As he approached the road, exhaustion weighed heavily on him. Each step forward was a monumental effort.

Swish!

"Arghh!"

Suddenly, a piercing pain shot through King's leg as an arrow from one of the pursuing soldiers found its mark.

The king fell to the ground, clutching his injured leg.

"Kh-kha-kh!"

He heard the goblins' laughter from behind him.

"Urgh!"

Attempting to rise, he faltered under the arrow's torment. Lying on the ground, he attempted to crawl across to the other side of the road, but upon hearing the goblins' footsteps approaching, he ceased his struggle.

"Darn you fools, I'm your king! How dare you do this to me," muttered the king, exclaiming.

The goblins advanced toward him. From behind, a small knife appeared in the hand of one of the goblins. He raised it and struck swiftly towards the king's face.

"Raghh!"

But suddenly, a sword flashed through the air, separating the hands of goblin with a mighty scream. A man appeared and kicked the goblin away from the king.

The figure stood directly in front of the king, shielding him from harm. Which also prevent king from seeing the man's face.

"Hmph! Disgusting bastards dare to harm an innocent life," declared the figure with a manly voice.

The sword he wielded shone red in a luminous silhouette, and along with the sword, the armor he wore also gleamed brightly as he rushed toward the group of goblins and began to slaughter them mercilessly.

The king witnessed the massacre of his own kind with his own eyes. They screamed, pleaded to survive, and tried to run away, but with a single swing of his sword, the man slashed each one of them down mercilessly.

"Kh-khu-kha, serve you right, fools. That will be your punishment for betraying your king," the king laughed inwardly.

Within a few minutes, the knightly figure slaughtered all the goblins, and afterward, the glow in his sword and armor slowly vanished.

"Are you okay?" the knight asked, walking toward the king. "What's a handsome youth like you doing alone in the middle of a forest?" As he spoke, his appearance became clear to the king.

A man with striking curly hair and a spotless face, possessing a perfect knight's physique, smiled attractively.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Emill. What's yours?" Emill asked, offering a helping hand to the king.

"This bastard called me handsome? How disgusting. But it seems this fool sees me as his own kind" the king thought to himself. "Kh-what an idiot. That sword and armor in his hand seem like some kind of valuable items. I'll just play along with this fool and snatch those two later."

"My name is Eirik, that's the only thing I remember, though I don't know how or when I got into this forest," said the king as he tried to stand up with Emill's help.

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"Urgh!"

But the wound in his leg prevented him from doing so as he winced in pain.

"It seems your injury is serious. Here, let me carry you," said Emill as he placed one hand behind Eirik's back and the other behind his leg.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop it, you bastard! Don't you dare princess carry me!" the king screamed.

"Haha, don't be embarrassed, this is not a difficult task for me," Emill said in a soft voice as he lifted Eirik, supporting his back with one hand and his legs with the other.

"Kyaaa, my dignity as a king," Eirik cursed inwardly. For some disturbing reason, he felt as though flower petals were falling from the sky around them.

"Oh, the wind is quite harsh today," Emill said, shielding himself against a harsh gust. Nearby, from a tree with pink leaves, a flurry of petals loosened and drifted toward the two of them.

"Urgh, just kill me."

With Eirik in his arms, facing his screm, Emill carried him to a nearby carriage.

"You have to wait here, young man. I'm sorry, but I don't have any medicine with me right now. As soon as we get to the city, I will get you to a healer for treatment," Emill assured him.

"And about your memory loss, I'm pretty sure it was caused by a hermit flower. They have the effect of making the person exposed to its mist forget everything about themselves."

The king listened to Emill silently. The hermit flower he spoke of was a familiar concept to him; it was also the reason why he planned to use it as an excuse. He had seen humans wander into the forest alone and lose their senses and memories before, and he wasn't afraid if it turned out to be a lie. Though, most of those who forgot ended up as prey for one of his kind, it wasn't his problem.

In the same seat, a little boy was sleeping, but the king had no interest in him at all.

"If it comes to it, I will ask our lady to hire you to out guild. A youth with a handsome face like yours is sure to be talented in that field," said Emill.

"Huh, this bastard trying to make this king work for them? How dare they. If not for this situation, I would rip that mouth for sure."

"Also, you can have this. It's inappropriate to be like that." From a closet, Emill pulled out a set of clothes and offered them to the king. It was then that the king realized he didn't have clothes on his body. When he was the king of the big horde of goblins, he usually wore only something to cover his lower parts, so he didn't usually care about clothes and didn't notice something was missing from his body.

"Wait a second, that means this bastard carried me naked!" The king felt like he was hit with a hammer in his head. With a dejected expression, he took the clothes in his hand.

"Has an hour passed since the madam left?" Emil asked the coachman on the other side.

"Sir, it's been almost two hours," replied the coachman.

"What? Excuse me, young man, I need to be somewhere else," Emil rushed out of the carriage and prepared to run down the road ahead. But after he took a few steps, he saw a figure appear at the far corner of the road. They were... flying.

"Magician," muttered Emil as he grabbed his sword.

"Gha, there's no doubt about it, that's the witch from the forest. Shit, did that wretched old hag inform her about us?" Seeing the flying figures, the king suddenly became flustered and frightened. He hurriedly lowered himself, trying to hide while also peeking outside from time to time.

"Who are you two?" Emil asked, pointing his sword toward the two women hovering in the air. They were both extremely beautiful to his eyes, but he noticed that one of them had the eyes of a cat.

Without a word, the two landed closer to Emil.

"I will only ask one more time: who are you?" Emil demanded in a trembling voice.

"Tch, Emil, can't you even recognize your owner? But thinking about it, in the state I'm in right now, I think it's impossible even for you," one of the women said.

Emil's attention was drawn to that woman. For some reason, he felt she was familiar to him. Even though he had never seen her in his life, the sense and breath she gave off were extremely familiar.

"Ma... Madam," Emil stuttered.

But he was met with a knock on his head from the woman.

"It's young lady now. Remember that in that head of yours," said the old woman, who now appeared young.

"Now, Emil, go fetch that extra coin pouch I brought with me," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Emil replied obediently, but Charlotte looked at him angrily.

"Y-yes, young lady," Emil stammered, turning away. He hurriedly rushed toward the carriage, opened its door, and saw the young man who had changed seats and was now sitting in a corner. Emil quickly located the coin pouch, grabbed it, and headed towards Charlotte without a word to Eirik.

As he left, the sound of coins jingling in the large pouch echoed through the air.

"Huh, that sound... it's coins," Eirik leaned out of the window on the other side, watching Emil hand the coin pouch to the woman with his greedy eyes.

"Here's the money I owe you. Please eradicate every one of those bastards," Charlotte said, handing the money to the witch.

"Haha, I'll do as you please," replied the witch as she hovered back into the sky and flew towards the forest.