-----

"Mr. Adrian is it true what you're saying?" asked the chief of the Evergreen Village, an old man in his late sixties, with a long white beard and a bald head. His eyes were covered in long white eyebrows, and his face was filled with wrinkles. ​​

A young man with a small complexion, chestnut hair, and brown eyes, named Adrian, spoke.

"Yes, Chief, I saw it with my very two eyes! Through the windows of Jason's house, things were floating around! Although he always has them covered by the long curtains, I managed to see something! Spoons, forks, and even plates were flying in the air like some kind of witchery!" said Adrian, bewildered.

"A mage? In our village? Since when Jason learned magic?" wondered a woman with a chubby complexion and long black hair named Juliana.

"That is the thing, Juliana! If it were to be Jason then it would have not been as surprising, perhaps he awakened magic or something… but he was not the one inside the house! He was actually on his crops at that time!" said Adrian.

"Then…"

"The child?"

"The kid, so it was true!"

"The kid, he can use magic at such a young age?!"

"He's surely a half-demon then!"

The villagers present were bewildered, however, the Chief stopped them before they would cause a commotion that would call the attention of the people outside.

"Everyone, please calm down… Let us assess things carefully. David must have already reached the Duchy of Sapphira, so the situation has been reported to the authorities there. We must wait until people come to investigate. For now, let us not force things into Jason or his child, we do not know what kind of powers that demon spawn could have, let us ensure the safety of everyone for now," said the chief.

A few days ago, the chief had given David, one of his sons, a bronze coin, enough to travel to the Duchy of Sapphira and come back in a merchant carriage that sometimes appears in Evergreen. He had recently reached the place yesterday and reported such thing to directly to the Duchy.

Even if he were a mere commoner, such important things as a Half-Demon boy peacefully living in a village could not be ignored, the people that received his words quickly communicated them to Percy, Duke Frank's closest servant.

"I suppose the chief is right…"

"But I wonder what kind of magic is capable of making things float like that?" asked an old man.

"Wind Magic, perhaps!" said a young woman.

"Wind Magic?! With such a powerful attribute, the boy could blow our entire village through the skies if we were to enrage him…! Indeed, we better stay away from him until the knights of the Duchy appear to investigate things properly," said another man.

"Well, talking about strange things going on… have any of you wondered why there is always the smell of fresh blood near the forest?" asked a young man.

"Fresh blood?" asked an old woman.

"Ah yes, the forest has been pretty strange lately… monsters keep spawning inside the dungeons and going outside… Though it's strange, the other day I can bet that I saw a plant-type monster resembling a snake sneaking around a tree… though it disappeared before I could see it properly" said a young woman.

"You fool, don't get near those! It must be a Vine Serpent; those things have a deadly poison that could kill you in a few minutes!" said an old man.

"Yes, young lady, don't go near the forest and stay within the village. As long as we live near the shrine of the gods, the monsters stay away," said the chief.

"Well, perhaps that might not be forever… what if a strong enough monster capable of ignoring the shrine appears, commanding even more monsters?" asked another man.

"Aren't you being a bit paranoiac? That hasn't happened in years!" barked an old man.

"But… now that adventurers barely come to clear dungeons as they are too busy hunting demons or beastmen… monsters keep appearing one after another, how long has it been since a Plant-type monster such as a Vine Serpent wondered near the village? It's terrifying to think that one could infiltrate inside the village and suddenly kill a whole family through the spawn of a night!" said the young woman.

"Silence! Even then, the shrine will protect us! The crystal inside, which let us change Jobs was a gift of the gods themselves! The energy exuded by it makes sure that monsters do not come near! It has been like this for generations, why would it suddenly change?!" said the chief.

"The chief is right, younglings, stop being so fearful of nature!" said an old man.

The young members of the group were not concerned without reason, but the old generation believed fervently that everything would always be fine as long as the shrine and the crystal inside existed in the center of the village.

Unaware of this, a certain group of mercenaries was slowly making their way towards the Evergreen Village, the men making the entirety of the group seemed suspicious for mercenaries.

Although they haven't been recognized as criminals, as they always took 'legal' yet suspicious and barbaric tasks given by nobles that did not want to nasty their hands, they were mostly despised by other mercenary bands, but they couldn't care less.

In Kritias human rights were very underdeveloped, even after discriminating against all other intelligent races, humans still committed atrocities against each other… yet Bestellen, the God of Light and Righteousness saw them as the 'purest' of intelligent races.

As long as those were orders given by nobles or aristocrats, they were even allowed to kill innocent citizens and people that had never committed crimes. As long as the nobles or people in power said so, normal folk could suddenly become criminal slaves and be stripped of all their freedom.

If Duke Frank wanted to explain why the villagers were burned alive by the mercenaries, he would simply give the excuse to the King that was in a debt with the Duchy, the territory where they were living. Refusing to pay taxes, they resisted being apprehended and enslaved as criminal slaves and the mercenaries had no other option than to defend themselves against these insane commoners. …Simply as that.

Injustice was in every corner of the world, especially to the weak and simple. No weak person could ever hope to receive any justice if they were not even able to defend themselves against those abusing them.

The bald and scarred man, the leader of this suspicious mercenary band laughed as he glanced at the horizon, slowly approaching Evergreen Village through carriages given to them for this expedition by the Duke himself.

"Hey boss, what if the Half-Demon Boy rumor is true and we actually find him?" asked a lackey.

"What? Well, if that even happens, nothing changes! I doubt the Duke would even care about this place, he even seemed enthusiastic about the whole place getting burned down. We throw the kid inside a bag, we have our fun, we loot everything, we burn the whole village and then we go back home, simple as that, idiot," said the scarred, bald man, with a self-indulgent smile.

"I see! Boss has it all planned! You're such a master of schemes!" said the lackey, praising his boss.

"Gahahaha! Of course, I am!" laughed the bald man.

They did not know that the kid they would just 'throw inside a bag' would actually be someone particularly dangerous.

…And they could not even imagine through their entire lives that a certain Living Armor was marching with her party of tamed monsters towards there as well, dead set into saving the kid.

Ervas sneezed for a moment, breaking his concentration.

"Ah, was someone thinking about me?" he wondered.

-----