Interlude: Princess Aurelia and the Three Heroes

I looked down from the balcony at the three heroes. They were training, as they almost always were. It was almost scary how fast they had improved. Only a month had passed and they had already climbed up to E-rank. One of them had already reached D-rank. How long would it be before they passed even me?

Heroes. It was only a month ago when I first learnt of their existence.

My empire, the Revilon Empire had been given three of them to train, the heroes of generosity, compassion and mercy. The other three had gone to the Anos Empire. Normally, each of the empires would get three heroes, with their aspect representing the empire's patron god or goddess. Of course, this time things had gone wrong.

We never should have summoned them so soon.

It had been my mother's fault. The empress of Revilon. In her grief after having her favourite son, Prince Adrian, kidnapped, she had requested the summoning of heroes. At that time, I had known next to nothing of the heroes and their duty, or I would have stopped her. But it was too late for that now.

Despite being on less than friendly relations with my nation, the Anos Empire had quickly agreed when my mother had requested the summoning. They would take any chance they could get at killing demons and orcs. The Southern Dominion had a little more resistance, but eventually they submitted to. They were the smallest of the three holy empires and were unable to resist the demands of the other two. It hadn't taken long for a majority of the dominion's council members to yield under the pressure.

Against the three holy empires, the church surrendered as well. The summoning happened one month ago, and fourteen years too early.

And we had paid the consequences for our actions. Only two-thirds of the heroes showed up.

The hero of love was generally considered useless so it wasn't a big loss to lose them, but the hero of courage and hero of purity were both very important. And now they were not here.

"Your highness, dinner is ready." The maid interrupted me from my thoughts.

My name was Aurelia Vulpis, the crown princess of Revilon. I was a red fox beastkin, like my mother. As the oldest of the empress' children, I was already twenty-seven years old and still unmarried. Nor would I marry until I became empress.

In the Revilon Empire, the throne was not automatically passed to oldest child. The heir would be chosen from the strongest of the previous emperor's or empress' children, regardless of order of birth and gender.

Unfortunately, none of my siblings had passed me in rank, and so the throne fell to me. A heavy duty to carry but it is one I had been trained for my entire life.

The maid opened the large doors to the dining room and I entered. At the table were the three heroes as well as one of my siblings. I sat down at the head of the table, my mother's place. But she rarely left her room since the summoning.

No one would dispute my choice of seat, I was the crown princess of the Revilon Empire and the heir to the throne.

My sibling sitting at the table was Princess Adriel, the youngest of the royal children and twin the deceased Prince Adrian. Technically, she was only my half-sister though, although it didn't interfere much with our relationship.

My mother had married my father, a duke, as her first husband to stabilize her position on the throne. They had never loved each other, only together through mutual benefit. She had had six children with him, two boys and four girls including me.

After my father's death twenty years ago due to an assassination, my mother married again. This time though, she had truly loved her second husband. However, he had not loved her. My stepfather killed himself within a year of his marriage.

My mother had been devastated. I had been eight years old when I first saw her rage. A quarter of the palace had to be rebuilt the following year.

She had only gotten over her grief when she found out that she was pregnant. Nine months later, the empress gave birth to twins, Prince Adrian and Princess Adriel.

My mother had showered them with her love, caring for them like the most precious treasures. Many of my siblings had been jealous over the attention she gave the twins, but they could do nothing about it except ignore them.

I was perhaps Princess Adriel's only real sister and friend, outside of her now deceased brother.

She was a beautiful woman, a cat beastkin with bright pink hair like her father and brother. She was skinny and frail, looking like a frail, helpless kitten. But I knew her better. She was cunning, clever enough to prank anyone in the palace. And she loved to play pranks, completely unlike her brother.

One time, she had even tricked Adrian into swapping places, tricking everyone in the palace so she could avoid taking her classes. Her brother who had loved to learn gladly accepted, until he realized that the classes were on feminine etiquette.

That had been amusing at the time, like many of her other pranks. As long as they were not played on you of course. But most of them were directed at her brother.

But now that sly attitude was gone, replaced by nothing. Ever since Adrian was kidnapped, Adriel had never been the same. She took it even worse than our mother had.

I sighed, before glancing over at the other guests.

I had been confidant in my looks, until I met these three. The three heroes might be the most perfect people alive. Their bodies had been chosen for them, carefully selected in the past four centuries from famous young men and women who died young.

Ten corpses were preserved for the summoning when the souls of the heroes will merge with the chosen bodies. Five men and five women. The ratio would always be four to five, with either one extra man or one extra woman.

One body would always be left untouched. Except this time, it was four bodies that were left dead.

The first hero was on my left, the hero of compassion. Alicia was a cute girl with chubby cheeks and a bright smile, her body that of a human like most of the heroes. It was found long ago that the heroes preferred human bodies to other races. Her long, golden hair was tied behind her in a ponytail. She was short enough to be mistaken for an older child, and her cheery attitude and innocent personality only added to the impression.

Leaning against Alicia's chair was a staff even taller than her. It was her weapon, Sympathy. A hero's weapon.

Beside her sat another human, the hero of generosity. Damien was a large man with stout shoulders and bulging muscles. He was handsome enough with short black hair and sharp eyes, but he also looked quite rough and a tad frightening. But contradictory to his looks, he had a friendly personality and was quite eager to learn. However, the gigantic halberd leaning against his chair scared off most people anyways. It was known as Charity.

Finally, their was our last guest, the hero of mercy, Primrose who sat across from the other two, alone. She was not given the body of a human but of a beastkin. The white feline ears and bushy tail along with the deep violet eyes revealed the body's identity as a snow fox, an extinct sub-race of beastkin.

Despite her title as the hero of mercy, Primrose was by far the most intimidating of the three heroes. Her face displayed no emotion, her gaze both chilling and empty. She was almost a rank higher than the other two, having already reached the bottom of D-rank.

The sword that never left her back, a blade that has taken countless lives, released a terrifyingly cold pressure, only added to her oppressive aura. Perhaps it once had another name, but now it went by one likely far more fitting. Cruelty.

I had researched quite a bit on the heroes in the past month when I could. Although I had had very little time since my brothers death, now taking up my many of what should have been my mother's duties, the heroes were just as important. And I had learnt quite a bit.

In terms of fighting ability, the rankings of the heroes were quite fluid, depending more on the attitude and skill of the summoned hero than their aspect or weapon. But there were always exceptions.

In terms of strength, the hero of mercy and the hero of justice were on another level compared to the others. In fact, the difference in power was so great that just one of them could defeat all the other heroes combined, excluding the hero of purity.

The hero of purity was another exception. No one but the church knew anything about them. Not their aspect nor their weapon. This time though, they were not even summoned.

The final exception would be the hero of love. Considered a joke by most, it was assumed they did not have an aspect as one had never been activated. They were also always the first to die, usually by assassination before the crusade even began as they had no way of defending and no one wanted to use resources to defend a useless hero when they could be used for one of the other eight.

"Hello Princess Aurelia," the hero of compassion greeted me first. Her greeting did not follow etiquette, but the heroes often acted oddly in situations. It was quite nice to relax around them.

"Heroine Alicia, I hope your training has been fruitful."

She pouted, her chubby cheeks making her look almost like a squirrel. "I haven't advanced at all."

"Don't worry, you can't rank-up everyday. Just continue to work hard and it will happen eventually." To think she was angry that she hadn't advanced in a day. I haven't advanced in over a year now!

"Good day, your highness," the hero of generosity said as he gave me a nervous smile, fidgeting in his chair a little when I looked over.

"Damien, how has your day been?" I asked as I returned his smile.

His face flushed a little as I met his eyes, and he quickly averted his gaze. "I managed to rank up today. Now at E+, just a step away from D."

Only a blind man would be unable to see his crush on me. I was flattered by his attention but also a little confused. His two female companions were even more beautiful than me. And I was almost a decade older than him. At least, if you considered his body's age. The heroes forget everything when they were summoned, including both their names and age.

"Wow, that's amazing!" No need to reject the young man though. While it was probably impossible for us to be married, I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his fellow heroes.

The three of us chatted for a bit, Primrose and Adriel remaining silent throughout, before our food was delivered. I was quite hungry and looking forward to my meal so I quickly dove in to the first dish.

However, a knock interrupted me just as I lifted my fork to eat. How annoying.

"Enter." My voice a little cold.

The door opened, revealing an older beastkin wearing a bright red robe. Court Mage Venith was a rabbit beastkin, with long droopy ears and wrinkled skin.

"Your highness, urgent news," the man said after he reached me.

"Is the news important enough to interrupt my meal?"

He bent down to whisper in my ear. "It's about Prince Adrian."

Prince Adrian? Wasn't he dead?

I left my seat and nodded to the three others. "Excuse me heroes. Something has come that I need to deal with."

"Do you need any help?" Damien asked.

"No, not right now. But thank you for the offer." His ears turned bright red as I thanked him.

"Have fun!" Alicia said with a smile, waving her hand as I left.

Five minutes later, we arrived at the court mage's room. Venith gestured for me to take a seat as he activated the silencing enchantments of the room, before turning around to face me. However, he hesitated to speak.

"I thought you had confirmed that Adrian is dead." I spoke first.

"He is. His soul mark was shattered. Not even a demon lord could have removed it without killing him."

Court Mage Venith was one of four mages that my mother called upon, and he specifically specialized in soul magic. I didn't know the exact details of the soul mark, but Venith had placed one on each member of the family except my mother. It allowed him to locate the marked person anywhere on the continent, even in the north, which is how my mother had found out that Adrian had been kidnapped by the Demon Lord of Lust.

The thing my mother did not know was that the soul mark had shattered on the day of the summoning. A shattered soul mark was an indication of a shattered soul, or in simpler terms, death. My mother had gone to partake in the ceremony and to greet the heroes when his death had happened, and I had ordered Venith to not tell a word of Adrian's death to her or anyone other than me. While I did not have that authority, even as the crown princess, Venith had understood the consequences if he had revealed the prince's death.

My mother was already hanging onto a thread. If she knew that Adrian was already dead and not just held hostage, she might just commit suicide. And Revilon needed her, especially with the crusade in less than a year.

The court mage continued, "Something has happened though…"

"Has my mother found out?" That would be the worst case scenario.

He shook his head. "No, my news has to do with the northern continent. Both the Demon Lord of Lust and the Demon Lord of Envy are doing a widespread search for an escaped slave. Well two escaped slaves, but most of the focus seems to be on a single slave."

"A slave?"

"Yes. A cat beastkin with pink hair and pale blue eyes. Does that sound like anyone you know?"

"Impossible…Adrian is still alive?" If this was true, perhaps everything was not as dire as it seemed. As long as she brought the prince back, her mother would return to normal.

"Don't get too excited. The slave is female. Or at least that is the description of the person in the bounty. A two hundred platinum bounty by the way."

"What? So it isn't Adrian?"

"Unless they somehow mistook him for a girl. Maybe the demon lords are all blind. My information though is correct. While news from the north is sporadic, the widespread search can hardly be hidden." The Court Mage rubbed his chin. "Of course, this information makes no sense. Your brother and sister should be the only beastkin with nymph blood left after your stepfather died. And now there is a cat beastkin with pink hair, ears and a tail showing up in the northern continent, escaping from the same person that captured Prince Adrian."

"Perhaps the hair colour is faked. It could all be a trap," I suggested.

"Unlikely. If it was a trap, why not just say it was a male slave. Your mother would head north through the pass immediately."

That was true. The Demon lord of Lust was much more subtle than that.

"Pass a message to the Knight-Commander for me. Have him to search for this beastkin girl along the Chaos Peaks. If they find her, tell him to bring her here as a guest. Preferably voluntarily."

"Revilon can afford the manpower, but is this really worth it? The beastkin slave is being chased two demon lords. I doubt she can make it out of the north. And besides, the girl is not Prince Adrian. Unless he started crossdressing."

"Just deliver my orders," I said on my way out of his office.

It was true that the girl probably wasn't Adrian.

But she could be a replacement.