Internal Crackdown (2)

“The King’s Church didn’t suddenly decide to join hands with the Rescue Knights Order for no reason. Elemental Wailing is sweeping across the world. And Vthuma and Korasar fell to the Naga, and the King’s Church inquisitors who reclaimed the throne were murdered.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s not the only thing. According to the reports, the southern sea has frozen over.”

“The southern sea?”

“They say enormous icebergs are drifting down from the Andaz Inner Sea, where Netherstrom lies.”

The Andaz Inner Sea coastline had been a subtropical sea with a mild climate even in winter.

A place where you would struggle to see snow your entire life, let alone find ice in salty seawater—yet the sea had frozen and icebergs were floating around?

Dilia frowned as she relayed information the Messenger Clan had gathered from all over the world. With ordinary channels of information distribution, it would have taken months for news like this to travel.

Of course, the King’s Church and the Rescue Knights Order each had their own means to deliver such information quickly, but the powerful did not like to share sensitive information with commoners or lower ranks.

“So that was why the King’s Church came to the Rescue Knights Order….”

“Right. The King’s Church decided it couldn’t reclaim Vthuma and Korasar by itself, so it pulled back. Those lands could have become our clan’s territory once, but you ruined everything.”

“Then it sounds like the Senate can’t find its direction for now, either. Has the alliance with the Naga been severed?”

“You killed the Leader who was the alliance’s center! And you used up even the copies of the Heavenly King’s Scripture that the clan worked so hard to gather. Hathir, Arael—everything ended with them dead, and I hate you so much I can’t stand it!”

As she said it, Dilia’s hands were trembling.

She was afraid as well. An unknown, unprecedented threat had pounced on the world. If she weren’t afraid, that would have been the truly abnormal thing.

The Senate had even joined in with that threat and attacked Korasar and Vthuma.

Azadine had eliminated the key figures in the Senate who made that decision, and the Senate still had not recovered from the loss.

“If you hadn’t done that, by now we would have controlled that power and become the rulers of everything!”

“And you would have accepted some unknown power of darkness, and before you even realized it, you’d have become a retainer of an Ancient God.”

“…….”

Dilia did not deny it.

Even she already knew Azadine was right.

And in that moment, she understood why Azadine had fought back, even after being abandoned and cursed by the entire clan.

‘To avoid accepting that unknown power of darkness and becoming a retainer of an Ancient God.’

That would surely be the worst thing that could happen to a single self.

The young man before her was not the clan’s traitor. The clan had been the traitor.

But even knowing that, she could not accept it. If she accepted it, she might have to fight, too.

Turning her back on the clan,

Abandoning her family,

Being cursed by everyone—yet still forcing the truth through.

That was impossible for her.

“It’ll be a harsh era. Cooperation will be necessary. When that time comes, remember what I said, Dilia. I don’t hate you. I don’t hate the clan, either.”

“The clan hates you.”

“Right. So remember this. Someday, when a crisis comes and we don’t even have the leeway to hate….”

“…….”

“That I don’t hate you.”

Dilia was left speechless by Azadine’s words.

I won’t hate you.

In truth, those were useless words.

Because a person’s heart could only be proven through actions, and only through steady, consistent actions over time—not through words, and not in a single moment.

Yet Azadine declared, without any conditions, that he would not hate them.

‘How arrogant. Is he saying he’ll always be ready to offer a hand of reconciliation? But… it’s not bad.’

There was no chance Azadine and the clan would reconcile, but the fact that the choice lay entirely with the clan was not a bad thing to hear.

‘No. That hasn’t changed even now, has it? Why does it feel like the knife hilt is in my hand—and why does that make me feel good?’

Dilia realized that Azadine’s words were, in the end, words with no value at all.

But at the same time, she noticed that Azadine’s eyes looked exactly like Arael’s.

Yes. This young man looked so much like Arael—the one she had longed for.

Come to think of it, she had felt joy when he crushed the Chadra Five Ogres one by one.

Watching Azadine—who had brought the clan such a huge loss—manage with effortless ease the troublemakers even the Rescue Knights Order couldn’t control, she had felt pride.

‘Yeah. The bastard who gave us headaches shouldn’t go down easily here.’

She must have cheered him on with feelings like that.

As those emotions resurfaced, Dilia felt her heart soften.

‘Looks really are important. If he were a monster with the same blinded eyes as before, even sharing a room with him would feel unsettling.’

The young man before her resembled his twin older sister, with an androgynous, beautiful face.

But what made him beautiful wasn’t his appearance—it was his talent and pride, and that will of his that never hesitated even if he made the entire clan his enemy.

Right. All the things that had made her long for Arael were still there in this young man—in Azadine, exactly as they were.

That was what Dilia realized.

“Fine. If we can keep hating you, then it doesn’t matter whether you hate us or not. I’ll keep cooperating. But Azadine—better tighten your grip on your subordinates first.”

“Subordinates?”

“Yeah. Recently, there’s been talk among the clan that the surge of Elemental Wailing… might be breaking out mainly among those who see visions of ruin.”

“…….”

“Sir Braham at the Southeast Rock Wall was someone who saw visions of ruin. If he dies from Elemental Wailing, you’ll lose control of the Southeast Rock Wall. You went to all the trouble of clearing a path over there—if you lose control now, you’re just doing someone else a favor, aren’t you?”

“I see. A good point. Thank you, Dilia.”

“…It’s only cooperation we can’t avoid.”

Dilia accepted Azadine’s thanks that way and clicked her tongue.

No matter what, she ended up giving him the best advice she personally could.

As Dilia warned, Sir Braham at the Southeast Rock Wall also came down with Elemental Wailing and died.

The command authority of the Southeast Rock Wall was, for the moment, handed to Selim, the minotaur knight, but in the meantime Prince Kalintz and Sir Ject accepted bail and released Chashan, the dwarven sorcerer.

Chashan paid an enormous bail to have all of his subordinates released as well, but it was still revealed that he possessed massive quantities of weapons and drugs.

And….

Trouble also erupted in places Dilia hadn’t warned about.

“I’m worried about my daughter, so I’m leaving.”

When Azadine gathered his subordinates to hold a countermeasure meeting, the alchemist Giacomo declared that he was leaving.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re a criminal. What do you think you’re saying? You’re only alive because the captain let it slide—by rights, you should have been hanged. The fact that you’re alive makes no sense. If the Order finds out, they’ll say you have to die.”

The half-elf Rijen opposed Giacomo’s departure, calling it nonsense. But Giacomo’s resolve was firm.

“Elemental Wailing broke out and people exploded to death. I want to know whether my daughter is dead or alive.”

“How, exactly? Do you have a plan?”

“I have to do something. If I just sit here doing this, it’s not like I can find out where my daughter is, can I?”

Giacomo said that, as a parent, he couldn’t help worrying about his daughter.

But the others only snorted. On Hubris, the bond between parent and child could be tender, but often it wasn’t.

If you looked at the people gathered in an exile land like the Chadra Plateau, most of them had poor relationships with their fathers—maybe not with their mothers, but with their fathers.

So to everyone else, it only looked like Giacomo was using his daughter as an excuse to run.

However, Azadine—who had received orthodox training from the Rescue Knights Order since childhood, or rather, who had worn books down to nubs by studying on his own—looked on Giacomo’s fatherhood with a certain respect.

Azadine had no family.

The only blood relative he had, Arael, left a deep scar on Azadine’s face, and “family” was an absence to him—an emptiness that would never be filled.

Of course, Aldis gave him love like a mother’s, and Kazas’s love could be compared to a father’s.

But if they ever found their true family, their love would be withdrawn at any time—and because it had been the love of others, Azadine had always wondered about, and even yearned for, what blood-bond affection really felt like.

Still, the mood was far too bad for Azadine to take Giacomo’s side. Rijen snapped irritably.

“To be honest, your daughter probably isn’t alive anymore.”

“Stop, Rijen. That was too harsh.”

Azadine stopped him.

But even Rijen, who usually deferred to Azadine without question, seemed unable to swallow this one. The dwarf Kallan spoke in Rijen’s place.

“Captain Azadine. We respect you. But this isn’t something you can just handle kindly. An organization needs hierarchy. As a leader, I’d like you to set that firmly.”

“You can’t just let someone who says he’s leaving walk out!”

Kallan and Rijen seized the mood like that, and even Bernard—who was closest to Giacomo—opposed Giacomo’s departure.

“Even if you go out there with no plan, you’ll end up killing people because you can’t control your magic, and then you’ll be hanged. If they find out you’re alive, Captain Azadine will be held responsible.”

“Then… what do you want me to do? Keep living as an alchemy slave in Vermilion, making profitable drugs? And if Elemental Wailing breaks out in me, are you going to harvest the mana stone in my body?”

At Banreung Academy, they had already set up a hypothesis about Elemental Wailing.

That those exposed to magic and alchemy tended to catch it.

So they taught magic to humans using magical knowledge as leverage, used them as laborers in alchemy factories, and hoped Elemental Wailing would spread.

But now that he had escaped Banreung Academy at great cost, Giacomo realized his situation was no different from back then.

“Giacomo.”

At that moment, Azadine slipped a hand into his coat. Everyone was startled.

Was Azadine about to execute Giacomo for breaking the organization’s rules?