Chapter 53 – Aldis (7)

Ismail kept his speculations about Arael’s motives to himself and changed the topic.

“I’m worried Azadine might have been persuaded.”

“Persuaded?”

“Yeah. While he says that he and Arael are on bad terms… we never know. Arael has followers but regardless will need more people. She’ll want to include her own flesh and blood.”

“Aha. So you’re saying…”

“The Elders will probably say they want him to infiltrate Arael’s party.”

“Ismail, you don’t need to warn me in that case. There’s no way the Senate of Elders would send us along if they come to that decision.”

“… …”

Of course, that was also true. Even if the Elders decided to send Azadine, they wouldn’t go as far as sending Mediam of the Ethar along as an infiltrator. The cover story would make better sense if Azadine changed sides after getting rid of his servants.

But how would Ismail fare in that scenario? He might end up killed as a scapegoat to deceive the enemy.

“Hm, I see. I understand. Ismail, you’re scared, aren’t you?”

Mediam laughed at Ismail’s attitude.

“Y-yeah.”

Ismail was petrified at the thought of becoming a sacrifice for a ploy, but did Mediam understand that? Or was she just aware of the fact that he was scared?

“Aahaha. Well, I get it. Don’t fret too much. Ismail, your mother breastfed me as well, didn’t she? We’re milk siblings. No matter what happens, do you really think I’d let you die?”

“…Thank you.”

“Um. Anyways, I’m curious. What are Aldis and Azadine doing right about now? Do you think it’s that?”

“Whatever it is, it’s not what you think, Mediam.”

Ismail saw that Mediam had fallen into her delusions and clicked her tongue.

In the meantime, Azadine and Aldis spent time catching up with each other. When it came down to it, Azadine didn’t feel like there was much to talk about.

All he could tell her was about his diligent training under Kazas, during which he mastered The Writings of Kazas and learned the various tricks and techniques he needed to become a messenger.

He couldn’t disclose the details of the training regime and curriculum of The Writings of Kazas. Even if he did, it wasn’t as if they could follow through with it.

“Okay, let’s say you’ll keep the training’s details a secret. Tell me, then, what kind of person is Elder Kazas? All I know is that he’s an elf.”

“He’s a pervert.”

“A pervert?”

“Yes. He’s a madman. A madman, but…”

Azadine smiled bitterly. Kazas was certainly a madman, but he treated him much better than his own people did.

The Aragasa despised Azadine. He was the weak son of Acre, the clan’s traitor, who had interrupted the clan’s cherished dream despite it being within grasp. He had been born with a curse that left him eyeless and rendered his appearance hideous.

Only two people didn’t harass Azadine for being this way, Aldis and Kazas.

“Still, his pervertedness was bearable. He didn’t eat humans like the elves of the Nagasura period.”

“That’s a relief. When I heard you were under the wing of Elder Kazas, I had a nightmare almost every night of you being eaten by him.”

“Haha…is that so? Mm?”

Aldis’s words puzzled Azadine.

“Master said he didn’t take in disciples because he was picky. But then… Why did he take me in?”

Until this moment, Azadine had assumed that Aldis had persuaded Kazas. However, judging from her remarks, she didn’t seem to be acquainted with Kazas.

As a member of the Founding Families and a promising individual bearing the title of Harkonia’s Reincarnation, Aldis was someone even the Elders could not ignore. This wouldn’t matter, even if she wasn’t directly acquainted with them.

But how about Kazas?

He was entirely different. He was an oddball that couldn’t care less about the clan’s internal politics.

Despite being an elf, Kazas was a member of the Aragasa Senate of Elders. Since he wasn’t an Aragasa, he hadn’t received the books of Beauties of Nature – Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon. This was not even mentioning his completely different traits.

Being such a person, the first time he proactively appeared was when he forcefully appointed Azadine as a messenger. Before that, he was a complete unknown among the Messenger Clan.

Even if it was Aldis, would she have been able to pull on his strings by recommending Kazas to take a strange, eyeless child as a disciple?

That’s what he had thought all these years… yet she was saying that she had nightmares of him being eaten. Didn’t that mean that she knew nothing about Kazas?

“I know, right? He was on the sidelines for so long. Why would someone like him suddenly take you on as a disciple?”

As expected, Aldis wasn’t the person who recommended Azadine to Kazas.

“Then…. ah, no, it’s nothing.”

There were still plenty of things that he could talk about. He had missed Aldis over the years, so he didn’t want to waste time by bringing up strange topics to her.

Azadine and Aldis shared stories, uncaring of the flow of the time until it was finally time for them to say goodbye.

“We need to be sleeping, yet the sun’s rising.”

Aldis smiled as she looked at the sunrise far, far away. She didn’t show a single sign of fatigue.

“Are you okay? You should rest for a bit…”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t sleep much these days. Okay then, I need to leave now, Azadine.”

“Where to?”

“I’ve gone around the whole of Korasar. I was thinking of moving on to Vthuma so that I could lift the kill order against you and meet with Arael.”

Vthuma was one of the eight kingdoms to the south of Korasar.

“Is Arael in Vthuma?”

“It’s more like I’m looking for her and, at the same time, for the copies of the Heavenly Kings’ Book as well.”

“Um.”

As Azadine fell silent, Aldis smiled and touched his cheek.

“You’ve grown so much, Azadine. You’ve become a decent man, haven’t you?”

“You could say that.”

“Perhaps… the Elders or the clan’s head will ask you to kill Arael to prove your innocence.”

“They probably will. After all, they even named us that way.”

The eyeless dragon, Azadine, and the Angel of Justice, Arael.

They were no longer worshiped by the Aragasa and were nothing but an old myth. Yet, there was no doubt what their names represented. Their names belonged to ‘The Two in a Battle to Victory and Death’.

“My goodness, isn’t it better for Arael to win then, if we go by the tale?”

“Will you fight her?”

“If you want me to.”

Azadine would kill Arael if Aldis wished for it to happen. Yet, it was still the same as Azadine trying to refute his anger towards Arael. Aldis smiled sadly, knowing Azadine’s wounds had not yet healed.

“No. If you two ended up fighting, I’d be very sad.”

“Well then, I’ll have to avoid her after all. But would Arael think the same? If Arael comes at me, I’d have no choice.”

Azadine made no attempt to hide his resentment towards Arael. The wounds that Arael inflicted on his flesh still stung as if they were fresh and were something he could not ignore.

“Hm… so you mean, if Arael comes at you, you’ll fight, is that it?”

Aldis was shocked at how Azadine openly expressed his animosity towards Arael.

Aldis was called ‘Harkonia’s Reincarnation’, yet even she felt that Arael was an insurmountable barrier.

The unparalleled prodigy, Arael. The nickname ‘Harkonia’s Reincarnation’ now belonged to her.

Yet Azadine showed not even the slightest hint of fear at the thought of having Arael as his opponent. Was he that confident that he could prevail over her in a fight?

‘It’s probably the pride between siblings on bad terms, I think? They wouldn’t actually fight.’

Aldis smiled as she thought of Azadine’s composure as nothing but a bluff.

“Ah, by the way, Aldis… I found two copies of the Heavenly King’s Book.”

“Ah, really? Two copies? That’s amazing!”

“Can I pass them on to you?”

“Mm, why would you do that?”

“It seemed like you needed them, so…”

“No. Keep them with you. I can convince others, but there’s no telling when the clan members will decide to persecute you, is there? So it’s better for you to keep the copies on you as security.”

“But apparently, the Kurt clan followers are tracking me with a strange wand. If I keep them, I won’t be able to get them off my tail, will I?”

“Binding the magical book inside yourself can help you evade the tracking spell. Ah… you can’t use magic, right?”

Aldis rummaged through her things before taking out a silver bracelet and using it to scribble in the air.

A faint silver light, the same color as her hair, appeared out of thin air and, when superimposed on the bracelet, engraved the scribbled words upon it.

“You can store the copies of the Heavenly King’s Book in this bracelet. Basic tracking spells won’t work on it, so put them here.”

Aldis smiled as she put the bracelet on Azadine. Then, just like old times, she embraced him. As always, she smelled of lavender.

“Okay then. Goodbye, Azadine. Stay safe. Let’s see each other at this summer solstice festival in the Sanctuary.”

“Yeah… assuming there will be a summer solstice festival.”

Azadine bid farewell to Aldis.

Aldis’ intervention seemed to have calmed Salem’s anger as well.

“You must have stayed up all night yesterday. I’ll arrange for a carriage.”

“Thank you.”

“I understand your sudden dismissal shocked you because you weren’t at fault. But the organization has to maintain its command over its members spread across all the Eight Kingdoms. It was an unavoidable step, and you should’ve understood that.”

Since a day had passed, it seemed the district head’s anger had subsided because he was a bit more understanding of Azadine’s perspective. However, the excuse that his dismissal was an inevitable choice for the organization’s operation was unnecessary.

‘Is this his apology? It’s all excuses, even until the end. If I beat him up when he’s trying to make a gesture of reconciliation, he’ll become my mortal enemy, won’t he? He probably had to bend himself backward to do this much.’

Azadine wasn’t pleased with the district chief’s attitude as he made unnecessary excuses while offering a conciliatory gesture. Still, he decided to let it go as he knew the district chief was really restraining himself.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you for arranging the carriage.”

As soon as Azadine accepted his gesture, Salem gave him information about Salasma.

“Then here’s a piece of advice. Right now, Salasma is…hell.”

“Hell?”

“Yeah. The Count has always been a temperamental man, but he’s even worse these days. He brought a strange witch with him from somewhere, and his barracks were crowded with strange barbarians. Refugees are flocking there, but… refugees and people of lower ranks are continuously going missing.”

“Missing people? Have you looked into it?”

“I hired adventurers to investigate the matter but…. They went missing too.”

Adventurers included mercenaries, children of nobility rejected by the King’s Church, and a variety of hooligans. They were all skilled in their own right, whether in intelligence or combat.

The fact that they even went missing…

Meant that there was a clear problem in Salasma.

‘He’s talking like he’s letting me in on some precious secret, but he was supposed to tell me that anyway, wasn’t he?’

In the first place, the Messenger Clan operated the merchant guilds to support the messengers. Still, this district chief couldn’t stop Azadine from entering Salasma.

He had tried to block him as he thought Azadine was a ‘subpar’ messenger, so revealing his identity would hurt the Korasar Peddlers’ Guild’s reputation yet…

‘In reality, you’re the one causing all the trouble.’