(Damn, did something really happen?)

The cat scrambled to its feet in a panic, climbed over the cargo, and squeezed out through a gap. That was when it saw the carriage surrounded by people dressed in black. The guards were gathered around it, protecting the carriage, while the white-haired young lady from earlier was probably hiding inside.

The tension was so thick that no one noticed the little creature suddenly crawling out from among the cargo.

“Hey! Do you know who owns this carriage?! I suggest you come to your senses and stop doing things you shouldn’t on the Divine Road!”

Faced with this sudden ambush, the captain of the guards was so panicked that he could barely get his words out. Nothing he said made the slightest bit of sense.

But none of the people surrounding them answered or argued back. They simply held their weapons in silence, taking up attack stances.

“Hey, hey… Whatever terms you want to discuss, we can talk! This is the Divine Road! If you kill someone here, you’ll be punished by the gods!!”

Seeing how aggressively these people—who seemed to be bandits—were acting, all the guards panicked. At that moment, the only lifeline they had was the “Divine Road” beneath their feet. It was a miracle granted to the Empire after it prayed to the Divine Temple: 188 roads connecting the Empire’s major cities.

This miracle didn’t just make the roads exceptionally smooth. It also offered some protection to travelers. Anyone who tried to rob people on these roads would be severely weakened, and anyone who killed someone here would surely suffer “divine punishment.”

But the group didn’t hesitate for a second. They charged in with their weapons raised.

“Damn it, you lunatics! Brothers, attack!! With the Road God’s blessing, we’re invincible!!”

“Kill!!!”

The guards drew the long blades from their waists and swung them at their attackers. Transparent ripples flickered along the edges. Hidden among the cargo, the cat could clearly sense the guards’ auras change in that moment.

Clang!!!

One guard stared blankly at the long blade severed in his hand, then at the blade lodged in his neck, wisps of black mist curling around it. The attackers showed no sign of being weakened. If anything, every one of them was incredibly strong. Almost none of the guards could match the people in black.

The battle was over in no time. The people in black cut down the guards with their long blades as easily as chopping vegetables, then sliced off every one of their heads. They used the blood to nourish their blades. The black mist had thinned during the fight, but as the blades drank in the blood, it gradually returned—thicker than before.

(Holy crap, these freaks are insane!)

After blood had been sprayed all around the carriage, the cat timidly shrank back among the cargo. It wasn’t that it didn’t want to run. It was just terrified that the people in black were so worked up they’d slash at any living thing they saw. Running out now would be suicide.

The cat nervously licked its paw. Its only hope now was to slip away while the bandits were busy looting the cargo.

But after waiting for a long while, it realized the bandits weren’t touching the cargo. Instead, they were slowly approaching the carriage.

(Oh no, the girl!)

It suddenly remembered that there was also a breathtakingly beautiful white-haired woman aboard. But in this situation, there probably wasn’t anyone who could save her.

The cat was frantic, but there was nothing it could do. It was only a cat right now, barely able to protect itself. How could it even think of saving someone else?

The people in black gradually surrounded the carriage. One of them suddenly thrust out a long blade and sliced clean through half the carriage roof. The carriage door burst open, revealing a white-haired girl inside. She held a mithril longsword and hurled a huge fireball at the people in black outside.

It happened too suddenly for the people in black to scatter in time. Two or three of them were grazed by the fireball, and ghostly blue flames sprang up across their bodies.

Seeing this, those struck by the fireball slashed at the burning parts of their own bodies. Their wounds didn’t bleed; they were charred black. The severed pieces burned to ashes before they even hit the ground.

“Enhance. Accelerate. Coordinate. Sharpen.”

Taking advantage of the chaos, the white-haired girl cast several enhancement spells on herself. Blue flames also spread across her sword. She leaped from the carriage and, with blinding speed, cut down two people. Reaching the front of the carriage, she sliced through the gear keeping one of the horses under control, swung onto its back, clamped her legs around its belly, and galloped away.

The people in black were stunned. They’d never imagined such a powerful girl was hiding inside the carriage. Her escape had been so smooth, as if she’d rehearsed it a thousand times. The roadblocks they’d set up could stop large carriages, but a single horse, if deliberately guided, could easily leap over them. They’d overlooked that one detail—and a living person had slipped right through their encirclement.

“What are you standing around for?! Go after her!”

The leader of the people in black smacked the two horsemen beside him and pointed to the two horses still in front of the carriage.

“Yes!”

The two men hurriedly unhitched the horses from the carriage and chased after the girl.

“You lot, clean this place up! Check the cargo for food. If there’s none, drag it into the field and burn it with the bodies.”

“Yes!!”

When they came over to move the cargo, the cat cautiously peeked out. After they put away their long blades, they seemed much more human. Before, with those blades in their hands, they’d been silent as killing machines. Now that they seemed more like people, the cat suddenly felt its chances of survival were much better.

“You two, take this big box down and see what’s inside.”

“Yes!”

The cat felt the large box beside it slowly being moved away, opening up a path. In the faint glow of dusk, it could just make out an empty stretch of wild ground.

After checking several times to make sure nobody was watching the opening, the cat suddenly darted out and raced into the wild.

“What was that?!”

Hearing a sudden commotion nearby, two people in black whipped out their long blades and turned toward the direction the cat had fled.

(I’m dead!!)

Its animal instincts told it that something incredibly dangerous had its eyes on it. But it couldn’t stop running. Every hair on its back stood on end.

When the two men realized the fleeing creature was just a cat, they breathed a sigh of relief and put away their long blades.

“What’s going on over here?”

The leader had noticed someone draw a weapon, so he hurried over to ask.

“It’s nothing, boss. A cat crawled out of the cargo box just now, and we let it get away.”

The boss looked at the carriage, then in the direction the cat had fled. With the large box moved aside, he could clearly see the remains of some dried fish on the carriage. That cat had been kept in the cargo.

The boss thought it over for a while, but couldn’t figure out why the cat mattered. In the end, he just waved a hand.

“It’s just a cat. Don’t make such a fuss.”

Then he turned away and urged the others to hurry up and burn the bodies.

By then, the cat had waited until the feeling of danger had completely faded. It was now crouched quietly in a tall clump of grass, watching everything the people on the road did.

It couldn’t make out the details, but it could see them piling everything together and setting it all on fire.