The merchant was someone who transported special goods from various villages to sell in large cities.

When I was hired as a guard, I thought it would be like in the movies—constantly on alert, scanning every direction, looking out for threats. But the reality was quite different. It was nothing special. All I did was walk in front of and behind the wagon and cart. Sometimes I helped load or unload cargo, but that was about it. The job was really simple.

We walked all day, and at night we lit a campfire and took turns keeping watch. We ate twice a day. The merchant would hang a large pot over the fire, and everyone would throw in some of their jerky or leftovers, making a kind of stew—something like slop. Each person also ate whatever extra food they had brought along.

On the first day, I couldn’t bring myself to join them. Watching the adventurers scoop and eat that stew nearly made me throw up. When they saw me sitting alone, eating jerky that I had soaked in warm water, the bald-headed adventurer, the merchant’s workers, and even the merchant himself laughed until they were in tears.

But I had seen it—the moldy jerky someone had tossed into the pot. There was also a piece of rock-hard bread with teeth marks in it and vegetables that had turned black. I didn’t know who threw them in, so I kept quiet. If I had known, I would have grabbed them by the collar and fought them.

On the second day, I didn’t throw up. I sat quietly by the fire, chewing my soaked jerky. By the third day, I watched them eat the stew without feeling disgusted anymore. Humans are creatures of adaptation, after all. By the fourth day, I was eating the stew myself. After all, it was boiled—it’s disinfected, right? And after a few days of watching, I had realized it wouldn’t kill me.

And now? On the tenth day? Haha. I eat more than anyone else, as if it’s a competition. Surprisingly, the stew was delicious. The broth had a deep, savory flavor that was hard to resist.

If my mother and father, still living in the forest by themselves, could see me now, they might have shed tears. My mother might have been unsure, but my father would definitely cry. Looking back now, I think the reason our home in the forest was so impeccably clean was because of him. He was probably a high-ranking noble, and he’d never even dreamed of eating stew like this, let alone knowing it existed. If he saw me now, he’d be heartbroken.

I didn’t realize it back then, but I was raised in a lot of love and care. Now that I’ve spent some time out in the world, I can see it.

After finishing my fourth bowl, I wiped it clean without a word, and the bald adventurer looked at me with pride.

“To think you’d be eating like this—it warms my heart,” he said.

The adventurer next to him, who had been eating just as greedily, mumbled with his mouth full. “Right? At first, I thought some pampered noble brat had joined us. I mean, gagging at the sight of stew!”

I didn’t throw up—I just felt nauseous.

“Haha! Watching you nearly lose it made me spit out what I was eating! It was hilarious.”

“Yeah, you looked like you could eat rotten meat with that face of yours.”

As they spoke, bits of food spewed out of their mouths. I thought it was disgusting, but I stayed quiet and helped myself to a fifth bowl of stew. If I reacted to every little thing, we wouldn’t get anywhere. This world is dirty in every way—how people talk, how they dress, and how they act. I’ve seen plenty of people pull down their pants and relieve themselves right in front of others. In the city, they at least go somewhere out of sight, but once you leave the city, it seems shame disappears entirely.

Sigh.

The bald adventurer explained that people do that to avoid being attacked by wolves or wild animals, but I’m not convinced. To me, it doesn’t seem like there’s any deeper reason. Still, that kind of behavior shows we’ve gotten closer. On the first day, they avoided me like the plague.

Now, they joke around and tease me. It’s as if I’ve finally learned how to be part of a social group. I think my initial disgust at the stew made them realize that even a brutish-looking guy like me was still human.

Thinking about it too much makes me sad. I should stop.

I wrapped myself in my blanket and lay down. Rella was still playing nearby. For some reason, she found the flames fascinating, sitting close to the torch and jumping whenever a spark flew up. People called her a brave bird, but the other name for a phoenix is “firebird,” so maybe she likes fire for that reason.

The bald adventurer was squinting at Rella again. He seemed to have a fondness for small things. Whenever Rella climbed down from my head and wandered around, he’d smile and watch her with a soft expression.

Lying down, I stared at him and asked, “Why do you sometimes lick your lips when you look at Rella?”

“…Do I?”

He looked confused, as if he hadn’t realized.

“Yeah, I’ve seen you do it a few times.”

He tilted his head, puzzled, and then looked at Rella. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he glanced down at it, then shook his head.

“Now that you mention it, it is strange. For some reason, I start salivating when I see her. Maybe it’s because she’s so cute?”

“….”

Hey, from now on, stay away from Rella.

I pulled Rella close to me, and the merchant, who had been dozing nearby, burst out laughing.

“Really, Rafa! You’re so different from how you look. Who would have thought you’d find a bird like that cute?”

“Exactly! He looks like the type who’d step on it.”

“True enough. This journey has been so easy because of him. People freeze up the moment they see his face—no one dares to mess with us. I’ve worked as a guard many times, but this is the most peaceful it’s ever been.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Even the bald adventurer joined in, enjoying the joke at my expense. But after hearing this kind of thing day in and day out, I had grown used to it. The chatter lulled me to sleep, and I drifted off.

Suddenly, a thunk, thunk sound woke me. Several arrows rained down, hitting the ground.

No—rather than being shot, they seemed to have fallen. The arrows weren’t particularly strong, or maybe the ones who shot them weren’t very skilled. They scattered, barely sticking into the ground.

The bald adventurer leapt up and shouted, “Bandits!”

I jumped to my feet and placed Rella on my head. In my other hand, I was already holding my axe.

“We can’t let them take the cargo! No matter what, stay close and defend this area! Don’t stray far!” The leader of the guards barked orders. Up until now, he’d been practically invisible, but it seemed this was his moment to shine. I had thought he was a useless slacker, but apparently, that wasn’t the case.

While the leader stood by the wagon and the other guards armed themselves, more arrows continued to rain down, but none of them had sharp tips. They were just bamboo sticks, shaved to a point.

“Is that why they aren’t sticking into the ground?” I thought.

Luckily, none of the arrows had hit anyone. We were on a road that cut through the middle of a forest. The trees were sparse, and there wasn’t much of a slope, but it was hard to see very far ahead. It was impossible to tell where the bandits were hiding or how many of them there were.

“Move away from the fire! You’ll be easy targets!” the leader shouted again.

The drivers and shop workers clung to the wagons, trying to calm the panicking horses.

Somewhere, a loud roar erupted.

If I were a bandit, I’d sneak up silently, but these bandits seemed to prefer charging in with a war cry.

“That’s just a tactic to scare us into fleeing and leaving the cargo behind! Stay by the wagons!” the leader commanded.

I see. The bandits must be hoping we’ll abandon the goods and run.

I was surprised that the leader knew so much. Perhaps it was his knowledge, rather than his combat skills, that got him hired.

“I’ve traveled this road countless times, and never have we been attacked by bandits before,” the leader muttered through clenched teeth. One of the adventurers, looking anxious, raised his voice.

“Listen to that shouting! There’s too many of them! We can’t fight them all. If you want to live, we need to abandon the cargo!”

“Shut up! We can’t abandon it!” the merchant yelled back, his face twisted in desperation.

“But there are only a few of us…” someone else began, only to be cut off by the bald adventurer’s bellow.

“Anyone who wants to run, go ahead! But we were hired to protect this cargo! We’ve taken the money, so we have to earn it. We fight here, or we die trying!”

With that, the bald adventurer stood at the front of the wagon, his weapon drawn, glaring into the darkness. The sound of the bandits’ shouts and footsteps grew louder, getting closer.

The bald adventurer stood firm, lips clenched in grim determination.

Everyone looked so tense, but I had a feeling they had forgotten about me.

I loosened my shoulders with a light shake and stepped forward.

“I’ll take care of the bandits. You all focus on guarding the cargo,” I said.

“What are you talking about? There are dozens of them! I don’t care how strong you are—you can’t handle them alone,” the bald adventurer said, his face hard with concern.

“Don’t worry.”

As I stepped into the darkness, the bald adventurer called after me, his voice urgent.

“I’ve seen plenty of people die because they rushed into battle like idiots. Newbies are either frozen in fear or they charge in recklessly without thinking. Rafa, stay here!”

I glanced back, the firelight flickering across his anxious face.

“Really, I’ll be fine. I won’t die to a bunch of bandits like these.”

“Damn it! Stop talking nonsense and stay here! Newbies should listen to their seniors!”

Just then, the first bandit appeared in the distance.

“Just make sure you protect the cargo. Even if we fend off the bandits, losing the goods means we lose everything.”

I said that, and then I started running toward the bandits.

“Hey, wait! Rafa! You’ll get yourself killed!” the bald adventurer’s voice echoed behind me.

What a kind-hearted man. He really didn’t match his appearance at all.

I charged at the bandits, who were swarming in from the front and both sides. They left an escape route behind us, clearly hoping we’d run. The lead bandit saw me rushing toward them and snarled.

“Kill them all! Don’t let a single one survive!”

He must have been the leader. As he shouted, a deafening roar rose from the other bandits.

Sorry, but it’s you who will die.

This is my first job as a guard, and if I fail here, I won’t be able to find work again. I remembered the struggles of my previous life, and I poured all my energy into my sprint, picking up speed with the wind at my back.

“There’s no way I’m going through that again.”

The bandit leader’s eyes went wide in shock. I was moving too fast. A nearby bandit let out a high-pitched scream.

I slashed with my axe as I ran, and the leader’s head fell, followed almost instantly by the head of the bandit who had screamed. Blood sprayed into the air like a fountain.

Screams echoed around me.

One bandit who had been charging alongside the leader tried to turn and run, while two others swung their weapons at me. But they were too slow.

I easily cut down three more bandits with my axe and changed direction. One of them quickly tried to flee, slipping but managing to keep his balance as he ran. He was fast, but I grew up in the forest. I was faster, and more used to running through the trees.

I caught up to him in no time, right behind him. He must have sensed my axe swinging down toward him, because he ducked and rolled forward.

“Smart guy.”

If I tried to strike him now, I’d just hit the ground. So I kept running. The wind guided my feet, and I leaped into the air, landing on his back. I pressed down with all my strength, driving him into the dirt. His skull might have been tough, but his face flattened against the ground.

To make sure he was finished, I spun in the air with the wind’s power and kicked him hard, sending him flying into a tree.

He let out a choking scream as blood gushed from his shattered face. I was pretty sure he was dead.

Suddenly, a huge man came charging out from between the trees, wielding a massive sword.

“You bastard!” he roared.

Maybe he had been close to the one I just killed, or perhaps he was furious because their leader was dead. His face twisted with rage.

I turned and ran straight toward him.

Boom, boom, boom! His heavy footsteps shook the forest as he charged at me.

When his sword collided with my axe, the sound of it breaking echoed through the forest. His sword snapped in two, the broken piece flying off into the distance.

He gasped in shock, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

“Don’t underestimate my axe,” I said. This wasn’t just any ordinary axe—it was wrapped in the wind itself, and probably the only one of its kind in this world.

Even with just half a sword, he swung at my head, but the massive blade still cut through the air with a heavy whoosh.

I dodged it easily and swung my axe sideways.

With a sharp slicing sound, his torso split open as my axe passed through him. Blood sprayed everywhere, and he collapsed in a heap.

Screams rang out all around me as the other bandits started to flee.

I guess that guy had been their strongest warrior. He was certainly larger than the rest, though still smaller than me. Maybe a head taller than the average person.

“Honestly, what a pathetic bunch.”

We hadn’t even fought for that long, and they were already running. There were at least thirty of them. If they were really determined to rob us, they should’ve tried to overwhelm us with numbers.

As I chased down and struck the fleeing bandits one by one with my axe, a calm stillness fell over the forest. A few of them managed to escape, but I got most of them.

Even Rella, who had been chirping non-stop as I fought, had settled down and was now perched quietly on my head.

After wiping the blood from my axe, I walked back to where the wagons were.

It seemed a few bandits had tried to steal the cargo while I was gone. The bald adventurer and the others had blood-soaked weapons. They had done their part.

“Is everyone alright?” I asked.

“….”

“….”

“….”

No one answered. They all just stared at me in silence, quickly looking away when our eyes met.

“….”

Strange.

After a brief, awkward pause, the bald adventurer finally spoke, his voice strained.

“You… you’re unbelievably strong.”

His face was pale, his expression stiff, and for some reason, he seemed… afraid of me.