Chapter 28 /// Aria, The Water Hero ///
Aria Michlet was raised in an environment where everybody around her loved her.
Her beautiful appearance and the water magic she has been practicing since she was a child have attracted people, but the most important thing is her hair.
Many generations of water heroes had light blue hair. Furthermore, Aria is skilled in water magic.
If that happens, it is only natural that her parents and people around her would have high expectations. This child will become the Water Hero in the future! and the like.
In fact, she was discovered by the water heroes of that time, and even received special training from the age of eight.
Her talent for water magic is outstanding. It seemed that this was already a definite brave person, but Aria’s lips always pouted.
“I don’t want to be a Hero… I want to be a bride”
Aria doesn’t like fighting very much, and is more attracted to housewives and innkeepers than to Heroes.
Every time she skipped her training, she would sneak into a store in the castle town and imitate a shopkeeper.
“Hey! if you’re not motivated to do it, I’m not gonna teach you anymore!”
And even though the Hero was angry with her, she stuck out her tongue and…
“I don’t have problem with that. In fact, I’m going to thank you for that~”
She ends up being teased about it.
At the end of the day, the person himself had stepped out of the path of the Hero.
A turning point came to her when she was only ten years old.
At the time, the Kingdom of Valenciu, where Aria lives, had been at war for a long time with the Kingdom of Orst, which follows the Dark Hero.
The reason for the conflict across the continent was originally to fight for the magic tools, but as it continued, it was now driven by emotions.
However, these two countries finally came to a truce. The Kingdom of Valenciu was the first to propose the truce.
The reason for this was the presence of the Dark Hero on the other side. In the few years since he took office, he has surpassed his predecessor, who was said to be the strongest of all time.
If there was to be a full-scale war and he came out of it, there was a possibility that Valenciu would be completely defeated.
“Why can’t you just fight him, Master? Both of you are Hero”
Aria asked her mentor a simple question.
Then, with a pained look on her face, she responds.
“I’ll tell you something interesting. For example, let’s say I challenge him head on. A minute later, I’m in heaven”
“That weak?!”
“It’s not that I’m weak. It’s that he’s strong”
Aria was disillusioned by her master’s brazen statement and vowed never to become a Hero.
Anyway, the day of the declaration of truce finally arrived, and the town was enveloped in a strange atmosphere. Aria was among the people who gathered in the square that day.
She was curious to know what kind of person the Dark Hero was.
The Dark Hero who appeared as the king’s bodyguard was wearing a mask, so his true face could not be seen. Aria thought. It must be a mask to hide his evil smile.
A dangerous dark user who is even brave enough to be a Hero. He must definitely be a dangerous guy, she thought.
Tired of watching the dark heroes, Aria tries to leave the square. However, an incident occurred there.
There was a group of people who had conspired to kill the King of Orst. They were the Resistance, an anti-organization group, and they were the ones who had opposed the declaration of the truce.
The people were involved in the attack. They even brought out a summoned beast. What was out of control was the fact that the sorcerer couldn’t handle the summoned beast and went out of control, attacking the people.
It was a three-headed dog demon called Cerberus.
“I’m going to stop it”
Aria’s heart is inspired by the hurting people, and she stands bravely in front of Cerberus.
Even though she had skipped her training, her magical abilities were still way off compared to others her age.
Water Heroes must have an aptitude for the water and ice attributes, and there are no Ice Heroes. However, it depends on the hero of the generation whether he is good at water or ice.
There are even heroes who are strong in water magic but third-rate in ice magic. And vice versa.
What about Aria then?
She had a strong aptitude for both.
Therefore, it was expected that she would also become the strongest hero of all time.
In other words, he was quite strong, and he was proud to be as strong as Cerberus.
But the result was - a disastrous defeat.
Cerberus’s agility made it difficult for her magic to hit him, and the attacks from the three heads were so fierce that she was on the defensive from the start.
Finally, she is cornered, and when one of the heads tries to bite Aria off, she pees herself for the first time in her life.
“He…Hel…”
She couldn’t even say “help” properly, and death seemed to be in sight. But it was not coming at all.
Why?
When I shivered and checked the world, I found Cerberus, who had collapsed and stopped moving before I knew it. Next to him was that masked - the Dark Hero.
“You all right?”
It’s not like she imagined. The soft sound of his voice made Aria cry out in relief.
The Dark Hero gently stroked her head several times.
“It’s all over now. You can go home to your mother”
The face of the Dark Hero who said this and took off his mask for a brief moment was so fresh and soft that it was hard to believe that he was a Dark user.
DOKUN, Her heart starts to beat faster.
At the same time, for the first time in her life, Aria had a clear longing for the profession of Hero.
From that day on, Aria’s attitude toward life changed drastically.
She trained himself to death. Two years later, she inherited the Ring of Heroism, at the age of twelve because of her talent.
With the addition of her master to the party, the heroic activities have begun, but something brings Aria into contact with the Dark Hero - Shion.
They even succeeded in working together, but Shion, who was seven years older than her, always treated Aria like a younger sister, which frustrated her a little.
Oh well… she said as she gave up.
Shion had a girlfriend.
She was a beautiful woman with long hair.
But one day, the woman is attacked by a demon and dies while Shion is away.
Aria tried to comfort the grieving Shion, but a serious problem arose here as well.
The king ordered her not to be too friendly with the Dark Heroes. A truce was made, but the long-standing hatred has not disappeared.
It meant that two Heroes representing their country should not act together in a dignified manner.
Apparently, the same thing was happening on Shion’s side.
The pressure is so strong that they gradually drift apart.
However, Aria decided that she would definitely come back to see him when the situation had cooled down.
Nearly five years have passed since then.
Aria has become more feminine, and more and more men are wooing her. Just as she was starting to grow her hair out and learn how to dress up to meet Shion, she heard something she didn’t like.
“I heard that Master Axe, the Dark Hero, has passed away”
At first, she was shocked, thinking her heart would freeze.
She immediately went to check with her master, who was no longer in the party. She had always been sensitive to that kind of information.
“Master, there’s a strange rumor going around. They say Shion-san is dead. Silly me, that can’t be true”
Aria had a bad feeling about the Master who did not reply and looked down.
“…It seems that that rumor is real, though. I heard that they are looking for a successor now”
A lot of emotions went through her mind, but the first thing Aria did was to scream.
“It’s not true! It’s not true! There’s no way Shion-san, THAT Shion-san, is dead!”
Aria starts to cry even though she tells herself strongly not to cry, because not once before has her master’s information been wrong.
Still, humans are not perfect.
Believing it to be a mistake, Aria decided to travel to the Kingdom of Orst.
Leaving her own country, she first entered the neighboring Kingdom of Rodan. At the inn in the village where she stopped for a rest, Aria sighed alone.
“…Shion-san……i want to meet you……”
The strongest person I’ve ever met.
You can’t die so easily.
But there are some things I’ve learned after six years as a hero. A human being can die from even the slightest mistake.
While she was alone in her room with her head in her hands, the Inn Keeper knocked on the door in a panic.
“Miss Hero! We need your help!!!!”
When she asked him what was going on, he told her that he had been attacked by a demon.
Unable to stay down, Aria stood up and rushed to the scene, rapier in hand.
There was something that looked like a demon fox near a private house, and at first, she thought she was going to defeat it.
She had a hunch that it was strong, but she couldn’t run away, so she attacked.
‘You got it all wrong!! I’m the not-so-bad kind of demon~”
She couldn’t swing her sword if he appealed to her in such an eloquent way.
“Where’s the demon?”
When I checked my surroundings, I saw that there was a hole in the wall of the house. The white fox calls out to the master who must be inside.
Aria was convinced that it must be outstanding person to have such a demon as a follower.
And out from inside came the vortex.
A moment later, Aria’s thoughts are completely burned out.
An unthinkable miracle had occurred.
The person who emerges from inside is the one that Aria has been seeking, the one that she has been dying to meet.