Chapter 5

The interrogation, so utterly unsuited to the gravity of the situation, left me feeling entirely dazed. I could only stare blankly at the sword as it was dragged across the fabric of my skirt. Every time the cold, hard metal pressed against me, the muscles in my hidden thighs twitched in an involuntary, nervous spasm.

“Hmm?” Karon drawled.

The roughly wiped blade slid up between my chest, stopping just beneath my chin.

“Why don’t you answer me, you little rat?” he asked.

Using the flat side of the blade, he tipped my head backward. The face I had initially thought was as beautiful as an angel’s only looked more unreal, twisted by the malice of the situation.

So, he’s still calling me a rat…

I was lost in that thought when a sudden shout violently shattered the tension between us.

“Karon! Lower that sword this instant!”

Startled, my shoulders flinched violently. Karon clicked his tongue with a sharp tsk and swiftly brought the weapon down.

“Not only did you desert your post without permission, but now you’re threatening a woman?”

The man who strode into the clearing wore armor so heavy it looked as though it would ring like iron at the slightest touch. It was none other than Randale, the Knight Commander. A crowd of knights spilled out into the trees just behind him.

“Lady!”

Seyron, who stubbornly insisted on addressing me by that title, was among the ranks. He looked as if he wanted to sprint to my side immediately, his body twitching with the urge, but he didn’t dare break formation.

“Are you alright?” Commander Randale asked.

As Karon stepped aside, Randale approached and extended a hand toward me. Still collapsed on the dirt floor, I grabbed his heavy gauntlet and managed to pull myself up. My legs were still trembling like reeds in the wind.

“Explain yourself,” Randale commanded.

I assumed the order was directed at me, but Randale’s sharp gaze was fixed entirely on Karon. Karon merely shrugged, speaking in a thoroughly casual, complaining tone.

“That thing brought an Orc along with her, so I saved her life,” Karon muttered.

An Orc… I realized he was referring to the grotesque green monster. If that was the case, he wasn’t technically lying. However, Randale wasn’t about to let the matter drop so easily.

“And what you were doing just now—was that also part of ‘saving’ her?” Randale asked, pressing him.

He was clearly interrogating Karon about why he had held a blade to my throat. Finding himself without a proper excuse, Karon simply looked away, feigning ignorance. Randale sighed and turned his attention toward me.

“Are you not a maid from the castle?” Randale asked. “What are you doing out here? Did you truly not know how dangerous these woods are?”

This was only my second time crossing paths with Knight Commander Randale, and just like the first time, I was receiving a stern lecture. I hadn’t known the danger before, but I had certainly learned my lesson through firsthand experience.

“I lost my way…” I murmured, lowering my head. “I’m sorry.”

As I stammered out my apology, he knit his brows in deep suspicion, but he didn’t press the matter any further. To be precise, the sudden crisis that erupted next left him with absolutely no room to worry about a lost maid.

Groaaaaaaar!

A deafening shriek—identical to the one the dead Orc had made—reverberated through the entire forest. This time, it wasn’t just a single voice. The roars of multiple creatures echoed at once, causing my body to freeze instantly out of sheer reflex. The sound triggered a primal, deeply buried terror inside me.

“An Orc pack! Everyone, assume defensive positions!” Randale bellowed, drawing his sword.

The atmosphere shifted instantly as the knights went into high alert, their eyes hardening. The surrounding air grew incredibly taut with sudden tension.

“Orcs approaching from the northwest!” a knight shouted.

“Ugh! There are Orcs to the east as well!” another yelled.

The battle erupted in a flash. The pack of Orcs and the brigade of knights collided, clashing in a brutal, chaotic bloodbath. The only two people standing perfectly still amidst the violence were Karon and myself.

“Lady Maylin! Hurry and find a place to hide!” Seyron screamed in my direction, desperately parrying an Orc’s heavy swing.

But with fighting breaking out in every single direction, there was absolutely nowhere safe to take cover. If I ran blindly, I risked running straight into the path of an Orc’s axe—or worse, a knight’s stray blade. The agonizing memory of being struck by an arrow in my past life was still vividly fresh; I had no desire to be impaled by a different weapon today.

A sinister, guttural growl vibrated near my ear. Flinching in horror, I spun around to find a massive Orc stepping out from behind a thick tree trunk. Its glowing, malevolent eyes locked directly onto me.

Oh, no. I have to run the other way…

However, the knights who might have protected me were already entirely consumed by their own desperate battles. There was no opening to escape, and no one available to help me.

Right at that moment, my eyes met Karon’s. He was still standing a short distance away, watching the chaos with an air of complete leisure. The corners of his eyes curved upward into a slight smile. The sheer, devastating beauty of his face was so potent that, even in the jaws of death, I found myself momentarily dazed.

Groaaaaaaar!

The Orc charged, swinging its massive axe straight at my head. Even as the weapon descended, Karon didn’t move an inch. Instead, his eyes gleamed with anticipation, as if he were looking forward to an entertaining show.

Forcing my exhausted muscles to move, I threw myself to the side to dodge the swing. But as I had realized before, there was nowhere left to run. The Orc caught up to me in an instant, raising its heavy axe high into the air for a killing blow. Giving up entirely, I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the impending impact.

“Karon! Draw your sword this instant!” Commander Randale’s voice thundered through the clearing.

A split second later, I thought I heard the sharp sound of tearing wind right in front of me.

Thud.

The ground vibrated slightly as something immensely heavy crashed into the dirt. I snapped my eyes open to find the Orc that had been attacking me collapsed on the ground, pooling dark green blood.

After saving me with a thoroughly indifferent expression, Karon turned his attention back to Randale. The Commander was currently drowning in work, frantically fighting off Orcs while trying to shout orders to his men.

“The other guys always complain that I’m showing off too much since I’m not even an official member of the order,” Karon replied casually.

Despite the chaos of the battlefield, Randale managed to catch the remark, and a thick vein pulsed angrily on his forehead. He was clearly furious.

“Do you not see the situation we are in!” Randale roared. “I will hear your complaints later!”

“You’re going to make them pay for it, right, Commander?” Karon asked.

The sweet tone and the slight smile on Karon’s face made him sound exactly like a lover coaxing a favor from their partner, but the actual content of his words was entirely vicious.

“Fine!” Randale promised, grinding his teeth.

Only after snitching to the Commander and securing a firm guarantee that the others would be punished did Karon finally kick off the ground.

The knights had been severely outnumbered by the relentlessly advancing pack, but the moment the Crimson Knight joined the fray, the tide of battle turned instantly.

Every single time Karon swung his blade, at least two Orcs fell to the earth, spraying thick green gore. Monsters that others had to risk their absolute lives just to stand a chance against were being ruthlessly slaughtered by him. He carved through them with a faint smile on his lips, as if he were doing nothing more than light exercise.

Terrified by his overwhelming power, the remaining Orcs began to scramble backward in a panic. But Karon had no intention of letting a single creature escape; he actively moved across the battlefield, stealing kills from the other knights until every last monster was wiped out.

“Incredible…” I whispered.

The only word that could accurately describe the scene was overwhelming. While Randale, Seyron, and the rest of the knights had fought with everything they had, Karon’s swordsmanship was entirely different, even to an untrained eye like mine. It was vastly faster, deadlier, and infinitely more cruel.

Seeing the text from the novel come to life right before my eyes shattered any remaining doubts I harbored. Though I couldn’t see the brilliant, glowing aura that served as the universal symbol of a Sword Master, I knew without a shadow of a doubt.

He was the true Red-Haired Knight of the original story.

* * *

“Lady Maylin! A-Are you unharmed?”

Seyron rushed over to me, his face filled with deep anxiety. His usually neat, pulled-back ponytail had completely unraveled, leaving his hair a disheveled mess. Worried for him in return, I looked up.

“I am fine,” I replied. “What about you, Sir Knight?”

“I-I-I am perfectly fine,” Seyron stammered.

His face flushed a bright, deep crimson. Whether it was from sheer exhaustion or embarrassment, I couldn’t quite tell this time.

I gazed at Seyron with a deeply conflicted heart, thinking of all the effort I had poured into trying to grow closer to him. Under the weight of my direct stare, his breathing began to falter once again.

“I-I am so sorry,” Seyron wheezed. “My breath is… again…”

“No, it’s alright,” I said quickly. “Please, go attend to the others.”

As if he had been waiting for those exact words, Seyron immediately turned and sprinted toward the other side of the clearing. He knew as well as I did that his breathing would return to normal the moment he put some distance between us.

Either way, he was someone I had utterly failed to get close to because of that bizarre affliction. Should I feel relieved that the legendary Red-Haired Knight turned out to be Karon instead of Seyron? But then again…

“Orc blood has its uses, so drain it and bring it back to the castle,” Randale commanded.

Following the Commander’s orders, the squires holding glass jars moved with practiced efficiency. However, a few of the knights were visibly fidgeting, nervously shifting their eyes toward Randale. The moment his gaze swept over them, they flinched violently.

“You lot will begin special training tomorrow,” Randale barked. “If you have enough spare energy to stir up petty jealousy, then you clearly haven’t been training hard enough.”

“C-Commander, we were wrong…” one of them pleaded.

“Silence,” Randale snapped.

His terrifying, icy glare raked over the offending knights before locking onto Karon, who was currently yawning with an air of complete indifference. While Karon didn’t flinch like the others, he quietly lowered his hand, pretending he hadn’t just been yawning in the Commander’s face.

“You,” Randale ordered, pointing at Karon. “Escort the maid back to the castle.”

Karon’s face contorted into a deep grimace instantly.

“Why me?” Karon complained. “Make someone else do it.”

“The rest of us must stop by the temple to purify the Orc blood before we return,” Randale explained.

“Then just bring her along with—”

“If you refuse to follow orders, then leave my territory,” Randale cut him off coldly.

The complaints died instantly on Karon’s lips. While marveling at the sheer authority of the Knight Commander, I grew startled by the direction of the conversation and hurriedly intervened.

“I—I can make my own way back, as long as I can just get out of this forest,” I offered.

This time, Randale glared—or rather, looked down—at me.

“I will not question further why you were in these woods,” Randale stated firmly. “However, as the knights of the Count’s estate, it is our duty to ensure a maid of the castle returns safely.”

“But Karon isn’t even a formal member of the order, is he?”

Hwylosen—Ephel’s boyfriend—suddenly materialized out of nowhere, offering a thoroughly thoughtless counterargument. Randale glared at him. This time, it was an undeniable, terrifying glare. Startled by the intensity, Hwylosen instantly changed his tune and began shooing us away.

“Right, right! You heard the Commander, didn’t you?” Hwylosen urged, waving his hands. “Hurry up and get moving, you two!”

Left with no other choice, I quickly offered my bows and scrambled to follow behind Karon’s retreating figure.

“I will personally check later to ensure she was delivered safely!” Randale shouted after us as a final warning.

Karon didn’t even bother to offer a reply. His entire face was practically dripping with irritation.

Without giving me so much as a backward glance, Karon strode briskly down the forest path. Under normal circumstances, keeping up with his long strides would have been difficult enough, but right now, the muscles in my legs were practically screaming in agony. Terrified that I might lose sight of him entirely, I quickly forced myself to speak.

“Thank you so much for today!” I called out.

Even though no answer came back to me, I refused to stop.

“Thanks to you, my life was saved twice,” I added.

Those words were entirely sincere. He had saved me from the jaws of an Orc not just once, but twice. It didn’t matter to me whether he had done it solely because of someone else’s orders. Gratitude was gratitude, plain and simple.

Karon’s back grew smaller and smaller as he continued to walk away, completely ignoring my existence. A cold dread began to settle in my stomach as I wondered how on earth I would find my way out of this dense forest without him. My trembling legs finally gave out completely, refusing to hold my weight no matter how hard I tried.

Thud.

Collapsing onto the dirt floor, I effectively gave up on running and began desperately trying to figure out a way to escape the woods on my own. As long as no other monsters showed up, it wouldn’t be entirely impossible.

“Ugh.”

Suddenly, the cold figure that had been walking away so resolutely came to a dead halt. It didn’t seem like he had suddenly experienced a wave of regret over abandoning me. Instead, Karon let out a low, pained groan, raising a single hand to grip his forehead as if he were fighting off a splitting headache.

“Haa…”

The heavy, strained breath he exhaled carried clearly through the quiet trees all the way to where I sat. Resting my back against the trunk of a nearby tree, I forced my exhausted body up once more, staring intently at the sudden change before me.