Year 2: The Encroaching Dread - Chapter 7

The Festival of Heroes had not just drawn in crowds from across the Free People’s Alliance, but also thousands of nobles, adventurers, mages and scholars, all of whom were eager to gain an invite to King Alexander’s ball.

Only a few hundred received invites to the dance itself, but every single one of them was dying of anticipation.

For a whole year, they had heard of the Summoned Heroes but hadn’t a chance to lay eyes upon them. A few had caught glimpses of some in the town during the festival preparations, but that was all.

Today, they would not just see them, but meet them.

Hosted inside the largest venue hall inside the King’s Palace, the ball was to be the event of the year for the highest-ranking members of the Alliance’s elite.

Parents, eager to forge powerful new alliances, prepared their sons and daughters to try and court the heroes, whilst others looked to seduce them themselves, and some prepared lengthy business plans and proposals to tempt the heroes with great wealth.

Behind closed doors just outside the venue hall, all but a few heroes were nervous.

“Ladies and gentlemen, friends from distant lands, comrades in arms, allies against the great evil, I bid you welcome this night!” King Alexander roared. “It has been a long, hard time for us all. The Great Darkness, the battles at the border, the tyrant in the east’s shadow looming over us all, and the refugee crisis as hundreds of thousands fled the Demon Emperor’s wrath.

“I am sure that we all, at one time or another, felt helpless or hopeless, but then the Goddess Harmonia and Themis blessed us with hope, with the power to fight back! My friends, my companions, my kin, I present to you the Summoned Heroes!”

The doors flew open and, walking in their pairs, the heroes entered.

Akane, who was more used to the gazes of nobility, thought she would manage fine, until she had to start trying on high heels and she quickly became more worried about maintaining her balance than the eyes watching her.

Duncan, who had been at the forefront of most of the heroes’ activities in Aangapea, thought he was used to the attention by now, but the way the people in the ballroom looked at him was like nothing he’d ever experienced.

It’s one thing to walk around town in your armour, it’s another to come in a suit and tie like this! He thought. Still. He looked at Stephanie, in a deep blue ball gown with silver jewels decorate her and smiled. It has its upsides.

For the first thirty minutes of the event, the heroes were to attend in formal attire suiting their stations, in outfits handpicked and tailored by the finest of designers in all of the west. Then, once the dances and introductions had been concluded, they were to change into their armour and carry their Divine Artifacts.

There were some in attendance who had seen the heroes when they first chose their Divine Artifacts, but almost none of them had ever seen the heroes in their full heroic outfits.

First things first. Duncan and Stephanie bowed to one another. I have to make it through this without messing things up like I did in practice.

***

“Hajime.”

“No.”

“I haven’t even asked my question.”

“I know what you’re going to say, Akane,” he whispered. “You’ll be out of your heels in half an hour, so please don’t snap the heels off in the middle of the ball.”

She clicked her tongue and followed his lead in the dance. “You’re still stiff.”

“S-shut up, I can’t…help it.” His cheeks turned red. “I’ve…never really been this close…with a woman before…least of all, someone as cute as you.”

“Oh, how kind.”

“Wow, what a weak reaction to my embarrassing confession.”

“I’m sorry, but there’s someone else I like.”

“Not like that!”

Akane laughed and drew her body closer to Hajime’s as the dance reached its halfway point. “Thank you for your kind words.”

“…It doesn’t feel genuine when you say it like that.”

“I don’t think there’s any woman alive who doesn’t want to be called cute.”

“I don’t know - I feel like if I said that to Dao Chen, she’d break my wrist.”

“Your arm, most likely.”

“See?” Hajime chuckled. “…Seriously, though, you’re beautiful, Akane.”

“…Oh dear. It would appear it’s my turn to become flustered.”

“…Say it with some emotion.”

***

“Blake, I think they heard us laughing at them.”

“I think so too, Brenda.”

“I swear…I am going to kill you two,” Gati hissed as he danced with Kavi.

Both boys moved incredibly awkwardly and stumbled multiple times, much to the amusement of the girls whose movements were much better matched together.

But that wasn’t why they were laughing.

They were still recalling the story they’d heard yesterday in their heads again and again.

After helping set up various things for the Festival of Heroes, Kavi, Gati, Adrien and Liam had, as they vowed, headed into town to try and hook up with some women. However, none of them had had any luck.

In truth, the women they’d seen that had been deeply admiring them had been people speculating about the romantic relationships developing between the Summoned Heroes themselves, including the four young men they always saw together in town or on missions.

Rumours speculated that the four were incredibly close and spent almost all of their time in one another’s company, whether it was during the day, out on missions or even late into the night in one another’s rooms. They shared lots of physical skinship, including hugs and scuffles which made many wonder if they were in fact interested in the same sex.

The women who had been watching and admiring them from yesterday had come to see the homosexual relationships, as they believed them to be, between the four fable gay heroes themselves.

The stories regarding the men had become much more exaggerated and fictional as they passed from place to place, but many began to see the evidence for the connections others were drawing as fact and thus the public’s opinion became that the four were indeed gay.

Blake had laughed so much that she couldn’t get up off the ground for three minutes.

Brenda’s stomach had hurt so much that she needed healing magic.

“How did this happen?!”

“Don’t worry though, lads, no one will think you swing that way after tonight,” Brenda joked.

“…What did we do wrong, Kavi?”

“I don’t know, Gati, but we’ll fix this…somehow.”

“Good luck with that, boys,” Blake said.

There will be 2-3 chapters of The Children of Eris released this week to make up for this slightly shorter chapter - thank you for your understanding.