One day, a few days after 『The incident of Onii-chan disappearing』, this kind of thing started.
Since that incident, the villagers who often visited my house suddenly never visited again.
And then, those uncomfortable gazes and whispering voices which were directed at me made me all the more eager to decipher this book.
Onii-chan has stopped reproaching me for taking father’s book.
On the contrary, Onii-chan became the one who’s been pampering me, replacing all of the villagers that have stopped.
… Perhaps, am I being pitied by this little kid?
Then, one day, the village chief, Bashbal-Ojiichan, gathered all of the elders in the village to visit my house.
As for me at the time, I was rather frightened out of my wits as to what was happening.
I was feeling rather pessimistic considering the life ahead If in the end they accused me a demon child and treated me horribly.
But the truth was exceeded my wildest expectation.
Chief was took his sweet time and made me listen to a certain 『Story』.
So a summary of it would be as follows.
First, it seems that a religion exists in this place. It’s at the level that the likes bishops and monks make up the ranks and the believers very zealous.
Even in my previous life, in the era before science was discovered I heard that people used to piously pray to god.
Perhaps, this world’s culture level is far behind compared to 20th century Earth where science prospers. … Since I have only seen this village so far, I can’t even start to guess.
The human race have been investing national power into their military aspect to survive the battle against the demon race. In a world where logic is hard to grasp, maybe they turn to mythical fancy instead of science to compensate.
And then, for a country familiar with war, the citizens… both the soldiers who are going to the war and the families left behind, they will use religion as analgesic to soften their 『fear towards death』.
Thus, even this village is no exception to have some believers rooted in it. Furthermore, it’s the one that is most well-known in this world, or should I say the biggest sect of them all.
The name is —– 『Heroes Creed』.
The fundamental story behind it, well ~ it’s a common one.
First, it’s said that there exists two 『gods』.
One was 『the god who reigns over creation』who created this world’s land, sky, and the human race.
The other was 『the god who reigns over destruction』who brings forth calamities, death and the demon race into this world .
There are various opinions regarding the origin of the demon race, but the mainstream one was that the “maryoku/demonic energy“ that leaked from the destruction god mutated some humans and animals, that seemingly had been the starting point of the demon race. [1]
The two pillar gods that have opposed each other since the world’s birth seemed to have generated the discord between the current human and demon races. Some have even said that this is a proxy war between the two gods. [2]
What I have explained till now is the major premise in regard to the background of this myth.
From here on, we’ll be getting to the bit about 『Hero Creed』.
Once upon a time, a little girl was born in a poor village who had both high intelligence and knowledge and was able to use magic.
However magic was originally a『law』of the『demon』race. The demon race that had mutated, affected by the influence of destruction god, who could only bring destruction from birth… the human race regarded that magic with fear and scorn.
For that reason, from the beginning the girl became the target of persecution due to that face she could use magic supposedly only usable by the demons.
But the girl didn’t yield to the persecution but kept on helping people while leaving behind divine legends. In the end she drove back the demon that haunted the continent to the ends of the world, bringing back peace.
Then the people praised the girl and hailed her a “hero”… and that’s it.
Roughly putting it together, that’s the gist of it.
Based on this myth, it appears that the thing called magic is a skill that didn’t have such a good impression.
However, against the demon tribe that possesses high destructive abilities, the powerless human race are forced to take up magic because there’s no other way than fighting fire with fire to survive.
A power that was originally their enemies’ and by using it better than them can the humans defeat the demons… It somewhat gives the image of a worn-out hero, doesn’t it?
By the way, this 『Hero creed』, can be also called by its another name, the『Witch creed』. It seems that in this world there exists a scheme that involved 『Hero ＝ witch』.
As a person that was born and raised in modern japan, after hearing about her great efforts in the myths I think it’s more fitting to call her as a magical girl rather than a witch.
However, given that it just like a hero to propagate magic through the generations and going by the fact she bequeathed magic to the human race, perhaps witch might be a better title.
Thus, in this world, the title of 『Witch』, can be also meant as the highest of compliments.
It like when a Japanese calls their opponent「god!」, maybe amazing magicians and wizards get called「witches」.
The ones to succeed the techniques of that hero – or witch – and use magic were called magicians, while the one who trained and handled the magicians were called wizards.
I see, from the explanation before, I feel like I could agree if those people get the honor of a promotion in court-rank. As for their contributions in the military, I suppose that you cannot compare it with normal soldiers.
… Well, when I, who is not a devout believer, see it from my standpoint, I think these『promotions』 have something more realistic and ulterior motives behind them with their 『governor’s expectations』being so obvious.
In any case, now I think I understand the reason why the elders are now worshipping me.
In a world where the human and demon races were embroiled in war, an intelligent baby was born in a poor village.
And also, this is the first time I have heard about this but, apparently my face resembles mother a lot to the extent I resemble a girl. [3]
Because there weren’t any mirrors in this village, I was perfectly oblivious about that. Maybe that was why mother never cut my hair?
Clearly the fact that the book that I stare at all day long was a memento from a magician had been leaked out somewhere……
How I should say it, now that all of the ideal requirements have been completed, all the villagers came to the same conclusion.
Like「Eh , isn’t this person a hero?」
[1] (TL : Is this right? if this is right then, demon race = fallen human race.) (ED: mutated animal? Then wouldn’t it mean that they will meet some turtles which use weapons and masks in the future? xD)
[2](TLC: The proxies being the demon race for the destructo guy and the human race for the creation guy.)
[3] (TL ; TRAP!!!!TRAP!!!!TRAP!!!!) (ED: “Captain, there is a trap ahead, what should we do?” “Charge forward boys, cuteness is justice”)