Herald Of Famine (1)

“Celestial Fire? Already?”

[There are swift ships on the river—no, are they grain transport ships? They are heading south while escorting the transport ships. If you slow down for a moment, I will share my sight with you.]

Following that request, Azadine first raised his hand to slow the party’s pace, then shared Arael’s voice and vision.

Far to the north, on the river, he saw the Celestial Fire Knights heading south together with large grain transport ships.

“Oh dear. There’s no way we can avoid running into them, is there?”

The road where Azadine’s party currently was lay within Saint Mallory’s territory, a place with a large population, where most of the flatland had been developed into farms and residential districts.

It was not as though there were no mountains, hills, or forests, but Celestial Fire was moving along the riverbank to protect the grain transport ships while deploying scouts. At this rate, they would definitely be caught.

“Hmm?”

While sharing Arael’s voice and sight, Azadine discovered something. He had discovered several foresight-bird spells laid out and flying in the sky.

“The Messenger Clan?”

Karna, commander of Celestial Fire, was returning after safely completing his mission.

The various feats shown since the founding of the Celestial Fire Knights had captured the hearts of the people, and the grain brought from the Chadra Plateau amounted to a year’s worth of food if it were used to feed only the residents of Saint Mallory.

There was so much food that even preparing the ships took a long time. They had converted timber transport ships so they could carry food, and most of their forces moved along the coast alongside the ships, preparing in advance against monsters or bands of thieves.

But then a message from the Wisdom Order reached them. The letter delivered by a magic-enchanted carrier pigeon contained shocking information.

Sir Azadine had defended Sir Zebec the God-King Slayer, stolen a precious scroll from the Order, and fled, so they were to capture him and recover it. That was the message they had received.

‘As expected, we never should have let a bastard from the Messenger Clan into the knight order!’

Some were indignant like that….

‘But that person helped us when we were attacked by the Bri, didn’t he? He didn’t seem like such a bad person.’

Others were half in doubt like that.

But since an order had come down from above, there was only one thing for them to do.

“We will first block the road with highly mobile troops. Once an order has been issued, carrying out the mission is our duty. We will judge the truth later, so capture him alive if possible instead of killing him.”

Karna gave the knights of Celestial Fire the order to capture Azadine alive.

However, when Celestial Fire moved to capture Azadine….

Arrows suddenly began pouring down from a bend where the river curved.

Ordinary arrows could not harm even the soldiers of the Celestial Fire Knights. The elite soldiers immediately took a defensive formation, and those holding shields stepped forward and blocked the arrows.

-Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon, Yellow Crane!

However, one arrow curved in from the side of the shield-bearing soldiers and turned into light. The arrow wrapped in magic power assaulted the shield soldiers from the side and threw the formation into disorder.

The shield soldiers in the front suddenly collapsed after being struck from the side by arrows with heavy power like thrusting spears.

“Gaaah!”

“What is this?!”

The soldiers were terrified and looked at the things that had attacked them. Nagas revealed themselves from the roadside and the river.

Among those Nagas stood humans holding bows, each of them wrapped in ominous magic power, with arrows laid out in large numbers on the ground as they waited for them.

Because they were moving along the riverbank at the speed of the grain transport ships, they had moved too quickly, and as a result, had been negligent in watching the front.

Of course, the Celestial Fire Knights were not fools, and they knew that the faster they moved, the more important the role of scouts became. So they had sent scouts ahead, but those scouts had been killed by them far too easily.

“The Messenger Clan!”

Karna realized the identity of the ones attacking them and clenched his teeth.

The traitors of humanity who had joined hands with the Nagas, the Messenger Clan, had attacked the Celestial Fire Knights.

The Messenger Clan’s ambush caused casualties, but the ones who suffered damage were only ordinary soldiers and servants; the Celestials of knightly rank were unharmed.

They spread their wings and revealed their divine majesty.

Sacred light poured out from their bodies and enveloped the horses they rode.

New vitality was infused into the horses, which were exhausted from moving along with the grain transport ships, and sacred power also dwelled in their lances.

“All troops, charge!”

Karna personally stood at the front, lowered the visor of his helmet, and rode forward. Following him, the Celestial Fire Knights charged.

It was truly divine punishment. The horses fiercely increased their speed, shaking the earth’s axis. The ferocious Nagas had physiques far superior to humans, but they would never dare withstand this charge.

“I hear there are widespread rumors that you’re a God-King Slayer, so shall we see your skill?!”

“Be careful! Do not let your guard down!”

Karna warned his fellow knights against complacency as he charged forward. But then, water spray suddenly began swirling before them.

Karna prepared a defensive spell, but what the Nagas used was not attack magic, but summoning magic. They had summoned water giants, Water Elementals.

“Charge!”

After confirming that fact, Karna immediately changed his response. After giving the Celestial Fire Knights the command to charge, he struck the Water Elemental with his lance imbued with sacred power.

The elementals summoned by magic could not withstand Celestial Fire’s charge and shattered. They must have been quite powerful spirits, but as expected, the charge of the Celestial Fire Knights had even greater force.

“Huh?!”

However, the speed of the knights who had struck down the Water Elementals decreased. They had torn apart the water giants, but their water remained as it was and soaked the horses and knights.

The riders whose charge speed had dropped sharply had no choice but to move aside so they would not block the path of their comrades following behind them, and in the end, the charge formation was disrupted and their speed visibly decreased.

And using that opening, the Messenger Clan fired arrows.

“What?!”

They were not fired at Celestial Fire. The Messenger Clan fired arrows at the grain transport ships.

The arrows that struck the sails began to burn with flames of magic power. The sails, dried well by the wind, caught fire in an instant.

“As if we’d let you!”

The sailors and soldiers aboard the grain transport ships had also prepared for this sort of situation. They immediately poured water and loosened the sail ropes, suppressing the fire early.

However….

-Creeeeak!

Because the sails were taken down at a curve, the ships were pushed by the current and veered off the waterway.

As the flow of the river changed and the ships were pushed toward a sandbar where sand had accumulated, the side of a ship touched the bottom.

-Thud!

The first grain transport ship ran aground. And as a chain reaction, the ships rammed into it from behind and ran aground, then ran aground again.

Fortunately, they had run aground on a sandbar, so the ships were neither broken nor sinking, but it was certain that they had been immobilized.

“Kh?! You bastards?!”

Karna wanted to turn his horse around to save the grain transport ships under attack, but the Nagas charged at the knights who had lost speed.

Naga spearmen rushed at Karna.

“As if you could!”

Karna created wind with his wings to slow the charging Nagas, then struck their bodies down with his lance. The Celestials shouted in triumph as they followed him and pierced the Nagas.

They were more than capable of fighting. Ordinary Nagas, even with their large size, were no match for them. From horseback, Karna stabbed, struck, and knocked down the Nagas with his lance.

However… they could not break through.

“Kh!”

While Karna and the knights were pinned down, the Messenger Clan continued shooting magic-laden fire arrows at the grain transport ships.

It was said that ordinary fire arrows had their flames extinguished by the speed of flight before they reached the target, so they could not burn much unless it was something like a hay roof, but the fire arrows shot by the Messenger Clan burned with magic power after impact and could even set wooden planks on fire.

The sailors and soldiers were desperately working to extinguish the flames, so the grain transport ships were not burning, but Naga troops were approaching those grain transport ships.

“N-no! You bastards! What are you doing?!”

Karna screamed at the sight unfolding before his eyes.

When conducting war, scorched-earth operations were a common occurrence. Burning provisions and destroying supplies to make the enemy lose their ability to wage war was the very shortcut to victory. As soldiers, they had to become accustomed to scorched-earth tactics.

However, that food was not simply money. It was the lives of countless people themselves.

His mouth dried and his throat burned at the terrible acts of the Messenger Clan and Nagas, who were trying to burn it.

But his heart alone was impatient, and he could not break through the Naga glaive soldiers blocking him. And as if they had been waiting, the Messenger Clan all fired their fire arrows at once.

Just as the arrows imbued with fire magic cut through the air and headed toward the grain transport ships….

“That’s too underhanded.”

A light like blue lightning flashed through the air and shot down every flying arrow.

“What?!”

The things that shot down the arrows were eight arrows made of azure steel.

Those arrows circled through the air like living beings, shot down the arrows heading toward the grain transport ships, and then stopped again in the sky.

And beneath those arrows appeared a young man wearing a bird mask.

“A-Azadine?!”

“It’s Azadine of Disgrace?!”

The Messenger Clan recognized him and murmured among themselves.

“Azadine?!”

Karna and Celestial Fire were also astonished that Azadine had appeared.

“Kh?!”

The Messenger Clan fired fire arrows once again, but the arrows flying over Azadine’s head danced and intercepted every arrow that came flying in.

All eight of the arrows Azadine controlled were Blue-Steel Arrows, so if they were ordinary arrows, they simply split even steel as if it were tofu.

They were not merely intercepting them. They were so fast that they split the incoming arrows not once, but twice and three times.

In other words, it likely meant that even if three times as many arrows were poured in, he could block them.

“Good heavens, that’s!”

“That’s only possible after cultivating Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon to the extreme….”

“Garuda?!”

The Messenger Clan was flustered by the secret technique of Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon unfolding before their eyes.

Anyone of the Messenger Clan was born bearing the assassination grimoire called Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon.

This grimoire, engraved into their bloodline through the covenant with the Emperor, was a colorless grimoire specialized in assassination. With this power, the Messenger Clan gained fame by killing even members of royal families… but those who had mastered it to the extreme were extremely few in the history of the Messenger Clan.

Garuda was proof that one had mastered Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon to that extreme.

This secret technique, known to be usable only by people like Grandmaster Hathir, Aldis the daughter of Jeddaha, and the genius Arael, was unfolding from the hands of Azadine, who had been known as the worst incompetent in the Messenger Clan.

Of course, Azadine was able to use Garuda because he had inherited everything from Arael. For those who did not know that Azadine had inherited Arael’s magic, they could not help but be shocked.