The moment of mourning for the fallen knight was not long.
He was the first man I had ever killed.
No amount of prayers for his peace could have been enough, but now was not the right time. This place had undoubtedly already been discovered by the Urjina Army.
Sir Alex had just sent a messenger, hadn’t he?
There was nothing to do but quickly compose myself and leave.
Even so, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the knight’s corpse for quite some time before I finally turned my steps.
It was to liberate the elf.
However, the remaining soldiers did not bless my victory.
One of them suddenly grabbed an elf and started backing away while pressing a dagger to their throat.
“Kyaaahhh!”
“O, oh don’t come any closer!”
I frowned, not expecting such reckless behavior.
Was he suicidal?
Threatening in a moment of defeat was meaningless. While it may have unsettled me, the effect would go only that far.
The soldier taking the hostage would soon face a life-threatening situation. On the other hand, escaping the coniferous forest with the hostage was impossible. They lacked the strength to try such an escape alone, and even if they attempted, the elf wouldn’t stand a chance beyond the forest.
This meant the hostage had little value.
In the end, I sighed and decided to try persuasion.
“Drop the knife… the fight is already over.”
“Our idol was Sir Alex!” he cried out.
At the sound of his passionate voice, some of the soldiers began to stir uneasily, slowly gripping their weapons. It seemed like things might get more complicated.
I, on the other hand, was alone.
If the rest started acting up, I had my limits too. There was a chance some elves might lose their lives.
And then I remembered I had just killed one of my own kind.
I desired no further deaths.
While incapacitating without killing would be ideal, I was in no position to be concerned with each individual among those wildly protesting the elves’ fate.
Thus, I decided to quietly listen to the soldier’s lament.
“We’ve all lost our families to the elves… that’s why we volunteered for this mission! We swore allegiance to Sir Alex, so how can we alone survive?”
“It’s a meaningless death.”
My reasonable counterargument caused his body to tremble.
I continued steadily.
“What’s the point in throwing your life away? For taking the lives of a few unfortunate elves?”
“That… that’s enough!”
“It’s not. And it won’t quench your burning desire for revenge.”
As I took a step forward, a minor signal, his body began to shake all the more violently. Fear of death, a feeling shared by all creatures, was clear.
Here, there was no difference between human and elf.
The soldier pressed the dagger closer to the elf’s throat.
The elf gasped, trembling legs quaking as if resonating with the soldier’s stance.
It was absurd.
He feared death so much, yet was prepared to throw his life away needlessly, stealing another’s in the process.
I extended my hand and said softly.
“Let the elf go now. I have no intention of harming you.”
“…How can we trust you?”
“If I had the intent to kill, would you still be alive now?”
My declaration was arrogant, but it was also a cold fact.
I’d already subdued the soldiers. I’d thrown my hatchet to destroy their weapons, proving I didn’t intend to kill.
Had I wanted, I would have taken their lives then and there.
Unable to counter my logic, the trembling in his hand began to subside. A look of deep anguish crossed his face as he averted his eyes.
The other soldiers felt the same.
They were weighing their loyalty to Sir Alex against their own lives, proving the respect Sir Alex had earned.
I made one last attempt at persuasion.
“We can’t just leave Sir Alex’s remains here, can we?”
This was the decisive blow.
One of the soldiers hesitated, closed their eyes tightly, and threw away their weapon. The others followed.
Weapons clattered to the ground like rain.
The only one left was the soldier threatening the elf.
I looked at him with a glance as if to say, ‘What now?’ He looked somewhat shocked by his comrades’ choices but then clenched his teeth.
It was an ominous sign.
His bulging eyes displayed visible red veins—obvious signs of extreme excitement.
I tightened my grip on my hatchet, but my just recently battle-worn body did not respond. In that fleeting hesitation, disaster was imminent.
I instinctively shouted.
“No!”
The scream echoed as the dagger’s blade was about to slash the elf’s throat.
But before it could happen, there was a soft sound: a silver dart struck the soldier on the back of the neck.
“Khuk… khuck!”
The soldier didn’t even have the chance to groan. His eyes wide open, he swayed and fell sideways.
In his place, the frightened elf, trembling violently, was left standing.
Needless to say, it wasn’t my doing.
Everyone’s gaze shifted to the perpetrator. From the burning corner of the village, a shadow stirred and emerged.
It was a familiar face.
Her hair was accentuated by a pin, her brunette hair framed a flawless complexion, exuding a gentle impression.
But her emerald eyes were different.
They were sunken, almost hostile, as if ready to reject others. Her gaze sometimes resembled a snake’s keen eyes or the sly, secretive eyes of a fox.
Walking confidently and clasping her hands behind her back, she elegantly curtsied.
Like her attire, it was the etiquette of a maid.
“It’s been a while, Sir Ian.”
It was Neoris.
I had to let out a soft laugh at this unexpected meeting.
Why was Neoris here?
*
Soldier Hans let out a groan as he opened his eyes.
The harsh north wind pierced through his armor like a blade. Yet he felt no cold, for the area around him was still burning fiercely.
Pieces of fire still lingered in the ruins of the elf village. Some of the fires must have been set by Hans himself.
It was ironic.
He destroyed their huts and then survived the freezing cold using the same warmth.
It was almost as if he were a parasite, surviving off others’ misfortune, much like the elves who had attacked his village long ago.
His hometown was razed by food-starved elves.
Hans was the only survivor. Since that day, he’d lived consumed by thoughts of revenge.
Because of this, he met a great commander.
A knight who fought alongside his soldiers on the front lines, even though he was their leader.
He was dead now.
At the hands of someone humanity revered as a hero.
Hans felt no tears as he thought of that futile end. He merely sat up and absently revisited his memories.
He remembered trying to stab an elf but lost consciousness after that.
His fellow soldier clarified the missing memory.
One of the soldiers slowly approached Hans, glanced down at him, sighed heavily, and extended a crude wooden blade.
Clearly, it was of elven origin. Hans blinked in confusion.
“You’re helping dig graves. You too.”
“What… what’s going on?”
At Hans’s question, the soldier patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.
“It’s simple. We got beaten… bad. And after you passed out from some girl biting you.”
“But why are we alive?”
“Because they let us.”
It was straightforward.
But not easily understandable.
They had set fire to the village, attempted to wipe out the elves, and yet they were spared.
Hans almost protested but bit his lip.
His very existence was proof.
The soldier continued explaining softly.
“The elves wanted to kill us, but Sir Ian stopped them… saying there were witnesses, that killing back and forth solves nothing. The elves reluctantly saw his point.”
“So now what?”
“What to do? Sir Alex sent a messenger, reinforcements will come when they hear the news. Until then, let’s make a proper grave for him.”
The explanation made sense, and Hans’s head drooped.
He’d been saved by the elves he sought to avenge himself against, even if Sir Ian had intervened.
Could there be any greater humiliation?
His companion, however, seemed to think differently.
He patted Hans on the shoulder again.
“You know, I’ve been thinking. With Sir Alex gone… it’s time to stop this madness.”
“Retirement?”
“Yeah, isn’t it? And besides, we’re just murderers, aren’t we?”
A wry smile lingered on the soldier’s lips as he reminisced.
“All these years, I thought it was about revenge, but now that I’ve been spared by those I considered enemies… it feels… meaningless.”
“Elves are still potential killers.”
“And we’re nothing but murderers.”
With those words, the soldier picked up his shovel again and left Hans with one last piece of advice.
“Anyway, think about it, you can’t keep this up forever. You’ve probably saved some money… aah!…”
That was his last word.
An arrow on fire pierced through his temple. Stunned by the sudden ambush, Hans watched as his companion’s skull exploded in a small eruption of blood and brain matter.
Reacting purely on instinct, he threw himself to the ground just before gore rained down around him.
The sound of the brain matter splattering was horrifying.
But it was only the beginning.
