#0. It Was Summer
It was summer. The summer I turned seventeen.
Homeron Village, where I lived, was nothing more than a tiny farming settlement buried far, far away from the capital. The entire village held fewer than a hundred people, the kind of place anyone might find in any corner of the countryside.
And in that small village, in a small cabin, there lived a happy family.
"Yuwol...! Yuwol...!"
A familiar voice, its tail-end dragging with irritation. There was no doubt it was her.
"Ugh... we made a nap treaty for the weekends, remember?"
"That was then and this is now! It's three in the afternoon! Get up already!"
I rubbed my eyes awake and scratched my messy hair.
Seria. My only friend, and the person in this world I was more grateful to than anyone.
I had been an orphan with nothing — thanks to her, I'd been able to live as a member of this household.
"I'm getting up, so can you please keep it down... I'm sorry..."
When we were little, we'd gotten along well and she'd been docile, and I'd minded her without complaint. But seventeen is the season of the restless heart. I had changed too, but she had grown colder than before, and for some reason she snapped at me far more often these days.
"You promised you'd come into town with me today and help me look at clothes! I've been waiting so long the whole day's about to slip away! Honestly!"
Ah... right. Now that I thought about it, today was the day I'd agreed to go out — a rare commitment from someone who never stirred from the house.
"Just give me a minute. I'll wash up and we'll go."
There was exactly one reason why a homebody who hated going out and hated moving his body indulged her anyway.
I liked Seria. Honestly, it was only natural — she took after her mother, with fair skin, bright blonde hair, and big eyes; not a single feature of her fell short of beautiful.
As a child she'd simply been a close friend, but now that I was a boy of that age, there was no helping it. I kept noticing her.
The way she glared at me with a sulky pout when I finally dragged myself out of bed. The way she'd wipe food off my face without a word during meals. And above all, the way she had once reached out her hand to abandoned little me and said, come with me. I loved all of it.
These days she sulked at me with a prickly edge, but I found myself wishing she'd only ever fuss like that at me. And when we grew up, I thought, I would confess this feeling one day for certain, and build a little house for just the two of us in Homeron Village.
We wouldn't live in luxury there, but I wanted to spend every ordinary, joyful day with her.
And as it always does, lightning struck out of a clear blue sky.
Homeron Village had exactly three clothing shops. Two served the villagers themselves, and one occasionally received hand-me-down fashion from the capital, worn and passed around until it finally reached us.
Seria's hobby was digging through those outdated clothes for the few pieces actually worth wearing. My job was to stand at the back the whole time, wondering what time we'd finally get to go home.
"Yuwol, what about this one?"
"Looks good."
"Yuwol, and this one?"
"This one looks good too."
The truth was, I'd lived in this tiny village my whole life — what did I know about clothes? And repeated experience had taught me a conclusion: rather than offering my honest opinion, vaguely saying it looked nice got the shopping over with faster.
"Mm~ that one looks nice too~"
I answered out of habit — and she'd clearly caught me talking without looking.
"Oh my~ how do you manage to say it looks nice while your eyes are out the window? Our little Yuwol~~~ my, my~~~ is it the fine weather then~~~"
I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
"No~ of course I'm... I'm looking~ Ugh, Seria, you know that already. And honestly, a beauty like you looks pretty in anything."
I smiled awkwardly and offered my excuse, but she'd known all along. Still, she didn't seem to mind the compliment — the corner of her mouth lifted, just slightly.
"Then what about this?"
Holding up a pair of black lace underwear, she flashed a sly grin.
Holding a scrap of lingerie up against herself like that — that was, for a seventeen-year-old boy, more stimulus than I could handle.
I felt an earthquake hit my pupils.
"Uh... um.... uh.... actually that's kind of... good...?"
My inner thoughts escaped before I could stop them.
"Pervert...."
She looked at me with a flicker of contempt, then set the lingerie back down and walked out of the shop.
"Nothing worth buying today either... Haaah... I swear, I really need to make something of myself and go live in the capital someday."
"And how exactly would you climb high enough to get there? Heh."
"That's not the point — do you have to say it like that?"
"When I do make it, you'd better take me with you!"
"What? You're obviously coming along anyway, dummy!"
Seria answered my words with a laugh.
On the hill back home, we witnessed a scene so alien it didn't belong in our world.
Soldiers in white armor. And at their head, cutting off our path, a middle-aged knight in crimson armor mounted on horseback.
It was a sight no one in this village could ever expect to see — anyone could tell at a glance he was a knight of the nobility, or of the imperial house itself.
Seria's hand found mine.
"Yuwol..."
I squeezed her hand tight and stepped her back behind me. Taking a short breath, I squeezed out courage I didn't have and spoke.
"What is your business here?"
The knight in red armor dismounted and fixed his cold gaze on me — no, precisely, on Seria behind me.
"Are you Seria Aristin?"
He looked through me as if I were empty air, his words aimed at her alone. She nodded after a moment. I could feel her hand trembling.
"I asked what your business was...!"
"A lowborn thing like you is of no concern to me. Seria Aristin. A decree of the Emperor has come down to you. Chosen as the Hero of this generation, you shall, by the will of the Ivelis Empire, eradicate the Demon King."
He delivered this utterly absurd pronouncement with such gravity that the two of us could only stare at each other, dumbfounded.
Seria found her voice first, flustered.
"M-me? The Hero...? That can't be right!"
"Would you defy the imperial decree?"
The knight raised one eyebrow, irritated.
"No! No! It's just — I don't have any ability at all—"
"Do not worry. The Empire has prepared everything required for your eradication of the Demon King. As with every Hero before you, you will be forged into the strongest of warriors through our training, and you will achieve your goal."
It was ridiculous. The Seria I knew had zero athletic ability and zero magical talent — she was good at housework and nothing else. If they were dragging her off as the Hero, it would have made more sense for me to be the Hero.
Whether I thought so or not, the knight carried on.
"Your parents have been informed of everything. They told you to go without worry, they said. Naturally, a reward befitting your deeds has been prepared and delivered to them as well."
I couldn't believe it. That couple — her parents, no different from my own — loved Seria more than anyone in this world. There was no way they'd let her go that easily. To the bewildered girl, he drove the wedge in deeper.
"If, even after this much explanation, you still refuse, then under the name of defying the imperial decree, your entire family may be put to the sword without mercy. So — what will it be?"
At those words, Seria seemed to come to her senses. She glanced at me once, then spoke in a level voice.
"I'll do it. The Hero. I don't understand it, but I will follow the will of the Empire."
"Wh-what? Seria, wait—!"
She'd agreed without a single proper word of discussion, and I couldn't keep my composure. Seeing her just blurt out I'll do it when none of us knew what might become of us — my head spun.
"A wise choice. Then we depart for the capital at once. His Majesty the Emperor awaits."
The knight was already preparing to leave that very moment.
"Could you grant us a little time? I'd like to say a proper goodbye before she goes."
He looked displeased, but he nodded and told us to make it brief.
Seria pulled me by the hand to a thicket a short distance away.
"What were you thinking, honestly? Why did you just say yes right away?"
"Because if we defy them, you die, and my family dies, and everyone dies. Those people are serious. Can't you see that?"
"Still....."
She cut off my words, as if there were no time to lose.
"When I've finished what I have to do in the capital, I'll come back. No — even if I don't finish, I'll come back the moment I find a gap. We'll only be apart for a little while. You can hold out that long, can't you?"
Her words were resolute. I opened my mouth to argue back, saw her face, and shut it again.
Her blue eyes were brimming with tears.
"Then I can wait. In exchange — don't get hurt. Stay safe, no matter what."
I pulled her into my chest. I could feel my shirt going damp with her tears.
"Yuwol. Hey... you have to wait for me, okay? Just because I'm far away — don't go running around with this girl and that girl like some careless fool."
"Where exactly would I even find girls around here?"
She looked at me in silence for a moment, then matched my height, rising onto her tiptoes, and closed her eyes.
Her lips, lifted on tiptoe, touched mine.
My brain simply stopped. What had just happened?
But there was hardly time to savor the feeling — the soldiers were already leading her to the horses.
"Then we ride."
At the knight's word, the column of soldiers began to move.
Twisting around atop her horse, she looked back at me, smiled, and waved.
My heart was twisting itself into knots, but I waved back with the brightest smile I could manage.
I stood staring long after the place she'd departed was empty, then trudged back home on leaden feet. Given the circumstances, her parents would never have let her go that easily — the need to ask them filled my head completely.
And the moment I opened the door, I froze in horror.
An uncontrollable surge of nausea rose up my throat.
The brown carpet was drowned in red, and the heads of the two of them hung above the fireplace.
But the misfortune of my seventeenth year did not end there.