"This is just a thought of mine, but I think angels are all way too closed off for their own good. They should all experience how wide the world is. They need to look outwards more."
In a small, dirty bar in a corner of the Trade City of Ydalir, the angel girl Weiss, a well-known heroic adventurer, talked of her dreams. She was speaking to members of her heroic adventuring party, her fellow angel Naru, the elf girl Coco, the dwarf girl Nora, the two human girls Yang and Pyrrha, and the two beastmen Blake and Velvet. The eight of them were all of different races, but they were nonetheless heroes who were hailed as the hope of humanity. Each of them was strong enough to be said to equal the Queen of Heroes Sakura Scarlet, and they had in fact killed the Eight-headed Dragon King Orochi in the past.
"So one of these days, I want to make a country where angels can live out in the open. Not some cramped, solitude mountain, but someplace resplendent and urban. I want to prove that angels can do well even in such a place."
Weiss had originally been a young and reckless girl who'd flown the coop because of her doubts on how angels lived. And she was now a hero, so really anything could happen. Her dream was to someday create a large country for angels.
"Ohhh, way to dream big!"
"Ha ha ha! You can definitely talk big! Good, girls have to have big dreams!"
Yang and Nora laughed and downed their cheap beers as they listened to Weiss. The beer wasn't great, but strangely enough, they liked it. Now that they'd gained fame and fortune, they could afford better stuff, but they would always gather here at this dirty bar to talk about dumb things with friends, and oddly, they would always order this subpar beer.
That was when Naru slammed her mug onto the table. As if competing with Weiss, she boldly stated her dream as well. "That's too soft, Weiss! If your dream is to found a country, then mine is to take over the world! I'll build a paradise where nobody has to fear the grimmfolk with my own hands!"
The dream Naru spoke up turned everyone silent for a moment, after which the entire table boiled over. Her dream was so big that everyone spit out their drinks laughing. Naru's face turned beet red, and she raised her voice again. "Wh-what's so funny?! I'll tell you right now, I'm serious, got it?! I'll show you all one of these days!"
"Kya ha ha ha! Taking over the world? That's way too big, don't you think, Naru?! If you actually manage it, I'll eat pasta through my nose!"
"You said it now, Yang! No taking that back, got it?! Once I've conquered the world, you're definitely eating pasta through your nose! Ah, hey! Weiss, don't you laugh too!"
They were sharing dreams like children, but dreams were dreams because they weren't real. Unfortunately, they all had power and more fame than any adventurer would normally have, so could what they talked about here truly be called dreams? Later, Weiss would look back to this moment and say, "If only they had stayed dreams." It would have been best if their childish dreams had never become reality.
It was ten months after their fight with the Eight-headed Dragon King Orochi. After that, Naru and her party continued advancing like the surging tide, and now they were regular household names.
They'd exterminated dragons from human territories, eliminated giants, chased out dinosaurs, and massacred orcs and goblins. Even though times were dark with the continuing threat of the grimmfolk—no, because of the continuing threat—the existence of heroes like them was a bright, unignorable light. That was why this turning point was only natural when it happened.
"Ah, there you guys are. May I sit?"
Right before Naru was about to seriously explode from everyone's teasing, a single human boy appeared, stopping their teasing for now as they turned to face him. The boy was well-known to all of them.
"If it isn't Captain Jellal. Why're you here?"
"It's been a very long time."
The man's name was Jellal. He was a warrior who had once been entrusted with an entire fortress by the Empire, and he'd been Yang and Blake's superior before they'd become adventurers. Originally, the two of them had been soldiers who served under Jellal, but after Naru had dealt with the threat to their country in the form of the Eight-headed Dragon King Orochi, they'd taken that chance to quit being soldiers and joined up with Naru and her group.
"To me, it's more surprising that the heroes of my country are drinking cheap swill in a rundown bar like this. Thanks to that, it took far more work to find you…" Jellal admitted. "I was completely convinced that you'd be in an expensive place, so I spent the past few days combing through them."
This bar was by no means good. Only beginner adventurers would probably be caught drinking in a bar like this. It was only natural for people to want to drink better stuff once they'd gotten the money to do so, and it was just as natural to want to drink in a nicer place in general. That was why Jellal had been searching around the more expensive bars for the past few days, given his knowledge of the status of their wallets.
"Do you need us for something?"
"I do. The emperor has a special request for all of you."
Jellal retrieved a couple of pages of paper and put them on the table.
The fact that they had been personally requested for this meant that normal soldiers wouldn't cut it. Knowing that, Naru and the others took a look at the papers detailing their quest, and eventually, all of them had turned towards Jellal with a look that said that they doubted his sanity.
"Did the old man go crazy or something?" asked Yang.
"You really don't hold back, do you?"
What Yang said could have been taken as rude… Well, it was, in fact, rude, but Jellal just gave a strained laugh.
The reason they were allowed to say such things was because they were the heroes who the Empire owed its entire continued existence to. If it weren't for that, it wouldn't have been strange if Yang was arrested for lèse-majesté. However, Jellal understood why Yang would want to say something so rude. In truth, what was being requested of them warranted such a reaction.
"Hey now, you've gotta be kidding us. I get wanting to found a new country in a place that's been cleared of monsters…" Nora paused for a moment. "But wanting one of us to rule it? You realize we're just adventurers."
Everyone else nodded in agreement with Nora.
Yes, of all things, the request was to become the new rulers of a country that was about to be founded. And that wasn't all. Not only would the Empire support them on all fronts but, as soon as their country was off the ground, the Empire would actually join them as a vassal state. The contents of the paper were so ridiculous they could only be thought of as a joke.
Thanks to the Dragon King, the Empire had declined greatly from its former glory. However, they were still the world's largest human country.
The declaration that they would bend the knee unconditionally to a new country just didn't sound like it came from a sane mind.
"Are you sure… that whoever wrote this didn't make a writing mistake somewhere? I'm betting that this should read that the new country we found would become a vassal state under the Empire." Pyrrha had quickly come to the conclusion that this was a simple clerical error, which was a very reasonable thought to have. Even if there was a mistake in writing, that would still be plenty ridiculous, but it's still much better than what's actually written on here. Please, just be a mistake.
However, Jellal shook his head, and not vertically. He shook his head horizontally. "Unfortunately, what you're reading is correct. Our emperor wants to become a vassal of your country."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. As you might expect, the ministers tried to stop him, but… Well, it seems he's quite enamored with all of you. According to him, heroes will be needed in this age. He also says that heroes shouldn't be bound by things like countries, and they shouldn't be hindered by mundane things like conflicts over power. In fact, he thinks that heroes should be the rulers and that they should unite the world to stand against the grimmfolk as one… He sounded very passionate as he argued for it."
Jellal smiled with a troubled look as he talked. However, Jellal himself seemed somewhat excited about this unprecedented country-founding plan. Rather, if he objected at all, he wouldn't have been the one to bring them the papers.
"It's your fault, you know, Naru. You're the one that lit a fire under the emperor."
"Lit a fire…?"
"You remember, don't you? Back when you guys left the country."
Jellal's words had Naru scratching her head. When Naru had left the the Empire, she'd done so after creating an uproar. During the Dragon King's attack, Emperor Faust seemed like a shriveled-up old man. There was nothing resembling the vigor or presence a ruler should have had.
However, after seeing Naru and her party wreak havoc, he seemed to have come to some sort of realization. Right before Naru left the country, Faust requested to fight her.
The result: Naru won handily. Instead of trying to be nice and letting him win because he was the emperor of a country, Naru simply punched the old ruler and claimed victory. Just what had she been thinking? Of course, such an act was the height of insolence. It wouldn't have been strange if she'd been captured on the spot and put to death. But Naru and her group were the saviors of the country, so no one even tried that. Not to mention, the emperor himself had forbidden it. With that, Naru and her group put the Empire behind them. The end to their heroic tale was, "The emperor picked a fight, so she punched him good."
It was an awful ending. However, this tale had a sequel.
"Apparently, the emperor was impressed by your power… Now he's a true believer in strength. He's so old already, but he continues to train every single day. I'd heard he used to be a famous Warrior, so I'm not sure if his young blood just came back to him or…" Jellal sounded tired as he gave another laugh.
He had surely been run ragged by his hot-blooded ruler. That was quite a change from the exhausted husk that Naru and the others had met before.
"So he wants to join under you guys, but that means that first, you all need to be rulers, or so he said. And now, here we are."
"That emperor, is he an idiot?" Weiss spat, her words harsh.
As another member of royalty, Weiss just couldn't understand what Iskandar was even thinking. Rather, she had the feeling that if she did, that would be the end of her as royalty.
"So what do you think, cap'?" asked Yang.
"Me…?" Jellal hesitated a little in answering, but in the end, he clearly stated what side he was on. "Well, honestly, I'm on board with it."
He knew full well that what his country was doing was considered impossible. Placing an adventurer on the throne and then bending the knee to them to become a vassal state… It was unprecedented, and that was only natural. However, thanks to his experience on the front lines of a war, Jellal knew full well how necessary a strong ruler was.
"When I met all of you… That was also the day I first saw a real dragon. Back then, I was forced to come to the painful realization that in front of the strength of one overwhelming individual, entire countries or sheer numbers mean almost nothing. I knew in my soul that we needed a hero, and not just mean almost nothing. I knew in my soul that we needed a hero, and not just any hero either. With just any regular old hero, idiots blinded by greed and their own authority will try to absorb that person into their own forces, hampering their ability to do anything. What's actually needed is someone who can even roll those idiots up, a hero who can even control the greedy. Yes… Just like the Queen of Heroes Sakura Scarlet."
The Queen of Heroes Sakura Scarlet… She was the strongest humanity had to offer, the ruler of the Eastern Kingdom who ruled over the next largest area after the Empire. Now that the Empire had declined, Sakura's state might actually have been the largest.
But that wasn't all. Originally, the Empire had been called the greatest of humanity's countries because of its territory size and overall population, but in terms of stability, the country that Sakura ruled over was far better. Even now, she presided over the only country above ground where humanity was not threatened by anything. In her territory, one didn't need to be afraid of the grimmfolk folk nor did they have to fear monsters.
Sakura herself had eradicated every single one of them, building peace herself out of a mountain of bodies.
Unfortunately, she wasn't the type to hold any ideals like helping the weak, meaning she had no desire to make the world more peaceful. That was why she didn't even try to form friendships or alliances with other countries.
If she were to have desired to save the world, she could have actually been this world's savior… That was what everyone had thought.
"The Queen of Heroes, huh…?"
After hearing that name, Naru got a faraway look in her eyes. Sakura was the symbol of strength, one whom she'd never met. To Naru, that might have been a special name.
Seeing her like that, Jellal seemed somewhat confused, so he hesitantly asked, "What? Do you know her or something…?"
"No, we've never met. She probably doesn't know anything about me."
Yeah, I'm sure the Queen of Heroes knows nothing about us. She probably thinks of us as nothing more than faces among the masses. She's always just been a goal I've been aiming for. I might now be above her in level, but even still, I don't feel like I've managed to reach her.
After a moment, Naru added, "I just admire her. To me, she's my ideal."
Naru wanted a world where the weak wouldn't be oppressed. She dreamed of a future where people could live their lives unafraid of grimmfolk or monsters. That was why she admired Sakura and set the Sakura as her goal. To Naru, Sakura was the manifestation of her dreams.
Sakura was strong, and she used that strength to build a nation where its citizens didn't have to fear their enemies. I still haven't caught up to that image.
"Will you wait a little for our answer? I want to discuss this with everyone."
"Understood. I'll be staying here in Ydalir until I get your answer, so once you arrive at one, tell me. I'm staying at the traveler's inn off the main street."
Jellal had probably predicted Naru's answer. After all, there was no way an adventurer would be prepared for such a big event as suddenly becoming a king. He never thought he'd get a quick answer anyway, so Jellal didn't try to hurry them. Instead, he left. It was a gesture of consideration, since, by his estimation, they wouldn't be able to discuss openly with him around.
After making sure that Waver had left,
Nora spoke. "So… What do we do? Somehow our dreams came running to us instead of the other way around."
"You forgot your tic, Nora," said Yang. "Well, I get how you feel though."
Nora seemed calm, but even she was probably excited by this. Normally, she would insert animal puns in her speech as a verbal tic to make a joke, but she forgot that this time. It was a sign that she was rather flustered on the inside. "You said you wanted to make a country for Angels, didn't you, Weiss?"
For a moment, there was only silence. "Isn't this the perfect chance?"
"No, well, I did say that, but…"
Weiss had just recently been talking about her dreams. She had certainly said that she wanted to form her own country. Naru had also talked passionately about wanting to rule the world, but that didn't mean she thought it would happen so soon. These were all dreams spoken under the influence of alcohol… They were dreams because they were far-off past the horizon. But now, those dreams had become infinitely closer to reality; their dreams had come over to them and were now in reach. Because of that, it was only natural to hesitate.
However, unlike Weiss, who was hesitating, Naru looked upon it as the perfect chance.
Finally, Naru said, "I want to accept it. I was a little hesitant at first, but this is a stroke of luck. It was looking like it would take decades or even centuries to fulfill, but the future has come to us now. We have to accept."
Naru was serious. What she just said was in no way just embellished talk under the influence of alcohol. It was true that she was incited into saying what she'd said by a sense of rivalry to Weiss, but it was a dream she'd always held in her heart. Dreams were dreams because they never came true.
She knew that, which was exactly why she'd started speaking the way she did. This time, their dreams had come to them, so why let the chance go?
The others could probably tell that Naru was serious about this from the way she was acting. They looked at her with strained expressions.
"Oh yeah, you were raving about how the world was strange even when I first met you."
"I was. From the day I first met you, I always… No, I started even before that. I've always been aiming for a world without fear caused by the grimmfolk or monsters."
Naru had spoken about it in the past. She'd said that the world was wrong and that she wanted to change it. In order to do that, she needed strength; she even said that level 1000 was only the starting line. Everything she did—was in order to transform her dream—something that, until now, had existed only past the far-off horizon—into a reality.
"Do you have any sort of reason to be trying to do that?" Yang asked, her container of booze still in hand.
The air was filled with an unprecedented sense of tension, enough to make even a heavy drinker like Yang forget her booze.
Naru simply smiled in response. "There's no really great reason. When I was little, a monster managed to get inside Vanaheim. It wasn't all that strong either, just a scout sent in by a grimfolk with Monster Tamer abilities. If I was as strong then as I am now, I could've killed it in the time it would take me to blink."
The first thing Pyrrha thought when hearing that was, Is there any monster in the world that could survive longer than Naru could blink? She didn't say that out loud, however, a sign that she was at least somewhat able to read a room. Instead, Pyrrha waited for Naru to continue.
"Meow, there's bearly any monster in the world that could purrsist long enough fur a blink against Naru."
Shut up, dwarf! The rest of the party all glared at Nora In unison, while Naru continued with only a strained smile as a reaction.
"Well, in essence, they were basically the kind of weak monster you could find anywhere. However, they weren't so weak to the me back then. It's pathetic, but I was so afraid of them I hid in a storage shed and held my breath while I shivered."
A scared and hiding Naru was something no one could imagine if they knew her as she was currently. The party had seen monsters shivering in fear of Naru many times, but it was almost impossible for them to even imagine the opposite. The best they could manage was to imagine a young Naru pretending to shiver in order to lure monsters in.
"The monster itself was chased off by soldiers, but in a stroke of bad luck, our house had been attacked. My father, who had apparently tried to use my mother as bait, was basically eaten to death. Several servants also died, and my mother suffered severe wounds. Ironically, I was never allowed in the house, which saved me."
Naru had casually revealed some incredibly dark facts about her past, which turned the mood gloomy. Weiss, who knew of how prevalent white-wing supremacy was among the Angels, averted her eyes awkwardly.
She never even knew such an event had happened; such a small event as a monster getting in and killing some people before getting chased out by soldiers was something that would never reach the ears of a princess.
"My mother's life was saved, but ever since then, she developed a phobia of the outside… Most of all, I blamed myself for being so weak that all I could do was shake in fear of the monster. I was scared because I was weak. I was weak, so there was nothing I could do. I very much wished to change myself."
Naru narrowed her eyes as she thought back to her weak past before gulping down some booze.
"However, humanity is weak. A single person can't even beat a somewhat strong monster, let alone a grimmfolk. And if they happen to have levels in the triple digits, then that's just it. It won't even be a fight. I lost hope when I realized just how weak humanity was."
The gap between humanity and monsters or grimmfolk was hopelessly large. All humans were born at level 1. Every single person started weak. A person would need to train to become strong; they needed to survive actual battle. However, for any piece of strength a human could grab a hold of, a monster would already be there from birth. Even grimmfolk didn't find it rare for them to appear with levels already in the triple digits. That was just incredibly unfair. Monsters and grimmfolk managed to be born into the tiers of strength that humans would have to pour blood, sweat, and tears into achieving.
"But that was when I learned of the Queen of Heroes. To me, she was like a ray of light in the darkness. She proved that it was possible for humanity. I learned of her territory and admired her way of life. You all know what happened after that. I started adventuring, and now, here I am."
That was it. With that, Naru stopped talking.
That day, Naru visited Vanaheim by herself. The group had already decided to accept Faust's proposal, but before that, Naru wanted to revisit her roots once.
There was a part of Naru that was still unsure whether or not they were going down the right path. Even the grimmfolk have emotions. They're alive.
Naru's ideals would mean killing them all in order to achieve peace, and there was a shadow of doubt within her, asking whether or not such a thing was right.
Just the other day, Naru had let a grimmfolk that was begging for his life as he ran away go just because he seemed young. She just… didn't chase him.
That's no good… Hesitation, pity, mercy… I won't be able to reach my ideal if I leave those feelings inside me. That was why Naru had steeled herself and come back to Vanaheim.
"Vanaheim, huh? That mountain path sure is harsh."
While Naru was relaxing in an inn near the foot of Vanaheim, the inn's proprietress spoke to her, sounding concerned. At the moment, Naru was hiding her wings with some bandages so that no one could see her black feathers. Thanks to that, Naru looked completely human. That was probably why the proprietress was so worried. It was exceedingly difficult for anyone but Angels to enter the mountainous city.
"Well, for today at least, you should just enjoy my food and build up your strength."
"Mama's cooking is real good! It'll perk you right up, big sis!"
The proprietress seemed to have a daughter. It was obvious at a glance that they had a very loving relationship. The daughter trotted over to her father, who was a little ways away. When she reached him, her father gave her a ride on his shoulders, laughing warmly all the while. What a nice family… Naru thought, before realizing that she was looking at them enviously. The ideal family relationship that Naru had wanted in her childhood was being played out right in front of her. It only steeled Naru's resolve as she thought, I have to make my ideals a reality in order to protect this family as well.
A while after that, Naru reached the church in Vanaheim. There was no way a cursed child with black wings would be welcomed in the church, but Naru had her wings hidden, so the members of the church had no reason to doubt her. They simply welcomed her in as a traveler.
"Welcome, traveler. What would your business be with us this day?"
"I know a sick person here. I know I'm human, but may I be allowed to pass?"
"Be my guest. The Goddess of Love Yggdra welcomes all."
All? Don't make me laugh. You wouldn't let in your so-called cursed children. Naru kept those words locked tight in her chest as she entered.
The sick and wounded were being accommodated in the rear of the church. Naru's mother was also there. There was no hospital in Vanaheim.
In exchange, those who used healing heaven-arts gathered at the church in order to heal those who needed it. There were several rooms in the church, and Naru unerringly chose one to enter. This place… It was where people put those with wounds of the heart. This was where Naru's mother was staying.
Her golden hair, which was the same shade as Naru's, had tinges of white now, and her once beautiful face had thinned, stripping away a lot of that past attractiveness. Her arms were just skin and bones, and her face was pale, like a corpse's.
When she spotted Naru, she started speaking with eyes that didn't seem to be able to settle on anything. "Oh my, what pretty face you have. It's just like Naru's… I bet if you two stood next to each other, you'd look just like sisters."
Her statement was off. The woman should have been Naru's mother, but she didn't recognize her own daughter. True, Naru was disguised. However, her disguise was literally just hiding her wings. Naru's face was in full view. It would only be natural for people not to remember her face, given how she was persecuted as a cursed child and how people wouldn't even look at her. However, Naru was in front of her mother. Her mother should know her face, but she didn't recognize Naru.
"Come on, Naru, take a look. This person looks like you. Hee hee, oh dad. You don't have to say it out loud. We already know our daughter's the best!"
She was seeing something that Naru couldn't. It was a phantom of Naru, one who stood still in time and was still a child. There was also an illusion of her husband, an impossible one who actually loved and doted on their daughter. The happy family she wished for was something only she could see. Even though her real daughter was right in front of her, the mother could not recognize that.
For a moment, Naru couldn't speak, but then she said, "Yeah, I remember now. You all get along so well, don't you?"
Naru played along with her mother and forced a smile onto her face.
Since that day when she was attacked by the monster, Naru's mother had lost her heart. Though her life was just barely spared, she broke under the fear of being suddenly attacked. Seeing her husband and the house's servants being slaughtered in front of her eyes had changed her. She had turned her eyes away from reality and pretended such a tragedy had never happened, thus gaining a happy life of her own making. She was seeing a waking dream.
If only the grimmfolk didn't exist… Naru couldn't help but think every time she saw her mother. That's right. I should never forget this anger, this sadness. My mother doesn't have much longer. She'll probably die while still not recognizing her own daughter and averting her eyes from reality.
In Midgar, this kind of tragedy was not uncommon. You could find people with similar stories everywhere. Such was the world of Midgar. I find myself thinking, "Maybe my mom has regained her sense of self" every time I come here…
Of course, such faint hopes would never be conveniently granted. In the end, Naru never found her mother's recognition. The commonness of this story meant that such stories were a normal occurrence; tragedies were abundant in this world. If, for example, the inn that Naru stayed in before coming had been attacked and destroyed by grimmfolk, that wouldn't have been strange or unusual at all.
After leaving Vanaheim, Naru paid witness to just such a common tragedy. The village, its livestock, the people, and the buildings—even the warm and loving family running the inn—were all brutally killed or destroyed. This might sound repetitive, but none of this was unusual. Midgar was a place that overflowed with despair.
However, Naru's heart was only filled with regret. When Naru saw the disastrous state of the village after descending the mountain, she immediately ran for the inn. There, she saw a grimmfolk boy, soaked in blood splatter. It was the boy that Naru had let go several days before, the one who had been begging for their life.
"I was… I was a fool."
"S-Spare… Spare me…"
While gripping the grimmfolk boy by the neck, Naru muttered to herself emotionlessly. As I suspected, I mustn't be soft if I'm to reach my ideals. If I'd chased him down and killed him back then, this wouldn't have happened. Both the inn and the family would have surely still been full of smiles. But now, that's been lost forever… All because I showed weakness.
"Yeah, right. I knew this already. There's no need to show pity to the enemy. If I let them go, that just gives them a chance for revenge. Hesitation grows openings, and mercy will see no end to this."
"P-Pleas—Spare…"
"Shut up."
Naru clenched her fist, using her grip strength alone to wring the grimmfolk boy's neck.
If I half-ass things, that will just give them a chance to retaliate. If I allow retaliation, then it's the innocents who will pay. I need to be cold blooded. I need to be merciless. I should be the grimm to the grimmfolk. If not, then things like this will simply continue on forever. In order to stop that, someone has to harden their heart. Someone has to become a devil. This was something I already knew, something I've resolved to do. After all, isn't that why I chased after power, so that I could build peace out of a mountain of bodies and rivers of blood just like the Queen of Heroes? But even then, I was still soft. I allowed myself to have a heart. That's why innocent blood was spilled once again today.
Okay. My heart has been steeled. I will no longer waver. I will kill every single grimmfolk in Midgar.
That day, Lunaru Fenris stopped chasing after dreams. Her dreams became reality, and she became a Devil.