Chapter 54 – Darkness Of Salasma (1)

The district chief’s words and actions irritated Azadine.

Despite being a proud clan member, the district chief dismissed the messengers’ work and placed trade for the merchant guild above all else. He also excluded Azadine from the matter, despite him being a messenger, and tried to handle it by himself, electing to not tell Azadine anything until this moment. Even when the information was given, the district chief acted as if he was being generous. Azadine was not pleased by this.

He was telling Azadine because Aldis had made a request to him. That was the reality of his attitude, was it not? However, he wasn’t the type of person who would be understanding if Azadine lost his temper. Besides, he needed the intel anyway.

“Tarki, who you’re taking around with you, is the most powerful heir since Young Master Kozel lost his inheritance rights. Saying that who knows if that has any meaning right now. Since he already knows about the relationship between the Korasar Peddlers Guild and the Aragasa, how about we kill him?”

“He’s a gold coin petitioner.”

“He could still betray us despite being a gold coin petitioner.”

“Are you doubting the Emperor’s Voice now? A gold coin petitioner can never betray the Aragasa. If that was possible, the King’s Church would have used the gold coins it confiscated to set up a trap for us.”

Simply being in possession of a gold coin didn’t mean you could make a petition. The petitioner must be sincere and desperate in their wish for the spell of a petition to trigger. In exchange, a part of their soul became fuel for the Emperor’s Voice.

“I don’t doubt the Emperor’s Voice. Despite his awful character, Tarki won’t dare to attack us directly. However, couldn’t he reveal the Guild’s identity by mistake? He may not intend to betray us, but his incompetence could weigh us down.”

“I understand the reason for your concern. We’ll eliminate him if needed, though I don’t think that’s the case for now. There’s plenty we need to learn about him at the earliest, like from where he confiscated the gold coins or hired the mercenaries.

“Okay…I got it. I’ll leave this to you. But keep in mind, you’ll take responsibility for any trouble that happens.”

In his tone, the district chief made it clear that Azadine would be held responsible for any information that Tarki may leak.

‘Seriously, this old man.’

Azadine was annoyed but kept it inside. To begin with, there was no point in getting angry at someone who wouldn’t even understand why he was getting angry.

“I understand. Once again, thank you for arranging the carriage.”

Azadine left once he finished the conversation with the district chief. They had both made sacrifices to reconcile their relationship. However, this relationship of theirs didn’t have a strong or close foundation, to begin with.

The longer they stayed together, the worse their relationship would become. Azadine chose to leave the place as soon as possible.

Young Master Kozel was castrated and lost his inheritance rights.

Rumors of this were spreading quickly. At first, the rumors simply spoke of what happened to Kozel. Still, as the details became more apparent, things finally became certain.

Kozel and his men were plundering a village searching for the Heavenly King’s Book. They then encountered people of the Messenger Clan, who castrated them after a clash.

These kinds of rumors were circulating among the refugees.

“The people of the Messenger Clan castrated him?”

“Yeah, apparently, they even cut his eyes out.”

“That means he won’t be able to go around messing with others. Sounds great to me.”

“Oho. You’re going to get in trouble. What if someone hears you?”

“Isn’t Salasma slowly getting more and more dangerous? I heard even the river’s about to dry up?”

Tarki was going on his way while atop his horse. The chattering of the people they passed was loud enough that even he could hear it.

“Hm, the Messenger Clan, huh?”

Tarki turned and took a glance at the carriage following him from behind. The Korasar Peddlers’ Guild carriage slowly followed him, and Azadine was fast asleep inside it.

‘Did Brother hurt Kozel? Should I ask him? No, no. What if he gets angry at me for asking unnecessary questions? I’m too scared.’

As a child of an aristocratic family, Tarki had always looked down on other people. After he met Azadine, he realized that the world was vast and there were too many strong people in it.

To be honest, he was scared. Once he learned the truth about the Korasar Peddlers Guild being made up of the Messenger Clan, that fear grew more and more.

He always thought of them as mere merchants who were nothing special, and now he learned that they were made up of a group of assassins? If that’s the case, then where and how many of the people of the Messenger Clan were scattered all over the world?

‘I shouldn’t go around carelessly. Who knows when they might kill me without anyone knowing?’

Tarki moved forward with a renewed sense of reality.

“This is it. We’ve reached Salasma.”

Mediam shook Azadin awake.

“Ah, I see. I was dismissed, so the Emperor’s Voice is gone.”

Azadine stretched out his body and got up. One of the Emperor’s Voice’s functions included keeping messengers from becoming ambushed by providing them with information regarding the current time and location.

“It’s quite uncomfortable to suddenly not have it after so long. How long did I sleep?”

“For about two hours, I guess? We weren’t that far.”

The camp that Azadine and his party had stayed at last night was not far from the gates of Salasma. Azadine exited the wagon and spoke to Tarki.

“Let’s go meet your Mother. We need to find out where she got those gold coins and why she hired those mercenaries.”

“Okay, it’s this way.”

Tarki led the party up a hill towards his mother’s residence. Azadine began following him up the hill.

At the top of the hill, they had a good view of all of Salasma’s neighboring towns and villages. Refugees could be seen encamped in all of the vacant areas, such as the plaza near the gate, the marker square in front of the village, and other similar places. It was also easy to fight out why they were there.

“The river has dried up a lot.”

The volume of water of the Kora River that flowed through Korasar had decreased substantially. The extent of it meant the harbors built to support waterborne transport were becoming useless as the water level dropped to the point where the riverbed became exposed.

The highlands were home to the nobility, affluent merchants, and professionals like judges and clerks. The neighborhoods around them, however, were filled with beggars.

“Oh, Sir, please give me a dime.”

“My children are starving to death.”

Aside from those beggars, there were also people holding large banners while passionately shouting about the apocalypse.

“The age of Jupiter will descend upon us soon! When Jupiter enters the ecliptic path, the demons trapped under the Netherstorm will awaken, bringing the end of the world with them! Repent! Live by the three virtues, and extend a helping hand to the less fortunate!”

The situation was messy as beggars and doomsday theorists filled the streets. Mediam didn’t hide her obvious disgust towards the man who rambled on about the end of the world.

“What a piece of trash.”

“What?”

Azadine was curious.

“That person didn’t have a divine revelation about the world’s end. He just wants the world to end because he has nothing to his name, and his future is uncertain. But he knows that if he simply wishes for the destruction of the world, he’ll be cursed at, so he uses prophecy and divine revelation as an excuse. He’s an extremely incompetent person with a rotten spirit.”

“Hmm. You’re too hard on people. Everyone has their moments of weakness and stupidity. So if we don’t forgive the frailty of mankind, nothing can begin.”

“Ohhh, is that so? Then why don’t you start by forgiving Arael?”

“…….”

Azadine was speechless.

“You know what, it just occurred to me that humans aren’t perfect, so I don’t think it’s particularly wrong to hate someone.”

“Looks like you suddenly went back on your word, doesn’t it?”

“No, it’s not like that. Arael doesn’t even want me to forgive her. Don’t you find it a bit ridiculous for me to forgive her all on my own?”

“I guess you’re right, huh? Well, just as you said, humans are indeed imperfect.”

Mediam said that and laughed.

“You know what, I’ll forgive you for any of your wrongdoings. You’re thankful, right?”

“Hey, that’s in the future, so why are you already acting like you’ve forgiven me?”

Azadine and his party elbowed their way through the crowds and made it to the mansion that served as Tarki’s mother’s residence with great difficulty. However…

Large wooden boards served as blockades for the front of the mansion, and armed soldiers stood guard in front. That wasn’t the case for only this mansion. The entrances of all the neighboring mansions were also barricaded, with pharmacists and priests passing through. It was as if there was a plague.

“Huh? What is this? Hey! What’s going on here?”

Tarki approached the soldier guarding the mansion in a state of panic.

“Sir Tarki!?”

“Th-the thing is….”

“Your mother has gone missing.”

“What?”

Tarki was shocked.

“Wh-what do you mean my mother is missing? Wh-what do I do?”

As soon as Tarki began panicking, Mediam nodded.

“It’s possible your mother has embarked on a journey to find a new life because of the despair she felt from her foolish son who was so dependent on her.”

“That’s enough, Mediam. Don’t provoke him so much when he’s already agitated.”

“But it’s true that he never left his mother’s embrace, right?”

“…….”

Tarki wasn’t one who usually stayed quiet, but it seemed he was so shocked that he could not even reply.

“What about the children you sent to your mother? Were they safe at that point?”

Azadine had rescued children subjected to abuse and murder by a baker. He had then arranged for them to be sent to Baroness Nord with the assistance of the Korasar Peddlers Guild. He was curious about their location.

“Le-let’s ask the servants first.”

Tarki asked the servants around him.

“They’ve been sent for training as servants.”

“Really? In that case… we must save Baroness Nord at all costs.”

Azadine was a man who had an unwavering conviction toward both grace and grudges. If Baroness Nord had offered refuge to the children, he would go to any lengths to rescue her.

“Okay now, first of all, let’s calm down, go inside and investigate.”

“In-inside?”

“Yes. Tell the soldiers we’ll look into it.”

After Azadine made the demand, Tarki walked up to the soldiers.

“Hey you, I’ll investigate the matter personally myself. With my own men!”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“That’s none of your business! Get out of the way!”

With Tarki’s insistence, the soldiers granted him entry.

When Azadine entered the mansion alongside Tarki, he saw that the mansion was clean and organized. The hall on the first floor had also been set up for swordsmanship training.

“This is…?”

“My mother enjoys refining her sword skills. Even in my case, she was the one I learned swordsmanship from.”

“Really?”

It was relatively common for aristocratic women to take up swordsmanship as a pastime. Nobles with many children wouldn’t allow their children to remain idle until they found suitable marriages. Sending their children to the King’s Church or enlisting them in the Rescue Knights was also a frequent practice among nobles. Thus, women naturally cultivated an interest in sword training as well.

In other words, the Baroness obviously knew how to wield a sword. There should have been signs of resistance if she was captured or ambushed, but nothing like that was visible.

Was there such a difference in their skills that she was subdued without bloodshed? Or did they sneak up on her in her sleep and capture her without even giving her a chance to wake up?

Azadine examined the training hall and scanned the surroundings for clues.

“Ismail! Mediam! You guys, start looking for clues as well.”

The party then spread out to search the area.