The road through the forest was dark.
Lin Ling walked alone, her mind a chaotic mess.
She didn't know why she had come here.
She didn't know why she had taken on the appearance of a child.
She didn't know why she had been secretly making magic suppression stones in the Demon King's Castle one moment, only to appear in this so-called Camillaya capital the next.
And she certainly didn't know why she had to encounter such things.
The soldiers.
The little boy.
The mother who had wept in despair while holding her child.
And the way those people had so casually uttered the words “Filthy One.”
The more Lin Ling thought about it, the tighter her chest felt.
It was as if something had been suppressed deep in her heart for a long time, and now, a wound had finally been torn open.
In that little boy, she saw her past self from before she had crossed over to this world.
No one to back her up.
No one to speak for her.
Pushed into a corner, having to be careful even when crying out in pain.
If no one spoke up for them...
If everyone told them to “just endure it,” “don't get involved,” or “you can't fight back”...
Was everything just going to keep going wrong like this forever?
Night slowly descended.
The shadows of the trees stretched long across the ground.
Lin Ling stood right in the middle of the path the soldiers were bound to take.
The mana within her body began to surge.
Cycle after cycle.
Like a tide being forcibly held back.
Until the sound of wheels crushing the soil echoed from a distance.
The carriage had arrived.
Several familiar voices drifted out from the cabin.
“Hey, what should we do with that commoner?”
“Throw him into the First Prince’s camp to make up the numbers, obviously,” a lazy male voice replied with a chuckle.
“Unless you want to go to the battlefield yourself and fight those suicidal demons?”
Another man scoffed.
“Think about it—could your blade even pierce their skin?”
A few laughs immediately broke out inside the carriage.
One person seemed to still have some hesitation.
“But that kid is so small. Can he really withstand the damn mana in the demon territory?”
“Didn't the First Prince send a few Filthy Ones in last time?”
Another soldier lowered his voice, though he still sounded like he was enjoying the spectacle. “You have no idea how tragic it was.”
“The moment they stepped into demon territory, the mana corroded them so badly they couldn't even stand straight.”
“We aren't like the First Prince, who has so many magic artifacts for protection. Besides, the Holy See's stance is vague. If they don't help, that mana is impossible to deal with.”
“That's why we throw these Filthy Ones in to die in our place.”
“The First Prince wants soldiers.”
“So, we give him soldiers.”
Lin Ling slowly raised her head.
Moonlight fell upon her face.
In the next moment, a pale white mana pattern suddenly lit up on the road.
The horses shrieked.
The wheels jerked violently.
The entire carriage was flipped over as if by an invisible hand, crashing onto its side by the road.
Bang!
The carriage slammed into the ground, the wooden boards splintering with a loud crack.
Panicked shouting and cursing erupted from within.
“Damn it!”
“What happened?!”
A soldier stumbled out of the wreckage.
Clutching his waist, he was about to burst into a rage when he saw the little girl standing in the moonlight.
“Hey!”
His expression darkened instantly.
“You brat, what are you doing here?”
“You piece of trash.”
Another soldier crawled out of the carriage. Seeing the overturned vehicle and then Lin Ling in the middle of the road, he immediately spat on the ground.
“Fucking bad luck.”
“Blocked twice by these damn brats today.”
Lin Ling looked at them.
“You people...”
Her voice was very soft.
“What exactly do you take human life for?”
The two soldiers froze for a moment.
Then, one of them let out a mocking laugh.
“Huh?”
“Brat, what did you say?”
Lin Ling did not answer.
She simply repeated herself.
“You people.”
“What exactly do you take human life for?”
The mana behind her materialized.
Pale white light twisted and extended outward like several arms reaching out from the night.
The expressions of the two soldiers finally changed.
“What is that?!”
Before they could even step back, the magic arms lunged forward, seizing their necks and hoisting them off the ground.
“Urgh!”
“Let... let go!”
Their toes left the ground, and they clawed desperately at the mana around their throats.
The soldiers, who had been full of arrogance just moments ago, were now consumed by panic.
“Wait!”
One of them managed to gasp out, “I am the son of Baron Karl!”
“You can't kill me!”
Lin Ling looked up at him.
There was not a hint of a smile in her pale blue eyes.
“And what about you?”
She turned her gaze to the other one.
“Whose son are you?”
The other soldier immediately shouted, “I am the son of Baron Micis!”
“You can't kill me!”
“We are both Blessed Ones of the Holy See!”
“You know what a Blessed One is, right?!”
“We are Blessed Ones verified by the Saintess herself!”
Lin Ling listened as they desperately shouted out their identities one after another.
Noble, son of a Baron, Blessed One.
It was as if saying those words naturally made their lives more precious than anyone else's.
Lin Ling's fingers slowly tightened.
The magic arms tightened in response.
The soldiers' faces instantly turned a ghastly shade.
Lin Ling asked, “I have only one question.”
“Do you think your own lives are precious?”
Baron Karl’s son screamed almost instantly, “Of course my life is precious!”
The other one added hurriedly, “We are nobles!”
Lin Ling nodded.
“Then what about the child you beat today?”
The air suddenly went still.
A flash of confusion crossed the soldiers' faces.
It was as if they had never even considered that such a question could be valid.
Gasping for air, Baron Karl’s son gritted his teeth and said, “Hey... we are nobles. Are you really grouping us together with those damn commoners?”
The moment the words left his mouth, the mana around his neck tightened further.
The sensation of suffocation caused his expression to twist in agony.
Terrified, he quickly changed his tune.
“That kid’s life is precious too!”
“Extremely, extremely precious!”
“Really!”
Lin Ling looked at him.
Her voice was as cold as the night water.
“No.”
“You think his life is lowly.”
“That is why you feel you can dispose of other people's lives as you please.”
She lowered her eyes, looking at the sword that had fallen to the ground.
“You seem to like hitting people with your sword?”
Another magic arm extended, picking up the sword along with its scabbard.
The soldier’s pupils shrank violently.
“Wait—”
Crack!
The scabbard came down hard.
Two screams of agony pierced the night.
Lin Ling didn't even blink.
She released the magic arms.
The two soldiers collapsed to the ground, clutching their broken legs as they crawled backward in a pathetic heap.
Just then, a low growl echoed from the bushes.
A wild wolf stepped out from the shadows.
It was incredibly thin, its eyes glowing with a faint, eerie light in the night as it let out hungry pants.
The soldiers' faces went completely pale.
“No...”
“Don't come any closer!”
Lin Ling raised her hand.
A pale white magic circle expanded on the ground, trapping the wolf and the two soldiers inside together.
The magic circle wasn't large.
However, it acted like a transparent wall, cutting off all cries for help from the night.
Lin Ling stood outside the barrier.
“Then experience for yourselves what it feels like to have your lives disposed of,” she said to the two soldiers inside.
The two men dragged their useless legs, desperately trying to crawl away with their hands.
The wolf growled as it closed in.
One of them turned back to Lin Ling in a total breakdown.
“Demon!”
“You’re a demon!”
Lin Ling did not respond.
The screams soon rang out.
Only to be swallowed by the forest.
She turned around and walked toward the overturned carriage.
On the other side of the cabin, there was another soldier pinned underneath.
He seemed unable to see what was happening inside the barrier, only hearing his companions' increasingly chaotic cries.
“Hey!”
“What happened to you two?”
“My leg seems to be stuck under the carriage!”
He pounded on the carriage panels with all his might.
“Quick, help me!”
Lin Ling walked over to him.
The moonlight illuminated her face.
She knelt down and reached out toward the trapped soldier.
There was even a soft smile on her face.
“Mister.”
“Are you okay?”
Hearing the little girl's voice, the soldier grabbed her hand like a drowning man clutching a straw.
“Quick!”
“Give me a hand!”
Lin Ling extended her hand.
The soldier gripped it tightly.
He used a lot of force, as if he didn't care at all if he hurt her.
Lin Ling just watched him.
“Mister,” she suddenly asked.
“Do you know how much mana pressure a demon child has to endure every day?”
The soldier froze.
“What?”
He quickly grew impatient. “Who the hell knows?!”
“Why would I care about those damn demons?”
“Hurry up! Pull me out!”
Lin Ling looked down at their joined hands.
“But, didn't you want to send that little boy to the battlefield, Mister?”
The soldier's expression changed.
“You...”
Lin Ling continued, “Did you know?”
“Demon children have to endure very, very heavy mana every day.”
“Some of them find it hard just to survive.”
“And yet, you wanted to throw a child into a place like that.”
Her palm began to glow.
The light traveled along their joined hands, pouring into the soldier's body bit by bit.
The soldier's eyes bulged.
“Hey.”
“Hey!”
“What are you doing?!”
“No, stop!”
Lin Ling did not let go.
She simply and calmly increased the speed of the mana transfer.
The soldier felt a violent burning sensation in his magic circuits, and then his voice grew more and more incoherent.
Fainter and fainter.
Until finally, he went completely silent.
Only the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves remained in the forest.
Along with the increasingly weak movements within the magic circle.
Lin Ling slowly released her hand.
She stood up.
Moonlight bathed her figure.
The light of the magic circle behind her dimmed bit by bit.
In the next instant, cracks suddenly appeared in the surrounding space.
Crack.
Crr-ack.
The forest, the carriage, the moonlight, the soldiers on the ground, and the fallen leaves at Lin Ling's feet all shattered like glass.
The fragments scattered into light.
Outside the light screen.
In the meeting room, everyone had witnessed this scene.
No one spoke.
Niya stared blankly at the young Lin Ling on the screen, her fingers clenched so hard they turned white.
Phelan held his pen, but he had long since stopped writing any records.
Ivelia stood at the very front, her dark red eyes reflecting the shattered forest.
At this moment, they all suddenly felt...
That Lin Ling was not merely the somewhat dazed girl they usually saw.
Rate on N.U.
