“How can this face be thirty years old?”

Roderick turned his head to Erica and whispered.

“Thank you.”

“I only stated facts, so don’t get the wrong idea.”

“I love you too.”

“Do you want to taste my axe before those guys do?”

While they bickered, the leader had reached the last line of the wanted poster.

“According to eyewitness accounts from two years ago, those two were raising fraternal twins.”

He gestured toward Eric and Elodie, then stood with his arms crossed and head held high, as if challenging her to refute that. Erica laughed in surprise.

“Wow, I have to admit that does sound exactly like us.”

“Yes…”

“But it’s not us.”

The leader groaned and roughly massaged the back of his neck as if it hurt. Then he removed his hat, placed it against his chest, and bowed with exaggerated politeness.

“Miss, please don’t forget to tell your father that we did our best to bring you back gently.”

As the leader put his hat back on and drew his sword, all four of his men drew their swords as well. At that moment, tension spread across Roderick and Erica’s faces.

“Capture the woman and children with minimal injuries and put them in the carriage, and that knight…”

The leader paused his orders and smiled ominously at Roderick.

“The Miss’s father ordered us to ruin everything from that pretty face to that useful body.”

Roderick’s handsome face twisted into a sneer. He set down Elodie, whom he had been carrying, and pushed her toward Erica, who asked in a low voice:

“What are you planning to do?”

They were facing five strong men. It seemed obvious that a man and woman with children couldn’t win this fight.

“When I tell you to run, take Elodie and run.”

“What about Eric!”

“I’ll save Eric.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Because I’m Eric’s father. How could I abandon my own child that I just found?”

“He’s not your child…”

Erica started to object out of habit but stopped.

“Hah…”

Fine, call him your child now. It would be madness to fight with a child’s life at stake.

“Now do you trust me?”

“I’ll trust you just one more time.”

Should she trust the swordsmanship of someone who once defended the royal palace? Erica didn’t question further and firmly grasped Elodie’s hand.

Just as Roderick gripped his sword with both hands, the leader signaled his men.

As the man holding Eric and the leader stepped back, the remaining three surrounded them and began circling.

“Yaaah!”

The men who had been moving cautiously to assess their opponent suddenly charged all at once with a battle cry. Roderick lowered his body, slashed the shin of the man who jumped at him, blocked another man’s downward strike with his quickly drawn dagger, and then slashed the exposed flank with his longsword.

“Argh!”

“Guhk!”

All this happened before Erica could even swing her hand axe at the man charging her. Roderick immediately turned to face the man attacking Erica and shouted,

“Now! Run!”

Erica darted through the gap created when the men attacked all at once.

“My flowers!”

When the bouquet tucked at Erica’s waist fell, Elodie looked back and reached for it. Erica pulled Elodie’s hand without looking back and shouted,

“Flowers later! Run!”

“Damn it!”

The leader, who had been watching from the opposite side, cursed and began chasing after Erica. Roderick, who had just kicked down a man pointing a sword at him and turned to stop the leader, found his path blocked by two large men.

“Hey, we’re your opponents.”

Roderick tried to break through them but changed his mind. They wouldn’t kill Erica and Elodie anyway. Before saving them, he needed to rescue Eric first. The conclusion he reached was that dealing with these men was the priority.

“Ha, now I don’t need to fight normally anymore.”

That was normal?

When Roderick said this with a satisfied smile, all four men looked bewildered.

Those swift, efficient, and precise movements had honestly seemed far from normal even to enemy eyes.

“You look pretty, but I thought you were a knight in name only. Turns out you live up to the title. My body’s been itching for a good fight anyway.”

One man, pretending not to be intimidated by his opponent’s skill, spat on his hand and readjusted his grip on his sword. Roderick laughed contemptuously and addressed the child behind his opponents rather than the men before him:

“Eric, close your eyes. Until I tell you it’s okay to open them.”

Mom had disappeared and left him. Eric, who had been looking alternately at the “strange mister” and the bad men he’d never seen before, closed his eyes as the strange mister told him to.

“No matter what happens, don’t open them.”

The “what happens” occurred as soon as the words fell.

“Guhk!”

A throwing knife flew like an arrow and lodged precisely in the heart of the man holding Eric hostage. It happened in an instant. Moreover, this small throwing knife had somehow pierced through thick leather armor and bone in one go.

The victim couldn’t believe it and blinked once. Before he could even realize he was dying, his breath stopped, and he collapsed backward with a thud.

“Eric, keep your eyes closed and lie down!”

Roderick shouted to the child who reflexively tried to open his eyes when the hands holding him fell away. As the child lay face down on the grass, one man ran toward him.

Roderick quickly intercepted him, and two more men joined the fight—the ones whose flank and shin he had cut earlier.

Those earlier wounds were light.

These wouldn’t be.

“Guhk!”

A man who had raised his battle axe high to strike Roderick froze in that position and toppled backward like a statue.

‘Is he… dead?’

The bounty hunters looked down at their motionless comrade with shocked eyes. A man who would normally say “Ah, that stings!” even when hit with a poisoned arrow or stabbed in the back with a dagger had died from a light stab to the side.

What kind of sword was that?

The knight’s sword looked utterly ordinary. Though well-maintained, it was old and plain.

It didn’t look like a magic sword at all, yet its effects couldn’t be explained without magic.

“Argh!”

It cut through human bodies like cheese, and then…

Crack!

“Damn it!”

It even broke the opponent’s sword. The man who suddenly found himself fighting with half a sword quickly retreated and pulled something from his waist to throw at the knight.

It was a chain.

Whoosh.

As the chain sliced through the air and was about to wrap around the knight’s wrist like a snake, that impressive sword fell from his hand.

‘Now you’re finished.’

The man who had been smiling triumphantly became confused. The man who had lost his sword was also smiling.

“A dead man walking…”

But the dead man was actually someone else. The moment Roderick grasped the chain, a faint blue light spread from his fingertips and began traveling up the chain.

“W-what is this?”

The man who stood dumbly watching the blue light race toward him along the chain couldn’t even scream in his final moments when the light reached his hand holding the other end of the chain…

Thud.

He collapsed, ending up just like his comrade who had gone before him.

‘So the power wasn’t in the sword?’

The man who remained alone after all his comrades had died began limping backward. Not because he was a coward. He had one more reason to stay alive.

He seemed to recognize the identity of the blue light he had glimpsed.

The last Winterborn.

This knight was the man wanted by the royal palace.

According to confidential bounty information circulating only among bounty hunters, the price on his head was a whopping 10,000 gold. Even just reporting his location was worth 5,000 gold. It was more money than one could spend in a lifetime of luxury.

“Sir Knight, I won’t tell the Miss’s family, so please spare my life!”

He pretended not to recognize him and tried to escape, but his opponent snorted as he dragged the chain along the ground.

“Well, now that you’ve discovered my identity, I can’t let you live. I hope no one will mourn you.”

In truth, he never intended to let them live from the beginning, which is why he fought almost openly revealing his identity.

“I-I have an elderly mother… so please spare me.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s beyond my authority.”

Those who learn his identity must pay with their lives. It was the word of the dead, not his, so he couldn’t revoke it. Not until the contract ended.

Whoosh. Clank.

The thrown chain end wrapped around the bounty hunter’s neck like a noose. The man, turning pale blue and struggling to free himself from the chain, would soon disappear without a trace.

Taking the full force of an explosion head-on is not particularly pleasant. Roderick turned his head and turned deathly pale when he met the large eyes staring in his direction.

“Eric! Close your eyes!”

As Eric, who had been staring blankly, shut his eyes tightly in surprise—

BOOM!

A frost-like explosion shook the forest. Three explosions followed in succession. No one would ever know that four strong men had been here.

* * *