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Chapter 39
Reinhardt, as a paladin, had dealt with monster hunts before, but he had never experienced war.
No, it wasn’t just his problem. It had already been over a hundred years since the empire last fought a war. Among the living citizens of the empire, there was no one who had ever experienced war.
It was an exceptionally peaceful era.
Unlike him, who couldn’t even bring himself close to the stench, the insects, and the grisly scene, his younger sister was calmly examining the corpse, analyzing the cause of death.
“She was struck at the back of the head and fell forward, and her intestines were eaten. She was alive right up until she fell… The culprit isn’t human. Not even a normal beast. Seems like she went out hunting alone and met with misfortune. How unfortunate.”
Then she adjusted her gloves, straightened the corpse’s twisted posture, and gathered the spilled intestines to put them back inside the body.
Reinhardt was horrified.
“W-What… are you doing?”
“You can’t leave a person in this state. If the family saw this, they’d faint.”
He stared at her in disbelief. There was something strange about the way she handled the corpse—it wasn’t careless, but polite.
‘It’s a stranger’s corpse, not someone she knows.’
Her hands carried respect for the person in life, not just the skillful handling of something gruesome. It was a natural courtesy born from having seen countless deaths of living beings.
‘Rita really…’
He understood now how many deaths Lilieta must have witnessed and how accustomed she was to this kind of scene.
Reinhardt felt both unfamiliarity and admiration for her. And he was surprised to feel that for his younger sister, whom he had always thought of as fragile and young.
‘Admiration…?’
Rita paused as she placed the limbs back in position, unaware of Reinhardt’s thoughts. Then she stared intently at a dangling joint.
“Reinhardt.”
“Uh, yes?”
“She only shook the limbs up to the point they were about to tear, ate part of the intestines, and discarded the rest. Is there a monster that kills people like this?”
“Uh… Goblins are cruel, but they’re too small to shake an adult male. Ogres are big, but they don’t play with their prey and are too strong to control their force precisely. If possible, it could be an Orc, but Orcs live in tribes and take all their prey, leaving nothing behind…”
“So, there’s no monster that comes to mind?”
“Right, not immediately. But there are all sorts of monsters. If we investigate properly, we’ll find its identity.”
Rita opened her mouth, then closed it.
Monkey-type beasts usually kill people this way—grabbing and shaking limbs, playing with them like toys, eating only the intestines they like, and discarding the rest like trash.
So this corpse was a familiar pattern to her.
‘But there are no beasts in this world. A world that doesn’t even know what a beast is.’
She lifted her head and surveyed the surroundings.
There were no footprints or other signs of movement around the corpse. Instead, she noticed broken branches on nearby trees. Upon closer inspection, the tree was withering and dying.
‘Monkey-type beasts move through trees.’
Plants affected by a beast’s presence sometimes wither and die from the taint of magical corruption.
Rita approached the dying tree, removed her gloves, and laid her bare hands on it.
“Rita?”
“Just a moment.”
She poured a little Oath into it to scan for traces of magical contamination.
‘If it died from contact with corrupted magic, there should be a sign…’
She felt nothing in particular.
It could simply be the impact from the broken branches or the tree dying for another reason.
‘Right, this is a world without magical corruption. That makes sense. There are no beasts here. It’s not the work of a beast.’
Still, it felt off.
She turned back to Reinhardt.
“Reinhardt.”
“Uh, first, let’s call someone. There’s a corpse here…”
“Are you sure there are no beasts in this world?”
“Of course. You’re the first person I’ve heard use that term.”
“Not that we just haven’t found them?”
“Hey, when an unidentified monster is discovered, the first to know is the Holy Order in the sanctuary. People go to their local temple when they see something strange or unfamiliar. They ask them to exterminate it.”
“I see.”
“If what you call a beast isn’t actually a breeding creature but something like an animal, human, or even an object affected by magical corruption, the Holy Order would have freaked out if such a thing appeared. But I haven’t heard a single report. I’m technically on leave now, but I’m still a paladin.”
“…I see.”
“It’s probably the work of an obscure, unrecorded monster. Could be an undiscovered species. Likely came from the Black Forest, so investigating should clarify things.”
“Yeah.”
Rita nodded for the time being.
If this world actually had beasts, it couldn’t be this peaceful.
They could appear anytime, anywhere, and if there’s no preparation for magical contamination, it would be a worse hell than the Ashen World she grew up in.
‘But if… beasts do exist here, and it’s just the early stage of contamination, so they haven’t been discovered yet?’
A chilling feeling crept over her.
She gripped the gun at her waist tightly to suppress the wave of nightmares surging up her throat.
‘…No. It’s just an overreaction. This is my home, a world different from there.’
She slowly released the handle and took a breath.
‘Still, I shouldn’t be completely careless. Variables can appear at any time.’
Meanwhile, Reinhardt fired a signal flare.
Hunting immediately stopped after the corpse was found.
While it wasn’t common for someone to die at the hands of an unidentified monster in the Amethyst Forest, it wasn’t unheard of either. Since the forest connects to the Black Forest, home to countless monsters, such incidents had precedent, though rare.
The guards investigated the identity of the corpse and strengthened patrols in nearby villages. The Knights of Laskyle scoured the entire Amethyst Forest to track the monster’s traces and plan an extermination.
Although it was a simple accident unrelated to the hunt, the Duke of Laskyle instructed that the victim’s funeral expenses and a small consolation sum be given to the family.
Lilieta also requested that she be informed once the monster’s identity was discovered.
Though the incident didn’t bring relief but instead increased her anxiety and frequency of nightmares, she didn’t show it to her family.
After the matter was concluded, on April 7, 1770, the Laskyle family departed for the capital as scheduled.
After a three-day peaceful journey, the ducal family arrived in the capital, Ramcard.
Around the same time, many nobles arrived in the capital. Empty townhouses gradually filled, and the city buzzed with activity.
It marked the beginning of the social season of the Kairam Empire.
