Heero was the name given to him by his grandfather. Heero's grandfather wished his grandson would be a great Hero. However, everyone in the village thought it was only his grandfather's wishful thought.
Even Heero himself never thought to be a Hero. After all, he was living in Xing Village, in a remote corner of Dramonia. To be a Hero, one had to master the control of Ki for Fighter or master the control of Elemental Ki for Elementalist.
One could only learn the control of Ki and Elemental Ki within Hero Academy. Meanwhile, Xing Village was very far from Hero Academy which was located in a big city. For a mere poor family living in a remote village, to be a Hero was only a dream.
Heero never thought that he would be a Hero. Heero's father and mother also had the same thought. It was too unrealistic to be a Hero for those who lived in a remote village. To be a Hero was just a dream that everyone yearned for.
Meanwhile, Heero's grandfather, despite knowing this fact still named his grandson Heero with the thought his grandson would be the next Legendary Hero Mikail.
Before the appearance of the Legendary Hero Mikail, Dramonia was hell for humans. The humans were only mere food in Beast's eyes and slaves in Specter's eyes.
Until one day "Mikail" the Legendary Hero appeared and freed humanity from despair. The Legendary Hero Mikail fought the Beast and Specter for 300 years long before disappearing.
The tales of Legendary Hero spread amongst the humans. It was said Mikail fought against Dragon God, the God of Beast Race, and Purgatory God, the God of Specter race. Mikail perished together with the Gods of the two races.
But no matter what the reason for Mikail's disappearance was it did not bring humanity down. Instead, the disappearance of Mikail brought a new era to Humanity, the Era of Heroes. After the first Hero, the second Hero, the third Hero, and so on appeared.
With many heroes appearing, Humanity stood a chance against the Beasts and Specters. Heroes fought a bitter fight and freed humanity from the grasp of Specters and Beasts.
After thousands of years struggled, Humanity managed to occupy many lands of Dramonia. The era of Heroes was a prosperous era for humanity. So, it was not strange if many people had a dream to be Hero. The hero was what many people revered and yearned for.
That was it, to be a Hero, one must have talent. But the most important to be Hero was the resources. Such as a basic technique for Ki Comprehension, medicine to strengthen the body, and other advanced techniques.
Basically, for the poor Heero who lived in a remote village, to be a Hero was impossible. The chance for him to be a hero was nil. Even so, Heero still showed enthusiasm when his grandfather was telling a tale of Legendary Hero Mikail.
Heero was a kind-hearted teen and he did not want to disappoint his grandfather. Despite knowing it was impossible to be a Hero, Heero did not let his enthusiasm down and the grandfather and grandson were always talking about heroes whenever they met.
This Year Heero was 12 years old, just 3 years more he would reach marriageable age. Maybe at that time, he would no longer have leisure time like this to hear the tale of heroes from his grandfather. 3 years later he would marry his childhood friend, Marrie who is also his neighbor.
Heero's grandfather was the village chief of Xing Village and his father was working in the field with the other villagers. Sometimes they would go hunt in the forest near the village. The villagers in Xing Village were more like a big family, and Heero loved his village a lot.
"It's late afternoon, Marrie should have returned from the Tailor Xing. I will go find her!" Hero hummed as he went to his childhood friend's house.
Just now, he was listening to another tale of heroes from his grandfather. King of Hero, this was the title for the Hero who had defeated Beast King or Specter King.
Xing, the King of Heroes defeated 3 Beast Kings and 2 Specter Kings. However, Xing died 500 years ago, 4 Beast Kings cooperated with 3 Specter Kings to kill Xing the King of Heroes. The story was amazing and he found that his admiration toward Heroes deepened.
Heero also felt somehow his grandfather was more excited than usual when he was telling Xing the King of Hero. Although his admiration toward Heroes increased it did not change his mind to have a happy life in this remote village.
He just wanted to marry his childhood friend, Marrie, and lead a happy life with her. At the least that's what Heero thought until a year later, Specter attacked the remote village he loved.
The last vision he saw was his house inflame and a thought appeared in his mind, "If only I was a Hero, I can prevent this from happening!"
Before Heero lost his consciousness, there were two voices drifted into his ears.
"Son, if you can come out alive from here, don't seek revenge for us. You only need to lead a happy life and continue our family line!" These were his father's last words.
Meanwhile, the other voice belonged to his grandfather, "Don't try to be a hero anymore. You must have a good life and continue our family line. Don't even try to get revenge for us."
Maybe, the specter who attacked the village instilled a deep fear in his grandfather. Or maybe his grandfather wanted him to continue their family line. But no matter what the reason was, Heero would never find the reason as those words were the last time, he would hear his grandfather.
…
"I am late!" A man sighed as he saw the debris of the village still on fire.
The man that looked about 20 years old stood before a ruined village. This man looked extremely handsome wearing white plainclothes spotless from any stain.
He was a Saint. Saint was different from Heroes; they did not fight to kill the beast or specter. Saint had only one duty to make sure humanity did not perish from Demonia. If Dragon God was the grand protector of the Beast Race, then Saint was the Grand Protector of Human Race.
Saint would never meddle in worldly affairs; their only duty was just to make sure the continuation of the human race. He sighed as he could not get what he wanted, he did not feel sad or sorrow for the villagers buried underneath the debris. He had witnessed many such deaths, so he was used to seeing this kind of scene.
But he could not get his goal as his main objective was buried underneath the debris. Yes, he was looking for a disciple. Recently, he just learned a divination technique and succeeded. Saint used his divination to look for his successor as he could not find a suitable successor of his position.
The divination told him his successor was in this remote village. Besides his divination also told him that the village would encounter a disaster soon. That was why he hurried to come here, but it was too late. The village had already become a ruin, he could not detect a single life… Eh!?
With his keen sense, he found there's someone who survived. Saint rushed toward the debris of a house that was located in the center of the village. With a wave of his hand, the debris was gone and he found a pile of corpses. On the topmost, it was an old man's corpse, below there was a middle-aged man's corpse and below the middle-aged man, there was a woman's corpse.
Saint picked the woman's corpse and found a boy who was still breathing weakly. It was a miracle the boy survived under such a situation. He picked the boy and looked carefully at the boy's pale face. After looking he was stunned.
The boy's face was the same face he saw in divination. Saint was overjoyed that his successor survived the disaster and he was not late. It was not strange for Saint to be overjoyed.
The criteria to be a successor of Saint was not hard to look at. Talent? No, to be a Saint one did not need to be talented. The condition was simple yet also hard. Kind-hearted, righteous, pure mind, benevolent, and firm will.
It was easy to find this criterion on a baby, but Saint could not adopt a baby and choose the baby he raised. Who set up these criteria? Of course, the predecessor of Saint. The current Saint was so frustrated and wasted a hundred years only to learn divination techniques to seek his successor.
Now, he found his successor. It was natural for the Saint to be overjoyed when he found the boy.
But then the joy vanished and a frown appeared. Saint looked at three corpses on his side, there was no doubt these three were the boy's family.
Saint shook his head and let out another sigh. After that, he took out a transparent vial. Inside the vial was a transparent liquid that was hard to detect. If one did not look carefully, one would think the vial was empty.
Saint gave the transparent liquid to the boy. In an instant, the weak breath became stable. Now the boy was more like sleeping. The boy was Heero.