"I'm the one who, uh, gave the order to that stonemason."
"You took a bribe, didn't you?"
"Ah, yes. B-but this is something everyone accepts."
The stonemason team leader turned pale and trembled, realizing the blame might fall on him.
"For Kahsan to make it into the royal castle, they must've been preparing for a long time."
"Huh?"
"That guy clashed with me last month. Considering the distance from where he appeared back then to here, a lot of people must've gone through a lot of trouble to pull this off."
Azadin clicked his tongue.
Given the distance from where Kahsan had shown up to the Coral Sahar royal castle, there was no way he could've infiltrated alone.
Most likely, the Korasar Pedders' Guild had already done work inside the palace, setting things up so that an infiltration could happen at any time.
However, Azadin's current actions would be closely monitored by the king.
If he were to mention the Korasar Pedders' Guild here, or come into contact with them, it would be as good as revealing that the Korasar Pedders' Guild was of the Herald Clan.
'I need to show some results while keeping Aragasa's information hidden. This is tricky.'
He needed to expose what must be exposed and conceal what must be concealed, ensuring only the Arael's Faction would suffer. Pulling that off on the fly was a headache even for Azadin.
Just then, a soldier approached.
"Um, Lord Azadin?"
"Yeah?"
"The royal scribe said His Majesty the King has summoned you."
"Got it. Where?"
***
The place King Ansethus IV of Korasar had asked to meet was at the entrance to the palace's inner garden.
But the one waiting for Azadin there was not the king, but Aldof, a holy knight and the king's nephew.
"Hah. Never thought something like this would happen."
Azadin saw the soldier who brought him here feign ignorance and quickly grasped the situation.
"You soulless heretic. How dare you sneak around poking your nose into things and wander the royal castle? I shall not forgive you!"
"Calm down. Have you lost your mind? Forging a royal command?"
Azadin tried to reason with him, but Aldof merely scoffed.
"No one will know once you're dead."
"Oh, you idiot… seriously."
Azadin looked around.
This holy knight was the king's nephew, a man of very high status even within the King's Church.
Why he was targeting Azadin like this was unclear… but Azadin saw through it—someone had incited this man to act.
'If I just ignore him and walk away, the one who instigated this will probably kill him afterward. And once he's dead, the last person he met would've been me…'
Azadin and this holy knight had both fallen into a trap.
Yet Aldof himself didn't realize that and was now drawing his sword?
"As a rightful descendant of the Yaegas Divine Clan, I! Cannot tolerate your soulless filth any longer! If you're a man, draw your sword!"
"Why should I? I have no intention of fighting you. Besides, you're a holy knight—surely you wouldn't strike someone unarmed…"
The moment Azadin said that, the holy knight thrust his sword straight at Azadin's heart. He was a holy knight, yet he stabbed at an unarmed man.
But Azadin caught the blade with both hands, twisted, and easily disarmed him.
"Wh-what?!"
Aldof let out a foolish cry.
'So not all royals are strong. Compared to Zekt… no, he's the weakest holy knight I've seen so far.'
Azadin examined the sword with a bitter smile. The entire blade was made of Azure Steel, a kind of blue steel.
"You used Blue Steel, the kind that's too expensive to use more than a sliver of for making Blue Steel Arrows, for the whole sword? Do you know how much this is worth?"
"You insolent wretch! G-give it back! That sword is—"
"Ah, right. Fine. I'll give it back."
Azadin, tempted to keep the Azure Steel sword, handed it back to the holy knight.
As enticing as the blade was, a sword of this caliber was no ordinary weapon. Even for a royal-born holy knight, it would be a treasured artifact.
"Ugh!"
Having the sword returned to him after demanding it only made Aldof tremble in humiliation.
He didn't seem particularly young, which just showed how pampered he'd been all his life as royalty.
"For someone your age, you're acting like a brat."
"What?! Are you trying to insult me?"
"Yeah. I am insulting you. What, did you think it was praise? Anyway, you're no match for me, so just stay put. Try that again and I'll rip your genitals off—while you're still alive."
"W-what? Y-you bastard!"
Aldof was appalled by the first insult of his royal life, but the thought that this lunatic might actually rip his genitals off while he was alive made his knees tremble.
Even royals couldn't go their whole lives without taking a hit down there during sword training or physical activity. Even a light bump sent blinding pain shooting through your body—just imagining them being ripped off alive was horrifying.
As Aldof quietly recoiled from the imagined pain, Azadin turned to the inner garden's shrubbery.
"Enough. Come out already. Don't bother with pointless traps."
From the inner garden, a young man stepped forward. It was Zion Aether.
"Hm. As expected, impressive. Fitting for Lady Arael's younger brother. Or maybe I should say, fitting as the disciple of Lord Kazas?"
Zion Aether walked out through the pouring rain and stood before Azadin.
"So, you're the one who incited this idiot?"
"The guy's right here, you know. Talking like that puts him in an awkward spot. And no, I wasn't the one."
"You weren't? So it was someone from your side, then? Anyway, Zion. Are you feeling better?"
"Ah."
Zion was caught off guard by Azadin's question. The sudden show of concern for his condition confused him.
After all, he had betrayed Azadin, despite being a fellow member of Aragasa. He hadn't been on Azadin's side from the start, but as a proud member of the House Aether, his actions were undeniably shameful.
"My condition is, well…"
"What about my companions? Are they safe?"
"They're all fine. Actually, their vigor is so overwhelming it's almost a problem. But first, I must thank you—Azadin. For saving Elder Sebali."
"..."
"You treated Elder Sebali with the respect he deserved, so we won't harm your companions under any circumstance. I promise that on my honor as Zion Aether."
"Thanks. I appreciate that."
"So… are you still unwilling to reconsider? Beyond being Lady Arael's young brother, word is you even defeated Elder Sebali. Among the Aragasa, you'll be revered."
"No matter what you say, I can't allow the summoning of a nether being."
"I see."
Just as Zion let out a bitter smile—
—Swaaah!
The rain and wind surged even more violently.
At that moment, Azadin spotted arrows tearing through the curtain of rain. Shockingly, they were Black Steel Arrows.
"Damn it!"
Azadin hurriedly stepped forward and drew his naga curved sword, swinging it, but the moment it clashed with a Black Steel Arrow, the naga curved sword shattered like a cracker.
The Black Steel Arrow broke the naga curved sword and continued flying at Azadin, who blocked it with another weapon—the Wendigo's dagger.
Fortunately, the Wendigo's dagger didn't break and managed to deflect the Black Steel Arrow, but…
The shock transferred directly to Azadin's arm. His hand, which had gripped Wendigo's dagger, was torn open, and blood trickled down.
"What, what the hell?"
"Get down!"
Azadin tackled the foolish Holy Knight Aldof, shielding him from the incoming arrow.
The Black Steel Arrow, once deflected by Azadin, twisted in midair like a living snake and came flying back.
Among the Herald Clan's magic, the "Beauty of Nature" spell's yellow crane and white crane components were already terrifying on their own, but when channeled into an arrow, they produced incredible penetration power. If imbued in a Black Steel Arrow, it would slice through rock like a stick of butter.
Another Black Steel Arrow came flying in, but this time Azadin drew not only Wendigo's dagger, but also the halberd head of the guard captain.
Since blocking with the dagger alone would cause his hand to be torn apart again, he grabbed the halberd head like a tonfa, bracing it against the middle of the dagger to reinforce its strength.
Clang!
Sparks flew as the Black Steel Arrow was deflected. Azadin was forced back several steps, blood spraying from his wounds.
Even the guard captain's halberd head eventually shattered.
"Gah! I liked using that…"
But the Black Steel Arrow also lost its force and clattered to the ground.
"To deflect a Black Steel Arrow… and protect a holy knight on top of that. Impressive. All that effort just to save that idiot."
Standing in the pouring rain with bows drawn were Nefti and Kahsan.
They were already nocking another Black Steel Arrow onto their bowstrings.
"Hmm… hey now, isn't it a bit much to rain down all these precious Black Steel Arrows on a washed-up stray like me?"
Nefti and Kahsan, both armed with Black Steel Arrows—and even though Zion Aether hadn't moved yet, he was certainly a formidable fighter too.
Still, Azadin was confident he could escape without dying.
The problem was, if he escaped, the holy knight would die. Then they would pin the blame for his death on Azadin, severing any potential alliance between them.
"I can't kill you, being Lady Arael's younger brother. Originally, I was aiming to kill that stupid holy knight, but you blocked it, didn't you?"
"Urgh… Literua! You… you were trying to kill me…?"
Aldof's face went pale as he realized Nefti was trying to assassinate him.
But he called her Literua—that meant Nefti had infiltrated the royal castle disguised as the maid, Literua.
"Th-this can't be… Literua! I loved you! We even… shared a bed!"
"Ahem."
Kahsan cleared his throat.
"You slept with him? You, a herald of the emperor, used a honey trap?"
Azadin asked, and Nefti waved her hand.
"As if. Sorry, but the one who slept with you was Kahsan, over there."
"WHAT?!"
"I used illusion magic. It worked surprisingly well."
"Wait, what?!"
Aldof looked at Kahsan in horror. The muscular giant grinned slyly at him.
"..."
The blood drained completely from Aldof's face.
"Don't give up! If you die, I'll be the one framed for your murder!"
"I… I don't want to live anymore…"
"You moron! Didn't you call the Herald Clan soulless heretics? That woman's part of Aragasa. She's one of those soulless heretics you hate so much!"
"But… I really loved her…"
"So you hate men but don't care whether women have souls or not? Seriously, Nefti. What the hell did you do to him?"
"To be clear, I didn't seduce him all that hard. He just got excited on his own."
Nefti quickly defended herself, disgusted at the thought that she'd done something strange with Aldof.
"I just had a little fun."
Kahsan casually reported to Nefti.
"Ah."
Even Zion Aether looked startled by Kahsan's words.
"Hey, Aldof. Use this chance to escape. Now!"
"Ah, aaah…"
"Hurry, run! Just get past here and flee to where there are people—you'll survive."
"But… as a knight, I can't run away…"
"Says the guy who ambushed me unarmed just a moment ago. What's the excuse this time?"
"T-that's…"
Aldof was having a mental breakdown.