Soon, a light as bright as sunlight completely wrapped Ariel’s sword.

A giant’s gaze shifted from the children to Ariel with her movement.

Ariel flew gracefully like a bird and swung her sword in a wide arc around the giants’ necks.

Then a line of golden mana cut through the air, beheading all five giants at once.

One of their heads fell onto the magical shield. As the magic device had already fulfilled its duty, the blue shield vanished into thin air.

Afterward, Ariel hunted down the giant monsters with her overlapping sword technique.

As though the children were awestruck by her swordsmanship, they cheered her on with loud voices.

Although using the overlapping sword technique consumed a lot of mana, the hunt was quickly finished thanks to its devastating power.

Finally, when all the giant monsters were defeated, she personally pulled out their thumb claws and canines.

She gathered them in her hands and put them in her hunting pouch, then returned to the village and divided them equally among the children.

“Thank you for saving us.”

“In the future, refrain from going into the forest. It’s a place where unruly monsters that hunters couldn’t catch roam freely.”

“Yes, Ms. Knight.”

The children smiled brightly and returned to their dwellings.

A warm smile appeared on her lips as she watched their retreating figures. Ariel, who had now arrived at her home, reflected on the events of today.

Despite vowing to live as a knight to escape a passive life, from the moment she held a sword in her hand until today, she had never once thought of wanting to protect someone.

But today was different. A desperate longing to protect the children filled her entire being.

As if trapped groundwater burst out from the rocky cliff, the surging emotions awakened her dormant ability.

At that moment, on the day she created her mana core, Ariel awakened. As a true swordmaster.

***

Ariel became a master, and five years had passed.

As late summer turned to fall, wanted posters for demonic beasts were posted throughout downtown Kolnman.

Ariel tilted her head slightly after seeing the wanted poster in the plaza.

The protagonist of the wanted poster attached to the wall was a dragonia.

Dragonia spewed fiery magic from its mouth and had a faster attack speed than its size would suggest, so the bounty of 100,000 gilrangs was not particularly high.

‘It shouldn’t be that difficult to catch. Did everyone fail? Why is the bounty so high?’

A smile tugged at the corners of Ariel’s mouth as she fiddled with the strap of her sword on her back.

‘If no one could catch it, then I’ll step up.’

Ariel left the plaza alone. She didn’t even inform May, Ron, or Hale. She thought she would be back very soon.

She swiftly increased her speed using mana, traversing the barrier area and arriving in the forest.

She looked around, but all she saw were densely packed trees. She planned to capture it quickly and go home to rest, but today of all days, finding it was not easy.

Ariel reached out to tie back her loose hair.

She faintly heard the sound of helicopter blades spinning, growing louder. The source of the sound approached her.

Ariel quickly tied her hair back and turned her body towards the direction where the sound came from, drawing her sword from its scabbard.

She promptly grabbed the sword hilt and scabbard with both hands, removing the sword from the scabbard and putting it back into her belt.

It might be the sound of dragonia’s wings flapping, so she prepared herself to strike its neck when it appeared.

Ariel lowered her body, concealing her presence. Her fixed gaze in the direction of the sound shone brightly.

She suddenly heard the flapping sound very loudly. Shortly after, a dark shadow loomed over Ariel.

The mana she had spread around alerted her that the monster had appeared. Her golden hair fluttered in the wind.

Ariel narrowed her eyes and raised her head.

The crimson eyes of dragonia stared directly at Ariel’s eyes. But it didn’t launch any attacks and merely watched her from the air.

‘With its large red body, it’s overwhelming, just like they said. I should first throw it to the ground and deal with it.’

Gripping the sword firmly in her right hand, Ariel ran towards a tree about ten steps away.

She jumped up in front of the tree, stepped on the sturdy wooden pillar, and soared into the air.

Thanks to her use of mana, she was able to fly high and for a long time.

She reached the altitude where the dragonia was flying and carried both her weight and mana, aiming to bring the dragonia down to the ground.

But that damn monster suddenly moved quickly. It moved before Ariel’s foot could touch the dragonia’s back.

All of this happened in a fleeting moment.

‘This is getting annoying. Still, I can’t let it go like this. Let’s just chase after it for now.’

Ariel ran up the tree to chase after the dragonia.

With her light footsteps, which didn’t put any weight on the branches, not even a single twig broke under her feet.

As she ran in synchronization with the dragonia’s flying speed, it seemed as if she were teleporting.

How long did she chase after it?

She entered a dense forest, far away from the barrier zone.

The dragonia, which had been ahead, landed and walked steadily into a cave beneath a massive cliff.

Ariel followed behind and stood outside the cave, observing the scene.

Unable to see the inside from the outside, she released her mana.

Then she faintly felt the presence of demons.

‘Is this the demons’ base? There might be more demons like the dragonia. What good luck to have such an opportunity without informing anyone. This is great. It’s easier to catch them inside the cave. I can just create an explosion with mana and capture them.’

Ariel’s eyes, envisioning a dazzling future, narrowed like crescent moons.

But her intuition warned her about the troublesome task that lay ahead.

Doubts, questions, and curiosity surfaced deep within Ariel’s heart.

Eventually, she made up her mind to enter the cave.

Ariel’s eyes hardened.

A determined expression revealed vitality on her beautiful face, and strength filled the hand holding the sword.

She cautiously stepped into the cave.

Thud!

In an instant, accompanied by a loud noise, the cave plunged into darkness.

Ariel turned around in surprise.

‘The entrance is blocked.’

No bright light that should’ve been visible at the entrance could be seen.

Startled by the sudden situation, she stumbled backward but quickly regained her composure.

She created a torch with golden mana to shed light on the cave’s interior.

The dragonia had concealed its tracks for quite some time.

The empty space wavered, and beneath Ariel’s feet, a large magic circle activated.

A deep red light shot up from the gloomy magic circle.

‘Damn it. It was a trap. I couldn’t feel anyone’s presence now that I’m inside the cave, but there must have been a mage.’

She tried to move away from the magic circle but couldn’t. Not her arms, legs, or anything.

In the darkness, only her emerald eyes glowed vividly as they moved from side to side.

At that moment, black-robed sorcerers appeared over the restless space.

Among them, a man who seemed to possess the strongest magical power approached Ariel.

His name was Diaton. He was a follower of the Demon King, searching for his manifestation.

His pale and lifeless skin was covered in dark circles, extending deeply beneath his eyes.

He softly whispered as he delicately brought his bony hand close to Ariel’s ear.

“Do you know how much effort we’ve put into this day? This power was given to you because of love, and we had no choice but to seal it with love.”

When his dry breath touched her skin, a shiver ran down her spine.

Ariel wanted to cleanse her ears of that eerie, sullen voice.

Diaton looked at Ariel, who was gazing at him with a hostile glare and a disdainful gaze, then sighed and returned to his place, simmering with anger.

‘So this is the plan they devised to capture me.’

A smirk appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Until now, it had been nothing more than speculation among people that sorcerers were creating magical creatures.

No one had directly witnessed a sorcerer conjuring a magical creature.

But it was an undeniable fact.

‘The demons created by the dark sorcerers for the purpose of killing and destroying people have died at my hands time and time again. It’s natural for them to have a grudge against me.’

The moment Ariel grasped the situation, a blood-red magic circle rose into the air and pierced through her body.

The pain of her mana being extracted was akin to being stabbed with a knife.

No, a tremendous pain, as if all of her organs were about to burst, wrapped around her body.

A terrible scream flowed out of her mouth, like vomit.

As Ariel was absorbed of her golden mana, the color of the magic circle gradually turned orange.

It absorbed everything, from the mana she gathered at her mana core to the mana remaining in her fingers and toes.

When her mana, which had been filling her body, drained out, her lifeless body couldn’t endure it any longer.

In the end, Ariel collapsed weakly.

‘It was all planned out so thoroughly. Even if it didn’t happen today, it would have happened eventually.’

She stared at Diaton while lying on the cold, hard floor.

He had a smile on his face, as if he were quite delighted with the situation.

Ariel’s bloodshot eyes glared at him.

In response to her gaze, Diaton shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re irritated, angry, and frustrated. So what? It’s already done.”

He sat in front of her, reaching out and lifting her chin.

In an instant, his expression crumpled like a squeezed-out paper.