Chapter 7

After walking a little, they soon emerged from the forest, and the sight of buildings began to come into view.

"Hmm, is that it?"

"K-Knight... Sir... Are you really... going to be okay...?"

"I'd like to say, 'Leave it to me,' but... I'm starting to get a bit unsure."

Lambert was not a coward.

It was just that this band of thieves had some peculiar aspects that stood out.

Lambert suspected there might be something more to it.

"Thieves staying in one village for a long time... The return and risk just don't match. The weakness of the thief we encountered earlier also feels off."

"W-What do you mean...?"

Lambert stopped walking.

The girl, following his lead, also stopped and turned to look at him.

Lambert stared intently at her face.

"Sir Knight?"

"...Well, there's no need to worry about it now. We can investigate thoroughly after this is over. If a branch is rotten, the leaves on it will also rot. We need to cut it off before it spreads to the tree."

"Is... is that about the village?"

"Don't worry, leave everything to me."

Without answering the girl's question, Lambert quickened his pace towards the village.

The village was in a terrible state.

Emaciated villagers were being forced to work by men who looked like thieves.

The thieves, wielding whips and sickles, seemed to be making the villagers work while half-playing, threatening them and making them work harder.

They would find fault with the villagers' movements, beat them with whips, crush their fingers with sickles, and even kill them on a whim.

In a corner of the village, about five villagers' bodies were haphazardly bundled together.

The dead included people of all ages and genders.

These were people who had starved to death over the past few days, those who had resisted, and those who had been accidentally killed by the thieves.

If counted from the time the village was occupied, the number would be nearly ten times as many.

When the bodies piled up, the thieves would make the villagers dig large holes and throw the bodies in.

The leader of the bandits loved to watch the villagers throw their dead into the holes, and he would deliberately gather those who were close to each other and make them do the job.

Lambert entered the village, turned his head, and took in the scenes before him.

"Indeed, a terrible state..."

As he said this, he walked into the village without even drawing his greatsword.

One of the thieves was gleefully whipping the back of a half-naked villager who was cowering and trembling.

"Hehe, you, it's because you're moving so slowly, right? You're not trying to make me angry on purpose, are you? Huh! Next, I'll kill your daughter, got it? Huh?"

Lambert thought he couldn't let this continue and directed his killing intent at the thief.

The thief, feeling a chill as if sensing something, raised his head and saw Lambert and the girl standing a little behind him.

"What the hell are you! Hey, there's a weird guy in the village! Someone come help!"

The thief shouted towards the village.

"If you're going to call for help, that's fine. It saves me the trouble of looking for you."

"Huh, what are you...?"

Lambert closed the distance in an instant and moved right in front of the thief.

"...What? W-What the...!"

The thief swung his whip wildly.

Lambert, standing right in front of the thief, dodged all the swings with his unique footwork.

He had read the trajectory of the whip perfectly, even though the thief himself didn't know the exact path.

To the thief, it seemed as if Lambert's figure blurred and the whip passed through him.

He didn't need to dodge, but he wanted to show the power difference to intimidate.

"What...?"

Lambert then lightly tackled the thief, sending him flying.

The thief's consciousness was already fading from the impact of the collision, and he had no time to take a defensive position.

He hit the ground shoulder-first, and his unprotected hand, bearing his weight and the impact, twisted in a strange direction.

Lambert knelt down, grabbed the thief's shoulder, and forced him to sit up.

"How many are there in total? Excluding you."

"A-Ah... Ah..."

It seemed the impact had dislocated his jaw, and he couldn't speak properly.

"I thought you'd at least try to take a defensive position... You're more fragile than I thought."

Lambert stood up, drew his greatsword, and beheaded the thief.

Feeling the mana of five humans approaching, Lambert readied his greatsword, which he had almost sheathed, and looked in the direction of the approaching mana.

"R-Rathis!"

"This monster! I'll kill you!"

Lambert approached the leading thief and held his greatsword in a low stance.

"Fast...!"

"Ugh!"

He slashed from the thief's groin to the top of his head.

The body split cleanly in two, and entrails and blood spurted out.

Instant death.

The thief was already dead before the shock turned to fear.

"What...!"

The faces of the four remaining thieves turned to terror.

Before the body had fully fallen to the ground, Lambert bypassed it and approached the other thieves.

With just three swings of his greatsword, three more thieves were cut in half.

The last one, who had been left for last, swung a wooden club with a stone tied to it, screaming.

"Ughhh!"

"Too slow!"

Lambert cut off the thief's forearm with his greatsword and thrust it into his abdomen, lifting it upwards.

"Let go... Let go..."

Blood and parts of the entrails dripped onto Lambert from the wound.

"How many are left after you five?"

"Twenty... twenty-eight, twenty-eight people..."

As he said this, the thief weakly tapped the side of the greatsword with his remaining hand.

"I see, that's a relief."

Lambert swung his greatsword backward.

The thief turned into a mass of flesh.

Lambert pulled out his greatsword, placing his foot on the abdomen area.

(If they escape, it will be troublesome... I need to know the number.)

Lambert ran through the village, killing the thieves one by one.

He counted the numbers in his head and methodically disposed of them.

"What... are you...!"

One of the thieves, screaming, swung his sword at Lambert.

Lambert deflected the thief's sword with his armored arm and then slammed his head into the ground with all his might.

The thief's head split open, and blood gushed from every orifice.

(That leaves ten... I don't even need to draw my sword. These guys are weak, but... if I can't even deal with this level, is this village really safe?)

Shaking the blood off his arm, he continued to think in terms of his own era, tilting his head.

He soon felt the approach of multiple mana signatures, and he refocused.

However, the number of mana signatures was more than ten.

He realized that about half of them were weak.

(Hmm... Hostages, I see.)

As Lambert suspected, the thieves appeared with people who clearly weren't their companions.

The hostages' hands were tied, and ropes were tied around their necks, pulling them along.

Their mouths were stuffed with cloth. There were three hostages, each accompanied by one thief.

(There are ten thieves... This should be all of them.)

At the back, a slender, cunning-looking man and a bald, thick-lipped giant stood side by side.

The giant had emotionless, glass-like eyes.

In his hand, he held a skull with the top cut off, empty and hollow.