Re; A Hero’s New Life in a New World!
Chapter 17 — “Otto Suwen”
As the robed men scattered in the village, Orsi still held his ground. Despite being extremely intimidated and having his own limbs trembling from fear, he was still determined to stay there. Like many beasts could, Vetto could smell all the fear and anxiety in Orsi.
“What abrupt, rude guests. Would you just leave? Pretty please?”
Vetto pointed at him. “Hey, you,” he said. “If you want to have your way, hit me with all the Magic you’ve got and do something about me.”
“W-well, well. I do believe that I’ve been completely underestimated. I may not look like it, but during my younger days, I was recruited for the Magic Knight brigade, the Orange Crows, you know.”
“Enough hot air! Say it with Magic!”
“Well then…” Orsi said. He closed his hands and proceeded to open them again, revealing many seeds in both hands.“I’ll take you up on that!” The seeds emitted a bright green light for a few seconds, making Orsi close his hands again. “[Seed Magic]…” he said. “Bullet Seed!”
He launched the magical seeds at Vetto. Although the seeds absolutely decimated some parts of the ground, Vetto was completely unharmed. “Ya’ gotta try better than that to harm me, human.”
“Right, right. You’re not wrong.”
Orsi closed his hands and proceeded to open them again, revealing more seeds. He threw them into the air.
“[Seed Magic]: Abari Sausi!”
The seeds immediately homed for the ground. Most of them dug into the ground, while some of them hit Vetto.
“You still think this is going to work? Humans are too persistent.”
Plants sprouted from the spots the seeds landed in. They started to converge together and created a giant Golem made out of plants.
“You were saying…?”
Orsi kneeled downwards and placed his hand on the ground. “[Seed Magic]: Ibara Tenshi!” A large sharp, jagged plant sprouted and launched itself at Vetto. At the same time the Plant Golem unleased a massive punch at its foe. The impact with both of the spells created smoke, hiding the scene. Orsi felt proud of himself.
At the same time, he felt relieved and satisfied. After all, no one was able to stay conscious after one blow from his strongest spell, Abara Sausi. Even a powerhouse like Vetto, who was loved by Mana, couldn’t have survived, what with two strong spells attacking him, at the same time.
—But, there was one problem.
“[Beast Magic]: Rhinoceros Armor…”
The smoke cleared, revealing orange aura, in the shape of a rhinoceros, around Vetto’s muscular body.
“—What?! It didn’t even… faze him!”
“Those were good spells. Let me salute you. [Beast Magic]: Cheetah Charge!”
Vetto took one step, his legs and arms were wrapped with an orange-colored Magical Aura that was shaped like a cheetah. Immediately, he appeared in front of Orsi, as if he had teleported there.
“…With the reward called despair!”
One punch sent the old man flying into a building.
“Did you get a good feel of the huge power difference here?! I will not let you… have any hope!”
“What are you saying, Roswaal-sama?” The mayor asked him.
“Don’t you feel that irregular Mana in the air?”
“I mean, yes, I do. But… it feels like there is something blocking out everything outside…”
Roswaal narrowed his eyes at the door. “Woooooould you mind if I tried destroying the door?” Roswaal asked.
“O-of course not! How com—”
The clown created a spark of Magic in his palm. He stood up from his chair and pointed his arm at the door. A beam of electricity was then fired at the door, the mayor couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by Roswaal’s powerful magic. As the smoke cleared, it was revealed that the door indeed was broken, however…
“W…What on earth is that?!”
There was a shroud of Magical energy blocking the hole Roswaal had just created.
“Tch, this is Spatial Magic,” Roswaal said in frustration.
Outside of the house, a robed man laughed. The entire building was covered by a large spatial bubble. “Fufufufufu, once you’re trapped by my Magic, no matter who you are, you cannot escape!”
“Time to find my next prey. The Mana is telling me that the Clown is here. Perfect. He’s stuck, it seems. He’ll be my main dish and first, I’ll season him with the despair of his friends’ deaths!”
“So you already got to him, huh?”
Vetto saw three figures. A man with red hair. A black dog. And, a face he recognized. A girl with purple hair.
“We meet again, Aisha Landar! …And you brought the Church Grim with you, as well. Excellent.”
Aisha gasped, realizing that he’s the same person that was chasing her the other day, for the pendant she possessed.
“Heh. The more prey I have, the more fun it is, to make them despair!”
The icicles in the air began to descend. They were going to kill the villagers in the circle. Even if the villagers try to run away, one of the five men would kill them, in a more painful way. “I have to do something,” Otto exclaimed to himself, in his mind. He spread his arms wide.
“[Fire Magic]: Combo Eruption!”
A series of fireballs were created and shot towards the descending icicles, destroying them, while also creating small explosions at the same time. The villagers turned their heads to Otto, with a ray of hope in their eyes.
“What’s going on here?!”
Otto stood in front of the villagers. He stared at the five men in front of him. He was fully intending on protecting the villagers.
“You dare throw off the schedule?”
One of the five men spoke up. He was sitting on the bricks of a broken house and had a stopwatch in his hand. He was a slender, middle-aged man with slanted eyes. He was very skinny, which can be seen from the tone of his face, and also has a large chin.
Additionally, he possessed short light-colored hair combed backward. One of his most prominent features is the scar at the right-hand side of his forehead, which is elongated across his face all the way to his left cheek. He extended his hand.
“In 3 seconds, everyone dies.”
He released a massive chunk of ice, capable of taking down Otto, and everyone behind him, in a single blow. Otto took one step and dragged his arm across the air, in a diagonal fashion. “[Earth Magic]: Rajing!”
Large purple crystals popped up from the ground and dug into the large ice chunk that was launched. Though the crystals ended up destroying the Magical ice, they ended up dissipating. The villagers let out small gasps of shock, realizing that their savior could finally be here.
“Why would you do something so horrible?! Who are you people?!”
No response.
“I hadn’t heard that people from outside the village would be here,” one of the robed men said. “Are they on some unofficial business…?” another one commented. The man who was sitting down pressed the top button on his stopwatch, once again. “Five minutes,” he said.
“The worthless villagers didn’t know anything. We’ll finish them off quickly… and hunt for what we seek.”
“Don’t ignore me!”
Otto launched many crystals at the man who was sitting down.
“You fool. Don’t think you’ll approach Lord Heath, so easily!”
The robed men behind Heath used their Mist and Water Magic to cancel out the crystals. Heath pointed at Otto.
“…This village is in the Forsaken Realm, where the commoners dwell. Most inhabitants of this Realm are an inferior breed. They can only use petty Magic. They are like animals who are unable to use tools. These idiotic beasts could rob me of my time. I was simply trying to clear them away, beforehand.”
Heath then stared into Otto’s eyes.
“You have enough Magic to protect others, right? You’re simply trying to save them to look good. Don’t they look like pathetic animals, even to you…? Why do you protect them?”
Otto turned his face and looked at the faces of the disheartened villagers. He tried to get the thought of them appearing as pathetic animals, out of his head, but Heath’s words were too much. He turned his head back to face the five men.
“…He’s right… why am I protecting them… I’m just a merchant… I should step down…”
He took one step. He got a migraine, seconds after taking that one step. He kneeled down, his eyes closed, and in severe pain. He saw a young pink-haired girl. “Otto…” she said.
“We were born to protect everyone in this country.”
The migraine stopped. Otto got up and grabbed the red bow on his cape. There was a red gem embedded on his wrist.
“Those people… are the ones I need to protect!”
“You know him, Aisha?” Justice asked her, having a suspicious look on his face.
“When I first came to this country, he and another man, Rhya or something, were chasing me! Can’t you perverts find something to do, other than harassing people?! It’s really annoying!”
“Keh. We’re not here for you. We’re here for a Magic Stone. As soon as I found out that you were here and that the Church Grim has been located, we decided to attack. Ya’ still have that jewel we were looking for? Just hand it and the dog over, and you can escape without needing to be harmed.”
“As much as I’d love to leave this village, I’m not handing over my jewel. …It’s special to me.”
“Fine then. [Beast Magic]: Octopus Reach.”
Vetto fired an orange tendril at Aisha, stabbing her in the chest, knocking her down. Ulysse swiftly transformed into his human form and caught her just before her body collapsed onto the ground.
“Aisha!”
Justice furiously glared at Vetto. “You’ll pay for this…!” he exclaimed. “[Fire Magic]: Basuto!”
He created a javelin made out of Fire Magic and threw it at Vetto. The beast-man strengthened his arm with orange mana and punched through the fire javelin. Justice charged towards him with a sword in his hand. “[Beast Magic]: Bear Claw!” Vetto’s arms were surrounded with a magic aura shaped like the paws and claws of a bear.
While the two were fighting, Ulysse gently held onto Aisha.
“She’s… still alive!”
Ulysse aligned his forehead with Aisha’s. He was trying to transfer his Mana to her, so she could heal.
Aisha woke up in a field, close to a lake.
“Huh? Where am I?”
She looked around. She looked at her hand and noticed that she was transparent.
“Oh. I’m unconscious. Someone’s trying to heal me by transferring some of their Mana to me, which means that I got sucked into their memories. No one else here can see me. But, there’s one question. Whose memories am I in?”
“Isabel, were they picking on you again?”
“That’s his voice.”
She saw a purple-haired girl with green eyes sitting close to a lake. A black dog sitting beside her.
“This is the way the Lord made me. I can’t help my hair is curly and purple-colored… or that my eyes are green like grass. If it bothers them so much, let them complain to God!”
“I love you no matter what you look like.”
“Thank you, Ulysse. Trying to comfort me, aren’t you.”
“That’s Isabel? The only think about us that’s the same is our hair color. She isn’t even royalty! Moreover, I’m the only one that can hear him, huh? Everything else he says comes out as a ‘bark’ to everyone else… he thinks he’s human as well.”
Isabel pet Ulysse and played with him.
—Suddenly, the area turned white.
Aisha could hear the screams of people. “A child was struck by a carriage!” someone exclaimed. “Oh lord, the poor thing,” someone commented. “I saw those boys there chasing her!” someone said. “I-It’s not our fault! She just ran out into the street!” a boy said, trying to blame the fault on the girl.
Some people carried Isabel’s body in a casket. Ulysse following them.
“When will Isabel wake up? I haven’t heard her voice in days!”
Ulysse stood at Isabel’s grave. Waiting for her to wake up.
“Ulysse, Isabel is gone. She won’t be coming home.”
“No, she’s asleep. That’s all.”
The man grabbed Ulysse’s collar. “It’s time you came home.”
“No! No, father…! I’m going to wait here. She’ll be lonely if no one’s here when she wakes up. I’ll wait for her. I’ll wait… as long as it takes.”
One lasting day, a giant monster attacked the village—and most of the country. It was the Demon God. It killed many people and destroyed practically everything. Ulysse laid on the ground, half his body gone. He tried fighting against the monster to protect Isabel’s sleeping place, to no avail.
“What a poor dog. Here.”
Despite the area completely being in flames, there was a woman. She had white hair and the sclera of her eyes was completely black. She snapped her fingers. Ulysse was completely healed. He wasn’t an ordinary dog anymore. He was now a Grim.
“Isabel… I’ll still wait for you…!”
Aisha woke up, all healed. Justice was still fighting Vetto. She put her hand on Ulysse’s cheek.
“It’s okay now. See? I woke up.”
“That embedded jewel,” Heath said. “I’ve heard of that. There’s a rumor that the Vollachia Empire is raising Mage Warriors with artificially amplified Magic. They choose young children with powerful Magic, put them in fierce competition, embed Magical items in them to enhance their powers… and in the end… make them kill each other.”
Heath partially smiled.
“The last survivor of that deathmatch was you? I’m truly disappointed in the Vollachian Military, having weak forces like you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Otto said. “But I’m going to take you down!”
“Then show me your power, O’ Shining General*!”
*Much like how the Kingdom of Lugnica has Magic Knight Brigade Captains, who have immense power, the Vollachian Empire has the Shining Generals, who are the corresponding to Magic Knight Captains.
“[Ice and Mist -Compound- Magic]: Mugen Hyorokiken.”
Mist covered the area Otto and the villagers were in. Icicles were created.
“Try to protect the herd of animals like this. I’m not partial to the word ‘gradually’ myself, but, this seems to be the most efficient way.”
“[Earth Magic -Crystal Partition-]: Harpe!”
Multiple blades in the shape of harpes manifested around Otto. He launched those blades at the icicles. The blades and icicles clashed. As soon as the icicles broke, new ones would be created. Otto didn’t have enough blades to counter the number of icicles, so, some of the villagers would get hurt by them.
“[Fire Magic]: Phoenix Feathers’ Robe!”
Flames enveloped the wounded villagers’ bodies. The wounds would start to heal.
“Damn it! Their Compound Magic is too much! Harpe won’t be able to stop the icicles fast enough before someone dies. I’m spending way too much Magic, at this rate, I’ll run out! It doesn’t help that I’m getting random flashbacks to memories I don’t even remember happening!”
“You’re going to be a great warrior someday, Otto. I just know it!”
Distracted by the flashback, Otto was hit in the back with an icicle. He coughed out blood.
“[Harpe]!”
More blades were created. Despite the efforts, the blades would still be canceled out by the icicles. The icicles would also stop targetting the villagers, and, instead, began to target Otto. He would be hit by them, several times, he would continue to cast Harpe, to not much avail. He wasn’t even given any chance to activate Phoenix Feathers’ Robe, either.
“If we get strong enough to protect the country, we’ll get to outside, right?”
Two children looked outside the window. One of them was a boy who had medium-sized gray hair and grayish-purple eyes, Otto Suwen. The other was a girl who possessed medium-sized pink hair and sky-blue eyes.
“I bet you’ll be the first one out, Otto. Lucky! I mean, you are the strongest one, out of all of us.”
“When that happens, I’ll wait… until you get out too, Fana.”
“Alright! Let’s go see the world together!”
Many months later, Otto, Fana, and the other children stood in a room, with an adult.
“This is the final test. Kill each other. The one who survives will become the Mage Warrior of our Empire and be released. If you don’t fight… you’ll all be destroyed.”
Minutes of slaughtering would go by and Otto would be the last one standing there. However… when he turned around, he saw another person there. It was his only friend, Fana.
“I’m sorry, Otto! Die!”
So Otto’s the survivor… let’s fit him up with Mage Stones.
For the amplifying… why not combine his ability with Fana’s? She’s the last one he killed.
There Otto lay, motionless, on the ground. The villagers, full of despair. The harpe blades were dissipating into the air. Heath walked up to Otto’s body.
“You may be able to use two attributes of Magic, but you might as well be just a normal human. You all seem to love making me waste time.”
Heath raised his arm and created a giant icicle high up in the air, to kill the villagers, in one fell swoop.
Otto was crying. He was in pain. Not because he was hurt, no. He was crying because he hurt Fana. He mourned her death. He screamed at the top of his lungs. He couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her. But, suddenly, he felt a cold hand on his cheek. His body was being enveloped by flames. It didn’t hurt him. He was being healed.
“I’m sorry… Otto. If I hadn’t done that… you wouldn’t… have tried to kill me. You’re the strongest, so… you were most likely… to survive… you also deserve to go outside the most…”
“Fana…”
“Use my remaining… Magic to create a new spell… and… go see the outside world for me… Otto…”
With her final words spoken, Fana closed her eyes.
Not good. It seems that he’s been traumatized by the slaughtering that he’s done.
Erase his memories, send him to Lugnica and place him in one of those orphanages where the Merchants are looking for children. He doesn’t fill my interest anymore and he doesn’t seem that he’ll be useful in the future.
“…That’s right… a new spell.”
Heath seemed shocked that Otto said something. He backed up, while Otto was getting back to his feet.
“Tch. More of my time wasted, huh?”
The large ice chunk began to descend downwards, much to the fear of the villagers. Otto simply responded by raising his hand up. “Help me, Fana!” Otto’s body emitted a gray light, as his Magic Gate began to expand. “[Earth Magic -Crystal Partition-]…” he said. “Laevateinn!”
Otto created an enormous sword with three points, composed entirely of crystal structures. The blade of the sword itself possessed a very amorphous surface where it is made out of roughly cut crystals, except for the edges where it had a smooth surface. He did a slashing gesture, which made the sword move and destroy the big chunk of ice, leaving nothing left.
He used the grip of the sword to knock out the four robed Mages.
“I’m not done yet,” Otto said.
“Neither am I!” Heath exclaimed.
Otto reinforced his arm with magical fire, while icicle spikes were coming out of Heath. The merchant dashed towards his opponent, dodging any icicles that were fired his way. Just before reaching Heath, Otto jumped into the air.
“W…wait!”
“I don’t want to waste any of your time, though!”
With that said, Otto let loose a fire-magic-enhanced punch to Heath’s face. The impact sent him flying, knocking him out, at the same time. Landing on the ground, Otto was met with the happy cheers of the villagers. He fell down and let out a sigh of relief and laughed.
The praises of the happy villagers could be heard in the background, though, Otto paid no mind to that. He looked up into the bright sky.
“Thanks for helping me, Fana.”
[Previous Chapter] — [Next Chapter]
Author’s Comments
Helloooooooo! Another Chapter released on time, weird, huh? I’m glad that I can finally focus on quality over quantity now. College is finally over and now I can have a 2-week head start on new Chapters, allowing me to focus on the quality of my writing skills and use up time writing on here more productively.
Just a couple more Chapters later and the Volumes page will finally come out! I don’t want to spoil what the page is about, so you’ll probably just have to wait until then. Anyway, did you like Otto’s meager character development and backstory reveal? ’Cause I kinda did, lol. Speaking of backstories, did you also like Ulysse’s?
I felt really sad while incorporating that to here, R.I.P Isabel, born: who knows, died: who knows. Just who could the lady that turned Ulysse into a Grim be? Who knows? I mean, I do, but that’s not important. I really like Vetto’s character and his obsession with despair, truthfully, when he’s with others of his kind, he’s a really nice and inspiring guy.
P.S. I’m sooooooo excited for Re:Zero Season 2! I literally screamed when it was announced!
Until Next Time!
— Mugen
Re;Hero 