However, Azadin was by no means speaking empty words.
Ever since he had acquired a large number of copies of the Book of the Divine King, Azadin had been steadily absorbing mana.
Even Doneor's gang, who had slaughtered the ogres, had been no match for Azadin, had they?
"But wait, these bastards…."
Just then, Komosal came storming over to find Azadin and Jiswa, clearly enraged.
"You bastards! How could you leave such a big, strange elephant in front of the castle!"
"An elephant…?"
He must have been referring to Scott's masterpiece, the Corpse Abomination.
Its exterior was so grotesque that they had covered it with a tarpaulin, so it seemed everyone was just mistaking it for an elephant.
"Lady Gimela is calling you! Get over there at once!"
"Ah, by the way, Brother Komosal, did you come with just these five bodyguards?"
"Brother, my ass. I don't remember ever becoming sworn brothers with the likes of you!"
It was at the very moment Komosal said those words.
Azadin darted at Komosal's bodyguards and seized their carotid arteries with both hands.
"Urk?!"
"Ugh?!"
As soon as Azadin's grip closed around their throats, they collapsed unconscious on the spot.
"What the?!"
"This bastard is showing his true colors…."
But then Jiswa cast blood magic and knocked out another of the bodyguards, and Shati also knocked one unconscious with magic.
Before long, only Komosal was left standing.
"Huh?"
"Well then, Brother Komosal, there's something I'd like to ask you about the potion. Did you tamper with the potion that was sent toward Korasar?"
"W-what are you talking about?"
"In the Korasar region, the brothers of the Blue Sky Order went berserk, turned into monsters, and everyone, including refugees, ended up dead… So I'm asking, do you know anything about that matter?"
"I-I don't! I…."
"Well then, the current hypothesis is that if too many people who consumed the potion of the Blue Sky Order gather in one place, their power goes out of control. In that case, the only option is to remove those who consumed it beforehand, root and all, you see?"
"...?!"
"He means kill them."
"Are you insane? You think the likes of you could kill all the brothers of the Blue Sky Order…."
"What we brought here isn't an elephant."
"...."
"It's a colossal beast of calamity that brings about the end."
Azadin deliberately described the Corpse Abomination in metaphor, in as ominous a way as possible.
By not explaining properly, he forced Komosal's imagination to fill in the blanks—and imagination brought a despair far more effective than any torture.
"You'd best tell the truth, Brother Komosal. This man has plucked out rampaging minions of the nether as if pulling weeds."
"Just what kind of man is he? A judge?"
"No. He is Azadin, Second Herald of the Emperor."
"W-what?!"
At the mention of Herald of the Emperor, Komosal flinched in alarm.
"Second Herald… a h-high position, isn't it? Th-the slayer of sanctity!"
Had Azadin still been like before, ranked 108th, holding a seat at the very bottom, Komosal wouldn't have been so terrified even if Azadin had revealed he was a herald. But now that he had risen to the rank of Second Herald, just hearing it was enough to chill the listener's blood.
"Good. Now the conversation should move faster, shouldn't it? Well then, why don't we talk while pulling out a few nails?"
"Urgh…."
"Because of your tricks, people who had taken the potion of the Blue Sky Order ended up having to kill their own families. Do you know how many people committed suicide afterwards? Even after being treated, the guilt of having killed their families drove them to death. When I think of their deaths, I want to roast you alive from the soles of your feet little by little, make you writhe in the agony of terrible burns, then let you rot away in septic torment, fever and pain wracking you until you waste away and die."
Komosal shuddered at Azadin's horrifyingly realistic threat.
"Y-you have no proof!"
"Just saying that only makes me more certain."
When Azadin extended his hand, Scott brought him a fire poker.
"It's not hot enough yet, Captain."
"Really? Then heat it up some more. We'll start with the nails."
Azadin pinched Komosal's fingernail with his own fingers.
"What, you think you can pull out nails with your bare hands…."
Komosal sneered at Azadin's action, but the next instant he could not help but scream as though his body were being torn apart.
Azadin's strength was so overwhelming that though it looked like a casual grip, it clamped down like iron pincers, and he really did yank at the nail.
The nail couldn't withstand it and split lengthwise, blood gushing out in streams.
"Ghhhkkk?!"
Komosal was stunned by the unbearable pain. Such monstrous strength defied reason.
"Hm, it doesn't pull out cleanly, it just splits. But I suppose this is even better. Shall I tear a bit more?"
As Azadin reached for another nail, chills crawled across Komosal's back.
"W-wait! Just wait a moment!"
"Why?"
"I-if I admit I did it, then what? If I confess the truth, will you spare me?"
"If you speak the truth, of course I'm willing to be lenient. There's no way you tampered with the potion alone, right?"
"Th-that's right. It's true. In fact, it was by the Sky Lord's will."
"By the Sky Lord's will? And why is that?"
"The Sky Lord once boarded a ship and went to Korasar to preach, but was humiliated there. Since then, he has believed that Korasar is too uncivilized to spread the truths of azure heaven to."
"I see."
The expansion of the Blue Sky Order had largely been aided by the endemic Bruma plague.
In a region like Korasar, where such disease did not exist, there was no way proselytizing would succeed. Outside the king's church and the angel faith, it was dismissed as heresy, and anyone preaching it risked their life. Who would ever listen?
'And to be honest, your doctrines are obvious enough.'
From what Azadin had read in the Blue Sky Order's scriptures, the main tenets were simply things like family harmony, that anyone who wears blue scarves are all children of the azure heaven and thus brothers, that one should share wealth in harmony—words that sounded good on paper.
But with religions like this, the side doctrines are far more important than the core teachings.
People tend to cling to trivial sermons like forbidding the eating of shrimp, or saying men may take concubines, rather than the so-called great doctrines.
In that sense, the Blue Sky Order's creed was nothing but a cult. Its expansion had only been possible thanks to the potion that cured the plague. Without that, there was no way it could have grown.
"So your plan was to expand the Blue Sky Order into Adirof, where the Bruma plague was rampant, and then trigger a rampage? If those berserk ones harmed others, then Count Lantarik, guardian of Adirof, or the King of Korasar would have to intervene. Since ordinary troops cannot handle minions of the nether, you intended to make them squander their forces in one great purge."
"Yes, that's right."
"Then… does that mean the King of Bruma was involved as well? Wait, hold on? Then even this fortification of the earthworks…."
On his way here, Azadin had heard of the ogres' invasion, and had naturally assumed that strengthening the defenses was a countermeasure against them.
But now it seemed more like preparations for war.
'Have they gone mad? It's not enough that everyone unites their strength, yet they're desperate to tear each other apart? The kings are of the same Yaegas divine clan, aren't they?'
Azadin realized that the Kingdom of Bruma was preparing to invade Korasar, and that the rampage of the Blue Sky Order had been planned as the prelude to that invasion.
From Azadin's perspective, as one who had witnessed the era of Jupiter, he could not understand such pointless strife.
It was like blocking the only exit of a burning house and turning their weapons against the neighbor they disliked, when they themselves were about to be consumed by the flames. Who would have thought that nobles of the Yaegas divine clan, who claimed to be educated and cultured, would stoop to such acts.
"Does Gimela know? She's the daughter of the Sky Lord."
"Lady Gimela opposed contaminating the potion. That's why I personally…."
"Really? You're not just covering for her because she carries the blood of the Sky Lord?"
"Urgh, no. This was originally part of the Sky Lord's grand plan! It wasn't something I did on my own…."
"So, the Sky Lord was involved as well?"
Hearing this, Azadin fiddled with the cudgel of the Blue Sky Order's taoist master.
He couldn't be sure how much of Komosal's testimony was true, but if what he said was correct, then the leader of the Blue Sky Order, the Sky Lord, was directly guilty of the tragedy in Adirof.
"I'll have to meet the Sky Lord. Very well. Let's begin with the Sky Lord's daughter."
Azadin turned to Scott.
"Scott, spruce yourself up."
"Well, I'm already more radiant than flowers themselves."
"...."
***
Gimela's residence was the castle of Count Kimalhaji.
Surprisingly, everyone inside the castle wore the blue scarf, which made it clear that the Blue Sky Order held the Count's domain firmly in their grasp.
"This is supposed to be the holy land of the Blue Sky Order, isn't it."
Azadin asked Jiswa.
"Yes."
"Is there perhaps some relic connected to Grimslawn, the ancient tree of the swamp?"
"That, I'm not sure."
"Wouldn't they have built the holy site at the place struck by lightning?"
"Shall I guide you there later?"
"First, let's deal with the negotiations."
Azadin walked into Count Kimalhaji's castle.
"Huh?"
But Jiswa led the party to what was unmistakably the quarters of the harem. It was the place where the count and his wife, or mistresses, raised their children, where the women and children resided.
"Lady Gimela is the wife of Count Kimalhaji."
"…Not exactly a young miss then. Wait, that means…."
Azadin remembered how she had carefully looked over Scott, and he felt awkward.
"It happens all the time."
Shati smirked as she said it.
A short while later, Gimela appeared, holding a child who looked about three years old.
"You've come. Jiswa, and you must be Adan?"
"Yes."
"Why does Komosal's face look so grim?"
"My lady, that's because…."
"We tortured him."
Azadin said bluntly, lifting Komosal's hand. The fingertips, where Azadin had torn the nails, were treated with ointment.
"Oh dear. That's why I told you not to. Contaminating the potion of the Blue Sky Order was far too foolish a deed."
"Many people died and fell into despair because of it."
"But I truly opposed it. Komosal acted on his own."
"According to Komosal, it was the Sky Lord's will."
"Hmm. And you, holding resentment toward the Sky Lord, do not sound like a taoist master, do you?"
Gimela smirked slyly, realizing that Azadin bore hostility toward the Sky Lord as well.
Instead of Azadin, Jiswa pressed the matter.
"No matter if it's the Sky Lord himself, to deceive me and hand over such a potion is impossible to accept."
"My apologies, Jiswa."
"But before that, I'm curious. How exactly did you contaminate it?"
"Hm?"
"How was it tainted so that people turned into minions and went berserk?"
"It wasn't anything complicated. Originally, Grimslawn's sap cures all the diseases of the swamp. But if you mix Grimslawn's blood into it…."
"They become minions and rampage?"
"Yes. Or else, they become taoist masters."
From those words, it seemed that among those who became minions of Grimslawn, the ancient tree of the swamp, some managed to retain their reason and self-control, and these were chosen as taoist masters.
That was precisely why Jiswa thought it absurd that he had relinquished his position as taoist master to Azadin, denouncing himself as lacking virtue.
'But still, there's no way they'd publicly declare that becoming a minion of the nether is the qualification of a taoist master, right? And they can't deny that Jiswa passed the position on to me. Wait a second, doesn't that mean Jiswa is using me?'
Understanding the structure of the Blue Sky Order, Azadin gave a bitter smile.