It Looks Like I Got Reincarnated in Another World

Side Story 35 - A Certain Adventurer's Story

My name is Neil. I’m an adventurer.

I left my village at the age of 13 and registered with the adventurer’s guild in Harula towards the east of the village. At that time, my sister Collie and her best friend Tess came together with me.

Somehow, they were worried about leaving me alone. I told them not to treat me like a child, but they completely ignored me.
　
Sure, when I first started out, I was tricked and ended up losing all my money, but at that time there wasn’t any lasting damage, so it wasn’t a big deal.

…Well, it was also true that I wasn’t good at talking, or good with negotiating, and that Collie had saved me multiple times when it came to those situations.
　
However, there were also many times when arguments would arise because of her.
　
And during those times, Tess wasn’t all that helpful either… I knew I should’ve gone at it alone, I thought of these numerous times.

During my two years as an adventurer, I took on many jobs and traveled to the eastern capital city several times. I also met Beck during those times and we ended up forming a party together.
　
Beck was two years older than me and was already a C-rank adventurer when I first met him.

At that time when we first met, I was still just an E-rank so I wasn’t really a great match for him, but strangely enough we somehow managed to click and we ended up forming a party. And now he was one of my closest friends.

And so I continued working hard, and just recently I was promoted to D rank. The D rank me was different from before. I was no longer someone who would be a burden to Beck.

I had gone back to the village once in commemoration of the rank-up. I wanted to report the news to my father and mother, and to show them how much I’ve grown. I invited Beck to come with me, but he said he would stay and wait for me back in town, since he didn’t want to intrude upon my visit back home. I was a bit disappointed but it couldn’t be helped.

During the past two years, Tess also became my lover. So my return back home was also to officially announce this.

But when I came back, the village was in a terrible state. There was a disease spreading around. And many people seemed to have died from it.
　
Furthermore, my mother had also fallen ill. She had been bedridden for days. My older brother who was planning to take over as the head of the household was also sick, and my father was in a very exhausted state.
　
Due to the situation being like that, it wasn’t the place to introduce Tess. Rather, Tess has also been contracted by the illness and this is no longer the time for that.

The medicine in the village was out of stock, so to begin with, it was impossible to buy anymore.
　
I only had a few recovery potions on hand, but I couldn’t afford not to use them. I gave Tess one to drink, and I gave what I had left to my mother and older brother. But it wasn’t very effective.

Although it was my first time back to the village in a while, due to everyone being sick, I didn’t really know what I came back for. Due to our care, my big brother was starting to recover, but Tess’ condition wasn’t improving at all and my mother’s conditions appeared to be worsening.

Then one day, my little sister disappeared.
　
Some of the villagers told us that they saw her going into the forest, but everyone was too exhausted to go looking for her, and we weren’t able to go too deep into the forest.

During the past half a year so so, monsters stopped appearing in the deeper parts of the forest. Someone said that she might have thought it would be safe to go looking for medicinal herbs by herself due to that.
　
But even so, she was still only a six-year old child. She wouldn’t be able to survive by herself out there.