Volume 1, Prologue

The mountain ridge was colored the green of spring.

The sky was as blue as could be and wildflowers blossomed on the elevated land surrounded by beautiful mountains.

And an innocently youthful voice was singing.

“Hero, oh Hero, lu la la, how we atore you.”

A girl sang her favorite nursery song with a lovely smile on her face.

“How we atore you, oh Hero, lu la la la la, always will we do so.”

The correct lyrics were “adore” not “atore”, but she cheerfully sang the wrong lyrics all the same.

She was sowing seeds as she sang.

Her skirt fluttered up as she danced in circles without taking a break.

The seeds spilling from her apron’s pocket were as endless as her song.

Then someone emerged from a dark cave open in the mountain face nearby.

It was a young man.

The girl’s eyes widened when she saw him.

“Are you the Hero?”

She asked because he had emerged from the Hero’s Cave.

The Hero who had defeated the Demon Lord and brought peace had appeared from there 100 years ago.

“No, I’m not,” replied the young man with a smile. “I’m just a vagabond.”

“What’s a vagabond?”

“It means I’m not from this land. A wanderer.”

“Oh, is that all!?” She pouted her lips in disappointment. “And I thought the Hero had returned!”

The Hero had gone away to some other place after defeating the Demon Lord.

But he would appear once more once the world was in danger. And he would save the world.

The legends said so and a great many people believed it.

“The world is at peace, so the Hero won’t be returning yet.”

The man walked over and gently placed a hand on the girl’s small head.

“Um, I’m sowing flower seeds for when the Hero returns!”

“How thoughtful of you. What kind of flowers are they?”

“Monster repelling ones. There are a ton of them in our village!”

The girl’s eyes sparkled proudly when he complimented her.

“It would be bad if there were monsters in the cave when the Hero returned, right? So I need to keep them allll away!”

“I never thought of that! You might be smarter than all of us.”

The man laughed heartily and then mimicked the girl’s voice.

“I traveled her from farrr away to make sure everything is ready.”

He looked down to the base of the mountain.

He could see some scattered homes in the valley and some fields clinging to the narrow slopes.

That was a rundown village with only a very limited number of residents.

Barely anyone visited this remote area even though it was the origin point of the Hero.

“Yes…to make sure everything is set up for the Hero when he returns.”

The man stared off into the far distance with some secret thoughts in his head and the girl looked up at him curiously.