Where The Angel’s Blood Went (5)

‘This bastard!’

Sir Hexenmaier panicked. The people around them were utterly entranced by the fact that Azadine was of the Emperor’s bloodline—and by his handsome looks.

Then Azadine’s lips parted.

“I am certainly of the Messenger Clan, but I have returned to the Three Virtues and the Archangels, and I resolved to guard virtue all my life and aid the angels’ great work. Sir Hexenmaier—why are you drawing your sword? Surely you’re not trying to rescue the doppelgangers?”

“Don’t make me laugh! You worms! The one in command here is me! By what right do you—!”

“The Wisdom Order assigned us this investigation. Are you saying you will deny the mission of the investigation team right now?”

“You! Stop spewing sophistry!”

Furious, Hexenmaier gave an order to his men.

“Seize him at once!”

“Pardon?!”

“B-but…”

They had been overwhelmed by Izmilla’s angelic appearance and Azadine’s captivating incitement.

In fact, with everyone gathered in the plaza bewitched by the sight of Izmilla as an angel, raising a blade against Izmilla’s group was no different from suicide.

“Sir Izmilla! Put away your Celestial form at once! I can’t believe you’d do something so senseless! That is the Knights Order’s secret! And you—!”

Seething, Hexenmaier lunged toward Azadine. But at that moment, black chains shot out from Azadine’s hand.

Shadowsteel chains coiled around Sir Hexenmaier’s body. In that instant, a powerful magic power was sucked into the chains from within him, paralyzing him in one stroke.

“Kk.”

These Shadowsteel chains, forged to subdue a Celestial like Izmilla, worked on Sir Hexenmaier just the same.

The magic within his body churned violently. Hexenmaier, aghast, tried to speak, but part of the chain wrapped around his mouth and shoved his lips between his teeth.

“Mm, ugh?!”

Even when he tried to speak, no words came out.

“Oh dear—why the Chains of Discernment? Still, against doppelgangers, even magic tools can’t be trusted completely. Now then, I will confirm whether he is a doppelganger.”

Saying that, Azadine drew a dagger, cut a lock of Hexenmaier’s hair, lifted it under the moonlight, and flicked it away.

Silvery blood and sloughed skin scattered.

“Ah…”

“A-a doppelganger?!”

The people around them gasped at the mercury-colored blood.

“Mmph!”

Sir Hexenmaier thrashed, bound in the Shadowsteel chains.

Azadine had already had a piece of a doppelganger corpse on him, and as he cut the hair, he had subtly swapped it in.

It was a childish sleight of hand—but people already bewitched by Izmilla’s angelic bearing had no choice but to believe Hexenmaier was a doppelganger.

“Ugh?! You lunatics!”

Sir Timothy realized at once what trick Azadine had pulled. He was so wronged and furious that words nearly failed him.

Ever since becoming Fire Guard commander, he had lorded over others like a king—save for Sir Hexenmaier. How many times in his life had he ever suffered something this unjust and infuriating?

Confronted with unfairness he hadn’t felt in over a decade, Sir Timothy bared his sword in outrage.

“Don’t frame him! You switched it—!”

But drawing a sword on Azadine in front of a crowd already entranced by Izmilla was not a wise choice.

“Hup!”

In a single bound, Azadine closed the distance and stood before Sir Timothy. Then Azadine’s ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn, flared.

Under the moonlight, golden flames danced and knocked Sir Timothy’s sword up into the air.

“Ah!”

It was such a beautiful, majestic strike that everyone was left speechless.

Could someone—no child, but a Holy Knight, and a seasoned one at that—be suppressed so cleanly? Sir Timothy was the Fire Guard commander, yet—

This black-haired man with inhuman beauty looked like a hero torn straight out of an old tale.

And in an atmosphere already bewitched by an angel’s presence, resisting Azadine’s group was now impossible.

Even the soldiers lowered their weapons and held their hands out in front of them.

“W-we’re not doppelgangers!”

“Please investigate us. We’ll comply.”

“You idiots!”

Sir Timothy raged, but Azadine lightly pressed on his carotid artery.

“It seems you are causing disorder. I will place you under restraint for now.”

“Y-you—”

With the blood flow to his brain cut off, Sir Timothy collapsed forward.

“…….”

Meanwhile, Azadine sent a signal—using finger language—to the high-ranking doppelganger disguised as Hexenmaier’s servant.

The high-ranking doppelganger hesitated, unsure whether to resist or trust Azadine’s signal and stay silent, but he recalled Azadine’s reputation within the Messenger Clan.

‘He was once known as an idiot, but now he is the one who defeated Leader Hathir. And judging by his current strength, he is not an enemy I can ever handle. Even among the Aragasa, there’s no one this strong.’

In the end, the high-ranking doppelganger chose to trust Azadine’s signal and wait. Then Azadine halted the doppelganger search and declared to the people:

“Everyone! Fireglyph’s Chapter Master, Sir Hexenmaier, is currently missing—and a doppelganger has taken his place. The governance of Fireglyph will temporarily be entrusted to the Wisdom Order’s investigation team! Until the investigation by Sir Izmilla and Sir Pavel is concluded, we will govern Fireglyph fairly!”

As Azadine put Izmilla forward first, the people erupted in cheers.

Before angel-faith believers, Izmilla could only be seen as an embodiment of an angel—and with her declared as the one who would rule, no one could help but rejoice.

“…….”

“Wow.”

“Can we really do this?”

The investigators and Fire Guards who had joined Azadine could not believe what had happened before their eyes.

Azadine—no more than a platoon leader at Vermilion Fortress, and a man from the Messenger Clan at that—had seized Fireglyph in a single day and usurped the Chapter Master’s authority.

To think a usurpation—an outright coup—could happen this smoothly in just one day.

What if Sir Hexenmaier wasn’t the culprit? Could they handle the aftermath?

But it was already a tiger-riding situation.

Now that it had come to this, they had no choice but to be dragged along by Azadine’s lead.

After checking whether Hexenmaier’s subordinates were doppelgangers and speaking with them, Azadine gestured to the investigators and Fire Guards, including Sir Izmilla.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and go. If his remnants learn what happened to Sir Hexenmaier, they might destroy evidence and run. We need to seize Sir Hexenmaier’s office and residence immediately.”

At Azadine’s words, everyone snapped back to their senses.

The Wisdom Order’s investigators were originally the sort who did such work, yet before Azadine, they felt like raw rookie children.

‘He’s frightening.’

‘So that’s the Messenger Clan.’

‘Thank goodness he isn’t our enemy.’

Everyone feared Azadine, yet they also felt reassured by his competence and handsome appearance.

Sir Hexenmaier’s private residence was filled with luxuries, no less than a typical noble’s mansion.

In an annex of that residence were alchemical facilities purchased from the Van Dyke Trading Company, and there the investigation team found the very first person they had been seeking—alchemist Giacomo.

With half his head shaved and the other half grown out, hollow eyes, and a gloomy face, the man did not even try to run as he faced the investigators.

“So guests have come. From the looks of you, you don’t seem to be Hexenmaier’s soldiers….”

“Are you the alchemist Giacomo?”

Azadine asked him. He already knew—he matched the wanted poster perfectly, and he had heard testimony from the high-ranking doppelganger—but he asked to confirm.

“That’s right. But…”

Giacomo looked at Bernard, who had come in behind the investigators.

“Bernard. So you were here as well.”

“Did you know him?”

Azadine asked Bernard.

“We were schoolmates. We studied at the Banreung Academy together.”

“Surprising. If you were looking for Giacomo, why didn’t you say so?”

“Even if I had, there was little I could do to help. I couldn’t provide information, and if I advertised that I knew a wanted criminal, it felt like nothing but trouble would come of it.”

“So you pretended not to know because you had nothing to say? Still, next time I’d like you to tell me.”

“If only you were here without the investigators, Captain, I would have told you. cough…”

Bernard answered glibly, then coughed.

“But still—this is fortunate.”

“So Sir Hexenmaier really was a traitor!”

Finding the alchemist Giacomo, the investigators let out breaths of relief.

They were the ones who had committed the audacious act of framing Sir Hexenmaier as a doppelganger and arresting him.

Of course, Azadine was the one who had truly done it—but they had joined in his rampage, so they couldn’t claim to be uninvolved.

If Sir Hexenmaier were innocent, the aftermath was unimaginable.

But with Giacomo found here, it became certain that Sir Hexenmaier was a traitor to the Knights Order.

“Alchemist Giacomo. You are currently suspected of murdering the geological survey team. Do you admit the charge?”

“Hm. You’re asking if I killed the geological survey team and fled? Yes—I killed them.”

“Why?”

“Why? Half of it was coercion, and half of it was my own will.”

“Who coerced you?”

“That, I cannot say. A geas has been placed on me.”

As he said that, Giacomo stuck out his tongue. A black brand—like it had been seared by fire—was stamped there.

Just looking at it made one imagine the pain of being branded, enough to make the body shudder.

“Ugh…”

Izmilla trembled at the sight.

“You seem to have a weak stomach, Sir Izmilla.”

Azadine watched her as if amused.

“Yes. To be honest, I’m the type to faint even at the sight of blood. I know that makes me lacking as a knight, but it just won’t improve.”

“In any case, so it’s true you killed the investigation team. Submit and accept arrest!”

Sir Pavel tried to arrest Giacomo without considering anything else. Azadine stopped him.

“Wait. That brand is Nether script. If you handle him carelessly right now, it’s dangerous.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“Let’s hear him out first.”

Azadine said that and asked Giacomo.

“Giacomo. Do you have anything you want to ask of me?”

“A request?”

“Whoever branded you and placed that geas likely made it hard for you to reveal them. But they couldn’t have geased even your wish itself. If you want something, say it. I will do my best.”

“Hmph. A promise from the Knights Order. I’m sick of it.”

Giacomo seemed unmoved—until Bernard stepped forward.

“He’s different from other knights.”

“They all say that. Fine—if Bernard is with you, you might be different, but how exactly are you different?”

“He is a trainee Holy Knight of the Rescue Knights Order, and…”

“Keh. Just a trainee? From his looks, I thought he was a Celestial.”

“He isn’t a Celestial. Probably. Right?”

Bernard asked Azadine, just in case.

“He isn’t.”

Azadine shook his head.

“Then what’s different?”

“He is also the Emperor’s Messenger.”