Hero

The stone tiles on the third basement level of the training grounds had completely shattered that night.

Lonia sat in the middle of the ruins, looking up at the flickering ghostfire on the vaulted ceiling.

The blue ghostfire cast swaying patches of light on the black stone, like a swarm of directionless fireflies.

She closed her eyes.

Deep within her consciousness, that single thread hung quietly. It passed through the black stone walls of the vampire territory, across the gray skies of the Desolate Plains of Withered Bones, through the maple forest on the border between humans and demons, and connected all the way to a certain room in Gloom Castle.

A faint pulse traveled from the other end of the thread.

Lonia stood up from the pile of rubble.

Maple Town.

The autumn maple forest was denser than it had been five years ago.

Lonia wore an exquisitely crafted white shirt and shorts, her legs crossed in a carefree manner. A sheet of greaseproof paper was spread across her knees, piled with peeled chestnut shells and golden crumbs of chestnut meat.

Rafina sat beside her.

The marks that five years had left on this half-blood girl were completely different from those on Lonia.

She had a small frame, and as she grew, she began to exude an elven delicacy.

Her silvery-white low twin tails were much longer than five years ago, reaching down to her waist, their ends fluttering gently in the wind. Her crimson eyes had deepened by a shade into a calm dark red, surprisingly close to the color of Lonia's eyes.

But their shapes were different. Lonia's eyes bore distinct vampire characteristics, with slit pupils that made her look as if she were ready to pounce on prey at any moment.

In contrast, Rafina's pupils were round, like two polished rubies.

Her horns had also grown a size larger, their shape becoming more upright and prominent.

Her black long-sleeved dress had been replaced with a dark gray high-collared robe, similar to Gloom's attire. The only difference was the red maple leaf bronze hairpin pinned to her collar.

Her arrow-tipped tail rested on Lonia's knee, its tip lazily curling around a peeled chestnut and offering it to Lonia's lips.

Lonia opened her mouth and bit the chestnut. After chewing it twice, she spoke indistinctly.

“So you sorted out the messy accounts between the Flame Demon Court and the Shadow Demon Court at the joint conference last week?”

“Yes. It wasn't actually that difficult. The demands of both sides were very clear; they just lacked a partition standard that both could accept. I used the old boundary maps from before the Era of Strife as a reference, then overlaid the current mineral vein distribution data...”

“Alright, alright, I don't get it.”

Lonia tossed a chestnut shell onto the greaseproof paper and wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Basically, you're amazing, and everyone was impressed, right?”

“...Not everyone. Court Head Eliza had a very subtle expression when she voted in favor.”

“That's just how she always is. Ignore her.”

Lonia leaned back slightly.

“...Tell me something.”

“About what?”

“Anything. What book have you been reading lately?”

Rafina's eyes darted thoughtfully.

“Lately, I've been reading biographies of heroes from various races.”

“Heroes? Which ones? I heard the Storm Empire is about to replace their king with his youngest daughter?”

“Hmm? I didn't really pay attention to that. I've been reading the biography of Wald, the Chief Grand Mage of the Mage Tower. He has lived even longer than the Demon King. His most famous contribution was proposing the Word-soul Theory and reconstructing the Dragon-tongue Magic of the Era of Dragon Sovereignty, which changed how pureblood humans understood magic at the time.”

“It is said that he had a terrible temper in his youth. He once had his mage credentials revoked because he publicly burned the papers of scholars who opposed him. But he later reclaimed them through his own research papers and sheer strength.”

Lonia raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, that bespectacled nerd drawn in the books? He looks pretty dumb, kind of like Sera.”

“He's not like Sera. But his most famous rumor is that after inheriting the position of Deputy Grand Mage, he married the daughter of a sheepkin tribe solely to study demi-human witchcraft.”

“...That sounds so boring. Anyone else?”

“Then there's Beatrice, the Pope of the Church of Radiance.”

Lonia almost choked on her chestnut.

“That lunatic?”

“Yes. Her background is very interesting. She looks only twelve or thirteen, but her actual age is unknown. It is said that before becoming Pope, she traveled to every corner of the continent alone, including the borders of the Demon Realm. A very ancient record mentions that she seemed to have already been active in various places since the early Era of Strife.”

“...She claims to be the Child of the Sun, and because of that, she will sweep away everything that is not favored by the sun...”

“Yes. That is also the origin of her most famous nickname, ‘The Maiden Who Plucks the Blazing Sun’. She calls herself the incarnation of the sun, a deity executing the will of the world. Most of the holy spirits worshipped by the Holy Spirit Knights of the Church of Radiance are actually different interpretations of her various images.”

Lonia shrank back slightly.

“...Let's stop talking about that lunatic. Who else?”

“Riddell, the ‘Conquest Knight’ of Esperfite. Unlike the other four chosen Apocalypse Knights, he is the only knight who was awarded a title purely through military merit within the angel squads uniformly equipped with Type II pseudo-engines. However, it is said that he is actually a pacifist.”

“...Angels.”

“Yes. Esperfite's most famous combat unit—mecha pilots who spread holy light with mechanical wings.”

Lonia spat a chestnut shell onto the greaseproof paper, her brow furrowed into a tight knot.

“...Aren't all of these people our enemies?”

Rafina's tail paused on her knee.

“The Mage Tower belongs to humanity, Esperfite belongs to humanity, and those lunatics from the Church of Radiance go without saying. During the last border conflict, that Holy Spirit Knight named Constantine killed three of our scouts. Why are you telling me stories about their heroes?”

Rafina turned her head to meet Lonia's gaze.

“Nia, other races aren't necessarily our enemies, just as demons aren't necessarily evil.”

“How could we possibly be evil?”

“Ah...”

Rafina's lips parted slightly, and her tail withdrew from Lonia's knee, curling around her own waist as its tip swayed gently.

Lonia recognized this movement; it was Rafina's habit when she was carefully weighing her words.

“I didn't say we are evil. I mean... in the books of Esperfite and the scriptures of the Church, demons are depicted as evil.”

“During the Era of Strife, the Ancestor of Demons could not accept the expulsion of the Creator, and thus launched a war in the heart of the Allied Forces' territory. Beatrice founded the Church of Radiance at this time, spreading faith by granting Holy Light to others, which made the Church powerful enough to rival the Storm Empire established by the Human King, becoming the main force in resisting the demons.”

“Afterward, the Black Tide began to overflow, and the Ancestor of Demons took the opportunity to ally with the Black Tide to launch a counteroffensive against the Church of Radiance. Because the Black Tide could devour Holy Light, and magic was monopolized by the dragon race, a vast number of believers at the time could only fight using mechanical creations. This sowed the seeds for the rise of Esperfite—a nation that worships machinery—at the end of the Era of Dragon Sovereignty.”

“At the same time, in the scriptures of the Church of Radiance, demons are described as a calamity sharing the same origin as the Black Tide. Even now, during border conflicts, demons are still viewed by them as monsters that must be subjugated.”

“That's their prejudice! Wasn't the Ancestor of Demons also eventually corrupted by the Black Tide? In the end, if the Ten Clans' Royal Court hadn't joined the Allied Forces to fight the Black Tide, it would have swallowed the entire continent long ago!”

“Yes. It is prejudice. But prejudice doesn't disappear just because we know it's prejudice. Nia, there are people who do not want that prejudice to fade.”

There was no anger or grievance in Rafina's eyes.

“What the Demon King wants to achieve cannot be accomplished simply by winning wars. If you win, they fear you. If you lose, they hate you. Either way, the prejudice remains.”

Lonia's brow furrowed even deeper.

“Then what should we do?”

“Understand them. Understand their heroes, understand their history, understand what they care about, what they fear, and what they pursue. Not to please them, but to find a table where everyone can sit down and talk peacefully.”

Lonia stared at her.

“...You're becoming more and more like him.”

“Like who?”

“The Demon King. The way you speak. The way you think. The way you look at the world.”

Lonia pursed her lips and lowered her head.

“Five years ago, you would have cursed at human traffickers with me, calling them bastards. Now, you would probably say: ‘The existence of human traffickers reflects the structural flaws of border trade controls; we should seek a solution from a systemic level.’”

Rafina smiled helplessly.

“No, Nia. Human traffickers are still bastards.”

“But you would think about the system first.”

“...Yes.”

“I don't understand any of that. Imperial heroes, boundary partition standards, structural flaws—none of it. I only know who is good to Fina and who is bad to Fina. If they are good to you, I won't hit them. If they are bad to you, I will beat them up.”

“If you want to go find a table, then I will guard the door for you. If anyone dares to flip the table, I'll chop off their hands.”

Rafina looked at her.

“Nia, if your sister hears you talking like that, she'll scold you again.”

The wind blew her silvery-white hair against the side of her face. Her crimson eyes reflected Lonia's face.

“But... I like you just the way you are.”

The maple leaves continued to fall. The red fragments spun through the air between them, landing on the blue stones, on the greaseproof paper, and on their side-by-side knees. One leaf landed on Lonia's shoulder, and another on the tip of Rafina's hair.

Lonia turned her head and glanced at the tail that had somehow rested on her knee once again.

The tip of the tail curled around her ring finger—cool, smooth, and feeling exactly the same as it had five years ago.