302 Side Chapter; Azuma Empire Heroes Crisis 1/2

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As one of the Heroes of the Azuma Empire, Mihara Hideaki had worked very hard to gain his position. Although he was blessed by an Epic Skill, outstanding Skills, and talent, he needed to work hard to polish such abilities.

However, a Hero is not only a Hero because they are recognized as one by the System, but they need to also be considered a Hero to their Empire or Kingdom. A figure who people admire and look up to.

Mihara, before awakening his Heroic Epic, was a musician and an avid writer. He wasn't a warrior, neither served his nation with his strength. He was someone who loved literature and arts and used his knowledge of it to bring happiness and entertainment to people.

At the young age of 26, Mihara Hideaki became a renowned Poet and Musician, his love poems got through all of the ladies of the Azuma Empire, and his beautiful and soothing songs became popular nation-wide. No one in the Azuma Empire wouldn't know about his songs.

With his songs and poems, he managed to inspire people, to increase their morale, and that to see life's brighter side. Even the Empress of the Azuma Empire, Sugita Masami, recognized the man's talent and efforts, and after realizing that it was thanks to his arts that her population was always positive and not so pessimistic, she gave him the title of Noble.

At the age of 29, as Mihara wrote a new poem, strange powers surged from his words, which enhanced the abilities of his beloved family. Not only each of his words, poems, and songs were inspiring, but they also increased the people's statistics, increasing their physical strength, magic capabilities, and even speed and endurance.

Not long after, Mihara Hideaki awakened as the [Hero of Brilliant Poems] and gained the ability to recite and sing beautiful incantations that could turn the tables in the most terrible of wars. His poems and songs increased the power of thousands of soldiers, and with his help, any skirmish or war that the Azuma Empire went through would result in either a victory or a tie.

Because of his age, he was one of the oldest Heroes in the Azuma Empire and became the teacher for the new ones. His status as a renowned Poet and Singer remained, and coupled with the admiration of the entire population, he held an incredible influence in everyone.

Thankfully for the worrisome Empress, Mihara Hideaki is a pure-hearted man, raised by a loving mother and a hard-working father. She knew that he would never use his influence to turn against the Empire or anything like that. This only increased the ties between him and the nobles, and he became someone who everyone relied on.

And now, Mihara, as one with the power to turn the tables in any battle, was constantly being called for small skirmishes against the Thanatos Kingdom, which happened more frequently.

Although he would never refuse the call for help from his beloved people, he grew worried. These small skirmishes, which only seemed to get worse each week, had never stopped for the last five years.

The Thanatos Kingdom was being too aggressive, overly aggressive.

"A Nation with so many citizens shouldn't be this bloodthirsty," He thought.

Indeed, the Thanatos Kingdom population was immense, being of over five hundred thousand citizens. An amazing number of people in such a harsh world like Genesis. Unlike in Earth, Genesis is a world filled with dangers and powerful monsters everywhere, people gathering in such big quantities was unlikely, unless the nation itself held amazing and powerful individuals to take care of it.

Mihara rationality couldn't comprehend why such a big nation desired to conquer another big nation, instead of risking a big war where resources would be lost endlessly, it would be better to form alliances and negotiate, making both nations held each other in harsh times.

Mihara was a pacifist, and he didn't believe in that war was the only solution to conflicts or lack of resources in a Kingdom.

"There must be other ways… But, how can we convince a Kingdom filled with Demons, whose entire teaching since childhood is to desire strength and raise in power? Their entire beliefs are behind war, bloodshot, and destruction… They only believe that beating the weak is the only way to appease their population hunger" Thought Mihara.

One day, as Mihara was pondering such thoughts, Izumi Yuko, the [Heroine of Alchemy] and Sakura Miwa, the [Heroine of Sakura Storms] were enjoying tea time with him. Mihara was already on his thirties, but he was still single despite his handsomeness, charm, and status.

It wasn't weird for two young ladies to be in love with such a man, even if they were Heroes. Izumi and Sakura were taught by him and Yoshinaga. But of course, Yoshinaga was an old man on his fifties, and already had a family and even grandchildren, the young girls would never see him romantically, only leading their attention to the young and handsome Mihara.

Of course, they were not interested in his status and abilities, they were interested in his character as a person, his life, his hardships, and what made him such an admirable person. They were truly in love with him…

Mihara did know this but was oblivious, he did not desire to fall in love. He was a man that enjoyed being by himself, he said once that his loneliness was what inspired him so much to create such poems and songs.

However, Mihara saw the two young Heroines as his little sisters and loved them very much, in a familiar way. He cared for their safety, and how well they felt. He had grown accustomed to their company. And also slowly learned how they behaved, seeing the growth since they were little girls, it was really as if he were his big brother.

As the two girls tried to cheer him up due to his worried expression, Mihara laughed and then sipped some tea, while eating some small, roasted seeds.

Mihara dedicated himself to enjoy the day and move such negative thoughts for another time. But because of this, he realized something that his future self would have wanted to never know.

Izumi Yuko, the [Heroine of Alchemy], seemed odd…

She was always a cheerful girl that was in love for alchemy and constantly talked about such things, about mixing ingredients, monster materials, creating new potions and bombs, etc.

And in fact, she was just talking about such things right in that very moment. But… something seemed off.

It wasn't her appearance, her attitude, her tone of voice… even Mihara couldn't tell what was that seemed off from Izumi, he had known her for so long, it was almost an instinct as if he were her father, there was something, a little thing in her, that made her slightly different than before. And it wasn't some change of emotions, depression or her mind becoming more mature, it wasn't anything of that, as such things would be natural for a human being to go through.

It was something different, an eerie feeling. Sakura or Yoshinaga never felt such thing and was unaware of Izumi's strange change. However, perhaps due to his abilities, Mihara was able to clearly see something strange in Izumi as a whole.

Of course, he couldn't just tell her straight away what was wrong with her. It would come as odd, and he would end up being cataloged as the weird one. He needed a place where he could be together with Izumi.

He was fearful, something, a strange feeling, dangling in his mind, never stopped. It was constantly telling him that something was off, something eerie and strange was happening to Izumi.

This "feeling" was one of Mihara's special Skills, [People's Journal]. The moment he's able to know a person and register them in his journal, he will be able to tell any changes in them, from their personality to their health. It was an incredibly useful Skill to assess causalities in wars, and even know strange diseases and health problems that healers or medics couldn't normally tell. He could even know how to write even better poems, going by the preferences of the population as a whole.

On Mihara's [People's Journal], where Izumi's profile was, there was something constantly telling him that Izumi had something in her that wasn't there the last time he met her.

Mihara was patient and enjoyed the tea time with the two young girls. In the end, when Sakura was called for some even on her family, which was composed of shrine maidens, Mihara was luckily left alone with Izumi.

"This is my chance," he thought.

Mihara acted friendly and decided to spend the rest of the day with Izumi. He even showed her his new poems and songs and even changed some things according to her recommendations.

As Izumi approached Mihara, he grew warier. For a moment, he lost his cool and his face was stiffened.

Izumi glared at Mihara, asking if everything was okay.

"Mihara san, are you feeling okay? Since this morning that you've been quite strange…" She said, with a worried expression on her beautiful face.

Mihara laughed as he relaxed his shoulders.

"Haha, its nothing. I suppose I'm just getting old…" he said, pretending to be fine.

And just as he was about to resume his poem, from Izumi's neck, a strange, red-colored liquid, appeared. And stealthily moved using strange abilities, slowly crawling towards Mihara's neck.

However, Mihara's senses kicked in, alerting him of something strange.

He jumped to the other side and found the strange slime coming from Izumi's neck as he saw Izumi's expression, clicking her tongue with a frustrated face.

"Tch…" She said.

Wait, tch?

Izumi was a girl known for her adorableness, she would never, said such a thing or do such expressions. There was clearly something off with her as if the strange red slime coming from her wasn't enough of a proof.

"Izumi…? What is… A monster?"

Mihara didn't wait for Izumi to answer him, he quickly chanted a poem about an immovable mountain as a strange shield made out of light and letters appeared around him, protecting him from the incoming attack.

Izumi's red slime pounced with immense force against the letters shield for several times, and after realizing that it couldn't break it with pure strength, it released countless of powerful Fire Spells, setting the whole house in flames.

"S-Shit! Izumi!"

Mihara was blinded by the fire and couldn't see Izumi, he had to escape. By using his superhuman strength developed through the harsh training that Yoshinaga put him through in the past, he escaped.

By using his Skill [People's Journal] and [Mental Mapping], Mihara was able to detect Izumi, who had run from the blazing house somewhere else. Thankfully, Mihara lived alone, so his house being in flames was not a problem to him, he owned riches everywhere, and could easily buy another one if he desired, calling some guards with Water Magic to set the flames off, he ran with all of his might, tailing Izumi.

With his [Superhuman Strength] and the Poem [Tales of a Wind Bird], he was able to increase his speed exponentially and caught up to the fleeing girl. However, what he saw there wasn't normal, the people around Izumi was suddenly attacked by the strange Slime and started to attack Mihara indiscriminately. 

"Brainwashing?! Is this what it used to take over Izumi?! Who is this damned monster?!" he thought, furious.

Mihara couldn't damage innocent civilians, and with his speed and strength, managed to evade their slow attacks, without losing Izumi from his sight.

By activating the Poem [Tales of a Fish that Became a Dragon], he gained the ability to fly like a dragon, leaving a trail of bluish wind behind him, with his flight, he caught up once again to Izumi and confronted her.

"Izumi! No… who are you?!" he said, landing in front of her while releasing countless skills, which appeared in the form of letters made of light.

The letters enclosed both of them in a confined space, and Izumi, without an option, decided to talk.

"It's me, Izumi, Mihara sama… Please, stop being so scary…"

"Don't play with me! You are not Izumi… That thing that was taking control of her body…! Who are you? What are your intentions? Leave Izumi alone!" He said, bewildered by Izumi's words.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about, Mihara sama… You're scaring me…"

"Izumi… No! Show yourself… Or I will have to attack your host!" Said Mihara, with a determined expression. If this being, whatever he was, could endanger the safety of the Empire as a whole, he wouldn't doubt for a second on attacking his beloved apprentice.

Izumi laughed, with a strange, mischievous smile.

"Fufufu… To think that you would go so far… Mihara sama~" She said, as the red slime appeared once again outside of Izumi's body, as a thick tentacle, it didn't have a face or anything, and used Izumi's face to speak.

"You're finally showing your true colors…" armed with his [Legendary] rank relic, the [Scroll of One Thousand Stories], Mihara was in a wary stance, with flashing letters rotating around him.

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