“Big brother?”
A boy’s head poked out cautiously from behind the door.
Dona glanced at him, but the pen in his hand didn’t stop.
“Come in, Argo.”
The boy smiled shyly, shuffling over to the man’s side.
“Big brother, you’re working again.”
“Mm.”
Dona gave a vague grunt from his nose. “If I don’t work, how am I supposed to support you two brats?”
“Hehe…”
The boy scratched his head awkwardly.
He looked around, pulled over a chair from nearby, and sat quietly beside the man.
For a time, the room was filled only with the slow breathing of the man and boy, and the scratch scratch of the pen tip rubbing against paper.
“Big brother.”
It was unclear how much time had passed before the boy spoke up.
“Are… are Mia and I causing you trouble?”
He lowered his head.
“Ever since we came to the city, Mia and I have been using your money…”
The pen tip paused slightly.
“What nonsense are you thinking now?” The man frowned, but his voice remained calm.
“Didn’t I tell you already? I’m your big brother. From the day I brought you two out of the village, it’s my duty to take care of you.”
He turned his gaze to the boy.
Under the faint candlelight, the boy’s long hair hung over his forehead, obscuring his eyes, so Dona couldn’t see his expression clearly.
“Did Mia say something to you again?”
“No, no!” The boy lifted his head, waving his hands in panic.
“I just saw the light in the room staying on until midnight so often, and I got a bit worried about your health…”
As he spoke, his voice trailed off.
“Big brother, bearing the burden of three people’s lives alone must be really hard. Mia and I… we’ve always wanted to help share some of the pressure…”
The man rubbed the pen shaft and sighed softly.
“Argo, if you want to live steadily in this city, it’s not just brute strength you need. Without brains, we’ll end up no different from those guys in the slums. That’s why I told you and Mia to focus on studying—at least get familiar with the common language first, then talk about helping.”
The boy lowered his head again, burying it even deeper than before.
Dona reached out and patted his shoulder. Though the force was light, it made the boy’s body tremble violently.
“Don’t overthink it. Go back and rest. If the sky falls, big brother will hold it up for you.”
The boy gave a low murmur of agreement, stood up from the chair, and walked toward the door.
Dona watched his back, ultimately just shaking his head.
The candle flame flickered uneasily.
After a brief silence, the scratch scratch of friction resumed in the room.
“Argo and Mia went out?” Dona frowned, looking at the plump woman.
“Yeah, those two brats sneaked out early in the morning. I have no idea what they’re up to.” The woman sat behind the counter, flipping through a book, responding casually.
“They’re unfamiliar with the place—if they run into any danger…”
Dona rubbed his forehead. “No, I have to go look for them.”
“Dona, I don’t care what you’re going to do.”
Just as the man was about to step out the door, the woman spoke flatly. “But don’t forget this month’s rent.”
The man took a deep breath.
“Of course I remember.”
Leaving behind a toneless reply, Dona hurried out the door.
He had thought he’d have to search the vast Hilos City for a while.
But finding those two brats turned out to be unexpectedly easy.
Dona had only gone out and turned a corner, not walking far, when he saw the two boys chatting and laughing.
The two boys spotted him too and waved happily.
“Big brother!”
“You two—” Dona ran up to them, catching his breath. “What were you doing running out so early in the morning?”
“We…”
Argo seemed hesitant. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
“We became adventurers!”
Mia jumped in from the side. The young lad with messy hair spoke excitedly.
“Big brother! You know what Mia and I saw? A who~le crowd of people, carrying all sorts of things! Knives, swords, bows…”
He counted them off meticulously, his young face full of excitement.
“We saw stuff like that in the village too, but these look way more impressive than the junk we had before! And also, and also…”
“Mia!”
Argo, seeing the man’s face growing increasingly grim, quickly tugged at the overly enthusiastic boy.
“What’s up, Argo? Don’t interrupt me—I’m getting to the good part! Hm? Big brother, why do you look so scary?”
“Argo, Mia.” Storm clouds seemed to brew in the man’s low voice. “Come home with me.”
Realizing something was wrong, the two boys exchanged a glance and swallowed hard together.
“So, you two brats ran off to become adventurers just to make money?”
Dona held a broom, looking at the two boys sitting opposite him, rubbing their butts.
“Y-yes.” Argo kept his head down, speaking softly.
“What’s wrong with being adventurers…” Mia muttered discontentedly.
“They say that adventurers with some skill can earn dozens of silver coins a month, even a gold coin! Isn’t that way better than your copying job, big brother?”
Dona ignored the dissatisfaction in the boy’s tone; he was more focused on something else.
“Who are ‘they’?” He asked gravely.
“Just some adventurer seniors. They showed Mia and me around the Adventurers’ Guild a bit.” Argo pulled a silver badge from his pocket. “The money for this was advanced by one of them too.”
At the mention of money, Dona’s expression changed immediately.
“How much!”
Argo jumped but answered honestly. “F-five silver coins. One badge each, ten silver coins total.”
Dona breathed a sigh of relief.
Good, it was still within what he could handle.
“Next time you do something like this, remember to discuss it with your big brother first.”
“You two got lucky this time.” He rubbed his brow. “Next time, if you run into someone with bad intentions, it’ll be trouble.”
Having lectured them, he didn’t plan to criticize the two brats further—after all, their intentions were good.
“Also, until you two come of age, you’re not allowed to go be adventurers again.”
Argo’s mouth fell open.
“Why!”
The more hot-tempered Mia jumped up, but the pain in his butt made him yelp and sit back down.
But he still glared at Dona with a face full of resentment.
“Being an adventurer makes good money! As long as we have money, Argo and I can, can help you, big brother—”
“But have you thought about the dangers?” The man interrupted the boy, the chill in his voice making him shudder.
“Mia, you said you saw all sorts of weapons, right?”
The boy turned his face away.
“Fine, then do you know what those weapons are for?” The man continued.
“H-hunting?” Argo answered hesitantly.
“What kind of hunting earns a gold coin a month?” Dona countered. “Are their prey made of silver coins?”
“Uh—”
Argo looked at Mia, but Mia just looked blank.
The man sighed.
“Listen up, Argo, Mia.” His expression grew serious.
“For people like us who came from the village, there’s no easy job in this world that pays well. Every copper coin comes with equal risk. If this adventurer job can bring in a gold coin, that means it comes with a gold coin’s worth of risk.”
“What risk?” Mia couldn’t help asking.
The man tossed down the broom and turned to look out the window at the bright sky.
“Death.” He said softly.
In the end, Dona couldn’t change the two young lads’ desire to venture out into the world.
Perhaps out of softness, or maybe because their household really was short on money, Dona finally agreed to let the two boys try being adventurers.
But he also set conditions.
“Remember, you two can’t take any jobs that involve facing enemies, whether humans or beasts—got it?”
He instructed the two boys. “And your daily language lessons can’t slack off; that’s the most important.”
Seeing the two boys nod seriously, he felt a bit relieved.
But one thing still bothered him greatly.
That was the man the boys mentioned, who had advanced the badge fees and served as their “recommender”—Morales.
There was no such thing as kindness without reason in this world; a stranger’s goodwill was more likely born of greed than a truly kind heart.
Dona knew this well.
So he decided to personally check out this adventurer named “Morales” and see what he wanted with Argo and Mia.
To understand a person, don’t listen to what he says—look at what he does, and how those around him judge him.
This was one of the lessons Dona had learned in his years in Hilos City.
So he registered as an adventurer himself.
It was only five silver coins; for those two brats’ safety, it was completely worth it.
And like those two brats, he chose Morales as his so-called “recommender.”
This was a guy who really valued money.
After hearing the pink-haired young girl explain some rules, Dona immediately judged Morales’s character.
Ten percent of the earnings from each quest, for half a year.
This must be the real reason the level-three adventurer who called himself [Mad Axe] Morales had taken an interest in those two brats.
But this outcome actually made Dona breathe a sigh of relief.
He understood that since the other party valued the ongoing value Argo and Mia could bring, he wouldn’t destroy that source of income himself—and might even protect them.
Moreover, after observing the guy for a while, though he was greedy, he didn’t have any particularly vile habits.
As long as the two idiot brats didn’t take on any high-difficulty quests, they shouldn’t face any danger in the next half year.
If nothing unexpected happened.
But the unexpected did happen.
Three months after Argo and Mia became adventurers, one evening, Dona waited at home but the two boys never returned.
“Why aren’t they back yet?”
Feeling a slight unease, Dona grabbed a knife and decided to go out and look for those two rascals.
Then, at the entrance of the Adventurers’ Guild, he encountered [Mad Axe] Morales, covered in blood.
“Those two brats?” The burly man raised an eyebrow. “Dead.”
No anger, no sorrow—just indifferent calm, as if what had died weren’t two living people, but insignificant flies.
A suffocating fear and disbelief instantly enveloped Dona’s beating heart.
In that moment, it felt like the surrounding darkness had come alive, surging toward him all at once.
“D-dead?” His body swayed, his voice trembling as he asked. “How… how did they die?”
“I killed them.”
As the man said this, he hefted the great axe on his back, a smile actually appearing on his face. “With this axe—I split those two idiots into pieces.”
“Ah… ah…”
“You… they…”
“How… how… could…”
What came from Dona’s mouth could no longer be called coherent speech—just a jumble of gasps and nasal growls, like a beast on the verge of eruption.
He jerked his head up, staring at the man’s receding back, slowly, slowly drawing the knife from behind.
“You bastard…”
“You give me…”
“Die!”
It wasn’t until later that Dona learned the greedy man had killed the two boys, full of hope for the future, just for a gold coin he’d picked up.
“Hey, hey! Damn drunk, wake up! This isn’t a place for you to sleep over!”
Dona clutched his forehead, slowly lifting himself from the table.
Standing before him was the furious tavern owner.
“If you don’t scram, I’ll call someone to throw you out!”
Dona dragged his feet out of the tavern.
The door slammed shut behind him with a bang. He stared blankly at the quiet starry sky, slowly squatting down.
After a long while, his alcohol-numbed brain finally remembered that the burly man—his enemy Morales—had already died at his hands and those of a young man named Nord.
And the final, fatal blow had been delivered by him personally.
“Heh.”
The man chuckled lowly.
He still remembered hacking that bastard’s corpse countless times, dragging it to kneel before Argo and Mia’s graves all night, then hauling it to the city gate and tossing it there like a dead dog by the roadside, for the whole city to see.
“Ha… what a fitting death for you!”
“Haha!”
“Hahaha!”
The low laughter gradually grew louder, then fell silent moments later.
Did this make him feel better?
Dona didn’t know.
But it was the only thing he could do for those two boys now.
Dona thought again of that young outsider kid whose strength he couldn’t gauge.
If Argo and Mia had had strength like his back then, they probably wouldn’t have fallen to that man’s axe.
But there were no ifs in life.
The dead were gone; the living had to keep moving forward.
Dona sat in silence, raising an invisible cup to the bright moon in the sky, toasting from afar.
Argo, Mia.
Your worthless big brother.
Wishes you a safe journey.