"Enough!"
Fabian turned his head in the direction the arrow had come from.
Behind the flimsy palisade that barely functioned as a barrier, one boy stood aiming an arrow.
His clothes were ragged and stretched in every direction, the kind of messy, mischievous attire typical of a boy, yet his eyes were sharper than any knight’s.
Jeanne stepped forward.
Thud!
A second arrow whistled past and buried itself in the ground beside her.
“Stay still!” Fabian snapped.
The voice that had come from the boy had belonged to a girl.
From the tone alone, Fabian realized the archer was not a boy.
Jeanne ignored the incoming arrow and walked straight past him toward the child.
“It’s all right. Calm down.”
“Waaah… snif…”
“That knight isn’t a bad person.”
“Snif. Really?”
“Yes.”
Although she carried the same cold aura, apart from her height the girl was a stunning eighteen-year-old beauty.
The child’s wariness melted away.
Still, it took a long while of soothing before the child finally stopped crying.
As Jeanne tried once more to comfort the sniffling, tear-streaked child using a ragged sleeve, she suddenly turned her head.
Thwack!
The third arrow slammed into the ground inches from Jeanne’s feet.
It had been aimed at the exact spot she had just vacated.
The girl who had fired it twisted her lips in irritation.
Fabian hurried over to Jeanne.
“Are you all right?”
“If you truly believed an arrow aimed at you would threaten you, then you’re underestimating me, Fabian.”
“…Understood.”
Fabian swallowed the dozens of concerns rising in his throat.
The girl jumped down from the palisade.
“Who are you people?! Show yourselves!”
The moment she drew closer, the child looked up with a bright smile.
“Heini noona!”
“I told you not to play outside the palisade because it’s dangerous!”
“It’s not just me who gets into trouble…”
“Hurry over here.”
The child quickly stood, wiping away tears with a dirty sleeve, and darted behind the woman.
Heini kept the arrow aimed, glaring at Jeanne and Fabian with fierce eyes.
Fabian took a step forward.
“We are knights of the Second Knight Order of Bluisol. Take us to the village.”
“Knights? Hah, you’re too slow. What do you think you’re doing coming into our village?”
“I have nothing to say to you. Summon the elders.”
“What if I refuse?”
Fabian looked to Jeanne, the person he served, for guidance. Jeanne spoke.
“I only wish to inspect the place. But I will not force my way in. I respect your decision.”
“A noble lady wearing a dress, wanting to play knight?”
“My time wielding a sword will be longer than your time with that bow. Daughter of a hunter.”
“My parents farmed. Maxwell-ahjussi raised me.”
“You’ve spoken enough nonsense. Apologize.”
Heini spoke lightly, yet Jeanne felt oddly guilty.
Then, a man who worked the self-defense force emerged slowly from the palisade, carrying a spear.
His half-lidded, hazy eyes fixed on Jeanne and Fabian, and his expression hardened.
Although not fully armed, anyone could see Jeanne and Fabian were knights by their attire.
“Y-You are knights? Please enter the village. Heini, stop pretending to be part of the self-defense force and come inside.”
To commoners, knights were terrifying figures.
Worried that his own people might suffer if Heini had been rude, the man urgently called her in.
“Tch.”
Heini spat on the ground and walked away.
Fabian was even more displeased than Jeanne by the rudeness.
“You lack the most basic manners.”
“Forget it. There is no need for etiquette here.”
“Understood.”
Fabian followed Jeanne’s wish while hiding his displeasure.
Inside the village.
One could easily guess such a place would look rundown, yet the reality was far worse.
It was so small it embarrassed anyone to call it a village. The entire population was smaller than the number of servants at a noble estate.
Outsiders were a major event here, yet the only one to emerge had merely peeked from his window.
Even those outside rushed inside.
The emotion emanating from them was clear: fear and caution.
Fear of those above them was natural, yet it felt excessive now.
Jeanne suspected something terrible had occurred.
Before long, an old man over seventy, leaning on a cane, emerged from the dirtiest house on the village’s far side.
“A guest has arrived.”
“You are the village head.”
“There is no real head. I am simply the oldest person in the village. Though it is humble, please come in.”
Jeanne accepted the invitation.
The house was exactly as shabby as it appeared from outside. The ceiling was so low it nearly brushed her head, and the only piece of furniture was a table on the verge of collapse.
Jeanne sat on the only chair. With nothing else, Fabian stood respectfully beside her.
The old man spoke first.
“Why have you come to this place?”
“I happened upon it. Yet the atmosphere here is unusual.”
“May I ask what you mean by that?”
“It is as I said. The village feels overly quiet.”
“It is because outsiders rarely visit, so they remain cautious. Moreover, many here fled after failing to endure the tyranny of high-ranking nobles, so they fear those like you even more.”
Was that the whole story?
Jeanne recalled every detail from the journey. It was not just the people. There were hasty signs, broken houses on top of old ones, and livestock nowhere to be seen.
Raising oxen, guarding homes with dogs, or keeping even a single chicken for eggs was unthinkable in such a tiny village.
“Do you know that war has broken out?”
“War… I see. War has begun.”
“The enemy has already reached Roire. This place is not safe. You should leave before they arrive.”
“What grand reward would bring them to a small village like this?”
The old man spoke calmly, yet Jeanne noticed his hand tremble for an instant.
Thanks to her regression, she understood. The events of her past life had led to exactly this.
The old man rose from his seat.
“Wait here a moment.”
While sipping water from a cracked cup on the table, Jeanne’s senses caught the scent of an unfamiliar person.
“Hmm?”
Knights possessed senses far sharper than any commoner’s.
Jeanne turned. The person watching her from outside the window fled in a hurry.
“He was spying.”
Fabian stood guard outside the village head’s house.
The moment he spotted someone peering from the opposite window, he moved to grab the spy.
Thwack!
An arrow flew toward Fabian.
He caught the arrow mid-air.
“What is this?”
The arrow had no tip, only a shaft. It was not for killing.
A second arrow arrived. Fabian deflected it again and gathered the spent shafts. The same was true of the third.
“Hah…”
The spy who had been watching Jeanne fled.
Fabian looked toward the source. Though no figure remained, it felt like the same woman.
“Damn. Even so, you let them catch it that easily.”
Heini was still aiming an arrow on a tree when she saw the village elder, Henri-ahjussi, safely retreat from the knights. She lowered her bow.
She had never meant to kill. That was why she had deliberately fired arrows without tips.
Although the lack of a proper weight made them slower and less powerful than real arrows, catching them so easily still stung her pride.
Gritting her teeth, she moved to another spot and spotted a group moving toward the village from the outskirts.
Having spent years as a hunter, Heini had excellent eyesight.
“Rotinzel soldiers!”
Heini leaped from the tree to warn the village.
“This time, not again. Absolutely not.”
***
The cold wind still carried the breath of winter as it swirled around people beneath the moonlight.
Heini lay beneath the moonlight pouring down on her from the tree.
Climbing trees was her hobby. Her light, agile body had allowed her to scale them like a leopard even at a much younger age.
“Ah, it feels good.”
Were her parents searching for her by now? What did it matter.
For a twelve-year-old, her parents’ nagging was nothing but annoying.
“Hmm?”
A group of adults approaching the village had been visible for a while. Who would come to this remote village in the middle of the night?
As she watched out of curiosity, the moonlight reflected off a blade that had not yet been dulled.
“Bandits.”
Her village had been peaceful, with neither soldiers to guard against thieves nor even a palisade.
Heini leaped down.
She immediately headed to the knight of the neighboring estate to beg for help.
The knight lived in the best manor of the territory.
Yet even if he was not the lord, a simple knight without retainers, Heini could sneak up to the door.
Knock, knock!
“Open the door! Please! Help me!”
She pounded on the gate with all her strength, shouting.
A long time passed before a servant appeared from the knight’s house.
“What is it?”
“Bandits have come! The village is in danger! Please help!”
“Hah. What could those ragtag farmers have to offer. Go sleep somewhere else.”
The servant mocked Heini. Heini grabbed the hem of his pants.
“Why are you like this? Are you not going to let go?”
“I won’t! Call the knight!”
“Argh!”
Even as the servant kicked her hard, Heini refused to release his leg.
After a long struggle, the knight came out of his room, disturbed.
“What is the matter?”
“Master, this brat is causing a scene because she wants to see you!”
Heini released the servant’s leg and pressed herself against the knight’s front, kneeling.
“Bandits have come. It will only take a moment. If the knight shows himself, the thieves will leave! Please help! I beg you!”
The knight looked at her with contempt and ordered the servant.
“Throw her out. Handle it yourself.”
“Understood.”
The knight turned and walked back inside.
The servant was loyal to his master. Heini, desperate, was beaten and thrown out.
Dragging her aching body home, she whimpered the whole way.
By the time she reached the village, tears dripped from her eyes like rain.
The bandits had torn through the village like a storm and left.
Among the scattered footprints and fallen bodies, she found her parents.
“Mom… Dad…”
Heini sat before her collapsed parents.
Thick blood soaked her pants on the ground.
“In the end, all powerless people can do is pray for the dead…”
A large shadow fell over Heini.
“My name is Maxwell. Will you follow me?”
He was a wandering hunter who had roamed the world without purpose.
He had come to the village while searching for a place to spend the night, but tragedy had already struck and the bandits had fled.
Seeing a crying child in a village with no living souls left, compassion stirred within him.
Heini turned and stared at the man’s face. His untidy brown hair whipped in the wind.
Heini bit her lower lip to hold back her tears, then barely calmed herself.
“Can you wait just a moment?”
“Hmm…?”
Heini began digging in the ground. Using the fallen sword, then switching to rocks when they appeared, then back to the sword, Maxwell watched silently.
After some time, a deep hole appeared before the girl.
Only then did Maxwell realize what Heini intended. She had carried her parents’ bodies herself, even though they were larger than her.
“…”
Heini lowered her parents into the hole and could not continue speaking.
Tears fell onto their bloodied bodies.
Heini knelt for a long time, until the tears stopped. Then she wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stood.
She swallowed her tears and piled dirt. A small grave formed at knee height.
Her hands were already ruined by the gravel mixed in the dirt. Her nails were worn down, and each finger was red and raw.
A normal twelve-year-old would have been unable to endure even small pain, yet the girl suffered far greater.
Heini wiped her dirty hands on her pants and looked around.
Although it was early spring, wildflowers she did not know bloomed. She pulled one and placed it before the grave.
“Now… let’s go.”
The only thing waving in the wind as Heini left the village with Maxwell was the flower she had placed at the grave.