The first thing I realized when I came to a tangible consciousness was that in this world, strength ruled supreme.I was born to two commoners. Both of them were ignorant of the danger around us. However, because of that, I became different, not because I was born with any special abilities, techniques, or memories, but simply because their death had awakened the ultimate sense of crisis in me.I was around seven years old when it happened.Our village was in flames before lunchtime even arrived, I and my parents hid in the cellar of our house as soon as the danger arrived, but it wasn't enough to avoid our fate.We were found, caught, and dragged out to the middle of our humble village, which now lay in ruins as most of the houses were being smoldered in the fire that the invaders had created. A thick smoke entered my young lungs as I looked around and coughed. My eyes widened in horror as it was the first time I saw such a horrible sight.I could see blood stains on the ground, and

The first thing I did after I left the bandit camp behind was go to a nearby village, which I never had been to before to inquire about the whereabouts of my mother, but she was sold eight years ago, so it would be hard to track her down. Unfortunately, the first thing that greeted me when I arrived near the village was bounty posters with my image along with the other bandits that I killed. It looked like after more than 15 years of pillaging since the creation of the bandit group, the authorities finally decided to make a move. This troubled me greatly, after all, I didn't have anything to cover my face, and it was pretty recognizable as the poster somehow looked identically to me. I wasn't sure how they would be able to make such an identical picture, but it wasn't the time to think about that. I had to cover my head with a hood and enter the village to inquire about the whereabouts of my mother. Unfortunately, it was summer, and wearing a hood during such heat was quite susp

After making sure I scrubbed every inch of the pungent smells that covered my body, It was time to clean my clothes.Not much blood had splashed on them when I ripped that youngster's jugular out, but it was better to be more precautions.I took all my clothes from the river bank. I unceremoniously started to cleanse them inside the water, leaving behind only my satchel with the goods that I took from the bandit camp, and my sword that didn't need any cleaning considering I didn't use it to deal the fatal blow.After making sure they were clean, I left them to dry on a nearby tree while I started thinking about my next move.Now that I was clean and quite far from the murder location, I thought I wouldn't have any trouble with any pursuers for the time being.As I rested my head near a tree, I could feel my head swimming as the changes in my body weren't fully finished. It looked like eating that youngster was the right decision.As I sat there, I could see that some bushes from the o

Mirato was serious as she suddenly leaped towards me at a speed I couldn't react to. Before I realized she had disappeared from where she previously was. Aratas had already grabbed her by the wrist and pushed her away from me.Both of my hearts were beating extremely fast as I clutched my chest and realized blood was seeping out of the location where one of my hearts was.Aratas snorted and pointed towards my wound, healing it instantly using his holy fire.Aratas pinned Mirato to the wall as he glared at her and said:"You think that keeping up our noses and not nurturing our own set of cannibals would give us an advantage during this bloody war?!"He gave her a tight slap on the face, making her red eyes start trembling even more as crystal clear tears started to drop from her eyes down to her cheeks, wetting her face and clothes as they continued to slide down.Mirato knew there was nothing she could do against Aratas. The Paladin was the peak physical and magical profession of the

After I regained my vision, I could see that we were standing in front of another jail.Inside it sat two middle-aged men with impressive physiques and scars running all over their faces, making them unrecognizable.Even though their physiques were impressive, it was obvious they were both starving and dehydrated from the color of their skin and the way their bones protruded from some places on their exposed skin.Aratas opened the jail bars and made both of them walk slowly forward as they glanced at each other before they tried to attack Aratas in a combination of moves, but Aratas easily grabbed both of their heads and smashed them together, but not strong enough to knock them out.They were disoriented, but after they quickly regained their wits, their eyes moved towards me, and then they decided to switch targets after they understood they weren't Aratas's match.My eyes narrowed as I saw a vision before I took a sidestep, unsheathed my sword, and decapitated one of the men in on