The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger

Derek was painfully aware of why Azadine stared at him in clear disbelief. He then cleared his throat.

“Look at this.”

He took off his boots and exposed his ankle. Crimson tissues, similar to tendons, sprouted from his ankles. The sight reminded Azadine of the crow that embodied the spirit of the ‘Voice of Arael’.

“Not only is it more resilient and stronger than before, but the pain is also gone. I’m able to return to active duty.”

“By betraying the clan?”

“I didn’t betray the clan. Leader Hathir and the elders are the betrayers. They were researching black magic. In the case of Elder Cannahan… he was a vampire. So, Miss Arael personally punished him.”

“Is that Arael’s claim? There’s no way you witnessed that with your own eyes, right?”

“But everyone knew that Leader Hathir was dabbling in black magic research. It’s an open secret that Leader Hathir and the Senate of Elders were studying the forbidden magic for purely selfish motives. It’s just that…”

“You didn’t have a pivotal figure for an uprising under that pretext, but now you have Arael as the central figure. Is that what you’re trying to say?”

“Yes.”

“But I can sense black magic from this, you know?”

Azadine pointed to Derek’s ankle. Ominous magic emanated from the muscle tissues outside his body that had replaced his own damaged tendons.

“This is the power of green magic. It controls the source of life.”

“Yes, it’s mostly green magic… but I’m telling you there’s black magic in it too.”

“You take me as too big of an idiot. As someone who can’t even use magic, what the hell do you know about it?”

“…….”

“Even if Arael were to dabble in black magic, it would only be because the Beauties of Nature-Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon aren’t enough power to allow us to rule. In the first place, the Emperor granted us the powers of the Beauties of Nature-Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon only to use our clan’s people as slaves. True power is all-encompassing.”

He found fault with the leader and the elders for their dabbling in black magic. Yet, he justified Arael’s usage of black magic by saying that all methods deserve a chance for the sake of the clan.

Azadine smiled bitterly at Derek’s ludicrous words.

“You’ve completely lost it. When the hell did you meet Arael and become so devoted to her?”

“It was immediately after my encounter with you. I didn’t meet Miss Arael. I heard her voice.”

“Miss Arael? When did you start calling her that? Didn’t you curse her back in the day?”

“I was ignorant back then. I didn’t know anything, but now, she is a living god and the savior of our clan.”

“A proper devout subject. Or should I say, a proper fanatic?”

Azadine felt a chill run down his spine as he heard Derek’s completely shameless change in tune. That in itself was a clear sign of Arael’s growing influence.

A single manifestation of the Voice of Arael had shown enough power to convince witnesses that she was someone akin to a human God. It wasn’t unreasonable for them to think she was even the savior of the Aragasa, the Messenger Clan, here to save them from their oppression.

‘No.’

But Azadine refused to acknowledge Arael. Was it because she had scarred him? That was a reason too, but…

‘Arael is too dangerous.’

She had a cruel and destructive personality.

If Arael’s personality was to be described in one word, it would be a tyrant. She trampled on every single thing that obstructed her path. If such a person harbored ambitions to conquer the entire continent of Hubris, there would be a bloodbath.

‘Still, I wonder what kind of conditions they are offering.’

Azadine posed Derek with a question.

“So why are you here to see me? Is it to convince me to side with Arael? There must be more to the story, then.”

“I’m here with a letter.”

“A letter?”

“I only need to show it to you.”

“Where is it?”

Azadine flinched as he took the letter from Derek. He sensed a kind of uncanny magic from it.

‘What the hell is this? Is this really Arael’s letter?’

Derek sneered at Azadine’s hesitation.

“What’s wrong? Are you terrified of your own sister’s letter?”

“Yes, I am.”

The unearthly power emanating from this letter, and Arael’s Voice.

Arael’s abilities had developed to the point where it was difficult to even call her human anymore. Even if she were to claim to be a living goddess, there would be no way to deny it.

Azadine took a deep breath and opened the letter, and at that moment, darkness engulfed him.

“…….”

When Azadine returned to his senses, nothing around him had changed. At that moment, the magic in the letter had drawn him in, and he had spoken directly to Arael.

However, neither Derek nor anyone else around him could detect this change in Azadine. He then crumpled up Arael’s letter.

“You-! How dare you!”

“How dare you crumple Miss Arael’s letter without even reading it!”

In everyone else’s eyes, Azadine simply crumpled up the letter without even reading it.

“I already read it. But I couldn’t negotiate a compromise regarding the conditions, so I rejected the proposal. And so what, even if I did just crumple it? Can’t I even do that to my younger sister’s letter to me?”

Derek snorted.

“Isn’t she older than you?”

“I told you she’s my younger sister, didn’t I?”

To those who could understand the letter’s enchantments, Azadine had simply insulted them by destroying the letter. Derek’s party then drew their weapons.

“How should we proceed, Derek?”

“How about we use this opportunity to kill this bastard?”

“We can’t condone a person such as Azadine to be our superior merely because he’s a blood relative of Arael’s. To sort out the organization’s hierarchy as well, we need to eliminate such an incompetent fool.”

Most of the Messenger Clan, in fact, almost all of them, held the same view of Azadine.

They hated him for being the child of a traitor.

They despised him for his incompetence.

They were enraged that a person like him had tricked his way into becoming a messenger.

Yet Arael, on her own ascent, had beckoned Azadine with a gesture of peace.

Did her affection towards her sibling transcend the large chasm of their abilities? Just like how Azadine became a messenger through Elder Kazas’s connections, would he once again rise as their superior through Arael’s support?

That was unbearable for everyone who had rebelled along with Arael from the Messenger Clan.

“Haha, how ridiculous. In the middle of barely getting your organization’s act together at the starting phase of your uprising, I can’t believe you’re already worried about seniority. So, are you going to kill me? Did Arael order you to, or is this your own willful decision? Either way, it’s fine with me. You take me for such a pushover, so you’ll pay the price for that with your own bodies.”

Azadin channeled the power of the Beauties of Nature- Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon into his aching muscles.

The horrendous pain that screamed through his muscles nearly immobilized him. Still, the pain soon disappeared, and strength returned to his limbs as he used the breathing technique he learned from Kazas.

He could fight now.

The fatigue and muscle pain would only return even more after the fight.

However, Derek stopped his subordinates.

“Stop. We’re not here to fight.”

“Huh? But….”

“Mr. Derek.”

“You can’t fight him. Miss Arael really cherishes her ‘little brother’.”

Derek forbade them from fighting Azadine.

“What did you say? You son of a bitch?”

Azadine was infuriated at Derek’s mention of Arael.

“Arael cherishes him”?

What a joke. Azadine had been beaten and humiliated countless times in his life, but none had left a wound as deep as Arael.

In spite of that, she was making this kind of claim in front of other people? Just how much did she wish to belittle him before she was satisfied?

Yet no matter how blatant the provocation, it was clear that Derek didn’t intend to even touch a single hair on his head.

“I have no intention of fighting you, Azadine. If you attack, we’ll flee with all our might.”

“Would you really go that far? This is unexpected of you.”

Azadine was bewildered by Derek’s lack of hostility towards him.

‘I wanted to use this chance to fix his attitude. Why won’t he fight me?’

Azadine had deliberately crumpled the letter after reading it. He intended to provoke Derek’s men and use this opportunity to teach them a lesson. But Derek was too alert.

Was he being wary of Azadine? Or was he warned by Arael? If not, did he have a different plan?

Regardless of the reason, Azadine, as a messenger, could not start the fight.

“Negotiations have broken down, but because of you, Derek, I’m not going to fight. Just leave.”

“You bastard! We’re the ones letting you live, not the other way around!”

“You Incompetent piece of shit!”

“Blood of the Traitor!”

“Wait, you’re the ones revolting against the clan, don’t you see? And if I’m the blood of the traitor, doesn’t the same go for Arael as well? Tell me, isn’t the Arael, whom you guys worship and idolize, the bloodline of the traitor who started her own rebellion?”

Azadine criticized their hypocrisy, but the maniacal servants of his sister would not listen.

“We are the revolution!”

“We are the true people of this clan.”

“I must say, that’s a convenient mental world you guys live in.”

Azadine mocked Derek’s men.

“Enough. I see. We’ll leave, but be careful, Azadine. Right here, Salasma is a strange place. It has gotten so that the local mayor fled after making all sorts of excuses, so you understand, don’t you? Though I detest the thought of you being graced by Miss Arael, I also don’t want to be falsely accused if you happen to die here in my presence.”

“I get it, so leave now.”

Azadine shooed Derek and his entourage away as if he was driving away a fly.

Having left after delivering the letter to Azadine, Derek’s men were visibly furious. They could not believe how Azadine dared to look down on them.

“Arrogant bastard!”

“Is it really okay to let Azadine be?”

“When we were kids, he was an idiot who couldn’t even tie a string to the bow. He even wet his bed until he was 8 years old!”

Derek’s men loudly grumbled about Azadine’s arrogant demeanor once they were escorted out of the mansion.

He was a traitor, a failure who couldn’t even pass foundational training. He was also the lowest-ranked messenger in the clan. Someone like him was lucky enough to be picked up by Elder Kazas as a messenger and yet dared to look down at them?

This was a commonly held view.

“Fools.”

Derek interrupted their grumbling.

“Do you know that the same Azadine killed over ten of Atra’s kin?”

“What?”

“He killed half the band of mercenaries that the Count’s bastard son led into the easternmost post town. Without any support from us.”

“Tha-that’s….”

“And he also maimed the Young Master Kozel whom we transported.”

Derek recounted Azadine’s list of achievements over his short time as a messenger. All of his men tried to downplay Azadine’s achievements as a messenger due to their preconceived notions of his abilities as a child. However, the evidence was undeniable when his feats were looked at impartially.

Evidence that Azadine had, at the very least, honored his duties as the Emperor’s messenger.

Nonetheless, perhaps owing to the strong impressions of his childhood image, Derek’s subordinates still refuted it.

Are you 18+?