17.

Abel walked away, leaving the merchants behind. It was not to be considerate of those dying of fear. He was born with a noble body, and as such, he did not know how to look down. That didn’t change even though he was taken to the north by his older brothers, the Emperor and Maia.

What drives Abel now is curiosity.

‘It was definitely a familiar face.’

The bold man I saw a while ago came to mind. He was a man who was not used to moving his body, judging by his scraggly body and clean, fair skin. He is probably a nobleman or the child of a wealthy person. Although he was dressed shabbily, he was probably aiming for it. It wasn’t that he sometimes went against his parents’ wishes and ran away from home. That’s why Abel didn’t think much of it at first.

I guess you can save me when the time is right. Isn’t it common for a boy to get a little scratched or beaten? That’s why you’re stuck at home, why do you come out?

The moment I took a step forward with that thought in mind, the bandit swung his hand at the man. When Abel saw that, he naturally expected the man to flinch or close his eyes. But the man didn’t do that. He opened his venomous eyes and glared at the bandits, waiting for an opportunity.

Abel, seeing this, moved glidingly and cut off the bandit’s wrist. It was something I did unconsciously. The man’s eyes turned from the bandit to Abel.

Sharp green eyes widened in surprise.

‘Do you know me?’

He protects the north from the barbarians and is called the strongest hero, but surprisingly few people know Abel’s face. Those who fought with him knew about him, but others always added their own imagination to his appearance. And those imaginations were always terrible.

The nickname given to the butcher because he cuts off the heads of barbarians like a harvester. A slaughterer named because there is no blood or tears, a mad dog named because it behaves as it pleases, etc. All the nicknames given to me while praising him as a hero were irritating.

“They say Archduke Graham is as big as a grizzly bear.”

No matter how big a person is, is he still as big as a grizzly bear, which was classified as a monster in the past?

“It is said that a person with a weak heart will die just by looking at him because his face is so scary.”

A person who can kill people with just their looks. If there is such a person, I would like to meet him. Lauren, the aide, seemed to want to control the rumors somehow, but it was not easy as she was stuck in the North and only wielded a sword.

“How about interacting with other nobles sometimes?”

Lauren’s timid invitation was rejected by Abel. My older brother, who is more timid than Lauren and has a heart as big as a pea, would cause a fight if he did that. He never made any threats, but he was always wary of Abel and was afraid of him even before his death.

It was the same for Empress Maia. She started a fight whenever Abel made even a small contribution to her accomplishments.

“it’s okay. bothered.”

“Mr. Abel.”

Lauren always looked at Abel with pity. If she had been a little less talented, she would have just gouged out her eyeballs. Her eyes were that annoying. The reason Abel did not actively interact with other nobles was because she was kept in check by the imperial family, but there were other reasons as well.

‘bothered.’

It was really annoying. It was much more productive to swing a sword than to hang out with nobles who laughed and criticized others. There are only two types of nobles who were pushed to the north in the first place.

One is a nobleman who ran away after being pushed out or collapsed in a power struggle. The other is a native nobleman who stayed here to begin with and grew in power. There was no need for the former to make an effort to become friends, and the latter leaned towards Abel on their own.

In the harsh north, the strong were the best. In any case, the situation was such that no one knew Abel when he came out of the north. Abel slowly traced her memory.

Poisonous green eyes, a weak body, and a self-aware expression.

“I remembered.”

Richt El de Devine. The head of the Devine family and the younger brother of Empress Maia. According to informants planted in the capital, she was as sensitive, sharp, and vicious as Maia. I don’t know why she was here, but it seemed like she wouldn’t be bored on the way to the capital.

It’s always fun to beat up a bunch of prideful filth. Abel smiled, lifting the corners of her mouth. If Richt had seen her, she would have laughed like a devil.

“Let me see.”

Abel hummed and looked around. As expected, Richt had already jumped out. Well, given his personality, there was no way he could listen to others. Still, it wasn’t difficult to track.

A kid who didn’t know how to fight didn’t know how to run away properly. It wasn’t difficult for him to follow the trail. At least Abel thought so.

Until I found a small river at the end of the trail.

Richt was a modern person before he was possessed. How many times does a modern person have to be chased by others? There is only one correct answer.

‘does not exist.’

He was born in an ordinary family and grew up peacefully. He was strangely lucky and never got ripped off. He had seen Iljin before, but he had never received the slightest attention.

The same was true for Richt, who is now in his current form. He was born as the eldest son of a duke’s family, and lived as a supporter. The moment he found out that he had no talent with a sword, he took half-hearted lessons and couldn’t even use his body well.

‘No, why did the former Duke raise the child like this?’

There was one thing that the duke, who was respected by everyone, was bad at, and that was farming his children. Both Maia and Richt are in the middle of nowhere. They both did what they wanted to do. And the result is this body now.

‘Honestly, Maia wasn’t healthy either.’

I don’t exercise, but I have a sensitive personality, so there’s no way my body could hold up. It feels like death to run away while shaking like that.

‘still.’

He wasn’t without his strengths.

‘I liked books.’

I especially liked web novels.

‘I heard the merchants talking when they came in the carriage.’

He said he saw a river nearby. Drinking water is important during travel, so they seemed to have paid attention to it as well. That helped Richt now.

‘I don’t have the confidence to move without leaving a trace.’

Still, I know how to erase traces. It was going into the water. Abel doesn’t have a dog. They said they couldn’t track Richt by smell. If so, it will follow the trail.

‘It’s easy to find traces if you move to the ground. What if you move in the water?’

The dirt or gravel inside may be scattered, but it is harder to find traces than on the ground. So as soon as Richt discovered the river, he jumped into it.

‘it’s hard.’

My poor body got tired quickly, but I didn’t stop. Richt moved his body with vice. Even though he is Abel, he does not have one or two enemies. He is a combination of bandits and mercenaries, and there is also a merchant caught between them. It will take some time to kill or subdue them all.

It is more difficult when allies are mixed in than when you only have to kill the original enemy. When I thought I had moved enough, I got out of the water.

I looked around, but couldn’t see Abel yet. Richt cleared his chest and started moving again.

Abel smiled while looking at the river. It was not a deep river. Even the deepest places reach his heart. The width is not that wide either. However, if he moves underwater, it becomes difficult to find his traces.

“It’s pretty good.”

I was a little impressed. It seemed like she really didn’t want to meet herself. So she became even more reluctant to let Lihit go like this. Abel took out a small flute from the bag on her waist. Even if you blow, there is no sound. Because this wasn’t made for people to listen to in the first place.

“Hmph!”

Lauren, who was half asleep, opened her eyes in surprise.

“Why are you doing that?”

Louis, the knight who was watching the surroundings nearby, spoke to Lauren.

“The Grand Duke is calling.”

Lauren pointed in the direction with a deep sigh. Abel’s assistant, he had strange talents. That is, when the Archduke plays the flute, it responds.

In reality, it was not Lauren who was reacting to the sound of the flute, but the spirit he was dealing with, but the knights did not know that. In the past, there were a lot of monsters, and there were many wizards and spiritists, but most of them disappeared over time.

Some said it was because of the great war in which demons invaded the earth, while others said it was because of the anger of God. Some people said that dealing with magic or spirits was wrong.

Perhaps that was why those who survived went into hiding around the world. Lauren’s family was one of those places. If Abel hadn’t discovered her abilities, she would have lived a normal life.

‘It was unlucky. ‘I didn’t know there were other people who could feel spirits.’

As my mother said, I should not have called on the spirit from outside. Don’t they say there’s nothing to lose by listening to your parents? If that were really the case, she wouldn’t have become Abel’s dog.

“Lauren, you are amazing. How are you so good at finding where Abel is?”

Like Lewis, half of the people are purely impressed, and the other half are not. Some believed in the hypothesis that being rolled around by Abel made him look like a dog and allowed him to hear the sound of the flute.

‘pup.’

Lauren turned her head, cursing Abel in her mind as always. She had to go because her master had called her.