From the Tip of the Tongue of the Lowliest Maid - Chapter 125

This work contains scenes of sadistic coercion and hardcore depictions of BDSM. Reader discretion is advised.

“You said it was a command…”

“Arzeletta.”

“Starting tomorrow, you will bring the offerings directly.”

“It’s a command.”

Ragnar’s sigh again brushed Arzeletta’s forehead.

From his breath emanated an exquisite scent she had never experienced before. It was the scent she had briefly caught from his cloak, from his lapel.

The scent of an adult. It felt like the presence of a true adult man, something Arzeletta, who had no parents or guardians, had never experienced.

To Arzeletta, it seemed like an innate difference. The greatest beings, close to God, might even have blood flowing differently from ordinary people. It was a naive and foolish fantasy.

“I think I’ll be safe… if I’m where the Lord is.”

And this much, at least, was sincere.

“I will not retract the command.”

“……”

“I cannot allow you to wander the forest.”

Arzeletta leaned her face into Ragnar’s hand. The relief she felt at this moment was unfamiliar.

Curled up in the Lord’s bed, burying her cheek in his hand, Arzeletta thought.

The words she had heard all her life, thus etched into her soul.

Fairies are evil beings who betrayed God.

Now, Arzeletta was certain that those words were true.

Thwack!

“Kieeeek!”

Ear-splitting screams echoed all around. The surrounding attendants reflexively covered their ears.

But the man at the center of the sound was unrestrained. He raised the hand holding his sword high.

It was a greatsword so imposing it would make one quail just by looking at it. Though the hilt was made thick and long for a single decisive strike, Exion ignored the craftsman’s intent and wielded the enormous sword with one arm.

The dead beast, which had lunged into Daphne’s carriage, was sliced in half as if severed by Exion’s sword, which cleaved the air with immense force.

Thud, thud, along with bone fragments of the dead beast, the worms inside its belly fell to the ground. It was a sight similar to blood and guts spilling out when living beings were cut down.

“Ugh,”

Lukwell’s escort knights, dressed in refined uniforms, covered their mouths and gagged. It was a sight they never got used to, no matter how many times they saw it.

Lukwell was a large city vibrant with politics, commerce, and social gatherings. The city’s soldiers had never seen war before. And naturally, they had certainly never confronted such grotesque monsters.

“How did it even cross the Derden Mountains in the first place?”

Exion scoffed, speaking as he watched Lukwell’s retching escort knights. His demeanor was utterly arrogant and disrespectful, yet his face was irritatingly handsome.

Exion lifted his foot and stomped on a crawling worm, crushing it. The worm, bursting with sticky black fluid, was utterly repulsive.

Turning around, Exion wiped his long sword with a cloth. He was completely unperturbed.

The eyes of the Third Battalion members, watching their commander, were filled with pride. Though their appearance, unlike soldiers led by a Holy Knight, was rougher, like a mercenary group.

Lukwell’s knights were graduates of the city’s military academy, which only admitted nobles and the wealthy. They openly despised Exion’s Third Battalion, which accompanied them, but their great pride faded within three days.

These were the soldiers from the Rosenburg domain who, in spring and summer, would even hunt the dead for amusement.

“Tch.”

Before the Third Battalion members, who made rude clicking sounds with their teeth as if threatening and chuckled, the city knights in their silver uniforms involuntarily hunched their shoulders.

Screech, with the chilling sound of the greatsword being sheathed, Exion mounted his horse again. As Exion raised his hand, the Third Battalion collectively hastened their steps. Unlike when they started, it was now Exion’s Third Battalion leading the entire procession at the forefront.

Those accompanying the carriages began to move, following them.

“Monsters like that wouldn’t dare come near Lukwell,” Daphne said with a pout, pulling back the curtain with her fingertip.

“The Derden terrain must be such a backwater.”

“Oh, really?”

“And when we came, the Rosenburg Holy Knights’ First Battalion escorted us from the very beginning of the mountain. Back then, gross things like these didn’t even appear. Are you the one attracting them? You cursed redhead.”

“…You’re really letting loose when there’s no one watching, huh?”