Chapter 34:

Epilogue: The Hero Appears

MiracleBound


\\\ Peter Blazebane ///

"How unfortunate,” I sighed. “I didn’t want it to come to this so soon…”

I stretched out my arm and a black flame leapt out, consuming everything in its path, even light. But unfortunately, it wouldn’t consume my target.

Without moving, he watched my flames shoot towards him. In the split second before they touched him, he opened his right eye.

The fire was gone in an instant, and I was on the floor, bleeding internally as my ruptured organs screeched in pain. I threw up quite a lot of blood.

“I hope you now realize the difference in our strength,” he said as he closed his right eye once again.

I struggled to my feet, fighting through the pain.

“Let my sister go, you colorless bastard,” I demanded. “Free her from your contract before I lose my temper…”

“You’ve already lost your temper, Peter,” the shadowy man said. “How about you go cool off and come back some other time?”

“Don’t mock me! At least I still have my humanity, you monster…”

“Humanity, humanity…” he said. “I wonder what it is about your humanity that makes you people care so much about? I mean, look at you, you’re barely human in the first place.”

“Don’t toy with me, Palette,” I said. “It’s bad enough that I have to work for you, but leave Marion out of all this…”

“Oh bother…” Palette sighed. “Listen, I’m not the one who initiated the contract, Peter. Your sister did that. And no amount of foolish actions from you are gonna make me drop a contract for any reason. Now leave me alone. This is entirely uninteresting.”

He blinked his right eye and all the pain I had previously felt was gone, my body was restored. He then closed his eye once more and shooed me away with his hand.

I hate to give up this easily… but there really is nothing I can do against someone like him. No matter how I look at it, it’s impossible…

“Something wrong, Peter?”

I turned around to see the mask of a man who couldn’t stand to look at his own face.

“Sorry, Tim,” I replied. “Don’t worry about it…”

“Of course I’ll worry when my friend has such a downcast look,” he said. “I say it’s better to just tell me now instead of having me hound you for a week trying to make you open up.”

Well, he is right about that much. And Tim definitely is the kind of person who’d follow through on such a threat if he felt a friend was in distress.

“It’s about Palette…” I said. “And my sister…”

“What happened?” he asked, his voice more serious than before.

“That colorless made a deal with her, and no matter what I don’t he won’t drop the contract. It terrifies me thinking that that devil has my little sister in the palm of his hand… What was she thinking…?”

“I hate to be the one to say this, but you gotta see this whole thing how she does,” Tim said. “Right now, there’s an entire war being fought because of her mere existence. Countless people are dying and I’ll bet you anything she believes it’s all her fault. If you were in that situation, what would you do?”

“…”

“Well?” Tim asked again.

“If I had a chance to stop it, I’d probably take any risk,” I said. “Even if it meant doing something rash or reckless.”

“And she was probably thinking the same thing when she made that deal.”

“It’s amazing.”

“What is?”

“I didn’t even tell you what the deal was about, and yet you somehow guessed with a surprising amount of accuracy…”

“Well I am pretty smart,” Tim said.

“Hey, where are you off to?” I asked.

“I gotta go to a meeting about what happened last night with Namon’s daughters escaping,” he said. “I’d invite you along, but you hate Namon more than I do.”

I really can’t stand that wolf. I’d probably lose my temper and try to scorch him if I went to that meeting. But even still…

“Are you gonna be fine by yourself?” I asked.

“Nah,” Tim quickly responded. “But Lilith’s gonna be there, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Well, good luck.”

“Thanks…” he said. “I’ll need it to deal with whatever crap Namon’s gonna try to pull…”

Tim then walked out of view.

Whatever Marion’s doing, I guess I’m just going to have to trust her, since I can’t be there with her myself. But I have to wonder, who is that guy she summoned? Oliver Sean, was it?

“Maybe I should spare some time… to go and test him…”

\\\ Oliver ///

“Hello and welcome to the Orange Chimera!” a girl said. She looked not much younger than me and she had red eyes, blonde hair in two long braids, and two large white wings coming out of her back. “I’m Snowelle Caelum and I’ll be your waiter for this evening!”

For some reason she looked really proud of herself when she said that. She seems like she doesn’t have a lot of confidence.

The Orange Chimera is the restaurant that Valentine took us to after making us run for over half a day. This place had better have some pretty damn good food…

I’m so freaking bitter right now…

As I looked around I noticed something playing on a t.v. There were two reporters on the screen, one male and one female, both plain looking.

“Just another day in Dragons Hollow until… Boom!” The female reporter said. “A dangerous black rank villain attacked, setting a once peaceful speech about adventurers in our time into a fiery battleground!”

“The attack on Mr. Prism’s speech took all by surprise,” the male reporter said. “But that’s not the only surprise that happened that day.”

Then, a picture showed up on the screen.

“What? No way…” I said, shocked. I couldn’t believe it.

I seemed to get everyone else at the table’s attention and they looked at the screen too.

“Hey, Oliver,” Tyler said. “Isn’t that-?”

On the screen was a picture of a boy around my age. He was unconscious and in pretty bad condition, someone was carrying him in both arms in the picture. He had spiky white hair, but aside from that, he was practically… no he was identical to… to Zero.

Not even identical… it had to be him.

“This kid, identified as one Masahiro Arthur Misfortune, was seen running into the 13th floor of the fiery building after hearing that a little girl was trapped up there with a dangerous villain,” the male reporter said. “Later he was seen leaving the scene with the legendary number one adventurer, the DreamWalker himself!”

“What is the connection between the two?” The female reporter said. “Has the DreamWalker finally taken on a new apprentice? And is this sudden show of heroism so close to the FuzzyCoats entrance exams really nothing but a coincidence? The whole world is watching, and waiting to find out just what’s the deal.”

“So there you have it,” the male reporter said. “What are your thoughts on this hero?’

“In other news, are you susceptible to villain attacks?” the female reporter asked. “Your spikey hair might just be the reason why. Stay tuned for 15 tips and tricks on how to avoid getting targeted by villains!”

Then there was a commercial break.

“It’s him…” I said. “He’s really here…”

“Are you talking about Hiro?” the waiter asked.

“Wait, you know him!?”

“Uh, yeah…” she answered. “He comes by here now and then. Actually, he was here yesterday, come to think of it.”

“How long have you been seeing him?”

“Um… the first time he came was on Wednesday…”

Wednesday… That’s the same day that I got reincarnated here.

“Oliver?” Marion asked. “What’s going on?”

“He… I know him,” I said. “From way back… we grew up together… Back-”

I stopped talking. I almost said something about earth… This is- I can’t believe this… Why am I reacting so strongly to this?

“Well from how it looks you’ll probably see him tomorrow,” Valentine said. “Now that I think about it, I think he was the other person who was being tested.”

“Tomorrow…” I said. Yeah, tomorrow is when those entrance exams are happening… I guess I will see him. Heh…

“What’s up with that scary smile?”

Oops. I guess my mask slipped just a bit again… I put on a more normal smile.

So we will meet again, Zero… I think for the first time since coming to this world I’m actually excited for something…



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