1 Finding a Hero

"That brat girl! She still kicked me out of her academy even though she knew that I'm a sage".

A man screamed furiously as he walked away from the gates of the academy. He kicked a rock to vent out his anger.

"It took me five days to travel here on this useless port city… I swear I won't come back here again".

The name of the man is Raum Azakana. He was a demon prince once, he was defeated in a battle and then suddenly woke up on the body of a young sage, losing the power he have as a demon prince, he started on a journey to search for heroes who can defeat the demon king for 174 years.

Even if he can afford to hire an A-rank hero from guilds, that won't still be enough to defeat the demon king. It would take hundreds of A-rank heroes to defeat the demon king. If only S-rank heroes were not a myth, then surely he could easily defeat the demon king.

His hair was midnight black and his eyes were dark green, framed by graceful brows. He had prominent cheekbones and a well-defined chin and nose. He wore a fitted black robe which is the common outfit of a sage and carried a pewter staff as his weapon.

As he was walking, he suddenly smelled the scent of delicious meat coming from a meat stall. This made his stomach growled on hunger, "I think I haven't eaten any lunch yet and it's almost dinner already, just thinking about that stupid girl made me hungry".

He stared into the juicy meatballs from the grilling rack. It made his stomach growled even more.

"I'll buy three meatballs with a sweet barbecue sauce". He took his coin purse and paid one copper coin.

"It's one copper per one meatball", the owner who was selling them pointed down to show the sign.

He looked down and saw the sign written in small words at the bottom of the stall, 'one copper per one meatball'.

"Hey isn't this a scam!? Who the hell can see the sign at the bottom, more importantly shouldn't it be one copper for three meatballs like that stall", He frowned while pointed at a stall that was selling vegetables, 'one copper per cabbage'.

"Vegetables are different from meat". The owner said.

"But still! I'll buy from somewhere else then!"

Since the owner of the stall didn't have many costumers, he sighed in defeat. "Wait! Fine, fine. One copper".

The owner dipped the meatballs on the sauce revealing how more juicy it was with sauce, but then, suddenly the owner took one piece and ate it with an expression of how delicious the meatballs are, he took the second meatball and ate it.

"Here's your meatball, sir", as the owner offered the last meatball.

Raum took the last meatball with a disappointed look. The owner totally scammed him for the meatballs, he took a bite from the last meatball tasted how tender and delicious the meatballs, he ordered another five more.

"I can't believe I agreed to the owner paying one copper per meatballs, but I can't say no to the delicious meatballs", he laughed from how satisfied he was until he checked his coin purse only finding out he only have fifty copper coins and ten silvers.

He sighed in disappointment, "I should really waste my money wisely. The sage association will be angry with me again, spending half the money on foods. If I can't find a hero soon to guide, the sage association will cut off my salary and I won't buy any tasty foods again", he closed his purse.

The owner heard and offered him an discount, "How about this young sage, next time you come, bring someone with you and it will be free for you",

"Deal, I'll bring someone next time and I can eat meatballs for free. I'll see you again old man".

They both laughed on their agreement, but for Raum he didn't realize he was scammed again.

Raum returned to the inn, it was full of drunkards just like the same other days. He checked the meal list and it was the same old porridge, the inn was only good at selling exotic beers but he never drink. He went to his room, but wasn't sure if it can be called a room from how narrow it was. It was just a bed and a desk with a rack on the back of the door. The room doesn't have its own bathroom and needs to be shared with everyone which is why he would wake up in the middle of the night to take a bath and go to sleep again rather than waiting on a line early in the morning for his turn to take a bath.

Raum hanged his robe and shut off the light of the lamp. He stretched his aching back before going to bed.

**************

"Where am I? Why am I floating?" he scanned his surrounding, "Wait is that a toilet? This feels strange, it looks real but I know I was just sleeping.., Oh well I'll just-"

Before he was about to pee he suddenly woke up from how he really needs to go to the toilet.

Getting out of his bed, he went running to the bathroom, successfully peeing on the toilet just on time.

"That was a weird dream; it would be embarrassing that a 174 year old man almost peed himself. It is not funny if I peed on myself", with a chuckle thinking how silly it was.

Raum pulled his zipper up; he started to go back on his room when suddenly the wall on his side suddenly exploded.

He saw that a warrior was fighting with a mage, giving damage to the inn.

It was normal for them to fight and break things because the family they were under would be going to pay for the damage. After all, they belonged to the families that were rich.

"Why is this place full of weirdo? Just because there is no law here doesn't mean you can go and break stuffs. First, I was kicked out from the academy. Second, I got scammed, and now this. I miss my home", Raum facepalmed and thought how unlucky he was after reaching the port city of Moneta.

The warrior lunged to the mage who was casting magic on the street. While the warrior and the mage were fighting on the street, Raum watched who was going to be the winner of them.

From distance, crowds formed, they cheered and betted for the two heroes. When suddenly the fireball the mage casted was deflected by sword of the warrior and it flew to the crowds.

Raum dashed to the small girl who was just curious what was happening. He knew he won't reach her in time, but in his disbelief, the small girl who has hit by the fireball absorbed it making her knockback and faint. What was surprising was that the fireball went out of her little body and then releasing it to the sky.

Raum caught her in his arms, observing whether she received any damage, he saw that some parts of the sackcloth the little girl was wearing got burnt but other than that, there was no trace of any burn or scar.

The heroes stopped fighting from almost causing an incident and the crowds applauded Raum, who they thought was the one who made the fireball swerve to the sky.

"My name is Raum from the sage association. You can go back to your houses now! You two heroes should stop making a racket in the middle of the night!", Raum shouted and thought how lucky he was to find a person who has such strong magical ability.