I look around. It’s all white. Not blindingly white, just lack of any other sort of distinction white. The only landmark in the room is the strange dice girl, who is currently wearing a smug smile as she watches me attempt to understand what is happening.
“Please explain, this isn’t very fun.” I say to her, attempting to hide the panic in my voice.
“Fufu, I’ve finally caught your interest?” She says in a voice more smug than her smile, as colourless tables and chairs appear in the empty space.
“Sit.” The strange girl says, as she takes a seat herself.
Left with no other option, I choose to obey her command.
“So, you want to know what’s going on, yes? If you paid attention earlier maybe you’d have a clue!” She says, retaining her smug tone.
“I’m sorry, but this entire situation is a little suspicious, could you forgive my apprehension and explain what’s going on?” I say, in an attempt to fish an explanation out of this know-it-all.
“Alright, since you asked so nicely, I suppose I’ll tell you what’s going on.” She rolls her eyes sarcastically and leans back in the chair, flashing me a smile as the room changes to what resembles a study, with a fireplace on the wall to our right offering a slight warmth, and books lining the walls behind each of us stopping at the respective ends of their walls to meet a wall adorned with various paintings of landscapes I’ve never seen before. Our seats converted to couches adjacent to one another with a coffee table in between us, as I felt the rug beneath me embrace my now shoeless feet
“So, as you’ve noticed, this is quite an abnormal scenario! Well, for you, not me.” She chuckles slightly as she kicks her feet up on the newly formed couch whilst lifting a teacup up to her mouth and taking a sip.
I sit patiently, waiting to hear more as she buries her face in the teacup. Is she going to stop drinking eventually? This girl really likes making people pressed huh. A worried look appears on my face as I watch her drink, her eye glancing over to meet mine.
“Ehehe, sorry, I’ll explain properly now! I just really like messing with people.” A grin appearing on her face as she says so.
“So! You won the lottery! Every now and then I like to spin a soul wheel to determine my next victi-uh ahem winner, and then I invite them here to test their luck on my magic wheel of prizes!” She exclaims, spreading her arms wide to display her excitement.
“…”
“Oh come on! I thought you were bored? Don’t you wanna do something fun?”
“… I mean… I guess it doesn’t get any more interesting than this. What happens if I say no?” I ask, as my interest in the situation begins to rise.
“I’m glad you asked! You can’t say no.” Her impish smile returns.
“It’s a good thing you’re interested then, huh?” A wheel appears out of nowhere in front of the fireplace.
“Go on, spin it!” She urges me forward with her hand gestures.
In only a single moment of deliberation, I decided to play along with this charade. It’s not like I had any choice anyways, according to her. Besides, this is the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to me, I’ll enjoy it while I can.
I stand up to grab the wheel and push it down with all my power. The wheel spins faster than I thought it should have, given the power (or lack thereof) that I put into it, but after spinning more than 30 times, it finally began to slow down before landing on a reward.
“Retain your memories” the wheel reveals these words. Confused, I glance at the girl still relaxing on the couch, who seems annoyed that I would even look to her for an explanation.
“Well I can’t just let everyone remember this happened, plus it’s usually more fun if they don’t!”
“So what, I get abducted by a God and all I get out of it is the ability to remember it? Isn’t that a little sad?” I say, reflexively voicing my nihilistic thoughts.
“Calm down, you get two more spins, didn’t I say as much?”
“You didn’t, but thank you.” I spin the wheel again.
“Extremely High Compatibility With Magic”
Looking to the girl for another explanation again, she displays another annoyed look.
“Magic. You don’t know what magic is? It was at least a fantasy concept where you’re from, you’re telling me you don’t know anything about it?” She says in a demeaning tone.
“I know about magic but there’s no magic in my world, how am I supposed to use magic without ending up in a government lab somewhere??” I say, my growing irritation with this girl surfacing in my tone.
“Who said you’re going back to your world?” The girl says, with a cold and indifferent voice, completely contrasting with her previously bubbly and expressive personality.
The silence in the room grows as she stares at me indifferently.
“You have one more spin.”
“…”
I can’t go back? I know my life was boring and my world was boring and my job was boring and everything was boring, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care for it you know? I still have a family, friends, and even some inconsequential goals and aspirations I was chasing after. You’re telling me I can’t go back? Emotions stirred in my chest as I steeled myself to accept all that while spinning the wheel for the final time.
Click click click click click click cl-ic-k c-li-c-k c-l-i-c-k The wheel stops, and reveals the text:
“???”
“AHAHAHAHAHA!!!” The girl on the couch begins laughing wildly.
“What? What is it? Tell me? Why can’t I read it?” I start interrogating the girl who is now bent over at the waist from laughing so hard, halfway falling off the couch.
“J-ju- AHAHAHAHA” She continues laughing.
“WHAT’S SO FUNNY? WHAT DID YOU DO? WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?” I start shouting in a panic induced rage.
“Just go” she chuckles as she shoos me away.
It’s been almost 3 years since I became the Hero. After receiving blessings from the Goddess, I was hailed as the continent’s next hero, slated to defeat the Demon King and bring an end to demons once and for all.
However,
These were times of peace. Demons did not attack human territories, nor did humans attack demons, the Demon King and the King of Etnal, this continent, made a peace treaty 5 years before I even showed up, making me wonder why I’m even here to begin with.
Suffice to say, I don’t have much to do.
Part of being a hero is being a public figure, and since the other part – slaying demons – is kind of a moot point, I’m basically just a pseudo-celebrity at this point. It’s not all bad though, I get loads of free stuff, people are nice to me, and I enjoy swordfighting, so the practice they make me do is more of a joy than a chore.
Still, I do find it kind of silly that I was made into a hero for no reason other than to make people happy.
That was until today,
A report came in that an unknown being destroyed a small military base manned by 14 soldiers that’s used as a checkpoint for travellers between kingdoms. An attack like this during peaceful times is unheard of, could it be rebels? Demons? It’s too soon to tell – but one thing’s for sure, this entity must be stopped, and it’s the job of the Hero to do it.
The King calls me and my party into his court. Alongside me are my comrades, though I’m not too familiar with them as we don’t really get along on a personal level and we haven’t really done much as a team besides what you could call celebrity appearances. Behind me stand Nora the Mage, Goff the Barbarian, Uthyr the Druid, and Celestia the Healer. A pretty well rounded party, though our abilities have mostly been reduced to party tricks these days.
“Hero, Hero’s party, I have gathered you here today as your first official mission has been decided.”
Here we go.
“You are to stop the entity causing havoc in the East. Capture them alive, if possible, but do not risk any of your lives to do so.”
“Understood, your majesty”. We say in unison as we’re all too familiar with doing as part of our charade.
“Then, be off. Your belongings and travelling arrangements are already prepared. Make your country proud.” The king says in a commanding voice.
We exit the court and begin travelling towards the entity immediately. As I mentioned earlier, my comrades and I aren’t all that close, so it was a generally quiet ride in the carriage, as even the entourage dared not break the silence.
As we drew closer to the estimated location of this fiend, uncertainty grew in my mind. I had never actually fought anything strong before, and the reports are certainly planting some seeds of doubt in my head. All of my practical combat experience has been against weaker monsters, ones spawned by mana that wander aimlessly and occasionally group up or attack people. The truth is, I was hoping to fight stronger monsters by taking quests given in the adventurer’s guild, but the management team of the Hero’s Party wouldn’t allow us to take anything remotely dangerous, so as much as I wanted to, I could not defeat anything worth bragging about, yet I and my party touted ourselves around town like we had slain a hundred dragons each.
The real credit can go to the adventurer guild’s top party: Manamune. They’re actually allowed to go on dangerous quests, such as battling trolls spotted near villages, or destroying large goblin encampments that are terrorizing the people. I envy their freedom.
Drawing closer to the outpost we are stationed to defend, I swallow my uncertainty and steel myself. This is my chance. I will show the world and the King that I am not just some prop.
As we arrive at the outpost, I go up the stairs to my chambers and unpack my things, all the while I prepare my thoughts.
This is it.
I’ll finally be a real hero.
BANG
As I finish settling in, a large bang shakes the building. Soldiers begin clamouring around the halls as my party-mate, Goff, pops his head in my room.
“The fiend is here! He is attacking us directly! We must regroup!”
“What?!” I say as I hastily reequip my gear that I had just unequipped.
BANG
The sounds of the stone outpost crumbling reverberate through the building.
It’s drawing closer.
I hastily exit my room to follow Goff only to find the floor missing around the corner, nearly taking a nasty fall. An entire half of the building has been crumbled to dust, with what remains of the building shaking unsteadily as I peer down into the debris to search for Goff who had just gone in this direction a moment ago, but he is nowhere to be seen.
BANG
An even louder bang indicating it’s vicinity floods my ears, as I instinctively go to cover them. I look to the source of the noise and see what appears to be a human holding a tree log, walking around in a panic.
BANG
A shockwave emanates from his hand as he wanders, destroying more of the outpost, finally making it give way as it crumbles to dust.
I hardly had any time to react as I quickly jump to the scaffolding nearest to the ground before the support beneath the small bit of building I had sought refuge on gave way, causing me to tumble a bit.
Buried in rubble, I struggle to move. Just as soon as I realize I’m trapped, I hear Goff start shouting.
“Kid! I’m coming, give me a shout so I know where you are!”
“HERE!!” I shout as loud as I can, but it’s likely he can’t hear me, so I try to free myself with my own power, using what little Earth Magic I know to shift the rocks around me, warping their shape to lift me up slightly, which only serves to press me into the rocks above, straining my body and worsening my pain.
The rocks above me begin to give way, as Goff’s face eventually comes into view, his eye meeting mine as a glint of happiness shines in his.
I never really got to know my party, but I always regarded Goff as a man who wanted to do right. If it weren’t for him being far older, nearing his 50s, I have no doubt we could have been good friends. Maybe I should get to know the rest of my party after this. If there is an after…
“Kid, it’s bad, Nora is dead and Uthyr is incapacitated. I can’t find Celestia either. It looks like it’s just you and me for now.” Goff says as he pulls me out of the rubble.
“We should retreat, we must assume Celestia is either safe or already dead, take Uthyr and let’s run.” I say the first plan that comes to mind.
“There’s no way we can retreat now. This guy’s not going to let us go that easily. We’re going to have to fight our way out, not only for our own survival, but to avenge our fallen comrades!”
“… You’re right. I didn’t choose to become a hero as much as I didn’t choose to become a figurehead. We must defeat the evil in this world and maintain its peace.” I say as my determination from earlier begins to circulate through my veins.
“That’s the spirit kid.” Goff smiled and patted my back.
“Let’s go then, I’ll draw his attention, you go for the finishing blow. We’ll likely only have one chance, so make it count.”
“Let’s do it.” I say as I prepare myself, brandishing my sword in front of me, pointing it at the cause of all this destruction.
“GO!”
Goff charges in from the left as I wait for my moment, he picks up a massive piece of debris as he runs and throws it at the figure, as I take this as my moment to end this. Goff swings his hand fist with enough force to slow me down, as it connects with its target, I thrust my sword into it only to find it did not breach flesh, merely stopped at the body of the target. In this moment of confusion, I look at Goff who shares my expression, then at the figure who looks at me in a panic, then waves his hand across both of us.
All feeling left my body as my field of vision fell and rotated quickly before stopping at the sight of my headless body kneeling in front of the figure. As my life faded out, I could only lament not living the way I wished to.
