Quite some time had passed.
Leaving behind the men whose bodies had been crushed beyond recognition, Arden approached the villagers.
But they did not look capable of having a conversation.
“What are you looking around for?”
Then Mel, who was holding Rayleigh, approached him.
“There is something I need to say.”
“What is it?”
Mel tilted her chin, as though telling him to say it to her.
Thinking he should at least tell Mel, Arden continued.
“When I killed the bearded man, black smoke wrapped around my wrist.”
“Black smoke? I saw that too.”
“Yeah. That smoke may have been a signal.”
“That those men died?”
Arden nodded.
“It may have alerted a mage.”
But he did not tell her that the light that had appeared afterward had melted the smoke. He had to make them leave the village.
There was no helping it if he wanted them to be safe.
“Hmm....”
After thinking for a while, Mel spoke.
“You are telling us to leave right away, right?”
“You understand quickly.”
“Well... Arden, they left just before you arrived. If the signal had gone through, they would have returned long ago, would they not?”
“But....”
When Arden trailed off, she looked around and continued.
“Do not worry. It looks like everyone is planning to leave anyway. In the state this village is in, they would not be able to endure another attack. They said the closest city was... right, they said they would go to Balkan.”
Having suffered damage close to annihilation, the villagers seemed to be planning to move to Balkan, where the Temple stood.
The Arcane Temple in Balkan accepted most people like them.
That was fortunate.
“Wait a moment.”
Arden took out a Warming Orb whose warmth had faded.
Because it had been in his pocket, it had gotten a little dirty. He brushed it off and handed it to Mel.
“What is this?”
“I received it from the Arcane Temple in Balkan.”
Saying that, Arden showed her the Holy Knight's insignia he had tucked into his clothes.
When he first received it, he had never expected to use it like this, but what did it matter?
There was nothing better to inspire trust than this.
“If you tell the High Priest that Arden gave it to you, the Temple will probably take you in.”
The Warming Orb, the Holy Knight's insignia, and Arden's name.
Those three things should be enough to help them settle in the city.
“W-wait. A Holy Knight?”
“You are a Holy Knight?”
Mel looked at Arden with disbelief in her eyes.
So did Rayleigh, who was in her arms.
It was impossible for someone to become a Holy Knight at such a young age.
Holy Knights were selected through long training and the slaying of six monsters.
Perhaps that was why.
Hearing her shout, Rayleigh's mother, Amelia, and the villagers turned their heads. The woman from another region reacted much the same way.
“A-a Holy Knight?”
“Well, he did take those men out all by himself.”
“At that age....”
“Perhaps God has not abandoned us.”
They whispered as they looked at Arden for a moment, then began moving again.
There was still much to do.
“Please help over here.”
“We need water here.”
Then the woman who had supposedly come from another region approached Arden.
“Do you have a moment?”
She seemed to have continued helping with the village work, for beads of sweat covered her forehead.
Her red hair clung to her cheeks as well.
“Yes.”
When Arden nodded, she wiped away the sweat with the back of her hand and continued.
“Ahem... I think I talked too much earlier. I hope you understand that I am not usually someone who acts that way before other people, nor am I someone who speaks that way.”
“It is all right. Given the situation....”
“Thank you for understanding. May I accompany you to the next city?”
“The next city?”
“Yes. Karhel.”
After thinking carefully, Arden took out the map he had put in his backpack.
Karhel....
It happened to lie along Arden's next route.
It was about three weeks from here.
Of course, they could shorten the time by renting horses in the villages along the way.
Then there did not seem to be a problem.
Putting the map away, Arden said,
“Yes. Let us go together.”
“Thank you.”
After bowing in thanks, she headed back toward the villagers.
“I will help with this as well.”
She took hold of one of the remaining shovels and began digging.
This time, Arden helped too.
With more than ten people digging together, they had finished digging all the graves after about four hours.
Afterward, there was a Rite of Repose.
The villagers gathered in front of the graves and honored the souls of the dead.
Arden stood at the back and watched.
...Many thoughts came and went.
Did souls truly exist? And where did they go?
They were thoughts that the heretics the Temple shunned might have had, but Arden could not stop them.
He did not voice those questions.
He only let them grow quietly inside his mind.
And the more he pursued answers to those questions, the more his determination to kill every member of the bandit gang grew.
His reason was not grand.
They had killed innocent children and villagers.
And they had killed his younger siblings.
It could be called a personal revenge the Temple considered taboo, but Arden had already decided.
If God did not punish them.
No.
Even if God did punish them, Arden would punish them again.
That was both his duty and his goal.
Of course, the Elixir was important too. It was the end of this journey.
But only by dealing with the matters before him could he reach the end called the Elixir.
And now, this was the first step.
Thinking that, Arden looked up at the sky from a shaded place.
For some reason, the sky, with the sun tilted halfway, was high and clear today.
***
The next day.
The villagers spent the night in the half-collapsed houses and prepared to leave.
Most of the village had burned down, so all that remained was food. They had packed it tightly into the bags that were still intact.
“Arden, take this with you. You said you were traveling far, right?”
“Yeah.”
Perhaps because they had talked all night, Mel had become quite close to Arden.
She gave him this and that.
In truth, even if Mel had not gathered things for him, the villagers had intended to give him something.
But seeing what Mel had prepared, they decided there was no need to give him more and only kept thanking him.
“Thank you, Holy Knight.”
“Thank you.”
“May light be with you on your long journey.”
Walking in the opposite direction from Arden, they bowed deeply.
With a small smile, Arden began walking with Kamer, the woman from another region.
“......”
Perhaps because it was morning, it was quite chilly.
Kamer rubbed her hands together repeatedly, as though she was very cold.
“Brrr.”
Was it really that cold?
Arden could not feel it much.
It felt moderately chilly.
Of course, he had been the same way at the orphanage.
It had been a little different in the forest, but except for the center, it had not been that cold.
After he killed that creature, even more so.
Was there something else at work?
Thinking this, Arden entered the plains.
Vast plains stretched out before him.
In the distance, he could see the horizon.
But.
What lay on the horizon was quite unnatural.
White monsters filled one side of it.
And on the other side, heavily armed knights and Holy Knights rushing forward in bursts of haloed light came into view.
The moment Arden saw them, his vision expanded.
His hearing also sharpened beyond comparison to before.
―Aaaaaaagh!
―SCREEEEEECH!
A house-sized white spider with sixteen legs.
A Yeti that looked as though it had stepped out of a fairy tale.
A muscular, one-eyed monster swinging a huge tree, and more....
All kinds of monsters filled the plains.
They were not as repulsive as the creature he had seen in the forest.
But the situation was no less serious.
“What....”
Arden frowned.
Seeing his expression, Kamer asked,
“What is it?”
They had already dropped formalities because they would be traveling together for some time.
Though it had only been a few hours at most.
In any case.
Arden held out his hand and pointed to one place.
Kamer's gaze followed his finger, then came to an abrupt stop.
She saw it too.
What was happening there.
“Th-those are not monsters, are they?”
Her eyesight was not as good as Arden's, so she could not see them clearly, but their faintly visible shapes were enough for her to recognize them.
“Yeah.”
“It should not be that season yet....”
“That season?”
Arden asked.
She nodded and continued.
“I only read about it in books, so I do not know much, but you live in the north, so you have probably heard of it. The monsters that lived in the Snowy Mountains come down in groups.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Arden knew as well.
But he remembered that the numbers were never that high.
Most groups had fewer than ten monsters.
It was only natural. There were few monsters in the north to begin with, and they were regularly subjugated.
“It seems to be that season, but I do not know why there are so many. Did someone create them artificially?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, regardless of the reason, you are going to help those people, right?”
“Yeah.”
Answering that, Arden increased his speed.
There were too many monsters for those people to handle alone.
It seemed he had to help quickly.
Kamer apparently agreed and hurriedly followed behind Arden.
Arden asked Kamer.
If necessary, he intended to leave her far behind.
“Can you fight?”
“You seem to be underestimating me because you saw me like that, but I am a Healer. I helped Amelia, you know. Understand?”
“Ah....”
Arden nodded.
He did not know much about Healers, but he had heard of them before.
If he remembered correctly, they were people who treated others.
Of course, their power was weaker than a priest's.
It was difficult for them even to reattach a severed limb.
That was probably why, even though Kamer had treated Amelia, she had not been able to fully reattach her arm.
But in the current situation, she would still be a great help. There did not seem to be any priests among that line.
“Be careful not to get hurt.”
With those words, Arden put strength into his legs.
***
The knights, having finished arming themselves and their preparations, looked ahead.
Five Holy Knights stood there.
They had been dispatched in a hurry after word came that monsters were descending.
“Holy Knight, is this strange phenomenon happening everywhere?”
After waiting like that for some time, the Knight Captain stepped forward and asked a Holy Knight.
“I heard it is occurring only in the north.”
The Holy Knight shook his head.
Seeing this, the Knight Captain continued.
“Then is it possible that something has happened in the Snowy Mountains?”
“The Temple thinks so. That is why it will soon send a subjugation force, so do not worry. We only need to hold this place.”
“Understood—”
―SCREEEEEECH!
Just as the Knight Captain was about to return to his place, a familiar monstrous cry came from the distance.
Then white monsters appeared beyond the plains.
The problem was that there were more than thirty of them.
“F-fuck.”
“How are we supposed to....”
The knights' morale dropped in an instant.
Of course, they had been warned beforehand.
The Knight Captain had said there would be a few more than usual.
So they had expected around fifteen, not twice that number.
It was far beyond their expectations.
“This cannot be right!”
“Did they deceive us?”
There was a reason for that.
Even last year, when they fought ten monsters, casualties had been terrible.
A hundred knights had gathered, but nearly seventy had died.
Of course, there were Holy Knights this time.
But even that did not seem enough.
Their chances of survival would be higher if they ran away now.
“I-I—”
“Move aside!”
“I am not going to die a dog's death—”
The five Holy Knights, realizing this, drew on their Divine Power and shouted.
“Prepare yourselves!”
At that moment, something warm enveloped the knights.
Their pounding hearts settled, and their minds, which had been consumed by fear and unable to think normally, began to work again.
―Aaaaaah!
The knights took deep breaths and shouted. With their fear subsiding, they could see clearly.
If this place fell, the north was finished.
Neither Balkan, where the Temple stood, nor Karhel, where it did not, would be able to hold out.
Then they would die anyway.
Running away was meaningless.
It was only the difference between dying early and dying late.
“That is a relief.”
Turning around, a Holy Knight nodded.
“Go! Follow me!”
Raising a greatsword, the Holy Knight charged forward.
Then the other four Holy Knights followed, bursting with haloed light.
Their morale greatly raised, the knights drew their weapons and faced the monsters.
―CRRRRUNCH!
―CRACK!
“Aaaaaagh!”
“T-they are breaking through here!”
It was utter chaos.
White blood and red blood mixed together, dyeing the plains.
Unidentifiable chunks entered their mouths.
A knight with an arm severed rolled across the ground, and monsters trampled over him.
A vision of hell.
The plains were filled with cries of pain.
And the humans were being pushed back.
It looked evenly matched, but the knights were dying far too quickly.
The five Holy Knights, gathered back-to-back at the center, clenched their teeth.
The monsters were far stronger than what the Temple had told them.
At this rate, they would be annihilated.
“For now, we must reduce their numbers as much as we can, even if it is only us! That is the only way the next city will be able to hold them back!”
“Right!”
“Understood!”
The Holy Knights nodded and rushed out at the same time.
At that moment.
All the monsters turned their heads at once.
Feeling puzzled, the Holy Knights and the surviving knights turned their heads as well.
A boy was running toward them.
The light wrapped around his body was brighter than the light emitted by the Holy Knights.
It drew their eyes naturally.
“W-what!”
Silence swept across the plains.
One Holy Knight came to his senses and shouted.
With that shout as the backdrop, the monsters rushed at the boy.
―SCREEEEEECH!