“...All right.”
At first, Arden had wondered if he could not simply sweep them all away at once.
But if he did that, the people dragged into separate houses would be in danger.
In the worst case, the commotion Arden caused might make the men kill them before coming outside.
So Arden concluded that it would be better to deal with the three as quietly as possible, then confront the remaining four.
“......”
Arden carefully entered the half-collapsed house.
“This is nice.”
Inside, a man was on top of a young girl with a dagger in his hand.
He held the dagger to the girl's left eye as though he intended to burst it, then said,
“Hehehe. Do you know this? I like people who have something wrong with them. For some reason, they excite me more than ordinary people.”
“You piece of shit....”
As though even that insult pleased him, the man laughed loudly and continued.
“And it will be all right even if you lose one eye. You are pretty enough to sell for a good price. Well, if no one wants to buy you, I can always buy you myself.”
Frowning, Arden stood behind the man.
At the same time, he met the eyes of the girl beneath him.
...The girl looked at Arden with clear eyes.
Something gleamed in her eyes.
Longing.
Arden nodded at the girl and moved.
He gripped the axe tightly with both hands and brought it down on the man's head.
―CRRRRUNCH.
The man dropped the dagger he had been holding and his body trembled violently.
His pants turned yellow, and an indescribable stench rose.
He had died without putting up any real resistance.
“First....”
As Arden carefully laid the man down.
―HISSSSS....
Pitch-black smoke flowed out of the man's half-open mouth.
The smoke coiled around Arden's wrist and began to inscribe something.
It was a black square.
But just before the square could be completed, the necklace in Arden's pocket reacted.
―FWOOSH!
White light burned away the square that had formed on Arden's wrist.
For an instant, a rotten stench rose, then quickly faded.
“What just happened?”
Arden looked down at his wrist and muttered.
“Could it be.”
It suddenly occurred to Arden that it might have been a signal telling the bandit gang someone had died.
But the necklace had burned it away.
He did not know whether the signal had gone through or not.
...Frowning, Arden shook himself free of those thoughts and held out his hand to the girl before him.
“Thank you.”
She took Arden's blood-soaked hand and rose to her feet.
“What was that earlier?”
The girl asked, pointing at Arden's wrist.
Arden said he did not know and shrugged.
“Really?”
As though it did not matter much to her, she nodded. Then she swept back her disheveled hair and began kicking the man, who was already dead.
“Ugh, seriously. You fucking bastard.”
Still not satisfied, she picked up the dagger that had fallen nearby and threw it with all her strength.
―SQUELCH!
“That still hasn't made me any less angry. I'll grind you up, bastard.”
“Hm.”
Given the situation, Arden thought that was understandable and left the house with the girl.
“Stay here.”
Arden took the girl to where Rayleigh was hiding and spoke.
“Rayleigh?”
“Mel!”
They must have known each other. Their eyes reddening, they embraced.
Arden watched the two, then turned around.
Two houses remained.
Perhaps because he had dealt with them quietly, no one had noticed yet.
The same was true of the bandits talking among themselves in the center of the village.
If things continued this way, it seemed he could finish easily.
“Then....”
Arden lowered himself to move toward the next house.
“Excuse me.”
The girl named Mel tugged at Arden's sleeve.
When Arden turned his head to see what it was, Mel immediately pointed to a half-burned house.
“Look. Do you see that house?”
“Yeah.”
She glanced at Rayleigh, then continued in a whisper.
“Aunt Amelia—no. Rayleigh's mother is in there. She was dragged away with me earlier.”
“All right.”
“And she is missing an arm. Some bastard cut it off. That man seems to have left.”
“......”
At Mel's next words, Arden nodded.
There was a reason she had whispered so Rayleigh would not hear.
“And... in the house at the very end, there is someone from another region.”
Finally, Mel pointed at a slightly scorched wooden house and stopped speaking.
“Thank you for helping us, really. I mean it. If you had not, those bastards would have... I do not even want to think about it. Ugh.”
Mel smiled faintly, tapped Arden on the shoulder as though telling him to go, then picked up Rayleigh.
“All right.”
Gripping the axe tightly, Arden started walking.
He passed between half-collapsed houses and reached his next target.
Arden raised his head slightly and looked beyond the broken wall.
There was a man whose entire face was covered in tattoos.
He was using a grimy yellow shirt to blindfold Amelia while untying the ropes that bound her.
“Let us do this a little differently. It will be better for you and for me.”
Hearing the man's words, Arden assessed the situation.
This time, he intended to proceed a little differently.
The space was wide open, so there was no need to sneak in.
“...Now.”
Just as the man lowered his head slightly.
Arden rose and immediately threw the axe.
FWOOSH!
The spinning axe buried itself in the man's chest.
Bones shattered, and blood sprayed in every direction.
“――!”
Before the man could cry out, Arden kicked off the ground. He covered the man's mouth with his hand, then put force into the axe.
CRRREAK—!
The sound of bones being crushed rang quietly through the air.
“Mmph—”
After some time passed, the focus left the man's eyes. He went limp.
He was dead.
Only then did Arden pull out the axe embedded in the man's chest.
CRRRRUNCH—!
Then he approached Amelia.
―SNIP, SNIP.
Arden cut the ropes binding her body, then removed the shirt covering her eyes.
Squinting at the sudden light, Amelia asked cautiously,
“Wh-who are you...?”
“Rayleigh's mother?”
“Y-yes?”
“Rayleigh is over there, so wait just a moment. You will see her soon.”
“Y-yes.”
At the words that she could see her daughter, Amelia cried and nodded repeatedly.
Leaving her behind, Arden looked toward the next building.
Mel had said that someone from another region was there.
Was this, too, the fate the Temple had imposed?
Thinking that, Arden stepped outside.
“......”
Only one house remained.
But it was fairly far away.
There was also no house along the way where he could hide, which meant he would be exposed the whole time.
“...Whew.”
As he had said before, that would not matter if he were alone. But now, he had to move carefully.
To save even the people who remained, he could not let down his guard.
Arden cautiously poked his head out and looked toward the center.
“They are still doing the same thing over there.”
Nothing had changed.
One man was guzzling alcohol, while the other three were still talking.
If that was the case, he had enough room to pass.
“Let's go.”
Arden took a breath and kicked off the ground.
Fortunately, no one was looking his way. It seemed he could get there without trouble.
“I need to go take a piss, fuck.”
Just before Arden reached the next house, the man holding a bottle rose from his seat.
Turning to head for an empty lot, he saw Arden's back pressed against the outer wall of a house.
“Is that not a person?”
He rubbed his eyes, then spoke to the other three men beside him.
“No way. We checked everything.”
“I'm telling you, it's real.”
“Have you gone mad? No one would come here.”
“Yeah. Aren't you drunk? You said you'd stop after three glasses. You've almost finished the whole bottle now.”
“It's real, you fucking bastards....”
Frowning, he lifted the bottle in his hand to his mouth and started walking.
It was in the direction where Arden had just hidden himself.
He intended to check while taking a piss.
Whether he had really seen it wrong.
Or whether there was truly an intruder.
―STEP, STEP.
Meanwhile, Arden clung tightly to the wall and waited for the man approaching him.
‘At least that is fortunate.’
Since only the man who had been drinking had seen him, no one believed it.
It seemed he could deal with the man quietly, then go inside.
Focusing on the footsteps as they drew closer, Arden slowly rose.
“Guh—What, what—”
At last, the man appeared.
Drunk and having forgotten his original purpose, the man was lowering his pants when he saw Arden beside him and opened his eyes wide.
He opened his mouth as though to shout, but Arden was faster.
―CRRRRUNCH!
In an instant, Arden chopped his neck into pieces with the axe. Then he lightly hooked the collapsing body with the axe blade, pulled it inside, and carefully laid it on the floor.
“Whew.”
Rubbing the blood that had splashed onto his cheek with the back of his hand, he looked inside the house.
The last man was near the entrance.
He was directly in Arden's line of sight, but there was a fair distance between them.
Unlike the houses Arden had entered so far, this one was still intact.
If he broke the window, the man could hear it and react.
“Hm.”
As Arden considered what to do, a sound from inside prompted him to break the window and enter.
―CRAAACK!
Startled by the sudden noise, the man turned around.
His eyes met Arden's.
He immediately grabbed for the dagger on the floor, but it slipped from his hand.
It kept slipping away.
In the meantime, Arden kicked off the ground and swung the axe.
He buried it in the man's shoulder.
―CRRRRUNCH!
“Guh....”
The man collapsed the moment the axe lodged in his shoulder.
But he was not dead yet.
Just in case, Arden needed to finish him cleanly.
Arden nodded and pulled out the axe.
―!
The man opened his eyes wide and tried to scream.
His wide-open mouth moved soundlessly.
But Arden was faster.
―CRUNCH!
The head that had come off his neck rolled across the floor.
Its eyes were still wide, as though it could not believe what had happened.
Thick blood spread across the floor as well.
“Whew.”
Arden breathed out.
It was over now.
All that remained were the three men outside.
Of course, there was something he had to do first.
“Are you all right?”
Setting down the axe, Arden approached the woman, who was blinking with a shocked expression.
Her bright-red hair was disheveled, and the long white sleeves of her clothes had been half torn apart.
“Th-th-thank you....”
She looked back and forth between the man lying on the floor and Arden, then slowly began to speak.
Tears began to fall from her eyes.
“I thought I was going to die here. Thank you, really, really. I came here on a trip, and I thought I wouldn't even make it home—I'd die here, be sold as a slave. I was so scared. Just now, that bastard was taking his clothes off right in front of me, and all the moments of my life flashed through my mind—”
“No. Just calm down first, and wait here.”
Arden lightly patted her shoulder, then picked up the axe again.
This would be enough.
He would be able to start by killing one of them.
Climbing out through the broken window, Arden looked at the three men.
He aimed at the closest man and held his breath.
When his shaking subsided, he threw the axe.
―FWOOSH!
The axe, flying at a terrifying speed, burst the man's head.
The other two, suddenly splattered with his brains, collapsed with a THUD—.
The men stared at their companion's corpse in disbelief, then touched their cheeks.
A bright-red mass stuck to them thickly.
“W-what....”
“This....”
Only after a long while did they speak, shouting for their companions to come out.
“Hey! Come out already! Stop what you are doing and come out! Someone is here!”
“What are you doing? This is not a joke, you fucking bastards!”
But even after a long while, there was no answer.
It was as quiet as though all of them were dead.
The silence was enough to feel eerie.
“......”
Meanwhile, Arden picked up a dagger that had fallen to the ground and stepped outside.
Then, with his footsteps silent, he went around and reached the center of the village where the people were tied up.
“C-come out!”
“Aaaaaagh! Are you fucking around with us?!”
Fortunately, they did not notice him.
They had no room to look in that direction.
Their lives were at stake.
“Whew....”
Hiding himself among the villagers, Arden gripped the dagger tightly.
Slowly, he waited for the men to come this way.
Before long, when one of them came near Arden.
―CRRRRUNCH!
Arden kicked off the ground.
He drove the dagger into the man's neck.
―SQUELCH!
Blood sprayed out. A sharp scream struck his eardrums.
“Aaaaaagh!”
The man foamed blood at the mouth, then went limp.
The last man, seeing this, collapsed with a THUD—.
His body shook violently.
Crawling across the ground, he begged Arden.
“S-spare me... No, please spare me!”
But seeing Arden's unchanged expression, he changed his words.
“D-don't come. Stay away!”
The man lay facedown and shouted, unable to even think of getting back up.
He wanted to pull out a weapon, but it kept slipping inside his pocket.
“......”
At last, Arden stood before the last remaining man.
“...Just a moment.”
But he did not kill him right away.
He only untied the villagers one by one.
“Deal with him yourselves.”
With that, Arden turned around.
Behind him, cries of desperate agony echoed as he walked away.