It’s been a year since Kouta’s death, and I am now on the surface working as an adventurer. My job classification is a mage since I can use offensive magic. While I was doing adventurer work, I awakened the ability to cast wind magic and fire magic. If these two skill combined, then I can use this to create devastating magic.

It took me about three months to get over Kouta’s death, and it might have been that way my whole life, if it was not for Tanura cheering me up. Even if she has a look like that of a leader of a criminal syndicate, she has a heart that is as pure as gold. What transpired in the three months I was depressed, I leave it to your imagination.

Right now, I am on a quest, and was on my way back until this happened.

“Haah… Haahh… Hahh…”

I desperately ran through the forest while avoiding dangerous plants, branches, roots, and areas that can slow my speed.

“Haah… Faster… Run faster… I need to get… away…”

Right now, I am running from a group of people chasing me down. They numbered five and are equipped with equipment used for capturing. They wore hoods so their faces can’t be seen, but I assume that they are slave traders.

Since, I saw a carriage earlier loaded with young boys and girls wearing rags only, and are chained to not let them escape. I’ve had this suspicion about them being slave traders. And it looks like I was right.

When they spotted me while I was on my way back from completing a request, they chased after me while leaving some of their own behind to observe the captured slaves. They mus be illegal traders, ones that delve in the black guild’s dealings.

*Hyuun*

An arrow flew right past me as I ran for dear life towards the town. The arrow missed its mark and landed on a tree beside me. When I took a closer look at the arrowhead, I saw some liquid pouring down.

The arrows were poisoned! One hit with that and I’m a goner!

I ran faster than before and tried to lose them, but who knows how long will my stamina hold. I came upon them just as I was heading back after finishing a subjugation quest so I am completely exhausted.

I saw a boar in my path so I thought of hurling the monster to the pursuers. I grabbed a stone on the ground while running and threw it to the boar.

“Hey!! Over here!!”

The boar went into a frenzy and charged towards me. Its size was about a grown up pig. I charged towards me, no holds barred, with great momentum. Just as it was going to hit, I shifted my center of gravity to the right and dodged it by a hair’s breadth. Next, I used my staff and tripped it down and used wind magic to propel it towards a robed pursuer.

The boar went flying to the robed man and crashed with him. The boar quickly got and this time, assaulted the robed man, turning him into a pile of flesh.

The wild boar is a notorious monster for being quick to change targets and its monstrous strength. Based on the adventurers guild, it has a base rank of D and is C rank when in packs.

Judging by the brutal mauling, my pursuers were no more than E rank. I could take on an E rank adventurer, but I can’t fight against multiple opponents at once. I am just a D rank adventurer, and also a mage that uses spells that have long incantations so please spare me.

The other four became raged and pursued me even more aggressively than before.

This is bad, if this keeps up, I will literally be caught by them. As I searched for a method to escape from this situation, a person came into view. He had white hair, a toned muscular body, and radiant golden eyes. On his waist, he had a short sword, and on his left arm, he held a kite shield.

When he saw me running from some suspicious robed men, he sprang into action. First he dealt with one man with a clean slice using his sword, bisecting him in half from the head to the crotch. One other robed man attacked him with his mace, but was avoided by the mysterious man with a light step to the left. During this, he spun and, using the centrifugal force, cut into the man, beheading his head. A blood fountain erupted from the corpse as it lifelessly crashed to the found.

I was just staring at the magnificent display of coolness and coldness of the scene. He wasted no actions and used the minimum required movement to deliver clean killing blows. But there were two left.

One was the archer who shot the poisoned arrow at me when I was running. He readied his bow and let the arrow fly towards the white-haired man. With a sound as if cutting through air, the arrow was sliced in half from the arrowhead to the tail. The next moment, the archer was also bisected in half, the same as what happened with the arrow. Blood and innards scattered on the ground, painting the grass red.

Was that magic? But, I didn’t sense any indications of using magic. As I am a mage, I can clearly know if someone uses magic.

The last one became terrified at the deaths of his comrades, and tried to run away. But, his escape was cut short as the man took in air and released a breath of flame, turning him into charcoal! Actually, not charcoal, not even ashes. His body was erased from the face of the earth, along with the items he had on his hand.

… What was that? Was that a high level magic spell? As I was pondering about what kind of magic he used, the white haired man came closer to me.

“I finally found you, Alexis.”

Something inside me told me that I knew this person, but who? I searched my memories if I was able to meet any person with pure white hair, and golden eyes, but none came to mind. Just then, the memory of a person with black hair and black eyes went through my head.

No way… Don’t tell me…

“Nii-san…?”

The man, Kouta showed a smile as radiant as the sun while he nodded at my response. Tears ran down my face as I finally met with the person who I fell in love with back in the dungeon.