Albion approached the hero. He immediately took off his glove and threw it towards Kiryuu. It was cut in half in mid-air. If that wasn’t enough, it also ignited and burned to ashes.

Shino was glaring at the prince as she sheathed the dagger she hid on her person. She already had a notorious reputation. Agitating the royal guard in this situation would not be favorable for her. But, she could not stand such disrespect.

Dessa cheekily blew out the flame on her fingertips. She winked playfully at the prince and wiggled her finger side to side. She shared the same sentiments with Shino.

“Tch, hiding behind women. If you’re a man, then fight me!” Albion shouted.

“I don’t even know who you are,” Kiryuu responded without missing a beat. He pulled Vena and Hilde closer to him. “Jealous, I guess?”

“He’s the prince of the empire,” Hilde elbowed his side for both his words and actions. She didn’t pull away from him though.

She had a bad impression of the prince, Albion. He has been persistent with his visits. He was also fond of bragging about his status as a hero candidate. It was all to get what he wanted. If that didn’t work, he would use his position. If that also failed, he would use threats and violence.

“I see,” Kiryuu noticed that Albion reacted to how he pulled them close. He leaned his head on Hilde’s shoulder. No reaction. He leaned his head on Vena’s shoulder.

‘Ah, he’s fuming.’

Hilde chuckled a bit and told Kiryuu how Albion had been fixated on Vena since a few years back. Of course, none of his methods worked as the adventurer’s guild was supported by the kingdom and the empire. Ever since then, the princess had to go with him to keep him in check. “He hasn’t changed a bit.”

“Y-you—!”

Lysis stepped between Albion and Kiryuu. Her men followed behind her, already prepared for an altercation.

“I would appreciate it if you would take this elsewhere,” she said, eyes dead serious. “It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a prince or a hero. If you cause trouble, I’m putting you down.”

“Watch me, sister. I will definitely show this man his place,” he cracked his knuckles and started to stretch. He changed into simple clothes made for training and exercising. On his waist was a short wooden sword.

“Hm? Yeah, sure,” ignoring the words of her brother, Albion, was a woman with red hair. He was always like this. She started to go with him for his safety. At first, he didn’t like how he was demoted from envoy to escort. He challenged his sister to a duel. It was a one-sided beatdown.

Her attention was elsewhere. She preferred dungeon crawling instead of this envoy mission. Because of her brother’s arrogance, she was stuck babysitting. He would just flaunt his position even to his escorts, so she was assigned the role. She, too, was a hero candidate. Though, that was common for nobility and royalty so it didn’t mean that much to her. Thankfully, this time was a bit different. She managed to witness something—or someone interesting.

She looked towards the opponent of his brother. He was idly talking to the well known elf receptionist of the guild. He too wore the same set of clothes for training. A genuine hero. She didn’t expect to witness a descent. She had seen summoning rituals but those were done by royal mages. To think that a goddess would personally send someone was unbelievable.

Vena was asking Kiryuu if he was doing alright. He just returned, after all.

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” he said, kissing her softly on the cheeks.

“Kiryuu…”

“Vena…”

Thwack!

“Stop messing around,” Hilde smacked his head playfully with the training wooden sword. She knows that he was doing it on purpose. Albion could see what he was doing. She had to admit, it was a bit sly.

“And you, stop getting carried away,” Hilde pinched Vena’s cheek a bit.

“Mwu…” Vena also knew what he was doing but she wasn’t expecting a kiss.

As Kiryuu went to face Albion, Hilde gently nudged Vena.

“How is he?” She asked.

“He’s genuinely enjoying himself,” Vena responded. “He’s also feeling a bit mischievous.”

“That was fairly obvious a while ago.” Hilde heaved a sigh of relief. She was anxious when he returned. He was a little different but she still felt comfortable in his arms. “I mean… you saw it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. It was certainly something I’ve never seen before but…” Vena paused. She still felt a bit guilty for that time.

“It’s alright. I was nervous too…” It was when he pulled them into his arms. She was afraid that she would push him away. She was glad it wasn’t the case.

Behind them, Dessa and Shino were having their own discussion. Shino seemed to be worried about something. Dessa kept consoling her. Eventually, Shino went and whispered something to Vena.

“Wait,” Hilde looked at the training sword in her hand. “He forgot this.”

“I’m not sure if this is a correction. I wasn’t expecting this immediately after the declaration,” Kiryuu muttered to himself. There exist occurrences called ‘corrections’. A hero finding the last ounce of strength to win. A villain on the verge of escape, only to be mauled by a passing demonic beast. It could be an unexpected meeting of people fated to be together.

Fate? Destiny? Karma? Red string of fate? Those were all corrections. As far as he knew, the more prominent a divine presence is, the more likely there are to be corrections. These can come from either deities or the will of the world.

“I’ll ask Maia later,” he shrugged and faced the prince, who stood a few meters from him.

“I commend you for accepting my challenge,” Albion pointed the sword at Kiryuu. “I have spent the past years honing my skills. That elf woman will be—”

An elbow interrupted his monologue. Kiryuu had already closed the gap and ‘nudged’ Albion’s face. He almost forgot to hold back when Vena was referred to as ‘that elf woman’.

Albion staggered backward a few steps. He placed a hand on his face. There was a painful sensation on his upper lip. He tasted iron.

“H-how dare you—” There was no one in front of him. He heard some shuffling behind him and turned around and—there was no one there either. He could only see his sister, chuckling.

“Behind you,” she said, amused.

Albion turned around only to be met with a right hook. He fell back onto his rear and grasped his jaw.

“C-cheater! I wasn’t ready!” He tried to get up but stumbled to the side.

“Fine then,” Kiryuu walked back to his initial position. It was obvious that he was playing around. "Let's start over."

From an outsider’s point of view, Kiryuu disappeared from his spot. He immediately appeared in front of Albion. Shino and Vena recognized that move. It was the one he copied from Shino.

It was followed up with an elbow strike. If he had aimed at the jaw, he could have knocked out Albion. Instead, he tried to aim for the nose but barely missed. Once more, he used the same move to reposition himself. He had his back towards Albion and faced Fianna. He bowed courteously towards her before the prince sensed his presence. By the time Albion turned around, Kiryuu already moved and was preparing his right hook.

Kiryuu went back to his original spot and taunted Albion with a hand gesture. It was as if he was goading the prince with ‘come at me’.

It worked. Albion was provoked.

“[Star of Aries, heed my call.]”

A magic circle appeared under Kiryuu.

‘A slow spell. I could dispel this right now. I only need to interrupt the formation but… I guess I can wait a bit.’

“[Embrace my foe in eternal torment. Flame prison!]”

He smirked. He thought that an otherworlder would see magic for the first time. He was certain that the hero was confused. Now it is too late to escape the spell.

Flames erupted from the ground and swallowed Kiryuu. The flames spun into a sphere and enclosed him. Those outside could see a silhouette of his form. He wasn’t taking any action.

“Now then,” Kiryuu said as he was encased in flame.

“[Status]”

|Kiryuu

|Hero of the Goddess

|STR: E✗

|DEX: E✗

|CON: E✗

|INT: E✗

|WIS: E✗

|CHR: E✗

| Unique Ability: Conqueror

| Sealed Ability: Rapid Movement

| Sealed Ability: Mana Manipulation

| Sealed Ability: Physical Enhancement

| Sealed Ability: Sleight of Hand

“Woah, nice,” he said as he looked at his updated status. The cross marks were still faint but they were there. He read on a bit. He initially thought that sealed abilities couldn’t be used. It turns out that he could use them but not at their full potential. There were conditions for them to be unlocked. There was nothing stated on what those conditions were.

This was like how he originally planned it. He would need to make an effort to recover his abilities. It would seem that it adapted to the system of the world. He found no issues with that.

“Now then,” he banished his status card and cracked his knuckles. “Let’s test this out.”

“What’s he doing?” Hilde furrowed her brow. Given how Kiryuu moved a while ago, it was highly unlikely for him to get caught. She guessed that he let himself get caught on purpose.

“He’s testing something,” Dessa responded. She could see the flow of mana and saw that there was a shell between Kiryuu and the flames. That mana control was crude. But, with each second, the flow of mana started to get more refined. She understood. He was regaining his abilities. She couldn’t help but show excitement.

Kiryuu’s silhouette held his hand out. The flames were suddenly blown away, only to gather into his palm. The flames burned brighter as they formed into a ball the size of an adult’s head.

“W-what?!” Albion saw that Kiryuu was unscathed. “That’s not fair! How could you escape that?!”

“Catch,” Kiryuu said, as the ball of flame shot out towards the prince.

“S-star… star…” Albion stuttered as the ball of flame rapidly approached.

Then, the fire dissipated and completely dispersed. It wasn’t what Kiryuu intended. Someone else interfered. He noticed and closed the distance between them. The flame ended up as the perfect distraction so he could deliver a left hook. He hit Albion square on the jaw and followed up with an uppercut as a finisher. He maintained that pose as his opponent was knocked out.

The princess simply looked at her brother on the ground.

“Will someone please get this fool out of here?” She requested while prodding her brother with her foot. Ah, he's breathing. Two of the knights from Lysis’ unit went and fetched the prince. They had to make sure there were no serious injuries, just to be sure. There were a lot of witnesses. Albion would not be able to accuse Kiryuu of any false charges. That, and Fianna watched the entire thing.

“You made a good show out of it,” the princess addressed Kiryuu and approached him.

“I admit that I was feeling mischievous,” he replied. “I’m not going to apologize.”

“That’s fine. He needed to be brought down a peg… or ten,” she sighed. “My mother has been spoiling him so much. It all went to his head.”

“You protected him, didn’t you?”

“Eh? You noticed?” She chuckled. “He’s still my younger brother, after all. I don’t want him getting disfigured by that attack.”

“You don’t think he could handle it? That armor looked decent enough.”

“I don’t doubt the armor’s protection. I was just surprised how densely concentrated the mana was in that ball of flame.”

“You still extinguished it fairly easily,” he already knew who it was that interfered.

“Wanna have a go?” Her real intention slipped out. She knew that her brother was no match for a hero. She didn’t expect the hero to do some interesting things. It got her all fired up.

“I would be honored.”

Fianna smiled and picked up the training sword that her brother dropped.

Kiryuu nodded as he sensed an object flying towards his head at an impressive speed. He smirked and reached out his hand to catch it without looking.

Unfortunately, he was completely off the mark and it smacked him on the head. He turned around and looked at Hilde, who stuck her tongue out at him. She was adept with throwing weapons. Throwing the training sword toward his hand would be easy. She felt like he was getting a bit too friendly with the princess so she went for the head.

Kiryuu rubbed the back of his head as he picked up the training sword. He gave it a couple of practice swings before facing the princess.

“Shall we?”

Fianna dashed, immediately closing the gap. She swung her weapon at him. It was a clean cut to the neck.

But, for Kiryuu, Shino was faster. He took a step back and leaned enough to dodge with minimal movement.

Fianna immediately followed up that missed swing with a thrust. Kiryuu took in a deep breath and disappeared from her sight.

“Got you!” Fianna fired off a spell behind her at that moment. Flames erupted towards where Kiryuu appeared.

“Woah there!” He immediately enchanted the outer layer of the training sword. He swiped at the flames with it to disperse them. He tilted his neck to the side. Fianna had used the flames as a cover and had thrust at him.

Her sword whizzed by his ear. He stepped forward and aimed a knee at her abdomen. She blocked it with her free arm. They were too close to swing their swords. Both of them tilted their heads back and lunged at each other.

There was an unpleasant sound when they collided. They staggered away from each other, dazed and clutching their heads.

Fianna recovered first and fired a flame lance towards Kiryuu. He quickly inhaled and disappeared. She was waiting for this moment. She noticed that he had to take in a deep breath every time he disappeared. She was not sure what the skill was exactly.

There were three possibilities for the skill: movement, teleportation, or time manipulation.

She crossed out time manipulation. It would have been handy during their close quarters encounter. It wouldn’t have been a draw if he could manipulate time. That was her assumption.

It was either teleportation or movement. The former didn’t need travel but has a set destination. The latter required travel but was more flexible. She felt that he was still testing this ability. Either he could only teleport a set distance or he could not yet fully control the rapid movement.

She estimated the distance where he would reappear. The flame lance was just a bait. She turned around and swung her sword. Kiryuu appeared just as she predicted. He should have no time to inhale.

He smirked as he disappeared. The sword hit nothing but air. He appeared in the same spot. She swung her sword again but he ducked to avoid it. He grabbed her wrist and her collar. The next she saw was her vision tumbling upside down as he had thrown her down on the ground.

“Hah… I see… I was the one… baited,” she tried to catch her breath.

“Your guess was pretty close,” he said. “You were just a bit off the mark.”

It was a movement skill as she thought. Due to the sealed state, there were limits to what he could do. He had to stop breathing when he activated the skill. When she predicted where he was going to appear, he still had enough breath to perform it two more times. He gambled on those times as he performed the skill in rapid succession. The first was to dodge the blow. The second was to get back into position.

“It’s my loss,” she admitted

“It was a good fight,” he said as he helped her get up.

“The goddess has picked a good hero this time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually, otherworlder heroes tend to be… inexperienced. Instead, they have the blessing and the potential of growing at an outstanding rate.”

“So you train them?”

“Yes, we train them to get them accustomed to fighting. Our court mages should be performing the summoning ritual soon.”

The same could be said for the kingdom. Their hero summoning ritual would be done in the next few days. It was a bit delayed due to the Asmodeus incident. Also, a certain priestess escaped to join a feast instead of resting.

“If you ever visit the empire, please let me know.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

He offered his hand, which she gladly shook.

“You’re really something, aren’t you?” Hilde and the others had approached.

“Indeed. He was even faster than when we first fought,” Shino said. She knew well how that skill worked. She could probably replicate what he did but it might take her a while to master. “Using that skill in rapid succession. I never thought of using it like that.”

She would use it to close the gap between her and the target. It was enough to take someone down. When faced against several opponents, she would jump into a blind spot. It gave her enough time to use that skill again. It was impossible for her to change directions during movement. Instead, he used in rapid succession. He was able to move back enough to dodge and immediately return to counterattack.

“That mana control is something else too,” Dessa chimed in. She had a sparkle in her eyes and was almost drooling. “Master. I’d like to request your help in the forge some time.”

Dealing with material with high magic conductivity requires talent. Controlling and manipulating mana with precision is a must. A talented blacksmith needs to be proficient in these fields. Especially if they wish to create enchanted or magic items.

Dessa already knew that Kiryuu has high quality mana. She didn’t know he was good in controlling it too. It was yet to be seen if he was as precise as her on manipulation and control. If he assisted her in created a weapon for him, she might be able to finely tune that weapon. It would be a legendary weapon that would synchronize perfectly with him. A weapon befitting of a hero.

“Heh…” Fianna looked at the women before her before she turned back to Kiryuu.

“I do wonder. Who in the world are you?”

“That’s right, Kiryuu,” Vena held onto his arm and smiled. Dangerously. “I think you owe us an explanation.”

Dessa was chuckling to herself. She only caught a glimpse of his memories but she was certain where her loyalties lie.

“Erm. Um. Why don’t we talk about it over dinner?” He owed them at least that much.

Meanwhile, Rionna had gone over to the unconscious prince. She already checked and made sure that he didn’t have any internal injuries. He would wake up in a while… probably.

“How should I report this?” Lysis asked Rionna, keeping her voice low.

“The prince’s attitude is already known. He was foolish to challenge the hero that was able to subjugate a demon lord.”

“He also defeated that woman in combat, huh?”

“Yes. I did not see it but I got the details from Vena.”

“I see. Should we warn the nobles?”

“No, let them do what they want. It will be their own undoing,” Rionna chuckled to herself. Lysis felt a shiver down her spine. “Those foolish enough to do anything to him should prepare for the consequences. This would be a good way to weed them out.”

“I’m relieved that he is not an enemy of the kingdom,” Lysis sighed and shook her head.

“You could offer yourself to him if you’re that worried,” Rionna teased.

“Please don’t say something so frightening with a bright smile,” Lysis groaned. Her duty was to the kingdom. If she were told to offer herself to ensure its safety and prosperity, she would do so. Thankfully, it might not have to come to that. She is completely inexperienced with such things.

“Ara~ Even the queen might offer herself, you know?”

“…“

“Hm?”

“Hiya!” Lysis chopped Rionna on the head. “Do take care to avoid insinuating such things. It would lead to bad rumors.”

“Fine, fine,” she rubbed her head and cast minor healing to relieve the pain.

Rionna kept her eyes on the empire’s princess. The empire should be almost ready to perform the summoning ritual.

The appearance of the first hero is usually a sign. The arrival of the other heroes are nearing. News will spread soon. The first hero descended on the kingdom. The kingdom itself was ready to perform their own summoning ritual.

The principality wouldn’t be performing any summons. They already have candidates waiting to be chosen. There was always at least one hero chosen from the principality.

Soon, the demon lords will show themselves. Asmodeus was the only one that tried to integrate into their society. The other demon lords fought until the end. They either died or hid elsewhere. Those demon lords will either revive or reveal themselves soon. This cycle was interesting. It was the first cycle where a demon lord would ally herself with the hero before the wheels are set into motion.

“We’re going to be very busy.” Rionna muttered to no one in particular.