…

Straf walks out of the city through the main gate, Cycelia is holding onto her new sword's grip with her sheath-side hand as it sits snug in the sheath.

「…Are we leaving because of the manhunters?」

Cycelia asks Straf as she follows beside him, leaning slightly to get a better look at his face as he takes the road close to the walls.

「What? No. We're leaving because this place has ran its course.」

He glances at Cycelia for only a split second. Long shadows stretch from nearby trees onto the walls as the morning sun shines on.

「Huh? In what way?」

「I mean that there's nothing left to do here. What else do you want to do? Go to the sewers and kill rats with your new sword? Please.」

He scoffs and spreads his arms as he walks. Cycelia's gaze turns to the sword Straf bought for her.

「I kind of feel bad about asking for this, Straf… That's most of your reward gone, already.」

「Forget it. Easy come, easy go.」

「...Easy? But that was a troll…」

Straf waves his hand, without even turning his head at Cycelia as they walk on the road next to the walls. As they continue onward, something catches Straf's eye, behind a hedge and a low stone fence.

「...Is that!?」

「What?」

Straf jumps over the short hedge and fence, and runs up to the focus of his attention. He gets behind it, and presents it to Cycelia with his palms upward, bending his knees just a little to emphasize it even further.

「Lia, what is this?」

He asks, spreading his hands apart and narrowing them as he does.

「What? …Do you mean the grave?」

Pat pat pat.

「No no no, this. This thing.」

He pats the stone planted behind the grave, and leans onto it slightly.

「...The grave marker?」

「Yes. Can you tell me what this is?」

She shakes her head slightly in confusion as she stands behind the fence, outside the graveyard.

「I- I don't understand the question?」

「The shape, Lia. What does it mean to you?」

「I… Still don't understand. It's just a grave marker.」

「Riiight. But why is it a grave marker? Does it hold some significant religious meaning to you?」

「…No?」

She answers meekly with no confidence with her voice, almost as if asking a question herself.

「Are you sure? Is it not a torture slash execution device in your kingdom?」

「Wh- What? Is it in yours, Straf? How can it be?」

「It is- It was. Are you sure you don't nail people to this and wait until they die?」

「No! That sounds horribly barbaric! I don't think even that murderous maniac would do that! Do they really nail people to grave markers in your country, Straf?」

「What? No, it's not- You know what. Forget it. If this shape holds no significance to you, why are you using it as a grave marker?」

「I… I don't know? It's just how it is.」

「Can you tell me about how it started?」

「I- No. Straf, are you trying to make fun of me? I'm not a wellspring of knowledge.」

「No. I'm not. If you don't know, then it can't be helped. Let's just ignore this completely nonsensical thing and move on. Who was this guy, anyway?」

Straf walks in front of the grave, and reads the inscription.

Julius Tecanus of Murusburg

2E 213 – 2E 220

The plague took his bright future away from us.

In Mercia's embrace, may he be reborn in better times.

「Woah. Grim. Spooky. Lia, do they bury the dead with their stuff in your kingdom? You know, like money and things.」

Straf asks as he rubs his chin, looking at the grave.

「Straf, I hope- No. I can't assume things again when I've been wrong so many times. Straf, you're asking out of cultural curiosity, right?」

「Huh? Yeah, I guess.」

「It's very rare for peasants to be buried with more than their personal items, or even that much. Noblemen and such do get buried with money, as a tradition…」

「Hmmm…」

《Guess it's not worth digging graves open. Whatever. I'll just find some ancient crypt full of skeletons and lit torches later.》

「Let's go, then.」

Straf says as he hops back over the fence and returns to the road.

「Where are we heading exactly, Straf?」

「To the next town, where else? I guess the goal is to kick that asshole after you out of the throne.」

「Hahaha… Straf… If only it were that easy…」

Cycelia laughs softly, amused greatly by Straf's nonchalance about a matter of such gravity…

…

In the meanwhile, far away…

「Man, I can't believe we blew all our money, only to find out it was just carrot juice.」

「Better safe than sorry, Greaves. What would you do if Alicia drank it, and it turned out to be poison?」

The young mage adjusts his glasses with his middle and index finger as he talks, following Greaves on the road out of the town.

「Tsk. At least we know the sword's true power now.」

Greaves says and grabs his sword by its suspiciously carrot-like grip, then draws it with the sound of a sword being drawn. He points the tip upward and looks it over again.

「Careful, Greaves…」

Alicia cautions him as she trails behind Will.

「Alicia, that was just a one-time accident. You didn't need to heal it.」

Greaves rolls his eyes as he looks over his shoulder talks to Alicia walking behind Will.

「That's what I'm here for, Greaves.」

She peeks out from behind Will, and smiles. Greaves immediately looks away.

「A-anyway… Let's try and finish that quest up early. Maybe we can do two in a day and recover our money.」

「Aren't we going to go and ask the loggers what they saw, first?」

Will asks with eyebrows raised.

「What for!? You read the quest! They saw a monster! Let's just hack it apart, and get the next one.」

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

「Greaves, that's dangerous. If we don't know what we're going to be against-」

「Blah blah blah, Will. You're always crying and whining about everything. Did you forget I'm the legendary hero? We can't lose with a sword like this.」

Greaves swivels around and shows the sword off to Will. Will immediately stops in his tracks, and Alicia bumps into his back.

「Ow…」

「Stop swinging that thing in front of my face! You almost killed me with it yesterday!」

「Hahaha! If you are afraid, imagine what the monsters will feel like!」

Greaves cackles, then carefully sheathes his sword. They walk into a treeline as the morning sun begins to brighten the forest up. They keep walking, and walking…

「Greaves, are you sure we're going in the-」

「Oh will you shut up already, Will!? You said the same thing yesterday!」

As soon as Greaves finishes his shout, the party hears an echoing ominous growl.

「Eep!」

The mage's eyes widen as he hears the sound, Greaves lightly elbows him in the ribs.

「See? You're always wrong! Let's go!」

They continue onward through the forest. Not too long after, they arrive at a clearing full of stumps, and very specific looking trees. They look almost normal, but their bark is either red or purple tinted, and the leaves have a cyan hue to their green. Greaves, Will and Alicia look around as they walk into the center of the clearing. They hear the growl again, this time much, much louder.

「G-Greaves… I think we should leave.」

Will implores Greaves, with wide-open eyes and lips squeezed together tight. Alicia looks nervously side to side as well.

「What? And abandon the quest? What kind of a legendary hero would I be?」

「…One that doesn't want his friends to die?」

「Tsk. Leave that to Alicia. Right?」

He looks behind himself. Alicia looks at him with a slight delay, and nods in silence, gripping onto her silver wand. Then, her eyes widen and she points forward with Will.

「H-h… Horndogs!」

Will shouts. Greaves turns his gaze forward. A pack of oversized tan-colored dogs with fluffy black manes, and varying number of horns walk into the clearing from amidst the trees. Some of the horndogs have just one horn sticking out of the center of their head, and some as many as three curved and menacing ones.

「Tsk… Well, that's not good. But leave it to me! I'll hack them to pieces! Will! Start casting!」

Will steps aside quickly, pointing the tip of his staff at the biggest group of the horndogs, and he quickly begins reciting an incantation.

「Heed my call scorching flames, and incinerate those in my gaze, with the sun's pleasant rays, bring my opponents the end of days!」

The air in front of his staff starts warping heavily, and steam rises from the blurring space.

「『Heat Ray』!」

The blur suddenly extends forward into a narrow horizontal cone. The horndogs closest to the center of the cone explode into a splatter of gore, while the ones on the sides ignite and run away into the forest, becoming a glimmer in the darkness.

The rest of the horndogs start to charge towards the party. Greaves steps forward, gripping onto his sword with both hands and holding it in front of him.

「Keep going! I'll keep them away!」

「Right! Heed my call scorching flames…」

Will points his staff into next largest group he can see, and repeats his incantation. The horndogs close in onto the group. Greaves leaps in, and swings his sword at the monster closest to him. The blade goes right through it, and the horndog drops to the ground bisected. Another one leaps at him.

Greaves jumps into the air, as soon as the leaping horndog is about to bite his leg, he jumps again in mid-air over the horndog. It snaps its jaws on the thin air, and lands confused. Greaves hacks its head off without a slightest problem, as he lands next to it.

Before he can recover from his jump, another horndog leaps at him.

「Watch out!」

Alicia tries to warn Greaves, but there isn't much she can do. Greaves guards himself with his free arm, and the beast latches onto it with a spray of blood. He stabs the horndog in its torso in response, it yelps and lets go of his arm, then drops dead onto the dirt.

「Hrrrghhh…」

「I'll heal you! Hold on-」

「No! This is nothing! You can't waste your healing on scratches like this!」

Greaves shouts at worried Alicia, as she clutches onto her wand tighter. Another cone of deadly heat projects onto the charging beasts, which explode into gore mid-way to the party. Blood flows from Greaves's torn arm as he clenches his teeth.

「Argh… Finally you're good for somet- Will! Watch-!」

Greaves barely manages to shouts a partial warning at Will, who can only take a quick glance at him before a horndog charging in from the side rams his jagged horns into Will's torso, with enough force to send him through the air forward, his staff flying out of his hand.

「Hrk!」

Thud.

「Will!」 「Will!」

Both Greaves and Alicia shout in unison, as he hits the dirt and rolls a little with a trail of blood. He clutches at his wound, coughing and gasping. The beasts encircle the party, growling and drooling.

「Shit…」

Greaves's injured arm hangs low as he steps between Alicia, Will and the beasts, holding his blade flat on his shoulder.

「Will… Greaves! What do I do!?」

Alicia shouts a question at Greaves, while kneeling near Will with panicked eyes. Will coughs up large spatters of blood and gasps for air intermittenly, squinting as his glasses are missing somewhere. A single horndog charges for Alicia, but Greaves jumps sideways twice, once in mid air. He cuts the monster apart before it can reach her and rolls on the dirt to land.

「Focus on healing Will! Don't stop, no matter what!」

He looks back over his shoulder at Alicia, who utters out a short incantation under her breath and holds her hand to Will's injuries, her hand emitting a gentle green glow.

《Shit. Shit. Shit! I was stupid! Who gives a damn that I'm the legendary hero!? My friends aren't! What kind of a legendary hero has his childhood friends die because he's stupid!?》

Greaves grinds his teeth. Two horndogs charge in from behind him. He turns around, sprints at Alicia, then jumps. He jumps again in mid air, flying over her and Will, and he kicks one of the horndogs closing in away with force. It yelps and slides on the dirt, leaving a shallow channel.

He lands and tries jumping again, but the second horndog manages to snap his jaw onto Greaves's leg. He immediately slashes it in the neck, cutting through it completely. He shakes the head off with splatters of blood landing on the dirt, both his and the monsters'.

「Nnnrghh…」

「Greaves!」

The terrified Alicia calls out to Greaves when she sees him bleed.

「Keep healing him! Ignore me!」

「But-」

「Do it!」

He shouts through his clenched teeth, standing with most of his weight on his uninjured leg. Only a handful horndogs remain standing, among the mangled and charred corpses.

「I'm going to carve you all up! What's the matter!? Are you scared!? I have plenty of hurt to give out!」

He yells at and taunts his monstrous animal opponents. They circle carefully around the party, then charge in, in almost perfectly synchronized manner. As they get into his weapon's reach, Greaves manages to slash through most of them with one wide cleave.

He runs around Alicia, as she keeps healing Will's wounds, and rams the blade of his sword into the mouth of the horndog trying to leap at her. He wrestles it a few steps back as it bites into the blade, then slashes the top of its head off as he violently slides the sword out.

The last horndog jumps at Greaves from behind, and viciously bites into his shoulder.

「Arrgh!」

He stabs from behind himself, as it claws his back. It drops to the ground limp with a thud. A silence falls onto the clearing, other than the soft chime of Alicia's healing spell, Greaves's heavy breathing, and the dripping blood.

「…How… Is… He?…」

He asks, taking pauses to breathe as he stumbles towards them.

「He's-」

Will coughs blood up once, then grabs Alicia's wrist and pulls her hand away from himself.

「Will!?」

「…Heal Greaves.」

「Will! I'm not done healing you yet!」

「I'm fine! Make sure nobody dies!」

Will demands, as he groans through the pain.

Alicia looks back and forth at Will and Greaves. Greaves is bleeding heavily on his knees, propping himself up on his sword, and Will has stopped coughing blood and gasping.

「…Sorry guys… I don't think… We can… Do another… Today…」

Greaves grins and says, breathing heavily and momentarily pausing, he then collapses face-first onto the dirt.

「Greaves!」 「Greaves!」