The mournful howls of the cold, desolate wind passed through the gaps of metal bars and poured into a stone room cold as ice.
A girl had curled up her freezing body on a bare bed of stone, with her flimsy blouse completely incapable of sheltering her against the cold wind. The outer side of her thighs had frozen to the point of flushing bright red.
Her vision blurry, the girl covered her burning head, hoping to use it to warm up her frozen and stiff hands.
—She had a fever.
Laying on the stone bed, she imagined a soft and warm quilt. Her hope had been to sleep through her illness, yet the stone slab pressing against her head, as well as the biting cold wind, were extremely unpleasant towards her, making it impossible to fall asleep.
In her helplessness, she could only curl her body up tightly into a ball.
This night would eventually worsen her already severe illness.
The girl didn’t expect anyone to rescue her from this place. Angels didn’t exist in this world, neither was justice absolute. She could only hope to be quickly relieved from this suffering.
“Creak, creak… Clack.”
Metal chains breaking and shattering roused up the girl’s weakened consciousness.
“Platter.” The sound of chains hitting the ground resounded.
Someone had opened the iron door to her stone cell.
‘Who is that?…’
The girl forced her eyes half-open, and in the middle of her daze, saw a lofty shadow walking towards her.
As it arrived before her, the black silhouette crouched down.
Following the pale moonlight, the girl roughly made out the visitor’s appearance — It was a crossed helmet adorned with a pair of wings.
‘How familiar… Looks like I’ve seen this somewhere before.’
The girl tilted her head as the fever caused her consciousness to flicker.
“It’s been a while.” After remaining silent for a few seconds, the man with a crossed helmet seemed to realize that he had ought to say something. Although his indifferent tone was barren of any emotional undulations, it still felt warmer than the bone-piercing chill of the wind.
“Cough, cough… Who… are you?…” The girl incessantly searched her dazed brain for that information.
“This morning.” Answered the dull voice from inside the helmet.
“…A-Are you the big brother knight?” The girl’s eyes widened.
“Mhm.” The man wearing an iron helmet nodded, as he draped the sackcloth that had been wrapped around his fang-shaped, two-handed sword over the girl’s body.
“It’s a bit dirty, I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mhm.” The girl wasn’t in a situation where she could refuse it anyway.
The girl wrapped the sackcloth tightly around herself, as she gazed at the iron helmet with a complicated expression. It gave the impression that she was asking him questions like ‘Why are you here?’
“You need help, don’t you?” Ji Bai stood up.
“…”
“Was this the work of that old fogey?” He shot a glance at the girl’s jade-like feet that had been dyed completely red by the cold.
“…Mhm.” After receiving some warmth, the girl’s dispirited expression slightly lightened up.
“You’re Xiao’an, if I remember correctly.”
“Mhm.”
“Why are you locked in here?”
“…I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
Ji Bai sat down on the stone bed and waited for Xiao’an to continue.
“…That night, I had gotten up to use the toilet and heard an erratic weeping sound coming from the forest near the orphanage. Out of curiosity, I went there to check it out, and then-…”
“…I saw it with my own eyes… The orphanage head personally handed over a bundle to a dark humanoid monster… Inside the bundle, w-was an orphan that had been taken in by the orphanage just a few days ago…” Xiao’an’s voice suddenly came to a stop as she looked in the direction of the door, her eyes wide open.
“Click-Clack…”
“Oh dear… It’s not a good habit to barge into people’s houses in the middle of the night, Mr. Ji.”
The snarling wind blew through the metal bars until they rattled. Under the gloomy moonlight, the old orphanage head’s smile seemed unusually eerie.
“Xiao’an really is a bad child. How could you divulge the little secret between us to an outsider?”
“Uuuu…” Xiao’an curled up her body in fright.
With his hands grabbing his sword, Ji Bai got up and stood in front of Xiao’an like an iron tower, blocking the way towards her.
“Mr Ji, it seems that you’ve gained knowledge about some things you’re not supposed to. Oh dear… This is certainly a tough matter. There’s no way I can let you go now.” The orphanage head scratched his white hair in distress.
“However, I’m quite perplexed. How did I arouse your suspicion? Did I not play the role of a benevolent old orphanage head well?”
“It’s exactly because your disguise was too uncanny.”
“Oh? Please elaborate?”
“Wouldn’t a child-loving orphanage head know their children by their names instead of referring to them as ‘child’?”
“Oh? Hahaha…! So, that’s what let the cat out of the bag, huh?” The old orphanage head tore off his kind and benevolent face to reveal a bizarre smile.
“This explanation was even more shoddy than what I imagined… Well then, Mr Ji… My apologies…”
“Click, clack..” A series of heavy footsteps gradually came closer.
“I’ll need you to die here tonight.”
Two humanoid creatures with pitch-black bodies and bone spikes lining their shoulders entered the stone cell.
The monsters possessed a lofty stature, yet their heads were small, completely unproportionate to their bodies. They looked like distorted creatures that had been hastily put together.
“Uwa…” The sound that one of the monsters emitted seemed somewhat young and tender. Compared to its tall and sturdy stature, the disparity between them caused one to feel an extremely strong sense of dissonance.
“Uuuu..” Xiao’an swallowed a mouthful of saliva with much difficulty, as chills incessantly took control of her body.
They were another type of creature Ji Bai had never seen before.
With his right hand on the sword hilt and his left elbow bent to support the sword’s blade, a chilly gaze shot out of his iron helmet.
“Kill him.”
“Uwahhhh!” Hearing that, both monsters rushed towards him with a roar, daggers in their hands.
[Common Class: Tornado Blade]
With a turn of his body, his blade swept forward in a horizontal line.
His fang-shaped longsword collided with the two daggers, stirring up sparks and pushing the two monsters back.
[Common Class: Piercer]
Ji Bai changed from a defensive stance into an attack. With quick steps and the speed of lightning, he pierced the chest of one of the creatures with the tip of his sword, catching it off guard.
Despite his attack, no blood exited its wounds, making the creature seem like an empty husk that doesn’t know pain.
“Uwahee!” The creature unexpectedly behaved in an uncanny human-like manner as it revealed a crafty smile, tightly holding onto the large sword that pierced its chest and refused to let go.
“Uwagya!” The two monsters demonstrated great coordination as the second one, seeing that its comrade had pinned down their target, immediately added pressure by attacking Ji Bai.
“Swish!” The sound of a blade piercing through flesh resounded.
A short dagger was ferociously thrust into Ji Bai’s lower back, causing a fountain of blood to spurt out.
Ji Bai let out a muffled grunt, fell to the ground, and remained there motionless.
“Hehe, just a mere human with an insignificant amount of [magic] in his body. If I were you, I wouldn’t have involved myself in these murky waters. Wouldn’t it have been better to live out the remaining years of your life in peace, especially since you’ve already retired from active service? As a human, it’s best not to have a strong sense of righteousness.” The old orphanage head waved his hands with a smile.
“Big brother knight!…”
“Alright, you disobedient child. Your savior is already done for, so you’d better be obedient and…”
From the ground, Ji Bai immediately leaped upwards and before anyone present could react, he pulled out the large sword that was stuck into the monster’s chest.
Slightly stunned, the creature was just about to launch an attack before it realized that it already had been sent flying away. When it hit the ground, it caught sight of its own, headless body.
[Crushing Class—Headhunter]
After chopping off the head of one of the monsters, Ji Bai turned his body around and used his sword’s pommel to ferociously smash the neck of the other one.
“Phoosh.” The two monsters had been completely disposed of in a mere moment.
Their head seemed to be their weak spot.
Through the corner of his eyes, he saw that the old orphanage head at the door was trying to flee.