A hero who wants to help others wants to live a normal life - Chapter 53

Chapter 53   One Disaster Averted…

While I was still hesitating, the battle continued, and Oda and Toudou were facing off against the large monster. Finally, the situation changed.

“Opening Again— I must repel all evil!”

Whether because speed was the priority or she didn’t have the luxury to recite the full incantation, Kujou used a shortened version of the chant as she drew her bow.

“I’m going in! You two, get back!”

With those words, the arrow of light was released and struck the large monster’s head perfectly, causing it to reel backward and stop moving from the impact.

“Did we get it…?”

Toudou relaxed slightly as she watched the monster stop moving, but… it wasn’t over yet.

“Not yet, Hikari. Don’t let your guard down until the very end.”

Right after Kujou gave that warning, the spot where the arrow of light had pierced began to melt.

Had the enemy started to do something?

That’s what I thought, but it wasn’t the case. The large monster’s head, where the arrow had struck, melted away without any further action, and soon the entire body transformed into a thick, murky liquid.

“What the… is this? Liquid? No, is it slime? But it was so hard just a moment ago.”

“So, should we burn it to finish it off?”

“Yeah. Hikari, can you handle it? Let’s see how it reacts.”

“Got it.”

Though we didn’t know what exactly that melted substance was, we decided to burn it for now. Toudou used her skill to wrap her arms in flames and extended them toward the target. Just then—

“Sakura, watch out!”

“Huh?”

Whether it was a survivor, a new arrival, or something newly born—it didn’t matter. A fresh monster suddenly appeared from the shadows and lunged at Kujou and Toudou.

Rinrin was the first to notice and shouted. Kujou turned around, realizing the danger, but she could only stand frozen, staring at the beast that was leaping right at her.

“Aah—”

Maybe she thought it was all over, or perhaps it was just a reflex, but Kujou let out a small gasp, closed her eyes, and tensed her body.

But this isn’t going to end the way you think. I won’t let it.

“Take this!”

As the monster lunged at Kujou to bite her, I extended a “hand” to intercept its path, using it as a shield for the bite. Once I had stopped its movement, it was easy to handle. With only one monster left, I restrained it with the bitten “hand,” slammed it into the ground, and finished it off by stabbing it with my sword.

That should take care of it. Looking over at Toudou, I saw that Oda had already dealt with the monster heading her way, and there didn’t seem to be any more enemies.

I let out a sigh of relief, but…

“Ouch…”

Rolling up my sleeve to check my arm, I saw a bruise, as if something had bitten me. Well, that’s just how it goes.

There’s always a side effect with blessings. It makes sense—there’s no way you could use such supernatural power without limitations or costs. Skills have side effects too, but since they are weaker than blessings, their side effects are minimal and easy to ignore.

But blessings are different.

In my case, if the “hand” I create with my blessing gets damaged, I feel the same pain. Although I feel the pain, I don’t suffer the actual injury, so no matter how much my “hand” is destroyed or attacked, I won’t get hurt or incapacitated.

However, my brain sometimes gets confused. It thinks, “I felt pain from the attack, so there must be a wound,” and forms a bruise in the attacked area. That’s exactly what happened now. My brain mistook the bite on the “hand” for a real injury and created this bruise.

Even if there were no bruise, the pain from the monster’s bite still affects me, so it hurts just the same. There might be no actual injury, but the pain lingers.

“Hey, Hikari, are you okay?”

“Ah, yeah. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be protecting Sakura? Why are you here instead?”

Toudou, who had been saved by Oda, quickly snapped back to her senses and pushed Oda away, pointing toward Kujou rather than me.

Honestly, she’s right. Since Oda is her fiancé, he should be protecting her first. But instead, he prioritized her best friend… It’s clear he doesn’t really care about Kujou at all.

And yet, he’s glaring at me for saving Kujou and defeating the monster, which is just ridiculous. If he’s going to act like this, he should’ve helped her in the first place.

“Thank you, Sahara-san.”

Kujou approached me, offering her thanks. I smiled through the pain, sheathing my sword as I replied.

“Glad I made it in time. You’re not hurt, right?”

“No, I’m fine… Wait, what about your arm…?”

“Huh? Oh, this? Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.”

I swung my arm lightly as if it were nothing, trying to reassure her, but Kujou wasn’t convinced. She furrowed her brows and continued to look at my arm with concern.

…Wait, I messed up. I rolled up my sleeve to check my arm, but I forgot to pull it back down.

Even though I told her I was fine, seeing my injury must’ve made her feel worse. Embarrassed, I scratched my head and looked away. Seeing my reaction, Kujou looked even more apologetic.

“I’m so sorry. If only I could use a healing blessing… no, if I had handled that attack earlier, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt…”

“What are you talking about? We’re a team, it’s natural to help each other. Besides, this kind of injury is pretty common when fighting monsters.”

“But still…”

“My arm’s not broken or anything. It’s just a minor side effect of my skill. It’s just a bit of pain, nothing worth worrying about.”

Even after all that, Kujou still looked apologetic, which threw me off a bit.

I really didn’t want her to worry, but it was clear that just telling her not to wouldn’t change her mind. What should I say in times like this? Maybe… this?

“Instead of saying sorry over and over, it’d mean more to me if you just smiled and said thanks. That way, I’d feel like helping was worth it.”

It’s a lot better to hear “thank you” with a smile than “sorry” with a sad face. Even though I didn’t ask for this blessing, if there’s a point to having it, it’s to make someone I’ve helped happy.

“You’re right, but… don’t you think you’re sounding a bit too cool and smug?” Toudou chimed in.

“That’s not true… right?” I asked, suddenly doubting myself. Maybe Toudou was right, and what I said did come off as a bit too pretentious.

“Sahara-san, thank you again,” Kujou said with a slightly brighter expression than before.

Yeah, that’s better. I’d love it if she could smile even more. A world where everyone smiles would be an amazing place.

“Uh, hey… I hate to interrupt this ‘nice moment,’ but could you, uh, maybe take a look around?” Rinrin, sounding more serious than usual, broke in.

What could she mean by “nice moment”? I wasn’t sure, but her unusually serious tone caught my attention, and I followed her suggestion to check our surroundings. Then I saw it…

“Monsters…!”

“Why are there so many of them?”

Dozens—no, hundreds, maybe even thousands of monsters surrounded us, all focused on us as their target.

I understand that monsters appear here—this is that kind of place—but isn’t this number way too much?

“It’s likely that this is simply the timing for the monsters to spawn,” Moriya said.

But there’s no way I could accept that explanation. Even if it was the time for them to appear, how could they suddenly show up all at once, and without anyone noticing? It doesn’t make sense. There might even be more of them now than there were across the entire ruined city. Clearly, something abnormal is happening. In short, this is a crisis.

“Seriously? We just dealt with a huge one a minute ago!” Toudou exclaimed.

“It’s possible that since we defeated the large one right after it appeared, the power that had been used to sustain it dispersed and manifested into smaller monsters around us,” Kujou suggested.

“Who cares about the reason! Right now, we just need to take these things down!” Oda shouted.

Exactly. Why they’re here doesn’t matter at the moment. All we need to do is figure out how to handle this situation.

But should I use my blessing? Earlier, it seemed like we might be able to handle things without it, and in the end, we managed. But this is different. With this many enemies, it’s clear that just the people here won’t be enough.

Oda and Toudou are holding the front line, but the results aren’t great. Everyone is just barely managing to hold their ground.

Luckily, the monsters aren’t particularly strong. Probably because there are so many, each one is weaker than the ones we fought before. That’s the only reason we’re still hanging on, but with these overwhelming numbers, it’s only a matter of time before they overwhelm us.