Guard, Mike Crantz, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 4, Day 8, Unterwelt (Berilian), Deutsche Empery

Mike was currently on his shift as a guard for his small gang on the deep parts of the Berilian slums.

It was no easy job, it required one to be vigilant, it required one to always be open to any kind of suggestive and literal dangers that the slums could provide, anybody could be a danger to the little stability in his life.

Even if he was one of the people who got something measly like a ‘stable’ income, he could only just barely pay his rents in the slums where the standard of living was the lowest in all of the Deutsche Empery.

As Mike remained vigilant he poured himself a glass of water to wash down the piece of hardbread he just ate, keeping still a watchful gaze as he watched over the steel door to the only entrance in his gang’s facility.

*knock*

*knock*

Someone knocked on the metal door, making it vibrate if only just a little bit, and this made Mike stand up and answer it, as his job required him to.

*knock*

*knock*

“Bitten warten sie wischer! I’m coming!” (Please wait a moment)

*knock*

*knock*

‘This little ...!’ Mike felt himself get annoyed.

*fruuuk!*

“What is it!?” Mike opened the door as hard as he could, and then he stretched his neck out and got his intimidating face on to intimidate whoever the hell it was that was keeping up the annoying knocks.

But even as Mike looked around after he opened the door, he found nobody around.

‘Damn ding dong ditchers!’ The kids in the slums were getting too annoying Mike felt, as he turned around.

“Um ...” But as a small feminine voice interrupted him just about to leave, Mike had to look again.

“Huh?” Mike looked slightly down, and then he found a girl with a basket who was calling for his attention.

“G-Guten nacht...”

“Woah! I didn’t notice you there!”

The person in front of him was a small girl, or rather her size was quite decent for the average height of women in the Deutsche Empery, it was just that Mike himself was quite tall.

The girl was wearing a small red cape with a hood along with a small red and white dress with many frills.

The girl herself had red eyes to go along with her red clothes, and although Mike couldn’t see what colour her hair was he could tell that it was a dark colour from instinct.

From the girl’s clothes which were quite an unusual sight in the slums, he was guessing that she was one of those nobility folks who lived in the center of the city, or rather if she wasn’t then she would at least be some mistress belonging to one.

“Huh? What are you doing here? Get the hell away from here!” But even if she was one of those aristocrats, Mike still had to turn them away.

“Wait! I have something that you might want!”

The girl was blushing, both her cheeks and ears red.

“I heard that ... being a guard can be quite exhausting work ...”

“Huh? What’re you talking about!?” Mike didn’t understand what she was saying.

“I’ll even service ... more than one at the same time ...” It was then that Mike finally understood what the girl was saying.

She was trying to sell herself, quite a standard thing you’d see in the slums.

“Pfffffffft! If you want to sell yourself then go to the red-light district!” Although the girl was quite pretty Mike would still have to review, it wasn’t like he didn’t like women but his wallet just can’t handle the costs.

“A-And I’ll do it for free too!”

‘Wait ... for free?’

And just as Mike was just about to contemplate about how suspicious it all seemed the girl interrupted him.

“It’s just that ... I want a big strong man to do it with ...” The girl sticked her index fingers together while looking at the ground, her ears getting even more red by the second.

Now that he took a second look at her face, the girl was quite beautiful, sure the girl might be lacking meat in a few places but if such a beautiful girl was willing to offer herself up for free, then there was no reason to refuse.

She even looked like the shy and introverted type, which was Mike’s favourite type of girl.

‘No wait ... she even said she was willing to service more than one at a time, so the others can join in on the fun too!’

“Don’t worry fraulein, my buddies will eat you up!”

Mike was enthusiastic.

“Oh no ... I’ll eat you up.”

“Hoho! You’re more assertive than you look, I’ll give you that.” Mike replied back.

Mike let the young woman into the facility, not even remotely suspicious why the girl would seek out sexual partners in such a bad part of the slums, or how she found out there were ‘big strong men’ inside the facility despite there being no windows of any kind for her to see through.

That was where everything went wrong for Mike.

*splish*

*splash*

*splosh*

‘Shit shit shit shit shit shit!’

*tik*

*tak*

*tok*

‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this! It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way!’

“AHHHHHH!”

“Help me! HELP MEEEEEEE!”

Mike ran as fast as his legs could possibly carry him, ignoring the cries of his fellow gang members.

‘Im sorry! Im so sorry for bringing this monster from beyond our doorstep!’

Mike ran towards a door at the end of the corridor inside the facility, towards the final metal door that only led to the underground part of the facility.

*bang bang bang bang bang!*

“Open the door! Open the door!” Mike banged on the metal door while screaming, but as nobody answered he resorted to his keyring which held no less than thirty identical keys.

‘Fuck!’ Mike cursed the owner of the facility for putting a lock on every door and not even daring to label the keys so the right key could be found more accurately for each door.

*shik shik shik shik*

“Come on come on come on come on come on come on!” Mike kept looking through the keys until finally ...

‘Found it!’ Mike unlocked the door, but as the unlocking click of the door was heard he fell into despair.

“Ahah, you’re the last one ... how convenient.”

There was no way going out.

Mike knew the speed at the monster in the red hood could dish out, he would be killed before he even got to the other side of the door.

“Haha, didn’t I tell you? I’ll eat you up.” The monster said as she brought up her hand, which was covered in blood to her mouth and then licked the blood off it as if it were remnants from frosting from a sweet cake that just stuck to her hand while she was eating cake.

Mike was going to die.

*shriiiing!* Mike drew his sword and charged towards the bloody little girl who had no weapon beside her bare hands.

“YOU BIIIIIIIIIITCH—“

*blash!* Reichel dug her hand deep into Mike’s chest, and Mike passed away just like the expendable character that he was.

Reichel took the sword on his hands, and as while Reichel chewed on Mike’s heart she felt a faint sense of déjà vu for some reason, but she didn’t know why exactly so she shrugged it off anyways.

Instead, she just brandished the sword without emotion as she opened the door to the underground facility.

Alchemist/Gang Boss, Paul Schlag, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 4, Day 8, Unterwelt (Berilian), Deutsche Empery

Paul’s roar was heard throughout his office.

“It’s just one person isn’t it!? Why can’t you get rid of him with your numbers!?” Paul chastised his head guard, Timm Breslau.

Timm Breslau, who was currently a Level 5 Swordsman hired by him to protect his main headquarters from rival gangs in the slums.

A battle hardened veteran who came to the slums looking for better pay than what the Imperial Army could dish out.

“That’s not just a mere person! She bisected one of our men with a knife and ate the corpses of our fallen men!”

“Absurd! Even if such a person was that strong then just get the battle mages to cast spells at a distance! No need to get yourselves worked up about a sword-wielding monster as you said!”

Draw the intruder from the open spaces of the underground facility and into small narrow corners, and then mass fire magical spells and then not even a single piece of flesh would be left. A standard strategy for 1 vs Many combat.

Timm scoffed at Paul’s idea.

“You think I haven’t tried that yet!? Even as the battle mages mass-fire their spells into a straight corner she picks up the bodies of fallen men and then uses them as shields before she closes in on them and then severs their heads!”

Paul slammed the desk with his right palm, and then he shouted angrily:

“You think I’ll believe such horseshit that comes out from your mouth? Oh no! Or maybe next you’ll tell me that the Demon Lord of Gluttony is currently in my facility!?”

Paul wouldn’t believe such fiction, a person who could wipe out his guard personnel alone? Such a person would have to be at least Level 9 and would be personally invited by the Imperial Family to fight on the front lines somewhere as a high-ranking military official!

“You’re free to believe whatever you want, but the fact that a mere girl is going around in this facility of yours and exterminating your men like pests is the solid truth.” And after Gerold said what he wanted to say he promptly tried to leave Paul’s office quickly.

“You fool! What do I pay you for anyways!?” Paul, however, couldn’t just tolerate such insolence from a mere employee like that.

“Haha, you want to kill me? Whatever, I’m already dead anyways.”

Timm left the room with a pale face, slamming the door shut as he left Paul’s office without care as he already prepared himself to die.

Just mere seconds later, more screams resounded from just behind his door and then after a while, the screams stopped.

...

...

...

*kriiiiiik* The door creaked slowly, until it finally opened fully.

A young woman who had the hair as black as the darkest shadows covered by a red riding hood and eyes red as bloodied rubies, she looked even as eerily as she was beautiful as her umblemished pale skin covered in blood made her look.

On her right hand was a longsword which was covered in blood as well, it was made of iron and it looked like it had been run-down to the point when cracks appeared on it’s surface.

And on her other hand ...

Was Timm’s head, but differently from the last time that Paul saw him, his head had a large chunk of it missing, as if something just bit a piece of his head off while trying to eat it whole, and his eyes looked as if they had been gouged out as pus and blood ran down his cheeks making it look like he was crying tears of blood.

And lastly, there was nothing but the remnants of a spine cut short just below his neck.

Just as Timm said, he died gruesomely in the hands of a monster.

“You are ... Herr Paul Schlag ... yes? There’s no mistaking it, this guy screamed that name as I ate his eyeballs after gouging them out.” Reichel gave an analyzing gaze, confirming that the body features she got from the formerly-alive Timm did indeed match up.

*slosh!* Timm’s eyeless head made a sloshing sound as it thumped on the stone floor.

“... monster.” Paul couldn’t help but swallow his saliva and felt like his dinner was going to leave his belly.

“You have that wrong, I’m merely a delivery woman.”

“And what exactly are you delivering?”

“Death.” It was a simple, straight to the point answer with no sugar-coating whatsoever.

Reichel didn’t mess around.

“I see ...” The boss resigned himself silently as he pulled out the crossbow from under the desk in a flash and pulled the trigger in an amazing speed.

*phweem!*

The arrow darted through the air, making a peculiar sound as it slashed through wind with a faster speed than what a normal could only ever dream of replicating.

*thok!*

A speed which that made it connect with it’s target ...

“Haha ... you monster ...”

... just not where Paul was aiming.

“Ahhhhh, that stings ... is this poison?”

The arrow was supposed to hit Reichel’s head, but instead with a swift motion Reichel reacted quickly and blocked the arrow’s trajectory with her hand, causing the arrow to slide through her gloved palm and stopping just before it hit her left eye.

“... no, it’s a paralyzing agent.”

A paralyzing agent that would have stopped a full-grown warhorse in motion from moving within the fraction of a second, this was Paul’s trump card aside the smuggled armbrust he had.

It was unbelievable.

“I see, it’s quite potent, yes ...”

‘Quite potent!’ instead of just quivering on his ass and being scared shitless, Paul just had the nerve to laugh in this kind of situation.

Although he had never been quite an excellent alchemist, he had always seen himself as experienced in the subject for over 30 long years, continuing to develop numerous concoctions that he could use for profit in the Unterwelt.

It was ten years ago that Paul managed to create his own formula for a new type of toxin that could freeze even the body of a Level 9 on it’s tracks, but it was not only until last year that he managed to perfect it.

“That doesn’t work on me, unfortunately.”

Ten years of hard work, only to be called ‘quite potent’ upon it’s first actual use in battle.

‘Why are we here? Just to suffer?’

“Can I have the formula?” Reichel bluntly asked as she took out the toxin-covered bolt from her hand.

“Take it, it’s on the shelf to your right.” Paul wasn’t even going to bother and try to keep his effort a secret anymore.

*frushfrushfrushfrush* Reichel kept flipping pages, completely ignoring Paul.

And after a few minutes of page-flipping on the record, Reichel finally spoke.

“I’ve already memorized the contents, but I’ll keep your records since there seem to be more I can learn from this.”

“Do whatever you want.”

“You are quite cooperative ... for someone who is about to die.” Said Reichel, obviously impressed by the man’s willingness to accept death so easily.

Paul put down the crossbow on his desk, as well as his remaining toxin covered bolts.

“I just ... don’t care anymore.”

Reichel sneered as she picked up the crossbow the man was holding formerly holding onto.

“... Where did you get this?”

“You like it? It’s quite a good weapon if I say so myself.”

“Right?” Reichel could only agree, as she picked up on of the toxin-covered bolts on the desks.

“But not quite good enough, it seems ...” Loaded the bolt on the crossbow ...

“It seems so ...” And nocked the bow’s string, and pointed it towards Paul’s head, which Paul accepted, unfazed even.

“Normally I would hang you upside-down in a remote location, and then spend a few hours torturing you into telling me how this crossbow got in your hands ...” Reichel’s finger straddled on the cold metal trigger slowly.

“But good behavior goes rewarded in the face of greatness such as I.”

“Thank you for your kindness.” Paul could only smile faintly at the young girl’s words.

“Goodbye.”

*phweem!*

And this was where another legend, the legend of the “Rotkappchen” (Little Red Riding Hood) who brought both peace and terror upon the residents of the capital’s Unterwelt, started.