Inside the village, the villagers were putting up a fight, but with only a handful of hunters and retired adventurers, they could barely mount any effective resistance against the monsters pouring endlessly from the forest.
Their weapons looked pitifully inadequate, and every swing seemed like a last-ditch struggle.
In the misty rain, the screams of the villagers mixed together, echoing over the village. Ash frowned and shot down like an arrow without a second thought.
The closest to him was a couple running away with their daughter.
The couple's faces were filled with terror. The husband had dropped his longbow and drawn his shortsword, his hand was trembling, but he still tried his best to shield his wife and daughter behind him, shouting hoarsely, "Laurie! Take Sarah and go!"
"I... I!", Laurie, his wife, was already pale with fear. She held her young daughter Sarah tightly against her body, tears of terror in her eyes, her lips quivering uncontrollably.
But thinking of her daughter's safety, she steeled herself.
Though she couldn't say a word, she used all her strength to drag the unwilling daughter away toward the distance.
The mother and daughter's eyes were filled with fearful tears. Sarah's face was deathly pale from fright, her whole body seemed to have lost its soul. She numbly kept looking back at her father about to be surrounded by monsters, while letting her mother drag her forward.
That small figure looked so helpless in this chaotic scene.
The two-headed wolf at the front was incredibly fast. It caught up to them in an instant and bit off the father's arm, making Sarah watch as her father's blood sprayed out and stained the ground red.
The mother, in the next moment, was scratched on the back by a giant bat diving from the sky. Its sharp claws nearly pierced through her back, and she screamed in pain, nearly fainting.
But for her daughter's sake, she used her last bit of strength to shove Sarah forward, shouting something, though the sound was quickly swallowed by the surrounding noise.
Sarah, pushed to the ground, scraped her knees hard against the dirt. But at that moment, she seemed to feel no pain, couldn't even catch her breath.
In that chaotic and desperate situation, the only thing she could understand was the anxious and desperate look in her mother's eyes, telling her to run away.
Though she desperately wanted to stay, even her father in the distance was shouting for her to flee. Her mind, already filled with terror, went blank, and she instinctively obeyed her parents' words, scrambling to her hands and feet.
That pathetic figure, crawling and scrambling in desperate flight through the rain, and yet all she could do was cry out helplessly in her heart, praying to God to save them.
Just as two of the three family members were about to die, a blurry figure, as if answering her silent plea, came racing from afar, moving so fast his form was barely visible.
Then, an unseen blade-light, following the figure's movements, cut sharp arcs through the air.
The two monsters attacking the family were slashed down in an instant, dropping dead without even a chance to scream.
In that moment, as if the world had frozen, Sarah forgot to run, forgot to breathe, staring dazedly at the dazzling blade-light in this gloomy rainy day, and at the figure that paused briefly.
The incessant screams that had filled her ears quickly turned into the death cries of monsters in the moments that followed.
She didn't know how long it had been. Sarah slowly came to as if waking from a nightmare. When she came back to her senses, the village nearby had quieted down considerably, leaving only the low sobbing of the wounded.
That sound, in this silent rain, seemed especially sorrowful.
But after a little while, even the wounded's sobbing faded away, and a man in a grey cloak walked toward them.
Only then did Sarah snap back to reality. She had been crying with her one-armed father, holding her dying mother tightly.
Overwhelmed with grief and despair, she couldn't help but resent this man, whose outfit clearly marked him as a noble.
No particular reason, she just blamed him for not coming sooner.
If he had come earlier, her mother wouldn't be dying, and her father wouldn't have lost his arm.
The more she thought about it, the more unacceptable it seemed, and her tear-filled eyes glared unconsciously at Ash.
Yet, under her tearful glare, Ash simply walked up to them and slowly reached out his hand.
A gentle glow appeared in his palm, and in an instant, her father's severed arm grew back at a visible speed.
And her mother, who had barely been clinging to life, had her wounds healed completely under the light's gentle touch. Her pale face gradually regained color, and her breathing steadied.
This unbelievable scene, like a miracle, made Sarah lose herself again. She stared blankly at everything, her mouth slightly open, unable to snap out of it for a long while.
Still, she unconsciously looked up at the "noble" walking toward her, not knowing how to react.
Should she apologize for her misplaced anger? Or thank him first? In this moment of being suddenly saved from despair, she no longer understood anything.
———
In recent days, the rampage of monsters had thrown this land into chaos.
During this time, Ash had saved countless people and villages, doing quite a bit of good in these troubled times.
The situation in Fittoa territory was relatively better. Though Sauros had the deplorable preferences of a beastman and big-breast enthusiast, and had adult relations with many of the young maids in the house, those were all consensual.
After all, in this era, being favored by the lord, even if he was an old man, the maids were more than happy about it.
And Sauros usually took good care of his people in daily life. In the face of this disaster, he would also dispatch soldiers and knights to protect villages and eliminate monsters.
The situation in other territories wasn't as promising, especially under this territory's lord... who basically couldn't be bothered and left the villagers to fend for themselves.
So when faced with the rather negative look in the eyes of this girl, who seemed about Eris's age, Ash could more or less understand.
After all, when people are about to lose their parents, they tend to lash out irrationally, especially children.
Of course, normally, if he saw that look from someone, he'd probably ignore them. But thinking that this might somehow be related to him, he sighed softly and crouched down, his gaze softening as he quietly looked at the tearful blonde girl and asked gently:
"Are you... okay?"
"I-I'm sorry!", Sarah's head was a mess, and she didn't know what to say, so she just bowed her head deeply in apology.
"Don't worry about it. At least I don't," He just smiled, reached out, gently took Sarah's hand, and cast healing magic again.
A gentle light passed over her, and her still-bleeding hands and feet recovered in the blink of an eye.
The pain was gone, and she unconsciously stared at Ash in a daze.
The hunter, who had been thanking him repeatedly, also couldn't help but size him up, but found no noble crest on him. He couldn't help asking, "Um, excuse me... are you... one of Lord Pilemon's knights?"
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