Night of the Soulless Heathens – 235



#235. Bishop Akenar 2

Suddenly a horn sounded on the road east of town towards Coxhall.

Armed Rescue Knights appeared behind the flag bearer blowing the horn of the Rescue Knights.

“Written.”

Azadin clicked his tongue as he watched them appear.

In fact the scene that made the villagers wonder was what happened because Azadin confirmed their approach with the ‘Voice of Arael’.

Azadin hesitated over what to do as he watched rescuers appear from unexpected directions.

“I have a headache.”

As the rescuers appeared the lizardmen also began to grit their teeth and slowly retreat.

Some of them were unable to let go of their foolishness and bared their teeth at Azadin but they too eventually gave up their foolishness and ran away.

Although Azadin was active beating the necks of the Lizardmen and breaking their heads the Lizardmen’s vitality was also amazing and there were only a few dead corpses. Even with their heads broken and their brains flowing out the Lizardmen retreated without dying.

Instead rescuers came on horseback and stormed the village. They surrounded Azadin all at once.

“Put down your weapons and fall to the ground! Here comes Bishop Akenar of the Coxhal of the Knights of Salvation!”

“…bishop?”

Azadin sat on the ground discarding the Lizardman’s khopesh on the ground and sheathing his ceramite longsword.

It seemed that the bishop himself had gone out to visit the pilgrims knowing that they had been attacked.

“Bow your head!”

The knights on horseback issued threatening commands but Azadin refused their orders.

“Haven’t you seen me fight the Lizardmen? I don’t usually look down on blind people but you guys are really blind with your eyes open. Why don’t you chase after the Lizardmen and catch them instead of bothering me? If you let them live they might hurt someone again.”

Azadin who was born without eyes and lived under the name of Azadin of Mu-an rarely uses words like blindness or anything like that when belittling others.

But now he was angry enough to ignore such principles. Instead of chasing the fleeing lizardmen he was only concerned with subduing Azadin who was fighting them.

Doesn’t this mean that protecting the bishop is more important to them than saving the townspeople and eradicating the lizardmen?

The reason they bow their heads to Azadin is to guard against the possibility that Azadin might draw his weapon and swing it. In other words it is only to make their security mission easier.

“Our mission is to protect the Bishop. How can we be sure that you are not in league with those Lizardmen?”

“That’s why I put the knife down. I did it out of consideration for you all.”

“What about that sword on your back?”

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“This is a very important sword so it cannot be damaged even a little bit.”

“hmm?”

At that moment the rescue knights were startled when they saw the sword on Azadin’s back.

“These are the three ceramite longswords!”

“What?!”

The knights were shocked to see that what Azadin had was a ceramite longsword.

“Hey kid! Where did you get that?”

“Could it be Sir Izmila?!”

It seems that Azadin took Izmilla’s ceramite longsword.

“Ah… really.”

Azadin clicked his tongue at the pitiful sight of the rescuers.

Since childhood Azadin had loved the story of the Trinity of Archangels.

The three archangels of virtue who came down from heaven to give strength to humanity out of pity for them and the holy knights who practice virtue by receiving their teachings and protecting humanity with the power of white magic.

For Azadin who was born blind and with an incomplete grimoire and was looked down upon by his own kind the story of the knights fighting alongside the Archangels of the Trinity was a dream and hope.

But now the only people left here are collaborators who are too embarrassed to be called knights.

Of course Azadin is a realist so he knows that humans cannot be perfect. No matter how righteous an organization is it is an organization made up of humans so it is natural that it will become corrupt degenerate and twisted.

But even taking that into account aren’t the guys here now pretty low quality?

‘Honestly I was so weak that an entire pilgrimage group was completely destroyed and yet these guys are persecuting me now? Do you think you can handle me with your skills? I have truly received a favor from Sir Planck and I myself have been appointed as a hospitaler so it’s okay.’

Azadin himself now considers himself to be the Emperor’s messenger and a knight of the Knights of Salvation.

Sir Planck’s knighting of him could never have been an act without meaning. It would be inconceivable for Azadin to deny it.

‘I’m holding back because I’m a rescue worker.’

Then the villagers stepped forward.

“If it weren’t for him we would all be dead.”

“Yes. He defeated the lizardmen and saved us.”

The townspeople bravely defended Azadin in the face of knights armed with spears and swords.

“That was amazing! All those lizardmen swish swish!”

A young child imitates Azadin by pretending to fight with a sword. Although it is comical because it is a young child’s behavior it gets the point across well.

The fact that Azadin was able to deal with a large number of lizardmen with great ease as he retreated.

“Hmm.”

The knights also stopped when they heard the villagers’ pleas to see if their eyes were bulging.

“You heard? Don’t bother me and go hunt the lizardmen. If you guys are too tough to deal with I’ll go hunt you down.”

Azadin said this and took a step forward but a spear and a sword blocked his way.

“for a moment!”

“Our regular pilgrimage group was just attacked in this area.”

“We are investigating so please cooperate with the investigation.”

“I guess I misspoke when I said ‘please respond’?”

At that time Izmila and her group arrived in the village late.

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“uh?”

“Rescue Knights?!”

Izmila immediately showed her star sign.

“I am Errant Izmila a hospitalist from the Pilgrimage Group! What is it?”

“Oh Sir Izmila.”

“You were safe.”

The knights rushed to her after confirming that Izmila was safe.

“Lord Bellins. Lord Sheffield? You are alive.”

“Thanks to the protection of the three archangels.”

“What about the Archangel’s Bow? It must mean running away like crazy.”

Camilla who had been listening to the story snorted. She spoke quietly on purpose so that the knights could hear.

If the knights insisted on hearing it they would pretend not to know and if they happened to hear exactly what Camilla said they would have to say their own shame with their own mouths so they thought it would be fun to watch.

It is still vivid in my mind that the pilgrim knights were throwing the serfs and prisoners they had brought with them as arrow cannons and running away.

But now when they talk about the protection of angels it seems ridiculous.

The knights glared at Camilla but when they saw the huge half-orc next to her scratching its chin they turned their heads and pretended not to hear.

Then Izmila asked them a question.

“Is it true that the bishop came?”

“Yes. The bishop is coming by carriage so he will be a little late…”

By the looks of it these are probably some sort of scouts from the bishop’s bodyguard.

“Then you really ran away to Coxhall.”

Izmila’s question also had thorns.

They said they went to call for reinforcements for the bishop because it sounded good. In the end these knights quickly fled to Coxhall as soon as the pilgrims were attacked.

Otherwise the bishop would not have arrived so quickly.

“Ahem. I couldn’t help it because I knew my comrades were in danger. And we didn’t run away to Coxhall. The bishop knew there was going to be an attack and sent out troops to patrol the area first. We didn’t run that hard.”

When Izmila secretly criticized them the paladin felt embarrassed and made excuses while the other one still did not know how to read the mood.

“Haha. I used a vitality spell on the horse. Thanks to that it was able to escape really quickly.”

“But why this person?”

Izmila looked puzzled as she watched the knights guarding Azadin.

“Oh Sir Izmila. Do you know the interest?”

“I have a ceramite longsword…”

They glanced behind Izmila. A ceramite longsword was hanging from her back as well.

Compared to Azadin’s the leather of the handle is more vivid and the three-winged wheel emblem carved into the pommel is also more neat. It is clear that Azadin’s ceramite longsword was made much earlier and has been worn more.

‘uh?’

‘Something else?’

When Azadin had the ceramite longsword everyone assumed it was Ismilla’s. But now that we look at them their longswords are clearly different objects.

“This man is the Emperor’s messenger. The pilgrimage group is in danger of being annihilated so I shamelessly summoned him with the Emperor’s gold.”

“!?”

“What?!”

The knights immediately turned their swords towards Azadin again.

“Drop your weapons!”

“Throw it away!”

“You don’t like it?”

Azadin snorted.

“Look. I was called here by you. I came to help the survivors who survived when the Rescue Knights were in danger and as you can see I helped them plenty. So what crime are you trying to accuse me of?”

“That that….”

“As you said I called him. He faithfully performed his duties according to the contract so arresting him would be a betrayal. Above all unlike the King’s Church we are not hostile to the Emperor so on what grounds do you want to arrest him?”

Izmila also defended Azadin.

“but….”

But then a quiet but powerful woman’s voice was heard.

“Because the Emperor’s followers destroyed the kingdoms of Bthuma and Korasaur.”

“yes?”

The carriage door opened at the entrance to the village and a woman wearing a silver lady’s mask got out. It was Bishop Akenar Coxhal of the Knights of Salvation who had arrived.

“I see you Bishop.”

Izmila got off her horse and knelt on the ground.

“I’m glad you’re safe Sir Izmilla.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Then the Emperor’s messenger….”

The bishop looked back at Azadin.

“We appreciate your saving Sir Izmilla. However we have heard that the Emperor’s followers have destroyed Korasaar and Bthuma slaughtering countless people. If that is true we are sorry but we will have to arrest you.”

“What if you don’t like it?”

“Then we have no choice but to use force. Of course our power may not be enough to capture the Emperor’s trained messenger but can we ignore evil just because we lack the strength to carry out justice?”

Bishop Acenar spoke in a calm voice.