THE VOICE THAT ANNOUNCES RUINATION
“All right, class, today we’ll be talking about wyrms and dragons.”
Professor Oriza starts class with his usual disinterested tone.
Wyrms and dragons…
Hearing that, I can’t help but remember that incident.
Hugo’s attempt to assassinate me, and the wyrm’s attack on the school.
Several years have passed since then.
Although few were hurt in either assault, it was still a shock to the academy.
However, Hugo was never definitively punished.
Before anyone could render justice, he disappeared from the school entirely.
The running theory is that Spatial Magic was involved in his escape, but nobody knows for sure.
At the same time, Ms. Oka disappeared, too.
In retrospect, she wasn’t present for the fight against the earth wyrm, either.
Ms. Oka was strong enough to easily bring Hugo down.
If she’d participated in the subsequent battle, I’m sure we would’ve defeated the monster more easily.
So why wasn’t she there?
With her gone, we have no way of knowing.
That isn’t all that changed after the incident.
For some reason, Fei started devoting herself to leveling up, even though she hadn’t been interested in it at all before.
She quickly achieved the evolution she’d once dreaded and now lives outside.
Something about witnessing the death of the wyrm that may have been one of her parents must have changed her outlook.
My own perspective changed a little after that encounter, too.
Before the attacks, I constantly aspired to be like my brother Julius.
But because of what happened, I learned a small fraction of the difficulty of his path.
Even now, I can’t shake the fear lurking in my mind.
It may be due in part to the fact that I’m a reincarnation, but I’m afraid of killing—and of being killed.
But in order to live in this world, in order to walk by my brother’s side, I have to conquer that fear.
Still, even if I have to overcome it, I don’t think I should forget it.
Since then, I’ve had opportunities to participate in exercises and battle monsters.
These creatures are nowhere near as strong as the earth wyrm; they’re so weak that they fall to a single swipe of my sword.
Still, the weight of killing them is the same.
I mustn’t forget this weight. I mustn’t get used to it.
I have to master my fears and go into battle fully prepared to take a life.
If I forget the weight of that act and get accustomed to taking lives, then I won’t be me anymore.
Just a monster that happens to share my name.
It’s possible I’m just being naive.
But even if I am a peace-loving fool, I don’t want to feel any differently.
I want to respect and understand the weight of a life.
From there, I have to measure the balance between what I want to protect and the lives I must take to do so, and thus decide whether to fight.
It’s easy to put into words but much harder to do in practice.
But my brother must fight with such thoughts held close to his heart.
He’s far too kind to be oblivious to the value of life.
I hope to rise to the same heights as my brother someday.
But I’m not remotely prepared for that day yet.
It’s not something I can just achieve overnight. I have to cultivate it little by little.
Until I find that resolve, I’ll simply continue improving my strength.
That philosophy has helped me progress since that incident.
I’ve grown, and my physical stats have been enhanced accordingly.
My current stats are fairly well-rounded.
Thanks to my body’s development, my physical stats have caught up with my magic stats.
I’m happy to have rounded out like this.
But it no longer elicits the same kind of pleasure as playing a game.
The stronger I am, the more frightened I become of wielding that strength.
But even so, I have to get stronger.
With the demons becoming more active, there’s no telling when a war might break out.
If I’m not strong enough to act when that time comes, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.
I may not be able to fight by my older brother’s side yet, but I don’t want to hold him back.
If possible, I want to at least get strong enough to protect Sue, Katia, and the others close to me.
Sue’s been acting a bit distant lately.
She used to always call me “Brother” and follow me around, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore.
Since she’s becoming a young woman and all, it’s not unusual that she’d want to distance herself from me, but it’s still a little sad.
Still, she hasn’t pulled away completely, and I can tell she still looks up to me, so I can’t complain too much just yet.
My relationship with Katia has become a little strange, as well.
Ever since the incident, I’ve gotten the sense that she’s trying to put some distance between us, bit by bit.
She denied it when I asked her about it.
But she avoided eye contact and backed away while she did, so I’m not convinced at all.
When I grabbed her arm to press the question, I was surprised by how thin it was.
It was too thin. So thin that I thought it might break.
On top of that, she gave an unexpectedly cute squeak of pain, so I let go instinctively.
Watching her face turn red as she rubbed her arm where I’d grabbed it, I couldn’t hide my distress.
“S-sorry.”
I didn’t know why I was so flustered as I apologized.
But in that moment, even though I know Katia as well as I know myself, she looked like a total stranger to me.
Things have only gotten more awkward with Katia since then.
Yuri is just about the only one who hasn’t changed. She’s still as zealous about converting people to the Word of God as ever.
If anything, she may be getting more and more intense.
Whenever I see her harassing a student, I pull her away to let her prey escape, only to have her target me instead.
It’s become a routine for us.
If Sue and Katia are around, they’ll jump in to mediate, and we all get caught up in our familiar, friendly squabbling.
So even if there have been a few small changes, my life remains pretty peaceful.
<Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Hero].>
<Acquired skills [Hero LV 1] [Holy Light Magic LV 1] as a result of title [Hero].>
Until a voice shatters that peace.
“Huh?”
Since we’re still in the middle of class, my confused mutter echoes through the classroom more loudly than I expected.
“What is it, Schlain? Is there some part of the lecture you don’t understand?”
Professor Oriza eyes me politely.
But his voice doesn’t register through the chaos erupting in my mind.
“Schlain? Schlain?! What’s wrong?!”
I’m sure the blood must have been draining from my face.
But how could I not be shocked?
The Hero title is only held by one human in the world at any time.
And I know very well who that hero is supposed to be.
Once you acquire a title, you can never relinquish it for as long as you live.
The title of Hero is no exception.
As long as you live.
So that can only mean one thing.
There’s no other explanation.
I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it.
But that title has undeniably been added to my status.
No. It can’t be.
This can’t be happening.
No, no, no no no no no no no no no!
That could never happen to my brother!
But that title obdurately reveals the reality.
On this day, a hero has died…
…and a new hero is born.
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