Chapter 46 – The Curse Of Service (7)

“We’ll do it.”

“No, let’s make them do it.”

“Make compensations for all the things you looted too. I wrote down your addresses. Don’t go fooling around unless you want to meet me again.”

Azadine tried to pay back the victims as best he could. He found their victims crying on the roadside or stumbling along on foot. He then received their testimonies to make a list of all remaining victims.

He and his party had to hurry, so he couldn’t continue to make any more compensation, but he did all he could.

“We-We’re done now, right?”

Azadine smiled at Vinet’s question.

“No, there’s one last compensation left.”

“What?”

“Taking away your ability to fight.”

“Huh? What? What are you talking about?”

Azadine didn’t reply. He instead took out a pair of pincers from his pack. These were used to craft arrows or arrowheads.

“Consider yourself lucky. For murder, you’d suffer permanent damage. But from what I checked, you didn’t murder anyone. So, I’ll go easy on you.”

“Huh? Go easy on us with pincers? What are you…Aaaack!”

The pain of pulling their nails from their flesh was enough to make them scream like children.

Azadine only pulled out the thumb and index fingernails from Vinet’s group and then chased them away. Only then did Tarki sigh in relief.

“How could a blood relative try to kill me for the inheritance? People are so nasty. But, brother, I was really close to Vinet.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Your inheritance doesn’t matter anyways.”

Azadine cleaned the pincers after replying to Tarki. Mediam then asked him a question.

“Regardless, it looks like you’re relieved now.”

“Why?”

“Well, you returned all the looted belongings to their owners. And it seems like you’re back to your original self. As expected, pregnancy gives you mood swings, doesn’t it?”

“OH, MY GOD!”

Azadine sighed in frustration.

“With the Curse of Service, the child’s not born by a normal pregnancy. So, mood swings will not happen.”

“But you really looked different than usual.”

“I can get angry and emotional too. Everyone loses control at some point in time. Like right now, Mediam, you’re making me lose control.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yeah.”

Then Ismail raised a question.

“Didn’t you sell the silver candlesticks from the loot of Tarki’s mercenaries? So, why are you so bent on returning the loot now?”

“They looted so much. I couldn’t have returned it all on my own. And there were too many mercenaries there. Not to mention, the looted villagers would have fled from there anyways.”

“Why would they flee…”

“Well, because more ogres were coming their way. So, they’d have to flee. I could’ve returned the looted items, but they were all furniture. It would only slow them down in their escape.”

“So, basically, you took advantage of Tarki’s extortion, right?”

“Nothing I can do about it. I simply go with the flow of life, adjusting as needed.”

Azadine was a virtuous man, but he wasn’t an idealist. A grip on the cold, hard reality was expected from an Emperor’s Messenger.

“But this time, there wasn’t a lot of loot. Returning it was fairly easy. Why, though? Did that bother you?”

“No, I just can’t understand you. You’re like… an alien. Compared to you, understanding murderers or looters is a piece of cake.”

“Is that so? But I get you, to some extent.”

“Wait, ‘you’ can understand ‘me’?”

Ismail was offended. ‘I can see through you, kid.’- that’s what Azadine’s words sounded like to him, and that was infuriating.

In the front of the group, Tarki clicked his tongue.

“Everyone, quiet down. The Rescue Knights Order is in front of us.”

“Huh? The Rescue Knights?”

Azadine was visibly excited.

As they approached Salasma, the area around them began bustling with people. Refugees were swarming in from every part of the continent.

Rivers had dried up during the month-long drought. The affected areas had received zero support, and horrible incidents happened here and there. Yet the Count’s illegitimate children had plundered everywhere in search of the Heavenly Book. Those displaced would then head to Salasma in hopes of fulfilling their basic needs.

An inn had been set up by the Rescue Knights Order as well as a few companies. They were providing shelter for the refugees in a vacant space near Salasma.

“Oh! The three-winged wheel!”

Azadine was elated to see the symbolic flag of the three-winged angel of the Rescue Knights Order.

“As expected of the Rescue Knights. Hmm, impressive.”

“…”

Azadine’s cheering for the Rescue Knights’ good deeds left Mediam and Ismail speechless.

The Rescue Knights Order wasn’t like the King’s Church. They didn’t pounce on people of the Messenger Clan to kill at first sight, but regardless, its members were people of Hubris. They were no different than other people. For them, the Aragasa were soulless blasphemers and cursed beings worthy of contempt.

This shelter of theirs was funded using money extorted from merchant companies as ‘donations’. They even accepted abandoned refugee children to expand their ranks.

There were even rumors that the Rescue Knights had a vast estate at their Headquarters, the Inland Peninsula. Therefore, they needed to use countless serfs to reclaim the land. Darker rumors even reported the trafficking of orphans and refugees to their headquarters under the guise of rescue. Apparently, they were further exploited to restore the region.

“Should I tell him? No. It’s like he worships the Rescue Knights. No point telling him, right?”

Mediam kept her mouth shut as she saw Azadine admire the Rescue Knights’ virtuous deeds.

“What a shock! You’re being considerate of someone.”

“No, b-but you know, don’t you?”

Mediam shrugged and looked ahead.

“He might have a new living being in his body. Stress isn’t good for pregnant people.”

“Oi. I can hear you.”

Azadine snorted at Mediam, treating him like an expectant mother.

“The higher-ups were probably scared of Arael, so they fired me. Talking it out with them will settle everything.”

Azadine had cooled down with time. He realized he had plenty of leverage against the Aragasa’s upper ranks.

He had as many as two copies of the Heavenly King’s Book. He had also collected many gold coins in a brief period, breaking the record for completing three Golden Coin petitions.

‘For Hubrisians, calling on a messenger is like selling their souls to the devil. But times are turbulent, so people aren’t hesitating to use the coins for petitions.

Normal people tended to keep the Emperor’s Gold Coins only for times of crisis… and not because they were fond of the Messenger Clan. In other words, events like the droughts and raids by the Kurt Clan to find the Heavenly Book happening everywhere counted. Other messengers were also likely having record-breaking times in collecting their own gold coins.

This made Azadine a little anxious.

‘The whole clan hates me. What if they don’t consider my request at all? They might even kill me for the copies of the Heavenly Book of Truth.’

Azadine shook his head at this. He hated thinking about the possible outcomes. However, forcefully making himself anxious with this train of thought bordered on paranoia.

“Let’s set up camp!”

They made preparations to set up camp on the dried-up riverbed. They didn’t carry tents with them because of the weight. To prepare, the main task was to level out the ground.

“I don’t get why I have to do this. I’m an aristocratic knight.”

Tarki was removing the rocks from the ground while grumbling.

“Go work there for a while.”

Azadine ordered Tarki to perform another chore and then glanced around. The other refugees were also working but slowly stepped aside for Tarki and his visible rank as a knight.

At dinner time, the inn employees handed out cotton blankets and bread with the Rescue Knights crest stamped on it.

“Anyone who needs a blanket can borrow it, but remember to return it.”

“Those who don’t return the blanket will be punished in hell or reincarnated as a member of the Messenger Clan.”

Mediam couldn’t help but laugh.

“Their motivation method is on point.”

“Well, I doubt they’ll get most of the blankets back. Will so many people reincarnate as messengers?”

“I guess.”

Mediam’s gaze floated towards Azadine’s stomach.

“What? Why are you looking at me?”

“Nothing. It’s just that, what if some of them will be born as messengers, and with the Curse of Service awakened, your child might be…”

“Oi. Droopy eyes. Has she always been this way?”

“Yep.”

Ismail replied with his head down, suffering from second-hand embarrassment due to Mediam.

“Her peers probably hated her, am I right?”

“What are you talking about? They worshiped me.”

Mediam shrugged and made a boast.

“Ah, anyways, let’s try some of that bread.”

“Huh? But we have enough food. I thought you’d say no to rations for the refugees.”

From Mediam’s point of view, Azadine was someone with walls. However, she thought he was a good man by nature. After all, he held no resentment for the Hubrisians, protected the weak, and stood up against those with power and ill intent.

But to think he would take rations from food meant for refugees. Wouldn’t that mean that there was less food for the rest?

“No, I just wanted to check out what type of rations Rescue Knights give out.”

Azadine approached the cart with the rations and talked to the member of the Rescue Knights Order.

“He must be busy dealing with people. Why is he chatting?”

“He’s probably a fan of the tales of the Rescue Knights Order. It looks like he wants to get close and mix up with them somehow.”

A few moments later, Azadine returned with some bread from the Rescue Knights’ alms.

“You really took the bread from them?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t exploit them. I made a donation.”

“Are you saying that you, a messenger, donated money to the Rescue Knights?”

“Yeah.”

“… … “

“What, why? Are you bothered by that?”

“But it took you so long. What were you talking about?”

Ismail coldly raised the question.

“Um, the blankets have the Rescue Knights’ crest on them. I wanted to get that stamped on this parchment paper. But they said no.”

“… …”

“But why do you want that crest?”

“Well, I wanted the Rescue Knights’ symbol. I mean, it’s cool, isn’t it?”

“… …”

Mediam and Ismail glanced at each other.

“Not really. It’s just a useless wheel.”

“But it’s the crest of ‘The Rescue Knights’. Hm, we, Aragasa, don’t really have an official crest. The closest is the hawk, but it’s not like we can carry it around.”

Azadine fiddled with the hawk mask inside his inner pocket. It was a symbol of the Aragasa, but it was not something he could wear in the open without suffering persecution.

“The Rescue Knights may be the undiscriminating heroes in the storybooks. However, this is reality. I bet they’ll kill us the instant our identity is revealed to them. You may admire them, but they would betray that respect in a second. Doesn’t that scare you?”

Mediam phrased the question in a subtle way to press Azadine.

“That’s okay. They could persecute and kill me. But I still wouldn’t feel betrayed. Let’s say that my faith is a different kind of trust.”

“… …”

Mediam understood Azadine’s admiration for the Rescue Knights wasn’t just childish hero worship. Instead, it was a deep, intense conviction.

Could his faith actually withstand betrayal?

Suddenly, Mediam had a hunch that Azadine’s faith would be tested to its limits by fate.