"GET UP ALREADY!"
"Wha… what's happening…"
Ren found himself sprawled on the ground, the thin blanket thrown half across the room. The mattress was about to fall off the frame.
Knock, knock
"Who's there…"
"It's me, Rose."
Ren practically sprang up when he heard Rose was there. He rushed to tidy up the room as much as he could.
"DON'T COME IN… please."
Ken snickered in the back. Ren continued to run around the room, and all that could be heard were his hurried steps and the crashing of various items. It almost sounded like a break-in… a clumsy one at that.
Rose was a simple person; she did not care for such things as the room being dirty, considering they were still strangers, albeit one could say they were acquaintances.
As Ren finished, he hurriedly opened the door, not wanting to keep Rose waiting for too long. As he did, he tried to control his breath so as to not look tired.
"What's the point of acting if it's obvious that you're tired? Of course, an average person wouldn't be, because they would have average strength. That's ten times more than you, weakling."
Ren threw a glance at Ken before looking back at Rose, his expression filled with surprise.
"Hey…"
"Why are you covered in blood, Rose…"
"…"
"I went hunting before coming here."
"Ahh… I see. So did you need something, or… did you just come to see me."
"Daniel told me to pick you up."
She started walking away toward the town hall, the blood on the scarf dripping down slowly, causing Ren to shiver.
'Why does she even need to hunt? She can live peacefully doing mundane jobs instead of putting her life in danger.'
"Maybe it's because she's not a coward like you, and maybe because of her background."
'Background? You mean her family?'
"Can't say for sure, but people like her don't fight because they want to or really need to. It's rather because they simply do. She clearly doesn't need the money, nor is her life in danger because the guards would be able to deal with it, so it's only one thing—she feels like she needs to."
'Isn't that the same as needing to?'
"Idiot. To need to do something means she needs to do it to live, and she doesn't gain joy from killing—well, at least I see it that way—so it's one thing: the monsters took something from her that she can never gain back."
'Ohh… ohh.'
"Idiot."
Ren's face grimaced, not from the insult but from the new knowledge.
'Agh, I should have known. What family would allow their daughter to put her life at risk?'
'I wonder how it feels like…'
Ken halted in his flight, unnoticed by Ren. Ken's face grimaced more than even Ren's.
In a small whisper, quiet enough so no one could hear, he said,
"you really don't want to know."
Eventually, they reached the town hall. Daniel was already standing outside with a grimace on his face.
"Sir Daniel, is something wrong."
"Ren, you must leave at once. The monsters have been rampaging near the village too frequently; it's unsafe for you to stay any longer."
"But…"
"Look here, you're too young to give up your life for something as trivial, and from what I heard from Rose, you were too weak to even handle a Rank 9."
'Rank 9?'
"So I'm telling you to go, run away. The guards from the capital will try to rally up all the working men. Normally this would be a good thing for a noble, but with what I heard from my source… there is no noble with the surname Jacklen. As such, you would be treated as a commoner and be forced to fight for the village."
Rose started to walk away after completing her task, but Daniel stopped her.
"Ren, take her too."
They both looked at Daniel with surprise.
"What do you mean take me, I'm staying here defending the village"
Rose turned back toward Daniel, her brows slightly furrowed as if she had just heard something unreasonable, and her posture straightened with quiet resistance. "You're telling me to leave with him, even though you know exactly what's happening around the village, and you expect me to just walk away from it without doing anything."
Daniel's expression tightened, but he didn't immediately respond, as if weighing his words more carefully than before. "This isn't about what you want to do, and it isn't about proving anything to anyone. The situation has already gone beyond what this village can handle, and staying here will only make things worse for you."
Rose took a step forward, her gaze unwavering, clearly not convinced by his reasoning. "You say that as if leaving suddenly fixes everything, but all it does is shift the burden onto the people who don't have the option to run. If anything, that makes it worse, not better."
Ren stood there silently, his eyes shifting between the two, unsure whether he should even be part of this conversation. He could feel that whatever was being said carried more weight than he fully understood.
Daniel let out a slow breath, his eyes narrowing slightly before he spoke again, this time with more emphasis. "You are not just some villager who can make reckless decisions without consequences, and you know that better than anyone. Whether you like it or not, the name you carry has responsibilities tied to it that you cannot simply ignore."
Rose's expression changed slightly, though she tried to keep it hidden, and her voice lowered just a bit. "Then don't say it, because bringing that up here doesn't change what I'm choosing to do. It only proves that you're trying to use it against me instead of actually understanding why I'm staying."
Daniel's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before he finally spoke again, his tone more controlled but heavier than before. "I'm not saying it to control you, and I'm not saying it lightly either. The name Valencrest is not something that allows you to throw your life away in a place like this, especially not when the situation is escalating beyond control."
Ren's eyes flickered at the name, but he stayed quiet, sensing that this wasn't something he should interrupt. The tension between them made it clear that this was something deeper than just the village.
Rose looked away for a brief moment before turning back, her voice steady again but carrying more emotion beneath it. "Then stop pretending like leaving is the only option, because it isn't, and you know it isn't. If I walk away now, then everything I've been doing here would mean nothing, and I'm not going to accept that."
Daniel didn't respond immediately, and for a moment it seemed like he might argue further, but instead he looked away, his expression darkening slightly. "Then you've already made your choice, and there's nothing more I can say to change it, even if I disagree with it completely."
Ren swallowed, feeling the weight of the moment settle in, as if whatever decision was made here would affect more than just the present. He didn't fully understand everything, but he could tell this wasn't something simple.