Runaway Hero and the Little Girl

I’ve begun my last journey, leaving it all behind. The demons, the war, the battlefield, my memories, my very way of life. I’ve left it all behind. Now I am nothing. A nonentity beholden to nothing, free to float away on the wind like dust.

I was never very public as a hero. I made only rare appearances before the common folk. They don’t concern me. All I needed was to follow through with my duty. That was all I owed them. I’m very grateful for it now that I’m on this journey, knowing the chance of my being recognized is so slim. But even still, my features are quite memorable. My hair is a pale blue unlike any among humanity; my eyes glow with power beyond our kind. I would rather not leave behind any great trail the soldiers might be able to follow, so I wear a hood and hope that it obscures me.

I’ve been walking on the main road, watching as color returns to the land as I enter deeper into human land. If my memory serves correctly, there’s a village along the road. Each time I crossed into the demon’s lands, I skipped over this village. Whether I crossed by a faster route or made no stop, I never stayed there long, if I did at all. However, I now find myself in need of supplies. I had enough for this final campaign of mine, but I’ve now abandoned it and ran away as I pleased. I don’t have enough supplies anymore, not for the trip back to the resupply point, and especially not for a year long voyage to the edge of the world.

On the road, I found an imposing lesser demon. It must be a stray, stuck outside my barrier and left to wreak havoc. The lesser demon appears like a wolf, though much larger, more ragged, sharper, fiercer, and bloodlust in its eyes. I think I’m close to the village now, so I can’t very well leave it alone.

I jump up and grip the hilt of my blade. I draw it out from its sheath and pull it across my body. I feel the blade cutting through the demon, but my arm does not slow. As I sever the demon’s head, the head and body both begin to turn pitch black. As I land in front of the dying demon, it begins to fizzle away into black dust like a bad dream.

As I land, I immediately notice that a little girl had fallen onto the ground. If I had delayed, this most certainly would have become the site of my next great failure. She’s almost definitely a girl from the village, and I would have rather starved than resupply after letting her die. I walk up to her and squat down to face her.

“Are you okay? What’s your name?”

The girl starts crying. Whether it's out of relief or pain, I can’t tell. But either way I don’t know how to comfort her. I can only stay there silently, waiting for her to stop.

I don’t know how long I waited, whether a minute or an hour, but the girl eventually calms down. She struggles to stand up, her legs wobbly, and, I now notice, her knee heavily scraped. I stand up myself, lifting her to her feet as I do so.

Now that I’m looking down at her like this, her so far beneath me, I realize how young she is. Surely even younger than I was when I began my training as Hero. She’s so small, so fragile, like a strong gust of wind would make her shatter, and yet she stands before me on the road to the battlefield.

“Can you walk? Here, come hold my hand.”

I lower my hand to her. She takes it, and I feel her small hand squeeze softly against mine. We start walking. I’ve slowed myself to match her pace, and I feel like I’m barely moving with each step. I can’t think of a time I’ve taken such small steps before now. I’ve always been running around without delay.

“Do you know where your home is?”

“Yeah!” She answers me cheerfully, though without giving the answer I had wanted.

As I watch her walk next to me, I can tell how pained she is. She has a limp, and her leg clearly hurts to walk on. I lower my hood, my hair catching the sunlight and beginning to shine, and lift her up. She sounds excited as I place her on my shoulders. I can feel her holding onto me tight. I doubt she’s ever been so high up.

“Sorry. Healing’s the one thing I can’t do.”

Besides my inability to use any sort of healing magic, I don’t have any medical supplies. On the battlefield, first-aid was often quicker than magic, and could last you until you had the time for rest. Soon after she joined me, Amelia told me I was no good at first-aid. She told me that the least she could do for me was take care of my injuries, and so I gave my supplies for her to safekeeping, and focused only on fighting and defending her. Now that I’ve lost her, I can heal nobody.

“Can you take me to your home?”

“Yeah!” I can see her pointing her short arm in front of us. “It’s that way!”

She is indeed pointing in the direction of the village. I keep on walking forward.

“What were you doing out here? I’m sure your parents are worried.”

“I don’t have parents.” Her cheerful voice doesn’t falter, like she’s telling me the most obvious thing in the world.

“Then I’m sure the whole village is worried. So what were you doing today?”

“The Chief, he told me there’s a big farm! And everyone was sad yesterday! And if I went there, I could get food for everyone!”

I smile when she tells me. I know what farm she was bound for, although she went the opposite direction. I suppose she’s never left her village, so she went somewhere randomly.

“That’s incredible. It’s too bad you got hurt then. I’m sure everyone would’ve been really happy when you came back. But just because you wanted to help everyone doesn’t mean you should sneak out. It’s dangerous outside.”

“I know.” Her voice loses some cheer, though I suppose this is still my duty as an adult.

I quicken my pace a little. I want to deliver her home. I don’t want the villagers to have to worry anymore.

Soon enough the village comes into sight. Although I doubt she can make it out as I can, I see the shadows of the villagers gathering around the gate we approach. It seems they’ve realized something has gone terribly wrong and are gathering up a search party.

“We’re getting close. Do you want to stay up there or walk?”

“I can walk!” She sounds cheerful again.

I place her on the ground gently, dropping a knee to the road to face her. I rub her head kindly.

“You’re really strong, you know that?”

She begins to cry again. She must’ve been holding a lot back all this time.

“All I did… was make everyone worried!” She says between sobs.

At the very least I know she took my chiding to heart. Her emotions are like tempest. They’re driven in every which way, and nobody knows how it’ll end up after everything. But she just wanted to help the people she loved because she knew something was wrong. I doubt she understood the Demon King’s proclamation, but she didn’t need to. She’s more worthy of the mantle of “Hero” than I am. So I at least need to follow through on my duty as an adult.

“I’m really strong, but all I have is my big body. You have a strength much more precious than that.” I reach out and point at her chest. “You have a good and strong heart. Never forget that.”

I stand up and flip the hood of my cloak back over my head. The villagers have begun to crowd around us, or rather, around this girl they love. She’s distracted and overwhelmed by all of them, and all of their love. Before she can notice I’m missing and before any villager can think to stop me, I slip away. I leave unseen and a man of no great importance, and I continue on my way.