The northern part of the continent, the territory of the Kingdom of Hervor, was filled with snow-capped mountains covered in permafrost that didn’t reveal their interior even in summer.
Among the four human kingdoms, it was by far the most difficult environment to live in.
Naturally, the majority of the kingdom’s people had no choice but to cluster in the relatively less cold lowlands, building cities and living there.
…In other words, most areas outside of cities and their surroundings were unexplored territories where it was difficult to find any human presence.
Therefore, within Hervor’s territory, there were many ruins that had been left unmanaged for a long time and fallen into disrepair.
If there were dungeons, at least adventurers would visit from time to time…
But if not, they were abandoned ruins where no one would set foot unless they were archaeologists obsessed with research papers.
One of such ruins. A dark corridor of an abandoned ruin that had been sleeping in silence for hundreds of years.
“Haha! Finally found her! The top-class wanted criminal, the Knight of Betrayal Brunhilde!”
A shout full of greed and hostility awakens it.
“Was it twenty gold coins if we capture and bring her in? It was worth the effort.”
“Woooah!”
A swordsman wearing black iron armor over a thick fur cloak. A ranger pulling back his bowstring behind him.
A middle-aged man wielding an axe charging with a battle cry, and a young man pointing a spear forward while shielding himself with a large shield.
“Rumors say she’s at the level of a veteran knight… but be careful everyone, just in case.”
The silver tokens hanging around their necks gleamed reddish in the light of the lantern.
A party of 4 adventurers. All of them were silver token adventurers, who could be considered the core force of the adventurers’ guild.
“…Twenty gold coins, huh.”
A woman wearing a tattered cloak and black hood turned towards them, muttering.
This woman was the reason and target for which they had come all the way to this abandoned ruin devoid of human presence.
“My bounty has become quite expensive.”
Lemon-colored hair and blue eyes. An expression as cold as a frozen lake.
Black dried blood stained her dented and torn plate armor here and there, not yet wiped clean.
“Well, that amount would be worth risking your life for.”
“For you people.”
Brunhilde, the Knight of Betrayal, an internationally wanted criminal who betrayed the Kingdom of Rhine.
Unlike the other two party members who had cleared their names as traitors through their achievements in Burgundy, she was a master of betrayal who had fled even from there and hidden in Hervor, and…
“You talk big. A criminal who fled pathetically after failing to ambush her former comrades!”
A heinous criminal who had attempted to assassinate her former hero party members from the Rhine Kingdom days who had transferred to Gunther’s party.
“That’s a false accusation… but you won’t listen to any explanation, will you? No one ever does.”
The ‘Knight of Betrayal’ who had been registered as a top-class wanted criminal for that crime drew her sword, revealing sharp killing intent towards the adventurers who had tracked her down.
“Let me tell you in advance. If you run away, I won’t particularly chase you. But if you don’t run―”
“Woooah!”
The middle-aged warrior with a golden beard, cutting off Brunhilde’s words mercilessly, swung down his two-handed axe diagonally.
Just as the black iron axe, imbued with enough power to split steel in one blow, was about to smash down on Brunhilde’s pauldron like lightning,
“…I’ll have no choice but to kill you.”
A black iron longsword swung twice as fast cut into and sliced through the axe handle, and at the same time, Brunhilde’s outstretched left hand smashed the middle-aged warrior’s round helmet, crushing it.
“Guh…!”
The middle-aged warrior crashed into the corridor wall with a scream. Hot blood flowed steadily from the deeply dented helmet.
A cracked skull, right eye popped out from the impact. The middle-aged man convulsed and groaned, having suffered wounds close to incapacitation from a single blow.
“Olvar! Damn, how could one hit do that much…!”
“Damn it, that’s why I said to be careful!”
The adventurers were flustered at the sight of their vanguard warrior being neutralized in an instant.
However, befitting silver token adventurers recognized as skilled enough to rival the kingdom’s knights, they quickly suppressed their bewilderment.
Though somewhat shocked by the arm strength rivaling that of a troll, in the end, it was just a matter of being hit by a troll in human form.
Thinking of it that way, it wasn’t such a rare occurrence.
It was common among adventurers for those who went to subjugate trolls to be knocked down after taking a hit due to misfortune or mistake.
As long as they didn’t die instantly, they could recover with potions or holy miracles, but in troll subjugation, even silver token adventurers could die in one hit if struck in a vital spot.
“Hamilton! Think of it as facing a troll and endure! Leon, check on Olvar!”
The silver token ranger shouted, releasing the tightly drawn bowstring.
Hamilton gripped his shield more firmly with a hardened face, and the swordsman in black iron armor rushed urgently towards Olvar who was embedded in the wall.
To check if he was still alive, and if so, to pour potions on him to somehow keep him breathing.
“I told you to run away, but you won’t listen.”
Brunhilde, glaring at the adventurers with cold eyes, deflected three arrows flying in like small whirlwinds with her longsword and let out a faint sigh.
“Haaaah!”
Hamilton leaped to within arm’s reach of Brunhilde in that gap, shielding himself with his black iron shield and thrusting out the spear in his right hand.
While the spear itself was just an ordinary black iron long spear, the shield covering his body seemed to be enchanted, with faint magical power swirling on its surface.
“Well. If you were willing to give up twenty gold coins, you probably wouldn’t have become adventurers in the first place.”
Brunhilde clicked her tongue and swung her longsword like a whip. The spear, sword, and shield clashed together, scattering intense sparks.
Every time black iron collided with black iron, explosions erupted, shaking the cold air, and Hamilton groaned as he was pushed back step by step, overwhelmed by the force.
“Kuh…! What kind of strength…!”
“Just endure somehow!”
After all three arrows he had shot in succession were deflected, the ranger changed tactics and began shooting arrows more carefully, one by one.
Instead of power shots aimed at penetrating the opponent head-on, he focused on curved shots that drew gentle arcs to burrow into the enemy’s side.
Brunhilde deflected the ranger’s arrows occasionally by turning her sword even while overwhelming Hamilton with strength, but she couldn’t block all the arrows.
A couple of arrows that slipped between slash and slash scraped her armor, adding torn wounds to the already tattered steel plates.
“Leon! How’s Olvar?”
Even while continuing to shoot arrows without pause, the ranger kept an eye on the movements of the whole party and issued instructions incessantly.
“He’s breathing! But he won’t be able to fight anymore!”
The swordsman who had checked Olvar’s breathing and heartbeat shouted while pouring a potion on the unconscious Olvar’s face.
“That’s good enough! Come help here!”
“On it!”
Leon, having finished emergency treatment on Olvar, charged towards Brunhilde.
While Hamilton and the ranger Bron kept Brunhilde occupied, Leon, who had burrowed into her rear, swung the greatsword he was gripping like lightning.
Whoosh!
The black iron greatsword cut through the air with a heavy sound. A slash powerful enough to cut through even a troll’s arm in one go aimed for Brunhilde’s legs.
‘Got her!’
Leon, the swordsman who had swung the greatsword, was certain of victory.
An attack that couldn’t be avoided without jumping. But leaping upwards in the middle of close combat was tantamount to suicide.
He could vividly imagine Brunhilde sprawled on the ground after losing a leg.
After taking her down like that, they would break her other three limbs, tie her up with ropes, and drag her away.
Then, if they offered her to Hero Gunther or Hero Heid who had put a bounty on her, they would receive a reward of at least twenty gold coins, at the very least.
The glittering image of gold coins made his heart flutter with excitement.
“How dare you-!”
Along with a roar that burst from the far end of the corridor, just before an amber-colored radiance shot like lightning was about to cut his body in half.
“Leon-!”
“What is that! Magic?! There was a magician?!”
Leon tumbled down, split vertically from crown to ankle, spilling his contents.
Hamilton and Bron, shocked once again by the sudden catastrophe, gaped as they looked in the direction from which the light slash had come.
“…I told you to run away. It’s too late now.”
Brunhilde clicked her tongue and muttered, glancing at the black-haired girl flying towards them like an enraged crow.
The master of the holy sword Nibelung, Hero Sigfriede.
For the adventurer party who had tracked them down after only hearing rumors that the attempted assassination of the hero party was Brunhilde’s solo crime, it was the intrusion of an unexpected powerful enemy.
It was also their end.
* * *[ Hilde ]* * *
“Haah…”
It’s over. This time too, a total annihilation.
It didn’t take long for the silver token adventurer party that had tracked me down to be completely wiped out.
Friede, who had cut the black iron armored swordsman in half in one go, rushed at the ranger with the momentum of a flying tiger, and in an instant, dismembered the ranger who was trying to resist somehow by drawing his short sword.
During that time, I too had pierced through the head of the young man who was desperately trying to endure with his shield, killing him.
People who could easily hunt even trolls in a one-versus-four fight. However, the moment it became a two-versus-two situation, their deaths were already a foregone conclusion.
“Whew…”
I lightly shook off my black iron longsword soaked in blood, sheathed it, then sat down on the debris of the broken corridor and let out a short sigh.
I was tired.
Whether it was because of the sudden battle or because of the situation I was in itself, I didn’t know.
“Are you alright, Hilde?”
Friede, who had finished confirming the kill by beheading the unconscious middle-aged warrior, unsummoned her holy sword and came running towards me with quick steps.
“…Yeah, I’m fine.”
I nodded, forcing a smile.
My already tattered armor was a bit more broken and I was somewhat exhausted both physically and mentally, but I wasn’t badly injured anywhere.
“That’s good.”
Friede, who had approached right in front of me in an instant, reached out her hand to wipe off the bloodstains on my cheek and smiled with a relieved face.
“Don’t get hurt, okay?”
Then, she pressed her lips against mine, which had become a little rough from life on the run.
“Mmph…!”
A strangely sweet scent wafted over intensely.
Friede’s breath flowing in beyond our touching lips.
A soft flesh that came over with her breath slipped between my slightly parted lips and tapped against my teeth.
A signal to open my mouth. I closed my eyes and parted my tightly closed teeth to accept Friede’s tongue inside me.
I couldn’t refuse. Not anymore.
Not since after she repelled Imelia and Irina, after I fled together with her because I couldn’t return to the city.
“Mmm, nngh… haa, huu…!”
As our tongues intertwined, a tingling floral scent flowed. Along with saliva that thoroughly moistened our dry lips and dripped down.