Zebec The God-King Slayer (4)

These were the retainers Sir Ject had brought with him when he came to the Chadra Plateau as an advisor.

Since they had been serving as his advisory staff at Fireglyph on the Chadra Plateau, it was only natural that they recognized Azadine’s face.

Recognizing Azadine, they prepared a birdcage to send a carrier pigeon to Sir Ject.

-Thwack!

But Sir Zebec rushed forward and swung his sheathed sword like a pickaxe, knocking a soldier flat.

Azadine also picked up Grimslone’s club.

‘I’ll have to throw it in reverse.’

Originally, Grimslone’s club was a weapon with the special property that no matter how fiercely it was thrown, it would regulate its own force and subdue people without killing them.

But now that the Blue Executioner had attached itself to Grimslone’s club and turned it into an axe, throwing it the normal way would make the axe blade split the target apart.

If he had no intention of killing, he had to throw it in reverse so the club end struck instead, and thus it had become a weapon that let him choose between lethal and nonlethal force.

When Azadine threw it in reverse, the shaft struck the soldiers and sent them sprawling into the mud.

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

Among the retainers, one with some skill knocked away Grimslone’s club with his own sword and also blocked Zebec’s attack as he came charging in.

As the two locked swords and struggled, he recognized Zebec.

“You bastard! It’s Zebec, isn’t it?!”

“So it’s Severus.”

“Ghk! Zebec!”

The retainer called Severus twisted his sword to thrust for Zebec’s throat, but Zebec twisted his own blade as well, deflecting the thrust and smashing the hilt into his jaw.

Teeth flew out, and the retainer rolled across the ground.

“Eek….”

The bard, who had been watching the scene, staggered back with a stunned expression as though the alcohol had instantly left his system.

“Good heavens.”

The innkeeper also turned pale with fear as such a thing unfolded before his establishment.

“I am Azadine, a trainee knight of the Rescue Knights Order, innkeeper.”

“Y-yes, sir….”

“Take this.”

Azadine pulled out his coin purse and tossed it whole to the innkeeper. It was meant to hold small change, but as it was filled with copper coins, it was no small sum.

“Use it to clean up in front of the inn, and keep that bard’s mouth under control.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll make sure he keeps quiet. Yes, sir.”

There was nothing to be gained by spreading talk that Azadine of the Rescue Knights Order had assaulted and defeated the retainers of the King’s Church.

Of course, once liquor got into him, there was no knowing when the bard’s tongue might start itching again. That was why Azadine gave money to the innkeeper, who was clutching the neck of a liquor bottle. If the bard wished to carelessly tell this story, he would have to do it somewhere other than this inn.

“Then, could I use some water?”

“Yes. I shall prepare some clean water at once….”

The innkeeper was about to fetch water, but Azadine dragged the unconscious retainers over to the side of the inn and dumped them into the horse trough by the stable.

“Gah?”

“Blargh!”

The moment they fell into the water, the unconscious men woke up.

“Good grief, you….”

“You’re not dead. Good. Now then, you lot can contact Sir Ject with a carrier pigeon, can’t you?”

“Y-yes, we can.”

“If we do not make contact at the appointed time, Sir Ject will not stay idle.”

“Ah, I see. Sir Ject must care very deeply for his subordinates, then?”

At that moment the retainers, too, fell silent like men who had swallowed honey.

If Azadine alone had been here, perhaps they could have said as much, but with Zebec, one of Sir Ject’s prized disciples, standing right before them, they could not bring themselves to say it.

“Do not worry. I am not trying to hurt you. I simply want to see Sir Ject. If you send that carrier pigeon, where is it supposed to go?”

“Uh….”

“There is a diocese of the King’s Church in Saint Mallory. It will fly there.”

Zebec answered in their place.

“Then Sir Ject must have been heading toward Saint Mallory. Why is he traveling separately from you?”

“He would be forcing a rapid march by changing out his horses one after another. The retainers remain behind after giving him all the horses they have, and then follow separately.”

Once again, Sir Zebec answered in their place.

As a Holy Knight of the King’s Church and also one of Ject’s prized disciples, he knew Ject’s methods well.

“Hmm, then let us send the pigeon. I shall write the letter myself.”

Azadine pulled out a scrap of paper and quickly wrote on it with charcoal.

“To Sir Ject, inquisitor long admired by Azadine of Chadra Vermilion. I have long admired your reputation, and when you departed Chadra so quickly, I regretted that we could not deepen our friendship. As I happen to have business in Saint Mallory and am heading there, I would like to set a day to meet you once. I wish to dispel the many misunderstandings that have built up between us and strengthen our friendship. Respectfully, Azadine.”

“…….”

The retainers looked flustered as they watched Azadine write what was plainly a challenge letter to Ject.

“Y-you’ve got guts spilling out of your belly.”

“Sir Ject is the strongest knight of this age. No matter who you are….”

“Is Sir Ject stronger than Sir Sok?”

“N-no matter who… hm? Sok?”

“Who is Sok?”

“S-surely not Sok of the Fimbulhorde? Undying Sok?”

The retainers fell speechless.

For Azadine to mention that—could it mean he had defeated Sir Sok?

“No, do not misunderstand. I am just genuinely curious, that is why I am asking. It is not that I beat Sir Sok. I simply wonder who the strongest knight on the Hubris Continent really is.”

“…….”

At that moment, the bard who had been cowering in the corner raised his head.

“I am curious about that too.”

“Gah!”

Sir Ject’s retainers glared at him as if they would devour him alive. At once the bard tucked his tail and hid again.

“Is this really wise, Sir Azadine? There is no need to pluck the whiskers of a sleeping lion.”

“I am doing it because there is a need.”

Azadine tied the letter to the carrier pigeon’s leg and released it from the cage.

The pigeon bobbed its head a few times, then flew powerfully into the sky and disappeared into the distance.

“Now then, shall we be off? Ah, but before that, we should make sure you fellows cannot bully the people here.”

“Will you sever their tendons or castrate them?”

Zebec recalled that Azadine often damaged his enemies’ genitals when dealing with them. At the mention of castration, all color drained from the retainers’ faces.

“Hmm, castration is usually for rapists. But these fellows have done no such thing, have they? Nor have they committed crimes serious enough for tendon-cutting.”

“Then what will you do?”

“We shall take their weapons and hide them somewhere along the road we are traveling. Without weapons, they will not be able to bully people, and if they do not hurry after us to recover them, the financial loss will be considerable as well.”

“What are you….”

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

The retainers protested, but Azadine took their weapons and locked them in the inn’s shed.

“When we come to a large tree stump along the way, I’ll hide them shallowly behind its roots. Innkeeper, open the shed door for them once the sun has set.”

“U-um, sir knight. That is a bit….”

The innkeeper looked troubled. He was afraid that if he kept them confined until evening, they would bear him a grudge.

“It is fine. They will be locked in there empty-handed, without any weapons. And once they come out, won’t recovering their own weapons be more urgent? If they do not hurry, some random passerby on the road may strike an unexpected fortune.”

Azadine pretended to take the retainers’ weapons away, but instead handed them to the innkeeper.

“When you release them this evening, say that you yourself chased after me and recovered their weapons. Then they will be grateful to you and will not harm you.”

“W-what? Sir knight?”

“My apologies for causing you trouble, innkeeper. You must live without offending either the King’s Church or the Rescue Knights Order, yet I have dragged you into something like this.”

“N-no, not at all. Th-thank you.”

The innkeeper was grateful that Azadine had thought about his safety. After entrusting the aftermath to him, Azadine set out on the road once more.

“Your consideration is quite meticulous, Sir Azadine.”

“Hmm. I hope this lets things pass safely enough.”

“At any rate, since you sent the carrier pigeon yourself, Sir Ject now knows they lost it to you. For them, they must return to Sir Ject and make their excuses as quickly as possible. They will have no leisure to waste time tormenting the people at the inn.”

“That is a relief, then. Ah, we had better hurry and find Scott. If that fellow starts tormenting strangers with his mouth, it will be no laughing matter.”

“Ha ha. Indeed. When he came to Prince Darhan-Jadek as a mercenary, even the prince once worried over whether he should put a gag on Scott for the sake of the army’s morale.”

“Then we had better find him even faster.”

Both Azadine and Zebec shared the same sense of urgency that they needed to catch up with Scott before he caused trouble.

At the southern three-way crossroads there were toll collectors.

This was the place where the northwestern main road built by the Rescue Knights Order intersected with the arterial road leading north toward the Banreung Kingdom, and toll collectors dispatched by the Rescue Knights Order collected passage fees from merchants there, which had become an official source of income.

“Hmm. A hippogriff.”

“Hmm. An orc.”

The collectors looked troubled.

An orc who had arrived riding a hippogriff was insisting that he had no toll fee on him, but that his companions would pay once they arrived.

Ordinarily, of course, there would have been no reason to listen to such nonsense.

Orcs were a selfish race that knew only their own kind, worshiping the gods of the Kurt Pantheon and scorning human faith.

In practice, they were heathens who would draw no criticism even if they were killed on the spot, but as most of them were mages, ordinary soldiers did not meddle with them lightly.

And yet this fellow was making the following claim.

“It may be hard for you to understand, having been born into such a stupid race, but the one blessed with the glory of employing Scott McGreen, a rare genius born under the favor of the great orc god Kanak, is none other than Sir Azadine, commander of Chadra Plateau Vermilion. He is the head of a mighty warlord force, one that subdued the Five Ogres of Chadra and is now growing with the momentum of the rising sun. Ah, truly, he pleaded so earnestly for me to join his host that, well, a man with such discernment would naturally be able to build such a great power in such a short time. Why hide the truth? Even this hippogriff is his beloved steed. Therefore, for you to oppress me would be a grave mistake. Do you understand? Ah, surely your intelligence is not so low that you cannot grasp such a simple principle? Tsk, tsk. This is why humans ought to be educated by being beaten soundly from childhood. With such low inborn intelligence, what faith do they place in themselves to neglect education so badly?”

“……?”

He spoke so much that they could not quite follow it all, but they could understand at least this much: he was trampling them utterly flat, like weeds on the roadside.