"You ignorant brat! It pays better to hunt slaves than to play knight and get worked over by those noble scum! You'll realize how unfair this world is someday too! Don't get in the way of our work!"
"Then don't get in the way of my work. My current job is guarding the young lady. 'Nightmare.'"
Sinister black
mist
enveloped Heidecker.
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*'How dare you touch my daughter!' 'Give me back my wife!' 'The guillotine is too good for you!'*
Showered with abuse.
Before I knew it, I was in the capital's public square — a makeshift execution ground — my head locked in the guillotine, pinned down.
*'Hereby we execute the convicted criminal, the former knight Heidecker, guilty of abducting numerous women and children! Do you have any last words?'*
The executioner deliberately asked in a loud voice for the crowd to hear.
*'Tch... This world is nothing but survival of the fittest. Working like a dog under the nobles, I figured that out long ago! That's why I decided I could just prey on anyone weaker than me!'*
*'Scum!' 'You think something like that is acceptable?!'*
I'd set out to refute the clamoring crowd.
*'Hmph, and why is it wrong? The nobles do it too! There's no reason I shouldn't! I abducted and had my way with the weak noblewomen too!'*
*'Enough. Carry out the execution. Witness this wretched man's end!'*
With the executioner's merciless declaration, the rope was severed and the guillotine blade came crashing down... .
◇◇◇
"Hah, hah, hah... What was that just now...?"
Boss Heidecker was drenched in sweat from head to toe.
"A dream about getting your head chopped off? Only a minute has passed in reality, you know."
"What the hell are you?! Shit — undo these restraints! I'm — I'm not supposed to die in a place like this!"
"In your own words — 'This world is nothing but survival of the fittest,' right? You were muttering it from time to time. Goodbye."
I remembered how the weak beat down on the even weaker.
It was just about dusk.
I swung my sword and took Heidecker's head.
"Guaaaah!"
Heidecker's severed head rolled across the ground toward the drill-haired young lady, still screaming its death throes.
"Aahhhh, eeeeek...!"
That might have been too much for the young lady to witness.
The head was filled with anguish and pain, and it still looked like it was glaring at us.
"Miss Meiren, you mustn't look! ...Though I may be a little late."
Sebas covered the young lady's eyes with his hand.
The whole area was already littered with corpses anyway, so it really was a bit pointless.
He was probably a wanted man, so I'd stash the head in my extra-dimensional storage and hand it over to the guards later.
◇◇◇
The young lady recovered from the shock after a while, but night had fallen and good children should be in bed.
I had Sebas and the other servants who looked after Meiren spend the night in a sturdy building I'd created a short distance from the campsite using "Create House."
"Well then, Sebas, please don't leave this building. I have somewhere to go. It shouldn't take too long."
"Where are you headed?"
"Just some cleanup."
What I headed for was the hideout of Heidecker's gang, located in the mountains off the main road — a location I'd already pinpointed with "Perfect Research."
To wipe out the remnants, and rescue anyone who might have been abducted.
And if there was treasure, to take it.
The well-fortified hideout had a few stragglers lurking about.
Under cover of darkness, I ambushed and killed the sturdy men who were likely former knights one by one.
The hideout stank something awful.
Sometimes I wished there'd be a band of thieves that smelled like flowers or something.
Among the gang's treasure, I found an actual "Skill Book."
A nostalgic "Skill Book."
Keeping something this precious on hand without using it — maybe the boss had Elixir Syndrome.
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