A knight sitting on a mottled mare stood in front of a simple wooden gate. He was armed with a long iron sword, which had years of its glory behind it, bearing traces of repeated use in battle, war or other skirmish on the street. Besides the wear and tear, the sword was also distinguished by the fact that its upper part was covered with traces of the dried blood of his victim, which by some magical means had not come off all along, no matter how Derek tried to wash it off.

Tax collector also carried an old wooden oak shield with the coat of arms of the House of Isembert painted on it, which of course he served. Even the damage to the wood from old age and paint chips from use could not hide the animal symbol covering its entire surface, as nothing can stop a badger.... not even time.

Derek, by contrast, was dressed in decent black leather boots covering his ankles, lined on the outside. Low-quality black leather pants made from the skin of some strange animal, and a black leather jacket with sewn-in metal plates to protect his vital organs, the last of which in the whole set seemed to be the most expensive.

His jacket had green and white elements meant to symbolize the colors of the family to which the knight belonged, and was paired with a large leather cloak made from the skin of a huge wolf, or something that a wolf was once believed to be.

But together, if it weren't for the noble symbols on the body and shield, the knight who now worked as a tax collector could easily pass as some kind of hunter or a very experienced mercenary trained in battle. Although it would have been harder with the last option, as everyone in the kingdom knows that mercenaries always go in the company of their sworn brothers, never alone.

Nevertheless, despite all this, the knight's most distinguishing feature, aside from the magnificent physique hidden under his clothes, was the only unprotected part of his body , his head. A lightly trimmed thick black beard covered his square jaw, a long straight nose and short straight black hair were just an addition to his rugged northern masculine beauty. But the first feature that caught the eye when looking directly at Derek Astranion, the first and strongest knight of Baron Isembert, were his eyes. The blue eyeballs did not fully convey the coldness of his gaze, they were devoid of warmth, and anyone who came into contact with them at least once always felt that looking into them was like meeting death. The eyes were kind of soulless.

Years of fighting for his life had made Derek deadly and unpredictable; he was one of the strongest, if not the strongest person in the kingdom, so perhaps the claim that anyone who looks him in the eye meets death, as the villagers claimed, made some sense. Derek had no more mercy in him and certainly not for the weak.

Only why every villager he met, despite his appearance, continued to create problems is beyond anyone's comprehension

~~~

"Open the gate." shouted the knight to the guard standing on the wall. He had been waiting for a while before the gate blocking his entrance to the village.

Only silence answered him.

"Once again I repeat , open the gate."

Again, he received no response.

"..."

"What's up, someone overslept.... but it is the middle of the day. Could it be that the guards have drunk themselves to death?" Thought the knight and then began to get irritated.

His reminiscing about the past while on the road only made his gloomy character much worse. So whoever was responsible for this would certainly not have a pleasant day.

Even before he was even in front of the village the knight was having a bad day , a very bad day. The other villages weren't much better either to begin with but that this was one of the last....

"Hrrr.... "growled Derek through his teeth.

"Take it easy... Derek just don't destroy the village gates again, you don't want to pay out of your own pocket later to rebuild." Thought the tax collector trying to soothe his tranquil character.

"Guards, on the name of Baron Isembert I order you to open this gate.... if you don't do it now within a minute it will end badly for you, I swear on my honor. " said the knight giving one last chance to change the behavior of the guards.

"..."

" Good..."

"Good... "He said aloud when for the third time he did not get an answer , from the knight this time was pouring out of glacial anger that can only be washed away by the blood of the guilty. Yet along with the anger, Derek unconsciously let out a huge concentration of mana which he had kept under 'control' all the time.

"You refuse to work..."

"Ok... I'll do it myself." Said the knight dismounting from his horse. He approached the huge wooden door of the gate and through the strength of his muscles , began to move it. Derek strained his back and shoulders and with one simple push opened the wooden door, destroying in the process the support blocking the passage on the other side of the gate, which unsurprisingly at this time of day was still left. However, the knight in his anger did not notice this.

The road stood open to him .

He returned to his beloved mare, who stood motionless all the time out of fear of her owner.

"Calm down... you know I won't do anything to you." He whispered calmly to the horse as he pulled her lightly by the reins. At his words, the horse calmed down and passed through the gate without the slightest resistance.

Once the knight had done his part just as loudly, he closed the entrance behind him by breaking a specific section of the gate so that no one weaker than him could leave without his awareness or without making noise.

" Well, you've reached the end you lackeys, it's time to pay for your insult. I'm about to teach you how to respect knights."

The knight left the horse in a safe place so that the mare could eat oats and drink water in peace before continuing on his way when Derek, meanwhile, decided to deal with the disobedient and wayward guards.

Every step up the wooden staircase announced his arrival upstairs and with the mania pouring out of him, which testified to his anger even a dead man would easily see that something dangerous was approaching.

"Stand up, damn drunkards, the tax collector has arrived. Make a row."

"If you show remorse, it will only end up in a flogging," shouted Derek as soon as he was on the wall, loud enough for everyone to hear him.

"You hear me, get up."

"..."

"..."

"Get up.... what...where is everyone?" he thought puzzled as he looked around left and right and continued to see no one.

"Where have all the guards gone?"

"Is this some special occasion I don't know about.... a priest leading a prayer service for the whole village, or maybe something more serious happened?" Thought the knight, pondering the strange situation.

"If not... then heads will be sprinkled for leaving the village unprotected.

~~~

Derek strolled quietly around the village walls in search of a living soul, but it wasn't until he entered the guard barracks that he confirmed his belief that something was wrong.

"Blood," he thought, looking at the red stains on the floor and beds in one of the barracks rooms.

"Old" He stated with experienced eyes looking at the dried red spot.

"Bandits ... or maybe something more, if all the guards are gone, the first line of defense.... then the rest of the village probably as well." He thought as he left the building and began searching the rest of the village for more clues .

"I need to find more evidence before I inform the Baron of this very 'great' tragedy," the Knight said without a shadow of sympathy

~~~

Derek went from house to house without being discouraged by the fact that he was trespassing on someone else's property. It has happened to him more than once, and it won't happen again.

"Nothing."

~~~

"It's empty here, too."

~~~

"Still nothing."

~~~

"There is no one in this area," he stated the obvious when he once again found no one in the residential area.

" I must be sure.... I have to check the two most important places in the village before I can confidently return and report back."

~~~

"So no one is even here?" he thought aloud, checking all the hidden places and hiding spots in the city hall. "There were only blood stains left everywhere."

"I didn't see any valuables, so someone must have taken because knowing these corrupt pigs they surely had some property," he added.

"But it's unlikely to be bandits. Not enough damage."

"According to the strategy, they would have to at least outnumber the villagers 2:1 before they could capture the place unless they attacked at night. Maybe there was a deal beforehand that the government didn't know about.... and now they had a fight."

"But even then the village would have traces of fighting and destruction , any decent bandit would not hesitate for a second to use flames to set it all on fire if it could make his life easier."

"No, there is something more to it. Something more dangerous."

"Still not enough.... I need to check one more thing before I pass judgment, it's time to pray."

~~~

"Yes it was definitely not bandits." Derek stated when he found a dead priest with a sword wound, inside the clergy building.

"Bandits wouldn't leave those with valuables inside. Some god-fearing ... but why would they then kill a priest?"

"They don't have an ounce of honor and don't care about gods and their servants. Something is not right here... someone didn't want witnesses and wasn't interested in wealth."

"Looking at the state of the clergyman's body it must have been a long time since his death, I would say about two weeks maybe a week maybe even earlier.... he hasn't started rotting yet." Derek said.

" Though I don't know how it is with priests.... How their gods protect them. I haven't had the opportunity to kill a single one myself yet so I don't know if they are somehow special."

"There's no need to delay, it's time to get going I have all the information I need, I'm unlikely to find anything else of value. I can move on my way back with peace of mind." thought the knight as he left the building.

"Where are the rest of the bodies of the villagers and why only the body of the priest is left."

"Strange..."

~~~

"Well , what do I know?" The knight began to think this time calmly as he stroked his beloved mare.

"The village was attacked not long ago, let's assume about a week ago," he said.

"There were no signs of a fight or attempted arson. Which means it was all done quietly and quickly."

"Knowing more or less its size and the number of inhabitants , it would have to be a large group of people to even attempt to attack such a well-defended position."

"Bandits ... no , no because they did not collect valuables."

"Deserters... no , no because there has not been a major war recently."

"Slave hunters.... no, not this part of the continent."

"Monsters... no, no monster can do something like that."

" So what's left?"

"My instinct tells me that someone attacked at night. I could understand corruption but no one has a reason to corrupt an entire village. So it was a planned attack."

"Some smart person along with a group, attacked a village at night, village located on the outskirts of the kingdom..."

"Damn nothing fits, where are the mages and their knowledge when needed?"

"..."

"The conclusion comes to its own, yet it doesn't make the sense..."

"The kingdom of Sturia attacked, theoretically it fit. If there is any group hunting people numbering a thousand or more."

"That seems impossible.... and very much a stretch."

"However, further on it's a year too early. Should they attack later, or has something changed?"

"Something happened and I don't know what... I don't make mistakes."

"..."

"Hehe" Laughed Derek sinisterly.

"Hehe..."

"I guess it doesn't matter who did it, whether beast or man, an opportunity like this doesn't happen twice in a lifetime. I'll have to thank whoever did it cause he made me a very nice gift for my birthday." Said Derek dispassionately , a cruel smile remained on his face the whole time.

"Now I'm going to have my war and even sooner than I intended," he said.

"No one but me and the perpetrators know what happened here and all it takes is to change a few little things.... add some destruction to make it look like an attack by a neighboring kingdom."

"Hehe"

"Isembert is stupid and naive he will believe anything, all I have to do is to sell it to him prettily."

"Hehe"

~~~

"It's time to inform the Baron about the situation" Thought Derek cheerfully while riding his horse through the open gate. Then, he didn't look back.

#

Another ordinary day passed in the village of Wheatcut until....