Chereads / In another world with the crafting system / Chapter 127 - The First Heroes Part 2

Chapter 127 - The First Heroes Part 2

April 20, 1720.

Two people were sitting on a table eating stale bread, accompanied with corn soup. The house they were living in was run down, small, poor, and it was the only place they could afford. But as long as they had a roof on their heads it didn't matter.

The two people are none other than a young Roy Morgan, and his mother. 

Roy would spend most of his days working and bringing home the money for his mom and himself. Ever since his father left him since he was little he had to take up any jobs he could find.

They lived in a quiet area that wasn't too religious. After all, in this age it was very common for people to accuse others of witchcraft.

In fact, Roy's mom got accused of being a witch before he was even born. At the time she was sixteen years old. The one who accused her was none other than her own sister. Luckily she was able to run away, met her former husband, accidentally gave birth to Roy at seventeen , and raised him ever since practically by herself.

Since she was falsely accused, by her own sister, she has tried her best to not stand out, and never trust anyone else besides her son.

Roy didn't blame her. It turns out people would falsely accuse others for selfish reasons. In fact it's what his mom believes is the only reason her own sister accused her of witchcraft, so she could keep the house to herself after their parents passed away.

"Roy, thou art must have that book with you while thou art eating?" Roy's mother asked.

"Yes, Mother.

Roy held a book written in the Old English language to study and recite it. Roy has always loved to talk in Old English as if he was living in the 1400's, something about the way the Old English language is captivating.

Roy would talk in Old English to his mother almost daily. She learned the language in secret so Roy wouldn't feel left out. They didn't care if they didn't speak it fluently, they were having fun.

In fact, later in his life Roy would try to change the Reyes kingdom language to Old English instead of modern. But it would be too tasking to attempt to change the language everyone has been speaking for a long time.

He loved the language so much that three hundred years later he would still recite it in his mind.

The day they were having was just like any other day. When all of a sudden a blinding white light in the shape of a circle emerged from underneath his feet.

The light was more intense than the one Will had seen, but not nearly as bright as the light he saw when Victoria was taken.

Before both could process what was happening, Roy found himself standing in front of a couple thousand people in a briefly lit dark cave. He was standing on top of the summoning circle.

Many people were wearing ragged clothes that barely covered anything. They were all dirty as well. They were all looking at him with different facial expressions, some were shocked, others were scared, others didn't know what to think about him. 

Roy remained calm, at the time he didn't understand how he could be calm whereas anyone else in his situation would be freaking out.

'Is this witchcraft?' Was his first thought.

The existence of witches and practices of witchcraft was still a popular belief in that year and where he currently lived. Witch trials started around the year 1400, probably earlier, and ended somewhere in 1782.

"Where am I? Witch! Did you kidnap me, witch?" 

Roy heard the voice of an old speaker from behind. Roy was so occupied trying to figure out 

what was happening was that he didn't notice two others were standing on the summoning circle with him.

One of them was an old, frail, skinny, but tall old man. His face appeared all dry, his forehead had many wrinkles, his hair was short and white due to his old age. He was wearing a priest's robe. His face looked like the face a bad man would have. On his hand and neck were crosses made entirely of gold. He was also the one who was calling out "witch" several times.

His name is Samuel Brophy, one of the three heroes, and also the only hero of the first three that not many people know about.

Roy looked at the other person beside them. It was a woman. She was on the ground on her knees gasping for air, and was in a lot of pain.

Looking at her Roy could understand why the old priest was calling her a witch.

The woman was average in height. However the entire upper left part of her body was burned, the left side of her body was also burned with the left side of her head missing a large chunk of her hair. Her clothes were also burned and covered in splinters and ash.

She appeared to be twenty years old. If one were to ignore the burn marks on her body she was a woman of average looks.

She is none other than Bell Dyer, the Witch.

"Hey, hey, calm down! Beings from another world! We brought you here." 

A man came up to the three heroes. He had a small build. He carried a bow with a low level enchantment on his back. At the time they only had two enchanted weapons, a bow and a sword, which were considered priceless treasures as they are the only two enchanted weapons in existence.

At the time potions did not exist, neither did magical items.

This man was the one everyone recognized as their temporary leader. The reason he's a "temporary leader" is because they usually don't last longer than six months after being given that position.

It is also the reason why people rarely had any names as the life expectancy was relatively short. Names were so rare at the time only Kleo and three more people had names, usually the ones who were given names were either old people, or ones who have contributed a lot.

In fact, Kleo, only had his name for a few days for bringing them the summoning circle to them. Kleo could only enjoy his name for a few days before he volunteered himself to be sacrificed for humanity to summon Roy for humanity to thrive.

The Great Sage didn't place the leader as much importance in his life as he would die several weeks later from a cyclops.

"Who are you?" Samuel said in a demanding tone.

"We have summoned you three great beings to help us."

"Help you? Where do I stand?" 

Morgan was analyzing the situation. His first thought was to find a way to get back home to his mom quickly.

"We have been told by Kleo that using this magical device, that we would be able to summon beings with great power that could help us."

"Gr-great… what great power?" Samuel asked, intrigued.

Bell finally stood up after catching her breath. She tried to understand what was happening. Before she was summoned she was experiencing something horrible, next thing she realized she was standing on top of a stone platform with thousands of people staring at her.

She failed to realize most of her body was exposed. Since her clothes had caught on fire it was barely hanging on by a couple of threads. But the parts of her body that were exposed were also burned. She nearly had the appearance of Deadpool's skin.

Roy took off his shirt to give it to her. She ignored him and walked up to the man, burned, in pain, and half naked. 

She grabbed the leader by the collar, lifted him up in the air, and said in an angry tone, "where are my children and husband? Are they not here? Are they safe?" 

The leader is a muscular man and was strong, but feeling her grip he could tell that the woman, despite looking to be in pain, confused, and skinny, she had insane strength.

"I don't know. Only you three were summoned here, no one else."

Bell turned around, only then did she notice the other two heroes.

"No… no, no, no, no… no. Send me back! SEND ME BACK NOW! MY BABIES! JOSEPH! MY BAABIIEEEESS!" Bell screamed like never before. 

The people around her couldn't help but take a step back.

She hadn't realized it, but she was lifting the leader up high like it was nothing, which shocked everyone. At the time it was unheard of humans to be able to have such strength.

Her eyes became filled with sadness, dread, despair, and anger. She was desperate to go back now.

Samuel looked at her, and wondered if the source of her power came from the devil after making a pact with him. How else could she have such power and so many burn marks on her body?

Roy, who wanted to say something, could see images in his mind which scared him completely.

At the time he didn't realize it but he was reading Bell's mind.

What he could see from her mind was horrible:

Just minutes before they were dragged here. Bell was living in her house getting ready for bed. She was dusting off the furniture.

Living with her were her two children, her six year old son and eight year old daughter. Her husband had already gone to sleep. 

They were living a great life. Their house had three floors, had more than enough money, they had enough food for everyone, her husband was a great man, her children are the best and she loves them to death.

Until recently something horrible had happened.

From outside her window she saw many of her neighbors standing outside her house, they were carrying pitchforks, torches, wooden crosses, and other types of items that were meant to repel evil.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for her to realize what was happening, it was a witch hunt.

"Bell Dyer! You have been accused of being a witch! Come out to be judged for your crimes!"

"JOSEPH!!!" Bell cried out to her husband, horrified.

Joseph immediately sprang out of his bed and ran downstairs.

"What?" 

Joseph, still half asleep, saw his wife was horrified. Looking at where she was looking, he realized what was happening.

"Mommy?" 

Her two kids got out of bed when their mom screamed for their dad.

"Stay in your room! We'll tuck you back in soon!" Bell said, trying to keep calm in front of her children.

"Stay with them. I'll deal with this."

"Nonononono, don't go outside! Please don't go!" Bell begged him to stay. She knew what they would do to him if he confronted them.

"If you don't come out we'll be coming in, Bell! Your neighbor has seen you performing wicked and perverted acts on the back of your home, and has heard you proclaim your love to the devil!" 

"But… that's not true." Bell said softly, as if they could hear her.

"Bell, stay back." Joseph pulled his wife's hand away and walked towards the door.

"Daddy?" 

"Stay in your room, kids! Mommy and daddy will be right with you!" Bell said a bit louder, which got her kids to retreat under their blankets, quivering.

Joseph took a deep breath. He opened the door and saw more than forty people in front of his house.

"Joseph, your wife is a witch! We need to kill her as soon as possible so the lord can cleanse her soul and save her from damnation! Only then can she be welcomed in the arms of God."

"My wife is not a witch!"

"He's been bewitched!" 

The one person who yelled out was the very same neighbor who accused Bell of being a witch. With his pitchfork, he lunged himself at Joseph.

The reason he accused Bell of being a witch was simple, he wanted her for himself. He had recently moved next door a week ago, and when he saw Bell he was lovestruck. But seeing her happy with her kids, and her husband made him jealous and angry beyond belief.

Her appearance was a small reason he wanted her for himself, it was mainly how she treated her man, her kids, and the house with so much love and care that he wanted that for himself. Her actions are what caused him to want her.

The day before he asked her to be with him, to live with him, and to even bring her children but to leave her husband. 

The man in question was the complete opposite of Joseph in every way. From his looks, to his personality, to his hygiene, his character, his wealth, not to mention that he was nearly sixty years old which was considered ancient for their time as people died young, whereas Bell was nearly twenty-four years old.

Of course she rejected him which only made him angry.

Joseph grabbed the teeth of the pitch fork before he could get stabbed. Joseph had a great build. Most of the day he would be working on his small farm, carrying heavy equipment to build houses, and would also hunt. He had been repeating this for many, many years with taking almost no vacation days all for the sake of giving his family a better life.

Joseph was able to yank the pitchfork from the man's hands, and managed to stab him right on the throat which exited from the other side of his neck.

The man didn't die immediately. He choked on his own blood first, then would suffer a painful death.

'Oh, no.' Joseph knew there was no return from that point, not like they had a chance to begin with.

"BURN THE HOUSE!" 

A few people threw their lit torches at the house which caught on fire. The torches landed on the roof of the houses, which is where their children were.

Some also carried fire lamps which usually contained whale oil or olive oil. When they threw their fire lamps the fire spread faster.

"No!" Joseph said.

One of them even threw a pitchfork at Joseph. Joseph couldn't grab it in time as he was focusing on protecting his family, so the pitchfork impaled him right in the chest with one of the teeth piercing his heart.

"JOSEPH!" Bell cried as he ran to him.

Before Joseph went down he shut the door and closed it with his back on the door. He slumped down on the ground. The blood on his chest was spreading fast.

"Nonononononono." Bell tried to tend to him quickly which got her hands covered in his blood. The problem was there was no method to save her husband.

More lit torches broke through the windows which only caused the fire to spread faster.

"Bell, save our kids, and live, please." Joseph pushed her away and urged her to save their children.

In a difficult situation, Bell took one last look at her husband, closed her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks, and ran upstairs to her children.

Before she could reach them the fire was spreading faster. It got to the point where the fire reached her children's door which prevented her from saving them.

"KIDS! *COUGH* *COUGH*" The smoke was spreading fast and causing her to choke on it. The heat coming from the fire made her take a few steps back.

"MOMMY! DADDY!" Both kids hugged each other on top of their bed, crying, not knowing what to do as they felt the room was getting hotter and smoke was entering their room through the gaps of their door.

Bell couldn't ask them to jump out the window, they were two stories high. Even if they jump out the window and survive, the witch hunters would just kill them for having a witch for a mother. It has happened before…

Even if they don't die they'll be left as orphans, and no one is willing to adopt the children of a witch for many reasons. They would most likely die alone out in the world and it would be painful and slow.

Bell tried to pry the door open but the fire wouldn't let her.

But hearing her children screaming and begging for her help, she managed to reach the door using her left arm, as she was left-handed. As she did so the fire was burning her alive and she was screaming in pain and agony but she pushed through the pain to get to her children.

She thought at first it would only hurt for a second if she could open the door, but a wooden beam would fall from the ceiling and would block the entrance to the room. The entire left part of her body was searing and she was in so much pain, and couldn't breathe either, she was nearly about to pass out.

But at that moment a circle of light appeared under her feet.

Next thing she knows she's somewhere else.

Roy grabbed his head as he had a slight headache from seeing her memories.

Bell dropped the man from her hands. There was no way she would just accept that her children and husband were dead like that.

Denying the reality of her dire situation, Bell ran away thinking that she could go back home. The people moved out of her way, and those who didn't step away were pushed back by her tremendous hero strength.

"WAIT! THERE ARE MONSTERS OUT THERE!" A few people tried to stop her and warn her of the dangers lurking outside the cave, but their words couldn't reach her.

Roy and Samuel were the only ones still confused, especially Roy who was still scared of what he just saw playing in his mind.

Bell reached the large entrance of the cave which was mostly covered with large pieces of stone to prevent monsters from reaching the cave. There was a secret entrance on the side that was guarded by people wielding crappy spears.

"Woah, stop, you can't get out!" One of the guards tried to push Bell back, but he was pushed back violently.

Roy followed her not knowing why he did.

Bell reached the entrance, not stopping for even a second. She crashed through the blocked entrance like it was nothing and not caring in the slightest.

The outside world was dark. She could see a bunch of monsters of great size that shouldn't exist, that were fighting in front of her.

Of course she didn't care about that, she wanted to get back home to her children. But there was one problem, there was no way for her to go back.