Chapter 39. Stormwind’s Worries

I sat inside an illuminated room. In the reflection of my laptop’s screen I could see the young-looking man that I still was, with my light green hair, bright blue eyes, and pointed long ears that some humans like to compare to knives.

I was still busy working in my office at the Institute. I liked doing so. It was a better life than the one I had five years ago where there were nothing but battlefields, and fighting against people that I used to be friends with, while standing next to people I once saw as the bane of the world.

The peacefulness of this new life granted me the time to relax, even if from time to time I had to deal with people like Daniel, a human from this world that was convinced by the former followers of the Hero of the Holy Gods to continue their mission of destroying all darkness from the world. Still, that didn’t bother me, for as long as those people didn’t cause any trouble, it was enough to just tell them to settle down and pay attention to class.

With a sigh I turned the computer back on and looked at the message that Fraga sent me. It read as such:

‘Master Matheus Stormwind, this is the information regarding the new students. Only two of them belong to the C rank classes. The other two I send only for a week to be assessed by you in that time. They assure me that they can get to C rank in that time, so I decided to humor them and let them see directly for themselves what they’re expected to achieve in their time within the Institution.

‘I do not think they’ll get to even D rank, but do keep an eye out on them and try to guide them in the short time they’ll be spending with you.

‘As for the other two, they’re exceptional talents. Please do try your best to guide them into the greatness they’ll be likely to achieve,

‘Best regards, Francis Fraga, PhD.’

“What is up with these kids?” I whispered as I looked into the information that Fraga provided.

There were four new young people joining my class. Mine was a higher ranked class, so I would usually only deal with people that ranked up after months—or even years—of training in the Institute, but today, all the kids had just started as fresh students.

I looked at the stats and profile of the couple of young men.

One was named Steven Sainz and the other one was Brian Tasis. They were both E ranked, the average of the average for people that got just accepted into the Institute and for people who had their powers just awakened. It made no sense to me why they would be sent to a class where the teachings would either pass right over their heads, or they wouldn’t be able to keep up.

“I guess I’ll have to see for myself if there is something special about them… however, this other one…” I said, looking into the profile and stats of Victoria. “What a special girl…”

Her stats were completely off the charts. The initial stats were already pretty high for someone that had just awakened, but after just a week without doing anything related to the institute, she had already gained enough power to rival people that were good enough to be graduated.

“But, she has so many useless skills… Hmmm…” I looked deeper into the girl’s profile and a realization hit me almost right away when comparing it with her name. “Graciani, no wonder. She must’ve been pumped full of all sorts of elixirs, tools, artifacts, and skills. Still, I look forward to how far she can get. She might even be one of the handful of S ranks in this country.”

There were already some ideas in my mind about what to do with the rich girl to help her properly grow, but for now, I had to first see what kind of person she was before I could think of ways to improve her.

“Now, the last one,” I whispered as I pulled the last profile. “Althea… She shares the same name as many girls from my world… but this last name…”

Sanctus Stultus. It was the first time I saw such a last name, here, in my world, or anywhere else. But there were plenty of people in this world, so there was always a chance to see one like that. I put that aside and looked at her stats instead.

“Just as impressive as the Graciani girl. And her skills are quite unusual… A lot of S ranks—more than any normal person should have. She must’ve been a gifted girl from the start, and they make a lot more sense than—hm?” I got distracted by a particular skill, one that was unusual to have even if it wasn’t an S rank. “Sacred Cut?”

It was one of the lower ranked Holy Skills. However, Holy Skills were only taught by the Knights of the Leyfallan Empire, and they never taught them to people outside their territory. At most, they sell one-time-use artifacts that simulate their powers, so it made no sense that this girl had a Holy Skill.

I scrolled back up to the girl’s profile. Even there, there was nothing strange about her. She didn’t even have a passport to say that she trained with the Holy Knights, and the actual order had never been to this country.

“Could she be a spy? Maybe, but…”

She had clearly been hostile with Daniel, which in itself could just be an act, but if she were to be a spy, I didn’t see why she would go inside an Institute and not into a government institution where she could get easier information, or simply lay lower by doing something that wouldn’t reveal her skills.

I paused for a moment to look at the girl’s picture. There was something special about her—her beauty in particular. It was the kind of beauty that people from my world would claim to have been hand-made by the… Holy Gods… just like the Holiest of Knights!

Stolen story; please report.

“C-could it be…? But she is not nearly as strong as Her to rival a God… Argh if only there were real pictures of the Hero…” I said with some frustration.

I didn’t actually know what the Hero of the Holy Gods looked like. Only a few select people knew it since she spent most of her time fighting, so everyone else had to be content with the portraits and description of the woman. Which is what I did as I clicked aside and searched the web for a portrait and description of the Hero.

There I saw her as depicted by the people who knew her. Unparalleled beauty, and a golden aura that irradiated from her powerful stance, and God-crafted armor and weapon. These were likely nothing more than exaggerations, of course, but among the many pictures there were, if someone were to throw in this Althea girl, I wouldn’t notice the difference between her and the Hero’s depictions.

“It could just be a coincidence but…” I whispered as I looked deeply into the girl’s profile picture. “…those skills, her looks, even her personality…”

There was one way to know, but I was hesitating as I looked down at my phone and wondered if I should really do that. But… if this girl was the Hero, or if she was somehow related to Her, then I couldn’t let it slide either.

The Hero of the Holy Gods was extremely dangerous, and shouldn’t be allowed to simply roam the world, especially after all the efforts that had been expended to make sure that the people of Tenebreius could live in peace with the people of the world.

I could still remember the last days of fighting in Arretia. I had been lucky not to be sent to the closest frontlines where the Hero of the Holy Gods and the Dark God clashed, since everyone knew that the land under them had crumbled to pieces, and anyone under them fared no better. There were people that I knew that had gone to those places and even to this day haven’t been found—likely because they were the first to die.

And yet, even in the distance, I remember seeing the horizon flare up in explosions both light and dark.

Sometimes, during nighttime when people had a chance to rest, I would be woken up by a sudden daylight coming from the horizon, and me, with the Tenebreius people, would run outside, fearing that it was the end, only to have the light be overtaken by darkness.

Same thing would happen during the day, where I would be fighting side by side with another elf, a demon, an ogre, or even a goblin against the furious armies of the empire, and suddenly the day would turn to night as a powerful explosion of Darkness and Hellfire covered the horizon. Those were good opportunities to take on the Leyfallans as their morale would usually crumble; some of them even dropping to their knees, crying for the defeat of the Holy Hero.

But always, as the neverending days of war kept coming, and the bodies kept piling, the struggle in the horizon would continue.

That was, until one fateful day. On this particular day, the horizon exploded once more in darkness, and we hoped that it would be the last time, but sadly, it was combined with a wave of golden light, signifying the power of the Holy Hero overtaking the Dark Lord.

I figured it would be just like every other time, but the darkness didn’t return. In fact, the skies brightened more than ever before, covering every single battlefield as if the sun itself had fallen.

Our armies hesitated back then, and even the empire seemed to be confused about such an abundant amount of golden light. I would’ve lost my life in that moment of distraction as well, if it wasn’t for a Siege Demon that was still paying attention, who used its large weapon to protect me and the ones around me.

I knew back then that it was the end. That light was far too powerful. The empire also knew it, and I nearly dropped to my knees to surrender. But the demons, and every single one of our allies never surrendered.

It proved to be a good decision, for after a short time, the horizon bloomed once more in darkness and we knew that we had to keep fighting.

I didn’t know back then that it was a different kind of darkness, and I even panicked when from that horizon, a wave of darkness swallowed us all, as if the darkest seas themselves had moved from the deepest depths to wash over the land.

Next thing we knew, we were all standing in the middle of a strange world, surrounded by buildings impossibly high, and artifacts none of us had seen before. But we knew back then that the Final War was over.

Sadly, nobody knows what really happened in the end, since neither the Dark God nor the Holy Hero were seen or heard of again. Some say that the Dark God won, but the Leyfall Empire is still around, so it couldn’t be. Others say that the Holy Hero simply sacrificed herself to end the Dark God and create the ideal world that the Holy Gods imagined, but the Dark God’s creations are still around, just as they’ve always been.

I believe that they’re both dead. However, I don’t know why we’re in this world, or how we got here. What I do know is that we’re better off without the Hero of the Holy Gods; someone that could destroy a world if there’s nobody to oppose her.

While looking at this Hero of the Holy Gods lookalike, I determined that I couldn’t take that chance, even if she had nothing to do with Her, someone should at least look into it. If it turns out to just be a coincidence, then nothing will happen. The people of this world have a strange respect for all sentient life and they wouldn’t just kill her. But if she is indeed related to the Hero… then something should be done while there’s still a chance to act.

With a deep breath, I reached for my phone and called a number; a very special number, one that was given to us in cases of emergencies related to Arretia. After a few beebs, someone picked up.

“Hello? Yes,” there was a pause as I heard the voice from the other side.

Someone with a very serious tone was demanding that I identify myself, which was quite unexpected as they sounded like they didn’t want to deal with this, so I quickly complied.

“Matheus Stormwind, Elf. Instructor at the National Magic Institute of—”

This person interrupted me on the other side, and I quickly stood up from the chair. They were threatening to hang up.

“Wait! There’s someone here that I think might be related to Her, the Hero of the Holy Gods!” I quickly said.

There was some silence from the other side, and I worried that perhaps they hung up on me before I could shout out that last bit, but it didn’t take long for the person on the other side to ask for evidence.

And so, I sat down and sent the girl’s profile, including her stats and skills, to the email that they provided. They hung up after saying that they were going to look into it, and I heavily sighed as I slumped on the chair.

I looked at the picture of the beautiful woman on the screen, shifting my eyes between her and the portraits of the Holy Hero. The more I looked, the more convinced I was that I had done the right thing.

And yet, a heavy feeling weighed on me, both from disclosing information about this girl to those people, and from the fear that perhaps the Hero of the Holy Gods had returned.

I looked outside the window to the dark sky, and once more, heavily sighed. “Hopefully… I’m wrong…”