The wind seemed to carry the sound of voices.

A single breeze circled around me as if leading me to the voices.

I heard multiple crashing sounds followed by more screaming.

“Run, Arthur!! Don’t worry about us!!”

I quickened my steps when I heard the voice getting closer. The next moment, a squashing sound reached my ears. It was similar to smashing meat.

“Little bastard really ran! Well, whatever... Let's loot this corpse. This woman might have some valuables."

I saw a huge man point at the person lying on the ground with a sword sticking out of her chest. The person was already dead.

‘Huh?’

“See? This wedding ring is fairly high quality."

“Oi, you’re the worst. This is why your wife left you.”

“Hahahah! I don’t care what anyone thinks!"

He was with two other men who wore armour and helmets.

‘Hired soldiers?’

There was no way that these bastards would be good people since they were hired by the army. The Royal Army must've been lacking manpower and had no choice but to hire mercenaries.

I backed away as the three of them were busy looting the corpse.

“Where did that boy go?”

“I’m not sure. I suspect he ran back to his village.”

“Aren’t Raizen’s men there?”

“Kekeke. Yeah. You said earlier I’m the worst but you have never seen the captain of that squad raid a village. Only corpses remain.”

I froze when I was about to back away.

‘The boy ran to his village? Shit...'

I hurriedly ran towards the village.

◇◇◇

It wasn’t that far from our village so I knew where to look. They are our neighbours so some of their residents frequently visits Harz village.

I used the wind to accelerate myself and not fall down from exhaustion.

I wasn’t even 100m from the village when I caught sight of a wagon of corpses standing outside the gates.

“Urrk...”

I held the vomit down by closing my mouth.

The smell of dead bodies was even reaching to where I stood.

There was also the sound of screaming and neighing of horses.

Multiple soldiers were standing outside the village. All of them were busy cleaning their swords.

‘That boy came back here? Is he insane?’

I thought to myself as I moved through the bushes.

I was afraid there would be a mage who could use detection magic so I didn’t cast invisibility on myself. The spell only lasts ten seconds anyway.

“We should hurry before Lord Clark comes back after finishing his order.”

The soldiers were having idle chatter as if they were drinking in a bar and not slaughtering innocents. I sneaked through a broken fence.

“Bah! You should tell that to our captain, Raizen. Do you think he’d stop in the middle of a raid? Plus this village is on the verge of becoming a town so they have a lot of resources.”

“True. Is our captain at the lord of this region’s mansion?”

The other soldier nodded.

“He apparently took about fifty soldiers to completely clean that place of valuables. It's a huge mansion after all."

“Hahaha. Captain is the same as ever. Money is always the most important. Should we go?"

“You go on ahead. I need to finish finding the ‘traitors’.”

The two waved to each other and left in different directions.

I followed the one going to the lord’s mansion.

There were blood, guts and corpses of people everywhere. They even slaughtered the livestock and skinned them.

‘Is this what war looks like?’

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I’ve heard of many wars that took place in our world. The second world war was one of the worst in history. Millions died either from starvation or from fighting other soldiers.

What was happening wasn’t on a scale of a war but still...

I was convinced that was what war would be like. Death everywhere. The only good thing about war would be its ending.

I picked up a staff which was lying on the ground near a dead mage. Judging from the clothes of the deceased, some of the civilians didn’t just idly sit by and get killed. Some actually managed to kill the enemy soldiers.

‘But it’s still a massacre.’

“Oi! There’s a kid here!”

When I neared the mansion, I saw a silver haired boy being pulled by a soldier. His face was bruised and swollen.

“Another one? Fuck, we should do a proper sweep of this town. These damn villagers actually built bunkers. There could be more in hiding.”

One man with fancier armour said.

“You kill the boy.”

He handed the boy over to a young female soldier who was trembling while looking around.

The boy could barely walk and only fell by her feet. I wanted to throw a spell but the boy would be in the blast radius since I didn’t have good control over my mana usage.

‘Should I use water magic instead?’

Since water doesn’t do that much damage, I could only use it to distract them while their guards were down. In that moment, I’d be able to run towards the boy and use lightning shock on the opponents.

It’s just that the girl didn’t look like she was willing to fight. I didn't want to hurt her too.

“What are you doing!? I said kill the boy!”

“B-B-But he didn’t do anything wrong. No one in this village did! They were forced! That must be it!”

She went down on her knees and pleaded.

“Please convince the captain to stop. I’ll do anything he wishes but please don’t kill any more–“

Shiiiing–

Thwack

Thud

“....!!!”

My eyes widened when I saw him unsheathe his sword and cut off the begging girl’s head.

My eyes followed where her head rolled. Her face was still tearful and scrunched up.

‘...’

“Useless bitch. I knew women are useless when it comes to war. They should stay at home and cook our food. Such emotional creatures, right? Ahahaha!”

“Y-Yeah...”

His companion awkwardly laughed with him.

The boy on the ground also looked dumbfounded at how the man could murder someone without hesitation.

“I guess I’ll handle this.”

He turned towards the boy.

“!!!”

The boy struggled to get up from the ground, while moving backwards. The man walked with nonchalance and waved his sword.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

That was when I stepped out of the bushes.

“Huh? Another one?”

“A little toddler!? Gyahahaha!!”

They turned towards me with amusement on their faces.

“Hey, hey. You're a little far from home. Judging by your clothes, you can't be a runaway slave."

The man stroked his chin in contemplation to his comrade’s words.

“Umu. You’re right. Hey, little boy~” The one who killed the girl looked down at me, “Why don’t we go for a little walk? Don’t worry about what happened just now. That girl almost caused trouble for us.”

He grabbed my right arm with a smile.

“...Are you kidding me?”

Lights gathered around the arm he grabbed. My forearm began glowing white.

“W-What?! Damn, that’s hot!”

He staggered backwards and began blowing on his hand.

I didn’t know what that was or why it happened. But, I couldn’t sit by and watch them kill people.

This might be foolish of me trying to be righteous even though I’m a toddler but...

This power in my belly was giving me confidence that I’d win.

“GYAAAAH!!!”

The man’s body was slowly getting thinner and thinner as I absorbed the moisture in his body. The fluid turned into pure mana when it entered my fingertips.

“Uuug....uuuuggh....”

His dried up body collapsed with a wheeze. I drained him of blood and water which meant he could die at any given moment if he didn’t seek help soon.

“What the fuck!? How can a little kid do this!?”

The other guy fearfully stepped back and began swinging his sword around in a threatening manner.

But I still approached him.

I lifted my right arm and had this name whispered to me by unknown voices inside my body. It was like the devil whispering into my ears.

The name was...

“[Particle Cataclysm]” I aimed my hand at his legs.

“Wha–“

The man’s legs turned into particles when the lights entered his body. He fell down with a loud roar and thrashed around on the ground.

“MY LEGS!! YOU DEMON SPAWN!!”

I casted sleep magic which made him fall down with a thud.

Thud–

The boy also fell on his butt and looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Err...”

I snapped out of my dazed state.

‘What was that?’

It was like my emotions were controlling me. Those strange lights were also being effected. What kind of power was that? I felt much stronger than I initially did before.

“Are you okay? You shouldn’t stick around here. It’s dangerous.”

I felt weird reprimanding him when I was far younger than him.

I extended a hand to him.

“Ah... ah...!”

He hysterically ran away with a look of urgency on his face.

“...”

I stood there awkwardly with my hand still extended.

‘I guess that’s the right reaction. Why did he come back here anyway?’

The boy ran into the forest without looking back.

“Grr!! What was all that noise!?”

I heard a deep, husky voice shout from behind me. I looked towards the lord’s mansion.

“...?”

The two of us made eye contact.

He was as big as 2m and had arms which looked thicker than my waist.

“A kid...?”

He tilted his head.

“Huh? What is this power I feel?”

The gorilla stepped towards me as I stood frozen.

He was too big to be a human. If someone told me he was a breed between a gorilla and a human then I’d believe them.

“Oho. So you were the one who did that to them? I can feel a sort of power within that tiny body of yours.”

He pointed to the two lying on the ground. One had foam come out of his mouth as he lied unconscious. The other one looked like a dried grape. His hoarse breathing could still be heard.

“And that killing intent too. Could it have been you? Are you a demon imp who transformed into a kid or something?”

He put his large hand on my head and looked at my face.

“Err... I was just looking for my mommy. “ I hid my right arm behind my back and innocently looked up at him, “Mommy said she’d be back to fetch me. She’s very strong so mister shouldn’t mess with me. Strangers are bad she says.”

“Kukuku. Is that so?”

!!!!

“GUH!!!”

His large fist flew into my stomach. My consciousness faded once before coming back again.

When I woke up two seconds later, I felt a pain in my back.

I flew into a tree’s direction.

‘Ah, fuck. Did I break something?’

“Hnngh...”

“I may be a son of a bitch who slaughters for fun but I won’t overlook a demon imp freely running around...”

I wanted to refute his words but my body lost all strength. The power from before was fading ever so slightly.

I could see blood running down my right eye where I hit the back of my head.

“I’m not a...”

He unsheathed his giant great sword. The thing was literally taller than the tree I was thrown against.

“Demons shall not be overlooked–“

“Demons?”

Another voice interrupted him.

I shakenly looked towards the familiar voice.

George Astley, the strongest guard of the Bentinck territory arrived with his stallion horse.

‘So cool...’

I felt like a damsel in distress when I saw him.

“You dare hurt my son, kill innocents and refer to him as a demon?”

My father’s eyes were filled with killing intent.