watching me too.’

Just as Azadin sees them through Arael’s voice they must also be seeing Azadin and his party through some means of observation.

Even though the distance was not visible in a straight line the javelin flew precisely at Azadin.

Azadin stood with his back to the prisoner carriage and deflected the flying javelins.

-Phew!

A loud noise rang out as the javelin that was flying with the intent of piercing Azadin bent to the side and struck the prisoner transport carriage.

“Eek?!”

“That enemy?!”

The half-orc and blood mage who had been asleep until just now suddenly stood up.

“Calm down. It’s just a letter.”

Azadin pointed to the letter tied to the spear.

“What kind of crazy person sends a letter like that?”

The thief was indignant.

It was an arrow flying straight towards Azadin. If Azadin hadn’t deflected it he would have been impaled on that javelin and skewered.

But didn’t Azadin who was actually attacked take this lightly? He acted as if this was a normal greeting among the Aragasa.

“What’s going on?”

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“I won’t know until I see it.”

Azadin unwrapped the letter and read it.

‘I ask my fellow Hatir sect members. We are the Ahazi sect and although we serve different people we cherish our fellow sect members. However those you are protecting are fanatics of arrogant teachings and their lives are not worth protecting at all. It is a well-known fact that you are bound by the Emperor’s contract but you have already done what you have received in gold. As fellow sect members can’t we find common ground? Even if that is not the case we would like to talk to you. If it is alright may we approach you?’

It felt shameless to say something like that after already launching a spear attack. If a member of the same herald clan had launched an arrow-letter attack like this Azadin would have destroyed them without a second thought making them pay for their shameless preemptive strike.

However since the opponent was an Aragasa from a different faction a strange sense of competition arose.

If you ignore the fact that we’ve launched a preemptive strike and say “You call this an attack? This is just a greeting to us” you’re actually admitting that the Emperor’s messengers are inferior to those of the Northern Aragasa.

‘I can’t do that because of my pride. I guess I’ll have to return the arrow.’

A strange battle of pride began without anyone having spoken first.

Azadin immediately wrote a letter tied it to his arrow and took out his bow.

Azadin’s bow is a common moonbow. Its range is not as good as that of a two-person monopod.

However Azadin decided to apply the Aragasa High-Ryu method to increase the distance.

The common high-speed shooting method is to wind up the bow to increase the velocity of the bullet. It is also called a whip shot which is a method of gaining a little more velocity in exchange for a little bit of accuracy.

But that alone doesn’t give you as much range as a one-armed bow so Azadin added running and full-scale javelin throwing to it.

Running accelerating swinging his body and swinging his bow like he was throwing a spear he fired a whip shot at the moment of maximum acceleration. It was an ignorant act that sacrificed a great deal of accuracy but with Azadin’s skill he was confident that he could easily shoot at the enemy even if his accuracy was reduced to this extent.

The accelerated arrow flew through the sky.

*********

“Huh? Are you crazy?”

Captain Aragasa was already watching Azadin and his party with his clairvoyant magic.

After he had let go of the moon-shaped bow he had shot he watched the messenger clan writing a letter tied to it and laughed at him inwardly. No matter how hard he tried it was impossible to send an arrow here with the moon-shaped bow he had.

But then the messenger clan suddenly ran and started firing back at the Aragasa high-class swordsmanship doing almost everything they could to increase the distance?

If you shoot like that will it come near you? Even if it does it’ll probably fly to the wrong place.

however.

-Wedge!

Isn’t that an arrow flying straight towards the head of Aragasa’s 10th Lieutenant?

“This guy is really crazy!”

The sergeant was terrified and caught the flying arrow with his hand.

The arrow had already lost all its strength after flying a great distance… but it still had momentum that could not be underestimated.

“Wow that’s amazing!”

I was honestly impressed. He shot back arrows with such a ridiculous method. And yet with such accuracy how great of a marksman must he be?

Even among the many famous archers in Aragasa he can be said to be an unrivaled marksman.

“uh?”

“Did you get it back?!”

“That guy is amazing!”

“What rank is the messenger?”

“Quiet.”

The sergeant said so and opened the letter.

‘The Emperor’s Herald 108th Herald Azadin says. I don’t know the reason but the sight of you killing innocent peasants and unarmed people and joining hands with the apostles of Mezeri is too shameful to be considered as compatriots. However it is also natural for uneducated children to make mistakes. If you consider me as an adult and learn from me I will gladly consider you as compatriots and lead you to the right path.’

The sergeant major burst into laughter after reading the letter.

“It’s pretty good.”

“Captain. What did you write?”

“Can I read it too?”

“Wow that’s really bad handwriting.”

They also read the letter and burst out laughing.

“But if it’s the 108th messenger isn’t it the lowest messenger?”

“You’re quite capable of shooting arrows back.”

“Isn’t that the Flower Bird and Moon? They are said to receive the Book of Grimoire from the Emperor as a bloodline inheritance in exchange for being cursed with service.”

“Well if you cast a spell then this distance is understandable.”

“If it’s magic then it’s nothing special right?”

Everyone said that but the 1st Lieutenant who had seen Azadin’s return shot with the magic of clairvoyance kept his mouth shut. He knew that the arrow was not enchanted but was shot back using pure archery so he knew that it was not enchanted.

But there was no need to say that in front of his subordinates to spoil the mood.

“Everyone be quiet.”

The sergeant silenced his men.

“Let’s meet up first.”

*********

Azadin sat down in the middle of the intersection and closed his eyes.

Even with his eyes closed he could see the objects around him. Soon the northern Aragasas approaching him appeared.

Even if he tried not to look Arael’s voice alerted the surroundings and naturally informed him when there was something worth notifying.

“That’s quite something. The Emperor’s messenger. Shall we have a quick chat?”

The voice of the Aragasa 10th Lieutenant rang out. Although he was only a hundred paces away his voice sounded close as if he was whispering right in my ear.

“ah!”

The pilgrims of the Rescue Knights were startled by the voice that was ringing in their ears. It was the same distant voice that had bewitched and mocked them.

“So this is the magic. I can see clearly since there is no fog.”

“But Sister. There are a lot of them.”

“….”

As Countach had pointed out ten Aragatsas approached.

Except for the man in the lead they are all boys and girls in their mid-teens but that makes them even more fearful.

Aren’t those guys the ones who attacked and trampled the Salvation Knights’ pilgrimage group?

Even at such a young age he has demon-like skills.