Chapter 22: Hero, Arianrod Mona 2

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The boy who had wandered on the boundary between life and death escaped the worst of it thanks to Vasily’s treatment. Because the adults had been informed in advance by someone whose social standing and credibility as a platinum-rank adventurer were guaranteed, they trembled at the realization that this was what it meant to become a Hero. At the same time, her ability to instantly resolve an incident caused by a child in such a dangerous state only increased their trust in her, and most of the adults were concerned for Arianrod.

But the children were different. A child who had been forced to witness body parts being blown away and flesh and blood scattering right before their eyes developed trauma and became frightened just by looking at Arianrod. Some even began vomiting at the sight of meat.

Taking the situation seriously, the village chief held discussions with the Mona couple and Vasily and decided to temporarily isolate Arianrod on the outskirts of the village. Food, clothing, and shelter were guaranteed by Vasily, so there were no issues there, and the Mona couple would visit to provide emotional care alongside it. From the adults’ perspective, it was a sufficiently considerate solution.

But Arianrod withdrew into herself. Her former liveliness faded, her appetite decreased, and she began to suffer nightmares at night. Even in the lectures she had once enjoyed (the only thing she looked forward to) she no longer showed initiative, merely absorbing what she was told, exactly as taught. Arianrod could not forget the voice, the eyes, of the boy she had sent flying.

『GYAAAAHH!!』

A short scream. But what followed was a long, horrifying shriek filled with raw emotion.

『A—ah, ah, ah, aaaaaAAAAAAHHH!!??』

『…H—hi… ya, eh, ah, wh—why…』

『WAAAAAAAHHH!! Uuuuuuuuh!!?』

Dragging himself away from Arianrod standing nearby, even using an arm that no longer existed past the elbow. Blood clinging thickly to his body. Something gelatinous, mixed in with the blood. Her childhood friend, who had never once looked at her with condemning eyes no matter how much she made noise, now fled from her in terror. His limbs were twisted, and his left arm had been blown away halfway. The flesh and blood from that moment clung to her cheek, to her clothes.

It felt as though everything she had known until then had vanished. She understood that she was no longer normal.

I am… special. If I had just listened, none of that would have happened.

The lukewarm sensation lingered on her cheek. She could no longer eat meat, and the smell of blood made her sick.

Because I didn’t listen.

Because I went out to play on my own.

Because of me. Because of me… This is my fault.

Because I am special.

And so, Arianrod’s heart broke. The shoulders that would one day bear the fate of the world were, for now, those of a frail young girl. But the story did not end there. One week after Arianrod had completely withdrawn, Vasily brought a boy into the house and declared boldly.

“Um… From today on, we’ll be working hard together. This is Finn Debyura-kun. Go on. Say hello to Aria.”

“Yo. You good, Aria?”

“……??????????”

Standing there was her childhood friend, Finn Debyura, the boy she had struck. An utterly unreasonable blow that almost no one in the world would ever experience. Despite being slammed at high speed by something as large as himself and harder than rock, despite his body bursting and leaving him able only to scream and cry, Finn had for some reason come to meet the very person who had crashed into him.

“Eh… M-master? What is this… Huh?”

“Well… A lot of things happened… Right, Finn-kun?”

“Yes. I wanna become like that too.”

“I did tell him it would be difficult, but… Finn-kun says he wants to become strong like Arianrod.”

“Like me…?”

“Yeah.”

Strong like me.

For a moment, she couldn’t understand what she was being told. Because Arianrod wasn’t normal. She was a strange kind of special. A kind of special that could nearly kill her childhood friend just by moving at full strength.

This isn’t what I wanted to become.

She had touched the holy sword because Vasily told her to, and before she knew it, she had become this. She wanted to eat meals with her family. She wanted to play freely, and she wanted to sleep with her parents at night. Why? Why was she special? What about this was special? Rather than ‘special,’ I was just plain weird, right? 

That was who she was now. A weird one.  Did he want to become weird, like her?

“…Then do it.”

“Hm?”

“Then… Become special instead of me!!”

It was displaced anger. Finn wasn’t at fault in any way. Arianrod’s pent-up frustration, combined with her trauma, had burst out as raw emotion. Vasily hadn’t neglected her care, but she was a child. No matter how carefully an adult reasoned things out, a child’s heart wasn’t so simple as to be fixed by logic alone.

“Hey!! Why!? Why am I the hero!?! Why!? Why am I not normal!?”

“…That’s because you—”

“Why me!? It doesn’t have to be me! I didn’t want to become special at all…!!”

Clawing at her chest with both hands, Arianrod screamed. She wanted to be normal. She wanted to live with her beloved parents. Her mother waking her in the morning, eating lunch with her father working the fields, playing with friends in the evening, and sleeping with her parents at night. She wanted to go back to that kind of normal. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want this power that could kill her friends.

That was her true feeling, and Vasily could say nothing in response.

And yet, standing here was the extraordinary boy who had approached her of his own accord despite being hurt by her. Watching the sobbing Arianrod with a blank expression, he said casually.

“Huh? I wanna be special, though…”

“…Well, yeah, but… Finn-kun, come over here for a moment.”

“???”

Watching blankly as Finn was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged outside, Arianrod’s tears dried up. Vasily returned alone, knelt down in front of Arianrod, met her eyes, and said.

“Aria. I’ve said it many times, but what you did to him is my responsibility. It’s not your fault.”

“…But…”

“No. I relied too much on knowledge. There are good results, and there are bad ones. I should have known better. My carelessness caused this. I’m sorry.”

“…Why me?”

“That… I don’t know. The one who told me about you said something ridiculous like ‘the gods’ fetish,’ but… The one thing that’s certain is that you cannot escape that fate.”

What utterly unreasonable words. But she was the only one in this world who could wield something like the Holy Sword. That alone was the irreplaceable proof that she was worthy of being treated as a Hero.

“I’m the same. Aria, I’ll die ten years from now.”

“Eh…?”

“Just as you can’t escape being a hero, I can’t escape the fate waiting for me. According to that person, my death would be something like a ‘disgusting CG,’ but… I will spare you the details but in short, I’ll die after suffering something far worse than what you did to Finn-kun.”

She muttered that. Vasily’s eyes didn’t look like she was lying. If anything, she seemed to have accepted that reality with resignation.

“There are Prophets in this world. They are people who can see what will happen in the future, how lives will end. Among them, the most reliable ones have declared my specific destruction. I struggled in every way I could to avoid it, but at this rate, I’ll undoubtedly meet that end anyway.”

“…Because you are special?”

“Exactly. Just like you, Aria, I’m special.”

She paused.

“But among the special, you are even more special. Fate branches into countless futures, paths of ruin and paths of glory. You alone, only you in this world, have the power to choose a good future. That is what a Hero is, the protagonist of this world.”

“…Is it decided?”

“It is. Five years from now, this village will be attacked by monsters. Almost all of the villagers will die. Only you and a handful of others will survive.”

It felt like being struck in the head. Prophecy. Fate. Special. They were difficult words for someone so young, but she understood what Vasily was saying.

“…M-my dad?”

“He’ll die.”

“M-my mom!? My mom!?”

“She’ll die. The only ones who survive will be you… And those who become your enemies.”

“No, no, no!! Why!?”

Finn’s figure from the other day flashed through her mind. His arm blown away, his leg bent, crawling on the ground covered in blood. That was what it meant to die. A fate even worse than that? She didn’t understand. There was so much she didn’t understand, but she knew she didn’t want that.

“That future is decided. It’s not something you can change with your power. That’s just how things are.”

Arianrod lost her words. But Vasily didn’t stop there.

“That’s why I came here. To interfere with your future.”

She pulled out a crude longsword from her chest. But Arianrod knew. That it was the Holy Sword, the blade that had turned her into a Hero.

“Five years from now, after your village is destroyed, you’ll survive and become an adventurer in the royal capital. Starting alone, you’ll gain companions one by one and eventually throw yourself into a fierce war against the Demon Lord’s army. But there’s no reason to obediently wait for that, is there?”

Using magic to forcibly move the sword, Vasily pointed the hilt toward Arianrod.

“You were just a village girl. You could only cower in a closet while monsters killed your parents. But what about now? Don’t you think someone who can easily kill a person could stand against monsters?”

Arianrod nodded hesitantly.

“If you can protect your parents from the monster attack, then that means you’ve overturned fate itself. I believe you can do it, Aria.”

“…I can?”

“Yes. Only you could do it… Because you are Aria who activated the Holy Sword.”

She stared at the sword. She had no good impressions of it. That sword was the cause that turned a single village girl named Arianrod into a human-shaped monster. If this sword hadn’t existed—if she hadn’t touched it—if Vasily hadn’t found her—she would surely still be living the same life as before.

Loved by her parents, playing with friends, growing up healthy. An utterly ordinary girl. But that wouldn’t happen. Her parents would die soon. Everyone in the village would be killed. They would suffer something far worse than what she had done to her childhood friend. No matter what she did, that fate wouldn’t change. She was destined to encounter this sword eventually.

Special.

Her body becoming strange… Being able to swing a sword that no one else could even lift properly… She could never return to normal. Even if she did, she’d just become special again. No. If she stayed normal now, her parents, her friends, and she herself would die.

That was the most terrifying thing of all.

“…I want to protect my mom and my dad. Can I become able to protect them?”

“Yes.”

“…Is it okay if I’m special?”

“I’ll welcome you as one of us, one special person to another.”

She took the hilt in her hand. Particles of light gathered, and the holy sword changed its form.

“…Then I will.”

Saving the world didn’t honestly matter to her. But if doing so meant protecting the people she loved… And if it meant surviving…

Arianrod took up the sword.

“I will become a Hero.”

A special Hero. The only one in the world who could overturn prophecy. The cry of a hero who would one day shake the world was born in that moment.

“Then I shall guide you, until the day of destruction arrives.”

Vasily blessed the birth of the Hero. The two met each other’s gaze. A dark elf foretold to be destroyed, and a hero whose future had been stolen. And the boy who had returned at some point, eyes shining as he stared at the holy sword—Finn Debyura.

“Hey, what’s that sword?”

“This is the Holy Sword. The symbol of Aria being a hero.”

“Huh. Lemme try holding it.”

“Eh? I-it’s fine, I guess…”

When Arianrod handed him the hilt, Finn was instantly yanked straight into the ground.

BAGYAH!!!

“Agaaaaaahh!!?”

“What are you doing!?”

Arianrod hurriedly retrieved the holy sword while Vasily healed him. Finn, whose face had been smashed into the floor and whose arm had been crushed by the weight, had a broken nose and was clearly in pain, yet he said cheerfully.

“Heeey, so this is ‘special’?”

“Uh… Y-yeah. Looks like it…”

“Lucky. I wanna use it too.”

“…You can’t. This sword can only be used by Aria.”

Before Vasily could say “That’s why you can’t be special,” Finn continued.

“Tch. But trying to become special is okay, right?”

“…Huh? Finn?”

“Yeah. It’d be tough for Aria if she were alone. I’ll become one too.”

Arianrod blinked.

“…Together? Become special together?”

“You don’t want that?”

“N-no! I’m happy!”

“Then it’s fine.”

“Yeah… Yeah!”

Becoming special was lonely. Over the past six months, Arianrod had come to think of this life as lonely and painful. She had resolved herself to living a lonely life. Never playing with friends again. Never returning to normal. But if that was the only way to protect anyone… If it meant mastering this power… She had accepted her fate and the consequences that came with it with resolve.

And yet, her childhood friend, injured and frightened, said it so casually.

『I’ll do it with you.』

With just those words, Arianrod’s heart felt lighter. She believed, innocently so, that someday in the distant future, she would stand shoulder to shoulder with Finn and Vasily. But reality was cruel.

Training that began with Finn included was separated after just one month. While Arianrod progressed smoothly, Finn returned home only to sleep. Even when she tried to talk about how the day had gone, he would fall asleep midway, and the time she spent talking with him gradually decreased. Even when she consulted Vasily, she was only told, “He’s having a hard time, so it can’t be helped,” and nothing improved.

Finn didn’t complain either, so she accepted it, but Arianrod wanted to spend more time with the childhood friend who had said he would stand with her.

I wanna talk with Finn more…

Her only companion alongside her special self. It was only natural to be curious, and sometimes she even crawled into Finn’s bed to sleep beside him. More than longing for warmth, she had begun to cherish the friend who stayed with her, someone other than Vasily. Half a year after the three began living together, Arianrod finished the homework she had been assigned and went to check on Vasily and Finn.

There… She saw Finn, limbs broken, face swollen beyond recognition, vomiting blood as he sparred with Vasily. Screaming, suffering, vomiting—yet still standing up to fight. That was her childhood friend. The dark elf kicked him away without mercy.

“Not good enough! Is that all you’ve got!? Finn Debyura! At this rate you’ll never catch up!!”

Vasily showed a ferocity completely unlike when she trained Arianrod. A merciless blow pierced into his broken leg.

“GYAAAAAAAHH!!”

“If you’ve got time to scream, block! Move with your muscles! I taught you that!”

“AGAAAAHH!!? GUEEEH!!”

Twitch. Twitch.

As Finn collapsed with eerie convulsions, Vasily pressed the attack further.

“Don’t sleep! You don’t have time to sleep! Aria wouldn’t go down from something like this!!”

“UGEH!!? GUEEEH!!”

A heel drop slammed into Finn’s abdomen. Bile spilled from his mouth, his stomach completely empty. Regaining consciousness, Finn slowly stood up on his broken legs, letting out thin, ragged breaths.

“G… guh… fuuu… guuuh… ugoh…”

Enduring the pain, writhing, still—Finn stood up. Vasily struck again. There was no hesitation. Finn tried to move his broken arm, but the pain was too much, his body merely jerked in response.

–CRACK!!

The blow smashed into Finn’s cheek. He staggered backward, collapsing—yet still tried to stand again.

“Move your arms! Think muscles, not bones! If you can’t do it, you’ll die!”

Finn stood up, taking a stance with his broken limbs. Vasily moved to strike again… And stopped at the last moment. Finn had already lost consciousness. He had stood up, endured the agony and passed out.

“…That’s enough for today. You did well…”

The ferocity gone, Vasily embraced Finn’s upright body and began healing him. Watching this scene, Arianrod was left speechless. By its sheer brutality. By its sheer cruelty. That day, for the first time in a long while, Arianrod refused to eat and went to bed early.

One week later… Arianrod could no longer stand.

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