CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains a flashback depicting emotional abuse and animal cruelty. Reader discretion is advised.
--------------
[WEST PALACE—QUEEN'S MANSION]
The Queen sat behind her study desk, her chair turned to face the window. Her eyes saw the gardens below, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
Leo stood near her desk. "It has been a most troublesome trial, this past day."
That was correct—a full day had passed since G6's gory performance.
"Tell me, Leo… what do you imagine she is doing now?" the Queen said.
"How should I know?" Leo replied. "Your Majesty… how can a person change so drastically?"
"Indeed. How can one? She is far more… formidable… than her loud, simple self before," the Queen mused. "But you know, Leo, every person has their own story. Just like you."
"However, it was a blatant threat to you. She dared to threaten you, the Queen," Leo stated, his tone tight with disapproval.
"I do not mind. If she cannot be tamed by the throne itself, it means no one else can either," the Queen said. "Your friend would not keep following her if he saw her as a true threat."
Leo looked worried. "I just… I simply cannot comprehend her nature."
"Those poetic texts in the book are too hard to decipher, are they not? But one thing is certain. She will be a threat to everyone who crosses her."
She then turned her chair to face Leo. "It seems we are finally able to cross out names in the black ledger, Leo," she said, a faint, weary smile touching her lips.
Leo sighed. "It seems so."
"What in the name of Eldrin has the child been through, to have her turn into this… unhinged force?"
"My word…" the Queen murmured, her gaze drifting back to the window. "How did that child… become so broken?"
「INTERLUDE」
❈ G6's Past Life ❈
Akira Gemstone, Seven Years Old
The Gemstone compound's garden was not a place for play. It was a tactical space, with clear lines of sight and no cover. But in a forgotten corner, tucked behind a rain barrel swollen with neglect, Akira found it: a tiny, shivering calico kitten, one eye sealed shut with sickness.
For three days, it was her only secret. She smuggled shreds of boiled chicken from her own plate, her small, careful hands dabbing the kitten's eye with clean water until it could blink open, revealing a sliver of hazy blue. On the fourth day, as the kitten pressed a rumbling purr against her wrist and batted weakly at her finger, Akira did something she had never done within those walls.
She laughed.
The sound—a bright, unbidden spill of joy—was what drew her father's attention from his study window.
On the evening of the fifth day, Akira stumbled from the basement's grim theater. Her lessons were etched upon her small body: a lattice of fresh cuts from knife-grip drills, a tapestry of bruises blooming across her ribs and shins from relentless martial forms. Yet, beneath the ache, a fragile warmth persisted. Clutching a plate of smuggled chicken, she hurried toward her secret, a smile already touching her lips.
She turned the corner.
And there they stood, silhouetted against the storage shed: her father and her older brother. Her father held the kitten. It was already limp, a small, damp thing in his large, implacable hand.
Akira's world froze. The plate slipped from her fingers and exploded on the flagstones.
"N-no… Kira…" she whispered, the name a shattered plea.
Her eyes, wide and drowning, swept from the tiny, still body to her father's face. His expression was carved from winter stone. Beside him, her brother stared at the ground, his own face a rigid mask, fighting to hide whatever storm churned beneath.
"Akira."
Her father's voice was low, a vibration in the settling silence. It did not ask. It pronounced.
"What did I tell you?"
Akira's gaze fell to the broken plate, to her own scuffed boots. She couldn't stop it—the hot tears welled, spilling over to trace clean paths through the dust on her cheeks. She saw his expression shift at the sight: a flicker of pure disgust, a profound disappointment that seemed to leach the last warmth from the evening air.
"I told you," he continued, each word a measured blow. "You were not born to be like the others. How many times must your weakness force me to repeat myself?"
He tossed the small body. It landed at her feet with a soft, final thud.
Akira flinched as if struck, a sharp gasp escaping her. The sob she'd been holding back broke free, a ragged, audible sound that shook her small frame. Her legs gave way, and she knelt on the cold stone amidst the ceramic shards and scattered chicken.
Her hands, already marked by the blade, trembled violently as she reached out. Gently, so gently, she gathered the tiny, cooling form and cradled it against her chest, as if her own heartbeat could somehow reverse the stillness. She bent over it, her small shoulders curling inward, a fortress of grief for a life that had fit perfectly in her palms.
"That," her father said, his voice cutting through her weeping, "is what happens when a weapon dares to care for something. And you, Akira, are the weapon."
He took a single step forward, then knelt on one knee beside her. His large hand came down, not to comfort, but to grip her shoulder—a weight meant to imprint, not reassure.
"Remember this feeling," he commanded, his voice dropping to a dreadful, intimate register beside her ear. "Remember this disgusting, sorrowful feeling. Engrave it upon your mind. This… this is what happens when a killer is foolish enough to crave warmth."
The lesson was complete. The last flicker of light in a seven-year-old's heart guttered, and in the long, cold shadow it left behind, something else began to harden.
[END OF INTERLUDE…]
-ˋˏ✄ - - - - - - - ♡
[Outside the Capital's Jurisdiction]
After the performance G6 delivered for the Queen, the three had proceeded directly to the adventurer's guild and secured another task, this one located in the forest near Grain Town, within the County of Bellard. A journey of a day and a half for most, it took them only sixteen hours by pushing their horses and taking perilous cliff roads as shortcuts.
Night had long since fallen. They were now four hours from Grain Town and decided to halt, allowing their horses to rest and recharge within the deep forest's cover.
"Ha…" Zen sighed, poking at the small campfire with a stick. "We've already finished Alistair's sandwich bento. All that's left is this diabolical tonic." He gestured vaguely toward their packs.
He sat before the crackling flames. Edmund, kneeling nearby, opened his dimensional vault and withdrew a small cooking pot. "Worry not. I shall prepare us a proper meal. It is fortunate we procured this meat from the market on our way to the guild," he said, also pulling out a wrapped parcel. He drew his dagger and began to slice the meat with precise, chilling efficiency.
"Eddie… do you even know how to cook?" Zen asked, skepticism etched on his face. "Aren't you a butler?"
"Ha. Zero, do not presume to judge my culinary skills. I have also mastered the utility affinity," Edmund declared, a note of pride in his voice as he continued his expert—and slightly unsettling—dissection of the meat. His expression was one of focused intensity, more suited to an autopsy than a kitchen.
"If you say so," Zen muttered, then turned his gaze upward into the branches of a nearby tree.
There, G6 reclined casually against the trunk, her posture suggesting sleep, though Zen could not see her eyes behind the dark lenses of her glasses.
Daunt lay sprawled at the base of the same tree, deep in repose.
"We have more than sufficient funds from our completed tasks," Edmund remarked, now chopping vegetables with the same deadly seriousness. "It is a good thing we were able to purchase Master Daunt an ample supply of meat and turkey legs."
"Master Daunt… aren't you supposed to be the one hunting?" Zen asked, glancing at the slumbering beast.
"I am… recuperating…" Daunt mumbled into the earth, his voice thick with contentment for the easy life he had recently adopted.
"That's just an excuse. You're just too lazy. Tsk." Zen murmured under his breath, shaking his head.
"I can hear you, brat," Daunt rumbled without opening his eyes.
"This Venomous Spider task," G6 said, her position against the tree unchanged. "Why is the payout so high, yet Liam was refusing to give it to anyone else?"
"Venomous Spiders are notoriously difficult to eradicate," Zen explained from his spot by the fire. "The smallest are two feet wide and three tall. Their webbing is nearly impossible to cut with a blade and exhibits significant mana resistance, rendering most offensive magic ineffective. If one is struck by their green, muculent venom… it does not merely burn. It liquefies flesh."
"Is Liam harboring some ill will toward us, then?" G6 mused. "By offering us these damn monsters, is he trying to get rid of us?"
To understand the context, a brief recap…
[At the Guild]
The guild was more crowded than usual, a palpable buzz of excitement thickening the air around the reception desk.
"No way… one gold coin per Venomous Spider?! But they're always in groups of twenty or more!" Adventurer One exclaimed.
"Tell me about it, this is a steal!"
"Hey, give me that posting!"
"I am sorry, but this is an A-Rank extermination," Liam said, his voice strained. "You all know how treacherous these monsters are."
"Then, what about giving it to us?" Sebastian said, stepping forward. "We are A-Rank, after all."
Liam sighed. "Have you ever engaged a Venomous Spider, Sebastian?"
"Not yet. But this will be our first," he replied with a confident smile.
"Five experienced hunters are already dead, and twelve have lost limbs," Liam stated flatly.
"Come on! We have a priestess with us. Xena's healing is prodigious—she is from the Holy Kingdom, after all," Dante argued.
"No fair! We are A-rank, too!" protested Joe, the captain of another party that had just arrived.
Liam remained silent. Sebastian and his Iron Shield Party had proven themselves among the top ranks in the kingdom… but a deep unease remained. It was abnormal enough for these monsters to appear in the forests near Grain Town when they typically lurked near the Scutum Mountains.
Just as Liam was about to reluctantly yield to the persistent Iron Shield, the guild door chimed. A familiar, cold, and heavy atmosphere seeped into the room, and Liam recognized it immediately.
They're here! he thought, a knot of tension loosening in his chest.
The three cloaked figures entered.
As usual, the eyes of every adventurer snapped toward them, some filled with curiosity, others with naked hostility.
"What's with the crowd?" Zen murmured.
"Let's go check," G6 said.
They moved toward the reception. Sebastian and his party instinctively tensed as Edmund lowered his hood.
"Ed?" Dante said, surprised. "So it was you… then…"
"G6?" Sebastian followed, his gaze searching.
Zen stepped forward, subtly positioning himself between G6 and the others. He looked up at Sebastian, only his chilling eyes visible from within his hood.
Sebastian's brow furrowed. What is with this guy's hostility?
"I am so glad you came today, G6!" Liam said, his relief evident.
"Hearing you say that sounds creepy," G6 replied, ignoring everyone else.
"Well, I have something for your party. Here." Liam took the pinned poster for the Venomous Spider task and slid it across the counter toward her. "Consider it worthy compensation for the wolf incident."
"W-wait!" Joe, the other A-Rank captain, intervened. "Why are you giving it to them, huh, Liam? They just got here and didn't even ask for it!"
"Besides! They're only a three-person party!" one of his members added.
"I hate to admit it, but I don't understand, Liam," Sebastian said, his tone careful. "Why would you give this to G6's party when you were so adamant about refusing us?"
I admit I am interested in G6. But I've never even seen her fight. We only ever meet by chance here at the guild, Sebastian thought.
Liam massaged the nape of his neck. Ha… He glanced at G6, her face shadowed within her hood. Even when it was just her and Eddie, they cleared that abnormal horde in Oak Village… and killed a new type of demon at that, the kind it takes a full knight-squad to bring down. They've even added a new member who radiates the same chilling presence…
"The guild has granted me full authority to assign A-Rank tasks to the party I deem most suitable," Liam stated formally. "Forgive me, Sebastian, and Joe. But I judge Eddie's party best equipped to handle this."
"What kind of bullshit is that!" Joe yelled.
"Tone it down, Joe!" Sebastian snapped, then turned back to Liam. "If this is your decision, we will respect it."
Edmund remained quiet, observing the scene dispassionately, as G6 took the poster from the counter. "Hmm. I don't really care. But sure, I'll take it… Seeing their faces lose what they really want is kind of amusing," she said, her voice a low, private murmur.
"Ha… every time G6 speaks, I get goosebumps…" Xena whispered to Nick, who nodded vigorously.
"Then, we will gladly accept this. Thank you, Liam," Edmund said, his voice cutting through the tension.
"Who is this creep? And why are you all wearing cloaks, huh? You're adventurers, not some shady mercenaries!" Joe spat, his pride wounded.
G6 turned from the reception. Her gaze behind her shades first found Sebastian. "Yo," she said, a simple, offhand acknowledgement of his earlier address. Sebastian's cheeks flushed a faint pink, drawing muffled chuckles from his group.
Then she turned to Joe. Despite her shades hiding her grey eyes, it seemed to be the only thing shining from within the deep hood, and Joe felt the overwhelming, wordless weight of her three-second stare—a pressure that silenced his next retort in his throat.
She then continued walking toward the guild exit, followed by her two shadows.
"C-captain, are you okay?" one of Joe's men asked, noting his pallor.
Liam just looked at them all with an exhausted expression. "I have other tasks for you. Do not bother those three. They are… out of your league." that's right… G6's status has been private, who knows which noble… or maybe the throne itself she works for.
"Out of our 'league'?" Sebastian repeated, a hard edge entering his voice. "Say, Liam. Why do you trust those three so implicitly with a task of this importance?"
"Well…"
[Back to Present]
"So, how do we deal with these spiders?" G6 asked from her perch.
"Their weakness is the eye," Edmund said, still focused on his cooking. "That is why, in combat, they tend to shield their faces with their front legs, using the remainder for offense… Their gemstone core is highly prized for forging swords."
"Have you ever hunted one before?"
"Yes… back when I was still quite young."
"With whom?"
"Alistair. And Leo. It was… an adventure." Edmund's knife never slowed.
"Was it? Where did you hunt it?"
"Back when we served as knights in Ves—" Edmund's words cut off as he realized he was being led. He halted for a moment, the rhythmic slicing pausing mid-air.
G6 smirked in the shadows.
"Anyway," Edmund resumed, his tone deliberately even as he focused intently on the vegetables before him. "I do have experience with Venomous Spiders, Captain."
Zen threw a glance back at Edmund, who was momentarily flustered, then at G6, who seemed quietly amused at having so effortlessly pried a crack in his usual composure.
I've heard the origins of Edmund, Alistair, Leo, and Ms. Janin are shrouded in mystery. To think the Captain would use the moment he was guard-down and occupied to extract information… She's a master of mind games.
"Do not worry. Try attacking with pure mana. Their resistance cannot withstand a concentrated force," Daunt said, a smug tone in his rumble. "Plus, you have a great Fenrir on your side."
"There he goes again," Zen murmured. "But they are documented as mana-resistant."
"Do not be foolish," Daunt grumbled, shifting his massive head. "Add this to your scholarly knowledge: an affinity uses only seventy-five percent of one's available mana at most. Their resistance is calibrated against affinity-based attacks. What happens if you strike them with the full, raw weight of your mana, without the 'affinity' filter?"
"Wait… it's like how a mana core can be targeted and kill someone instantly, right?" Zen said, his mind flashing to G6's grim work at the Grand Arena.
"A similar principle. Mana in its raw form is potent enough to be lethal if it overwhelms a core. But causing a full detonation is rare—only a psycho without a hint of humanity would conceive of such a thing."
"Thanks for the compliment," G6 called down from her branch.
Daunt merely groaned. "Do you recall I said ordinary humans cannot harness raw mana as an attack? It is the same for mana-resistant monsters. Their defenses are not designed to withstand a pure mana onslaught."
"I see… This is strange. Why is this theory not more widely known? No one even seems to consider using mana itself as a weapon," Zen mused.
"Foolish. If any common fool could pull it off, your precious status system would crumble. The only reason you lot can even attempt it is because of me."
"Whoa… Did you do something to us, Master Daunt?" Zen asked, his eyes narrowing.
Daunt opened one eye, a smirk tugging at his muzzle. "Nothing at all. Just the influence of a good teacher. I know, I know—you are grateful. MWAHAHA!"
Zen's face blanked with disbelief. "Is he serious right now?"
"It is ready. Let us eat," Edmund announced, giving the pot a final stir. "Captain, please come down."
G6 dropped soundlessly from the tree. Daunt heaved himself up and followed her to the circle of firelight, where they settled. G6 pulled a generous portion of raw meat from her dimensional vault for Daunt, who accepted it with a contented rumble.
"Let's eat and rest," G6 said. Edmund handed her a steaming bowl of meat stew.
They ate in comfortable silence, the only sounds the crackle of the fire, the quiet chewing, and Daunt's enthusiastic consumption. The forest around them was still, holding its breath. When the meal was done and the fire burned low to embers, they took turns keeping watch beneath a sky dense with unfamiliar stars.
-ˋˏ✄- - - - - - - ♡
Dawn came, pale and cold. They broke camp with practiced efficiency, dousing the ashes and packing their few supplies. The horses, rested and fed, stamped their hooves in the morning chill, their breath pluming in the air.
G6 swung up into her saddle, adjusting her cloak. She glanced back at the untouched woods behind them, then forward to the path that wound deeper into the forest toward Grain Town.
"Let's move," she said, her voice cutting through the mist.
They mounted up—Zen with a watchful tension, Edmund with his usual poised readiness, and Daunt loping alongside with a predator's loose-limbed grace. As they urged their horses into a steady trot, the trees began to thin ahead, promising the outskirts of the town.
After half an hour riding beneath the forest canopy's arching road, something unprecedented greeted them.
Edmund's horse shied first, then Zen's. Daunt stopped dead, a deep growl building in his throat.
A thick, rope-like strand of web, nearly invisible and glistening with morning dew, was stretched taut across the path at throat height. It hadn't been there the night before.
And strung along it, like grotesque ornaments on a macabre clothesline, were two freshly wrapped forms. The cocoons were still damp, the shimmering, viscous silk pulsing faintly. These weren't hunters from the guild; the shapes were wrong, the clothing crude and rural. Local farmers or woodsmen, caught unaware. Through a tear in one, the toe of a worn leather boot was visible.
"What the fuck is this?" G6 muttered.
"They could be townspeople," Zen said.
Edmund dismounted, his dagger already in hand. He approached but did not touch the deadly silk. "They're still alive!" he called back to the two on their horses.
"Great luck, I guess," G6 said, though her tone was flat. But this is bothersome.
Daunt's head was on a swivel, his hackles raised. His nose flared. "The scent is fresh. They were taken just before dawn. While we slept." The implication hung in the cold air: the spiders had been active around their camp, close enough to hunt, yet chose not to engage. It was a display of chilling priority—or caution.
G6 remained mounted. Her gaze wasn't on the grisly warning, but on the dense, shadowed treeline around them. The peaceful rest, the quiet meal under the stars—it had all been under the silent, multi-faceted gaze of predators. They hadn't just entered the spiders' territory.
A cold, familiar clarity settled over her. Not fear. Not pity. Protocol. Civilians in the engagement zone were a complicating factor. They represented a mission parameter change: added time constraint, reduced mobility. Her eyes flicked to the boot visible through the silk. Worn leather. A farmer, not a fighter. Inefficient. The thought was automatic, sterile. And somewhere, buried under decades of conditioning, the ghost of a little girl who named a kitten winced, and was instantly silenced.
"Eddie, can they be helped with healing potions?" G6 asked.
"Only as an emergency step. They need to be brought to town and seen by a proper priest," Edmund replied, already trying to carefully disentangle one of the cocoons.
Zen sighed and dismounted. "Let me help." He drew his sword.
"Coat your blade with pure mana. You can cut it that way," Daunt instructed.
Edmund and Zen nodded. They took a deep breath, and unlike before, the flow of their mana came more naturally now, swirling around their weapons in a visible, controlled aura.
"The scent of those feisty spiders is still fresh. It seems they are scattered throughout the forest," Daunt reported. "It will be troublesome if they continue to advance."
"Hmm. All the forests in this kingdom are connected, right? No wonder," G6 mused.
Zen succeeded in cutting down one of the cocoons and gently laid it on the ground. He carefully sliced through the silk to reveal a man who was barely breathing. Edmund freed the other. They administered healing potions, the liquids coaxing faint gasps from the victims.
"It's bad. We need to get them to town quickly," Zen said.
"Then mount up. Let's start hunting these spiders from their nest down to wherever they're running," G6 said, turning her horse.
"Wait up!" Daunt called.
Edmund and Zen hefted the two men like potato sacks across the fronts of their horses and followed their captain, who was already moving.
Whisper of Gale.
G6 rode ahead with Daunt at her side. "Status. How long can the potions sustain them?"
"Two hours, at most," Zen replied.
"Then we have to reach the town in under two hours. Full speed."
"Yes, Captain!" the two men answered in unison.
The party surged forward, the rescued men a grim burden, the silent forest now humming with a threat they could no longer ignore. The hunt had officially begun—but so had the spiders' game.
–TO BE CONTINUED…–