Chp-31 My Backstory

Riku's Pov.

It was currently nighttime and every one of our two groups were gathered near a campfire which Tsuzu conjured.

I still can't believe that we have been transported to this world of fantasy and dreams. But to say it is a dreamy land, will be completely false. From day one, Misu, Haku and Tsuzu along with me had to go through many things that I wished got removed from our memories.

[A/n The paragraphs below can be interpreted as Riku having a flashback with him narrating it.]

I still remember it, one moment I was going home from high school and the next moment, a magic Circle formed below me as my vision rapidly changed to a gothic mediaeval room.

On my side were those three others who I recognised as fellow Japanese. The other boy beside myself had a look of shock in his eyes, he was wearing a jinbei (pyjamas or pajamas) with The Naruto cast printed all over it. I think I also saw a lewd image of Tsunade....not my best first impression of him really.

Then beside him was Misu, her expression was the most expected, which was of fear and wariness of the sudden change in her surroundings, she took was wearing a school uniform which was different from me.

The last was Tsuzu san, she wore a mix of casual wear, who without any fear confronted the only other person standing before us.

A long blonde haired guy- i think- his feminine face makes it hard to identify him.

He was wearing a tipical long robes that looked exactly out of a cosplay con.

His face was expressionless, behind his was the only exit I could see and the thought of just escaping did pass my mind but it was cut short by a voice coming beside me.

"Hey, who are you? Are you the one who kidnapped m-..us?", Tsuzu demanded, she seemed like she was unafraid of the uncertainity of our situation. Also, I think she was going to refer only herself but quickly switched to considering all of us.

Still, there was no response from that feminine, blonde haried, cosplaying Kidnapper. I assume he was one, else why would we be here otherwise?

He looked like he was Contemplating something, scrutinizing us. Then his eyes showed a slight change of disappointment as if we failed an Exam.

"Still unlucky.....", he murmured to himself but I could still hear him as if he wasn't deliberately trying to conceal it.

"Hey! Answer me you bastard!", Unsatisfied that she was left unnoticed, Tsuzu tried to get his attention but failed as the guy ignored her and started to introduce himself.

"My name is Leon Cromwell, the rest of myself you need not know. The most important fact you should know is that you are no longer in your original world. I wi-".

"Don't joke with me! What is your plan? What do you want?!"

Before he could continue, Tsuzu burst Into disbelief. Clearly, she was not convinced of this guy's words as we all were.

But suddenly a kind of pressure descended upon us, like all the malice of the world was droped on us, it didn't feel like any gravitational, magnetic or any of the physically explained ones but pure unadulterated malicious intent.

"I advice you to not interrupt me again or else I won't be as lenient as I am right now."

This effectively shut whatever bravado was inside Tsuzu and also made us not to antagonize the guy.

"...*sigh*...I am tired of this. Those who wants to take these bodies of the children may occupy them. Don't cause any harm to these children and keep them safe in case of danger.", the guy said something after him sighing but I couldn't understand any further.

The air seemed to get brighter as a chorus of child like laughing voices were heard and suddenly one by one transparent looking ghosts seem to enter our bodies.

I had a transparent, white looking girl whose movements got accompanied by gusts of winds inside me. Haku had a rocky looking guy inside him. Tsuzu had a firey looking girl inside her and Misu had the most bright one among us, that ghost was completely white.

Misu's one seemed to shock Leon if his slight widening of eyes were to go by, as if it was not something he anticipated.

Later on, I learned what those transparent beings were. Spirits, who held command over certain elements.

Mine was wind, Haku had Earth, Tsuzu had Fire and Misu san had Light Attributed.

From there, we lived in Leon's castle as he periodically summoned childrens of differing ages from 3 to 15. We were 14 when we got summoned here.

[A/n I don't know the actual age range and couldn't find it on the web, so I will take some liberties. If you guys know then informing me will be a great help.]

The first year was excruciatingly hard for us, we had to watch most if not all of the children summoned die because according to Leon, they didn't possess Unique Skills or anything that interested him.

He said that we were an exception since all four of us had dormant skills inside us.

That day I started to despise this so called skills and Leon Cromwell.

One day, while I was outside the castle, I was approached by Tsuzu, Haku and Misu.

Misu Introduced themselves and from then on we formed a team of sorts based on our shared nationality and the fact that we were the only ones who knew eachother well.

Soon, we became such good friends that it felt like we were together our whole lives.

Our lives went on in a circle of practicing magic, swordsmanship or guarding Leon's Castle while he was gone.

Occasionally, we also fought many monsters that resided near the castle. This made us more experienced in dealing with them and also taught us how to survive in the wild.

We also met a few "heroes", I say it in quotations because according to Leon, they were just take heroes. Which I agreed, those guys were too arrogant and dumb brained to notice that the strength gab between them and Leon was very VERY large.

They just said some stupid things like, "I will kill you Demon Lord and save the world." Or

"Give back the Princess you Evil Being!" and got killed instantly.

That moment was quite amusing. Leon seemed offended that he would have kidnapped any princess. His cloudy atmosphere and grumblings the whole week showed that it really effected his Mood.

As all these went by, I thought that these things would be my only entertainment, but something strange happened.

At the day of the end of the year, Leon Cromwell suddenly declared that we leave his castle and never come back.

It puzzled us greatly that why would he do something like that. But we were not that interested in staying in this dreadful place so we swiftly left.

That could be the best choice we made cause from that day on, we saw, experienced so many things that...I never had hoped for or even dreamt of.

Those adventures we went to after we became adventurers made us famous. Our skills and our peculiar nature made us stand out quite a bit.

Rumours of us being the young heroes of this generation was spreading, which I am unsure if we even were.

Now, after all those years. We were once again in an Adventure, but with many different adventurer groups to completely decimate the monster population of the forest.

Even though the concentration of monsters was large and it was one of the larger types of forest but still much much smaller then the great Jura Forest, it was still unnamed, Only going by its Aliases of Wild Forest or White Dire-Tiger Forest.

The later was because of the pack of Diretigers living in this forest, which will also be our most problematic hindrance in completing this quest.

But luckily, we had Someone who could easily solve that problem. Golden Tear, a group consisting of two members, Armin and Ari.

They said that they came from across the Jura Forest from a secluded place. Their origin was still a mystery to us, but their strength was the only factor needed to ensure us that they were good people.

Cause why would strong brag of their strength? Show arrogance and disdain to weaker people? But still regardless of this, Armin was very polite, humble and respectful. And Ari....well she was also nice...i think.

I had thought that I had seen how strong Armin was in last night's battle but right now I couldn't help but scream what every other people watching were certainly doing inside their mind.

'Just Who the Hell Are They!??'

It was now morning and we decided to split into groups to surround and cover a larger area of the forest while slowly marching towards the centre where the den of the Dire-Tigers were.

A few hours in and we encountered a bunch of monsters whom they were able to deal with easily. I say they because only Armin and Ari did most of the work.

These two rushed forward before any of us could react and most of the time, the fight was over before we could even react.

This started to get a bit frustrating really, 'JUST WHERE THE HELL DID THESE TWO COME FROM?!'

Kill after kill, the monster bodies piled up on themselves while we remained standing with dead fish eyes watch Golden Tear Do the work.

"What is my purpose?" "Why are we here?"

I could even hear the muttering of the guys behind me, they were even having a harder time then us. Being D ranked, they won't have that much financial freedom in their lives so they will need as much money they could gather but it won't matter if what happened before was to go by.

'Hang in there guys.', I prayed for the unlucky ones in my mind, knowing that they won't get as much as they thought they might get out of this quest.

Soon, hours flew by and it was almost night time and we had almost completely cleared the forest of any dangerous monsters leaving only harmless ones like slimes or horned rabbits.

We were camping just a few kilometres away from the Den of Dire tigers. A few strong rogues were sent to scout the area and determine the overall threat level of the tigers.

We refrained form attacking tonight because as Tigers were nocturnal animals and by common sense, these Dire tigers should be too so launching an attack now with be akin to stepping on a tiger trap.

Just like last night, my team were gathered near our camp fire with bowls of meat soup in our hands.

Thanks to the mages, we were able to conceal our presence otherwise the Dire-Tigers might have already noticed the disturbance in their territory.

"This should be our last night together right Riku san?", a familiar voice called out behind me. Turning to look at Armin san coming with a bowl of meat soup of his own and Ari san following right behind him, I smiled as I replied to his question.

"Indeed Armin san, It will be our last. But I hope we meet again in the future soon."

"Certainly." ,he agreed while sitting beside me.

"Hey Armin san, before we go to sleep. Why don't you tell us more about yourself? You promised to reveal it after this quest and as it is, the quest is practically finished."

Tsuzu said with her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"Haha, I guess I have no choice then", laughing at Tsuzu's childish stubbornness at wanting to know more about Armin's Backstory which we all wanted to know, Armin began.

"Well, long ago, there lived a secluded kingdom called Yggdrassil. It was a kingdom where many people of different origins lived together in peace and harmony, until during this peaceful time, a law was passed which divided the kingdom into two.

One side hunted the other based on their origin, language and culture, while the ones who got hunted fought back . This was how a kingdom of peace was transformed into a war torn kingdom. The territory was divided into two halves.

Unlike any other kingdom where a civil war of this scale would have gone for only a few years or even months, ours went on for 12 years.

During this time, many strong and powerful beings emerged with myself being one of them. I was a special case in this war. Although I come into the category of the hunted, I had dreamed of being at the top of this kingdom so, I formed a small group of people, they were also the same as me, hunted and oppressed.

Together we became the rising heroes of our side. Along with us , different groups emerged who were strong in their own rights.

But it was not as easy sailing as we'd thought, our enemies too had a rising number of talented and powerful beings.

During the 12th year, a decisive battle was fought between us, which will decide the future of the kingdom.

But..."

Stopping at that, Armin had a look of contemplation as he struggled at whether to continue or not.

"But what Armin san!?", Tsuzu, caught in Armin's story or back story blurted out noticing how he had stoped mid way right when something interesting was perceived will happen.

"....but, we had a slight miss-calculation.We forgot to restrain our combat powers. Embroiled in the constant pressure of war and turmoil, we completely forgot what we were fighting for. We unconsciously unleashed magic attacks that destroyed the very kingdom we sought to take back.

Eventually, none of us won. We all Lost. Our home, our memories, our friends, our dreams and most of all, our Kingdom. It was not more. Yggdrassil was no more, it was now a fragment of its prosperous past, faded forever by the rivers of Time.

At the end, some decided to end their journey there, right where they spent their whole lives in. Some departed for another journey. Some who were just Indifferent, scoffed it away and left. While some like me and my friends, forever held the name and memories of Yggdrassil in our hearts....

That was the history of my Origin. I come from That legendary place. Along our journey, one after another, I lost all five of my friends, all of whom died a silent and peaceful death. They left their children in my care knowing that I will out live them.

The End."

★★★★★

The End.

No, really it's the end.

This chapter was a little bit smaller then the recent longer chapters but I think it is alright.

This one mainly covered the backstory of the two leaders of Kibou and Golden Tear.

Although Armin's story was heartbreak to some, because it was truly a tragic story, or is it?

See ya in the next chapter!

꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡