Not a barbarian warrior.

Eugene’s consciousness returned along with a feeling of exhaustion throughout his body.

As soon as he came to his senses, the first thing that entered his vision was the large horn of the lurehorn.

The knife he had been holding in his hand had fallen to the ground, perhaps dropped while he was seeing the illusion created by the lurehorn.

In a moment where there wasn’t even time to draw a weapon, all Eugene could do was twist his body as much as possible.

The lurehorn’s horn pierced through Eugene’s gambeson and tore his skin.

Not stopping there, it rammed its head into Eugene’s torso.

“Ugh…!”

The lurehorn, not halting its charge, continued running with Eugene on its head and then threw him off.

Eugene’s body flew through the air and rolled on the ground several times.

Before he could even process the pain felt throughout his body, the lurehorn rushed at him again.

The creature’s hooves tried to trample Eugene’s stomach to mash his internal organs, but Eugene barely managed to roll away and avoid it.

‘It’s not giving me any time to rest…!’

The lurehorn turned again and charged towards Eugene.

It intended to repeat this until its life was over. It had a strong will to kill Eugene somehow.

‘Luckily avoiding its hooves ends here. Rather…!’

Eugene bent his knees to firmly fix his lower body.

Then he grabbed the horns of the lurehorn trying to ram him and blocked it.

Eugene’s feet created deep furrows as he was pushed back.

The lurehorn tried to somehow knock Eugene over backward and end his life, while Eugene desperately tried to hold on.

‘I just need to hold out for at most a minute, no, thirty seconds…!’

It was literally a tense battle of pure strength against strength.

In the struggle to somehow continue his life, Eugene’s body poured a massive amount of blood flow into his muscles.

Blood vessels clearly showed on the outside of his skin, and expanded muscles generated tremendous power throughout Eugene’s entire body.

The feeling of exhaustion remaining in his body instantly flew away, and the pain felt throughout his body also became faint.

“Uaaaah-!!”

Eugene let out a monstrous cry as he used all his strength to press down the creature’s head.

The lurehorn’s head was pressed into the ground, raising a large cloud of dust.

In the moment its hind legs lifted into the air, unable to overcome inertia, Eugene pressed his elbow on its neck and put his full body weight on it.

The lurehorn, with its head buried in the ground, struggled but couldn’t escape at all.

Time was on Eugene’s side.

The creature’s struggles gradually subsided. Even its legs that had been supporting its body staggered and then collapsed with a thud.

When even the small movements trying to resist finally disappeared, Eugene turned his head to look at the creature’s face.

There wasn’t even a speck of life left in its unfocused eyes.

After a long yet short moment passed, the exhaustion that had evaporated returned and clung to Eugene’s body.

“Huff… huff…”

He felt the pain that had become faint gradually becoming clear again.

“I almost died…”

Eugene, who had been catching his breath for a moment, turned his eyes to examine his tattered gambeson.

As he slowly took off the gambeson, blood was flowing from long gashes on his chest and stomach.

Fortunately, only the muscles seemed to be slightly damaged, with no problems apparent in the bones or organs underneath.

Eugene recalled what he had said to Daisy before leaving the village.

‘I confidently said I’d come back perfectly fine…’

Eugene made a troubled expression as he hastily stopped the bleeding from his wounds.

On the palisade erected in the village, the little ones including Noah were standing guard just like yesterday.

If there was one difference from yesterday, it was that the spears they were holding had become much cruder.

This was all because of that barbarian… no, the man called Eugene who had broken them without a word.

Still, they thought it was fortunate that their necks weren’t broken instead.

The little ones, realizing Eugene’s mercy, belatedly thanked him while also fearing him.

And today, they were desperately waiting for Eugene to return.

It was when the sun had passed its zenith and was slowly beginning to set.

Noah spotted a figure approaching the village.

“Oh…!”

As Noah pointed it out with surprised eyes, the little ones on the palisade ran over to Noah’s vicinity.

It was dragging something along, and Noah, who had the best eyesight, was the first to realize what it was.

“The monster! It’s the monster’s head!”

“What?”

At Noah’s words, the others squinted their eyes and looked closely at the approaching figure.

Eugene was dragging the decapitated lurehorn’s head by its horn like a handle.

“Wow! The monster is dead! That devilish creature is dead!”

“We need to tell the village quickly!”

“Go and tell them that the barbar…! No, Mr. Eugene has defeated the monster!”

“We’re free now! We can go outside the village!”

Leaving only Noah behind, the rest of the little ones went down the palisade, unable to contain their joy.

They spread the news far and wide throughout the village like heralds, that Eugene had killed the monster and returned.

Daisy, who was spending time with her father at home, ran outside as soon as she heard the news that Eugene had returned.

Soon after, she spotted Eugene returning from afar and began to sob.

He was in terrible shape. His clothes were in tatters, and he was trudging along with blood and dust all over his body.

When Daisy hurriedly ran over to support him, Eugene waved his hand.

“Are you okay? The blood…!”

Eugene shook his head and said:

“This isn’t my blood. It’s almost all from this thing. I’m fine.”

As he pointed to the lurehorn’s head he was holding, Daisy asked with a still worried face:

“But you still seem badly hurt… Are you really okay? Your clothes are in tatters…”

“It’s just a slight scratch. See, my arms and legs are still attached. This is pretty much intact for me. Look.”

Eugene playfully moved his body around. As he did so, the wounds he had stopped bleeding reopened, and his clothes were dyed red.

Daisy, shocked at the sight, screamed.

“Kyaa-! Blood! Blood!”

“Ah.”

After a bout of commotion, a mummy appeared in Daisy’s house.

Eugene’s body, wrapped in bandages here and there, reeked of intense herbal medicine.

“Don’t even think about getting up until you’re fully healed!”

“…”

After Daisy, who had been greatly angered, treated Eugene and left the room, the village elders came to visit shortly after.

As Eugene tried to raise his body to get up, Daisy, who had been guiding the elders from behind, quickly came in and pressed down on his forehead.

“Didn’t I tell you not to get up?”

“…Sorry.”

The elders, watching Eugene obediently lie back down at her words, all chuckled and said:

“We can’t talk at length in front of a patient so badly injured, so we’ll just briefly state our business. We’ve seen the monster’s head you left outside. It was a big problem for our village, and we’re nothing but grateful that you resolved it so quickly. We’ll prepare the promised reward soon, so for now, get plenty of rest.”

“Thank you.”

“Take good care of yourself. We’ll be taking our leave now.”

“Take care on your way.”

After the village elders left and Eugene was alone again, he fell into happy contemplation.

‘With thirty silver coins as the reward, three wolf pelts, and the lurehorn’s horn, how much would that be in total?’

Although he couldn’t collect the lurehorn’s hide due to the circumstances, the hide wasn’t worth much anyway. The important part was the creature’s horn.

‘If I find the right buyer, I should be able to sell it at a good price… I should head to a city after leaving this village.’

The lurehorn’s horn was used as material for weapons like composite bows, and also used to make musical instruments or crafts.

Especially in the case of the adult lurehorn horn that Eugene had obtained this time, its quality was so good that instrument makers would go crazy for it.

‘If I find the right buyer, couldn’t I get up to forty silver coins?’

Of course, to receive that kind of amount, he would need to meet a wealthy craftsman with a keen eye and strong craftsmanship spirit.

Eugene obediently spent time recovering at Daisy’s house. Several days passed in the blink of an eye.

Recently, she hadn’t been showing her face much. She was so busy with something that she didn’t come into his room except to change his bandages and bring food.

She didn’t even speak to him. Even when Eugene threw jokes at her, she would only respond with short answers.

‘She must be very angry…’

Eugene examined his body. The wounds that had been open had closed, and new flesh was forming over them.

The exhaustion and pain that had been weighing down his entire body had long since disappeared.

Even with herbal medicine applied to his body, such recovery power was truly rare.

Eugene recalled the superhuman strength he had displayed in the previous battle with the lurehorn.

‘To think I engaged in a direct contest of strength with that monster…’

No matter how bad the creature’s condition was, that was a crazy thing to do.

Where in the world would there be a human who could face a monster barehanded? He wasn’t some barbarian warrior.

Even to him, his body seemed to be going beyond normality day by day.

‘The strength, the recovery power… This is almost like…’

Just as his thoughts were chaining one after another, the door opened and Daisy came in.

Eugene, who hadn’t expected her to visit like this at night when the sun had already set, welcomed her.

“How are you feeling?”

At her question, Eugene grinned, saying he was really fine now.

“It seemed like such a deep wound… I wonder if this is fast healing, or if it really wasn’t that serious…”

“I told you. It was just a slight scratch.”

Daisy gradually conversed with Eugene with a bright face like before.

“By the way, how did you catch the lurehorn?”

“Well…”

The conversation continued on various topics. How he hunted the lurehorn, how he would sell its horns, how the village was doing lately, and so on. Then the conversation led to the castle city, and in the middle of their chat, Daisy asked:

“Oh, have you ever been to a ‘shop that sells spring’?”

Eugene was taken aback by the sudden question that deviated somewhat from the topic of conversation. This was because “a shop that sells spring” was a euphemistic expression for a brothel.

“Do you know what that is when you’re asking?”

“I’m not that naive, you know? I know what I need to know.”

“…Why are you suddenly asking about that?”

“From what I’ve heard, a virgin’s spring is especially highly priced, isn’t it? I heard that a night can cost as much as ten silver coins…”

Eugene tried to hide his bewilderment and said:

“I’ve never been to one, so I don’t know well, but it can’t possibly cost ten silver coins. To receive that kind of amount, it would have to be an incredibly beautiful person, wouldn’t it?”

“Then if I were to go there, how much do you think I would get? How much do you think you could pay?”

“What are you…”

Daisy slowly leaned forward. For a moment, their faces came close.

“I’m not that much of a beauty, so I’ll specially charge only five silver coins. What do you think? I’m a virgin and young too…”

Thwack!

“Owww…!”

Eugene flicked Daisy’s forehead.

“You little rascal, saying things you shouldn’t in front of an adult. You shouldn’t say such things even as a joke.”

She rubbed her forehead, then looked into Eugene’s eyes again with a tearful face and said:

“It’s not a joke.”

Thwack-!

“Owww…”

She let out a pained groan as she was hit on the forehead even harder than before.

“If it’s not a joke, you should have refrained from saying it even more.”

Eugene sternly scolded this fourteen-year-old kid.

Although he didn’t show it outwardly, he was seething inside.

This was because he had an idea of why this young girl was suddenly acting this way.