Darren was running as fast as he could, though it was difficult to balance his possessions and Veronica while running at full speed towards his destination.

While he was running to Lete Village, he was silently cursing himself for forgetting the potential consequences of changing the storyline. In the original anime, since Veronica was captured by the bandits and held as a hostage, the bandits didn't attack the village and tried to use her as a bargaining chip instead. Since Veronica was rescued by him this time around, there was no doubt that the bandits would attempt to take revenge by attacking the village. The same village which Veronica called her home.

The girl he rescued was silent on his back, though she was extremely loud and concerned before they left. He assumed that her feelings were divided between him saving her and her village being attacked due to his rescue. When Darren thought about the situation, he wondered what was worse; leaving the girl to be abused and imprisoned, or allowing a village to be attacked due to his actions.

The thought of innocents being slaughtered due to his mistake made the young man run faster. He briefly checked his MP while running by using a temporary status screen and saw that he still had more than half of his MP remaining. 

They were almost there, and he prayed that the village was safe until he arrived.

"The village is straight ahead. You should see it in a few minutes," Veronica declared loudly. 

While he didn't know the exact location of the village, Darren knew what the village looked like. Lete Village was a small settlement near the border of the Republic of Xengos, a merchant republic that was ruled by a council of guild leaders. While the village was small, it was fairly prosperous as it was a place for travelers to rest and had a number of farms nearby. The village leader was Veronica's father, hence the reason why the bandits tried to kidnap Veronica.

However, when Darren and Veronica arrived at the edges of the village, they didn't see a peaceful village with neatly built buildings. Instead, they saw a village in flames, though strangely, there was no villagers around.

"No!" Veronica wriggled out of Darren's arms and dropped down onto the ground with a thud. She pushed herself onto her feet and limped towards the burning buildings. "This can't be happening!" 

Darren placed his backpack on his back and armed himself with the sword he was carrying. He walked to Veronica's side and frowned, "I'm sorry, Veronica."

"This is all your fault! If they just took me away, then this would have never happened," The brown-haired girl screamed as she attempted to punch her rescuer.

The young college student stepped aside and dodged the punch. As Veronica leaned forward to try again, Darren grabbed her shoulders and knocked her out with a blow to her head. Afterward, he hid her safely under a bush in the nearby forest. Before he left, he placed his backpack next to her unconscious body and muttered, "I'm sorry."

He sprinted towards a group of bandits that were looting several of the buildings nearby. They were laughing and celebrating as they carried out goods from one of the buildings they found and burned it. However, one of the bandits noticed his presence and alerted others.

"Sweeping Strike!" Darren yelled as he sliced his sword towards the bandits, who were now only three meters away from him. 

The sword in his hand glowed bright green before sending out a blade of mana towards the bandits. The bandits towards the front of the group didn't stand a chance as he sliced them cleanly in half. The other bandits did not fare any better, as they lost their limbs or received fatal wounds. The sight of the dead bandits wanted to make him hurl, but he swallowed hard and tried to maintain his composure.

A single bandit stood standing with an open gash on his arm. The bandit looked extremely shaken and when he saw Darren's face, he immediately ran towards the inner parts of the village while screaming, "It's the damn adventurer that attacked us earlier! He's the one that stole Veronica!" 

Darren used his Rapid Dash skill once again to close in on the distance and stabbed the man through the back. The bandit slumped onto the ground bleeding profusely from the back wound. Unfortunately for Darren, his stomach reacted negatively upon seeing the blood once again and he found himself kneeling and puking on the floor.

"It looks like the little boy that saved Veronica earlier has no experience in fighting," A voice boomed near him. As Darren stood back up shakily and looked up at his opponent, he was struck backward from a blast of mana. 

He groaned deeply and used his sword to stand back up, but before he could, he found himself lifted off the ground by a man with an eyepatch. The man socked him in the face, stunning him, before giving him a lopsided smile, "You might have saved the girl, but you should have stayed away after. Do you really think you can strut in her to be the hero if you can't even stomach killing a man?"

The eyepatch man ripped the sword out of Darren's hands and tossed it aside, "Now I don't know where you took that damn brat but I'm going to make you talk or rip your guts out. I should already rip your guts out for killing some of my boys, but I'll let you live a little bit longer so we can find the girl and the damn villagers. So let's go ahead and get to know each other a little better, shall we?" 

After taking another blow to the head, all Darren saw was darkness.