Chereads / Herald of the Gods / Chapter 5 - chapter 4: The Strange Encounter

Chapter 5 - chapter 4: The Strange Encounter

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At the train station waiting beside him, he meets a young man in, his late 20s or early 30s, he had amber hair and golden eyes, he was dressed rather fancy wearing a long sleeves white shirt with a brown plaid half coat, black pants, some rather expensive looking shoes and to top it off he had a white with a gold feather robin-hood style adventurer hat with a black cane with gold accents.

Shiro had never in his life seen someone dress so extravagantly, standing next to the man as he waited for the train, he suddenly felt nervous when the man turned towards him "Young man, that was rather brave what you did" he said suddenly

"Eh?" Shiro replies initially not understanding what he was talking about, though he spoke Japanese the man had a foreign accent he couldn't recognize.

"Saving that boy, running in like that, 'he must be rather strong' I thought only to find out he had no skills, that's rather interesting" he explains

"Oh no, I didn't do much, in the end, Sentinel saved both of us, I probably ended up getting in his way," Shiro said while flailing his arms in the air, denying any praise

"Nonsense, if it wasn't for you that boy would be dead by now and his family would be mourning his loss," the man said, turning to face him fully "You saved him"

Shiro eyes shot wide, staring at the man oddly 'Who is this guy' he thought

"Well, I'm glad I did something, he's going to be a great hero or hunter someday, unlike me" Shiro mumbles the last part but the man picks it up "Oh? And whys that" he asks

"Uh?" Shiro looks up at him

"Why do you think you can't be a hero" he asks him firmly

Shiro looked at him confused since the stranger already knew "Because I have no skill" 'Wait, how did he find out'

"So?"

Shiro looks back at him "So?!"

"Yes, so?" the stranger replies and asks again "So what if you don't have a skill, is having a skill what defines a hero, or is it their heart and their actions," The man said "A hero is someone concerned about others wellbeing and will go out of his or her way to help them even if their life is at risk and there is no chance of a reward" The man suddenly said making Shiro freeze as he process what this man just said, the man then crouch down a smile, his golden eyes shining with empathy

"That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done and because it is the right thing to do is indeed a real hero" he then places his hand on Shiro's shoulders

"Young man, by that definition you are a hero" Suddenly tears began to roll from Shiro's eye, it came from a complete stranger but it meant so much to him, "Oh, you have something in your eye," the man said as he pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and gave it to Shiro.

"Thank you very much, I promise to wash it and give it back to you," Shiro said as he wiped his face with the handkerchief.

"No no, there is no need for that, keep it," the man said standing up as the sound of the train could be heard coming

"Well looks like I'm off, but before I go" he stretched his hand and reached behind Shiro's ear pulling out a coin, "This is for you" he handed it over to Shiro.

"What is this?" Shiro asks surprised

"It's a subway token, not much but still," he said walking off

"I didn't even know the subway had tokens, hey wait" Shiro calls out when he notices the man walking off, "what is your name please, I'm Shiro Megami" He called out

"Well then Shiro, call me "Hermes" he said before he vanished in a burst of golden lightning.

Shiro was baffled "Hermes, I've never heard of that hero and his skill looks amazing" Shiro mumbled "Probably a foreign one or maybe a hunter, I'll look him up when I get home" he decided as he boarded the train.