It Is Not Your Child?!

She was running down the hill in a daze, not even bothering to look back to check the distance.

“Aah!”

The tip of her cane caught on a boulder. She lost her grip and her body tilted forward. As she tumbled down the slope, Erica thought to herself.

‘Yeah, rolling is probably faster than running.’

However, her thoughts changed as she came to a halt at the bottom of the hill.

After raising her head from the grassy field, she found herself in the midst of exchanging polite greetings with the swiftly approaching wolf. She quickly tried to get to her feet, but her legs gave way, and she ended up sitting back down.

“Oh, don’t come here. I’m tough and tasteless.”

Her mother had once told her that being rigid and tough would make one unappetizing even to the bears.

The wolf, paying no heed to the strange warning, sniffed and smelled the air before approaching Erica. As Erica, trying to escape in an awkward manner, felt the creature coming towards her, she grabbed onto something.

It was the small axe she had been carrying at her waist.

Erica, who hadn’t forgotten the time she fought off kidnappers with her bare hands and died in her previous life, always carried the small axe as a self-defense tool.

So, she was prepared for situations like that.

“Ha!”

Just as the creature leaped, Erica drew the small axe and swung it. She was fortunate enough to catch the wolf’s muzzle with a sharp blow. However, the wolf quickly jerked its head back, causing the axe to bounce off and fly far away.

“Oh shit….”

Grrr…

The ferocious beast bared its sharp fangs, growling fiercely right in front of Erica’s face. It was a relentless confrontation, with no room for error, and there was nothing but anger on the creature’s face.

Ah, was I reborn to be a happy meal for a hungry wolf…

The wolf opened its mouth wide. Erica tightly closed her eyes and used her arms to shield her face.

“I don’t want to die like this!”

In this complicated world, she wanted to die comfortably!

In the moment she made this peculiar wish, a flash of light flashed over her closed eyelids. There was the sound of something snapping, breaking, followed by….

Squawk!

It was the sound of a shrill scream.

‘It’s not something I summoned, is it?’

There was no sound after that. It wasn’t until the sound of distant footsteps reached her ears that she opened her eyes.

‘What just happened?’

The wolf that was about to attack Erica suddenly had its head split in two. Erica’s handaxe was lodged in the middle of it.

She raised her gaze. In the distance, she saw someone approaching. The sun was behind them, so their face wasn’t clearly visible, but it was certainly a tall man with broad shoulders.

Was it a wandering mercenary?

The man, who was walking casually, suddenly halted and then began running in her direction.

“Erica?”

‘…Do you know me?’

“Erica, right?”

‘Who are you? I don’t have any connection to a handsome man like you…’

The stranger, who had rushed up to her, spoke in a familiar tone and offered his hand to her while bending down.

“Are you okay?”

“…”

“Are you injured?”

Erica stared at the clearly visible face. She hesitated and then cautiously placed her hand in his large palm.

This man, the unfamiliar man, wasn’t a stranger at all.

In this brief time, she was shocked over and over, but the most shocking was this man, who appeared out of nowhere and saved Erica…

“…Roderick?”

She realized he was her childhood friend who had mysteriously disappeared five years ago.

---

Is it  Roderick?

“Erica, why aren’t you answering? Did you hurt your head?”

A friend who had disappeared suddenly had suddenly reappeared. It was so unbelievable that Erica absentmindedly looked him up and down from top to bottom.

And then a pair of hands appeared out of nowhere and cupped her cheeks.

“Let me see.”

Naturally, her head tilted up, and Erica met his gaze. His eyes were the deep blue color she remembered.

Roderick’s brow furrowed slightly as he examined her face. Erica took this opportunity to stare into a face she hadn’t seen in a long time.

‘Is he really Roderick?’

The cool gaze, the straight and tall nose as sharp as a blade, and even the tiny mark at the corner of the lips—everything about Roderick was just as Erica remembered, yet he exuded a much more mature and masculine aura than in her memories. This was an expected change.

Five years is enough time to transform a boy who used to play with acorns into a tall young man.

As Roderick examined Erica’s face to ensure there were no injuries, he hesitated when their eyes met. He quickly removed his hands from her cheeks and said.

“Ah, I apologize for my impolite behavior.”

“Oh, I was also…,”

Erica trailed off, realizing that she had her hands on Roderick’s cheeks in the same way. When did she unconsciously cup his cheeks? It was indeed an odd position for adults to find themselves in.

If someone had seen them, they might have thought they were about to kiss.

Although a cool breeze swept by quickly, the awkwardness between the two of them did not disappear. In the strange silence, Erica discreetly opened her eyes, and Roderick, his gaze slightly averted, used his gloved hand to wipe his cheeks lightly. The spot he wiped became as red as wild strawberries in the field.

“Hmm…”

Erica suddenly cleared her throat and flicked off the grass and flower petals that had stuck to her skirt.

“I’m not injured.”

“Are you sure?”

Roderick was not entirely convinced, so she vigorously swung her arms and did a stationary march in place.

However, she moved her arm and leg on the same side simultaneously, seeing that comical pose, Roderick let out a small laugh.

The look that had seemed to observe a critically ill patient on the brink of death just a moment ago had disappeared. However, this time, it was Erica’s turn to blush.

“Thank you for saving me. If it weren’t for you, I would have been a wolf’s lunch.”

Erica tried to play it cool.

“But…”

As her initially stunned mind began to regain its faculties, several questions started to emerge.

‘Why are you here? No, what have you been doing all this time?’

Today, her friend who had disappeared without a trace suddenly appeared, and that too right at the moment when she was about to die, he was just like a prince on a white horse.

A prince on a white horse?

A knight on a white horse.

No. There’s no way he’s a knight.

It’s not that Roderick’s sword skills were bad, it’s just that in this world, you can’t be a knight unless you’re a noble.

‘But then what’s the meaning of that?’

In the distance, a white horse trotted up to Roderick and began rubbing its nose against his shoulder. She didn’t mean just any horse, but Roderick’s horse.

‘Horses are expensive, and a white one at that.’

But more importantly, there was something even more surprising.

Holding the handaxe stuck in the wolf’s carcass, Erica asked.

“How did you do that?”

Throwing the axe from a distance and hitting the wolf accurately was impressive enough, but to kill it in one go? And that too with a rusty, dull axe?

It was something that couldn’t even make a scratch on the thick wolfhide when Erica had swung it with all her might.

“You still remember me as the weakling Roderick from back then…”

“No.”

She knew that wasn’t the case just by looking at his broad shoulders and his assertive muscles even though they were hidden beneath his shirt.

“No, it’s not that. It just doesn’t seem possible, even if one is stronger…”

Roderick reached out and snatched the axe from Erica’s hand. He held it firmly and looked at her.

“What is this axe made of?”

“Uh, I bought it three years ago from the blacksmith in the next town over.”

“You want to trade it for mine?”

As Roderick reached for the axe tied to his horse’s saddle, Erica quickly grabbed her axe from his other hand and hid it behind her back.

“No, why would I want to trade  something as nice as this?”

“Well, how about we trade it for a handful of gold coins?”

“My, my, the axe has finally found its rightful owner.”

Soon the old axe, the gold coin, and the new axe were exchanged.

‘I thought he was paying for my old axe, but why is he giving me his new one as a bonus.’

A new one, much stronger and more sophisticated.

‘It must cost a fortune.’

There’s even a leash on the end of it that goes around your wrist, so it won’t slip out of your hand and fly away like it did earlier.

“Wow, this is nice.”

Erica exclaimed as she tried chopping a nearby piece of wood.

Roderick watched with a satisfied grin, and a faint blue light radiated from the axe. However, the moment he removed his hand, the item emitting the blue light turned back into the old and worn axe.