Hank felt like he had reached the pinnacle of his life. Just now, he had taken the Warrior Captain of the Kingdom's fatal "Four Light Slash." Although he was in a sorry state, barely surviving by leaning on a half-collapsed wall, and had even lost an arm.
But Hank had never felt so excited. As a knight, Hank naturally knew how to fight and could clearly perceive the difference between himself and his opponent. However, he had always resorted to scheming and relying on the power of money to deal with enemies. Now, truly standing as a knight before the Warrior Captain of the Kingdom, who was hailed as the strongest human in the Kingdom, and taking one of his strikes, Hank felt he could boast about it for a lifetime.
"Heh... I really do miss the days of practicing swordplay when I was young..." Hank, trembling slightly, picked up his broken sword from the ground. He forced his incredibly weary body to stand firm, confronting the Warrior Captain once more.
"...You are a worthy opponent. Surrender. I will not mistreat prisoners. If you are willing to change your mind, I can also help you..." The Warrior Captain seemed moved by Hank's "chivalry." He lowered his stance and kindly advised him.
"Don't joke around... I climbed so hard not to receive anyone's pity..." Hank sneered. He realized that his ambition seemed to be loosening, and something else, something more fulfilling, was slowly filling him up...
Ah, that's right, I was once a child who yearned to be a knight, only to have my wooden sword broken by the darkness around me, succumbing to it, and thus joining them in their depravity...
"I cannot understand why a warrior with such a resolute mind as yours would choose such dishonorable methods..." Gazef still did not make a move. He knew very well that the Hank before him was already at the end of his rope, unable to withstand even his most casual strike.
Yet, he still stood firmly in front of him, raising his broken longsword and confronting him. Such a warrior, regardless of his origin, deserved commendation.
"Resolute, huh..." Hank gave a bitter smile, his eyes glancing at the purple eyes in the distance, silently mocking himself internally.
"Take this! Warrior Captain of the Kingdom! Gazef Stronoff! Four Light Slash!" Hank shouted, unleashing his last ounce of strength.
"What?!" Gazef looked at Hank in disbelief. Not to mention that he had no strength left and could die of exhaustion at any moment, which wouldn't surprise Gazef, but this person had actually learned the Four Light Slash just by seeing his move once? Was he a genius...?
Clang! Unfortunately, what Hank unleashed was not the Four Light Slash, but a simple downward slash. And because the sword was already broken, only a sliver of the blade touched Gazef's armor. After making a shallow scratch, he collapsed with a crash.
"..." Gazef looked at Hank in silence, unable to speak for a long time.
He was dead, having died of exhaustion. If they had met in earlier days, Gazef would surely have considered him a close friend...
"Collect the body, report it as evidence, and at the same time, question the villagers for detailed information..." Several minutes later, Gazef finally regained his composure. His sadness receded, and his solemn expression returned.
"Captain..." The adjutant, who had already finished the battle, stood beside Gazef with a complex expression.
"What's wrong?" Gazef frowned, sensing that something was amiss.
"The villagers... the villagers are gone..." The adjutant pursed his lips, unsure how to explain.
"Gone? Were they killed?" Gazef turned around. He didn't believe his adjutant would mishandle such a matter, but his troops had arrived at the very beginning of the slaughter, using the advantage of their horses to establish a perimeter to cover the fleeing villagers. The enemy soldiers had immediately turned to fight them, so there shouldn't have been any stragglers to pursue the fleeing villagers.
Now that the battle was over, the hidden villagers should have come out after hearing his name...
Could there be a hidden strategy?! Gazef's alarm bells rang loudly. His eyes darted around, observing his surroundings, fearing that something strange might suddenly appear and catch him off guard.
"No... it's not that..." The adjutant gritted his teeth and answered truthfully, "Originally, we had gathered the villagers for protection near the warehouse and even assigned two warriors to guard them. But just now, I found that those two warriors were dead, and the villagers were also nowhere to be found..."
Gazef frowned deeply and hurried towards the warehouse. Along the way, Gazef only saw defeated enemies who had surrendered, his own soldiers, and some villagers who had been killed in the first wave of attack. He did not see any survivors from Carne Village.
"From behind, a single fatal blow through the chest..." Gazef knelt down and began to examine the fallen warriors. He then entered the warehouse, searching for clues.
"Someone... or something, appeared out of thin air, startled the hiding villagers, and then haphazardly took all the villagers away... by flying?" Gazef couldn't deduce any further. The scene was too bizarre. Although he could gather some clues, Gazef was truly not adept at figuring out who, by what means, and with what purpose, had committed such an act of kidnapping villagers.
"Have the messenger work a little harder. Go to the nearest city to change horses, then return to the capital to report the situation..." Gazef paused, then continued, "Say that people from an unknown faction, disguised as Imperial Knights, plundered a village in the King's frontier development territory. Most of the villagers were massacred, a small portion survived, but the villagers of the last village, Carne Village, disappeared during the battle. Ask the Kingdom to send specialists in this area to investigate."
Gazef and his troops were skilled in warfare, not investigation. This aspect would naturally be handled by the Kingdom's intelligence forces. All Gazef could do was this.
As dusk fell, Gazef and his men finally finished collecting the bodies and prepared to rush back. Before leaving, Gazef once again looked at the purple eyes in the distance, his eyebrows sharp as blades.