"Heroes…?"
Rain had heard of them before.
Once relatively common throughout the lands, they were blessed individuals with abnormal abilities chosen by the heavens to fight the Lord of Demons. However, after a certain event centuries ago, with the rise and fall of the Overlord of Dirt, the frequency of heroes appearing had suddenly dropped significantly. In addition, their abilities had become a far cry from the heroes of old when they could gouge entire mountains off the land and scorch an expanse into smoldering glass. Some of them could even revive the dead. But by that time, they had become no more than individuals with power slightly above the norm. They had fallen so low that it was difficult to ascertain whether someone was a hero or not unless they were checked within a church.
"You know quite a lot."
Coin poured both of them a cup of tea that an attendant had brought in. The scent wasn't like anything he'd encountered. Most of the teas that he'd had the pleasure of trying were either offensive to the tastebuds or were almost tasteless. In contrast, the tea not only smelled, but also tasted mellow and sweet, with a hint of bitterness behind it.
Upon swallowing a small sip, he couldn't help but sigh in satisfaction.
"Well… you know how it is above. A lot of people are hoping that the heroes of days past return. If they did, then maybe things wouldn't be so bad…"
Rain's voice trailed off. His face was full of emotion despite the relatively relaxed expression he had. Coin simply kept quiet while he dealt with his feelings on his own time.
"... Anyway, yeah. You said there are heroes here?"
"Yup. In fact, the three people I assigned to your quest are all heroes, too."
He was astonished. He never thought that heroes would be the ones to take his commission. If it was true, then that would be the best kind of assurance that he could imagine. However, that begged the question; are they really heroes?
Suddenly, a knocking sound disturbed his train of thought. Coin called out, saying that the door was unlocked. It must have been the people she had summoned.
He felt a lump in his throat. The people beyond that door were… heroes.
When was the last time he had seen one? He tried to recall, but his memories were faint. Twenty years was a long time for someone who was just five years older than that.
But then, he heard the worried cries of someone behind that door. It was a familiar voice, somehow. And when the door opened, his suspicion was proven right. It was Bunny. And she came in alone.
"Master! Spade told me to report back for her. Against my will, might I add? Can I go back now?"
So that was the reason behind the grumbling.
"Yeah, yeah. After you tell me. The longer you take before you report, the longer you'll be away from your table, against your will by the way. So out with it."
"Right! Rex, Stain, and Hornet are all "unavailable due to circumstances." In other words, they're dead drunk. Well, two of them at least. Can I go back to my table?"
"What? Why?!"
"They felt really bad about losing in the tournament, so they drank themselves half to death. Also, can I be excused and go back? Master?"
"Damn. Smashed in the middle of the day? They didn't even make it past dinner. Yesterday's saviors are today's vagrants. Give them a few weeks and they'll be begging for bread to sell for beer… And no, you're not excused yet."
"Whaaaaaaat?"
After listening to the exchange between the two, Rain felt disappointed… and slightly relieved. He was aware of why he felt the latter. Being told that he was going to meet "heroes" out of the blue, it would only make sense that being spared from that would bring him some measure of cowardly comfort.
But what about the feeling of disappointment?
"Ugh! Fine!" Coin complained loudly, which snapped him out of his mire. She faced Rain and brought her hands together, saying, "Sorry, it seems like we can't continue this now… That's embarrassing. Anyway, they'll probably be okay before dinnertime."
"Probably?"
"Yeah…"
She shook her head in a mix of shame and dismay. Then, she gestured towards Bunny and said, "Unlike how I look right now, I'm actually quite busy, so I can't accompany you now that we've nothing else to talk about. Since you two have already met, you may be more comfortable with her. I've already arranged a room for you and your friend. It's in the house."
Coin waved them both goodbye as Bunny led him outside the room.
**********
They proceeded to walk down the hall. Large clusters of glowstone lit up the entire length of the corridor. It allowed him to see the smooth walls, polished effects, and artistic furniture in all its glory; a stark contrast to what it looked like previously when they had to use a lantern to pass through.
"Is there any reason why the lights were turned off earlier?" he asked absentmindedly, perhaps in an attempt to learn more about the enigmatic establishment.
"Oh. Yeah. The event's already over, so we have enough to run the place again. Keeping the underground completely lit up and functioning takes a lot of mana."
Not realizing that he had taken a step into a deep rabbit hole, Bunny began to explain how the facility worked. It was a fascinating, yet an ultimately useless piece of knowledge that he had no choice but to learn since she kept throwing his questions back to him. But the entire spiel could be summarized as a set of requirements that they had to meet due to the limitations living underground entailed, namely:
A lack of a natural light source.
A means to warm the place.
And the need to obtain fresh air and water.
"Everything here is powered by one source; that includes the stones, the heating runes, and the water displacement. But everything has a limit. And if you put a few hundred people into one room, the demand multiplies. That's why we redirect everything to that one place during events."
The more he learned, the more fascinated he became with the intricacies of the facility's design. Basically, they made it so that almost everything there was renewable and sustainable, aside from the food. It guaranteed them a comfortable, and even extravagant subterranean lifestyle.
It was a very enviable setup.
"But why would you people go through all this trouble?"
Despite the state of the world above, it couldn't have been an easy feat to live so far down. Necessities aside, if a strong monster ever chanced upon that cave, there would be no way for everybody to escape easily…
"No way, no chance," Bunny laughed. "A cave like this is far from the most appealing home for any big, strong monsters. And besides, aren't you forgetting something?"
She pointed towards the hallway where a number of individuals were already idling about. There were familiar races like his fellow humans, a few forest elves, dwarves, and a handful of beastkin.
"Oh."
And among them, were monsters.
"See? The same monsters you were worried about are already here. Seems like you forgot. People typically don't do that."
"Were there others before me?"
"Many. But after we started spreading rumors? You're the first one. In fact, most of the humankind here are previous clients. The others are just annoying visitors."
"Are they all… heroes?"
Bunny turned around and saw Rain looking at someone else. She followed his eyes to find a white wolf beastkin. He was sprawled across a large couch, limp and twitching slightly. The smell of alcohol and vomit caused her to recoil. Obviously, the beastkin was dead drunk. And he wasn't the only one. Everybody in the lobby showed signs of inebriation that varied between their races, with the dwarves and the undead showing the least of it.
Their intoxicated appearance wasn't surprising. Alcohol was served at an almost unlimited capacity during the events, and people tended to let go of most inhibitions when presented with such an opportunity. But, his disillusion was also just as justified.
And Bunny seemed to have understood his thoughts as she laughed with great amusement.
"Do you have time, dear guest? I want to show you something."
He hesitated and thought about Snow. It's been quite some time since they've last seen each other. So, he told Bunny about his concern.
"Your friend is fine. She's being watched by one of Master's attendants. Nothing will happen to her."
The conviction in her voice was as hard and cold as iron. It was somehow calming.
Well, he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about what it was she wanted to show him. So… Rain decided to follow.
It didn't seem like anybody inside that place was fearful of their safety, anyway. And, he felt a bit ingratiated to her.
They walked out of the manor and back into the main chamber. It was then that he noticed the massive glowstone attached to the ceiling, which acted as a sort of artificial sun for that place. As to why it wasn't lit before, it was probably for the same reason as Bunny explained earlier.
He continued to follow after her as she walked behind the stables and into another passage. Glowstones were also installed there at regular intervals, which deepened his impression of just how affluent the owner must have been to be able to afford so many of them.
While they walked down the tunnel, Bunny once again struck up a conversation with him. Her voice made it seem like she was both sad and entertained at the same time.
"You know, judging people based on their vices is not fair."
She turned her head to meet his eyes for a moment.
"I don't know what the state of the outside world is, but I doubt that it's in bad enough shape to condemn merrymaking, right?"
To those words, Rain's expression instantly clouded over. Bitterly, he replied;
"You have no idea…"
Completely impervious to his heavy tone, Bunny shrugged without care and just changed the topic.
"Whatever, then. Anyway, are you aware of the three kinds of "heroes"? It should be basic knowledge to your kind."
Pressured by her seniority, at least considering where they were, he pushed the bitterness away and went along with her tempo. But in doing so, he found her words as baffling as they were enlightening.
"Three kinds? What do you mean?"
"Guh… Well, that was an attempt. Anyway…
"The heroes you're familiar with are what we call "Unorthodox Heroes." They used to be rare, but now they're the only ones appearing. Back then, there used to be heroes that we called "Orthodox Heroes." What do you think their differences are?"
He recalled his thoughts from a while ago. There was a marked decline in the strength of heroes from several hundred years ago as far as the stories went. So that was what he responded with.
"Hmm… Well, I guess you're right, in a nutshell."
So, the heroes with cataclysmic strength were called Orthodox Heroes? That was an interesting tidbit. It was too bad that the information was essentially of no use, considering that they were extinct. All of the heroes at that time were mere chicks compared to them.
When he mentioned that, Bunny laughed half-mockingly.
"Like you said, dear guest, the heroes nowadays are just bad. But you're wrong about something."
As she said those words, they finally arrived at their supposed destination. It was a large chamber roughly half the size of the main room where the manor was located. But unlike the latter where the ground was made of packed soil, rows upon rows of orderly stone slabs lined the floors like massive tiles. Equally sizable stone pillars held up the ceiling, which held another massive glowstone that provided ample illumination for the entirety of the area.
There was only one person present in that place. It was someone who wore a set of radiant knight's armor with bright red coloration, with a flashy, three-tailed cape that fluttered over its shoulders and back. On that person's right hand was a peculiar-looking lance. Unlike those with sharp tips, the weapon itself looked hollow and contrived, as if it was made of four sword halves that didn't even meet in the center.
Before he could ask who that person was, a hollow sound whirred throughout the chamber. Rain felt the air shudder and rush past him toward the center of the arena where the person stood. The lance's "blades" started to spin around the central line. It quickly reached a speed where Rain could no longer see each part individually, and instead, it became as if they were one whole.
The knight lowered its stance and braced the lance. Light gathered at the base of the weapon where the wind was pulled into. The whirring sound had reached a peak until–
With a thrust of the weapon, a bright beam of light exploded from the lance. The air was heated to an absurd temperature before it was pushed out violently, but not before the stream of energy reached the far end of the chamber.
An eruption. Those were the only words he could use to describe what had happened. The ground trembled and the ceiling shook from the impact. Rain had to brace himself against the wall to remain standing. The tremors lasted for quite a while until calm returned to the cave.
When Rain opened his eyes, a gigantic crater had been gouged off of the cave walls. Its surface was smoldering, with red-hot molten soil and rock glowing underneath the charred outer layer.
All of that from a single thrust of a lance.
"So you see, dear guest,"
Bunny suddenly appeared before him, completely unbothered by what had happened.
"Orthodox Heroes still exist."
"Her name is Hornet. And she's part of the team of heroes that have been assigned for your commission."
"Oh, and don't tell her that you don't like drunks."
She pointed towards the knight's feet. There, several empty bottles of booze were laid messily about.
A faint, inebriated hiccup echoed. And, a flushed face stared at them from afar.