Avenger Of Vengeance (3)

Azadine’s existence was bound to become famous.

The fact alone that someone who had left the Messenger Clan of his own accord—the same clan known as the mysterious New King’s Slayer and the soulless blasphemer—had joined the Rescue Knights Order was enough to spread his name throughout the world.

But after that, Azadine’s actions were truly bizarre.

Azadine had recovered Aurelia Dawn, the sword of Sir Plank, the Knight of Death, and had secured Bishop Akenar of Coxhall as his patron.

And on the Chadra Plateau he had defeated or recruited one famous figure after another, so there was no way idle gossipers would simply leave such an Azadine alone.

Rumors of Azadine were now spreading across the entire world. From the Messenger Clan’s point of view, the very fact that the traitor who had betrayed their long-cherished wish was being spoken of by so many people was an insult in itself.

The Chadra Plateau already had a lower organization of the Messenger Clan, the Van Dyke Trading Company, but the branch manager of the Van Dyke Trading Company had sent word that Azadine was beyond his ability to handle.

How dare he be unable to lay a hand on a great sinner of the clan?

And yet, if they were to punish the Chadra branch as incompetent, too many members of the clan had already fallen to Azadine.

Even the former chief, Hathir, had been killed by Azadine, so they could hardly punish the branch manager of the Van Dyke Trading Company, who was not even a Messenger, for being unable to deal with Azadine, who had grown into a warlord of the Chadra Plateau.

Instead, they sent an assassination squad to kill Azadine once he left the Chadra Plateau.

However, perhaps because even the Messenger Clan was short on talent due to the chaos erupting all across the world, these assassins were people of lower rank than Azadine and with less experience.

Apparently even they had judged that it would be difficult to subdue Azadine by their own power alone, so they only jumped in after seeing Sir Maya attack Azadine and wear him down.

“Everyone, be careful! Even if he is Azadine of Disgrace, he already assassinated former Chief Hathir and….”

“But is that really true? I saw that guy back when I was a trainee, and even then he was a weakling.”

These assassins, all of lower rank than Azadine, surrounded him on three sides and fired arrows.

“Hmm. You little brats….”

Azadine clicked his tongue as he watched the younger Messengers attack him.

Sharp attacks flew at him from every direction. They were inferior to Azadine, but not to a degree that would shame imperial Messengers.

‘What do they think they are doing in a place full of civilians?’

Azadine spun Grimslone’s club—now an axe—and knocked away the incoming arrows.

While he was batting away two arrows, another one flew at his throat, but Azadine leaned his body sideways and caught the incoming arrow with his own quiver.

It ended up looking as though the arrow had been sucked neatly into the quiver on its own.

“So he really is not just some simple castoff.”

“Well, naturally. If he did not have skill, he could not have become a great sinner of the clan!”

“Be careful!”

One of them fell back and kept shooting arrows, while the other two closed in to tighten the encirclement.

Azadine was dumbfounded as he watched an assassin rush at him while firing arrows.

He had known assassins would come for him now that he had become a traitor to the clan, but for them to be children like these?

“I shall join in as well.”

When Zebec gripped his sword, Azadine stopped him.

“No. Look after Scott instead. There may be others waiting in reserve behind them.”

Azadine wanted to settle the problems of the Messenger Clan among the Messenger Clan themselves. Thinking that, he casted Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon: Twilight Step, dodged the incoming arrows, and closed in on the nearest assassin.

“You castoff!”

The young Messenger likewise used Twilight Step, stabbing his sword toward Azadine as he closed the short distance in an instant.

But Azadine consecutively employed the Twilight Step of Kazas Grimoire atop the Twilight Step of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon, surpassing the speed of the Messenger rushing him.

“What?!”

Before he knew it, the young Messenger had been taken from behind. Twisting his body around, he lashed out with a kick at Azadine. Sharp iron spikes sprang from the heels of his boots, making it dangerous even to take the kick, and likely to tear flesh away even from a graze.

-Thud!

But Azadine kicked the young Messenger in the hip joint while still in midair.

The boy’s body spun round and round like a thrown stick and slammed into the bridge railing. His body scraped along the edge of the railing. He was wearing armor, so his skin was not flayed off, but it was enough to strip him of his fighting strength in an instant.

“You bastard!”

Another young Messenger wielding two daggers appeared above Azadine’s head using the Mistletoe technique and struck with a fierce attack, but Azadine did not even look at him.

-Whack!

Grimslone’s club struck upward into the young Messenger’s jaw.

“What?!”

And then Azadine cast a technique, causing a thin bolt of lightning to fall from the sky and bring down the girl Messenger who had been keeping her distance.

In an instant, the three young Messengers were subdued by Azadine.

“I may have left the clan, but I worry for its future. With only this much skill, you call yourselves Messengers?”

The young Messenger boys and girls, slipping into unconsciousness, had to hear Azadine—the dullest fool in the history of the Messenger Clan—worry aloud for the future of the Messenger Clan.

‘Th-this humiliation….’

Firewinter had been hit by an arrow, but it had not been an arrow meant specifically for him. It had only been a stray shot that had slipped loose in the heat of battle, so he was not badly hurt. His feather layer was simply too thick, and that had saved him.

“You survived because your plumage is so thick. If it had been molting season, or if you had been balding, it could have been dangerous.”

Azadine clicked his tongue after confirming that poison had been smeared on the arrowhead.

Messengers of the clan did not use poison against one another, especially not when fighting over the rank of Messenger.

That meant the Messenger Clan no longer regarded Azadine as one of their own, nor did they acknowledge the Messenger hierarchy Azadine possessed.

Before the Emperor’s Voice vanished, only Azadine had been acknowledged as a Messenger, but regardless of the Emperor’s choice, the Messenger Clan had reshaped their hierarchy among themselves and reorganized the order.

“This is the problem with becoming famous. To run into pursuers from two organizations in a single day.”

Azadine lamented as he tied up the young Messengers of the clan with rope. At that moment Zebec cleared his throat.

“I am not sure whether he counts as an organization, but it seems one more has arrived.”

“What is it this time?”

When Azadine turned his head, he saw a man carrying a signboard. The man set the sign down in front of Azadine.

Written on the signboard were the words: “Tarasar Saber Swordsmanship Paid Lessons.”

“Are you Sir Azadine, the famed Messenger Knight?”

“Messenger Knight? I am Azadine, yes.”

“Then please grant me a match!”

From the look of it, Azadine had become so famous that this was some wandering swordsmanship instructor who had come to steal that fame for himself.

Azadine let out a sigh. If he had become this famous, then the moment he entered a great city, all sorts of riffraff would certainly pick fights with him, whether they bore him a grudge or not.

“You are not an opponent who bears me any particular grudge, are you? Then I will require a duel fee.”

“What? A duel fee, you say?”

“That’s right. One Emperor’s gold coin.”

“Is that not a bit… extortionate?”

“I am a Messenger Clan man. If I am to grant someone else’s request, it is only natural that the minimum cost would be one Emperor’s gold coin, is it not? If you do not have one, go somewhere and get one. Well then, that will be all.”

Azadine dismissed him with a wave of his hand. But then the man rummaged in his clothes and pulled out a gold coin. Astonishingly, it was an Emperor’s gold coin.

“Then you have no complaint, do you?”

“Uh… seriously?”

“Now then, I am Ahalji of Tarasar! I ask for an honorable contest!”

-Thud!

Azadine grabbed the man called Ahalji by the collar, swept his legs out, kicked him up to head height, and then slammed him straight into the ground.

He had dropped him onto his torso rather than his head, but since it was still a fall from head height, the impact was tremendous.

“Ghk!”

“I asked for an Emperor’s gold coin with my own mouth, but I did not expect a real one to appear.”

Azadine accepted the Emperor’s gold coin from Ahalji and checked it. Astonishingly, it was genuine. Azadine pocketed it, then took out a different gold coin and handed that one to Ahalji instead.

“W-wait a moment! That just now does not count! Where is it written that you can ambush someone like that without even a signal to start? That’s cowardly!”

“All right. Begin.”

“Th-then! This time for real!”

Ahalji once again drew his sword and charged at Azadine, but the moment Azadine flicked a finger, a lightning arrow flew out and paralyzed Ahalji.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Oh dear… Well then, are you satisfied now?”

Azadine asked, nudging the chin of the collapsed Ahalji with his foot as he lay there felled by the electric shock.

“Wh-what kind of match uses magic?”

“Oh, it was a match? I thought it was a duel.”

“I am trying to defeat you and spread the fame of my swordsmanship far and wide! Naturally, this is a swordsmanship match!”

“No, but my fame is not because I am known for excellent swordsmanship, is it? Wouldn’t your reputation as a swordsman rise far higher if your swordsmanship defeated all of my abilities, including magic?”

“Ugh, in any case it’s invalid, invalid! You know as well as I do how precious an Emperor’s gold coin is!”

“That is why, out of conscience, I even gave you change in gold. Well, fine. If your wish is to face me in swordsmanship.”

Azadine raised Aurelia Dawn.

“Hoo. Good. Then let me recover a little and….”

“Are you ready? Shall we begin?”

As the man called Ahalji was settling into his stance, he thrust out a hand when Azadine started walking toward him.

“W-wait! I have not recovered yet! You threw me, then struck me with magic… I have not fully recovered!”

“This is starting to get tiresome. I have had many visitors today.”

Emperor’s gold coins were precious to Messengers, but now that the Contract of Servitude had been dissolved, they were not especially necessary anymore. Azadine only collected Emperor’s gold coins out of a sense of duty.

“Ah, it seems I shall not recover fully within a single day after all. So in that case, would you return the Emperor’s gold coin?”

“…….”

“After all, none of this would have happened if you had not attacked me with ambushes and magic in the first place!”

At that, rather absurdly, the young Messengers of the clan who had been bound by Azadine grumbled.

“What a nuisance.”

“Seriously. A total nuisance.”

“You heard them, didn’t you?”

Azadine said so, but still held out the Emperor’s gold coin toward him.

“I’ll refund it. Hand over the gold coin.”

“Ah, understood. This is only because my condition is not sound due to the ambush, mind you. Ahem.”

Ahalji took back the Emperor’s gold coin from Azadine and handed over the gold coin he had received as change. Then the young Messenger boys and girls watching warned Azadine.

“Check whether it’s the same coin.”

“He might have shaved the edges.”

“Y-you little wretches! I, Ahalji of Tarasar, would never do something so dirty!”

“Hoo.”

Azadine looked at the young Messengers and Ahalji and let out a sigh.