Long, pale fingers brushed over a sea of bright red before stopping and wrapping around one of the many apples displayed on the shop's front. Shimmering in the light of the golden sun, two bronze coins flew through the air before landing in the hands of the smiling shopkeeper, his youthful smile contradicting his aged visage.

The apple found itself facing a pair of soft, pink lips that revealed a set of pearly white teeth. A faint crunch could be heard as the teeth sunk into the apple's flesh followed by the barely audible sound of chewing. As she relished the taste of the fresh apple, a smile adorned Faye's radiant face, this was one of the few happy moments of her day. Every day, without fail, she would buy one of Old Spencer's apples, renowned throughout the village for their sweet taste.

This daily ritual of Faye's had been passed onto her by her mother, the few villagers who actually engaged in conversation with her, told her how her beautiful mother would always find the time to head over to Old Spencer's shop to purchase an apple. Having never met her mother, due to her unfortunate demise, Faye hoped to understand the woman, who birthed her, through the actions that people remembered her by.

Every time she ate one of these vibrant apples, Faye imagined the lady, whom she had only seen portraits of, eating an apple with her eyes closed and a soft smile decorating her lips. It was an image of peace and happiness, something Faye had the chance to see in her life even once yet it always brought a smile to her face.

Alas, moments like these were not meant to last forever, the black-haired girl took one final bite from the apple before disposing of the core that remained, along with the happiness that had filled her. As the hazel-eyed girl was brought down from her temporary heaven, she glanced at the figures of the many villagers that walked around her, some were in groups with their friends or family while others were alone. To Faye, these solitary villagers were not truly alone for they had the reassurance that they had someone to go back to, that someone was waiting for them—a luxury she didn't have.

Faye's monstrous physical strength would have usually made her a popular figure but when it was coupled with her complete lack of mana talent, it made her an outcast. With her father's cold treatment being common knowledge in the village, people tended to ignore her existence, why would they bother themselves with a talentless child when even her parent didn't care for her?

Sure, she possessed great physical strength but in the face of those who used mana, this strength would be rendered useless. Warriors could easily reach Faye's strength with the strengthening brought to them through mana circulation. In the villager's eyes, the only good aspect of Faye was her beauty, something she had inherited from her mother, but even then this didn't fully offset the downsides of her talent. Nobody would want to marry someone with no talent lest they wanted to risk having talentless descendants.

This was a world where your connection with mana determined how people treated you, they would worry about your personality, desires and the rest of it after.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, Faye looked into the far distance, towards the village entrance where large shapes could be seen emerging. As these shapes moved closer to the village, their armoured appearances slowly became clear to Faye's eyes as well as the guard's manning the entrance. Due to the village rarely receiving visitors, the men and women responsible for the village's defence, looked at one another in confusion, unaware of what to do in such a situation.

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Having lived in the village their whole lives, they had never seen a knight before and now a whole group of them was moving towards their village. To make matters worse, these knights were stronger than each and every one of the village guards, they could sense the large berth between their levels from a simple glance at these knights. This was to be expected, despite their varying level of strength, the villagers severely lacked combat experience due to their peaceful environment.

However, this would not mean they would not defend their village. They had to. So many people were relying on them for protection; they had to show the people of the village that their trust was not misplaced. With this thought running through the minds of the guards, they tightened their grip around their weapons and narrowed their eyes at the sea of white approaching their home. Many eyes froze at the sight of a streak of red, their courage slowly vanishing as fear took its place.

Red feather plume.

Red shoulder cape.

These were the only differences between the other knights and this knight, yet the gap in their power was like that of the villagers and the ordinary knights. This knight was on a whole another level. There was no doubt about it, that knight was the leader, there was no other person within that knight group stronger than the knight with the red feather plume.

Merely sparing a glance at the riffraff standing on the village walls, Captain Edin focused his senses on the air as they edged closer and closer to the village, if he sensed even the slightest trace of demonic mana he would order his men to annihilate the village that lay before them. There was no mercy for cultists, not even children were spared. Edin wouldn't even need to join his men in the extermination, in fact, even sending all his men was overkill. His entire group consisted of Knight Seedlings, warriors that would reach his level in the future, from a young age, they had been bathed in blood and conflict, to sharpen them into strong Knights.

Edin had undergone the same process when he was younger, and now he was training the Knights of the future, though it wasn't out of the goodness of his heart, it was simply to gain more training resources for himself. Becoming a Knight was not the end of the path to power, the next stage was reaching the Grand Knight level, a stage that required both talent and hard work to reach. Returning his focus to the village that stood before him, the Captain simply shook his head in disappointment, the village guards weren't even at the level of an ordinary soldier let alone Knight Seedlings.

But this could be a facade to lower the guard of the knights. Taking no chances, Edin signalled at one of the knights closest to him, who nodded in understanding before repeating the signal to the other knights in the group. If the knights were cautious earlier, now they were on high alert, subtly scanning their surroundings for any signs of an ambush while they tightened their grip around the handles of their weapons.

Soon the knights stood before the entrance to the village, their eyes meeting with those of the guards, both sides stood unmoving, trying to discern one another's objective. Standing at the front of the group, Edin observed the movements and facial expressions of the village guards before stepping foot into the village. Pushing his mana sense to its limits, the giant knight searched.

And he searched.

But nothing.

Not even a trace of demonic mana.

Gesturing to his men that the area was clear, Edin narrowed his gaze at the people of the village as if he were trying to peer into their secrets.

'So it's an apostle candidate'