Chapter 35 - Battle Start (1/2)

—Raust—

At that time, what flashed in my mind was the memory of when I first met with Narsena a few years ago.

It was a memory of the battle with goblins I thought I had forgotten.

It was a very blurry and full of noise, blood-red colored memory.

At that time, in self-abandonment, I jumped into the middle of a goblins flock and easily defeated.

No, it might be wrong to call it easily defeated, even if I said so myself, I felt I gave them a good fight.

After all, I who had no skill nor equipped with good armor was able to earn dozens of minutes against a flock of goblins that could even kill middle-class adventurers.

It was not an exaggeration to call it a satisfactory performance considering the escort man who fell some times ago should have a physical strengthening skill.

…… Even so, no matter how much I risked my life by doing this, I couldn’t stop unless help was coming.

In the end, I was lying on the ground after hitting the limit of my body.

With a loud buzz in my ears and the feeling of soil below my cheek, my mind felt far away as it was dominated by the hopelessness.

I knew the reason I tried to protect the girl was not something that could be praised upon.

I betted my life to save her.

Doing whatever I could.

… And yet, I still couldn’t save anything.

Now that there was nobody that could protect her, her death was anything but certain.

In the state where I did everything in my desperate effort, I was confronted with my limit.

At that time, my heart broke completely.

I could hear the ridiculing voice of my former party members that were killed by the hobgoblins.

It’s because you’re just a defect.

That’s why you can’t save anyone.

We were killed because of your powerlessness.

「———Ughh!」

From that hallucination, I raised a voiceless scream as I pray that the goblins would grant me a clean death.

I was confident that the girl who I tried to help was currently looking at me like I was trash.

That was how other people looked at me until now.

「…Jus-…kill..m-…」

That was why, with difficulty, I made my plea.

「Ah…」

As if to fulfill my plea, I could feel something standing in front of me, and then I smiled.

When I thought I would be freed…

「It’s fine now.」

「Huee?」

I could hear a voice that obviously not the goblin from the one who stood in front of me.

When I moved my barely-able-to-move head and opened my eyes, what entered my sight was the girl’s small back.

Because of the blood in my eyes, in that red-dyed world, the girl stood there with open arms as if to protect me.

Her whole body was trembling.

And in her desperate attempt to stop her trembling body, she clenched her teeth.

「Leave the rest to me.」

However, in that state, when she realized she was being seen by me, the girl forcefully put on a smile on top of her stiffened face.

「There is no way… we-we can lose to these goblins… if we’re together…」

Maybe it was because of her extreme fear, but the way she pronounced her speech was weird.

——— And yet, despite the loud buzz in my ears, I could hear the girl words loud and clear.

The girl who said that to me was still trembling.

Quaking, unable to suppress her fear.

But in her eyes, I could see she was putting her belief in me.

The moment I realized that, something hot spread inside my chest.

「《Heal》! 《Heal》! 《Heal》!」

And then, the moment I understood what that feeling signify, I instinctively activated 《Heal》 continuously.

「Guh-」

I somehow able to stand up, however, my body was far from being healed.

I was barely hanging to my consciousness because of consecutive use of 《Heal》, and even after that, I was still close to dying.