Chapter 23 – Astra Follower 4

Azadine snorted at Mediam’s request.

“If I take you in as a servant, what happened here today becomes my responsibility. You beat them up despite being a servant. You probably didn’t know the Savan family was behind them, right? Are you trying to draw me into a confrontation with the Savan family?”

“N-No, it isn’t like that.”

Mediam was shocked when Azadine questioned her in return.

“I just couldn’t stand it when they insulted you like that.”

“Sure, and I do thank you for that. However, for me to remain grateful, you cannot become my servant. I would be thankful if you beat them up as Mediam of the Ethar. However, if you were my servant, I would need to discipline you. Should I hit you on the cheek?”

“Euk, that is too much. Why are you so kind to the people of Hubris and are like this to me?”

“Because you aren’t a civilian?”

Azadine then stopped as the Emperor’s Voice spoke to him.

[A petitioner appeared but…]

“Dead? Which direction?”

[West. Ah, they just breathed their last breath.]

“Damn it.”

Azadine ran towards the west gate and looked around. A terrible massacre had happened there. The soldiers had been torn apart, and the monster mercenaries were eating the corpses.

“GRRR!?”

“Meat!?”

The mercenaries had transformed into monsters with four spider legs.

“The ones before only had two legs.”

“Looks like they change over time.”

Azadine took his cloak off and wrapped it around his arm.

“You two, prepare the fire.”

Azadine gave the children their orders and walked forward.

“Grrr!”

The mercenary, who had transformed into a spider monster, attacked him. However, the moment he entered Azadine’s range, the monster was kicked in the chin.

Puak!

It was so quick that it only seemed like a blur of shadows. The mercenary’s neck was broken, and its body rolled back. The vertebrae were visibly broken, severing the nerves and sending the body into convulsions.

This attack, however, was slightly challenging for Azadine. Since he had exerted a burst of power, the speed of his attack was quick, but his body could not control it.

The other spider monsters approached.

“Huh!”

Azadine pulled out his curved blade and swung it, making it seem like a leaf falling from above.

Chak!

The spider monster’s arms and legs were served, splattering blood everywhere. Once Azadine returned to the ground, he rolled away to avoid the blood.

He had defeated two of the mercenaries who had transformed into monsters in an instant.

“Kuak!”

“Grrrk…”

The mercenaries slowly stood back up.

While their necks were broken, the infested spiders replaced the broken parts, including the nervous systems. The one with hacked-off limbs had been forcefully stopped from bleeding by those spiders.

Both monsters were still moving despite the extent of the wounds on their body.

“It looks like they could be cut into pieces.”

Azadine glanced at them, took his blade out again, and swung it again. His blade was slowly being chipped away. It was the price for cutting off the limbs of a spider monster with a single slash.

“Hmm.”

Azadine reversed the blade and gripped it again.

“Kuak!”

“Kuack!”

The spider mercenaries rushed towards him again. Azadine held his weapon and swung toward the legs as he lowered his stance and moved.

-Twilight!

His body blurred, and he quickly passed between the spider mercenaries.

One of the spider mercenaries was bisected at the waist and cut in two. The other was also cut in half, but his sword broke inside his body and became stuck.

“This was a good blade… but ended up breaking here.”

Azadine grabbed the half-broken blade and clicked his tongue.

The mercenary who had been bisected continued to wriggle and crawl on the ground. Still, the wound was too large, and he eventually died. However, the other one with the blade stuck in his torso ignored the wound and jumped at Azadine.

At that moment, an arrow flew past him and hit the monster.

-Thunderbolt!

Electric sparks flew and fried the spiders in an instant.

“Kyaak!”

The mercenary struggled as he fell to the ground, unable to get back up.

“As I thought! I thought that if they were weak to fire, they should be weak against electricity! Because the spiders are small…”

Mediam began to speak but felt dizzy and stumbled. As she was about to fall, Ismail tried to catch her, but Azadine was faster.

Azadine raised his foot to brace Mediam to stop her from collapsing. It was as if he was supporting a rotting door.

“Be careful. Flower Bird Wind Moon is a colorless magic. Lightning, like magic which creates electricity, is too inefficient. Just because it is in a magic book doesn’t mean you can use it. Still, it is impressive to use Thunderbolt at your age. Indeed, as expected of an Ethar, admirable.”

“!”

When Mediam heard this phrase, she shrugged.

“Right? There aren’t many people my age who can use it. With this beauty and talent, even when I think about myself… I have to say that I am a sinful woman.”

“Get some rest. Your head hurts from using too much magic.”

Azadine praised Mediam and then picked up the weapons that had fallen on the ground.

“Should we burn the spider?”

Azadine gathered a handful of hay, sprinkled them on the corpses, and lit them on fire with the torch. The hay burned instantly, leaving only soot behind while the corpses burnt.

“This kind of handling is great, but what if there are many enemies at once?”

Ismail asked coldly.

It was fine since there were only two, but what if there were more?

Azadine couldn’t use magic, so there was a limit to how much he could do alone.

Wasn’t this a situation where Azadine was more in need of servants who could use magic?

“Just stop it and accept…”

“I try to do as much as I can. Well, the people I met in Manita Town wouldn’t ignore me, would they?”

Azadine still refused to answer them as servants until the end and continued to gather weapons from the ground.

These weapons, too, were in poor condition. The mercenaries had damaged them due to their monstrous strength after being contaminated by the Kurt tribe spiders.

“An axe or halberd would be better.”

Azadine grabbed the weapons and headed for the western gate.

The western gate had descended further into a scene of slaughter. Once the mercenaries saw blood, they could not control their excitement and began slaughtering and consuming humans indiscriminately.

The more they did this, the faster the mutation took hold. Before they realized it, six spider legs had sprouted from their backs.

The mercenary captain and Tarki were watching them.

“Is this fine? You said you were looking for the book? Then some more…”

Tarki questioned the mercenary captain and waited for an answer.

“Hmm. It is a little different from what I expected… but it is going well.”

“It’s going well!? Look here, there is no way the person with the book would come to the village now, right? Wouldn’t people come only when things look peaceful from the outside?”

“The bodies just have to be removed. We just need to eliminate the resistance quickly and clean up.”

As he said that, the mercenary captain passed by some corpses and noted a triangle drawn on the ground.

“What is this?”

“Triangle on the ground…”

Blood was smeared around the triangle, and the mercenaries were eating the corpses. Tarki then mumbled in surprise.

“Devil of Gold Coins?”

“If it is the Devil of the Gold Coin, is it the Emperor’s Messenger? The Messenger Clan?”

The mercenary captain tilted his head.

“Come to think of it, didn’t they say that the book was scattered around the world because of the Messenger Clan? They must be frantically looking for it… perhaps the Messenger Clan might have it.”

“Are you going to fight the Devil of the Gold Coin?”

Tarki asked in shock.

“Of course, come to think of it, there are a rare few aside from those people that could break into our camp, neatly steal our belongings, then run away. It is not the brainless action of a passing thief.”

The mercenary captain said this and then kicked his subordinate, who was eating the corpse. The mercenary screamed and rolled away.

“Let’s see. No gold coins. Did you use it? If you did, that is fine. A messenger will come.”

The captain laughed.

“If you know when the enemy is coming, our side has the advantage. Shall we prepare a trap?”

But before he could finish his words, an arrow flew towards the mercenary captain’s head.

“This…”

The mercenary captain caught the arrow with his hand and blocked it easily.

“Funny. That was quick. Our movements were being watched after all.”

The mercenary captain threw away the arrow as another flew for his face.

“Can you not see that this is useless?”

The captain laughed and moved to catch the flying arrow. However, it was different this time. The arrows were slippier as it was coated in oil, making stopping them difficult.

Moreover, it was stronger than the first arrow. The first arrow had probably been shot weakly by design to distract him, while this second arrow was shot properly.

“Euk?!”

Puak!

The arrow slipped through and impacted the captain’s face. The spot between his brows and his eyeball shattered, causing both eyes to droop. The muscles tried to focus, but the inner eye muscles had been cut off.

At the same moment, a man with a falcon mask dashed in. Surprised, Tarki grabbed his sword, but…

‘Uh? But do I really have to protect these ones?’

Seeing Tarki hesitate, the man avoided him and jumped at the captain. A sword flashed and swung towards his head.

Crack!

However, only the blade flew away. Instead, spider legs sprouted from the mercenary captain’s chest, piercing his body.

“Ha, this is the Emperor’s Messenger? Fun.”

The mercenary captain launched his spider legs to the left and right. It was an attack meant to pierce the opponent apart.

But…

Tuk!

A spider leg fell to the ground.

“….”

He thought he had pierced the man’s chest, but the first clash had severed a spider leg instead. The leg that was severed lost its power and hung limply from his chest.

“You are quite funny too, Kurt clan.”

“This is.”

The mercenary captain withdrew his spider legs and pulled out his sword, but his opponent was faster. The falcon-masked man reached the hilt at the mercenary’s captain’s waist first and pulled his sword out with his other hand.

Check!

A single blow broke the captain’s jaw. However, instead of losing consciousness, the captain was fine as the spiders within his body reacted quickly.

“A monster!”

The captain was a monster, but he was still rather surprised by the messenger’s power. He gathered all his strength and reached out using his spider legs.

He sent two behind him to support his collapsing body while two shot forward in attack.

However, his foe had already vanished.