Chapter 21 – Astra Follower 2

“Derek, do you have the authority?”

“What is that supposed to mean? Are you asking if I am going above my powers?”

“No, I think I should give it to the district chief. Besides, I saw some unruly ones on my way here.”

“Unruly ones?”

“It was one of Count Casel’s illegitimate sons. He also plundered the gateway village with a mercenary group. There are members of the Kurt clan in that group.”

“So you got scared of them and came running here?”

“It’s not like that. However, they will eventually attack.”

“Sigh. Is that how it is? Although I was a mess after your sister beat me, I am still a former messenger. Besides, your peers here are more than a match for average mercenary trash.”

“That’s right. Wouldn’t it be nice if rumors spread that people from the Korasar Peddler Guild can fight too?”

Azadine shrugged.

“I am not talking about that! Just hand it over to me now so we can fully protect it! Unless you want to undo a deed, you were lucky enough to get your hands on.”

“No, I don’t really want to hand it over to you, though? I’ll talk to the district chief later.”

“This brat… you are acting up! You can’t protect that with your skills! Haven’t you just been playing around for the past 3 months without doing anything befitting a messenger?”

Derek clearly held resentment for Azadine.

“No? I have been rescuing people here and there.”

“You foolish man! How can you say such a thing? We should destroy rival guilds and assassinate those who try to go after us! We should set fire to someone’s warehouse so that the market price of the goods we sell can be adjusted!”

“….”

It seemed like there was a large gap between Azadine and Derek’s perceptions of the duties of a messenger.

“I don’t know where we could start considering this difference of opinion. Anyway, I won’t hand it over to you.”

“You cheeky bastard. Aren’t you 2 years younger? How dare you say such words to me?”

Derek, after all, had to retire after being defeated by Arael. There was no way Azadine, a blood relative of Arael, would look good in front of him.

But since he was doing something like this…

However, just as Derek and Azadine began to raise their voices to push their own opinion, a commotion erupted.

The Post Village was under the rulership of Sir Jeran, a knight under the financial control of Count Salasma.

He was a 25-year-old son of a baron with territory nearby. Although he was in his prime, his father had shown no signs of dying. His mother had passed away when he was 15, and now that his father had a child with his second wife, Sir Jeran was becoming anxious.

Although he was still heir in name, he was worried that his father, who had fallen under his second wife’s sway, might force him into church service and pass the estate to his younger brother.

He had to work, work, and work some more to assuage this fear. So while he guarded the gates of this village, he took small bribes from the merchants passing by. Some tariffs were waived if he received a bribe, and the passage was made simple.

However, a young knight leading a group of mercenaries came at sunset. It was Tarki, the illegitimate son of Count Casel, and his mercenary troops.

“What? So heavily armed as well? There are too many of you. It is close to sunset, so please either rest in an inn outside or camp in an open field and come back tomorrow.”

Sir Jeran was being particularly picky, but he wasn’t wrong with his words.

But with that said, most travelers would simply offer bribes, and, as expected, Tarki gave him a bribe.

“Well, let’s not consider that and just take this.”

“Hehehe, Lord Tarki. This is troublesome. You are also a knight, after all.”

Wasn’t he also the illegitimate son of his current employer, the count?

“If we commit wrongdoing, won’t we both be sent to the King’s Church? Please consider this a situation where we’re both on the same side.”

“Hmm, if you say so.”

Sir Jeran accepted these words and allowed the group to enter the gate. The moment they entered, however.

Chak!

Blood splattered on the ground.

“Uh?”

Sir Jeran hurriedly tried to draw his sword in surprise, but the mercenary captain had drawn his twin swords and rushed in to slash at Sir Jeran’s head.

-Tun!

His eyes were intensely focused on the ground. A sense of numbness filled his body along with a dull pain, but Sir Jeran was still a knight. He grabbed the longsword with both hands, pushed forward, and stabbed through without removing the sheath.

The mercenary captain stepped back and raised his sword, aiming for Sir Jeran’s chin.

“Euk! You bastards!”

Sir Jeran succeeded in avoiding the attack and drew his sword. However, the mercenaries who had already entered the gate were attacking his soldiers.

Moreover…

Puak!

Tarki swung his longsword and slashed at Sir Jeran’s hamstrings behind his knee. The attack had been aimed at the folds of his armor, so Sir Jeran felt less than a minor tingle.

‘T-the ligament…’

The twin swords flashed once more and stabbed through the gap of Sir Jeran’s helmet, killing him.

“Look here! To be this reckless….”

Tarki was scared. He had only intended to detain Jeran, not kill him. But while he was incapacitating the man, the mercenary captain killed Sir Jeran.

This was a fairly large town, but to attack the gateway and kill the knight guarding it? Was he insane?

If one committed such an unlawful act, they would be considered traitors and could be killed by any who noticed. This wasn’t a territorial war or a duel for honor but just a reasonless assault?

“You did well, young master. Quite talented.”

“Are you insane? Like this…”

Tarki also looked like a traitor.

“Take it easy. Shouldn’t there be a lot of distance we need to cover and loot? You will be making a huge fortune.”

The mercenary captain laughed meanly. They could see a full campsite near the entrance to the gate.

“Merchants. If you want to start looting, that should be the place, but…”

What the mercenary captain wanted was control of the gateway. Now that he had lost the staff needed to find the magic book, he needed to take control of this land.

“First, let’s kill the station attendant and seize it. You don’t have to engage with the merchant guards immediately to loot them. It is important to get control of the town first.”

“It is impossible for us to do it alone! We managed to take this gate by surprise, but there are three more!”

“Don’t rush it. We have more power to do it.”

The mercenary captain said this and spread his hands. Something similar to a black spot began to shine on his hand.

“What is that?”

“A spider.”

Tiny spiders were clinging together on his hand, and he blew the spiders to send them toward his men.

“Uh?”

“Eik!?”

“Get them off me!”

The mercenaries were startled and tried to avoid them. Still, the spiders the mercenary captain sent their way made contact as they danced through the air.

“What?”

“A t-thread is connected?”

At that moment, they realized that there were threads connecting their bodies. That wasn’t all, either.

“Uh?”

“When?”

They noticed that these small spiders were the size of millet grains and were releasing something from their bodies. That something was going around their armpits and groin.

It wasn’t the spider that the captain had sent to them. Many more were already within their bodies.

“You won’t be able to shake them off. In fact, they’ve all grown up by feeding on your blood and flesh for a long time.”

“Euk?!”

“S-save me!”

The mercenaries became terrified and tried to remove the spiders from their bodies. However, the spiders continued to appear from their hair and around their bodies. Didn’t they realize that these things were buried under their skin?

When the spiders touched the ground, they began to glow a soft green. It was as if the spider that the captain sent out was sharing its light.

The spiders that had emerged from the mercenaries’ bodies were shining green and then began to enter their bodies once more.

“AH!?”

“It doesn’t hurt?”

“I told you. Those spiders have grown up on your flesh and blood for a long time. These spiders are a part of you. And with this…”

The captain kicked a corpse on the ground and lifted it up. It was a soldier who had guarded the gate.

Kicking a corpse and lifting it off the ground was impossible for normal humans. The corpse also wore armor, so the weight should have been staggering.

Even so, he kicked the corpse up until his head height, as if kicking a small ball.

The twin swords flashed, and he dismembered the body. This man was clearly a monster.

“Now you guys can do this much.”

“Uh….”

“Such strength.”

The mercenaries were shocked as they felt their bodies overflow with power.

“Right?”

“Yes.”

“R-right, but…”

“Do you want to resist it? That would feel nice too.”

When the mercenary captain blew his whistle, the mercenaries were shocked by the pain coursing through their body.

“Kuak!?”

“H-Hurts!”

“S-save me!”

“Now, do you get it?”

When the captain stopped whistling, the pain vanished.

“Your life is in my hands. Let go now and subdue the station attendant quickly. Some of you split up and take down the other gates….”

The captain divided their roles and gave them instructions for this raid. Tarki, who saw this, clicked his tongue.

“Now I see you are of the Kurt clan.”

“Ah, you must be so clever to realize it now.”

“Ugh.”

“Now let us cooperate. You don’t want to be dragged into the church, right? Take care of the money around the limit and get revenge on the Count who abandoned and insulted you. I would like to get my hands on a copy of that book. Isn’t it nice to help each other? Anyway…”

When the captain whistled, Tarki felt a pain surge in his stomach.

“Ackk!”

“You don’t have a choice here. The Kurt isn’t the only threat around here. Actually, we are more flexible than the King’s Church.”

“Kuak… you bastard!”

Tarki was irate at this, but now that the spider had gone into his body, he could do nothing.

“What in the world is this? This is a mess!”

Azadine climbed up the ladder and looked around atop the wagon.

“The east gate was captured. They are here.”

As Azadine expected, the mercenary group infiltrated by the Kurt clan had come to raid the town.