Chapter 2 - Section 4: Those Left Behind

Raisa POV

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It happened in an instant one moment we were all working together exterminating the Bandits and knights holed up in the mountainside when all of a sudden Satou and all his summons save for Heracles had vanished.

Luckily Ruby was still present so there was that as far as a tenuous grasp of the fact that Satou still lived in some way since she was summoned in a similar way to his other summons aside from Heracles.

Those of us left behind were unsure what had happened and for the first few days, we just conducted further investigations into the cave system and recovered what was left of the bandit's property and stolen items.

Since he did not return after the first few days we decided to head off to another town to report our successful completion without returning to the town we'd set out from.

Thanks to Satou we three were decently leveled now and had little to fear in the trek down the mountain and through the forests till we came to our new destination.

The guild was thrilled at the report of the bandit's subjugation but upon seeing the items we turned in as proof the guild employees' faces changed from joy to shock as they just like us were surprised to see bandits and a Joquet knight order working together to pillage the outskirts of the country.

With the report completed we collected our fee, mentioning that our other companion Satou was not present as he had other things to do so they processed the job for his card without him being present.

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1 Month Since Disappearance

It's been a month now and still no sign of him, all this while we've remained in this new town just taking small odds and ends jobs from the guild while Heracles continued his polythetizing of the region expounding the glory of the Hellenic gods.

A second temple was being built similar in scale to the one he previously built as a sanctuary for the faithful and to further spread the teachings.

Primrose had become like my little sister in this time as it fell to me to proceed with her teaching on how to be a commoner rather than a noble scion.

She's thanks to me and a bit from Herc attained her promotion within the guild and thanks to Satou could safely complete low-ranked jobs on her own, but if we helped she could submit the completion of multiple jobs every other day or so.

As for myself well I had started to function like I did before I had met Satou, with my family's reputation, and a few letters submitted to my father I had started up a simple shop in the town and was doing my best as a merchant meanwhile a new carriage had arrived along with a few crates of Satou's potions.

I don't know when he'll come back but until then our lives must go on, and so I shall embark on a journey with Prim towards the capital where I can sell the potions for the highest profit.

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3 Months Since Disappearance

We arrived in the capital not too long ago and the place was just as I remember it, filled with an uncountable number of people.

The potions we had carried here sold in no time at all once they'd been appraised, but more attention was drawn to use thanks to Ruby as the act of having a summoned beast is thing unheard of in this world and Ruby did not act like a tamed beast since Kobold were not as intelligent as she was witnessed to be.

Numerous offers came to purchase Ruby from her, and more than a few attempts to take her by force, luckily they were not serious and their efforts were turned away without serious incident.

Heracles found his truest calling here in the capital with all these lost souls seeking guidance, he was granted the use of a local parish that had fallen into disrepair which in no time at all was re-established as the capital's Hellenic church.

Mass conversions occurred daily as dozens switched their faith and he'd even been invited to an audience with the King, as it seemed this new and quickly growing religion had piqued the government's interest, probably to gauge whether this new religious sect posed any possible danger to the safety and security of the nation.

Rumours abounded in the capital about the start of a new era since multiple countries had now performed their hero summoning as well, since the Kingdom that summoned Satou's heroes had plunged their country into a civil war, the other nations were making their moves to acquire powerful pieces to which they could take advantage of the situation to carve out territory or even outright assume control over this fractured nation.

For me, I had started teaching Prim the life of a merchant as we had a wealth of funds to secure new wares before setting off on another journey.

Her life as a noble taught her good communication skills and using those she could gather information which was merchants' lifeline.

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A year since the disappearance

It's been almost a year now since we'd last seen Satou, Prim and I had travelled all across Joquet and even into the neighboring nations save for the Kingdom as she continued learned the ways of a merchant from me, all the while we continued collecting information and rumors about the present state of the world.

Even more, heroes were summoned and chaos began to reign, the kingdom had fallen to its civil war, but other nations were also plunged into darkness thanks to their heroes.

Some had done just as heroes were meant to and followed the orders of their summoning nations to defeat monsters and lead troops to expand their national interests, meanwhile, the good majority had rebelled against their summoner, killing the nation's leaders, its soldiers and even its common people.

There was even one such rumour that stated a mass summoning had occurred wherein after they'd been summoned a great battle erupted amongst the large group of heroes to which they were slain until only a few remained drenched in their fellow hero's blood.

It seems all the stories of his world were not as glamorous as he had made them out to be as if all these heroes were from his world why had most of them had such darkness hidden within?

It had been more than a year since the first summoning had occurred bringing him into this world, but now once all the summoning had been completed the world had been engulfed in war.

Nations at war with Nations, Nations rising up to defeat their summoned heroes and even some heroes who specifically only targeted other heroes.

The time is fast approaching and we don't just want his return but rather will need to have Satou come back.