A Spacetime That Might Exist (1)

Ten updates today, over 34,000 words, that's to be expected.

Northern Plateau, Lufen Region.

The wind swept across the scorched earth, carrying sand and ash. A few sections of crumbling walls stood forlornly, their plaster peeling away to reveal the dark brown stone foundation licked by the flames.

Genau stood in an open space, the hem of his black robe stained with dust and ominous ashes. A Demons knelt before him.

Male, with an ordinary appearance, the kind of person you'd easily lose in a crowd, except for the horn that's a hallmark of Demons growing on his forehead.

His face was expressionless, even radiating an empty indifference. He looked up at Genau, his mouth opening and closing, his voice flat as if he were reciting a document unrelated to himself.

"Please, please let me go. I have young children to take care of."

Genau lowered his gaze to look at him, his face as still as a deep pool.

"Shut up, Demons." He spoke, his voice low and devoid of any emotion. "How many times do you think I've heard this kind of pleas for mercy?"

The kneeling Demons's eyes flickered subtly.

He quietly raised his left hand, and a murky, dark ball of light silently appeared in his palm.

Genau then extended his right hand, pointing it towards the direction of the Demons, with his five fingers spread wide.

"Buzz--"

A loud bang.

Only a dull tremor remained as the air was rapidly compressed and then released. Centered on the Demons, the ground within a radius of several meters caved in and crumbled, turning into a fine, uniform powder. The dark orb of light, before it could even light up, vanished along with its owner into a cloud of silently rising grayish-white dust.

A gust of wind blew, and the dust and mist quietly dispersed.

All that remained on the ground was a shallow, smooth-edged pit.

Genau withdrew his hand, turned around, and walked towards the relatively intact stone house behind the Demons.

The door was ajar.

He pushed him away.

The room was empty. There was a bed, a rough wooden table, two stools, and a fireplace that had long since gone out. In the corner, there was a pile of hay with a tattered coat on top.

Genau stood at the door for a moment, looking around.

Then, he gently closed the door.

"Let me see..." he said in a low voice, his back to the empty room. "Where is your child?"

He turned around and walked towards a relatively high, broken wall on the outskirts of the village. He stepped over the charred wooden beams and broken tiles and stood on it.

"Seriously... what a liar."

The wind picked up, blowing the hem of his black robe.

In view were the leveled foundations, charred beams, and scattered fragments of household items.

Genau gazed at the scene.

"Serie personally entrusted me with this task..."

He spoke, his voice drifting in the wind, flat and emotionless.

"I thought it was something serious."

"So this is just my homeland, ravaged by Demons."

He paused briefly.

"Although I don't have any particular feelings for this place."

But this scene...

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

"That really sends chills down my spine."

Just then--

"Hmm... Genau...?"

A faint, hoarse voice struggled to emerge from the shadows of the broken wall below.

For a moment, Genau's body froze.

He immediately jumped down from the broken wall and took a few steps to where the sound came from.

A man lay amidst rubble and charred wood. He was in his twenties, with brown hair, his face smeared with blood and ash. His coarse cloth clothes were mostly soaked in blood, the darkest color being around his abdomen, the fabric and wounds stuck together by dried blood clots.

He strained to open his eyes, looking at Genau, his lips trembling weakly.

"Genau... the village... was... besieged... by the Demons..."

Genau knelt down beside him, picked him up, and walked in one direction.

"I already know."

His voice was steady and powerful.

I've killed all the Demons.

The man's eyes suddenly lit up for a fleeting moment, then quickly dimmed again. He laboriously moved his eyes, looking around.

"The people in our village..."

Following his unfocused gaze, Genau swept over the ruins of the village.

Then he turned his face back to look at the man.

"... Everything is fine."

He spoke slowly, uttering each word carefully.

"Everyone in the village is fine."

The man had his eyes downcast.

Then, with extreme difficulty but with unwavering clarity, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards, freezing into a smile.

"Yeah..."

His voice was so low it was almost inaudible.

"That's... wonderful..."

After saying that, his body went limp.

Genau remained silent.

He simply reached out and caught the man who was about to fall to the ground. The man was lighter than he had imagined, as light as a feather, or as light as a piece of burnt-out wood.

He adjusted his position to secure the man.

The man lay limply, his head drooping to his shoulder.

Genau carried him on his back and continued walking in that direction.

His footsteps were steady, making a regular rustling sound as he stepped over the gravel and rubble.

After walking for a while, he suddenly spoke.

It sounded like she was talking to the man on her back; her voice wasn't loud, but it was very clear.

"Well, you'll be fine too. A new First-Class Mage came with me. Although she's a mage, she can use the Goddess's magic. Isn't she a strange one?"

"So your injury will heal quickly, and the shop will be able to open soon."

"Well, it's been years! Can you bake decent bread now? Lately, all I've been getting is cold, hard bread. I really want some freshly baked bread."

He waited a while, but there was no response.

He hesitated for a moment, as if choosing his words.

"I remember when I was little, the bread you made was always burnt, as hard as a rock, and it didn't taste good at all."

He took a few more steps.

"Have your skills improved now?"

Still no one answered.

Only the wind howls through the ruins.

Genau continued walking.

After a while, he spoke again, this time in an even softer voice.

"Is there any?"

"I really want to eat some soft, unburnt bread."

He seemed to remember something and added another sentence.

"Hmm, no, it's okay if it's not freshly baked. Even leftovers are fine, like the burnt failures from before."

"I really want to eat it, I'm not picky."

There has still been no response.

The man on his back lay quietly, with only a brief breeze brushing against the skin on the side of his neck.

Genau stopped speaking.

He simply carried no one, step by step, through the deserted streets, toward the small church on the edge of the village.

The church door was ajar.

The interior was fairly tidy. At the very front, a statue of the Goddess stood on the altar, her eyes lowered, her hands in a gesture of blessing.

Beneath the statue, on the ground, lay dozens of corpses, neatly arranged.

There were villagers, and there were knights.

Methode was standing to one side when she heard footsteps and turned around.

She looked at the man on Genau's back and nodded gently.

"... Mr Genau."

Genau glanced at her.

"Please place the injured person here."

"The injured?"

He repeated the word, his tone so flat that no emotion could be discerned.

"Stop saying those comforting things, Methode, you're just fooling yourself."

He walked to the body, carefully lowered the man from his back, and laid him flat on the ground. The man's eyes were still closed, and his chest was no longer rising and falling.

Genau straightened up and looked at Methode.

"The guy on my back is probably dead already."

He stated the facts calmly.

"When I found him, it was already too late. The wound in his abdomen had begun to fester, and at his stage, Goddess Magic... were futile."

He turned back and looked at the quiet man.

Even so, this guy held on until I arrived, and with his last ounce of strength, he clung to me tightly...

He remained silent for a few breaths.

"This guy is the bakery owner's son. We used to play together a lot when we were kids."

"His father died early, so he inherited the bakery at a young age, but the food he baked was really hard to swallow."

He looked at the man's pale, stiff face.

But we'll never taste it again.

Methode listened quietly without offering any words of comfort.

Genau raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the outlines covered with white cloth beneath the altar, before settling on the smiling and eternally serene face of the Goddess.

"Why are these guys the ones being attacked by the Demons, not us?"

He asked, his voice sounding exceptionally clear and cold in the empty church.

"These guys are a completely different kind of people from us who live by fighting."

As soon as he finished speaking, the air seemed to grow colder.

"Even if we die, shouldn't it be those of us who chose the path of danger and bloodshed?"

Methode shook her head gently.

"Mr. Genau, by the time the Northern Branch received a request for help from the Norm Knights stationed here, the village had already fallen."

This is not your fault.

Genau seemed not to hear.

He stood still for a moment, then turned and walked towards the church entrance.

I'll go take another look around.

Methode called out to him.

There can't be any survivors in the village. You need to rest.

Genau's steps did not stop.

"Why? I'm not tired..."

Methode watched his retreating figure as he walked towards the door.

That's because...

She didn't finish her sentence.

Genau's body tensed abruptly, and he stopped at the doorway.

He tilted his head slightly, focusing his attention on sensing. A few seconds later, he turned back to look at Methode, his expression unchanged, but his eyes suddenly sharpened.

"One of the birds I deployed nearby has lost contact."

His tone was certain.

"That's why, right? There was one mage... no, two?"

Methode also sensed it clearly. She nodded.

"Yes, it should be two people."

Genau looked at her.

"Enemy?"

Methode hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

"No, it should be..."

"Bang--!"

Before she could finish speaking, the stained glass window on one side of the church shattered with a deafening roar!

Fragments scattered, and a petite figure enveloped in pure white magical light shot through the breach, heading straight for Genau!

The newcomer's silver hair flew wildly in the surging airflow, his emerald eyes locked onto Genau, and a highly concentrated, heart-stoppingly dazzling white light burst forth from the tip of his staff.

Almost simultaneously, Genau raised his hand, and a deep, dark sphere of magical light, seemingly capable of devouring light, instantly appeared in his palm, causing the surrounding air to distort and hiss under the strain.

Just before the staff and the ball of light were about to collide violently, Frieren's movements suddenly stopped.

The black light in Genau's palm suddenly extinguished and dissipated.

The two were suspended in mid-air, more than a meter apart, staring at each other.

Frieren blinked, a look of realization flashing in her emerald eyes.

"It's Methode... and the examiner for the First-Class Mage exam, I think it's Genau, right?"

She put away her staff and landed gently.

"Honestly, according to my magical perception, you exude a terrifying killing intent; I thought you were Demons."

Genau lowered his hand, his face returning to its usual expressionless state.

"I see. It was due to my personal situation that you misjudged me. I'm sorry."

Methode walked over and smiled gently.

"That's true. Until just now, Mr. Genau was in a tense state."

Frieren looked up at the other intact window.

"Come down, Fern, it's alright now."

The window was pushed open, and Fern leaped in lightly, landing silently. She held a staff in her hand, her pale purple eyes quickly scanning the scene inside the church. Her gaze darkened as she looked at the corpses covered with white sheets, then she quickly composed herself and stood beside Frieren.

Fern looked at Genau and Methode- Die and nodded slightly.

"I see. So the two of you have already dealt with the Demons that destroyed the village."

Frieren nodded.

"Yes, we accepted the case, but it seems we're too late."

Methode pointed to a corner of the church.

There lay several corpses dressed in black robes, without white sheets covering them. Their uniforms were identical, bearing the emblem of the Norm Trading Company on their chests.

"No, Mr. Genau still has questions."

Her voice was gentle, but she hit the nail on the head.

"These are members of the Norm Knights stationed here."

Fern stepped forward and bent down to examine it closely.

"Hmm, it's the armed force from the Norm Trading Company, right? Not many of them."

Genau walked to a corpse, squatted down, and removed the black cloth covering its face.

Below is a man around forty years old, with a square face and a neatly trimmed beard. Even in death, his brows still carried a resolute air that had weathered many storms.

"Defending a village doesn't require a large force."

Genau spoke, his fingers brushed against a small silver pin on the man's chest, a symbol of his captain's rank.

"However, the combat abilities of these individuals are actually already above average for this village."

He looked up at Fern and Frieren.

"Look, this is the captain. He's been the pillar protecting this place for many years."

Frieren also came over and squatted down beside the captain's body, her emerald eyes sweeping over the clean, swift, and fatal slash across his neck.

"... Surprisingly."

She said softly.

"This person is much stronger than Stark."

"Shouldn't it be expected that beings like them are stronger than me...?"

He muttered to himself.

Frieren ignored it, her fingertips hovering above the wound.

The cause of death was...

Methode- Die continued.

"I've already checked, Miss Frieren. The cause of death was a sword strike. Everyone was killed in one blow."

Genau stood up and brushed away non-existent dust from his hands.

"Those who remained in the village and were dealt with by us were just grunts. The other ordinary knights in the village were more than enough to handle them."

He looked at Frieren, his dark eyes devoid of emotion, but his speech subtly quickened.

"So, the Demons that attacked the village is probably still alive."

"Perfect. You didn't make a wasted trip."

Frieren looked up at him.

Then, a very faint smile appeared on her lips, and her emerald green eyes narrowed slightly.

"I see."

She stood up, her silver hair swaying in the light streaming through the broken window.

"Then it seems we can still do something to show the Demons how terrifying humans are."

On the altar, the Goddess statue still had her eyes lowered, her hands in a gesture of blessing.

On the ground, the bakery owner's son lay quietly, as if he had simply fallen asleep after a long day's work.