Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: No One Shall Touch You
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I'll make sure no one lays a hand on you.
Like crimson petals blooming before my eyes, blood splattered everywhere.
A fishy scent brushed the tip of my nose.
The child thought blankly.
"...Beautiful."
Even though it was a scene of human heads exploding and limbs torn apart.
It didn't look like a massacre, but a noble dance.
Each time the silver hair whipped through the air, the massive steel greatsword sliced the emptiness as lightly as a feather, tracing elegant lines.
With every spin of her body, a life was extinguished.
As the Overseers screamed like their throats were being ripped out and collapsed one by one to the floor, only a single name surfaced in my mind.
Asrania.
A name I'd only heard in rumors.
A hunter from Axiom.
A hunter who hunted hunters.
A merciless slaughterer known to cut down even those from her own group.
Rumors even said that no one who crossed paths with her ever returned alive.
"P-Please, spare me! I beg you! L-Lady Asrania!"
The Overseer, who had just been forcing death upon me, now slammed his head against the ground and wailed pathetically.
Pathetic. Revolting.
The silver-haired woman showed no emotion whatsoever.
She swung her sword, and his neck burst open like an explosion.
She was truly strong.
A strange sense of relief spread through me.
"...Good. That's a relief."
Far better to meet my end at the hands of such a noble, beautiful being than to be dragged off by that trash and die in filth.
There was no escaping anyway.
I had already stepped inside that woman's enclosure.
No way out.
Drip, drip.
The woman shook the blood from her greatsword.
She slowly turned her body.
Red eyes gleamed in the darkness.
A red glow eerily similar to mine.
The instant our gazes met, my heart plummeted to my feet.
Thud, thud.
Footsteps like those of an executioner approaching the gallows echoed in my ears.
"Ah, so this is the end."
I thought, squeezing my eyes shut—
Just then, an utterly unexpected voice dropped from above.
"Hello."
It was a greeting.
Is it because this is a game world?
Nearly ten people had been torn to shreds, yet the child didn't so much as blink.
Any normal kid would have screamed, sobbed, or fainted on the spot.
There wasn't a trace of fear in the eyes turned my way.
How should I put it?
Resignation? Numbness?
Even knowing it was a game world, it left a bitter taste.
It meant that at such a young age, scenes like this had already become familiar.
Anyway, what should I say?
How do you even start a conversation in this blood-drenched atmosphere?
I gave up thinking and just let the words spill out.
"Hello."
In a perfectly casual tone, like greeting a neighbor you'd bumped into at the corner store.
"Uh...?"
The child, whose face hadn't twitched even when heads were exploding, now went wide-eyed as if beholding the world's greatest wonder—all from my simple greeting.
"She must have thought I'd definitely kill her."
If I'd meant to kill her, I wouldn't have barged in to begin with.
"Can you stand?"
Instead of words, the child nodded slowly.
"Good. Looks like your bones are fine."
I crouched down to meet the child's eye level.
Red eyes stared straight back at me.
It felt like gazing into a mirror.
Small wrists bound in rough rope caught my eye.
Red, swollen marks bit deep into the flesh.
"Hold still."
I lifted my greatsword.
As the child squeezed her eyes shut—
Slice.
A delicate cut, and only the rope snapped cleanly.
Rubbing her freed wrists, the child asked in a voice thick with doubt.
"...Why'd you save me?"
Some stranger had shown up out of nowhere and butchered everyone right in front of her.
"You're Asrania, aren't you?"
Correction: not a total stranger, then.
At least she knew the name well.
Saying it was because she was a kid would be too far from this world's common sense.
I played dumb and asked back.
"You think I'm Asrania?"
"That greatsword. Swordsmanship like that. No one else but Asrania."
"...I see."
Right. From today onward, I am Asrania.
I slung the greatsword back onto my back and replied in as even a tone as I could manage.
"You asked why I saved you."
"...Yeah. No reason you should."
"Wrong question. I didn't save you."
"What?"
"They were noisy."
"...Huh?"
"Annoying to look at."
I deliberately averted my gaze, feigning indifference.
I figured we'd be going our separate ways soon anyway—no need for a fancy excuse.
I jerked my chin toward the sprawled corpses.
"Weaklings, trampling on even weaker kids and rampaging around drunk on their sense of superiority."
I didn't know the full story, but the fact that their victims were children was reason enough.
"Vile, filthy scum. So I just cleared them out."
Truly revolting.
I turned back to the child.
"No need to thank me. I was just cleaning up in my usual way. You happened to be mixed in there by lucky coincidence."
Just chalk it up to a dream.
"Th-then... you'll save the other kids too?"
"Kids?"
The moment I echoed her, frantic footsteps poured out from the dark depths of the tunnel.
"Sis!"
"Sis, you okay?!"
What the—
Not just one or two.
Dozens of them, at least.
Bodies caked in coal dust and grime.
Skinny limbs crisscrossed with angry red whip marks.
"...This is madness."
All the labor in this mine came from these kids?
Would've been better if they'd been orcs or monsters.
They splashed through the blood pools, threw their arms around the silver-haired child, and checked on each other.
They burst into tears at the simple fact that everyone was still alive.
Hugging tight, confirming each other was real.
Some shook with relief, shoulders heaving; others glanced warily at me and shrank back on instinct.
I didn't dare approach and just stood there, frowning in awkwardness.
"...Should I just bail?"
The situation was twisting into something messy.
Get any more tangled up, and I'd have a mountain of headaches.
I wasn't some orphanage director.
Rescued her once—that's enough.
Handled the Overseers; my part's done. That was the rationalization I fed myself.
"Yeah. Sort yourselves out after I leave."
I forced myself to ignore the kids and turned away.
"Hic... Sis..."
That was when it happened.
A tiny girl nestled in the silver-haired child's arms sniffled as she called out to her.
"Esira sis... I was so scared."
What did she just say?
If I hadn't misheard.
Esira.
A bell tolled in my head.
I turned back to the silver-haired child.
She had this heartrending aura, like she bore the weight of every misfortune in the world.
"...No way."
Not a maybe—near certainty.
The game I'd sunk dozens, hundreds of hours into.
Flower Blooming Amid Ashes.
My all-time favorite character from it.
Esira.
Standing right in front of me.
"...Impossible."
One thing felt off.
"Too young."
The Esira I knew was an adult.
A battle-hardened mercenary striding through death-soaked fields.
The kid here was maybe eight at most—ten tops.
"Ah, the past."
This was far before the main story kicked off.
Back in the era scribbled in a single line of the setting materials.
I was standing before Esira at her lowest, most wretched point.
I turned back around.
The kids flinched all at once at my sudden return.
"Those kids."
The silver-haired girl—Esira—looked straight up at me.
"...All of them were dragged here. Kidnapped by slave traders out of nowhere."
"A place to go back to?"
Esira's lips pressed shut.
Neither a nod nor a shake.
I pressed a bit more doggedly.
"You got a dad?"
"...No."
"A mom?"
"No."
Alone since the day she was born.
"I see."
I nodded as calmly as I could.
"No place to go, no one waiting. You're on your own, huh?"
It might sound like overkill confirmation, but it was necessary.
I needed the justification to say what came next.
I looked down at Esira and spoke slowly.
"Then, why don't you come with me?"
Esira's eyes shook violently.
The kids clustered around gulped and stared up at me.
"...What?"
"I said, come with me."
I kept going lightly, like chatting about the weather.
"No place to go, right? Then follow me."
Esira didn't grab my hand right away.
She took a step back instead.
Sharp wariness seeped into her eyes.
"...What's your angle?"
"Angle?"
"You're Asrania. The hunter with no blood, no tears."
Yeah, from a kid's perspective, suspicion was inevitable.
"What're you gonna do, take me somewhere? Sell me off again? Use me for experiments?"
"Quite the imagination."
"That's how the world works. No such thing as kindness without a catch."
A hedgehog who trusted no one, thorns embedded all over her body.
I slowly knelt down, leveling my gaze with Esira's.
"Yeah, you're right. No kindness without a reason."
"...Then what do you want in return?"
"Nothing."
"Liar."
"Truth."
I shrugged.
"It's a proposal."
"Proposal..."
"Yeah. Not a demand. You can say no if you want."
I paused, gazing intently at those red eyes mirroring my own.
"Still, I'd like it if you came with me."
It was sincere.
Partly because I adored Esira, but also because she'd be a key figure in the game later on.
Keeping her close would help me track the original storyline.
"Come with me... or choose freedom here."
Your call.
I stood up.
Not the bloodied greatsword, but my empty hand extended forward.
"The choice is yours."
Follow me.
Just stay by my side.
I'll make sure no one lays a hand on you.
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