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We had reached the road home.

Of course, not everyone took the same route. But we all walked towards our homelands.

 

We ogres lived in six separate villages.

 

There were exchanges between the villages, and we weren’t on bad terms.

As for the village I was from, it was simply referred to as ‘past the river.’

 

It didn’t have a name. Just ‘past the river.’

Compared to the other five villages, it wasn’t the most convenient place to live. And there were not a lot of ogres living there.

Just about two hundred.

 

I was leading a group of ogres from the same village as we returned.

 

“Welcome back, Golan. I knew you would make it.”

“Yes. I doubted he would be able to help himself. It looks like I was right?”

 

“You two…”

 

Saifo and Beka had come out to greet me. They were sibling ogres.

And they were twenty-one and nineteen respectively. Which made him four and her two years older than me.

 

“I see. Yes, your mana has increased.”

“It really has. Maybe it’s just a little below mine now? How funny!”

 

“You’re a Commander now, but have less mana than us. Quite impressive, Golan. You never cease to keep us entertained.”

 

“Is that all you have to say to me upon my return? You two idiots.”

 

I had known them ever since I was a child. 

As their family had several other older brothers, they had not been sent to the battlefield.

 

However, these siblings had some of the highest mana in the whole village.

 

They loved to fight. It was practically an obsession. And I had been forced to fight them a number of…well, hundreds of times.

 

Even when they lost, they would want a rematch immediately. To be frank, they were incredibly annoying.

 

“Still, I’m surprised that you had it in you to even come out here and greet us.”

 

“What do you mean, Golan? What a hurtful thing to say.”

“Yeah. We couldn’t wait to have you back!”

 

“Hmm… I have a bad feeling about this.”

These meathead siblings were not very tolerant of me at all.

 

While it sounded like we were having a friendly conversation now, when I was younger, the relationship was strictly of the kill or be killed sort.

 

“Well, you aren’t exactly wrong.”

 

“Wait a minute, loser. What did you just say?”

“Oh, we were told to talk about it when no one is around.”

 

“You… Who told you that?”

I had a terrible feeling about this.

 

“Uhh, that information is included?”

“…Fine. Let’s go.”

 

I took the loser siblings to a corner of the village square.

The others that were with me had all gone off to their own families. So it was just us that was there.

 

“…So? What did you do?”

“You don’t have to say it like that. I didn’t do anything!”

“And you, Beka?”

“Not me. But you have a guest, Commander.”

 

“A guest?”

What did that mean?

And why was I hearing this from them of all people?

 

I looked back and forth between the loser siblings. But their expressions revealed nothing.

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