I walked cheerfully on the dirt road to the east while I was following a carriage that was quite far from me in normal human term. According to the letter I so painfully read, this world was fun.
"And that man has a twisted sense of joy"
Currently, I'm wearing my armor and on my shoulders was Gae Bolg, locked in between
my arms as leverage. The ambient forest like lands I woke up on previously was filled with, more or less nothing harmful, it was horribly peaceful to the point that I think this world MIGHT just be fun, like he said it was.
And then the ground shook.
'Knew it'
I quickly ran away from my previous position, wary that perhaps a monster would come from below me, to my surprise though, there indeed came a monster.
Just not where I expected it to be.
The carriage I was following soon stopped as a weird looking gigantic crab(?) emerged and roared violently, that was my cue and I started charging towards the beast.
"W-What is an Earth Dragon doing in here?!"
As I was approaching said Earth Dragon, a young man of average height and medium length brown hair with a cowlick that falls with its weight, jumped high from the carriage and attempted to fight it... attempted.
'My bad...'
That said, I already was on the motion of leaping and skewering the beast when he decided to also pop out so by the rules of the world and Gae Bolg itself, I landed a pierce to the heart first gaining the attention of the 3 people.
The beast died immediately, and I landed safely down to the ground while the young man, or no the boy landed on his butt.
"Ow ow ow, that's rude! How can you just steal other people's kill like that!"
The suddenly stood up, full of vigor and his green emerald eyes shining with hope...ah youth.
"Heh, my bad, I was already attacking when I noticed you, but you sure... look confident in killing the beast huh?"
The boy smirked at me and shook his head as if I said something terribly wrong, he then gave a swordplay show, a few diagonal slashes that created a little bit of wind.
"Whaddya think? I'm sure I'm pretty strong you know? Danger Beasts like that's easy pickings for me"
Danger Beasts?
I gave him a smirk before relaxing my posture and placing the spear on my shoulders once more...please take the bait.
"A-Ah hey wait! Young man, come back let us at least give you something in return!"
The guy from the carriage took it, eh better than nothing I guess.
"Hm? Payment? I don't need one, give it to the kid since it was his, instead why don't you just answer my few questions, hm?"
I gave the man a friendly smirk before placing my arms around his shoulders in a friendly manner. The boy though slightly cringed but he matters not, I need information to survive and young boy like you would know less probably.
"Q-Question? If we can answer it...then sure"
"Cool, just explain to me about the... the empire was it?"
With my words, the young boy's eyes shone once more, like an excited puppy, err, I mean like an excited cat?
"Oooh you're from a village too?!"
"Hm? Well, uhh yes, I'm from the village of... Ulster"
"Hahaha! A kindred spirit! Just like me, let's go to the capital together and gain fame as warriors!"
Been there, done that kid, and it isn't as happy as it sounds, but who am I to ruin the kid's dreams right? I'm sure I was just like that before.
"Well, sure. Have your fun, I'm doing something else"
He deflated.
"Aww, what else would you be planning to do?! You look so young as well?"
"I'm on my 20's kid"
"Huh? You are? You look just the same age as me..."
And with that, I think I now know why my armor was a little too loose for me the first time and the reasons for my slight discomfort...
"Hey, do you have a mirror?"
The carriage dude I was buddy-buddy with released himself from me and started rustling at his carriage, he then came out with a mirror.
"But why though?"
I gulped.
Damn, I'm handsome.
"Well, nevermind, I gotta agree, I guess I do look young huh?"
I gave back the mirror earning their curious gazes and so I wrapped my arms back to my buddy and gave him a smile.
"Just tell me about the Empire and probably those Danger Beasts things while we continue our journey, kay?"
And with that, the carriage continued it's way to the capital, now with 200% less casualty.
*
"Woah! My journey starts today!"
Tatsumi, as I came to know the name of the boy, dropped down from the carriage with excitement. Poor guy.
"Hey! Setanta! C'mon!"
I on the other hand was already walking and refused to ride the carriage so I lazily made my way forward. Before we both went on our way though, my buddy-buddy asked Tatsumi to come closer and gave him advice, the other people bustling about went to stare at me, or rather my Gae Bolg actually, greed in their eyes obvious.
'Can't ya bunch hide it any better?'
I smirked and continued to walk to the Empire, I decided to listen a bit to the advice they gave Tatsumi.
"The real monsters are those hidden in human skin"
The kid wouldn't get it, I shook my head and stopped eavesdropping, first thing I had to do was find a stable job.
So, I decided to walk around the place first. I could bet that about nearly everyone stared at my spear my spear with no shame. If you want to stare, stare at the handsome wielder, assholes. There was even this one armored dude who came to me and asked me to give back the 'stolen' weapon, I nearly died laughing at that and he deemed me bad so I had to hit them a little, don't worry I used the blunt part.
This led me to the a weird part in the city, there was multiple crucified corpses and there was this guy saying something about sinners and guilty, not worth my time so I continued my observation, slavery was legal and the culture of this place was a little...off, I wouldn't judge much though, I mean Connacht had weird stuff too and so did Ulster. It took me around 3 hours to circle around the city and my final destination after asking around for jobs was the military, I took the time to actually check the logo of the empire, it showed some type of dragon eating it's tail.
"Huh, neat"
I quickly placed the entire thought out of my mind and made a decisive step into the building, I was greeted with multiple stares, not me, my spear.
"I want to be recruited, what do I do?"
I asked, loud and clear, no point in acting shy especially when they all look like Medb whenever she saw me fight back then.
"Wait in line, and don't go asking to be a captain too"
"Huh?"
"Nothing, just a kid from before, ridiculously asking to be a captain immediately"
I shrugged and waited in line, hugging my spear with one arm, using it as a post to lean on, the entire thing finished after an hour and guess what?
"Just pay up for now, due to that weapon of yours we need to ask some questions to the higher ups first, and it'd help if you could giv-"
I didn't even bother listening and went straight out, I did still pay up, I'm coming back tomorrow for sure.
"It's already late huh?"
I walked aimlessly through the empty streets and decided to spend my night sitting around in some empty alleyway, I would've been fine with anywhere, heck a tree would be even better, sadly there was no tree here and just some rats wanting to nibble on my spear.
"You guys suck at hiding you know that?"
From the shadows came several armed men, probably from the place before, I yawned and made it clear to them using my posture that I didn't consider them a threat, at least they didn't have any long monologues...
"Give us your weapon and we won't hurt you that bad"
'Thugs? Really?'
I didn't reply and they just started charging at me, I dodged effortlessly and I started having other thoughts.
'I wonder if my skills as a servant remain?'
I ducked dodging a horizontal slash and then I quickly hopped back effectively evading a tackle.
"This bastard isn't even paying attention! All of you charge!"
They revealed their full numbers, about 7 I think. I don't think they're stupid or something but charging all at once against a spear user is plain suicide, why?
"Lesson #1, don't attempt to attack together against someone who wields a spear"
I grabbed Gae Bolg backwards and did a mighty swipe, my strength was no doubt a few times more than the normal so the swipe ended up compiling the 7 upstarts to the spear and successfully slamming them to the wall, it cracked a bit... the wall and them.
"Guh... aren't you all too weak? That was a casual strike!"
I sighed disappointedly, how exactly is this world fun if thugs don't even last a second against me? Back in Ulster, even thugs could last a minute against me! Granted they were Medb's thugs but still.
I walked away from the area and found myself walking again, this time I came across a weird area, it was big, probably owned by someone rich and I could smell trees, huh how environmental friendly, I remember trees being something that absorbs whatever was it...oxy something, my previous master was a rather noisy one about the way the world works.
"Whatever, rich people don't allow unknown people to their homes, if they did then this world might just possibly be the start of world pea-!?
...
My nose did a subtle twitch, ah yes, the familiar smell of what bathes warriors and killers.
'Blood'
I quickly went towards the mansion, blood as thick smelling as that wasn't remotely normal. I could also smell, rotten corpses?
I leapt up over the walls and found myself behind a building, I kept trying to pinpoint the smell but it was weirdly everywhere?
"A massacre?"
Ignoring the growing smell of fresh blood, I went inside the large manor through the windows and what greeted me was a messy job. Blood splattered everywhere, dead guards and heads scattered all across, I even smell faint traces of...Tatsumi?
I ran towards the smell, and noted the strings hanging from place to place, the smell of guns, no gun. I stopped in place and found what I was looking for, a blonde haired girl was shouting and saying something while-
"Tatsumi?!"
I quickly went closer, landing on one of the roofs and without further questions I dropped in front of Tatsumi who was about to slash the blonde girl and blocked his slash.
Ting!
Several eyes widened at my arrival, including Tatsumi who quickly backed away after I blocked his strike.
"S-Setanta? What are you doing?"
I glanced behind me and gave the place a quick spit, I shifted my gaze to the blonde girl behind me who was starting to smell of piss, and then to the colorful bunch of bloody killers behind Tatsumi.
"No, what are you doing? I don't know much but killing a girl who doesn't even have the will to fight isn't on my tastes"
A blonde haired bimbo smirked at me and scratched her head, I took note of the beast like or rather she does have claws!
"Another young hero huh? Do you also have a friend that's missing? Take a look at the corpses behind you, maybe you'll change your mind~"
"Leone, we're out of time, let's kill her already"
A black haired girl replied in a machine like tone, before placing her hands to the sheathed katana, it emitted some type of deadly aura and I was a little annoyed with how they skillfully ignored me.
"Really? Well, if you're going to kill her then make sure you don't get my spear stuck in your chest while doing so"
I cranked up Gae Bolg in my hands and gave the 5 colorful bunch in front of me my trademark manic grin and hound like demeanor.
"Teigu"
They all backed away from me, bringing Tatsumi with them and readied each of their fancy looking weapons.
"Setanta! Why are you protecting her?! She killed my friends! The one who I told you about!"
His familiar way of talking to me gave me the benefit of the doubt but I don't need it, I don't require anything from assassins.
"Well, those guys behind you stink of blood, they also killed and even you was once their target, what's the difference?"
"Eliminate"
The black haired girl charged at my with no questions asked, I guess I'll have t-
'That's a deadly blade right there'
I activated the suffocating bloodlust of Gae Bolg, successfully disrupting the momentum of the black haired girl, I blocked her downward slash with the tip of my spear and spun it backwards to hit the top of her palms with the blunt tip, she quickly recovered and used the the moment to back away from me, the bloodlust was probably too much for the poor girl.
"What is that? How many have you killed?"
"Little girl, you don't confess like that"
The black haired girl glared at me and readied herself once more, this time though, the 5 of them decided to attack together.
"Oi, blonde stay behind me, move even a single meter away and your dead"
The girl behind me nodded her head like a chicken pecking the ground and I braced myself for a 1v5, thankfully Tatsumi was still in deep thought.
The first to strike was the armored dude with a spear, sadly though, Scathach was a God like teacher so I defected his thrust and twirled the spear to block a Katana from the side attacking the girl behind me, I had to jump a few meters back while grabbing said girl with me because the yellow bimbo tried to hit me with a flurry of claw slashes
"Poor spear skills, a shitty katana dependant cutie, and a mindless kitty trying to scratch m-"
I ducked and watched as energy bullet? Went past my head, that came from the pinky.
"And a trigger happy pinky with no accuracy, what about you veggie? Those strings for support?"
"Akame, let's attack together, ignore him and go straight for the target behind him"
I flared the bloodlust a little more and slid my left index and middle near the tip of Gae Bolg while my right arm grabbed a little bit lower than the center.
"Oi, grab on"
The girl behind me grabbed me by the shoulder and I leapt back to the roofs and placed her there.
"He's going to use the ability of his Teigu!"
The smartest of the bunch probably, veggie, warned the others. I ignored the fact that they started running because-
It just won't work.
I laid down on all fours and released my mana into the spear empowering it for the soaring strike, fiery red aura started coating Gae Bolg, I haven't used it for so long that even I get goosebumps.
"Running won't help"
They won't hear but at least the world would. I jumped forward with all my might and positioned myself in the air, back arced a little to support the hurl and the spear screaming with bloodlust, it wants me to throw it, it wants to be used once more, and use it I shall.
"GAE BOLG!"
The six people retreated with fear, Tatsumi was being dragged away and when my spear was released, it moved so fast that only a red blur could be seen before a loud explosion instead of killing them propelled them a little bit more forward.
"I spared your asses"
I leisurely walked to my Gae Bolg stuck in the crater and laughed wholeheartedly
"What a bunch of colorful people, sadly I didn't see anyone with white hair..."
Shaking my head, I returned to the blonde girl I saved and sat down beside her, she gave me an apprehensive look while shivering. Can't really blame her, it's not everyday that you get to be in close proximity with that much bloodlust.
"What's your name?"
I pointed toward myself with a questioning gaze and she nodded, if I do this right, it might just be a job offer.
"Yours first, after all I saved you, brat"
She pouted, or maybe she gave me a death glare and stood up, she smells like piss.
"I'm Aria PissMcnugget, and now... I'm asking you what is your name"
...
'PissMcnugget, hoo boy, don't laugh, this is a job offer... don't laugh'
"Well then miss PissMcnugget, I'm none other than Setanta or better yet call me Cu Chulainn"
Her eyes widened with my 2nd name and immediately started nibbling on her thumb.
"A-Are you part of any family? Your last name, I've never heard of it"
"Oh, that's more of a title really, I'm called Setanta and I prefer it even more as well"
She did a light cough and, offered me a hand.
"Please work for me, protect me, and I assure you that The Empire won't mistreat you"
"Gladly, I'll be your guard dog like I always am"
I took her hand and from this day onwards, the legend of the Hound of PissMcnugget is born.