Chapter 48 – Beastman Kingdom Prologue

In the Kairne Mountain range, an airship was flying through Wyvern Valley in the middle of the night.

A young man was standing on the deck of the ship while watching scenery pass by.

His black hair was being ruffled by the whistling wind.

He had a set of leather armor on and a longsword attached to his waist.

"Oh. So you were awake Sir Aven."

Behind the summoned Hero Aven, appeared a girl with short black hair dressed in a maid uniform.

It was Talia, the maid of Princess Alisa von Cloud from the Cloud Kingdom.

"Talia. I couldn't sleep so I was just staying on guard in case the airship was attacked by monsters."

Ever since he was summoned and learned about the story of the hero and demon king, Aven had been training and adjusting to the world and its system.

At first he could not accept the situation.

Who in their right mind would believe in something crazy like other world summoning?

However, he was soon convinced by Princess Alisa after she showed him magic and people from different races.

"You do not have to worry about that. This is the Cloud Kingdom's royal airship. It would be a joke if wyverns of this level can pose a threat to the life of her Highness." Talia stated.

Princess Alisa was currently resting in her cabin on this ship.

Due to an incident in the past where a kingdom used the teleport shrines to invade another country with their army, cross-country teleportation was banned.

Because of this, the Princess and her group had to take an airship in order to reach the capital of the Beastman Kingdom.

"I guess you're right. I thought that I could level up if I killed a high level monster." Aven said slightly disappointed.

He heard that the demons were waging war with the Humanoid Alliance causing hundreds of thousands of lives to be lost constantly.

When he learned that only his [Light Magic] was the weakness of the demon king, he vowed to use his power to put an end to the war.

Through his history classes in school, he knew about the awful effects that wars had on the common people.

Aven had a strong sense of justice.

His father was a policeman and his mother was a lawyer.

He had been raised and influenced by them to always protect the innocent and to stop evil whenever he could.

Due to his sense of justice, he could not abandon these people in need when he knew that he was the only one who could help.

And thus, he wanted to get stronger as soon as possible.

The stronger he was; the sooner he could end the war.

But there was a problem.

He had trouble understanding how to use magic.

There was no mana or magic in his previous world.

Although he had the [Mana Control] skill, he had no idea how to use mana at all.

That's why the Princess had decided to take him to the Magic Academy in the Beastman Kingdom under the guise of being her bodyguard.

There he can learn how to utilize mana and also find out more about the heroes from the past.

"There's no need to rush. The war is currently in a stalemate and the Hugo Empire are no pushovers either. The last big clash was over a year ago and both forces are still recuperating from the aftermath." Talia informed him.

"I understand. I just... Don't like it. Why does there have to be a war? Can't the different races just live peacefully on their own territories and focus on developing their countries for the betterment of the people?"

Aven thought of his home world, Earth.

Although there were wars in the past, the world had achieved a peaceful era.

The results of that peace led to the development of humanity and overall improvement of people's lives.

'Why can't this world be the same?' He thought to himself.

He never considered the way his own world had managed to reach that "peace".

Or how weapons of mass destruction existed as a deterrence.

He was just blindly following his ideals.

"Peace cannot exist so long as monsters still roam this world and the demons who gave birth to them aren't annihilated." Talia said with a fierce gaze.

Aven was about to reply when suddenly,

*Cough cough*

Talia started coughing violently.

She bent forward like she was in pain.

"Talia!"

Aven rushed over to support her but she held out a hand to stop him.

She had always been taking care of him in this unfamiliar world.

Aven had grown rather attached to her as well as the Princess who was always so gentle and kind towards him.

"Ahem... I apologize for displaying an unsightly image. The mana density in this location has made me feel unwell. I shall return to my cabin to rest. Good night Sir Aven."

Talia said this and quickly walked away with even waiting for a reply.

"Uh yeah... Good night...?"

He was still concerned about her but didn't think any more about the matter.

He unsheathed his sword and started doing practice swings.

Maybe if he tired himself out, he could go to sleep.

Over inside Talia's room, she was wiping away the blood from her hand that she coughed out earlier.

"Someone defeated my shadow..."

From behind her, a dark aura appeared.

It started to form the shape of a bird.

When a black raven was fully formed, it landed on her shoulder.

"Go to the Cult branch near Lam City and find out Nat's last report."

Hearing the order of her master, the raven flew out of the window and disappeared into the night sky.

"How vexing..."

It takes a lot of time and effort in order for her to make and nurture a strong shadow clone.

It took her years to make the one that was just destroyed.

Now that it was gone, she had taken a considerable amount of damage from the backlash of the skill.

Unlike normal summoned familiars, shadow clones could act on their own and hers had grown particularly attached to a certain girl.

She saw some potential in the girl so she left him to take care of her and raise her to become a hidden trump card.

She never expected that he would instead raise her as a sheltered little sister.

###

Two months later.

South of Lam City.

A group of guards were walking back towards the south gate in the middle of the afternoon.

Some of them had minor injuries.

They walked along while groaning tiredly.

At the head of the group was their leader, Hamish.

"Quit dragging your feet and groaning! It's because of that attitude that we weren't helpful during the monster horde incident!"

Two months ago, during the attack of the monster horde, these guards stood safely on the city walls and only shot arrows at the enemies.

Sir Hamish was angry at himself for not being able to do more so he gathered his men who felt the same way and brought them to train in group vs. group fights in the Cockroach Cave dungeon.

He did not want a repeat of what happened last time where they only relied on the Adventurers and others to protect the city.

That was supposed to be their duty.

This had been going on for two months.

The group was currently passing by a large crater on the side of the road.

This crater appeared out of nowhere one day.

People think that it's the result of one of the monster horde boss' attack that flew over here since it had appeared around that time.

Suddenly, Hamish felt a vibration on his arm. It was the arm guard that he had gotten from a certain person.

"Keep going! I'm going to take a bathroom break!" He shouted to the group and followed to where the arm guard was reacting.

It only did this when it was low on mana and sensed a mana source nearby like a magic crystal.

Using the arm guard like a metal detector, he arrived at a fallen tree near the crater.

At the base of a tree trunk, was a strange looking mask.

No details appeared when he tried to appraise it.

"It's similar to Ms. Rim's arm guard."

He bent down to pick up the mask.

"Huh?"

Underneath the mask, Hamish found a red gem.

Taking a look around and seeing that no one was looking at him, he stuffed the mask and gem into his pack and followed after the guards.

###

Later that night, inside the home of Hamish who was sound asleep.

A chest where he kept his equipment and items was shining.

Specifically, the red gem that he picked up earlier in the day was shining.

As if to react to the shining gem, the arm guard that Hamish treasured started moving towards it.

When they made contact, the arm guard started to melt and wrap around the gem.

[Skill Death Resistance created.]

CHAPTER END.