Night of the Soulless Heathens – 54



#54. Darkness of Salasma 2

There were traces of boots left behind indicating that soldiers had already searched the area once. Since they had not received any special training and had searched roughly many of the traces had been erased.

“Hey these guys seriously. Where did they dare come from and search everything?”

Tarki became angry when he saw the traces of soldiers breaking into his mother’s house.

“Have you lost any precious metals?”

“That’s not true. My mother was relatively frugal so she preferred swords and armor to precious metals.”

“They said there were no guardians but I guess that was a lie.”

Azadin said this looking around implying that Tarki’s character was inferior to that of the Baroness.

Overall it was a modest house. It didn’t feel like a noble’s mansion except that it was a bit spacious and clean. Even though he must have been quite wealthy to hire that many mercenaries for his children.

Soon they discovered something suspicious in the Baroness’ bedroom on the second floor. There was animal hair stuck in the closing part of the bedroom door.

“This is.”

“hmm.”

Azadin examined the fur carefully.

“It’s rat hair. Judging by the fact that this is still there it looks like the soldiers really searched through it roughly.”

You could tell from Tarki’s attitude that he couldn’t blame the soldiers. How could he properly investigate when he was so angry just because soldiers entered a noble’s house?

“Rat hair? No way?”

Tarki was surprised to hear that.

“Where is the rat? We’ll have to see how it reacts.”

Azadin took out the plate used for applying wax when making arrows ground a silver coin made silver dust and placed the hair on it. When it came into contact with the silver dust the hair began to split at the tip as if it was being singed by contact with silver.

“Wear rat yes.”

“Are you saying that Wear Rat kidnapped your mother?!”

Tarki was terrified.

Wear rat.

Ratmen are cursed creatures of the Kurt Rat King. They are far more powerful than normal humans and are greedy violent and enjoy eating human flesh.

If he had been captured by those people the chances of his mother being alive would have been extremely low.

“I don’t think there are just one or two. Hmm?”

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Azadin looked under the bed in his bedroom. There was a spider web there.

“It’s a spider web.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s a spider web that feels magical. Do you know what I mean?”

“ah!”

Tarki was surprised to hear Azadin’s words. Now that he thought about it the mercenary captain who had been teasing Tarki was also a spider demon.

“where….”

When Azadin lifted the bed he saw a trap door underneath.

“It’s the second floor is there a trap door?”

When I opened the trap door instead of a door I found a small empty space with a copper plate engraved with the symbol of the Spider Queen Atra.

“Your mother was a member of the Kurt Clan.”

“Huh? That’s ridiculous. Your mother is a noblewoman.”

“There are many of them among the nobles. I heard that the Spider Queen Art is especially popular among noble women.”

Spider Queen Atra grants the women who follow her the power to seduce and dominate the opposite sex. This is why cults continue to arise in a world where faith in the God King is strong despite the Kurts once being the slaughterers and eaters of humans.

It is a threat to all of humanity but it is beneficial to me right now. That is why there are so many people who become socialists.

“But aren’t the guys who kidnapped your mother Wererats?”

“That’s right. If it’s a wererat then it’s not the spider queen Atra that they serve but the rat king Mejeri. Hmm even the Kurt gods fight each other. I don’t know the exact reason.”

Azadin headed towards the study rather than the bedroom.

“uh?”

“Is there something?”

“for a moment.”

Azadin removed the portrait hanging on the study wall. A hidden safe appeared in the wall. Azadin used a lockpick to open it and took out several gold coins.

“uh?!”

“The Emperor’s gold coin?”

Midiam and Ismail were amazed. There were five gold coins belonging to the emperor which they rarely saw. In addition the safe contained various documents and treasures.

“Your mother seems like a great person.”

Azadin said so and looked at the Emperor’s gold coins.

Azadin was not a materialistic person but the Emperor’s gold coins were an exception. Depending on the number of Emperor’s gold coins that he could obtain his rank as a messenger would rise and he would be respected by his clan. Furthermore if he obtained them in kind without making a contract they were worth more than regular gold coins.

‘The good guys from good families are willing to pay a lot of money to buy this.’

If you have gold coins in your possession you can push merits. You can push merits to specific messengers by having your servants spend gold coins. By doing so good messengers from good families can artificially raise their children’s rank and the value of this is hard to measure.

“This gold coin is not acceptable! I will give it to you if you save my mother.”

Tarki knew well what value the Emperor’s gold coins were to the Heralds for even Azadin whose expression was unreadable because of his helmet showed ominous signs.

Then Ismail gestured to Midiam.

‘What if I kill him right now and take it?’

Ismail made a sign with his hand asking if it would be better to kill Tarki.

“no.”

Azadin stopped it.

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“yes?”

Tarki who had not seen Ismail’s gesture was frightened when Azadin said no.

“Oh you’re saying that’s not possible?”

“No that’s not it. I understand. I won’t touch you. I have the dignity of a messenger. How could I plunder you?”

Azadin licked his lips put the gold back in and closed the safe again.

“Since I was fired doesn’t that have nothing to do with my dignity as a messenger?”

Medium discussed the dismissal in front of Tarki who was listening without any notice.

*********

As Azadin left the mansion and looked around he found another clue in the mansion’s well.

“It’s the hem of a dress.”

Part of a woman’s clothing was torn in a crevice in the rock.

“A well?”

“It’s all dry down there. I think there’s an underground passageway here.”

“Then are you going to go rescue him?”

“Wait a minute I don’t know how many enemies there are right now.”

Azadin stopped coldly.

If you just rush in and rescue the Baroness you can get five gold coins but that’s only if you succeed. If you fail Azadin’s life is in danger.

It is dangerous to go in without knowing what kind of people your opponent is how many there are and what traps there are.

“Considering the people around us keep disappearing there must be quite a few Kurts. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to kidnap so many people.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Totally armed.”

Azadin came out of the well and called to the goat. Then he took out a mail and plate armor from the goat’s saddlebag.

“It’s heavy so I don’t usually wear it…”

Azadin was heavily armored and equipped with gauntlets and steel boots.

“I’ve never seen a messenger carrying armor like this before.”

The emperor’s messengers usually preferred light armor.

‘They have to carry such heavy equipment so the mountain goats have a lot of luggage. That’s why they don’t ride the goats but walk them while holding the reins.’

Medium understood why Azadin walked instead of riding a mountain goat.

“Armor is the best in narrow places. If you enter a narrow place without thinking about your agility and wearing light armor you’ll be in big trouble.”

Azadin put on his armor and reinforced the rope to the well so that he could climb out in case the rope broke before he started to climb down the well.

Azadin who had descended to the bottom looked inside the dry well. Sure enough there was a passageway on the side that a person could pass through.

“hmm.”

There is also hair on the floor.

“Ugh I can’t see it!”

Then Tarki chanted a spell from above. He was casting a spell of ignition to light the lamp.

“You can see even without light right?”

Medium noticed that Azadin’s eyesight was not affected by the presence of light as he had been examining the floor even before the lights came on. Instead of answering Azadin picked up a piece of fur from the floor.

“It’s rat fur. There are footprints too. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

“Oh I see.”

Tarki who had gone down to the bottom of the well looked at the floor with the lamp and looked for footprints. There were countless footprints scattered about in a mess.

“Let’s go.”

Azadin took his bearings and walked. As he moved through the well he could see the bottoms of other wells most of which had footprints on them.

“hmm?”

As Azadin walked along he discovered a trap: a rope stretched out at ankle height with bells attached to it.

“What is this?”

“fizzle.”

Azadin was muted. If it was a trap with bells you had to assume that someone was waiting within earshot of the bells.

If you set up a drop trap and don’t manage it it’s meaningless and only serves to teach us that someone has tampered with it.

Sure enough a sound appeared in front of me.

“uh?”

“who is this?”

Two refugees carrying torches came inside.

Azadin motioned for Tarki to close the lamp hood. The light went out but it was too late.

“Who is there?”

“I thought I just saw light? It wasn’t an illusion was it?”

“Who is that?”

It seemed as if they had been caught. Everyone in the group looked at Azadin. They waited for him to make a decision.

Azadin gestured to Tarki.

“Hey try pressing down on me with your ID.”

“Yes? Me?”

Tarki noticed Azadin’s intention and stepped forward.

“Ahem. I am Tarki son of Count Salasma!”

“Ah! You’re the knight.”

“What are you doing here?”

The refugees seemed wary when Tarki revealed his identity.

‘You’re such a bad actor.’

Azadin was certain that their eyes showed more annoyance irritation and a mean laughter shared among themselves than fear of the nobles.

“Let me ask you something. What’s going on with you guys?”

“We are just refugees looking for a place to hide.”

“Yes. I was looking for a place to stay somehow and then….”

They were saying that but Tarki laughed.

“You’re kidding me. Why don’t you hide the greed shining in your eyes you damn rats?”

“ah.”

“ha ha ha.”

The refugees started laughing.

“You don’t need to let it go if you want to die.”

“Let’s kill the men and eat the women!”

“Isn’t that the same thing? Heheheehehe!”

The refugees crouched down and began to transform.

“You kids! What did you do to my mom?”

Tarki ran forward and struck the head of one of the transforming wererats with his sword. He had hoped that it would be defenseless while transformed.

However the Were Rat refugee took out a mace from his bosom and struck Tarki’s longsword with great strength and speed.

“Ugh!”

Even while transforming he is not defenseless! Tarki was shocked greatly in the first clash. The power of the Wear Rat is too strong.

“Kikki! Coward! I smell like a coward.”

The were rats also noticed that Tarki was scared of them.

“Let’s break the lamp! The darkness is on our side!”

The Were Rats began to attack Tarki. However…

-Wedge!

With a hiss of wind an arrow was struck in the mouth of the Ware Rat. Medium had fired an arrow and pierced the mouth of the Ware Rat.

The arrow pierced through the roof of his mouth and came out of his brain causing the were rat to stagger and fall to the ground. This would be a fatal wound for a normal person but the were rat struggled to pull the arrow out instead of dying.

“Ugh!”

The one who actually screamed was Tarki.