“Hey, Rumi, Tat!”

I waved my hand at the two at the edge of my vision.

First was the young girl with the same blond hair and green eyes as me. The bottom of her hair reached her shoulders. She wore the usual villager girls’ clothes; plain and simple. However, her beauty was undeniably even in those plain clothes, and she was just 11…

…Well, it may just be my inner sister complex speaking though.

Next to her was the boy a little taller than her. His appearance was nothing but plain. He had the common brown hair and black eyes, wearing hunter clothes with a bow in his hand and a quiver filled with a dozen arrows on his back.

When comparing him to the girl beside him, his look was undeniably unsuitable. However, …

…His qualities were definitely top-class.

He was mature, kind, caring, skilled with the bows, could face hardships with a smile. And those were just a few examples.

As I said, I once thought that almost all positive words were created just to describe the boy.

And he fancied my sister…

I smiled at my own thought.

“Hey, Guts!”

My sister waved back with a smile, while Tat gave me a brief bow, politely acknowledging my presence.

He was too mature for his own good…

I walked towards them and asked, “What were you guys doing this morning?”

“Tat had to train his archery skills, so I watched him train,” My sister then got a little too excited as she bragged to me about her boy, “Tat is amazing, you know! His shots hit the bullseye 9 out of 10 times and even stacked it up closely together at that!”

“Heh… Not bad, brat,” I ruffled my future little brother-in-law’s hair affectionately, “As expected of our best hunter’s family. I guess I can leave Rumi in your hands.”

“Thank you, big brother!” he smiled shyly as he scratched his cheek.

“Hey, it is not certain I will marry him just yet, Guts!” my cute sister protested.

…It would be better if your face were not so red… and your smile was too wide too, my dear sister!

“Ok, lad, you heard it! This big bro will find you some other nice girls, don’t worry!”

“Oi!”

“Hahaha…” Tat awkwardly laughed at our little skit.

“Thank you, big brother, but I think I am fine on that front,” He glanced at Rumi’s tomato-like face.

…Sly bastard.

To think I would lose my cute sister like this…

…Well, just kidding. Like I said so many times already, I was fine with the little bastard.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

At that time, the alarm bell in the village rang.

I saw the village chief running towards me.

“Good you are here, Guts! A large group of goblins attacked! Your father asked me to “get his ass over here!”

Our expressions went stern.

“I got it!” I ran at my full speed in the direction of the forest.

“Wait, big brother! I will also help!” I heard Tat’s voice. Followed by the sound of footsteps of someone following me.

…

…

…

“I’m here, dad!” I announced.

I saw my dad and his fellow village guards fighting with over thirty goblins.

“You’re here, Guts! Short story: crushed the skulls of as many of these bastards as much as you can,” My Pops replied without looking back at me while his greatsword cut the neck of one of the goblins.

“Got it!” I ran towards the battlefield and started bashing the bastards.

“I will also help!” Tat said as he stretched his bowstring.

…

…

…

“…#@!%&@#!”

His slave finished their report to him.

The lord’s expression became stern.

The first settlement they had attacked resisted much more strongly than he had expected.

He wanted to reserve his forces for the attacks on larger settlements, but…

He glanced at his two bodyguards who were looking at him and nodded.

‘Go!’ was the unspoken but conveyed word.

The two goblin champions began their march towards the battlefield.

‘I guess I will take a look in the distance.’

The lord thought so and ordered a few more of his slaves to accompany him.

As he moved towards the battlefield, a puddle on the ground reflected his green, ugly face.

…

…

…

It was unending.

That was my thought as I fought the green bastards.

I had small wounds here and there as a result of the besiegement.

Almost everyone in the guards was not much better.

Only my father had one small wound even though he slew most of them.

His expression was the sternest I had always seen as he continued swinging his blades.

And then, when we were tired and exhausted, they appeared.

Two enormous goblins with battle scars all over their bodies wielding a greatsword and a huge club, respectively.

“Goblin Champions…” one guard muttered.

Pops’ expression went from bad to worse and he shouted, “Tat, go around the village and told everyone to immediately evacuate and run the hell away from here as far as possible! We will buy them some time here!”

“I-I understand,” Nodding in acknowledgment, Tat put away his bow and ran back towards the village.

…

…

…

Pops was dead.

He lasted only a few blows against the goblin champions.

I bet he would be able to fight evenly against one if he were not so exhausted, but he was tired and there were two of them.

We tried to help, of course, but Pops told us to focus on defeating the small fries as much as possible. This battle was already lost, so we should focus on damage control.

But then, when the club crushed Pops, one of the guards ran away out of fear, and the others followed him.

I shouted at them to stop, but to no avail.

I couldn’t blame them though. I was terrified too.

In the end, I also ran away as more goblins poured in with few defenders left.

As I fought off my pursuers, the village was ravaged.

‘Have to find Rumi and ran the hell away!’

The was my only thought as I searched around the village for her traces.

More goblins got in my way, but I fought them off.

“Big brother!”

The only one I found was Tat though. He looked… languid.

Blood was everywhere on his clothes, in his hand was a small dagger. He also had a bow and the quiver on his back, same as before, but he seemed to judge that it was better to use the melee weapon.

“Where is Rumi?!” I curtly asked the important question.

“Don’t know, brother. I am also searching for her.” He shook his head.

At that moment, we heard Rumi’s voice.

“Help me, Dad, Guts, Tat!”

We turned to look in the direction of the voice. And there, we found Rumi got carried around by some goblins into their largest group.

At the center of that group, there was a taller goblin with a slightly better appearance wearing better quality clothes than their folks and a scabbard with an unsheathed sword inside on his waist; a goblin lord as my Pops once told me. It looked at Rumi lecherously.

I tightened the grip of my sword, preparing for a hard fight ahead.

Two seconds later, the goblins who carried Rumi reached their lord and presented it their trophy.

As the lord was about to use its ugly hands to touch Rumi…

Woosh!

A sound of an arrow being shot whistled past my ears from beside me.

A second later, I saw the arrow piercing into Rumi’s forehead.

My vision went red.