People often make mistakes.
The illusion that only their own will and determination determine the path they will walk, the direction they must go.
But how many people can actually do that?
Most people in the world tend to live staggering and drifting like passengers on a shipwreck, swept away by surrounding circumstances or the intentions of others.
Living while carrying out every move according to one’s own will was nothing more than the nonsense of arrogant people who viewed the world’s affairs too lightly.
…Why am I suddenly saying this, you ask?
Well, that’s because…
“There you are! We’ve finally found you, Brunhilde the Knight of Betrayal!”
I’m in exactly that kind of situation right now.
* * *
Just half a day after leaving the abandoned house and starting to head south, we encountered a group of pursuers who had been chasing us.
“The traitor Brunhilde and… who’s that woman next to her? An accomplice who assisted in the escape?”
Unlike adventurers with vastly different levels of equipment, several dozen men wearing identical clothes and armor.
Judging by the strict military discipline characteristic of those who have received formal training, they were probably the private soldiers of a nearby nobleman.
Sixty elite soldiers wearing breastplates… and six knights in full plate armor.
Though it was a number that showed signs of being hastily scraped together, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.
Even if they weren’t regular royal knights but private soldiers of a noble family, being appointed as a knight meant they were at least silver token adventurer level in skill.
If I fought them one-on-one six times, I could easily win, but if all six attacked at once, even Belita would abandon the fight and flee.
“…No, it doesn’t matter who. Both of you, drop your weapons and surrender quietly!”
A knight on horseback shouted at me, pointing a banner spear engraved with a wolf emblem.
A middle-aged man with a mustache grown out like some potato chip character. He seemed to be the commander of this group.
“Woof! Woof woof!”
“Grrr…!”
“Awoooo-!”
Perhaps stimulated by the middle-aged man’s shout, the hunting dogs held on leashes by another knight all started barking at once, scratching the ground with their front paws.
Hunting dogs. How classic.
Even in this fantasy world where fireballs fly out of books and swords shoot beams, it seems there are few tools more capable than dogs for pursuit.
“Surrender, you say?”
I answered, drawing my longsword and pointing it at them. Friede growled beside me, grasping at the air.
Honestly, I thought she would draw her holy sword and start swinging it as soon as she saw the enemy, but surprisingly, she just took a stance to draw it without attacking first.
Perhaps she felt a bit reluctant to slaughter these people who were just carrying out their official duties without question. The holy sword wasn’t given to her to be used for such things.
“Why should I? I don’t remember doing anything to be dragged away like a criminal.”
It was half sincere. Cutting off the arms and legs of the ruffian who tried to kidnap me isn’t a capital offense, is it? If anything, it’s closer to self-defense.
Even betraying the Kingdom of Rhine, while the Rhine army might have the right to question me, it wasn’t something the regular army of Hervor had the authority to pursue.
I was innocent. At least in my mind.
“Such brazen words…! You’re charged with massacring seven small pioneer villages, 47 counts of assassinating Adventurers’ Guild members, conspiring with the Abyss Priest to murder priests of the Goddess Church, and attempting to assassinate members of Burgundy’s hero party!”
However, in the eyes of those pursuing us, I was already determined to be a great criminal who deserved to be dragged away with a leash and publicly flogged in the square.
“…That’s quite a lot.”
If I admitted to all those charges, wouldn’t I be sent straight to the stake even if I surrendered?
It seems they had thoroughly investigated all my past actions and pinned everything on me that was even slightly suspicious.
Literally a witch hunt, you could say.
“They’re all false accusations.”
I lowered my stance slightly, bending my knees while keeping my sword tip pointed at them. Ready to charge in and swing my sword at any moment.
“You deny the charges and intend to resist? How foolish!”
“Should I just die quietly then? Even though I clearly know they’re false accusations? Put yourself in my shoes. Could you do that?”
“Such insolence from a criminal!”
The mustached middle-aged man raged, swinging his banner spear once. A silent order to attack. Probably.
As he swung his spear, the soldiers lined up around him all drew their swords and spears and began to close the distance.
Those armed with shields and swords advanced in neat rows and columns, while spearmen followed behind, pointing their spear tips at me.
The archers at the very back, instead of approaching me, spread out widely to the left and right while nocking arrows to their bowstrings.
A clear battle formation. As I had feared, it was impossible to clear up the misunderstanding through dialogue. They had already branded me a criminal from the start.
I was left with only two choices. Either defeat them all, or throw down my weapon and surrender to be taken away.
“The insolent ones are you people, not me!”
I kicked off the snow-covered ground and charged towards the ‘enemy’. With my gripped longsword filled with clear hostility.
The accusation of conspiring with the Abyss Priest was a completely baseless false charge, and the other charges were clearly self-defense from my perspective.
Not just by my standards, but even by this world’s standards, they shouldn’t be considered crimes.
However, if I surrendered and was taken away like this, I would be thrown in prison without a chance to speak in my defense, subjected to torture disguised as interrogation.
There was no other way.
For me.
“Ugh… is there no choice…!”
And for Friede, who was biting her lip and drawing her holy sword.
“Here they come! Suppressive fire! Aim for the head and legs!”
“That sword, is it a magic weapon…! I, William, will take on that wench!”
“Ha, I can’t let you do that! Isn’t such a fine sword a bit too much for you?”
The archers’ arrows pour down like rain, and two knights in full plate armor competitively dash towards Friede.
“Haaah!”
I rolled on the ground to avoid the rain of arrows, then sprung up and thrust my sword through the face of a shield-bearing soldier.
“Guk…!”
The shield-bearer let out a short groan, his eyes rolling back as he convulsed. Blood splattered and trickled down my cheek.
That was the beginning.
“Stand back if you don’t want to die!”
Using his corpse as a human shield to block the sword swung by another soldier, I simultaneously swung my longsword to cut off the arm of a third soldier thrusting his sword from the side.
“Aaaagh…!”
“I said stand back!”
The shield-bearer collapsed, clutching his severed arm.
I kicked his abdomen to knock him down along with the spearman following behind, and leaped into the gap created, swinging my gripped longsword left and right like a storm.
“Aaah!”
“Khak…!”
Screams erupted and blood sprayed. Those who couldn’t turn their bodies quickly due to the interference of other soldiers and shields helplessly exposed their necks and sides.
Severed heads were trampled into the ground, and spilled entrails wrapped around my sword blade and arms, swimming through the blood splattered in the air.
Using ‘Iron Arm’ against soldiers would be a waste of stamina.
I kept the troll-like enormous strength neatly sealed away, and cut them down one by one using only my basic strength and speed along with the skills and experience I had honed so far.
“Spread out! Trap them in a shield wall and subdue them with spears!”
After cutting down seven in succession like that, two of the watching knights began walking towards me while issuing new orders to the soldiers.
Tadat tadat. The soldiers quickly spread out, surrounding me in a circle.
Befitting those who have trained their whole lives in killing people, they showed not a hint of wavering despite seven being killed in an instant.
“…I see, so you have no intention of withdrawing quietly.”
I sighed, swinging my sword in the air to shake off the entrails tangled on the blade and my arm.
It was an unpleasant sensation. The feeling of cutting off the breath of those who weren’t bandits.
The spilled entrails, the spraying blood. It felt like nausea was rising up from the stench so thick it was disgusting.
Swoosh!
The moment an arrow flying from the side bounced off my pauldron and grazed my cheek, such well-fed sentiments were promptly erased from my mind.
“…Alright, let’s see this through to the end. If that’s what you want!”
I gritted my teeth while lightly rubbing to wipe off the wound on my cheek. The small remnants of conscience and guilt were crushed under survival instinct.
Kill or be killed. That simple, clear proposition guided my sword.
The sword swung with clear killing intent was twice as fast and twice as fierce as before.
Thwack!
Enough to penetrate and tear apart the soldiers’ bodies along with their armor.
“Witch-like wench, you’ve finally shown your true colors!”
Two knights who had broken through the encirclement charged at me, swinging their longswords.
“Shut up!”
I shouted fiercely as I parried and deflected their swords.
“You brought this on yourselves. Do you understand? You brought this on yourselves-!”
Everything was irritating.
The arrows raining down like rain whenever I showed an opening. The soldiers thrusting and swinging their spears and swords whenever I turned my back.
And even the knights who I couldn’t easily overwhelm without using Iron Arm, who would immediately carve wounds into my body if my attention wavered for even a moment.
Pain and bleeding turn into anger, dyeing my mind red.
This dog-eat-dog world. Trash-like heroes. The sensation of arrows embedded in my forearm. Barbaric and greedy humans. My changed body. The hunting dogs latching onto my legs.
The stench filling the air everywhere. Toilets without bidets. Pain. The public order that falls apart just outside the city. Tasteless food. Fatigue. Endless waves of misfortune. A gloomy and miserable future.
All the resentment that had piled up and accumulated burst forth like a volcano all at once.
“All of you – just die!”
I let out a roar filled with resentment and killing intent, rampaging like a wounded beast. With the momentum to cut, tear, and hack everything that appeared before my eyes.
“Uwaaaaah—!”
Snow flies up roughly. A blood spray rises like cherry blossoms in full bloom, drenching the snow field with heat.
The melted snow became a red river and flowed.
* * *
When I finally regained my senses and looked around, panting while stabbing my sword into the ground, there was only one person alive around me.
“Let’s go now, Miss Hilde.”
Friede, who had unsummoned her blood-stained holy sword, said as she handed me a potion bottle.
“…Where to?”
I asked back in a completely exhausted voice. Averting my eyes from the pool of blood and dismembered flesh that she and I had created.
“Anywhere. Somewhere that’s not here.”
Friede answered, turning her head away from me and looking at the snow-capped mountains rising in the distance.
And so our flight began.
A flight of aimless wandering, endlessly cutting down pursuers again and again.
Ironically, with each pursuer I cut down and killed, I could feel all too clearly that my skills were gradually improving.
At a speed incomparable to the past few months I had lived as an adventurer.
…It was truly ironic.