Saint Mallory Underground Passage (2)

“Hmm….”

Of course, Azadine had indeed come for that purpose.

However, his goal was to uncover the secrets of the Wisdom Order, not to share them with the Benevolence Order. The Benevolence Order meant to seize Zebec’s identity and person, use that as leverage to threaten Azadine, and propose that they split the spoils.

“Of course, we will not ask this of you for nothing. We will attach Guides to Rest from our Benevolence Order to your party. We will provide manpower, information, and supplies as well. Naturally, that information includes some matters concerning Sir Ject, with whom you seem to have some sort of connection.”

“So Sir Ject has entered the underground sewer. But how is that even possible?”

“Because the Courage Order brought in the forces of the King’s Church.”

“You mean only the Courage Order brought them in?”

A note of suspicion entered Azadine’s voice.

Saint Mallory was the sacred ground of the Rescue Knights Order. Bringing in the King’s Church, which stood in a loose alliance with the Rescue Knights Order, and allowing them to explore its heart was not something any one sect could accomplish by unilateral decision.

At the very least, had not the Benevolence Order agreed as well? That was what Azadine was saying.

Haine, too, did not answer that question directly.

“Many casualties occurred every year in the sewer-clearing operations. So the Courage Order leaked the Wisdom Order’s secrets to the King’s Church, and because the King’s Church coveted the ceramite manufacturing method, they committed their elite troops and, unintentionally, ended up helping clean the underground sewer. But recently, with the appearance of the Celestial Fire, they seem to have become heated enough to deploy even an Arbiter.”

She spoke as though it were someone else’s affair, but in truth, the Benevolence Order had surely become just as agitated by the appearance of the Celestial Fire.

Just the brief activity of the Celestial Fire Knights had dramatically shifted public sentiment.

Considering that the Celestial Fire Knights were an organization under the Wisdom Order, if things continued this way, it would not be long before all the power of the Order was reorganized around the Wisdom Order.

Therefore, the Courage and Benevolence sects had to uncover the secrets of the Celestial Fire no matter what. Even if it meant exposing the Order’s shame.

‘And the one exposing that shame of the Order just happens to be me, a man from the Messenger Clan. Conveniently easy to cut off like a lizard’s tail, if things go wrong.’

Azadine realized why the Benevolence Order had approached him, but that did not mean he had any reason to refuse their proposal.

If he refused, they would threaten him using custody of Zebec.

“Understood. Then attach only one Guide to Rest to me.”

“There are many enemies, and it is dangerous in there. Above all, you may even become hostile to Sir Ject. Are you certain that is acceptable? It would be better for you as well to take more people along.”

“Does success not include getting out safely? In a narrow place, it is more advantageous for a small number of highly skilled elite agents to move together. Even if the numbers increase, all that will happen is that our movements will restrict one another and the number of casualties will rise. We must also match our rhythm with your people, and naturally the more people there are, the more time it takes to coordinate.”

“Rhythm, you say? Then it cannot be helped.”

When Azadine limited the number, Haine let out a sigh. The other knights around her signaled that Azadine’s demand should be refused, but Haine shook her head.

“If that is the case, understood. Then I shall accompany you myself. Is that acceptable?”

“Hmm? You mean you personally, Sir Haine?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Then come along.”

Azadine decided to join hands with the Benevolence Order, whose ulterior motives were plain to see.

At that, Haine stripped off the nun’s habit covering her body right there on the spot. Astonishingly, beneath the habit she wore steamweave chainmail made of machine-drawn wire.

Steamweave chainmail was the finest chainmail made by the dwarves of Banreung, light in weight while possessing defensive power on par with plate armor.

Its production was so low that even the great dwarf houses said they could barely make enough for themselves, so the fact that she was wearing it at all was astonishing.

Moreover, she had knuckles mounted on both her left and right hands, and ceramite blades jutted from those knuckles.

‘Duskbiter.’

Like Azadine’s Aurelia Dawn, it was a famous weapon handed down within the Benevolence Order.

It was little different from a certificate proving just how highly the Benevolence Order expected of her.

When Haine gestured to her subordinates that they could leave, the members of the Benevolence Order nodded and withdrew. Perhaps because they were all skilled assassins, they did not seem to be hurrying, yet their steps were so swift that they melted into the crowd in an instant.

The Giants’ Underground Passage was, just as its name implied, a sewer so large that even giants could pass through it.

It was also a route for smuggling organizations, a place of worship for cultists, and a demonic realm teeming with slimes, oozes, and all sorts of monsters that fed on the city’s filth and grew fat on it.

Since each entrance led to a completely different region of the underground passage, even the sewer exploration teams of Saint Mallory could do no more than scratch the surface and uncover smuggling groups here and there. The place was still full of monsters.

Sir Ject had set up camp there.

They had descended through the entrance to the underground passage prepared within the Saint Mallory diocese of the King’s Church, and were advancing little by little while clearing out the goblins, undead, and slimes filling the sewer.

At that moment, from above, an apprentice Holy Knight came down the ladder with great effort, grunting under the weight of supplies.

The moment he reached the bottom, he set down the supplies, picked up the letter lying on top, and ran over to Sir Ject.

“Sir Ject. A letter.”

“Who sent it?”

“Bishop Sehnat.”

“Sehnat? Is he not one connected to the Northern Emperor?”

Ject gave a bitter smile. Those connected to the Northern Emperor could not be trusted. Had he not been deceived by their inaccurate information and headed for the Chadra Plateau, only to suffer needless humiliation?

They had lured Sir Ject to the Chadra Plateau using Azadine as bait, and in the meantime inaugurated the Celestial Fire Knights.

From Ject’s point of view, the one who had made a fool of him had now sent a letter, which angered him, but that did not mean he could simply ignore it.

“Still, he is one of the higher-ups of the Rescue Knights Order, so shall we see what nonsense he is spouting?”

Ject took out the letter, read it, and let out a hollow laugh.

It was a warning that Azadine had entered Saint Mallory and would soon enter the underground sewer. It might be called a warning, but since when had they cared for Sir Ject?

“Good grief. I thought the King’s Church was also a rabble, but these Rescue Knights Order fellows are even worse. Are they so distracted by factional strife that….”

“Sir Maya challenged him, but….”

They already knew that Azadine had arrived in Saint Mallory through the case of Sir Maya, a lower-ranking Holy Knight under their supervision.

“That old fox knows we would have grasped that much. That is why he also informed us that the Benevolence Order has additionally attached itself, and that Zebec is over there as well.”

“Zebec, you say….”

“Sir Zebec is with the Godslayer?”

“Yes. We already knew that he had been acquainted with Azadine in Korasar, but I did not expect them to be together here in Arangi as well.”

The conservative figures within the King’s Church regarded the territory of the Rescue Knights Order as part of the Kingdom of Arangi.

The fact that Ject referred to Saint Mallory as the Kingdom of Arangi showed just how deeply he despised the Rescue Knights Order to the marrow.

“He was once our colleague… we should be careful.”

As soon as Zebec’s name came up, they all grew wary. Zebec had once been one of their comrades, and so would understand their knowledge and methods well.

“There is no need to shrink back too much. The training Zebec received was, after all, only training for entering through this entrance. No matter how much nerve Azadine may have, he is not going to open a sewer cover in the very middle of the Saint Mallory diocese and climb down inside, is he?”

The training ground maintained in the Kingdom of Tarasar had assumed only one scenario: entering through the underground-passage entrance located in the Saint Mallory diocese and then moving through the interior.

Even if he knew their methods, what could Zebec know when he had never even been put into actual fieldwork?

-Kururururung….

At that moment, the entire underground passage began to rumble.

Before them, they saw countless insects fleeing at speed along the waterways and walls, escaping from something ahead.

“There is no need to worry about Zebec, since he will never even have experienced something like this.”

With a bitter smile, Ject stepped forward. Beyond the torrent of insects, a vast evil, the stench of corrupted death, came wafting heavily toward them.

“Angel of Corruption….”

The other Holy Knights in the camp recognized what was approaching and groaned.

“How did it make it all the way to the camp….”

Following Haine’s recommendation, Azadine’s party entered through a sewer entrance managed by the Benevolence Order. The entrance managed by the Benevolence Order required climbing down a ladder for some twenty jang.

There were no lights burning below, so the darkness itself seemed to open its mouth and swallow everything whole. Ordinary people would often lose consciousness while clutching the ladder on the way down and fall to their deaths.

“Hmm?!”

Azadine stepped into the sewer and looked around. His eyes, which pierced through darkness, discovered human corpses discarded here and there along the waterways.

It seemed that, for one reason or another, the Benevolence Order had thrown down corpses that had been produced on its side.

‘This is why the underground sewer overflows with monsters. They themselves keep throwing out corpses here.’

Azadine clicked his tongue at the ugliness of the Benevolence Order, but just then Scott descended.

“Oh, corpses from the very start! They look delicious indeed. Chief. Can I use them?”

“Use them.”

When Azadine gave permission, Scott happily raised the corpses with necromancy. Corpses that bore traces of torture rose to their feet with grotesque groans, expelling the air left in their lungs.

“Oh my. They must be the corpses of smugglers that drifted here. They have absolutely nothing to do with our Order.”