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Five years had passed since I became an adventurer, and it was already my second year in that role.

“You little brat!”

“Ugh!”

I lived by taking on quests from the Adventurer’s Guild. At that time, as a solo adventurer, I was accepted by my companions who taught me how to survive, which wasn’t a bad experience.

“Hand over everything you have if you don’t want to get beat up.”

“Pfft! …You bastards… You’ve already hit me and are now acting all tough.”

While I was on my way to the guild office to sell a monster carcass I acquired from a quest, I got surrounded by some trashy characters in an alley.

Though they were just low-level adventurers, they still felt overwhelming to me.

“Are you looking down on adults, you little brat?”

‘Damn it, if I hadn’t drawn attention during the quest earlier…’

I was immature at that time, still struggling with using my Insight Eye and copying abilities effectively; they were always by my side during those days.

“You don’t seem to understand your situation…!!”

The biggest guy in the group stopped to wipe the cold sweat off his brow.

For a good reason, as in an instant, my knife was pointed at his Adam’s Apple.

“This kid is someone special to me; how about you stop bothering him?”

She was a silver-haired girl, a head taller than me at twelve years old, her smile exuding both softness and a lightness in her voice as she warned the man before her.

“What? And who the hell are you?”

“I’m not being harassed anyway!”

The faces of the guys who had been cocky suddenly turned pale at the sight of her.

“Boss… this is dangerous!”

“Huh? A girl like this is threatening us with a knife?”

“It’s not that… ugh!!”

As one of the punks opened his mouth, my fist sent him flying against the wall.

“Hey! What’s going on?!”

The silver-haired man, having kicked away the rest of the punks one by one, stood protectively in front of me and the girl.

“Rena… don’t pull out your knife so quickly… it’s dangerous…”

“I was waiting for you way too long, Nova! I almost got hurt!”

“That guy… he… flew away… in one hit…”

“It’s dangerous! Leo and Rena are famous troublemakers in this area!”

“Ugh! You punks better remember this!”

The assailants fled, terrified by Leo’s overwhelming strength.

“In these times, we have crazy punks mouthing off like that.”

“Well… I’m relieved nothing worse happened. Are you okay?”

Leo casually brushed off the enemies and extended a hand to me, but I was still caught up in my own overconfidence and pride at that moment.

“If those guys were my usual opponents…”

“You still talk big as ever.”

“Hey, don’t put Nova down! He’s doing great!”

“Okay, I acknowledge the fact that you tried to fight back.”

“That’s not what I meant! Don’t say weird stuff to him. If Nova ends up like you, I’ll be responsible!”

“Well, I guess that makes sense. It’s enough trash to deal with on my own.”

“Nova’s kindness is a good thing, which is why he went to the guild office alone this time to help lessen our burden, right?”

“…”

Rena, who seemed cool yet somehow very kind to me, probably liked me back then, although I didn’t realize it at that time.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Should I kiss it better?”

“…I’m not hurt and I don’t need that.”

“Rena, stop teasing Nova so much. You’re the reason he reacts like that.”

Up until that point, I had seen them as a joke. They were just extra characters who hadn’t even appeared in the original story; to me, they were merely passing NPCs.

My only goal was to grow stronger to take revenge on the bastard who took Stella away.

Before I knew it, the sun began to set as we walked through the fields to head to our campsite.

Rena chimed in with a bright voice.

“Oh, a deer! Look, it’s a deer!”

“You’re making a fuss over deer… We see them every day, right?”

“You really have no sense of wonder…”

“I just want to see something new.”

“If we go a bit further, there’s a Goblin Nest.”

“That’s not it! I want to see something even more amazing, right, Nova?”

“I don’t care either way.”

“Ugh, such an ungrateful guy… Anyway! I’m not going to end up in this backwater village; I’m a guy who’ll see a broader world with my own eyes.”

“Then stop fighting every day and focus on studying instead.”

“…!!… How annoying! This is training!”

“What kind of training is that? It sounds dumb.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“…”

But somehow… yes, just a little…

“Ah! Nova smiled, you smiled just now, didn’t you?”

I thought the time I spent with them was pretty okay.

*

Today, I received quite a few decent quests.

The rewards weren’t bad, and neither was the risk; it meant those two could rest a bit today from the dangerous tasks they usually undertook.

Leo was five years older than me, and Rena was three years older, but they had become adventurers to survive as orphans.

Despite struggling for their own survival, they went through so much trouble looking after me.

‘With this quest, they might finally get some time to relax.’

“I’m out.”

But tragedy struck suddenly.

“Leo? Rena?”

Creeeak, creak, screeech!

An unsettling sound echoed through the room, like metal scraping against something.

The pungent smell of blood filled the air, sending alarm bells ringing in my mind and body.

“I found you.”

Emerging from the darkness, cloaked in a black aura and wielding a massive sword with both hands, stood the gray-haired man glaring at me.

The icy sensation gripping my heart felt like suffocating pressure.

‘It’s definitely him; I can sense his magic power.’

Why on earth is this guy here? What happened to Rena?

Is Leo… in trouble? I need to hide for now, or it’ll—

At that moment, the man lunged at me, dragging his sword along.

“Ah… it’s been ages since I’ve breathed fresh air…”

Bang!

“It’s been ages since I’ve tasted blood!”

The weighty great sword obliterated the spot where I stood, turning it into dust.

Just before the attack hit me, I activated my Insight Eye and barely rolled to the side.

‘That was close…’

Looking at me with a grin that seemed to stretch his face, he laughed maniacally.

“You dodged that? Hahaha…”

“Huh… damn it.”

Is his organization filled with crazies? Why the hell is he so obsessed with me?

Just as he prepared to swing his sword at me again, a punch came from the darkness.

“Don’t you dare touch my little brother, you bastard!”

“Ugh!”

With a single punch, Leo sent the guy crashing deep into the wall.

Bleeding and staggering, he barely managed to stand.

Leo had one eye badly cut, bleeding profusely, his body bruised everywhere.

“Leo!”

“Are you okay? Nova.”

“What about you… and Rena?”

“Not here yet, we need to run!”

Leo, clutching me tight, dashed out from our hiding place onto the main street.

As we fled, I caught sight of Rena shopping.

“Rena!”

“Nova? And big brother?! What happened to you?!”

“We have to run, now!”

“Wait, where are we running to…?”

“Do you need to ask?! We’re escaping, no matter what!”

Trying to weave between the crowd to shake off the bastard, but he was more insane than I thought.

“The village is dangerous! That man has started killing indiscriminately!”

“That damn lunatic killer…”

“…Damn it!”

I had put these guys in danger because of me, dragging innocent people into this mess too.

“Now… what do we do…”

As my shoulders slumped in anger towards myself, Leo placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Calm down, Nova; if you shout, he might hear us.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“This is a rural town, so it’s hard to get help. We need to escape as soon as possible.”

“Got it.”

With a determined look, Leo spoke firmly to me.

“…Nova, right now, just think about how to survive.”

What the hell does that mean…? Could it be that this bastard—

“Even if you say that…”

I can’t lose anyone. I lost last time, and I can’t afford to lose again, no way.

“It’s okay, Nova.”

Holding my cold hand, Rena smiled gently as if trying to reassure me.

“We’ll protect you, so you don’t have to act tough.”

“Rena…”

Don’t joke around… What can you do, trembling like that? Why are you even—

Calm down, no one has died yet, and I haven’t lost anything.

Let’s think this through again; there must be a way.

“I’m sorry… for showing such a shaky side.”

“Alright, that’s the spirit… so I’m counting on you to look after Rena.”

“…What?”

Leo, linking arms with me, glared at the shadow approaching from a distance.

“I’m sorry; I think I’m being followed. With this much blood lost, it’s only a matter of time until they notice.”

‘No! It was my fault for raising my voice!’

“I’ll fight the bastard. You take Rena and run.”

“I refuse! If it’s about buying time, I’ll do it!”

Leo scoffed at my words, looking at me like I was ridiculous.

“Hah! You won’t stand a chance. And if I take a hit, I want to pay that bastard back… I’m just trash, you know.”

Rena, with her head bowed, revealed no expression.

“Just take him down and come back, you fool brother…”

Clenching her fists while sounding determined, Leo pushed forward.

“Yeah.”

Creeeak!

“I won’t let a single one escape…”

Dragging the bloody great sword behind him, the gray-haired man approached us.

As Leo charged at him, he yelled at the top of his lungs.

With those words, I grabbed Rena’s hand and ran wildly into the forest.

After running for a while through the woods, we ended up at a cliff.

“Haah… haah..”

“Haah… haah… just hold on a second..”

The pitch-black night with no lights to be seen, we had no place to escape.

“Are you okay?”

“Sorry…”

Rena’s breathing was ragged; it was strange since she usually could run faster than I could.

“Nova… hold this.”

She handed me a revolver, an old and substantial one.

“What…? You should keep this! More importantly, right now…”

“It’s okay… just listen? I got hit in the abdomen when we ran from that guy…”

A shocking amount of blood pooled on the ground raised my doubts to incredible heights.

“Don’t tell me…!”

I quickly turned to check Rena’s back.

A deep gash that reached the bone was visible, and even through a beginner’s eyes like mine, it was anything but normal.

“No… no! First, something to stop the bleeding…”

“No matter which way, it’ll just be a burden.”

“It’s okay! Don’t give up! Leo said it! We’ll find a way to stop it! …Wait? Why is the bleeding… not stopping?”

“Cough!”

Seeing Rena coughing up blood and trembling, I fell into confusion.

Am I… losing again? I swore I wouldn’t let it happen again.

Rena looked directly at me, giving me a distant smile.

“Nova… I like you.”

“…Huh?”

Rena, looking up at me with a deflated expression, managed a smile.

“I love you.”

“…Huh? Don’t say things that don’t make sense… Stop saying such things… like it’s the last time…”

As she wiped my falling tears, Rena whispered what felt like a farewell.

“Nova… shall we kiss?”

“…!… At a time like this…”

I was flustered at Rena leaning towards me, speechless.

Looking at me frozen, she wore a teasing smile.

“It’s a joke~ Nova, you like someone, don’t you?”

“…Huh?”

“Next time you get the chance, you should confess without hesitation, alright?”

As she nestled into my arms, she whispered softly.

“Stay alive, Nova.”

“…Hey, Rena! You!”

“Seriously… I’m envious. I wish I had a chance too…”

As she fell off the cliff, I saw it clearly.

The enormous sword piercing through her belly and her last moments before her life faded away, her dilated pupils reflecting the world.

That final moment was etched all too vividly into my mind.

And I swore, before clearing this game,

I would make sure of one thing.

‘I will never forgive them. Not a single one will be left alive. I will erase every one of you from this world.’

 

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