Chapter 4: More Terrifying Than Beasts Are the Two-Legged Beasts

Having made a thorough plan, Xue La and Luo Yi formed a team.

But actively provoking the Manticore?

Xue La couldn’t guarantee that.

“Don’t even think about provoking a sleeping Manticore!”

Xue La tugged at Luo Yi’s clothes.

“I think my plan is pretty good. We wait for the Manticore to come looking for food, then we strike…”

“Then who will be the victim?”

Luo Yi retorted.

Victim?

Not only could Xue La not pull him away, but she also lost the argument.

Luo Yi’s gray eyes stared fixedly at Xue La as he said, “The next time the Manticore goes to eat a child, who will be the victim?”

“Well…”

“While it’s sleeping, let’s go kill it now.”

Oh my god!

Xue La covered her face.

This Luo Yi, the Brave, how is he even wilder than the others in the game forums?

If they actively provoked the Manticore, they’d most likely trigger “Manticore’s Waking Rage,” giving the monster a buff.

Then they wouldn’t be able to win, and they couldn’t make peace either…

In contrast, the Manticore, as an opportunistic, cruel carnivore, always shows arrogance when eating children—that’s when its weakness is exposed.

Launch an ambush battle!

While that overgrown cat paced, watching the children drive out the weak to protect themselves, the cruel tormentor would reveal its greatest weakness.

That was Xue La’s idea.

“But the longer we delay in the cave, the greater the casualties,” Luo Yi countered. “Haven’t you seen… everyone is starving?”

Yes, hunger and fear.

That was the Manticore’s cruelty.

Every day was torture for the underage children.

If they didn’t take advantage of having weapons now, it would be hard to say what would happen later.

There was no food or water in the cave.

Before the Manticore ate everyone, even the children would kill each other—Xue La wouldn’t deny that.

Otherwise, when Luo Yi’s stomach growled, why did Xue La instinctively step back and share a piece of biscuit with him?

Xue La was also afraid of death, afraid that Luo Yi would become a puppet of hunger and madness.

“Miss Xue La, your family, House Linde, is one of the nobles of the kingdom, sworn to protect the people, right?”

Luo Yi sighed.

“I thought…”

“No, that’s not it!”

Xue La corrected herself.

“No, you’re right—it is precisely to uphold morality and justice, to fulfill the duty of protecting my hometown and its people, that I thought of picking up a weapon to resist the Manticore! Luo Yi, you are willing to accompany me, you are also… brave. You’re a future Brave in the making!”

Luo Yi smiled.

“Thank you for your tutelage, Miss. Then… let’s go!”

‘Damn! Was there no escaping a suicide mission?’ Xue La thought to herself.

Regardless, this first encounter kill in the Novice Village was two children against a Manticore—a beast with large wings and a stinging tail.

Who had the advantage?

Xue La could only grab Luo Yi’s arm to keep him from doing anything reckless.

The two of them, pulling and tugging, returned to the center of the cave.

That enclosed space filled only with crying and sorrow…

The atmosphere wasn’t right.

Xue La thought, even the crying had quieted down.

“Mom!” “Save me!”

From the shadows in the distance came a heartbreaking girl’s cry.

Without a doubt, the Manticore had woken up.

But even more terrifying than this beast were the beasts in human skin.

“The boss is right!”

Several boys clustered around a sturdy boy with curly yellow hair.

“If we break the arms and legs of those crybaby girls and throw them to the Manticore as food, we can survive another day—and one more day is enough to hold out until Boss Kai Dong’s father comes to rescue us!”

Kai Dong…

Xue La frowned.

Quickly, from this body’s memories, she recalled the whole story.

Xue La Linde, the young lady of a rural noble in the Northern Kingdom of Norsenia.

Since childhood, she had many knights loyal to her father—among them, one became the Captain of the Guard for House Linde, responsible for the entire family’s armed forces and member safety.

His son was Kai Dong, a spoiled second-generation rich kid who bullied others using his father’s status.

But Kai Dong was tall and strong in a fight—in the game design, he was also an irritable, hard-to-deal-with NPC.

This guy’s behavior logic was indeed somewhat insane.

He found the crying girls in the cave too noisy, afraid they would wake the Manticore, so he called a few lackeys, picked up stones, and smashed their hands and feet, then threw them in front of the Manticore—so that the ones eaten would be them, not himself.

“Sounds like a good way to practice Backstab,” Xue La mused, still immersed in the stale experience of a speedrunner, assuming that if the awakened Manticore really chose that girl as food, she and Luo Yi would have an increased chance for a surprise attack.

But Luo Yi had a different idea.

“Kai Dong, are you itching for a beating? How can you do such a heinous thing!”

The red-haired boy’s silver eyes were filled only with anger.

“What have you done?”

Kai Dong had been sitting comfortably on a rock, enjoying his underlings’ flattery, only to be interrupted by Luo Yi.

Kai Dong gripped a stone and said irritably, “Isn’t this the motherless gray-eyed bastard Luo Yi? You unwanted little brat, still daring to spout nonsense? I’m saving everyone! Even if it costs the lives of a few commoners, it’s worth it. I, Kai Dong, am a knight’s son. In the future, I’ll ride a tall horse…”

“Call me that one more time!”

Luo Yi’s anger was greater than before.

Motherless gray-eyed bastard—that was a nasty insult.

Xue La knew why.

Luo Yi’s father and grandfather had both been soldiers fighting under Marshal Bali Saihe of the Kingdom of Norsenia, until that disastrous defeat.

The Marshal lost his property and status and became a beggar.

The soldiers returned to their hometowns in despair, only to find that their lands, due to neglect, had to be sold cheaply to nobles, turning them into tenant farmers and serfs on their own land.

Fallen to such a state, those who had wives at home rarely saw true love in times of hardship.

Luo Yi’s mother was a harsh woman who chose to leave the family and abandon her child.

Xue La sighed.

Not only was the game designer criticized on the forums for the stats, but the story designer should also be scolded.

Was such a bitter, deep-seated character setting for the Brave appropriate?

Even his mother didn’t love him, partly because of his gray eyes—an unhealthy eye color that, in the kingdom’s cultural tradition, was seen as cursed and ignored.

So Kai Dong’s words stabbed Luo Yi right in the heart.

But Luo Yi had a heavy sword.

Kai Dong only had stones.

There was no need to say what the result would be.

Full Power Slash!

Luo Yi swung his first attack with the boldness of a newborn calf.

Kai Dong’s lackeys naturally scattered in fear.

“Damn, Luo Yi, where did you get that weapon?”

Kai Dong was scared shitless.

He jumped down from the big rock to try to dodge the attack.

But while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole is behind.

“Don’t move!”

Xue La appeared from behind the rock, her dagger pressed against his back, ready to stab in at any moment.

Backstab; this was Xue La’s first time using it as well.

With her experience as a former speedrunner, she really coveted Luo Yi’s heavy sword!

But for now, she had to accept her dagger-wielding setup.

“You’ve disappointed me!”

Xue La scolded Kai Dong, who, despite his larger stature, didn’t dare to resist.

His father was a knight loyal to House Linde.

How could he possibly think of resisting the young lady of House Linde?

“You said you’d break the girls’ hands and feet in exchange for a chance to live?! Does that include my hands and feet?”

Xue La reprimanded sternly.

“A person like you is completely unworthy of being a knight!”

She deliberately raised her voice so that Luo Yi could hear clearly.

There are still many kind and upright people in the world.

Luo Yi looked at the blue-haired, golden-eyed girl before him, and his affection increased even more.

“Kneel down!”

Xue La ordered, and Kai Dong complied.

Luo Yi noticed her golden eyes suddenly turn to him.

“According to ancient custom, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Xue La seemed to have thought something through. “Kai Dong disregards human life, so he deserves punishment—just like that poor girl.”

Yes, Luo Yi was the executioner—to pass judgment on Kai Dong.

He walked over step by step, steady and forceful.

“I was wrong, I was wrong! Miss Xue La, I shouldn’t have killed without your permission…”

Kai Dong was scared, tears and snot streaming down his face.

“I don’t want to lose my hands and feet, be thrown to the ground to wait for death, crying for my mother…”

“Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself!”

Xue La said solemnly.

“A person like you, a black sheep, has no chance of becoming a knight—but we will make good use of your corpse.”

“To attract the Manticore.”