GalaxyTL
* * *
The Megzam Thieves Band had been very successful in their activities recently.
About a year ago, they had failed in raiding some backwater village called Fenoben, and furthermore, they let a mysterious vagrant child escape in the forest afterward, causing two of their subordinates to lose an eye each.
It was one misfortune after another.
However, in a situation where an ordinary group of thieves would have been destroyed, their boss Megzam managed to overcome it through violent communication that kept attracting his underlings.
They first targeted small-scale peddlers traveling alone, giving confidence to the two one-eyed subordinates, and then repeatedly raided small merchant groups that seemed to have weak escorts.
The numerous successful experiences they accumulated promoted the growth of the two subordinates as thieves.
But that’s not all.
Hearing rumors about the Megzam Thieves Band, useless ruffians from the surrounding area began to gather under Megzam.
Megzam’s band, traveling west from the Rayvlake Kingdom along the highway while avoiding the sacred Mount Zahan, had increased in size to ten members by the time they entered the Kingdom of Teenidys.
It was at that time.
In a nameless forest a short distance from the highway where they were camping, a tall mysterious man with his face hidden by a hood appeared before them.
Megzam and the others instinctively turned hostile at the sudden visitor, but upon seeing the contents of the heavy bag handed to them by that man, their attitude softened in an instant.
The bag was filled with gold.
Packed tightly.
According to the man concealing his identity, that gold was an advance payment.
An advance payment.
Megzam and his group were promised by the man that if they accepted his request and carried it out successfully, he would pay them ten times more gold.
The request was to raid a certain impoverished baronial family.
It wasn’t to target the baron himself.
They were to attack the baron’s only daughter.
Whether they killed her or captured and sold her off didn’t matter, but in any case, the target was the baron’s daughter.
The tall man repeatedly emphasized the request with persistence before disappearing somewhere.
(I don’t know what happened, but that baron must be really hated. To target his precious, precious only daughter…)
Such thoughts fleetingly crossed Megzam’s mind, but well, for a violent man like him, he had not the slightest interest in other people’s circumstances.
The important thing was that just by attacking the daughter of a poor baron who couldn’t afford to hire decent escorts, they could obtain a large amount of gold.
Of course, there was no choice but to accept the request.
Megzam and his men immediately began preparing for the job.
To be extra cautious, they had a good-for-nothing adventurer-turned-ruffian who had joined Megzam’s group infiltrate as an escort for the carriage through the Adventurers’ Guild, so at this point, there was nothing protecting the baron’s carriage.
Megzam thought that the preparations for that part had gone so smoothly probably because the client had pulled some strings behind the scenes.
After all, he was someone with the power to casually hand over that much gold.
This level of maneuvering was likely effortless for him.
Thinking that, Megzam didn’t dwell on it deeply.
While Megzam was one of the smarter ones among the thieves, his thinking was momentary and his foresight shallow.
He didn’t concern himself with minor details.
Thus, the raid on the Salar baronial family was carried out.
Suddenly, the coachman was quickly knocked down by the traitorous ruffians acting as guards, leaving only the three women inside the carriage.
At this point, the large amount of gold was within reach.
The request was as good as completed.
If only that hateful, erstwhile vagrant child hadn’t appeared.
* * *
With a paaang!!! sound, the moment Hagen’s head burst open, Megzam realized the failure of this job.
The speed of his discernment. The accuracy of his loss-cutting.
These were some of the abilities that had made Megzam the head of the thieves’ band.
“Wha!?”
“What’s going on!?”
“A magic user!?”
While many of his underlings were in a panic, Megzam exchanged glances only with Ander and Tappa, his two eye-patched veterans, and began to gradually retreat.
After all, they didn’t know the true nature of the attack.
Without even being allowed to contemplate, the heads of two more underlings burst open.
Facing an enemy capable of such terrifying feats was not worth it.
The reward money didn’t matter anymore.
Life was more important than money.
He inched back little by little.
“Hey, hey, hey!? What is this!?”
“What’s happening!? What’s going on!?”
“C-Come out, you magic-using bastard! Hiding and sneaking around! You coward!!”
Megzam decided to use the recently joined underlings, who could only run around in confusion, as sacrificial pawns.
Slowly, slowly, he continued to move, trying not to be noticed by the pawns, until he was just a short distance away from the forest where he could hide himself.
Then, at that point.
The enemy, who had not shown themselves until then, emerged from the bushes in the forest on the exact opposite side of the carriage from Megzam and his men, shaking the foliage.
Seeing that figure.
Megzam, Ander, and Tappa couldn’t help but be stunned.
Because that was.
That girl was.
The black-haired, black-eyed vagrant child who had outwitted and escaped from them a year ago.
However, the bloodlust and overwhelming presence emanating from her small body were incomparable to a year ago.
She was a monster.
That’s what Megzam simply thought.
In this one year.
Just one year.
Whatever had happened.
That vagrant child had become a monster.
She had become a monster that they couldn’t possibly handle with their current strength.
“Ah… Aah!?”
“A… A kid…!?”
The underlings were perplexed by the sight of the girl rolling a pebble on her palm with an expressionless face.
Because if you only looked at her appearance, she seemed like an extremely fragile little girl.
That fragile, small figure and the intense intimidation emanating from her body wouldn’t connect in their heads, causing confusion.
On the other hand, Megzam quickly came to his senses and began taking action to ensure his own survival.
“He gave orders to ensure “his own” survival.
“Hey! What are you bastards spacing out for! Don’t be scared of a brat like that! Surround and kill her!!”
“””Y-Yes sir!!!”””
After confirming the backs of the pawns rushing at the girl, Megzam, Ander, and Tappa leaped into the bushes of the forest and began their escape at full speed.
The underlings they left behind were just to buy time.
They had no room to worry about their fate.
* * *
Emma, the lady of the impoverished noble Salar baronial family, was simply dumbfounded by the scene unfolding before her eyes.
Perhaps because the shock was too great, her body felt light.
It was like being in a dream.
There was no sense of reality at all.
“Hey! What are you bastards spacing out for! Don’t be scared of a brat like that! Surround and kill her!!”
“””Y-Yes sir!!!”””
At the angry shout of the thieves’ boss, the underlings charged at the girl.
However, the girl showed no signs of panic at all.
With an expressionless face, she threw the pebble she had been fiddling with on her palm.
She threw it, I think.
It was too fast for Emma’s eyes to fully capture the movement.
Then, the paaang sound that had been ringing out many times before resounded, and the head of the thief running at the front burst open.
To conclude, the battle that occurred afterward was settled in an instant.
No, it shouldn’t be called a “battle”.
“Trampling” or “slaughter”.
Those terms were more fitting.
Four thieves attacked the girl.
As soon as the head of the one at the front burst open, the girl quickly gouged out the ground with her left and right hands, and threw clods of earth in order, right, then left.
Just with that, the heads of the two following thieves burst open without even being given time to think.
The last remaining one, thanks to the sacrifice of the three running ahead of him, managed to approach the girl without having his head shattered.
He was able to get close.
But that was all he could do.
The instant he took one more step to swing down the large hatchet he had raised above his head at the girl.
The girl stretched out her right fingertips and swung them up at the thief as if slashing.
With just that, the girl’s right hand divided the thief’s body in two like a sharp sword, easily taking his life.
* * *
Nothing was moving anymore.
The scorching sun warmed the reddish-black puddles spreading around, producing an unpleasant smell.
The girl silently stared at the forest for a while, perhaps searching for the remaining thieves who had disappeared, but eventually let out a sigh and turned her face towards Emma.
“Eek…!”
That girl was their savior who had rescued Emma and the others from danger.
But no matter how resolute a woman Emma was, she was not a combat professional. She was a baroness.
…The girl who had caused such a tragedy right before her eyes.
Moreover, her appearance was that of the dreaded “cursed child” with ominous black hair and black eyes.
It would be too harsh to blame Emma for involuntarily gasping and backing away.
However, the girl, not minding Emma’s fear at all, tottered closer.
No emotion could be read from her expressionless face, and an endlessly deep darkness spread within those black eyes.
Suddenly, a suspicion sprung up in Emma.
This girl had saved them.
She had thought so up until now.
Because this girl had first and foremost killed the thieves who had been assaulting them.
And she had only killed the thieves and had not harmed them up to this point.
But.
What if that was just this girl’s whim?
What if this girl, this monster in the form of a girl, was a human-shaped demon that enjoyed slaughter?
With each step the girl took closer, Emma’s growing suspicion amplified her fear, her breathing grew ragged, sweat poured out…
Just before she was about to scream out involuntarily and flee in a desperate panic.
The girl, who had been silent until now, opened her mouth for the first time.
She spoke words directed at Emma.
“…I’m hungry.”
If not for the dirt and splattered blood covering her, it was a line that matched her young appearance all too well.
It was a cute voice.