I. The Talentless Hero
Ayato was probably the most unlucky sixteen-year-old teenager in the world. Now he couldn't even think of anything good happening to him.
Diego says that the collection of follower candidates is done through a form that has been distributed to the audience of the performance. Then this morning, the day after the performance, the heroes would meet their gathered potential followers. To be sure, Ayato is unlikely to gain many followers.
Ayato went to the field in front of the palace. At first, he thought it was just the four heroes and Diego there. He was rather surprised to find the field much more crowded than usual. Some people were pointing and whispering to each other when they saw him coming. Ayato had a bad feeling about this. He slipped among the crowd who incessantly threw strange looks at him, until he found Andrew among the sea of people. Perhaps Ayato should ask what exactly was going on here.
"Andrew!" Ayato shouted. It was difficult to call out to the man while he was surrounded by so many people. But upon seeing Ayato, Andrew grinned widely and immediately pulled the boy towards him.
"Man, I can't believe these many people filled out my form," he said quickly, "Where are yer new followers?"
"Forms? What-but I didn't get any forms." Ayato frowned. He didn't understand what was going on.
Andrew was stunned. Seemingly in disbelief at what he had just heard. "Uh... wait a sec. Come with me here." Andrew gestured to the people surrounding him to wait. Then he pulled Ayato to the edge of the field.
"Seriously, you didn't receive a form? No servants brought the forms to yer room, not a single one?" Andrew asked demandingly.
Ayato now understood the situation. "Wait. These people... the followers? The ones who watched our performance yesterday?"
Andrew rubbed his face. "Diego said that they could choose which Hero they wanted to follow. But how come none of those people picked you? So, ya don't have any followers?"
So be it, no one wanted to be his follower. Actually, Ayato was not so surprised about this. His abilities were far below other heroes. People wouldn't want to be led by a weak hero either, right?
"At this rate, let's give this a go." Andrew suddenly put his arm around Ayato. He wanted to protest, but Andrew pulled him into the crowd.
"Oi, everyone! Listen up!" It successfully attracted the attention of the crowd of followers. "Is anyone willing to switch to being this man's follower? Don't worry, he's pretty strong!" No one replied. They all looked at Ayato nervously.
"No one?" repeated Andrew. "Do I gotta pick one?"
"Never mind, Andrew." Ayato pushed away Andrew's hand, which was still wrapped around his shoulder. "There's no point in forcing others. I understand it, me too, wouldn't want to get a...." He averted his eyes, trying not to stare at anyone. "Weak leader."
But Andrew threw him a pitying look instead. Ayato didn't like being pitied. After all, what had happened up to this point was not his fault at all. "But I appreciate your efforts. Thank you."
Hearing that remark, Andrew's face brightened. Then he put his arm around Ayato (again!?) and chuckled, "Alright! Then you'll temporarily be part of Team Andrew. Any objections?" Andrew announced.
"Team what--"
This time there was a small mumble from the crowd, which Andrew took as a sign of approval. It must be hard to have a leader who is as arbitrary as this big man. Andrew grinned and gave Ayato a thumbs up. Of course, Ayato had no choice but to accept his fate.
Ayato spent the whole morning sitting and listening to Andrew's speech in front of his new followers. Misha and William had long since left with their followers, probably looking for a more spacious place. It was undeniable that Ayato also felt uncomfortable. Some people tried to talk to him, but they looked nervous. As if Ayato was not supposed to be there.
At noon, Ayato rleave the field. Andrew didn't notice because he was too busy with his speech, and Ayato was a little relieved about it. After all, he couldn't possibly continue to be under the man's shadow. Ayato had to find a way to survive on his own.
While walking in the hallway of the palace, Ayato's eyes caught a familiar figure. It was Regina. But this time it felt different. She walked staring at the floor with a stern facial expression, as if she was burdened with a heavy problem. Ayato was sure Regina had looked up and met his eyes. But then she looked back down and quickened her steps in the other direction.
"Regi-" He decided to call out, but the girl was already too far away. Besides, looking at her behavior earlier, it was obvious that she didn't want to talk to him.
After returning to his room, Ayato flung himself onto the bed while looking at the ceiling. The summer breeze blew in from the balcony that was left open. Ayato exhaled heavily. Too much had happened lately. At first, everyone accepted him just as well as the other three heroes. Even Regina went to the trouble of coming to his room just to introduce herself. Now that girl was acting as if she and Ayato did not know each other. Plus, Ayato didn't have a single follower.
To be honest, Ayato did not really care about this follower thing. But it seemed that for the heroes of this world, whether there were many followers or not was crucial. But everyone looked at him doubtfully just because Ayato was not as strong as other heroes. Was being a weak hero that bad?
Weak. Untalented. Just thinking about it made Ayato dizzy. He sat up and grabbed his sword, leaning near the foot of the bed. After all, it was just an ordinary sword. No one would expect such a sword to be able to emit strong gusts of wind or lightning strikes.
But the three heroes' weapons were the same. It looked ordinary on the outside, but held great power on the inside. Ayato pulled out the sword from its sheath and flipped it in his hand. If indeed this sword had no power, then it should be used by a strong user as a counterweight.
A strong user. That's it!
Why did it only hit him now? He quickly re-inserted the sword and ran out. Ayato's sword might be just an ordinary sword, but if used by a strong user, it could definitely be used to its fullest potential.
Ayato arrived at the palace garden, where he had previously practiced with Diego and the others. The garden was looking a bit messy after being used for training for the past few days. Ayato drew out the sword. If he continued practicing regularly, maybe he could become strong like the others.
Ayato continued practicing alone until he didn't realize the sun was already leaning towards the west. He thought this was enough for today. Being tired, Ayato rested for a while on a park bench before returning. Just then, he heard ....
"Mister..."
"Mr. Ayato!"
That call made Ayato turn his head and found two boys standing behind him. They looked at Ayato with nervous expressions and seemed to be about to say something. Ayato approached them. It seemed that they were only one or two years younger than him. Since their faces were similar, maybe they were twins.
"What is it? And who are you?" asked Ayato. Their behavior was very agitated. Then Ayato remembered that those two kids were among the people who were Andrew's followers earlier this morning.
"Ah, you're Andrew's followers, right? Did he send you two here?" Ayato clarified.
"Well, actually." One of them said. "Uhm ... actually, something serious happened. And Boss asked us to call Mr. Ayato ...."
Ayato waited. But the two just elbowed each other as if they wanted to dump the information on each other. Ayato continued to look at the two demands, until the other boy finally spoke up.
"Boss is in danger!"