"I also, to the captain, a little bit…."
Whenever Gimela and the Count revealed their greed toward Scott, Azadin, who had always brushed it off lightly, heard a word from Scott.
"Are you disappointed?"
"No, I'm impressed. A man who can mercilessly sacrifice his subordinates at any time for his own purpose. That much is only fitting for my captain. And, what you call sacrifice is no more than a bit of excessive muscle gain."
"Is that so?"
Orcs, who valued intellect above all else, were affectionate in their own way, but instead of cherishing their subordinates unconditionally, they considered it wiser to sell them if it meant a reasonable price.
"Still, aside from that, I won't do it. I don't like muscle gain. And from an orc's perspective, to do such a thing with another race… it's a lowly act. The moment you do it, you're ostracized by the entire race. They say, how stupid, incompetent, and unattractive must he be to cling to another race?"
"I see."
Meanwhile, Shati shuddered.
"What's with you now?"
"That, that man who carries the gong, the Count's lover."
"Yeah."
"He's a Naga."
"Is he?"
"Nagas, unless they do it twenty-four hours a day, might not even have a child… to think he keeps a Naga as a lover."
"...."
The image of Count Kimalhaji entangled with his Naga lovers for twenty-four hours straight came vividly to mind.
Should it be called tremendous stamina, or overwhelming lust?
"Anyway, aside from that, I noticed while coming and going there are quite a few Nagas around. Truly, this must be Bruma."
"Which means…."
"If the Nagas really start attacking Bruma, there's no way out. But the Count seems overconfident, unreasonable. Let's just raid that Blue Sky Order sanctuary or whatever."
"Haa, it comes to this in the end. How unpleasant. Why can't anyone understand with words alone?"
"You couldn't convince your tribe either, that's why you're suffering alone right now. It's always like that."
"To persuade others, you must hold a blade to their throats. Otherwise, everyone thinks they know better, how can persuasion work?"
"Exactly."
Azadin stayed at the residence prepared by Gimela in Count Kimalhaji's mansion to rest.
Gimela, still unable to rid herself of greed, tried to seduce Scott, but Scott, who abhorred muscle gain, firmly rejected her advances.
"After such rejection, maybe she bore a grudge and poisoned the food?"
Azadin said, watching Scott calmly eating the meal Gimela had prepared.
"It's fine, captain. Whether it's poison or not can be easily detected with a simple spell."
Scott said that, and ate the food.
Since rice and beans were the staple crops of Bruma, the food served was also a mixture of rice and beans, blended with various spices.
For Azadin, a northerner, it was exotic and novel, but surprisingly edible.
"Actually good. The meat inside has no gamey smell at all, probably because the spices are strong and cover it well."
"And it also helps build muscle surprisingly well. Not so good for me."
Even as he said that, Scott cleaned his bowl thoroughly.
***
The next day, Azadin's group prepared to depart.
Jiswa had donned chainmail armor, armed with a long cudgel topped with a metal bird's beak, a bird-beak cudgel.
Shati chose a Naga curved sword and Naga chain veil, even wearing a chain veil mask over his face, dressed unmistakably as a Naga.
"Doesn't that make your human disguise meaningless?"
"I'll transform into a Naga when it's time to fight."
"Well, Scott is Scott."
"Let's go, captain."
"Wait, a moment…."
Azadin asked the servants of Count Kimalhaji's domain about news of Korasar.
If Count Kimalhaji truly intended to invade the Korasar Kingdom, he would be more alert about its affairs than anyone. As expected, their intelligence was swift and precise.
"Fresh news just last night. The king's church dispatched forces to rescue the Korasar Kingdom, which had been seized by the Herald Clan, but the bishop was captured by the Herald Clan and the holy knights were defeated."
"At this rate, the king's church will soon issue an official decree of subjugation against Bruma. When that happens, we may establish a Bruma–Korasar united kingdom."
Perhaps swallowing Korasar had been their long-held dream, for they used the term "united kingdom" without hesitation.
According to the teachings of the king's church, which recorded the emperor's conquest of the Eight Divine Kingdoms as a horrid history, the phrase "united kingdom" was itself heretical and ominous, fit only for an emperor-worshipper.
But Bruma's ambition had already reached a point the king's church could not restrain, and the king's church itself, rather than losing a corner of the Eight Divine Kingdoms to the Herald Clan, might permit Bruma to form a united kingdom.
"What about Judge Zekt?"
When Azadin asked about Zekt, the servants answered.
"As it happens, that Judge Zekt was defeated on the Korasar front and has vanished. We are closely monitoring all holy knights in case he drifts into Bruma."
"I see."
Azadin was surprised, yet relieved, at the news of Zekt's defeat.
The grotesque aura he had felt from him was no ordinary thing, but it seemed he was still no match for Aldis, who sat upon the throne.
'But it leaves me with complicated feelings. Here I am, rejecting the elder council that cheapens life and allies with Nagas and other Kurt Divine Clan, and yet I also don't want the Aragasa to lose.'
From Azadin's standpoint, the elder council was a potential enemy, but that did not mean he wished for their meaningless defeat.
Perhaps because he too was Aragasa, his feelings were conflicted.
"Then, my lady prays for your fortune. This is her gift."
Gimela's servants, saying it was her sincerity, handed Azadin a pouch filled with gold coins.
"What's all this…."
Azadin was impressed by Gimela's sincerity. There were five gold coins inside, far too much to be given as a simple gift to someone who had merely visited.
All the more so, since bringing along the refugees had torn a hole in his finances, he gratefully accepted the gold coins.
***
With every step Scott's corpse abomination took, the scenery around them swept past with a hiss. Azadin's mountain goat, in trying to keep up with that abomination, was dripping with sweat.
In the hot and humid region of Bruma, the Kerim mountain goat was on the verge of collapse, so Azadin lifted it up into the abomination's cart.
"We are almost there."
Guiding the way, Jiswa spoke.
"You said 'almost' earlier too. Thanks to that, my goat is exhausted."
"What about shearing its fur?"
"Kerim mountain goats aren't like sheep. If you shear their fur too closely, it often doesn't grow back."
"Is that so? But in a hot region like this, wouldn't shaving be better?"
"The fat that comes from the Kerim mountain goat's fur is an invaluable anti-rust oil for the Herald Clan… maybe I'll just shear a bit from the legs for now?"
At that moment, the corpse abomination came to a halt.
"Damn."
Scott groaned.
"The sanctuary must be near. The undead refuse to go any further."
"The undead, refusing to enter?"
"Yes. There are limits to autonomous control. From here, I'll have to directly manipulate it."
Scott frowned.
Directly controlling the corpse abomination into the sanctuary would be difficult, since the path ahead had already narrowed into a trail, hardly suitable for such a large creature.
"No good. I'll have to dismantle it."
"Dismantle?"
"Well, that's what necromancy is. No matter how carefully you use a corpse, it rots if you leave it, wears out if you move it. You always have to create anew, that is the fate of necromancy."
Scott explained necromancy as though he were some artisan making household trinkets. Then he dismantled the corpse abomination and began reassembling it into smaller undead.
"Ugh."
At the horrific sight, Azadin turned away.
Fortunately Zebeck wasn't here. If he had been, he would have struggled with all his might not to give in to the impulse to slit Scott's throat then and there.
"Anyway, Jiswa. If the undead refuse to enter, then this must really be near the sanctuary?"
"Yes. We are almost there. From this point on, even pilgrims are forbidden entry."
Jiswa got down from the cart, went ahead, and pointed to a rope strung between the trees.
"Beyond this golden rope is the sanctuary."
"I see. Then I must prepare as well."
Azadin drew out the copy of the Book of the Divine King, drew in white mana, and spread that power evenly through his body.
In the past, a single page had been enough, but now he could absorb two or three pages of magic power at once.
Absorbing that much white mana brought with it a shock, as though a storm were raging inside his body.
"Ugh…."
Azadin rubbed his nose.
A nosebleed.
But in contrast, his body boiled with strength.
"Captain, what about erasing Kazas Haeseo and learning magic anew? You're clearly getting stronger, but…."
Seeing Azadin's condition, Scott seriously urged him to convert.
But to Azadin, who was of the Herald Clan, to erase Beauty of Nature, the grimoire of his people, was unthinkable.
Besides, to do so would mean losing all the power he had built until now.
"I can't do that, not now."
In Korasar, in Bruma, in many places, the Herald Clan's plots were threatening countless civilians. Azadin had no time to leisurely erase his old grimoire and start over.
Azadin stepped into the sanctuary of the Blue Sky Order.
***
The founder of the Blue Sky Order, the man called Sky Lord, had once been a wandering merchant. Seeking to escape bandits and harsh taxes, he had entered this black forest, where he encountered a nether being: Grimslawn, the ancient tree of the swamp.
More precisely, a fragment of its body. For Grimslawn had once been driven out of the mortal world by the archangel of trinity, worshiped by the Knights of Salvation.
That is, the angels had repelled Grimslawn, and part of its body had fallen here. The Sky Lord, not knowing it was Grimslawn's flesh, camped on the stump of the great tree, and was struck by a sudden thunderbolt, left on the brink of death.
It is said that then, unconsciously, he drank Grimslawn's sap and blood, and gained enlightenment.
"Isn't that obviously cult stuff? And hearing that gave you faith? Jiswa?"
"Yes. Because by then, I too had already eaten Grimslawn's sap, and been saved."
"Well, if you had already eaten Grimslawn's sap…."
"Better that, than dying of fever. And so, the Sky Lord sought to extract pieces of Grimslawn, to provide sap constantly, but…."
"He failed?"
"Yes. The entire black forest's monsters attacked him, so they say."
"I see."
As Azadin's group entered the forest, somewhere nearby a wolf's howl began to echo.
Though it was still day, with the sun not yet set, the wolves' howls rang out, and the rustling in the underbrush sounded eerily like human whispers, mocking laughter.
From all directions, the sounds circled around them, jeering.