"Is that why you hate her?" Hagiwara asked Akari.
"It's not just hate. It's... You wouldn't understand."
"Of course I wouldn't."
Akari had just finished telling him about why she tried to attack the monster that came to the city earlier that day.
Although it's not what she wanted, Hagiwara didn't sympathise with her, and she knew why.
A dragon that easily destroyed an entire city, killing thousands upon thousands. A beast that spared her life, yet she just tried attacking it with a simple spear.
"It's not just a regular spear!" She shouted. "I don't know why, but somehow, every monster I've faced has died from just touching it."
That means that she thought it would have the same effect on the dragon. She was leaving too many questions unanswered though.
"How did you get it?"
"I don't really know how to explain it. It just, appeared in my hand one day."
"Give me details."
After waking up in the forest, she didn't know what to do. Confusion had struck her to her very core. The best idea she could come up with was to look for a place to go. But she didn't know where to start.
So she wandered aimlessly around the wilderness, hoping to see someone who could help.
While there, a monster attacked her. It was unlike any monster you'd see in games and isekai animes with an incredibly wide human like body, but the head of some kind of a lizard.
She was scared by it. Her feet grew numb from the fear and all she could do was crawl backwards. Luckily for her, it was relatively slow.
When she realized this, she decided to get up and run. But she already backed up into a cliff face.
She was terrified. Her body shook and tears came from her eyes. Then, almost instinctively, she grabbed a stick next to her and pointed it at the monster with her eyes closed.
What she didn't expect was the monster to suddenly fall to the ground like a large boulder.
When she opened her eyes, she was shocked to realize that she wasn't holding a stick anymore.
She mastered up her courage and hesitantly pulled it out. But the liquid it came out with made her vomit uncontrollably.
Then she looked at what she pulled out and it turned out to be a spear. The same one she's currently using.
"That's it? A conveniently placed twig turned into a spear? What even is that?"
"I don't know either. Also, it seems to be really heavy. At least from what I've learnt."
She made it appear in her hand again. Then she lowered it on the ground and let go.
It sunk into the wooden floor, almost breaking it and falling underneath. It shocked Hagiwara.
"How can you even lift that? It doesn't make sense."
"Another thing is, when other people touch it, well... They can't let go. Their hands get stuck on it. Like two magnets stuck on each other."
The topic on the weapon lasted a few minutes. Hagiwara had a lot of questions on it.
After sometime, they ran out of things to talk about. And Akari felt scared of asking him about how he's been. Instead, she wanted to know something else.
"What were the monsters doing in the city anyway? Why didn't anyone fight them?"
"Oh. Right. They were here to discuss a peace treaty with the people."
"Peace? We're talking about a monster that destroyed a whole city. And that same monster came to talk peace? And judging by how peacefully they left..."
"An agreement was made."
Since Hagiwara made her fall unconscious, she didn't know much about it. So he explained everything.
After the monsters left, the details of the treaty were spread to not just the whole city, but all other nations as well.
The monsters made a promise not to attack, interfere with, or show hostility to humans.
In fact, they went as far as suggesting trade among the species. They offered ores and other raw materials, spices, ancient jewelry, and even monster material.
An offer like that must've sounded like a threat to the emperor. If he didn't take the offer, who knows what they would've done to them.
So trade routes were agreed upon. Humans were allowed access to the nation of the monsters. And it was not merchants only.
In order to ensure that both sides are keeping their end of the deal for peace, a group of each race was allowed to visit the other in order to confirm.
On the part of the monsters, all they heard to do was make sure that humans aren't planning any attack. Whether secretly or not. It was easy for them to do so since they could use magic to listen to other people's conversations easily, to see far, and sense ill intent. That wasn't the case with humans.
For them to do that, they would need magic devices or specific people with that skill. Still, even if they do that, it'll still be hard to confirm. Monsters could put up barriers that deceive what others see, or they could just speak another language.
It hasn't been confirmed if they have other languages, so it's a possibility.
Another term that puts humans at a disadvantage. But they could still use some tricks. It all depends on whether they have the confidence to do so.
If any party violates the terms, let's say by attacking the other, then either two things will happen.
The party that attacked first is made to suffer the consequences of their actions. Whether by death or reparations. What makes it scary is that anything could be used as reparations.
It's either that, or the treaty is made null and void, and If that happens, the outcome might be extinction level or an endless war.
"Is there more?" Akari asked." Surely there has to be."
"There is, but that's all that might concern us."
Akari fell silent for a while. Then she sighed and rubbed her face with her hands.
"Why us? Why did this happen to us? And why this world? Could this be hell?"
"Who knows. It might be. And If it's not, then there has to be a way to fix it."
"Fix what? A whole world?"
"No... Our lives."
"How?"
"By becoming strong."
"What are you talking about?"
Hagiwara turned his head to the side, hinting that he was talking about their earrings.
"The character on the earring, it means-hero- and we both have it. Remember what the goddess called us?"
"Heroes."
"That's right. And according to her, heroes are strong. That means that we might be strong as well, we just don't know it. I mean, I can use magic and it's really cool."
Akari didn't say anything and only looked at him.
"Do you know how shocked I was when I said-status open- and a freaking screen appeared in front of me. That's so cool."
'Wait.' Akari thought. 'This entire time, has he been, an otaku?'
Then she remembered something.
"Hey, Hagiwara. Will we ever meet the others? Are they okay?" She was sad, most likely because of Fumiko.
"There's something I want to talk about. Have you heard about a Hero Academy?"
"Hero academy?"
"Yeah. Apparently, it's being built in this empire. We should try to get in. I get the feeling that we might meet the others there."
"Hero academy? Will we be in the same class as them? I mean, we're already fi... Wait, how old are you? You look my age, does that mean that you also appeared in the body of a little kid?"
"Actually, I'm one year old."
That answer shocked Akari. They looked the same age and she was roughly six. But he was one?
"I appeared in the body of a new born."
"Huh? But we look the same age."
"I think I grow faster than normal. Let's not focus on that now."
"I think we should absolutely focus on it."
"What say you, about joining the hero academy? Wanna work together and find a way to get in?"
He held out his hand to her, hoping that she would shake it.
"Hero academy, huh. Can we enter as we are?"
"We'll find out. The age requirement, when we can get in, all those things. We can do it. What do you think?"
She thought about it for a while. Then a smile appeared on her face and she shook his hand.
"Yeah. Let's do it."
They looked at each other with satisfied expressions. Now they had something they wanted to do.
Hagiwara could make his new life better than how it's been ever since he appeared in this world. All he wanted was to make it comfortable like it once was.
Akari wanted to find Fumiko. She wanted a reunion with her best friend and everyone else in their class.
The easiest way to do that, was to join the hero academy.
A few days ago...
The emperor and his daughter were standing on a balcony of their palace, looking at the dark skies. The meeting with other nobles had just come to an end. He was really tired.
"Father. I'm going to go to my room now. You need to rest up."
"R... Right."
He watched his daughter walk away and felt pity for her.
She had just lost her mother, yet she still looked so well behaved. He was sorry for not being able to do anything.
He felt powerless. The enemy of mankind was literally going to be a god. And no heroes were found to help fight.
"Heroes... That's it."
He somehow remembered what the high priest said to him. The heroes of the next generation have appeared. They're alive.
But he didn't know how to get to them. The priest disappeared before he could find them. So how was he going to find them.
He lost hope. There was nothing he could do. Or at least, nothing he could think of doing.
"There is something you could do." He heard someone's voice, but didn't bother to look at him.
It was a man he's never seen before. He only knows his name and actions, but doesn't know what he looked like.
He stood sideways on the wall of the balcony under his majesty's feet. Somehow, he wasn't falling, nor was he scared.
A man popularly known as, Nerezza Vingar.
"What could I do? Nerezza Vingar has ascended. If he were to return, he would be able to destroy all of mankind in a heartbeat."
He didn't know the man he was talking about was standing right underneath him.
"You could teach them. Teach others who might have power how to use it. The priest didn't specify how many heroes there were. It could be hundreds."
"That's not possible though."
"Think about it. The goddess wouldn't let you fight something she knows you can't beat. She must've blessed you with a whole army of heroes in order to win. They're probably still young though if the priest knew of them only recently. All you have to do is find them and teach them how to fight."
"How do I do that?"
"You know how. Young ones? A large number of them? You need to teach them?"
An idea struck the emperor and he opened his mouth in realization. Then he walked away hurriedly and completely ignored whoever was talking to him.
The person smiled softly as his body turned to ash and vanished into thin air.
That was the day that the emperor got the idea.
The idea to build an academy of heroes.
The Hero Academy.
...
The goddess, while seated on her throne listened to the questions that a fog was asking. The fog had surrounded her and, judging by the tone of their speeches, they've been at it for quite a while.
"Were there only two of them?" The fog asked. "Surely there's more."
"You know of heaven's selfishness. Of course it took another. But one that I didn't expect. He goes by the name, Riku Sota."
"Hmm? Didn't he start all of this?"
"That's why I didn't expect him to be taken. Honestly, I was hoping to put him in a place far worse than hell. But heaven took him of all the twenty three left."
"Why though?"
"Don't know don't care. I'm just glad that he at least suffered a little."
...
Five years later...
In the middle of the night, there were knights who fought what they called a monster that had set an orphanage to fire.
Many children had perished, so did the adults that were taking care of it.
The knights shouted at the creature to show itself while they pointed their swords around.
From under some rubble, a kid with a head injury crawled out, wanting to escape the seen.
He saw the soldiers who looked like they were fighting a ghost or something invisible.
Suddenly, the kid heard a gunshot, which he immediately recognised what it was, then one knight fell to the ground.
Another shot was fired and it took out two other knights.
The last one was terrified. He dropped his sword and ran away shouting that a monster was attacking them. But he didn't make it that far.
A headshot from the back was enough to drop him.
The kid was terrified. He wanted to run, but his legs were stuck. Then he head something approach him from the dark.
A man wearing a wide cowboy hat appeared into the light of the fire. Then he started to complain about something, as if talking to himself.
"Huh? What are you talking about?!"
He was holding two handguns and he swang them around in anger, shooting in every direction.
"You mean to tell me that the demon lord is fighting with the humans?! THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE!"
One of the bullets hit the shoulder of the kid and he screamed in pain. Then the person noticed him.
He approached the kid slowly without pointing his gun at him.
The he crouched down to his level and looked at him closely.
That's when the kid noticed that he wasn't a man at all. The skin on his neck looked pale, like that of an undead. Same case with that on his hand and the side of his face.
But his face from the front looked like that of a regular old man. Then he noticed the stitches going around the cheeks and screamed in fear from the realization.
He was wearing someone else's face.
The man then smiled at the kid, making it even more scary. He kept screaming loudly for so long that he passed out and laid on the ground.
The man kept looking at the unconscious kid for a while then cackled loudly.
"It's funny every time." He said while wiping a tear from his eye.
"Hey boss... I've found someone we could use. And I have a great idea how."