I could talk about anything I wanted with my new friend.

Ranging from simple chatter about hunting small critters, to the pain I had to suffer through when I was younger.

Generally, Kinua was quite responsive and supportive and told me a bit about herself.

But when I got to the part about my parents being sacrificed, her reactions kind of... changed...

She seemed really apologetic for some reason.

Even after I told her I don't hold a grudge against her, she seemed like she couldn't have let it go.

At first, I thought she was sorry because it was her people who did it.

|But one day, I found out it was more than just that.|

"Hey... umm..."

"What...?"

When I thought she would finally say it, she quickly backed off again.

"...no, it's nothing..."

I wonder what she's so afraid to tell me...

She then sat on a tree stump while I made a light cut on my arm to practice the heal spell.

I thought she would continue practicing dark magic, but she just sat there.

After a while, she clenched her fists and got up before walking to me.

"Reiza, I need to tell you something."

Her expression looked serious.

She was probably ready to finally tell me whatever was on her mind.

"...what is it?"

"I-it's that..."

And then, she went silent again.

The tension was rising.

"I...

It's my fault..."

She held her left arm while avoiding eye contact with me.

"What is...?"

"My dad...

He was the one who... executed the sacrificed people from your village."

...

What?

"If I could...

If I somehow stopped him back then...

Your mom and dad wouldn't..."

...

What is she talking about?

Is she saying she is the one responsible?

For my parents being dead?

For the pain I went through?

"I'm sorry...

I..."

...

Something within me started to boil.

Sorry?

What sorry...?

I SHOULD JUST KILL HER.

Almost as if my body moved on its own, I drew my sword and closed in on her.

"W-wait...

I'm really sorry!

Please!

Aren't we friends?!"

But her words flew right past me.

I didn't care for anything she had to say.

She turned around and ran.

But it was futile.

In no time at all, I caught up with her and pinned her down to the ground.

Since she was lying on her belly, I couldn't see her expression.

But judging from her trembling body and silent whimpers, I could tell she was terrified.

My hand held the sword back and readied to cut into her.

...

But I stopped it.

My entire body started to shake as I looked at my friend's helpless back.

The grip on my sword tightened so much, it actually started to hurt my hand.

My arm began to shake as my vision got blurred by salty water.

The grip gradually loosened and the sword stabbed into the ground after falling out of my hand.

I then fell down on my elbows as tears started to stream out of my eyes.

I just tried to kill my best friend.

I was about to take her life...

Why did I even consider doing it?

To get a revenge?

For something she didn't even do?

What is wrong with me...

For a little while, negative thoughts tormented my mind.

I had to try my best to push them aside, but they just kept on coming.

It almost felt like I was arguing with someone.

It all ended though, when someone gently took my hand.

Of course, it was Kinua.

She wore a sorrowful expression but spoke no words.

But just that alone somehow made my dark thoughts go away.

After that, we spent a while in silence.

But even though we exchanged no words, I felt that in those few moments, we bonded more than over the entire time we knew each other.

It was quite mysterious...

...

But after that, I broke the silence.

"This... needs to change..."

She didn't answer and just looked at me.

But she understood what I meant.

Even though our tribes were officially at peace, the tension was still obviously there.

There was no true peace among us.

And that needed to change.

"But how...?"

She asked the same question I had on my mind.

How would we go about this?

I didn't know...

All I knew that we needed to start somewhere.

"For now...

Let's get stronger."

|And that, we did.|

We made quite the childish promise the next day.

To get stronger and change the world.

To work together and bring peace to everyone around us.

And to make sure nobody will have to go through the same things I did.

That was the day I attained a goal in life.

A goal I would work harder to attain, than I could have ever imagined at the time.

Every day, we both got stronger and more experienced.

Even when splitting it with Kinua, I always brought back spoils comparable to the main hunter group.

It seemed like most people got tired of being surprised.

Some of the adult hunters, however, got suspicious.

They thought I was somehow cheating.

At the time, feared my meetings with Kinua would come to light.

After all, she was from the Nouria foxman tribe.

But my worries were unnecessary.

All it took to shut them up, was to beat each one of them in a one on one fight.

Luckily, only those specialising in either swordsmanship or magic were bothering me.

And since I could use both, I just had to adjust my strategy for each one of them.

And with that, the incident passed without any problems.

Those guys, who accused me of cheating avoided me from then on while most other people started respecting me.

Even the village chief seemed to take a liking to me.

Everything was well...

...

|But then, THAT night came.|

I was woken up by a scream outside.

When I got up and rushed to the window, I felt a presence in the room.

Something grabbed me from behind and tried to seize me.

But I pointed one of my hands backward and quickly fired off a dark spell.

With that, the assailant let go off me while letting out a loud scream.

I quickly turned around and spotted a figure completely covered in black clothing squirming around the floor while holding his crotch.

Questioning him didn't even come to my mind.

I grabbed a sword by my bed and sliced his chest open before finishing him off with a stab in the head.

Someone was attacking this village.

There was no doubt about that.

And it wasn't just someone...

These people weren't beastmen.

They seemed to be...

Humans.

I silently left my room and carefully looked out for any other enemies.

It was really dark, since it was the night, but I could make out one figure in the hall.

I quickly dashed forward and aimed for his neck.

Since that person didn't even react to me, he was probably facing the other way, it was hard to tell in this darkness.

Thanks to that, his head was chopped off and I continued to uncle Renar's room.

As I approached it, the door was flung open and out flew another one of those men with black clothes.

After him, uncle Renar stormed out with his sword in hand.

He seemed to have a light cut on his leg and his arm was bleeding as well, but it was nothing too serious.

Uncle then looked toward me and made an eye contact.

We both nodded to each other and silently left the house.

The village was in the state of chaos.

These mysterious people in black were everywhere.

Villagers were being kidnapped.

Hunters were fighting to death with them.

Kids were screaming.

It was a mayhem.

We were stunned for a moment.

But after quickly recovering, we acted.

We both ran toward the village's center, where most of the stronger hunters lived.

However, on our way there, we got ambushed by a group of these attackers.

Uncle managed to block their opening surprise attack, but after that, it only got worse.

Probably since they saw he was hurt, they kept focusing him.

Eventually, one of their daggers hit him and he instantly collapsed.

Things weren't looking good, I was surrounded.

But suddenly, something thin and long flew by and pierced the assailant's heads one by one.

Shocked, I looked in the direction they came from and saw...

"Will...?"

It was the boy, who stood up for me all those years ago.

The one who kind of became my inspiration for learning magic.

"You alright?

Guess not..."

His expression was as disinterested as ever.

Even after seeing my uncle collapsed he barely reacted to it.

"That house over there is empty.

Carry him inside."

Will pointed to a nearby house while saying that.

"...you sure?"

His response was a confident nod.

Following that, I carried uncle Renar inside the house while being on a lookout for any enemies.

After we were all inside, I faced Will.

I wanted to ask him something, but before I could, he interrupted me.

"One just entered through a window into that room."

A few seconds after he pointed at that room, the door was slammed open and out dashed another enemy.

But the moment he did, Will's spell pierced his head.

Only a sound of a dead body hitting the ground followed.

"...how did you know?"

"Never mind that.

We need to tend to him."

Ignoring my question, he pointed at uncle.

"I'm bad at healing spells, do you know how to cure poison?"

The moment he mentioned it, I realized there was something I could do and started tending to uncle.

[Cleanse impurities]

I was still only beginning to learn this spell, so it took most of my concentration to do this.

And it took a while to finish.

In the meantime, it seems that Will took out another person, who was trying to get into the house through the window.

"Ugh..."

And finally, uncle seemed to be waking up.

After that, I started healing his wounds.

"Hey, I'm slowly running out of mana.

We should move quickly."

I nodded despite still feeling there was something odd about him.

We then exited the house and headed toward the village's center.

"Over sixty..."

As we ran, that came out of Will's mouth.

It was stunning.

Over sixty enemies?

"But I don't which ones are enemies."

...or just over sixty people?

Either way, there seem to be a lot of enemies in that direction.

We decided to hide a short way from the center and observe the situation before acting.

Once we arrived, we found out that the center was completely overrun with invaders.

And before we could even come up with a sound strategy, we have been discovered.

We had no other choice than to fight.

But our chance of winning was basically non-existent.

Due to his prior injuries, uncle was the first one to fall.

After that, it was me and Will fighting side by side to our last breaths.

But the enemies just kept on coming.

Aside from these people in black clothing, some heavily armored ones appeared as well.

And those were way harder to take down.

My sword and our magic barely scratched their armor.

Soon, I was knocked away and pinned down.

With my sword gone and my mana depleted, I couldn't do anything anymore.

It was the end...

I could only helplessly watch as Will still desperately tried to fight everyone off.

"Give it up boy!

If you do, we may spare your life!"

Unexpectedly, one of the armored guys yelled at Will.

"...give up?

Spare my life...?"

Completely nonchalantly, he pointed his arm backwards and sniped a guy, who was approaching him.

"My life is worthless.

If you spare it or not, it makes no difference."

"Hah!

Acting like a hero, are you?

Let it be your way then!"

The assailants then drew their swords and drew near him.

...

They were silent, but even through all the noise around I could still make out his last words.

"Acting huh...

Maybe I should try that next time..."

After that, he exploded.

A huge whirlwind of water erupted around him and swept him as well as the enemies.

I was too far away to get hit, but the winds made the people holding me down get careless and let go of me.

I took this chance and got up while knocking them out.

THen, I ran away as fast as I could.

Avoiding any and all enemies, I somehow managed to get to the village's border and used the old hole in the fence other kids used to use.

From then, I ran into the forest.

Even though I knew I was leaving everyone behind, I didn't have the strength to fight anymore.

I needed to get to safety and seek help.

Surely, Kinua's tribe would help us, I thought...

...

I thought wrong.

Bonus:

What are the conditions needed for divinity to be created?

"Step one: Die!"

...

What he means, is 'be in a state where death in a few moments in inevitable'.

"Step two: Refuse to die!"

Have a strong desire to live on.

"Step three: Regret you didn't have enough fun in your life!"

Along with the desire to live on, you must have the desire to do something else.

This 'something else' will then become your alignment.

So, if for some reason in your last moments of your life you yearned for fun like this guy, you will become the god of fun.

"Final step: Roll the dice!"

The last criteria is kind of a mystery even for gods themselves.

All they can do is hope for good luck.

"And if everything works out, you reincarnate with all of your memories intact!"

As previously mentioned though, you will have to continue pursuing your alignment, or you will revert back to a mortal.

In addition, your divinity will wither if you decide to do anything malicious to mortals.

Such as killing, harming, torturing and so on.

That's also why gods with alignments like vengeance or power tend to not last very long.

...

Now then, how the hell did you die?

What kind of death would warrant you yearning for fun more than anything else?

"Oh...

Hehe... err...

Well..."

Well?

"I played russian roulette."

...

Really...?

"Hey, they told me those were fake bullets!

I didn't know those jerks mixed in real ones!"

...

I don't even know what I even expected.