Chapter 161

Chapter 161

After Ellen, Eleris, and I returned, we stayed in Saints Point for a few more days. It was partly to see how things would unfold, and also because we were under investigation.

Hugson was currently being investigated in Saints Point. If the charges against him were proven, he’d have a hard time surviving this. In the end, he was merely a braggart who only strutted around Saints Point.

The possibility of us being tried for murder had become very unlikely. Therefore, apart from any punishments we had to receive, our rewards would be determined based on the benefits we’d brought to the guild.

This wasn’t about earning a commission.

As such, there was no set compensation, and we didn’t know the extent of our achievements.

Moreover, this was a serious incident. Until the investigation was complete and the whole truth came to light, our achievements and compensation would remain unknown.

Saints Point, and the points south of it, were frequented by low-level adventurers.

Given the evidence of a large-scale massacre and the identification of suspects, the Egxian Forward Base had deployed a significant number of personnel.

This place, usually crowded with mere stragglers, would now see the arrival of not just adventurers but actual military forces.

“The convoy mission might be scrapped entirely, and specialized troops will likely take over those roles.”

With the intensification of adventurer activity and the collapse of Klitz Point...

Significant guild resources had been invested, and because there had been a planned attempt to seize those resources, even more specialized personnel now had to be deployed. From the guild’s perspective, just discovering that the person in charge of the escort had intended to steal the very resources he’d been charged with safeguarding must have been quite a shock.

We submitted ourselves to whatever investigations necessary over those few days, and we were now ready to head out again.

—Are those the ones?

—Yeah, that’s them.

—They killed all those guys by themselves?

—No way...

—Is that mage actually really powerful or something?

—Anyway, a lot of people owe their lives to them.

We had become famous figures in Saints Point. Even though job opportunities had disappeared, if things had gone on, many would have fallen into Hugson’s trap and lost their lives.

Though we had killed many people, we’d saved numerous others as a result.

The dead couldn’t speak.

And so, the praise from the living tickled the back of my mind in an uncomfortable way.

Ellen, Eleris, and I were having lunch after getting up late.

We’d been exhausted from the investigations and needed to rest.

This incident had essentially been handled by Ellen from start to finish. She was the first one who’d detected the issues, the first one to speculate about them, and the first one who understood everything that was going on.

Since the clash with the large band of robbers, my thoughts had become a little jumbled. Trying to act nonchalantly after killing something felt wretched, and my mind wasn’t sharp anymore.

I was at my limit mentally, and that left me with no room to think about anything else.

Honestly, it was strange that I was holding on, but it was even more unusual that Ellen was as well.

“We needed experience, but we ended up getting an entirely different kind of experience... damn it,” I said.

We knew to be cautious around people. However, neither Ellen nor I had wished for this kind of experience.

“... I had some idea, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad,” Ellen responded.

Ellen seemed to have anticipated something like this. Ellen was definitely in a state of constant vigilance. She seemed to remember above all else that one had to be wary of people.

What kind of stories had Artorius shared with his sister Ellen? I didn’t know.

The biggest incident in Saints Point, the collapse of Altz Point, was now resolved.

Now that we had handled such a major case, there was no longer any reason to stay. The only thing to do if we stayed was to head down to the southernmost point, but the newly-formed supply convoy would take care of the problems there.

“For now, we should head back to Egxian or—”

Just as I was trying to organize our future plans, a voice interrupted us at our table.

“Um, excuse me...”

Ellen, Eleris, and I turned to look in the direction of the voice.

“...”

There stood Austin, his face displaying a multitude of emotions, including despair, shame, and embarrassment.

With great difficulty, he opened his mouth, enduring his shame.

“I came to say I’m sorry, and thank you... If it wasn’t for you all, our convoy members, including me... we all would’ve died.”

If we hadn’t been there, the convoy would have departed as planned, and they would have been massacred by those guys while completely defenseless. He had come to express his gratitude and to apologize for that.

Even though he had been coerced into it, he’d still tried to frame us. He seemed to be carrying a lot of guilt over that.

Honestly, there was no need for him to come find us. We hadn’t done this while expecting Austin’s gratitude. But Austin had gone out of his way to come and apologize.

That was more than enough.

“Well, don’t worry about it too mu—” Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

“Stop it,” Ellen interrupted, looking directly at Austin.

“H-Huh...?”

“Stop doing this.”

Ellen’s voice had a commanding tone to it, something uncharacteristic for her. Her sudden words made Austin’s face turn pale. Ellen continued to speak in a cold, unwavering tone.

“You don’t have the skills to protect your own life.

“You don’t have the discernment to identify dangerous people.

I stood beside Ellen, thinking about how to handle the next step, knowing that we both needed time to process, recover, and decide our future course.

She was shocked by the fact that she had lost her self-control.

So, I asked the question.

If you want to go back, we can go back. There’s no need to force yourself to keep doing this.

“No...” Ellen leaned her head against my chest. “I’m just... tired...”

She didn’t suddenly break down and cry or anything like that.

She simply leaned her head against my chest and remained silent for a while. I gently cradled her head with one hand and stayed still.

However, Ellen seemed to grow more emotional, and began to tremble slightly.

As she began to show her vulnerable side, it was as if a dam had broken, and her suppressed feelings flowed out.

“I’m... I’m scared...” Ellen was trembling. “I’m scared that I’m starting to become like my brother...”

“What are you... talking about?”

“I always thought that it doesn’t matter what happens to other people’s lives... That’s what I thought before...”

It seemed like the stress she was feeling was compounded by something else.

“But now I’m... acting just like my brother...” she continued.

If we hadn’t eliminated the band of robbers occupying Klitz Point, countless people would have died.

That was why Ellen had decided to annihilate that band of robbers. Why she hadn’t hesitated to stain her hands with blood.

She had deferred reflection, and opted to take what actions she had judged necessary in the moment.

As those deferred thoughts began to surface, though, Ellen realized the truth.

Despite vowing never to live a life in which she would sacrifice everything for the sake of others like her brother, she’d ended up taking dangerous actions without regard for her own safety when the situation arose.

She’d killed to save someone’s life.

Ragan Artorius must have acted the same way.

It would have all started as a simple sense of justice—doing what he could because he could.

Since saving lives couldn’t possibly be a bad thing.

However, as the same thing was repeated, it turned into a sense of duty.

First a few lives, then dozens, hundreds, thousands.

Eventually, saving lives became an inevitability, and he was revered as a hero.

And finally, he came to see sacrificing even his own life as a matter of course.

In the end, he’d killed the Demon King at the cost of his own life.

Ellen was terrified to realize that she was starting to follow the same path as her brother. She absolutely did not want to, but with this the very first step, she had unwittingly done just that.

It wasn’t that she regretted her actions.

She didn’t regret saving someone.

She was merely terrified by the realization that she was becoming just like Ragan Artorius.

She felt as though it was the inherent, unchangeable nature of the blood within her.

“What nonsense,” I muttered, pulling her head closer to me.

“...”

Yeah.

I understood what she was struggling with.

“In that situation, anyone would have made that same choice.”

But ultimately, it was nonsense.

“If you have the ability and the skills, anyone would do the same.”

There were exceptions, of course, and some people simply could not do it.

But there were plenty of people who would have acted just as we did.

“We were able to, so we did it. That’s all.”

“...”

“There was no other reason.”

We just made an ordinary decision.

The process and the outcome were far from ordinary, but we were ordinary.

‘You didn’t make that choice because you are the sister of Artorius.

‘You have to believe that.

‘Even though it wasn’t ordinary, you have to believe it was.’

Pointless worry and anguish provided no answers.

“... Do you think so?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“...”

Ellen’s trembling gradually subsided.