The Guardian of the Cabbage Field
The night lay thick with darkness. Only a chill moonlight had settled over the courtyard of the mountain stronghold. The only thing shattering that silence was the spine-chilling scrape of the rusty pickaxe now gripped in Rodin’s hand as it dragged across the ground. The overwhelming pressure radiating from his entire body weighed the air down like an invisible mountain.
The assassination squad leader, true to his reputation as one of the empire’s finest, smirked and adjusted his grip on his sword. “You really think you can hold off the Imperial Knights with nothing but a pickaxe? Know your place, you filthy mountain bandit!”
Even at the leader’s taunt, Rodin simply stared down at the crushed green wreckage beneath his feet with indifferent eyes. What lingered in his gaze wasn’t rage so much as bone-deep exhaustion, followed by a cold, murderous intent.
“You talk too much. Thanks to you lot, my whole day’s wage just got wiped out. You have any idea what that means?”
“Wage? Ha! So your worthless life is only worth a few silver coins?”
“No. It’s the value of the Gold Cabbages I poured my heart and time into.”
Rodin’s voice was low and dry. From behind him, Dagan—who had been holding his breath—shouted with sparkling eyes.
“Boss! Those guys’ armor looks seriously expensive! Must be high-purity steel! Please be careful when you hit them! If they get dented we won’t get full price!”
“That’s right, Boss! Their swords look like famous blades too. Please strip them without chipping the edges!” Gil chimed in, already covering his eyes with a cloth. He had no confidence he could watch the upcoming gruesome “harvest” with a clear mind.
“These insane bandits, even to the end…! Cut off every limb!”
At the leader’s roar the knights kicked off the ground in unison and charged.
“Cut off their limbs? That sounds just like digging planting holes for cabbages.” Rodin lightly spun the pickaxe handle in his grip. From beneath his feet the earth screamed and began to split apart.
“You know what I hate most? Pests that ruin carefully tended crops. All right. Harvest begins. First up is you—the bastard who made the biggest hole in my field.”
BOOM—!
Rodin took one casual step. The solid courtyard soil erupted upward as if a bomb had detonated. In a split second the charging knights’ vision flipped upside down. Their elite title became meaningless. The swords they drew shattered like glass shards before they could even reach the tip of Rodin’s pickaxe, scattered by the overwhelming wind pressure alone.
This wasn’t a fight. It was a one-sided trampling—like a tiger lightly swatting a pack of starving wolves, or the rough work of clearing a field.
“One. This is for the crushed cabbage sprouts.” Rodin swung the pickaxe handle lightly. Thud! With a heavy impact the handle struck the lead knight’s breastplate. The thick steel armor crumpled like paper, launching the knight dozens of meters backward to slam into the stronghold wall.
“Guh…! What the… this ridiculous strength…!” The knight coughed blood and groaned, but Rodin didn’t stop. He moved with the indifferent gesture of weeding, swinging the pickaxe at the next target.
“Two. This is for the horse piss you bastards sprayed on my field.” He even used the blunt back of the pickaxe instead of the blade, smashing the knight’s helmet. The man spun like a top and shot into the air without even managing a scream.
“Three. This is compensation for disturbing my sleep.” Rodin’s movements were crude yet economical, exactly like those of a seasoned farmer who had swung a pickaxe tens of thousands of times. Yet the destructive force behind each swing was heavy enough to collapse castle walls.
“Hey, you hiding back there. Come here. That build is perfect for digging holes. You look like you’d make excellent fertilizer.”
“M-monster! This guy isn’t human! Spare me!” The assassination squad knight threw away his sword and tried to flee, but Rodin’s pickaxe handle hooked his collar and slammed him into the ground.
“I am human. I’ve told you several times I’m a farmer. Guys who can’t understand simple words aren’t even useful as fertilizer.”
The situation was wrapped up in the blink of an eye. In the courtyard only the assassination squad leader remained, trembling like an aspen leaf as he clutched his sword.
“Th-this can’t be… My elite assassination squad, taken down by a single mountain bandit…!” The leader scanned the area with despairing eyes. His subordinates already lay sprawled across the ground like raw material waiting to become fertilizer. He squeezed out the last of his strength, drawing even his life force into a red aura that he poured into his blade.
“Dieeeee—!”
With a roar that tore through the air, a crimson flash poured down toward Rodin’s head. It was the ultimate technique of a Sword Expert—one of only a handful on the continent. But Rodin simply let out a big, bothered yawn and reached out with his bare hand.
Clang!
An unbelievable sound rang through the courtyard. The legendary blade, forged by a master smith of the empire, crumbled like a dry cracker between Rodin’s two fingers.
“You caught aura… with your bare hands? What the hell are you? Who are you?!” The leader’s eyes filled with terror.
Rodin tossed the broken sword fragments to the ground and answered coldly. “Me? I’m just a guy who retired and wants to live quietly. Stop digging up the past. It’s getting annoying.”
Veronica, who had watched the entire spectacle from behind, shuddered. Even a Sword Master—one of only three in the empire—couldn’t destroy aura in such a brutish way. The man before her had long since surpassed human common sense.
“Princess, close your eyes. The fertilizer-making process is a bit messy. The smell will be awful too.”
Rodin slung the pickaxe over his shoulder and walked toward the leader.
“S-spare me! I’ll give you as much money as you want! Please!”
“I don’t need money. You can’t buy fertilizer with cash. It takes care and time.”
Rodin’s shadow completely swallowed the leader.
“Goodbye. Thanks to you, next year’s cabbages will grow nice and plump.”
The cabbage field had become a wasteland. After the storm passed, only a terrible stench of blood and silence remained. The area was littered with corpses and shattered armor fragments, yet Rodin tossed the blood-stained pickaxe into a corner of the courtyard as if it were a bother.
He walked between the bodies and sat down blankly in front of the miserably crushed cabbage patch.
“Ah… it’s all ruined. I worked so hard to fatten these up.”
Rodin carefully lifted one of the dirt-covered cabbage heads. In his eyes there was no trace of the dead knights—only genuine sorrow for the dying vegetables. The sadness that had never appeared even when he cut down tens of thousands of soldiers now covered his face over a single vegetable.
“Boss! Jackpot! Just selling these horses and armor will let us buy ten more cabbage fields! We hit the mother lode today!”
Dagan shouted excitedly while rummaging through the corpses. Rodin glared at him as if he wanted to kill him.
“Shut up. Are those cabbages the same as this scrap metal? The cabbages I poured sweat and effort into can’t be measured in money, you idiot.”
At Rodin’s thunderous roar Dagan whimpered and backed away.
Veronica approached on trembling legs.
“Are… are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere…”
“No physical injuries, but my heart hurts like hell. Princess, my Gold Cabbages all died because of you. How are you going to take responsibility?”
At Rodin’s indifferent complaint Veronica was at a loss for words. The man who had annihilated the empire’s finest knights to save her was heartbroken over mere cabbages.
“…I’m sorry. I will find some way to compensate you. Once I return to the empire…”
“Compensation? Forget it. Just clean up those bodies quickly. They stink.”
In the middle of the blood-soaked courtyard Veronica was wrapped in a strange sense of relief she had never felt before. The man who had snapped the empire’s blade—aimed at her throat—with nothing but a pickaxe. Though his speech was rough and he seemed like an idiot who only cared about cabbages, she felt certain that as long as she stayed behind that blunt back, no one could touch her.
“Um… what you said earlier, did you mean it? That you wouldn’t use me as fertilizer.”
When Veronica asked carefully, Rodin wiped his dirt-covered hands on his clothes and answered roughly.
“When did I say that? I’m just not doing it right now because all the cabbages are dead so there’s no need for fertilizer. Stop bothering me and talking so much.”
“Heh, you really are a strange man. Killing dozens of people and then worrying about cabbages.”
A faint smile spread across Veronica’s lips—a smile she had never once shown in the cold, heartless imperial palace.
“People can always be replaced, but once this season’s cabbages are gone, they’re gone. Because of you my precious year of farming got cut in half. Move aside. I need to water them.”
Rodin pushed Veronica aside as if she were a nuisance and picked up the watering can. Watching his back, Veronica muttered to herself.
If I stay by this man’s side… I might actually be able to live.
New determination shone in her eyes.
“I’ve decided. I will remain here. Please teach me how to plant cabbages from the very beginning. I will restore the field I ruined with my own two hands.”
“What? You think cabbage farming is a game? What can a pampered princess even do? Just go to sleep.”
Rodin yawned hugely as if he couldn’t be bothered to argue anymore and disappeared into the inner building.
“Hey! Dagan, Gil! Roughly prepare a bed for the princess. And tell her not to come out to the courtyard—there’ll be dust flying!”
At Rodin’s shout from inside, the remaining bandit subordinates quickly sprang into action. The moment Rodin vanished, Dagan and Gil rushed over to Veronica and bowed so deeply it was almost servile.
“Sister-in-law! I mean, Princess! You saw it just now, right? That’s the first time in three years our boss has gotten that angry!”
Dagan gave a thumbs-up and grinned. Gil chimed in beside him.
“Exactly! Normally if someone steps on a few cabbages he just curses a bit and lets it go, but today he completely slaughtered the Imperial Knights! That was all an excuse so he could protect you, Princess. Man, our boss’s tsundere charm is off the charts!”
“An excuse about the cabbages…? So he really fought for me?”
Veronica’s cheeks flushed pink. Inside her head the story of “a lonely hero who shattered his precious peace to protect her” was already complete.
“Of course! He brought out that terrifying power again just to protect you, Princess! Your position as our sister-in-law is basically guaranteed!”
“So… even though he acts indifferent on the outside, he’s actually warmer than anyone. He values me more than his cabbages.”
Veronica gazed at the inner building door where Rodin had disappeared, eyes wet with emotion.
“Hey! Stop making so much noise out there and go to sleep already! We have to pull weeds at dawn tomorrow!”
Even Rodin’s irritated shout from inside now sounded sweet to Veronica’s ears.