“So, uh… Where are we going again?”
“What?”
The man glared at his accomplice who had asked an idiotic question as their group filed down the dark, narrow path. It was the middle of the night, and the dark forest around them seemed to unnaturally amplify their voices.
Does this jackass seriously not know? the man found himself wondering.
“The hell are you doing here if you don’t remember?”
The accomplice scratched his head. “I’m low on cash, you see…”
“Low? Didn’t you just say you got a big haul?”
“Well, yeah, but slaves don’t come cheap!” He smiled sheepishly, batting his eyes as if pretending to ask for forgiveness.
The man resisted the urge to vomit. He might’ve forgiven the accomplice if he was at least the slightest bit attractive, but on that heinous criminal’s face, the gesture was simply disgusting.
“Shut up about the slaves, will you?” the man hissed. “We ain’t the only ones on this job.”
“Oops!”
The accomplice nervously looked around for anyone who might’ve overheard him.
Slavery was technically illegal in the Kingdom of Efan. Within many circles, however, holding slaves was implicitly accepted. Nobles and military officers, especially, were exempt from the law, as they were generally seen as too important to prosecute over something so small. The man and his accomplice, as members of a gray guild that frequently committed crimes, were likewise unconcerned with the law.
“Yes, you really must be more careful,” said a deep voice from behind them. “If we hear you discussing such crimes, we’ll have to arrest you.”
They’d been overheard after all. The speaker was a tall man in armor, upon which the knights’ insignia was emblazoned. With that, however, he dropped the matter. The man saw a sort of kinship in the knight. Clearly, they weren’t so different after all.
“Sorry ‘bout that!” the accomplice said with a grin, bowing apologetically. “I don’t have any slaves, honest!”
“A little late for that.” The knight smirked back.
No ordinary person would be privy to such a sight, of course. Gray guilds were far from legal, and for them to be working so openly with the Royal Knights? It was unthinkable. The knight himself, however, was strolling along with them as though it were only natural. The man was nothing but grateful for his generosity.
“So? Where are we going?” the accomplice asked again.
“We’re going to destroy the dark guild in these woods,” the knight replied.
“Huh… Wait, seriously?!”
The accomplice was shocked. Small wonder.
The gray guild the two men belonged to was a criminal organization by any measure, but still only recognized as “gray.” Dark guilds were another matter entirely and were under special scrutiny from the Kingdom. The man hardly knew of any. Each was a massive syndicate that could rival entire countries in power. There were supposedly very few of them to reflect that fact—most estimates said you could count them on one hand.
Their target that night was the somewhat irregular dark guild that laired in that forest, on the border of the Kingdom of Efan—Yerkchira, the Messianic Legion. They were strange in just how little was known about them. The Kingdom was careful to keep its name out of the public consciousness, and most of its people had never heard the cursed name of Yerkchira before in their lives.
Two things about their foe were certain, however. The first was that their headquarters lay squarely within Efan’s borders, and the second was that they were many times smaller than any other dark guild.
“No wonder the reward money was so damn much,” the accomplice muttered, finally putting it all together.
The man shook his head, scowling. “Read the whole posting next time, dumbass.”
“Don’t blame me! There was hardly anything there to read!” Since it seemed like a good enough opportunity to ask more, he continued, “Are we really taking on a dark guild like this? I know I’m good in a fight, but this’s a small group.”
The knight guffawed. “Why so nervous? You’re specialists in violence, and you have the might of the Royal Knights with you! Cheer up, man!”
He was right. Likely, they’d be more than fine. A real dark guild like Heinichen, the Steel Matriarch, was different. They were widely feared for their violence and cruelty, with a reputation that was well-known even among the common folk. Yerkchira was essentially unknown, which logically meant that they weren’t evil enough to earn much of a reputation. They couldn’t be that much of a threat—especially with how small their numbers were said to be. Their subjugation squad was more than capable of clearing them out.
“Whatcha guys doing?” echoed a young girl’s voice from the darkness.
“Shit!” the man cursed, jumping in surprise.
They were deep in the forest, far from any towns or villages, and no normal person would be there, especially in the middle of the night. Even more disturbing was the apparent youth of the voice. The accomplice and the knight seemed every bit as shocked.
The man squinted ahead through the darkness until, finally, he spotted the speaker.
“Damn… It really is a kid.”
She had long, fluffy green hair, and she regarded them with confusion as the man and his allies approached. She had a large floral hairpin, which struck the man as somewhat unusual.
“What’re you doing way out here?” the man asked.
“Lala could ask you the same thing, mister!” she chirped back. “Lala lives here with her special person.”
Something about her tone was oddly stiff and mature, and the way she sighed as she mentioned this “special person” was oddly sexual. The man was in no way attracted to children, but even he felt his heart skip a beat.
Her response itself gave the man more questions than answers. He was positive that there weren’t any settlements nearby. That must mean she lived alone with… whoever her companion was. He cast a sidelong look at the knight, trusting he had a better grasp of the area.
“She must be a wanderer of some sort,” the knight whispered. “There are plenty of folks like her that live in the wilderness, often due to a falling-out with their home village.”
The man nodded. That sounded reasonable enough.
“She’s pretty cute, too,” the accomplice added with an unsettling grin as he began to approach the girl.
The man looked at him with open revulsion. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“No, no, I don’t mean it like that!” he protested. “But she’s got a pretty sweet face, y’know? She could fetch a pretty penny.”
The man let out a sigh of relief, though he knew the accomplice’s plan wasn’t much better. Still, he could easily imagine how much she’d sell for.
“’Course, I’d keep her if she wasn’t a kid,” the accomplice continued with a snicker. “I like ‘em older.”
Nobody so much as batted an eye. It was just par for the course when working for a gray guild. The man felt a slight pang of guilt, but he made no move to stop his accomplice.
The knight simply shook his head. “Could you at least wait until my back is turned?”
Of course, he wouldn’t stop the accomplice. After all, no knight who would willingly work with such criminals could have any real conscience.
“So why are you here?” the girl asked.
The accomplice grinned in a way that made the man feel dirty. “You see, sweetie, us big, strong men are gonna go beat up a big, bad guild around here. We’re like the Hero. Why don’t you stick with me where it’s safe?”
The man was surprised his accomplice would be so bald-faced about his desire to kidnap the child, but she didn’t even flinch. She must have been incredibly dense, and it was clear at that point that the girl was as good as sold. It would be a handsome payout, too, if he found a noble with the right appetites. I’ll have him treat me to drinks when this is over.
The accomplice’s grin widened. His thoughts had probably turned to how he’d spend the money already.
“Oh, okay.” The emotion dropped from the child’s voice, and she gave the accomplice a look of blank indifference. “So, you’re here to hurt Lala and the others.”
The accomplice froze. “Wh-What?”
That was the last word he ever said. The ground split beneath his feat as something colossal emerged and “ate” him.
“Wh-What the hell…?”
The man couldn’t believe his eyes. In front of him was a massive plant, with vines and roots roiling and flailing as though it were more animal than vegetable. It was unmistakably a flower; however, larger and more terrifying than anything he had ever seen.
“Shit!”
The man could only watch as the accomplice’s top half flopped out from between the edges of the petal-mouth. He let out a strained shriek of fear and agony, and with a wet crunch, blood exploded from between his lips. His eyes glossed over, the light departing them like a candle out of wax. He was dead, no doubt about it. The plant had bitten him in half.
The man whipped about to beg for help from his comrades, but what he saw was even more upsetting. The panicked cries of his friends assailed his ears.
“H-Help me!”
“Gaaaaaahh!!”
Where the rest of his guildmates and the knights once stood, there was now a field of writhing, tentacle-like roots. They were unnaturally pointed, and as he watched, they tore through the people’s helpless, fleshy bodies with ease.
“Plants…?” he muttered in disbelief.
Blood spattered and sprayed against the trees, and the roots writhed in pleasure as they drank deep of their crimson bounty. Not even the knights’ plate mail offered any solace from the onslaught—if anything, it made it even easier to entrap them, the pointed wood hungrily boring through the metal and into their chests.
The girl pouted her lips as she looked out at the carnage she had caused. “Aww… There’s so many left.”
Her reaction, still largely devoid of emotion, was almost more terrifying than the roots themselves.
“Verily, Laladie-dono,” came another woman’s voice, this one much colder. “Thou hast much to learn yet.”
The next second, a flurry of kunai found their mark in the chest of one of the guildsmen. Blood dribbled from his mouth as his legs gave out. He was dead before he hit the ground.