Which story should I start with?
Right, I should probably start with the story of my first experience.
They say the first time always hurts, and it was indeed true.
It was a painful experience.
Looking back now, I can only laugh wryly.
* * *
After running for three days and nights, eating unknown tree fruits whenever I was hungry, I finally discovered a small, remote slash-and-burn farming village.
A small village of about a dozen people barely surviving by burning the forest. In fact, it was so small it was embarrassing to even call it a village.
Two elderly, four middle-aged, five young adults in their prime. And about three women.
They were the first inhabitants of this world I spoke to after being possessed into this body.
Wasn’t Gunther the first, you ask? Let’s make that an exception.
That bastard only blabbered on one-sidedly, and I didn’t say a word except for cursing him to eat shit.
Anyway, the first inhabitants of this world I encountered were surprisingly kind and simple.
Perhaps because when they cautiously asked if I was a knight, I answered that I wasn’t a knight but just an adventurer?
After all, an adventurer must be easier to deal with than a knight.
In any case, the villagers who were initially wary, thinking a noble person had arrived, completely changed their attitude from that point and welcomed me with bright smiles.
They generously bestowed kindness and goodwill that I rarely experienced even in my original world.
“Ah, so you’re an adventurer! My son also left the village to become an adventurer, perhaps you’ve met him somewhere!”
“You wandered the forest for three days? Oh my, you poor young lady, you must have suffered so much. Here, have some of this at least.”
Is this what they call rural hospitality? They were truly kind people.
They believed my excuse about getting lost and wandering in the forest without any doubt, and even readily offered food and a place to rest along with words of comfort for my hardship.
…Yes, they were very kind.
So kind that they even provided room service that I hadn’t asked for. And in the early hours of the morning, well past midnight at that.
I still vividly remember.
The voice of the village chief advising to slit my wrists first before I wake up, since I’d be sound asleep without my armor.
It was truly golden advice.
It perfectly explained in a single sentence the reason for their kind welcome to an outsider, the purpose of their quiet night visit, and the level of public safety and morality in this world.
Really, it’s fortunate that I was lying awake just in case.
If I had fallen asleep without worry, what would have happened to me? It was chilling just to think about it.
* * *
On this day, I learned two valuable lessons.
The first lesson was that kindness offered by complete strangers should be doubted first.
And the other was—
“Aaaagh!”
“Shit, she’s a knight! She was a knight!”
That I fight surprisingly well.
To the extent that it didn’t even take a few minutes to cut down all fourteen of them.
This is how it happened.
The slash-and-burn farmers who were carefully approaching under the cover of night rushed in before I could even escape out of the house-
“…Huh?”
Instead of prey sleeping soundly without armor, they were met with a female knight reflexively drawing and swinging her sword.
It was really an unavoidable choice for me.
Unlike with Gunther, this house had such narrow windows that it was impossible to escape through them.
So, for better or worse, I had no choice but to break through the door head-on.
“Haaah!”
I shouted as if expelling the tension filling my pounding heart and drew and swung my sword.
Towards a bearded middle-aged man gripping an axe for chopping wood.
The result was surprising.
“Ugh!”
The middle-aged man, startled by the sudden attack, swung his axe. The axe blade split the air with a fierce sound.
However, the blade of my drawn longsword lightly rotated, deflecting the axe to the side, and with that momentum, pierced straight into the middle of the man’s Adam’s apple like an awl.
It was a movement as natural as water, as fast as lightning.
“Kuk, kurup…!”
The middle-aged man convulsed, staring with bulging eyes at the sword blade that had pierced his neck.
I kicked his abdomen hard with my right foot, sending him flying backward, and swung the sword that had naturally pulled out sideways as if shaking it off.
“Uh, huh?!”
A young man holding a pitchfork let out a stupid groan as he touched his neck where the sword had passed.
The next moment, his head slid off, spraying jets of blood in all directions.
“W-what the hell is this bitch doing!”
In a situation where two people had suddenly died in an instant, a brown-haired young man who let out a cry of shock reflexively thrust forward the dagger he was gripping.
It was a movement like a schoolgirl trying to stab her cheating boyfriend to death.
I took a step back, deflecting the dagger towards the front of my breastplate, and stretched out my left arm to grab his shoulder and push him down.
“Urk…! What, strength…!”
The man collapsed, his knees buckling like a criminal.
The tip of my longsword, now held in reverse grip, sank deep into the back of the man’s exposed neck.
The cervical vertebrae were pierced as easily as tofu. Was he suffering from osteoporosis?
“Leff! Max…! Damn it, we were told she’d be sleeping!”
The man who had fallen after being kicked earlier spat out curses with a contorted face.
Lacking the courage to charge at me, he was backing away as if crawling on the ground.
“Huu…”
I gazed blankly at the villagers lined up behind him, lightly shaking off my longsword soaked in blood.
My mind was in turmoil.
Although it didn’t show on the outside, I was actually just as shocked as the men in front of me. Shocked at myself.
My first kill.
And three at once, so easily.
It was an unexpected result.
What I had aimed for was not to stab and slice three people to death, but to swing my sword wildly to confuse the opponents and then quickly escape in the confusion.
But how should I put it… my body moved on its own.
From the moment I faced the axe swinging towards me, until the moment I pierced and severed the nape of the man holding the dagger with the tip of my sword. Continuously.
Swordplay so fast and graceful it seemed possible only in a game. It was a movement impossible for me, who had never even held a blade longer than a kitchen knife.
But it happened in reality.
In an instant, my body moved completely on its own, turning three people into pieces of meat in the blink of an eye.
‘This is, what…’
It was an instinctive movement.
Like a baby bird reflexively flapping its wings to fly when thrown out of the nest, something like an impulse guided my limbs.
It felt as if my muscles were hammering lessons into my brain.
This is how you swing a sword.
This is how you thrust your leg.
Stab here and they die – lessons like these.
Perhaps these were the experiences Brunhilde had accumulated as a knight?
I simply followed those teachings, led by them. Like a puppet on strings, displaying movements my body remembered without any thought.
The result was the three corpses in front of me.
“…Ugh.”
I bit my lip lightly and let out a low groan.
Looking into the half-rolled, dilated pupils, I felt nausea rising from my stomach.
Like encountering the corpse of a deer or cat hit while driving at night.
…In other words, it was only that level of shock, but still.
“Damn it, what the hell is this…!”
“Shit, I told you we should have just let it go….”
“Shut your trap! What are you doing, get the bow! Shoot her with arrows!”
Of course, there was no time to be in shock.
Despite three strong men falling dead, the remaining men, far from fleeing, charged at me with enraged shouts.
Their expressions were like facing a mortal enemy of their family. And that was probably true.
Therefore, I had no choice but to glare at them silently and firmly grip my longsword again after shaking off the blood.
And.
In the late dawn, with still some time before sunrise.
The slash-and-burn village received fourteen skulls.
* * *
The lessons of that day changed me greatly.
Imprinting on me that this was not a 21st-century downtown area with a police station 5 minutes away, but a world where a seemingly friendly neighbor might come with a pitchfork.
After that, it was literally a march of tribulation.
A pilgrimage gaining new lessons several times a day. I gained countless realizations.
– Cover your face as much as possible.
– Wear a helmet. If you don’t want holes in your head.
– Bears are stronger than humans.
– Merchant groups can always turn into bandits.
– Human shields are very useful.
– If someone starts opening a book during a fight, kill them first.
– If you can’t sleep in a city, choose to sleep rough instead.
– Cook your own meals or find a proper restaurant.
– There are monsters in caves that look good for resting.
Perhaps because they were lessons learned through bloodshed, every one of them was a lesson that became flesh and blood.
Anyway, that’s how I killed about a hundred people.
They say the first time is always the hardest, right?
Thanks to experiencing my first time with 15 people, I didn’t feel much shock after that.
It was just a bit unpleasant. Things like the stench when people die, or the heat and texture of the blood spattered on me.
It’s sticky and smelly, and a pain to wash out of clothes.
Anyway, there were some easy fights, and some fierce battles where I almost died or was captured.
A merchant who drew his sword as soon as he was sure there would be no consequences.
Travelers who proposed to journey together because our paths were the same, and the residents of a small mountain village.
Bandits who attacked me.
Even a woman who asked for help but swung a dagger as soon as I got close.
Fortunately, I succeeded in fighting through all these battles alone. Thanks to Brunhilde’s body and the armor I was wearing.
And so, in just two months, Yoo Ha-min, an unemployed young man from South Korea, evolved into an excellent isekai swordsman who could chop off human heads as easily as picking fruit.
It was almost like a Magikarp evolving into a Gyarados.
Charles Darwin, you were right.
If you want to survive, you must adapt to the changed environment.
By any means necessary.