"There really isn't anything else to say," the knight replied, taken aback. He glanced down on his table nervously, tightening his grip on his mug. "There are reports of a large invading force toward Mai Village, scouted out a few days ago. But with all the regiments being diverted here to protect this town, the kingdom doesn't have enough military strength left to protect a single village."
"Strategically wise, it makes sense," his companion explained. "This town is a major trading outpost and a strategic location – we have an entire garrison of knights here. If the demonic legions conquer this place, we are pretty much screwed."
"Not only will this location give them free reign to attack the other cities along the trading routes, it will also heavily disrupt the economy," the first knight added. "We have to defend this town at all costs."
"No way…" Irene held a hand to her mouth. "That can't be…"
"I'm going back to Mai Village." I turned to the rest of the party. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do this mission without me."
"You're leaving the party?" Bradley asked incredulously.
"If you wish to interpret it that way, then yeah." I wasn't going to waste any time arguing with them. I had to rush back to Mai Village as quickly as possible, before the demonic legions reached there. Otherwise my family…
"Good riddance," Yvonne sneered, folding her arms. "Off you go then. Don't expect us to welcome you back."
"I actually agree," I replied, unable to conceal the cold fury in my voice. "I don't think I'll be coming back."
"Excellent." Miranda smirked. "I never liked you."
She conveniently forgot that I was the one who helped her magic progress, but I decided not to mention that. I had more important things to tend to.
"Wait," Herman protested. "Klein makes up a bulk of our fighting strength. Wouldn't we be in trouble if he leaves?"
I noticed that he was also glancing at Irene, as if afraid that she would leave with me. He clearly remembered that she was also from the same village as me. Ah, so that was his main concern.
"My magic spells have improved a lot," Miranda assured him, conveniently forgetting to say that it was all thanks to me. "We'll manage fine without him."
"We'll do much better without Klein dragging us down!" Yvonne declared confidently.
"We don't need him," Bradley agreed. "We already have Miranda. I always thought it weird that we have two mages in the same party. And Miranda's much better, given that she can cast more variety of elemental spells than Klein. So I say we should just let him fuck off."
Alan sighed audibly and shook his head. When everyone turned to him, he snorted.
"Honestly? Except me, Klein is more useful than any of you here. Bradley, you mock him for only being able to use one type of element, yet his magical spells are far more effective and powerful than anything Miranda can cast. His spells deal more damage than your axe or Herman's sword strikes for now. His icicles are more efficient and deadlier than Yvonne's arrows or Miranda's fireballs, lightning, and wind blades. Only my attacks are stronger than his spells. His ice shields have protected us far more times than Bradley's tanking role, and his ice magic is so flexible they trap monsters better than Miranda's earth spells. Even without Irene's healing spells, from what I can see regarding his treatment of injured soldiers, he can even serve as a secondary healer. He's far more versatile, skilled and resourceful than any of you."
Everyone gaped at him. This was the first time we heard Alan speak so much in one breath. He had always been a man of a few words.
"You…you can't be serious!" Yvonne spluttered. "Are you honestly saying that Klein is better than the rest of us put together, excluding you?!"
"I'm a practical person. I'm simply stating the facts. And the truth is, I would rather have Klein on my side than any of you. However…" his eyes narrowed and I felt a chill run down my spine. "That's also the reason why he's the most dangerous among you."
Somehow, I understood that as him recognizing me as the greatest threat…to him. Though why he would consider me a threat, I had no idea. Weren't we on the same side?
"Right now we can't afford to lose him." Alan folded his arms and kept his tone neutral. "Without him, the consequences will be disastrous. That's a fact. Perhaps in future, when the rest of you get better, then we can consider eliminating him…I mean, participating in missions without him. But right now is not the time."
"What do you mean eliminating me?" I demanded. Alan coughed.
"Slip of a tongue. Forgive me, I am an assassin. I tend to think in terms of elimination."
Since I had more urgent matters, I decided not to pursue it. Shaking my head, I turned to leave, but Herman hurried after me.
"Wait, Klein! Don't go yet!"
��If I don't leave now, I won't make it in time."
"But…but it might already be too late. The knights said that the scout reports were from a few days ago. You won't be able to reach your village before the enemy."
"I'll take my chances," I replied firmly. "I would rather move now and do my best to rush there, than don't do anything and regret it for the rest of my life."
"How about you wait? After we defend this town, we'll all head back to your village and help you defend it."
"By then it will already be too late." I glanced at the knights, who nodded nervously.
"The enemy might already be there, for all we know. Maybe tomorrow. They might have already attacked the village even before the demonic legion reaches this town."
"Damn it…!" Herman looked conflicted. Irene reached out to him.
"Please, Herman. That's my home village too. I want to protect it."
"Are you going too, Irene?" Herman asked, looking alarmed. The rest of the party members panicked when they heard that.
"No, don't go, Irene! We need you!" Bradley bellowed.
"Your healing spells are too important," Miranda agreed.
"But…"
"I'll go by myself," I told her. "I'll reach the village faster if I return alone."
"…fine." Irene swallowed. "I'll be relying on you, Klein."
"Yeah. I'll be leaving now." I headed for the exit, but Herman stopped me once more.
"Come on, Klein. I know it's your home village, but this town is important too. There are more people here than in your village."
"You guys are here to protect this town, along with many knight regiments. A single person like me won't make much of a difference, even if I'm absent. You won't miss me. Whereas there's no one to defend my village, not even a single squad of soldiers."
"That's the nature of war. We all have to make hard decisions sometimes."
"And I've made my decision," I told him icily. "The whole reason why I joined the Hero party and fought against the demonic legions is because I wish to protect my family. If I allow them to be destroyed by demons, then that defeats the purpose of me joining your party in the first place. That single motivation supersedes everything else."
I bowed my head.
"I've been in your care for quite a while, and I have learned a lot from fighting by your side. I'm sorry to leave in such a manner, but…my parents are everything to me. I will pay any price to protect them and my village, even if it means besmirching my honor and betraying others."
"Let him go, Herman," Bradley grunted. "We don't need him."
"Yeah, he has always been an eyesore!" Yvonne sneered.
"I'll make up for his absence," Miranda assured him.
Herman hesitated, but relaxed his grip. Something told me that this was the turning point in destiny, that if I had made a different decision, things wouldn't have turned out as they did, but fate had already been set in stone. Quashing that feeling, I left the inn, proceeded toward the stables to procure a horse, and then left the town.
Within the hour, I was speeding toward Mai Village at top speed, urging my horse forward as quickly as possible and praying that I would reach home in time before the demons attacked.
*
"No…"
Pulling my horse to a stop, I watched the smoke in the distance. Even from here, I could make out vague shapes and silhouettes crawling all over the ruins of my village like bugs.
Magnifying the vision of my enchanted lenses, I checked the enemies. They composed of winged gargoyles, flying wyverns and gryphons. They were commanded by a high-ranking demon noble, an anthropomorphic lion with a golden mane and clad in gleaming armor. He bellowed and raised his claws triumphantly toward the skies as his forces butchered hapless, screaming villagers.
…no, there were practically no villagers left now. The demons had been thorough. Right now, they were essentially desecrating the dead, cutting up their bodies and probably lining them up to be devoured.
I was too late. Whatever battle there was, it had been over long before I reached here. Not that the villagers would have been able to put up much of a fight. Even the militia posted to permanently guard the village were mostly undertrained and ill-equipped militia who couldn't make the cut for the stricter and more prestigious knight regiments. They would have been overwhelmed within minutes. I was witnessing the aftermath of a slaughter.
I would later learn that there several adventurer parties who had taken up the village's request to defend it, but most of them were massacred in the first hour of combat, along with the village's guards and militia. The rest, faced with overwhelming force, broke and ran away, traumatized by the carnage. None of them got very far. The gargoyles, gryphons and wyverns made sure of that, pursuing them and hunting them down before they could escape. Then they brought the corpses back to the village.
The horse was too afraid of drawing any closer to Mai Village, neighing and halting. Knowing that it was a waste of time to continue riding it, I jumped off and set it free. Without sparing the fleeing horse a second glance, I sprinted toward the village.
The wyverns were the first to notice me. Screeching, they took off and swooped down on me, their talons outstretched. So blinded by rage I was that I barely registered their presence. Subconsciously casting a spell, I allowed my mana to surge outward.
Within ten seconds, the first flock of wyverns that were diving toward me were all entombed in ice. Their frozen forms dropped like a rock, hitting the ground around me and shattering into a million fragments.
Apparently that caught the attention of the other demons. The gargoyles growled and lunged at me, flapping their bat-shaped wings and casting great shadows across the ground. Gryphons roared and slashed their claws toward me.
In response, a glacial wind whipped around me, the temperature plummeting and shrouding the entire area in ice. A hail of icicles rained down from the heavens, spearing through the gargoyles and reducing them into bloody tatters. The gryphons fared a little better, surviving the barrage, but where the icicles had struck them, ice began rapidly expanding across their bodies. Their wings, suddenly frozen, were no longer capable of keeping them aloft and they crashed to their deaths, their bodies pulverized against the rock-hard ground below.
Even if they survived the fatal fall, my unceasing rain of icicles finished the wounded demons off.
A wyvern pounced at me from the side, its armored scales protecting it from the worst of my icicles. With a wave of my hand, I conjured an icicle and bashed it to the side, crushing it under the bulk of the huge ice structure.
"Ho…impressive. I didn't think a single human would be capable of such power."
Their commander, the anthropomorphic lion in gleaming armor, strode toward me on his two hind legs, his claws glowing. He grinned, his yellow eyes glinting enthusiastically.
"And here I thought this would be a boring battle. Those human warriors from earlier, they weren't able to put up much of a fight. Perhaps you can entertain me a little more." Fangs showed under his curled lips. "Hmm…for some reason, you remind me of the Witch of Winter. You might not be as powerful as General Winters, but you emit the same aura."
"I'll kill you," I declared coldly and furiously, not paying a single attention to anything he was saying. He could be singing a lullaby and I couldn't care less. All I wanted was to destroy the murderous bastard in front of me, for razing my village and butchering my friends and family. "I'll kill all of you."
"Then we'll see if you have the ability first," the leonine commander replied before he lunged at me, his claws flashing down in a deadly arc to rip me apart.