31 Six Tower (1/2)
Nighttime in the Plainlan forest.
Kiro and Alina were hiding inside the tree trunk. The surrounding space was enough to fit the two. Still, Kiro felt flustered every time he moved his body he would inadvertently hit something that shouldn't be touched upon with.
When he noticed Alina's murderous glare, Kiro eventually decided to stay still.
”Come on, it was an accident. The space around here is so narrow.” Kiro voiced out his complaint while shifting his gaze at the two moons above their head.
”Humph!” As a response, Alina snorted at him coldly.
”Mn, even in this world, the moon is so beautiful, isn't it?” Kiro uttered those words subconsciously.
Alina followed his line of eyesight while saying. ”Yes, the moon tonight is brighter than usual, but what does Kiro mean to 'in this world'.” Alina glanced at Kiro in confusion. She couldn't make head or tail of the words he said.
When he heard Alina's voice, Kiro was startled for a moment. ”It's nothing, say, Alina, would you mind telling me the reason why you would go to such a length, even jump into the unknown danger just for my sake?” Kiro eventually said those words he could understand why Alina would do that.
Upon hearing Kiro's question, Alina paused for a moment before answering. ”The truth is, I don't honestly know the right answer...” She said. ”Well, if there is one thing, it was probably, because Alina is an orphan. My parents died because of the monster.” Alina said while reminiscing the past.
Then she started to tell Kiro her story. ”Alina grew up into the church, but once we reach a proper age, we would eventually leave the church protection, at the young age of twelve, Alina learned how to hunt the prey for living, collecting wild herbs, and other necessities.”
”The reason why Alina wanted to become an Adventurer is not to lose to the monster ever again.” She said. ”Because Alina's first-ever male friend is Kiro, it is natural for Alina to help her friend when they need one isn't it?”
”What about Aldin? Didn't you meet him much earlier than me right?” Kiro asked another question.
Upon hearing Aldin's name Alina's face became sore ”Alina doesn't have a cowardly friend like him!” She said while snorting coldly in discomfort, she was still feeling upset from the event that happened this morning. ”Even though Alina meets Aldin, we rarely have any conversation at all.”
”Alina is always together with Alyva, but in Aldin's head, only Alyva exists.” Alina thought for a moment before continuing. ”What about you Kiro? Why would you jump inside the forest just to buy us enough time to escape?”
Hearing her voice, Kiro moved his head to face Alina's line of eyesight, while staring at her glittering eyes, he said. ”The truth is, It is because Alina is so cute, I jump into the pit of fire just for her,” Kiro replied teasingly.
Alina's cheeks flushed in red after she heard Kiro's statement, but when she noticed his teasing eyes, Alina used her elbow to hit Kiro's rib cage. ”U-urgh!” Kiro grunted in pain.
Kiro glanced at Alina who was about to give him another blow, shouted in fright. ”Wa—wait! I'll answer, I'll answer! So please stop!”
”Humph!” Alina snorted while turning her head away from Kiro.
Seeing her reaction, Kiro could only answer the question without a falsehood.
”Well, the truth is... I thought I could handle the situation alone.” Kiro said. ”But after entering deeper inside the forest, only at that time I realized how I overestimated myself.”
Kiro thought that as long as he could outrun the Goblins and trim their numbers to the acceptable range, he could manage to wipe them out. However, little did he know what they saw in the outskirts of the forest was only the meager number of the original settlement.
As he advanced further inside the forest, the more shocking it became for him; eventually, he even ran across two Goblin commanders.
”What do you mean by that?” Alina voiced out. ”Just what exactly did you see inside the forest?”
”What we saw on the border of the forest wasn't the real settlement of the Goblins. After I killed the Goblin Mage, my first plan was to go out of this place as soon as possible, but when I thought that I could not go back empty-handed, so I decided to scout ahead... Then there, I saw an unbelievable amount of Goblins.”
”Deep inside the forest, I saw the real Goblin settlement. What is more shocking, they even have a defensive mechanism.”
Then Kiro started to narrate what he saw in the deepest part of the forest.
After listening to Kiro's narration of what he saw inside the woods, Alina's face went pale in horror.
***
On the deeper side of the northeast side of the plainlan forest.