People exchanging letters without ever meeting can be as rude as they please. Those facing each other with weapons in hand, on the other hand, tend to show a certain amount of courtesy.

Most of those who failed to do so had already died with their skulls smashed in.

Yet the reason the Leaf Village militia had bullied Shan and treated him so roughly was simple.

His hunched shoulders, the seemingly servile way he watched their reactions, his posture shrinking back as though in fear—his entire body proclaimed that he was weak, that a little intimidation would make him submit.

When it came to judging opponents by appearances, humans were little different from animals.

“Rodam!”

“That crazy little bastard!”

That was why, when the first man to attack lost his arm, their anger came before shock or fear.

As the big man's friends rushed him with their weapons, Shan tossed down his cloak bundle to free himself of its weight. At the same time, he caught a protruding handle with his empty left hand and pulled out a heavy mace.

He smashed it into an approaching man's face, sending broken teeth flying everywhere.

“Huh?”

Some realized at the sight that something was wrong, but most were too enraged by the attack on their companion to keep their heads.

Men carrying blades hurled themselves at Shan as he stood still.

Yet a light step, a turn of his head, a bend at the waist to nearly a right angle were all it took to send every attack slicing uselessly through empty air.

And the militiamen had to pay for those attacks.

“Agh!”

“Urgh, gack.”

“My, my eyes!”

Every time the sword and mace in his hands traced their paths through the air, someone's flesh was cut, bones broken, or body torn open.

Wrists were severed, collarbones snapped, ribs crushed. Men coughed up blood and died, or lost their sight as both eyes were slashed...

It was not mercy that kept him from going for vital spots and taking lives as he had against the bandits.

Unlike his first battle, against a dozen or more men in a dark forest, he now faced some sixty men on an open plain without a single obstacle. If they surrounded him completely and threw their bodies at him, no amount of skill with a sword would save him.

And if a weapon became lodged in something, finding an immediate replacement would be difficult.

By contrast, leaving his opponents alive with just enough injury made them excellent obstacles.

A corpse was one thing, but few men were ruthless enough to kick aside a living, screaming companion.

As a bonus, extremities and eyes were easier targets than the vital spots that would take a life.

Perhaps twenty seconds had passed.

When ten of the attackers were killed or crippled in an instant, the militia lost its will to fight, despite still having more than fifty men left.

Those who threw down their weapons were among the more composed. Several wet themselves where they stood or sank to the ground and burst into tears.

“U-uaaagh...”

“Mooom!”

The sight of a grown man crawling on his knees and crying for his mother was so funny that Shan burst out laughing before he knew it.

Covered in blood and snickering, he looked to everyone else like a devil incarnate.

'Ah, this feels good...'

Just as in his first fight, he could feel his head beginning to grow hot and his heart pounding.

If he surrendered to instinct now, he could enjoy himself like mad until every last one of them was dead or had fled.

Instead, Shan took a deep breath and let it out, calming his excitement. If he slaughtered them indiscriminately here, he really would become the devil the priest had spoken of.

Even if he could not help being a devil's spawn, wasn't it better to be a slightly less wicked devil? Then he could hold his head high when he met Selina again.

“Do you believe me now?”

The men who were still unhurt, but desperate to flee at any moment, all nodded at once.

They probably would have obeyed even if he had told them to kneel or press their foreheads into the dirt.

* * *

Once things had calmed down somewhat, the people of Leaf Village changed their attitude so completely that their earlier arrogance and overbearing manner seemed a lie.

They were as servile as Shan had once been toward the people of Willow Village.

The sight gave him no particular sense of superiority. Just as seeing his own shabby reflection in a mirror was unpleasant, seeing his former self reflected in them only disgusted him.

“Three villages...”

“Yes, Sir Knight.”

Orgo, the Chief of Leaf Village, had gone so far as to honor Shan with the title of knight—a title for the mightiest warriors, appointed directly by nobles, who rode horses and wore iron armor.

Shan laughed at the absurdity, but did not bother telling him to stop. The more they feared and looked up to him like that, the safer he would be.

“It appears they destroyed Scops Owl Village first, then Mountainshade Village here, and, if what you say is correct, Willow Village as well.”

Orgo dutifully told Shan everything they knew about the surrounding geography and the current situation.

According to his account, the unidentified bandits seemed to have been moving from east to west, devastating every village in their path. Even these men did not know what had happened farther east than Scops Owl Village, the easternmost village they knew.

“A few men from our village went to inform the lord... But if the bandits are all dead or have fled, that puts us in a difficult position.”

“Why?”

“It means we've had the audacity to lie to the noble lords.”

If the lord heard the news and sent troops to suppress the bandits, wouldn't they have made the journey for nothing?

Shan nodded in understanding, and Orgo, who had been watching his reaction, spoke cautiously.

“Well, then, might we be allowed to leave...?”

“Hmm—oh, wait.”

Shan had been nodding without much thought when something occurred to him, and he stopped Orgo.

Those few words alone turned the faces of the dozens of militiamen white.

Paying them no mind, Shan casually swished the sword in his hand back and forth as he spoke.

“Give me some food.”

“Pardon?”

“You've come a long way, so you brought something to eat, right? Leave it all here before you go.”

The dry rations he had taken from the bandits had just run out, so he needed to secure more food.

But he was reluctant to accompany these men to their village. Even mangy little curs grew brave in their own front yards, didn't they?

He was confident he could defeat any number of such small fry if they attacked openly, but he had no desire to risk being stabbed in his sleep.

In the end, the people of Leaf Village, who had come so boldly to help their neighbors, had to return in tatters, stripped of every scrap of food they had brought for themselves.

“Chief...”

“It's all right. We're lucky just to be alive.”

Orgo sighed as he surveyed the battered villagers.

Leaf Village had the largest population in the area, but ten dead or disabled men was a devastating loss. One in seven of their adult men capable of working and fighting had been harmed.

Yet he truly meant it when he said they were lucky to have escaped with so few casualties.

The boy looked small and frail, yet he was more agile, cunning, and cruel than any warrior Orgo had ever seen.

In his youth, Orgo had seen knights fight once or twice, but even they had not been monsters of that caliber.

Surely it was the Goddess's protection that had made that young monster content to take their food rather than demand all their blood.

* * *

While Orgo was thinking these thoughts as he fled, Shan was feasting on the food the people of Leaf Village had left behind.

Coarse black bread, goat's-milk cheese, fruit preserved in honey or dried, and nuts.

The people of Leaf Village seemed to be wealthier than those of Willow Village.

After savoring his feast, Shan recalled what he had learned during his dealings with the militia and let out a gloomy sigh.

'Selina is already dead...'

He had discovered that the village Selina had married into was Scops Owl Village, believed to have been the first attacked.

Apparently four or five days had already passed. With still no word of anyone making it out alive, everyone there must be dead.

Where was he to go now?

Thinking back to the rough map Orgo had drawn in the dirt, nowhere seemed suitable.

The two villages south and east of here had been destroyed. Leaf Village lay to the north, and farther northwest from there was the manor where the lord lived...

Whatever other places might be like, the lord's manor was surely somewhere he must never visit.

Shan had sensed the suspicion and wariness in the Leaf villagers' eyes turn straight to contempt when they learned he was Altoan.

The high and mighty were unlikely to be any different. If he went there, he might really have to fight knights or soldiers clad in iron armor.

'How would I kill a knight?'

Shan pictured an enemy encased head to toe in iron armor.

A sword probably wouldn't work. Should he strike the legs with his mace and knock the knight down? Thrusting a spear into the eye opening from a distance seemed promising too.

If knights could defeat monsters such as dragons, their bodies would be stronger than his and their movements faster and more efficient. It would not be an easy fight.

Perhaps he wouldn't be able to win at all.

Though he did not realize it, he had already begun to regard humans as hostile beings no different from beasts or monsters.

Violence had been the first means by which he had defended his own dignity, and he had never learned any other way to interact with people.

Afterward, he took his bundle and searched the area for somewhere to stay.

Fortunately, there was a hut far enough from the rest of the village to have escaped the fire. Judging by the several pieces of furniture covered in hides, it seemed to have belonged to a hunter.

Otherwise, such luxuries would have been hard to come by.

The hut in Mountainshade Village made a fairly good shelter.

Its roof and walls were sturdy compared with the barn where he had always lived, its furniture was soft, and the door even had a strong latch.

Being some distance from the village also meant that little of the stench of rotting corpses reached it, which was another advantage.

He could not face clearing away well over a hundred bodies, nor did he owe them any such duty. He intended to leave them for animals to drag off and insects to devour.

Come to think of it, he could have told the people of Leaf Village to clean up before leaving.

'Selina is probably rotting like that by now too.'

At the sudden thought, Shan considered visiting Scops Owl Village to the east, but soon shook his head.

If it had been attacked even earlier than this place, all the bodies would be rotten or eaten by beasts. He was not confident he could identify Selina's corpse among them.

After unpacking all his belongings, he spent his time thoroughly exploring the nearby forest.

Unlike the willow woods he had occasionally entered to gather firewood, this forest stood on a rounded hill, fitting for a place called Mountainshade Village.

Shan wandered here and there, building a map in his head using valleys, streams, oddly shaped trees, and small springs as landmarks.

Thinking of it not as somewhere he had to visit to cut wood or fill water buckets, but as his own land, his own domain, made him hum without even trying.

While he was at it, he bathed in a stream, washing away the blood covering him, and washed his blood-soaked clothes before putting them back on.

After roaming all day, he returned home, filled his belly again, and went to sleep.

Lying on a bed stuffed full of soft oat straw and covered in tough woolen cloth, he felt he had found a heavenly bedchamber.

One day passed, then another.

In his new home, Shan savored happiness and a leisurely life for the first time.

He slept in, rose late to eat, then roamed the nearby hills, quenching his thirst from streams. Sometimes he swam, or played by leaping from tree to tree.

Unlike in the village, he could exercise his abilities freely. Testing the limits of his physical prowess brought him a pleasure rivaling slaughter.

It was fun, too, to swing his various weapons and imagine how he would use them against people or animals.

And he had opponents on whom to put that practice to use.

Whether the village hunter had been lazy or the corpses had drawn predators, the forest held no shortage of dangerous enemies such as goblins and wolves.

Shan ranged through the woods hunting them freely, making the area around his home safe while satisfying his urge to kill.

In many ways, his was a life closer to a beast's than a human's.

Once, while carrying a bow and arrows, he succeeded in hunting a deer drinking at a small spring.

He drew the bowstring from a good distance away and released it. The arrow flew straight through the deer's head.

“Yes!”

Though he had never learned to hunt, he had helped a few times, so bleeding and skinning it with his dagger was not difficult.

The problem, as ever, was that he could not light a fire.

For the second time, Shan regretted not asking how to do it when he had the chance.

“Hmm...”

He fetched stones from nearby and struck them together countless times, but that did not make a fire appear.

In the end, he sliced the venison thinly with his dagger and ate it raw. Naturally, it tasted awful.

Having often eaten worse, he did not find it inedible. But after recently enjoying cheese and honey-preserved fruit, his standards had risen.

'Some fruit in honey will have to do...'

Wanting something to snack on, Shan rummaged through the cupboard, only to realize that the food had already run out.

Dozens of men had brought it, but each had only packed a light snack. Having eaten without restraint until he was fit to burst at every meal, he had naturally exhausted it all.

In his entire life, Shan had never even considered the idea of rationing food or setting some aside.

He had lived like livestock, eating only the scraps the Chief's family gave him.

“Oh.”

After all the food ran out, he had to subsist on the deer he had killed earlier.

But summer was drawing near, and the meat soon spoiled in the hot weather.

No matter how well he shot, the beasts in the nearby hills and forests were not going to come running one after another to die for him. Even if he caught them, he would have nothing to eat but foul-tasting raw meat.

After a little thought, Shan fastened his sword and mace at his waist and picked up his spear.

The people of Leaf Village to the north had plenty to eat. Surely they would share a little if he asked.

If they wanted to trade, he could give them the silver candlesticks or melted precious metals he had brought.

And if they refused to trade at all?

It would be a little wicked, but he would have to get food at swordpoint.

He could hardly sit here and starve to death, after all.

Feeling like a mountain bandit from an old tale, he laughed.