The two of them arrived at the house where the man was resting. It seemed that nothing had happened yet, based on the normal atmosphere outside the house. They both rushed inside the house to the surprised look of everyone there.

"What's wrong? Why are you in such a rush—"

Before the elderly woman could finish talking, both dashed to the second floor where the man was staying.

Jaegar opened the door of the room, only to see the man lying down and staring at the ceiling. The man was surprised by their sudden entrance.

"You're... back... early..."

The man tried to sit down.

"We've got to go."

Jaegar then grabbed the man's arm even before he could properly sit and dragged him off the bed.

"What… happened...?"

The man's face was not particularly surprised at the turn of events. In fact, he was quite expecting something like this to happen.

"We need to hide him."

Brittanya urged Jaegar.

"I know. But the question is where? I doubt the clergy will be happily accepting any suspicious people right now, especially when one of their own was killed."

Jaegar was still holding the man's arm while both of them were now standing. The man remained silent.

"Maybe... I should... give myself up... to whoever… is looking... for me..."

The man was whispering to himself. Jaegar and Brittanya did not hear what he said.

"We don't know how many comrades the killed mercenaries have left."

Jaegar was talking to Brittanya while thinking of a plan of action.

"I don't want to fight people, as much as possible –"

"C-comrades...?"

The man's body stiffened when he heard Jaegar utter that word. Jaegar felt this since he was still holding the man's arm.

"Where...?"

Then the man lowered his head.

"Hey, what's wrong—"

Jaegar suddenly felt the familiar blood lust he felt back at the forest.

"Brittanya! Run—"

Before Jaegar could warn Brittanya, the man suddenly motioned to punch her since she was in front of him. Simultaneously, the man swung his arm that was being held by Jaegar, which sent the knight flying through the window and outside the house.

Brittanya was able to block the punch to her stomach with her arms, but it still sent her crashing to the wall. The man stood still for a while and then jumped through the window that was destroyed by Jaegar while crashing through it.

Once outside, the man ran frantically toward the town exit and into the forest. There were a lot of people standing around that saw the whole scene.

Meanwhile, Jaegar was lying down on broken wooden crates that somehow cushioned his fall. Brittanya looked outside the destroyed window and saw Jaegar unconscious. She jumped down and rushed to him.

"Hey, Jaegar, wake up!"

She slapped his face.

"Ouch! That hurts! Are you trying to crush my face?"

Jaegar immediately woke up.

"Oh, sorry. I was just lightly tapping you."

Brittanya laughed casually.

"Lightly tapping?! I thought my face would break!"

Jaegar then remembered the situation.

"Wait, where's that guy?"

He looked at Brittanya with urgency.

"He ran towards the exit that leads to the forest."

She pointed at the direction the man ran.

"Damn, what a pain in the ass. I should be hunting down monsters, not babysitting crazy people."

"So why are you doing it, then?"

Brittanya helped Jaegar stand up.

"Well, he can be considered to be much more of a monster right now. Currently, he's a threat to everyone."

Jaegar brushed off some of the dust and pieces of wood on his armor.

"Should we follow him?"

Brittanya looked at the exit of the town.

"I guess. Who knows if he'll come back here while still in berserk? Ugh, this isn't even part of my mission!"

Jaegar clicked his tongue while also looking at the exit.

Then, the two of them saw some people running toward the same exit the man went into. They recognized that some of them were the same people looking for the man around town earlier.

"Word travels fast. They must have heard about a suspicious man running around town."

Jaegar further furrowed his brows with each passing moment.

"Then we should go now, too."

Brittanya started to run. Jaegar reluctantly followed after her.

---

The mercenaries were able to catch up to the man in the forest, and then subsequently surrounded him. The man, while in berserk, stood still. Unexpectedly, he lunged toward one of the mercenaries. Before he could reach the mercenary, his body froze and suddenly fell to the ground.

"That's the second time I had to do that to you."

Jaegar was standing beside the man's fallen body. He struck the back of the man's neck to render him unconscious.

"Wh-what just happened? I was going to d-die..."

The mercenary who was saved by Jaegar lost all strength from his legs and fell to the ground.

"I saved you."

Jaegar shifted his gaze to the mercenary. A companion of the mercenary suddenly shouted from the crowd.

"What are you all doing just standing around for? Kill that man! He killed our comrades!"

He was pointing toward the unconscious berserker; his voice was shaking.

"But your comrades attacked him and the priestess first! And he accidentally killed her because of that..."

Brittanya already stood beside the mercenaries as she retorted.

"Huh?"

The loud mercenary was acting more and more panicked.

"He didn't kill her! We did! I was there! We had a good time with her, but she just wouldn't shut up and be quiet, so we stabbed her!"

He started laughing. After a while, he then finally snapped.

"But then this... This monster came and killed everyone!"

"You...!"

Jaegar glared at the talking mercenary as he furiously gritted his teeth.

"But he's stupid for letting me escape! If you won't kill him, I'll do it myself!"

The frenzied mercenary clumsily drew his sword. He rushed toward the motionless berserker.

Jaegar planned to dash toward him to punch him in the face. But even before he could move from his position, a pillar made of earth came out of the ground and hit the man in the stomach that sent him flying away from the crowd. It was due to Brittanya kicking the ground. Jaegar was surprised and looked at her direction.

"You beat me to it."

Jaegar sighed and then smirked at her.

"I can't forgive what they did."

Brittanya glared at the remaining mercenaries.

"All of you here! Did you know about what your comrades did? Answer me!"

She screamed loudly that all the mercenaries looked at her. Although, they were all still in shock at what Brittanya did to that one mercenary.

"N-no!"

The mercenary sitting on the ground answered.

"A-all he said when he came back was that everyone else was k-killed by some guy. I swear!"

The mercenary on the ground crawled backward, away from Jaegar and Brittanya. The others were all nodding in agreement, still unable to talk.

"That better be the truth, or you're next."

She was cracking her knuckles.

---

"I'm sorry about the window, madam."

Brittanya was bowing down at the old lady. They were talking inside the house.

"There's no need to apologize, young lady. When we decided to help two youngsters carrying a bloodied person, we knew there were going to be some risks to it."

The old lady was smiling at Brittanya. She then lifted Brittanya's face.

"What's important is that all of you are safe."

"Thank you so much."

Tears were welling up in Brittanya's eyes. The main door of the house then opened and Jaegar entered.

"How did it go?"

Brittanya quickly asked him.

"I turned over that scumbag to the Knight's Order branch here in Jiputin. They'll think of what to do with him, since the Holy Clergy will also be involved."

"What about him? What will happen to him?"

Brittanya looked up at the ceiling as she was concerned about the unconscious man sleeping upstairs.

"Well, the mercenary group admitted that it was their comrades who attacked and killed the priestess. And that their comrades were then killed by a... monster."

Jaegar looked up at the direction of where the man was sleeping.

"They weren't lying, at least."

---

A few days had passed. Brittanya and Jaegar took on requests from people in Jiputin in order to pay for the repairs of the house that they damaged. During their stay within the city, they heard stories of more frequent monster attacks in other towns and cities. They decided that once they were able to pay for the repairs, they'll head to the City of Dosael.

"Here. That should be enough to finally cover all the repairs. Plus, you can buy more food with that."

Jaegar gave the old lady a bag of gold coins.

"This is too much. We can't take this."

She was gesturing to give back the money.

"Please take it. It's still not enough for all the trouble we caused."

Brittanya pushed back the bag of gold to the old lady.

"Before we leave, we'll talk to him first."

Jaegar then headed upstairs. Brittanya followed soon after.

They entered the room where the man was staying and saw him sitting on the side of the bed. He looked up at them.

"Thank you... for everything..."

He was expressionless.

"At least we know you didn't kill her."

Jaegar was direct to the point.

"Yeah..."

He was staring at nothing.

"So, here's the thing. Join us on our journey."

"...What?"

He then looked at Jaegar.

"The way you eradicated most of the monsters in this area, including Parent monsters, is unbelievable. I'm in the mission of eliminating all the monsters in our land. I could use your strength."

Jaegar pointed at the man.

"Isn't that... impossible?"

The man raised his eyebrow as he stared at Jaegar.

"And... I'm dangerous... You can't... have me around..."

"Look, who was it that stopped you twice now? At the very least, I don't have to protect you or anything."

Jaegar scoffed at him. After hearing that, the man finally smiled.