“Where did we go wrong…?”

  Depressing thoughts poured out of my mouth. I had no energy to force my mouth shut.

  “There, there…” Sarasa had a smirk on her face as she rested my head on her lap and comforted me with gentle pats. “It wasn’t your fault. Not at all… Galene was the one acting crazy. She just refused to see the truth.”

  True… She was the one acting crazy, but still… Doesn’t change the fact she turned her back on us… “*Sigh…*”

  At least I can recover like this… It was pretty late after that whole debacle, so Sarasa and I flew back to Darumith, to the city, and just rented a room.

  The problems and failures got to me. I couldn’t muster the energy to do anything. Somehow, that turned into a weird cuddle session with Sarasa kneeling under my head while I lay down in bed.

  “Don’t sigh! Cheer up! You didn’t do anything wrong. Galene was the one at fault this time…”

  I’m glad I’m the only one moping. “*Sigh…* I know, I know… I just…” I shifted around to feel her warmth more. I hugged her legs. “I wish I could have done things better. I really didn’t want to hurt Galene… I didn’t want to fight with her. Didn’t want her to hate me… Didn’t want her to cut me off…”

  “I get it… I really do.” Sarasa nodded with a smug, knowing smile. “Building a connection with the Hero is a big opportunity. Lots of riches! Lots of fame! She really messed up my plans.”

  “Ahaha… You don’t get it…” Ahh… This idiot…

  Sarasa looked down with a smile. “That’s not it?!” She exaggerated her shock. “Why are you so fixated on her? Who cares if she hates you? Or could it be that you have the hots for her too?”

  “Wha-?!”

  “I respect it…” More smirking nods. “If you somehow managed to bring such an important girl into our messy relationship, that would be crazy!”

  “It’s not like that, okay…? I mean, she is cute…”

  She was cute in the game… And she’s cute for real too… But that’s not why I wanted things to go well… Seeing her suffer in game was enough… It made me want to cheer for her… Made me want her to be happy. That desire just carried over. It’s still there.

  “I don’t want her to suffer because…” I like her and want her to be happy? But why’s that? “Dammit, it is because she’s cute, but me lusting after her doesn’t tell the whole story, okay?”

  “Nyahahahahaha!” Her petting intensified. “Who said anything about lust? Either way, you don’t have to justify anything to me. If you wanna seduce her by helping her, go ahead. Worked for me, didn’t it?”

  Damn cat’s having way too much fun petting me… I’ll return this tenfold later… Mark my words…

  “*Sigh…*” I decided to ignore her jokes for now. Closing my eyes, I can still remember it… What was going on in her head? Why did everything go wrong?

  …

  “I should never have listened to you.” Hearing her say that hurt.

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

  Obviously, I tried to explain things to her.

  “No, no! Wait! Listen to me!” She had her back turned, but I tried to get closer. “The wolves we saw in the forest and these ones are different. These are monsters! The others were animals. We were right not to kill the others. This attack had nothing to do with that. You noticed they were undead, right? It wouldn’t even be possible for the other wolves to get here faster than us on gryphons.”

  “Doesn’t change the fact that people died because of my decision.” She refused to turn around.

  “The village was wiped out because of my decision. Wh- what you’re saying makes sense, but… It’s still my fault. I shouldn’t have trusted you.” She hung her head with her shoulders trembling. “It’s confusing… You’re confusing me.”

  Part of her even knew I was right, but… She still didn’t listen… Was she that shocked by it? I feel bad…

  “That’s wrong too! The village wasn’t wiped out! Haven’t you noticed that barely anyone died? There’s something weird going on here! It’s not your fault!”

  “It doesn’t matter…” She brought a hand to her face. “It doesn’t matter how many died… I failed… I failed the people I was supposed to protect… What kind of Hero am I…?”

  She pulled the whistle from her pocket and summoned a gryphon. “Stay away from me from now on. I can’t afford to repeat the same mistake…”

  “What? Wait!” I reached forward but was too late. She took off too fast.

  “Galene?” Her sudden departure left even Abby confused. She looked between us and Galene, conflicted. “Slow down! I’ll go with you!”

  *Whislte~*

  Looking back on it now, it was so stupid… We were starting to get along, and this is how it ends? It makes no sense…

  Where did the zombie wolves come from, and why were most of the people evacuated? Did someone manage to spot the monsters before they got to the village and get them out of there? But if that was a natural thing to happen to that village, why didn’t it happen in the game?

  “*Sigh…*” Not too much point in stressing over it. “Thank you, Sarasa…” For now, I hugged her lap tighter. “I think I’ll be fine now. Galene will probably come to her senses if we just give her some time. I hope…”

  Maybe she’ll blame herself for lashing out and try to disappear from our lives as an apology… She’s the type to do that. That would be the worst…

  “That’s my Iroha! Glad you cheered up.” She gently brushed my hair. “But it’s already late, so don’t push yourself and rest up for now.”

  Sarasa lifted my head off her lap and stood up. “I’m gonna grab us something to eat. You stay there.” She put on her sandals to go outside. “Want anything?”

  “I’ll leave it up to you…” Still too worn out to do anything. I waved while rolling around, and she left.

  “Was I too hasty?” Things aren’t the same as they were in game… Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about the wolves… The village might have been saved that way… Maybe… Would it have even changed anything?

  I don’t know. What I do know is that I can’t fully trust what I know. I already didn’t. But maybe I was a bit too reckless this time. I have no idea how sparing the wolves leads to a zombie attack. Maybe it doesn’t. But if it did, and it was all my fault, what would I do?

  I’d feel bad… Terrible, even.

  There is one good thing that came from all this. I hate to even think of it this way, but it does work out for us. Galene left in such a hurry that she forgot the two whistles she lent to us.

  With these whistles, we can bring Hecate to Ebrilyon. It may even allow us to go to the demon territory, find the source of the portals, and solve all our problems. Though, that is probably much harder than taking Hecate to Ebrilyon.

  “Master…” A sweet voice suddenly called out to me. “I have something to tell you.”

  “Endell?” I suddenly sat up, and Endell appeared at the bottom of the bed. “Wait, since when am I your master? Is that your gimmick for today?”

  “Disclaimer:” She raised a finger. “Any gimmicks present in your Endell are a reflection of your own desires. Any shame cast upon me bounces back and reflects upon you instead.”

  “Huh…? So it’s my fault you’re getting more amusing each time you show up? Oh no… I’m so ashamed…”

  “Anyway! I have information about what happened to the people of the village!” She jumped in place as she tried to move things along. The more time wasted on jokes, the less time she spent doing her self-proclaimed duty as my assistant. “Don’t you wanna hear it?”

  “You know something about that? Just as expected from my precious sword!” I wanted to pet her, but she was too far away. “What happened to them?”

  She ran up to the side of the bed before speaking. “There were traces of a large-scale spell being cast on the village before the attack. I’m not sure about the details, but I think it’s some sort of short-term mind control.”

  “Mind control? What for?”

  “Probably to evacuate them… You were in too much of a daze to notice, but when you arrived in this city, everyone was talking about a small group of refugees that had just arrived from a village.”

  Wow… Really…? Was I really that spaced out? Because of Galene? “I don’t even know what to say… That’s a relief, I guess… Has she heard about it already?” Endell was with me the whole time. She wouldn’t know about what information made it to Galene.

  “But what does that mean exactly?” I continued. “Someone moved the villagers before the attack? Are they on our side then…? But for them to move them ahead of time, they would also need to know about the attack beforehand… Why didn’t they tell us about…?” Sigh…

  I let myself fall back onto the bed. “Too complicated… I don’t wanna think about it right now.”

  I turned to side, and reached Endell’s head this time. “Thanks, Endell… Good girl…”

  Her head bobbed around happily. “Hehehe… It was nothing! Just happy to share what I know!” She’s such a cutie…

  As soon as I had that thought, she broke away from my hand and she disappeared while blushing. Did she get shy? Why now when I was enjoying petting her?

  “There’s something very suspicious about that attack, isn’t there?” I spoke to no one in particular, but Endell was with me in my sword. “I’ll talk about it with Sarasa and see if we can find out who’s behind that evacuation. They might know what really happened there…”

  “For now…” I need to sleep. My mind’s exhausted. I won’t be able to go back to normal until I get a good night’s sleep. “Good that I’m already in bed… I can just close my eyes… and…”

  …

  ……

  “Iroha? You asleep already?”

  “…”

  “She is… Nyahaha… Made me buy food for nothing.”

  “Well…” After a few quiet steps, the bedsheets quietly rustled. “Don’t mind if I do…”