Rather than move rashly, Yuto waited for the leading orc to come close enough. The instant it entered his spear's reach, he stepped sideways and thrust.

It was no simple thrust. His spear pierced straight through the orc's leather armor and into its armpit, one of the body's most vulnerable spots.

"Gah!"

Blood spurted from the orc's mouth. The spear drove deep into its armpit, tore through its lung, and slid free. Ignoring the creature as it staggered and coughed up blood, Yuto swung the spear in a broad diagonal arc.

THUD!

The shaft struck the ankle of the orc following behind it. The blow failed to knock the creature down, but it did make it briefly lose its balance and stumble.

Yuto deftly flicked the spear upward. The orc had lowered its arms below its face to regain its balance.

THUD!

Seizing that opening, Yuto drove the spear into its mouth.

"Graaagh!"

The spear pierced through the orc's mouth and out the back of its head. Yuto gave it a half turn as he pulled it free. The orc convulsed and flopped facedown onto the ground.

The orc with the torn lung was still breathing, but it could only lie there frothing blood, unable to move anymore. Left alone, it would die on its own. Yuto ignored it and strode toward the remaining bandits.

"Uh... aaah..."

It had happened in an instant. Even by a generous estimate, it had taken less than three minutes to wipe out the five crossbowmen on the rooftops and the three orcs on the ground. The five remaining human bandits stared at Yuto, dumbstruck.

The figure approaching them was a boy in his mid-teens at most, but that was not what they saw. That boy was far more terrifying than the restless spirits roaming this city with their eerie screams.

"Y-you monstrous little bastard...!"

Overcome with terror, a bandit charged Yuto and swung his sword.

THUD!

A sword swung without even properly looking at its target had no chance of reaching Yuto. Besides, his spear was far longer than the man's blade. A light thrust pierced the man's throat.

Without bothering to pull the spear out, Yuto angled it down against the ground. Impaled through the throat, the man could not even fall because of the slanting spear. He choked and thrashed, trying to pull it out. Bright red blood ran down the shaft and pooled on the ground.

Yuto picked up the sword the man had dropped. His eyes, swirling with murky darkness, fixed on the remaining four. That gaze annihilated their will to fight. Screaming, they scattered in different directions.

BOOM!

Two fleeing bandits exploded, engulfed in flames. It was Flokiro's doing. He leaped toward another and swung his little foot at the man's head.

It was an adorable little foot, but its power was horrifying. The head struck by Flokiro's kick burst like a watermelon. Meanwhile, Yuto threw his sword at the back of the last bandit, who was fleeing in a frantic scramble.

THUD!

The flying sword pierced the back of the bandit's knee. He screamed and tumbled across the ground, and Yuto strode toward him.

"W-wait...! Please, please spare me...! If you just let me live..."

"You should have begged for your life earlier."

Answering in a cold voice, Yuto pulled the sword from the back of the man's knee. The man screamed and writhed, but Yuto's blade struck true, slicing through his neck and severing his head.

Fourteen bandits were dead. Only the one caught in Levian's vines remained. Yuto tossed the blood-drenched sword aside and strode toward him.

"Uh... aaah..."

The terrified man reeked of urine. Unable to bear his fear, he had wet himself. Yuto drew his obsidian dagger and crouched before him, meeting his eyes.

"From now on, answer only what I ask," Yuto whispered. "If you don't answer, I'll cut off your fingers one by one."

"I... I under... understand..."

At that brutally low, cold voice, the man nodded frantically. Yuto tilted his head slightly and asked, "Why are you here?"

"W-we're... we're tomb robbers. Sometimes, when we spot adventurers or... fugitives from the cities coming here, we rob them too—"

CRUNCH!

Yuto brought his dagger down, neatly severing the man's index finger.

"Aaaaargh!"

The man screamed. Yuto waited silently until he stopped. Only when the screaming subsided did he speak.

"I told you to answer, not to lie. There's no way you're just tomb robbers and bandits."

"Uuugh... uhhh..."

"For people who do nothing but rummage through ruins, you're armed as well as a decent city's regular troops. You're even working with orcs. And you expect me to believe you're tomb robbers? Apparently, I asked too politely."

Yuto's voice sank lower and lower, and an abyssal darkness swirled in his eyes. At the same time, a vicious, menacing aura rose from him, cowing the man and making him tremble with fear.

"First, I'll cut off every finger on your left hand. By then, you should be ready to tell the truth."

"W-wait, please wait! I'll tell you everything, everything honestly...!"

On the verge of tears, the man stammered on.

"At first... we really did come here... to pick up valuables from the ruins and sell them. B-but then we ran into some mages..."

"Mages...?"

Yuto's eyes narrowed.

"Y-yes. They call themselves 'Black Mages,' and they captured us and make us w-work..."

Yuto's brow twitched at the words "Black Mages." It was a name he had heard before his regression.

There had once been a group of mages called Dark Star who roamed the continent's shadows, researching evil magic. Its members called themselves Black Mages.

But by the time Yuto had reached adulthood, Dark Star had already been wiped out. Their leader, the Dark Mage, had been captured by the Kingdom of Ristal and beheaded before its people.

'But that... happened when I was twenty.'

Yuto worried his lip between his teeth. At this point in time, Dark Star had not been eradicated.

"What did they make you do?"

Yuto's low voice seethed with fury. He could not help being enraged that those sinister, filthy dark mages had dared set foot in Belkain's ruins and were plotting something here.

Crushed beneath the murderous aura Yuto exuded, the man trembled as he confessed the truth.

The story that spilled from his lips was far more revolting than Yuto had imagined.

Belkain's ruins were cursed ground, but the kingdom had been powerful until five years ago, when it fell in a single night. As a result, many valuables remained in the collapsed city.

Yet the neighboring cities and kingdoms made no concerted effort to excavate Belkain. The reason was simple: rumor had it that Belkain had been destroyed by a constellation's wrath, and that wrath still lingered as a curse. Nobles, who revered the constellations as gods, did not dare plunder Belkain.

There was another reason. The Kingdom of Ristal, an ally of Belkain whose king had been a close friend of Belkain's last king, Luke Belkain, had firmly insisted that the ruins be preserved.

Thus, access to Belkain's ruins was blocked, and the treasures sleeping within them remained untouched. However...

Far more people in the world lacked a constellation's protection than possessed it. The constellations protected only the nobility. In particular, the poor, who had spent their whole lives in poverty and would spend the rest of their lives passing that poverty down to their children, coveted the treasures sleeping in Belkain.

That went without saying for criminals already branded as offenders. The nobles had abandoned any thought of approaching Belkain, but many poor people and criminals crossed the mountains at night and slipped into the city, hoping to salvage even a single piece of jewelry from its ruins.

By then, however, Dark Star's Black Mages had already entrenched themselves in Belkain. They occupied the ruined royal castle and captured the criminals and poor who came seeking treasure.

"W-we don't do anything much," the man stammered.

"There are... crystals the Black Mages installed in these ruins. E-every day, we move the crystals to... the places the Black Mages designate, and then... all we do is make s-smoke."

"Smoke?"

"Th-this."

The man fumbled inside his clothes and pulled something out. It was a rolled-up sheet of pitch-black paper.

"A spell scroll...?"

Levian, who had been listening blankly, spoke in surprise. When Yuto glanced at her, she approached cautiously, unrolled the scroll, and examined its contents.

"Th-this... is a kind of necromancy," she stammered. "And an exceptionally cruel kind at that..."

"What spell is written on it?"

At Yuto's question, his face contorting, Levian checked the scroll once more before answering.

"It's... a spell that inflicts pain... on souls..."

"Th-that's right," the man stammered. "W-we move the crystals... and use that thing you called a scroll. Then the spirits around us start screaming, and purple light seeps out of them..."

"My God..."

Levian's mouth fell open in shock.

Yuto's face twisted into an even grimmer expression. He, too, understood what was happening in Belkain's ruins.

Dark Star's Black Mages were using Belkain's ruins as a kind of aether factory. This place already teemed with countless restless spirits and was saturated with malice and negative aether. Yet those bastards were using the scrolls to inflict still more pain on the spirits and extract negative aether of even greater purity.

"W-we only did what we were told...! What the Black Mages in the castle told us... Y-yes, we really only did what we were told...!"

The man prostrated himself and pleaded.

"Th-they're the ones who ordered us to stop you, too...!"

Even now, poor people risked their lives to come to this city, hoping to change their futures. Those who had already become the Black Mages' workers captured them and dragged them to the royal castle.

"I-I don't know what goes on there... I swear, I-I didn't want to do any of this either. I just... I only came here hoping to pick up a jeweled necklace or a ring, something like that..."

Yuto looked down at the man without answering.

"Please, please spare me... I'm a miserable wretch too, once you know my story..."

"Tell me," Yuto said coldly, "everything you know. How many crystals are there? How many Black Mages are in the royal castle, and why are you working with orcs?"

"Th-the Black Mages brought the orcs. I don't know the details either. I only do what I'm told... I-I don't really know how many are in the royal castle... I saw about three. And... and the crystals... uh..."

The man appeared to know nothing more.

"I see."

Nodding, Yuto rose and walked behind the man. For an instant, the man felt relieved, believing his life had been spared. Then a hand seized his hair, making him start in terror.

"Huh? Aaagh?!"

Yuto lifted the hair at the back of the man's head and inspected his nape. A vivid red brand marked the skin there—the brand of a criminal who had committed theft.

"So you weren't such a decent person after all," a cold voice whispered.

"You only did what you were told? You looked awfully pleased when you blocked our way. How many people have you killed using that excuse?"

"I—I really didn't want to do it! A-and I answered everything you asked—"

"When did I ever promise to spare you if you answered?"

CRACK!

Yuto wrenched the man's head around, snapping his neck.