Volume 1 Chapter 1 Prologue
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Tracking them down had been almost laughably easy.
They must have thought they’d covered their tracks well, but in the end, they were nothing more than petty thieves—amateurs playing at banditry. For a seasoned adventurer like me, their efforts at concealment were sloppy at best.
Their trail wound clumsily through the forest, each broken branch and faint footprint guiding me like signposts. I followed without effort, pressing deeper into the woods for hours as the sky dimmed. By the time twilight surrendered to true night, I had found them.
A clearing opened up ahead—unnatural in its suddenness, as if carved out of the dense trees by an old forgotten purpose. At the far end stood a crumbling log cabin, half-swallowed by moss and time. An old hunter’s shelter, probably abandoned decades ago.
In front of the cabin, five men lounged around a fire. Flames flickered off their armor and weapons as they drank, laughing too loudly, too carelessly.
Just as the intel said—five of them. Not a single lookout posted. Were they truly this complacent? Or simply that ignorant?
The object I had come to retrieve was nowhere in sight. Most likely locked inside the cabin. In any halfway competent group, someone would have stayed behind to guard it. But these fools had left the entrance unwatched. It was already clear: they weren’t professionals. Not even close.
Those who stray from the path of honest work to embrace crime are already villains.
But those who can’t even do that right—who fail at wickedness itself—are beneath contempt.
I felt no need to hesitate.
Silently, I drew a dart from the holder strapped to my waist. Every movement was measured, quiet, precise. Underestimating them would be a mistake—but I never did that. No matter the target, I moved with the same calculated caution.
I slipped through the underbrush without a sound, approaching the fire from downwind. I edged closer, until I could make out their voices clearly—guttural laughter, slurred speech, the clang of a bottle knocked over.
But then—
As I listened, I understood.
And in that moment, a chill surged through my veins.
I take it back. These men—no, these things—they’re not merely trash.
They’re something worse. Something so far beneath the word “human” it feels like an insult to compare.
Their words, their laughter… I won’t write them here. But I understood then what they had done. What they intended to do. And what was locked inside that cabin.
Capturing them alive was no longer an option. That thought, that possibility—it vanished from my mind, erased by rage cold and absolute.
The dart in my hand trembled, not from fear, but from the tension in my grip.
Tonight, I would end them.
One by one. Without mercy. Without hesitation.
This was no longer a mission.
It was an execution.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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