The Hero’s Brother Is Bound To Be Depressed

11 – Acorn

After confirming that the warlock had completely retreated, Roel narrowed his eyes as he checked our condition.

“Let’s go back to the inn for now.”

At Roel’s words, we moved wearily to the inn. Upon entering the inn, all the villagers who ran away and were invisible were gathered in the inn.

Perhaps because they thought there were only orcs, they thought they wouldn’t be easily attacked if they stayed in one place.

If it wasn’t for Roel, everyone would have been doomed to die when the inn collapsed due to the magic of the warlock.

As we appeared, covered in blood, the townsfolk gave a terrified look. Are we afraid that the orcs who have fled here and missed their game will come here?

Despite the atmosphere of the inn filled with tension, Roel smiled brightly and opened his mouth.

“You killed the orcs that attacked the village. The village is safe now.”

After Roel finished speaking. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and the tense atmosphere was relieved. When I sat an exhausted Ellie on an empty chair nearby. A man who appeared to be the village chief approached Roel.

“Did you really kill the orc?”

“Yes. Perhaps the monster that is raiding the village these days is the orc. There may be further raids, so it’s best to stay here today.”

At Roel’s words, the village chief nodded and thanked him.

“Thank you very much. Without you, this village would be as dangerous as the others.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you.”

At the village head’s words, the villagers who were listening to the conversation expressed sincere gratitude. The figure of Roel receiving the gratitude of the people he saved while still covered in blood…. It was the appearance of a typical warrior that people say.

Looking at that, I fell into a bit of a sense of shame. Not because I was jealous of Roel’s appearance, but because I felt pitiful for not being able to help much when I thought of the injured Ellie and Roel.

If only the plan was a little more thorough. If it was Roel, if she hadn’t had the comforting thought that she would be able to stop them, they wouldn’t have been hurt.

“I wasn’t the only one who saved the village. Because if it wasn’t for Ross and Ellie over there, it would have been impossible to kill the orc. Even though both of them were injured, they fought to protect the village without giving up until the end.”

At Roel’s sudden words, the eyes of the villagers around me were fixed on Ellie, who was sitting, and me, who was standing beside me.

The eyes of the villagers changed when I saw bloodstains running down my chin and the clothes of Ellie and Magie, who were clearly tired, showing ugly-looking wounds that were melted and stuck to their flesh.

When you feel burdened by people’s stares. I involuntarily lowered my gaze to the hand pulling on my pants.

There was a little girl there. She had something to say to me. She was holding my pants and looking up at me.

“This!”

When I saw the child taking out a pretty acorn from his pocket and handing it to me as if it were a gift, even the people who were talking to Roel turned their attention to me.

Reach out your hand and accept the acorn. The child, who was smiling brightly with joy, looked at me with an incoherent voice and shouted.

“Thank you for saving the village!”

At those words, something hot rose inside me without knowing why. Is it because of its heat or because of the blurry vision?

The child in front of her eyes overlapped with the child in her mother’s arms that she saw in the moonlight village. If it had been the way it was, this child would have faced such an end.

But thanks to Ross’s nervous breakdown, after days of trouble, I managed to get Roel in and save the town of Destin. You rescued this child. Rescued the villagers.

It was only then that I realized how stupid I had been to think about whether I should save the village.

The people in front of me were neither unimportant extras nor by-products made for sadness.

He was a being with a human life like me.

There will no longer be a point where your life will end meaninglessly just because of one line of thoughtlessly written text.

Let’s raise our heads to suppress our rising emotions. I met eyes with Roel, who was looking at me.

Roel came up to me with a bright smile and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Nice work Ross. If you hadn’t kept your promise, this town couldn’t have been saved.”

The innkeeper, who had been frightened by Roel’s words and was holding a cleaver until now, shouted.

“Thanks Ross! Having you as a guest is the luckiest thing in my life!”

As if agreeing with the innkeeper’s words, the villagers thanked me.

“Thank you. Loss!”

“Thanks Ross!”

“Thank you. Mr. Ross!”

Every time I hear that voice in my ears. It felt like something in my heart was breaking. Let what has been so deeply embedded for so long, ripped and bled and curdled, will break and melt.

As if to leave a trace. Tears ran down my chin and fell to the floor. It was embarrassing to receive the eyes of Roel, who smiled warmly at me, and the villagers, who endlessly thanked me.

I couldn’t help but cry like a child.

Is it a sense of relief that someone was saved? Or is it the feeling of being recognized for the first time?

I decided not to think deeply.

Because I know that sometimes you have to accept emotions with your heart rather than understanding them with your head.

***

The next day.

After a brief treatment and rest, we helped the villagers clean up after themselves.

Ellie cleaned up the wreckage of the burned down house and the collapsed house with magic.

He helped organize the bodies of the guards who died while announcing the attack of the orcs, along with the villagers, so that they could have a funeral.

Then I brought Roel and took out a fist-sized core from the mutant orc’s heart.

“This is… ?”

“This could be an important item. It’s strange that orcs are so strong. Perhaps it was created by a place associated with warlocks?”

I already knew what this was. It was a special nucleus created by the ‘church’ of fanatics called Chaos Church.

Unlike the Demons who followed the Demon King, the ‘Cult’ was a group of fanatics made entirely of humans.

They claim that they are no different from fish trapped in a fishbowl, and have the idea of regaining true freedom by destroying the boundaries of the world. It was the setting of an insane group.

This core contains [Chaos], And has a special ability to give powerful power to monsters and monsters.

In order to test this, there was a raid on a village by mutant orcs.

Later, after analyzing this, Rosalind created an object that is of great help when fighting the Demon King’s executives.

“Definitely different from normal orcs. Because he was being manipulated by a warlock.”

“Why don’t you look into this at the academy?”

At my words, Roel nodded and picked up her core.

“Rosalyn might be able to figure something out.”

At those words, Rosalyn, who had been asked by Roel, couldn’t hide her joy and imagined her twitching her lips, and smiled involuntarily.

Is it strange that I suddenly smile? Let’s erase a smile at Roel’s look at me with a strange gaze. Suddenly, he grinned and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Ross has changed a lot.”

Let’s be a little taken aback by Roel’s sudden words. Roel wrapped his arms around my neck and ruffled my hair roughly.

“Because I am watching you grow. I feel happy for no reason, is this what you call a father’s heart?”

Sneered at the absurd joke and replied.

“You know we are 1 year apart, right?”

“Even if there is a 1 year age difference, a hyung is an older brother.”

I sighed free from Roel’s arms and returned to the inn.

When Roel went up to the room to contact the Imperial Investigation Team with the crystal ball.

I approached Ellie, who was sitting at a table in the corner of the inn, exuding her gloomy expression, very concerned.

Usually, he said he would go with Roel, and he would have worked hard to stick with him. Are the aftereffects of magical exhaustion still remaining?

“… I followed you and made you suffer. Sorry.”

Worrying about what to say, when you regret the stupid words that came out of your mouth. Ellie, with her grim face, weakly shook her head.

“No. She told me not to come, but she forced me to follow her…. Sorry, was it a lump of baggage?”

I was a little puzzled by Ellie’s sigh as she said that. In fact, she didn’t like Ellie joining at first, but if it weren’t for Ellie, she would have had to deal with warlocks and mutant orcs by herself.

It ended like this because of Ellie. Why is the person concerned depressed?

“Why do you think so… ?”

Let’s ask carefully. Ellie bit her lip and looked down at her.

“Because I couldn’t even wait for the warlock…. If I had been a little stronger, Roel and you wouldn’t have gotten hurt….”

I was speechless at Ellie’s words. She really thought that Roel and I were hurt because she wasn’t good enough. Seeing Ellie lowering her head, she inadvertently put her hand on Ellie’s head.

When she felt the soft black hair in the palm of her hand. Embarrassed, I woke up to see Ellie lifting her head and looking up at me.

After hearing a junior college girl say, ‘I really hate it when someone I don’t like puts his hand on her head’, she hasn’t recklessly put her hand on a woman’s hair. Why did you act like that?

She hurriedly removed her hand from her head, regretfully, and spoke to Ellie in an apologetic manner.

“I think we’re done with injuries thanks to you?”

“… Huh?”

“Thanks to you, when Roel fought the orcs, he was able to avoid being pincered from the start. You bought me some time so I could hand over the potion to Roel.”

“But that….”

He raised his hand to stop Ellie, who was about to say something, to listen to her until the end.

“Your magic gave the warlock time to kill Roel quickly. Without you, do you think I would be able to kill time for the warlock by myself? Now that I think about it, it would have been a really big deal if you hadn’t followed me. Of the three of us, you did the most important thing last night.”

At my words, Ellie’s gloomy face brightened a little. The corners of her mouth went up involuntarily as she twitched her lips to see if she was in a better mood.

Ellie pretended nothing was wrong, but she looked at me and gave me a look that seemed to encourage me to compliment her more. She has a child-like cuteness to her figure, and she praised her over and over again.

“Actually, it doesn’t make sense for a freshman to waste time against a warlock. 3Rd year would that be impossible? But Ellie, you even hit the warlock with synthetic magic. Would the seniors be surprised if they saw it?”

“… When I saw that pillar of fire. Wow, I inadvertently thought that he was a real genius. I wondered if they were the same first year students.”

Laughing at her continued praise, Ellie couldn’t hide her joy when I finished talking. With a pretty expression on her face, she said.

“As expected, Ross is nice.”

Seeing Ellie smiling while saying that, I felt a tingling sensation as if something had hit her heart. When she feels her heart beating, she can’t take her eyes off the face of Ellie, who falls in love with her again.

Has contact ended? Roel came down and sat at the table.

“Imperial investigation team will come soon. We’ll check the orc’s corpse and hear the damage done to the village and the incident. We go back to the academy and when the investigation team comes back later, we just have to talk about what happened yesterday.”

“I’m glad. Are you going to eat lunch then?”

“That would be nice. Fortunately, the chief said that he would take me to the capital by carriage in return. I will arrive at the academy in the evening.”

“Then, how about the steak you ate before in the capital for dinner? Actually, I do regret not eating that day!”

“Is that so?”

Throwing away her gloom, Ellie started talking to Roel in a lively voice as always. I sighed at the emotion I felt just by watching them talk.

I am so jealous,

There’s no way I could be nice.