We woke up early morning to head over to the forest of truancy. The room we slept in was a guest room and the bed there was infinitely better than the one I had at my home. When we arrived at the entrance of the forest there were two guards at post or I guess they call them here as samurais.

“We have been allowed to enter the forest by the empress Hitomi.”

Leopold tells the two samurais.

They looked at each other and blocked the entrance.

“You will need to provide proof of acceptance. Otherwise turn back this forest is filled with uncontrolled mana it’s dangerous.”

“Leopold… did the empress give you anything?”

“Nothing as I recall”

“Damn… all right I’ll just use lust then.”

I started to activate lust my eyes became pink and same with my hair.

“I would prefer if you didn’t do that”

There was a voice coming from behind me. I turn around and to my surprise it was a beautiful woman.

“Empress Hitomi. Why are you here?”

Leopold asks as he knelt down. He pulled me down as well to kneel.

“It seems due to reasons yesterday I have forgotten to give you a proof of entry. So I will accompany you today.”

Leopold looks at me.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

She just ignores Leopold and walks towards the two samurais.

“I will be accompanying the two of them please let us through.”

“But your liege it’s far too dangerous for you to head in yourself”

“Let us through. That’s an order.”

The two looked nervous from their body language. Both Leopold and me stood up and walked behind the empress.

The two guards moved aside and we entered the forest.

As soon as we stepped in I felt a rush of magical energy sweeping through. I instinctively held my breath being overwhelmed by such force.

What the hell am I doing?!

I’m sweating profusely my eyes are blurry.

I… I have to get out!

Ha… ha…

“Hold your ground!”

I was instinctively looking down as I raise my head to see who said the words. I saw the empress with her hand reaching out to me. I look over to my right and it seems like the same thing is happening to Leopold.

I mustered all of my strength just to grab hold of the empress’ hand. She pulls me to stand up properly.

As I stood the malevolent feeling I had starts to disappear. The darkness that I thought I saw started to disappear and I was able to see the forest for what it is.

The empress helped out Leopold as well.

“The forest is overflowing with mana. Every living thing in this forest is imbued with magicules. That means the magicules we’re trying to infuse with you two as soon as you entered.”

It takes me a second to catch my breath.

“How come… ha… you weren’t… affected?”

I’ve truly never been scared my entire life. Today however was absolutely horrifying to me.

“It didn’t affect me because I can control my mana with extreme precision. The mana only tries to integrate into those who do not have or small amount of magic within them. To think the both of you are unable to harness magic is truly unexpected.”

Leopold stands up straight but his arms were still shaking he put up a farce.

“What did you do to neutralize its effects on us?”

“I casted a coat of mana around the two of you. It acts like magnets. For simple explanation I imbued you with positive mana deflecting all the overflowing positive mana away from you. The negative mana gets absorbed but it is minute so it poses no threat. I was originally gonna give you the passes to enter since it does the same thing but I forgot.”

How could she forget?! It was such an integral part of exploring the forest and she just forgets?!

“Anyway we should get a move on. Just follow me along I know where you need to go.”

We follow the empress for quite awhile. The forest was filled with huge trees I would believe if someone told me that this is a jungle because of the size. The rabbits that we saw pass by had horns and was able to use magic to accelerate.

“There are some animals i have never seen before I can’t believe no one is hunting them down.”

“I agree. If the magicule is abundant here it could also mean that rare animals will appear here.”

I stated as I adjusted my jacket and look if I have any throwing knives on me.

“There are indeed rare animals that lives in this forest. I have seen unicorns, griffins and even a nue. As for the hunting possibility they would have to get past the guards that are posted outside and the sudden surge of magicules as soon as they enter the forest.”

Unicorns and griffins?! Those are thought to be a myth. Did she just say those things exist here? If I were to sell a talon or horn from one of them how much coins could I net?! I’m salivating at the thought.

“Lovre… you’re kind of drooling over there.”

I was awakened from my thoughts by Leopold. I slurp up my saliva and cleared my throat.

“Ahem… how do you possibly know where we need to go empress?”

She holds her head with a groan.

“Ugh… my head hurts so much, I had way too much to drink. I know because I’ve been to where she lives.”

She said with a groan. It seems like she has a hangover. I don’t understand why she would want to come with us.

“Your liege continuing our talk last night I have a few questions.”

Leopold says as he walks closer to the empress.

“Huh? Yeah sure… just keep it down. The alcohol from yesterday is causing me some headaches”

She then pops a pill into her mouth.

“Very well. You said that there were people before that possessed the sin skills that the current heroes have. How come just now are we learning about them?”

“Sheesh Leopold I should’ve said make the questions easier. I don’t know why your father decided to take action now regarding of the sin skills. I do have a speculation though. That would be that your father already knew about it and never bothered to confront them about it. Now though the war becomes desperate, so he finds the heroes and assign them to the frontlines. From my point of view you guys are nothing but expendable people not heroes.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“My father wouldn’t do such a thing!”

“Why not? He’s the same person that pulled out of the front lines.”

“That’s because he has a duty to uphold back at our kingdom”

“I think you’re holding your father on a really high pedestal. I assume you understand why the war is happening?”

“Yes of course, it’s to stop the demonic beings from attacking us.”

“Is it?”

The empress stopped walking and looked at Leopold very seriously.

“Yes! I have seen their attack first hand along here with Lovre!”

“If you say so. Seriously this dress is not made for hiking! You two turn around and don’t look! I’m changing my clothes to something more bearable.”

That was a quick change of topic. Both of us turned around. I looked at Leopold his face was filled with puzzlement. I’m not the type of person to follow someone blindly I do my own research before seeming if an action is necessary. I have no intention of fighting this war my only goal is to save auntie and Laura. Leopold is different, he’s a crowned prince and the captain of the chevalier. Then again I don’t particularly care what he does.

“Hey you Lust! Here”

I turned around and I was hit in the face with some clothing. It was a black jacket, red polo, and a white tie. Is she offering this to me so I can sell them?

“Wear it. You look like you came from the outskirts with that clothing you have on right now.”

I am from the outskirts! Whatever it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to wear clothes like this. I donned the clothing and it looks like I fit in with Leopold and the empress. The clothes she changed into is pretty drab and plain it’s not clothes someone important would wear. Then she called me out for my clothes? Hypocrite.

We then decided to continue walking. Leopold stayed quiet along the way. It seems he’s starting to question his orders. For a knight that is something unacceptable a knight must follow orders.

“How much longer do we have to walk empress?”

“Shouldn’t be long now Lust”

“Lust? You keep calling me that why exactly?”

“Because that is your sin. It’s a lot easier to remember”

Is my skill really better than just calling me by name?

“I remember you saying Lust is the weakest of all the sin skills. I think I heard the same from the demonic being Leopold fought in my village.”

“That’s correct. My father had the same skill as you and I remember him saying it was a terrible skill to have. Sin skills are indeed strong in combat all except Lust. As you may already know Lust is able to take away their choice. Your demands becomes their actions. It’s weak because it can’t do anything else, if you were to be left alone you would have no one to control. You said earlier that Leopold was the one to fight the demonic being. Why couldn’t you fight instead?”

All the things she said so far has been spot on. Indeed if I was left alone and fighting someone who knows how the skill works it would be my demise.

“I didn’t fight him because he was superior when it came to strength. If I did I would’ve lost.”

“Exactly. However the sin skills are different than normal skills. The skill evolves. My father’s Lust skill is different from what you currently have. He wasn’t able to imbue his weapons with Lust.”

I see… so I must make the skill itself stronger not just me.

The empress gives us a signal to stop. I looked around her and saw a small cabin house in front of a clear lake.

“Is that where the hero is?”

Leopold asked as he comes closer.

“Yes. Now stay back it could be dangerous.”

What does she mean? I saw someone moving inside through the window. I wanted to see it more clearly so I decided to step a little bit to the right.

As soon as I took a step. A magic circle appeared under my foot. I activate Lust as quickly as possible.

“Lovre!”

The magic circle explodes into electricity.

*cough *cough

I emerge out of the smoke coughing. I looked ahead and the two released a sigh of relief.

“How’d you manage to avoid that?”

“With Lust. I said before I can control any living things that includes plants. You said before that the plants carry mana with them. I ordered one of the trees to give me a barrier. Luckily it worked. It drained quite a bit of stamina though.”

I stagger slightly as I approached the two. Leopold offers me a hand. I reluctantly accepted and he helped me up.

“You managed to surprise yet again Lust. To think you can order plants as well. My father was never able to do that.”

The empress said impressed.

“What did your father manage to do with it then?”

“He was the one that evolved it so that if someone were to make direct eye contact lust would activate.”

So Hitomi’s father was the one that evolved Lust to be that way. It is indeed useful the way it is.

“Why did you three come here?”

It was a females’ voice. We turned around with weapons in hand all except Hitomi. She’s a mage so she herself is a weapon.

The woman was standing on a flying broom and a wand pointed at us. She was the same woman I saw back at the castle. Same clothing she wore back then, black and dark purple witch clothing. I thought it was some costume thing but it seems she’s the real deal. Witches are outlawed in almost every kingdom. In the past we even had witch hunts to take down witches that troubled the kingdoms.

“They’re with me Envy it’s fine.”

Hitomi calmly addresses the witch. Wait her sin then would be Envy right? If Hitomi addresses me as Lust as in my sin skill it would make sense.

“Anego why did you decide to come with the other hero?”

The witch said as magicules started to gather at the tip of the wand. I activate lust just in case of emergency.

“Can everyone just calm down. We can all settle this amicably. Envy why do you call me anego? It makes me sound like I’m a leader of ronins, you can just call me by my name.”

The witch sighs and lowers the wand and slowly descends.

“The same reason you call me Envy, just because I want to.”

I deactivated lust and placed away my weapon. Leopold seemed to think it was a good idea so he put his sword back in its scabbard.

“What is your sin skill?”

I get straight to the point. There’s no need for formalities I am on a time limit after all.

“What?”

She asked all confused.

“I need to know it’s important.”

Just before she answers we heard a giggle then rustling around the bushes.

“What was that Envy?”

Hitomi asked slightly on guard.

“That laughter sounded like goblins. Normally goblins automatically just attack adventurers and not hide.”

Leopold hold his hands ready.

“We can talk about my skill later if you help me with this. They are in fact goblins but they’ve been enhanced. The trap you activated was supposed to be for them you kind of owe me.”

What is she saying? I was the one who almost died. Fine I’ll help her for now as long as I get to see what her skill is.

The goblins jumped out of the bush. It was a lot of goblins ranging somewhere around fifty.

“What the hell?!”

They had parts mixed into them. Parts from other monsters like orcs, snake, and spiders. They’re like a chimera but goblins.

One of them looked straight onto me. Luckily I activated…

I’m feeling dread. What the hell am I doing here? Why am I risking my life for someone else’s? I look over to my right and Leopold was shaking. I mean who wouldn’t be? We’re going to die. The goblin chimera runs towards me with it’s axe giggling. I’m scared I wanna run! I was saved by Hitomi she fired off some sort of wind magic and blew away the goblin.

“What are you doing Lust and Leopold?! Get up and defend yourselves!”

“No I can’t… they’re too strong…”

Leopold said as he backs away slowly from one of the goblins.

“Lightning magic: Lightning cleanse!”

Then came down a bolt of lightning that struck down the goblin trying to harm Leopold.

“Anego! You didn’t tell me they didn’t have magic!”

I slowly looked up to see the witch up in the air.

“Is that what caused them to act like this?”

“Yes. These goblins have the intimidation skill. Anyone that have below average magic energy is easily afflicted. Anego you protect them I suppose I’ll finish this myself.”

Hitomi pulls up a magic barrier that encased the three of us. No matter how strong this barrier is we’ll die oh god… please help us.

The witch has flown even higher than before and pulls out a staff from the air.

“I ask for help and I’m the one who ends up helping them? This is truly a pain. Activate Envy.”

Her eyes turns purple and her hair became even longer than before even passing her feet.

“Hey! You dumb goblins! Prepare as I annihilate every single one of you!”

She yells from the top of her lungs. The goblins heard her and all looked up and growled at her. Some were even shooting arrows.

Then out of nowhere some of the goblins collapsed. They weren’t hit by anything not even magic they just collapsed. I looked closer and they’re still alive barely. Their breathing was ragged and they can’t even move.

“Let the flames of hell swallow my target whole. This world shall be purged and brought upon from it a new form. Hellfire magic: purgatory flame wave!”

From the staff she pointed at the goblins appeared a red and blue magic circle. In a split second a huge flame erupted from the circles. The colour of the flames was blue and the heat was intense. Even inside the barrier you can feel the flames. All the goblins tried to run away but the flames propagated faster then they can run. The flames engulfed them burning away every single cell of the goblins. As they burn away my mind returned to normal.

“I’m sorry about that…”

“My apologies as well”

Both me and Leopold apologized to Hitomi for showing our cowardice.

“It’s alright. I wouldn’t have known those goblins have that skill. Usually they don’t but seeing as they were chimera goblins it could be possible.”

The flames dissipates and Hitomi lowers the barrier. The whole area was burnt not even a single tree survived. It’s a good thing the flames didn’t propagate any further or we would've had a forest fire.

“Kuku… Hahaha…”

I look up and see the witch laughing with an evil grin on her face.

“My magic truly is the strongest…”

She then starts to fall from the sky. Leopold quickly activates his flight skill and catches her before she hit the ground. It seemed like she passed out. No surprise that was a huge spell. I guess I’ll have to wait before I can ask her about her sin.