This Hero is Sleeping!

"A girl like this…"

Hyden heaved his every breath as he spoke to the damned bastards that continued wasting his time and testing his patience.

"I just asked if you've seen them."

"And we answered that," said Tomas. "Now you answer us, it's only fair"

"Yeah, and don't meddle in our business."

"We're looking for the same people you little fucks!" Screamed Hyden.

"Puuun!"

"Yeah, don't curse man." Tomas and Marcus shook their heads at the blasphemous and disrespectful presentation this blonde man was giving. People and them thinking they could do anything just because they looked a little good and had like seventeen abs or something.

"God damn it, my bad." Hyden hummed. "Now, was that girl with anyone in robes? Or did you see anyone in robes alone?"

"Oh! We did see those two robed guys back there."

"They are the ones who guided us through this whole place and took us to—Actually, I don't think I should be telling you all this."

Hyden was pissed.

But, he was still a young man that was an oracle.

"Let me tell you this. If we don't find this girl, then a big disaster will strike the people living inside this forest, so please tell me if you know anything."

The idiot trio flinched at that information.

"People inside the forest?" Tomas Asked.

"Oh, you should have said you were working with the elves to find the lost girl earlier."

A bright, wide grin splayed over his lips as he looked at the three idiots.

Elves.

It seemed they had already been to the place he had just returned from.

It was all ready, and all set. There was little to think about for the apostle of the goddess of fate herself now. It was time to make a move.

Slowly, the man wrapped his arms around the three.

"Did they send you out to find the girl, or was the girl inside?"

The three started to shiver.

The joking, kind man that they had been with just moments before was now no longer present and had gone far far away.

What loomed over their neck was his blade.

And an imminent death.

"T-they sent us… to find her?"

Hyden let them go.

A smile spread on his face as he pressed his aching arm. The pain that the injury had brought along was a tad too great to ignore, but it mattered little.

A dog that bites the hand that fed it, was not going to be admonished if the owner was kind.

And this owner was kind.

Very kind.

"Move," he ordered the three. "We're going to look for her together."

That elf girl.

Was going to land in none but his hands.

It was…. The command of his goddess.

***

The four people that had been crying out in the open while roasting bits of meat now sat together the next morning.

Time was ripe for an expedition to the realm of the untold, the spirit of exploration burnt bright into their souls.

"How long have we been sleeping in this forest? It is only time to go deeper. The closer to the center one is, the closer the time to leave comes. Such was life, the more you believe you're near the truth, the more surrounded you would be by falsehoods."

"Those are two completely different analogies."

"Such is life. The closer you believe you are to your goal, the more there is that you are yet to achieve."

"Again, very different."

"…"

"Ruler ruler is kinda dumb, huh?"

"The more truth strength achieve, deeper outside."

"What now?"

Elric's brain glitched as a waft of smoke floated out of his head. Error codes ran into his eyes.

"Too much think… too little sleep."

"EWhatever man, just shut up now." Claude was quite exhausted now. They already had a purpose, delaying it was only going to be annoying.

It all started the morning of today.

"If…" Claude had said back then. "Tiana had truly been kept captive, that makes me want to do something."

Though the firewood had died down by the morning in front of their temporary tent, the fire that lit up in their hearts was unable to go out.

No. It was only burning brighter after Claude's words.

If it indeed was something that happened.

Then…

"We must crush those fuckers," Erika had said. "How dare they take someone's freedom? For 98 years? If they do not have a good reason I'll just destroy them."

Tiana was still asleep and hadn't heard a word back then.

"You'll wait for a reason?" Elric had asked since he too had been woken up a tad too early. The forest barely made for sleepable conditions after all. "I'll go and kill them first."

The band of heroes that had long since abandoned their position, carried yet the spirit of helping their friends.

It was particularly strong in Claude.

For his greed for revenge had swirled in his heart since the beginning like a dark, murky desire.

And the thought of helping his friend with her own was almost like a proxy for his revenge, a way to soothe his soul.

It wasn't all that different for Erika either. She who had been captured and moved for two years and then betrayed the moment she tried to seize her life in her own hands had had enough of the people that would dare make such things.

In the end. Like children as they were.

Their only thought was of themselves.

An act of heroic revenge existed not for it all stemmed from deep selfishness and naught else. Deep, unbridled sense of self-service.

Though Elric knew.

He said no words.

Why would he?

Wherever Claude went, he followed.

And if Claude wanted his own revenge disguised as an action for his friend, he was more than happy to help with it. It wasn't as if the revenge won't be helping Tiana at all. It sure was and what else did they need?

And so, after waking Tiana up and asking for her opinion, she just said a simple confirmation.

"I am still just a child, they never did anything to me. My life is barely gone, all I would want is to ask why."

And so, they were ready to ask why.

Sly as Tiana ever was.

Elric remained a step slyer yet.

But, what was he to do?

"Where Claude goes, I follow."

And inside they stepped.

The green forest and the many lowering vines all around them had covered the bark of the trees, as if that was not enough, the thick canopy and the moist air had made even the ground fill with wild grass and moss gnaw at the bulging roots and the bottoms of the trees and stones.

A landscape of pure granary. That was the deepest part of the Silvanus forest and the homeland of the elves.

The scent of air, the smell of trees, the thicket which had pathways narrower than even the mystic forest were strangely inviting in their spread.

And to top it all off, mist spread all over the forest like wisps of smoke blocking their sight completely,

"How will we even navigate the way in here?"

It was impossible to do so with even modern tools.

"Don't worry" said Tiana. "Our guides will be here soon. They helped me out of this place."

Claude was slightly confused at those words, but nodded and continued walking.

And true to her words, the guides did show up.

"HEhehwe!"

"Hahah!"

"Hhihihi!"

Spirits of all kinds fluttered in the air around them. Their laughs and giggles like music in the heavy forest.

"This…?"  Erika muttered, stretching her hand at one. The small spirit merely giggled and dashed away while two more neared her.

Claude was stunned too.

As the light hero, his spirit magic was still unutilized. This dense presence was what let him see them for the first time in his life.

He tried to touch the spirits, but they evaded his grasp. Only the ones burning a crisp red loomed near him, their eyes flat and lips smug like hard-boiled detectives.

Spirits of all kinds just like Erika also floated near Tiana, she poked and played with them and the spirits gladly came around to her as well. Their smiles were giddy and their movements giddier as they danced and giggled around her.

"Huh? What's happening?"

All of them turned to the side.

Covered head to toe in spirits going 'ooh la la' was Elric. There were so many drooling spirits all over him that it was almost impossible to see him underneath them, but for the man himself.

"What are you guys playing with? What's happening?"

"Don't tell me…" Claude smirked. This useless cunt. "You can't see them?"

Elric flinched.

He grabbed his hand and shook his head.

"O-of course I can see them, the power trapped in my right arm and my left eye are too strong for me to not see the very fabric of this world at every moment. You won't get it."

"HAH!"

Elric couldn't see the spirits at all.