Under the blistering midday sun, an elderly man had dozed off with a blade of grass dangling from the corner of his mouth. Half his body lay shaded by the tall grass, while the other half baked under the sunlight.
It wasn’t as though he had intentionally decided to photosynthesize only halfway, he must have originally settled into the shade for a bit of rest. But as the sun moved across the sky, the shadows shifted, leaving him awkwardly exposed.
Clip. Clop.
A carriage trundled past him. Though it wasn’t particularly large, its luxurious quality was unmistakable to anyone who cared to look closely.
Inside the carriage, a young noblewoman peered out the window. She chuckled softly as she noticed the old man. She imagined how, in just an hour, he would look ridiculous with half his face white while the other half was sunburned.
That is, unless some kind passerby woke him, or he happened to wake up on his own before then.
If she had the authority to stop the carriage… she would have done so. She would have stepped out, tapped the old man on the shoulder, and told him to find a more suitable patch of shade.
But the young lady had no such power. She wasn’t having a leisurely trip. She was being forcibly taken far from her family. Even the smallest gesture of kindness was beyond her reach.
Clatter.
Though she wore ornate designs to appear as jewelry, the restraints she wore were unmistakable. They suppressed her mana entirely, rendering her powerless to resist.This was her farewell. Farewell to her homeland of gleaming ice sculptures.
Farewell to the reindeer that roamed the snowfields, casting gentle, curious glances at the bustling humans.
Farewell to the proud coniferous forests that thrived even through the harshest winters.
Farewell to everything she had ever known.
Her destination was far away. Far, far away, in some isolated and desolate convent where no one but the Goddess herself would know of her existence. The Young Lady would spend the rest of her life and eventually die there.
Yet, she had no regrets.
Born of blue blood, she had lived a life filled with many joys. Even if the rest of her life were to be painted in dull gray, devoid of happiness or sorrow⋯⋯ the 15 radiant years she had spent in her homeland would forever remain in herher heart.
Still… it was impossible, but…
Perhaps, a prince on a white horse might appear to rescue her?
Clip. Clop.
The carriage carrying the young lady continued on its way.
The old man, who had seemed fast asleep, opened his eyes the moment it passed. Beneath his wrinkled lids, his gaze sharpened with a glint of predatory malice.
He was pretending to be asleep the entire time, never allowing himself to drift off even for a moment. His job was to pick out prey.
The carriage was clearly luxurious, but there was no family crest. There were no knights, and the driver looked like a scholarly weakling who had never swung a blade in his life.
A single mercenary seated beside the driver seemed like a man who knew how to use his sword quite a bit. Yet the crystal orb he carried displayed a single star floating within.
A one-star. So he was a bronze-ranked mercenary.
Bronze ranks were definitely elites, but they were no match for the “Paladin” of this village who had achieved the peak of three stars. Against him, a bronze ranker wouldn’t stand a chance.
In short, this was doable. The road was remote and rarely traveled. Making a carriage vanish here would leave no trace. The old man gave the signal.
“Pull the rope.”
Streeetch──!
A rope suddenly snapped taut across the road, rising just high enough to catch the horses at their knees.
“Uht, uhuht⋯⋯?!”
The driver barely had time to react. By the time he noticed something was wrong and tried to steer away, it was already too late.
Neiiigh ⋯⋯!!
Crack, tumble crash!
The horses screamed as they stumbled and collapsed, causing the carriage to sway violently before tipping onto its side. Inside, the young lady, lost in her memories, was thrown hard against the floor.
Everything happened so suddenly that the pain didn’t register immediately. When she finally regained her senses, her entire body throbbed. An ambush. This was an ambush. But why?
Was sending her to a convent⋯⋯ not enough?
“Keuk, heueuk⋯⋯.”
Her vision spun, and a wave of nausea rolled over her. She must have hit her head during the crash. The young lady peeked outside of the carriage as she stumbled.
The poor driver was dead with his neck twisted. She tore her gaze away as she felt sorrow for him. But right now, she needed to identify the attackers. Who was it?
She lifted her gaze.
Before her stood a group of villagers armed with crude weapons—pitchforks and tridents—encircling the wreckage. And, claank-! clank-!, metal sounds rang out.
It wasn’t unheard of for poor rural villagers to turn to banditry. But she had never imagined she would fall prey to it herself.
Her exile to the monastery was meant to be kept secret. To avoid detection, the route chosen was deep through the forest so that it would have almost no people. And that choice had brought disaster.
She had an escort⋯⋯ a guardian. She had heard he was a mercenary with 10 years of experience. He could probably handle a few poorly equipped villagers.
But her fragile hope was shattered.
A towering man, nearly two meters tall with a body of chiseled muscle, toyed with the mercenary and was playing around with him.
The mercenary was overwhelmed completely⋯⋯ the amount of mana, its control, strategy, sheer strength—every advantage belonged to the tall man. The mercenary was already missing his left arm and cornered. He cried out with his face contorted in pain and bewilderment.
“⋯⋯This… this sword technique. Why is Paladin… among bandits in this backwater town──!”
“If you’ve figured that out, I can’t let you live. All is for the glory of my noble Goddess, so do not curse your death.”
Paladin raised his heavy greatsword. Beneath the shadow of a massive sword, the mercenary left his last words with a face twisted with anger and despair.
“You never, even planned to let⋯⋯ me live⋯⋯ kuek.”
With a single swing, the greatsword cleaved through the mercenary and the trees behind him, splitting the man cleanly at the waist. It was almost effortless.
Rumblee. The felled trees crashed to the ground, burying the mutilated body beneath splintered wood and the sound of bones and flesh being crushed echoed, forming a green grave.
Paralyzed with shock, the young lady was yanked upright by the villagers. Now that they had captured their prey, they needed to drag her back to their lair. She struggled instinctively, but.
“Let-let me go⋯⋯!”
“Stop squirming and come along nicely if you don’t want to suffer. Or would you prefer crawling like a dog while getting whipped?”
“With skin that fair, I bet my handprint would linger nicely if I slapped those cheeks. Heh heh⋯⋯.”
The vile jeers and lewd remarks were like daggers stabbing into her heart in ways she had never imagined. Her strength ebbed away.
Even without the mana-suppressing restraints, she couldn’t imagine successfully running away from that monstrous Paladin. Resistance was meaningless. There was no escape.
The young lady was dragged to the village and thrown into a filthy underground cell.
===============================================================
“We really hit it big today! Cheers!”
“Heh-heh-heh⋯⋯ cheers!”
The villagers gathered around a bonfire and raised their cups in celebration. The woman they had captured this time was undoubtedly of high status, and she looked like she would fetch a hefty price on the market.
There had been fewer people passing by this road recently, leaving them empty-handed for weeks. But fortune had finally smiled upon them. Today was truly their lucky day.
Or, perhaps their streak of luck⋯⋯ had actually begun a week earlier.
Amid the lively atmosphere, a young man leaned toward the chief and whispered quietly.
“Boss, how exactly did that Paladin get involved in our… business anyway? The more I think about it, the less sense it makes.”
“I’ve got no clue, kid.”
“C’mon, I saw you talking with him in private more than once. You two had all those long chats. You’re telling me you didn’t pick up even a hint of what he’s after? If you don’t want to say it, just say so—don’t leave me hanging here.”
“No, seriously⋯⋯ I really don’t know. The only reasons he gave were so weird, so what could I even say? Here, why don’t you give it a shot?”
That bear-like Paladin had arrived in their village from the Elmest Estate roughly a week ago. At first, the middle-aged chief was afraid that their human trafficking operation had been exposed. Panicking, he had scraped together all the village’s funds to offer as a bribe.
But the Paladin claimed he already knew about what they were doing.
What’s more, he even insisted that human trafficking was a sacred act that greatly pleased the Goddess. And he encouraged them to continue capturing and selling people with all their might.
(The Paladin had rattled on about how the Goddess purified the world through the souls of the innocent and other such lofty ideals. But to the villagers, it all just boiled down to simple permission.)
He also mentioned he had something important to do in the village, and ordered them to assist him in preparing what he called the “Goddess’s Vessel.”
“The Goddess’s Vessel⋯⋯?”
“He said something about the Goddess being dead. That bear-like guy was crying about how… her foolish followers failed her? And because of that, she died. He said she has to be resurrected.”
“The Goddess is dead⋯⋯? Isn’t she a god, because she doesn’t die?”
“Beats me. All I know is how to string a noose around a bitch’s neck.”
The chief couldn’t decide if the Paladin was insane—or if the world itself had gone mad.
Still, their unexpected guest was undeniably an asset. A monstrous warrior of his caliber siding with them could only benefit their operation.
And truthfully, the task of finding the “Goddess’s Vessel” was surprisingly enjoyable.
The Paladin had specified that he needed a body of unparalleled beauty, so the mediocre-looking captives were handed over to the villagers without a second thought.
His only request was that if the captives died after being played around with, their bodies were to be surrendered to him.
He knew exactly what kind of people harbored such chilling demands. That Paladin had to be a Dark Wizard that he had heard about in terrifying stories. One of those figures who extracted souls and performed all sorts of unspeakable things.
But this Paladin didn’t seem nearly as menacing as the rumors suggested. He was oddly polite, cooperative, and even easy to talk to.
He sometimes would sit alone with a mysterious glass bottle filled with some unidentifiable liquid and pray⋯⋯ or murmur about things like 『Nest』 or 『Pleasure』. His fanaticism sent shivers down the chief’s spine.
But hey, he was an ally for now! A powerful one.
“That device the Paladin gave us to measure power. I sneaked up and tested it on him secretly. It showed three stars. That means he’s at gold-medal level.”
“If it’s a gold-medal mercenary⋯⋯ aren’t those the kind that even nobles pay fortunes to hire?”
“Exactly. He’s a true monster—the kind that can cleave an ogre in two with a single strike and wipe out an entire village if he feels like it. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the strongest in the world.”
“Didn’t they say there is something above 3 stars? I heard the Empire likes to brag about having Meta-something or whatever.”
The town chief scoffed.
Metamorphosis was fake. Such a thing couldn’t possibly exist. That Paladin alone already felt like something out of a dream—how could anyone surpass that level of power?
It had to be a scare tactic, a clever way to threaten people into submission. They were probably just making a fuss about it. Those stories about individuals tearing down mountains or plucking stars from the sky. They were nothing more than fairy tales for gullible children.
If such powers were real, those so-called “Metamorphosis” suckers could destroy the world if they wanted to. They’d be stomping through the land, destroying dozens of villages.
It couldn’t be real.
The frog in the well downed his beer. They were drunk with romance. The romance of being able to keep their everlasting beautiful cycle of capturing humans, selling them, and reaping the profit.
As the villagers laughed and talked, a scout came rushing in.
“There’s another carriage coming this wayu!”
“What’s the old man mumbling about?”
“Well uh, something⋯⋯ he said there weren’t any starsu. Also, it’s three womenu. Oh, and one guy, but he’s scrawny and looks wimpy. And, all three are real beautiesu.”
“Today must be our lucky day. Alright, stop stuffing your faces and grab your gear! And someone go tell sir Paladin to join us!”
The town chief chuckled heartily as he barked orders. If there were three women,there would be more than enough for the all villagers to share. What a wonderful life this was!
They hastily moved towards the forest path.
===============================================================
As they had done countless times before, they waited for the perfect moment and yanked the rope taut. The horses, unable to stop in time, tripped.
With the cries of the horses, the carriage flipped and tumbled to the ground.
While the Paladin stood stoically with his arms crossed, the villagers erupted in cheers and hurried toward the overturned carriage. But⋯⋯.
Something felt off.
From within the upside-down carriage, there was the sound of a remarkably peaceful conversation.
“I told you to be careful. I told you to be careful!”
“⋯⋯No, seriously, I thought they’d at least try drugging our food back at the inn. Who in their right mind flips a carriage right from the start? What if their hostages die from a broken neck? Do they even think things through──”
“Idiots don’t think that far ahead, I’m telling you. Oh, and you lost the bet. Now you need to obey one order from me! Euhyahahat-!”
“Goddammit⋯⋯ so, what now? You want to handle this, or should I? Wait, Tower Master, are you sulking? Is your mood ruined because the lap pillow lasted only ten minutes Oh no.”
Silence.
For a moment, an uneasy stillness hung in the air. The villagers, who had surrounded the carriage, began to feel a strange itch beneath their skin, as though termites were crawling through their skulls.
And then…
A low, almost inaudible incantation.
“⋯⋯ extinguish the light, close your eyes.『Blackout』.”
The world was swallowed in darkness. A void so impenetrable that you wouldn’t even know where your limbs would be.
Night fell upon night.
***
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