A man in his mid-20s wearily climbed up the stairs of an apartment complex. He was visibly exhausted as he fumbled around his pockets in search of his apartment keys. He finally unlocked the door, and a cold room welcomed him. Though it was clean and tidy, it felt alien and unfamiliar to him as he spent most of his time at work. Sighing to himself, he washed his face and plopped onto his bed with the same clothes, too exhausted to even change. As he fell deeper into sleep, a strange Magic Circle enveloped the bed he was sleeping in and began glowing. After a few seconds, it vanished along with the sleeping man.

***

The man woke up in the middle of a courtroom in front of a King. The King explained that he was summoned to this world by the Hero Summoning Ritual and humbly begged him to help their Kingdom in their war against the evil Demon Race. After his initial confusion, the man accepted their request. Though it could be seen as an act of benevolence, the man had agreed to the absurd request since he was itching to do something worthwhile as he had accomplished nothing of the sort in his previous world.

To prove his worth, the man, monikered ‘the Nameless Hero’ by the people of the Kingdom, worked earnestly and with great vigor in the war against the Demons. He gathered allies continuously as he advanced from one city to another, freeing them from the clutches of the Demons. While battling with the Demons, he noticed that while the majority didn’t have intelligence, some of the higher-ranked demons, were in fact, intelligent and capable of speech. However, since they spoke in the Demon Tongue, it was unintelligible jargon to his ears. Refusing to ponder upon it, the Hero, along with his Party, continued their battle. They finally reached the Castle of the Demon King, where the Demon King resided, to put an end to the war for good.

After a gruesome battle, the Hero and his Party managed to deal a fatal blow to the Demon King. As life slowly faded from his eyes, he looked at the Hero and the Healer of the Party, who was standing beside the Hero, and weakly smiled. His meaning behind the smile, a mystery.

Though the Demon King was vanquished, and the Demon Race almost exterminated, remnants of the Demons still existed and required immediate action. When the Hero proposed taking action immediately, the King dissuaded him, stating that the Kingdom was finally free from the Demon Race, and it called for a celebration. The King proclaimed that the Feast of Celebration would be hosted exclusively for the Hero and his Party in a few weeks in the Demon King’s Castle to acknowledge their accomplishments.

***

The day of the Feast subsequently came. The once foreboding Demon King’s Castle was now decorated lavishly as large crowds of citizens from the Kingdom had come to the Feast of Celebration. The King sat on the Demon King’s throne as the Hero and his Party were seated beside the King. Usually, no one could sit beside the King as it was considered an insult to His authority, but the King personally requested them to sit beside him, granting them the highest honor possible. The Feast began with a speech from the King on how valiantly the Hero and his Party fought against the Demons. After His speech, the King motioned with his hands for the festivities to begin. The festivities started in full swing as the food and alcohol were served in tandem.

The whole day felt like a dream to the Hero. He enjoyed the adoration the citizens of the Kingdom felt towards him. The festivities continued as the night grew long. As the festivities concluded, the King gave another speech signaling the end of the Feast. As the Demon King’s Castle was quite far from the Kingdom, the citizens of the Kingdom had booked their accommodations in the nearby city in advance. Most of them retreated for the night piss drunk.

After a while, the only people in the Castle were the King, the Hero, and his Party. The King suddenly burst into laugh looking at the Hero’s content face. The Hero’s Party, except the Healer, joined the King in laughing at the Hero. Puzzled, the Hero looked at them quizzically. This made them laugh even more uproariously. Realizing that something was not right, the Hero attempted to stand, but to his horror, found out that he could not move his body. He was poisoned! Seeing the look on the Hero’s face change, they laughed even more boisterously, mocking him. The Assassin of the Party mocked him, “Wow~, look at our distinguished Hero, trying to stand, but not able to move a muscle! Whehehehe~” The King stopped laughing to chide the Assassin, “Hey, don’t be hard on him, he is the one who helped save this Kingdom from the evil Demons.” All the party members started laughing even louder. The Mage of the Party wiped the tears formed by laughing too hard and spoke to the King, “Oh King! Mercy! ‘Save the Kingdom’!! Mehehehe. It’s too much! Any more, and my stomach will burst!!” The King laughed lightly and spoke, “Alright, enough fooling around. Let’s get this thing done.” The Thief of the Party rubbed his hands sinisterly and asked the King, “Your Majesty, would you consider sparing the Healer? I have my plans for her. Zehehehe~.” Looking disgustingly at the Thief, the King replied, “No. She is the closest one to the Hero. Hell, they may even be sleeping together! We can’t risk trusting her. She must die along with the Hero.” The Thief looked longingly at the Healer, who was also poisoned and sitting beside the Hero. But, he sighed and gave up on her. The King ordered, “Let’s start.”

The King and the members of the Hero Party all stood in a circle and began chanting some obscure magic spell. Suddenly, an enormous Magic Circle engulfing the whole city began to form. The citizens who were still awake, horrified by the situation, tried fleeing the city but were stopped by an immensely strong Barrier. Suddenly, a guy who was banging at the Barrier screamed and turned into a mist of blood. Instantly, the people surrounding the Barrier started turning into mists of blood one by one. Chaos ensued in the city as the phenomenon started occurring at increasing frequencies. The mists of blood slowly started drifting towards the group who were chanting the Spell. After a while, the entire city became eerily quiet. Every living thing inside the city except the group chanting the Spell, the Hero, and the Healer were turned into mists of blood! Those mists of blood slowly drifted towards the group, forming something.

Once all the mists of blood were collected in the middle of the group, it started boiling and coagulating. After the process was finished, it was now a glistening, sleek, red sword. It emanated immense bloodlust. Looking at the Blood-red Sword, the Hero realized something as he screamed in horror, “WHYYY??!!” Looking at the hysterical Hero, the King spoke crazily, “Why?? I’ll tell you why! You were summoned here by us. You’re just a pawn. But, your strength now exceeds our estimations. What use is a pawn if you can’t control it? But, if we kill you normally, your soul would still stay in this world! Then, that accursed Goddess could reincarnate you in this world! Then, it would be bad for us, right?! That’s why we are using this Forbidden Magic to kill both your body and soul! Mwuhahaha!”

While the Hero was dazed with the King’s crazed explanation, the group spent no time guiding the Sword to pierce the heart of the Hero. Seeing the Hero had still not regained his senses, the Healer suddenly moved and placed herself in front of the Hero, trying her best to stop the Sword. Alas, the power of the Sword overwhelmed what little resistance she put and easily pierced her. The instant the Sword stabbed her, her body was blown to bits. The Sword, not losing any speed or power, closed in on the Hero. Just as it was about to stab the Hero, a blinding light engulfed the area. Time slowly came to a standstill. A pair of translucent hands came down from the skies and caressed the face of the Hero. An obscure face materialized in front of the Hero and spoke something to his ears. They talked about something for a while. Both of them smiled slightly as the obscure face reached for the Hero’s lips and kissed him gently. The obscure face then whispered to the Hero, “Come to me…….the Sanctuary.” As the face was whispering, the Hero was shown an expanse of a forest, where the rarest of animals were thriving. And, in the middle of the forest, there was a lone peach tree around which, no animal dared to wander. The forest was like a Sanctuary to the animals, protecting them from any outside influence. He couldn’t hear the whisper properly as he was slowly losing consciousness but managed to hear ‘Come to me’ and ‘the Sanctuary’ clearly and associated it with the vision he saw. The blinding light subsided as time started to flow naturally.

Due to the speed of the Sword, the events of the Healer being blown to bits and the blinding light fading in and out occurred almost immediately. So, the group thought that the blinding light was a last-ditch effort of the Healer to resist the Sword. The group saw the Sword pierce the heart of the Hero and watched on as his body slowly grew cold and his eyes vacant. They gloated over his dead body and cackled crazily.

***

The King, after returning to the Capital of His Kingdom, proclaimed that the Hero was a backstabbing bastard as he had colluded with the remaining Demons to usurp the throne during the Feast. He even went as far as to blame the massacre of the City on the Hero, saying that the Hero massacred them as a sacrifice to the Demons. The King then called upon the Party of the Hero, who explained that they had stuck down the evil Hero after a fierce battle with a heavy heart. And the evil Hero, in his dying breath, lashed out at them, and the Healer had jumped in front of the attack to protect them and had lost her life. With the King’s proclamation and the statements of the members of the Party of the Hero, the citizens of the Kingdom had no reason to harbor any suspicion towards them and started hating the Hero. They even started calling him ‘Evil Incarnate’ due to his supposed actions.

***

In an Elven village, a boy born to an Elven couple was declared stillborn. The couple was heartbroken, and when they were just about to console each other, a loud cry came from the baby, which was declared stillborn. The midwife was in disbelief as she carried the baby to the mother screaming, “It’s a MIRACLE!!” The mother held the child with utmost love and joy in her eyes as the baby slowly opened its eyes for the first time.

The baby opened its eyes and found itself held by a woman who lovingly looked at him. The father of the baby was prancing around excitedly. The woman called out to him, “Elrohir, won’t you like to hold our son?” Elrohir nodded excitedly as he carefully took the baby from his wife. The baby felt a different person holding it and opened its eyes again. The wisdom in its eyes shocked the man as he spoke to the mother, “Luthien! Look, our son has such bright eyes! They are similar to the leaves of the World Tree. What should we name him?” The mother, Luthien, replied, “How about, ‘Iston’? It means ‘the Wise One.’” Elrohir replied, “Nah, we don’t want to pressure him with a name like that. How about ‘Aldon’? It means ‘like a Tree’?” Luthien replied enthusiastically, “Fantastic name! I like it! Our son will be named ‘Aldon’!” Elrohir played with Aldon’s nose as he spoke like a baby, “Who’sh a good boy??” After playing with his son for a bit, Elrohir gave the baby back to Luthien. Luthien, exhausted by the childbirth, slowly fell asleep with Aldon beside her. Elrohir went outside the room to break the news to his parents and sister.

Aldon sighed, unbeknownst to the couple, reminiscing over both the joyful and tragic events he had experienced as a Hero.