Night of the Soulless Heathens – 247



#247. The Knights’ Secret Weapon 1

“what?!”

MacDougal was dying spitting blood out of his mouth.

And behind that McDonald’s stood a beautiful young woman in green holding a dagger.

“Hahaha. You’ve killed the sixth hospitaler. Your promise has been kept.”

“what?!”

As the witch panicked a dark hand suddenly appeared behind her and grabbed the upper part of her face including her eyes.

“this!”

An indignant Azadin swung Aurelia Dunn at the darkness but the darkness quickly engulfed the witch and retreated.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

“The contract is complete! Hospitaler! This child is now ours!”

The Shade Hags left those words behind and disappeared.

The darkness that had enveloped Fort Vermilion receded like an ebb tide and the stars and moon appeared in the sky once again.

The clear night sky spread out as if nothing had happened.

*********

The Shade Hags were defeated and retreated but it was not a happy situation at all.

“What the heck! McDonald’s?!”

Azadin approached MacDougal but he was already dead his life energy drained from his wounds and his skin dried and shriveled like a tree.

“I’m sorry Captain. I was trying to protect you but it happened so quickly.”

Camilla said that and gave a faint smile. Blood wizard Bernard searched through MacDougal’s body and smiled bitterly.

“I see why the Shade Hags insist the contract is fulfilled. Look at this.”

Bernard showed MacDougal the rune tattoo on his heart. Unlike the usual tattoos that use pigments it was a tattoo made of pure magical energy.

“What is this?”

“This is a book of assassination magic inscribed on the agents of the Mercy Church. It is called the Silent Engagement.”

“Silent engagement?”

“It is a magical book of assassination similar to the Flower Bird and Moon used by the Emperor’s messengers. Yes. This person was not just a simple scribe but a hospitaler and an assassin from the Mercy Church.”

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The Knights Templar are divided into three orders of knights of the three virtues.

Courage wisdom compassion.

Among them the Knights of Mercy were known to be at the forefront of relief and aid on the outside but there were rumors that they had spies and assassins behind the scenes.

But was McDonald the rumored assassin?

‘I knew McDonald’s was a spy but…’

Azadin also noticed that MacDougal was managing Izmilla and realized that he was a person put there by the upper echelons of the Knights for Izmilla.

But would you believe he belongs to the Charity Sect?

“I didn’t know you were such a great friend. But now Shade Hag’s contract has been completed.”

As Azadin became restless Legion and Kalan approached him.

“Captain. Then wouldn’t it be better?”

“what?”

“The witch’s circumstances were pitiful anyway but after killing five knights she should have been executed even if she returned to being a human and a criminal. And….”

“You took care of the assassins of the Mercy Cult beforehand. And you accomplished the great feat of dethroning Shade Hag. Do you know that? Those are the monsters that adults tell when children are whining! The bards should have seen this!”

Legion waved his arms wildly and made a fuss but Azadin’s expression was not good.

“Even so it might be better to just exterminate the Shade Hags for sure Bernard. If we have Shade Hag blood we can track them down right?”

Azadin said and whistled. A crow flew across the sky and picked up the arrow that had fallen on the ground.

“….”

Arael’s voice controlled a nearby bird to retrieve the arrow that had hit Shade Hag.

Azadin took the arrow and examined its tip. There was a hint of blood and flesh on the tip. It had clearly been hit by Shade Hag.

“It is possible. But Captain I think it would be best not to subdue Shade Hag right now.”

“Why?”

“First and foremost the fort can’t function without you. Even though you were revealed to be a spy there’s no one who can properly carry out the work of the Knights Templar without Crestmaster MacDougal.”

“….”

“And secondly for the independence of the fortress.”

“Independence of the fortress?”

“Ginsa is a very expensive specialty. If the curse of this fortress is lifted other rescue knights will surely try to take this fortress. And in my view the captain clearly joined this rescue knight group to achieve something right? The production of Vermillion Fortress will definitely help the captain to achieve that. The curse of Shade Hag has been lifted since it has reached six but let’s say that the curse still remains above. Then they will leave Vermillion Fortress to the captain because they do not want to be cursed.”

“Hmm. That’s right.”

Azadin shut his mouth as he heard Bernard say something meaningful.

According to what Bernard said doesn’t that mean that the Rescue Knights and the soldiers already knew that they were cursed by Shade Hag?

This means that he did not inform Azadin.

‘It’s not that I’m a member of the Herald Clan… but rather there’s a superstition that if you warn others that you’ll become the target of a curse you’ll also become the target of a curse. No being a member of the Herald Clan probably played a part.’

But this superstition will now serve as a shield to protect Azadin as the Knights Templar will not be able to properly inspect this fortress for fear of the curse.

“Good. Even if we catch the Shade Hags we should stabilize the fortress a bit more before going after them.”

Azadin decided to take advantage of this curse.

*********

The soldiers of Fort Vermillion were practically no different from a group of bandits.

But now that Azadin had survived Shade Hag’s curse they had no choice but to acknowledge him.

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In particular the two squad leaders who had directly challenged him and been defeated have now become full-fledged loyalists so Fort Vermilion is now a true fortress rather than a den of bandits.

Azadin mobilized his soldiers and local residents to clear nearby farmland expand the houses organize an archery range and training ground and then began training his soldiers.

The soldiers who had been acting like a group of bandits were dissatisfied with Azadin’s training but since the two squad leaders Kalan and Legion completely followed Azadin they could not refuse.

However another squad leader Cormac was not loyal to Azadin so he came to find Azadin with his men.

Azadin gathered the peasant soldiers and began practicing basic military drills how to form a formation with spears and how to turn the formation in a set order when the enemy appeared from the side.

The sight was so ridiculous like a child playing soldier that Cormac and his men burst into laughter.

“What good is this childish play!? It doesn’t help at all.”

“In a fight it’s all about brutality strength and swordsmanship!”

Comack and his men who were former pirates grinned as they recalled their old memories of swinging cutlasses and attacking merchant ships.

“Huh? You think so? Then let’s have a go?”

“yes?”

Azadin formed a squad of peasants and equipped them with training spears. Armed with spears with cloth wrapped around their ends Azadin motioned to Cormek.

“Bring some people who agree with you.”

“no….”

“If you win I’ll exempt you from training and give you a bonus as well. How about a bag of silver coins?”

Azadin actually took out a bag of silver coins and waved them in front of them.

“town?”

“Instead if you lose you will not only train quietly but from now on you will also be in charge of chores.”

“….”

Comek and his men discussed it for a moment.

“No matter what would we lose to a farmer?”

“Let’s do it!”

Comek’s squad members were pirates who operated in the Andaz Inland Sea with Comek and they were all somewhat confident in their sword skills.

In their eyes they were wolves and the farmers were sheep. Since this was a fight they could not possibly lose they readily accepted Azadin’s provocation.

They all got beaten up on a rainy day and covered in dust.

“Tsk tsk. It’s said that it’s very difficult to break through a spearman’s fight with just one person’s force. Do you think you can break through it with just your skills without even knowing the meaning of the training you’re doing now?”

Azadin knew this would be the outcome and took this opportunity to humiliate Cormac and his men.

“And right now the training is only the beginning. I will teach you what I have learned one by one so first complete this basic soldier training. After that I will teach you the mysterious secrets of Aragasa.”

Azadin mentioned Aragatha’s secrets perhaps to tempt the soldiers who were still obsessed with swordsmanship or mystical martial arts.

Not only did he defeat the tough soldiers who had a pirate background as peasant soldiers but he also mentioned the secret method they wanted causing all the soldiers to take their training seriously.

Two busy weeks passed like that.

“It’s almost time for the supply team to arrive.”

Legion who was cleaning the training grounds spoke to Azadin.

“What if it’s a supply platoon?”

“I’m a collector from Fireglyph. In exchange for receiving our quota of Jinsa we give them the supplies they want and help them deliver mail and such.”

“Supplies?”

“Yes. It’s not like we just submit a request but we buy the goods at this price and sell them at this price in return. Here’s a list.”

Legion hands over his notebook.

“The price is too unreasonable?”

Azadin frowned at the very cheap purchase price of the cinnabar and the expensive list of supplies.

The Rescue Knights are exploiting Fort Vermilion. It was a price tag that could be seen as such.

“Yes. That’s why it’s more profitable to deal with private merchants. Here you only need to give them the minimum quota. Anyway Fireglyph won’t expect anything more than that.”

It seems that if you deliver only the specified amount the higher-ups won’t touch it anymore.

At that moment the voice of Arael who was performing the role of Azadin’s scout perfectly discovered the supply unit in the sky.

“They say even a tiger will come if you call it. It looks like a guest is coming. This is a big deal. I haven’t even seen McDonald’s dead yet.”

Azadin had been writing regular reports to Fireglyph the city where the Knights Templar’s headquarters were located on the Chadra Plateau and to his patron Bishop Akenar but had been putting off sending them for the time being due to lack of a courier.

What would happen if we reported that the sergeant major MacDougall had died in the line of duty?

A few moments later the supply corps entered Fort Vermilion and the sergeant of the supply corps took out a letter in a swaggering manner.

“A letter from Lord Hexenmayer Chapter Master of Fireglyph. Lord Azadin the captain of this fortress is to report to Fireglyph immediately with only a minimal retinue!”

It was an unexpected summons.