Rookie Holy Knight Azadine (7)

“It couldn’t be allowed for you to become a Shade Hag.”

“Don’t make me laugh! You looked like you meant to save me or something, but for me, salvation was revenge! Only killing you hypocrites was my one and only salvation! The only way you could save me was by offering up your life!”

When the woman, already halfway to becoming a Shade Hag, cast a spell, hideous shadow monsters burst out from her shadow.

Shadows of wild beasts—giant wolves, bears, and moose the size of bulls—emerged from the deep darkness.

On a night already dark, those shadow-made monsters were hard to make out.

“Now, kill them! Every last one of those cursed bastards inside this fortress! Especially if they’re knights!”

The witch, apparently trembling with rage at the very mention of Vermilion Fortress, ordered even the civilians killed.

“Hiiik?!”

“U-us too?! Why?!”

The startled villagers tried to flee, but their bodies were currently tied to pillars. They had bound themselves to resist the illusions Shade Hags used, but now that very binding got in the way of escaping.

Of course, the ropes were made so they could be loosened by the people themselves, but with monsters swaying back and forth right in front of them, undoing the knots was no easy task.

“Rijen! Kallan! Untie the soldiers! Camilla! Kuntachi! Bernard! Protect the people!”

Azadine shouted that and kicked off the ground. At the same time, Azadine’s ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn, began to blaze gold.

A beautiful golden blade-light separated the shadow beasts from the night’s darkness. Along their sharp outlines, golden rings of fire danced. The burning holy sword swept through, severing a wolf’s neck.

“Impressive, you bastard! Yeah! So that’s the sword of the Emperor’s Messenger!”

The woman turned witch by the Rescue Knights Order’s immoral deeds spat curses as if vomiting blood and attacked Azadine.

Azadine cut off the hag’s arm as she tried to seize him, then began carving her body into pieces.

The ceramite longsword felt blunter than well-forged steel, but the more it burned, the sharper and keener it became.

Dazzling arcs of sword-light repeatedly sliced the Shade Hag, shaving down a body as large as an old tree.

“Kkh…!”

“Give it up. You can’t kill me. Your contract will fail, and the Shade Hag’s power will vanish.”

Azadine briefly lowered his burning holy sword.

If he cut too quickly, the witch within the shadow would die as well. Even as Azadine held back, the Shade Hag’s power was already draining away; the black shadow thinned, and the witch’s bare body began to show within it.

She tried to gather the Shade Hag’s power scattering around her like it was a hem of cloth, forcing it to cling back onto her body.

“No. I don’t want to become a powerless thing now! I don’t want to become something that gets trampled however you like!”

The witch writhed in hatred, but the Shade Hag’s power slipped out of her helplessly.

“As far as my strength could reach! At the very least, I wouldn’t let anyone be wrongfully trampled here! So give it up!”

Azadine reached out his hand instead of his sword.

“How could I trust what you say? Men all said they were different from the others! But in the end, they were all the same!”

“If you couldn’t trust my promise, then distrust the Shade Hags’ promise too! You’ve already completed your revenge—so why were you trying to offer up your soul?!”

“What?! No. My revenge isn’t over yet! All you hypocrite knights….”

“You were going to kill every Hospitaller in the world? Did the Shade Hags promise you that?”

“…….”

“They just need to kill one more person to take your soul! After that, why would they bother fighting the Hospitallers?!”

“Ugh…!”

“I’ll avenge you, and I’ll make a world where the weak aren’t trampled! At least where my strength could reach! If you want to believe that promise, take my hand!”

Azadine stepped closer, holding out his hand to her again. She hesitated.

In the light pouring from Aurelia Dawn—and in his violet eyes—her heart wavered.

“Kweok!”

Then, suddenly, a scream rang out.

Azadine turned his head toward the sound. Macdogal was dying, blood spilling from his mouth.

“What—?!”

And behind Macdogal, a beautiful young woman in green robes stood holding a dagger.

“Hehehe. That makes the sixth Hospitaller I’ve killed. The promise was kept.”

“What?!”

The instant the witch faltered, a hand of darkness appeared from behind her and seized the upper half of her face, including her eyes.

“Damn it!”

Azadine, furious, swung Aurelia Dawn at the darkness, but it quickly swallowed the witch and retreated.

“Ahahahahaha!”

“The contract has been fulfilled! Hospitaller! This child is ours now!”

Leaving those words behind, the Shade Hags vanished.

The darkness that had wrapped around Vermilion Fortress withdrew like an ebbing tide, and the stars and moon revealed themselves in the sky again.

As if nothing had happened, a clear night sky spread out overhead.

The Shade Hags had been driven back in retreat. But it wasn’t a situation to celebrate at all.

“Damn it! Macdogal?!”

Azadine rushed to Macdogal, but he was already dead, his vitality drained from the wound—his skin shriveled and twisted like dead wood.

“Sorry, boss. I tried to protect him, but it happened too fast.”

Camilla said that with a sour, awkward smile. Bernard the blood mage rummaged through Macdogal’s body, then gave a bitter grin.

“Now I understand why the Shade Hags claimed the contract was fulfilled. Look at this.”

Bernard pointed to a runic tattoo carved over Macdogal’s heart. Unlike an ordinary tattoo, it was made of pure magical power.

“What is that?”

“An assassination grimoire branded onto agents of the Benevolence Order. It’s called the Silent Skirmish.”

“Silent Skirmish?”

“It’s an assassination grimoire similar to the Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon used by the Emperor’s Messengers. Yes. This man wasn’t a mere archivist—he was a Hospitaller, and an assassin of the Benevolence Order at that.”

The Rescue Knights Order was divided into holy knightly orders of three virtues.

Courage, Wisdom, Benevolence.

Among them, the Benevolence holy knights were publicly known for leading relief and charity, but there were constant rumors that, behind the scenes, they kept spies and assassins.

But Macdogal being that rumored assassin?

‘I had known Macdogal was a spy, but….’

Even Azadine, watching Macdogal “manage” Izmilla, had realized he was someone placed beside her by the Order’s upper ranks.

But he never imagined he belonged to the Benevolence Order.

“I didn’t know he was that remarkable. But this means the Shade Hag’s contract has been fulfilled.”

As Azadine’s expression soured, Rijen and Kallan approached.

“Boss. Isn’t that actually good?”

“What?”

“That witch’s circumstances are pitiful, but the moment she killed five knights, she became a major criminal. Even if she returned to being human, we’d have had to execute her. And….”

“We dealt with a Benevolence Order assassin ahead of time, didn’t we? On top of that, we achieved the great deed of driving off the Shade Hags. You know what those things are? They’re the monsters adults pull out in scary stories when kids whine! The bards should’ve seen this!”

Rijen flailed both arms dramatically, making a fuss. But Azadine’s expression didn’t improve.

“Even so, it might be better to hunt the Shade Hags down for good. Bernard. If we have the Shade Hag’s blood, we can track them, right?”

As he said that, Azadine whistled. A crow flew down and picked up an arrow that had fallen to the ground.

“…….”

It was Arael’s voice, controlling a nearby bird to recover the arrow that had struck the Shade Hag.

Azadine accepted the arrow and examined the tip. A bit of blood and flesh clung to it. It had clearly hit a Shade Hag.

“It’s possible. But boss—right now, it’s better not to hunt the Shade Hags immediately.”

“Why?”

“First, this fortress won’t function without you. Even if the archivist was revealed as a spy, with no archivist now, there’s no one who can properly carry out the Order’s administrative work.”

“…….”

“And second—for the fortress’s independence.”

“The fortress’s independence?”

“Cinnabar is a very expensive specialty resource. If the curse on this fortress is lifted, other knights will surely try to seize it. And from what I see, boss, you clearly joined the Rescue Knights Order because you wanted to accomplish something, didn’t you? Vermilion Fortress’s productivity will definitely help you accomplish it. The Shade Hag curse may be lifted now that the ‘six’ have been filled, but up above, they say the curse’s influence still remains. If that’s the case, everyone will leave Vermilion Fortress to you because they won’t want to be cursed.”

“Hm. So that’s how it is.”

Azadine fell silent after hearing Bernard’s meaningful words.

If Bernard was right, then it meant the Rescue Knights Order and the soldiers had already known they were cursed by the Shade Hags.

And they hadn’t told Azadine.

‘There’d been that superstition—if you spoke of the curse, you became its target too. Or maybe being of the Messenger bloodline played a part.’

But now, that superstition would instead become a shield protecting Azadine.

Fearing the curse, the Rescue Knights Order wouldn’t be able to properly inspect this fortress, and while the upper ranks believed the curse still persisted, Vermilion Fortress would function wholly as Azadine’s domain.

“Alright. Even if we’re going to catch the Shade Hags, we should stabilize the fortress first, then hunt them.”

Reporting to the Rescue Knights Order’s upper ranks could wait until after he had seized Vermilion Fortress and even the surrounding Chadra Plateau region.

This place—Vermilion Fortress—could mine cinnabar and reap enormous profits, but it was also harsh terrain even within the Rescue Knights Order’s territory. Unless someone was an oddball who chose their own road to prominence, or a true Rescue Holy Knight who couldn’t bear to watch cursed brothers suffer, no one came here.

Azadine decided he would use this curse.