Chapter 44 – The Curse Of Service (5)

Azadine was infuriated, but no amount of anger could change the fact that the Curse of Service would kill him in a year.

“In the end, the only option I have to survive is to request the Leader to cancel my dismissal.”

“Ye-Yeah, exactly. That’s a wise judgment.”

“Um, yeah. You’ll just have to prove your innocence, right?”

“Hmm. This is infuriating. Does it make sense for them to kill me if I can’t prove my innocence? In fact, that’s an ingenious method of making people ambitious. Hm?”

“We-We didn’t do it.”

“Don’t vent your anger on us. Our conditions are bad enough as it is.”

“Hey, for all the shitty things you did to me when we were young, castrating you wouldn’t be enough. Huh?”

“Gasp…”

“What do you mean ‘castrating’? Isn’t that too cruel?”

“Do I look like I’m in the mood to be kind when the organization I am loyal to plans to kill me as a side bonus without asking for evidence simply because of my sister? I was already sensitive from the beginning! A sensitive boy who worshiped the Three Great Archangels! But if you all continue acting like this, you’ll make me into a brutal, cold-hearted murderer!”

Azadine was so incensed that he even entertained thoughts of murdering his seniors, Calibri and Adan. He didn’t have any pleasant memories of them despite their long relationship. Honestly, instead of a relationship, the only thing between them was enough resentment. It would be understandable if he packed up everything and chased them to murder them.

However, after thinking with a clear head, he would need to refrain from killing his own people to get his dismissal canceled and his request for reinstatement confirmed. Besides, they were also in a village. Plenty of people were moving through the area because this was in a commercial zone where the caravans made camp.

“Ugh. I need to bear with it.”

“So, about being captured by us…”

“I decline. I don’t want to become your ‘merit’. I’ll handle this my own way.”

“But there’s an outstanding order for everyone in the clan to either arrest or kill you. There’s no way you’re planning on fighting everyone from the clan you meet from now on, right?”

“We’d be lying to say that we don’t want to gain merit, but if we capture you, then you can get there safely! Everyone else might just kill you!”

Calibri and Adan tried their hardest to persuade Azadine, but he kept rejecting this offer.

“No. Would the Leader and the Elders even acknowledge me if I got caught that easily? Those people aren’t open-minded enough to admit their own wrong judgments. I bet they’d rather have me dead and buried. It’s just one person, after all, right? So, what I’m gonna do is appear in front of the Salasma District Chief and kick everyone who gets in my way in the ass. Come to think of it, the only people I’d regret kicking the butts of would be Aldis and Master. I don’t even care about anyone else! I’ll just send them to the moon!”

Mediam and Ismail exchanged glances with each other.

‘So he’s the type of guy to be blinded by his rage. We’re in big trouble.’

Ismail thought this, but Mediam simply shrugged it off.

“Of course, you need to do at least that much.”

At some point, Mediam had started siding with Azadine.

Calibri and Adan were walking on metaphorical eggshells around Azadine.

“Th-then.”

“You’re going to let us go now, right?”

“I’d let you go, but it’ll only be a headache if you two gather up other punks to try to do this again, no? They’re still conveying the orders about my dismissal and arrest through the communication network, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re already seriously injured, so there’s no way we can fight you again.”

“Besides, you guys bullied me when I was young, didn’t you? If we consider that…”

He had plenty of reasons to harass them in return. The moment Azadine said this, Calibri and Adan bowed their heads repeatedly.

“Ab-About that, we’re sorry, we were wrong.”

“Please just think of it as a mistake we made in our childhood and forgive us.”

“Hm. A childhood mistake?”

Azadine looked at them as he shrugged.

“Okay. I have a favor to ask too.”

They needed someone else to send the children they had rescued from the bakery’s owner to the residence of Baroness Nort. Calibri and Adan nodded their agreement immediately when Azadine asked this of them. They were unsure what would happen if they refused.

“Anyway, we’ll report that the Emperor’s Voice also defended you.”

“Yeah, sure. After all, there’s no way the Emperor’s Voice would go out of its way to come to me if I wasn’t the ideal messenger.”

“We’ll testify to that.”

Calibri and Adan begged for leniency as if their lives depended on it and quickly boarded the children on the Peddlers Union carriage. It was uncertain whether they were sincere or simply trying to curry favor with Azadine to avoid getting killed. However, Azadine let them go because he was sure they were no longer a threat.

“Okay, let’s hurry and meet the district chief of Salasma.”

Azadine felt anxious as he was trapped by the Curse of Service.

“Rest assured. I’ll guide us there as quickly as possible, Brother.”

Tarki took the lead and began guiding them.

Though Azadine called him a bastard, Tarki was, after all, a noble.

He might have been the illegitimate son of Salasma’s Count Casel. However, his mother was still the daughter of a wealthy Baron family. Otherwise, there would be no way he could have hired a group of twenty mercenaries.

Therefore, Tarki’s status was different among the Count’s illegitimate children. While he was born to a mistress who wasn’t the legal wife, he could become the Family Head if all of the legal children were killed.

Therefore, he had some justification for feeling that it was unfair that he was called a bastard. They had easily passed through the gates under Salasma’s influence because of him.

“I am Tarki, the son of Count Casel! I have urgent business, so clear the way!”

The guards and the vigilantes at the gates did not voice any complaints. Since he had passed through here with his mercenaries, the people at the gates recognized him immediately.

‘Ah, that fucking dog is here again?’

‘What about the mercenaries?’

‘How should I know? I hope they died to some monsters somewhere.’

‘If not that, did they take all his money and run away?’

‘This damned noble bastard. He won’t even die.’

The villagers were silently cursing at him, but they quickly opened a path.

“Whew. Did you see that?”

At first, Tarki had been unnerved, but his behavior became puffed up after passing a few gates with nothing but his face.

“It’s certainly comfortable.”

Azadine acknowledged at least that. He understood why Tarki had been so discontent over being called a bastard.

“A man who steals from the people is treated as a noble knight. How corrupt the times are.”

Thanks to Tarki, their passage through the gates became faster, so their speed naturally increased. Soon they entered a region within close proximity of Salasma.

–-

Salasma was a city with around 3,000 units as well as subsidiary farms. However, the true source of the city’s prosperity was its copper mines, which had been mined since ancient times.

As they neared the city, the number of travelers increased sharply as soon as they reached the subsidiary farms and villages.

As there were more travelers, the number of merchants also increased.

“…”

Azadine sensed gazes pointed at him through that stream of people and clicked his tongue.

‘Korasar Peddlers Guild. They definitely know about the killing order against me.’

People from the Messenger Clan recognized Azadine as they passed by him.

“Oh my, see who it is.”

“Isn’t that Azadine?”

They were approaching Azadine as if they had been close. However, he had never met them since they were his seniors, and he couldn’t recognize them much.

“I’m sorry, but who are you?”

Azadine had no intention of mocking them and was asking this sincerely. As Azadine was well known in the Messenger Clan, they would be able to recognize him immediately. However, since these people weren’t famous, there was no way he would know their names. Yet this seemed like it struck quite a blow to their inferiority complexes.

“Oi, you punk…”

“Aren’t you acting out too much after becoming a messenger all because of luck?”

From the looks of it, they harbored ill feelings towards him for becoming a messenger despite being supposedly unskilled. At that moment, Tarki stepped forward.

“…”

“How dare you lowly merchants act up in front of me? Why are you fucking with my party?”

“No-No. We didn’t mean to, Sir.”

“We’re sorry.”

Regardless of their inner feelings, they were posing as merchants for the outside world. They couldn’t afford to be violent with Tarki, a knight, in front of other people.

“If a sorry could end it, why do you think there’s the King’s Law!”

“…”

“Um.”

They looked at people passing by them. Quite a few people were traveling the roads. They could see farmers loading vegetables on their oxcarts, herders dragging their goats along, and farmers with farming equipment loaded on donkeys making their way. There was also a hawker who was selling tea and bread with an advertising flag attached to his back.

There was no way they could attack Tarki in front of all these people in this situation. Acting like normal merchants, they repeatedly bowed their heads low enough to almost touch the ground.

“Kindly forgive us.”

“Our ignorance failed to help us recognize your dignity.”

“Hm. Is that so? Just in time, this Sir is a bit thirsty, so do a kind deed and get me something to relieve my thirst. If you do enough kind deeds, you might be able to be born as a noble in your next life.”

Tarki cheekily made idle conversation with them.

“…”

Azadine, Mediam, and Ismail looked at Tarki in shock.

‘He’s quite useful, this punk.’

Azadine, who considered Tarki to be nothing until now, approved of this side of him. Those were remarkable acting skills.

“…”

“We-We have this here.”

Seeing Tarki pressing them for money so blatantly, the peddlers had to unwillingly hand over money from their inner pockets.

“Not enough at all, I see. That’s not enough for my thirst, but hmmm. I can’t really expect much from you. Go away. I’ll be generous and forgive you.”

“Th-Thank you.”

The peddlers stepped back, and Tarki gave the nearby people a look.

“What? Is there anything interesting to see here? Or do you perhaps wish to do a good deed for this Sir too?”

“Oh my, no, Sir.”

Everyone stepped away from the misbehaving Tarki, leaving the path open for him as if they were running away from him.

“Good job, you bastard! I saw that again. Amazing acting skills you got there.”

Azadine’s admiration made Tarki shrug and look at him.

“Don’t mention it. I don’t think this money will even cover minor costs. Should I extort some more from other punks?”

“No, you don’t need to do that.”

“How about that guy?”

“Oh?”

Azadine was surprised to see merchants whom Tarki was pointing at. The merchant Tarki was pointing to wasn’t someone from the Messenger Clan but a normal person.

It appears that Tarki’s harassment of merchants was just him following his normal habits. His true form was someone who extorted coins from merchants. To be precise, he didn’t act to help Azadine but simply acted normally.

‘Ah, this bastard. I complimented him for no reason.’

Azadine had been enraged when he was dismissed and had the Curse of Service awakened on him. However, he was still a sincere believer in the Three Great Archangels. By nature, he was a kind and virtuous person. Once his anger had dissipated, he had no intention of harassing innocent people.

“Ah, hey Azadine?”

“Um?”

Mediam tried to draw Azadine’s attention.

“There…”

“Ah.”

In front of him, Azadine saw a group of armed soldiers approaching them. A young girl wearing armor and a helmet rode a horse while three armed men and women followed behind.

As they saw them aggressively harass the other travelers, they were clearly approaching this side.