1 - B. Slow This Dance Down.

The weight of the iron sword is heavy against her hip, heavier still by the whetstone and polish in her rucksack. Aura sets the bag down by a large boulder and ties her hair up behind her before whistling and starting the day’s work. Although the sun is only just peeking over the horizon, the blue moon above has been peeking out at her for over half an hour now. Putting her hands on her hips, she breathes it all in for a few moments.

The town she’s in now is called Silda, located a several day march from the capital of Shuren. Bordering a large forest that is the home to another nation - she’s not sure which - the town is a stop on the route for many travelers. The townsfolk are kind, perhaps because of the isolationist policy of the forest nation. Despite being a border town, the number of incidents that requires a militia or town guards is low.

That and there’s an Adventurer’s Guild. It’s more like an association of other guilds, with its selling point being that it’s extranational. That didn’t mean that its members were able to run rampant, but there was a small amount of protection. Just enough that Aura signed up without hesitation and paid her registration fees with the sack of Shuren coin. Each country seemed to have its own money system, which one could then exchange to a central standard. A bartering system was also common and attempting to exchange currency from a far away nation would result in worse exchange rates. Because of the speed of communication, this decreased return was put in to cover any losses that might happen from handing over money from a collapsed country or other schemes. The Merchant’s Guild, tied tightly to the Adventurer’s Guild, handled the exchanges and actively encouraged large trades to happen in the central standard. If traveling very far, it was convenient to transfer money to the central standard.

Even better, if one had a guild card, they could store money in it. Aura had been concerned about theft or any possible problems with the association, but apparently there hadn’t been an issue in over 500 years. With the church also offering cards and measuring individuals for their ‘level’, Aura thought it was all a little complicated and political. Moreover, the cards were apparently a blessing from the gods - which loosely explained how such a strange and wonderful technology could be present. It also explained why the churches kept making demands, despite there being various different factions and religions, or so the kind uncle at the Adventurer’s Guild had told her. Honestly, it was a bit of a headache.

Well, the point was guild cards were convenient, tamper-proof forms of identification that could also store money. Like a resume, the card provided her qualifications or lack thereof, and so the more she chose to hide or reveal, the more her prospects changed. Flipping her card over in her hands, she watches it disappear as a small black band forms around her index finger. Her eyes turn back to the horizon, then over to the field in front of her.

Her silver hair hangs only to her jawline now, dyed a deep midnight blue. She’s dressed in a cotton shirt and a leather coat that provides only the smallest degree of protection from assault. Her padded pants and boots speak to the lifestyle she now leads, that of a simple errand runner. Having picked up a request the previous night and finished her morning routine of food, sword practice, and breakfast, Aura steps out into the field and begins tilling the soil, one patch at a time. By the time she’s done with her share, an older woman is walking up to her.

“Thanks for your hard work,” she calls, a small cloth sack in her hands. Aura’s eyes shimmer as she stares at the sack, but first pulls out a small piece of paper and her guild card. Myhr taps her guild card against the paper as well and it glows for a brief second. “Now how about your lunch, shortstack? I added in some extra sausages.” Aura’s nose wrinkles slightly as she stares up at Myhr, only a few inches taller than she is. She’s not short, Myhr is just too tall. Dipping her head and receiving the food, Aura perches atop the nearby boulder and begins her meal.

“View never gets old, does it? See you, shortstack.” Myhr’s gruff voice fades as the woman waves back at Aura, then walks back into town. Aura pops open the sack, a small bundle of bread and meat wrapped in some sort of flimsy paper wrapping. Once she finishes, she’ll head to the guild to pick up another errand, then the library for her usual evening reading when she’s done. Content, she breathes in deep as time crawls forward. The food is delicious, the town is nice, and although she’s the lowest rank adventurer -

Her ears prick up. Mid-bite, Aura turns her head towards the woods. The hair on the back of her neck stands on end. Nothing should be in that direction; Shuren is the opposite way. Closing her eyes, she leans forward slightly and hears it again. The sound of thumping, voices, and something she cannot discern. Putting her food down, she grabs her rucksack and walks closer to the edge of the woods.

In an instant, two humanoid creatures scramble from the treeline, yelping. By the time she’s drawn her sword, a large quadrupedal beast barrels out just behind them. In the space of three steps, Aura has her blade pointed directly at the creature. It’s a mix between a large bear, a buffalo, and a moose, known as a dhoka. With thick skin, a massive frame, long fur, and powerful musculature, it’s definitely not something anyone would want to run into on the road. Glancing behind her at a young woman and man, she adjusts the grip on her sword and gestures for them to run from behind her back.

The dhoka’s first move is quick. It charges forward, taking a heavy swipe with its left claw at Aura. Moving to block with her sword, Aura’s stance breaks under the weight of the blow and she tumbles backwards. Scrambling to grab her sword again, she rolls out of the way of another swipe as blood drips down her arm. Her left arm trembles and shakes as she positions, her hand barely able to wrap around her sword hilt.

“Melia, she told us to run, so run.”

“How can you think of running right now!”

“She’s got a sword, she can handle it.”

“Ront! That dhoka isn’t - ” Aura’s attention is off the dhoka for too long as it changes tactics, barrelling towards her in a full sprint. The image of those massive, spiked antlers goring her body fills her vision as she freezes in place for a second. The dhoka had accelerated in an instant, charging towards her. She curls up and moves her left side towards the creature.

A moment later, she’s sailing through the air and clamping down on her sword with all her might as the dhoka skids to a stop several paces away. The sound of something cracking fills her ears as blood streams down her left hand, now hanging limp at her side. Aura’s lips part for a silent scream as she curls up. If she just lies here, then the creature will leave her alone. Play dead. Just play dead. Those two people are screaming, but it doesn’t reach her ears. The dhoka is still staring at her. It hasn’t left. Why hasn’t it left? She’s dead. Their diets were supposed to be bark, fish, and grass - is it going to eat her anyway?

With those antlers, she can’t dodge left or right when it charges. She won’t get bitten, but the force of the charge is bad enough. If she gets swiped at, those massive teeth and claws will get her. If she dodges back from the claws, she gets charged at. Even if she manages - no more time to think. The dhoka is charging again, its long legs carrying it towards her in the span of a second.

She drops to the ground and lies completely flat, praying to not get trampled. The dhoka accelerates quickly, but she had seen it skid before, so it won’t stop directly on top of her. She hopes. Pain shoots through her body as the hulking mass of meat and muscle passes by her. Her left thigh is bruised and bleeding now, probably from the claws, but at least her face and chest hadn’t been touched. Rolling over and slowly forcing herself up, she cringes as all her weight rests on her right leg. She can’t move now either. She can’t use her left arm. In a last ditch effort, Aura drags her body so it’s in a few paces in front of the boulder she had lunch on. It won’t charge into a boulder if it has trouble stopping, will it? That woman is still screaming as the man tries to drag her away. Poor Myhr, her farm is completely…

The dhoka charges anyway. Aura smiles weakly, glancing towards the village. It’s only been a few minutes. It’d be too lucky for someone to save her now. A hero for the hero. She laughs and points her sword forward again, licking her lower lip. After how Aura had ducked last time, the dhoka lowers its body closer to the ground as it charges, putting its face level with Aura’s torso. She watches, eyes wide open, as the creature rushes towards her.

The pain is unbearable. Her stomach takes the hit as the monster rams right into her, pushing her into the boulder. Blood pools in her mouth as she twists her sword, smiling ever so slightly. The boulder cracks slightly against the antlers, slowing some of the force of the push, and her sack of food falls to the floor. She was looking forward to those sausages. Aura’s body screams in pain as she pushes her sword a little more firmly, the entire blade lodged inside the dhoka’s eye. Shoved in by its own charge, the blade twists into the dhoka’s brain. Both hero and beast slump down as the dhoka stumbles and falls to the floor.

Those two from the woods are running up to her now. The woman is dragging the man now. Aura laughs to herself, even as the movement sends pain through her body. That woman is crying. Melia? Melia. It makes sense. No one likes to see someone dying in front of them. It must be a traumatic experience. Lifting her right hand, she places it on Melia’s head as she hears Ront mutter something under his breath. Slowly, her right hand brushes a few tears from Melia’s face, leaving behind a few smears of blood. Aura gives an apologetic smile, then her vision goes dark.

・

“You’re an F-rank adventurer? You?” Ront, a light-brown haired man, is staring at Aura somewhat incredulously. Aura shakes her head, peeking her right hand out of the blankets and summoning her guild card. Even small movements hurt, though she’s been in bed for almost six days now.

“Eh, um… Rank empty? Even civilians or fledgling adventurers should have an F-rank though...” Melia stares hard at the card as her nose twitches cutely. Her green eyes peer out from behind her dark red rust-colored bangs, turning the card this way and that. Unlike her companion, Ront, dressed in light metal armor and traveling gear, Melia is dressed in a knee-length dress and long socks, plus boots and what looks like leather and metal gauntlets hanging off her pack. She also has a pair of short, round, and fluffy ears that twitch on the top of her head.

“Miss Aura, I’d prefer if you didn’t stare too much.” Oh. Aura’s eyebrows crinkle apologetically, though everything below her nose is covered by a blanket. With Ront reaching over for the card, Melia hands it over and scoots a little closer to Aura. With her right hand, she very slowly slides her finger against Melia’s palm.

“Mh… fie…” Aura’s eyebrows dip in frustration as she tries again. “M...y… Myhr? Myhr’s fields?” Aura nods as Melia tilts her head.

“You have room to worry about someone else when you’re recovering in a hospital bed? My, my…” Ront’s dry voice has Aura shrinking into the blankets as she wrinkles her nose in protest. “She’s worried about you. Her fields are fine. She claimed the dhoka on your behalf and handed it over to the guild, a portion of the profits for which are waiting for you.” He doesn’t sound very pleased by that, she thinks, but he also looks like he hasn’t slept well in some time.

“So, Miss Aura, um.” Melia wrings her hands slightly as she tries to find the words to say. Her ears are twitching cutely again, so Aura rips her eyes away to the long and pointed ears on the top of Ront’s head instead. Woops, cute ears here too. Rather than twitching back and forth, Ront’s ears move side to side.

“What, you’ve never seen a demihuman before? An animal person?” Aura stares blankly. She had heard the term before, but only applied to elves and dwarves. The name itself was human-normative to begin with and seemed almost discriminatory. When Melia’s face lights up in relief and understanding and Ront’s expression darkens, she huffs. Now she gets it.

“You live under a rock all your life?” Melia’s eyes turn to Ront after his deadpan comment and scowls slightly.

“Let’s do introductions first, shall we? I’m Melia. Bear person. Traveling mage, I want to go beat up the demon king! My hobbies are playing with magic.” Yup, those cute bear ears were as cute as ever. Even though she just said something completely ridiculous.

“Ront. Jackal. Healer.” Yup, those jackal ears are cute too. They’re both very cute, even when Ront is being super duper ultra grumpy. Aura laughs silently underneath the covers, nodding. Gesturing for her guild card, she taps it as one line changes.

[ Job: Civilian. ]

[ Job: Otherworld Hero. ]

“Eh?”

“Wah!”

She taps the card again as her job switches back to a normal one. The card vanishes a moment later, forming the black band around her index finger again.

“Miss Aura, is it really alright to show something like that to us?” Melia’s eyes are trembling with both worry and excitement as she scoots a little closer. She’s got her attention completely focused on Aura now, to the point that it’s a little embarrassing for the dark-skinned hero.

“But heroes are always supposed to have some advantage. You don’t have that.” Ront stares at her, questioningly, and Aura nods. She is defective, after all - tossed out of Shuren for the same reason. She has no special skills as a hero, a bad personality, and is a completely useless hero - so says the official words of the king of the country. Oh and she can’t speak either, which had made it impossible to argue her case. Not that she wants to deal with such a lousy ruler anyway.

“The guild card doesn’t lie.” Melia chimes in, questioning. “It can’t lie. Even in cases of insanity or memory loss, there’s never been a case of a card being able to lie about someone’s qualifications. You can hide knowledge, but… Then, you’re really the hero?”

“A hero,” Ront corrects. “So your goal is to defeat the demon king? Since you’re a human hero.” Oh. Was that what heroes were supposed to do? She shrugs lightly. That had been in the back of her mind since she heard about it and the goddess had summoned her as a hero. There’s just one big problem. As she’s mulling it over, Ront pipes up again.

“Now I understand it. I heard from the guild too, you don’t ever accept quests that involve subjugation. You really pulled off a miracle against that dhoka. No, it’s likely that if I wasn’t there to heal you, you would have died. You have so little potential that you weren’t even given a rank. No wait, that shouldn’t have happened. The guilds won’t do that, because even civilians can do odd jobs, only...”

“The church. The human church can do that. They assess the qualities of your essence, is how one of those men put it. So you were assessed by the church before joining the guild?” Clever. These two are too clever. Aura shirks down into her bed as her dark history is brought up before her by these two brainiacs. A mage and a healer, she could easily imagine them researching and bouncing ideas off each other constantly. She hides completely underneath her blanket, with only the tips of her hair sticking out.

“But everyone is born capable of at least one kind of magic or skill.” Ront is still talking, not even staring at Aura now as he turns to face Melia. Aura hides deeper under the blankets, even as her body protests and sends sparks of pain up her spine. “At least, they have the potential. Even a human child, one of the weakest - ”

“Ront, you should stop.” Melia’s voice cuts in as she sighs. “We should stop.” It was common knowledge that heroes were supposed to be extraordinary, after all. They would boast unique skills or terrifying magic or an unbelievable physique. Aura didn’t. If she had had anything of the sort, she would have used it against the dhoka. Aura peeks her hand out of the pillows and hands over her guild card.

“Magic affinities: None. Magic power: Lowest rank. Then...” Melia’s voice drifts. I know.

“You can’t use any magic. Not light or healing aspected basic restoration, not unaspected body reinforcement, not…” I know.

“And you’re the hero. A hero.” I know. Aura pulls the blanket a little higher.

“Aura. I’m saying this for your own good… It’s not bad to live a peaceful life, but this world is full of conflict. People killing people. Demihumans killing demihumans. Demons waging war on this continent. Even children accept that, and you’re the hero, so...” So you should too, he leaves unsaid. Aura pushes her blankets off her face and winces as she forces herself to sit up. With her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed, she shakes her head at Ront. Reaching over and clenching her jaw, she bites down the pain and scrawls out a simple message.

[ Won’t. If I do - I feel I’ll lose something important. Makes me human. Animals, monsters - okay. People. Melia. Ront. No. ] The words are written carefully, with arrows dragging from one idea to the next. It’s messy enough to be more of a diagram than a set of sentences, but she thrusts it into Ront’s hands right after she’s done. Her every bone hurts, her fingers are white-knuckling the sheets, but she stares right at Ront with an uncharacteristically harsh expression.

“Well, when you put it that way.” Ront sighs and puts one hand under his chin, defeated. Melia’s voice is a whisper to the side as it chimes in.

“Miss Aura.” Aura turns her head to see pinprick tears in Melia’s eyes. The hero’s expression softens considerably as she reaches forward with one trembling hand, then double checks it’s blood free before wiping any stray tears away. Seeing that, Melia’s tears flow faster still as she desperately tries to blink them away. “You must have had a really hard time.”

Aura blinks in surprise. Her expression crumples somewhat as she nods, staring at her own knees with a wistful smile. Tilting her head to one side and looking back up, she smiles lightly and ruffles Melia’s hair.

“We’re leaving in a week. You can come with us if you want. Think about it.” Aura’s head turns towards Ront as he makes the offer, shrugging. “But first, get better. I already have enough on my hands with one reckless woman. We’ll let you get your rest.” Before Ront can drag her out, Melia sneaks in for a quick hug then scampers out the door.

Nyx sighs from the corner of the room and smiles loosely. Good for you.

End of Arc 1 ( A Side ) - Fill Up These Empty Spaces.