The Floating Continent Of Cloudia

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Well, that's a surprise. To think we were actually living on a giant floating continent all this time…

"Cloudia…?"

"Yes, Cloudia. It's classified as a Divine Treasure in itself," my father told me.

"This giant continent was said to have been made by the Gods when they used to live in Terrarium, before the world created the first Demon King that waged war against the Gods, before they were forced to retreat into the High Heavens," my mother continued where father left off.

"Uhh…"

"It was said that the first Demon King was the strongest, so strong that he was capable of defeating Gods singlehandedly… he was ultimately defeated by the first ten heroes, our predecessors," father said.

"His body was so big and strong that it broke into many pieces that fell on the world… Most of his body gathered in the oceans to the south, becoming the Demon Continent where demons and monsters emerge constantly. It's also where every Demon King had been born ever since it was formed," my mother added.

"I-I see…"

"Cloudia is a special place. After all, it's the proof of existence of the Ancient Civilization of Gods. We heroes were gathered here when we were finally chosen by the Gods through their Divine Protection… this was where our adventure began as we officially became the Ten Heroes of this generation." As he said this, father could not help but reminisce for a bit.

"It's a desolate Eden's Garden. Civilizations once lived here, but now there's no people living here aside from us three. Only powerful beasts, beautiful forests, abandoned temples, lakes, and rivers could be seen here… it's a beautiful place where time had stopped… and we chose it as our home because it was the farthest one could ever hope to be from civilization!" mother said, finishing off the explanation.

Man… a large amount of information was dumped onto me right then and there, but everything was just so interesting and intriguing…

So, if I'm getting this right, we live in a floating continent where the Gods once lived, and where the ten heroes of each generation gather to officially form a party to defeat the Demon King and save humanity…

And they seem to be quite obsessed with being away from civilization… why?

Did they do something to the heroes, or do they not want to knowledge the fact that they're famous celebrities?

"Why did you want to be away from civilizations, mom?" I asked.

"Ah… well…" mother scratched her head as she muttered in response.

"It's because they would constantly request us to do things for them." Seeing mother's hesitation, father took it upon himself to respond.

"Eh? How?"

"Well, as heroes, we are devoted to the people and must fulfill our duties to help humanity prosper," mother answered.

"But this often spirals out of control and goes beyond of our original purpose. Aristocrats, kings, emperors, and other people of high nobility always ask us to do things for them. Sometimes, they're even shameless enough to tell us to win wars for them… In other words, they want to utilize us as tools for war and for their own selfish goals," my father said.

"Of course, we do not abide by that, but they're just too manipulative. They've tried multiple times to blackmail us into doing what they want… If they could, for example, hold you prisoner in a dungeon, they would do so, just to force us to do what they want," mother explained.

That's awful. Is humanity really that rotten? If so, why even save these bastards? In any case, I think I'm getting why the world wants to wipe humanity from its surface…

"Because of that, we wanted to raise you away from all of that. We wanted to live happy and carefree lives by ourselves. Whenever you're strong enough and become older, you'll be able to freely travel the world. Sylph, remember this… never let anyone control your life. You're free to do whatever you desire," father told me.

"Ooh…"

"Of course, that's only after you grow up, little girl… not now, you're too young," mother added.

"Okay, I can wait!"

I have such amazing parents… and they're also pretty understandable.

"Now that I think about it, where does Aquarina live?" I asked.

They said they lived in a town, so maybe they're inside human civilization?

"Although they live with a large village of people, these people don't belong to any kingdom or whatever. They live in the large tribe of Amazon, in the middle of the Vast Jungle of Green Adobe," mother replied.

"Amazon is a tribe of strong warriors that don't like advanced civilizations that much. They live with nature, and there are also various other wild tribes with them, such as Beastkin," father added.

"Ooh… but Shade is not an Amazon, right?"

"He's not. He used to belong to the Fallen Kingdom of Bagakh… well, that's a whole other story for later," father replied.

"In any case, they're also like us. They don't want to be near these large countries. Due to our powers, they can easily detect us and chase us until they finally find us. They're so annoying…" Mother could not help but let out a sigh.

From what I'm hearing from mother and father, it seems like being a hero is not so easy… I mean, they're strong so they could also singlehandedly level an entire country. However, they're not evil villains and I doubt they enjoy genocide, nor do they want anything to do with politics, so I guess that's why they don't make their own kingdom or conquer them all and unify them into one entity.

I suppose they did more than enough for the entirety of humanity. After all, getting to work into politics and more would be so bothersome… I totally understand their thought process.

Maybe one day I'll also go through the same problems.

Then again, I honestly don't know what I'll do in such situations…

Sadly… I don't think I'm as nice as my parents.

I would probably crack some skulls open and make them fear me so much that they'll stop bothering me.

Eh, now that I think about it, that's how teacher trained me to be.

I suppose my parents could do that, but as heroes, they might feel an apprehension from harming other humans. Nor would they want to be feared either.

Oh well. We're different people… though my parents had taught me to be nicer… I suppose.

After that conversation, for the next four days, I continued to talk with them about things like these while also learning how to walk faster, even going so far as to run and jump around. Unfortunately, it was still quite hard.

I also continued trying to convince the red dragon to stop being so aggressive. Sadly, he never listened.

Of course, I've been nourishing my tree every day…

Until today, something changed.

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