"Surrender? Why the hell are we surrendering?"

The village blacksmith was absolutely furious at what Tiro had to say the following day after Domu Village successfully repelled the Pendragon army twice.

There was plenty of dissonance among the remaining villagers. They all have yet to receive any casualties by some miracle, but they were all willing to lay down their lives in order to protect the place they called home. In addition, it was supposed to be their job to slow down the Pendragon army's advances. However, Tiro believed differently.

"Judging from the enemy's positioning in the forest, our main source of food, I doubt we could last another two or three days. The army will simply wait it out while letting their injured recover as we starve up here with our diminishing food supply on this hill. Once they believe the time is ripe, there would be no hope," Tiro explained with a solemn look.

Reina's father scratched his beard while thinking out loud. "Well, we stayed behind knowing there was no hope, so what's the issue?"

Tiro went quiet for a moment. He felt the gazes of the many villagers he had interacted with for the past three months. All of those gazes seemed to pierce through his heart as mixed feelings of guilt and despair gripped him. Reina, noticing her friend's difficulties, put her hand on his shoulder to support him. Tiro glanced back at Reina and saw the amount of trust she had for him. He realized many of the villagers present also trusted him after spending his time with them. There was nothing to hide.

"I didn't want anyone to die."

Tiro's fist curled up into a fist. He had no right to interfere with the wishes of the villagers, yet he found himself forcing his selfishness upon them. He didn't want to bare witness and responsibility to their deaths. He felt pathetic. The only thing he could do was prolong their fated moment in tears despite the fact that everyone had already accepted such. Even Reina herself had come to terms of what needed to happen.

"...You really are a Saint kiddo," Reina's father commented upon seeing a traveling stranger turned companion crying for people he knew for a short time.

Tiro's tears simply poured out. Those tears were for the villagers who had accepted their fate and himself for trying to force his selfish desire of having them survive onto them.

"We can work something out. I can offer everything I have on me right now. I still have a bag of those silver coins. We have those hostages too. Maybe with one of the cows, we can throw a good deal!"