"How much longer do you plan on sleeping?"

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on a grassy hill. To my left was Amber, sitting down and staring at me, and behind me was a large rusty mill that seemed to be dysfunctional.

"Huh? Amber? Is that you?"

Has it already been two days? My head was hurting a little, and all I could remember was coming to this town, having a few drinks, and going to the library. After I left, I think I got chased by something, and then… what happened afterwards?

Everything was a complete blank. I had a feeling I saw something I shouldn't have seen, but I had no recollection of what. My clothes were a little bit tattered, so maybe I got beaten up. Or maybe these were from the fight against the dragon. How did I even end up on this hill, anyways?

"Let's go home."

Well, there's no point dwelling in the past if there was nothing that could jog up my memory.

"Alright."

I'll figure out what happened some day after going home… probably.

"Where did you go these past four days, Amber?"

I hadn't seen her since going to the commander's office on the first day at Border Town, after all.

"Keeping watch. On the other side of the border."

"Weren't you already relieved of that job?"

I could have sworn she said she was tasked with staying and helping out as a shop assistant after kidnapping me here.

"I was."

"Then… what did you mean by keeping watch?"

"The commander wanted to make sure you wouldn't escape."

"What?"

"You know too much about this territory, so we didn't want you to run away with information. But I heard that you're trusted now."

"That's a reasonable concern, I guess. And yes, the commander gave me a card."

"So that means that was probably the last time I'll be sent across the border."

"Does that make you sad?"

"No. It's more fun living here."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that."

At the bottom of the hill, a very large carriage was waiting for us. It was packed almost full with ten soldiers and their luggage, who were also on their way back to Sachiru town. As we got onto the carriage and squeezed our way through to the small gap of empty space somewhere on the side, several soldiers greeted me as "dragon slayer" and "miracle healer." I felt like blushing.

"Sounds like you made a name for yourself."

"I feel like all the stories about me were probably exaggerated."

"Heroic tales are needed to inspire troops during wartime."

"Heroic tales? I'm nowhere close to being considered a hero."

"Why not?"

"I was a failure of an adventurer who kept destroying public property, a cynical alchemist who kept hoping his customers would get wounded so they would come back and buy more potions, and a traitor who joined the enemy's side after a devil tempted him with money."

"Everything you've done here so far suggests you're a different kind of person, though."

"But…"

"You've shown yourself to be a brave mage ready to take on stronger enemies, a kind shopkeeper who cares about the well-being of others, even if they weren't customers, and a scholar who is willing to share knowledge to others without any motives."

"…"

"Is that not good enough to consider you as a hero?"

The carriage was noisy with conversation, but several soldiers seemed to have heard what Amber said and smiled at me while slightly nodding. I used to think Amber was a random klutz, but she really was good with words every now and then.

"I…"

I really wanted to say something, but I couldn't get any words to come out of my mouth.

"Well, it's going to take three hours for us to get home, so will you tell us your tale? I'm sure everyone here wants to know about a hero's past."

"There's not much to tell. My past isn't special at all…"

"Everyone starts out as a normal person."

I could feel the expectant gazes of all the soldiers that wanted to hear about my past. It would have been awkward to keep quiet for three hours, so I reluctantly started talking about it.

* * * * *

My name is Blaze, an archmage who mastered magic that controls fire and heat. I used to be an adventurer that did quests for a living, but I found that life to difficult and retired to become an alchemist instead.

I was born on the day of the summer solstice 21 years ago in the town of Chosira. While it was called a town, it was actually the commercial district of an adjoined neighboring city, and was a major trading hub within the northern region of the empire due to its convenient geographic location.

I have no recollections of my family, since I was already in an orphanage by the time I became self-aware. The orphanage was supposed to be funded by the state, but the ongoing war against the Demon King Badoth caused social welfare funds to be diverted elsewhere, so I had to work ever since I was 6 years old and making and selling handicrafts. Because of the town's status as a major economic hub, the work I did allowed me to interact with people from all over the world. They would often tell me stories about their homelands, and what fantastic sights lie beyond the town's walls. I reckon it was because of all these encounters that I ended up maturing earlier and knowing more about the outside world than others.

Most people came to town for trading and didn't have homes in Chosira or the adjoined neighboring city, so merchants never came by the orphanage. Sadly, the residents of this area were more focused on financial gain than on familial matters, so even the townspeople rarely ever visited. Needless to say, adoptions were exceedingly rare here.

The orphanage had a rule that required us to be contributing members of society by the time we reached 15, and we weren't allowed to stay in the orphanage afterwards. Because of the townspeople's lack of interest in us, almost all orphans never had a chance to receive vocational training in the arts or at specialty shops. Because of the lack of opportunities to work in crafting jobs, almost all of the orphans would rigorously train their bodies since jobs requiring physical labor were the only choices available. Most orphans aimed at becoming adventurer warriors, so they would have the chance to travel around the world while still having some freedom, while others who wanted stable income would find work in farms, mines, construction sites, or in rare cases the army.

Because of the orphans' eagerness to learn, adventurers would occasionally visit the orphanage to scout out potential vanguards that could join their parties in the future. The job was a vanguard was tough: they were more or less meat shields who had to take charge in battle and protect the party members on the back-line. Those party members would then prepare powerful attacks to wipe out the monsters conveniently gathered around the vanguard from range.

I was considered a weird child by the orphanage parents and by my peers. No matter how much I trained (or was forced to train), I couldn't seem to get any stronger. Because of that, I had no chance at becoming a manual laborer or adventurer warrior. My lack of strength and agility meant I couldn't draw bowstrings very far, or move around swiftly and quietly, so I couldn't become an adventurer archer or thief either.

People did often say I seemed to be smart for my age, so the job of a mage, whose magic power was proportional to intelligence, was still possible for me to pick up. Unfortunately, nobody had taught me how to read or control mana yet, so becoming a mage would require years and years of learning. Also, the abundance of vanguards meant the casualty rate of other adventurer jobs was low, so the demand for mages was also low. Thus, nobody was willing to sponsor me for training to become a mage. The orphanage parents were concerned about my future, so they made arrangements with a local inn to take me in as a butler and janitor of a local inn in the event I couldn't find another job by the time I turned 15.

One day, a lone novice mage came to the orphanage. It was a rather strange ordeal, since mages were often accompanied by a vanguard or two in their party. Like any other visitor, he wanted to scout out potential party members, but he didn't specify what roles he wanted them to have, although vanguards were preferred. As it turns out, because of his novice skill level, he didn't plan on going to dangerous areas outside town, or accept any difficult quests and missions. His family dedicated most of their time and resources on magical research, and he only planned on being a part-time adventurer to earn some extra spending money on the side.

What stood out the most to me, however, was his age. I was almost 13 at the time, and he looked at most 3 years older than me. The fact that he was a novice meant that he probably learned magic recently, and managing to become a mage at that age meant that it was not too late for me to learn magic. From that day on, I set the goal of getting that mage to take me in as an apprentice.

Because he didn't plan on traveling far and often, the other orphans showed little interest in forming a party with him. Due to that trouble of finding members, he had to come back to various places in town frequently to appeal to others, the orphanage being one of those places. Each time he came, I pestered him as much as possible. He was annoyed and kept refusing to take me in at first due to my lack of strength and skills, but he eventually gave in after a month or two since nobody wanted to form a party with him. In exchange for his mentoring, I would have to help with doing housework, taking care of his family, and work odd jobs every now and then to cover some expenses.

Rumor has it that a cousin of his great-grandparents unsuccessfully tried to kill a foreign tenant, so I had to check in with the local police every few days just to show them that I wasn't being mistreated in any way, and that I was not holding any grudges. It was ridiculous for a strange punishment to still be carried out to the present day, so I figured the foreigner was probably someone very important.

Nonetheless, the mage was a splendid mentor: it took just two years for me to become literate and learn how to control my mana, which he attributed to rare talent since it normally took half a decade. I thought that my mentor also had rare talent for still being able to learn how to control his mana in his teenage years, but it turns out he already had basic training when he was much younger, and he was only a novice because that training was put on hiatus for reasons he wasn't willing to disclose.

Unfortunately, because of the late start, my control of mana wasn't entirely perfect, and there was nothing that could be done to correct that. This presumably limited the efficiency of elemental conversion, and we found that I had an acceptable conversion rate for the fire element, while all other elements had a disappointingly low rates. This meant that although I was still able to use basic magic that utilized every element, the same couldn't be said for spells that went beyond the basic level. At the intermediate and advanced level, I was strictly limited to fire-type spells.

Most of the world despised these spells beyond the basic level due to their high rate of accidental friendly fire and property destruction. Adventurers also looked down on such magic since proof of monster subjugation would often get incinerated when they were used. Learning that one was limited to fire-type spells would usually discourage fledgling mages from continuing their training, but I was an oddball who had a different mindset than other people. I considered my limitation as a wonderful thing: because nobody wanted them, I got all my books about fire-type magic for free!

Through diligent self-studying, I became a full-fledged archmage of fire magic and public menace by the age of 17, and one year later was able to move out and go on my own adventure after saving up just enough money through part time work at the local inn the orphanage made arrangements with.

* * * * *

"Zzz…"

I was too focused on talking about my past that I didn't notice my surroundings until now. Probably due to exhaustion, Amber and over half the soldiers had already fallen asleep, while the remaining ones were on the verge of falling asleep and not really listening to me anymore.

Sigh…

To think these people were so eager to listen to my story over half an hour ago…

The carriage shook slightly after running over some uneven ground, and Amber ended up leaning her head onto my shoulder. Her silky smooth hair and the soft fur on her ears felt rather nice; it was like someone was gently pushing a warm pillow onto me.

Well, there was nothing for me to do for the next two hours, so I ended up taking a nap also.