A fierce fight. The fight against the Orc King could be called as such.
After the battle, Alex now recuperating with his sister Gracier decided to wait for others to come, in the meantime, Alex decided to check his sister's status, he was greatly surprised when he saw how much she had leveled up.
『[Gracier Alexandra Touch]
「 Rank 4」
Class: Fire Empress
Age: 14
Female
Race: High Half-Elf
Level 33
Experience Value: 50/6600
Magic Power: 1305 (+25) ✒ 1330
Magic: Fire Magic
Attack: 320 (+25) ✒ 345
Defense: 235 (+25) ✒ 260
Agility: 235 (+25) ✒ 260
Intelligence: 225 (+25) ✒ 250
Luck: 235 (+25) ✒ 260
BP: 50
SP: 10
Gift: Ignia's Bracelet
Skills: [Cooking Level 4] [Sewing Level 3] [Fireball Level 5] [Fire Arrows Level 4] [Meteor (???)] [Fire Snake Level 4] [Fire Shield Level 4] [Presence Detection Level 5] [Chantless Magic Level 5] [Fire Lotus Level 5]
Special Ability: [Dragon Eye Level 3]
Titles: [Avenger] [Child of Fire] [The Awakened] [The Diligent]』
'Not bad, leveling up five times, she's now Rank 4, however starting from Rank 4, the amount of XP needed to level up to the next level double, Normally it should have been 3300 XP but it doubled. I wonder why?' Alex wondered.
〖It's simply because otherwise, it will be easy to level up and soar to the top.〗Silveria explained.
'I see, it does make sense.' Alex said.
''Big brother, what's up?" Gracier asked after she saw her brother seemed lost in thought.
''Oh? Nothing, I was lost in thought. Congrats, you are now Rank 4. Too bad, Big brother is a step ahead, now I'm Rank 5, you need to work harder to catch up.'' Alex said teasing his sister.
Pouting Gracier proclaimed, ''Don't worry I'll catch up to you soon.''
''Let's wait and see,'' Alex said with the corner of his mouth curved into a smile.
''No, it's already ended. How unfortunate.''
A voice abruptly interrupted Alex and Gracier's conversation. When Alex turned his gaze to the voice, he saw Eleonora accompanied by Sebastian, Lucien, Golfak, and Meera, she was pouting as she had missed a great show, the others could only helplessly shake their heads, instead of congratulating Alex for ending the fight so quickly, she was complaining as she didn't witness the battle.
Truth be told they were also a little bit disappointed to have only come when the fight ended, they would have liked to watch their leader fight against the powerful Orc King and participate.
Talking about the Orc King, even when dead he continues to show the dignity befitting a king as he refused to fall into the ground, even with half of his face missing, he was half-kneeling onto the ground, his body exuded a king's aura even when dead, Golfak was feeling a little bit intimidated by the tall figure half-kneeling.
''Good work leader how are you feeling?"
Sebastian was the first to raise a question as they approached Alex and Gracier who was leaning against a half-destroyed house.
''Welcome back all of you. I'm fine. How are you guys? Did you manage to finish all the runaways monsters?"
To Alex's question, Eleonora smiled proudly,
''Who do you take us for? It was a piece of cake with this Big sister leading them. We quickly eliminated every one of the fleeing monsters and run back here asap in hope of assisting you. Who would have thought you'd finish the fight without waiting for us, it's not fair, we should have fought this interest-, I mean tough fight together.'' She said complaining.
'You were planning to say interesting instead of a tough fight isn't it?' thought most of them.
Rubbing his forehead as he was feeling a headache coming due to Eleonora's behavior, Alex decided to switch the subject, not focusing on Eleonora who seemed like someone who had suffered injustice, which injustice? Alex didn't even want to know.
''Let quickly clean the battlefield and leave this place, I'm exhausted mentally.''
The others except Eleonora nodded their heads, as for Eleonora she pouted when she saw Alex not playing her game. She was disappointed not to have participated in what she judged to have been an exciting fight, she would have liked to partake in that exciting fight filled with thrill, something she sought, she was like Alex, a battle junkie with the difference that she knew what she is, while Alex did not know this side of him.
Alex with the help of his sister stood up and went in front of Krelos' corpse and stored it inside his Item box.
After finishing Alex and Gracier went to help others collect monster materials, Gracier would store high species' corpses into space ring while Alex would store magic stones inside his Item box.
One hour later, they finished collecting all monster materials and High species' corpses.
Alex saw his sister, Gracier staring blankly into space, sighing he motioned to others to follow after him as they leave Gracier alone in the center of the almost destroyed village.
After leaving the central area, Lucien couldn't contain his current anymore, hence he raised a question, a question which was in everyone's minds.
''Leader, why Gracier seemed affected by this village's fate? I have noticed her unusual behavior back then as we were nearing this village and now the pained looks on her face, indicate that they must be a story behind her behavior. So, what is her relationship with the Gato's village?"
Sighing as though, he was expecting this question the moment he ordered them to let Gracier alone. They are not blind to not see Gracier's behavior. Alex decided to feed them an explanation, an altered true.
''You know, Gracier and I didn't come here together. Truth be told I left home hastily not informing anyone and when she learned that I've left, she hastily followed me, but due to lack of food and drinks something she has forgotten when she left home, Gracier falls unconscious due to hunger and because she just finished fighting against a beast, she was also injured. Coincidentally, she happened to fall not too far from Gato's village, one of the maidens in the village rescued her and feed her, treat her injuries, they quickly became friends as Gracier stayed in the village for more than a week. After completely recovering, Gracier left promising to come to visit once she found her Big brother.''
Taking a mouthful of breath, Alex continued,
''However, as she left the village, at the same night, tragedy befalls the village, everybody was killed, she later learns what happened. She blamed herself and now that she avenged the villagers, she needs few minutes to say goodbye to the still wandering souls of the villagers, I know you understand what she's doing.''
Sebastian and the others except for Eleonora understood Gracier's behavior. As for Eleonora she was staring intensely at Alex as if to tell 'I don't buy all your crap, tell me the true story', the latter chuckled not paying Eleonora any heed, whether she believes in him or not doesn't matter.
''Let's wait here for her to show up,'' Alex announced as he sat near a normal house not destroyed.
Other's followed shortly after Alex sat down.
.....
Back to Gracier's location.
She was blankly staring into space as she was recalling some wonderful memories, memories of her life in this village. There were some sad memories but there were also lots of happy memories, even when they were poor, she still likes that simple lifestyle.
However, now everything disappeared.
Finally unable to hold it any longer, she started crying, after crying for few minutes her eyes become resolute. Observing the now wrecked village she declared,
''I Gracier now Gracier Alexandra Touch is grateful for the sacrifice you all made that day, it's because of this sacrifice that I'm still alive, it's because of this sacrifice I encountered the man who is now my brother, I'm a member of his family, I, now have a family who cherishes me. Thank you all, may your souls rest in peace after seeing this little tribute I paid in your honor, do not worry I'll become stronger enough to protect does dears to me, never again I would let those dears to me die as I flew. I promise to live my life well, a life you'll be proud of as you will be hearing my name. Take care.''
She bowed and then smiled as she felt a burden being lifted off her shoulder, she felt lighter, she felt something changing inside her, hastily calling her status window out, she was surprised to see her MP increasing by 100 additional points. She was happy with this increase, letting out a chuckle she stared into no particular direction as she mumbled,
''Thank you.''
And for a moment she even had the impression that the dead villagers were smiling at her as they finally left this world for the other world, the world of the deads.
Shaking her head at how absurd her thinking is, Gracier joined the others as they finally left the village and went back to their former camping zone.
It was already past 3 AM when they went back, they were all exhausted, therefore they didn't waste their time as they entered their tent to sleep, surprisingly Conrad offered to be on the lookout until the next morning, Alex and the others gratefully accepted.
That night, Gracier slept well, not experiencing anymore nightmares.