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18-7. Tales of Hero Hayato [4]

"Now that the inauguration ceremony is over. There\'s some things I need to tell you hero, and your highness as a representative of attendants."

A day after the ceremony, master Burume called me and Maryest to a room with us three alone.

"First of all, about how the talisman work."

After telling us to teach other members later, she spoke about a function to capture [Demon Lord Authorities] that show up after a demon lord is defeated.

"This function can only be performed by the Main Talisman your highness possesses, however it cannot be done without the help of Sub-Talismans the other attendants bear. You must keep the matter about authorities to yourself, but definitely tell them that the act is required to [Prevent demon lord from resurrecting] immediately after it was defeated."

Master Burume waited for Maryest to nod before turning torward me.

"Next up, regarding the Hidden Function of hero\'s Self Status."

"Hidden Function?"

"Yeah, you heard that right. I\'m sure her highness told you it can\'t be done, but in reality there is a [Backdoor] to reset your skill points back to initial state."

"For real? I can go wild trying out stuff then!"

I reflexively yelled out but then I wondered why they kept it hidden.

"Do you find it curious that it was kept a secret?"

I nodded at master Burume.

I wanna go tell the me who spent all day mulling over what skills to pick.

"Because it\'s not without risks."

According to master Burume, the reset skill points aren\'t restored entirely, what happened to the lost skill points is unknown.

"I see, I\'d get weaker and weaker if I just randomly pick stuff out and then respec-ing…"

"That\'s how it is. Think of this [Hidden Function] as a last resort for when you have to re-allocate your skill points no matter what."

Guess it\'s like a measure to prevent me from getting stuck from not having a skill required to proceed ahead?

Well, not like I\'ve got anything to lose learning how, so I\'ve got master Burume teach me the [Hidden Function].

◇

"You\'ll be doing some international work outside the empire from now on."

Master Burume said thus once we were done explaining talisman\'s function to everyone.

This international work is about going to countries all over the world to sell my face.

"Establishing personal connections is a part of your job desc as a hero."

My honest feeling to that is what a bother.

At this point of time, I didn\'t realize just how important personal connections could be.

I begrudgingly attended balls thrown by Saga Empire VIPs in the old capital, ran around from honey trap-like socializing during tea parties sponsored by Maryest-sama, slipped out of Heroes Temple with Seina, Subac and the guys to try out food in the old capital, spending a brief period of freedom.

As a result--.

"Hayato! I won\'t let you off the tea party today!"

"Hayato-sama, his majesty the emperor will be attending the tea party today, miss it and Burume-sama will have a special course ready for you."

--We\'ve got to a point where we could joke with each other.

Even Maryest called me by first name.

Then I somehow managed to finish socializing with all the big wigs I needed to, and it was finally the day we set out for a worldwide trip to mostly cities with dungeons and dungeon ruins.

"This is a ship reserved for heroes, Subdimensional Ship, Jules Verne."

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

A smug-looking Maryest pointed at a ship shining in silver color.

"What the heck, it\'s a freaking spaceship!!"

I shouted that out loud while pointing at Jules Verne since I was sure we would be going on a blimp-like airships that often flew above the old capital.

"Spaceship? I have read about previous heroes calling it as such indeed. This is a light ship the first hero-sama received from the elves which has been further remodeled with Saga Empire\'s technology."

"As it is capable of flying in the void sky beyond where no breathable air is present, it may be correct to call it a spaceship indeed."

"It really is a spaceship."

Elves are awesome.

"Hayato! Forget about that, let\'s get on it quick!"

Urged by Seina, I got on board Jules Verne.

Even the entrance hatch is secured by a double airlock. Feels like I\'m experiencing a genre shift from fantasy to SF.

Even the seats\' got seat belts that look like the ones you find in a fighter jet or a spaceship.

"Get on your seat. I\'ll only teach how to fasten the seat belt once, ya hear me!"

The previous generation hero\'s attendant, master Burume went around to each seats.

Everyone except me who\'s familiar with seat belts was quite bewildered.

"Now let us take off. Burume-sama, if you would."

"Got it."

Apparently master Burume is taking the helm.

I had a scene of an airship taking off from an underground hangar playing in my head, and was getting excited for it, but Jules Verne took to the sky in a way that betrayed my expectations.

"Dimensional submerge--commence."

"What the heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeck!"

An argent boundary was formed around the ship before the ship itself went into it.

"Quit your yelling. I\'ll take her to normal space once we\'re outside okay."

The ship really did come out of the argent sub-space into the sky above the old capital.

"It\'s the sky!"

"We\'re flyin\'!"

"Hmph, country bumpkins. Haven\'t you flown on an airship before?"

"This is my first time flying!"

Subac, Seina and the guys made a commotion as they watched the old capital below us.

No one\'s paying attention to Jerid\'s sarcasm.

"You\'re quite calm aren\'t you, Hayato-sama? Do you often get on an airship in the country of heroes?"

"Nah, I\'ve only been on a plane once. This feels quite different from that."

I replied back to Loreiya-san.

I\'m just used to seeing airships in TV and movies, a senior high school student like me didn\'t have many chances to get on one.

"We\'re submerging."

Master Burume said that as Jules Verne dived in the sub dimension once again.

Apparently this mode gets us around faster but consumes a lot of mana. As it eliminates the danger of monster raids, it\'s recommended to use this mode when we\'re traveling over a danger zone.

◇

The visits around the world were quite stimulating for someone who never even stepped out of Japanese\'s soil like me.

Of course, since it wasn\'t a pleasure jaunt, I ended up getting stuck with greeting the bigwigs and spending times in some boring ceremonies.

I also got invited to a great many balls and tea parties. There were white peachy beautiful girls, and women that wouldn\'t be out of place if they starred in a movie running on barefoot.

Every country welcomed the hero, so many high-ranking nobles tried to make connections with me by sending forth women.

Spare me from honey traps please.

Sorry but I\'m into younger ones.

Feasting on cuisines from many countries is nice and all, but I\'m yearning for Japanese food.

If previous generation heroes are Japanese, then there should be one or two restaurants that serve Japanese food back in Saga Empire. Maryest and the girls had no idea, but Rokos said he knew some places.

He promised to take me there once we\'re back. You can count on this dude.

During the trip, we also visited dungeons all over the world as advised by master Burume.

We eradicated the hideous Vampire Slaves in [Bloodsucking Dungeon] found in a remote region of Saga Empire, and even encountered a real life vampire, but it was so quick on its feet we didn\'t manage to catch it.

It was fun watching the charmed Seina trying to flirt with me with heart-shaped marks on her eyes, but master told me that undoing the charm would have been super tough if we were up against a Vampire Lord, it was no laughing matter.

We finally encountered demons in Rampant Evil Dungeon in Longnose Rat emirate. We managed to finish it off, but I cannot believe that\'s just a lesser demon. Master Burume sliced apart another one that showed up afterward. Master is amazing. Gotta work hard on it myself.

And then I had a miraculous encounter in one of a country with dungeon ruins, Kubooku Kingdom of Central Country Group.

◇

"Whoo are you?"

I met a little angel with purple hair when I strayed off somewhere after running off from the ceremony.

She\'s the cutest girl I\'ve ever seen in my whole life.

"Yes Lolita! No Touch!"

My tension got so high from her cuteness I babbled some incorrigible stuff.

"Come back to your senseeeeeeeeeee!"

Had Seina in full uniform chasing after me not whacked me, I might have blabbered more weird stuff out.

"S-sorry--I\'m a hero. A hero of Saga Empire, Hayato Masaki."

"My! So you\'re Hero-sama!"

The angel called my name with her cute bell-like voice.

The angel showed me her innocent smile, lacking any disgust on her face, despite my shameful behavior.

The angel is an angel on the inside as well as the outside. It\'s the best.

"Would you willing to tell me your name."

"I am Arisa. Youngest princess of Kubooku Kingdom, Arisa Kubooku."

Her name sounds familiar like a Japanese.

Her Alice in the Wonderland-looking dress suits her well too.

"--This kid is the hidden princess of Salvation."

Seina is saying something behind me, but I can\'t turn my eyes away from the angel.

"Your highness."

"Please call me Arisa."

"Princess Arisa--"

"Please don\'t worry about using honorifics with me."

Kuuh, she\'s just way too cute.

I would have run off to hug her if I didn\'t have my Yes Lolita, No Touch mindset.

"Arisa--"

"Yes, Hero-sama."

My heart is gonna explode from this cuteness overload.

『Aah, I so wanna call her honey!』

『Ufufu, I don\'t particularly mind.』

--Eh?

Princess Arisa replied back in Japanese when I shouted out loud in Japanese reflexively.

『Japanese, but how?』

『Is hero-sama not aware that purple hair denotes reincarnated persons?』

『…Reincarnated.』

Right. Maryest told me about this during the lecture.

There are reincarnated people bearing hair in Taboo Color--purple in this world.

Some of those reincarnated persons bring prosperities with them, but since the majority of them cause disasters to people, there are many cases of them getting killed right off birth in remote regions.

『Then, you\'re a reincarnated person?』

『Yes, I am. I cannot recall my previous life too well, but by telling fragment of memories I see in my dreams to my retainers, I strive to better people lives.』

Later on, Seina told me how princess Arisa had played active roles in dealing with crises befalling this country to the point that she earned the nickname [Hidden Princess of Salvation].

『As I am but a child still, there are limits to what I can do, but that won\'t stop me from trying to better the lives of our citizen even a bit.』

『How very noble!』

Her nobleness knows no bound for a little girl.

Please act spoiled in front of me only.

Our meeting today ended with Maryest dragging me back, but during my stay here, I attended many tea parties with princess Arisa and managed to teach her some useful skills and information.

"Honey! I\'ll come visit you again!"

"Yes, Hero-sama. I will be waiting."

We got along well enough for me call her honey.

Once we\'re done with this trip, I\'ll definitely drop by here before we get back to Saga Empire.

◇

Those fluffy high spirited days didn\'t last for long.

I came across a cheeky girl, Pride of Shiga Eight Blades or something, at the largest dungeon in the whole world, Selbira Dungeon.

"Hmph, you\'re the hero? Look kinda unreliable."

An intense silver-haired beautiful girl with slight Tsurime eyes and thin eyebrows came picking a fight right off the bat.

"Good grief, I\'ll be sure to tell Zeff off on how to educate his pupil next time."

"Hey you! You can\'t call master\'s name so casually just because you\'re someone from Saga Empire!"

This girl even snapped on master Burume.

Very reckless of you, girl.

"As his mere pupil, you\'ve got no right to tell a mother how they wanna call her son! Besides, that kid is one of my pupils. Meaning you\'re a pupil of my pupil. Name yourself first before snapping at someone if you\'ve truly been educated!"

Despite getting the talk down from master Burume, the beauty pulled herself together and greeted back.

"So you were Swordsaint Burume-sama, please pardon my impoliteness. I am a granddaughter of Shiga Kingdomo\'s Duke Oyugock, Ringrande Oyugock."

It\'s a true blue lady-style greeting.

It\'s in no way inferior to Maryest\'s, as expected of a natural-born noble.

"I learned the basics of sword from Gouen-dono during my enrollment in Royal Academy. After graduation, I have the pleasure of training under Sir Julberg by referral of Gouen-dono. Presently, I am undertaking practical combat training in the dungeon."

I heard Julberg-san, the top seat of Shiga Eight Blades, is a spear user, guess he can use a sword too befitting of [Eight Blades].

"Royal Academy--Academy of Knights is it?"

"No, I was enrolled at the Academy of Magic."

"You must be Ringrande-dono who revived 『Explosion Magic』!"

An excited Maryest butted in. Looks like she knew about Ringrande.

She excitedly narrated about how Ringrande was a prodigious kid who learned advanced spells of fire and wind magic while in school and even carved herself in history by reviving a lost magic.

So on top of being a mage equaling Maryest, she\'s also a swordswoman, this girl is pretty greedy. Is she like, magic swordswoman or something?

Were her personality a bit less thorny, I woulda invited her to join us.

"So, Hero-sama. Would you spare me a match? I\'d like to see how strong a Saga Empire Hero is with my own eyes."

I checked her level with Analysis skill.

--Level 40 eh.

She\'s quite forged at her age, but she can\'t reach the level 60 me.

I found out after doing practice matches with the knights that a ten level gap is usually unsurmountable. Affinities could come into play in a high level battle, but a 20 level is gap is just impossible to overcome.

"You\'re only gonna hurt yourself. Let\'s not."

"My? You, a hero is running away from a fight?"

"Know your place, fine, I\'ll take you on. Don\'t come crying if you\'re hurt."

"Please do not concern yourself with that. I have brought an excellent priest from the duchy capital with me. She will fix you right up no matter how severe the burn is."

Dangit, I can\'t stand this woman.

I decided to get serious from the start to roast her a bit.

"Uwoo."

A composite of fire and wind magic was shot out right from the get go.

She must have finished her chanting during the signal.

I forcefully broke through the magic Ringrande weakened on purpose with Flickering Steps.

"No less to expect from a hero--■ Little Fire."

She was in the middle of casting another spell, but then she unfalteringly canceled it and switched to another spell.

But dang, this woman sure can chant fast.

She\'d cast another magic just as I brushed away her magic with my shield.

And even though she\'s stopping my advance with small magic, she\'s really good at it. Must have been drilled by a real combat practice type of teacher like master Burume.

Her swordsmanship is pretty good too.

About on par with Jerid the knight.

"■■■ Flame Javelin."

A spear of flame flew at me.

How there was another flame spear waiting at the spot I moved on to dodge that magic was pretty annoying.

I could block it with my shield, but let\'s throw her off here.

I cut the magic apart with a technique master Burume taught me and rushed headlong.

"Cutting magic?!"

Ringrande had no chance of winning after losing the leeway to cast magic, she sprawled on the ground after a few exchanges of close combat blows.

"I can\'t believe I lost--if only I could use explosion magic then…"

Girl looks to be a sore loser, Ringrande is gripping the ground with tears in her eyes.

"There is no [If only] on the battlefield. You die and that\'s it. Give it your all in the battle, run away when it looks like you\'re losing, that\'s the way of warrior."

Master Burume is as strict as ever.

I walk up to Ringrande.

"Yer\' pretty good."

"What do you want, flaunting before the loser?"

"Try to make this great me use my Unique Skills next time."

I was going to encourage her at first, but I ended up provoking her instead when she snarled at me.

Yep, don\'t think I\'ll ever see eye to eye with this woman.

If only ya could have even half of princess Arisa\'s grace on ya.