Chapter 10: The Star, The Knight, and The Slave Hunter

A campfire crackles in the heart of the forest.  

Amidst the tense silence of slave hunters holding their breath, my eyes fell upon an elf girl collapsed on the ground.  

“Liliana…!”  

Her disheveled, light green hair.  

A face still beautiful, even smeared with dirt from rolling on the ground.  

Her back bore wounds, and she looked to be in excruciating pain.  

Just as I was about to rush to her side, another elf girl caught in the grasp of a slave hunter came into view.  

“…That must be her younger sister, Ayla.”  

By the campfire, an elf girl who looked strikingly similar to Liliana was being held by a man with a long scar across his face.  

Fortunately, she hadn’t been assaulted, but her torn clothes revealed her pale skin.  

“Huu…”  

A deep sigh escaped my lips.  

Anger at seeing the heroine I cherished wounded.  

Guilt for not acting sooner.  

And a rising disgust toward the slave hunters.  

“Hey, you seem like you’ve got some nerve, but do you even know who hired us before you go sticking your nose in our business?”  

At that moment, the man holding Ayla stood up, adjusting his pants.  

He jerked his chin, and the other slave hunters raised their crossbows toward me.  

‘That bastard… was his name Giedin?’  

A long scar running across his face.  

Giedin, a slave hunter infamous even in the underground cities.  

If my memory serves me right, there was a character with that name in the original story.  

As I briefly processed the situation, my eyes met Liliana’s, who was still on the ground.  

“Help me…”  

Her lips formed the words silently.  

Her face was a mess of tears and dirt.  

“…..”

My mind went blank for a moment.  

There was no need for further thought.  

Ignoring the crossbows aimed at me, I walked toward the knight in blue armor.  

“You there.”  

“Hm?”  

“Move your foot.”  

Swoosh.  

I slowly drew my longsword from its sheath.  

As I began to channel mana throughout my body, ready to strike at any moment, the blue-armored knight spoke.  

“And if I don’t?”  

“Then you die.”  

A clear, immediate answer.  

At the same time, I infused my will into mana.  

Whoosh—  

Aura, burning like flames, erupted from my sword.  

A deep crimson aura, more intense than ever, surged as if it would consume the forest.  

The knight’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of my aura.  

He then wrapped his sword in a bluish aura, his guard visibly tightening.  

“…Who are you?”  

His voice betrayed his panic.  

But I had no intention of revealing my identity, especially since I was wearing a mask to conceal it.  

Crack!  

Without a word, I kicked off the ground and charged.  

I swung my sword horizontally to force him away from Liliana.  

Clang!  

“Ugh!”  

As I unleashed the crimson aura, the blue-armored knight blocked the attack but was sent flying, crashing through trees.  

‘He’s still alive.’  

From what I remembered, this knight was Gladrock, vice-captain of the Imperial Second Knight Order.  

A Sword Graduate-level knight and a loyal dog carrying out the Second Prince’s dirty work.  

True to his role as a stepping stone for the protagonist’s growth, he was tough.  

His aura must have defensive properties.  

I felt a twinge of regret for not finishing him in one strike, but I quickly shook it off.  

“Damn it, shoot him!”  

Giedin shouted frantically.  

Immediately, mana-infused arrows rained down.  

‘I need to protect Liliana first.’  

A glance told me Liliana was trying to cast a defensive spell, but her injuries seemed to be weakening her output.  

She might still get hurt.  

I expanded my aura wide, deflecting every incoming arrow.  

Clang! Clang! Clang!  

The sharp sound of metal clashing filled the air.  

By now, Liliana had gotten to her feet, her emerald eyes looking up at me as she parted her small lips.  

“Th-thank you for helping…”  

“We’ll save the introductions for later. Can you move?”  

It was a touching reunion with the heroine, but there was no time for conversation.  

Concerned, I asked, and Liliana nodded with a determined expression.  

‘Good.’  

Though she looked exhausted and injured, she hadn’t given up.  

That was the Liliana I knew.  

I felt a moment of relief but quickly refocused.  

Her sister was still in the hands of the slave hunters.  

“…..”

I stood protectively beside Liliana, scanning our surroundings.  

Slave hunters aiming their crossbows at me, Ayla held hostage.  

Behind us, the blue-armored knight was approaching, his bluish aura flaring.  

But had my intervention altered the original story’s flow?  

The protagonist, who should have appeared by now, was nowhere to be seen.  

“Damn it, where the hell did this monster come from… Hey! If you twitch so much as twitch, I’ll slit this girl’s throat!”  

“Ugh… Sister!”  

“Ayla! I’ll save you right now!”  

At that moment, Giedin pressed a sharp blade against Ayla’s slender neck.  

Liliana quickly began chanting a spell.  

“Wait.”  

I reached out to stop her.  

Given the wound on her back, it was clear she’d been ambushed by Gladrock.  

Even someone as strong as her would have unstable mana circuits after such an injury.  

I didn’t want to push her too hard.  

“Knight…?”  

“Don’t worry.”  

I reassured Liliana, who looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.  

As the enemies watched me warily, holding their breath, I lowered my longsword and gazed up at the sky.  

‘Hmm.’  

Was it because there was no pollution here?  

The sky seemed clearer than the one I remembered from before my transmigration.  

Thousands of stars twinkled above.  

No matter what happened on the ground, those stars simply shone on.  

Stars.  

Originally, Luke was supposed to arrive here guided by the stars.  

If my presence had disrupted that fate, then I had to take responsibility.  

With that thought, I turned my gaze to Ayla, still held captive by Giedin.  

Her face was streaked with tears and snot, trembling in fear.  

Giedin had positioned her as a human shield, pressing close behind her.  

‘Damn it.’  

This made it difficult to strike with my sword.  

What I needed was speed—enough to annihilate them all in an instant.  

I infused my mana with that intent, and the crimson aura around my sword faded, replaced by a pure white light enveloping my body.  

“What the—!?”  

“What the hell is this!?”  

Giedin and Gladrock exclaimed in shock.  

Without a word, I unleashed the radiant white aura and slowly began walking toward Giedin.  

“Stay back, damn it! Do you not care if this girl dies!?”  

He pressed the blade closer to Ayla’s neck, drawing a drop of blood.  

“No!”  

Liliana’s desperate cry echoed behind me.  

I asked Giedin, “Have you ever been cut at the speed of light?”  

“Shoot him now!”  

His panicked shout was followed by the sound of crossbow triggers being pulled.  

But to me, the world began to move in slow motion.  

This was the Radiance Aura.  

In this slowed world, I became the light, and the light became me.  

Since the Star Boy wasn’t here, I would take it upon myself to reap the lives of these slave hunters.  

One star, a neck.  

One star, an arm.  

One star, a leg.  

I moved without pause, swinging my white blade.  

Heads rolled, blood bubbling up from severed necks. Bodies were cleaved, spilling entrails.  

People died so easily.  

What expression was I making now?  

I wasn’t feeling particularly good, but I shook it off.  

If you try to turn someone’s night into a nightmare, you should be prepared to face one yourself.  

Except now, you’ll never wake from that nightmare.  

After finishing off the slave hunters, I turned to Gladrock, my Radiance Aura still blazing.  

“…Y-you…!”  

Had he finally realized who I was?  

Gladrock shouted something, his eyes filled with fear.  

Still, he raised his sword, his bluish aura flaring as he swung at me.  

Though he couldn’t match the speed of light, his aura allowed him to react slightly.  

‘Regret your loyalty to the wrong master.’  

A knight’s duty is to serve, but he had chosen the wrong cause.  

I shattered his blade, wrapped in bluish aura, and with a single stroke, severed his head.  

Thud.  

His head fell cleanly.  

As the dismembered bodies of the enemies hung in the air, not yet hitting the ground, I retracted the white aura from my sword.  

Splash. 

Thud. Thud.  

“…Huh?”  

The forest, now painted in blood, was eerily silent.  

Liliana and Ayla stared in disbelief, uttering single syllables of shock.