His younger brother's face twisted as he sneered, "Once you go to that corrupted land, you'll never have a chance to come back. I'd regret it if I didn't savor the look on your face now."
Field's nails dug deep into his flesh, his fists creaking from the force of his grip. He asked coldly, "I never did anything to you. Why are you targeting me?"
"Because of that damned battle aura potion you gave me out of pity. I took it and still couldn't become a first-tier knight! Everyone calls me trash behind my back, and it's all your fault! You must have poisoned it!"
Field was utterly disgusted. "Your talent was just too poor."
"Heh, if you ever found a lover, I'd capture her and let countless vagrants ravage her! Oh, too bad you won't have a future, you bastard!" His younger brother made a smug face.
"Fuck! You piece of shit!" Field's fury reached its breaking point. The body's original owner had been a hopeless doormat.
Doing good deeds really did earn you enemies. Those who built bridges and repaired roads died without a proper burial, while murderers and arsonists walked around dripping in gold. These bastards knew nothing of decency or shame. They needed a lesson delivered with fists! "You're fucking asking to die!"
A vicious knee strike sent his brother flying backward. Field exploded into motion and followed with a kick straight to his face, covering that ugly mug in blood.
Everyone was stunned. Field, who had always been so meek, could actually be this brutal.
"I hate being threatened more than anything."
Before the guards could react, Field seized his younger brother's golden curls and moved to slam his head into the ground.
Suddenly, he felt something tighten around his neck. Someone had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him high into the air.
In an instant, the agony of suffocation made Field feel death closing in.
"What are you doing to my lord?" The person choking Field was an attractive woman with long, wine-red hair. Most striking of all was the mysterious rune on her forehead.
"A Chosen One?" Field was stunned.
This world possessed supernatural powers, and the key lay in the Chosen Ones. They were extraordinarily special beings who stood above battle aura and magic, wielding all manner of incredible powers, from combat and support to construction.
The fucked-up part was that only women could become Chosen Ones. Maybe all the gods in this world were fucking women.
Just as Field was about to lose consciousness, the world spun around him, followed by searing pain in his back. She had hurled him into a wall.
"Heh, so you don't dare kill me after all."
"Aah! I'll kill you!" His younger brother coughed violently and drew the blade at his waist.
Field wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. There was no way he could defeat a Chosen One. He stopped wasting time with them, endured the terrible pain, and turned to stride away.
To his surprise, his younger brother already had a Chosen One protecting him before he had even taken up his post. That made Field feel even more endangered.
He lacked the resources to sit around waiting to die, and now he had offended his younger brother as well. Field knew he had to act, or his brother might abduct him tonight and subject him to any kind of insane torture.
"Once I've built up my strength, I'll come back and fucking destroy you." Field lowered his eyes, making no attempt to hide the fury in them.
Nine years of compulsory education hadn't raised a coward!
"So what is this green dot that's as annoying as a fly?" Field studied the map before his eyes, which only he could see. "It appeared the day I transmigrated. Maybe it has something to do with a lord's talent."
Where there was yin, there was yang. The counterpart to a "Chosen One" was a "lord." Once they signed a contract with a Chosen One, they could strengthen each other and grow together.
Lords possessed unique talents, often related to their contracted Chosen Ones and their own territories. However, rare innate talents also existed: talents possessed without a territory or a contract with a Chosen One.
The body's original owner naturally had possessed no such talent, but Field, who had transmigrated into his body, had gained this rare kind.
Of course, he couldn't rule out eye floaters or cataracts either. He would only know once he had checked it out. In any case, it wasn't far away, just in Golden Eagle City.
After he packed his belongings, the butler had already collected the gold coins and was waiting for Field with the servants, despair written all over his face.
Upon learning he had to go to the cursed land, the butler had wanted to hang himself. But suicide would bar him from heaven, so he could only steel himself and head off to his death.
"Let's go." Field had too much weighing on his mind to comfort his butler.
As soon as he opened the manor gates, a troop of cavalry in mismatched armor came into view. A man wearing a red cloak and carrying a long cavalry lance stepped out from among them. "Honored Baron Field, I am Connor, captain of the cavalry, assigned to escort you. I trust we'll have a pleasant journey."
"Then I'll be relying on you, Connor."
Field answered politely, but alarm bells rang in his mind.
They were supposedly his escorts, yet the bandit-like looks on the cavalrymen's faces offered no sense of security. Field even suspected they might kill him and steal his money once they left.
Of course, that was unlikely. Officially registered knights generally wouldn't ruin their prospects by murdering a noble.
Field shrugged. "Maybe they're here to keep an eye on me. Make sure I reach the execution grounds."
"We'll go to Golden Eagle City first. Developing Nightfall Territory will require a lot of supplies."
Field planned to see what that green dot was.
As the second-largest city in the Ross Family's domain, Golden Eagle City possessed unparalleled commercial strength and had been granted to Field's second-oldest sister. Its annual tax revenue reportedly amounted to six hundred thousand gold coins, a particularly glaring contrast to Field's pitiful five hundred.
Traveling by carriage, Field spent the entire morning reaching the great city, which covered forty square kilometers.
Unlike in the modern world, the soldiers guarding the gates leaned idly against the city walls, telling filthy jokes or insulting and harassing the common folk entering the city while charging exorbitant entrance fees.
Only when an officer saw the cavalry troop clearing the way ahead of Field did he leap out of his chair.
"Move those peasants' things out of the way! A lord is coming through here! Open your eyes, you idiots!"
The slouching soldiers immediately straightened, cursing and shooing the commoners and merchants aside to clear the gateway. Then they saluted Field with fawning expressions.
Though Field was out of favor, he was still a noble. Ordinary people still didn't dare offend him.
Slowing the horses, Field followed the direction of the green dot, drawing closer at an easy pace.
The officer at the gate let out a long breath. As long as no one gave him trouble, it was another wonderful day. He ordered his men to keep collecting taxes, gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of olive wine, and reclined in his chair again to bask in the sun.
Guided by the green dot, Field arrived at the slave market in the northern part of the city.
"Oh! This damned, nose-stinging stink of pig fodder mixed with shit." Cavalry Captain Connor frowned deeply and kept fanning the air in front of his face, but it did no good. The stench still shot straight up his nose.
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