After setting the idea of who was Andreas at the back of my head, I walked towards the road I saw when I was on top of the hill. While walking, I continued observing my status to get a good grip on how my constitution is.

Race: {High Human [Demigod]} Human

Level: 1

HP: 500/500

MP: 50/50

Str: 25

Agi: 27

End: 24

Int: 21

Luc: 10

Skills:

{[Death Magic] Lv 1}

{[Blood Arts] Lv 3}

[Scythe Handling] Lv 8

[Body Strengthening] Lv 2

[All Attribute Magic] Lv 1

I noticed that my Gaze of Terror skill was removed from my skill list, maybe because of the race change. The reason might be that the race High Human cannot acquire the skill. It might be limited to only particular races, such as the skeleton that I was before.

The Scythe Handling skill I could understand acquiring, but Body Strengthening and All Attribute Magic, I could not. I haven’t used those kinds of skills back in the labyrinth, so it might be an innate skill for the High Human race.

Making those as the reasons, I didn’t pursue the topic any further. Any more than this, and my head might ache from the thinking.

I closed the status window and just in time, the road was already in front of me. The road wasn’t particularly attractive… It was just a plain dirt path you could make from uprooting the weeds. It stretched out to the left and the right, with nothing worth mentioning at the horizon.

“I’m too far, huh?”

I picked up a stick nearby from the ground and stood by the roadside, then let it stand upright by holding it in place, then let it go. When it fell, the end pointed to the left. I repeated this 9 more times.

Right.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Left.

Left.

Right.

Left.

“Left it is…”

I threw the stick away and walked towards the left while following the road. During the time when Omsar and Brigine were still my party, when we didn’t know where to go because we were just travelling without a planned destination, we used this technique.

Sometimes, it brought us to dangerous places, while other times, I was grateful to it, no, Omsar. He was the person to introduce it to us, the moodmaker of the group, the person who kept on sexually harassing Brigine, only to be fed fire in the mouth.

“Those were some good times…”

I let a smile float up on my face as I basked in my old memories.

“Don’t let him get away!!!”

“Catch him!!”

“Bastards!!! You’ll never catch me!!”

It was then after how many minutes of spacing out while walking, I heard shouts. The sound of hooves trampling the ground entered my ears while a dust cloud appeared in my vision.

“What is that…?”

On the horizon, I could see a figure of a man in… Holy shit, an exhibitionist…

“What the fuck…?”

Anyway, he was riding the horse bucknaked while his ‘thing’ dangled around in the air. His face was hidden by a pure white mask and he was standing on top of the horse. On his hand, there was a bright red stone.

Behind him were men in armor pursuing the exhibitionist, they numbered 4. With spears in hand, like a professional jouster, they are trying to close the gap between them. Sadly, maybe because of the weight, the horses couldn’t keep up with the exhibitionist’s horse.

I cringed at the unexpected sight I saw at that time. I mean wouldn’t anyone not cringe at this…? If there were, then I top my hat off to them for their nerves of steel.

“You there!! Get out of the way!!”

The exhibitionist pointed at me and shouted with his ‘thing’ still dangling in the air as if it was saying “I’m Free!!”

This… is sickening…

Thank goodness I still have my scythe. Since I didn’t know whether I can kill this person without making a crime, instead, I lopped of the horse’s legs when it was near me.

“WAAAHHH!!!!”

The exhibitionist was sent flying while his ‘thing’ was jiglling up and down. He then landed with his ‘thing’ first then it scraped against the ground fiercefully.

I instinctively held my balls while getting a cold shiver down my spine.

Looks like I’ll be having nightmares about this when I sleep…

“Who are you!?”

The armored men stopped right before me while not lowering their guards. Let’s call them soldiers.

The soldiers, still straddled on their horses kept their wariness at the maximum at my appearance. It seems that they aren’t pushovers.

“Just a person aspiring to be an adventurer. I just left the village and was on my way towards the town where I could register.”

I took a look at my appearance earlier, and I could say, I was in the early half of my teens, probably around 14 years old.

“Then, would you please tell me the name of the village you were raised in?”

Looks like he won’t let me go through that easily. I mean, if you encounter a child that is capable of wielding a scythe with skill that can cleanly cut the legs of a horse with one wing, then you’d probably doubt the child.

“Sorry to say this, but I was thrown out of the village on my 14th birthday. My mother and father died shortly after my birth during hunting, and the village treated me like a tumor, but since I was still young, the people felt a little responsible for my growth, so they took care of until I was old enough to be thrown out by myself.”

I used the reason I used when I encountered a soldier who was wary about me in the past. I think it was when I was entering a town, where the security was strict and I didn’t have any identification on hand.

“… You still didn’t answer my question, from what village where you from?”

“Sorry, but I don’t know. They said something about a worthless person like me should not learn the village’s name. Said it could curse the village or something…”

The soldier looked directly into my eyes while trying to ascertain whether I was lying or not.

“I see… For now, we’ll take you to the town where we can interrogate you. You lot! Grab the restraining gear! Restrain him and that piece of crap over there!!”

The following soldiers quickly held me in custody, while they put a robe over the exhibitionist, and bind him in sturdy rope.

I let them tie a rope on my hands behind my back, because this also happened to me before. After saying those lies, I was brought to the interrogation chamber where I was asked a lot of questions for the sake of security. Then I was let go and sent to the Adventurers Guild after wringing me out. At least it won’t attract too much attention from the public gazes. It was common for someone to be brought to the chamber just to be wringed out, so the public couldn’t care less about the result.

“Oh by the way, that scythe is cursed, you do not want to touch it. Just keep it strapped to my back.”

The soldier trying to reach my scythe stepped back when he heard it was cursed. The gaze of the leader (maybe) at me became daggers all of a sudden.

It can’t be helped that the scythe is cursed. I don’t want him to go mad, but I also hate being the center of attraction. I also hate being resented for things that are too idiotic.

I was straddled on the horse, while the exhibitionist was brought like luggage since he was unconcsious. Oh right, I saw a very terrible wound at his ‘thing’, the soldiers probably had shivers down their spine the moment they saw that. I did too…

Just like that, I was on my way towards the nearest town, not as a traveller, but a suspicous person…

<><><><><><><><>

~ Third Person POV ~

“You lie…”

Lina’s eyes were hidden by the bangs of her hair, but Hower already knew how it looked like.

“It’s true, he said it to me the moment he left.”

Hower had a thought that if it was that person’s daughter, she could probably come to terms with their deaths quickly, but…

“You lie… You lie… YOU LIAR!!!!”

Lina picked up the basket on the table and threw it at Hower. It flew at an incredible speed and it hit squarely at his forehead. Hower took it like a man, but tomorrow morning, there would be a huge bump in his head for display.

Lina ran out of the house with a terrifying pace and ran around the town, her destination, the labyrinth.

“Papa… Mama…”

With eyes filled with desperation, she headed towards the entrance of the labyrinth. As she was trained by her father and mother while she was still young, albeit she still is, she could blaze through the first three floors all alone while wielding a stick.

With a dagger in her belt, she reached the entrance of the labyrinth, only to see the expedition force composed with high rank adventurers exiting with less than half their total numbers.

A bad feeling crept up her body as she approached the entrance. The passerbys around the area all had a look of shock upon seeing the expedition’s force pitiful return.

Behind them were the gathered corpses of those who died against the skeleton monster. Some were in a pitiful state, while others were cleanly cut in half.

The expressions of the survivors were clearly shaken and in a state of despair.

‘It can’t be!’

Lina couldn’t find the figure of her father, nor her mother within the survivors.

‘Please don’t let it be true!!’

She approached the survivor who she held a familiarity with, the Storm Mage, Liss. She was once her tutor whe she realized that she had the aptitude for Wind Magic.

“Liss!!”

“Lina!?”

Upon seeing the face of the desperate Lina, Liss wanted to smack the face of Hower who liked to rush things. She didn’t know how to break it to her, nor did she want to. The death of Andreas was just to shocking of an event that it even shook them to the core.

“Liss… Please tell me… Where are papa and mama…?”

“…”

Liss didn’t know how to reply. She was in a state where her mind was arguing whether to tell it to her straight up, or lie to her. But seeing that Lina wanted an answer, and she wasn’t leaving until she gets one, Liss had no choice.

“… Lina, they’re gone… Both of them…”

Liss’ cheeks felt warm then realized that her tears were dropping down, still she continued the story.

“Everyone on the front… With a swing from its scythe died… Andreas decided to use his trump card…”

The tears of regret, frustration, and despair kept on dropping down with no signs of stopping. Liss bent down, not being able to control her shaking legs from the fear of remembering that monster, and also because of the death of Andreas.

She sobbed while trying to hide her face, so did the other survivors. But there was one who didn’t care about the public gazes.

“UUWAAAAAHHHH!!!!”

It was Lina.