Chapter 43 - The Curse Of Service (4)

Published on

Jun 16, 2023

•11 min read•137 views

‘The Beauties of Nature- Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, Thunderbolt, Kazas style!’

At that moment, their blades began to shake.

-Whoosh!

“Aack!”

“Gurghk!”

Both Calibri and Adan screamed as they were flung away.

“Urkk.”

“Wh-What? No way. Is this…Thunderbolt?!”

Calibri and Adan stood up with trembling hands. As their body began to feel the shock of electricity coursing through it, they suspected that Azadine’s Thunderbolt had inflicted it upon them.

“I-I thought you couldn’t use magic. Then how?”

Azadine sighed as the two of them looked at him in shock.

“Phew. Oi, don’t die on me. Well, at least one of you will stay alive?”

At that moment, Azadine’s body became a blur.

“Twilight?”

“Damn it!”

Calibri and Adan’s hands were paralyzed, so they immediately responded using martial arts and kicked at Azadine’s afterimage with their feet. However, as if he was one with the ground, Azadine was already behind them.

‘Ground Spider?’

‘From Twilight to Ground Spider? Isn’t his speed freakishly fast?’

Calibri and Adan finally came to a realization. The Azadine they were facing now was no longer the same child they thrashed around to tears from their early childhood days. In fact, even within the Messenger Clan, Azadine was someone powerful.

‘We’re screwed.’

‘We got involved for no damn reason…’

But it was too late to regret it now.

“What are you looking at?”

Azadine, moving like lightning, rushed between them and kicked them both at the same time. Calibri and Adan, who could no longer keep their balance, were blown away and crashed into a nearby tree and boulder.

“Urgh?!”

“Dam-Damn it! This doesn’t make sense!”

“I only intended to blow you away, not fracture anything. But with this terrain, I guess, going easy on you just doesn’t work, huh?”

“…”

“…”

Azadine was not lying about going easy on them. From that angle and power, his kick at that moment could have taken their heads off if he wanted to, resulting in their instant death.

‘No way that was a human’s kick.’

‘They say he doesn’t use magic, and yet that’s how powerful his kick is?’

That one strike was enough for them to realize the gulf between them and Azadine.

“Oh, you still managed to survive, huh. I guess you didn’t slack off with the training even after not being selected as a messenger. Your bodies are all robust, eh?”

“…”

Calibri and Adan, who were on the receiving end of these words, were left speechless.

‘What is this situation? Even if we couldn’t become messengers…. there’s no way we would have lost to someone like Azadine, who didn’t even complete his basic training.’

Calibri and Adan had completed their basic training but could not even become messengers due to lacking qualifications. They were ready to take up even the role of a servant, so they would apply every two years during the summer solstice festival. However, as peace and order persisted, very few messengers died in the line of duty. Additionally, ever since Arael entered her prime, the Messenger Clan thrived without making unnecessary sacrifices.

One could only imagine the rage and despair they felt from their position when they learned that the failure, Azadine, who they had beaten up every day, became a messenger because of Elder Kazas’ reputation.

‘No, this can’t be happening.’

‘How are th-this bastard’s skills at the level of a messenger? No, I won’t acknowledge him. If I acknowledge all this, then…’

If they acknowledged this, their existence would lose all meaning. It would be hard proof of their pathetic existence, inferiority, and incompetence. These two had lived until now by simply blaming and cursing the suffocating traditions of Aragasa.

They thought they deserved to be messengers and perhaps even more due to their talents. They were skilled but lacked connections or relations to a renowned family. They couldn’t get a chance to prove themselves because they lacked the necessary bloodline from any of the founding families.

This was how they consoled and reassured themselves. They believed that they did not lack talent but simply needed a chance. If they had gotten a chance, they could have used their skills freely and, with their unrestricted and brilliant performance, they could use their talent to free their people from the curse that bound them to the role of messengers.

Yet they were no match for Azadine, who was barely a messenger at the rank of 108?

‘Huh, if this is how it turns out, then we’re completely useless.’

‘Damn it. No, this isn’t true. I don’t acknowledge this!’

The two desperately attempted to gather their strength to get up, but their legs would not cooperate. Their arms, and even the rest of their body, had stopped responding to their pleas. Even just opening up their mouths slightly made acid rise into their throats. Their bodies were slowly becoming cold and chilly.

“Okay, then. How about we listen to the story? So, how did it happen? All of this?”

Azadine looked at them with a chilly gaze. At that moment, however…

A large crow flew out from a nearby forest and perched on a tree.

[The 108th Messenger, Azadine, something terrible has happened.]

“Ah, the Emperor’s Voice. I was afraid you had disappeared. But why are you talking to me through a medium?”

[The Leader dismissed you.]

“I already know that.”

[That’s not all. The Curse of Service has been awakened.]

“!!?”

“Awakened?!”

Hearing those words, the breath of everyone there stopped as fear spread through their bodies.

The Curse of Service between the Emperor and the people of the Messenger Clan.

This service was called a curse for two reasons. First, it forced them to remain loyal to the Emperor for eternity. The second was the cruel method that was used to enforce said loyalty.

If the collective decision-making body of the Messenger Clan, which included the Leader and the Elders, decided to awaken the curse for someone, then that person would die. The death would not be a normal death. It would only happen after they filled the vacant position they would leave in the clan.

“What do you mean, the Curse of Service was awakened? What now?”

[The Curse of Service will activate in a year. You will probably die after giving birth to the person who will take your place in the clan, just like Acre.]

Giving birth, those were the exact terms.

The person whose curse was awakened, whether man or woman, would give birth to another member of the Messenger Clan before death. That was another severe penalty of the Curse of Service.

“These fucki…”

Azadine usually didn’t use foul language, but he went off like never before.

The Curse of Service was awakened for Acre in the past after he stole copies of the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth and became the clan’s mortal enemy. Almost the entire clan was mobilized to capture him.

However, Acre, who wasn’t even a messenger, shockingly evaded his chasers for almost a year.

The people believed it was impossible for a mere scholar who interpreted the magic books under the Elders, who was not even a messenger, to be this strong. They theorized that the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth to have been the source of his power. Yet, not even Acre could escape the Curse of Service.

“Blech… I don’t want to be pregnant as a man. Are these people lunatics? I mean, why did the Emperor make a contract for service with these absurd conditions in the first place?”

[I didn’t create this penalty. Harkonia did.]

The first Leader of the Messenger Clan, Harkonia.

She was highly revered as a remarkably powerful mage and warrior. Still, a close look at the historical records revealed that she had a nasty, eccentric personality.

[And… Ah, I can’t be telling you this right now.]

“What is it? Don’t get shy with me now. Get it out.”

[No, you don’t understand. The magical spell of the Emperor’s Voice allows it to exist in this world forever on the condition that certain pieces of information mustn’t be shared directly. I can talk to you about anything directly related to your body but for other things… Actually, I shouldn’t even be talking to you now that you’ve been dismissed as a messenger because it’s nibbling away at my existence. You’re not even a petitioner of the gold coins, so the act of talking to you is extremely dangerous.]

“…”

The other members of the Messenger Clan were astonished as they listened to this conversation. The Emperor’s Voice was going so far as to break the rules just to talk to Azadine.

That was a great honor for anyone from the Messenger Clan, one that they couldn’t even dare to imagine.

There was only one explanation for this - the Emperor’s Voice thought of Azadine as someone irreplaceable for the future of the Messenger Clan. Azadine was indifferent to this and was instead clicking his tongue.

“Yeah, but even so, because of the curse you created, I have to give birth to a child in a man’s body, don’t I? I’m trapped in a curse that’ll kill me, and what are you saying now? That I should acknowledge the risk you’re taking? Are you seriously kidding me right now?”

“That’s di-disrespectful, Azadine!”

“The Emperor’s Voice is the Emperor’s will. How can you…”

Calibri and Adan rebuked Azadine. However, from Azadine’s point of view, this was just a situation that was driving him crazy.

“What, huh? I’m not even a messenger anymore! All because you people awakened the Curse of Service on me! You think I give a shit about your strict rules or noble language, eh!?”

“Yeah, but still.”

“There’s a proper way to do things.”

“If there’s a proper way to do this stuff, do you think it makes sense to go around dismissing people as you want? Okay, then. Both of you speak up. Why are you trying to catch me? Why, for what reason, was I suddenly dismissed?”

“Ah, that…”

The two, anxious about who would say it first, then spoke up.

“Arael revolted!”

“What?”

“Arael murdered Elder Cannahan and stole all the copies of Heavenly King’s Book of Truth that had been collected.”

“…”

Azadine tilted his head sideways at those words.

“Okay, but then why was I dismissed?”

“That’s…”

“Because they thought you were on the same side as Arael?”

At that moment, Azadine exploded.

“What, are you people kidding me! Who left this huge cut on my face, huh? It was that Arael you people loved and died for! And what? Me on the same side as Arael!? Even if we were the last two people on this earth, we’d fight each other to death!”

“Well, how would others know that about your relationship?”

“From what we saw, Arael stood up for you so many times. She cherished you so much.”

“What bullshit! Arael protected me and adored me? Then what about the wound on my eyes?”

“But you never had eyes before either! …Did you?”

“How can I trust your judgment! You said it yourself! The role model of the Messenger Clan! The tradition of Harkonia! The great ‘Arael’ you were all crazy for, didn’t you know she’d revolt? Why are you dumping responsibility on me with shitty judgment like that? Did I ever gain even a single iron coin when Arael was doing so well? No, I didn’t! You guys would try to calm down a crying child by saying she’d be married off to the Moron Azadine! What did I do to have the Curse of Service awakened on me!”

“Th-that…”

“We don’t know about that.”

“You’ve all gone mad! Are you that thirsty for the messenger’s position? Go screw yourself!”

A murderous look fell over Azadine’s face.

“Now that it’s come to this, should I just kill off all the people of the clan? Should I let myself go and show you a proper revolt?”

“…?!”

“No-No, try to calm down.”

Adan and Calibri tried to stop him. If Azadine let loose now, they would be the first ones on the chopping block.

“You can just ask the Leader and the Elders to withdraw the dismissal!”

“Ex-Exactly. There was only one person who actually died from the Curse of Service after our people became Emperor’s messengers.”

“That person was my father, you bastards? Are you making fun of me now?”

“…”

“Bu-But, you see.”

Adan spoke up, painfully cautious of Azadine.

“You’d have to go to the Leader to request the withdrawal of your dismissal, after all. Then can’t you just be caught by us and…”

“Do you wanna die right now?”

Azadine pulled out his sword at that moment, the look on his face sent a threatening prick over the flesh of everyone there. This wasn’t a joke. At this exact moment, just killing someone wouldn’t be enough for Azadine. Everyone there could sense it.