Kouko.

*7 years later*

An ocean of monster corpses going as far as the eye can see. lightning hits ever so often in the background while raindrops are heard over the bodies of monsters. In the middle stands a single person, a person with an armor piece covering their right arm from the tips of their fingers to the top of their shoulder holds a sword covered with monster blood. After she had done sheathing her sword she moves through the ocean of monster corpses that she had just freshly cut down herself until reaching the end. A small brick wall with someone sitting with their back to it. She moves towards octan as he does not react at all.

She pulls up one of his hands then slowly puts him on her carries him as if carrying a bag. He has not even moved a muscle or reacted to her. After walking for a while they find a little cabin that She enters with octan on her back, as soon as she enters she starts barricading all possible ways someone can normally enter from windows to doors. After that, she makes a little fire and starts cooking food while being careful not to burn the little wooden cabin. Once she was done cooking she eats for herself first then feeds octan by hand who is also yet to give a reaction to anything. her face has not changed throughout the whole thing she had gotten used to whatever she's doing. Once the rain had calmed down she decided it would be better to get some sleep, she left octan straight while she laid down to sleep. (what am I even doing) she thinks to herself as she stares at the ceiling while lying down.

now lets go back 7 years. back when they had just left the town after a week had passed. After leaving the town the 3 did what they always did, roam around aimlessly, but something was different this time. Octan was a lot more responsive and emotional, he would hold full conversations with both of them and even state his opinion on stuff even when not needed, he would even sometimes thank Lena or praise her. After a year's passing both kouko and Lena were completely taken by surprise at octan's suggestion. "let's live here." octan said. "in this small little peaceful village, it's perfect, a little village in the middle of almost nowhere with a welcoming community, how about it?" octan asked. "but help here would be difficult you know, if a raid would hit this place help from the kingdom that rules over it would be very difficult since the capital is quite far." said kouko. "pfft, don't worry about it if anything happens I would be more than enough" said octan with a confident grin while flexing one arm.

They debated it for about an hour and finally decided to live there. octan asked around the village and everyone welcomed them with open arms. octan used his wealth to build a 2 story house which they lived in for about a year. octan would spend his days mostly drinking alongside other male adults who lived there, he had become known as the handyman of the village if you needed anything just ask him for help, and he's more than happy to help. kouko did have a couple of friends but she would mostly spend her days at home reading, but she would either visit or get visited by neighbors from time to time. since there wasn't anyone who was close to Lena's age she would spend most of her time with kids running around and playing, After spending a year just lazing around and having fun Lena's body had completely lost its previous semi muscular build from all the lifting she did on a daily basis, and now looks like a normal 19year old, well her tall build does still look out of place.

After spending a year and change there. One day Lena was lying when her door was knocked. it was kouko holding 2 cups of juice with a smile, Lena welcomes her in and closes the door. kouko goes to sit at the edge of the bed and hands Lena one of the cups. "so how much are you liking how life is right now?" asks kouko. "it's very fun! every day is fun playing with the kids trying out games I never got to as a child!" said Lena joyfully. kouko smiles at Lena's joyful reaction and takes a sip from her drink which Lena goes to do the same. "Lena I would like to continue a story I once told you. the one about my purpose" said kouko while looking at Lena which Lena just nods to. "you see after the whole attack happened and my entire village got massacred by monsters. I thought there was someone obvious to hate. The kingdom. they didn't warn us at all and from the looks of it after the attack, they had known all about it. immediately after the monsters had left a party of adventurers came in and searched for survivors, only survivor being me. the reason i survived was because of my parents' sacrifice. they had pushed me down the basements door and then covered the door with both of their bodies my little brother was already gone by then so he wasn't with me. after getting pushed down I fell down the stairs and lost consciousness so I couldn't even see or hear their last moments when I woke up the adventurers had already gotten into the basement and treated my leg injury from falling when I walked out I saw my hometown in shambles people who I knew and talked to every day dead on the side of the road blood covering the street and ofc my parents' bodies next to the basements entry. I didn't even look for my brother afraid of what I might see so I just went with the adventurers to the camp they had set up. while sitting on a chair one of the adventurers gave me I started contemplating. who should I hate? who should I blame? the kingdom? the adventurers? myself? who did this to me? to us? and why? and while thinking that I overheard 2 adventurers talking near me (why the fuck weren't we dispatched sooner?! we could have at least saved a couple of lives!!! what is the reason for this?!) the other adventurer said to him (I'm not very sure of this, but I think I know why. I heard some rumors going around that this town was going to be used as some kind of test for someone.) I wanted to go and immediately start questioning him but I realized that would only make him stop talking so I just focused on my hearing even more (apparently someone who is strong enough to have protected this village alone was here and this was supposed to be all for him. the reason we weren't sent is that this was supposed to be all protected by him, I don't know why exactly they wanted him to protect it alone but that's what I heard.) the other adventurer said (well whoever he is he did a very shit job and is probably dead why would they even believe he could do this?)

the other adventurer said (no you dumbass. apparently, the man just walked out of here when the raid happened. even though he was strong enough to protect the whole village, he decided it wasn't worth his efforts and left without a care in the world.) with an obviously angry tone, the other adventurer started screaming (WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! THAT MAN GAVE UP ON A WHOLE VILLAGE BECAUSE HE DECIDE THEY ARE NOT WORTH HIS TIME? IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!) the other adventurer tried to calm him down (shhhhhhhhhhhh i said I'm not 100% sure of my information) but then the other adventurer quickly asked the most important question (well do you at least have a name???) and then he said it. the name of the person who is the reason I continue to live, the person I decided to blame for all of this

(Octan.)