To be better

The scene of defeat that the knights suffered, seemed something unreal, the strength they had, from various types of weapons, tactics, and even an experienced mage, everything proved useless against a single person.

Fighting alone, a young-looking human, was like a one-man army, whenever his enemy had an idea, he immediately thought of a countermeasure, when brute force was used, he proved to be superior in this regard.

No matter how much Gileon tried to find a way to win, it was impossible, ranged attacks don't work, in melee, it was even worse. Cursing himself inside, as he could irritate such a powerful being, it was obvious that the death of the human driving the cart had provoked the fury of the human in front of him.

Afraid of what might happen, Gileon realized that he had forgotten something very important, the main reason he had come to this forest.

Trying to remember what he had heard about this black devil, little information came to his mind, but one of them was that no one had seen his appearance, as he always appeared accompanied by a black fog which was one of the factors in his name was black devil, all there was about his appearance were tentacles that moved through the fog.

Associating with everything he had witnessed, the dark elf felt he could pass out at any time, after all the one who helped the other races was a human.

Incredulous at the fact that he will find out, he made his decision, if anyone had to pay for what was done, that was him, abandoning his bow and arrows, the elf came close to the human and the daemon that will appear now, and abandoning any pride that he had.

“Please, if you have to kill anyone, let it be me."

⊛⊛⊛

At first, Satoru was surprised by the unexpected statement, the flame of anger inside him gained strength, but looking around he saw the trembling children hiding behind the elves, the hooded elves holding guns with trembling hands, everyone was in the limit.

It didn't matter if Satoru would find justice, the elf would pay with his life for taking life, just thinking about it, a bad taste filled his mouth, killing for the first time was not as simple as it seemed, even though the anger was clear. that I felt.

"Where's Envy?", asked Satoru Hilda, completely ignoring the elf.

“She's in the cart, I'll take care of the rest here.”

Hilda placed a hand on her companion's shoulder and turned toward the elves.

Without looking back, the sound of his footsteps accompany him as he walks through the forest, thinking to himself, after 3 years, just now Satoru experienced the sadness again of seeing someone die, it made him remember why he shouldn't be catch people especially in a world where the war against minorities was so strong.

Death was an unwanted companion in these lands, but it was always there walking side by side with everyone, you never know when someone would be taken by it.

But what worried him was the person who was now sitting on the edge of the shrunken wagon, hugging her legs.

"Envy, are you hurt?" Sitting down beside the girl, Satoru took out his sword and set it aside.

"Sniff…no…sniff…why did they kill him?"

No matter how much Envy matured in recent years, she was still a child who was protected from the world, so the loss of her grandfather had a huge impact on her, even if she didn't show it.

Now the loss of Hendrick, which she had soon grown fond of, tears became difficult to hide.

Thinking of what to say, Satoru looked up, the starry sky is now visible, apart from everything that happened that night, it was a beautiful sight, all those stars.

Impossible to run away from what happened, he would only be fooling himself if he didn't agree that the journey had just started and it seemed that everything would only go from bad to worse.

“I think that's what they call the current of hatred, humans kill other races and other races kill humans, so innocent people die from all sides.” Holding back from crying, his Satoru voice grew hoarse as he spoke.

Looking at the person she considered to be a family, and hearing him say that, made her look up also in the same direction her brother was looking.

"That's why we try to be different from them, we try not to make the same mistakes, so if one day we can't run away we should at least make it worth it, but until then we should strive not to reach that point."

"Big Brother."

"Yes?"

“You will never leave me, right?"

"Of course not, whenever you need it, just shout my name." Satoru placed a hand on Envy's head and comforted her even to the same fall asleep.

⊛⊛⊛

Having been left to deal with the dark elves, Hilda made the safest choice, Satoru hated the elves for killing someone, and the elves hated humans.

Being the only one who still tried to see things in the least sentimental way possible, she looked around calmly and noticed what she already imagined, even if they survived the knights, this group of fugitives would not last in this state.

Looking carefully, the first to be remedied was the food, the children seemed more malnourished than the women, it took a lot of willpower to stay alive until now. The second and last thing were wounds that can get infected, but that would be more expensive, especially with no one knowing how to use healing magic.

"You kneeling, what's your name?" Hilda didn't bother looking at the elf as she spoke.

"Gileon, ma'am."

"Get up, and give the children to the older ones, the rest is for the women." Hilda, who was using an old leather bag, took out several pieces of dried meat and gave it to Gileon.

"Th-that, are you sure?" 

Not believing the generosity, the elf with trembling hands took the food.

"Just do it soon!", said Hilda impatiently, they didn't have all night there, so they had to act fast.“While I'm handing out food, the two of you standing there, come help me finish the job with the knights.”

When she finished speaking, Hilda drew her sword.

⊛⊛⊛

Satoru had turned his weapon into a shovel, which he now used to fill a hole until the noise of the brush moving made him turn his head and see Hilda together with the elves, she also brought four horses that were formerly the guards with her.

"I take it they're coming with us?" Satoru leaned on the shovel, he didn't support it, so he waited for the explanation.

“We're the ones who go with them, in exchange for taking them safely to the remaining dark elf city, we've gained a map of the continent, making it much easier to reach the port city."

Thinking to himself, Satoru knew that in this world, maps were rare things that only high-class nobles would have, it would be much better to continue your journey with one in hand, however, helping dark elves who were in poor condition would be an even bigger job, of course, that Hilda wanted to help them, the map was just a bonus.

After everything Satoru told Envy about being better even with difficulties, he would feel like a hypocrite for refusing to help the weaker ones, sighing he agreed.

"What's that in your hand?" Satoru pointed to the clothes Hilda was holding.

"Soldiers' clothes, the elves had almost no clothes, that's what we could do, as for the direction of the elves' city, they know the way, we'll follow them, but it will take at least five days even on horseback, we'll have to hunt and we only have one medicine left the rest was used to clean wounds."

"This is complicated, but you and I can hunt, we cover a pretty big area on our own, food won't be a problem, but we can't risk having someone get hurt, so I'll take the front in case something happens, you help them escape"

Satoru turned the shovel into a greatsword and kept it, Hendrick's grave was already done, so he prayed a little before he left.

The division was very simple, as Satoru didn't need to sleep or eat, he was in charge of guiding the cart while in it, Envy, the children, and women, meanwhile the male elves rode like Hilda.

Wearing Hilda's hood, Envy slept snugly, but seeing that the children seemed to be suffering more from the cold at night, especially with the soldiers' clothes that were too loose for their small bodies, Satoru turned to the dark elves on the horses.

"You hoods now." Satoru pointed to two of them who looked scared and did as they were asked.

Going to the back, the seated elves looked scared, their fear wouldn't go away so easily, the space left in the cart was something well squeezed, of course, Envy was sleeping soundly and didn't even notice she was surrounded.

"Here, cover yourselves with this."

Throwing the married ones over the two children, who look scared at first, now cling to a makeshift blanket, together they bowed in thanks, making Satoru only nod.

“I'm sorry, I don't have any more for the rest of you."

"N-no problem."

Surprised to see a human apologizing for something, one of the elves lowered her head and spoke, as Satoru returned to the front of the cart, murmurs among the dark elves started, some still didn't want to be near a human, but others as soon as they witnessed this scene were more likely to believe that maybe it wasn't such a bad choice. With that, the journey to the city of the dark elves could finally begin.

The sound of birds announced the arrival of the day, the morning frost made those who slept covered and kept warm, did not want to wake up.

But even in her sleep, Envy opened her eyes, seeing that she was still in the cart, she thought that last night had just been a big nightmare, so she didn't even bother to look around her.

Stretching, the young woman thought about getting out of the cart, but as she moved she felt something beside her, turning her face away, she saw that her body lightly bumped into that of a child, with pointed ears and dark skin. Not believing what she was seeing, she wiped her eyes, but the vision continued, there were two dark elf children, looking further around she saw three shrunken women who also seemed to be sleeping.

Not understanding what was happening, she leaned towards the front of the cart looking for a person, Satoru, who was lying in the coachman's part with his hands on his head, he didn't even seem to care about the situation.

“Big Brother.” Not wanting to be loud, Envy whispered.

“Good morning, Envy."

Satoru didn't sleep for a while, but now they needed to stop, it was a good chance to be calm and relaxed.

"What do you mean 'good morning'? There are elves here!" She pulled her brother by the breastplate of his armor. It must have been a natural reaction for her that she slept this part of the trip, Satoru envied Envy in that regard.

"Okay, let go of me, I'll explain everything."

Luckily, Envy always understood things quickly, which facilitates Satoru's explanation, but it was inevitable that she would have a bitter expression on her face, they both agreed on the item held grudges, but now it was too late to give up, especially that Hilda had out to hunt.

Sitting side by side, Satoru looked at the huge pasture they were in now, at least they had managed to get around the woods they came from.

"You know, if you want, you don't need to hang out with them," Satoru said after a while, they couldn't just sit there brooding over the mistakes that happened all day.

"I know, but I want to be better!" Beating herself in the chest, Envy cracked a smile, even if it was forced.

Impressed by the strength of will that the girl in front of him had, Satoru sighed, if he could only think how proud Yurien must be, even with everything going wrong she wanted to continue, this was something very difficult to see in someone so young.

⊛⊛⊛

When all the elves woke up, were hesitant to talk, Satoru by herself preferred not to try to talk, but Envy was resolute, taking the leather bag, she took out a strip of something red, Satoru raised an eyebrow curious about what it was and how she was going to use it.

Accompanying her, he saw something a little curious, as she handed out the red strip, Envy gave a piece to each of the children who at first were afraid, but then ate and their eyes grew wide, then began to chew more forcefully, due to their expression of them, it must have been a very good thing.

"What was it you gave them?"

"Ah! That, well… it was a candy I bought in town…" Surprised by the question, the girl joined her fingers and began to shake them as she turned her head.

"That seems to me to beg… wait, with what money?"

"One silver coin per strip, so I thought one wouldn't be missed, hehe!" The girl walked away from her brother as she laughed and stuck out her tongue like that was funny.

"Aaaah!"

Having been punched in the head, the girl sat in a corner and began to complain and mutter.

"Next time you want something, ask me first instead of leaving taking money without asking" Angrily, Satoru lectures, he will never be able to correct that side of her.

"Okay, but it was just this once, I didn't need to hit so hard," the girl complained about her hands on her head.

"Want me to tell Hilda about your imitations of hers?" Looking smugly, Satoru directly hit his sister's weak spot.

"Eeh, this is blackmail, it's not worth it!"

Watching this whole scene, the children and women were embarrassed watching the siblings fight, they really looked like a family arguing, so some elves couldn't help but laugh awkwardly, it might not be the best situation in the world, but for some Which were why it comforted them, knowing that the humans who accompanied them were not bad people.