“Damn it! What in the world is going on here…?”
Inside the village, Gilbert was currently perched on a rooftop, his bow drawn, gazing at the horde of at least several hundred monstrous beasts surging below. He grumbled, utterly frustrated.
He had just returned to the village after completing his patrol, only to be met with the sight of various beast tribes attacking. Had he not sprinted away in time, the ogre that suddenly burst forth might have devoured him whole!
An arrow nocked, he even skipped the aiming process. With a ‘whoosh,’ a kobold immediately collapsed.
“Hmph, you beasts, daring to run wild here. All of you, die…”
However, just as Gilbert uttered these words…
“Roar—”
From beneath the house, a sudden roar erupted, laden with fury, its immense volume enough to shatter eardrums. Gilbert was momentarily stunned by the sound.
He had just shaken his dizzy head when, in the very next instant, disaster struck. With a resounding ‘boom,’ Gilbert felt the world spin around him, his body losing its center of gravity. He stumbled, plummeting down with the collapsing house.
As he fell, Gilbert twisted his body, finally catching sight of his assailant: a creature over three meters tall! Its massive frame was incredibly broad, its muscles as thick and robust as a bull’s.
Oh no, he retracted his previous thought. Judging by the pair of sturdy, towering horns on its head, it seemed to be a bull itself—a member of the Minotaur race.
There was no doubt; it had to be the one who destroyed the house!
Having barely stabilized himself in mid-air, Gilbert landed just as the Minotaur exhaled a heavy breath. It then raised its colossal axe, easily over two meters long, and roared as it swung down towards him.
“Holy hell! Damn it, grandpa here is an archer! What is this nonsense you’re pulling with grandpa…”
Grumbly and helpless, Gilbert quickly executed a clumsy roll, narrowly evading the Minotaur’s strike. Seeing this, the Minotaur let out an enraged bellow, wrenched its massive axe from the ground, and swept it horizontally towards Gilbert again.
Helplessness welled within him. The Minotaur’s axe swing was so swift that Gilbert had no time to react. Gritting his teeth, he could only brace his bow before his chest, hoping to block the Minotaur’s attack.
“Bang—”
The outcome was undeniable. The immense force sent Gilbert, bow and all, flying a dozen meters away. He crashed heavily into the wall of a house, finally stopping only after spitting out a mouthful of blood.
“Cough, cough, cough… this is… not fun at all, cough, cough, cough…”
Spitting out another mouthful of blood, Gilbert felt as though his internal organs were churning. He mused that if his bow hadn’t been painstakingly crafted from ‘fine steel’ at a great expense, the Minotaur’s last blow would have surely been his end.
Even so, the tremendous impact had bent Gilbert’s longbow into a C-shape, making him want to cry from the heartache.
“Roar!—”
Gilbert merely offered a wry smile, glancing faintly at the Minotaur, which was roaring and charging at him once more. ‘Of course, I want to move,’ he thought, ‘but I need to be able to move first. In my current state, even crawling would be a challenge, wouldn’t it?’
‘Ah… am I going to die?’ Thinking this, Gilbert’s expression fell, and he felt utterly dejected.
Reflected in his pupils was the approaching Minotaur, charging with its massive battle-axe. Mentally, Gilbert began to review his entire life, like a rapidly flickering slideshow.
****
In his childhood, due to his family’s poverty, his parents sold him to a noble household as a servant.
Later, in that noble house, the master was rather amiable. During his busy schedule, he was allowed to read books in the study, and a very beautiful senior maid taught him how to read… ‘Ah, now that I think about it, the maid must have been at least a D-cup, right? Damn it! What was I doing back then, not observing carefully enough!’
‘Cough, cough, cough… Never mind that. That period was probably the best time of my life, wasn’t it?’
Later, when he was about twelve years old, his master’s family offended another powerful noble house. They were ultimately ruined, leaving him without a home. He chose to wander, trying to find work to support himself.
Yet, life in society proved far more arduous, sorrowful, and… darker than he had imagined! Soon after leaving, with no social experience whatsoever, his only silver coin was swindled away from him. Penniless, he nearly starved to death on the streets.
Fortunately, was it a case of fools having good luck? Just as he was on the verge of starvation, passing by the Adventurers’ Guild, he stumbled upon a team recruiting “assistants”!
‘Well… to put it plainly, it was just carrying bags and acting as a laborer. The daily wage was only one copper coin, but at least they provided two meals that were barely palatable. Hmm, as long as I didn’t starve… everything would surely get better!’
Driven by this hope, he worked as an ‘assistant’ for five years. Though he nearly lost his life in the wilderness many times, or was beaten half to death for losing his employers’ belongings, he persevered.
Through relentless, day-and-night effort during those five years, he finally honed his ‘archery skills,’ at last shedding his identity as an ‘assistant.’
After that, he officially became an adventurer. He joined and left many small teams. Powerful teams looked down on him, a mediocre adventurer who started as an assistant, while weaker teams couldn’t earn enough money. ‘Hmph, what a joke…’
****
“Ice coalesce, frozen blade become spear, grant me supreme power, Ice Spear of the Frozen Void! Go—”
“Whoosh—”
“Bang—”
Suddenly, just as Gilbert closed his eyes, preparing to accept his fate, a miracle occurred!
To Gilbert’s right, around the street corner, three spears, nearly two meters long, pure white, and emanating a faint, chilling aura, suddenly shot out! They flew in a triangular formation, hurtling towards the Minotaur.
Though the Minotaur noticed them and roared, attempting to swing its massive axe behind it, its speed ultimately fell short. In a flash, the three spears instantly pierced the Minotaur’s body.
Finally, the Minotaur glared fiercely at Leya. Amidst its unwilling roars, its colossal body crashed to the ground, and then it drew no more breath.
“Hmm? No wonder the sound felt familiar. I thought I’d come check it out. So it was you!”
‘It… it’s her!?’
“Hey, why are you staring blankly? Can you still move?”
“Ah? Oh, well… Miss Leya, I’m terribly sorry! Because of my injuries just now…”
Indeed, the newcomer was none other than Leya, who had just returned from the Netherworld Forest!
However, Gilbert had never imagined that Leya would so brazenly challenge a Minotaur. Their species typically possessed a minimum physical capability of Lv2, yet Leya was merely a Lv1 mage.
It was utterly reckless. Gilbert was still shaken, but beyond that, he felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. ‘Indeed, if Leya hadn’t been here today, I would have surely…’
What moved Gilbert even more was the scene he imagined in his mind: [Leya, disregarding her own safety to save him, bravely rushing forward with her Lv1 strength to battle a Lv2 Minotaur to the death!]
‘Ah… what a beautiful fantasy! Of course, it could only ever be a fantasy…’
“Alright, that’s fine. The monsters are starting to retreat anyway. Just stay here and wait for reinforcements!”
“Huh?”
Without giving Gilbert another moment to speak, reality often contrasted sharply with ideals. Leya merely cast a fleeting glance around before heading directly to the village church, without a hint of hesitation.
She left Gilbert standing alone, bewildered in the wind, still unable to comprehend the situation.
‘Hey, shouldn’t it be that after the princess saves the protagonist, they fall in love at first sight, and then, with mutual affection, they create a beautiful legend?!’
‘At the very least, at the very least, after hearing I was injured, shouldn’t you come over and help me walk back?! Are you just going to ignore me like this? What a heartless person! I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m really going to die! Ahhh!—’
****
In truth, to be fair, Leya had no malicious intent in misleading Gilbert. Upon returning to the village earlier, she had noticed that, apart from the orcs still fighting at the forefront, most of the beast tribes had already begun an orderly retreat.
Thanks to this, Leya’s journey here had been surprisingly uneventful. Powerful monsters, like the Minotaur, were too preoccupied with their retreat to bother with her, and the remaining small fry couldn’t pose a threat.
“Ah, there!—Miss Leya, Miss Leya, over here, here, here!”
She quickly arrived at the church entrance.
Her first sight was Angela, waving her hands and loudly calling her name, surrounded by numerous injured villagers and adventurers lying nearby. Upon closer inspection, even Giles, the one dubbed the ‘meat shield’ in their party, was there, his waist tightly wrapped in white bandages.
What particularly caught Leya’s attention was that Giles—oh no, and the other injured lying on the ground—all seemed to have faint, shimmering black aura emanating from their wounds.
“Oh, Angela, are you… treating people?”
“Yes, this attack came so suddenly, and we didn’t receive timely warning. Plus, about a dozen beastfolk broke through the defenses and entered the church, causing massive casualties, so the deaths and injuries are quite severe, alas…”
As she spoke, Angela glanced worriedly at the injured lying on the ground, sighing with a somber expression.
But then, as if remembering something, she looked at Leya and said, full of disbelief, “M-Miss Leya… about that previous matter… you didn’t actually… actually kill the Netherworld Wolf King, did you?”
“Hmm, well… it was just so-so. Knocked it down in an instant,” Leya said casually, clearly not wanting to dwell on the matter. She then glanced at the surrounding injured before walking over to Giles, squatting down, and frowning as she observed him.
“Is that so…?” Angela said, her tone filled with doubt. After all, Leya was only Lv1; how could she possibly kill the legendary Wolf King, which supposedly could swat a Lv2 expert to death with a single paw? Moreover, Miss Leya claimed she killed it ‘in an instant,’ which sounded far too outlandish.
‘Could Chapman and the others have been mistaken?’ Angela had to admit, it seemed quite possible. After all, she’d never heard anything about the Wolf King still being alive…
‘And a Lv1 person easily killing the Wolf King… are you sure such a fantastical tale isn’t just the beginning of a fairy tale?’
‘Well… despite all that,’ Angela still said, feeling quite guilty, “Miss Leya, I’m truly sorry for leaving ahead of you back then!”
Her sincerity was undeniable. Though they hadn’t known each other long, Angela deeply respected Leya! Even if Leya seemed a bit difficult to talk to, she had, after all, once helped Angela’s team!
And she had accepted the invitation to join their seemingly weak team without any hesitation…
All these things made Angela believe that Leya must be a good person.
However, Leya merely cast a faint glance at Angela and replied, “At a time like that, if you hadn’t run, *then* you’d truly owe me an apology.”
Subsequently, under Angela’s gaze filled with emotion, Leya, unable to bear it, chose to continue examining Giles’s unconscious wounds.
“Indeed, it’s emitting black aura…”
“Eh? Miss Leya, what are you talking about?”
“No, nothing…”
Angela: “………”
‘Clearly, there’s something, hey!’
‘Well, if Leya isn’t going to say anything, there’s nothing I can do,’ Angela thought, and prepared to continue helping the injured.
“By the way, Angela, do you know anything about this attack?” Leya suddenly asked, out of the blue.
Although Angela didn’t understand why Leya was asking, it wasn’t a big deal. She stopped her actions and began to explain patiently, “I’m not entirely clear on the specifics, but according to the injured, the beastfolk seem to have come from the east. Giles encountered them during their retreat and was struck in the waist.”
“Oh, right, also, it seems the scale of this attack was simply too massive. The overall strength of the beast tribes is far beyond what our ten adventurer teams can handle. That’s why our captain, along with the leaders of other teams, went to see the Grand Elder of the church a while ago. It looks like they intend to negotiate with the Grand Elder about this matter…”
“I see…”
Leya stood up, a faint smile playing on her lips. “I’m afraid things aren’t that simple. In fact, it’s unusually excessive. It feels… like a trap.”
“Eh!?”