Illuminated by the three moons, the night in the forest was magically bright. The ethereal moonshine pierced the canopy, casting cold pillars of light to the silent forest. The ghostly pale lighting was contrasted by the scattered fireflies' faint, warm glow.
Alsten couldn't help but admire the scene.
"Woah... this place is beautiful."
Lana looked at him with a strange expression. Alsten didn't notice it because he was too busy taking in the otherworldly environment.
Soon, Lana signaled him to stop. They'd reached tonight's hunting ground.
The archer had always been silent whenever she was around him, but she communicated normally with the other party members. Just what was on Lana's mind?
"We will wait here," she said in a quiet voice.
They sat beside a thick bush, its height was enough to conceal their presence from the other side of it. Then, they lay there for an ambush. As soon as the target shows up, Lana will swiftly shoot her arrow and bring home the game.
Lana was calm and silent, meanwhile, Alsten's heart was pounding. What the hell was he thinking tagging along with her randomly?
Then, out of the blue, she asked:
"What's the real reason for your accompanying me?"
Words seemed to have been stuck in his throat. He stared at her for a moment before managing to push out a response.
"There's just... something on my mind. I wanted to ask something."
Lana threw him a glance before turning her eyes back to the targeted place. She was wearing an expression he couldn't discern. It was close to... sadness, grief... worry...
...Doubt.
"Um,.. I just wanted to know what our relationships are to each other."
Her eyes became unfocused for a few moments before she turned to him, completely forgetting about the hunt.
"Oh."
Finally relaxing his body, Alsten just completely sat on the ground and rested his right forearm on his knee, while the left helped him balance. He then spoke.
"I thought that asking the other three wouldn't give me a good answer, so... yeah."
Putting her bow to the ground, Lana did the same. She sat on the ground and hugged her knees.
Then, she began.
"Genler was a Rank S professor of healing magic and was assigned to join the Hero's party by King Vandel himself. We only got to know him through this journey."
She spoke with no life to her words at all. Her eyes just gazed far away into the dark woods in front of them.
"Hetaphar is the strongest warrior of the Giants, a race that is proud for their physical strength. You've known each other through a sparring session back when you were still training to be a royal knight. Since then, he'd been trying to surpass your strength but to no avail."
She paused and then turned her head in the general direction of their camp.
"Yobu was an assassin. A criminal. He used to hunt corrupt governors and lords. When you heard about his story, you bailed him out of prison and let him join our party."
Then, Lana sighed.
"I've known you since you were a small child."
Alsten's eyes widened. Elves did have longer life spans than humans did, so throughout Alsten's whole life, she might have not aged at all in her perspective.
She might actually be the oldest member of their party.
"Whenever I'm training or gathering herbs, there's always this stubborn young boy who would bother me. He would often get himself in trouble and require my help. Sometimes, he would ask absurd favors out of me like helping him revive a cat, a potion that lets him do the laundries faster, and a bunch of other stuff."
Alsten was able to catch a glimpse of a genuine smile from her while she talked about the past. He couldn't help but smile himself.
"Who knew that kid would grow up to be the Hero."
How cruel fate was. He could have been just reborn as Alsten right from the beginning, why did he have to meet her under these circumstances? Why did he have to pretend and deceive them like this?
"But, you know..."
Alsten whipped his head towards her when she spoke.
"Since your memories got wiped, something just... isn't right."
His eyebrows furrowed. He gulped hard.
"Wha... What do you mean?"
Lana shook her head.
"I don't know. It's just... it's like you're no longer the Alsten I know."
Silence filled the cold air. It took a few seconds for Alsten to fully understand what those words meant and when he did, his eyes opened wide and his breath caught.
"I don't know how to explain this but... It's really strange. It doesn't feel like you've changed. It's like... you're someone else entirely."
With all his strength, Alsten faked a laugh.
"H-How could that be? H-Haha... Of course I'm me. I've always been. I just... forgot."
Lana stared at him with a blank expression, he was so close to soiling his pants. Then, the archer looked down, shook her head and then sighed.
"Yeah... I know. Maybe I'm just shocked by all this."
As Alsten was about to reply, footsteps resounded from the other side of the bush. Lana looked at him and then smiled.
"Let's bring the dinner home."
***
Four days flew by. Alsten relentlessly trained himself with magic and swordsmanship. Yobu praised how fast he was learning, but said that he wasn't surprised at all since it was Alsten. However, the progress with magic was slower than he had expected.
Until Alsten's eighth day in this world.
He was standing on a huge boulder, gazing into the lower lands of the forest. The bright sun shone over the vast green landscape.
According to Genler, the Light element was the second rarest element to have after Darkness. And so, only a few applications of these elements were being practiced.
In the Hero's case, he used the Light magic to enhance his attacks. For example, when performing the Star Cleaver, Alsten coated the greatsword in pure, golden light, storing the unstoppable nature of the energy into his weapon. When he swung the sword, he could cut through the toughest shields and even sever thick stone walls.
Mana wasn't an entity that could be described through physical terms. The way it worked was a mystery even to the smartest mages, but the system was fairly easy to understand. It served as a fuel for the magic casters to channel energy for controlling the elements. Everything required energy. Shooting a ball of fire from your scepter, casting thunder, controlling the wind, they all required a driving force, and that was mana.
In other words, mana was the energy that fueled whatever the user wanted their element to do.
Alsten could think of it as using his smartphone. The wifi or the battery was the mana, and the phone was the element. As long as he had the Energizer, he could control his phone.
Now, he just had to find a way how to connect that analogy to reality.
And he did.
It was like directing his own mood, or controlling his line of thought. Channelling mana was complicated, but once he grasped it, it became easy.
He extended his hand and a weird heat flowed through his veins. And then, from the palm of his hand, a bright ball of golden light appeared.
Shocked and euphoric, Alsten jumped down the boulder and showed the ball of light to his friends.
Genler stared at him, flabbergasted. He didn't expect less from the Hero, but this was still something almost no one had ever accomplished.
Hetaphar congratulated him with enthusiasm.
Yobu didn't give a damn, all he cared about was his sword training.
Lana praised him proudly.
The first few steps of becoming Alsten had been completed. If he wanted to erase the remaining doubts in their minds, he had to push himself to the limit.
The day was spent for another rigorous training. And then, the next day came. It was Alsten's ninth day in this world.
Lana had just returned from hunting their breakfast. Instead of hunting all of their meals for the day in one go, she preferred to hunt three times a day. Sometimes four when the party was really hungry. That way, she made sure that everything they ate was fresh.
The other two were watching Alsten manipulate the ball of light in his palm. He could make it flicker, adjust its brightness, and change its size slightly, but that was all he could manage for the moment. As huge of a leap for him as this was, he still couldn't apply his magic in combat.
But the day was only just starting. He had plenty of time to train.
A few minutes later, Lana was done cooking the fowl she'd hunted.
"Breakfast's ready, guys."
The smell of the delicious meat drew the four guys' attention and they immediately sat with her. As usual, they began to eat together.
But then, the sound of footsteps stopped Alsten from taking his first bite. It wasn't a monster's. In fact, it sounded so light that it almost certainly belonged to a child.
They turned to where the noise was coming from, and the Hero fell silent.
Tiredly walking towards them was a short, petite girl draped in sophisticated coat of dark purple. Under that coat, she wore an expensive-looking black dress. She had silver ornaments on her long, twin-tailed, dark hair, and a few more trinkets were hanging on her neck, ears and wrists. The stylish, dark, high heeled boots added a few inches to her short stature. In the middle of the dangerous forest, she looked like a lost princess.
And that might have been the case. Because her pale face was even paler than normal, and her eyes almost looked dead. With her soft, small voice, she was muttering something that the party was only able to hear when she got close enough.
"Food... water..."
When Lana realized what was going on, her caring instincts kicked in. She got up and then ran up to the poor princess.
"A-Are you okay? Here, have some water first."
She took the waterskin from the elf's hands and then chugged half of its contents.
"Pwah!" the princess wiped her mouth, breathing heavily. She then reached up to Lana's shoulder for support.
"Th... Thank you... Thank goodness I found people. I thought I was a goner."
Lana looked back at the camp, they were as shocked and weirded out as she was.
She cleared her throat.
"Come sit with us for now."
Sitting down with the group, the girl gluttonously devoured the meat given to her. The party exchanged wary looks before Lana spoke.
"So... uhm."
Alsten was shocked to see Lana being this awkward. But then again, the situation was nothing short of awkward.
"What's uh... someone like you doing here?"
The girl drank some more water and wiped her mouth. Some crumbs of meat were on her soft, supple cheeks.
She cleared her throat, then straightened her posture. She tried to act elegant despite the mess she looked.
"I accepted a quest about the Troll King up that mountain. On the way, my supplies ran out..."
She shivered.
"I underestimated the distance."
Lana forced a chuckle and then replied.
"Why didn't you hunt?"
The girl looked down, tears welling up in her beautiful, sapphire eyes.
"I... I tried..."
Before the girl could burst out crying, Yobu had already spoken.
"What business does a child like you have accepting quests like these anyway? Stick to goblin slaying, you brat. That portion of meat you just inhaled was MINE!"
The girl looked at him with a frown, her angry eyes was still wet from tears.
"Excuse you! I am no child! And quests like these? I can handle them, easy!"
Yobu scoffed.
"Easy? Right. Say that like you didn't almost die of starvation."
The girl stood up from the log chair furiously.
"Those are different! I merely made a wrong judgement on the distance I had to travel. But once I reach the Troll King, I guarantee you that I can kill him in one strike."
The party looked at each other. Then, Lana asked:
"Sorry, may I ask... who are you?"
A smug look crossed the girl's face, she put her right hand on her chest.
"Try not to rejoice too much. You are in the presence of the genius mage, Seraphina."