Chapter 2 : the heresy

An only little house was standing near the river, a few kilometers far from the city, and at 10 am, two women were peacefully doing the housework, the mom was cooking the lunch for her, and the maid was doing the laundry.

"I still don't believe it; he has been admitted to the Xyneph academy. My son was admitted to the best mage academy!"

"Yes, who thought that this little boy would awake with such talent, while only a while ago he was still sucking his thumb."

"I didn't expect him to leave home so young. At least I won't have to worry about his education since the academy is in charge of him."

"His dad would've been so proud of him."

"Y...yeah" "-sigh-"

Of course, Elvira doesn't know that the father isn't dead; he disappeared one day, only leaving a letter in unreadable English.

Hina and her maid raised their heads when they heard multiple footsteps. Soon after, a dozen hooded men wearing long cloaks started approaching the house.

The small group was made of nine warriors protecting four thinner mages walking behind a 15-years-old. His ordinary construction combined with his piercing gaze gave the impression of a spoiled nobleman, but the aura that radiated from him was intimidating; Hina couldn't explain how she felt seeing him. Somehow she knew that he had no intention of negotiating.

"Hey granny, what if you directly give us the young boy so that no one suffers."

"Young boy...If you are talking about William, then you will go back empty-handed for sure."

"Don't be so aggressive toward such a cute boy. As for your beloved William, Scar asked me personally to bring him, so it must be done."

"I won't let you lay a single hand on him, even if the King Arthur himself asked for it."

The youngster continued approaching, once at her level; he whispered in her ear: "Don't worry, we'll take care of him, we'll train him again and again and again until he becomes worthy of serving the heresy."

The poor terrorized woman couldn't answer, he continued, wearing a believer's face, as if he was in the middle of a prayer "well, if you don't want the best for your son, I'll spare him a miserable life by force, justice must be done, and if you don't cooperate I will mercifully shorten your suffers for the sake of our lord."

A minute of heavy silence passed, and the noble lost patience: "maybe purging your maid will help you make up your mind."

Seeing Elvira, who worked for her faithfully for over 15 years and with which she lived ups and downs, elevating in the air and being hit by sharp air magic, tore her heart. She felt guilty for what happened to her, but she couldn't deliver her son to those brutes.

"Elvira, N…no…..If there's a god somewhere in this world, please save her....She doesn't deserve that"

The group leader suddenly fell of an utterly slash. The divine sentence came as a fulfillment to her prayer.

The others started suffocating, unable to breathe.

Then, with her teary eyes, she saw a well-built young man with short straight blond hair coming out from the woods. The blinding sunbeams and the light breeze blowing gently on his smooth hair made him look deity.

"Are you…..god...? "she cried inwardly of disbelief.

"No, I'm Erec, nice to meet you."

***

To the stranger's demand, a sewing kit and a sterilized knife lay beside him while he tended to heal the maid.

After calming down a bit, Hina noticed that the stranger smelled and was dirty, which made her doubt his ability to do anything.

Every time the knife went in her maid's flesh, she would startle, witnessing the open wounds and the sharp needle getting in her skin….

A last muffled sob was heard before she kept quiet.

Two or three hours have passed, Elvira's wounds were healed, and her body covered with bandages was resting in a small, modest room.

She jumped on him and hugged him while crying, she said, even though she was still confused:

"Uhm….. I'm not really sure about what happened, and I'm still confused and all…..but thank you so much for saving Elvira. She's really a good woman."

"Oh, it's not a big deal. I can't let a person I can save die in front of me."

"I'll never be able to repay you, but if you need or want something, I'll do my best to deal with it."

"Speaking of which, I'd like to ask you a few questions…you see, I'm a foreigner from….Hum…..a small village in the northern mountains." He quickly found a lie to justify his ignorance of basic knowledge.

After calming down, Hina did a jump backwards, hiding with a weird smile and a polite mask her disgust.

"You m- must be exhausted after fighting so many strong men, you need to quickly shower to rest. Your questions can wait."

"Hum….okay, but can I grab some food first? I'm starving."

"NO-" she tried to catch up while pushing him towards stairs "….I mean, I still haven't finished cooking, quickly, hurry up and go bathe."

Erec has lived a rough life, training every day to not deceive his parents, who placed their hopes in him, being bullied at school due to his low innate talent and poor background, and finally dying of a heart stop.

But death will have brought him neither rest nor peace; instead, an odd woman sent him to another round of problems into a hypothetical past timeline.

Anyone in his situation would be overthinking, succumbing to the piercing pain of panic. Still, Erec was the type of person who put things into perspective and kept calm whatever happens.

So, instead of wondering what on earth he was doing here, he opted to enjoy his hot bath, thinking about how cute Hina was.

"Future problems will be dealt with by future solutions." He thought before holding his breath to dive in the small bathtub like a carefree 5-year old kid.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Erec sat down in front of his host. He dived into the freshly prepared feast.

Once filled, he took the lead and started: "As I said I'm a foreigner from the northern mountains and uhm….. I'm travelling toward the world as a journalist. Our Village has no connection with the world, so we send a Shin Master to stay up to date every year. It's a tradition."

Hina answered him thoughtfully: "Oh so one of your rituals consists to dig into the garbage bin."

"IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT- huh…..now seriously, as part of my gathering information duty, May I ask you some questions ?"

"of course, you're my saviour, you owe me this."

"hum…..where to begin…..ah yes, who were those hooded mans, earlier ?"

"you really are cut off from the world…Actually, they are men from the heresy, it's a movement against the Catholic monarchy, and they are gathering awaked mages to turn them by their sides, by conquest or consent. Well, to be honest, they already came here once for William. Luckily a knight patrol was passing by nearby."

"Knights?" asked erec with a curious gaze.

"Yes, the white knights, an order of chivalry founded by the archdukes all over the dynasty."

"If the heresy sent Shin users of that level twice just for your son, they must be quite strong. Unless I got them by surprise and retired the oxygen from their area, I would've lost. So if this order of chivalry can maintain a relative peace, their power is insane too."

"Actually, most of those knights are corrupted and called dogs of the church. Few are those who are respected. Onyx, who was crowned supreme leader of the order by the king himself, is considered the strongest mage who ever existed. He is also the main reason why both the heretics and the sovereigns don't use their power to invade the Zogary kingdom. Yet he had no noble background and he is loved by all."

"I see, glad he is our side...thinking about it, which year are we ?"

"Are your historians incapable of establishing an accurate date or something ?"

"no- uh….. It's just that w-w-we use a different calendar which depends on the moon," Erec said in a panic.

"Oh, sorry. So, we're July 17th, 1825."

"W-what…..!"

'So they're using the same calendar, having the same city names and talking English ....It can't be a coincidence, I'm really back 300 years ago, 33 years after the beginning of the era of Shin Sekai.'