Earthly Armament

When Ang returned to the underground cave, Margherita was staring blankly at him and Dana, her expression a complicated mix of countless emotions.

It was a look of both shock and fear, as though she had just witnessed something completely beyond her understanding.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ang asked calmly, though there was a hint of amusement in his tone.

"You... wouldn't kill me too... just to keep this secret, would you?" Margherita asked in a tight, nearly inaudible voice.

Ang smiled faintly, but there was little warmth in that smile. "Do you think I would?"

Margherita's heart trembled. His smile looked especially cold in the dim underground cave, making her instinctively take a small step back.

When she had seen him attack the lizardmen without hesitation before, she could still understand it as a battle instinct.

But she had personally watched Ang hunt down those humans one by one, especially the mages who tried to flee—the calm, decisive, precise way he killed.

It had completely shaken her understanding of Ang's personality.

It was not that she did not understand it was for secrecy, nor that she failed to understand this world's cruel rules. But for the first time, she felt genuine fear toward Ang.

Dana might have been violent, but he was an orc. She had never expected much from orcs in the first place. But Ang—she had once believed he was someone she could trust.

"Whether you get to live..." Ang glanced back at her, a meaningful smile curling at the corner of his lips, "depends on whether you behave."

Margherita opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing more. She merely nodded.

Ang ignored her after that and lay down to rest with Dana.

Their fierce battle with the Rock-Crushing Ground Rhino had seemed