“P-please....”
With that, the girl collapsed.
“......”
Arden looked at the girl lying face down on the ground.
It seemed he had to do something.
After giving it some serious thought, Arden took out the small tent tucked into one side of his backpack.
He set it up in the field.
Normally, he would have gone straight to the village, but her body was too cold.
Her lips were blue. It would not have been strange for her to freeze to death at any moment.
So Arden decided to care for the girl here, at least until she woke up.
“Let's see....”
Arden moved the girl into the tent and opened the leather pouch.
He had not used one since then, so there were still four Warming Orbs left.
―HUMMMMM....
When Arden placed a Warming Orb in the girl's hand, the tent filled with warm air.
It was warm enough to feel hot.
“This should be enough. And....”
Arden nodded and checked the small wounds on the girl's arms and legs.
They seemed to be scratches from tree branches.
They were not very deep, but it did not seem right to leave them as they were.
Arden rose, picked some herbs growing near the forest, and crushed them.
After mixing in a little water to make a thick paste, he carefully spread it over the girl's wounds.
For some reason, it felt as though the orphanage children who were gone were flickering before his eyes.
Whenever they were hurt while playing, he had treated them like this....
Now those children were no longer in the world.
Berua had said that God had taken them away to live in a happy place, but Arden did not know.
Perhaps the happy place the Temple spoke of was only something made to escape a reality full of pain.
That thought suddenly came to him.
“Whew.”
After letting out a sigh and applying all the herbs, Arden stepped outside.
He carefully looked up at the sky.
All sorts of thoughts filled his mind.
...Only a week and two days had passed, but he wondered whether the three people at the Temple were doing well. Were they waiting for him, not knowing when he would return?
But there was no way to contact them, which only left him frustrated.
“......”
Using the sky, which was beginning to grow dim, as a canvas, Arden drew their faces in his mind.
After sitting there for a long while, he heard rustling behind him.
The girl had woken up.
Arden got to his feet and carefully pulled back the tent flap.
“You're awake?”
“Th-thank you.”
The girl, meeting Arden's eyes, bowed deeply.
Fortunately, the Warming Orb seemed to have worked. She was no longer shivering.
Some color had returned to her pallid skin as well.
Seeing this, Arden spoke.
“What's your name?”
“R-Rayleigh.”
Arden noticed that Rayleigh's gaze had fallen on his sword.
Setting down the sword strapped to his waist, he naturally continued the conversation.
“I'm Arden. Where did you come from?”
“I... ran away from a village a little distance from here.”
“Why?”
“B-because of an invasion.”
As though recalling something she did not want to remember, Rayleigh shuddered.
But Arden had no choice but to keep asking.
The village Rayleigh had fled was the one he had been planning to visit.
“An invasion?”
“Yes. An invasion.”
Fortunately, Rayleigh continued calmly.
But beneath that calmness, Arden could sense that she was holding something back.
“People with their faces hidden beneath black robes attacked the village.”
At the words “black robes,” Arden asked again,
“Wait. Their faces were hidden under black robes?”
“Pardon? Yes. They were all wearing black robes.”
Arden thought he knew who the men who had attacked Rayleigh's village were.
They had to be members of the Red Hawk Bandit Gang, the people who had attacked the orphanage.
As Arden frowned, Rayleigh cautiously asked,
“D-do you know them?”
“Yeah.”
Arden nodded.
There was a high chance that the village had been attacked because of him.
They must have reached the village while traveling south to find him.
But how?
There was no way they could reach that village faster than Arden.
Unless they had left immediately.
“Could it be....”
Had they planted something in the men who had died earlier?
There was no proper way to confirm it now, but that was the most likely possibility.
No, it was almost certain.
They could have arrived in barely more than a week only if they had realized it immediately and set out.
But that was not the only problem.
Arden ran his fingers over the sword he had set on the ground and thought.
‘...Can I kill all of them?’
There were at least dozens of them.
For exhausted Arden to kill that many alone was nearly impossible.
But he had no intention of ignoring this.
His convictions would not allow him to abandon a goal he had set.
Moreover, it was something he had to do to sever his ill-fated ties with them.
After thinking for a long time, Arden let out a sigh and spoke.
“Tell me in detail what happened.”
“I-in detail?”
“You don't have to if it's hard. More importantly, can you move?”
“Yes, I can... And I'll tell you.”
Rayleigh nodded and got to her feet.
She cautiously stepped outside the tent.
The clothes she was wearing were thin, but thanks to the orb, she did not seem to feel the cold.
“Before that, can I ask just one thing?”
Standing beside Arden, Rayleigh spoke cautiously.
“What is it?”
“What exactly is this orb?”
Rayleigh looked at the orb in her hand with fascinated eyes.
Arden explained that it was a tool that gave off a moderate amount of heat, then began packing up his things.
“Done.”
Having finished, Arden spoke.
“Let's go to the village now. I'll help you.”
Arden intended to try anything within his power.
“Thank you....”
Rayleigh said as she followed behind Arden.
Then, little by little, Rayleigh began to tell him what had happened in the village.
“It was yesterday. They burned the village, and the men, the older boys, the grandfathers, the grandmothers... they killed everyone. My father, who tried to protect my mother and me, too....”
Rayleigh's eyes reddened. With her head hanging low, she spoke through sobs.
But she did not stop.
As though she was determined to tell it all, she desperately held back her tears and continued.
“When my father died, my mother charged at them to save me. Even then, my mother told me not to look back, but I don't know what happened to her. Sniff....”
In the end, she broke into tears.
At the same time, rain poured down from the sky.
―SHHHHH....
Thick streams of rain hid Rayleigh's tears.
The thunder that followed swallowed the sound of her crying.
In that situation, Arden walked quietly.
He only stroked Rayleigh's head as she wept.
All the while, he vowed that he would bring this to an end with his own hands.
***
Six hours earlier, in the center of the village, where the sudden downpour had extinguished the fires.
“Black Mage, contrary to what you said, we have not found him. Can you no longer use the magic you used then?”
Kyle asked the Black Mage. All the women and children in the village had been forced to kneel before him.
“Yes. I can only tell where they died.”
The Black Mage nodded as he answered.
“Is that so.... Fine. I have one last question. Are you certain he came down this way?”
“......”
At that question, the Black Mage let out a low groan.
The truth was, he was not certain.
He had only inferred it.
By reading the fragmented memories of the dead.
But he had to say that he was certain.
The instincts he had developed while evading the Temple's pursuit told him so.
“...Yes. It seems he is moving faster than expected. I think we should leave this place to the others and head south immediately.”
“All right. I will trust you a little longer. If we fail to find him again, it will be your head that comes off.”
“......!”
The Black Mage shuddered.
Gulping dryly, he barely managed to answer.
“I-I understand.”
Even though he had reached the Fourth Circle, if he tried to cast magic before Kyle, who stood on the verge of becoming a Sword Master, his head would clearly fly off before he could complete it.
But it was too late to run away.
All he could do was pray that the man would be in the next village.
‘If only I had learned Tracking Spells from that bastard.’
Perhaps that was why.
He thought of the eccentric man with whom he had researched black magic in a cave no one ever visited.
The man specialized in making Chimeras, but he had a strangely broad knowledge of other magic as well.
He should have learned when the man told him to....
Biting his lip in regret, the Black Mage walked toward a corner.
Kyle slowly got to his feet and looked around as he spoke.
“Other than those who will follow me, only the ones who will stay here, raise your hands.”
Exactly seven people raised their hands.
Kyle nodded and continued.
“Your task is simple. Sell the slaves as you always do. This time, I will overlook whatever you do in the process.”
―Understood!
At his words, the seven men shouted at once.
“Then we will move out immediately. Let's go.”
Kyle left them behind and began traveling south.
Once they disappeared from sight, the seven men left in the village gathered together.
Among them, a man with a thick beard spoke first.
“How about we divide into three and four?”
At his words, everyone nodded in agreement.
“A good idea.”
“Agreed.”
“Me too.”
Seeing this, the man continued.
“Anyone want to be among the first three to go in?”
“Me.”
“Me too.”
“If there is no one else, I will make the third.”
The man looked at the four who had not raised their hands, then casually added himself.
It was decided in an instant.
“Then I will be back. I am counting on you.”
“Do not worry.”
“Yes, go enjoy yourselves.”
The three men nodded at those words and hurried toward the slaves they had picked out.
―!
Several women whose bodies were covered in blue bruises flinched, but the men passed by without giving them so much as a glance.
“I will take this one.”
An old man with a thick growth of beard dragged over a girl who had only just shed her youthful looks.
Then a man whose face was covered in tattoos pulled to her feet a woman with one arm severed.
“Follow me.”
The last man picked one at random and began to walk.
“You will do.”
―CREEEAK.
Gripping their waistbands, the men entered separate buildings with the slaves they had chosen.
Among the slaves being dragged away was a woman who resembled Rayleigh.
The moment they disappeared from view,
―STEP, STEP.
Two figures entered the village in the distance.
They were Arden and Rayleigh.
Arden had intended to leave her behind and come alone, but she had insisted on following.
There had been chances to leave her behind along the way, but she said she had to see with her own eyes whether her mother was alive. Arden had no choice but to bring her.
On the condition that she obeyed his words, of course.
“Be careful. Never come out of wherever I tell you to hide.”
“Yes. I will stay still.”
Having received Rayleigh's promise, Arden looked around and frowned.
The smell of rot rose from the stone ground where blood had dried.
The downpour had not even washed it away.
It was enough for him to vaguely guess what had happened that night.
“But....”
He could barely sense anyone nearby.
Tilting his head, Arden headed toward the center of the village.
There were four men in robes, and dozens of villagers tied with ropes.
They were all women and children.
And from the buildings near them came unbearable sounds that drilled into his ears.
“......”
What crime had these people committed to suffer something like this?
Was it simply because they were on the path those men were traveling?
Arden could not understand.
Nor did he intend to.
Whatever the reason, the girl before him had lost her father.
And the people there had lost their precious family members too.
For that reason, no reason could make this justifiable.
Arden also felt that this would only end if he killed every one of them.
An ending.
It seemed he had to end it by killing every one of them.
“Whew.”
Barely calming the rage boiling inside him, Arden checked his surroundings once more.
‘First, those four. And about three inside the buildings.’
He could sense no one else.
It seemed the others had already left for somewhere else.
He did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“Focus first.”
Arden lightly shook his head to cast away his thoughts, then turned his gaze to the side.
Rayleigh was covering her ears and looking up at Arden.
“Stay here.”
With that, Arden gently stroked Rayleigh's head and headed toward the building right in front of them.
The same disgusting sounds were coming from there.
“I should use this weapon.”
This time, he did not draw his sword.
Instead, he picked up an axe that had fallen on the ground.
He was quite familiar with the feeling, having often used one to chop firewood at the orphanage.
And the greatest reason he did not use his sword was....
He did not want to stain it with the blood of men like those.
“Let's go.”
Gripping the heavy axe, Arden stepped inside.