The Hero's Awakening
The world runs on coincidences that are really just inevitabilities in disguise. Dig deep enough and everything has its roots. So I suppose my sister’s death was inevitable too. My head understands it. My heart refuses to accept it.
Why did a kind, gentle soul like Amelia have to die? Out of all the countless people in the world, why did it have to be her? It would have been better if I had died instead. That thought haunted me endlessly back then. It was pointless, but I still wished she had lived instead of me.
She had such a pitiful life. Days when even finding a meal was a struggle. Days when the only way to survive was to throw herself into filth. Days when we clung to each other for warmth against the bitter cold. Why had we endured all of that? How had we managed to persevere?
Because we believed that one day we would look back and say, Remember how hard it was back then? We believed, more desperately than anyone, that sunny days would come when we could smile at each other and say we were happy now.
Amelia. My caring sister. My kind sister. My foolish sister. And now, my sister I can never see again.
I look at Aria, who shares her name and face.
Aria watched me in silence after I stopped speaking. She didn’t urge me or press me. The way she listened so reverently reminded me of a devout believer. Well, she is the Saintess, so that makes sense.
I slowly continued.
“So I went outside the village.”
I left prepared to die. Every step was taken with my life on the line.
“…It must have been dangerous.”
“I wasn’t in my right mind back then. No, even if I had been, I still would have gone looking for her.”
Because she was everything to me.
When I said that, Aria lowered her head against my chest. It looked like she was trying to hold back her emotions.
“…Did you find her?”
Her voice was pained. If someone heard her, they might think she was the one who had gone through it. Still, I didn’t find the sight unpleasant. If anything, I was grateful. That she would react this way to my story.
“I did find her.”
After many small and large obstacles, I finally found Amelia. Or rather, should I even call it finding her?
All that remained of her body was an arm.
“…Just her arm?”
“Yeah. Just an arm lying there. Honestly, it was a miracle anything was left at all.”
Aria’s obsidian eyes trembled violently. It was as if she were imagining the shock I must have felt then.
“How did you know it was Amelia’s arm?”
“She was still clutching the ruby ring tightly. That’s how I knew.”
The ruby ring. Amelia had gone and found the trinket the boy had jokingly asked for. I smiled bitterly.
“She was gripping it so hard I could barely pry her fingers open.”
Even in the moment she was being torn apart and devoured by monsters, she had refused to let go. I wondered who she had been fighting so desperately for. But asking that would have been a foolish question.
“…Hic.”
Her emotions must have overwhelmed her, because Aria buried herself deeper into my arms, like a child seeking warmth against the cruel cold. How like the sensitive Saintess. I gently stroked her small head.
“Are you crying?”
Her eyes looked quite watery when I checked. Her expression was so fragile that a little more melodrama might have sent her into full sobs. Seeing Aria make such a miserable face didn’t feel good at all. It made my own heart grow heavy for no reason.
“Why… why are you so calm about it?”
Her question was thick with tears. I mulled it over. Why am I so calm?
“Because it’s all in the past now.”
Yes. It was all in the past. It no longer hurt so badly that my heart felt like it would stop. My chest no longer felt crushed under an iron weight. The only thing I truly couldn’t bear was the current reality of calmly telling someone else about her death.
My story continued.
Ashtain arrived at the place the boy had told him about. It was a lavish mansion. Knights—the same ones he had seen before—stood guard at the entrance like iron statues. Their sharp, frosty gazes pierced him.
“…I brought what we promised.”
The knights checked the ring Ashtain carried and let him inside. Following their guidance, he reached a guest room. He waited quietly for the boy.
Soon the boy entered, stretching with a lazy yawn. Must be nice. Ashtain barely held back the twist of his face. Still, this bastard hadn’t killed his sister himself. Taking it out on him would just be misplaced anger.
In a choked voice, Ashtain said, “I found it. The ring.”
He showed the ruby ring still stained with his sister’s blood. The boy’s eyes sparkled with delight.
“Oh, you actually found it?”
It was the reaction of someone who never expected him to succeed. It was unpleasant, but Ashtain endured it.
“But where’s the girl?”
Ashtain couldn’t answer. If he did, the fragile control he had barely maintained would shatter.
“………”
Oblivious to Ashtain’s feelings, the boy kept talking.
“Ah, I see. She’s dead, huh? Well, there are a lot of monsters around this time of year. Yeah, it couldn’t be helped.”
He nodded as if there wasn’t a shred of guilt in him. Ashtain no longer wanted to speak with this psychopath. He cut straight to the point.
“Give me the gold coin, like you promised.”
The boy frowned for a moment at Ashtain’s attitude, but then flashed a fake, saccharine smile and pulled a single gold coin from his pocket.
“Ah, right. Here you go.”
He flicked it with his thumb. The coin rolled across the floor with a clink. Ashtain stared at it with hollow eyes.
Because of one lousy coin, his sister had died. Just one coin. That was the price of his only blood relative’s life in this world.
“Aren’t you going to pick it up? I’ll take it back if you don’t.”
“…I’ll pick it up.”
The moment Ashtain bent down to retrieve the coin—
Clink. Clink. Clink.
Something else rolled across the floor. But this time it wasn’t the smooth sound of a coin.
“Oops. My bad.”
The boy had dropped something. Clink. Clink. Clink. He dropped another. Clink. Clink. Clink. He kept dropping them.
Soon the floor was covered in a small pile. They were all ruby rings—the very items the boy had originally asked the siblings to bring him.
“…What is this?”
“What do you mean? They’re rings, obviously.”
Ashtain’s fists clenched so tightly his body shook.
“………If you had so many, why did you ask us to get one?”
The boy’s gaze drifted to the ceiling for a moment.
“Because it was fun?”
Fun? What was fun? That his sister had died? Where exactly was the entertainment in that?
His head rang. The world turned to ash. Why was I born into such an unfair world? Why do I have to suffer something like this? Why did you have to die?
Ashtain stopped holding back. He lunged at the boy.
As if they had been expecting it, knights appeared from nowhere, slammed him to the ground, and pinned his arms. Even face-down on the floor, Ashtain lifted his head to glare at the boy. The hatred carved deep into his chest was aimed straight at him.
“You son of a bitch!”
The boy covered his ears as if it were too loud and shrugged.
“Why are you getting so worked up? It’s a win-win. I get to enjoy cheap entertainment for one gold coin, and you get to survive the winter with one gold coin. It’s a shame about your sister, but what can you do?”
I have to rip that mouth off. Tear him to pieces and feed him to the fish.
Pinned by the knights, Ashtain thrashed wildly. He knew it was useless, but he couldn’t stop. If he gave up here, who would get angry for his sister? Who would denounce the injustice done to her? Who would speak of her suffering?
Ashtain glared at the boy with bloodshot eyes. If a glare could kill, that look was filled with enough resentment to murder him a hundred times over.
“I’m going to kill you. I will definitely kill you!”
“Ugh, so noisy. Just rough him up a bit and throw him out, Sir Taylor.”
The boy waved mockingly at Ashtain as the knights dragged him away. What a fun day, the boy thought.
Unfortunately, there was one fact the young noble had overlooked.
It was that Ashtain had been chosen as the Hero.
And that the Hero had awakened that very day.
“You awakened as the Hero right there?”
The words were so out of place that Aria couldn’t help but question them.
“Something like that.”
“…So what happened next?”
“What do you think happened?”
He made a slicing motion across his throat. That was enough for her to imagine what came after.
“Even if you had awakened as the Hero, you had only just gained the power. Wasn’t it dangerous to face the knights?”
“It was. I nearly died. Well, if I had died there, I wouldn’t be here talking to you now.”
“………Please don’t say things like that.”
Ashtain poked her cheek playfully and laughed.
“Anyway, that’s why I’m so obsessed with hunting monsters.”
It was a complicated reason. And it was also a reason she should never have asked about out of mere curiosity.
Aria hated her past self. She resented the version of herself that had so carelessly dug into someone else’s scars.
“I’m sorry for asking.”
Maybe he had noticed her self-reproach. Ashtain gave her a gentle smile.
“Mm, no. I wanted to tell you.”
“………”
Aria looked up at him. Eyes filled with regret. A slightly bitter curve to his lips. Had Ashtain always looked this sad? The fluttering feeling in her chest vanished, replaced only by a heavy, rock-like sorrow.
Seeing her like that, he spoke softly.
“Do you pity me?”
“Is that not allowed?”
“Whether you do or don’t is up to you.”
Aria sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Ashtain waited until she calmed down before continuing.
“Since that day, one conviction has taken root in my heart.”
“A conviction?”
“It’s not anything grand.”
“What is it?”
“Even if it costs me my life, I will protect my people.”
Aria’s chest tightened. Those words were his yoke, his burden, his shackles, and his brand. At the same time, they were a vow and an oath to himself—the powerless boy who had lost his sister.
“That’s why I want to ask. What happened to you here?”
His eyes, filled with endless tenderness, turned toward her. The question was so sudden that Aria couldn’t say a word.