302 Side Chapter; Azuma Empire Heroes Crisis 1/2 (1/2)
-----
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.