The Uninvited Guest in the Carriage
Veronica’s head felt like it was splitting open inside the carriage. A thick, sticky sensation trickled down her temple as she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision blurred. She was still inside the carriage. The ceiling, decorated with luxurious velvet, came into view, but it was no longer a comfortable sanctuary. With a wave of nauseating dizziness, fragmented memories flooded back. ‘Ah… I remember now.’
Just hours ago, the imperial knights who had sworn to protect her—the very men who prided themselves on the empire’s noblest loyalty—had flipped their swords for a handful of the empress’s gold coins. Their eyes had been ice-cold, and the blades they swung held no mercy.
“Your Highness, death will be over in an instant.”
The knight commander’s sneering voice still echoed in her ears. Right before they assassinated her, they had roughly snatched away even her mother’s keepsake.
Veronica let out a weak laugh. Her once-splendid dress was torn and caked with dirt and grime. Between venomous siblings and the empress with her chilling smile as she offered a poisoned cup, that place had never been fit for humans anyway.
‘So in the end, I’m going to die in a remote mountain like this…’
Veronica’s consciousness began to fade again.
‘Maybe it’s for the best. Better than going back to that hellish imperial palace…’
How much time had passed? A small commotion outside the carriage roused her.
“Hey, boss! Is this real gold? I scratched it and it’s yellow!”
“Of course it is! If we sell this, we can throw a meat feast at the stronghold! Heave-ho!”
Crude, rough voices. There wasn’t a trace of imperial dignity to be found no matter how hard you looked.
‘Ah… Have I been captured by bandits?’
Veronica curled into herself.
‘If only… they’d just kill me in one blow. Quickly, without pain.’
Yet a hot tear welled up in a corner of her heart.
‘It’s so unfair… I haven’t done anything wrong!’
Just the crime of being born—that was the fate that demanded her death. Her hands trembled violently.
The ornate carriage was dragged roughly into the stronghold’s shabby courtyard. The carriage door creaked open, and Veronica staggered out. Broken sunlight settled on her disheveled golden hair. For a moment, the bandits in the yard stopped breathing.
“Huh…? There’s a woman inside? And she’s insanely pretty!”
Gil’s mouth fell open. But Rodin’s reaction was ice-cold.
“What a pain in the ass. Hey, close it back up. Let’s pretend we didn’t see anything.”
“Whoa! Look at her! Is that even a human? Isn’t she a fairy?”
Dagan swallowed hard, mouth agape. Beside him, Gil rubbed his eyes and shouted.
“Holy crap, I’ve never seen a dress like that before! I knew good fortune would roll into our stronghold like a vine! Boss, we hit the jackpot!”
Despite his subordinates’ uproar, Rodin simply brushed the dirt off his rusty pickaxe in silence. His gaze wasn’t on Veronica’s beauty—it was fixed on the condition of the soil where she stood.
“Jackpot my ass. We just gained one more piece of baggage.”
At Rodin’s indifferent tone, Veronica lifted her head. The man before her wore shabby work clothes, yet the overwhelming pressure radiating from his entire body was no joke.
‘Is this man… the leader of these bandits?’
Veronica bit her trembling lip and shouted with all the dignity she could muster. It was the final pride of an imperial princess facing death.
“Are you the leader of these ruffians? I don’t need clumsy sympathy. Just kill me already.”
Rodin’s eyebrow twitched.
“Why do you keep asking to be killed? So bothersome. I used up all my energy catching cabbage worms today. I don’t even have the strength to kill a person, so just leave quietly.”
“……You’re really going to let me go? Me—the Third Princess of the Empire?”
“What the hell are you anyway?”
Veronica’s eyes widened in shock.
“I told you, I’m a guy who grows cabbages. Can’t you understand plain speech?”
Rodin scratched his head, clearly annoyed.
“I don’t care if you’re a princess or whatever. Looking at you, it’s obvious you’ve never gotten your hands dirty in your life. You’re going to cost us a fortune in food. Our stronghold is self-sufficient. We can’t afford to keep a parasite like you.”
“Boss! But she’s so pretty—wouldn’t it be a waste to just send her away? Just having her around would be eye candy!”
When Gil whined and clung to him, Rodin shot him a freezing glare.
“Hey, does being pretty make the cabbages grow better? Will the weeds die on their own if she stands in the yard? No? Then she’s useless. Stop talking nonsense and pack her up. She’s kicking up dust.”
The princess once called the flower of the empire was being turned away at the gate simply because she wouldn’t help the cabbages grow.
Before long, thick darkness had settled over the entrance to the stronghold. A sinister metallic sound rode the chilly night wind. Men cloaked in jet-black mantles had surrounded the stronghold in a semicircle. They were the empress’s elite assassination squad, the shadows of the Black Sun.
Their massive leader dismounted and stomped the ground.
“Third Princess Veronica! So you were hiding like a rat. It’s over now.”
Veronica turned deathly pale and tried to hide behind Rodin. But Rodin’s expression remained utterly indifferent.
“They’ve already come this far… All of you, run! They’re the empress’s shadows! Bandits like you can’t possibly face them!”
Even at Veronica’s desperate warning, the assassination squad leader scoffed.
“Bandits protecting an imperial princess? How laughable. Cut off every last head! I’ll turn this place into a sea of blood!”
The moment the assassins surged forward, radiating murderous sword energy, Rodin’s mouth opened.
“Hey. You, the big guy in charge. Hold on a second.”
His low, heavy voice vibrated through the air. The assassination leader paused and glared at Rodin.
“Want to leave a last will before you die, you worthless bandit?”
“No. Can’t you see what’s under your foot?”
Rodin’s gaze was fixed on the tip of the leader’s boot. The assassin leader looked down with a dumbfounded expression. There, tender green stems had just begun to sprout.
“Under my foot? What does a measly weed matter!”
“Weed? You think that’s a weed?”
Rodin’s eyes sank into a chilling darkness. With every step he took, the ground cracked like a spiderweb.
“That’s the Gold Cabbage I’ve been watering with morning dew and fertilizing for three months. It’s our stronghold’s core flagship product.”
The overwhelming killing intent pouring from Rodin’s entire body made even the empire’s assassins instinctively recoil in fear.
“You just trampled on my hard work.”
“Hah! You’re seriously picking a fight with the empire’s knights over some cabbages? You must be completely insane!”
The assassination leader laughed mockingly and turned his horse. He deliberately trampled the cabbage patch with his warhorse’s iron shoes as he advanced.
Crunch—!
The pale cabbage leaves that had been sprouting beautifully were mercilessly crushed beneath the hooves. Muddy water splashed onto Rodin’s face.
In that instant, Rodin’s eyes flashed red.
“……None of you are leaving here on your own two feet today.”
A voice that sounded like it had been scraped up from the bottom of hell crushed the entire stronghold.
“All units, charge! Bring me the heads of both the princess and those bandit scum!”
At the squad leader’s command, dozens of assassins poured in, drawing black trajectories through the air. Veronica closed her eyes in despair.
“No! Run away! Please, don’t die because of me!”
She believed this blunt farmer had recklessly chosen death to protect her. But Rodin reached out toward the trembling Dagan behind him.
“Dagan, bring me my pickaxe. Never mind. A pickaxe is too good for these bastards. This shovel will be plenty.”
Rodin lightly pulled the old shovel that had been stuck in the ground. It was an ordinary farming tool, but the moment it entered his hand, it transformed into a weapon of destruction more threatening than any holy sword on the continent.
“One finger per cabbage head. Prepare yourselves.”
As Rodin adjusted his grip on the shovel handle, the air around him began to twist unnaturally.
“There are two things I hate most. One is having my sleep disturbed. The other is someone messing with my fields.”
Right before the battle erupted in the stronghold’s front yard, Veronica grabbed the hem of Rodin’s work clothes with a trembling hand. The enormous pressure she felt from behind his back was terrifying, yet the thought that he had become a shield for her made something in her chest ache.
“Why… why are you facing them? Is it for me? For someone like me—an imperial princess whose name you don’t even know—going this far…”
Tears welled in her eyes. Her voice carried the solemn tone of a tragic heroine.
But Rodin’s answer was as cold as ice.
“Get over yourself. I’m just here to get compensation for my cabbages.”
“……Pardon?”
Veronica made a dumbstruck face. Rodin didn’t even look at her as he shook the dirt off the shovel blade.
“Boss is pissed! Everyone, hit the dirt! The stronghold’s gonna get wrecked today!”
Dagan screamed and flattened himself against the ground. Beside him, Gil’s eyes sparkled with fear and excitement as he yelled.
“Boss! Besides the cabbage compensation, can’t we take their horses too? So we can eat some meat!”
“Shut up. I’m turning their bones into this month’s fertilizer.”
A red glow burst from Rodin’s eyes.
“Fertilizer…? You’re not seriously planning to kill them and spread them on the field, are you?”
Veronica asked, horrified.
“They look pretty nutritious. They’re the empire’s elites, right? They’ll make excellent fertilizer.”
Rodin wasn’t joking. The overwhelming killing intent radiating from his body had already surpassed the realm of humanity. Veronica shuddered.
‘This man… he’s not an ordinary bandit at all. Just what is this overwhelming bloodlust…?’
She instinctively realized it. The man before her wasn’t a knight trying to save her—he was a predator coming to exterminate the pests that had ruined his garden.
Rodin pulled the old shovel from the ground and began walking slowly. With every step, the earth rumbled with a deep boom. The warhorses the assassins rode foamed at the mouth and backed away. The beasts’ instincts had sensed death.
“You’re going to fight us with nothing but a single shovel? Hahaha! Kill him!”
The assassination leader sneered and swung his sword down. But Rodin simply swung the shovel with indifference.
Baaaang—!
It was nothing more than a simple shoveling motion. Yet the wind pressure it generated was like a massive typhoon.
“Perfect weather for some shoveling.”
The tremendous gust swept across the entire yard. The auras of the knights charging from the front scattered helplessly, and the horses screamed as they began floating into the air.
“He stopped the horses with wind pressure alone…? Is that even possible?”
Veronica stared at the scene with her mouth open. There was no magic, no flashy swordsmanship. It was pure physical force brutalizing space itself.
“Crushed cabbages can’t be paid for with money. You’ll have to pay with your bodies.”
Rodin’s shadow stretched massively behind him, backlit by the moonlight. It spread out as if it would swallow the entire assassination squad whole.
“Alright. Time to start the harvest.”
The shovel blade gleamed coldly under the chilly moonlight. Rodin looked up at the assassination leader. His eyes were no longer human.
“Who wants to be the first fertilizer?”
With a single step from Rodin, a sound like the air itself tearing apart rang out.