Chapter 14: Aftermath

After the battle with the Goblin King, I passed out for three full days. I had used every single point of MP in my body, which made me go into a coma.

Thankfully, Jackson was experienced enough to know that MP fatigue was a thing and that all I needed was a nice bed to rest.

I woke up in my bed, in the house that I had built in the village for me and my familiars, and was greeted by Vespera and Yoru, who were sitting next to me.

I supposed that Vespera let Jackson know I was awake because just a few moments later, he arrived at my place.

Jackson told me about the aftermath of the battle. The remaining goblins that survived ran back to their cave hideout while the demon spiders followed them.

From what he told me, Yoru went into the cave first and cleaned the entire place.

Vespera also found two surviving girls in the cave in terrible conditions who seemed to be the girls they used to create the Goblin Champions.

She healed them with my potions and carried them to the village, but apparently, they hadn't said a single word ever since they got saved.

I was on my way to meet both of the survivors since I had something in mind that could help them, but I got stopped midway by Luke, who came over to thank me for killing the Goblin King. Of course, he was accompanied by the same shadow dog as last time.

"Big brother Ichiro! Are you feeling good now?"

I nodded. "Mhmm, I'm feeling great! How's this little guy doing? Is he protecting you?"

"Yes! Pochi is the best! I love him!"

'Pfftt, ahahaha, Pochi!? The mighty shadow dog, Pochi…' I thought as I held my laughter. "Wait…"

"You named him?" I asked.

"Y-yeah… Is that bad?" said Luke, looking down. He must have thought I was upset or something. I used Inspect on both Luke and Pochi.

<Name: Luke

Age: 8

Skills: Shadow Control

MP: 500

Titles: Friend of the Shadow Dogs>

<Shadow Dog

Name: Pochi

Familiar Contract: Luke

Age: 1 year

Skills: Shadow Weaving

MP: 1500>

Just as I thought. Luke ended up making a familiar contract with the shadow dog.

They had already accepted each other a long time ago. It was only a matter of time for Luke to name it and make it official.

I explained to him that now that Pochi was his familiar, they both needed to take care of each other.

He seemed to like my reaction because his eyes were shining with excitement. However, there was one more thing I noticed in Luke's inspect window.

His skill was called "Shadow Control" When I focused on it, it said this:

'Hmm, that's pretty vague… What can you do by controlling your shadow, anyways?'

I did tell Luke about his newly obtained skill, but he seemed confused about it. He mostly just wanted to play with Pochi, so I let him be while I made my way to the two survivors who were being kept at the clinic.

The clinic was a building that Vespera made while I was unconscious. She told me she constructed it right after the battle. Thankfully, not many people had to use it yet.

When I arrived, I saw the two women who seemed to be in their 20s, sitting down on their beds, with eyes devoid of any emotion or life.

They didn't look at me when I entered the room. It was like they could only see what was in front of them. Even then, they had no reactions.

'Poor girls… they have been completely broken… It's like their spirits left their bodies…'

I extended both my hands and placed them on both of the girl's heads. Still, no reaction.

"Let's do this… I can't mess this up!" I thought as I focused magical power into my hands. "Memory Deletion…" I muttered.

"Memory Deletion" was a spell I had created myself, just like with the gravity spell I used against the Goblin King.

I made it specifically for these types of situations where someone's life could be saved by simply removing their most awful memories.

It was an extremely hard spell to cast. It pretty much drained all of my MP, although, to be fair, I was casting two at the same time.

When I finally linked with their minds, I was able to see through their memories of what they went through.

Now, I had seen some messed up shit in my past life. Having the internet made it almost common to just stumble across a video of a random person dying somewhere.

Of course, those videos were perturbing. But these memories I was witnessing… Those were, without a doubt, the absolute worst thing anyone could ever lay their eyes upon.

After I selected all of those painful and disgusting memories, I deleted them.

Now, all they were going to think is that they were captured by the goblins, got beaten up a little until they were unconscious, and then got rescued by the adventurers.

It sounded like it wasn't much better, but trust me, those memories were a hundred times better than what I saw.

As soon as I finished my spell, both girls passed out. Jackson, who was behind me watching everything unfold, helped me put the girls back in their beds, and we left to let them rest.

"Hey Jackson… Did I do the right thing?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking… Did I do the right thing, you know… deleting those girls' memories?"

"Ahh, I think I get what you mean…"

"Messing with someone's memories is dangerous… But when I saw what they went through… there was no way those girls would be able to live a normal life after that… With my spell, they have a chance, you know? Maybe I'm just trying to justify it…"

Jackson stopped me by grabbing my shoulder and then giving me a gentle pat.

"Don't fret about it, kid. I thought about it too, but y'know what? If something like that happened to me, I would absolutely want that memory erased from existence. Besides, we can give those girls a good life in this village now… So, if it makes you feel any better… I do think you did the right thing."

I truly needed to hear that. I had a strange sense of guilt after robbing those two girls of their memories, but having someone I respected say they believed I did the right thing made me feel much more at peace with my decision.

As Jackson and I walked around the village, the people would stop to thank me and give me gifts, like bread and fruit baskets. Everyone seemed genuinely happy.

'Such a difference from when I first got here…' I thought, and I couldn't help but smile.

A bit later, I got stopped by a group of adventurers who fought with us against the goblins. Between them was Karla, the former royal knight turned adventurer.

They were leaving the village and wanted to thank me, but truthfully, I was the one thanking them too. If it wasn't for that brave group of adventurers that went to help a dying village for basically no money, I didn't think I would have been able to save all of the villagers.

"Well, now that the village is safe… Time to think of new projects to build, hehehe" I said while rubbing my hands like a villain.

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