Acorn

After confirming that the black wizard had completely retreated, Roel returned and narrowed his brow as he checked on our condition.

“Let’s head back to the inn for now.”

At Roel’s words, we dragged our tired feet back to the inn. As we entered, all the villagers who had run away and disappeared were gathered there.

Perhaps they thought that since there were only orcs, they wouldn’t be easily attacked if they stuck together in one place.

If it weren’t for Roel, the inn would have collapsed from the black wizard’s magic, and they would all have died.

When we appeared, covered in blood, the villagers gave us fearful looks. Were they afraid that the orcs, having missed their prey, would come here?

Despite the tense atmosphere in the inn, Roel ignored it, put on a bright smile, and opened his mouth.

“I killed the orcs that attacked the village. The village is safe now.”

As soon as Roel finished speaking, everyone sighed in relief, and the tense atmosphere relaxed. When I sat the exhausted Ellie down on a nearby empty chair, a man who seemed to be the village chief approached Roel.

“Is it true that you killed the orcs?”

“Yes. It seems that the monster that has been attacking the village lately was that orc. There might be additional attacks, so it would be best to stay here today if possible.”

At Roel’s words, the village chief nodded and offered his thanks.

“Really, thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, this village would have been in danger like the other villages.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you.”

The villagers who had been listening to the conversation around the village chief expressed their sincere gratitude. Roel, covered in blood, receiving thanks from the people he had saved… he looked like the typical hero people talk about.

Watching that, I felt a little self-conscious. Not because I envied Roel, but because I felt pathetic for not being able to help the injured Ellie and Roel.

If only the plan had been a little more thorough. If only I hadn’t been so naive in thinking that Roel could handle it, neither of them would have been hurt.

“I’m not the only one who saved the village. It would have been impossible to kill the orcs without Ross and Ellie over there. Both of them fought to protect the village without giving up, even while injured.”

At Roel’s sudden words, the eyes of the villagers around him turned to Ellie, who was sitting down, and me, who was standing beside her.

The villagers’ gazes changed as they saw Ellie’s bloodstains running down her chin and her exhausted appearance, and my back with the clothes melted by magic and stuck to the hideous-looking wound.

Just as I was feeling burdened by the people’s attention, I inadvertently looked down at the touch of a hand pulling on my pants.

There, a little girl was grabbing my pants and looking up at me, as if she had something to say.

“This!”

The child took out a pretty acorn from her pocket as if it were a gift and handed it to me, drawing the attention of even the people who had been talking to Roel.

As I reached out and accepted the acorn, the child smiled brightly, as if happy, and shouted at me in a clumsy voice.

“Thank you for saving the village-hammida!”

For some reason, something hot surged inside me at those words. Whether it was because of the heat or because my vision had become blurry.

The child in front of me overlapped with the image of the child held in her mother’s arms in Moonlight Village. If things had gone as they were supposed to, this child would have met such an end as well.

But thanks to Ross’s nervous breakdown, I dragged Roel in after days of deliberation and saved Destin Village. I saved this child. I saved the villagers.

Only then did I realize how foolish it had been to worry about whether to save the village or not.

The people in front of me were not insignificant extras or byproducts created for sadness.

They were beings with lives like mine.

There would be no more lives ending in vain because of a single line of thoughtlessly written text.

As I lifted my head to suppress the surging emotions, I met Roel’s gaze.

Roel, who had been wearing a bright smile, came to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Good job, Ross. If you hadn’t kept your promise, we wouldn’t have been able to save this village.”

At Roel’s words, the innkeeper, who had been frightened and holding a kitchen knife until now, shouted.

“Thank you, Ross! Welcoming you as a guest is the best luck in my life!”

As if agreeing with the innkeeper, the villagers thanked me.

“Thank you, Ross!”

“Ross, thank you!”

“Thank you, Ross-ssi!”

Every time I heard those voices in my ear, I felt like something embedded in my heart was breaking apart. Something that had been deeply embedded for a long time, torn apart, bleeding, and congealed, was breaking and melting away.

As if trying to leave a trace of it. Tears fell from my chin to the floor. Watching me like that, with Roel giving me a warm smile and the villagers endlessly thanking me, embarrassingly.

I couldn’t help but cry like a child.

Was it the relief of saving someone? Or was it the emotion of receiving recognition for the first time?

I decided not to think too deeply.

Because I knew that sometimes, rather than understanding emotions with my head, I had to accept them with my heart.

***

The next day.

After a simple treatment and rest, we helped the villagers clean up.

Ellie used magic to clear away the debris of the burned and collapsed houses.

We helped the villagers properly organize the body of the guard who died while reporting the orc attack so that they could hold a funeral.

Then I brought Roel and took out a fist-sized core from the heart of the mutated orc.

“What is this…?”

“This could be an important item. It’s strange that the orc was so strong. Maybe it was created by someone related to the black wizard?”

I already knew what this was. It was a special core created by the ‘Cult’ of fanatics called the Chaos Church.

Unlike the demons who follow the Demon King, the ‘Cult’ was a group of fanatics made up purely of humans.

They were a crazy group with the idea that they were no different from fish trapped in a fish tank, and that they should break the boundaries of the world and regain true freedom.

This core contained [Chaos] and had the special ability to give powerful strength to monsters or magical creatures.

The mutated orc’s village attack was to test this.

Later, the item created by Rosalyn, who analyzed this, becomes an important help when fighting the Demon King’s executives.

“It was definitely different from ordinary orcs. Plus, it was being controlled by a black wizard.”

“How about investigating this at the academy?”

At my words, Roel nodded and picked up the core.

“Rosalyn will be able to figure something out.”

At those words, I couldn’t help but smile as I imagined Rosalyn not being able to hide her joy and twitching her lips at Roel’s request.

Was it strange that I suddenly smiled? When I erased my smile at Roel’s strange gaze, he suddenly grinned and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Ross, you’ve changed a lot.”

When I was a little embarrassed by Roel’s sudden words, Roel put strength in his arm, wrapped it around my neck, and roughly ruffled my hair.

“Seeing you grow up makes me feel strangely happy. Is this what they call a father’s heart?”

I scoffed at the absurd joke and replied.

“You know we’re only a year apart, right?”

“Even if it’s only a year, hyung is hyung.”

I got out of Roel’s arm, sighed, and went back to the inn.

When Roel went up to his room to contact the Imperial Investigation Team with a crystal ball.

I was very concerned about Ellie, who was sitting at a corner table in the inn, exuding a gloomy aura, so I approached her.

Normally, she would have been with Roel, sticking close to him. Is she still suffering from the aftereffects of mana exhaustion?

“…I just followed along and made you suffer. I’m sorry.”

As I was wondering what to say, I regretted the stupid words I blurted out. Ellie, with a gloomy face, shook her head weakly.

“No. It’s my fault for forcing myself to come when you told me not to… I’m sorry, I was just a burden, right?”

I was a little puzzled by Ellie’s sighing appearance. To be honest, I didn’t like Ellie joining us at first, but if it weren’t for Ellie, Roel would have had to face the black wizard and the mutated orc alone.

It ended like this because Ellie was there. Why is the person herself so depressed?

“Why do you think so…?”

When I asked carefully, Ellie bit her lip and said, looking down.

“I couldn’t even properly buy time against the black wizard… If I had been a little stronger, you and Roel oppa wouldn’t have been hurt….”

I was dumbfounded at Ellie’s words. Seeing Ellie, who was dropping her head, really thinking that I and Roel were hurt because she was lacking, I inadvertently raised my hand to Ellie’s head.

When I felt the texture of her soft black hair with my palm. I came to my senses at Ellie’s surprised face looking up at me.

After hearing my female junior from college say, ‘I really hate it when someone I don’t like puts their hand on my head,’ I hadn’t touched a woman’s head carelessly. Why did I do that?

Regretting it, I quickly took my hand off her head and said to Ellie as if making an excuse.

“I think we ended up with injuries thanks to you?”

“…Huh?”

“Thanks to you coming on the trip, Roel wasn’t attacked from the start when he was fighting the orc. You bought time and were able to hand Roel the potion.”

“But that’s….”

I raised my hand to stop Ellie, who was about to say something, and told her to listen to the end.

“Thanks to you buying time against the black wizard with your magic, Roel was able to quickly deal with the orc. Do you think I could have bought time against the black wizard alone if you hadn’t been there? Looking back now, it would have been a disaster if you hadn’t come. You did the most important thing out of the three of us last night.”

Ellie’s face, which had been gloomy, brightened a little at my words. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her twitching her lips as if she felt better.

Ellie pretended to be nonchalant, but she looked at me with a look that seemed to say, ‘Praise me more.’ There was a childlike cuteness to that appearance, so I kept praising her.

“Actually, it doesn’t make sense for a first-year student to buy time against a black wizard. Even a third-year student wouldn’t be able to do that, right? But Ellie, you even damaged the black wizard with your composite magic. The seniors would have been surprised if they had seen it, right?”

“…When I saw that pillar of fire. I inadvertently thought, ‘Wow, she’s a real genius.’ I even doubted if she was really a first-year student.”

Ellie, who was grinning and unable to hide her joy at the continued praise, put on a pretty expression and said when I finished talking.

“As expected, Ross is kind.”

I felt a tingling sensation as if something had struck my heart at the sight of Ellie smiling as she said that. As I felt my heart pounding and couldn’t take my eyes off Ellie’s face, who I had fallen for again.

Roel came down and joined the table, as if he had finished his call.

“The Imperial Investigation Team will be here soon. They will check the orc’s body and listen to the damage the village has suffered and the details of the incident. We’ll go back to the academy, and when the investigation team comes later, we just have to talk about what happened yesterday, and it’s over.”

“That’s a relief. Then shall we leave after lunch?”

“That would be good. Fortunately, the village chief said he would take us to the capital by carriage as a reward. We’ll arrive at the academy in the evening.”

“Then how about the steak we had in the capital for dinner? To be honest, I regret not being able to eat it that day!”

“Shall we?”

Ellie, who had thrown away her gloom, began to talk to Roel in a cheerful voice as always. I sighed at the emotions I felt just by watching them talk.

I’m so jealous like this,

There’s no way I can be kind.