Devouring the Hero's Family

Chapter 17: Meanwhile, The Hero’s Party

Rose, the Elf Archer of the Hero’s Party.

She was grimacing and bandaging her arm.

“Ah, this is so annoying.”

How could her carefully maintained, fair, and beautiful skin be like this?

In the end, she ended up with a small scratch wound on her arm.

It was an injury she got from a monster during their dungeon raid.

It had been a precarious hunt, fraught with uncertainties.

The condition of the team members, the state of the dungeon, and even the teamwork.

Everything from one to ten was a complete mess.

It was all too clear, especially for Rose, who was at the very back of the party.

“… It’s all Tina’s damn fault.”

Now, without a magician or a scout.

They had no choice but to go into the dungeon unprepared.

Still, they thought it would be fine.

Weren’t they the Hero’s Party, who had faced much higher-level dungeons and even the Demon King’s army?

“I never thought we’d fall for such a basic trap and get surrounded by monsters.”

But a party without a magician couldn’t spot the traps and monsters in time.

In the end, they had to face the swarming monsters head-on.

“Aaah! What are you doing! The monsters are here!”

“There are too many; we can’t hold them off just by ourselves…”

“What are you doing? Try to do something! Do you think we can last without healing?!”

Claire was the most important healer and priestess in the party.

Leon, the hero and vanguard, rushed to protect her.

And because of the gap he left, monsters surged towards Rose.

Claire, who had clung to Leon and pressed against his chest, seemed to smile slightly at that moment.

“Damn it…”

Just thinking about that scene still made her grind her teeth.

But she couldn’t get angry at Leon, so her resentment was directed towards Claire and Tina.

After all, it was a fact that they could have prevented it if they had handled the situation properly.

“There was never such an incident in the past.”

Back when ‘the magician’ was part of the party, it was unimaginable for monsters to get close to Rose.

The hunts were much more comfortable, and the magician always handled emergencies well.

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But this time, she got injured right from the first battle.

Considering it wasn’t a difficult dungeon like one with a Demon King’s officer, this outcome was even more serious.

Anyone could see that the absence of the magician was a critical issue.

She couldn’t voice it out due to her pride.

“Sigh.”

After finishing the bandaging, she looked aside.

There was Tina, wiping the blood off her face.

The sight of her shaking off her wet fur was annoyingly irritating.

“Hey, damn cat.”

She impulsively called out to Tina.

She needed another target to relieve her stress without a magician to gossip with.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

Her sharp, barbed words were directed at Tina.

Tina finally turned her head, sensing the hostility.

“What.”

Although her face was full of annoyance.

“What, what?! Is that the attitude you show me in this situation?”

“What did I do now?”

Seeing her sullen expression, Rose’s anger flared up.

Originally, Tina was known for her milder temperament in the Hero’s Party.

Unlike Claire, who was always fighting, Rose had relatively fewer conflicts with Tina.

But Tina had changed.

She became more irritable, and her expressions openly showed her annoyance.

For Rose, with her strong pride, this change was something she couldn’t just overlook.

Even the saintly Claire was annoying, but Rose wasn’t broad-minded enough to tolerate being ignored by someone like Tina.

“Isn’t it a warrior’s duty to guard the rear? If you failed that and caused a comrade to get hurt, shouldn’t you at least apologize?”

“Hah, what are you talking about?”

Tina shrugged with disbelief.

“Do you think we’re here to play house? Did you expect not to get hurt fighting monsters? You should be able to handle that much.”

“So, you’re saying this is my fault?”

“You’re an elf, aren’t you? Can’t the ‘noble of the forest’ even dodge?”

Rose wanted to retort but couldn’t find the words.

In truth, she hadn’t even thought to dodge.

Panicked, her legs had frozen, unable to move.

“Damn it, I used to be able to do that…”

There was no need to run when she was with that magician.

She just had to shoot monsters from her position, and everything was taken care of.

She had forgotten even the obvious task of dodging monsters.

But she couldn’t admit that.

“Until now, monsters couldn’t even touch me!”

“That was when the magician was here!”

Tina spat out in disgust.

“Already lacking information and preparation, we rushed into this dungeon! And we’re even without a magician. I held the front line to death, and that’s all you have to say?”

“What defense? The warrior was so incompetent that I almost died because of it.”

“Hah, died? From just that scratch? And you think you’re the only one hurt?”

Rose noticed Tina’s abdomen. Her clothes lifted to reveal bandages.

Her wound was far more severe than Rose’s mere scratch.

“I almost died when monsters rushed in? I fought them head-on! Leon, who should’ve been fighting beside me, ran off worrying about you guys! The one who’s worse off isn’t you. It’s me!”

Tina’s suppressed frustration burst out.

Her pained voice and face showed how unjust and overwhelmed she felt.

Any normal person would have backed down out of conscience by now.

But Rose was an elf, the embodiment of pride.

“Hmph, you brought it upon yourself.”

“…….What?”

“You’re the one who brought that dungeon quest, aren’t you? It’s a quest with poor cost-effectiveness, and you should take responsibility for the danger.”

Tina was dumbfounded by this absurd logic.

Tina had personally gone to the guild to get the quest because both Rose and Claire were whining about not wanting to go to the smelly guild.

Both were naive about the world, living only in the church and forest.

If not for Tina, the outcome could only have been worse, not better.

And now they were blaming her?

“I risked injury to protect them?”

“Hah.”

She felt foolish for swinging her sword to protect these ungrateful people.

“I should have just died back then.”

“…….Enough. I have nothing to talk about with someone like you.”

Tina, dismissing Rose as unworthy of her attention, turned away with a shake of her head.

Needless to say, this attitude infuriated Rose even more.

“You disrespectful wretch!”

Unable to hold back, Rose reached out to grab Tina’s hair.

She felt like she wouldn’t be satisfied unless she pulled her hair.

At that moment, Tina’s eyes flashed.

-Kwoong!

“Ugh…!”

Tina grabbed Rose’s wrist and threw her to the ground.

“…… Don’t you dare touch my ears again. Not unless you want to die.”

“Damn it, you beast. You want to try me?”

Gritting her teeth, Rose got up, enveloped by a spirit.

Her power, enough to kill a person, surged towards her fellow party member.

Tina, in response, drew the sword she had set aside.

“What are you doing!”

The voice trying to stop the two, who were ready to kill each other, belonged to Leon, the sole male leader of the Hero’s Party.

Both turned their heads with aggrieved expressions, without any regard for who was first.

But the sight they beheld deflated their anger.

“……..”

“……..”

Beside Leon, the rival priestess Claire clung to his arm with a shy face.

Her cheeks were flushed red, and she licked her pink lips with a lustful expression.

Both knew well what kind of reaction this indicated.

‘……..Is she blushing in this situation?’

No, it was more likely that the ‘whore-saint’ had made the first move.

Probably seduced him with a ‘thank you for saving me’.

Though it was a mess for the party leader to receive such ‘services’, that was another matter.

‘We were just managing the aftermath of our fight…’

Their fight was about shifting blame, but it wasn’t without its feedback.

But how should they take the fact that their party leader was off playing with a woman during this time?

‘There’s nothing I can even say about this…’

Regrettably, there was no one left to call out Leon.

Given their circumstances, neither of them was in a position to do so.

With no one to speak up, Leon seemed to lose his principles even more lately.

“Whatever the issue, we should solve it with words. We’re comrades, after all.”

“Right~ Let’s get along and not fight~”

Seeing the two so oblivious and uttering such words, neither Rose nor Tina felt like fighting anymore.

‘……This really sucks.’

Rose trembled with rage as she stared at Claire clinging to Leon.

The scene of Leon abandoning her to save that damned woman kept flashing in her mind.

Thus, the rift within the Hero’s Party gradually widened.