Chapter 1: Prologue

Savage Fang – Volume 1 Prologue: Life the First Time, History the First Time

I looked halfway up to the sky, thinking.

If only I had just a little more talent, maybe things wouldn’t have ended up like this.

It was a little unprofessional to be thinking like this in the middle of a job, but it had all become so familiar that I can’t help but relax like this.

Yep, even if my work took me to a violent battlefield where fire, ice, and all sorts of magic fly through the air.

Even now there was a fireball flying directly at me. I ducked to avoid it, only to see icy spines coming my way. And after rolling away from that, I dodged an arrow of lightning.

I jumped to my feet and raced on, toward a soldier wearing real fine armor. I could see his face twist with fear as he helplessly watched my approach.

Without a care for his expression, one all too familiar in my line of work, I swung my sword at his neck.

His head flew off, the stump fountaining slick red. I moved aside to avoid the blood and picked my next target.

“H-he’s coming this way!”

“Stop him! Do anything you can to stop him!”

A soldier cried out in panic, and the conspicuously well-dressed man beside him gave new orders.

He looked to be the commander of the unit, and after a moment, the rest of his troops surged forward.

They quickly surrounded me, holding up their hands like they were threatening me. The light of different spells glowed from their hands; fire, ice, and lightning sprang from different hands and flew at me.

But too bad. That wasn’t going to work.

I stooped down before kicking off into a run, staying as low to the ground as I could as I closed the distance to the nearest soldier.

“Impossible! He dodged all of that?!”

“Th-the spells are… Uwaaaah!!”

Having missed their mark, the magical projectiles flew on still, landing on the soldiers standing at opposite ends.

Less than half of them took hits from their own, but that was still less to deal with. And it caused panic.

“Gah!!”

“Ugeh!!”

With their formation disintegrating, I wove in among the openings, bringing swift death to any soldier standing near.

Screams of panic and violent death sounded through the air, riling up the still living soldiers and sowing further discord in their ranks.

“I-impossible! For us, the Sacred Knights of Iltania to have–“

“He’s just a lone mercenary! He can’t even use magic..! Gah, ack..!”

I thrusted my sword into a soldier who babbled nonsense on the battlefield, pausing to wipe the splatter from my face.

It’s just another usual day at work.

I’m just paid to kill things, doesn’t matter if its monster or human. It wasn’t a very interesting job, to be honest.

Not to mention, there were always way too many things I had to kill, and then the pay wouldn’t even be worth the effort, not for something that had me putting my life on the line. There was a reason why most people didn’t last too long in this profession.

But still, that was what it means to be a merc. It was the job for people like me to do, for guys without an education or connections. It was especially bad for me, ’cause…

“Worthless, every last one of you..! How are you all having such a hard time against a single merc bastard that can’t use magic?!”

…I didn’t have any of that ‘magical power’ stuff that everyone else had, which meant the only thing I could do was become a mercenary.

“B-but..!”

“I’ve had enough of your excuses! Am I going to have to deal with this lowborn wretch myself?!”

The guy who looked like the commander was screaming his head off at his subordinate for some reason.

…I never thought being a mercenary was anything close to a respectable job, but really, when a war was happening all around us, there wasn’t much left that’s respectable.

“You there, lowborn! Know your place and bow before your betters! I, Gordon Laclay, commander of the Sacred Knights of Iltania’s magnificent Sixth Unit, shall personally deal with you!”

“Huh?”

The man strode forward with great confidence and pointed his sword at me.

…The hell was this fat pig squealing about?

I turned to look at the thing calling itself ‘Gordon’ when the rest of my mercenary troupe arrived.

“Whew, damn, Envil, you’re as scary as ever. Wasn’t expecting you to just go and off sixteen of ’em all on your own.”

“is it just that one soldier over there and this fat pig? Easy enough, eh? They ain’t call you ‘Savage Fang’ for nothin’.”

Seeing the jeering men around us, the fat commander’s bloated face paled with fear.

It was what it was. Even if he did look down on us mercs, it was pretty obvious fighting all of us on his own was suicide.

Well, I say so, but my job was doing just that: I would put myself deep behind enemy lines and simply run wild, making a big mess of things. It was a part of being the vanguard, but really it was just easier since I’m alone.

It seemed our guy Gordon the commander finally remembered he was still on the battlefield, and he started yelling, turning his palid face a crimson shade.

“C-come at me, mercenary dog! I will do you the honor by granting you the privilege of engaging with the great me in a most honorable duel!”

…Oh, so that’s what he was trying to do.

He probably figured he stood no chance if everyone were to attack at once, so instead he tried to have a one-on-one instead.

But his words were wasted, and the mercs behind me laughed at his cheap provocation. His face turned even redder than before, but he had the sense not to repond to the mockery.

But it wasn’t I had a reason to play along with him either. I just wanted to be done with the fighting and sleep already.

“Doesn’t that sound fun, Envil? Go ahead and do it.”

“He’s just a dressed up pig, what’s he gonna do?”

“Yeah, yeah! I’ll give you some o’ my pay tonight, even get you a li’l somethin’ extra for dinner! How’s that sound?”

“What was that? Tch… Making it sound all easy…”

It was annoying, but the guys kept egging me on to do it.

I really didn’t see the point to any of this… but I guess it wasn’t all that bad if I think of it as payback for what he’d said about us earlier.

So I stepped forward, emerging from the crowd. The pig flashed a nasty smile, looking quite proud of himself.

“I am Gordon of the Scorched Earth, proud commander of the Sacred Knights of Iltania’s Sixth Unit! Prepare yourself, lowborn!”

After announcing himself, he drew his sword and pointed it into the sky.

I sensed the magic power gathering around the sword; this felt like… fire attribute magic, huh.

Though I couldn’t use magic, I was actually quite sensitive to it compared to others.

I drew in a slow breath to focus, watching for the tells that would show me the exact moment he began his downward swing… and I moved!

A moment later, Gordon swung his sword down, and a wave of fire washed over where I had just been standing.

“Wha?! My fire magic was..?!”

He seemed genuinely shocked I had dodged his attack.

I suppose he wasn’t the commander for no reason. That attack just now was pretty fast and had good range. It was probably strong enough that if someone like me, who couldn’t use magic, took a hit, there’d be nothing left but ash.

But no matter how good an attack, it was all the same if it didn’t land. And it didn’t matter how big it was; the more powerful it was, the longer it took to activate, which meant there was more time to figure out where they’re aiming. If you knew where they were aiming, then you just move out of the way before it happened.

Better yet, there was a cooling down period where they couldn’t follow-up with another spell immediately, a period that was longer the more powerful their previous spell was. Of course there were guys out there, like heroes on the battlefield, that made a name for themselves by being exceptions to this rule, but…

“Ugh! For one such as I to have to engage this mutt in direct combat..!”

…the man facing me was not one of them. In the time it took to take a breath, I closed the distance between us. I ducked low before springing to my feet, using the momentum of my rise to power the upward swing of my sword.

A look of panic came over the commander as he reacted all too slowly to my movements.

There was a metallic shriek as our blades crossed… and his weapon flew off into the sky.

The sounds around us stopped. My vision narrowed. It was like time had slowed, and we were moving underwater. I stared carefully at him as the realization of being disarmed warped his face with fear and despair.

This was the very moment when he understood his life was in the hands of the ‘inferior being’ he, only moments ago, had been looking down on. This was a face I’m quite familiar with.

Well, I don’t really care, and it was too late for him to have any regrets. I directed a swift kick to his stomach.

“Gah!”

He made a croaking gasp. His fine facial hair became a mess now as he fell down to the ground.

I slowly approached in silence.

“Ooohh…! How could I lose to the likes of you!”

I could see the anger and the fear in his eyes as he stared up at me, indignant.

That was an expression I knew well, too, the ones full of anger and fear. It was something I’d seen my entire life, even before I became a mercenary.

“Y-you…! How dare a lowborn even think to look down on me!”

It looked like his anger overcame his fear as he continued to shout.

But ‘lowborn’, huh. That was an insult I’d heard countless times already.

It was an insult they used for anyone who couldn’t use magic, like me. Not that I had a problem with it.

And that got me thinking: what if I wasn’t a lowborn? What if I did have something, like if I was able to use magic? Would I still be living as a merc, or would my life be completely different?

“Oh? How interesting, so how does it feel to have to look up at one of those ‘lowborns’ that you so hate?”

I was used to being called a lowborn, and it had been a while since I felt anything from being called one. And so I answered him with in a calm tone.

Right now, this high-and-mighty noble had to look up to address me, a ‘lowborn’. I wondered how this made him feel.

“Sh-shut your mouth! You must have… you must have used some dirty trick to win! You damn lowborns are only able to win thanks to your tricks and luck!”

But it didn’t look like he would answer my question.

A ‘dirty trick’, huh. That was another one I’d heard a lot of, and I’m just as tired of hearing it.

I sighed and grabbed the man by the collar. The color drained from his face as I pressed my blade to his neck. His fear was stronger than his anger now.

“Eeek..! W-what do you think you’re doing? Unhand me!”

“How about you tell me about these ‘dirty tricks’, huh? I’d love to hear more if I could get even stronger.”

“A-are you.. going to kill me?! Someone like me… is going to be killed… by some mercenary dog?”

…Once again, he didn’t answer my question.

Instead… I noticed the area around his crotch had darkened, and I frowned as a rank stentch filled my nose.

Dammit, what a waste of time. I guess it was partly my fault for playing around too.

“Tch… how pathetic.”

I cursed under my breath, spitting the words out by reflex.

But the man only trembled in silent fear. It didn’t seem like I would be getting anything more out of him.

“Well whatever. If you find the answer in hell, you can tell me then. I’ll be going down there soon enough.”

“S-stop..! Wai–“

Without waiting to hear his plea, I drew my sword back, slicing through his soft neck. His blood leaked rapidly from the cut.

I must have cut deep enough to reach his windpipe because his mouth kept opening and closing, but the only sounds he made were bubbling gurgles.

And so I let go of his collar, and the man’s twitching body made a wet sound as it crumpled to the blood-soaked ground.

Cheers erupted all around me as his body fell.

“Damn that was good! That’s our man for ya, that’s Savage Fang!”

“It’s a complete victory for us, lads! We celebratin’ good tonight!”

The mercs around me whooped and shouted, praising the win.

There were only two important things to being a mercenary: having strength and taking heads. None of this had any real meaning to it, but… I couldn’t hate something so easy to understand.

I turned, putting on a wry smile.

“You comin’ to the party tonight, right? Ain’t gonna be right if the star don’t show!”

“Hm… I’ll think about it.”

“Look at you, being all cool ’bout it. You took the head off one of the king’s commanders. You lift your head higher, Envil!”

A mercenary with scruffy facial hair, the complete opposite of the dressed-up pig just now, approached, giving me a friendly slap on the shoulder.

This was Adan. We’ve known each other for a while, and I guess he would be something of a friend.

“Heh, and shouldn’t you be settling down soon? You got a kid coming, don’t you?”

“Hey now, I ain’t need someone like you to tell me that!”

I snorted in amusement as Adan awkwardly scratched his cheek. It’s because we have these kinds of exchanges that I don’t hate having him around.

And he was a weird one. The guys who continued to survive in this line of work always eventually changed, but not this guy. He’d been the same family-loving idiot since the day I met him.

That same family-loving idiot became a mercenary for the sake of money… and his country.

But the country he fought for was the very same country we were currently fighting against: the Kingdom of Iltania.

There was a civil war going on. The people of Iltania, tired of their cruel queen, rose up in defiance over the heavy taxes and the purges. They banded together to form their own army to overthrow their corrupt ruler.

That was the current state of the Kingdom of Iltania.

Most of the mercs in the rebel army were also Iltanians themselves.

Well, I guess I was also one. Formerly, anyway.

“Hm… Well, I guess I’ll save what I wanted to say to you for later.”

“Hey, wait, so that means you’re coming to the party after all?! I’ll be waiting for ya then, so you better come!”

Adan spotted other mercenaries he knew and ran off to greet them, stopping several times along the way to look back at me.

I slowly followed along, watching my busy friend go.

◆

“But man, didja see the look on that guy’s face as he died? What a joke!”

“Hey.. how are you drunk already? Ugh, there’s no point talking to you like this.”

“I mean don’tcha know it was a big ol’ victory for us today? And it’s payday! The lady back home’s gonna be happy too! We gotta party!”

“Good grief, you’re too loud. I should’ve just gone to sleep.”

It was later that night…

I took a sip from my drink, feeling annoyed with a completely drunk Adan beside me.

It was strong swill they served, tasting like medicine that burned on its way down the throat, and the snack that came with it was just as bad: old jerky covered in dirt and dust, drier to eat than a handful of sand.

But right now, this was what it meant to eat well in this country; its economy was struggling so badly that eating meat like this was considered a luxury.

This was a party serving bad drinks and worse food, and yet, Adan seemed to enjoy himself here.

“We just gotta push a li’l bit more, and we’ll have that tyrant bitch on the ropes! We should be getting excited, all fired up! Ya feel me?!”

All things considered, I could see what he was getting at; this rebel army of ours was closing in on a complete victory.

The civil war going on… It all started because of that one wicked woman.

It was all the fault of Mylene Iltania, the queen of Iltania. The red-white hair on her head, the Hair of Sulberia, was a symbol of her legitimacy, that the god above had blessed her, and she had wed the king of Iltania.

And since becoming queen, she has only done evil, from raising taxes to indulging in every luxury and punishing any who dared to speak out. Even the king could do nothing but follow the orders of this woman, who was called ‘God’s Blessed ‘.

The war begun after the execution of Duchess Melissa Tulio de Lulutowa, a sympathizer of the commonfolk. She had been the one to calm the people when they had been on the brink of an uprising.

But with her dead, the citizens took up arms and hired mercenaries, and the fires of war burned, looking to swallow the tyrant queen. So universally hated was Queen Mylene that there were mercenaries who volunteered for the war effort, trading their services for a chance to bring down the queen.

And finally this long war was coming to a close with victory in sight. The nobility, having weakened over the long peace, were weaker still from Mylene’s policies and could do nothing against the rebellion.

Victory was so close at hand, and it was for that reason the mercenaries and citizens came together to make merry tonight.

But…

“Oooh, we beseech thee, our one true God, Dia Myrth! Guide our hand that we may dethrone the apostate Blessed! May her entrails be torn by rabid cur! May her head be dashed upon roadside stone!”

“Off with Mylene’s head!”

“For you, we shall offer the head of Iltania’s Hound!”

This country, no matter who wins this war, is doomed. I drank to those thoughts, sipping away. I could hear Adan’s voice somewhere in the crowd. I hadn’t noticed when he had wandered off, but I ignored it.

After Mylene’s rise to power, the country had begun falling apart. It wasn’t just the monarchy or the nobles under them. Even the common people were in trouble.

Some pagan cult had taken to the streets, taking in citizens like lost sheep, and now, with their ranks swelled, their followers were always about, calling out with violent profanity.

This “Dia Myrth” figure they worshipped was one of their gods, I think. One of the ‘Gods of the Moon’ or something, they said.

And now a number of them had gathered by, performing some sort of ritualistic worship to a creepy statue of a horned snake. Honestly this was ruining the celebratory mood of the party.

I personally don’t care about about what they believe, but they’ve been all over the city for so long now that I’ve heard their words enough times to know a bit about their cult.

And that wasn’t all they did.

“Ahh… Whew, here it comes… It hits so good with a drink… Uehehe…”

“H-hey… s’that ‘Ludus’ ya gots..? Gimme a hit… Jus’ a li’l pinch, I gots none left, bro…”

“Piss off! This here’s mine! It ain’t for no sharin’!”

With the monarchy on the brink, a certain prohibited magi-drug had found their way back into use and ran unchecked among the people.

It was called ‘Ludus’, from a word for the pleasure through enlightenment. It was a magi-drug made by grinding certain scarlet flowers into a powder.

The dealers had claimed it was harmless, but it took only one look at a user to see it was anything but; the more a person used it, the crazier they became.

There were some, like Adan, who could control themselves while under the effects of Ludus, but it didn’t change the fact that the country was going to shit between the spread of this magi-drug and the corruption in monarchy.

“…”

Well, not like any of that was my business. It all meant the same to me.

I took another quiet sip, looking deep into my cup to avoid seeing worse.

“Haha… Don’t this just beat all…”

“Yeah, you can say that again.”

Adan, who had wandered off earlier making noise, reappeared, maybe feeling pity for the lonely me drinking all alone.

He had a bitter smile on his face; despite how optimistic he usually was, Adan knew as well as I did how doomed this country was.

“If only Lady Melissa were still alive, maybe things wouldn’t have gotten this bad… This is all because of that shitty queen!”

Adan had always claimed he became a mercenary in this war for the money, but it was obvious to me he had a moral streak about him, like he wanted to avenge the late duchess. Well, it’s not like I could criticize him for it when I didn’t have any real motivations nor did I care about the pay in the first place.

“Don’t you got something against her too, Envil?”

“…Maybe, I guess. I’m just not as eager as you.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I answered the piss drunk Adan.

Still, I meant what I told him.

Unlike Adan, or many other mercenaries, I returned to this country to fight because… well, to punish myself.

For my entire life, I’d never had anyone I could call a parent. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but for the most part, I can only ever remember growing up in an orphanage.

But despite being an orphan, my life wasn’t all that bad. I hadn’t realized how different it was at the time, but the caretaker was a kind-hearted person that taught us not to discriminate. They had even accepted someone like me, someone without magical power.

And the same was true for the other children I grew up with, and while there wasn’t anyone I was particularly close with, there wasn’t anyone that bullied me either.

I did leave the orphanage to live on my own, but I would never forget the gratitude I had for the caretaker; I would send letters back on occasion. It wasn’t until I had experienced life outside of the orphanage that I truly understood how different, how warm and comforting, that place had been.

“…S’that right? I ‘member you sayin’ that she-bitch was the one ta’ burn down the orphanage you came from.”

“Yeah… ‘For the crime of sheltering the magic-less lowborn and harboring pagan heretics’ was what they said…”

…It was none other than Mylene Iltania herself who put the orphanage to the torch, six years after I had left.

And it had happened because of a rumor accusing the orphanage of being involved with the cults spreading their pagan faith throughout the country.

Even if the rumors were untrue, once it reached the ears of officials, there was nothing to be done, and, despite being part of a church of the kingdom’s religion, the orphanage was not spared. There was nothing anyone could have done.

On that day, Mylene Iltania herself paid a visit to the orphanage, bringing along her personal guard. She declared for all to hear that she would grant mercy to the heretics… and used her magic to burn everything to the ground.

It was said that those bearing the vermillion-white Hair of Sulberia held peerless magical talent without exception, and that stood true for Mylene Iltania, who took every opportunity to abuse her power and flaunt her singularity.

The home that sheltered abandoned lowborn children was her new target for a single reason: as a form of amusement, to stave off the boredom of living without inconvenience.

Another rumor had gone around not long after that claimed Mylene specifically targeted that orphanage, saying, ‘Nobody would care if a few lowborn and the trash around them disappeared.’ Having heard rumors of other cruel things she has done before, this one was probably true.

So on the whim of a single woman, everybody at the orphanage died that day; every child and even the caretaker perished in the fire.

At the time, I was fighting as a mercenary in another country.

It was after I heard the rumor in passing, of what happened to the orphanage, that I returned to Iltania.

But it wasn’t revenge that drove me to fight. Of course, I was angry when I saw the aftermath, but… I was also not a part of that orphanage when it all happened. What I felt was an obligation to avenge them, and I wouldn’t stand for leaving that to anyone else.

…Well, that’s how it was.

To me, the victorious mood around the celebrating mercenaries and civilians wasn’t something I could understand.

It’s over for Iltania. Winning or losing wouldn’t change that. After killing the people in charge, there would be nothing left to support this country, and from there it would crumble to nothing before anything could be done to save it.

Even if honest, upstanding people were to take over, there were only so many of them — far from the number needed to save this rotten country.

And that’s why I’m only staying in this kingdom for as long as the war lasts and leaving after. I have no intention of watching a country die.

“Phew…”

I turned to watch the carousing around the banquet. It looked more like the insane ritual of a cult.

…Dammit, this drink really does taste bad.

◆

Several years have passed since the civil war started.

The fighting had continued, with the members of my unit falling, one by one, until only I remained, and here I was now, witnessing what we had all fought so hard for.

“…You seeing this, Adan?”

Under the dark clouds that reflected the fate of this country, I wondered aloud to a friend that was no longer here.

My murmur went unanswered, but it was the noisy jeering around me that drowned it.

It may be in bad taste given the circumstances, but I still wished he was here to watch the end to all this.

I was near the border, at a fortress that now functioned as an execution ground. Despite how remote it was, countless people filled the site, with more still coming in.

People from across Iltania had traveled across the country to witness something they had long awaited.

And that time had arrived; countless eyes bored holes into a certain woman following the hooded executioner.

Everyone recognized to whom the hair that was like bloodstains on white snow — the Hair of Sulberia — belonged to: Mylene Iltania. She now wore the rags of a prisoner, and black leather restraints viciously bit into her body, accentuating its curves.

But while her appearance looked suggestive, there was none among the gathering who would feel such things.

In the first place, the restraints did more than just tie her up; it was an expensive device for sealing her magical power. If those were to come lose, there would be nothing stopping her from unleashing her magic.

So she continued to cost them money, even after being captured. I chuckled at that thought.

After arriving at the center of the crowd, the executioner removed the gag from her mouth and presented her face to the world.

Objectively speaking, she was beautiful. She was born into power, and she could use powerful spells. She had everything anyone could want in life. It was obvious why they had said she was blessed by God.

“Damn… you all! You savages! Do you know who I am?! I am Iltania’s Blessed! God’s chosen one! To dare treat me like this..!”

But she was different on the inside; it had taken only a moment after her gag was removed that she began ranting and raving, screeching as she pleased.

It was unpleasant. She continued looking down on the people around her, disregarding her own plight.

The soldiers that once protected her like armor now lay dead, and the spells that she once trusted now lay sealed.

And the resentful howls of this now-powerless tyrant were just annoying the audience.

But this was just the opening act for what people who traveled across the country have come to watch.

She was still rather energetic for someone facing her execution… Did she believe she could somehow survive this day? All the nobles I’d encountered before had acted out like this, too.

“Iltania’s judgment will come down upon your heads! If you wish to live, end this farce! Stop this rebellion this instant!”

I could feel the anger rise around me; her words, still looking down on these people, had stirred their emotions.

It felt as though the collective emotions in the crowd manifested and had begun heating up the crowd.

…If Adan were here, would he also join these people and raise his fist alongside them?

“Kill her…”

Those words had lit a fuse in the people.

Despite being one low voice among the crowd, it seemed as though everyone had heard it, and the words spread like wildfire.

“Kill her… kill her!”

“Kill her! Have her hung!”

“Eek?!”

And like a raging wildfire, the words only spread further; the people had become united in spirit through their shared desire.

It wasn’t right to say the fuse had just been lit… No, the fuse had been burning for a very long time.

And it was now that everything exploded.

The collective conscience of these people at the fortress had united as one.

And so as one, the crowd raised their fists high into the air, chanting ‘Kill her!’ Their shouts overlapped to become the roar of a great beast.

You are reading story Lady Savage Fang – History’s Greatest Mercenary Reincarnates as the World’s Cruelest Lady and Becomes Peerless in this Second Life at novel35.com

“W-wait! Wait! Do none of you fear the wrath of God?!”

Reality finally began to sink in, and terror washed over her face as, for the first time, she truly understood the danger surrounding her.

But by now it was far too late. The fuse had burned to its end, and the keg that was the people’s emotions was about to explode.

Besides… now was no time to be pious. Nobody right now has any interest in God, let alone one that would bless someone as foolish as this woman.

“Shut your mouth! You’re better off asking your god for help!”

“Who was it that was ‘God’s Blessed’?! Not you!”

There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t fan the flames of the people’s wrath.

And there was nothing to stop it now. No matter what happened, the people would see this woman executed.

The crowd began chanting ‘Kill her!’ again, as though invoking a spell of their own. The terror on Mylene’s face was visible for all to see now.

At the same time, her eyes welled with tears.

“No… Not like this! I don’t want to die! G-God will forgive you if you stop now! Save me..! I don’t want to die!”

What once spat insults now begged for mercy.

It seemed she wasn’t so strong after all, and her attitude had been her own way of coping and ignoring reality.

“Begging for mercy now..! Do you remember what you did when Lady Melissa begged for her life?!”

“Who was it that destroyed our petition for Lady Melissa, that laughed when we begged for Lady Melissa to be spared?!”

“If you really are God’s Blessed, then bring Lady Melissa back right now!”

But of course, what was lost could not return.

To get this far, these people had given up so much, had lost so much.

When blood was spilled, life was extinguished. And even this woman, this country, lost something just as precious and irreplaceable.

The anger of the mob was at its limits, and Mylene grew even more desperate when it became clear nobody would come to help.

“N-noooo! Wait, please wait! I’m begging you to wait..! Someone! Anyone is fine! Just save me! God, oh God, please!”

What an ugly way to end your life.

I was the kind of guy who would do anything to win, to survive, but there were still things that I, magicless that I was, couldn’t choose for myself.

But, at the very least, I wanted to be able to choose how I would die.

For her to beg that ‘anyone is fine’ meant there really was nobody left to help her. And her beloved God, ignoring the screams of this ‘Blessed’, was no exception.

That woman was truly alone. I had no sympathy for her; everything was something she had brought on herself. I spat in disgust, hoping I wouldn’t someday meet my end like this.

Well, it would be nice if everything just ended here.

It wasn’t like that woman deserved that kind of mercy, but it was making me sick to think that this performance was what Adan and the other guys fought and died for.

Or did that just make me one of the crowd, another who wished for this woman to just die. Regardless, the atmosphere had changed; the executioner began pulling on the rope tied to Mylene, dragging her to the gallows.

But then, right at that moment…

“Huh..?”

…an arrow soared through the air, piercing through one side of the executioner’s head.

That was only the first, and soon countless arrows fell like a curtain of rain from the sky.

I ducked low to the ground as the arrows continued to fall, picking up a fallen corpse to shield myself from the attack.

The hell was happening here?! I looked around under the safety of my makeshift cover, but I could find no answer.

This wasn’t how the Iltanian military attacked: they focused almost exclusively on using magic. It was impossible for those boneheaded officers to order anything besides magical strikes, and it was for that very reason they had fallen to us.

…So this attack would have had to come from a third party, one that was stronger, more determined than the Iltanian military.

The rain of arrows eventually subsided, and a rebel soldier cried out in panic.

“It’s… it’s Colhoun! The Colhoun army is attacking!”

At the same time he shouted that, I looked out toward where the arrows had come

From there, in the distance, marched column after column of jet-black armor, flying a black lion standard.

◆

“Haa… Haa… Damn it all…”

I swore as I cut down another Colhoun soldier that came at me.

Little still stood in this plaza that only moments ago had people fighting to get into.

But now, all that remained were the corpses of unfortunate civilians and those of the invaders.

Right as the execution was about to begin, a message had arrived, announcing an invasion from the neighboring country, Colhoun.

It was hard to tell if they had been waiting for this moment or if their timing was just too good.

But their appearance was timely enough that some had believed it was God’s own intervention.

After all, it had started at the perfect moment, as though they were planning to save the tyrannical Mylene. It had been enough to completely demoralize the people, who were already at their limits from this long civil war.

Even so, some of the rebel army and even some idiotic mercenaries had stayed behind to fight… but there were just too many Colhoun soldiers.

I also happened to be one of those idiot mercenaries.

I’ve no employer now. I’m not getting paid for this. There isn’t even anything left to protect in this country anymore. And yet here I was, choosing to not run away.

More of the Colhoun army approached, tightening their encirclement.

I couldn’t waste anymore time thinking about every little thought that came to mind.

“Uuuooooooohhhh!”

I let my instincts take over, charging straight ahead and swinging my sword at the oncoming tidal wave of enemies .

“Is he insane? To take us on without using magic?!”

A soldier came forward to block my charge, shouting something with a look of contempt.

Not worth thinking about. He pointed a sword towards me, and a ball of red quickly grew at its tip — flames shot out of it a moment later.

What an idiot. I ducked low, dodging under the oncoming fire, and continued forward.

The attack hid me from sight. I could feel a searing heat across my back, but I ignored it as I reached the soldier. I thrust my sword forward and swung up.

“Wha..!”

My sword sliced through his chin and out the top of his head, killing the soldier before he could acknowledge this sudden end to his life.

I could feel fear and panic begin to spread among the enemy soldiers.

And from there I could do what I usually did. I kept a low profile, occasinally throwing the soldiers into chaos by provoking reckless magical attacks that hurt their own instead of me.

I couldn’t use magic, but I’ve trained to become more sensitive to it than most people to make up for it.

It wasn’t hard to deal with magic as long as you knew from where it came, where it was aimed, and how powerful it was.

“Gah!”

“Ugh!”

It didn’t matter if I were against one hundred or even two hundred alone. All I had to do was move and reposition in a way that kept my enemy from making use of their numbers.

And really, their numbers only made it harder for them to handle the lone me. For me, that just meant there were more enemies to kill.

“I-impossible..! For a single soldier, without using any magic, to..!”

From among the chaos, some soldiers’ voices cried out in confusion.

They wouldn’t know, but I was just a filthy magicless lowborn. But because they didn’t, the soldiers grew even more panicked, making my job even easier.

My breath came out like white smoke off my heated body. I was reaching the limits of my stamina, but I could still fight. I would kill as many as I could for as long as I could hold out.

And I kept killing and killing. Killing enemies everywhere I saw them. I could see the terror in their eyes, seeing me as a maddened beast.

The mercs called me Savage Fang. It was the name enemy mages had on their lips as I put them to the sword. I fought with the savagery and brutal cunning of a wild animal, and eventually the name stuck.

That’s right, I was just a wild animal, a starving stray dog with no place left to go. But even strays can find meaning for themselves!

I continued slashing away at the unending wave of enemies — until I instinctively felt a chilling calm settle on the battlefield. The enemy soldiers had stopped approaching.

They still surrounded me, and I cautiously held my sword at the ready. But as I watched, I realized more began to pull away, forming up orderly rows, as though giving way to something…

“Haa… Haa… Is… something coming…?”

But before I could think anymore, the fatigue finally caught up, and I fell to my knees in exhaustion.

It was as though the gears moving my body had ground to a halt. I had lost the momentum pushing my half-dying body onward when I stopped, and it was now I noticed the deafening beat of my heart, even as every inch of my body burned with exertion.

“Th-the enemy has fallen!”

A soldier must have thought this was his chance, seeing as I had come to a stop, and he charged at me with a crooked smile on his face.

Still on my knees and without looking, I turned my sword and thrust forward, piercing through the soldier’s throat.

My lungs burned as I drew ragged breath when another noise caught my attention; I raised my head to see a woman looking down at me.

She had a cold glare on her face, staring at me from atop her black horse. It was obvious from how clean her face was and from her horse that her station was far above that of the common soldiers around us.

If I could kill her then..! I mustered the last of my strength into my sword arm with that thought.

There was no stamina left in me, so I willed the final dregs of my life into action. My muscles swelled.

“Uooooohhhhh!”

I put strength into my legs and pushed off toward the woman.

“You won’t pass!”

“Outta my waaayyy!!”

I cut the head off the soldier who stepped in front of me.

A spear approached from the side. I chopped off that head before leaping over the ground’s sudden rise ahead of me.

I landed with a clumsy stumble, my lack of stamina leaving me unsteady. A soldier took his chance and stabbed his spear into my shoulder. I cut it at the tip and yanked his headless shaft toward me, stabbing the soldier through his head once he stumbled close.

Compared to magic, physical attacks were much harder to predict. Fighting these Colhoun soldiers was much more draining because they used everything available to attack me with, making them worse to deal with than the magic-focused Iltania army.

I had fought battles on Colhoun’s side before, but their tactics were completely unlike what they were now; back then, they had focused more on magical attacks, similar to Iltania.

The one who changed their tactics… was probably this woman, the leader of their army: the empress of Colhoun.

I had heard the she was a battle maniac, but that didn’t explain why she would be here. Was it because the civil war had weakened the country, giving her an opening to invade?

…Whatever her reason, I’m glad she decided to show up here herself. Now I can pay her back for the rude invasion in person.

If I can kill her then..! I repeated the thought like a feverish mantra, imagining myself becoming the fang that would rip and tear through my last enemy.

I cut away incoming soldiers, kicking some away while directing others’ attacks toward another.

Just a few more steps, and my sword would reach her neck…

If I can kill her then… If I kill her then..!

“Damn… it..!”

If I kill her then… what happens next?

…Nothing would happen. Nothing I did here mattered. This country was already finished. I was just fighting for a corpse.

And with that, my strength was gone. My legs stopped moving and no longer kept me up.

I saw the ground fast approaching my face, and I fell into it with a heavy impact to my side.

The Colhoun soldiers began swarming over to me, but…

“Stop.”

Like the thrum from an icy harp, a cold voice ordered the soldiers to stilness.

I could barely look over in exhaustion, but I saw the soldiers had formed up again.

Before me was the empress of Colhoun, dismounting from her horse. Her flowing black hair neatly framed her tall, slim figure, and she stared down at me with the same cold eyes.

“You’re… Colette the Black Lion.”

“Oh? So you know who I am?”

This was Colette von Colhoun, the empress of Colhoun.

She was the leader of the country that had suddenly invaded Iltania.

“Well, never mind that. I have a single question to ask: you, what are you? It should be impossible for anyone to be able to kill my soldiers without using magic.”

“I’m… just a mercenary. It’s not that I didn’t use magic… I can’t use magic at all.”

“What?”

A surprised look came over Colette’s face.

“I see… So you are magicless.”

She stared at me in curiosity.

“Heh… So, what, anything you wanna say to laugh at this lowborn?”

“No, it’s the opposite: I can only respect how much you must have trained yourself and refined your skill, all without magic. Being able to kill hundreds of my soldiers without magic is a feat worthy of my praise.”

It was now my turn to be surprised.

“Knowing there was someone like you tells me my beliefs are not wrong. Magic may yet reign supreme in this world of ours, but martial prowess is enough to take a life. It only makes sense to use anything available to us…”

…What a surprise. I had expected every noble to insist magic was absolute power, that swords were only tools to channel that power.

“…especially when the thing is a sharpened blade as deadly as you. If only I could show you to those old men at home, show them the ferocity a warrior like you.”

“Heh… You’re expecting too much out of one stray mutt, you know.”

I answered with a sarcastic smile, though I still struggled to breathe.

The reason why I continued to humor her, why I still responded, was to hide my fatigue. Showing how tired I was would be admitting my loss.

In the first place, she probably wasn’t even thinking about fighting me as I was now. That same Colette smiled at me.

“Hm, a stray mutt, you say? It is very troubling that such a dog could easily slaughter trained soldiers of the Colhoun army.”

Instead of getting angry at the insolence of a dying mercenary, the empress had an amused look, carrying herself with the dignity of a ruler.

But her smile suddenly faded, and she asked another question.

“Dog that you are, a mercenary such as yourself need not die for this country. So tell me, would you wag your tail for me? With one such as you at my side, the empire stands to gain even more power.”

She asked without a smile on her face; her offer was dead serious.

This was the strangest way of scouting an enemy soldier. I wasn’t the only one confused by this turn of events, and my ears picked up murmurs of “A magicless like him..?” from all around me.

“If there are any who would question my decision, that you believe yourself able to best this dying man in single combat, step forward at once!”

At their empress’s declaration, the thousand-strong soldiers around us fell silent.

It seems she really was serious about this.

She was completely serious about headhunting a mere mercenary, going as far as personally inviting him.

So recklessly bold, she was. If I had known this invasion was coming, it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to work under this woman.

But…

“Can I ask you something?”

“You may.”

“Why did you invade this country?”

“…For that woman, up there on the gallows. ‘As God’s Blessed, it is by rights that the treasured sword of Colhoun belongs to me,’ she had rudely demanded. And so here I am, to pay her back for the disrespect she gave to my empire.”

The empress motioned with her chin to the gallows; Mylene was still there, her hair swaying as she quietly trembled in place.

“I had heard she would be brought to this border fort, so I decided it would be a good time to pay her a personal visit… Never would I have expected to find the country to have fallen so far that it would capitulate to a rebel army. There may have been no need to lead an invasion in the first place.”

Now this was funny. I had long believed it was all over for the country — to hear an empress give voice to my belief left me more satisfied than I expected.

“Kukuku…”

How ridiculous that the country preaching peace and communion with God was the very same one that picked a fight with an empire vastly superior in military power.

“So you’re not here to save her?”

“Perish the thought. We want the opposite. Is that all you wished to ask?”

“Yeah, that’s good enough. The timing of your army’s arrival had been so good, I was starting to believe that woman really was blessed by God.”

I gave a hoarse laugh.

I looked over at Mylene. none of the arrows from earlier had hit her.

…Maybe God really was out there. It was a miracle that she was still alive after all this fighting. Or maybe this empress here had ordered her archers to avoid hitting Mylene. Even then, it was surprising no one from among the fleeing rebels had thought to take her with them.

I knew God was not wholly benevolent, but it was still surprising for Mylene to have come through all of this unscathed.

…And even that would be coming to an end now that someone had come to close the curtains themself.

…This was a rather pathetic end for me, but my goal was complete.

I wouldn’t say I had stayed for revenge; it was more that I couldn’t bring myself leave this all unfinished. The reason I had for fighting as hard as I did in this battle was so I could see this through to the end too.

And now, with everything becoming a blur, I had no regrets left.

“Hahaha… Haa… Then let me give you my answer, miss empress: I will not. This country will soon be destroyed, but I’m not so shameless that I would wag my tail for the one responsible for its destruction. This country is still my homeland, and I will die with it. Call it the final pride of this stray mutt.”

“…It is truly regrettable that it must come to this, but I will respect your choice and pride. Allow me to ask one final question: what is your name?”

“It’s Envil… No family name. Among the mercenaries, they called me Savage Fang.”

After a pause, the woman called the Black Lion raised a hand.

She had known the whole time that I was at my limits.

I guess it isn’t all bad since I got to meet a good woman in the end.

“I have committed you to memory. It would be to my benefit that I share the story of you, the legendary mercenary who faced thousands yet held no magic — that you, the strongest warrior, once lived.”

With another regretful look and unpleasant grimace, Colette turned her head to look back at Mylene on the gallows.

“But perhaps this was a blessing in disguise for my empire. If it had been you, rather than that worthless woman over there, who possessed great magical power, the balance of power across this land may have been completely different.”

It is said that those with the Hair of Sulberia controlled unparalleled magic, proof that they were God’s Blessed. If I had that kind of power, then my life might have been completely different.

And yet, for that woman who had everything, she, too, had ended up like me. I followed Colette’s gaze over to Mylene; I guess it wasn’t about having or not having — it was about how you lived your life with that something.

“This is farewell then… O proud wolf!”

Colette spoke with proud, dignified finality and dropped her raised hand.

Like starved scavengers before a carcass, the soldiers rushed forward, stabbing at me with their swords.

I could feel my consciousness begin slipping away. So this is death…

The only thing I could feel was the blood pooling in my throat. My breathing stopped.

“…Drop the gallows! To you, proud wolf, we give the life of Mylene Iltania!”

As the darkness swallowed everything, I heard the empress give a shout.

It was an extravagant waste to offer the head of a queen to a stray mutt. I could only hope she wouldn’t be my only companion to hell…

And so my life came to an end.

I didn’t have much purpose in life, so if this was how it ended, then so be it…

I felt the corners of my mouth curl, and then, when the last of my strength faded away, I became an unmoving mass of flesh.

◆

…?

Questions appeared within the darkness of my mind, like bubbles within a murky lake.

Had I fallen asleep without realizing it? I could only wonder about what was happening.

I had surely died in that moment, so… why was I still able to think, to feel?

There was something soft on my back. As I tried moving, I heard the rustle of fabric. The sensation jolted my mind from the chains holding it to the dark depths, sending it to the surface.

My consciousness returned, but with it came confusion; I could feel a bright light coming from beyond my closed eyelids: a strong, warm sunlight.

…The hell?

Don’t tell me there really was an afterlife.

I very clearly remembered the sensation of being stabbed by countless swords on that empress’s command.

And after that was the suffocating pain of drowning in my own blood. I was sure my life had ended there.

For some reason, I felt no pain now… Stranger yet was how I was still conscious in the first place.

With those thoughts in mind, I opened my eyes and sat up…

“Eek..! I-I see you have awakened..!”

I suddenly heard a female voice from nearby. I turned toward where it had come from.

And sure enough there was a woman standing to the side. Was she an attendant — no, from her clothes, she was probably a maid. She was looking at me with an expression of complete terror.

For a caretaker of hell, she seemed too easily frightened. Even if she were a less important worker, she shouldn’t be this cowardly.

Actually, wait a minute… Was I… still alive? But I’ve never heard of anyone surviving the kind of injuries I had.

I had no idea what was going on. Even if they had somehow gathered hundreds of doctors and mages, it was still impossible to bring the dead back to life.

But if I had survived, then was this a hospital? Is that woman actually a nurse?

Then, would that mean I am now in Colhoun? I didn’t think the empress was someone who would go back on their word, but was it possible she had second thoughts and then decided to revive me?

“Hey…”

I had questions I wanted to ask the woman, but as I began to speak, my throat felt strange. I frowned on reflex.

“Ee-eek..! P-please have mercy..!”

That aside, the maid was making a lot of noise…

She seemed to be frightened of me, but… I guess it would be normal to be scared knowing I was a mercenary who had killed hundreds of soldiers from her country.

“Tch… It’s not like I’ll do… anything..?”

That was strange. My throat still felt strange. No, it wasn’t my throat, it was my voice..? Why did it sound so high-pitched..?

I tried to ask the maid more questions, but she cowered in place, too scared to respond.

I was getting frustrated by all these things I didn’t know. Where is this? Why am I still alive? What happened to my wounds?

I wished there was someone who could answer…

Instead I had to look around for clues; on closer inspection, this room was actually quite luxurious. I remembered visiting a wealthy man’s house before for a contract, but this room was far more impressive than that.

The curtains looked to be made of an expensive fabric, and the bed was excessively decorated. The furnitures around the room looked overly fancy and extravagant. This was no room to be keeping a captive mercenary in.

But my eyes caught sight of something that stopped me completely.

A certain object had come into view, something normal, that most rooms had. Of course, this one was as ornate as the rest of the room, but that wasn’t an important detail.

It was something that was extremely common: a mirror.

But that common mirror didn’t reflect the figure of the battle-scarred mercenary I remembered…

…it reflected a young girl.

“What… the hell..?”

I touched my cheeks, doubting the reality I saw, but the girl in the mirror did the same.

From her facial features, she should be around ten years old. Her eyes and nose are well-defined, and her face was full of the charming softness of youth. It would not be wrong to describe the girl as beautiful or even adorable.

But the hair on her head was a sign of something far more ominous.

Long strands of white hair with streaks of pale vermillion among them bloomed from her head. It was something I recognized: the Hair of Sulberia — the hair named after the flower whose colors it shared, and the hair supposedly loved by Iltania.

And it was the symbol of the one called God’s Blessed, born once every several hundred years.

No, no way. This can’t be possible.

This could only be worst possible situation; it didn’t matter how hard I denied it because a certain name kept coming to mind.

“P-please forgive me for disturbing your rest..! I will accept whatever punishment you give! B-but please, p-please spare my life… Lady Mylene!”

The frightened maid called out to me using the very name I didn’t want to accept in this reality I didn’t want to acknowledge. But in this closed room, with only the two of us in it, if the maid was addressing me, then there was no more mistaking it. I could only accept it.

Ahh, I knew it.

There couldn’t have been two people in the world with this same disgusting, wicked hair.

And then the maid had called me ‘Lady Mylene’, confirming my identity and the owner of this hair.

I thought I was prepared to accept anything, but… never could I have imagined I would be reborn as the worst woman in the world, who drove her very country to ruin.

But seeing this Mylene, or rather my current appearance raised another question: was I in the past? My mind had calmed enough to coolly organize my thoughts.

…I knew it. There couldn’t be a God in this world. If there was a God, then they would be the absolute worst…

“Damn it all…”

…useless bastard.

The girl in the mirror gave a twisted grimace, as though she had bitten a bitter bug.

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