Seeing its prey taken away, the Goblin Lord let out a displeased cry.

But not a moment later, the cry turned anguished as another arrow stuck deeply into one of its eyeballs.

However, I could not care less about that.

I turned to look at the culprit with shock and anger. The latter of which threatened to take over my mind.

“WHY?!”

I could only let that word out.

‘Weren’t you in love with her?’

Those words were on my lips. In the end, though, I could only manage that one short word.

“Because it is too late, big brother.”

Tat replied matter-of-factly with a grim expression on his face.

“Both you and I knew we couldn’t defeat the horde.”

No longer paid any attention to me, he turned towards the mob of goblins that took notice of us and started approaching. His hand stretched the string of his bow, preparing for another shot.

“Big brother, no, Guts, listen carefully: Please run away while I buy you some time!”

Tat let go of the string, the shot arrow penetrated the skull of one of the approaching goblins.

“I want to at least save her brother! You have to live!”

Even while saying so, Tat never turned to look at me. His eyes always remained focus on the foes ahead.

I stood still dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.

“GO!” Tat yelled again. His yell resonated with the whistled sound of his bow.

Still not in my right mind, I instinctively ran the hell away at the command.

That was the worst choice of my life.

When the distance between us widened, I briefly glanced back at my sacrificial lamb. I thought I saw a sorrowful smile appeared on his face.

…

…

…

Splash!

The blood of the last goblin I killed spattered on my body.

It had been one month since then.

After most of the horde had left the ravaged village, I stayed around the destroyed hamlet to slay the remnants of those bastards that still wandered around here.

Living a primitive life, I found some fruits to eat in the forest, hunted some games, and drank water from the river.

That wasn’t how a human should live? Hell, if I care.

The most delicious meal I had eaten in the past month would be that bread from that traveling merchant whom I sold him the gobs’ weapons for cheap.

During our quick meal together, he told me that the herd that had destroyed the village was finally successfully repelled. Not before they had crushed a few villages, and a small town, though.

I didn’t know how I felt about that.

Although I was glad that the bastards finally got what they deserved, but it was all useless. Pops and Rumi wouldn’t come back to life just because those bastards were dead.

Shaking my head to get rid of the useless thought, I looked around the region to see if there were any of the scoundrels still hiding.

“Oh, this is a disaster!”

I heard someone’s voice from behind me. I turned to look.

At a slight distance away, there was a group of five adventurers looking around the areas. Disastrous ruins of the destroyed village were in their sight.

“Those goblin bastards really did us a good one, eh?”

A huge man with a large shield who seemed to be the leader glanced around his companions, waiting for their opinions.

Most of them nodded, agreed with the statement.

Only the white-haired girl wearing a priestess robe with a staff in her hand remained still to the question. Her face paled.

“First time seeing this, huh, Lily? You will get used to it as long as you stay in this line of work long enough.”

The leader tried to comfort the girl.

“Hmm? There is someone over there! Hey!” One of the members, the thief perhaps, noticed me and waved.

I am not really in the mood for a conversation with other people, but I would have to at the very least say some words to them in this situation.

I certainly wasn’t looking forward to that.

…

…

…

“I see. So, you were the survivor of the village.”

The giant guy who said so to me had an awkward smile on his face.

Not that I could complain, I told him my story after all. Of course, only the gist of things, my state of mind was not good enough for me to recite everything that happened to complete strangers.

Honestly, although a little annoyed, I admitted that telling someone your story really put some weight off your mind.

‘He definitely didn’t know what to do with me,’ I thought as I looked at the confused giant.

Apparently, they were the adventurer party sent here by their guild to investigate the scene of the goblins’ attack.

I happened to run into them during their investigation.

Not that I really cared.

“What are you going to do?” the priestess, the only female in the group, asked me with a slightly concerned expression as she looked at my dirty and bloodstained clothes. Her face was still devoid of colors, but the look in her eyes was firm as if she had decided something.

I shrugged.

“Who knows? I guess I will just stay around here and slay as many of these ruffians as I could before meeting my end.”

When hearing my answer, the other men’s expression went from bad to worse. Some even let out an awkward yelp, but I didn’t give a damn.

Only the girl remained the same. Still remaining silent, but her powerful gaze was staring down at me.

‘Is this really the same person as the paled-face girl earlier?’ I idly mused.

Her unbroken stare started to hurt me mentally, so I spoke.

“Is there anything you want to say to me?”

I looked at her with the most defiant gaze I could ever manage.

“…”

The girl still did not say anything and continued to stare at me.

Feeling awkward, I was about to begin again to inquire what was up…

“…Do you want to form a party with me?”

…She spoke those words to me.

Surprisingly the one who first responded to her was not me, but the big man.

“Eh, Lily?! Do you already want to form your own party? You are still too new on this line of work!”

“Yes, Mister Ganzo. I have thought about it for a long time that, if possible, I would like to operate in my own created party,” the girl nodded.

“I see. But why this boy…?” The giant man who seemed to be Ganzo asked, still confused.

The girl stared silently at me again.

For a second, I flinched at the gaze. The next moment, as I was about to speak up…

“…I just know that I want this boy to be in my party.”

…She muttered firmly, with conviction in her voice.

“Hey, who are you to decide?! I never said okay to y-“

I recovered and was about to retort back.

“Your friend wanted you to live, didn’t he?” She interrupted.

“…”

“I heard that he sacrificed himself just so that you can live. Don’t you think throwing your life away would be a betrayal to his sacrifice?”

“I never asked for it,” my words were filled with resentment towards that presumptuous brat, “what am I supposed to do with this life anyway? Everyone I knew is dead.”

“…Then we just have to find it,” the girl answered with ease.

“Eh?”

“I am Lily. Together with me, let’s find the purpose of our lives,” The girl, no, Lily, held out her hand to me.

“It may be painful, and at times, you may want to end it all, but you have to live on, at least for the sake of your deceased family and friends.”

How would it be so easy? As I was about to complain that…

“Ask yourself, if they were here, what would they say to you?”

…Lily interrupted me again.

Although confused, I closed my eyes and recalled their appearances in my mind.

In There, I heard Pops said to me, “You couldn’t die until you kill all those goddamn bastards that made your sister died, Guts!”

“Live on, Guts!” my sister spoke.

“Please live on in our stead, big brother,” Tat smiled at me.

“Damn it! Damn it all!”

Drops of tears fell from my eyes.

How embarrassing.

I rubbed them away, but new ones took their place. It was unending.

“That is why you have to continue with your life, Guts,” Lily gently said as one of her hands comfortingly rubbed the top of my head, “Don’t worry. We will find our purpose to live together.”

I leaned my head against her chest and cried and cried.