Chapter 2

The men who had finished the slaughter shook the blood off their weapons and began to scatter, packing up their belongings.

Since my tent was also being tidied up by the maids, I came back in to see if there was anything else I needed to take out.

…Nothing special, huh.

I tried to cool my head by looking around the tent.

Even with my eyes closed, the scene I had just witnessed clung stubbornly to my mind, refusing to fade.

It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve seen people die. I was a soldier, after all.

It’s just that it was the first time I’d seen dozens of civilians being cut down right in front of me.

Let’s not think about it.

It was unavoidable, after all.

If I want to survive here without being discovered, I’ll have to adapt.

Ignoring the screams that kept echoing in my mind, I forcibly twisted the direction of my thoughts.

So, where am I? Did I really get transported into a novel or a game?

Ah, judging by this tank top-like outfit that emphasizes femininity in a way that doesn’t fit the era, it must be a transmigration story.

First, that big guy earlier, his name was Ja-han, right? Ja-han, the White Tiger General.

White Tiger General probably means a commander with a hundred subordinates.

Ja-han, Ja-han… I feel like I’ve heard the name somewhere.

I felt a sense of déjà vu, but no matter how much I thought about it, it just wouldn’t come to me.

If only I had one more clue, I might remember. Frustrated, I scratched my head.

“Princess Ai-shan Gi-or. Are you looking for something?”

“Huh? Ah, no, it’s nothing. I’ll go out, so finish tidying up.”

Since I hadn’t come out of the tent that needed to be dismantled for a while, a servant came in, bowing.

Ai-shan Gi-or? Is that my surname? Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur?

Ah,

I remember now.

Ja-han. Ai-shan Gi-or. Ha-shal-leur… Hersela.

Finally, I realized where I was and whose body this was.

The Great Warrior Ja-han.

The Mad Hersela.

They were the boss mobs from the game I played.

—

‘War of Remnant (WOR)’

A once moderately popular adult strategy RPG cultivation game, I remember playing it for about 200 hours.

The story follows the protagonist who enrolls in the hero training institution ‘Remnant Academy,’ grows into a hero through numerous trainings and battles, and eventually saves the world—a classic game with a cliché plot.

Despite the cliché story, the gameplay itself was quite solid.

The protagonist’s combat style diversifies based on the player’s chosen cultivation path.

Sub-characters who can become either enemies or allies depending on choices.

Defeat humiliation scenes that seemed to grind the illustrators to dust.

And the limitation of game over if a certain number of allies die or if you don’t clear within 70 turns.

Anyway, personally, it was a fun game.

If I had transmigrated as the protagonist or a companion character, I might have felt a bit better.

“Sigh…”

Sitting on a suitable box, I blankly stared at the tent being tidied up.

How many sighs is this already? I really feel like smoking a cigarette.

WOR’s main story is divided into five chapters, with mid-bosses and main bosses in each chapter.

Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur, known as Ai-shan Gi-or Hersela in the game, was the main boss of Chapter 3.

The Great Warrior Ja-han was the mid-boss.

The Mad Hersela.

The female ruler of the barbarian Ka`har tribe, modeled after Eastern nomadic tribes.

She unites the Ka`har by force and invades the empire, turning everything to ashes.

In the story, she devastates numerous cities, drastically increasing the game’s difficulty.

Her real name is probably Ha-shal-leur, and she’s called Hersela in the empire’s language.

With a fierce appearance and a wild yet attractive look, she was quite popular among players.

Unlike other Ka`har, her bright skin and blue eyes led to speculation that she might be of mixed blood.

With a backstory of her mother dying when she was young and an extremely difficult boss fight, she was often called “Motherless Hersela.”

The problem is, this character has no future.

If defeated and captured by the protagonist, she becomes a prisoner of the empire, stripped naked and tied in the square, humiliated until death.

Even if not captured, betrayed by her subordinates who lose faith in her power, she loses her limbs and becomes their plaything.

Even in the bad ending where the protagonist loses, her situation doesn’t change.

If the protagonist loses, she devastates many countries and reigns as empress for a while.

But soon, she’s defeated by the final boss and destroyed, becoming a breeding slave for monsters.

Honestly, those humiliation scenes were quite arousing, but that’s from the viewer’s perspective.

Being the subject is just a tragedy.

Now, I’m about to become the subject.

Damn it.

Worrying about dead civilians is the least of my problems.

I wasn’t born a Marine, and as a man, I’d rather die than become a breeding slave.

I must avoid the original plot at all costs.

It’s practically walking into a brothel voluntarily.

…Actually, I doubt I can fight like the original Ha-shal-leur, so even if I do nothing, I might escape the original plot.

But then, who knows how these barbarians will react if I just lose once.

The problem is, I hardly know Ha-shal-leur’s backstory.

The game didn’t explain the boss mob’s background in detail.

The strategy sites only had information from item descriptions and fan theories.

For now, the fact that the Great Warrior Ja-han is still just a White Tiger General.

And since they called me Princess, it’s clear that this is before the original story begins.

…So, what now?

Should I try to adapt to these barbarians as much as possible?

Can I really play the role of Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur without arousing suspicion?

It doesn’t seem easy. But I have to try.

Forcing myself to stop spiraling into pessimism, I stood up.

Just then, Ja-han approached with a sturdy horse.

Fortunately, it seemed they used saddles, as there was a leather saddle on the horse’s back.

“Ha-shal-leur. It’s time to depart.”

“Right, we should… depart. Got it.”

I have no idea where we’re going. But I can’t ask.

At least there’s a saddle, so I can ride the horse, right…?

Grabbing the reins and stepping on the saddle, I leaped up. Even with a light push, my body soared to the height of the horse’s back. Amazing.

Once I got on the horse, I instinctively felt how to move. I guess it’s true that the body remembers things you do often unconsciously.

Others seemed to have finished their preparations too, as they slowly started gathering around me. The men, presumably warriors, were all armed and mounted on their horses, while the female attendants huddled together in the empty space of a wagon loaded with dismantled tents.

There were about two hundred warriors and thirty attendants. Twenty warriors positioned themselves in front of me, with Ja-han, the White Tiger General, and the gloomy man who had spoken to me earlier approaching my sides. So, is this guy also a White Tiger General? Are there two of them, hence the two hundred warriors?

Being surrounded by warriors made me tense, and my back stiffened. My hands gripping the reins were sweaty and damp.

At least I wasn’t leading the charge. If I started off in the wrong direction, it could cause misunderstandings. But I guess I still had to give the order to move out, right?

“Everyone ready? Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

The warriors answered in unison and slowly began to move their horses from the front.

The pace wasn’t too fast, so I could keep up without any issues. I tightened my grip on the reins and lightly tapped the horse’s side.

The crimson sunlight was blinding, making me squint my right eye.

Northeast, huh? Where am I headed now? Hopefully, it’s better than here.

I moved forward, trying to ignore the traces of my sins behind me. At least the shadows cast by the sun might hide the pile of corpses.

Well, I’ll have to get used to it anyway. I’ll have to live with these people from now on.

I made that resolution.

—

I can’t possibly live with these lunatics!

These bastards aren’t human. Do you know how many people died in just nine days?

“That’s a village. Shall we rest there today?”

“Yes! We’ll take care of it right away. All cavalry, charge!”

A village disappeared amidst screams.

“Is the food not to your liking?”

“…I don’t have much of an appetite today.”

The attendant in charge of cooking was torn apart alive.

“Princess Ha-shal-leur? Are you not asleep?”

“I woke up because of the noise outside. What’s going on?”

Three warriors who were making noise at night were beheaded.

Every time I say something, people die. Are these guys insane, or was the original Ha-shal-leur just that much of a murderous maniac? It’s like they interpret everything I say as an order to slaughter.

Even if I don’t say anything, nothing changes.

Like a swarm of hungry locusts, they slaughter every traveler they encounter and pillage every village they see.

I couldn’t stop them. At first, I didn’t participate in the battles and even tried to stop them from pillaging a village.

But then five of them tried to kill me in the middle of the night, saying I had become weak. I woke up for some reason, only to find dark figures raising their swords at me. The shock of that unexpected ambush almost killed me.

I survived thanks to my body’s reflexes being better than expected.

The traitors were all cut down by Ja-han, but he was puzzled as to why I hadn’t dealt with them myself. When he asked me why I had only been dodging, I felt like my heart stopped.

After that day, I had no choice. I had to encourage the warriors to pillage and even participate in the battles myself.

The sensation of cutting people down was disgusting. I only comforted myself by fighting those who didn’t run away.

Still, thanks to Ha-shal-leur’s physical abilities, I had no trouble fighting with a sword I had never used before. Though it wasn’t at the level she had shown in her prime.

A single swing of the sword crushed armor, and a kicked person flew like a burst soccer ball. Attacks from non-warriors were so slow they made me yawn, and I could instinctively sense weapons coming from unseen directions.

Nine days later, while ten warriors died, the number of people I killed was close to three hundred. The sight of victorious warriors raping village women was horrifying.

Learning from the tragedy of the first day, I ordered that women and children be taken as slaves. At least they weren’t killed.

Every time I saw slaves being dragged along with their wrists tied to the wagon, I felt sorry, but a life of being raped every night and sold as slaves was the limit of the mercy I could offer them.

Once, I locked eyes with one of the captive women.

Torn and tattered clothes. Hair matted with dirt. Wrists bleeding from the ropes.

Her hollow eyes, peeking through her disheveled hair, held no emotion.

A figure that was alive but not living, crushed by violence, devoid of even hatred or malice.

I stared into those eyes for a long time, then turned away with difficulty, hiding my twisted expression.

I realized.

I must not get used to this.

I had to escape from them. Before I became a monster too, by any means necessary.