Chapter 143. The Frontier
Low Demons and bandits occasionally appeared in the southern frontier.
They cleverly targeted only small settlements, and because the villages on the outskirts of the territory were poorly defended, they had no choice but to be plundered helplessly.
A considerable amount of financial loss and loss of life always occurred.
For a lord who needed to collect taxes, it was a great loss.
They should have resolved the problem of the Low Demons and bandits somehow, yet ironically, the baronial house had left the aforementioned problem alone for more than ten years.
It was because of Grian Miyatro’s incompetence.
Grian was full of greed, but he did not know how to take care of his territory.
A man who chased only the profit before his eyes, he considered investing even a single coin in the frontier a loss.
Even so, he collected taxes without fail.
He cared nothing for the suffering of his people.
As a result, most of Miyatro’s outlying settlements had gone bankrupt.
They could not endure midwinter.
The frozen or starved dead had lined the streets.
That had been the case until merely a year ago.
These days are a little different.
Even in winter, the people were alive and breathing.
They were certainly hungry and cold, but they were not losing their lives.
It was thanks to their new lord.
Yohan Miyatro. This year, he had exempted all outlying settlements from taxes.
He had guaranteed the minimum right to life.
At least this winter, no one had starved to death.
Rather, more people were dying from blades.
The bandit gangs that had coiled themselves in the south were running rampant this year.
As soon as they learned that the lord was not collecting taxes, they brutally plundered the frontier villages.
Countless able-bodied men who resisted lost their lives.
Women were dragged away alive, and the elderly met miserable deaths.
A small hell was unfolding on the southern frontier.
“Now, let’s pull out! Hey, stop killing them! If we want to squeeze them again next year, we need to leave a decent number alive!”
“Load the young women onto this wagon!”
“Don’t set any fires! Just scare them a little!”
Nearly twenty bandits had turned one village into a wreck.
The village had neither a militia nor guards, so it could only suffer helplessly.
Wails and screams echoed without end.
“Please don’t take my mother! Please! Please!”
A bandit with a messy beard kicked a young girl hard.
“Get lost! Next year, it’ll be your turn, bitch! Fatten up that scrawny body over the years! So there’s something to grab! Haha!”
Even as the girl hit the ground and sobbed, the bandits felt no sympathy.
They merely laughed and chattered.
“Should we just take this bitch too?”
“What for? Next year, she’ll be much riper and better to eat. Growing kids shoot up fast! Haha!”
“Crazy bastard! You really are insane!”
They were no different from demons. They were beings who had already given up on being human.
“Pull out! We’re returning to the hideout!”
“Don’t stupidly leave anything behind. Pack the cargo properly!”
The noisy bandit group began withdrawing in perfect order.
Thanks to their considerable experience in plundering, they showed quite a practiced appearance.
All twenty of them marched in step toward the village exit.
Around the time the crudely stacked wooden fence came into view, someone tilted his head.
“Boss, do you see that up ahead?”
A woman was standing at the village entrance.
A woman with red hair. Her red locks contrasted with the pure-white snowfield, giving off a distinct presence.
Among the bandit group, the largest man opened his mouth.
“......Red hair and light iron armor?”
He was the leader of the bandit group.
“Yes, that’s right. Couldn’t she be that bitch from the rumors?”
Lately, there has been one strange rumor circulating around the southern frontier.
───A red-haired woman was mercilessly cutting people down.
───Across the snowfields she passed through, red blood followed her like a shadow.
Taking that sight as inspiration, the people of the frontier called her Red Shadow.
Red Shadow. It meant a crimson shadow.
The second-in-command said in a low voice,
“I think that’s her. Red Shadow. That’s the woman.”
A subordinate swallowed dryly.
“......What should we do?”
Because of Red Shadow, countless bandit groups in the south had been subjugated.
The number of dead had already reached around a hundred.
Since the rumor was true to a certain degree, the bandit group could not help feeling slightly tense.
The leader drew a long machete.
“Whether she’s Red Shadow or a Red Demon, the opponent is one woman. And on top of that, she’s a beauty you’d never see in a backwater like this.”
He flicked out his tongue and licked his own lips.
Red Shadow’s appearance completely matched the leader’s taste.
“As expected of you, boss. You never get scared. Since we’re already out, let’s take that bitch too.”
The leader snorted.
“Don’t get any ideas. Red Shadow becomes my wife today.”
The subordinate smacked his lips regretfully.
“......Of course, as you wish.”
The leader laughed faintly and took several steps forward.
“Hey, red-haired bitch!”
Red Shadow also slowly walked forward.
Her gaze swept over the surroundings.
“Twenty in total? Suitable enough.”
A calm voice spread across the snowfield.
The leader drew a bitter smile.
“What a voice like an oriole! Cry with that voice in my bed! Haha!”
Red Shadow looked at him with contempt in her eyes.
“Every last one of you speaks in a vulgar manner.”
The leader grinned broadly.
“That expression is wonderful! I’m starting to get excited!”
Red Shadow bit her lip.
Disgust rose all the way to her throat.
She steadied her breathing.
After calming her emotions, she spoke in a composed voice.
“I, Shaferia, as a knight appointed by the Watcher of the Abyss, sentence you to death for harming his property and safety. This is my duty as commanded by my lord, and it is a legitimate procedure that does not violate the laws of the Great Saint.”
Shaferia slowly drew the sword at her waist.
Along with the blade, translucent Aura rose like a heat haze.
Shaferia’s red eyes shone brightly like the sun through the Aura.
A far-reaching battle spirit swallowed the snowfield.
The snow melted little by little in that heat.
All the bandits unknowingly stepped backward.
The pressure emitted by a knight gave ordinary people instinctive fear.
Tension settled on the leader’s face.
He ground his teeth.
“......A-Aura? Don’t tell me she really is a knight?”
Knights were all monsters.
No matter how many ordinary humans there were, they could not face them.
And even among such knights, Shaferia was an unfathomable powerhouse.
She kicked off the ground and flew upward.
The sun and her figure overlapped briefly.
The bandit group looked up at the air with dazed eyes.
A calm voice came from the sky.
“Fall into hell.”
For an instant, their vision shook.
The whole world tilted.
A concise slicing sound followed.
Shaferia stepped back onto the ground.
At the same time, fountains of blood burst up everywhere.
Headless bodies collapsed one by one onto the snowfield.
Heads that could not close their eyes rolled in all directions.
Only the leader stood there alone.
He stared at Shaferia with a blank expression.
“Wh-what is this......?”
All of his subordinates had died.
They had been decapitated like corpses placed on an execution frame.
His cognition could not keep up with the situation.
Shaferia walked heavily toward him as he stood frozen.
The leader became terrified, as though he had seen a ghost.
He backed away, then fell on his backside into the snow.
A strange groan was leaking from his mouth.
Shaferia looked down at him and said,
“I will postpone your execution for now. Guide me to your mountain hideout, your base.”
She would uproot every harmful element on the frontier.
To carry out her lord’s command without the slightest error.
This was the way the stiff-necked Shaferia fulfilled the duty entrusted to her.
***
Mapheltan headed toward the outskirts of the territory to meet Shaferia.
Life on the frontier was not as easy as he had expected.
The people were still starving, and there were still many Low Demons and bandits running rampant.
A frontier neglected for several decades could not be rebuilt overnight.
Mapheltan let out a deep sigh.
“......Once I return, I will need to send some supplies and troops.”
In a few months, the Miyatro territory would become a “duchy.”
Numerous honored guests would surely visit this place.
The frontier of a nation could not be left in such a miserable state.
It needed to be made presentable to some degree.
‘I should get some support from the Marcano Family.’
Their money would rebuild the Miyatro frontier.
Mapheltan nodded to himself in understanding.
Just as he was about to rest his chin on his hand and fall into other thoughts, a groaning voice came from somewhere.
“P-please. Please spare me.”
Mapheltan looked in the direction of the sound.
At his feet, a man was writhing in pain.
Mapheltan frowned.
“How are you still alive?”
The man had been stabbed by Cursed Spear Turabak.
Against humans, the Cursed Spear left wounds that could never be healed.
The man’s abdomen had been punched wide open.
And yet he had not died.
“I-I will offer you this hideout. I will give you all the wealth we have gathered until now. Please, just spare my life!”
He was a bandit operating in the frontier, and this place was their base.
No, now it was only ruins.
Mapheltan had completely destroyed the mountain hideout.
While searching for Shaferia, he happened to spot the bandit group and subjugated them.
There was no reason to simply pass them by, so Mapheltan killed them all.
Now that he looked, there was one survivor.
With an expressionless face, Mapheltan stepped on his head.
The skull cracked with a dull crunch.
Fragments scattered.
He did not feel any particular emotion.
There was no pleasure either.
This level of stimulation no longer satisfied him.
Mapheltan swallowed a low groan.
“......Let’s go find Shaferia again.”
He rose from the chair.
Just as he was about to step outside, he heard footsteps.
A familiar voice followed as well.
“Are you certain this is the place?”
“Yes, it’s true. Please spare me.”
“Then why is everyone dead? Did you wage war among yourselves or something?”
“I don’t know anything. It wasn’t like this even this morning.”
Mapheltan quietly stared at the tent entrance.
The footsteps stopped abruptly.
“This is your room?”
“Y-yes. Inside, there is gold and treasure......”
Before he could finish speaking, a chilling slicing sound rang out.
A shadow of blood embroidered the tent entrance.
Before long, someone flung open the tent and stepped inside.
Mapheltan raised the corners of his mouth into a long smile.
“It has been a while.”
The moment the red-haired woman saw Mapheltan, she stiffened.
For a long time, she could not continue speaking.
Only after quite some time did a trembling voice leak out.
“Wh-White Horn......?”
After several months, she had come face to face with White Horn.
The bastard’s horns had increased to two, and his build had become much larger.
His outward appearance had changed greatly compared to when they had first met, but Shaferia realized at once that the being before her was White Horn.
That deep, sinister atmosphere was the exclusive domain of an apostle.
Mapheltan’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
He drew a chilling arc with his mouth.
“Yes, wing-broken angel. Have you been well?”
Shaferia had lost her holy power because of Mapheltan.
She was no longer a Holy Knight, but her conviction for destroying evil still remained.
Shaferia’s sword was drawn.
Her Aura gave off a fierce ignition roar.
She shouted like a roar,
“White Horn! Whose land do you think you are treading on with those filthy feet?!”
This was the territory ruled by Yohan.
From Shaferia’s perspective, she could never tolerate White Horn defiling this land.
She immediately charged at Mapheltan.
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