Chapter 12: 500-Year-Old Story
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The next morning found me inside the village chief's house, dusting shelves, organizing papers and books, etc.
Why was I doing this, you may ask? It's because the village chief was currently occupied negotiating with a group of merchants regarding the preparations for the upcoming Ilias ceremony. There were orders that needed to be placed, supplies to count, prices to negotiate, and a whole list of things required to properly welcome the new batch of heroes this year. Everything had to be perfect.
Due to the amount of work, the old man had not had much time to clean around the house and organize his things. That's why when he arrived at the training grounds that morning and asked if anyone could help him in exchange for payment, I was the first to volunteer.
So here I am tidying up. I wasn't just doing this for the money. I also wanted a break.
Since I arrived in this world, my routine has essentially consisted of training, training, training, nearly blowing myself up, training some more, and then returning to training. My body could handle a lot, and with Meditation doing its work, I was fine 24/7, but mentally I needed to wind down. Helping the chief clean up his own gave me an excuse to take it easy without feeling lazy.
More importantly, I also wanted to learn some things about this world, and what better way than to read the contents in the chief's study? The room was filled to the brim with helpful information.
Shelves lined the walls, stacked with old storybooks, village records, loose parchments, maps, notes, trade lists, old fairy tales, and whatever else the village chief had collected over the years. Some of it was boring, sure, but it could still be useful to me. I needed to learn as much as possible about this world beyond what I remembered from the game, especially since Suu existing here already proved Canon had gone out for milk and would never come back.
I had been on this since early morning, and by the time I reached the study, the rest of the home had been cleaned. The floors had been swept, the tables dusted, the loose items returned to their shelves, and the windows cracked open to let fresh air in each of the rooms. With my superhuman body, I got all of it done in two hours.
Right now I was on the home stretch, dusting one of the higher shelves while quietly singing a song from my old world. Tell me if you've heard this one. "Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow! Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow! Fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow! What the fox say?" My shoulders moved with the lyrics.
With my perfect memory, the lyrics came back as easily as breathing. I didn't understand why I was singing this particular song, but it felt right. A-hee-ahee ha-hee. A-hee-ahee ha-hee. A-hee-ahee ha-hee. What the fox say?"
I paused mid-dust, just going with the beat, my hair blocking my eyes, swerving as I sang the lyrics. Considering the world I was in, maybe I should change the song to 'What does the fox girl say.'
I looked a little different today. My hair was swept over to the right side of my face, covering my right eye. I wasn't trying to look mysterious or edgy, but I had to admit that the style worked. No, I was hiding my eye because of what happened that morning.
While I slept, something inside me had shifted for lack of better words. I woke up in pain, feeling heat rushing through my body, and my right eye burning like someone had shoved a hot spike through my skull. When I looked in the mirror, the sky-blue iris I'd been beginning to get used to was gone. In its place was a bright yellow eye.
It was a strange experience seeing your own right eye change color like that. On the bright side, I didn't feel weird. I felt fine. Better than fine. My body felt warm, energized, and stable.
The bad news, though, was that the change was permanent. Walking around the village with a brand-new eye color would make people suspicious. Everyone here knew what Luka looked like. They had seen him grow up. If I suddenly showed up with heterochromia, people were bound to ask questions.
So, I decided to keep my hair over the eye until I could make some sunglasses.
The yellow eye thankfully didn't glow all the time, or I'd be in trouble. Currently, it looked mostly normal aside from the unnatural color. I did a little bit of testing, and as far as I could tell, it only lit up when I used my powers. That made it easier to hide.
Once I finished up, I opened the window of the study a little wider and let the morning breeze enter. I looked proudly at my work. "Not a bad job if I do say so myself." I then grabbed a chair and positioned it in front of the central table and sat down in front of the material I had already picked out.
The material consisted of thirteen books, multiple maps, and several loose and even very old parchments. "Alright," I muttered, rubbing my hands together. "Let's begin." I flipped through one of the heroic story books and began reading.
Many of the books were about past heroes and their deeds, with Heinrich being the most famous of them all. Because the story was five hundred years old, there were several versions of the Epic of Heinrich, so there were bound to be some differences between each retelling, but they all went something like this.
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Once upon a time, in an age when the moon glowed a vivid purple and fear spread across the land, a terrible monster stood at the pinnacle of her power. With her army, she spearheaded a campaign to enslave humanity and usher in an age of darkness.
Under her command, monsters rampaged across the world in endless waves. They destroyed countless villages, turning women into monsters and men into sex slaves. Humanity did its best to fight back the horde. Soldiers took up their swords, shields, and spears, and kingdoms that were not brought to ruin allied together to put up a resistance in the face of this threat. Thousands of soldiers went into the throes of war, but even the bravest of them were no match before the monster army's might.
It seemed as if all would be lost as humanity could do nothing but hide in their homes, praying to the Goddess Ilias for salvation.
Until one day, a lone man appeared on the battlefield. His name was Heinrich.
With the power of nature at his side and an unwavering heart, Heinrich raised his sword against the Monster Lord's army. Wherever monsters terrorized the innocent, he arrived to defend them. Wherever soldiers were on the brink of losing hope, he inspired them to fight again by his side. In the depths of despair, Heinrich was the beacon of light.
His battles were fierce and seemingly without end, yet the hero never surrendered, cutting through the monster hordes until his journey brought him to the edge of the world in the north.
Beneath a blackened sky, a dark castle awaited him. Heinrich opened its towering doors and entered. He made his way through the corridors until he found the throne room.
Inside, sitting on a black throne, was the Monster Lord herself, Black Alice. The rule of monsters looked down upon the hero with a smile as beautiful as poison poured into a golden cup. Her gentle-appearing face hid beneath a cruel and twisted black heart steeped in darkness.
"My, my." spoke the Monster Lord, resting her cheek upon her hand. "So, you are the one who has been making all that ruckus. You sure are brave, coming all the way here. I think I shall make you my pet and play with you."
Heinrich, unbothered by her words, stepped forward. His sword shone faintly, carrying the faith of every person who had believed in him and every companion who had helped him along his journey.
"Monster Lord," Heinrich declared, "I have come to end this conflict. I implore you, stop your attempt to rule the world. If you don't, then I have no choice but to stop you by force."
Black Alice merely laughed at his rquest. She rose from her throne and told the hero she would kill him. But before that, she would break his pride, shatter his will, and drain him until he became nothing more than a shell of himself.
Heinrich drew his sword, and the battle began.
Black Alice raised one hand, and a mass of purple-fleshed darkness spiraled to life. Monstrous jaws emerged from the shadows, wide enough to swallow men whole, and flew toward Heinrich with ravenous hunger. But the hero cut them apart one by one, his blade flashing like starlight in the dark.
For the first time, Black Alice was shaken, not believing a human was capable of such power.
Heinrich charged, but the Monster Lord whispered a curse, and the castle floor became a sea of black thorns. They wrapped around his legs, pierced his armor, and drank his blood. Black Alice howled with laughter as mankind's hero struggled beneath her power.
Seeking to shatter both his will and pride like she said he would, she cast an illusion of all the people he had failed to save. Their voices cried his name. Their hands reached for him. They cursed him, wailed for him, and blamed him for allowing them to die.
Black Alice in her arrogance walked closer to the hero. But bleeding and wounded, Heinrich stood refused to keel and moved forward. His sword began to glow and for the first time, Black Alice stopped smiling as the hero swung his weapon.
The castle and even the surrounding areas trembled under the force of their attacks.
Their battle devastated the castle and the land, terrifying the monsters in the area as they fleed for their lives. The battle was so intense that it climbed into the skies above.
Storms of fire rained down, burning everything in sight. Whirlpools of water spun through the air as tornadoes roared endlessly, and the earth itself rose upward before crashing down against the Monster Lord. Feeling truly threatened, Black Alice spared no expense, unleashing her wicked magic to engulf the hero completely.
The clash of light and darkness illuminated the sky.
At last, wounded and breathless, Heinrich stood above the near-dying form of the Monster Lord. His armor was broken. His body was bleeding. His sword, however, still shone with a brilliant multitude of colors.
Beaten and unable to retaliate, Black Alice cursed him with her final breath.
Heinrich raised his blade one last time and brought it down.
Light engulfed the Monster Lord and Hellgondo with her.
The battle had ended. The hero triumphed over the Monster Lord, freeing humanity from her reign and forcing the monster army to halt their campaign and retreat.
For his courage, his sacrifice, and his service to mankind, the Goddess Ilias rewarded Heinrich by ascending him to the heavens.
The End.
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"The End." I closed the book, and for a few seconds, I just stared at the cover. "Wow," I muttered, leaning back in the chair. "That was shit." Don't get me wrong. I liked the story. My issue was with the ending.
Don't get me wrong. I liked the story. The fighting was cool, the imagery was great, and Heinrich sounded like the kind of hero people would dick ride for probably another five hundred years. He was the genuine article. My issue was the ending.
Everyone believed this was how the story went. Heinrich defeated Black Alice. Ilias rewarded him by lifting him up to the heavens. Humanity was saved. Happy ending, roll credits. Couldn't be simpler, right? Well, no, because the bitch was still alive. Ilias saved her ass to use as a pawn in her schemes, giving me a future headache waiting for me. As for Heinrich... He found out how full of shit Ilias was and confronted her and her armies all by himself in heaven, slaying who knows how many angels and gaining the moniker Angel Killer. But he couldn't take down Ilias and ultimately died at Ilias's hands and had his soul imprisoned.
I breathed through my nose, unable to help the pissed look on my face. Could you blame me? He did so much for the world only to end up sealed for over five hundred years. I couldn't help but feel frustrated by his situation.
Opening the book back near the end, I looked at the illustration. The page showed the sky on fire, tornadoes tearing through the air, whirlpools twisting above the castle, and chunks of earth floating around. In the middle of all that chaos stood Heinrich, his sword pointed down toward Black Alice, while black tendrils lashed out from her body toward him.
I stared at the scene longer than I meant to. "Can I really do this one day?" The thought slipped out. With enough training, could I reach that level in the elements?
Now that I have the fate of this world hanging on my shoulders, I needed to achieve at least this much. That alone was enough to make my fingers tighten slightly around the page. Despite my bravado, the thought of fighting a goddess was still frightening. "Get a hold of yourself!" I knock some sense into myself. If Luka can do it, then so hell can I!
Plus, I needed to keep my head focused on the endgame of what I would get once I won.
That's right. I was going through all this for the reward of living my life how I wanted and my very own sexy monster girl harem!
"Hehe." I couldn't help the smile creeping on my face. So many sexy women out there just waiting for me.
Coughing into my hands, I go back to the book again. I found plenty of details about Heinrich, but there was no telling which ones were true and which ones weren't. One section claimed he was descended from royalty, but it didn't specify which kingdom he belonged to. Funnily enough, it was still a topic discussed today, but because he was so highly respected and had done humanity a tremendous service, no human kingdom claimed to have blood ties with the legendary hero.
That being said, the idea brought up a question. 'Que estrango. I don't remember Heinrich being a noble in the game.' My game knowledge was useful, but it wasn't absolute. Suu was proof of that.
Maybe Heinrich really was royalty. Who could tell? The man did exist over five centuries ago. In any case, it doesn't matter because even if people knew about my blood relation to him, it's not like I had any claim to some throne, especially in this day and age. Also, I don't like the idea of being in charge. Nope, fuck that.
I set the book aside and moved on to another story as important and relevant as the Epic of Heinrich. The Great Monster Wars.
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