After wandering the woods as Marcus, the smell of fresh blood immediately pricked my nose. Although I was unsure about my practical combat capabilities, I should be able to fight fairly decently with my mace, which was crafted using the rarest materials such as Rainbow Steel, Basilisk’s blood and Spirit King’s essence. This is not to mention my armour and shield, which were both the best end-game gear.

“You bastards!” A shout became audible as I cautiously approached the source of the blood. The sounds of swords clashing and men grunting were very clear.

I hid myself behind a tree and observed what was happening. There seemed to be several armoured knights defending a few carriages from a larger group of lightly armoured men.

“Who hired you?” One of the knights shouted. I decided to eavesdrop a little before I entered the battle. It would’ve been reckless to join without first knowing what the motivations of each side were.

“Hahaha, since you want to know so bad, it was Count Durundal. You’ll be buried with that information anyways,” One of the lightly armoured men replied as he ruthlessly pierced the neck of one of the knights with his sword.

With such a gory scene, I felt naturally dizzy. However, the effects were only felt as Amelia. It seemed that both bodies have different reactions, with Marcus being more naturalised.

“Damn it, of course, it’s that greedy bastard. To think he would assassinate an entire family for more land. To hell with you all!” Another knight shouted as he tried to take down one of the lightly armoured men. However, since he rushed forward, he left his back vulnerable, resulting in another lightly armoured man stabbing his back.

With only five knights left, the carriage doors slammed open to reveal a teenager in formal attire with black hair and a sword in hand.

“Master! Please return inside!” One of the knights pleaded.

“I must join you. After all, what kind of lord would I be if I sat back and watched my men be killed? I would rather die with everyone than alone,” the young man replied with a firm gaze.

Should I join the fray? It wasn’t guaranteed that the young man was a good person, nor would it be my business to join this fight, however, would it be right to join?

“Ah, I’ve heard that the young Viscount was a man of the people. I wonder how it’ll feel to parade his head on a pike. Oh! I heard you had a sister as well-”

“How much of a stereotypical villain could you be?” I interrupted the professional yapper by smacking him on the head from behind, rendering him unconscious.

Since I was able to use spells, that meant I could also use martial arts abilities. Flicker was a movement-based ability that allowed its user to travel a short distance in an instant. When I was playing Siren’s Calling, it was pretty useless aside from being used for glitches since most players had enough movement speed to dodge without it.

However, in this world, the ability to teleport a few metres seems to be pretty powerful.

“Who are you?” Everyone’s attention quickly turned to me, especially the lightly armoured guys. One of them tried to take the initiative by swinging his sword at me, but I had a handy shield to block it.

As a gamer, one of the most primal instincts was to exploit. By spamming Flicker, with its short 2-second cooldown, I managed to render every lightly armoured guy unconscious, probably with a concussion. The knights with the kid also contributed by finishing them off with their swords.

As Marcus, I felt nothing. However, since I was also seeing this as Amelia, I started to feel an urge to vomit. Back when this was a game, I remembered that psychic attacks existed. To counter them, you need to invest in mental defence.

One would naturally think that a mage would have a high mental defence. However, due to how obscure it was, most players aside from defence-oriented classes like Paladin had 0 points in mental defence.

The only reason why classes like Paladin have higher mental defence was due to their class attributes and equipment, which had a stat known as universal defence. My level 90 mage naturally did not have any universal defence.

“I’m Viscount Allen Heimer, thank you very much for helping us. May I request your name?” I snapped back to reality as I refocused towards the young noble.

“My name is Marcus,” I replied with my in-game username.

“Nice to meet you, Marcus. I would like to repay you, but I ask for your patience as we bury our dead,” Allen shook my hand before he turned back to his knights.

Using some chants, Allen created several holes in the ground. The knights were given individual burials whilst the lightly armoured men were put in one mass grave. Witnessing death like this for the first time was a shock felt only by Amelia. As Marcus, I still felt a tug in my heart, but nothing more.

Would they have had the same opportunities to reincarnate as me? Rather, why do I still retain my memories?

“We don’t have much on hand right now, but we were headed towards my territory, where I can definitely reward you,” Allen, who finished burying the dead, turned back to me.

“I don’t mind, I just want to head somewhere to sleep for the night.”

“Then, feel free to join me in the carriage. I can only do this much for now.”

“Thank you. Also, do you happen to know the date today?”

“I should be the one thanking you. If I remember correctly, it should be the 5th day of the 2nd month today.” With the dates provided by Allen, classes would start in three days for the academy.

“So, if you don’t mind, I’m guessing you’re an adventurer?” Allen tried to break the ice as the carriage began moving. As I began making up an elaborate backstory, I felt a chill down my spine. Was I imagining his eyes sparkling?

It should only take a few hours since the knights said it was nearby...