Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyuu no Isekaitan - Volume 6 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Stories

Celia Estrella Elizabeth von Grantz

Ever since she was little, she had dreamed of being a warrior. Her mother was a woman of great courage, her father said, and would probably have made High General had she been born a man. Yet by the time Liz was any more than a baby, she no longer had a mother at all. Her siblings did, but not her.

She wished. She begged. Night after night, she wept, desperately wondering why that was so. So there was a certain irony in the fact that when her father finally told her about the woman her mother had been, she set her heart on following in her footsteps. The elder sister responsible for her education warned her that it would not be an easy road for a woman to walk, but she would not be dissuaded. Every day, she watched the grown-ups training and tried to copy what they did. She wanted to be somebody who could bring a smile to the faces of all the people in the land, like a hero from the old stories.

Mother... What will it take for me to get stronger?

The image of a mother whose face she couldn’t even remember passed through Liz’s mind as she gazed up at the sky. More specifically, her attention was fixed on the towering statue of one of the Twelve Divines. Nobody imperial-born could fail to recognize the legendary commander that was the War God—the second emperor and the Hero King of Twinned Black.

I just keep falling short. I want to be better, but I don’t know how...

Physical training alone would not lead to strength. Realizing that she needed wisdom too, she had appealed to Rosa and Aura for help and now spent her days immersed in study. Still, time was in short supply. She could feel her goal growing closer with every step she took, but the distance left to traverse remained dizzyingly vast.

It’s so far away...but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.

She was stubborn, if nothing else. She prided herself on being able to best anyone in tenacity.

Even so, she was not immune from wanting to vent her frustrations from time to time. On days like that, she came to gaze at the statue of the War God. On the deserted boulevard, against the backdrop of the night sky, she let her mind fill with thoughts of the empire’s founder. Perhaps she was only averting her eyes from reality, but as shallow as the act was, it did help her feel a little stronger.

“Please, mother...lend me your strength.”

The letter was her mother’s only keepsake. It had grown faded over the years, dog-eared and torn from repeated readings, covered in tear-tracks from Liz’s younger years. As she read by the light of the moon, her heart grew a little warmer in her chest.

“I’m all right now. I can keep going.”

The letter was twelve pages in all—short enough to read through in a few minutes. Yet while others might think it brief, to Liz, it was enough for a lifetime.

“Goodbye for now.”

Her voice rose to the clear night sky, where the stars twinkled brilliantly. Her gaze lingered on them for a moment, and then she turned on her heel and walked back to her horse. She meant to return to the palace. Instead, she stopped. There stood a black-haired boy with the moon at his back.

“Hiro?”

“I was out for a walk when I saw your horse. I thought we could go back together.” He scratched his cheek bashfully as he approached, reins in hand.

Liz stepped up to him with a smile. “Why don’t we walk?”

He couldn’t ride, as she knew very well. She could have let him share her saddle, but they had been so preoccupied in recent days that they hadn’t had a chance to talk, so why waste the opportunity? She was no stranger to the importance of deepening a bond through mundane conversations and frivolous words.

“Maybe we should. The stars are beautiful tonight.”

With a faint smile, Hiro looked up at the night sky. The stars held his gaze for a long moment. He seemed to find as much comfort in them as Liz did. Yet in profile, his face was tinged with loneliness and seemed so frail that he might disappear at any moment.

When would he tell her the truth? When would he reveal his real identity and his real past? It was silly, this act she put on, where she pretended that she suspected nothing. But she was prepared to wait until he was ready. For now, she would simply stay by his side. For now, that was enough. She might not yet be reliable enough for him to lean on, but that would change in time, or so she hoped.

And what then? Will he tell me everything then?

She would watch, and she would wait, believing the day would come that he revealed what truly lay in his heart. And in the meantime, she would hold fast to words unspoken and feelings unshared, like a canopy of stars glimmering in the night sky.