What story should I start with?
Right, first experience, of course.
They say the first time hurts, and boy, were they right.
It was quite the painful experience.
Looking back now, I can only chuckle.
◆◆
After three days of wandering, munching on some unknown fruit whenever I got hungry, I finally stumbled upon a small, out-of-the-way village of firewood gatherers.
A tiny village with about a dozen folks barely scraping by, burning the forest for survival. It was almost embarrassing to call it a village.
Two old men, four middle-aged men, five young men. And about three women, if I remember correctly.
They were the first residents of this world I got to talk to after I possessed this body.
Wasn’t it Gunther first, you ask? Let’s skip that exception.
That guy just rambled on about his own stuff, and the only thing I shot back was a “screw you” insult.
Anyway, the first people I met in this world were surprisingly kind and simple.
Maybe it was because I told them I was just an adventurer, not a knight, when they cautiously asked if I was a knight.
After all, it’s probably easier to deal with an adventurer than a knight.
At first, the villagers, thinking a high-ranking person had come to visit, were on guard, but then changed their attitude completely, welcoming me with big smiles.
They were showering me with kindness and goodwill, something rare to receive even in my original world.
“Oh, you’re an adventurer! My son ran off to become an adventurer too! Who knows, you might have run into him!”
“You wandered the forest for three days? Oh dear, young lady, you must have had a tough time. Here, take this!”
Is this what they call rural generosity? They were really kind folks.
They believed my excuse of being lost in the woods without a shred of doubt, providing me food and a place to rest, pitying my struggles.
…Yeah, they were really kind.
So kind, they provided room service without even being asked! At the crack of dawn!
I still remember clearly the village chief’s voice, advising me to cut off their wrists before they woke up, while I was sound asleep, armor off.
Really golden advice that was.
The reason they welcomed an outsider so warmly, along with their quiet purpose in the dead of night, perfectly explained the law and moral level of this world in one sentence.
Thank goodness I stayed up all night just in case.
What would have happened if I had dozed off without a care? Just thinking about it gives me shivers.
◆◆
That day, I learned two valuable lessons.
The first was to always be suspicious of kindness from complete strangers.
And the other was—
“AAAAAWK!”
“What the hell, a knight! It’s a knight!”
I was surprisingly good at fighting.
It didn’t even take a few minutes to slice through fourteen of them.
Here’s how it went down.
While the villagers were sneaking up cautiously in the darkness, they stormed in before I even had a chance to run out.
“…Huh?”
Instead of the prey who should be fast asleep in armor, they were greeted by me, hastily drawing my sword and swinging it around.
I really had no choice.
Unlike with Gunther, this house had an impossibly narrow window, so escaping through it was out of the question.
So, I had no option but to face the door head-on.
“HAAAAA!”
With my heart pounding and tension surging, I shouted as I swung my sword.
At the bearded middle-aged man holding an axe.
The result was astonishing.
“Ugh!”
The middle-aged man swung his axe, startled by my sudden attack. The axe’s blade cut through the air with a fierce SWISH.
However, the blade of the sword I had drawn effortlessly deflected the axe to the side, continuing onwards and embedding itself like a spear into the middle of the man’s throat.
It was a movement as natural as flowing water, as fast as lightning.
“Ugh, Gah…!”
The middle-aged man stared wide-eyed at the sword piercing his throat, trembling.
I kicked him hard in the gut with my right foot, sending him flying backwards, naturally pulling my sword free and flicking it to the side.
“Ugh, huh?!”
A young man holding a pitchfork let out a stupid groan, gingerly feeling his own throat where my sword had skimmed past.
The next moment, his head smoothly slipped off, spraying a fountain of blood everywhere.
“What the hell are you doing, you woman!”
In a flash, two were dead and one brown-haired youth, shocked, reflexively lunged with a dagger in hand.
His movement looked like a student trying to stab a cheating boyfriend.
I stepped back, letting his dagger glide across my armor, and grabbed his shoulder to push him down.
“Ugh…! What kind of strength…!”
The man crumpled to his knees like a criminal.
The tip of my sword, now inverted, plunged deeply into the back of his neck.
It pierced through his neck like tofu. Was he suffering from osteoporosis?
“Ref! Max…! What the hell, I thought you were asleep!”
The guy who had been toppled by the middle-aged corpse spat out curses with a twisted face.
Lacking the courage to fight back, he started scuttling back on the ground.
“Huh….”
I stared blankly at the villagers lined up behind him as I lightly shook the blood off my sword.
My head swam with confusion.
Although I didn’t show it, I was just as shocked as the men in front of me. By none other than myself.
My first murder.
And three at once, too, in such a simple way.
It was an unexpected outcome.
What I aimed for was not to stab and slice three people to death, but to panic them with wild swings of my sword and then make a quick getaway in the confusion.
But… how do I put it…my body moved on its own.
From the moment I faced the swinging axe to the instant I thrust the sword into the back of the dagger-wielding guy, I kept going.
The swift and graceful swordsmanship one would expect to see in games. Movements I had never even attempted with a knife before.
But it unfolded in reality.
The moment I realized it, my body had already turned those three into chunks of flesh in the blink of an eye.
‘What the heck…’
It was instinctual movement.
Like a fledgling bird thrown from its nest flapping its wings reflexively, something primal was guiding my limbs.
It felt like my muscles were drilling instructions into my brain.
“This is how you swing a sword.
This is how you thrust.
If you stab here, they die—like a lesson being pounded into me.
Maybe it was the accumulated experience of Brunhilde as a knight?
I simply followed those teachings. Without a thought, like a marionette, unfolding motions my body remembered.
The result was the three corpses before me.
“…Ugh.”
I bit my lip and let out a soft groan.
Staring into the lifeless, half-turned faces, a wave of nausea rose within me.
Like when you hit a deer or cat while driving at night…
…But that barely scratched the surface of shock.
“What the hell, what is this madness…!”
“Shit, I told you to let it go….”
“Shut your mouth! What are you doing, fire! Shoot him with the bow!”
Of course, I didn’t have time to be shocked.
Despite three fallen men, the remaining folks didn’t flee; instead, they charged at me with rage etched on their faces, as if they had seen their family’s killer.
Probably, that was indeed the truth.
Thus, I could only glare at them silently as I gripped my bloodied sword tightly.
And.
Not long before the sun would rise, the village of firewood gatherers received a total of fourteen skulls.
◆◆
That day’s lesson significantly changed me.
This isn’t a lively downtown of the 21st century with a police station just five minutes away; it ingrained in me that this world is one where friendly locals show up wielding pitchforks.
From that day forward, it was literally a march of hardships.
A grueling road filled with new lessons almost daily. I gained countless realizations.
– Cover your face as much as possible.
– Wear a helmet if you don’t want a hole in your head.
– Bears are stronger than people.
– Merchants can always turn into thieves.
– Human shields are surprisingly useful.
– Kill anyone who opens a book in the middle of a fight first.
– If you can’t find somewhere safe to sleep in the city, better to choose to camp out.
– Either cook for yourself or find a proper restaurant.
– Monsters lurk in caves that seem good for resting.
Lessons learned by witnessing bloodshed were all indeed blood-and-flesh lessons.
Anyway, so I killed a little over a hundred.
They say the first time is always the hardest, right?
Maybe due to experiencing my first murder with a solid fifteen points, I didn’t feel much shock afterward.
It was just slightly unpleasant—the stench when someone dies, the heat and feel of the blood-soaked filth.
Sticky and smelly, and laundry was a pain in the neck.
Anyway, there were simple fights and near-death encounters.
Criminals brandishing swords as soon as I thought I was in the clear.
Travelers proposing to join me, just because the paths were similar, along with the townsfolk from a small mountain village.
Bandits attacking me.
A woman who asked for help, only to swing a dagger at me as soon as I got close.
Fortunately, I managed to navigate through all those fights on my own, thanks to the armor clad on Brunhilde’s body.
Thus, within just two months, the jobless young man Yoo Hamin from South Korea evolved into an exceptional swordsman who could slice through necks like picking fruits in this other world.
It’s like I grew from a Magikarp to a Gyarados.
Charles Darwin, you were right.
If you want to survive, you must adapt to the changing environment.
By any means necessary.
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