Chapter 71：The Village Chief's son pass on the baton.

Hello, my name is Silver and I'm known for being the son of the village chief.

I have tried a lot of things, but this title seems to haunt me no matter what I do or where I go.

To make things worse, I got a weak heart and body. Because of that I am constantly falling ill and I'm also unable to handle too much stress, fainting every time my limit is reached.

Last week an accident happened, killing one of our hunters and taking most other hunters out of commission for a whole week. But that's not all, this incident also made my father leave the village in my hand temporarily while traveled to Otron City to ask for help from the Governing Lord.

So now, with my new position of temporary village chief, I decided to use this chance to prove myself to him and receive acknowledgement from the people!

I made a plan: I would fortify our defenses, make sure our food stocks are not depleted and ensure the towns order and safety by patrolling through it's streets and solving any problem I could find!

This way not only the village would be safe, my reputation would also improve and I would free my father from some of his worries!

This all sounded great on paper but reality proved to be a lot more challenging than theory. On my first day patrolling the streets I found a man wearing a thick full body armor in front of the gate.

At first I thought it was just an adventurer looking for some advice, so I volunteered to help, but as we started talking I discovered he was the main responsible for the recent accident that hit our village. The hunters had told us about the accident, saying it was an armored devil who let out fireballs from it's mouth. As the images of the hunter's armored monster overlapped to the figure in front of me, my heart couldn't take it and I fainted.

To make things worse the one who cleaned up my mess and negotiated with the monster was my own little sister. Shameful right? A Big brother who has to be protected by his own little sister...

The little pride I had took a big hit that day.

Well, if that's all, it would be OK, after all everybody can make a mistake or two, right? But unfortunately my mistakes didn't stop at that.

Soon after this last event, my sister and her best friend were kidnapped...or at least that's the conclusion Jack, Josh and me arrived at the time.

So we ran up the mountain to save the girls and after a lot of effort we arrived at the monster's den.

We followed through the cave and finally found the supposed kidnapper in a torture chamber with a blade covered in blood.

The battle between us suddenly started. Josh charged at him, Jack was knocked out by some attack I didn't see and I stayed behind making sure we didn't get surrounded. Josh had the initiative and kept attacking again and again, making he wonder how the hell was possible for anyone to attack so fast. On the other side the armored monster did all he could to dodge Josh's attack after taking a hit from the first charge. The situation was extremely favorable to us but destiny didn't wish for our victory. Just as I thought it was all over, the monster stroked back fast in a fierce counter plus finisher turning the fight around in less than a second.

Seeing this change of fate, it was now my turn to act, so I did what any other intelligent person would do: Took advantage of the enemy dispersed focus and retreated to call for more reinforces.

As I got back home, tired and nervous, I started walking right and left thinking of a rescue plan and just as I was going to the clinic to ask the hunters for help the ghost of my little sister appeared before me, making me faint again.

Next day I woke up and discovered my sister was no ghost and all that happened was a misunderstanding. Shame on me yet again!

But if it was a misunderstanding....why didn't Jack and Josh came back?

The following time Plate appeared again, his mere appearance was enough to make me faint again.

No, it's not like he was ugly or anything.

It's just that on seeing him a myriad of feelings hit me all at one. I suddenly recalled all my mistakes, shame and responsibilities creating a gigantic pressure over me that made my heart almost explode. I tried my best to hold it back and calm down, took deep breaths, but soon everything went black again...

My ass was saved by my sister again. Not only that but she made a great deal with him, selling a bunch of cheap items at ten times their price.

Seeing my sister solve the village problems and negotiating with outsiders I started to question myself if I should just give up and leave the chief position to her, but whatever pride I had left fiercely resisted telling me that the battle wasn't over and I still had time to improve...

Several days passed without any news of neither Jack nor Josh and just as I convinced myself they had been killed back in the fight, Jack's ghost appeared right before me. Do I still need to say I fainted again?

Just as I recovered, Bia told me shocking news, telling me a huge Orc army was marching here ready to kill us all and stare at me as if waiting to see me fainting again and honestly I would have if I had believed it, but unfortunately the news sounded so crazy that my head just couldn't accept it as truth, and that's exactly what may have saved me from a complete break down.

Unfortunately the "joke" continued and on the following day as Bia announced an evacuation plan to the whole village and her claims were backed up by Jack and Josh who had just returned.

For a moment I even thought it was all a plot of the Dungeon Lord to acquire cheap sacrifices, thinking he had brainwashed Bia and the rest, but all my doubts vanished that same afternoon when a group of a hundred elves or so appeared by the village's gate.

The elves were in terrible shape. Many were bleeding with poorly made bandages covering their bodies. It was easy to spot how tiresome and difficult was their journey to here but that was not all, their eyes were eyes of people who just experienced hell on earth with a strong despair hidden inside them. Just looking at them, I found my strength leaving me.

At this time I had lost most of my confidence in leading the village and Bia had took over all my duties so it was she who received them but not before calling Leticia to provide aid. And me? Well, with the last bits of pride I had left, I forced myself to accompany her to at least give her some moral support...or that's the official excuse I used.

Anyway, the elves told us about the war on the other side of the mountain and just as they were telling about their escape another smaller group of elves appeared from the mountain road.

The leader of the second group introduced himself as Geo and ordered the first group to follow one of his soldiers to join the other refugees, telling them he found a safe place to wait for reinforcements.

Based on his talk, their plan was pretty much the same as our own and we were all heading to the same place which made me question how big was exactly that cave to be able to support this many people...

Bia also seems to have noticed it and asked Geo if they were talking about Plate's cave. Geo was surprised for a second upon hearing the name but he recovered in less than a second and confirmed the info.

The two started them negotiating a cooperation, stating that Bia's villagers would be responsible for guiding them and as payment the elves would help carrying a few belongings that we were having trouble to carry on our own.

God, when did my little sister became such a responsible person? All my memories of her before leaving home had her in a childish light who would take having no responsibility as her main responsibility.

As my surprised died down their negotiation was over and all I could do was bow down and thank their cooperation.

It was then that I had a revelation!

Thinking back, maybe it was stupid of me to try so hard to be someone I was not meant to be. Maybe I should simply accept my fate and hand over the baton to my sister who is a lot more skilled than me.

Since my main goal was always the prosperity of the village, it made only sense that the most skilled one was the one to take the lead.

And so I decided to truly pass the baton and take the role of support to help my sister achieve her ideals!

Feeling refreshed for finally getting rid of all that pressure that was haunting me, I rejoined the group and started helping with the packing and organizing the our moving, thinking there was nothing else I could do that day...

But that day still had some surprises waiting for us...