Hans raised his sword high with a dry, bitter smile.
The man, already torn apart and ravaged by the pack of beasts, could no longer resist.
In the next moment, the sword fell, ready to end the man’s faint, flickering breath.
That is, if not for the words the man squeezed out with his dying strength.
“Is she… truly… the Saint?”
It was hardly a fitting final statement.
“Why do you care?”
Hans halted his sword just at the man’s chin, asking with a tilted head.
He knew well that the wise choice would be to ignore this nonsense and simply finish the job.
But curiosity… oh, that cursed curiosity.
And then, the man’s answer was one Hans could never have anticipated.
“I am… a Guardian Knight…”
“What?”
Even Hans couldn’t help but be taken aback.
This guy?
A Guardian Knight?
How could that be?
No matter how generously one judged his appearance, he looked more like a seasoned hunter than a knight.
The distinct aura of highly trained warriors — often seen in seasoned explorers — was nowhere to be found in him.
No.
Hans shook off the thought.
It was nonsense — a desperate lie from a man trying to save his own skin.
Besides, Hans knew the surest way to tell a true Guardian Knight.
And no, the reason Hans was getting annoyed by the sudden attention Alje gave to the word “Guardian Knight” had nothing to do with his own irritation.
Absolutely not.
Thud.
Hans, without a shred of mercy, kicked the man right where it hurt most.
“Gaaaahhh!”
The man, who moments ago had seemed on the brink of death, flailed like a fish out of water, letting out a powerful, agonized scream.
“I didn’t think you’d be this dense. You realize, don’t you? When I slipped that sensitive word — ‘Saint’ — it wasn’t a mistake. It was because I never intended to let you leave with that knowledge.”
After all, there was no need to watch your tongue around someone who wouldn’t live to tell the tale.
“You’re already in enough trouble with the reasons I have to kill you. Do you really want to add more to that list?”
But Hans’s warning seemed lost on the man, whose ears were likely too full of pain to register anything else.
After a long spell of groaning, the man finally croaked out in a hoarse voice.
“Damn it… Fine. I was… a Guardian Knight trainee… One who… failed…”
“Why’d you fail?”
“…For chasing women… Ugh!”
Considering how the man had ended up like this while pursuing Alje, it was nothing if not consistent behavior — whether you called it dedication or just an unchanging lack of sense.
Well, the world had always been like this — stubbornness without strength was just being obstinate, while strength with conviction was called faith.
“Seems like you didn’t learn much from that bitter past of yours.”
Hans lightly stepped on the man again, this time with just enough weight to remind him of his situation.
“Urgh!”
“But you haven’t really lost everything, have you? If you’d just shown a little more self-restraint, you might’ve been able to hold on to the one thing that matters most — your life.”
The sword that had been hovering near the man’s chin still hadn’t returned to its sheath.
It lingered, ready to strike at any moment.
But the man, seemingly at peace with his approaching death, raised his trembling hand in a gesture of plea.
“A miracle…”
“Dream on. After everything you’ve said, you really think I’ll let you live?”
“Not… for me… Even if it’s not for me… just…”
Hans had no reason to hear out a man who’d tried to kill them and was now about to die for it.
So, without further delay, Hans resumed the execution he’d paused.
The cold touch of steel grazed the man’s throat — yet even then, the man kept speaking.
“That… there’s light… even in this labyrinth…”Blood sprayed.
A clean, merciful strike.
The sword cut through bone like it was nothing but reeds.
The severed head rolled across the ground, mouth still working soundlessly, as if unaware it had been detached.
“..…”
The light slowly faded from the man’s eyes — those eyes that had longed for hope, even at the end.
Hans watched the sight for a moment before turning away with a disgusted grimace, as if he’d lost his appetite.
Listening to a dying man’s final words… What a pointless mistake.
Now, all it left him with was a sour taste in his mouth.
The practical side of him knew that rifling through the corpse might yield something valuable.
But Hans turned his back on the body without a second thought.
Not out of some foolish sentiment about respecting the dead — no, that wasn’t it.
“Let’s go, Alje.”
“Yeah!”
As the two of them stepped aside, the three-eyed hounds that had been whining and keeping a wary eye on the powerful beast nearby began to gather around the abandoned corpse.
Hans didn’t stay to watch the scene unfold.
After all, this was just another common sight in the labyrinth.
*
“Alje.”
“What?”
Having run hard to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers, the two eventually stopped for a short rest at the edge of a forest clearing.
Hans was cleaning his blood-soaked sword.
Though he’d brought several blades and daggers, it was always better to conserve what he could.
This one’s edge hadn’t dulled yet.
Beside him, Alje watched with bright, curious eyes.
“How are you feeling? You okay?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
The girl tilted her head, looking genuinely clueless at Hans’s question.
He didn’t bother with a complicated explanation.
It was unusual for newcomers to the labyrinth to stay as calm and unaffected as she was.
Unlike the outside, where the air’s toxins were somewhat neutralized, the miasma in the labyrinth was much more potent.
The monsters here inspired a fear far beyond what any ordinary animal could.
And Alje… she’d been hunted from the moment she entered the labyrinth, both by other hunters and by the monsters.
But here she was — eyes sparkling, lively and energetic, as if none of that had happened… as if the chaos they’d just survived had been nothing more than an amusing little adventure.
“Well… if you’re fine, that’s what matters.”
“It’s so nice to be outside! The air feels so much fresher — it was starting to feel stuffy back there, you know?”
“…Yeah. Sure.”
Alje was oblivious to hostility.
Purity.
Hans hadn’t expected that word to weigh on his mind so heavily.
And yet, it was that very purity that had drawn him to her in the first place.
Just as Hans didn’t fear the monsters in this labyrinth, he realized he might fear Alje — just a little — for the same reason.
Because her purity wasn’t mere innocence.
The kind of clarity you see in children fades with age, worn down by society and reality.
But a purity that never changes, no matter the environment — a consistency that rejects all transformation — is a kind of madness in itself.
Funny, isn’t it?
To be drawn to something because it doesn’t change… only to start fearing it because it doesn’t change.
And when Hans had executed that so-called Guardian Knight candidate right in front of her, Alje hadn’t reacted at all.
Not because she was used to death — but because……She simply hadn’t cared.
“Hey, old man!”
“Ah—”
Lost in thought while tending to his sword, Hans slipped — and a fresh bead of blood welled up on his finger.
It was a rookie mistake, one even beginners wouldn’t make.
As he let out a self-deprecating chuckle and reached for something to dress the wound, Alje darted over without hesitation.
She grabbed his hand, her small fingers wrapping around his larger, calloused ones with surprising gentleness.
“Here~”
She blew softly on the wound, her breath light and warm — and yet the effect was incomparable.
The cut sealed itself almost instantly.
New, healthy skin knit together without a trace of infection.
He didn’t need to worry — it was, after all, a miracle of the Saint.
Something most people would give their lives just to witness… and for him, it came so easily.
“Oh… thanks. You didn’t really have to go that far.”
“It’s fine! It’s not like it was hard or anything!”
Grinning proudly, Alje puffed out her chest with a playful “hmph,” and Hans — with the very hand that had so recently gripped a sword and severed a man’s head — reached out to ruffle her hair.
“It’s a Saint’s duty to take care of the hurt and wounded, after all!”
In the end, cutting off that man’s words and his life had been the kindest mercy Hans could offer.
Because there was no light in this labyrinth.
And whatever light that man had been hoping for — a sun that shines equally on all, offering warmth and compassion — it didn’t exist here.