Hero's Return 12 The Normal Boy In The Normal Village

In the 12598th year of the Elian Calendar [This is the self-made name for the entire Mortal Plane]. In a normal village surrounded by a wide field, all you could see in the horizons was mountains or forest. This village was secluded from others but lived close enough to them so that they could freely trade resources, it was a pretty well built and well-organised village. The villagers that inhabited it were very friendly with the exception of a tiny minority of people, whilst most of the villagers treated each other as equals, there were definitely people who stood above the rest and were treated with more respect than usual, these were split into different varieties. The mayor of the village treated his villagers kindly and was not in any way corrupt, he was very loved by the people so they would obviously treat him with more respect compared to others, the strong members of the hunters would also be treated with respect and admiration, the final variety of these types of people would be those who were wealthier than most, however, whilst they were treated like this they would be the most arrogant, most of the tiny majority of people who the village had been less dispositioned towards were the very arrogant ones of the wealthier population, this lead to most of the villagers having an inbuilt impression of the wealthy. This was not the case for all of them though, some of the wealthy families had been genuinely friendly and kind to the villagers - these would be some of the most popular people in the village. This was the case for a seemingly normal, hardworking boy, Sora.

Sora was at the age of 16, had black hair, was about 5 feet tall and wore normal brown village clothes, had blue eyes and not only belonged to a well-liked wealthy family but was also a higher ranking member of the hunters, whilst he wasn't the best he was definitely strong enough to be in the top 5 at least. This was not the case until only a couple of months ago, Sora had always been willing to help with the hunts but his sudden growth in strength only really began 5 months ago. Sora used his fists in most cases but in times when he would really have to fight he would draw his sword and utterly annihilate any opponent, even Sora was surprised at how fast his strength was growing - Sora trained with his fists and his sword daily but what was weird to him was the fact that even at his age, he still could not wield magic. His two parents Selica and Rayns were above average mages so the fact that he couldn't had dumbfounded him, his friends and his parents. This still confused him but he was happy with his current strength as whilst he lacked in magic he did have something else, aura. After checking with the best mages in the village on his body and what was blocking him from using magic, they found another type of energy, this was aura. Aura, unlike magic, is an internal energy that is used to strengthen the body and allow one to react faster, hit harder and move faster - it was perfect for a physical fighter. The mages had been shocked when they had found this out and after they had told him he immediately thanked them and left to try and utilise it, he had heard of aura before as most of the 100 Legends he had worshipped had apparently used it at one point. The fact that he had it excited him, after only 2 short months he had been able to control and utilise it, whilst not perfectly he could still apply the basics to become an unparalleled physical fighter in his village.

This lead to him quickly rising through the ranks of the hunters and due to aura, he would usually not have to use his sword as he could move faster than any animal, hit hard enough to kill any animal and would almost never be in enough danger as he could dodge anything that would harm him, with aura he was a very effective fighter. This did not mean he was the strongest, whilst aura was a rare thing amongst normal people a fighter that had been fighting for years and had much more experience and much more strength would most likely be able to beat him, the idea is the same for mages who have gained a high understanding of a certain magic type, no matter how fast Sora could move he could not do anything if he was trapped in a prison of fire that shrunk smaller and smaller until he would die. Sora could do very little against mages actually, there were many levels to aura and some Legends could use it to create an external barrier to fend of magic attacks, but Sora was too inexperienced in the higher levels of aura that he could only use the extremely simple parts of it.

"Sora?" On his way to the hunter lodge, Sora was called and he immediately turned to see who it was "Oh? Hey Seiju, you on your way to the lodge too?" The boy behind him was a 5-foot boy with yellow

deadpan eyes, his entire body seemed to be barely moving, Seiju was very lazy and was almost always sleepy, his voice would slowly fade if the sentence was too long and he would sometimes disappear if not given attention to go back to his bedroom, even with this abnormally low level of energy he would not hesitate to take on a mission due to the fact that he wanted to keep his friends safe, he enjoyed it and he wanted money for his family. "Yeah, I wanna check if there's a mission up" Sora looked at him shocked "You?! You're taking the initiative this time? Usually, we're the ones who have to tell you when there's a mission" Seiju looked at him with that same deadpan stare and began to walk to the hunter's lodge with Sora "Yeah, well for some reason that I don't know, I couldn't sleep today so I wanted to check up on the missions" Sora smiled "Well look at you." Seiju ignored the teasing and just stared into the distance, the two had become friends over their time as hunters and shared many fights with each other. As they walked through the town they had been greeted by the villagers and they had greeted them back in just as friendly a way as they were greeted, this was Sora's view of a normal morning so he didn't mind it, whilst not used to it Seiju did the same.

The Hunter's Lodge could be mistaken for a bar if not properly informed, this bar was constantly full as it was a place that many had come to whether it be to enjoy the atmosphere, drink or accept missions if one was a hunter. There would be no shortage of brawls and most of the staff that had worked there had gotten used to it long ago, they would not worry if there was a brawl as if it got too out of control, there would always be a high-level hunter in the bar ready to stop the brawl at a moments notice, they didn't do this because of work, the hunter's and the staff had become acquainted long ago and many of them had become great friends, some of the staff such as some waitresses and the barkeeps would be genuinely respected, so making too much trouble for them would lead to being kicked out by a high level hunter. Currently, the bar was full of people and it was full of chatter that created a surrounding sound of indistinct noise. Opening the doors, Sora and Seiju entered and were welcomed by some hunters, they cut through the tables straight to the mission board, this board would have pieces of paper on it that had missions one could join in, they would all have a date set for when the mission would start, the number of people needed, the target and the reward, the paper would be removed when the mission date had been pa.s.sed.

Standing in front of the board they quickly skimmed through the missions looking for any that were going to start at least in the next week, after skimming through them they found one that matched their conditions. "There we go, look - that one at the top there" Sora looked up at the piece of paper and inspected the number on it "45. Alright, Seiju let's go" They both turned and began to walk towards a very cute little woman sitting on a desk with a pile of papers, this woman had a hat with a feather on it and an emblem in the middle with a metal pheonix in the middle. "Miss Sonia, I see you're doing well." The woman looked up at them and replied with a friendly smile "Sora, Seiju, it's good to see you two this morning, I can already guess what you're here for, what number is it?" Sora smiled in acknowledgement "45". Hearing this the woman quickly skimmed through the stack of papers she had until she had reached a sort of list with the number 45 on the top, this list already had quite a few hunter's ready to go but they had not reached the limit for how much could go, after adding two names she placed the paper on the top of the stack and looked back at Sora and Seiju "There we go, you two are signed up for the mission now, from what I remember it's a high-level hunt with an equally high danger-level, the reward will be high for it but it's not one to take lightly" before continuing she looked at the teenage boys in front of her, one with a beaming smile and the other with an extremely neutral expression, she sighed and continued "Well, not that it's ever stopped the two of you before..." Sora began to laugh and Seiju stood there looking at him, after a while he looked back to Sonia "Miss Sonia, kill or capture?" looking back at Seiju she sighed "You really do just focus on the mission, lighten up every now and again... Well, I guess it is a good question though, this one doesn't have a specified target on it so either dead or alive would be fine. Even if it's a high level monster the mages of the village will render it's raw power useless with binding magic." Sora and Seiju nodded. After talking for a while longer Sora and Seiju left the building and returned to their homes. On the way back they had once again been met with the friendly greetings of the villagers to which they could only do the same. They parted ways at a cross-section and Sora returned to his home.

?: "Another hunt?"

?: "I mean this one's pretty high-level for this village right?"

?: "Yeah but he's gone on so much already"

?: "Cmon... 20 is barely enough let alone 'so much'"

?: "Take into consideration his age..."

?: "He's old enough..."

?: "Not like it's gonna be dangerous, we'll just kill it at the last second and make it seem like it was all the effort of the hunters like we always do."

?: "Yeah!"

?: "Um... about that..."

?: "What?"

?: "We... can't do that anymore... his life is too easy... there's no danger..."

?: "What? Well we can't let him die!"

?: "Yes! I know! But... he's been too sheltered by us for too long. He needs to grow by himself. You guys have spoiled him too much already, he's growing strong, yes but you guys have starved him of any life-death situations, why do you think it hasn't manifested yet?! He gains natural power but he needs to go through an extreme experience to actually trigger it..."

-Long Silence-

?: "Um..."

?: "He's right, we never thought about it till now."

?: "Yeah I guess..."

?: "But what if he does die?"

-Silence-

?: "We'll just have to believe in him then."

?: "We all in agreement then?"

?: "Yeah..."

?: "I guess..."

?: "Up for it"

?: "Let's go then"

?: "Then set a binding spell on yourselves on the promise that no matter what happens from now on, we cannot and will not interfere, until he regains his memories, we will not help him."

?: "Alright. Fine"

A sudden coalesence of magical energy spurned around an area hidden in the dark, whilst it was noticeable, it was a binding spell set on oneself by the caster, it did not highly alarm any of the mages in the village, they only treated it as a set of mages promising something to themselves. Sora felt a tiny amount of magic from behind him and he turned to look into the busy road behind him, villagers walked by as if nothing had happened, the magic he sensed had been so instant and so insignificant that he eventually calmed down and kept walking. The magic these figures had just cast on themselves was an unbreakable promise to themselves, if they tried to break it the bind would instantly bind their bodies in place until either they had calmed down or they gave up on trying to break the promise.

?: "So he's on his own now."

?: "It's for the best."

?: "If he di-"

?: "If he dies then that's just an earlier death, think about it, if he doesn't grow to the point that he needs to to face that Demonic King, then when he invades we'll all die anyway. The Celestial King no longer has enough power to fight the Demonic King one on one, it's up to our leader to fight."

?: "I guess... that's true..."

?: "It's the only way"

?: "Binded. Now it really is up to him..."

?: "Believe in him, he's our leader after all..."

The night pa.s.sed quickly, the morning came. Sora woke up and didn't skip a beat, waking up he instantly jumped out of bed and got ready to leave for the hunt, Sora liked to test his skills against high-level monsters, but he would always win so easily in the end - what felt weird was that his last strike against high-level monsters would always feel unearned, he would hit the monsters as hard as he could but he could at most make scratches or light wounds, after a long time or after being completely exhausted, his last strike would hold the same power as all his previous strikes, perhaps even weaker but his sword would cut through the monster like b.u.t.ter with no effort. It felt extremely abnormal but before that ending slice he would always get in some practice whilst fighting. He was suspicious of the reasoning behind it but he could never find a reason, the second reason he had even gone on these hunts was to find out why this happened.

?: "So I can't even use my attack increase magic on him now?"

?: "No, that counts as helping too, besides that's the main thing that allows him to win effortlessly every time, the fact that we haven't been investigated into is a miracle."

Arriving at the gates of the village Sora waved to the guards and they opened the gate, the gate opened slowly whilst Sora stood behind them waiting for an opening, to Sora this was the most exciting part, leaving the village to go into the outside world. The door opened to reveal an open field with no one else in it, Sora would always arrive early to practice with his fists and occasionally he would draw his sword. As he practiced the wind behind him slowly began to speed up, from no wind at all, to a calm breeze, to a slightly strong gust of wind - as the last gust of wind pa.s.sed he heard a voice that sounded akin to that of a boy's "Be careful on this one." Shocked, Sora frantically began to scan his surroundings the wind had already returned to it's usual calm. This voice made Sora think, perhaps the voice he just heard was what was helping him all this time? It was at this time that one by one the other hunters began to arrive including Seiju and even some other high rank hunters Seiju came over and sat down next to Sora, not saying a word, what surprised Seiju was that Sora looked to be in deep thought about something, it was rare to see him ponder over something so hard that he didn't strike up a conversation with people. Seiju layed down on the gra.s.s and began to sleep, the hunters knew Sora as a powerful hunter and Seiju as a very powerful wind and support mage.

After about an hour all the hunters that had signed up for the mission had been registered and ready to go, with the preparations complete the one in charge of leading the hunters to the location for the hunt blew a horn that let out a violent sound, waking Seiju up and snapping Sora out of his pondering. Everyone looked to where the sound came from, looking to the top of a carriage they saw a woman run up onto the roof carrying a ma.s.sive horn that she easily held in her right hand. "Oi, hunters! Ready to go?! We're all here and the hunt is constantly on the move!!! We've tracked it to it's current resting location and we should be able to ambush it!!!!" She was essentially screaming these words and every hunter stood up and roared back in acknowledgement, the woman smiled and turned "Let's go then!!!"

Sora remembered the message he had been told whilst he had been training by himself, in the past he could easily run into the fight by himself and be fully confident that he would win but after being told that, especially by a seemingly invisible figure. He wasn't taking any chances this time and would go all out from the get go. "Yeah, Let's go!!!"