Chapter 45
Until just a few days ago the White Company had numbered dozens.
Among them were not only middling Rank 4s but even some Rank 5s.
But now they were gone.
Count Vener and his loyal retainer Arberto had both cheerfully taken the road to the afterlife.
What remained were only worthless scraps that couldn’t even clear the first wall.
The routed remnants, facing ruin, had holed up in one of their hideouts.
Among those scraps, only one man sat lost in thought.
Being the acting leader of the remaining survivors, his worries ran deep.
“If we stay here, even I’ll die.”
The sole heir of the Impera family: Ian Impera.
Everyone had been killed by that bastard.
At this rate, he’d soon track down every last remnant of the White Company and exterminate them all.
“Enough to do that and more,” he muttered.
Rumor had it the Vener family had been wiped out too, made to look like a suicide.
Whether that was true or not, it didn’t change the fact that he was monstrously cruel.
“…No.”
There was still one option.
A cunning move that could overturn this desperate situation in an instant.
Something only someone with the “Servitor” rank could do.
“…Captain?”
“There’s somewhere to go.”
“W-where to, sir?”
“Stop asking and follow me.”
“…Yes, sir!”
The men hurriedly gathered their packs at the man’s words.
“If it’s him… it should be possible. He’s brutal enough to kill and still have enough left. But commanding him won’t be easy.”
The odds were slim, but faced with the fear of death there weren’t many choices.
“Can I do it?”
No—he corrected himself.
“I must do it!”
The man let a thin, bitter smile cross his face as he began to lay out his plan.
The protagonist of this novel is named Dia Genis.
From the name alone one might wonder, “Is he from the Genis school head’s family?”
But in truth, that surname was given collectively to orphans who grew up without parents.
An orphan from the Genis Knights’ Academy: Dia Genis.
That was the protagonist’s name.
The Genis Knights’ Academy gathered the continent’s well-known fencing prodigies.
Anyone with talent in swordsmanship could enter.
But for ordinary commoners, making a living was hard.
Naturally, the academy filled up with children of noble families.
Among them, Dia stood alone without parents or connections.
Ironically, his exceptional skill became a curse—he drew envy and jealousy from all around.
He’d been secretly poisoned before duel matches, and even after graduating the academy he continued to receive cold stares.
Dia scraped by by hunting monsters.
There was a turning point in his life—a streak of light.
It began when he found a treasure hidden in this very forest.
“What a fine fellow.”
If this was the fated opportunity, even if it didn’t clear his debts in one go, it would at least give him breathing room for a while.
“I hope it’s somewhere easy to reach.”
Leaving the mansion early in the morning, he headed straight for the Kranig Mountains.
Just when he thought he might live like a normal person again, it was mountain climbing instead.
Climbing had become his routine.
The Impera domain, having swallowed up Count Vener’s lands, had suddenly tripled in size.
Managing even ordinary land was already a headache.
The problem was the stone mountain cutting right through the middle of the territory.
The Kranig Mountains made it even worse.
Unless they yielded some resources, the Kranig range was nothing but hard rock.
Not marble or anything useful—just dull, grey rock.
Too dark in color to be profitable as building material.
In a way, he should be grateful.
If not for these mountains, the domain might’ve been prosperous—and therefore a bigger target.
Thanks to the Kranig range, Vener’s mercenaries were kept at bay.
Besides, the treasure he sought was hidden in a forest at the edge of the Kranig range.
Thinking of that, he felt almost thankful.
He had wandered the Kranig range for hours.
As dusk fell, the forest grew dark.
The trees were dense enough to block out the sky.
Their leaves thick and lush, the gloom deepened.
“Should be getting close.”
A forest that allowed no light.
At night it turned into pitch-darkness where not even moonlight could penetrate.
This forest at the edge of the Kranig range had a nickname.
The Blinding Forest.
A name that might sound a little cute, but in reality it was anything but.
Although the area was ringed by thick trees, not a single weed grew on the ground.
The monster had leached the nutrients away so thoroughly that nothing weak could sprout.
“If I’ve come this far, I must be near.”
He wiped away the cold sweat and drew his Dragon-Flesh Sword.
From here it was the monster’s territory.
He couldn’t let his guard down—he didn’t know where the monster might pop out.
“Phew…”
A monster born when the grudges of the dead soaked into tree roots: a Root Giant.
He’d wanted to come here before, but entering this forest recklessly at a low rank was dangerous.
Dying ignorant in arrogance was foolish.
‘This used to be part of Vener’s domain too,’ he thought.
Now it didn’t matter.
The whole Kranig range, including the Blinding Forest, was his—at least for now.
What remained was whether he could beat the Root Giant.
“Hmm.”
The moment when Dia would meet the Root Giant was years before his meeting with the black mage Ian Impera.
That meant he was still much weaker than he would be then.
He opened his left hand and studied the rune pattern etched on his palm.
Light rose on his palm and his rank was shown.
[Ian Impera]
Rank: 4 (Swordsmanship), 4 (Magic)
“Heh heh.”
After a bloody fight with Count Vener he’d managed to get past the first wall and gain a magic rank.
From now on each moment would be another wall, but this was not bad.
He was strong in his own way now.
A Root Giant at an underdeveloped stage was within his ability.
Ssshk!
He carved a mark into the large tree-body with his sword.
This could be a measure to avoid getting lost, but what he intended was somewhat different.
If he kept walking straight like this, it would be easy to get lost and wander.
He wanted to test that—to see whether he was actually getting lost and repeating his steps.
After marking the tree, he marched straight into the forest.
Not veering to the side, just straight ahead.
After about thirty minutes, the darkness of the Blinding Forest deepened.
‘Flare.’
A spell even a magic Rank 1 novice could use.
Not to burn enemies but to emit bright light—noncombat utility magic.
He lit the flare and saw a familiar sight.
A tree so big an adult man couldn’t wrap his arms around it.
Since he’d been going straight, he assumed it would be a tree he’d never seen before.
But the mark he’d just carved was on this tree in the same position and the same shape.
“How odd.”
If you hadn’t read the novel like he had, it would make your head spin.
You could walk for half a day, even days, and the scene would be the same.
You constantly ran into the same trees.
Even as time passed, the pitch-black darkness didn’t change.
This was the power of the Root Giant.
It wasn’t quite the same as Ents—trees that were themselves monsters.
‘Is this whole forest one big monster woven by roots?’
The monster made its domain into a maze that sapped the souls of those who entered.
When the quarry was exhausted and out of breath, the monster revealed its true form.
Then it simply absorbed the depleted prey.
A gruesome method of hunting.
Whoosh!
The bright light showed the surroundings.
Piles of skulls, stacked like small mountains.
Not just human—animal skulls, even monster skulls littered the area.
Anyone trapped here walked the same circle until they died.
“Of course I didn’t come here for that kind of death.”
He drew the Dragon-Flesh Sword and breathed aura into it.
The sword drank in the aura and glowed faintly violet.
Summoning the Root Giant wasn’t difficult.
He recalled the passages from the novel.
[Days had already passed struggling to escape the forest. No matter how much one walked, the scenery never changed. A skull that didn’t belong to anyone was caught at his feet. ‘Is this how I’ll end up?’ Dia’s face had gone pitch-black. Full of despair, he drew his sword in a fit of rage.]
The method to break the Blinding Forest was simpler than expected.
The opponent was a monster—so treat it like a monster and beat it.
How? Wait until it revealed its true form.
If you clear the forest, the Root Giant will eventually crawl out.
“Now, as the novel said…”
“…….”
“Hmm?”
As he was about to swing the Dragon-Flesh Sword, he heard a human voice from somewhere.
Could it be an auditory hallucination?
The Root Giant shouldn’t be able to produce such a thing.
Fsssss…
He snuffed the light briefly and located the source of the sound.
A little ways off, a presence stirred.
‘What are people doing here?’
This wasn’t a place for ordinary folk.
So these weren’t ordinary people.
Cautiously, he approached where the men were gathered.
“All set?”
“Yes!”
‘What are these guys up to?’
There they sat huddled in dull, hooded cloaks.
From the scattered torches he could estimate their numbers.
‘About twenty.’
They gave off a sly, sinister vibe.
There’s rarely anything good about people who conspire in such places.
They didn’t look particularly strong, though.
Dia gripped the Dragon-Flesh Sword and continued to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Heh heh… if we can just servitor the Root Giant like this—!”
“Umm… boss. Are we sure it’s okay to wake the Root Giant?”
“Hah! My Servitor rank is more than enough! Have you forgotten who I am? Want me to remind you right now?”
“N-no, sir!”
‘Servitor the Root Giant?’
They were planning something audacious.
It seemed the leader held a Servitor rank.
The Servitor rank—able to tame and command rampaging monsters.
Compared to swordsmanship or magic, Servitor rank was treated poorly.
Because the rank required dealing up close with creatures that killed people, few saw it favorably.
At least mercenary clans made a decent living from it.
“If we unleash this in Count Impera’s mansion…!”
‘Oh ho…’
They were aiming at him.
The reason became clear quickly.
A distinctive pin on their collars—a pin shaped like a snake’s head—was used by members of the White Company.
‘Where did they run off to? So they were hiding here.’
By now the situation had become clear.
They were mercenaries secretly raised by Count Vener.
Remnants of the White Company that hadn’t been wiped out.
Those scoundrels were trying to servitor a Root Giant.
‘I can’t allow that.’
He was curious, admittedly.
He had seen countless swordsmanship and magic ranks, but had never had the chance to see a Servitor rank in action.
Still, curiosity didn’t mean he could leave those who aimed hostility at him alive—especially those who planned to hurl a Root Giant into his territory.
In the pitch-black darkness where even a step ahead was hard to sense, it was the perfect time to take them out.
Silently he moved to dispatch them.
“Now! Once we call the Root Giant—”
Ssssh.
“Huh?”
One of the torches at the back of the line went out.
Plop!
At the same moment the Dragon-Flesh Sword pierced between a man’s shoulder blades and burst out of his chest.
But swallowed by the darkness, the others didn’t notice their comrade fall.
‘Weak.’
He felt that after killing that one.
These guys were weak—rank 3 or below, failures who couldn’t even clear the first wall.
No wonder they’d survived so far.
“Ugh!”
Ssshk.
Holding another’s mouth shut, he sliced the throat.
Blood soaked the ground, but still the rest didn’t notice.
Only after two more were taken down did the leader catch on.
“…Wait! Everyone stop!”
