In a realm where silence swallowed sound, And shadows wept upon the ground, No breeze, no stars, no pulse, no flame, Just endless dark without a name.
The sky hung low, a velvet shroud, The earth beneath, a barren cloud. No beast, no bird, no breath, no cry, Just stillness where all dreams go die.
And there she stood, alone, unblessed, A ghost in skin, her soul at rest. No tears, no voice, no fear, no goal- staring into a drifting soul.
Lucid glow in violet hue, It pulsed with grief the void once knew. A memory, a wound, a toll, The last light in a world grown cold.
"I'm sorry..."
The words slipped from cracked lips, barely more than breath.
"I should've... I should've stopped it. I should've fought harder, I could've protected you."
Her fingers trembled as they reached toward the pulsing soul, and with a gentleness unknown to this realm, she drew it close, nestled it against her hollow chest.
"You'll live now," she whispered, voice like fading wind.
"Remember... Even if the stars themselves curse your name,
even if the universe turns to strike you down…
I'll always be with you.
I'll always love you.
I'll always stand behind watching you and your voyage, supporting you."
A slow glow bled from her form, dim at first, then blinding.
"I promise you that we'll meet again… I swear it on the stars beyond. And when that time comes, I promise I'll never let you go again."
She held the soul as gently but also as hard as she could.
"Until then... Please live your life to the fullest, have fun, and experience all the things you couldn't, and when the right time comes... I'll join you."
Then a bright and large magic circle appeared beneath her before a huge explosion happened.
A soft explosion of shimmering fragments,
like stars torn from a forgotten heaven.
They swirled, sang silently, and slipped into the pulsating soul.
And the soul… It was nowhere. Gone.
Pulled into the void beneath or beyond it.
No trace remained.
Only stillness.
.
.
.
The Kingdom of Ingracia, a large country with a differed structural architectural buildings that is unique even to the other countries. It is a moderately modern country.
And at the center of the country is a large academy. The Freedom Academy, it is a unique academy that houses and teaches stray otherworlders who accidentally appeared in this world from a planet named Earth. The academy helps this lost people to adapt to this new world.
Inside one of the classrooms of the distinguished academy had 6 people in it, 5 were kids, although the academy was supposed to be housinh otherworlders, an exception occured because 5 of the kids in the room are summoned ones, different from stray otherworlders who accidentally arrived in this world.
Summoned ones are people who got summoned by nations or a group of skilled magicians to serve as weapons. Although, summoned ones have a problem. They are bound to the Summoner so that they couldn't rebel against them and could only follow their orders, another problem is that due to the cooldown set between each summons the Summoners have found another way to continuously summon people but the problem is that the Summons results kids being Summoned instead of an adult.
Summoned Ones whose body is already matured can take in the massive magicules that comes with their summon to this World while also acquiring a unique skill true to their desire. But kids summons are different, their bodies aren't matured and they usually don't acquire any Skills so they are left with overwhelming amount of magicules which as time passes would run rampant and kill them. Unfortunately no solution has come to solve that problem yet.
The adult in the room is also a Summoned one with unknown background or when she got summoned.
She has a long black hair that reaches to her back, her pupils are black and shows a notable kindness within her gaze as she looked at the childrens infront of her, she has 4 vertical burnt lines under her eyes that speaks an unspoken story within. She wore a white cape with black sleeves underneath.
"Ms. Shizu, what are we going to be doing today?" A black haired and black eyed girl named Chloe Aubert asked calmly but also excitedly with her picture books tuckered on her arms.
Chloe Aubert, a quiet and somewhat mature child.
The woman now known as Shizu smiled warmly at Chloe.
"Hmm... Let's see, how about we-" Shizu assumed a thinking position before getting interrupted.
"Isn't it obvious?" An orange haired boy named Kenya Misaki enthusiastically said, "We're obviously going to be doing some sword training, I feel like I'm about to master my flaming sword attack soon!"
Kenya Misaki, a very energetic boy.
"Hmph! Do that yourself then, we're obviously going to be playing with my stuff toys today!" A blonde haired kid with bright green eyes named Alice Rondo spoke holding some stuffed toys before she turned her head to the side huffing, "Not that I really want to, but if Ms Shizu really insisted then maybe..."
Alice Rondo, a bonafide huge tsundere.
"What did you say?!" Kenya glared at Alice, "Well, playing with stuff toys is so boring, practicing with swords would definitely be much more better!"
"What did you just say about my toys?!" Alice glared at Kenya and the two started their usual bantering.
Shizu showed a wry smile looking at the two, "Now, now, you two don't fight." She pacified the two, "Unfortunately we're not going to do the things you spoke of today."
That stopped the two who looked shocked by what Shizu declared as they slumped to the ground defeated. "Eeeh?!" The two let out a disappointed sound.
"I was looking forward to training with spear though..." Gale Gibson a short brown haired individual said sadly.
Gale Gibson, a somewhat enthusiastic kid and a big brother to the kids.
The last kid a medium black haired boy nodded agreeing with Gale.
Ryota Sekiguchi, a shy boy.
"Let's do that tomorrow, alright? For today, how about we-" Shizu got interrupted again but this time by a knock on the door.
She sighed after getting interrupted twice in a row.
"Come in." She welcomed.
Then as if on que the door opened wide showing a black haired guy with black pupils with a somewhat laid back expression but a small smile was present on his face.
"Hey there, Shizu and my favorite five little tornadoes." He greeted teasingly to the kids.
"Ah, it's big brother Yuuki!" The kids said in unison.
"Yes it's indeed me Yuuki Kagurazaka, how are you five doing?"
The kids surrounded Yuuki greeting him in their own way and then talking to him.
Shizu walked over and greeted Yuuki, "How are you Yuuki?"
Yuuki looked up from the kids, "I'm doing pretty well, although work has been catching up to me lately." He complained
"Well you are the Grandmaster of the almighty freedom guild after all." Shizu teased a little with a light chuckle.
Yuuki Kagurazaka, an otherworlder who after living in this world for a while became the Grandmaster of a large commerence guild named the Freedom Guild, which led to him being quite close friends with Shizu who is quite a famous adventurer."
Yuuki smiled wryly, "I wanna retire..."
"Hehe, big brother Yuuki is such an old man." Kenya chided which earned him a pull on the cheek from Yuuki.
Shizu paid no heed to his words as her face became quite serious. "So?" She asked, "I know that a busy person like you wouldn't just come to visit out of nowhere, especially now that as you said, some guilds are plotting against you."
Yuuki grumbled slightly, "Oh, come on, It hurts to be known as someone who only visits for business, I might've just wanted to visit my favorite troublemakers." As he said that looking at the kids while letting go of Kenya's red cheek.
"But unfortunately you're right this time, I didn't come here without much of a reason." His face suddenly turned serious.
"...Just like I thought" Shizu seriously said.
He then looked at the kids who talked amongst themselves. "Sorry, but would you mind if I took your teacher for a bit for a little talk?"
"Eeh? But you just got here!" Gale said pouting.
"That's right!" Alice agreed.
"I'll play with you kids later, okay?" Yuuki promised.
The kids except Chloe hesitantly nodded after a little more convincing.
With that, Shizu and Yuuki left the classrooms and went to another room for a talk but not before Shizu gave them a little assignment to keep them occupied which garnered some protest from the kids.
.
.
.
Standing at the edge just outside of Vernwood Forest was Shizu with her wearing a white mask on her face with a sword at her back just below her waist with her normal fighting gear.
"It's been a while since I've worn this..." She felt nostalgia wash over her."
She held the edge of her sword in nostalgia but it was quickly interrupted as she remembered the reason she was infront of the Forest when she was supposed to be with the kids teaching them.
"...I should've refused his request." She now felt that she should've just flat out refused his request.
She remembered what happened to their talk a few days ago at Freedom Academy.
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[A few days ago]
The two sitted at the opposite sides of a table calmly drank tea.
"So? What's happening out there?" Shizu put the tea on the table and looked at Yuuki.
"I appreciate your straightforward attitude" Yuuki smiled in appreciation, "As well as for listening to my problem despite you being stretched thin with the kids and that other problem that they face."
Shizu just nodded, after all as much as Yuuki troubles her sometimes, it couldn't compare to the amount of times he helped her out, especially with finding a way to help the childrens with their problem, besides, he's her friend.
Yuuki then put the tea on the table. "Actually, in the outskirts of the Ingracia Kingdom, almost at the border of the Farmuth kingdom, there a small town called Lestia and besides the town is a huge forest, the Vernwood forest, that forest is a nest of monsters."
Shizu repeated, "Nest of monsters?"
All of a sudden Shizu felt like she was about to be dragged into a huge troublesome matter but she couldn't back out now that she has decided to hear Yuuki out.
Yuuki nodded. "Typically, it wouldn't be much of a problem because a branch of my guild resides there and so is a bunch of adventurers that helps protect the town, but a few weeks ago, I've received reports that Monsters have started leaving the Forest and is constantly attacking small Villages near the Border."
That made her serious, Monsters going crazed and leaving their nests all of a sudden wasn't unheard of, but most of the time when it happens, an intellectual and strong Monster usually appears and scares off the surrounding Monsters, those type of Monsters are called Apex or A-Rank Monsters.
And depending on the case, it might've taken control of all of the Monsters in the Forest and the Apex is the reason for the constant attacks of the Monsters.
Shizu curiously asked, "Has there been any signs of an apex monster?"
Hearing her question, Yuuki sighed shooking his head. "That's the problem Shizu..."
"There has been no sights or reports of any unusual Monster deep inside the Forest." Yuuki then halted his words for a moment to let the information sink in. "But we now believe that this Apex isn't creating an army of Monsters nor has it taken the Forest as its own territory, after all, besides there being no signs of it, it also wouldn't be so quiet when there is a bunch of uninvited visitors snooping around its territory."
Hearing that Shizu became more noticably relaxed but quickly became cautious, "And you're telling me this because...?"
Yuuki grabbed his tea while smiling innocently. "I want you to go and scout the forest and look for the cause of the weird behavior of the Monsters!"
"No." Shizu quickly refused.
Yuuki's felt dismayed, "Eh?! An instant rejection? Why?!"
Shizu exhaled as she explained. "You know that I've already retired as an adventurer."
Yuuki with an apologetic look said, "I know that, but you're the only one I could really count on... If the Villages and the town keeps on getting attacked then soon enough we won't be able to keep up and the border would be damaged!"
She pursed her lips, on one hand, she wanted to help but... She couldn't risk fighting so much.
"You should just hire an A rank adventurer to do that for you, I won't accept."
"But all the higher ranked adventurers are refusing to accept the request after all they didn't want to go head in without information of what they are going to be facing." Yuuki explained trying his best to convince Shizu who locked her eyes with his.
Adventuring is a dangerous profession in this world and that is exactly why people tend to be cautious when accepting quests and does some information gathering beforehand regarding the quest, if no information is found then they usually just refuse it, of course some there are some bold ones out there who doesn't fear the unknown but those type of people are quite rare.
And hiring some low ranking adventurer who doesn't know the very first thing about safety and such is obviously a no-go.
Seeing her still adamant expression Yuuki ascertained. "Don't worry, I'm not sending you out to directly deal with it." He reassured. "I just wanted you to scout the forest out and report so that we could prepare some counter measures if it truly is a pack of Monsters working together with an apex."
"Still..."
"Pretty please? It would be a lifesaver if the Conqueror of Flames would be the one to check it out."
"Don't call me that, the time that I retired was the time that title was put to rest." Shizu warned.
Yuuki shriveled, "I'm sorry." He then added, "So? What will it be?"
Shizu felt her chest pang in guilt but she couldn't fight as much anymore that's why...
"I'm sorry but I-"
"If you were able to help me out here, I imagine that many indebted people will flock at you saying their thanks and you might just be able to find the solution to the kid's problems..." Yuuki tried to speak convincingly but Shizu's eyes became cold which scared Yuuki and tried to explain. "That's not to say that I'm not doing my best on finding any solutions regarding it though! I'm just saying that the chance of you finding an information to cure them would exponentialy raise!"
That made her sigh, she knew that Yuuki was basically trying to manipulate her right now but thinking of the kids she felt that she had to try, as low as the chance of finding a way to save the kids are, it was still worth the try.
And so with a heavy heart she... "Fine, I'll do it." She then added, "But I will just take a look alright?"
Yuuki lit up and looked at Shizu as if she was an angel sent from above. "Thank you very much Ms. Shizu, I'll prepare you your carriage right away."
Seeing the excited Yuuki she could only sigh because she was once again going adventuring.
[Flashback End]
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Shizu sighed again wanting to slap her past self for accepting his request that easily.
But it's been done now so all she could do now is finish this mission as quickly as possible while avoiding fighting, after all she didn't want to...
"Kgh..!" She clutched her hand near her chest in pain as red aura surrounded her making her stumble to her knees.
It took a little while but the aura soon subsided as she regained clarity but gasping from the pain.
'Not yet...'
She then stood up and dusted herself off and faced the forest and then hyped herself up and then entered the forest.
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A/N: First Chapter, please be kind with your criticisms and please point out any plot hole. Thank you for reading!