Free Web NovelThe Hydra was a monster recorded in myth—
a devil of the deep sea, an undying nine-headed serpent.
A fine drizzling rain began to fall from the sky, pattering onto the great serpent lying beneath the clouds.
Aurora’s consciousness was hazy, as if she were an acrobat walking on a tightrope—
except her tightrope stretched into an endless distance, and one misstep would plunge her into the abyss below, where she would become a monster utterly stripped of reason.
But she wasn’t worried.
Her thinking was selfish, but as long as the Captain was here, all of these problems would be solved.
She would be solved together with them.
Just like the first time she met the Captain.
Her homeland was over in the Western Territories, a backwards tribe.
The Captain found her while pursuing monsters there.
Back then she wore coarse tribal hemp clothes, her hair braided into two long plaits, and red blood-paint smeared on her cheeks—the tribe’s symbol of vengeance.
She crouched in the dark, a bow and quiver slung across her back, a dagger in her hand, and a buffalo-hide poison pouch at her waist for smearing poison on her arrows and blade.
That was all she had.
But she relied on these crude tools to kill the hateful merchants invading their tribe, trying to seize her sister and clanspeople to sell as slaves.
No formal assassination training, no noble magic, no precious high-grade weapons—
only the archery and ambush-hunting skills passed down in her tribe for hundreds of years.
The vile merchants rode in on horseback with their companions, intending to scout ahead under cover of night.
Her arrow left the bowstring and struck the leading horse in the eye.
The merchant and his companions immediately grew alert, lifting torches to search for the unseen attacker.
But how could such a simple search possibly find Aurora, who knew this land like the back of her hand?
She moved in the dark, barefoot, drawing and loosing arrows, then shifting position, drawing and loosing again.
The cold arrows from the darkness caught them completely off guard.
Several members of the merchant caravan died in an instant.
But she had fewer than ten arrows—
and they were soon gone.
She hid her bow and went in to assassinate with her dagger.
She was the best hunter in the tribe, the most renowned assassin in the surrounding region.
Just when she was confident, the noble’s side suddenly discovered her trail somehow, catching her off guard.
Only later did she learn there was a mage in the noble’s caravan.
The moment she stepped into the mage’s detection range, her proud assassination skills became useless.
With her traces exposed, she was quickly surrounded.
Seeing no retreat, she hurled her dagger, aiming to stab that smug noble to death.
But the knight guarding behind the noble drew his blade in a flash and struck, cutting her dagger out of the air.
She had put all her strength into that throw.
Pain surged through her body as she watched the hired thugs close in.
Seeing that she was unarmed, they relaxed, not caring at all that this same girl had just killed several of their comrades.
But they forgot—
Aurora’s arrows and dagger were gone,
yet she still had her inborn weapon: her teeth.
The moment a thug reached for her hair, she lunged like a leopard, biting down viciously on his carotid artery.
Warm blood splashed across her face—
yet she laughed.
The horrifying sight stunned the other thugs.
The dazed noble quickly recovered and roared for his knight to seize her, even threatening to pull out all her teeth.
Against a fully armored knight, she had no chance at all.
Of course she failed.
Aurora closed her eyes, calm as she prepared to accept death—
though... she couldn’t stop worrying about her sister.
“Giving up already?” someone said, stepping in front of her. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
A stranger.
Later she learned he was the “Hero” she had heard rumors about when accepting assassination jobs in town.
But at that time, the Captain wasn’t yet the famed Chief Hero—
just a newcomer who had only recently earned the Hero title.
The Captain stood before all the knights and thugs, reached out to wipe the mud and blood from her face, and looked straight into her deep green pupils, faintly flickering with hatred.
It was one of the rare moments in her life when she saw warmth in someone’s eyes.
Her deep green, snake-like pupils never frightened him—
they delighted him.
Even the tribesmen thought her eyes were ominous.
Her parents didn’t want her.
Only she and her sister clung to each other for survival.
She wanted to do something for her family and tribe,
to prove she loved them.
Maybe then they would love her back—
maybe then she wouldn’t be so alone.
But the Captain felt different.
The Captain seemed to lack nothing, need nothing from her.
He just looked at her with an expression that... reminded her of her sister.
Her sister always told her to kill fewer people.
Yet the Captain encouraged her—
and even held out his own sword to her.
“Your equipment is terrible—old junk ready for the trash heap.
Try my sword.
Whether it’s killing people or killing monsters, it’s sharp enough.
Pick it up and swing it twice?”
Aurora lay on ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ the ground in a daze, staring at the Captain, who kept trying to shove the sword into her hands—
but she didn’t even have the strength to make a fist.
The Captain seemed to notice something, finally stopped forcing the sword on her, and she sighed in relief—
until he asked:
“You don’t like swords?”
“No. I... I just don’t have the strength.
My fingers... I can’t hold anything.”
She answered honestly.
The Captain was silent for a moment, then retrieved the sword—
but he immediately smiled and said: ƒгeewebnovёl.com
“If I help you do what you want to do, will you come with me?
Does that deal sound fair?”
Ah—what a textbook “kidnapping a little girl and going to jail” line.
Aurora couldn’t help covering her face.
But back then, she agreed.
That night, the Captain flicked his sword once—
and destroyed every weapon in the hands of the knights and thugs.
Even the mage’s staff was split cleanly in half.
The merchant’s top hat was blown into the air by the sword-qi.
The same stroke nearly sent his head flying as well.
“You lunatic! What are you doing?!” the merchant screamed.
But the Captain ignored him.
He only turned to Aurora and asked:
“Will you come with me?”
“Then... can you save my sister?” she asked.
“Of course.
I can save people—
I can even change the world.”
The instant he finished speaking, the sword flashed again.
Sword-qi arced like a rainbow, drawing a beautiful curve like a meteor across the night sky.
The merchant’s voice suddenly cut off,
a thin line of blood appearing across his neck.
Aurora’s eyes widened.
At thirteen, she had never seen such fierce and dazzling swordsmanship.
In that moment, the Captain seemed to be glowing.
The knights, thugs, and mage hired by the merchant—over thirty people—
none of them reacted in time to that stroke.
“Get back to your city.
Didn’t the Royal Capital’s new laws forbid slave trading among humans?”
The Captain looked at the trembling thugs.
“If not... then I’ll add it now.”
One day later, the Captain brought her back to the tribe.
The clanspeople, grateful yet fearful, practically begged him to take her away.
She was a child with heterochromatic beast-eyes; the shamans said such children brought calamity.
Aurora said nothing.
She simply stood behind the Captain.
That day, the Captain took her and her sister away from the tribe.
That was her first meeting with the Captain.
