âChildren are not welcome in the Valley of Kalwin. They will have less foodâ
Neia takes a bandage out of her tool bag at the waist and rolls it over the half-split armor.
âMany old people who canât work canât live long. Itâs uselessâ
ââŚâŚAbandonment?â
âThey have not abandon them yet. âŚâŚTheyâll be send to another village when there is a famine. Children and old people who canât be supportedâ
ââŚâŚThatâs itâ
I was scared.
âEven if you canât do it with your relatives, if you donât know the personâŚâŚyou can kill and eat. Grandpa and grandmother know it and were send away. Itâs a bit better for someone to eat than to be eaten by a monster. âŚâŚAnd laughingâ
ââŚâŚâŚâŚâ
âSo in the age of famine, there are fewer old people, and fewer children. Gaping wide, the number of people of that generation decreases. âŚâŚI am one of those of that generation. I was a child who was supposed to have died and be eatenâ
Intense past, plainly. Neia is neither angry nor sad, nor hate.
âThere are two reasons I survived. One is that one of my parents was an elf. Elves mature quickly and work longer, so under the same conditions they are given a little preferential treatment. I wonder if there was a dead child instead of me. AndâŚâŚbecause the hero Faria, who was based in our village at that time, told me to take overâ
âIs the hero acting as a parent?â
âShe was a little too unbridled to be a parent. She left me alone in the village for weeks without me trying to learn anything about cooking. She left all the cleaning, sewing and cooking to me and still she brought me the meat of the monsters she had defeated and I was deeply adored because she was brightâŚâŚa bright womanâ
Neia smiled a little as she tried to tie the bandage. Iâll help her to tie it.
âEvery child is raised once away from their mothers so that their parentsâ feelings donât change too muchâŚâŚso there was no such thing as being a true parent. Instead, Hero Faria was said to be the strongest of our time. She told me that she would raise me, so I was excited to become a great warrior since I was a kidâ
âItâs difficult to be a heroâ
âYes. Usually, the children who were recruited as candidates for the heroes donât return and 80% die during the training stageâ
ââŚâŚIsnât that a problem?â
âIf youâre an arm thatâs going to die in training, youâll usually die in the first campâ
ââŚâŚHow can someone think this is normal? If you train slowlyâŚâŚâ
âItâs not a country that can hold so many warriors openly. Everyone knows thatâŚâŚâ
It is too severe that I´m speechless. I am frightened by Neia who talks about it with her usual calm face.
âI still decided to be a hero. I had the pride of being a child chosen by a hero and a girl brought up by a hero, so I was convinced that it was my destiny. From Fariaâs perspective, itâs just because she felt sorry if they just killed meâ
ââŚâŚBut itâs actually happeningâ
âEh, wellâŚâŚI think Faria was emotional with the fact that I was practicing the sword like an idiot. During her work as a hero, she started teaching me the swordâŚâŚhuhuu, it was tough. She had the usual bright tone and smiling face, but she was not the type to go easy on someoneâ
Neia lowered the collar of the hat. Tears might have come out.
âââââââââ
Listening to Neia, I reconfigured it in me.
Trained by Faria, the hero, Neia showed skills that could be called a swordsman in her youth. By the time she was 13 years old, she had already been able to defeat the Hard Wolf with a wooden sword, so it seems that her talent and leadership were in balance. Without going to the Royal Hero Training Center, ehe began wandering around the valley with Faria to hunt monsters. âŚâŚLater, Neia learned that not only Faria but also other heroes who took a disciple and passed on the technique as a successor is not so rare. Needless to say, she wasnât an official hero, so she helped with field work and although her training was very demanding, Neia, who believed that, like many others, was the last humankind in the world, she felt an endless cause in the work of protecting her small ăWorldă and also practiced hard.
âNeia´s memory is very good. Itâs a big difference from meâ
Faria was always laughing and saying that. It must have been a flattery. But for Neia, who doesnât know the public, it accelerates the growth of the inner heart. She can already be a good hero. Can stand side by side with Faria and protect the world. Therefore, the desire to be recognized as a hero has become stronger day by day.
âChildren think that if they can become ăSomethingă, they will be happy from there. Adults, professions, etc. are the best. I also wanted to be such ăSomethingă. Instead of being a half-hearted child, I became a real ăHeroăâŚâŚI wondered if there would be a bright future beyond thatâ
ââŚâŚYou donât know what to sayâ
âI forgot, maybe I donât want to remember itâ
-
One day, Neia and Faria captured a nearby labyrinth. If you leave it alone from the labyrinth, monsters may overflow. Even if you hunt monsters once every few years, it is quite different. The battle was going well. As usual, Neia was not allowed to have a proper sword and it was said that this was also training, so she was fighting only with wooden swords and martial arts. Perhaps it included the intention that a tidy weapon was only provided only to the hero and to put the brake on Neia. Neia was dissatisfied with it. If she has a proper sword, she will be able to fight as good as Faria. It was also mysterious that Faria was not using the Flash sword hung on her waist, but was wielding an off-the-shelf sword that the craftsmen of the kingdom made. The Flash sword is said to be the proof of a hero. It must be strong if used. To Neia who thought so, this labyrinth battle was a great opportunity for self-appeal.
Fighting in the large labyrinth wasnât completed in a day. After proceeding to some extent, they take a rest in the middle room. Repeating it. The labyrinth was planned to be traversed in about three days. At the second day of rest.
Neia silently took the Flash Sword, laid next to the resting Faria and she set foot on the rest of her journey. She has stepped out.
In fact, the Flash sword didnât have the special power that she expected, but it was stronger than the wooden sword that chooses a bad place because of the fact that it usually breaks. The monsters are at best rock dolls and blood worms (They are more ferocious and quicker than sand worms) and Neiaâs technique was never delayed. After about an hour of struggle with them, Faria caught up and kicked Neia away.
âYour punishment. âŚâŚYour training was to fight with a wooden sword, so you receive punishment for skipping itâ
Thatâs all there is to it and Faria forgives Neia. It was supposed to be so.
However, a huge monster appeared there. ăDevilă Orn. At that time, he had bat wings and five long arms on a body that neither resembles a giant snake, lizard, nor centipede and was aiming for the hero and the hero candidate who had been alert from the depths of the labyrinth.
-
âFaria didnât dodge the first blow. To protect me from being kicked and falling, she intercepted that light bullet with a normal sword that couldnât really bear it. âŚâŚThe sword was broken and Fariaâs dominant arm broke in the middleâ
ââŚâŚâŚâŚâ
It hurt just to hear it.
âAnd then, even with that condition, she fought against the devilâŚâŚI couldnât even try to help. I couldnât figure out how to fight such a big demonâŚâŚâ
âYeah. You werenât fighting any specific enemies, you couldnât fight any bad enemies, you didnât have the power to apply. Faria was always worried that the basics were too fragileâ
Flash sword complements. Neia kept her face hidden in her hat, ignoring it and continuing.
âStill, when I thought that Faria would die, I was moving my body before I knew itâŚâŚ then the Flash Sword acted for the first time. But at most, I cut one of its five arms. I wasnât the one who could manage only with the performance of the swordâ
-
However, Faria and Neia escaped in the gap created by the damage. However, Faria with a broken arm has a limit to move without care and pokes her knees in the middle. If you looked closely, the whole body was full of scratches due to the fight with the devil and it was not possible for ordinary people to move. Still, Faria put on her beloved hat on Neia who was trying to escape with Faria.
âSurvive. This is the last order from meâ
âFaria!â
âChildren should listen to their parents. âŚâŚGive the Flash Sword to the next Flash Knight. Iâm sorry, Flash Sword. It is unlikely that I can bear your power with my dominant hand like thisâ
âI knowâ
Soon after being surprised by the sword speaking for the first time, Neia is pushed by Faria, who senses the sign of the approaching devil.
âA hero is a profession that protects someone and dies. Understand, Neia, you will someday protect someone and die. âŚâŚSo if you think itâs bad for you, survive. If you want to survive, live for as long as possible, live, win, protect everyone and then die. âŚâŚThe last teaching of me as a heroâ
âButâŚâŚâ
âYou canât beat him. I canât get away from him. The answer is fixed.Courage is a decision, Neia. âŚâŚGo ahead! My death is wasted if you didnât escape!â
âNeia, run. If you think of her, run. Run and get out of hereâ
âButâŚâŚâ
âThis is your punishmentâ
â!â
âItâs a punishment for you who thought up. It was a punishment for you when you thought you could wield the sword of a hero. If you did not do that, Faria would have won. You are to blame. Get punished. Let Faria go and run awayâ
âNext hero, survive until you can defeat him. I am angry. I am deeply angry that I cannot kill that devilâ
âTssâŚâŚâ
Neia hesitated. And at the end she ran.
Only the devil called Orn would know what happened to Faria afterwards.
-
âAfter that, I delivered the sword to the royal palaceâŚâŚthen I was officially appointed as the Flash knight Grans. Then I retrained with other heroes and hero candidates at the Royal Training Center, after many battles as a hero, again I challenged Orn a few months agoâ
ââŚâŚâŚâŚâ
âWithout defeating him, I canât face either the Flash Sword or Faria. When I return to Kalwin, the Flash Sword will be confiscated because of my long-term disappearance. Before that, I was going to dive into the labyrinth again and settle it with the devil, but what I found here saved me a lot of workâ
âBut can you win, with that body?â
I donât think his movement was such a huge creature. Most of the body is destroyed, and in reconstructing it, it seems that it corresponds to high-speed combat with a small body. The adaptability for that battle may be well above Breakcore.
âI can win. If nobody else is there, there are trumps that I couldnât use at that timeâ
ââŚâŚReleasing the power of the Flash Swordâ
The Flash Sword pulsed a rainbow of light.
âYes. If I release this strength, one blow will determine the gameâ
âBut Neia canât withstand itâ
âItâs not that Iâve been scratched like that because of elegance and cautionâ
Neia casts a spell from above the bandage. When tapped, the bandage and underarmour made a metallic sound. A spell to cure it?
âSmithson-san. If something happens, I ask youâ
ââŚâŚI, If?â
âYou may also run away with this sword. If that happens, please visit the Royal Palace of Kalwinâ
âI, Idiot, thatâs where youâre going to win, so watch itâ
ââŚâŚMaybe thatâs right. But now Iâm a revenger. Thereâs not enough of a hero to protect someone and dieâ
Neiaâs smile on her own.
âItâs embarrassing, but Iâm excited about the opportunity to defeat that guy with this handâ
âThereâs no other way. I´m the sameâ
The Flash Sword is in tune with Neia. I sighed.
ââŚâŚFoolishâ
âExcuse meâ
âAt times like that, we talk about it after we win. âŚâŚIâll tell you, because I own you one as you saved meâ
A lender that dragged you into a dark place, took off your clothes, massaged your boobs and warmed you up. âŚâŚItâs because I donât think it sounds like a debt.
âAfter winningâŚâŚ?â
âIâll take a bath with you to thank you for this time, so Iâll tell you what, but Iâll listen to youâ
â!!â
ââŚâŚYouâre a lot cheaper than a hero. Is that courage?â
I think itâs different. Flash sword.
âSo donât be the heroine of tragedy without permission. I donât want a guy who works hard to have a boring endingâ
ââŚâŚYe, Yesâ
âGoodâ
I return the cloak to Neia who directly wear it.
âThen, how about going to find that guy?â
âYeâŚâŚYesâ
âIt looks like itâs getting dark, so letâs go outsideâ
We crawl out of the cave. And. we saw a pale monster smiling over the snowfield.
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