The Warrior’s Ballad

It was a place that could barely be called a village. It was a tiny, remote village that likely didn’t even exist in the tax records managed by the lord.

There was one temple made of logs, and three or four houses scattered sparsely around it.

The shrine, dedicated to a deity, wasn’t made of high-quality materials, but the sincerity of the builders could be felt. It looked neat and sturdy.

However, the door and windows had been smashed by someone.

Light streamed in through the broken parts, as if it were the gaze of the deity. Following that light, the inside revealed a sea of blood, with corpses scattered everywhere.

It seemed recent, as steam rose from the blood in the cold air.

“W-When the day of judgment comes, the god of retribution will punish y-you all.”

A priest, bleeding from all over his body, dragged himself across the floor as he spoke. He was trying to move away from someone.

It seemed he had no chance of escaping, so the man who had done this to him simply stood still, looking down at him.

The man hadn’t drawn the sword at his waist, but he was holding something like a sickle in his hand, thick blood dripping from it.

People often have faces that resemble animals, and the man holding the sickle had a large, protruding jaw that made him look like a dog to anyone who saw him. He resembled a ferocious fighting dog. But his eyes were unexpectedly calm.

His face was covered with numerous small scars, with a particularly large one crossing over his right eye.

The man spoke.

“When?”

“What?”

“When the hell is the punishment coming?”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“You can’t understand what I’m saying. When I was a kid, I prayed every day for the gods to punish someone. To kill my damn bastard parents. Or at least kill me instead. But no matter how much I prayed, they ignored me. So I killed them with my own hands. And then I realized.”

“……”

“There are no gods. Not even anything remotely like one.”

The man blasphemed the gods so simply, so nonchalantly. The priest opened his eyes wide, more shocked by this than by his own dreadful situation. A devil……

“Even if I kill you, there’ll be no punishment from the gods. But if there is divine mercy, it fell on you by running into me. If it were the others, you’d be begging them to kill you instead of praying to your god.”

The man walked toward the priest. The sound of squelching blood echoed with each step as his feet splashed in the pool of blood.

As the man approached, the priest closed his eyes. And he prayed.

“Oh, gods, please save this wretched soul……”

“There’s no divine punishment, and there’s no salvation. But between the two, salvation is the more bullshit idea.”

Swoosh! Thud!

The man’s sickle struck the priest’s head. The priest flopped like a fish. At that moment, someone outside the temple called out to the man. It was a lively woman’s voice.

“Steiny! Steiny! Why are you taking so long!?”

The man, called Steiny, was actually Steiner, the Mad Dog. It seemed that the five-person group was close enough to call each other by nicknames.

Steiner looked at the priest he had killed. He was somewhat satisfied with how the priest looked with the sickle embedded in his head.

But that moment of trivial pleasure was brief, and he turned and exited the temple. Outside, three people were waiting, having finished their tasks.

The woman who had called out to Steiner was dancing around, as if something had made her excited. She was wearing several crudely stitched-together pieces of leather.

The leather was human skin, and the stitched-together pieces had subtle differences in skin tone and texture.

But the woman herself had skin that looked like a dark, grimy toad’s. It was the result of excessive training in Mana Drive. This woman was Erze, the Skin Collector.

“Steiny, why did you take so long? Ohohoho. Look at this.”

She approached Steiner, lifting her arm proudly and stroking it with her hand.

“Doesn’t it feel super smooth? My skin’s getting more and more refined. Ohohoho.”

“Sure…… But where’s Tony?”

Tony was Reto’s nickname. Reto, the necromancer and experimenter of the Ernburg Five.

“That creepy bastard said he gathered everything he needed and left early.”

A man dressed entirely in black from head to toe spoke. He was known as Ghost, the man called the ‘Phantom Sword’. But he looked the gloomiest of them all.

“Didn’t I say we should go to the waiting spot when we’re done? Didn’t you tell him?”

“Wasn’t it you who was supposed to?”

Ghost looked at Erze and asked.

“Why would I bother talking to him? I thought Harty did it.”

The man called Harty was inhumanly tall and bulky, like a legendary giant. His size was inhumanly large, and the square shield beside him was as big as an average person. He was Hanet, known as the ‘Iron Wall’.

He stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, with his head nearly touching the ceiling.

“Why are you suddenly blaming me? Besides, I did tell you.”

The three, excluding Steiner, started shifting the blame onto each other. Despite their notorious reputation, they seemed somewhat disorganized. However, it also showed how close they were to each other.

All of them were from the same academy. Though they bickered constantly, they were like brothers and sisters. In some ways, their bond was even stronger than real family.

However, the serious problem was that they hadn’t grown into proper adults and had become horribly twisted instead.

“You said Harty told him?”

“Hah…”

Steiner sighed and then turned to Erze, who was the closest.

“Eri, you go get him.”

“What? Me? Why?”

“That loser listens to you better than anyone else.”

“Heeing, I suppose that’s true. Being this pretty sure is tiring.”

Erze spun in place as if to flaunt her beauty, but she was a woman who was anything but beautiful. She was bizarre, horrifying, and utterly insane.

“Then the three of us will head out first. Eri, we’re counting on you.”

“Alrightyy…”

“But Steiny, did you hear?”

Just as they were about to leave, Ghost asked.

“Hear what?”

“They say heroes have shown up in Siegfringer recently. They’ve been wiping out thieves and bandits and saving people. All without asking for anything in return. Even Haspil is dead. So is Aunt Lily.”

Steiner paused, thinking for a moment before casually spitting out a single comment.

“They must be some serious perverted bastards.”

Saving others without asking for anything in return? In Steiner’s mind, that was something only incomprehensible, deeply perverted people would do. Utterly disgusting perverts.

***

Ricardt had never, in all his lives, encountered terrain like this.

The ground, covered in moss, was uneven, but when you stepped on it, it felt as if there was water just below the surface, causing it to sink.

In fact, the ground could suddenly collapse, sucking you in and killing you in an instant.

To make matters worse, snow covered the land, making it impossible to see where to step. It was a fascinating yet dangerous swamp.

In this vast, empty landscape, Ricardt had no idea where to begin looking for Reto’s laboratory.

One fortunate thing was that it hadn’t snowed recently, so they could still see footprints. Judging by the size of the prints, they definitely belonged to a man.

“Oh? These are the uncle’s footprints.”

This time, Boribori noticed before Ricardt, who was usually sharp-eyed.

The footprints led northward. Ricardt and Boribori followed the tracks, the ground squishing under their feet with each step.

They walked for a while before stumbling upon an unbelievable sight.

Graaaagh…

A corpse, its flesh rotting, was moving. And it wasn’t just one or two.

Several corpses, scattered around, were still in motion. No matter how you looked at them, these were bodies that should have been dead a long time ago.

Their white, lifeless eyes rolled in their sockets, and some dragged themselves along the ground, even though their lower bodies were missing.

“A-A necromancer…”

Boribori muttered under his breath. Ricardt, seeing such a horrific sight, couldn’t think of anything for a moment. Was magic truly this terrifying?

He finally regained his composure and quietly surveyed the scene. The corpses looked like they had been attacked by some large beast, crushed, trampled, and hacked apart with axes.

“It’s uncle. It looks like he fought here.”

Ricardt said. Then Boribori, without looking back, crossed this chilling scene following the footprints. Ricardt quickened his pace as well.

At some point, although it was still midday, a faint fog began to set in.

It wasn’t thick enough to obscure their view, so they were barely able to keep following the footprints, which eventually led them to a sinister and foreboding cabin. It was the only area in the swamp where the ground seemed firm.

Ricardt unshouldered the sword from his back, holding it in one hand, ready to draw it at any moment as he approached the cabin.

Carefully opening the cabin’s door, which wasn’t properly latched, they were once again met with a gruesome, nauseating scene.

Various body parts were preserved in jars filled with liquid, but many of the jars had shattered, leaving the floor in disarray. The stench from the spilled liquid stung their noses.

On what seemed to be the necromancer’s desk, there was a severed head casually placed. It was Reto, the experimenter. He had already been killed by the Nameless.

Even in life, Reto must have looked grotesque, but in death, he was even more horrifying. After witnessing the earlier scene, it felt as if his eyes might suddenly spring open.

“He left it for us.”

Boribori spoke.

“Huh?”

“Otherwise, why would uncle have gone to the trouble of cutting off the head and placing it here?”

“That’s possible…”

Indeed, the Nameless wasn’t the type to do such things in combat. That meant he had some other intention, and Boribori’s words made sense.

However, for the two boys, finding the Nameless took priority over collecting the head. After all, this wasn’t a bounty hunt, it was an assassination request. They just needed to kill him—they didn’t need to bring back his head. Cutting off an ear or taking something identifiable would have sufficed.

“Well, aren’t you two cuties?”

Suddenly, a lively woman’s voice called out from behind them. Ricardt and Boribori reflexively spun around.

What they saw was a woman who looked like a toad. She didn’t just resemble a toad—she seemed like a toad transformed into a human. She was also wearing human skin.

Ricardt immediately recognized her by instinct.

“Erze?”

“Huh? You know my name? Well, I suppose my beauty is famous.”

Erze, with a gesture that didn’t suit her grotesque appearance, flaunted her hideousness with what she probably thought was elegance.

“Where are the others?”

“Hm?”

“You’re part of the Five, right?”

“What, do you think we stick together all the time? They’re probably in Lindveil by now.”

Lindveil was the place where the Five had committed their first village-scale massacre.

Ironically, or perhaps cruelly, Lindveil was also where the Nameless used to live.

Oddly enough, Erze had casually revealed their secret hideout. It was possible she didn’t see any threat in the two boys standing in front of her. Or maybe she had no intention of letting them leave alive in the first place.

“You two are a bit older, but still, your skin’s in pretty good condition. Mmm, I’ve made my decision. I’ll add it to my collection. You’re welcome!”

Neither Ricardt nor Boribori had ever been called old before. Most people considered them young, but apparently not to Erze.

The toad-like woman let out a throaty laugh as she pulled out a sharp dagger. It wasn’t a typical blade but more of a tool designed for skinning.

As she approached the two boys, she suddenly caught sight of something beyond them. The head placed on the desk. Erze froze for a moment, and then her body began to tremble.

“T-Tony?”

Normally, they would bicker and ignore each other, but that was just their mischievous way of teasing. To her, the Ernburg Five were family.

Erze, unable to process the reality before her, suddenly had a furious fire in her eyes, her face contorting into a terrifying, grotesque expression. She was already so ugly that it seemed like something that might haunt their nightmares.

“What did you do to Tony……!”

Erze let out a sharp scream, but she couldn’t finish it. That was because Ricardt and Boribori had instantly drawn their swords and slashed at her.

Clang! Clang!

Surprisingly, though, their swords only left scratches on the leather draped over her—skin that had once belonged to other people—but failed to penetrate her actual skin.

Ricardt’s sword, forged from meteoric iron, didn’t break due to its superior craftsmanship, but Boribori’s mana-infused sword snapped in two. It was a weapon capable of cutting through most things.

It felt as though they had struck solid stone with their blades. Ricardt felt the fierce vibration from his sword shake his bones through his trembling hand, causing him to frown as he quickly retreated.

In that moment, Erze lunged at Ricardt, intending to kill him.

“Ricky!”

Boribori, clutching his wrist in pain, shouted. But at that moment, Ricardt thought Erze was just playing around. Because her attack was so clumsy.

Was she unable to control her emotions after losing her comrade? Or was her skin only tough, but her combat skills subpar? Or perhaps it was a trap? In that brief moment, countless thoughts raced through his mind.

But Ricardt, who had experienced countless real-life battles, found the answer even in that short span of time.

He dropped his sword and, in a quick, fluid motion, twisted her arm joint in an instant.

Crack!

“Kyaaaah!”

At that moment, Boribori leaped onto Erze’s back. Wrapping his legs tightly around her waist like a turtle shell, he clung to her. He forced his hands into her mouth, grabbing her upper and lower jaws.

As mana coursed through his veins and into his muscles, immense strength surged through him.

“Grrrgh!”

Crack!

“Aaaaagh!”

Erze’s jaw dislocated, her mouth gaping open unnaturally like a snake. She thrashed violently, but Boribori held on tight.

However, when Boribori finally tore off her lower jaw, he lost his balance and was flung off.

Crash!

Boribori flew quite a distance before scrambling back to his feet.

“Grrrgh…”

Erze could only let out guttural sounds like an undead creature, incapable of speaking. Her tongue, now without its base, hung loosely as she stumbled, attempting to flee.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Ricardt chased her barehanded. Terrified, Erze tried to run, but Ricardt was much faster.

He caught up to her in an instant, grabbed her leg, and twisted her ankle, sending her crashing to the ground.

“Aaaahhhh!”

Erze writhed in agony on the ground. She reached out, trying to grab Ricardt, but he had already stepped back swiftly. Drawing a dagger from his belt, he spoke.

“Is your eyeball as tough as the rest of you?”

“Uhhh……”

“I hope they are.”

Without waiting for an answer, Ricardt thrust the dagger forcefully into her eye. The blade pierced through her eyeball and sank into the soft brain tissue. Erze’s body convulsed once and then went limp.

For any ordinary opponent, her skin would have been impenetrable. But these two boys were far from ordinary.

“Haah… haah… haah…”

Boribori approached and stared down at Erze’s lifeless body.

Ricardt, catching his breath, asked Boribori,

“You okay?”

“Yeah. What about you, Ricky?”

“I’m fine.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

The two boys collected evidence of Reto and Erze’s deaths and immediately set off toward Lindveil.

Even though they had completed their mission by killing Reto and Erze, Ricardt and Boribori’s journey was far from over. They had no intention of ending it.

However, Ricardt couldn’t shake one lingering concern. It wasn’t that he feared the Nameless’s death—he had long since come to terms with death.

What troubled him was the thought that if the Nameless died after punishing himself like that, whether or not he achieved his revenge, what meaning would there be in it?

Though Ricardt’s past life as Ricky and the Nameless’s situation were different, there were undeniable similarities. Ricardt feared that the Nameless was following in Ricky’s footsteps.

Because at the end of that path, there was no salvation.

TL/Note: Hi, I’ve been sick, so I haven’t been able to translate. For the next few days, translations won’t be posted daily, but I will translate and upload some chapters as I start to feel better.

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