***

"HELPPPPPPPP! BANDITS!"

Evelyn's cat ears perked up in surprise as soon as she heard the desperate scream of help. Straining her ears even harder, she could hear the wicked laughter and jeers of whom she assumed to be bandits.

Quickly running toward the source of the sound, she hid on a nearby tree branch and observed the situation. In the clearing, she could see a little girl, a female Elf, and a similarly aged hooded male being surrounded by 6 men with rusty and ragged armors.

"As expected..." Evelyn muttered. "...They're Humans. And all of them are males..."

She then took a deep breath and put on a pair of knuckle. Staring at the bandits with eyes filled to the brim with contempt, Evelyn jumped out of the tree and landed on the nearest bandit's back.

As the bandit fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious, the remaining 6 immediately turned their bodies around and raised their weapons warily at Evelyn.

"Who are you!?" One of them shouted.

In response though, Evelyn merely crouched down, crushed the throat of the man she was standing on top of, and took a fighting stance.

"I'm a Berserker. Eradicator of the inferior race that is Human."

The bandit frowned at her words. "Could you possibly be Hitle—"

<[Earth spike]>

Interrupting his words, Evelyn quickly did an uppercut despite not being anywhere close to the bandit. However, a spike of Earth suddenly protruded out of the ground right in front of her and shot toward the bandit, impaling and killing him instantly.

Not waiting for anyone to recover from their surprise, Evelyn ran on top of the Earth spike and jumped as soon as she got to its sharp tip. Falling through the air, Evelyn quickly assessed the situation.

'1 right in front of me, 2 to each of my sides. I'll kill the closest one first.'

<[Rock gloves]>

Earth mana surged as layers upon layers of hard rock manifested and wrapped themselves around Evelyn's hands, forming a pair of sturdy gloves. Utilizing the weight of her body, Evelyn smashed the nearest bandit on the head, shaking the ground as she vertically crushed his entire body into a pancake of flesh and bones. Since she had overcommitted herself to this gruesome attack, Evelyn's hands were stuck in the ground.

Though completely horrified of what Evelyn had just turned their comrade into, the remaining bandits still had enough composure to realize that this was their chance; The catgirl harbinger of death was now immobilized! Thus, after briefly glancing at each other, they nodded and charged at Evelyn at the same time.

""DIEEEEEEEEE!""

As their swords were getting ever closer to cutting her neck cleanly in two though, Evelyn smirked.

"Naive."

<[Earthen shrapnel]>

Evelyn's gloves exploded into sharp bits of rock flying at high speed. The rock shrapnel damaged both Evelyn and the bandits, but Evelyn was a Berserker and thus, she could still move despite experiencing the pain of hundreds of tiny bits of sharp rocks embedding themselves into her flesh.

As soon as Evelyn took a step forward, the nearest bandit recovered from his pain and swung his sword at her. However, she merely ducked down and delivered a low blow to his solar plexus. Her punch was so powerful that it crushed the bandit's insides, killing him instantly.

"DIE!"

The last bandit screamed as he did an overhead swing at Evelyn. However—

<[Earth wall]>

—Evelyn didn't even turn around. She stood still in her spot and muttered the spell. As she heard the clunking sound of the bandit's sword bouncing off the Earth wall, she agglomerated Earth mana into her fist and punched the wall.

<[Earth drill]>

A large drill protruded out on the other side of the wall of Earth and spun wildly. It extended right into the bandit's body, turning his insides into a mess of flesh, blood, intestines, and bones.

Dispelling all her spells, Evelyn walked through the crumbling Earth wall and crouched down to meet eyes with the bandit, who was still barely hanging onto his life somehow.

"Here's a tip for you in the afterlife." She uttered with a cold voice. "Don't announce your position to your enemies when you attack. It's stupid."

And with those words, Evelyn stood up and walked toward the merchant family, leaving the bandit to die a slow and agonizing death. As soon as she turned her blood-covered body toward the merchant family, however, both the parents quickly hid inside the wagon while eyeing her cautiously. 

Only the little girl remained outside, looking at Evelyn with a smile.

"Thank y—"

But before the girl could finish her sentence, her mother suddenly covered her mouth and dragged her into the carriage.

"Ayla! Don't make a sound!"

"But mommm! That big sis saved us!" 

"I don't care. You can't get close to someone who turned someone into that—" She pointed toward the corpses on the ground. "—without any remorse. Let me do the talking."

'She does realize that I can still hear her, right?' Evelyn narrowed her eyes. 

Although it might not do her any good, Evelyn still felt the need to correct something.

"Ma'am."

The mother jolted up in surprise upon hearing those words. 

Feigning ignorance to this, Evelyn continued.

"Although it's true that I have no remorse, it's only because the bandits were... trash Humans."

The mother thought more deeply about Evelyn's words and nodded.

"I suppose you're correct. Who knows how many people these trash had robbed and murdered. Sorry... for being rude earlier."

"It's okay." Evelyn said with a smile.

Seeing that her mother was less apprehensive of the catgirl now, Ayla jumped out of the wagon and ran toward Evelyn. Arriving before her, Ayla bowed.

"Thank you big sis. You saved us!"

Evelyn chuckled and used her blood-stained hand to pat Ayla's head, completely disregarding the fact that she was ruining the little girl's hair.

It was then that another person came out of the wagon. This time, it was the father. Pulling Ayla away from Evelyn, the father extended his hand out to her.

"As my daughter said, thank you for helping us. I don't know if I can ever repay you."

Though Evelyn was still uncomfortable that a male was right before her, she still swallowed her disgust and shook his hand with a smile.

"You don't need to. I'm just a passerby helping other people."

Hearing this, the father laughed heartily. "Hahaha! Thanks god! As a merchant, it's best for me that I don't have to pay for anything. Sorry if this sounds ungrateful to you."

"Not at all—"

At that precise moment, a harsh gust of wind suddenly blew. Evelyn's long black hair flowed to the direction of the wind and covered her own face, obscuring her vision. She brushed her hair aside with much irritation. However, her irritation soon turned into disgust as she stared at the horror before her.

"Haha, that was a strong wind. It even blew my hood off! Guess a storm is really coming like the forecast station said." The father chuckled as he similarly brushed his dark brown hair to the side, unaware of the fact that Evelyn could tell that he was—

"H- Human...?"

Evelyn immediately broke contact with his hand and stared at her own hand in disgust.

'NO! I TOUCHED A DISGUSTING HUMAN!'

And a male at that! She considered cutting off her hand right then and there, but she ultimately decided against it.

'I can't eradicate Humans like before if I only have one hand.'

The father was, of course, not aware of Evelyn's thoughts. All he saw was his savior suddenly shaking in fear. Concerned, he took a step forward and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Are you oka—"

But before he could utter his next words, Evelyn suddenly snapped her head up and twisted the disgusting Human arm that was touching her shoulder. Not even letting him scream in pain, Evelyn clenched her fist and promptly knocked his head off his shoulders.

As the headless body of the man fell to the ground, the mother screamed with shaky eyes.

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

Ayla, meanwhile, still hadn't processed the situation.

"Huh? Where did dad go?"

Evelyn stared at the corpse before her with cold eyes. 'It looks like my trauma acted up again. Oh well, at least there's one less Human man now.'

As Evelyn was about to turn around and just leave this place, she suddenly heard a familiar voice. 

"Evelyn?"

Turning her head around, she could see a black-haired boy wearing a pair of sunglasses and a gray coat approaching her.

"Theodore?"

Theodore Gray - her classmate. He was with another lecherous Human when Evelyn first met him so she didn't have that high of an opinion of him. However, due to recent events, she had come to know that he wasn't actually a Human, but a Halfling instead.

'Well, he's still half-human so he's half disgusting.'

Evelyn really didn't have many interactions with him inside Avaron aside from some random encounters here and there. Thus, she couldn't help but to turn wary. 'It's too much of a coincidence to meet him here.' 

As such, she could only ask one thing while preparing her fists to fight.

"What are you doing here?"

***

"What are you doing here?"

I frowned as I heard her question.

'I'm supposed to be the one to ask that!'

That the hell happened here? Armored men lying on the ground, a harmless merchant's headless corpse lying before her, and what I assumed to be the merchant's family shaking in fear. Based on those clues, I could only come to a conclusion.

"Evelyn... did you raid these people? You can always ask me if you need money that desperately, you know?"

"What!? No!" Evelyn was so baffled by my words that she dropped her fighting stance. "And don't act like you're close to me!"

"I guess you're right..."

She hated males and Humans with a passion after all, and I just so happened to fall into that same exact category. Well... about 75% of that category anyway.

'It's not like I need her to like me. I just need her to tolerate me for a bit while I hunt the two Void lords down.'

As such, it wouldn't hurt to gain a bit of her affection. So, what could I do right now to gain her affection? Why of course—

"How bothersome. I'll take care of the Elf for you. You handle the kid."

—I would finish the job for her!

Brandishing my sword, I dashed toward the Elf and slashed. However, my attack was blocked by Evelyn's hands, which were covered by layers of rock.

As my sword dug itself half-way into her rocky gloves, Evelyn quickly kicked me away and shouted.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

I stared at my now-broken sword and frowned. "Silencing them. You'll get into trouble if they report you."

Evelyn stood firmly in her spot and gnashed her teeth in anger.

"They won't! They're not Humans! And you don't need to meddle in my business!"

'Huh? Is she that delusional?'

Did she seriously think that they won't report her just because they weren't Humans?

'How the fuck did Arthur fix this crazy bitc— oh right, he didn't fix her. He just made her love him.'

Sighing, I was about to just leave when I suddenly realized that Evelyn had just fainted on the spot.

"...?"

Rushing toward her, I placed my index finger over her nose to check for her breathing. 

"Good, she's still alive. But why did she faint?"

I inspected her body carefully. No head trauma, no hit mark on the back of her neck. The only wounds she seemed to have sustained were the small cuts on her body that were caused by tiny bits of sharp rocks.

"It's strange that she has these wounds but they're definitely not enough to knock her out."

It was then that I noticed something weird. Her arms... they were broken.

"D- Did I break them?"

That seemed to be the case as she was still able to move her arms normally just before she blocked my attack.

"Shit... It's my fault after all. I'm not used to my new strength."

I had, in fact, broken through to <C-> rank. However, I only realized it when I checked my Status after Celi left. My first thought back then was 'did she feed me the Wyrm blood in my sleep?' And that remained as my guess even until now, as I really couldn't come up with any other reasonable explanations.

Pausing my thoughts there, I turned my attention toward Evelyn again.

"Right, I can't leave her in this state."

Thus, after grabbing some bandages and Recovery potions from [Alternate storage] and covering up all of her wounds, I carried her back to the Adventurer group I was travelling with, leaving the still very confused kid and her depressed Elf mother behind. 

'This place is close to Kerudark anyway. They should be fine if their luck isn't too bad.'

...

"Oi newbie! You okay?" The gruff Dwarf that woke me up before asked as he ran up to me.

"I'm fine, boss Keith. There were really bandits, but I killed them all."

"Okay then." He sighed in relief. "But what's with that Beastkin on your back?"

"Her? She got caught up in the bandit attack. She was already like this when I got there."

Hearing this and inspecting Evelyn's body with his eyes, boss Keith nodded in satisfaction. "I see that you've given her basic first aid. Just throw her into your wagon or something. She'll wake up by herself."

Hearing this, I gulped. "B- Boss Keith, can't you do it instead?"

"Are you trying to order me?" he narrowed his eyes.

"N- No! I'll go right away!"

As I came closer to my wagon, I saw 2 Adventurer standing right outside of it. Upon realizing their identities, I sighed in frustration.

'Fuck! Why does it have to be them?'

Mustering up all of my courage, I stepped out and marched toward my wagon confidently.

"Oh Theodore, you're back? Recovered from your wet dream already— huh, where did you get her?" The Dragon with silver hair, purple eyes, and a red scaly tail asked as his eyes with vertical pupils blinked at me in confusion.

"It's nothing, Glenn. I prayed to God for a beautiful girlfriend and she fell out of the sky. It's totally not that I found her after defeating the bandits or anything."

Glenn smiled and nodded his head in understanding. However, the man standing beside with red hair and pink eyes didn't seem to buy my story one bit.

"Nah, he's lying. I bet he's not just satisfied with the Dire wolf. He wants to fuck that cat girl too—"

"Just shut your mouth, Ethan! Stop projecting your fetishes onto me!"

"Oi it's just a joke! Wh- Why are you so serious?" Ethan stuttered as if he was caught doing something disgusting.

Ignoring both of them, I carried Evelyn into the wagon and slammed the door shut.

"Dammit, I just woke up. Why am I already tired again?"

Feeling lethargic, I laid Evelyn down to the ground and threw a blanket over her body. I then walked toward a corner and sat down with my back against the wooden wall of the enclosed wagon.

Then, my consciousness slipped away as I slowly fell asleep.

...

How many hours had it been? I didn't know, nor did I need to know. What was important right now was that I was now awake.

Yawning, I slowly opened my eyes. As my eyes adjusted to the difference in brightness, however, I could see Evelyn grabbing my collar with her left hand and clenching her right hand into a fist, hovering it just before my face.

"Die scum!"