Chapter 131
Valdes stood, his soul seemingly departed, as he gazed ahead. There, a young man introduced as an adventurer was sweeping away thugs with overwhelming force. Each thug that charged with a blade met the same fate—their limbs severed.
Valdes clenched his fist tightly.
‘…This was something I had only imagined.’
In the past, he had fiercely resisted when the thugs first settled in this place. But their cruelty was beyond imagination, and eventually, even his spirit to oppose them was broken.
Having witnessed the thugs’ tyranny for years, Valdes silently vowed. Since even the knights guarding the Forest of Beasts turned a blind eye, he had no choice but to become strong and save the village himself.
That’s why he decided to volunteer for the ‘Dragon Soldier Project,’ which even a lowborn like him could join.
“Aaaargh!”
“Please, save me.”
The man named Yan crushed the village-plaguing thugs with ease, as if snapping twigs. Those who charged with swords had their arms cleanly sliced off.
The thugs’ skills were pitifully inadequate.
Yan, standing over a fallen thug he had just defeated, muttered disdainfully, “Is this all they amount to?”
At best, they were between the ninth and eighth rank—mere street performers with third-rate skills.
They weren’t worth interrogating.
“To think they tormented others with such pathetic abilities.”
Yan let out a scoff of disbelief.
Someone approached Yan hastily and bowed.
“Th-thank you.”
It was a woman who had been dragged away by the brutish hands of the thugs. Her arms and neck bore fresh bruises, perhaps from previous assaults.
Yan looked at her intently before lifting his foot off the thug.
“You may do as you please until your anger subsides,” he told the woman.
“What? How?”
“Do whatever you wish. Cut off limbs, take lives, deliver blows. Can’t you make up your mind?”
The woman bit her lip, the memories of what these ruffians had done to her flashing through her mind.
With tears in her eyes and a newfound resolve, she approached the fallen thug with a clenched fist.
“Yo-you…”
Her face twisted with rage as she began to pummel the thug. The sounds were not of heavy thuds but soft taps.
Being an ordinary woman untrained in mana, her blows were far from painful, but it felt liberating to her.
Panting, she thanked Yan, “Thank you so much. You’ve eased my grudge.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Yan stood up, looking at the woman catching her breath, then turned away. Valdes had approached him by then.
That’s when it happened.
“Stop this at once!”
It was an old man who had ignored the woman’s plight until now.
He approached Yan, dragging his cane with an angry face.
“Do you even realize what you’ve done?”
Yan frowned.
“Instead of such words, you should be offering thanks.”
“Thanks? To someone like you, they may be trash, but to us slash-and-burn farmers, they’re as good as knights. They’re the reason we’re still alive!”
Yan understood immediately. These men were the ones who occasionally protected them from the monsters that emerged.
But he couldn’t agree.
“So you planned to live a wretched life, forever preyed upon by these hyenas? Sure, an old man like you might, but what about a young boy like him?”
Yan pointed to Valdes, causing the old man to flinch.
“We’re not strong like you!”
“Then grow stronger.”
Yan scoffed at the old man.
“Have some shame.”
The old man trembled at Yan’s words, then turned and disappeared.
Amidst this, a child, about seven years old, ran up to Yan with a bright face and bowed deeply.
“Thank you for saving my sister!”
“Sure.”
Yan surveyed the surroundings. But like the old man, no one else spoke up.
“It seems the trash isn’t the only thing that needs cleaning.”
Yan murmured again, and Valdes quickly grabbed his sleeve.
“They’ve suffered a lot… They’re all good people, really.”
“That’s none of my concern.”
Yan turned away and stepped on the head of a thug, asking Valdes.
“You know all their faces, right?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Valdes nodded quickly.
Yan smiled and said, “Lead the way.”
* * *
The Ganglord of Armenia
In the shadowed corners of Armenia, Jackson, the ganglord, was not always one to mingle with criminals. A knight of a prestigious house, he wielded his sword with a flair that could ignite the very air, a talent reaching the esteemed 5th rank.
A status that would earn respect anywhere he went.
Before his fall to the head of a mere gang, he had commanded a noble house’s knights.
But greed led him astray, and soon he found himself hunted by the noble family of a lady he wronged.
Arriving in Armenia, he gathered the criminals he met under his wing and swiftly took control of the village.
One night, Jackson lay sprawled on a grand bed, guzzling from a bottle of wine, when irritation struck him, and he bellowed out.
“Damn it all. Hey!”
At his call, a thug waiting outside cracked open the door and peeked in.
“Yes, boss?”
“Do my words fall on deaf ears?”
“Sir?”
“I ordered you to bring me that girl I saw the other day. Is she here beside me now?”
“…My apologies. The boys have gone to fetch her; she’ll be here shortly.”
“If you’re this sluggish in action, there’s no point in harboring riffraff like you.”
Jackson rose abruptly from the bed and strode towards the door, causing the thug’s face to pale.
“Huh?”
“I’m sorry! I’ll go out and…”
Before the thug could finish, Jackson swung his fist.
Thwack!
The thug’s head burst open like a watermelon.
“You should’ve scurried out from the start.”
Blood smeared across his face, Jackson sneered and wiped his face clean as droplets fell to the floor.
Just as Jackson was about to return to his bed…
Boom!
A sound like a cannon blast echoed from not too far away.
Jackson’s head turned towards the source of the noise, a smile creeping onto his lips.
“Have the beasts from the forest decided to descend?”
Knights, once prominent, now relegated to the forest for their political or martial failings.
He had encountered them once while surveying the village outskirts.
All of them teetering on the edge of the 6th rank.
“Dare they cause a ruckus in my domain?”
Had all the knights come down, he wouldn’t dare such bold words.
But due to their duty guarding the forest’s borders, nine out of ten were usually bound there.
Which meant…
‘Only one of them has come down to the village.’
Cracking his neck, Jackson grabbed his beloved sword and stepped outside.
* * *
Jackson stepped out of his mansion, his face hardening at the thick scent of blood wafting through the air. The stench was so profound that it wouldn’t have been surprising if most of his underlings were dead.
‘Madness. Has some knight errant suddenly appeared?’
He hadn’t sensed such a presence when he had encountered them before—those knights were filled only with resentment towards their superiors and the empire that exiled them here.
Suddenly, Jackson’s face set into a grim line.
‘Could it be… these bastards covet my throne?’
It was a distinct possibility. Knights whose loyalty to the empire had waned might well discard their original duties.
And they might covet his position, reigning like a king over the village.
‘Damn, if all ten of them have come down, this could get tough.’
Even though he had reached the 5th rank, fighting ten knights on the cusp of the 6th rank was daunting.
Moreover, he had only recently achieved the 5th rank, while they were all nearly there.
Uncharacteristically for his large frame, Jackson slipped into a nearby log house to observe the village’s situation.
Before long, he heard the scream of one of his men.
“Aaaargh!”
Jackson’s feet moved swiftly, heading towards the village square.
There, it was as if an execution had taken place; his foolish underlings were all missing a limb, being beaten by the villagers.
Jackson’s eyes quickly scanned the area.
And then he saw him—the one sweeping away his men with an emotionless gaze.
Jackson frowned slightly.
‘Who is that brat?’
He wasn’t one of the knights guarding the Forest of Beasts.
Those men were all in their forties.
But the one before him was barely half that age.
A youth in his early twenties, with a delicate appearance, like a noble son raised sheltered like a greenhouse flower.
Jackson chuckled to himself.
“Ha, was I worried over such a whelp?”
Of course, the youth wasn’t ordinary, considering he had crippled his men and thrown them to the mercy of the villagers.
“But still just a kid.”
Without extraordinary talent, the youth couldn’t be stronger than him at that age.
And if he had such talent, he wouldn’t bother coming to a place like Armenia.
Confident of his victory, Jackson leaped towards the village square.
Thud!
His large frame kicked up a cloud of dust.
“Bo-boss.”
“Have you finally come to save us!”
“Pl-please, spare us!”
Jackson sneered at his underlings, crawling on the ground like insects with limbs severed.
“Useless fools.”
His gaze fixed on the young man before him.
“Hey you, what kind of fool are you to wreak havoc in another’s territory?”
The youth smirked back at him.
“This is your territory?”
“Of course, it’s mine.”
“This place has always been neutral ground. Don’t you know that neutral ground is under the sole jurisdiction of the royal family?”
Jackson knew that, of course.
That’s why he had fled to Armenia and established his base here.
Jackson snorted.
“The royal fools don’t manage it, so I took it over. But answer my earlier question, will you? What are you doing here?”
Yan smiled slyly in response.
“Me?”
He fumbled in his coat and pulled out a few documents.
“I’m the new lord here.”