Chapter 301: 301 "Heroic Domain
By this time, the sky was already bright.
Nocturnal monsters had completely hidden away, and those that roamed during the day were becoming active, seeking food in forests, plains, meadows, and so on.
If one were wise, they would not enter these areas now, lest they become a meal for the ravenous beasts.
Yet, under such circumstances, near a forest on the outskirts of a town, figures appeared.
"Ha... ha... ha..."
A girl was pulling another, much younger girl along, gasping for breath as she ran wildly through such a place.
"Sister...!"
The small girl, seemingly only about ten years old, was being pulled, or more accurately dragged, by her sister, eliciting a cry of distress.
The older sister, however, could not afford to let her little sister stop.
Or rather, she dared not stop.
"Faster! Even faster!"
The girl could only whip her nearly faltering heart, urging her younger sister to keep running forward.
There was no choice.
Otherwise, the sisters would soon perish.
"Halt!"
"Damn wretched brats!"
At last, death caught up with them.
They were two Knights.
Dressed in standard armor and wielding long swords, the Knights ran with a speed not in the slightest impeded by their heavy armor, faster than any healthy adult, clearly well-trained.
Yet these two Knights, at this moment, chased after the sisters with fierce expressions.
In their eyes shone a cold murderous intent, and the swords they carried were stained with blood, signaling their intentions towards the helpless sisters.
And behind these two, from a small village, faint cries of agony came through the air, as if tinting it with the smell of blood.
The girl’s heart was nearly torn apart by grief.
Because she knew that in the village, whose cries of agony now reached her, not only were her own parents but also neighbors who had always greeted her with kind smiles.
Now, they were subjected to senseless violence, a cruel and merciless slaughter.
And the ones responsible were none other than these Knights, who were supposed to protect their country. Instead, they were acting like executioners doing the work of bandits.
Brimming with grief, the girl almost gave up on escaping.
But the slight warmth coming from her hand reignited the strength in her almost surrendering heart.
"Sister..."
The crying voice of the little girl brought the older sister back from the brink of collapse.
That’s right, she still had her sister.
It didn’t matter what happened to her, but she had to ensure her sister survived.
This escape was bought with their parents’ desperate struggle; they had used themselves as shields, standing in front of the sisters to give them a chance to escape.
So, even if only her sister made it, escape was imperative.
"Run!"
Seeing her sister was about to give out, the older girl had no choice but to drag her, keeping her away from the pursuing Executioner.
However, how could they, village girls from a remote rural village, ever outrun well-trained Knights?
"Boom!"
With a muffled sound, the girl felt a powerful kick to her back, sending both her and her sister flying and crashing to the ground.
"Ugh...!"
The girl expelled all the air from her lungs, feeling an excruciating pain in her back.
"Sister!"
The little sister cried out again but was held tightly in the arms of the older girl, who protected her.
"Such futile struggle."
"Wouldn’t it be better to just die here?"
The armored reapers caught up with the two sisters, towering over them with indifference in their eyes, even harboring resentment for the needless effort they had expended.
There was no reverence for life in their demeanor, no hint of guilty conscience for their actions.
Any observer would instantly realize one thing upon seeing the stance of the Knights.
Pleading was pointless.
These were reapers, beings that existed solely to harvest life.
Even though their victims were two vulnerable girls, one barely ten years old, the Knights’ faces showed not the slightest compassion, as if they were about to slaughter not people, but livestock.
The girl quickly abandoned any hope of luck or pleading, pushing her sister away.
"Get going! You run!"
"Sister!"
The girl could already visualize herself lying in a pool of blood. She stopped resisting and pushed her sister away, letting her have a chance to survive.
But how could a young child abandon her sister and run away alone in such a situation?
So the young girl desperately clung to her sister, refusing to let go.
The older sister, anxious, clutched her sister tightly, gazing defiantly with the fiercest look she could muster at the Assassin before her.
"Die."
The Knights ignored the girl’s final defiant gaze. One stood and sneered, while the other raised his sword high, ready to deliver the final blow to the vulnerable lives before him.
"My God..."
The girl closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of her sister’s body, praying to the heavens in the face of her imminent demise.
"Swoosh!"
The Knight’s long sword, disregarding the girl’s prayers without encountering any divine intervention, fell mercilessly like the scythe of death, as if mocking the girl’s last act.
The girl’s final prayer could not invoke the mercy of the gods.
However, if the gods do not show mercy, sometimes people do.
"Clang——"
A crisp sound, like metal striking metal, suddenly arose and echoed through the outskirts of the forest.
"What?"
"Who, who are you?!"
The knights’ exclamations instantly reached the ears of the young girl with her eyes tightly shut.
The girl did not feel the pain of her body being sliced by a sharp blade; instead, she felt a mild breath of air.
That breath stood before her, much like her father, who had just put himself in front of the knights to buy them a chance to escape.
"...Huh?"
Only then did the girl hesitantly open her eyes and saw a figure’s back.
A back so different from her father’s, yet taller, more imposing, and seemingly safer.
He stood in front of the girl, facing the two knights.
One knight couldn’t help but take a step back, while the other’s face dramatically changed.
This was only natural.
If someone’s hand were to block a sword that could easily cut through a person, anyone on the receiving end would react this way.
And this is exactly what was happening right now.
"Are you alright?"
The calm voice gently rose.
The owner of the reliable back turned, looking at the two girls lying on the ground.
He was younger than the girl had imagined, seemingly about her age.
His body was not particularly broad, his presence not overpowering, leading one to wonder if they were seeing an illusion.
Yet, it was a boy of approximately the same age who now stood in front of two knights, disregarding them entirely, as if they didn’t exist.
In this boy’s hand, he was holding the knight’s sword between two fingers.
"You..."
The girl was stunned.
"Let go!"
The knight whose sword was seized roared, exerting all his strength, desperately trying to pull his sword back.
"Haahhhh!"
The other knight, who had just stepped back, gripped his sword and swung a strike at the young boy who had appeared from nowhere, suddenly standing in front of them.
"Be careful!"
The girl saw this scene and cried out.
But the boy still didn’t even glance at the two knights, merely turning his head to look at the girls and extending a finger from his other hand towards the charging knight.
"Thunder Strike."
In a soft chanting voice, the boy’s extended finger suddenly sparkled with electricity.
The next second, an explosion of lightning occurred.
"Puchi!"
With a crack of lightning emerging from the boy’s fingertip, the knight who had charged was struck directly by the thunder, piercing through his chest, with blood splattering in abundance.
The lightning burst forth from his back, striking a big tree nearby, slicing the tree clean in half.
"Uh... ah..."
The knight’s charging form stiffened in place, blood sprayed from his mouth and nose, his eyes bulging as if they would explode, and soon after, he fell to the ground, lifeless.
"————"
Silence.
In that moment, whether it was the girl or the knight still struggling to pull his sword back, both were stupefied by the scene before them.
The girl only felt that what she was seeing was surreal.
At the moment of her impending murder, a boy about her age suddenly appeared, holding the sharp sword blade between his fingers on one hand, while summoning lightning from his other hand to pierce the knight, who seemed like the grim reaper, was too fantastical for a country girl who had lived her entire life in a secluded village.
Even the knight screamed out when he realized what had happened.
"Is, is this third-tier magic? Are you a highest-tier Magic Singer?!"
In response to these words, the boy arched an eyebrow.
"A highest-tier Magic Singer? You mean like this level?"
The boy seemed indifferent to the knight’s words, smiling cynically as he spoke.
"No need for such exaggeration. Even though you’re from this world and might not have seen magic above the seventh tier, you really shouldn’t consider third-tier magic as the highest tier, should you?"
"For you to call someone a highest-tier Magic Singer, you should at least have seen fifth-tier magic, right?"
"Like this."
The boy pointed his lightning-flickering finger at the knight.
"Dragon Thunder."
Instantly, an even more ferocious and blinding flash of electricity emerged from the boy’s fingertip.
"Fifth-, fifth-tier magic?!"
The knight finally screamed in horror.
"Are you a Magic Singer from the Heroic Domain...?!"
The knight fled.
Dropping his sword, he beat a hasty retreat.
But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t outrun the lightning.
"Boom!"
The raging dragon-shaped thunder struck the knight’s back, making him scream amidst the lightning.
Then, he fell to the ground, dead.