Chapter 5 — Death Harvests in Silence

The next day, after equipping himself with a modest sword and clothes more fitting for his new line of work, Ren stood in front of the guild’s mission board.

His eyes settled on one particular request:

Collect 100 medicinal herbs.
Area: Lower Shadow Forest.
Reward: 10 silver coins.

Far too generous a payment for an E-rank job.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the notice and bolted out of the guild, ignoring the snickers of several adventurers lounging near the bar.

“Look at that—there goes the village idiot!” one of them laughed.

“Picking herbs, huh? Perfect job for a farmer,” chimed in another.

Ren didn’t spare them a glance. He just smiled.

At the city gate, just before the path to the forest, he crossed paths with Yura. She walked with a delicate grace, like a flower blooming at dawn.

“Good morning, Ren,” she greeted him kindly. “Heading out on your first mission?”

“Good morning, Miss Aseina.”

“Yes, I’m off to do some gathering.”

“I’m glad you’re starting with something peaceful,” she said with a warm smile. “Ah, and just call me Yura. ‘Miss Aseina’ makes me feel… old.”

“Got it, sorry.”

“Are you heading to a mission too?”

She sighed, without much emotion.

“An S-class dragon’s attacking a border village... just another annoying day in my life.”

“Whoa! That sounds amazing!” Ren said, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“I imagine to an E-rank, it probably does sound like some epic quest,” she said with a faint smirk before picking up her pace.

“Take care. I’ll see you around,” she added, without looking back, disappearing into the crowd.

Ren continued on to the location marked on his map.

The Lower Shadow Forest wasn’t far. According to the guild’s info, it was a quiet, uneventful area.

He began collecting the herbs calmly, matching them to the drawings in his notebook. Each one went into a cloth pouch.

“You can come out now,” Ren said softly, not even looking up as he plucked another plant. “I know you’ve been tailing me since we left Urus.”

“Well, well… what a sharp little farmer,” said a man emerging from the trees, a dagger in hand. Three others followed behind him, all armed, all grinning with confidence.

“How’d you figure it was a trap?”

“I saw you last night, drinking at the guild. You were watching which missions rookies were picking up.”

“They say a bunch of E-rank adventurers have gone missing lately,” one of them added. “Ten silver coins just for gathering herbs... Anyone green would’ve taken the bait.”

Ren continued picking without changing his tone.

“Well then, let’s skip the pleasantries,” the lead thug growled. “Hand everything over if you wanna keep breathing.”

“I’d rather not,” Ren replied flatly, still not bothering to face them.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me, you—”

“Boss… something’s not right.”

“Yeah… he’s way too calm,” said another, glancing around. “Feels like… we’re the ones being hunted.”

“Ninety-seven.”
“Ninety-eight.”
“Ninety-nine…”
“One hundred.”

Ren plucked the final root with care and brushed off his hands, just like he would after weeding a field.

Then he looked up.

And for the first time, his eyes no longer belonged to a simple farmer.

“Well then. Here’s how this is gonna go…”

His voice dropped. Not from fear.

But by choice.

“I’m sure the authorities are after you. Robbery. Ambushes. Vanishing rookies. I bet there’s quite a bounty on your heads…”

The bandits took an instinctive step back.
The air grew heavier.

“What the hell…?”
“What’s with this guy?”

Ren rose to his full height.

His shadow stretched long and sharp beneath the dappled sunlight slipping through the trees.

“I didn’t come here today as an adventurer,” he said. “Today, I came as something else.”

The leader raised his dagger — not with swagger, but with a flicker of unease.

“Who... are you?”

Ren didn’t answer.

He took a single step forward.

And the temperature dropped.

“I am the bitter winter.”

A white katana materialized in his hand — and with it, his entire form shifted.

His clothes transformed into a deep navy cloak.
His hair turned to frost-white.
And his eyes… no longer belonged to this world.

He was Phantom.

Frost spread across the forest floor, creeping like living chains and coiling around the bandits’ ankles.

“I offer your souls to Shion, goddess of death,” he said with unnerving calm.

“And I pray your spirits rot in darkness for your sins.”

The leader opened his mouth to scream… but Phantom was already gone.

A flash. A blur no eye could track.

And then… silence.

Heads fell one after another onto the frostbitten ground.

Clean cuts. Perfect strikes.

As if he were plucking rotted leaves from a dying plant.

He didn’t hesitate.
He didn’t stop.
He didn’t doubt.

He simply executed.

“For all the souls you stole…”

“Redemption!”

With a sharp motion, he sheathed his blade.

The souls claimed by the bandits began to rise.

Tiny points of light floated into the air like fireflies, dancing upward… purified.

“Now that balance has been restored…” he murmured, as his katana dissolved and his form returned to normal. “I’ll leave the bodies here and notify the guards.”

And with that, he smiled — becoming once more the cheerful farmer everyone thought he was.

Back in the city, Ren approached the gate guards and calmly explained what he had “witnessed.” One of them accompanied him to the scene.

“I was out gathering medicinal herbs when I heard strange noises. By the time I got there… this was what I saw.”

The guard examined the scene with care, eyes narrowing as he recognized the fallen.

“…That’s Muricio. From the Dalmatios gang,” he said, pointing to a boar-shaped tattoo on one of the corpses. “All of ’em had bounties.”

He turned to Ren with a suspicious — yet curious — look.

“You see who did this, kid?”

Ren shook his head.

“I just saw a shadow move… and then, silence.”

The guard scratched his chin.

“Hmph. Judging by how clean these cuts are… this wasn’t the work of a rookie. Or any ordinary killer.”

“I’d say it was someone high-ranking… maybe a relative of one of their victims.”

“I see,” Ren replied calmly, his expression unreadable.

“Alright, here’s what we’ll do. Since they had bounties and you’re the one who found them like this, you’ll come with me to file the report and collect the rewards.”

“Then we’ll split the payment. Sound fair?”

“Yes, sir. But… do you think that shadow might come back?”

The man shook his head with confidence.

“Doubt it. This felt personal. A reckoning. Death came here… clean.”

They gathered anything of value, placed the severed heads in a sack, and together, with some effort, buried the bodies—marking the site with stones.

“Let’s head to the Royal Guard HQ,” the man said, brushing dust from his boots.

“Sure! After that, I need to drop off these medicinal herbs at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

The two started making their way back toward Urus.

Meanwhile, in Ren’s mind…

…he knew Phantom wouldn’t be able to hide in the shadows forever.