Boreas

Hilde had actually arrived long ago.

That damn Grot had picked such a hard-to-find place. She had wandered around in the pitch-dark night for nearly half an hour before finally finding the destination. Before she could even get close, she saw a man in a black robe enter first.

A while later, another group of suspicious-looking people pushed a box inside on a handcart.

Ughhh...

Wait, what was going on?

Were all those people here to cause trouble for her?

This was way too big a scene for ordinary troublemaking. It practically looked like they were planning to package her up and sell her off to Northern Myanmar.

In any case, to be cautious, she did not foolishly follow them straight inside.

Instead, after everyone had entered, she quietly hid outside the door and listened to the sounds within.

Then she heard someone speaking inside:

"Why are there two people? And one of them is a boy. That person doesn't have that kind of preference!"

"Something unexpected happened."

"You don't need to explain so much. I only want to know where this child came from."

"Hehe, this is the young lady of the Boreas Family, the famous beast, Eris Boreas Greyrat."

"What...?"

"Don't be so surprised. Hasn't that person coveted this child for a long time?"

"Hmph... You people have been thoughtful."

The people inside spoke in hushed voices.

Outside the door, Hilde raised an eyebrow.

Human traffickers...

Those were the worst kind of people.

Back in her hometown, forget trafficking children—even dog thieves would have both legs broken before being thrown out of the village.

She truly had not expected there to be human traffickers even in a place like Royal Capital Arus.

Slave trading was legal in this world.

But judging from what those people were saying, those two children definitely were not ordinary slaves. They had even been abducted from nobles, which was clearly beyond what the law allowed. Were human traffickers in this era really so rampant that they dared provoke nobles?

And Boreas...

That surname sounded somewhat familiar.

"What about the boy beside her? What's his story?"

The conversation inside continued.

"We captured him together with the girl. He knows some magic and was a bit troublesome. It took quite a bit of effort to deal with him. We were in a hurry to leave Fittoa Territory at the time and had no time to handle him, so we brought him along."

"Is he from the Boreas Family too?"

"No, he is the tutor the Boreas Family hired for this young lady. Come to think of it, we have that brat to thank for letting the plan proceed early. He is also a Greyrat, but his father is only a low-ranking knight."

"I see. Then I'll take the girl. Figure out how to dispose of the boy yourselves."

"By dispose of him, you mean...?"

"Isn't the Altier River wide enough?"

"Hmph, understood."

The conversation abruptly ended there.

The group of human traffickers responsible for transporting the two children pulled the girl out separately, tied her up tightly, and handed her over to the black-robed man.

As for the remaining worthless boy, he was still inside the box.

"Alright, let's go dispose of this one."

"Captain, why not just kill him and find somewhere to burn the body clean...?"

"We aren't familiar with the situation in the royal capital. It's better to be cautious."

"Fine..."

"Creak—"

The door to the hidden room opened, and the captain warily glanced outside.

There was no one outside.

Only then did he finally relax. Silently signaling the others behind him, he headed toward the Altier River, away from the city walls.

He did not notice a small figure silently following them through the shadows.

By then, the moon had already risen high into the sky.

Guided by the moonlight, the group advanced through the deserted night.

Around ten minutes later, they arrived beside the Altier River.

The Altier River was the mother river of the Asura Kingdom. The royal capital stood at its uppermost reaches, and guardrails had been erected along the riverbank, where even massive ships could sail.

Whenever the rainy season came, the river became exceptionally turbulent. Anything thrown into it would vanish without a trace in an instant, and there was no possibility of sneaking into the royal capital through the river.

Looking at the churning waves below, the group wiped away their sweat and pushed the heavy box to the riverbank.

"Alright, here will do."

The captain gave the order.

Everyone nodded. With no one around in the cover of night, they prepared to throw the entire box into the river.

Just then.

The captain suddenly gripped the hilt of his sword at his waist.

Following the captain's gaze, the others saw a small figure slowly approaching.

The small figure was shrouded in darkness. Only a pair of clear, aqua-blue eyes shone brilliantly, like a burning sea.

She was clearly not very tall.

Yet for some reason, she gave off an astonishingly oppressive presence.

"We were followed?"

The captain frowned slightly. "No matter who you are, I advise you not to go looking for trouble!"

"..."

Hilde said nothing and simply continued approaching.

Before the captain could speak again, Hilde suddenly lowered her body and charged forward at high speed.

"A Sword God Style swordsman!"

The captain's pupils contracted.

Rather than retreat, he advanced, assuming a strange stance.

One could not retreat before a Sword God Style swordsman, or it would only bolster the opponent's momentum. The fiercer the opponent's assault, the more one had to take the initiative and meet it head-on.

Besides...

As an Advanced Swordsman of the North God Style, he was confident he would not lose to some nobody.

"Clang—"

Hilde and the captain swung their swords at the same time.

The instant their blades collided, the captain felt an astounding force surge from his wrist. Then that force crashed through him like a raging dragon crossing a river, leaving his entire arm numb.

No, this wasn't a Sword God Style technique...

—Water God Style?!

"Crack!"

The sword the captain had been gripping flew from his hand.

At the same time, Hilde's sword snapped cleanly in the middle and was ruined on the spot.

It had only been a wooden sword.

Because the darkness concealed it, no one had noticed that Hilde was holding a wooden sword. Even more astonishingly, she had managed to block and counter the captain's attack with nothing but that wooden sword.

"Thud—"

In the blink of an eye.

Almost the instant the captain's sword flew from his hand, Hilde leaped from the ground, stepped on his chest, and used the force to perform a second jump! Her body spun and swept through the air like an elegant waltz.

The next moment, Hilde landed smoothly.

Yet there was now a sword in her hand—the captain's disarmed sword.

"Kill her!" the captain roared.

"With just you people?"

Hilde sneered and struck decisively.

Although she had trained at the Royal Capital Dojo for less than half a month, her actual combat ability had risen to an entirely new level compared with before.

Looking at the enemies charging toward her, Hilde instantly judged their approximate level.

Every last one of them was...

Complete trash!

The battle instantly reached its climax.

Hilde charged into the crowd alone. She could not even be bothered to block some blunt weapon attacks, allowing them to strike her body and enduring them solely through her tough physique. At the same time, she used Water God Style techniques, constantly parrying, blocking, deflecting force, and counterattacking as she fought one against many. Her blade repeatedly slashed through vital points, spraying blood into the air.

Enemies fell one after another. Blood stained the ground red and dyed her body red as well.

She moved as though no one stood in her way.

"Don't get too cocky, brat!"

With an angry shout.

The captain had already snatched a new sword from someone beside him and slashed at Hilde.

She was about to block when her opponent suddenly changed his move. The slash turned into a thrust, and its speed surged sharply.

An Advanced Swordsman of the North God Style...

The Trickster School?

Only this enemy made Hilde feel even a little pressure.

There was no time to block.

But that did not mean she could not handle it.

Hilde suddenly raised her palm and, without avoiding it at all, grabbed directly at the incoming sword.

"Squish—"

The sword pierced through her palm and bone.

No matter how tough her body was, flesh was still flesh. It was not so absurdly resilient that even an Advanced Swordsman's blade could not pierce it.

But the captain soon discovered that his sword was stuck.

Hilde clenched her hand. With the blade still piercing through it, she forcibly trapped the sword between her bones and with her powerful grip. No matter how hard he pulled, it would not budge in the slightest.

Blood continuously dripped from the wound, but her grip did not weaken in the least.

Hilde's expression was icy, as though she could not feel pain.

The captain's expression changed instantly.

"What kind of..."

"Clang—"

"...joke is this?"

A flash of sword light passed through the air. The captain's head, still wearing an expression of disbelief, flew from his neck before falling to the ground.

Hilde looked around.

The ground was covered in corpses.

The battle was over.

Without expression, she pulled the captain's sword from her palm. Then she aimed her other hand at the puncture wound and cast intermediate healing magic.

The wound quickly healed, which also meant there was no poison on the sword.

She tried clenching her fist, and only after confirming that nothing was wrong did she let out a sigh of relief.

She could not let that guy see her looking this miserable.