In a certain village, somewhere in the west part of the continent.
"Dad, are we gonna be alright?" a little girl asks her father, as she and her entire family lock themselves in their home.
"Of course we are. We finally got a hero to come to our village. We just need to wait for him, and you can finally play again with your friends after he kills all those goblins."
Her father answered, patting her head to ease her worries.
A month ago, the village kids were attacked by a group of goblins. At first, the adults tried to take care of this matter on their own.
When they tried to kill those goblins, one of the five men was killed while the others were badly hurt.
Compared to the number the children saw, the number the adults faced was twice that of the said number.
Being a village that lives off what they grow in the farmlands and gather in the forest every year, they didn't have enough money to properly make requests in the Adventurer Guild.
Forcing themselves to make a goblin subjugation quest with a number of only five, saying three were armed while two were naked, when there were more than ten of them.
This wasn't the only thing that worried the father of the little girl. He expected a low-rank group of adventurers to take on the quest they made, but never a hero.
Although the man who came was a hero, this man was only an F-rank one with no combat-type abilities at all.
And when this hero appeared this morning, the goblins sent out a war horn, indicating they were going to attack the village.
Since then, all the houses locked their doors and windows and had been staying inside their homes, keeping themselves in the dark and silencing even the tiniest noise they could make.
'Please kill just half of those goblins, even if it meant dying together with them.' The father thought, holding his wife and daughter.
---
Outside the village, a man stood before the dead corpses of green-figured beings that had been cut and sliced.
Blood spilled on the ground, organs leaving their bodies, and dilated pupils with no sign of change.
In his hand was a tiny chopping knife and dagger set, having taken them from the goblins.
"Fuck!" the hero cursed, having to fight against fifteen enemies in the last couple of hours, and a moment ago, seven of them at the same time.
"The quest paper said there's only three armored goblins," he said, taking something from the tiny bag at his waist.
Popping out the cork of it, he drank the pinkish-red liquid in it.
Even though he was angry about this matter, he knew getting mad wouldn't do anything at all.
In the end, the only thing he could do was bend over and slice the goblins' ears as proof for the guild.
"Please have one," he said, slowly cutting the chest area of the goblins wearing armor among them.
Moving his hand inside the goblin body, he felt something from it.
"Lucky!" he yelled out, a small green shard in his hand.
Wiping off the blood and cleaning his hand, he took the weapons that could be used and three armors he could sell and finally set out.
"Except these, nothing else can be sold," he said, gathering the goblins in one place and activating a scroll with magic on it that created a pit hole with a depth of six meters.
"Just need to light these up and I can go back," he said, taking out a paper and lighting it up with his fingers.
The sun was already about to set after he killed the last seven goblins.
And having to run far to kill the goblins in their cave, it would be nighttime the moment he returned to the village.
---
Back in the village.
The village chief, seeing smoke far from their position, realized the hero had managed to win and was about to come back.
Seeing this, he left his house and yelled out to the other houses to prepare to greet him.
…..
Hours into the night, the village celebrated the victory of the hero, now having no need to worry about being attacked randomly at night.
Bringing out the liquor they had been saving, meat stock they planned to use in the winter, music, dancing, and singing rang out to the sky as the villagers finally let loose.
Outside the gate of the village, the father of the little girl and the chief waited for the hero to come.
Although they didn't expect anything from him when he came this morning, they knew welcoming him with open arms was the best thing they could do at this moment.
After a bit more waiting, a figure approached the lights coming from the fire. Seeing this, the two moved closer, smiles on their faces.
Having heard a war horn suddenly sound when he came this morning, the two didn't properly see him entirely, and only now they could.
Looking at him, they found a man standing around 5'9 to 5'10, with red eyes showing he was summoned in the Church of Fire, wearing simple leather armor that covered his chest, legs, and arms.
His skin color was brown, with a slender body, wearing simple dark green pants, leather boots, and a white shirt, and finally carrying the armor pieces the goblins had and other bladed weapons they used.
"Hero!" the village chief said, with open arms. "Welcome—" before he could even complete his sentence, the hero stretched out his hand open to his face.
"Give it," the hero said.
"What?" the chief said, confused.
"The additional reward money. Give it," the hero said, his eyes wide, as if he was not joking.
"Yes, yes, I'll give it," the chief said. "But for now, please come inside and enjoy the feast we prepared for you."
"No!" the hero yelled, gathering the attention of the other villagers inside the village.
"Give the money now!" he yelled once again.
Seeing his voice getting louder and not taking any words, the chief told the man beside him to grab the money back in his home.
"What's happening?"
"I think they are arguing."
Two young women said in the back as other talk began. After a moment, the father came back bringing the bag of money.
Giving it to the hero, he began counting them.
"Please, they are perfectly the amount promised in the paper," the chief said, telling the father to shoo away the other villagers' attention from them.
"Where's the rest?" the hero asked.
"Mmm? Rest? That's the perfect amount, hero?" the chief said, confused by his words.