The Failed Hero and Being Good

The first was simply what Alicia was doing out here in the first place. Isaac didn’t have the highest impression of the kingdom, but even he didn’t think they were stupid enough to send someone away with this much magical potential. Even if she was the only viable hero candidate, the church should be bending over backwards to keep her in the kingdom, especially considering how his own journey went. If there was even a chance that she might follow in his footsteps, it would be far too great a risk to let her go anywhere else.

That meant that they didn’t know how powerful she was. That made sense, given Alicia didn’t have even a basic knowledge of magic, but then why had they sent her off without even testing her first.

Come to think of it, why didn’t Alicia have any training at all. She could barely lift her sword when she first arrived at Isaac’s home, yet she was expected to slay the demon lord. It didn’t make any sense.

That begged the other question of why she had reacted the way she did when she thought she did something wrong. Sure, he had been nervous about her magical aptitude, who wouldn’t be, but that didn’t mean it was a bad thing. If anything, her natural talents were something to marvel at. She likely had more potential in her pinky finger than most people had in their entire bodies. All she needed was to learn how to use it.

Alicia didn’t have a reference for what any of that meant, of course, but her reaction had been so visceral. She was normally so confident and carefree. She had no issues playing pranks or pulling underhanded tactics to get her way, but the moment she thought she might have actually done something wrong, she broke down completely.

Isaac was reminded once again, that he had no idea what he was doing. He had been on his own since he was 18 years old. He’d never had to deal with kids before, much less one as headstrong as Alicia. He could only hope that the person he was enlisting for help would know more than he did. But, Moon Day was still a week away, and he had to keep an eye on things until then.

It was going to be a long week.

Isaac made sure to be in the room when Alicia finally woke up. He didn’t know exactly how late it was when she’d fallen asleep, but she had slept through the whole night, so it was clearly needed.

Eventually, though, she started to stir. It took her a bit to gather her bearings and realize where she was. When she saw Isaac, she instantly tensed up.

“Hey, kid. Feeling any better?”

It took her several minutes before she responded to Isaac’s question. Isaac didn’t try to push her, instead letting her assess the situation on her own. When she finally spoke up, her voice was quiet and shaky.

“You’re sure you’re not mad?”

Isaac grimaced. Clearly she wasn’t yet over what had happened the day before. Trying not to repeat any of yesterdays hysterics, he took a slower approach.

“No. I’m not mad.”

Another minute of silence passed, allowing the girl to digest his words, before she began a new line of questioning.

“You fainted. Why? Did I do something wrong?”

“I was just surprised. That’s all.”

Isaac tried to keep his answers as concise as possible. The last thing he wanted to do was overwhelm her with too much information. All he needed to do for now was assure her she hadn’t made a mistake.

“Is my magic bad?”

Isaac hadn’t expected this question, though he couldn’t say he was surprised either. Alicia was clever. Probably too much for her own good. Based on his own reaction, it made sense that she would be able to understand how insane her own power was.

This time, it was Isaac’s turn to hesitate. It was true that her magic had the potential to be very dangerous, and he didn’t want to lie to her, but he also didn’t want her to hide from her own talents.

“That depends on you, I think. Do you want it to be bad?”

Alicia cocked her head at Isaac’s new question. She put her hand to her chin as she seemed to lose herself in her own thoughts.

“Your magic is a tool. Is a sword bad because bad people use it to hurt others?”

Again, Isaac paused to let Alicia think. When she didn’t respond, he continued.

“It’s true that you’re magic is very powerful, and if you wanted to, you could probably hurt a lot of people. But that doesn’t mean you have to. Do you want to be a good person, Alicia?”

Alicia seemed to lose herself in Isaac’s question. He’d half expected her to jump up and declare her own righteousness, so he was surprised to see her putting so much thought into it. What surprised him more was when he noticed traces of tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Fearing he accidentally triggered yet another outburst, he prepared to try and calm her down, but she opened her mouth first.

“Do you really mean it? Is it possible for my blessings to be good?”

Isaac stopped, unsure how to respond to this. Of course her blessings were good. They were called blessings. Why wouldn’t they be good? He wanted to question her, figure out what she was talking about, but a nagging in the back of his mind practically screamed not to.

“If you want it to be good, then it is good. Just as long as you learn to use it well.”

Alicia’s shoulders instantly relaxed as a new wave of tears started to roll down her cheeks. These felt different than those of the night before, though. Last night, her tears were born of terror, now they came from relief.

Isaac wrapped his arm around the girl, pulling her into a gentle hug. He still didn’t know what he was doing, but it felt like the right thing to do.

After a moment of quiet sobbing, Alicia pulled away on her own. She tried to dry her face with her sleeve, though Isaac still saw a little wetness on her cheeks. More striking than that, though, was the gentle smile she now wore. Isaac wasn’t sure what he’d done, but he was glad she was feeling better.

“Is my magic strong, at least?”

Isaac saw the vestiges of Alicia’s cocky smile returning as she tried to redirect the conversation. Isaac was so caught off guard that his hand instinctively went to scratch the scruff on his chin. Her mode had finally improved, so he hoped the other news wouldn’t ruin it again.

“Ah, yeah. It’s strong. Really strong. But, that’s also why I can’t teach you how to use it.”

Alicia practically jumped out of her makeshift bed as she grabbed at Isaac’s shirt. Any indication of her previous fits were shaken off completely as she questioned him further.

“What do you mean you can’t teach me? You promised!”

Isaac tried to keep calm, despite the girl’s sudden aggressiveness. He could feel the subtle pains of his headache returning, but he pushed through for her sake.

“I promised I would train you, and I still will. I just can’t teach you magic. But I know someone who can.”

Seemingly confused, Alicia let go of his collar, allowing him to continue.

“Your magic is very strong, but mine isn’t. I don’t know enough or have enough power to teach you how to use it properly. So, I asked a friend if she could teach you instead. We’ll be going into town in a week to meet her, okay?”

As far as Isaac was concerned, she didn’t have any reason to be disappointed with this. Sure, it may not have been the most ideal time line, but Isaac considered himself lucky that they only had to wait a week. Alicia seemed to agree with his assessment, as she calmed down even more.

“Okay. I guess that’s fine.”

Having successfully placated the girl for the time being, Isaac decided it was time to lay out his plan for the coming week.

“In the meantime, I’m going to teach you proper sword techniques. I want you to join me on a hunt before the end of the week. Any questions?”

Alicia pretended to pause as if giving it serious thought, but she couldn’t hide her eyes widening at the mention of a hunt. Still, after a moment of silence, she asked only one question, her mischievous face having fully returned.

“You have friends?”

Isaac tried really hard not to chuckle at the girl’s comment. He was glad she was feeling well enough to start making jokes again, even if they were at his expense.

Putting on his best unamused face, he stared blankly at the girl.

“Go get your sword, you brat.”

Alicia ran out the door immediately, laughing to herself the entire way. Isaac didn’t take long to follow, grabbing his hunting sword off the wall on his way out.

When he exited his home, Alicia was already doing practice swings in the garden, just like she had every day so far. Isaac let her be for a few minutes, allowing her to warm up before finally approaching her.

“Alright, kid. You’ve learned that you can hold a sword, but it’s going to take a lot more than just that. If you really want to fight, your going to need to learn how to swing it properly.”

The next several hours consisted of the most involved training session Isaac had ever done. He demonstrated every technique with his own blade, before having Alicia attempt it on her own. He watched every swing carefully, correcting mistakes and making adjustments to suit Alicia’s own skills and strength.

Isaac was surprised by how quickly she picked everything up. Most techniques only took one or two explanations before she was able to replicate them. She would still need some practice before he would be ready to put her in front of a real opponent, but with her pace, he didn’t think the end of the week was an unrealistic goal. If anything, she was learning a little too quickly.

Now that he was thinking about it, she’d been a quick study since the moment she arrived. She’d gone from barely being able to hold her sword to a level of basic competency he’d expect from a studied trainee in essentially a day. Not to mention she’d learned contract magic simply by watching others.

Those weren’t the kinds of things anyone could just do, least of all someone with as little apparent training as Alicia. As if her strength and magical potential weren’t enough, the gods had seemingly blessed her with the ability to learn as well.

Every new piece of information he learned about the girl made Isaac realize just how favored by the gods she was. Immense magical talents, blessings galore, and enough natural talent to overcome wherever she was lacking. Something about this girl had caused them to give her their full support.

“Why do you want this girl to succeed so much?” Isaac muttered into the air.

He couldn’t begin to assume what the god’s intentions were with this girl. They’d made her stronger than anyone else, in more ways than one, and still let the kingdom send her to her death. Then they stubbornly tried to ignite his own blessings every time he picked up a sword, despite him wanting nothing to do with any of it.

“If this is all some grand ploy to get me active again, it’s not going to work. Once I’m done training the girl, everything’s going to go right back to the way it was.”

Isaac tried to make his intentions clear. He didn’t plan to fight the demon lord, or go back to the kingdom. He’d continue to live in this house until the day he died. Alicia was just a slight detour on that path.

Still, as he watched her drill the techniques he taught her, he couldn’t help but feel a little lonely. He hadn’t wanted her here, but he had to admit that their time together, though short, hadn’t been all bad. She was a noisy troublemaker, but she was also diligent and hardworking.

Maybe, after her quest was over, he wouldn’t mind letting her come to visit him every once in a while. At least, assuming she survived the journey.

Isaac felt his heart stop for a moment as he considered the possibility of Alicia dying on her journey. Alicia was powerful, but he knew how dangerous the demon lands were, not to mention the Demon Lord’s castle.

What would she think when she got there. She wanted to be a good person, probably more than even he did back then. Which is why he was worried about what she might do when she learned the truth.

“Is that why you sent her to me?” Isaac thought aloud, knowing no one was going to respond. “You were too lazy to stop her yourselves, so you sent her to someone who could do it for you?”

The gods were fickle beings. They had grand plans far beyond what any human could comprehend, yet they refused to speak. They would grant people their blessings, put thoughts in their minds, and guide them on the path they had meticulously designed, yet they make it possible for those same weak humans to fall off of that path.

Isaac didn’t know if the gods were good or evil. Sometimes their paths helped humans, and sometimes they hurt. He thought that maybe if they would speak once in a while, it might be a bit more clear what they wanted. Instead, all he got were feelings and fate. The worst part was he thought that maybe they right.