Night of the Soulless Heathens – 303



#304. St. Mallory Underpass 2

St. Mallory is one of the world’s greatest cities.

Although Btooma is famous for its sugar plantations it was possible for Btooma to focus on sugarcane cultivation because St. Mallory grows vast quantities of southern wheat and barley that feed the world’s people.

This enormous capacity to support a large population made St. Mallory one of the world’s largest cities and as a holy place for the Knights Templar it also attracted many pilgrims.

There was even a profession called tour guide which provided guidance for such pilgrims.

“Now this is the Gate of Ascension. What do you think? Isn’t it amazing? Surprisingly the walls on both sides of this gate are plastered as you can see so they look like a single piece of stone… and they’ve been maintained for hundreds of years without a single crack or fall.”

“Oh.”

Azadin was looking at the Gates of Ascension with constant admiration.

Scott snorted.

“It’s concrete. Captain. It looks like a single piece of stone but inside it’s made of various aggregates that have been combined and hardened into concrete. The fact that there are no cracks on the surface means that it must be maintained to the point of extreme care.”

“But isn’t it amazing? People who don’t know will say that it has no decorations but even without them it is magnificent and wonderful just by its size.”

“The captain is usually rude about other things but he always gives generous points to things related to the Rescue Knights and the Angel Faith. I wish he would give such generous points to my genius.”

At that time Zibek warned Azadin.

“It seems we have a guest Sir Azadin.”

“ah.”

Monks wearing black veils covering their faces stood before me watching Azadin intently.

“It seems to be a sect of mercy.”

The Sabbath guides from the Mercy Church one of the three major sects of the Knights Templar came to find Azadin.

*********

The people of the Order of Charity approached. The one in front was a nun with a black veil over her face.

“How are you? Sir Azadin. My name is Heine. I am a hospitalist and a guide to the Benevolent Order. I recently heard that the renowned Sir Azadin had arrived at St. Mallory and I sent messengers several times to see him but he was always absent… So I have taken the trouble to come see him in person.”

A thick fragrance emanated from the woman wearing a black veil. Every time she opened her mouth the stimulating fragrance that emanated from her was so alluring that it made me come to my senses and a dangerous magic was emanating from her wearing a nun’s habit instead of armor.

But what was more intensely emanating from her was a subtle anger.

‘I was wondering where this kid was wandering around while he was away and he was sightseeing? Sightseeing? Is that why you’re ignoring my calls?’

She who was of quite high rank in the religious order sent a messenger to Azadin’s quarters but Azadin left the quarters empty and went sightseeing like an ordinary pilgrim.

It took a fairly high level of mental discipline not to get angry in this situation.

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It could be said that he had considerable mental discipline just by not hurling curses but he was unable to hide his secret anger.

“Hmm so you are a member of the Knights Templar? It is an honor to meet you Lord Heine. What brings you to this lowly apprentice knight in person?”

“Sir Azadin. The man at your side is the wanted man Sir Xibek? From the King’s Church?”

“….”

Jibek let out a soft sigh when he heard that.

I disguised myself and entered St. Mallory without incident but it didn’t seem to help.

“How did you know?”

“Actually I contacted the Chadra Plateau to find out which of your men had joined you. I also traced back what you had done before joining the Order. In the process I naturally came to the conclusion that the orc is Scott McGreen and the swordsman with him is Lord Xibek who was with the Northern Btumar Mountain Army when Scott McGreen last served as a mercenary.”

“Did you know that much?”

“Sir Azadin. You are the most famous person in this area in the shortest amount of time. Of course we should investigate.”

“Hmm. Even if I say it myself investigating it wouldn’t have been that easy right?”

“It wasn’t that difficult for our charity group.”

Heine secretly boasted about their organizational capabilities.

Although Azadin has become famous it is not widely known that he acted together with Zibek. The King’s Church would try to hide it as it would be shameful for them and it would not be easy for the Knights Templar to obtain that information.

However the Mercy Church which is also a spy organization obtained and analyzed such information and classified it by the method of elimination that the person Azadin is currently with is Zibek.

‘It’s not for nothing that they’re called the most feared sect in the Rescue Knights. This is a problem because they’ve become so famous for no reason.’

Azadin nodded to Heine’s words.

“Then you know that he was framed. He was not the one who murdered Darhan Zadek.”

“We think so too. But if we can figure it out by elimination the King’s Church will also figure it out by elimination and naturally this will become an inter-sectarian issue. The King’s Church wants the traitor Lord Zibek’s soldiers so we can’t just ignore that.”

The tone was polite but the message was clear.

They are using Jibek as an excuse to blackmail Azadin.

“Hey customer?”

The tour guide looked at Azadin embarrassed.

“Oh you can ignore us and go. We received a good guide.”

Azadin tossed a silver coin to the tour guide as a tip and turned to Heine.

“Then Sir Heine what do you want from me?”

Azadin also thought there was no point in beating around the bush any longer so he got straight to the point.

*********

‘This kid?’

The members of the Mercy Order were astonished at Azadin’s attitude.

What kind of guy is this?

He was clearly summoned by an emissary of the Mercy Church but he didn’t show up for sightseeing.

The fact that they came all the way here in person was a shame to their reputation.

But even though they had taken advantage of my weakness they boldly asked me outright what I wanted.

But Heine began to explain calmly.

“Sir Azadin do you know that there is a labyrinth called the Giant’s Underpass in St. Mallory?”

“I’ve never heard of this place before. What kind of place is it?”

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Azadin asked pretending not to know.

“I’ve never heard of this before. It’s impossible. But let me explain from the beginning. Fort St. Mallory was originally a city of giants. The giants’ tunnel was the city’s sewer at the time. However no matter how well-maintained and safe a city is the sewer is a terrible place filled with seawater toxic gases and the swindlers and cultists who hide there… but St. Mallory’s tunnel is even more so.”

“What if it’s more than that?”

“The Wisdom Order is dumping various magical residues into the sewer. They prefer to dump them without permission saying that they cannot show the byproducts of their research to other orders. Even though other orders try to regulate them by asking why they are doing such things the Wisdom Order has only gotten worse since it took control of the inner workings of the order.”

The byproduct of the magical research of the Rescue Knights’ Wisdom Sect was dumped into the sewers which became filled with magical power and all sorts of strange things began to happen there.

Several times the Rescue Knights sent a team to explore the sewers themselves but the sewers were already so contaminated with magic that they had turned into a labyrinth where even those with maps left behind by the giants who had originally built the sewers could not find their way.

Furthermore since the Wisdom Order was passive the Rescue Knights were only able to achieve the extent of preventing slimes and other monsters from emerging from within.

“So what do you want from me?”

“Please break through the underpass and reveal the secret of the Wisdom Sect. Isn’t that why you came anyway?”

“Hmm….”

Of course that’s what Azadin came for.

However the purpose was to find out the secret of the Wisdom Order not to share it with the Mercy Order. The Mercy Order wanted to capture the new recruit and use that as an excuse to threaten Azadin and split the harvest.

“Of course I won’t ask you to do it bare-handed. I will send you the Sabbath guides of our Order of Mercy. I will provide you with manpower information and supplies. Of course among that information… there is also information about Lord Jecht who has some kind of relationship with you.”

“So you’re saying that Lord Jecht entered the underground waterway? How is that possible?”

“Because the Order of Courage attracted the forces of the King’s Church.”

“Are you saying that only the Courage Sect attracted them?”

A suspicion rose in Azadin’s voice.

St. Mallory is the holy land of the Knights Templar. Bringing the King’s Church which has a loose alliance with the Knights Templar into that place and allowing them to explore its heartland is not something that can be accomplished by the unilateral will of any one sect.

At least didn’t the Mercy Order agree? That’s what Azadin is asking.

Heine did not answer that question.

“There were many casualties every year during the sewer cleaning work. So the Order of Courage leaked the secret of the Order of Wisdom to the King’s Church and the King’s Church greedy for the recipe for ceramite unintentionally helped clean the underground water by sending in their elite troops. However with the recent appearance of Celestial Fire it seems that they have become so heated that even the Inquisitors have come.”

She was talking as if it was someone else’s story but in fact it was the Mercy Cult that was heated up by the appearance of Celestial Fire.

The mere fact that the Celestial Fire Knights were active for a short time had already swayed public sentiment.

Considering that the Celestial Fire Knights are a subordinate organization of the Wisdom Order it is not far off to see all of the Knights’ power reorganized around the Wisdom Order.

So the two sects the Order of Courage and the Order of Mercy must uncover the secret of the Celestial Fire at all costs.

Even if it means exposing the ‘corruption’ of the Knights Templar.

‘And the one who exposes the corruption of the Knights Templar is me a member of the Herald Clan. If the time comes I’ll just cut it off like a lizard’s tail?’

Azadin realized why the Mercy Cult had approached him but he had no reason to reject their offer.

If you refuse they will threaten Azadin with the new soldiers of Zibek.