"Fate has allowed you to live, so you must live."
Those were the words that he said to back then, and without even caring that I was a Monster, he treated my injury.
There were many tis when I wished that he had just killed and taken my Beast Core. The war that happened that night haunted to the present day, always making wonder why I lived when my entire colony perished.
The first thing I did the day after I recovered was to scavenge the battlefield, looking for Beast Cores to eat.
My Natural Instinct urged to rummage through the countless dead, looking for the cores that would allow to beco stronger. Although tens of thousands of corpses were all over the place, I was only able to get over a hundred cores in total.
Whenever we killed a monster, the first thing we target is our opponent's Beast Core, so we can eat it.
Perhaps, the appearance of the Anteater forced the Ants to stop their feeding frenzy and make a hasty retreat back to their nest, to warn their Queen that their mortal enemy had arrived.
So, I ate what cores were left and increased my Rank from Rank 3 to Rank 4.
Drystan didn't say anything back then and simply observed from a distance. Since he was my savior, I didn't attack him--was what I'd like to say.
I knew that if I did attack him, the one who would end up dying was .
The man who saved was an Initiate, and if he wished, he could have killed anyti he wanted.
But he wanted to live, and so I did.
"Your Colony is gone," Drystan said after I finished eating all the cores that I could find on the battlefield. "How about you co with and follow on my adventures?"
As a Soldier Termite, the only thing I knew how to do was to fight, so I agreed to his proposal.
He made his Beast Companion, and he gave a new purpose in life. Everything was fine and we both increased our Ranks exponentially during our travels.
I beca a Deimos-Ranked Monster, while he beca a Ranker. Unfortunately, during one of our adventures, Drystan was heavily poisoned by a Poisonous Tree Frog. This poison didn't have a cure, and he had only been able to suppress it for a short ti because he was a Ranker.
Even so, as the years passed, the poison's effects gradually spread inside his body, making his Rank Degrade from Ranker, to Initiate, to Apostle.
His once powerful body slowly weakened, but even in that state, he didn't feel down.
Drystan returned to his town and beca a Mayor, using the remaining years of his life to make Abingdon Town the center of comrce.
For my part, I did my best to protect the town he had built from the shadows and eliminated anything that could pose a threat to it.
I also made Isoptera Mountain my ho.
It was far enough from Abingdon Town so that people wouldn't be threatened by my existence, but near enough to lend my aid if my dear friend needed it.
Drystan would visit from ti to ti every ti he wasn't busy with work and would stay with for a few days to make sure that I was doing well.
He was the only man I truly cared for, and perhaps, I even treated him as a mber of my own Colony.
The Humans call this term Family, and I'm sure that deep in his heart, Drystan also thought of that way.
But, just like how our nest was destroyed, the inevitable happened. My friend succumbed to the poison's effect and died, leaving and his beloved town behind.
Perhaps, knowing that his ti was near, he visited one last ti.
Back then, I didn't know how he was feeling because he was laughing and smiling despite the pain, and called the Unsung Hero of Abingdon Town.
The term Hero was new to , so I asked him what a Hero was.
"Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary," Drystan answered. "A Hero is soone who has given his or her life to sothing bigger than oneself."
"But I'm a termite," I replied back then. "I'm not Human like you."
"Termite, Ants, Monsters, Humans, Dwarves, Elves? What's the difference? Anyone can be a Hero."
"Can I really be a Hero too?"
"Yes. You can be a Hero too."
That was the last ti I saw my friend, and I only knew he died because his contract with disappeared on the day of his death.
Since then, I stayed on Isoptera Mountain, waiting for the day when I would be reunited with him in the afterlife.
On the day Drystan died, I didn't only lose my one and only friend and family mber, but also my reason for living.
He was the one that saved and gave aning to my life. Without him, the hole that had been covered up in my heart opened once again, making feel that life was no longer worth living.
The days were long, and the nights were cold. There were tis when I contemplated whether I should just kill myself to end my suffering.
But whenever this thought passed through my head, the words he told when we first t would resonate inside my heart, forcing to cancel my thoughts of self-harm.
"Fate has allowed you to live, so you must live."
I sighed as I looked at the setting sun in the distance.
"It seems like Fate must really hate then," I said softly. "How long do I have to wait until the end of my suffering?"
After the Half-Elf and the Dragon Born left, I reminisced on the happy days of my life, just as I always did every day.
My recollection would always end with the last ti my friend visited . The fleeting warmth and happiness that I would feel after that kept the thoughts of killing myself at bay, at least until the sun rose the next day.
"Since you are no longer here, I stopped repelling the monsters that have started to thrive in the Shaufell Plains," I said as I looked at the burning sun in the distance, which reminded of the happy days that would no longer return.
"An Abingdon Town without you will never be the sa. I might be vain, selfish, and ungrateful, but since you left all alone, I decided to abandon the town that you have built as well.
"I'm sorry, Drystan. I guess not anyone can be a Hero like you said. I am no Hero. I am just the last survivor of a Colony that has long been buried by the sands of ti, never to return again and will only linger as faint traces in my mory."
I survived alone, and I will die alone. That was what I had already decided.
Although this ending was not the one I envisioned when I beca your Beast Companion, the years that I spent with you were still the happiest years of my life.
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