Cherreads

Chapter 46 - The hero's responsibility to the world

Gagged, sausaged and suspended from a rope in the middle of a room lit by a few candles, this is how Beneltig woke up. He saw all around him dead animals, sliced, decapitated, hanging from hooks as he was now, which made him cry out in terror and swing in all directions to try to escape from this macabre place.

- No need to scream, said a female voice that was through the shadows of the room, there is no one to hear you. This room has been soundproofed by my servant.

- Who... who... who are you?" he stammered.

His gaze was fearful, his sweat was beading from his chin to his forehead, his eyes were wide as he searched for the source of the voice that spoke to him, all of this coupled with the blood that was beginning to rush to his head, his instincts were racing as he realized that he was really, really not in a good position. It was safe to assume that at any moment he could have a heart attack, and our little kidnappers would be in big trouble.

- I don't think it's your place to ask the questions, his torturer replied coldly.

- What do you want from me?" he shouted, "My family has no money! We are not that rich!

- Here is a much more interesting question that I allow you to ask me. Thanks to the death of a certain Thoosa, whom you probably know...

- No, no, I don't know her! he swore.

- Lower it.

A pulley could be heard moving, lowering the fairy to barely above the ground. The speaker emerged from the darkness, cloaked in a canvas bag and armed with a brand new brass knuckle - some things are not lost over the millennia. She punched him in the stomach so hard that she made him spit out his guts, letting his drool run down his face, before ordering him to be lifted back up to the same height he was at the start.

- First of all, what right do you have to cut me off? And two, I let you lie once, not twice. We already know the truth so just answer my questions. However, I will answer your question, but please don't cut me off this time. According to the notebook we got, you got to know each other better by interacting with the Adorers of Marrynelia, and since someone saw you being threatened by these men, it means that you are under their direct orders, much more than Thoosa anyway, still according to his notebook. So, what we want is that you give us the names of your leaders.

- What else?" refused Beneltig, "They'll kill me if they find out I've given them up.

- For the time being, it's us who have the right of life or death on you, reminded the torturer, so you'd better answer us if you don't want us to devour you like everything else around you.

Making a circular turn with his glance, he was taken of panic and shouted at full lungs that one comes to him to help, even if it meant begging in tears for the help of the Man whom he hated so much.

And during this time, what was the famous hero of legend doing, who was begged to intervene as if he had hypersensitive hearing to hear all the misfortunes of the world? Let's remember that he was at the beach having fun with a fairy he has known for only a few months while, perhaps, a village was being swallowed by a giant glass or a humanoid cloud was destroying a city.

Well, he was playing jump rope with Tarkus and the children of the orphanage who, strangely enough, were much more numerous than on his last visit - and making a lot of noise - which he made sure to point out to Lelelitio.

- On your last visit, with the amount of meat you brought us, Malalalivia decided to go out and find more orphans in all the Nether and take them in," he explained.

- Let her go get even more this time, because what's coming is even more phenomenal than those vulgar bags of meat I brought you.

- Seriously?

- Of course I'm serious. Why would I lie?

- It's true...

What immense joy ran across the servant's face! He even hid himself to cry. The Hero understood that both he and his mistress were really very emotional. Nevertheless, he asked himself a question about his gesture:

Was it really useful?

Every time he wanted to help, it ended in a drama, he gave himself another chance and welcomed the smile of these idle people. But would he be able to mentally survive another failure on his part resulting in the death of these people? He would rather have him betrayed in the end as Belachat did than have to endure a hecatomb like Aketna's.

After all: "The role of the hero of legend is not to save Men and Faerie, but only the world".

This sentence haunted him day and night.

Ever since he heard it pop into his mind when he ventured out to save the inhabitants of a village that was being eaten by a giant worm, only to fail, he could not think straight. As soon as it appeared, a huge depression fell upon him, reminding him that he was only the object of the Hero's Fate, simply the weapon of Fairyland humanity, among others.

He was called back to reality by Lelelitio who called him to ask him what he had wanted to ask him when they entered the building, before the children took him away to play with him.

- I wanted to know how it is that we don't perceive any noise or light from the outside.

- Have you noticed? Few people really pay attention to it because my magic normally hinders the perception of curious little ones who might be interested in this place. It's strange that you noticed, my magic must have weakened...

- No, it's not you, it's just me being "special", you know.

- Ah yes... Mr. Admirable Special Hero..." he mumbled.

What did he mean by that?

It sounded more like a reproach than a compliment, but his blank stare at the ground seemed to say something else, a look of mixed weariness and concern. To change his mind, he took the same thought he had during the first meeting: "how to break the ice?", but this time to remove this embarrassing moment. And this time it was easier than the last time.

- I'm getting tired kids, I had a hard day today so we'll resume later, apologized the Hero, we'll resume later, okay? For now, I'm going to have a little chat with your big brother. You can continue to have fun with Tarkus, he is a bit sad at the moment.

Everyone nodded and threw themselves at the Cyclops to bicker with him, while the Hero went to join Lelelitio in the dining room - which, by the way, was still in the same state as it was the last time they were with Helmir. He took a chair, put the file in front of him and sat it down in front of his new discussion partner before collapsing from the file because it was quite fragile.

What a mess this place is!" the Hero said.

- Is she here, the elf spy from Tunsar? asked Lelelitio.

- I have no idea.

- Didn't you feel her presence when you were talking to my princess?

- I know she's supposed to be watching me, but I don't know if she's with me all the time, and given your magic, she can't hear us. Besides, that means your magic doesn't extend to your princess' room.

- Privacy issue.

- I suspected as much. Nevertheless, Helmir must surely be more concerned about you than about me, given my "immortal" nature.

The elf looked away, blowing his nose.

- What's wrong with me?" he asked.

- Nothing's wrong with you. It's not necessarily you, well you, that's being questioned but rather what... you embody.

- The hero of the legend? said the Hero in a surprised tone.

- Yes!" he exploded before calming down, sorry, sorry, sorry," he apologized, "you have nothing to do with it, but this damn legend is exasperating me and if you had never appeared, it wouldn't be like that.

- Who?

- Princess Malalalivia. I don't know if you've noticed but she admires you, if I may say so.

- That's what I seemed to guess when we ate together at the beginning of the evening, the Hero recalled from the bottom of his memory.

- I don't know if you realize how much this legend is rooted in the hearts of people, whether they are Fairy or human.

- As the main protagonist of this story, not really, he admitted to her, I have a duty to fulfill and I have to realize it, that's all I know. Even when I was with my mother, this role of hero of a distant prophecy didn't come up often. And from the crowd's reactions when told about the legend of the hero and the fairy, they seem totally disinterested in this multi-millennial tale.

- And yet... People still have hope that you will strike down the evil of this world and bring light to this planet, that they will finally see what their ancestors saw before. They hide it because they are tired of being disappointed and this world is far too terrible to expect hope to magically appear. Nevertheless, deep down, they still believe. I have seen this in the many journeys that I and Princess Talemilia have made with the other champions and princesses. They still believe you can save the world.

This last sentence made the Hero burst out laughing. But this exclamation had nothing joyful about it, it had more to do with nervousness than anything else. When the laughter was over, his hands began to shake on their own.

- What a responsibility, tell me.

- Did you ever realize that?" the elf asked.

- No, I didn't. Not that I didn't realize it, I could see it in Zelda's eyes when she was talking to my late mother. That bright hope that shone in her eyes, that she had in front of her the messiah of this doomed world. I just brushed it aside and plunged into...

Just thinking about it made her realize the ridiculousness of the purpose of her trip and the indecency of it. That was already the source of his first laugh.

He had shouted it so loudly, making this need for revenge so important in his life, making it his main conviction, overriding the dogmas of his faith, a faith he had totally forgotten despite reading his Bible. For the first time in his nearly six years of existence as a hero of the legend, he asked why he wanted to do this. He already knew: to avenge his village, his friends, his mother, Zelda... But was the weight of all the lives that lay on his shoulders worth less than the deaths that dragged him into the bowels of hell and sin?

Lelelitio did not disturb him during his reflection.

He was looking at the legend of all legends of this world, realizing that although he was immortal and had other extraordinary abilities, he was as "mortal" as they were, not an omnipotent god capable of vanquishing evil and omniscient enough to understand the heart of all things. He was angry at himself for having thrown his little tantrum as if it was going to change anything in their situation, that he was going to sound like a super-powered being who was just acutely lazy and shirking his duty, when it was a kid much younger than them who had asked for nothing.

However, without meaning to, he managed to create a breach in the Hero's fury, one that had already been chipped away by Sibyl before.

The Hero let his body fall on itself and supported himself by clutching his knees, inhaling and exhaling heavily, smoke was coming out of his body as if he had just reached a limit point. The servant wanted to refresh him with magic but the Hero stopped him, he had to concentrate; any external intervention risked worsening the internal fight that was being created in him between the power of the Nemesis obtained thanks to Ymir, the power of the hero of the legend and the curse he had accepted to have. This balance was maintained by the raging determination of the Hero who could not stop moving forward without ever stopping. Who always had to fight. Always strike through his enemies without letting up, until he got his way.

- I can't stop now, I have to keep going. Find him, kill him and get justice. This world is not worth saving, he tried to convince himself, go forward without ever stopping, always go forward and fight. To fight relentlessly and without restraint. Fight until the end. To fight. Fight, he repeated endlessly.

It was more like an incantation than self-hypnosis.

And it finally succeeded, the smoke disappeared, leaving only big traces of sweat on his face, which he raised towards Lelelitio, who was frightened by the hard look that the Hero threw him.

Not only by the murderous eyes of the Hero but also by his words, it was too much like the one of his mistress when she was distraught.

Was he of the same wood?

- I think you will have understood that this subject must end, said the Hero.

- So let us not speak of the world's hope for you, but of my Lady's hope for the hero of the legend.

- Is he different from the others?

- Yes, because she wants to become what you are, but for the people of the Nether.

- Many called, few chosen, and even fewer victorious... She shouldn't put such ideas in her head.

- Don't judge her too hastily to think that this is just a child's dream for her, Lelelitio warned him.

Lelelitio smiled a little.

- ...and anyway, you came twenty years too late to tell her that.

- That doesn't change the fact that she shouldn't covet a power with such a mental burden and responsibility.

- Given what we've been through, it's only natural that she covets your power, which she thinks is omnipotent. What if I told you the story of the poor, perky princess who wanted to be the strongest in the world?

The Hero went to another chair with a real backrest, sat down on it, crossing his arms and legs, and said to his interlocutor:

- Do! After all, it's not like I'm going home tonight.

- I hope that with this you will understand his determination.

So a little flashback to twenty-one years ago, in this so unstable and precarious neighborhood, to a time when Lelelitio was a young elven sprout like her future princess and Malalalivia Talemilia Grave was not called that. 

More Chapters