An Unborn Hero

Hayedalf inspected a small patch of glass in the middle of one of his new fields. It was one of many dotted around among the ash.

"Lightning strike," said Kellela with confidence. "Some careless adventurer started this fire by spraying lightning all over the place."

"I guess we'll need to remove the glass, till it all and plant something new when spring comes around."

"Or we could plant grass right now and get some livestock in?" joked Kellela. It wasn't as if the pair intended to take up farming for a living; they had enough savings to eat well for the rest of their lives, and even if they didn't, Hayedalf's enchanting skills were all they needed. They'd wanted the space for research and experimentation—large open fields were always welcome for people playing around with magic, an activity that resulted in frequent explosions—but this farm had been up for sale at a knock-down price, and was so big that it wouldn't hurt to use some of the space for its intended purpose.

"Do you know anything about raising livestock?"

"Do you know anything about growing crops?"

"Touché. I feel getting crops wrong would be less impactful than livestock, though. And keeping animals would make the warding more complicated, since it would need to make an exception for them."

"I've never understood the rules for warding. It needs to make an exception for us, so why are animals harder? The difference between me and a cow is far less than a cow and a monster."

"... Please don't compare yourself to a cow. That's just weird."

"My point still stands," said Kellela, grinning.

"You're thinking biologically. Magically, there's a huge difference between you and a cow. A cow isn't going to have an occupation listed in its status, and its body will contain far less mana."

"But a monster will have more mana. Also, did you just say I'm biologically similar to a cow?"

"A monster still won't have an occupation. That's the normal thing to key off for this sort of ward; it lets through anything with an occupation and restricts anything that doesn't," explained Hayedalf, ignoring the cow-bait. "If you want to get more complex, you can also apply a mana limit, so creatures with low mana are allowed through even without an occupation, but most people want the side effect that no creepy-crawlies can get into their houses."

"Fair enough. And speaking of wards, has [Detect Scrying] fired recently?"

"No... You know I'd tell you the moment it did."

"It's probably just embarrassed about what happened to Rose," said Kellela, but she didn't sound like she believed her own words.

"It's been a week already..."

"Maybe it doesn't like the higher mana?"

Hayedalf sighed. "I don't know why you're so attached. It wasn't exactly invited, remember? Not to mention the carriage driver ended up charging us for an extra passenger, fining us for smuggling it aboard and fining us again for the damage to the seat."

"I know... It's just... I dunno. It's strange. I was getting used to the idea of having a weird little ghost thing around. And now it's just vanished on us."

"Maybe it'll come back. You never know. But if it bothers you that much, why not get a pet? We have the space."

"Firstly, because it would have the same issues with your low-effort wards as livestock. Secondly, because I won't have time."

"We're not trying to run the full farm here... You'll have plenty of time."

"I wasn't talking about the farm."

"What then? It's not like there's anything else going on around here."

"My period was due three days ago. It didn't happen."

On the outskirts of the demonic forest, a goblin gibbered madly. It didn't try to run; it had seen what happened to the others that had tried that. Now it was the only one of its pack left alive.

It didn't try to attack, either. It had seen what had happened to the others that had tried that, too, and even if it forgot, the carpet of bisected corpses between it and the young, bloodstained girl standing opposite was a constant reminder.

The girl herself, Rose, was looking nervous as she panted from her exertion, but was nonetheless holding her sword steady in front of her. Her travelling cloak was nowhere to be seen, replaced by leather armour that covered her from head to toe. It was scuffed and scratched, but unbroken; none of the blood dripping from it belonged to her.

"Okay, there's only one left. Take your time," said Melody reassuringly, standing protectively behind her. Platus stood to the side, keeping watch over the training session, in case any other monsters decided to gatecrash.

Family adventuring groups were an odd thing. They had their advantages; rarely would senior adventurers offer this sort of personalised training to their juniors without charging hefty fees. They also had their disadvantages, usually when things went wrong. The groups that suffered a complete party wipe were generally considered the lucky ones. Survivors who'd watched their family get killed tended not to readjust to society well.

Rose, noticing that the goblin was frozen by fear, took a deep breath and charged.

Goblins were low-tiered monsters, and a lone specimen was not generally considered a threat to any grown adult. It attempted to parry Rose's sword with its crude club—little more than a scavenged branch with the twigs ripped off—but Rose was an [Apprentice Swordsman], and had already earned a couple of sub-skills for her [Swordplay]. Her enhanced swing sliced through the branch easily, but the act cost most of her momentum and her sword embedded itself deeply in the goblin's side without cutting through.

The goblin fell, twisting the sword out of Rose's hand as it did so. She quickly grabbed it and tore it out of the fresh corpse, but that didn't change the fact that she'd momentarily lost her grip on it.

"You should have pulled back," advised Melody. "Cut a shallower wound. It wouldn't have been fatal, but you'd still have injured it and destroyed its weapon."

"Sorry," said Rose.

"Don't worry. This is why we're training. You'll make a proper adventurer in no time."

Rose had complicated feelings about that. Yes, she wanted to be an adventurer like her parents. She wasn't one to shy away from blood and gore. Nor was she squeamish about spending days in the wilds, or suffering wounds and long-lasting scars. But one memory had stayed with her.

She'd grasped a plank of wood and squeezed, and it had just... gone away. The shattered wood had flowed between her fingers, the splinters crumpling harmlessly against her skin. If she had that strength now, she certainly wouldn't have failed to cut through the goblin.

Platus had estimated that for a brief few seconds, she'd had the strength of a silver ranked adventurer. Even her parents were only bronze ranked. At the time, having no idea what was happening, the fear had overwhelmed any other emotion. In retrospect, with the benefit of knowing she hadn't been hurt, things had become more complicated.

That wasn't to say she wanted to take the 'easy' route, or she'd have tried to seek out Kellela again instead of training hard like this. Even if she did happen to bump into Kellela or Hayedalf again, the first thing she wanted to do was apologise for the unnecessary fuss her parents had made. She understood that power was never handed out for free, and that people who sought out elixirs and Artefacts instead of working properly rarely came to good ends. Someone who relied on equipment without training their skills properly wouldn't grow stronger, and would die the moment they were caught unequipped or ran into something they couldn't handle. But, if someone happened to want to cast that spell on her again... Well, she wouldn't say no.

ding

For getting the kingdom's youth hooked on performance enhancing drugs, [Magical Girl Transformation] advances to level 5.

The message box hung in the void forlornly, as if hoping for some response. None was forthcoming, though, so after a few minutes, it vanished again in a puff of embarrassment.

The [Royal Knight] sat in an opulent room opposite someone wearing an outfit so rich and bulky that it probably weighed more than the knight's plate armour. They each had a steaming cup in front of them.

The cups contained coffee. The [King] never permitted tea within a hundred yards of himself when the [Royal Knight] was on the premises. Besides, he valued the higher caffeine content. No matter how many advisors and ministers he appointed, there always seemed to be an endless supply of mind-numbingly boring paperwork that needed to be dealt with by him personally. Without caffeine, the kingdom would probably have fallen into ruin long ago.

He'd tried to commission an Artefact that would handle or reduce bureaucracy. Hayedalf had laughed at him, and it had taken the poor [King] some time to convince him he was serious. Hayedalf had suggested a cursed bangle that would invert the wearer's work ethic. Alas, the same well-developed work ethic that caused the [King] his problems in the first place also forced him to reject the suggestion.

"I've skimmed your case reports from this month, and I have to say this one stood out," said the [King]. "You located an unidentified infiltrator, which had penetrated not only into Rumah Magika but into the cell of the Arcane Infernal, and you just... let it leave? I must admit to some amount of surprise."

"As I explained, it posed no threat."

"How do you know?" asked the [King], who hadn't been exposed to the [Hero] at all, and was thus well equipped to ask such questions. "Yes, perhaps the evidence suggested it was just floating around at random, but from your report, it hardly seemed conclusive."

The [Royal Knight] hadn't had much exposure himself, limited only to Kellela's interview, but even that had been enough, given the glowing reports of his subordinates. At least, until someone questioned his decisions to his face. There weren't many people in the kingdom prepared to do so, but the [King] was certainly one of them.

"In other circumstances, perhaps I would have taken other action, but I had to weigh the questions posed by the unidentified creature against the harm to our kingdom if Hayedalf had turned against it."

"And that's where I'm not following. You've dealt with tricky situations like that in the past. Remember that [Duke] and what you found in his basement?"

The [Royal Knight] frowned, remembering the situation well. Half the squad that first stepped foot into the place had needed psychological treatment afterwards. The crimes committed by the [Duke] demanded immediate punishment, but he had a number of powerful supporters. There had been claims of a set-up, of him being framed. Meanwhile, his political opponents were demanding immediate execution, an end to the duchy and redistribution of its land. Despite the blatant criminality, nobles on both sides of the fence forewent all concepts of due process in favour of exploiting the situation for all it was worth for their own political ends.

And then, just as it looked like things were going to erupt into a minor civil war, the whole situation had been rendered moot by the [Duke] suffering a freak accident, choking to death on a fish bone in his own home.

The [Infiltrator] involved still bragged about how many skill levels the stunt had earned him.

"That was an option, but it... didn't seem fair," said the [Royal Knight]. "It's not as if there was criminality involved."

"Breaking into heavily warded prison cells isn't criminal now?"

"It was... an accident," said the [Royal Knight], sprouting a frown as he remembered one of the more often quoted rules. 'Ignorance of the law is not a defence'. Yes, it being an accident may well affect the punishment, but he'd still let off someone who had caused a brief period of chaos in the capital. Localised chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

The [King] raised an eyebrow.

"Something is wrong," concluded the [Royal Knight], thinking back to the guard's reports. Yes, they grew progressively more trusting of the creature, but now that he thought more carefully, none of them explained why. They seemed to just 'know' that it meant them no harm. And he'd read those reports and believed them without noticing the lack of evidence.

The frown deepened.

"I assume you and all guards are still wearing defences against mental manipulation," asked the [King].

"Of course!" answered the [Royal Knight], checking his own. It was still perfectly functional but hadn't fired in years. Yet he had to agree that this looked very much like mental manipulation. Extremely subtle, but he'd definitely made decisions that had seemed right at the time, and that still seemed right, but that didn't align with his previous behaviour. What could do that sort of thing? Soul manipulation? He'd need to get himself checked out at a temple as a matter of urgency.

There was only one other thing he'd heard of that would have a similar effect. And now that he considered it...

"I've heard in passing that the monsters around the demonic forest have been acting up. What sort of timeline?"

"If you're trying to change the subject..." started the [King], suddenly concerned he was sharing a room with a compromised individual and no guards.

"I am not. I promise this is related."

"Then there have been more waves of activity than normal for the past couple of years, but a new peak of activity started about a month ago and hasn't died down since."

The [Royal Knight] remembered Hayedalf's comment on when the scrying incidents had started, and did the small amount of required maths. The incidents started the same time as the latest wave of activity.

"Then, as unlikely as it sounds, I think we should consider the birth of a new demon lord, and that the creature harboured by Kellela is the [Hero]."