Maestig Village
Of the three, the first thing that caught the eye was the aura of the centaur-kin woman—her eyes wide as a startled rabbit’s, though the ears standing tall atop her head were a horse’s, not a rabbit’s.
An aura that surged and rolled like waves. A Fighter. Concentration roughly around 2nd Class.
We’re screwed…
The still-youthful centaur-kin man muttered it under his breath, face pale. Then he shot his older sister Selpi a look thick with resentment.
See?! I told you it was the Soul Master’s Kue! But no, you just had to dig your heels in…! Now what are we supposed to do about this?!
While the centaur-kin woman Fighter stood frozen in panic, the scholarly-looking centaur-kin man dropped to one knee before Hwanin, front legs folding as he bowed his head.
“We are deeply ashamed for disturbing your leisure, Soul Master.”
“We’re so sorry!”
The youthful centaur-kin man immediately dropped to his knees as well and shouted. Jolted back to her senses by their example, the woman Fighter also sank onto one knee and cried out,
“I’m sorry! I mistook the Soul Master’s Kue for a magical beast and insisted we had to check it, so I dragged these two along! Please punish only me!”
“Hmm. It seems I must look like quite the villain in your eyes.”
“……Pardon?”
The youthful centaur-kin man echoed blankly, then flinched and shook his head hard.
“N-no, no! Of course not! It’s just that interrupting the Soul Master’s rest feels so terribly rude!”
“It’s fine. You needn’t worry about it. More importantly—Fighter over there, your name is Selpi, correct?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“When a creature of uncertain identity appears near the village, it is only natural for the vigilantes to verify it. That is no reason to be scolded. So all three of you, please stand. Remaining like that is rather awkward.”
“Th-thank you……”
The three rose unsteadily, looking as though they had just been granted a stay of execution.
Yet the youthful centaur-kin man still seemed displeased with the sister who had caused the whole mess; he nudged Selpi’s rump with a knee. Selpi glared at him, then drove her elbow hard into the equine chest.
Siblings, are they? Hwanin smiled faintly at their bickering and raised two fingers to his lips, whistling toward the sky where Emergency Food was soaring.
Wheeet—
“Kuet?”
Hearing the whistle, Emergency Food streaked down in a rush, asking what was wrong. Hwanin scratched the bird’s neck as he spoke to Selpi.
“As you can see, this one is my friend and companion. Confirmed?”
“Th-then…!”
“‘Then’ what? You’re embarrassing yourself.”
At the young man’s snide remark Selpi’s face flushed scarlet; she began openly pounding his equine shoulder. He retaliated just as fiercely, thumping her head.
Perhaps it was the difference between a class-holder and a non-awakened, but a moment later the young man was shrieking in pain and galloping down the hill.
“Kue?”
“That’s enough. Go play.”
“Kuet!”
Emergency Food flapped its great wings and climbed back into the sky. The scholarly centaur-kin whispered something into Selpi’s ear, then also descended the slope.
Hwanin turned to the now-alone Selpi and asked,
“Is there something you wished to say?”
“Ah, no. Will the Soul Master be remaining here a while longer?”
She says no, yet she asks.
“Yes. The view is pleasant, so I intend to rest a bit before heading down.”
“W-well, fierce beasts sometimes appear around here. If you don’t mind, I could stand guard nearby.”
Emergency Food was already circling overhead; any dangerous animal that approached would be reported at once. Explaining that felt like too much trouble, so Hwanin simply told her to do as she liked, then stretched out on the grass again.
“…….”
Having someone nearby made it hard to sink into deep thought.
There was nothing left that required deep thought anyway. Lying idle, Hwanin raised his left arm.
The soul orbs still numbered thirty-eight. Not a single one had increased since leaving Wayford.
It was not as though he had been idle.
Riding Emergency Food along the roads, he had steadily performed spirit summoning, used soul techniques, and practiced meditation and mental focus training.
Absorbing a woman’s spiritual energy is definitely the fastest way to increase soul orbs.
And the quickest way to recover spent spiritual energy in a short time was also to embrace a woman.
Now that they had reached the village, a little assertiveness would bring plenty of willing partners. Even here in Maestig alone, seven young women had cast him lingering glances just yesterday.
Yet the idea of coaxing and maneuvering each one into bed had begun to feel tiresome.
Something like the brothels of Wayford—where money alone bought easy company—would be far more convenient—
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Hwanin rose without complaint.
The next growth of my psychic power is projected at forty-eight soul orbs……. I can’t afford to waste time like this.
Paying for women was certainly simpler and more comfortable. But one could not always take only the easy path.
That’s enough self-indulgent complaining.
As he walked down toward the village, Hwanin began drafting plans to draw the unattached women of the settlement into his bed.
Being a Soul Master alone would bring some into his arms, yet the weight of the profession and various other reasons kept the numbers low.
But if word spread that he was not only a Soul Master but a fighter strong enough to casually overpower a 3rd-Class warrior?
The unattached women of the village will form a line.
Those who had spied on the morning spar, however, had been scolded into silence by Isilite, so he would have to move himself.
Could Isilite be playing the role of gatekeeper, blocking other women’s approaches?
Come to think of it, she had been doing exactly that ever since leaving the maid academy.
She had barred the hotel maids from attending his baths and taken the duty herself; even here she seemed to be subtly intercepting women with her body.
Hwanin snorted softly to himself and approached Selpi, who stood awkwardly watching him rise.
“Is there a place where the vigilantes gather?”
Together with Selpi he found the vigilante building—a large structure that also served as village hall and storehouse.
Clack, crack— clatter-clatter.
Thud—
“Kh!”
“Heh-heh. You’re still no match for me.”
“Shut up!”
In the open ground out front, three or four centaur-kin men and three or four Lukrang-kin—clearly vigilantes, though their gear was mismatched—were engaged in light training.
It felt more like the leisurely calisthenics of middle-aged men in a neighborhood park.
Of course that was only Hwanin’s impression; they were proper vigilantes who had repelled magical-beast attacks more than once.
As expected, the vigilantes here are mostly men as well.
Hwanin still could not wrap his head around the system.
Foreign customs were meant to be accepted rather than understood, yet with women vastly outnumbering men (two hundred of Maestig’s two hundred fifty residents were female), why recruit only males?
He had learned on the way that Selpi was the village’s sole awakened, and the only woman in the vigilantes.
She had joined because she had awakened as a Fighter; without that she would never have been allowed in.
The vigilantes kept glancing at the Soul Master who had appeared so suddenly. Seated on the chair Selpi had brought, Hwanin watched them while they stole looks at him.
“Why has the Soul Master come?”
“Maybe he’s interested in fighting?”
“But he looks so slender—doesn’t seem like he has much strength…… He is a man, right?”
“Probably prefers watching rather than getting involved himself. Just ignore him and keep training.”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
“Karsa. Why so quiet?”
“……No, it’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, fine. Come on, spar with me.”
“Hey hey hey, wait! I already called dibs on sparring earlier!”
“The guy who made the promise wandered off somewhere and only just got back. You’re late, so wait your turn.”
“Damn it. The village chief called me.”
Watching his fellow vigilantes bicker over who would spar with him, the centaur-kin youth Karsa muttered with a complicated expression.
How am I supposed to tell them? That even if every one of us—including Selpi—piled on at once, we still couldn’t beat the Soul Master.
Karsa’s day always began with a pre-dawn run.
Every morning, just as the sky began to pale, he rose and ran the hills encircling the village until full light.
More than ten years of the same routine had worn a circular track around the settlement. Today, as always, he had been breathing the crisp morning air while running that track when he witnessed something hard to believe.
The Soul Master who had visited the village yesterday morning, sparring with his attendant.
Huh?
That much was ordinary. Any traveler worth the name learned at least one technique for self-defense.
The problem was that the female warrior—whose aura looked denser and stronger than even their own Selpi’s—was being one-sidedly beaten by the Soul Master.
Huh???
Karsa himself was no slouch among the vigilantes. Among the two hundred fifty villagers he confidently ranked in the top three for strength.
His sparring record against the awakened Fighter Selpi stood at forty-two matches: twenty-four wins, twelve losses, six draws.
And to his eyes the female warrior was most definitely not holding back.
Which meant the Soul Master’s martial skill was so overwhelming that even the gap between class-holder and non-awakened became meaningless.
Having reached that conclusion, Karsa shoved aside the two lifelong friends who were growling at each other over the right to spar with him.
“Both of you, get lost.”
Then he strode up to Hwanin, snapped to rigid attention like a new recruit, and barked,
“G-good day, sir!”
“Yes. A pleasure.”
Behind Hwanin, Selpi scowled at her childhood friend Karsa and mouthed furiously.
Hey. You’re not seriously—
I’m so nervous I could die, so shut up.
Are you insane?! Stop!
It’s fine. If my guess is right…… it’ll be okay.
The Soul Master was a noble figure who wandered the continent granting rest to lost souls and guiding them to the gods’ garden.
Was it truly proper to make such a request of someone like that?
His heart felt ready to leap out of his throat, yet the Soul Master’s gentle demeanor gave Karsa the courage to speak.
“I, ah, happened to witness the Soul Master instructing your attendant. W-would it be possible…… for me to receive a lesson as well……?”
Shocked gazes from every vigilante present—and from the elderly villagers—converged on Hwanin.
Most shocked of all was Selpi, who had escorted him here.
What? That warrior is his attendant? The Soul Master is that strong?
“As you saw, my instruction is not gentle.”
“I am prepared!”
“Limbs may be broken. Are you still willing?”
“Yes, sir!!”
He’s going to teach me?! Afraid that even a moment’s hesitation might bring refusal, Karsa answered at full volume.
The Soul Master possessed skill enough to instruct a class-holder. Simply crossing weapons with him was an honor.
Moreover, a single lesson at the martial hall in Katon cost at least ten copper coins—money that in a village like this took a full week of back-breaking labor to earn.
“Very well. Fetch your weapon. And Selpi.”
“Yes, sir!!”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you have any staves suitable for sparring?”
“Yes! Just a moment!”
Karsa sprinted for his spear while Selpi dashed off to select the sturdiest, finest of the carved wooden staves.
A short while later.
“What? Karsa’s getting a lesson from the Soul Master?”
“Is the Soul Master that strong? He doesn’t look it…….”
Standing ten meters opposite Karsa, Hwanin noted that more villagers had gathered.
Everyone left after the workers had gone out for the day—over fifty people.
Seeing that half of them were young women, Hwanin felt a quiet gratitude toward Karsa.
I needed a pretext to join the vigilantes’ training. How convenient.
In return he decided to thrash the youth with everything he had.
According to the villagers’ whispers, Karsa was the strongest after the class-holder Selpi. Demonstrating an overwhelming gap against him should make the unattached women approach more boldly.
“…….”
Hoping Selpi would join the mix as well, Hwanin checked the spear, glanced once at the tense Selpi who feared he might be hurt, then studied Karsa, who gripped his spear with both hands in a different kind of tension.
Back height roughly 1.6 meters. The equine lower body was about the size of an ordinary racehorse. Height to the head reached a solid 2.4 meters—quite tall.
A sixty-centimeter difference in eye level, but he had already observed the centaur-kin’s movements and attack patterns during the earlier sparring, so it posed no problem.
Hwanin layered the lowest-grade spirit summoning over his body, lightly took up the staff, and said,
“Come at me first.”
“Yes, sir!! Here I come!!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—!
The thunder of hooves closed the ten-meter gap in the blink of an eye.
Karsa did not underestimate the Soul Master who stood without any stance. Focusing harder than usual, he drove his wooden spear with full force straight at Hwanin’s chest.
But.
Crack—!
“……?!”
The instant the wooden spear thrust forward, the Soul Master’s staff coiled around it like a snake. By the time Karsa registered what had happened, his own spear had been torn from his grip and was flying through the air.
Four shocks followed in rapid succession.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
“Guh-heh-hehk…!”
Struck in the throat, solar plexus, abdomen, and equine chest in turn, Karsa exhaled a strangled breath and crumpled under the searing pain.
Wh-what……
Trembling with agony, he looked at his hands and saw the thick calluses that had built up over years completely stripped away, raw flesh exposed.
The pain of losing his weapon hurt more than the four thrusts.
“Is that all?”
“……!!”
At the calm voice from in front of him, Karsa clenched his teeth and lurched to his feet.
“No, sir! Please allow me another try!!”
He seized the wooden spear a friend thrust into his hands. A stinging pain rose from the raw palms where the calluses had been torn free.
Karsa engraved that pain into his heart and roared inwardly.
This time I will not let go of the spear!
Clang—!
“Khuh……?!”
Spear met staff, and true to his vow he did not lose his grip. Yet the monstrous impact flung both arms skyward.
The expected follow-up barrage…… never came.
“Uwaak?!”
A blow to the side of a foreleg knee collapsed his stance and sent him tumbling in an undignified sprawl.
“Ugh-krrk!”
He scrambled up only to take successive hits to a leg, a flank, and the equine torso, losing balance and rolling again.
As he flailed to rise once more, the wooden staff slipped between his forelegs and tangled them so thoroughly he could not stand at all.
Karsa’s mind reeled.
A stifling, helpless sensation as though his own body refused to obey him.
“Uwaaaah!”
Thrashing like a man possessed, he finally surged upright and swung the wooden spear wildly in every direction—yet nothing touched it.
Instead, pain began to bloom across his entire body.
Thud-thud-thud, crack, thwack! Boom, thud, crash!
“Ugh-guh-guh-guh……!”
Hwanin’s attacks rained down like a cloudburst.
Head, shoulder, waist, chest, belly, arm, face, equine back, legs. Wherever the staff landed, searing pain sprouted like new shoots.
Karsa flailed with spear and arms on pure instinct and unconscious reflex, but the thrashing was meaningless.
Beaten so thoroughly he lost count of the blows, his legs finally gave out and he toppled as though collapsing.
Thud—
“…Khhh…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The residents of Maestig Village who had gathered in the square before the hall stared open-mouthed at the unbelievable sight.
How long since they first clashed? Two minutes? Our village’s strongest youth after Selpi, reduced to this so easily……
A few paces from the sprawled, twitching Karsa, Hwanin asked,
“Can you continue?”
“Uhh, y-yes, I c-can…….”
“I think not. You two—help this fellow into the shade.”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
The two centaur-kin vigilantes Hwanin indicated half-dragged their friend away, clicking their tongues.
“Hey, Karsa. Snap out of it. Can you stand?”
“Khhh… I-I can stiiill…….”
“No good. He’s completely out of it.”
“Oof, even his eyes have rolled back.”
Watching Karsa being hauled off, Hwanin turned to the remaining vigilantes.
“Since I already have a staff in hand, shall we continue a little longer? Anyone who wishes instruction, step forward.”
“Me! Me!!”
“I want instruction!”
“Soul Master, please teach me too!!”
In an instant seven vigilantes crowded forward.
“…….”
They just watched Karsa get pounded into paste—why are they so eager?
Hwanin regarded the sparkling-eyed group for a moment, then nodded.
“One at a time, then.”
“Khhh-hehhh…….”
“Auuugh…….”
“Kngh, knngh…….”
It took less than thirty minutes for every last one of the gathered vigilantes to end up sprawled like corpses.
The experience gained thrashing Isilite is paying off handsomely.
Before, he had been slightly reluctant to face people.
Killing was simple—just exploit an opening—but sparring forbade killing the opponent.
Moreover, if he misjudged force and broke an arm or leg, there would be consequences to consider.
For that reason he had deliberately avoided human combat in Wayford, but he now judged that no longer necessary.
Sparring with Isilite had taught him roughly where and how hard to strike a humanoid form to knock them out or disable them.
Proof lay in the five bodies currently littering the ground.
One after another the vigilantes who had hoped to spar with Hwanin were thoroughly beaten and dragged into the shade of the trees.
Had it ended there, Hwanin would have begun reaching toward the women whose eyes were already kindling with fervor. The vigilantes, however, proved far more zealous than expected.
“I challenge you again!”
“Me too!”
“I can still hold on!”
After a brief rest the five recovered enough to challenge him once more.
This time he faced all five simultaneously.
The inevitable result followed.
“Good heavens. Even five at once couldn’t win.”
“Even Selpi…….”
“Just how strong is the Soul Master?”
The five included Selpi. She had been the pivot of their formation as the sole class-holder.
Judged between 2nd and 3rd Class, Selpi wielded a morning star whose spiked head was roughly ten times larger than a normal flail. Her level was comparable to Isilite’s before Lesim’s training, so subduing her had not been difficult.
Which means Isilite’s level was never low to begin with.
That was true. Had Isilite been ordinary, she could never have held a bandit troop of nearly thirty together for years.
Having Selpi as a comparison also revealed that Isilite’s muscular strength and physical durability were exceptionally high—another useful harvest.
“You all show remarkable zeal. You possess decent skill as well; if you continue training diligently, you will become fine vigilantes capable of protecting the village.”
The vigilantes still looked eager for more, but Hwanin had no desire to keep sweating under the blazing sun in the open square, so he ended the instruction with suitably encouraging words.
Afterward he strolled ostentatiously through the village.
“Um, Soul Master? It’s rather hot today—would you care to stop by my house for a cool drink?”
“I gratefully accept.”
Watching the results of his display of strength against the vigilantes begin to appear, Hwanin smiled inwardly.