It was completely ridiculous. That night most of the town woke up to observe the retreating dregs of the once proud Raid that just a few hours before had been preparing in such earnestness. Apparently even most of the support group had been wiped out. From what I could see poking my head between the crowd, my father and the other guards carried the survivors back after it was clear that the monsters wouldn’t attack them.

“That was cruel man, that dungeon is not something to play with. That much is clear.”

“That’s putting it lightly, with how things turned out this time, I don’t think anyone will try anything for a long time, and I don’t think anyone ever should anyway. Not after seeing what I’ve seen.”

The guards were all whispering fearfully among themselves. Apparently there had only been four survivors of the attacking group: Gauron, the leader, Maliel, the man I saw before with the rune blade, apparently he was an incubus. The third survivor was Eleanor, a dwarf priest. All of those three had sustained grave injuries which would leave scars despite the work of our town’s best healer.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t have experience with those kinds wounds, forgive me, but it takes my best just to keep you all alive.”

The gentle old man was lamenting as he took care of the three unconscious people. There was a reason why healers were so valuable to any party or raid seeking to explore a dungeon: Being able to deal with the various amounts of bizarre wounds that might come out of dealing with one required lots of study and practice, most of the people that reached such high ranks in healing magic were not very adventurous types.

“Look, you didn’t see them up close! I always tell them that I’m no good if the enemies aren’t distracted… You… You can’t blame me for ditching them… They were killed in moments by those metal golem things… I was even instructed by Gauron… if things should go south, then at least I should live, to warn others… Damn… Damn… Damn!”

The scared man sitting on the ground holding his knees together and rocking back and forth didn’t seem to have any grave physical wounds like his comrades, but he seemed to have lost something else. Nobody was looking at him with anything but pity, yet he shouted to the shadows about him not being to blame. If anyone approached him too much, he would just curl up like a ball and whimper, occasionally crying.

“Please don’t kill me…”

To say that the Raid was a failure was an understatement. No other instance was known of a Raid being so rapidly and thoroughly wiped out by a dungeon, without ever having stepped a foot on it.

Imagine our surprise at seeing Gauron in front of our house the next day. His body was full of scars, but otherwise he seemed healed. The biggest difference from before the wipe was his… Eye. It’s not just that where there were two before, now was one. His eye was that of a tired man, a defeated man, which was too bad. The eyes he once had could easily lit a fire inside any kid’s heart, the passion for adventure.

“I greatly apologize, I had no idea what that dungeon was capable of… If those things had attacked the town, it would have been a disaster. I was too naive. Forgive me.”

He said that while on both knees, all you could see was a person that showed nothing but contrition. You know, despite his fearsome appearance, he was a minotaur after all, Gauron was a pretty good guy. You could definitely see why so many different powerful adventurers once accepted his role as a leader. Yet now, he was a shell of his former self.

“Hey, hey, get up. I understand where you’re getting at, but fortunately the worst that happened was that I had to witness… That. If there’s something that you and your comrades had to learn, then I suspect you won’t ever forget it. Even if you might have put this town in danger, I don’t think anybody thinks that any of you deserve any punishment on top of what you already experienced near that dungeon.”

That was quite true, as throughout this conversation my mother, who always had sharp words for those she thought foolish, simply remained silent. Criticizing in that situation felt like rubbing salt in some very deep wounds.

“Oh, but I heard that a fire had broken near to it, was that alright?”

“Well, that did happen, but funnily enough, it did not spread farther than a huge circle around it. I don’t think anybody needs to go back to bury your fallen, that dungeon itself burned all remains.”

At that, Gauron showed us a slightly relieved, but still tired face.

“I see, so at the very least they are not going to get turned into monsters…”

“Nope, you can rest easy on that.”

“Yes… Thank you.”

He stood up and turned to leave, satisfied to leave things at that.

“You know, if you feel like you can’t travel for now, we don’t mind you staying in town for a while.”

Gauron turned back confused.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Even if adventurers were respected pretty much anywhere in the world, they were rarely welcomed unless a town had a specific problem with something. Even more since he was a minotaur in human territory.

“Let’s see… We are not lacking food. The kingdom is not exactly the craziest about race purity and all. I’d hate to indirectly drive a wounded man like you out of town just because I wasn’t clear that we don’t mind having you and your comrades around. Besides, since the start most of the kids have been going crazy wanting to hear your stories. If you could at least indulge them once before going on to leave, then I’d be thankful.”

My father shrugged, making a face that pretty much said “hey, I don’t want to force anything on you, don’t mind me”. Tears welled up in Gauron’s face.

“I… Thank you very much. Even though I was such a fool… Please let me stay in this town a while longer.”

He bowed deeply before leaving.

“See dear, I told you. You needed to be clear of him or he would leave!”

My mother was elbowing my father.

“I understand, I understand. I did do it you know?”

My parents were such good people.

The next day, it seemed all four survivors had decided on a path to take. Mortimer, the human rogue that was so scared disappeared during the night. A search party was formed, as much for the sake of the townsfolk as for the disappeared man, since it wasn’t very comfortable not having a mentally unstable person in our sights. In the end nobody was found, but Gauron guaranteed that he would not let anything happen. His guarantee was quite soothing actually, even though his Raid had been wiped not more than a few days earlier.

Gauron himself declared his intent to stay for some time and use whatever abilities and resources he had left to contribute to the town. He also tried to convince his two remaining comrades. Eleanor did not need much convincing and readily agreed to help the town healer with basic teaching of healing magic to anyone interested as well as with any needed healing. As for Maliel, he declined, saying that now that he had failed at clearing a dungeon, he had some personal business in his homeland that he would like to attend to as soon as possible. I, along with many other townsfolk witnessed their farewell.

“See you, take care of yourself.”

“Yeah, I hope we can see each other one day again.”

They shook their hands with a firmness that showed quite a big amount of trust between them.

“As long as you keep hoping, I’m sure it will happen. Gauron, just to make sure, but we all made a decision to follow you on this. Nobody could have known what would happen, so don’t beat yourself too much over it.”

“Aye, I’ll try. We always pledge ourselves to not begrudge the survivors if we die, and to not wallow in misery if we live. I didn’t really want to hasave to confront such a situation… but.”

“Hey, hey! Are you really listening to me man? No tears, well, not too many at least…”

They hugged each other, a few silent tears rolling down each face. At that point many townsfolk had left the scene. Kids, even if not that young, are a little more shameless, but…

“Ow, mom! Why are you pulling my ear?”

“It’s rude to stare!”

Therefore, I have no more commentaries on this particular happening.

After they were done with their farewell, Gauron found himself swarmed by kids, all of them wanting to hear stories of his adventures. He felt kind of awkward, I guess because he wasn’t that accustomed to telling stories himself. Probably since he had always been surrounded by other people, the others jumped at the chance to tell.

“Ah! So you want to hear stories of a failure like me, haha. I am flattered, let me see… How about I talk about the first time I cleared a dungeon, my friends usually never told this one, even though it’s such a great story. It goes like this…”

Not everyone was there for the story. I found Aria pouting outside the ring of children, looking like she was searching for someone.

“Hey, looking for someone?”

She turned abruptly.

“Ah!”

She turned away from me with an embarrassed face.

“Hey, is there something you want to tell me?”

She was fidgeting.

“You know… I… I’m sorry I said what I did… I don’t want you to die…”

She mumbled that so I couldn’t really hear it well.

“Uh? You what?”

She looked back at me completely red.

“I’m not saying it again! Jerk.”

It was quite confusing.

“What? Come on, what do you mean?”

“Not telling you!”

“Eh? So unfair!”

So started the days when the remains of a wiped Raid lived in our small town.