A Hero Is Decided the Moment They Are Born
"A hero is decided the moment they are born."
Only those chosen by the gods were granted the right to become heroes. In other words, the nobles—those born already brimming with immense mana. That was what it meant: only they could ever become heroes.
But I never believed a word of it.
I believed that if I fell harder than anyone else, trained harder, endured longer, then someday I could become a hero too. At the very least, I would be able to protect what was mine. So after months of chasing the village chief around, begging at every turn, I finally managed to send an enlistment application to the Arcadia Imperial Army.
It wasn't purely out of any dream of heroism, mind you. The monsters appearing around the village kept multiplying, and the garrison was stretched far too thin.
After sending off the application, I stopped by the forest, as I always did. There was precious little a boy my age could do to help, and the animals that stumbled into my crudely made traps were few—but every so often, one did. Just like today, in fact. I'd just collected a rabbit from one of my snares and was about to set up a fresh trap when this morning's promise surfaced in my mind.
He told me to come back early today.
Reluctantly, I turned my steps toward home. Along the way, I noticed more tracks than usual pressed into the earth—far larger than a human's, each ending in three splayed toes. The odds were high that they belonged to monsters, but investigating them alone would be little short of suicide. This is exactly why I said we needed more guards... Either way, I'd better tell the chief.
When I emerged from the forest, the village came into view. Eden Village. A small, unremarkable place by any measure, yet it was precious to me all the same. I made my way toward the little house at the village's edge.
"Welcome back."
Seria's face popped out from the kitchen. Her bright silver hair was tied up carelessly, and her sleeves were rolled to the elbows.
At the sight of her, the day's fatigue simply melted away.
"I promised I'd be back before sunset."
"Ooh, look at you. Aren's usually so good about his promises, but you always find some kind of trouble out there, so I was worried."
"When have I ever gotten into trouble?"
"Just last week? You said you were going to hunt a boar and didn't come home until after the sun went down?"
When I found I had no rebuttal and fell silent, Seria let out a quiet laugh. "Still—thank you for keeping your promise today."
She took the rabbit from my hand, her face lighting up at the thought of having soup with real meat in it for the first time in ages. Then her eyes fell on the back of my hand, and her expression froze.
"Aren, what is this wound?"
It was just a scratch from a thorned vine, so I hadn't given it much thought. "Scraped it a little while hunting."
Without a word, Seria seized my wrist.
I sat down at the table obediently. Dragging it out would only earn me a longer lecture—and besides, I didn't actually mind her nagging. A faint glow of divine power welled up from Seria's palm.
"Honestly... Aren, I told you not to push yourself so hard."
"I've been more careful lately."
"The same person who sprained his ankle last week, and tumbled off a cliff the week before that?"
"That was less tumbling, more slipping."
"All the way to the bottom of a cliff?"
"Slid for a bit longer than I meant to."
Apparently done with my excuses, Seria pinched my cheek and pulled. "Ow."
"Hmph! My heart hurts more, watching you come home hurt every single day."
I watched her as she continued the treatment. She had become the most precious person in the world to me. We'd been inseparable since we were small—the childhood friends everyone talks about, though we hadn't started out close at all. If anything, we'd been rivals of a sort, squabbling every time we laid eyes on each other.
Then my parents were killed by monsters. When everyone else averted their eyes from me, unsure how to offer comfort, Seria was the only one who sat beside me without a word. Even when I held back my tears as long as I could and finally broke down, she simply took my hand and said nothing. Not long after, her parents too were taken by a strange illness—and this time, it was I who stayed by her side.
When Seria, who had smiled and pretended she was fine, wept that she couldn't bear to return to an empty house, I took her hand and led her home to mine. It was all the small, childish me had to offer. From that day on, we split a single loaf of bread between us and shared one worn blanket on cold nights. When one of us fell ill, the other kept watch until dawn; when one of us crumbled, the other hauled them back up by force, even if they had to be dragged. Two people who once thought they didn't get along became each other's only family.
Looking back, there was never one special moment. We simply ate together every day, fought, made up, and took it for granted that tomorrow we would still be at each other's side. And somewhere in the accumulation of all those ordinary days, Seria had quietly become the reason I was alive.
"Why are you staring like that?"
Noticing my gaze, Seria looked up. "Nothing." "You're being suspicious...?"
Suppressing a smile, I drew a small pouch from inside my shirt. Inside lay a ring, carved from wood. I'd made it in secret in the forest over several days, careful not to let her catch me at it.
"A... ring?"
Seria blinked. Now that I'd actually brought it out, my own face was burning. I'd prepared something far more impressive to say—but none of it would come out.
"This is all I have for now... but next time, I'll buy you a proper one."
Seria gazed down at the wooden ring for a long moment, then cradled it tenderly in both hands. "No. There's no ring in the world more precious to me than this one."
She held out her left hand. "Aren, will you put it on me?"
I cradled her hand in mine. It was a hand I'd held countless times since childhood, yet it trembled in a way that made no sense.
"Aren, are you nervous, by any chance?"
"N-no, of course not."
The wooden ring slid onto her finger, and she beamed. "Hehe, Aren. This moment right now—I'm so happy."
As long as I could keep that happy smile on her face, there was nothing I couldn't do. Between the village folk's advice and my own care, I felt I'd managed the surprise gift rather well. But this world, it seemed, had no wish to see me happy—because a new trial arrived.
DONG—!
The sudden toll of a bell. DONG—! DONG—! Not once, but again and again—a long, urgent alarm bell ringing without pause. It was the signal that monsters had appeared in the village. And not just one or two; this bell was reserved for when the entire village was in danger.
At the sound, the villagers poured out of their homes to gauge the situation—and froze in horror. Dozens of monsters were advancing slowly toward the village. This was beyond anything the village guards could hold back. I grasped the situation in an instant and grabbed Seria's hand.
"Seria, grab whatever you can carry."
"Where are we going?"
"The chapel."
The sturdiest building in the village was the small stone chapel. With the priest's protective barrier over it as well, it would be safer than this house, at the very least.
"Seria, don't leave my side."
"Okay."
Resolved never to let go of her hand, I gripped it tight and stepped outside. The village entrance had already fallen. Wolves bigger than men, goblins scuttling along on their long knuckled arms—and behind them, even ogres crowned with black horns. This was no ordinary raid. It was a full-scale assault. And yet, if we could just reach the chapel... I thought we might survive.
That was when the sky turned blinding white. A colossal golden magic circle was unfurling above the clouds. The villagers who spotted it looked up and cheered. "It's the Empire's soldiers!"
I felt relief too. If it was the Arcadia Imperial Army, they could surely destroy the monsters. They were the very heroes people sang praises of.
But as I stared up at the magic circle, something felt wrong. I was no expert in magic, but the circle's reach enclosed the monsters, the people—the entire village. Which meant... weren't we, standing inside it, in danger too?
"Seria... run."
"What?"
"We have to get to the chapel—now!"
I yanked her hand, but I had realized it far too late. The instant the circle completed, a light so intense it turned the blood cold flooded the sky. Kiiiiiiing—!
And the first light fell. The village's outer edge simply ceased to exist. A searing white light swallowed everything so completely that not even a scream remained behind.
The second light fell. Kiiiiiiiiiing—! This time I didn't need to turn my head to know. It was falling right here, right where we stood. The moment instinct told me there was no escape, I spun around instead.
"Seria."
"Aren?"
I pulled her toward me, and her slight body tumbled into my arms. "What are you—?" I turned my back to the light and wrapped my arms around her head.
I wasn't thinking about whether I would survive. If I could only protect Seria, I would do anything.
"It's okay."
Seria tried to say something. But before her voice could reach me, the world erupted. There was no sound. A blinding white devoured my vision, and then a terrible heat slammed into my back. It felt as if my skin were burning away and my bones shattering all at once. Even so, I tightened my arms around her.
Because from the very beginning, there had only ever been one reason I wanted to become a hero.
Seria. You have to survive. Please.
I'm sorry... I wanted to tell you I love you more often. It was harder than I thought.
Even as consciousness slipped away, I could feel her warmth in my arms. That was the last thing I knew before the world went black.
When I opened my eyes, I was staring at the sky. It was blue and utterly calm, without a single cloud—so peaceful that everything that had happened felt like nothing more than a nightmare. But the moment I drew breath, ash flooded my mouth. Khh—! The cough that tore out of me brought a wave of pain like fire raging up my spine, and a groan escaped me before I could stop it. My left shoulder was nearly numb; blood ran from my head; my palms were shredded raw against chunks of stone.
I scrambled to feel beside me. When my hand found nothing, panic seized me. "Seria...?" Only after pushing myself upright did I finally look around.
The village was gone. The houses, the well, the little flower garden Seria had tended—all of it gone. I couldn't even tell where our home had stood. Everything lay blackened and collapsed. "Seria!" I screamed until my throat ripped, but there was no answer. "Seria! Where are you!"
One step, and my knees buckled. The instant I caught myself on the ground, stone shards bit into my split palms. Still, I couldn't stop. She might be trapped somewhere under the rubble—she might be hurt far worse than me.
Then, from beyond the ruins, came a low keening. It resembled the cry of a beast, yet it was far more viscous, far more repellent. I lifted my head, and shapes began to emerge through the smoke. Monsters.
Not just one. Monsters prowling between the collapsed houses, a monster with a human arm clamped in its jaws, monsters rooting through the ash. When they spotted me, they bared their teeth. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run, but as long as those things roamed free, Seria was in danger. Sweeping my eyes across the wreckage, I found a single sword pinned beneath a collapsed building. The monsters charged, granting me no further time.
Before I found Seria, I had absolutely no intention of falling.
...
"Captain, there's something over there."
The scout at point suddenly stopped walking. Naturally, we assumed it was a monster that had survived the blast.
"Ready for combat."
But it was no monster. It was a living boy. A child not yet grown, dragging a single sword through the ruins. Not a corpse puppeteered by a necromancer—a living, breathing human being.
We watched the boy move. He checked the ruined houses one by one, and whenever he found nothing, he dragged himself back up and moved on to the next. All around him, the corpses of monsters lay scattered across the ground.
"Were there any other survivors nearby?" "It doesn't appear so." How in the world did anyone survive in the middle of this destruction...?
The boy didn't even notice us approaching. He simply kept moving on blood-soaked hands, sword clutched in his grip, calling out one name after another.
"Seria......"
The boy tried to rise again, but his legs seemed to have no strength left; he drove the blade into the ground and held himself up with trembling arms. One of my men, who had been watching alongside me, asked in disbelief, "You're telling me that child took down these monsters alone?" "So it would seem." "Impossible. Even weakened as they were, this many? By himself?"
When we drew closer, the boy slowly lifted his head. His clouded, unfocused eyes turned toward us. No fear, no wariness. As though he didn't have the strength left for even that.
"Seria...?"
The boy reached out toward me. He tried to grab the hem of my coat, but his hand fell short, scratching at empty air. And with that, his body pitched forward. I caught the collapsing child. How such a small frame had stood against that many monsters was beyond anything I could fathom.
"Who is Seria?"
The boy had already lost consciousness; there was no answer.
"Captain, the Arcadia pursuit force is on the move. They'll be here soon."
We had secured proof that this was the Arcadia Empire's doing, so all that remained was to leave. Lingering any longer could turn dangerous. And yet I couldn't bring myself to refuse the plea of the boy lying senseless before me.
An untrained child had endured a kingdom's bombardment, cut down monsters, and searched for someone until the very last. A hero is decided the moment they are born. Looking at this boy, that saying was by no means wrong.
"All units—five minutes searching for survivors." "But... Captain, the pursuit force is coming." "Find the girl named Seria."
We needed an answer to give the boy when he woke. Even if we failed, at the very least we had to be able to tell him that we had looked.
"And we're taking this boy with us."
Because if this child ever took up a sword again, that blade would be pointed at the Arcadia Empire.