I got off of my horse and went to Silvergreen…to Asagi .

Even during the fight, he wore a pained expression as he swung his sword . And he was fighting bandits . The emotion suggested a resistance to killing but also the knowledge that he had to in order to survive . It was all in his expression .

“Good work, Asagi . ”

“Mmm…ah, Miss Tetra . Were you hurt?”

“Just a few cuts . Nothing out of the ordinary for an Adventurer, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Uh, yeah . ”

He wiped at the blood on his cheek . Under the blood that dripped from his face, there was not a single scratch .

Asagi didn’t seem enthusiastic about taking the leader’s head, and so I offered to do it . I grabbed the hair in order to pull it up to the right angle, but the whole upper torso came with me .

“Huh…”

I let go without thinking . The torso fell into a puddle of blood with a wet thud . How did you he cut it to end up with a body like that? This wasn’t the work of any normal movement or use of strength . The sword itself would have to be very strong . I nervously glanced towards Asagi .

“Hahhhh…”

He looked at the blood on the cloth he used to wipe himself and sighed . I could see the reluctance in his expression . It was glaringly obvious .

However, what he had done was almost more terrifying than the bandits .

A man with great strength but a brittle heart . That was my first impression of him .

With the head in hand, we returned to the road . Asagi had wanted to bury the bodies, but I told him that we hadn’t killed all the bandits yet, and so he just put his hands together and bowed . Was it some tradition he had?

When that was finished, he picked up his sword and began to run . As his alias suggested, wind wrapped around his legs as he took off at a great speed, quickly disappearing from sight . The carriage would be fine if he was there . More importantly, I had to make sure that none of the other bandits had escaped .

And so I watched for them as I made my way back . That was when I encountered the man with the scar on his face . He had been in the carriage the last time I saw him…

“Woah, that’s a lot of blood . I hope it’s not yours?”

“It isn’t . And what about the blood on you?”

“Of course it’s not mine!”

He grinned . So he must have killed some of them too . Well, this part of the forest was likely fine then . And so I had him ride on the back of the horse as we continued on . It was probably safe, but I stayed alert .

The carriage was surrounded by corpses . The bodies of the bandits piled over one another . An exhibition of cuts, arrow wounds and broken bones . Each wound suggested a different weapon, a different pa.s.senger .

“Ah, you’re back . Miss Tetra . ”

“Yes . What a great mountain of bodies you have here . ”

“I didn’t do this . It was like this when I got back . ”

Not this one, you mean .

I got off of the horse and we all talked about what had happened . It seemed that we had killed all forty of the bandits . Lightwind’s Presence Detection abilities were quite advanced, and she was sure that there were no other groups, let alone a settlement . The merchant then urged us to waste no time in leaving this place . He was right . And with that, everyone began to put away their weapons . I too sheathed my sword and got into the carriage .

My horse was tied to the carriage by the driver, who intended on taking it with us .

“Asagi, we are leaving . ”

I looked up when I heard Lightwind’s voice . She was looking out of the carriage and at Asagi . He was looking at the forest . Perhaps he was regretting the lack of a burial .

Indeed, leaving the bodies out to rot would mean corruption and the possible spread of diseases . However, there were monsters in the area . They would likely take care of that . The monsters would grow fat, bear their young and eventually grow in numbers and be killed by us . That was the life of an Adventurer . It seemed that for him, living in our world meant fighting against something within him . Well, only Lightwind would know about that .

“Yeah, I’m coming . ”

When he finally looked back, his expression was indeed sad .

“We’ll be arriving at Yukka shortly!”

The driver called out . The sky was blue and beautiful . But when I looked down, my gauntlets were stained with red . It was the red that seemed to cast a shadow over everything .

It had not taken more than an hour after the battle with the bandits to get this close to Yukka . The path had started to branch out and we saw other carriages on the road . However, the pa.s.sengers all gasped when they turned towards us . Most of us were covered in blood . Who wouldn’t be surprised…?

The carriage b.u.mped and shook . Inside, I leaned against Daniela’s shoulder . As if noticing something, she turned to look at me and smiled .

“I think we should have a good long rest today and tomorrow . ”

“Yeah…I would like that . ”

I still wasn’t used to the act of killing, but at the same time, I felt a strong joy over my survival and the fact that Daniela was safe . I felt that this was what real fighting was .

Suddenly, I thought back on Nicora . Back then, I thought that I would not be able to protect anything if I didn’t kill . And so I did . Well, in the end, I only killed the wind dragon . Not the bandits .

So this was my first time since having that necessary change of heart . Gaining that resolve had toughened me a little . But I knew that I was still not used to it yet . The values and sense of morals ingrained in me could not be overwritten so easily .  

But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be . Because it was necessary in order to protect what was important to me . I couldn’t imagine losing Daniela . She was a part of me now .

“The first thing we must do when arriving in the town, is to do something about your clothes . ”

“I envy you and your bow . You at least don’t get drenched . ”

“Aye . I fully intended on using my bow no matter what this time . These clothes deserve better than to be covered in blood . ”

“And I thought you wanted to support us . ”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at her ridiculous reason . I wish that I had her inner strength .

Though, perhaps it was something only acquired after three hundred years of life .

The town finally came into view . And by town, I mean trees that were planted around a circular wall . As monsters were so widespread in this word, every town was protected by an impressive wall . Towns themselves were starting to feel like a familiar sight to me, but each one had its own taste and color . The town of Yukka was made of stone and felt both systematic and artistic .  

There were a large number of merchants and Adventurers lined up at the gate . And there did not seem to be much movement .

“Hey, is this the only entrance into the town?”

The scarred man asked the driver .

“Yukka only has two entrancs . This one, the west gate, and the north gate . ”

“Huh . Strange way to build a town . ”

“There are forests with monsters on both the east and south sides . And they happen to be very strong… This town used to have gates on those sides, but they keep them closed now and they are never opened . ”

“I see…”

The scarred man must have been satisfied with that answer, because he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes . Still, he had gotten the answer to a question that the rest of us had been wondering . And so we all nodded and continued to wait for our turn .

“I wonder what kind of monsters they are?”

I could not help but be interested . After all, from what I learned at the guild, there were no monsters in these parts that seemed like that big of a threat .

“They’re quite famous around here . Loup-garou . ”

“Loup-garou…”

Werewolves?

I glanced at the beastkin girl . But she was looking down and I couldn’t see her expression .

Well, it’s not like werewolves had anything to do with her… Still, my curiosity about the beastkin seemed to know no bounds ever since I found out about them . What if these Loup-garou were beastkin too? It could be some misunderstanding and they were just treated like monsters . That would be tragic .

Such fantasies played out in my mind as we waited . Loup-garou… I kind of wanted to meet them .