"Do you have a shovel?"
"A shovel? Are you saying you'll bury them?"
Zebeck was puzzled. This herald had already accepted the gold coin. Since the petitioner was dead, there was no obligation to care for them any longer. But now, he intended to bury their corpses?
"If you don't have one, then nothing can be done."
Azadin turned his back to Zebeck and began digging into the ground.
"...."
Was he really going to bury the bodies? That act itself would be a challenge to Kozel.
Corpses were hung from trees everywhere, their decaying forms tainted with sinister magic that would transform them into undead, screaming even in death.
Kozel would use the undead hanging from the trees as symbols to reinforce his authority. If someone were to interrupt and give them a burial, he would not stand idly by. Especially if that someone belonged to the Herald clan.
While Zebeck was still bewildered, Azadin had already dug a grave large enough for a single body and buried one of the corpses within it.
"Ah."
Zebeck, upon witnessing the scene, could not bring himself to draw his sword. Seeing those corpses left to rot while dangling from trees, denied even the basic respect that any human deserved, and hung like banners to satisfy the sadistic desires of a tyrant—how could he aim his blade at someone laying them to rest on the ground?
That thought suddenly made him feel cowardly and pathetic. Was he not, in the end, merely a servant swearing loyalty to the very tyrants who committed such atrocities?
Zebeck sheathed his sword and approached Azadin, beginning to dig into the earth with his hands.
***
The holy knight of the king's church and the youth of the Herald clan dug into the earth together, burying the victims. Azadin, after covering the graves, clasped his hands in prayer.
Zebeck was momentarily startled. He suspected that this youth might be using some heretical sorcery to torment the buried souls.
Even the eloquent words spoken earlier might have been a mere trick to deceive him. After all, this was a follower of the wicked emperor and a member of the Herald clan, no less.
But then… the youth spoke unexpected words.
"Archangels of wisdom, courage, and mercy, have pity on them."
To his astonishment, the youth began reciting the funeral rites of the Knights of Salvation.
"Knights of Salvation?"
"Well, I was born into the Herald Clan, but the ideals of the Knights of Salvation resonate with me."
"You insolent fool. Are you saying you've abandoned the fate of your birth clan to follow a heretical faith?"
"If I can't follow what I believe is right, then my birth would have no meaning."
"...."
He was a strange one. Every word he spoke was resolute, and yet his speech was surprisingly seasoned and composed for someone so young—it shook Zebeck's heart.
Who exactly was this man?
As Zebeck watched, Azadin performed the funeral rites of the Knights of Salvation, giving the dead a proper send-off.
"Though it was a crude and brief funeral, it should be enough to prevent them from becoming undead."
Those who died unjustly without a proper burial were prone to becoming undead. But could a member of the Herald Clan performing a Knights of Salvation funeral truly be effective? Was his belief genuine?
***
The Knights of Salvation were a religious order devoted to the Three Archangels of Virtue. They preached that anyone, regardless of birth status, could attain white magic by upholding the virtues of wisdom, courage, and mercy.
The king's church had long declared itself the sole, state-sanctioned religion. Originally, they viewed the Knights of Salvation as heretics and sought to punish them.
However, when monsters from the sea invaded, the Knights of Salvation held them off with their own bodies and conducted numerous relief efforts for the poor, earning immense support from the people.
Moreover, many noble heirs joined the order, creating interwoven family ties that made it difficult to label them as heretics.
Thus, an agreement was reached: the Knights of Salvation would respect the divine kings revered by the king's church, and in turn, the king's church would not interfere with the beliefs of the Knights of Salvation. Their relationship became amicable.
"Do you truly possess the beliefs of the Knights of Salvation? Enough to prevent the undead transformation?"
"You're being overly suspicious."
"What aspect of the Knights of Salvation do you find appealing?"
"I like the idea that a person's worth isn't determined by their birth but by their convictions and actions. Just because someone is born with the blood of a divine king doesn't mean they're noble, especially if they go around raping and slaughtering their people."
"…You."
Zebeck realized Azadin's words were a direct mockery of his own faith, and he grew enraged. However, after burying the bodies together, he didn't feel inclined to draw his sword against him.
At that moment, Azadin untied what looked like a belt from around his waist. On closer inspection, it was a bow. When the bowstring was loosened, it bent so far back that he had been wearing it as if it were a belt.
With practiced ease, Azadin quickly strung the bow, then loosened the leather strap securing the quiver attached to his pack. He slung the quiver diagonally across his waist.
"Are you planning to fight? Fine by me."
There was something strangely compelling about this youth from the Herald Clan. But this could not continue. To a holy knight of the king's church, the Herald Clan was an enemy to be vanquished. It would be better if the situation escalated into a clear confrontation.
However, Azadin wasn't preparing to fight Zebeck. Torchlight was approaching.
"Teach, don't tell me you were interested in that woman? If so, you should've said something."
Kozel swaggered in, leading his men while sneering.
"Well, she is too good to be stuck in a backwater place like this."
"Hehe."
Kozel's subordinates drew their spears.
"And who's that guy?"
The soldiers smirked and approached, their numbers considerable. No, it wasn't just a few men—Kozel's entire group had come, fully armed.
Given the late hour and their heavy armor, it was clear they had discovered that Zebeck was protecting the girl. That much was certain.
'This will be difficult.'
Zebeck clicked his tongue inwardly. Kozel's soldiers wore mixed armor of plate and chain mail, equivalent to that of elite knights.
Though Zebeck was confident in his own skills, facing twenty heavily armed men head-on was a daunting task. Meanwhile, Azadin was only in light armor.
Then Azadin moved.
—Whoosh!
In an instant, an arrow shot toward the leading soldiers. For ordinary soldiers, it would have been nearly impossible to react in time.
However, Kozel's men were no ordinary soldiers. They were experienced enough in pillage and murder to rival seasoned knights. They were already prepared, shields at the ready.
The arrows shot by Azadin tore through the wind, twisting through the air like a living snake, evading the shields of the soldiers at the front line.
Thunk!
Astonishingly, the arrows hit not the shield bearers but the spearmen approaching from behind.
"Arghhhh!"
A spearman's face was torn apart. The arrow clawed through his helmet, ripping it open, and tore off his nose and eyes.
"What?!"
It was shocking enough that the arrow twisted mid-air, but the power behind it was incredible. Just how strong did the bow have to be for something like this to happen?
While Zebeck was marveling, Azadin pulled out another arrow and drew his bowstring. One arrow was shot into the sky, and the other at a shield-bearing soldier.
The soldier, who instinctively raised his shield to block the incoming arrow, was horrified by the shock that paralyzed his arm.
Although he had blocked the arrow, it pierced through the shield and struck his lower abdomen—no, it hit his groin precisely. But that wasn't the only shock.
Thunk!
The arrow fired into the sky came down and struck his collarbone.
Both arrows had hit the same target simultaneously.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Writhing in agony from the pain in his groin and shoulder, the soldier fell to the ground, writhing.
"This… this doesn't make any sense!"
"What kind of bow tears through armor like paper?"
"Suppress him before he shoots any more arrows!"
They charged at Azadin, but he kept backing up while firing arrows in rapid succession. His backward retreat was so swift that the soldiers charging forward couldn't close the distance and were instead overwhelmed by the rain of arrows.
Thunk!
An arrow gouged out an eye.
Crack.
Another shattered a knee.
"...."
The pursuing soldiers quickly realized something. He wasn't trying to kill them. He was aiming to permanently disable them.
'Is he insane?'
'Even if he's trying to kill us, he can't have enough arrows.'
Though they felt some relief in thinking that Azadin was wasting arrows, they also felt an underlying fear. The anger emanating from him was anything but ordinary.
What would happen if they were hit and lost their vision?
They'd be more powerless than the peasants they had been pillaging just moments ago.
Could they even survive after that?
"It's fine! He's out of arrows!"
Kozel encouraged his terrified soldiers. Azadin's quiver was empty, swinging loosely at his side. The arrows were indeed gone.
"Good!"
The surviving soldiers closed in on Azadin.
"What now? You're out of arrows, so—"
"So what?"
Azadin punched a charging soldier square in the face.
"Urgh?!"
The soldier's helmet crumpled under the force of the punch, and shards of it shattered his eye. Blood flowed from the injured eye as the soldier spun and collapsed.
"I've thinned the numbers with arrows. If you have any courage, come at me."
Azadin loosened the bowstring, coiling the bow back into its circular form and strapping it to his waist like a belt. He then picked up a fallen soldier's sword.
"Oh, I almost forgot."
With a casual motion, he plunged the sword between the legs of the soldier he had just blinded.
It may have seemed like a casual stab, but it was a precise blow, almost like a surgical operation.
'Why is he so obsessed with castrating people?'
'He's insane.'
The soldiers were frozen in place, horrified by the brutality of the act.
"As expected of the Herald Clan!"
Zebeck, who had finally caught up, shouted without thinking.
"What? The Herald Clan?"
"A soulless one?!"
Some of them had heard the sinister rumors about the Herald Clan. Was the man before them truly one of them?
"Don't panic, you fools! If you run, I'll kill you myself! The only way to survive is to bring him down—"
Kozel was trying to intimidate them, but Azadin was already moving, swinging his sword at the soldiers.
"Cover your eyes!"
The soldier who covered his eyes had his groin slashed, his knee shattered, and was kicked to the ground. When the pain forced him to uncover his face, the sword slashed across his eyes, blinding him.
Disabling them in this way was far more complicated and challenging than simply killing them. One would expect him to expose weaknesses in the process, but none of the soldiers could surround him.
"Where are the spears?"
"Well, uh…."
The soldiers carrying spears couldn't keep up with Azadin's retreating speed. Moreover, those with spears had been the primary targets of his arrows earlier, and most of them had already been taken out.
'So, he planned this from the start.'