Chapter 57 - The Darkness Of Salasma (4)

By any given standards, the building was definitely suspicious. The Rescue Knights Order had clearly shut down their shelter. Yet, if it was now a nest for wererats, there was no way that there were no connections.

The existence of such a building was an unfortunate shame, given Salasma’s current state of affairs. Yes, it no longer rained or flooded. Yet, the building could still have been used to shelter the sick and vulnerable among the refugees, provide cover from wind and ew, provide cooking facilities for those seeking aid, and even have beds for treatment of the sick.

Under such circumstances, abandoning a building like this was illogical beyond reason… which only meant there may be a presence of Kurt Clan followers within the Rescue Knight Order.

“Let’s sneak in.”

Azadine said this with great regret.

The Rescue Knight Order’s wooden building stood shabbily next to the riverside. However, since it was a renovated wine cellar, a large underground space was below it.

A young man walked to the entrance of the building using a cane.

“You’re not allowed to enter.”

“The Rescue Knights Order is currently performing maintenance in this place. It’s dangerous inside.”

Knights wearing the surcoat carrying the crest of the Rescue Knights Order came out and blocked the entrance to the young man despite being slightly caught off guard at first. However, to their surprise, the young man was blind and had a horizontal scar across his eyes.

“Ah….”

“You must be unwell.”

Sure that he was blind, The Holy Knights of the Rescue Knight Order calmed down.

“What are you here for?”

“Actually, someone at that old waterway over there told me to deliver this to you.”

Having said this, the young man handed the mark of Mezerry engraved on human skin to the Holy Knights. It was a claw symbol that was gruesomely engraved using human blood and needles.

“They said I’d receive food in exchange for a call for help and handing this over so….”

The young man stood there patiently waiting for his reward, much to the bewilderment of the Rescue Knights Oder.

“You got this… by the old waterway?”

“Yes. From behind the steel bars. I didn’t go in, though. They called me over, and a person passed this to me. Promised I’d get a reward if I brought back people to give a hand with the cleaning inside.”

“Is that all? Nothing else, maybe like a password or something?”

“A password? Um, I remember they said something, but I can’t recall it.”

“…….”

The Rescue Knights exchanged glances.

“Wait, wait. How much help did they ask for?”

“I was told they’d need at least ten people.”

“At least ten? So many?”

“Yes.”

The knights opened the gates.

“Well, right now, we don’t have enough relief supplies either, so….”

“If you don’t mind, why don’t you wait inside while we get the supplies?”

With these words, a devilish smile slowly crept up the Knights’ faces.

“Huh? In-inside?”

“Yes. If you wait inside for a bit, we’ll bring you some supplies.”

“Alright.”

The blind man walked inside warily, following the Rescue Knights with his cane. As he walked into the abandoned building, there were several people inside.

“What is this? I told you, no entry to outsiders. It’s broad daylight, for God’s sake.”

“Ah-ah, he can’t see. Also… he was asked for help from the underground tunnel side and…”

“Promised a share of the relief supplies.”

“Yeah. The special relief supplies. Hihihi.”

The Rescue Knight Order’s Holy Knight made a mocking gesture to the blind man behind them during this exchange.

“Ah, relief supplies. Right, relief supplies, huh?”

“Even if we don’t have the supplies, we’ll get some fresh meat soon enough, hehe .”

As the people there mocked the young man, he appeared to be spooked as he looked around inside.

It was a hall-shaped entrance, and there were people along the railings on the second floor who bombarded the blind man with sound from all directions.

“Wow, th-there are quite a few people. Are they from the Rescue Knights Order?”

“Oh, yes. They’re our allies.”

“But I can also hear… groaning… are there any injured people here?”

“Yes, we are the Rescue Knights, after all. Isn’t it our duty to heal the wounded and sick?”

They laughed at their own remarks as the people inside were neither wounded nor sick. At that moment…

“Wait a minute.”

One of the men sitting on the second-floor railing stood up.

“Ah, Mr. Kirven.”

“Oi, the one who just came in. Turn your face this way.”

“Huh?”

“I think I know him.”

“…….”

Panicked, the blind young man clutched onto his cane.

“Yeah. You. Um, are you… Azadine?”

“Ah!”

The Rescue Knight, who had accompanied the blind man inside, instantly reached for his sword. However, the blind man was faster as he smacked the knight’s head with his cane, ducked, and took the knight’s sword.

“You!”

“Azadine!”

Azadine was disguised as a blind young pilgrim. His disguise, after all, lowered everyone’s guard without fail. He had deliberately baited the enemies with the crest of Mezerry that he had obtained from the dead wererats. He had planned to act clueless in order to defeat them individually.

Send ten of the wererats to the underground water tunnels.

The message was designed to divide his enemies and allow him to deal with them one by one. He never thought he’d come across someone from his own clan.

“Hey, get out of the way!”

Kirven instantly jumped and landed on the first floor.

“You’re all grown up now, Azadine! I’ve heard the rumors about you becoming a messenger. Who knew I’d come across you here?”

“What about you? You turned into a follower of Mezerry, huh? What a disgrace to the clan.”

“Hmph. What did the Emperor do for us? All I got was the Curse of Service. Thanks to Mezerry’s blessings, I’m freed of the curse, and I can fulfill my desires, eat or do anything without restrictions!”

Kirven stood in Azadine’s path with his claws drawn and a smirk on his face.

“Remember when we were kids, and you crawled under my crotch, huh? Oi, everyone, keep watching! I’ll handle him!”

Judging from his words, Kirven seemed to hold a high status among them.

He was neither a messenger nor a messenger’s servant. He had struggled through the systemic education and training of the messenger selection process. His skills were far superior to these swordsman who trained later in life. That much was clear.

“So what? You betrayed your clan so you could kill, eat, and rape whenever you wanted to? What an insatiable slave to your desires you are, you pathetic bastard.”

“Shut your trap, Azadine!”

Kirven charged at him with his claws. Azadine retaliated, swinging the sword that he stole from the Rescue Knight. The sword became stuck between Kirven’s claws as the slash was effortlessly parried.

“Pathetic! You call yourself a messenger with these skills?”

However, his attempt to twist and snatch the sword away from Azadine did not even cause it to budge.

“Huh?!”

Kirven was momentarily flabbergasted. Hubrisians were always weaker than him in terms of pure strength. After becoming a wererat, his newly gained and superior might was somehow no match against Azadine? His childhood plaything? How?!

Azadine grabbed Kirven’s wrist.

‘Flower Bird Wind Moon, Blue Sun Farewell, Kazas Writings!’

Azadine ducked and moved under Kirven’s body and threw him without constraints.

The Blue Sun Farewell Spell would normally simply spin the opponent and send them crashing to the ground. However, the modification made by the Kazas Writings made it into a tachi-waza grappling technique that sent them hurling directly into the ground. The only issue was that the movement was extraordinarily swift, fierce, and…

Cra-a-ck!

Azadine grabbed his opponent’s arm and crossed it to use it as a lever, instantly crushing said arm. Kirven was sent flying into the air, weapon trapped in hand, and was slammed into the ground.

Startled, Kirven spun and tried to stamp on the ground with his food, but Azadine sent him swiveling away at high speed. The speed of his spin was so fast that his feet landed sideways first.

-Bam!

Kirven’s ankle broke instantly.

“Aaack!”

Azadine’s Flower Bird Wind and Moon, Blue Sun Farewell was a spectacular parry that broke Kirven’s arm and ankle at the same time!

“Son of a bitch! What kind of Blue Sun Farewell is this?”

Kirven swung his claw to strike back at Azadine, which was a vain effort. Azadine’s sword was tightly stuck between his claws, turning his hand useless.

“You want another round?”

Azadine cast the Blue Sun Farewell from the Kazas Writings once again. This time, with his broken leg, Kervin was slammed directly in a manner far from a proper fall.

“Ack!”

Kirven, now completely on the ground, could not get back up. Azadine knocked his weapon, the wererat’s claws, out of his hand to retrieve his sword and pressed it down on his throat.

“Damn it! What the hell are you doing! What, is there a play going on for you? Get rid of him!”

Kirven immediately withdrew from the fight. He had thrown away his claws which had been twisted and rendered useless during the brief clash against Azadine. Just a moment later, the other Knights and bystanders pounced.

With Azadine as the target, they charged with their eyes glowing red with madness. Some were already shapeshifted into wererats.

“Come on!”

A sideways slash of his sword chopped off the neck of the first wererat to charge at him.

-Slash!

The wererat’s head went flying while the blade of his sword was chipped. A normal blade would often break while beheading immobilized people chained to a frame, so it was no wonder it would chip when slashing something alive.

“…….”

“Hiccup!”

Regardless, Azadine’s attack had left an impact. While they were wererats, they still did not wish to die. Seeing Azadine kill one of their own in a single blow, their spirits could not help but waver.

“Oi! His weapon’s cracked! It’s okay! Attack!”

Kirven attempted to persuade the wererats, but they were still aware of the sword that yet retained its form. Their only certainty was that it would surely shatter with the next blow.

The cracks in Azadine’s swords had resulted in this. Furthermore, since Azadine had entered here as a blind pilgrim, he was unarmed and lacked another weapon. His only weapon was one that he had stolen from the wererat wearing a knight’s surcoat. However, cracked sword or not, the wererats would not risk taking blows with their bodies.

’We may have regenerative powers, but this…

‘If my throat gets chopped off, I’ll be in excruciating pain and…’

‘This guy’s got some serious sword skills!’

Azadine’s swordsmanship was nothing short of divine. His lightning-fast blade overshadowed a wererat’s reflexes and severed his neck. The sight of a decapitated wererat’s body twitching and convulsing in its death throes had struck a severe blow to their morale.

Yet they were being asked to jump in simply because the weapon was broken?

Absolutely not.