Night of the Soulless Heathens – 29



#29. Massacre of the Paladins 6

The following verdict was reached regarding the promise made with the messenger clan:

If someone makes a promise to a stone on the side of the road should they be punished for breaking that promise?

The same goes for the promise with the messenger clan. They are soulless beings no different from the stones on the roadside.

No if it’s a stone on the roadside they wouldn’t dare disturb the light of the king’s flower so the emperor’s followers are trash of much worse quality than a stone on the roadside. Any serious promise with such trash is meaningless so if the target is a messenger family they are exempt from responsibility whether they break their promise or commit dishonorable acts.

In this way the people of Hybris claim that the Heralds are soulless beings and reject even the minimal principles that honor and law should demonstrate.

In such a situation even if Azadin promised them who knew if they would actually become Confessors? Nevertheless Azadin pitied the people of Hybris.

“The people of Hybris will be in trouble if we do not deal with Hybris’ principles. The price for choosing to take revenge on the paladins here is to abandon their farms and run away. That would be a very hard life. So I cannot make that decision.”

“For something like that it seems like you don’t like killing knights.”

When Ismail asked Azadin nodded.

“When I fight a strong opponent and have to kill him because I don’t have enough strength it’s painful to kill someone I know I’ll win against. Because I have to kill them unnecessarily.”

“….”

It is absolute confidence. It is not easy for even the Emperor’s messengers to show this kind of confidence against the knights of the King’s Church.

In fact the knights of the King’s Church were able to deflect arrows fired by Midiam or Ismail like ghosts and they even dodge the javelins thrown by Azadin if they saw them. The apprentice knights who were hit by javelins were caught in a surprise attack from the rear.

Are you saying that you had that kind of composure while dealing with these high-level knights?

“It’s too hard to live as a wanderer so you wanted to handle it under the system and laws of Whibris if possible is that right?”

“Right. Well the funeral is over now so where did this guy go?”

After a while Tarki who had run away from the farm returned looking around tentatively.

“Oh I guess it’s over there.”

“You’re back again? I thought you’d just run away.”

“No from my perspective I cannot fight the knights of the King’s Church.”

“If that’s the case it will be difficult for you to come with us.”

Medium criticized him harshly. He wanted to kill him saying that traveling with the Emperor’s messenger was a crime against God… From Tarki’s perspective traveling with Azadin would not be a good idea either.

When Medium asked him about it Tarki was at a loss for words. In fact the reason Tarki wanted to act with Azadin was because he was afraid of encountering highwaymen monsters or even assassins of his other half-brothers while traveling alone now that the mercenary group that would protect him was gone.

But Azadin also needed Tarki.

‘This guy’s mother provided the Emperor’s gold right? And she also hired that mercenary group. We need to investigate. Besides he became the petitioner for the gold anyway so at least he won’t betray us easily. He avoided engaging the paladins but he’s a noble of Hybris so there’s nothing we can do.’

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

Azadin understood Tarki’s position and gave instructions.

“Let’s finish up the maintenance as much as possible. Wash up change clothes… and pick up the arrows. I don’t know if I can wash this.”

Azadin had the villagers do their best to clean up the corpses while they were collecting them.

*********

The survivors of the farm were preparing to leave with what they could find valuable. They had participated in the killing of the knights of the King’s Church and had made a deal with the herald Azadin so they could no longer remain on the farm.

“It’s all your fault!”

A young girl who was herding sheep suddenly criticized Azadin.

“If you hadn’t come to our farm! Mom and Dad wouldn’t have died!”

“fizzle.”

A young man who appeared to be her older brother covered the girl’s mouth.

“I’m sorry for this. I’m just a kid…”

The farmer’s son looked at Azadin in fear worried that the girl might retaliate against him for his accusations. However Azadin paid little attention to the girl’s tantrums.

“So what do we do now?”

Medium asked the peasants her pure curiosity piqued her curiosity.

“I’ll go to a nearby relative’s house and take refuge there. I’ll get the kids married off who can and the kids who can get jobs. As for the fields… the drought is getting worse anyway so it’s going to be even harder to farm.”

The farmer’s son pointed in the direction they were going the opposite way to Salasma southwest.

“Then I guess we should split up here. We’ll be going now.”

“Yes. May the Emperor bless you Herald.”

When the farmer’s son said this the children looked at their older brother in shock. Perhaps he had mentioned the Emperor’s blessing out of courtesy but even that alone was a frightening and disconcerting thing for the children of the Hybris people.

[The people are treating me like a plague. I have tried to bring civilization and wisdom to the people.]

The Emperor’s voice sounded resentful at their reaction.

“No matter how wise or virtuous a ruler may be a person in power who cannot decide on a succession plan will be cursed at.”

[I will admit that. But even just one generation of peace that I have achieved is valuable. Let alone one generation of the Yaegasu Shinto clan.]

“I guess so.”

*********

There are two routes to Salasma from the current location of Azadin’s party: the north route and the west route which runs north along the Gray River that runs through all of Korasar. Azadin chose the west route and the north route along the Gray River.

“It’s a bit of a roundabout way but there will be a lot of refugees moving this way so it’ll be easy to ask around among the people and by looking at how much the river water has decreased we’ll be able to tell how severe the drought is. It’s also important to get information as a messenger.”

After deciding on a route Azadin walked along the road.

The eastern side of the ‘backbone of the desert’ mountain range was less affected by the drought but the effects of the drought were still felt here. Even though it was still spring the grass and trees on the roadside were dried and twisted.

Tarki began to flatter Azadin even more perhaps concerned that he had run away while fighting the knights.

“Wow you’re amazing. They say that the knights of the King’s Church are more energetic and lively when they’re trainees and yet you’ve managed to defeat them all.”

“Have you seen it? How do they fight?”

Medium asked out of curiosity.

“No I didn’t see it myself…”

“I guess you didn’t see me because you were running away so fast.”

“Ugh.”

Tarki was embarrassed when the girl criticized him. If it were his original personality he would not have stayed still but in his current position he could not carelessly lose his temper with Midiam who was showing off her high status as a member of the herald clan.

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

“Um be quiet. I’m tired.”

In Azadin’s case since he carries a lot of weapons and equipment riding a Kerim ram to his destination would be too much of a burden. So he held the reins and walked but even though Azadin had better stamina than most people he had been fighting continuously recently so he was tired.

“There are many other pedestrians so don’t talk nonsense. Don’t talk nonsense like you killed the paladin or something like that…”

Azadin made a gesture of slitting his throat. Then a group of merchants began to solicit customers from Azadin and his party.

“People passing by. Have a cup of tea.”

He was a street vendor selling tea.

Tea is a popular drink throughout the entire kingdom of the Eight Kingdoms. No it is more like a daily necessity. Except for a few places where the water is clear most of it contains a lot of limestone and impurities so if you drink it as is you are likely to get sick.

The Yaegasu Shinto clan actively encouraged the cultivation and consumption of tea because when tea leaves are added to boiling water limestone and impurities in the water stick to the tea leaves purifying the water and making it drinkable.

So if you look along the road there are vendors who make tea for travelers and charge them money. They have a brazier on a cart equipped with a water jug ​​that one person can carry and they boil water there to make tea. Some of them even sell sweets made with sweet mugwort.

However on the stall of the merchant soliciting customers from Azadin and his party… there was a small flag of the Korasaar Peddler Guild.

“The road is long and there isn’t much water. Let’s have a cup of tea before we go.”

He took out some very small wooden chairs from the cart and placed them on the roadside. Azadin nodded and sat down.

The merchant glanced at Tarki.

“That knight?”

“I am a petitioner for gold. It’s okay. There will be no information leaks.”

Azadin asserted so. The Gold Coin Petition is a very powerful type of oath magic and those who use it cannot betray the Herald Clan at will. This is a fact that everyone in the Herald Clan knows. If not how could Azadin tolerate someone like Tarki who plundered civilians?

“Oh is that so?”

The merchant who had been smiling just a moment ago had a hardened expression. It was a look of relief that he no longer needed to smile like a salesman.

“So where did you go when you suddenly became a messenger 3 months ago without any formalities?”

It’s blatant nonsense. The original purpose of the Jeonryong clan’s personnel transfer was during the summer solstice festival which was held once every two years.

At that time those who were old or injured and could no longer serve as messengers would retire and the vacancies created by those who died on duty or retired would be filled by young and capable people or by those recommended as messengers’ servants.

However Azadin ignored the procedure and became a messenger three months ago as a special case. This was due to the active recommendation of Kazas the elder of the messenger clan but Azadin was originally the son of a traitor and was well known among the messenger clan as a loser and incompetent.

Why else would the threat of ‘marrying off to Azadin’ be effective in calming down crying children?

Could that be why this tea shop peddler who is nothing more than a servant is also complaining to Azadin.

‘If you look at Azadin’s skills you can’t ignore him like that.’

Medium thought so but she also had not heard any rumors about Azadin’s skills. Only rumors about how immature he was as a child continued to be passed around among the clan so even the servants ignored him.

“I’m on my way to Salasma. Is something going on?”

“Yes. It’s a mission you can refuse. But I heard that you have already refused so many missions from the local chief that you have become a hater. If you are going to refuse the local chief’s missions why are you acting as a messenger?”

“Working with the Emperor’s gold coins.”

“Haha. There probably won’t be that many gold coins.”

“….”