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Just as we were getting used to the peaceful everyday, it suddenly happened.

While waiting for Milly-san… or Miriam-san, to be precise, to finish her work, we were killing time by heading into the forest to gather medicinal herbs needed in town. That’s when we were suddenly attacked by small creatures that shouldn’t have appeared in this region *when this was a game*.

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“Sorry, one’s gone your way!”
“Rage, fall back! You’re sticking out too far!!”
“But I’ve got to take out that archer in the back!!”
“Even so, please fall back for a moment. The ‘Protection’ effect is about to wear off—get back!!”
“…Tch!”

……Some time had passed since the battle began with that surprise attack. A “certain weakness” we possessed was throwing everything off balance. As these unpleasant feelings piled up, our sense of urgency grew.

They came in a group, green-skinned, about the size of a human child, with wrinkled faces and long noses… yes, the goblins so familiar from fantasy stories.

While they’re often portrayed as low-tier mobs in games, facing them like this, I realized they were incredibly troublesome foes. They possessed genuine intelligence, coordinating with one another to cover each other’s weaknesses, and adapting their tactics to the situation by leveraging their numerical advantage. But even so…

As luck would have it, we’d ended up deep in the woods, so Rage-san’s greatsword couldn’t perform to its full potential. When facing small, agile targets, his ability to attack with sweeping slashes was severely limited, and he often found himself forced to rely on precise thrusts—a situation that seemed to be giving him quite a hard time.

Sol-niisama was more agile, but even so, in this area surrounded by obstacles, he had to keep his guard up in every direction. Since he couldn’t afford to stray from me, who appeared to be their main target, he was struggling to mount an effective offense. He dealt with the few that carelessly approached immediately, but that put them on alert, and their tactics shifted to crude bows and arrows and slingshots. Even so, he was gradually whittling down their numbers by hitting any opponents who showed an opening with chains or lightning strikes, but he hadn’t quite managed to overcome the numerical disadvantage.

“Iris, above you!”

At Rage-san’s shout, I instinctively raised my hand upward and cast “Solid Ray” at random. Immediately afterward, accompanied by a tingling vibration in my hand, the force field intercepted a goblin’s club that had come down from above—likely from a tree. One goblin was knocked back but tried to quickly put distance between us… but.

“I won’t let you get away!”

Its foot was caught by Sol-niisama’s “Chain Bind,” which wrapped around it instantly, and it was slammed into the ground. As the goblin was immobilized by the impact, Sol-niisama immediately tried to follow up with another attack, but…

“……Ugh!”

For a split second, the tip of his sword wavered.

……It was happening again. Ever since a little while ago, it had been obvious that both Rage-san and Sol-niisama were lacking their usual sharpness. In that split second when they froze in hesitation, I saw another goblin dragging the fallen one away to retrieve it.

“Kh, ‘Divine Spear’!!”

The two spears I fired pierced their backs, and the two goblins collapsed. Immediately, Rage-san tried to deliver the finishing blow to the fallen enemy, but just before he did, the tip of his sword lost its edge and was deflected by another goblin that intervened… It was happening again.

“Nii-sama, Rage-san, we’re retreating! Protect your eyes!”

As long as we couldn’t reduce the enemy’s numbers, the longer this dragged on, the more disadvantaged we’d be. “Wide Protection” had finished its cooldown and I still had time to cast it, but it’d be too late once it was too late. With that said, trusting that the two of them would handle the situation properly, I began my incantation. After completing it in about two seconds, I unleashed it with all my might.

“‘Punishment Light’!!”

In an instant, a blinding flash filled the surrounding space. Leaving the goblins frozen in place by the sudden light, I—along with the two men carrying me—withdrew from the front lines.

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“A horde of goblins, you say?”

Upon returning to town, we immediately reported what had just happened to the mayor.

“Yes… there were quite a few of them, and since we weren’t fully prepared, we had to retreat.”

I gave a halting account of the events… Sol-niisama and Rage-san seemed to be still reeling from our earlier blunder and stood there looking lost. By process of elimination, I ended up being the one to give the report.

“…If they actively attacked people, does that suggest there’s a fairly large horde out there?”

The mayor rested his hand on his chin, furrowed his brow, and looked troubled. That’s right—these goblins are generally docile and timid, and they almost never attack people in small numbers. However, when a sufficient number gathers, they become ferocious and pose a major threat to the residents. They steal food, abduct women—their cruelty becomes truly terrifying.

“Indeed, that is a grave situation… but. Ah, I’m sorry—let me clarify right away: I’m not forcing you to go out and exterminate them. It’s precisely because I know your capabilities that I’ll take the liberty of saying this, but wouldn’t you have been able to handle it even under those circumstances?”

At those words, the two looked away, seeming a bit awkward.
…Yes, even if it were a surprise attack, even if they had the advantage of terrain, even if they vastly outnumbered us—to be honest, something like that shouldn’t have posed a threat to both Sol-niisama and Rage-san. But, as you could see, we had taken advantage of a moment’s opening and fled back here.

“…Well, I’m sure you have your reasons, and I trust you didn’t have any ulterior motives. I’ll discuss this with the merchant caravan’s guards as well, so if you’re willing, could I ask for your cooperation again at a later date?”
“Well, yes, of course… that’s okay, right?”
“Ah… it’s fine. We’ll do it properly next time.”
“I have no objections… I’m sorry.”
“No, no… I, too, was judging you solely by your combat ability and forgot that you’re still young. I’m sorry.”

…So, he saw right through us after all.

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The reason for our struggle this time… boiled down to nothing other than a “reluctance to kill.”
In the game, when an attack landed, a “blood effect” would appear, and depending on the attack, a “limb-severing effect” would occur, sometimes sending limbs flying off in all directions. But that was merely a visual effect.
This world is different. When you die, you don’t simply vanish into thin air; when you slash an opponent, real blood flows, severed limbs scatter around you, clouded eyes that have lost their light stare at you with accusation and torment, and the aftermath of the melee is a blood-soaked scene filled with the stench of blood and fat.

Up until now, their main task had apparently been exterminating vermin, so there probably wasn’t much resistance. But as modern kids who’d been living in peaceful Japan, it’s only natural that they’d be unaccustomed to such things… This time, however, our opponent was a demihuman, a goblin, with a build similar to that of a human child, and that’s when our shortcomings were laid bare.

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Still under the illusion that the stench of blood was clinging to us, unable to be washed away, we forced food down our throats despite our lack of appetite and took longer baths than usual. Then, without a word, we each returned to our rooms. Sleep was slow to come, but as we gazed blankly into space, our consciousness gradually faded, and we drifted off to sleep—……

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……It was pure chance that I noticed the sound. I was awakened by the sound of a key being inserted into the lock—a sound that had been carefully muffled—and the click as the door opened. Someone was opening my door just a crack and slipping inside, muffling their footsteps. I couldn’t imagine Madam Miranda, who manages the keys, would give a spare to a strange person, so if that was the case, it must be a thief—or perhaps someone she wouldn’t mind letting in……

“…Sol-niisama?”

At that question, the intruder’s body jerked and stiffened. …No, that’s not right.

“…Ayame, it’s you, isn’t it?”
“…!”

His—Her face, illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window, contorted as if she were about to burst into tears. Come to think of it, ever since she was little, whenever something upsetting happened, she would come crawling into my 私 …no, my 僕 bed. That stopped after Ayame started high school, though…

“Fufu. We haven’t slept together in a while, come in?”

I lifted the edge of the comforter and urged her, and she approached, looking as if she were doing so with trepidation.

“…Sorry, but just this once.”
“You don’t have to be so shy… Here, come on in.”

She slid into the space I’d made by moving over to the side of the bed—a warm body that had now completely overtaken mine in size.

Even though we were in bed, neither of us said a word. Time passed as I simply felt the warmth of her back, nostalgically recalling the soft, fluffy feel of Sol-niisama’s feathers—a sensation I’d long since lost.

“…Did you have a nightmare?”

Lying back-to-back, I could feel her shudder through the contact of our backs.

“…I’m not that much of a kid.”

I gave a wry smile at her sulky tone. Ayame handles everything with ease, but for some reason, she isn’t very good at lying. I turned my body around and urged her—gently, so she’d hear me, yet with firm resolve—to face me. Eventually, as if giving up, she reluctantly turned to face me.

“Why don’t you talk to me? I’ve shrunk down quite a bit, but I can still lend you my chest like I used to, right?”

At those words, tears slowly welled up in ‘Sol’s’ handsome face. I gently pulled her into my embrace.

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…Silence hung in the air for a while. As I waited there, feeling the warmth gradually soak into the chest of my shirt and sensing the heat of his breath against my stomach, he eventually began to speak, sparingly, as if he’d given up.

“……I killed people. A lot of people. Right after I came to this world.”

As I suspected, what they began to talk about was that time… when I had been captured. I hadn’t been conscious at the time, but I’d heard what had happened.

“The thought that you were in danger made me lose my temper. Before I knew it, I couldn’t stop. A lot of them had already fallen, unable to fight back, there were even those who ran away and turned their backs on me. And yet…

—I didn’t realize it. No, maybe I had a vague inkling. But somewhere deep down, did I think it was just a problem between the two of them, something they had to work through on their own, and treat it as someone else’s business?

“And yet, even after I killed so many people, I can’t kill goblins just because they look human… It’s ridiculous, isn’t it…!?”

――I’m the only one among us who hasn’t stained these hands. In a situation like this… what kind of words of comfort could I possibly offer? Hollow platitudes slid through my mind, vanishing before they could even pass through my throat and reach my lips. Except for this one phrase, the only one that didn’t fade away.

“Even so… even so, because you two fought for me, we were able to meet again. Thank you, Ayame.”

—That’s the one thing I don’t want them to deny. Because I’m here now, thanks to the two of them helping and protecting me.

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After that, there were no more words. In the moonlight, only a faint, restrained sob escaped her, so all I could do was hold her head and gently stroke her hair until she fell asleep.

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……I want to become strong. Not necessarily strong enough to defeat enemies, but strong enough to support someone.

Gazing blankly at the moonlight streaming through the window, such thoughts filled my mind.