Sectarian Dispute (2)

Azadine sensed killing intent erupting toward him and twisted his body.

In an alley near the seaside, a place cleaned by spraying seawater, Azadine slid across a stone road where lime had dissolved from the stones and left them coated white with lime scale.

Icicle blades passed just barely over his head.

Chunks of ice, each one an arm’s length larger than a grown man, had fired ice blades at Azadine.

“Uwaaah!”

“S-save me!”

Sailors and soldiers were fighting against the ice that had washed in from the sea, and the ice golem-like things that had appeared on top of that ice.

“This is….”

Instead of his ceramite longsword, Azadine grabbed Grimslone’s club. The tree trunk transformed, and the axe handle lengthened until it changed into a giant poleaxe.

“Hup!”

As Azadine leaped in and swung the poleaxe, the ice golem’s waist was cleanly split in two.

As expected, since it was hard ice, the firm and sharp Blue Executioner worked better against it than the soft ceramite longsword.

When Azadine rushed in while swinging the Blue Executioner, the ice golems fell in an instant like autumn leaves before a cold wind.

“Ah!”

“That’s azure steel, isn’t it?!”

“Amazing!”

The rescued sailors and residents looked at Azadine in astonishment.

“Th-thank you. Who are you? Who are you, sir?”

“I am Hospitaller-Errant Azadine.”

“Azadine?!”

“Th-the Messenger Clan?”

Perhaps rumors of Azadine had also spread through Saint Mallory, because merely giving his name was enough for everyone to realize who he was. Since the rumors about him were apparently not very good, everyone’s expressions darkened.

Hatred toward the Messenger Clan was no exception even among the Rescue Knights Order, so the rumors about Azadine treated him as an obvious spy, a shameless assassin, and yet an impure element they had been forced to accept in order to uncover the Messenger Clan’s conspiracy that had attacked Korasar and Vthuma.

Since the subject of such unlucky rumors had suddenly rushed over and saved them, it was only natural for the people to fall into confusion.

“Hmm. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Azadine felt uneasy as he sensed cold air closing in from every direction.

‘That can’t be. No. It won’t be.’

Azadine put his uneasy premonition behind him and gave evacuation orders to the people around him.

“Get away from the coast and take shelter inland! Don’t fight them. Run for now! Ah, and has anyone seen a Tarasar swordsman named Ahalji?”

“I’m here!”

Ahalji waved from on top of a warehouse that had been tilted sideways by the ice that had washed in. This Tarasarian was holding a saber in one hand and a small round metal shield in the other, facing the monsters with Ahalji-style saber swordsmanship.

However, saber swordsmanship was fundamentally meant for fighting humans.

A technique like deflecting an opponent’s attack with the shield and striking their head with the blade would have inflicted a fatal wound on a human, but against an ice golem, it only left a scratch at the height of a human head.

Azadine rushed in, swung the Blue Executioner, and sliced the ice golem vertically in one stroke.

It was cleanly split in two from the head to the crown. Once the ice cracked, the Blue Executioner’s magic activated through that fissure and cleanly split it left and right.

This weapon’s performance was maximized when striking materials with a brittle nature. To the eyes of those who did not know that inner working, it looked as if Azadine possessed monstrous strength and split everything apart with every strike.

“Good heavens! That was astonishing! Ah, I used the gold coin!”

“I know! Hey, Ahalji! Weren’t you supposed to give that gold coin to me as the duel fee? I thought you were just holding it for a moment because the change didn’t add up, but you went and spent it.”

“Haha. Do not be too strict. Have you not heard the saying that things that have passed should simply be left as they have passed?”

The Tarasarians said that things that had passed should be left as they had passed, but they were famous for exacting thorough revenge when they suffered harm.

To be precise, they had a custom of always taking revenge for matters where blood had been spilled, while handling matters involving money or goods, rather than blood, in a rather loose way.

‘How did he ever think of coming to Arangi?’

Arangiians were obsessed with honor, and if even part of their property was taken, they regarded it as a challenge to their honor. In other words, they were the sort to inevitably draw blood even if one coin or one head of livestock was harmed, making them terribly incompatible with Tarasarians.

It was fortunate that Tarasar and Arangi were located at opposite ends of the continent, but somehow this Tarasarian had drifted into a region teeming with Arangiians.

Azadine dealt with the golems and shouted to Ahalji.

“I saved you, so say that the petition has been fulfilled!”

“Ah, understood! The petition has been fulfilled….”

However, at that moment, a roar rang out.

From among the ice that had washed in, no longer ice golems but grotesque beasts appeared.

Hair sprouted from the corpses of people killed by the ice golems, and they transformed as if into giant yetis. That altered appearance was familiar even to Azadine.

‘They’re Wendigos, aren’t they? Damn it. I had a bad feeling from earlier, and surely…?’

There might be the Wendigo’s Dagger somewhere inside these glaciers.

If that was the case… had these glaciers washed in because Azadine had used magic to find a weapon?

Was Azadine’s lost Wendigo’s Dagger returning together with a terrible disaster and attacking Saint Mallory?

‘Is all of this because of me? Damn it. I didn’t know things would turn out like this.’

Azadine grew dizzy as he looked at the icebergs that had covered the entire wharf, the ice golems harming people in various places, and the Wendigos.

‘Ah, this is no time for that. I have to retrieve the Wendigo’s Dagger….’

It was when Azadine came to his senses and was about to go forward.

“Behold!”

Along with a thunderous voice from the sky, light burst out. A person with angel wings spread flew up into the sky and emitted dazzling light. It was so dazzling that even Azadine could not look at it directly.

However, Azadine could tell who he was.

Triodana.

A Celestial belonging to the Wisdom Order had been unable to endure it, had spread his angel wings, and revealed his true form.

‘What? That bastard is tremendously powerful, isn’t he? He’s on a completely different level from Izmilla. He even seems stronger than Karna.’

Azadine was shocked by Triodana’s power, which radiated an enormous force and shone as brightly as the sun.

With his angel wings spread in the air, Triodana fired terrifying flame bombardments one after another at the icebergs and ice golems.

Tornadoes of flame descended from the sky, connected to the ground, wrapped around the icebergs and ice golems, and literally tore them apart.

After the flame tornadoes struck the glaciers one after another and tore the golems and Wendigos on top of them to shreds as well, Triodana spun in midair just like that.

His body wrapped itself in a gigantic tornado and then plunged straight down, crashing into the exact center of an iceberg.

-Booooom!

A thunderous roar like a meteor impact shook heaven and earth.

-Cruddddddd!

The glacier that had washed onto the land flowed back into the sea. Triodana was smashing the icebergs and sending the chunks of ice that had been pushed all the way onto land back into the sea.

And on top of the iceberg, Triodana picked up a single huge dagger made of bone. It was the source of the power that had created the iceberg, the Wendigo’s Dagger.

‘Ah. It really was that. This is bad.’

Azadine looked at the Wendigo’s Dagger with regret.

Though he had not intended it, it pained his heart that such great damage had occurred because of his mistake.

And he had to retrieve the Wendigo’s Dagger, but unfortunately it had ended up in Triodana’s hands.

‘There’s no way he’ll give it to me if I ask. And if I say that I’m the original owner, it would be the same as confessing that I used weapon-finding magic. Then they might pin the responsibility for destroying this city on me, right?’

Though it had been unintentional, with this much property damage and loss of life, he would have nothing to say even if he were hanged.

As Azadine silently watched that sight, he heard applause. People were clapping and cheering.

Many people had been moved by the sight of Triodana spreading his angel wings and subduing this enormous evil in an instant.

“Ooh! A-an angel!”

“The great angel has saved us!”

“L-long live the Rescue Knights Order! Long live the Three Archangels!”

The people went wild with enthusiasm and offered praise to the superhuman being who had saved them.

Azadine felt bitter as he watched that sight.

‘He’s someone who was reincarnated while destroying an angel statue. But for people who don’t know the inside story, this is a performance they can’t help but worship. Hm?’

Azadine unconsciously held out his finger.

Something pure white fell from the sky and touched Azadine’s fingertip. It soon melted into a droplet of water and seeped into Azadine’s glove.

“…….”

It was snowing.

It was impossible for snow to fall in Saint Mallory.

Of course, it was also impossible for the sea to freeze.

Was it because the temperature had suddenly dropped? Snowflakes began to flutter down from the sky, little by little.

Triodana, who had retrieved the Wendigo’s Dagger, realized that this dagger was no ordinary object but a relic of a Nether death god. As he put away the Wendigo’s Dagger, he walked toward Azadine.

“Sir Azadine. I believe I clearly told you to stop. Could it be that you did not hear me? Of course, given the situation, I suppose you ran off because of this, but why did you not stop for a moment and speak with me? And how were you able to detect the anomaly from that distance?”

“It is a sense unique to the Messenger Clan, so it is difficult to explain to others. So, may I go now?”

Azadine made that excuse to Triodana, who was interrogating him.

“No. I cannot simply let someone who has done such excellent work go. The Wisdom Order is thinking of specially inviting you. We will give you a proper empty room in the chapter, not some cheap inn, so I would like you and your companions to rest there and answer our simple survey. Please be at ease. We will not do anything discourteous. Rather, we intend to commend you for your exploits. To think you could dispose of monsters like those so easily. As expected of someone from the Messenger Clan. With that level of skill, you should be able to deal with the monsters in the underground tunnels easily as well, yes?”

“Hmm, I can’t tell whether you’re suspecting me or praising me right now. Pick one.”

“Sir Azadine. I am speaking for your sake right now. In truth, before I saw you, I was half in doubt, but now I am certain that you are the culprit.”

“That’s a statement I’m allowed to get angry at, right?”