With four people it should be enough to deal with these hordes or monsters

I ready my Water Sword Form to clear them as fast as possible

I charge right through the middle cutting anything in my path

Sydney and Violet are backing up Ralph who is surrounded by what looks like over two hundred foes

After 3 straight hours I sit down exhausted, we all were

“It took shorter than we expected at least”

Sydney fell on her back while having a breath of relief

After laughing Ralph got up and started laughing

“Hahahaha that was a lot easier than expected, if we keep this up, we will be rich by the end of the year”

After showing this, we all smiled

“Alright I guess we head back now; it was a short-lived job”

When I heard Violet say these words, I suddenly remembered the main reason I came here

“Could you guys wait here for a bit, I want to go check my house and something else”

After looking at me Ralph patted my back

“No worries, we will come with you, we don’t want you getting attacked by another hoard of beasts”

After looking at the rest of them smiling I suddenly stood up and said thanks

Although we head been here for 3 hours already, we hadn’t had the chance to look around

While walking through the village, we passed the store I always used to go into

“Clara’s mother worked here”

I blurted that out by accident, I could tell the mood suddenly switched

We barley talked on the way to my house, but after we finally made it here

I could see the remains of the house

While looking around to find anything that might still be useful, I found a pendant

It was the other half of the pair of pendants that Elizabeth gave to Claire

I held my tears in

After taking the pendant I put it in my pocket and stood up

“Alright there is one more place I need to check, if it is ok with you guys would you come with me?”

After turning around and saying that everybody nodded in a serious tone

It didn’t take long to find the path that had been overgrown with grass

“here’s the entrance”

I said this while looking back at Ralph, Sydney, and Violet

After confirming that they were alright we started heading in

After 30 minutes we found it

There it was the stone monument

“So, this is where you found that Gem?”

Sydney asked while looking down at the empty area I took the Red Gem from

I nodded and took out the Gem

I tried placing it on the same stool where I had originally found it, but nothing happened

Just why was this Gem here?

After being knocked out of my daze by a voice I suddenly turned around

“James they are everywhere!”

My eyes almost fell out their sockets, I could see thousands of monsters encircling around us

We were already exhausted from earlier, but we had to deal with even more than we did last time.

We had to escape but there was no way to go

If I was on my own, I could get out of here, but I couldn’t leave my party

“Ready yourselves!”

With a shout from Ralph, we all got into stance, this was going to be one bloody battle

30 minutes into the fight, there were no end to the Beasts

We had already taken several hits and had run out of energy

Is this how we are going to die? I could escape with two people if I forgot about attacking but that’s it

While being near Ralph he said something to me

“Take the girls, I will hold out as long as possible and clear a path for you”

I looked at him, I thought it was a joke, but his eyes were serious

“You know I can’t do that!”

I shouted this but Ralph simply shook his head

He handed me a letter

“I prepared this letter in advance just in case things came to the worst, please hand it to my family”

He told me to run, I was angry, angry that he would ask such a selfish thing, but it was the only way we could save anybody

I nodded my head while he gave me a smile

I turned around putting my sword back to my side and lifted both Sydney and Violet in my arms, ralph was in front of me making a path of corpses

“w-what are you doing!”

Sydney looked at me struggling to get down, but I hardened my grip

Violet had probably already guessed what was going to happen, so she did not resit, she just closed her eyes, she entrusted her safety to me

I’m not that much of a reliable person, but if a girl entrusts herself to me, I will not let her down after we could see the light from the edge of the forest Ralph turned around and while I was passing him, he said two words

“Thank you”

I couldn’t comprehend how he could say those words with a smile knowing he was about to die

Without looking back, I kept running

Sydney kept on wiggling and started to bite my shoulder, but I couldn’t let go, not after all Ralph had done to me

Then she sliced my hand, I dropped her, and she started running towards Ralph who was probably already dead

I tried to turn around to go get her, but I heard a voice

“Keep going!”

It was Ralph

Ralphs POV:

My body is in pieces, I just hope he can save at least one of them

I was bleeding from my head, and I could feel myself getting bit in the leg

I heard a thump, I looked to my right, and I could see Sydney running towards me with a smile

She faced me back-to-back

“What are you doing here?! You were almost out!”

She looked at me with a smile

“I couldn’t let the one I loved die on his own so I’m here to make sure you aren’t lonely in heaven”

I was beaten, I simply let out a laugh

I turned to look at James who was about to turn around and come back for Sydney

“Keep going! At least save one of us, don’t worry we will catch up!”

That was a lie, me and Sydney were going to die, I just want to lessen James’s burden, he was a good guy, I was always jealous at him in school because I simply couldn’t compare to him, but after a while it wasn’t Jealousy, I felt

It was respect

I respect James if anybody can get Violet to safety its him

“We entrust Violet to you James!”

I said those words knowing full well he couldn’t hear me

Oh, wait where am i? I couldn’t see anything; it was pitch black

Where are you, Sydney?

Oh, I get it now, I’m dead, well I thought I would lose my virginity, but I guess not, Farewell Sydney, Violet, and James’s carry on my will

James POV:

We made it out of the forest, not with the four people we entered with, only with two people, me, and Violet

When we got out of the forest I kept running, this is the first time since I lost my parents that I had felt this week, what did I train all those years for? I couldn’t even kill a few wild beasts

After 8 hours I was still running, I could feel no pain, I still had violet on my back, it looked like she was out cold

I kept running, although I knew there was nothing chasing us anymore, I ran until we got to the nearest village

That night I booked an Inn for me and Violet, both in separate rooms

I couldn’t sleep that night, the voices of Ralph and Sydney wouldn’t leave my mind, I hadn’t even got out of my clothes that were stained with blood

When I noticed that it was daytime I finally got out of my bed and changed my clothes, I looked in the mirror and I sighed

I look terrible, I looked shocking

When I opened my door, I looked down to find a letter on the floor

When I picked it up, I sat down back on my bed

The letter was from Violet, it was thanking me for saving her, she said that she was not fit out for Adventuring and had planned to head back to her home village to work at her family’s clinic,

She had already left

I mean who could blame her, after what happened yesterday anybody would be scarred

At the end of the letter, she apologised just for leaving like that, if she ever saw me again which was unlikely that she would treat me to dinner

I crunched up the letter and threw it in the bin

I had just lost two of my partners on my first ever job

I curled back up onto my bed and stared at the wall, when I realised it, I had fallen asleep

When I went down to get some food, I had found out that I was asleep for 2 days straight

After paying for the Inn and Food I started walking down the street, before I knew it, I was in the other town, and it was nighttime

I saw the sign for a bar and went in

I already had dead eyes, but I kept drinking for what felt like hours

While I was drinking, I heard someone sit next to me to the right, I thought nothing of it

“James? Is that you?”

I froze if anybody who knew me saw me in this state they would probably laugh

I looked to my right

“R-R-Rose!!??”

Why was she here? Wasn’t she royalty?

She looked at me again and I asked her why she was here

She told me that she had left royalty and her name and was just known as Rose now, she then told me about how she became an A Rank Adventurer

While listening to her story, I was still drinking

When I was about to order another one, she stopped me

“James, what happened to you? How did you end up like this?”

Her eyes were the eyes of worry

She was still as elegant as ever, with just around a years’ time since we last saw each other she had grown into a fine woman

I confessed everything, I told her everything about what had happened since the last time we saw each other

Everything from having a vision about the man with the Spear and leaving Claire and Clara selfishly, running away to become an adventurer, meeting up with Ralph, Sydney and Violet and joining their party, taking on a job to clear my old village of beasts, going to the forest where the stone monument was and being attacked by hordes of beasts, losing Ralph and Sydney and how Violet had left me

By the end of it, I was in tears

I laughed it off and spoke

“I probably look really stupid right now”

I thought Rose would slap me, I mean how couldn’t she, I abandoned my friends and let them die

She then did something I wasn’t expecting

She embraced me, her hug felt so warm, I hadn’t felt such a warming thing in ages

“you’ve tried you hardest, haven’t you? You must have been through a lot of pain”

She said these words while still hugging me, I couldn’t hold them back any longer

I started crying on her shoulder staining her clothes with me tears

She just held me in her arms not saying a word

After wiping away my tears, we stood up, Rose grabbed my hand and led me to the room she was renting for tonight

When we got into her room, she was already undressing me while I pushed her on the bed

I started groping her chest and her butt

She embraced me again while licking my ear

That night I let out all my anger and sadness onto Rose, but she accepted all of it

When I woke up, I looked to my right to see a naked goddess next to me using my arm as a pillow and sleeping with a comfortable look on her face

I hope I didn’t hurt her last night, I really couldn’t hold back

While I was stroking Rose’s hair, she looked at me with a smile

“Good morning”

While she said that she kissed me on the check while wrapping her arms around me

“Good morning, did you sleep well?”

She looked at me for a moment before starting to giggle

After we got ready, we went downstairs and got breakfast

The previous night after we were finished with our “business” we talked about what we would do from now on, we decided to form a party

After looking after me last night Rose made me realise that it wasn’t my fault about what happened and that it was ok to run away, she made my heart less strained

While pushing our mugs into each other I said

“I’ll be in your care from now on”

She smiled and replied

“Me too”