The boat sailed into the harbor quietly. I had made the steering system near perfect so Amber was able to guide the boat in perfectly. We jumped off the boat and onto the dock with a thud. The dock was sturdily built, as with everything in this city. It was called Druodence, and it was one of many that the demonkin had built. We were greeted by a young lady with yellow hair just like mine. Her yellow eyes stared at us with surprise.
She was clad in a black robe with a mage’s staff on her. Her robe was embroidered with intricate designs. She eyed me and Traya with interest. When she caught sight of Amber, she immediately fell to her knees and bowed. Behind her, a retinue of people who looked like her followed her actions.
“My Lord, you have returned!” she said.
Amber chuckled. “Ah my children, it is I, Amber the Yellow! I have returned at long last!”
“Amber… Pardon me my lord, but is that your name now?” the girl asked.
“That is so!”
“Very well Lord Amber, welcome…” she said, “I am the Archpriest of the Mahillia tribe, Elzibetht, or Elzi for short.”
“Well, thank you very much Elzi for coming out here and greeting us. I must introduce my companions!” Amber said, turning to us.
She clapped me on the back, “This is Princess Silvi Tephit, my master!”
“...” The demonkin all stayed silent. “Master… My lord?” Elzi asked.
“That’s right, master here summoned me! Her raw power made me be able to manifest here without a single sacrifice or a vessel! She gave me delicious food and a sword! I pledged my life to her!” she announced.
Elzi stared at me for a few seconds. Her eyes lingered on my hair and eyes. “Pardon me…. But you are the princess of Tephit? Correct?” She asked.
“Last I checked…” I replied.
“Oh, I’m sorry for a second I had mistaken you for one of our own. The description said you were a brunette, with brown eyes. What happened?”
I scratched my head, “Ummm about that….”
“Simple! Master received my demon eye, the skill demonification came to her, and now she’s one of you guys!” Amber declared.
“Well, I mean, sorta. Genetically yes, but I was born human….” I said.
Elzi shook her head, “No, anyone with the skill demonification is demonkin. Seeing as you received the skill from my lord, as well as being her master. You are part of our tribe. We welcome you as one of our own. The fact that the Lord calls you master… is something I must bring up with our leaders… until we know how to place you within our hierarchy, you shall be treated as an honored guest. Come, we have prepared lodgings for all of you.”
As we walked Elzi explained a few things. “We had heard our lord had been summoned again from the temple. I was stationed here, so the news took time to reach me. We used our magic to pinpoint our lord to your new country. Although it had only been in existence for a few months, we managed to send a letter. Never did we imagine it would be a human who summoned our lord though… Good thing you received our lord’s demon eye skill and demonification. The fact that you are now demonkin will help alleviate some of our leader's stress.”
“Is it uncommon for humans to summon demons?” Traya asked.
“No, but it is uncommon for humans to summon aboriginal demons. Usually, only the head priest of each tribe can manage the feat, and only with 12 archpriests’ support. It costs the lives of each of those archpriests and the head priest's body is given to the demon as a vessel.”
“Geez…” Traya said.
“Please, you have given me a fair share of surprises, to think that Princess Silvi is the hero of magic… this is unprecedented. I must visit an accomplice of mine after this.” Elzi said.
We got shown to a beautiful house, like a manor in the center of the city. While we were walking here, I saw the citizens of the tribe. They all had yellow hair and eyes. Their pale skin radiated an aura of mana, it was obvious that they were magical, more magical than a human. I wondered if I gave off that vibe.
I sat down on a chair in the living space of the manor. Amber greedily looked into the pantry. I addressed Traya, who was close to me. “What do you think?”
“They're all so powerful, I can sense the mana just radiating off of them.”
“Agreed, I can’t believe an individual can wield that much power so casually!” I said.
Traya gave me a look. “Did you take your demon eye and look at yourself lately?”
“Hmm?” I asked. I thought about it, as I observed the citizens, I also appraised them with my demon eye. Universal Understanding decoded their magical powers. Each of the adults seemed to have B+-rank magical proficiency with each of their elements, and not a single person had less than 3 aptitudes. It was crazy. But this time I looked at myself with my eye, appraising myself I saw that I was even crazier than them. Being a hero warranted this, but my power was newfound, it would take some use getting used to my insane stats.
I sighed. “Fine… I get your point! But still! I’m an outlier!”
Later, we tucked in for the night. Soon the morning came. I was eating breakfast when a loud knock came at the door. Openeing it, I saw Elzi. “Oh hey, we were just eating breakfast,” I said.
“I’m sorry for intruding your majesty, but I have someone that I’d like you to meet. Can you spare a few moments of your time?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Amber, hold down the fort for me.”
“Will do master!”
I followed Elzi to a large temple in the center of the city. It was more like a cathedral and was beautiful. She opened the door and beckoned me in. When she didn’t follow, I asked, “Wait what about you?”
“This discussion is not for me, the person I am asking you to meet is the accomplice I mentioned yesterday. He wants to have a private discussion.”
With that, she shut the door.
“Well great…” I muttered.
“Silviphiette Tephit, hero of magic…” someone said.
I turned around and saw a normal-looking guy. He had brown hair and pale skin. He looked so normal I questioned what he was doing on the demon’s continent.
“I am Ballaith Caisandoral, the hero of healing,” he announced.
“The hero of healing? I thought that the hero of healing was one of the unknown. They don’t exist.” I said.
“I’m sorry, but they are wrong. I am the hero of healing in the flesh. You might not have heard of me for a very good reason. Believe it or not, I am several hundred years old.”
“What?”
“One of the side effects of being the hero of healing is immortality. As my body constantly heals itself, it extends my life for as long as that power is on. The only person who can kill the hero of healing is the hero of healing themself.”
“Wait, this is too much information. I thought there were only 4 heroes other than me. Now you're telling me you're a hero too? What’s this about?”
“Well, rarely, a hero comes here to the demon continent, so my existence was easy to conceal. Why I called you here is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Okay…”
“Here you will learn the real reason behind a hero, as well as their histories.”
“First of all, a hero is born randomly. And contrary to the mouth, there are always 10 heroes, it is not a maximum limit thing, there are always 10 heroes. After a hero dies, it usually takes 2 years for another to be born. So there are times where not all 10 heroes walk the earth, but there is always going to be a hero of that kind, eventually, at least within 2 years. A hero can give their powers to another, this costs them their life, but they can give the power away. That is how I became the hero of healing, my master gave me his power and perished. This is the only way for the hero of healing to die, hence why the only person who can kill the hero of healing is themself.”
“Whoa…”
“Due to this, the hero of healing has taken up the mantle of watching over most of the heroes.” With this, he took off his belt. His pants stayed in place, but showing me the inside, I saw 10 crystals. “The crystals represent a hero, if a hero is alive, they glow.” Sure enough, 10 crystals were glowing.
“Three years ago, the previous hero of magic died. I don’t know who they were but they did. The crystal stopped glowing. Then two years later, it still didn’t glow again. I was curious and watched it for a long time. Finally, a few months ago, it started glowing again. Then I find out that it isn’t a new hero born, but a 19-year-old princess of a new country. Tell me how did you become a hero without being given the mantle or being born into it?”
“I don’t know.”
“All right, I can tell you the truth. I can also tell you are a good person. I see that you will make a great hero. Due to my responsibility, I must teach you a bit of history though.”
“Be my guest.”
“Very well, for you to realize your true potential, you must know the origin of the heroes. It has been some time since I have found a hero worthy enough to teach this to, so consider it an honor.”
“By the way, how did you know I was telling the truth? How did you know I was worthy?”
“Healing magic, or more specifically, spirit magic. We will get to that in a second.”
“Okay,”
“First of all, the heroes you know aren’t natural phenomena. The original 10 heroes were very accomplished people that surpassed the boundaries of simple life to become godlike. The original 10 were capable of creating magic. This is different from elemental magic, spirit magic, or physical magic. It is a type of magic only they could access together. They were the ones who fought off the first angel invasion.”
“Angel invasion?”
“Aye, there was a time a long time ago when angels were more organized. They fell to earth and wreaked havoc. The heroes were there to drive them back. It just so happened that one of them fell during battle. Since it took all 10 of them to use creation magic, the other heroes couldn’t lose him. With his dying breath, that hero and the other heroes used creation magic to create the hero rebirth cycle. They made it so that their skills and powers would be passed on randomly to another and those skills are unlocked to their fullest by exposing themselves to a large concentrated amount of mana. This was sloppy, but the best they could do.”
“So, that’s why we have heroes.”
“Yes, and for a time the surviving heroes, including the original hero of healing could find and keep track of the other heroes to fight back angels. But as time went on and the original heroes died, the ability for the other heroes to find the new heroes became hindered. Not only that but there's were being hunted to serve for selfish purposes by the countries of the world. Understanding this, the hero of healing decided to find a disciple. He taught the disciple everything and eventually gave him the hero of healing’s power. That disciple went on as the new hero of healing and passed on the power. The hero of healing’s duty was to monitor new heroes to see if they were of good character. If that was true, they would take the hero and teach them what heroes are. If not, then they were to leave the hero alone and keep them from becoming too powerful and wrecking as much havoc as an angel.”
“But how do you know if someone is of good character?”
“Each of the three most powerful heroes, the hero of healing, magic, and transformation controls each of the 3 types of magic. The hero of magic controls elemental magic and the hero of transformation controls physical magic. PHysical magic is relatively unknown, but it is the skills and attributes of creatures that they naturally have. Dragon’s scales, Beastmen’s physical prowess, and the cyclops' hard skin are all examples of that. The hero of healing controls spirit magic. Spirit magic is the magic of the soul, that’s why I can heal not only physical wounds but mental ones. I can heal everything that can be damaged.”
“Spirit magic… Is it related to spirits?”
“Yes, the spirit magic is the type of magic that spirits use, it is the manipulation of life like the nature manipulation spirits use. Similarly, your elemental magic is related to demon’s magic, and the physical magic is related to the angel’s indestructible bodies and power.”
“So each type of magic is from each type of holy entity…”
“Yes, and the original heroes were the first to master them completely.”
“But so many of us can use elemental magic, as well as physical magic…”
“That is true, but they cannot use all of it, and not the way a hero can.”
“Then why are you here? Why aren’t you looking for heroes?”
“I have already been keeping tabs of each hero. The unknowns are called unknown for reasons. The ones I do know I have been following. None of them save one is worthy of this knowledge.”
“So you peeked at my soul? That’s how you knew my worth?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Huh, you can't control anyone can you?”
He gave me a wistful smile.
“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that.”
“As you wish, I exist to heal, not to manipulate people.”
“I see…”
“So do the demonkin know who you are?”
“Yes, they have been so kind to let me stay here.”
“Huh…”
“Now what will you do now that I’ve told you this?”
“I don’t know, I want answers myself. I have a country to run now, but if an angel comes, I will beat it to pulp!”
“That’s all I needed from you… If you don’t mind, I’d like to accompany you to your country.”
“Huh? Why?”
“It has been a while since I have been welcomed to a man’s country. They always want to control the hero of healing's healing powers. Use it for war. The demonkin know what it means to have peace, but the men don’t. If you can let me take shelter there, it would not only make it easier to find heroes born among men, but I can help you investigate your existence. Not only that, but I will offer my services.”
“That sounds good to me, but we aren’t leaving yet. Amber still needs to catch up with her folks, and I have to meet with the tribal leaders.”
“That is fine with me, your promise is good enough.”
I smiled, “Well then, welcome to the team.”
“Thank you for having me,” he replied.278Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfdUqmdwjn
