“…And that’s about the gist of why I couldn’t deflect that ball with「Gust」or「Minor Barrier」.” Sirus wrapped up his explanation to Desmond as he pulled his cart closer to the fountain in the town’s center, now with the three boys in tow. 

“Oh…” Desmond, who now understood the past events of Sirus’s life, lowered his head as he walked. “I’m very sorry, Sirus.” He looked up with a resolved face and clenched his fist, “I’ll be more careful next time!”

Sirus only gave a gentle smile back and laughed. Pretty mature at this age, eh? “Think nothing of it! We all make mistakes, plus, you don’t know me, so it would make sense for you to be fairly confused. Well, none of the potions broke thanks to Mathias and Alrick, so no harm, no foul.”

“…Harm…foul?” Desmond muttered to himself, visibly confused.

“It’s an old saying of the heroes!” Alrick puffed out his chest, visibly proud of himself for knowing that. 

“Speaking of which,” Mathias added on, “You just turned twelve, right? Will this be your first time seeing the summoning festival and the heroes?”

“Yup. Mama and Papa used to tell me to come home by sunset on festival day, but today they told me I was old enough to stay as late as I wanted!” Desmond kicked the ground a little, “Well, as long as I was with friends…" 

Alrick grinned and pointed towards himself. “Well, that’s why Mathias and I are here! We’ll make sure you have so much fun tonight that even your parents get worried!”  

“I did not agree to this…” Mathias quietly sighed as he followed behind them.

For a national festival, twelve was certainly quite a high restriction for seeing the summoning. Sirus, seventeen himself, thought as he walked. From what he had read in the history books and heard from Elder Chryssa, that age restriction wasn’t always in place. Originally, the heroes that came were peaceful and determined, so the Church didn’t mind letting children watch. However, as the years progressed, anomalies occasionally appeared from the ritual.

The summoning, Sirus heard, was designed to transport the souls of the departed over to this world. To conserve mana, their original bodies were left behind, which meant that upon summoning, new bodies were manifested for the spirits to inhabit, ones which typically mirrored their former self. However, it was not a flawless system. Occasionally, the manifestations were the souls’ final requests or one of their passions in their former life. This resulted in oddities, ranging from a metal item box with a glass panel to a straight-up sentient gelatinous ooze. This, as one would imagine, was not something parents wanted their children to see.

By the time the moon had started rising from the east, the four companions had made it to the town center, a hundred-meter diameter circular plaza with a large pool of shimmering water in the center. Surrounding it were benches and flower pots along the shopfronts, restaurants, and cafés at its sides. The whole place had a groundwork of paving stones and fine masonry, fitting of the center of a small but proud town. There were even more people milling around tonight than usual, having dinner and playing games at the various stalls set outside. Sirus waved the trio of boys off as they rushed to visit the booths and weaved through the crowd, approaching a wooden platform elevated above the milling masses. Atop the stage were some servants and workers loaded with decorations and tools preparing for the main event, as well as another man who was shouting orders to them. He spotted Sirus’s approaching figure and hastily made his way over to the cart.

Upon closer inspection, this man, Duke Verona, looked like a stereotypical nobleman. Dressed in very expensive clothing, he was very round and wore a golden goatee upon his pig-like face. As he waddled over the Sirus, his greasy forehead started sweating more than usual, which gave him the appearance of an overweight animal struggling to get to his next meal. Without even as much as giving a look of consideration to Sirus, he greedily grasped the potions and carefully inspected them.

“Here are the potions your highness requested from-“ Sirus tried to say but was cut off with an outstretched hand from the Duke.

“Yes, yes, I know, you mana-less boy. Your job is done, now scram. Payment’s already been sent, don’t think you can get any more from me, you hear?” The Duke brushed Sirus off as if he was just another annoying mosquito trying to suck his blood.

“…I understand, your highness.” Sirus, slightly irked, politely bowed and backed away from Verona, who was still scrutinizing the potions. Even if he didn’t like how he was treated, he had to bear with it. Duke Verona was essentially Ixos’ landlord, mayor, and king. Having power over all of Ixos, the citizens could only accept his snobby behavior, otherwise, they risked punishment ranging from fines to possible imprisonment. The duke especially disliked Sirus because he was mana-less, and therefore in the duke’s eyes, useless. It didn’t help that the duke’s son, while able to dominate his classmates in magic lessons, fell short of Sirus in terms of scores each time there was an exam.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Free from his task, Sirus glanced at the clock tower – around forty minutes until the main event. He walked through the crowd until he found the three boys at a dart-throwing booth and joined in their festivities to while away the time.

=+=

“Citizens of Ixos, underneath the glorious kingdom of Astra, as your host Sutherland Verona, I am proud to celebrate with you all the annual Souls Festival!”

The fat, pig-headed duke stood on stage giving his once-a-year speech to the gathered crowd below the stage. Standing among the villagers were Sirus and the three boys, also watching the spectacle.

“This year,” the duke continued, “our event will be made even more glorious by the rainbow fountain we possess, thanks to my generous funds and planning! If you will!”

He snapped his fingers at a servant, who immediately poured some familiar bottles of liquid into the pool of water in the center of the plaza. Almost instantly, the water in the fountain began to shimmer with prismatic light. Oohs and aahs rose out of the crowd, who was admiring the wondrous spectacle.

“Hey Sirus, aren’t those the same potions that you delivered to the Duke?” Mathias tugged on Sirus’s sleeve.

Nodding, Sirus gave a wan smile.

“Now, as the seconds count down,” the duke continued, “let us see who the gods will send us this year! Let us welcome the new heroes!”

As if on cue, the already shimmering, prismatic waters of the pool shone even brighter, radiating magical light. The crowd gasped in wonder and anticipation. Slowly at first, individual water droplets began rising out of the pool, flying high into the evening air, eventually coalescing into a giant sphere of water above the waiting crowd. Inside the sphere, a shimmering mirage slowly surfaced. As more and more water flowed into the sphere, the ball grew larger and larger, and the image, clearer. Even though Sirus had seen this six times already, the spectacle, which he heard used high-level spells to create, as well as astronomical amounts of mana, never failed to amaze him. With the rest of the crowd, Sirus stood wide-eyed as the shimmering image within the ball cleared up to reveal the spacious interior of a massive cathedral. Within the building, six-meter-long aquamarine banners fringed with gold, all bearing the royal crest, hung next to two-story-tall windows. From the arched ceiling dangled massive chandeliers made of silver, glowing with the light of the sun as thousands of candles shone with warm brilliance from above. From what Sirus had heard before, this was the interior of the giant cathedral located in the heart of Radiance, the royal capital of Astra.

Incredible…  Sirus unconsciously let out a sigh of amazement at the spectacle before him.

As the spectators watched, the projection in the water began to shift downwards, focusing on what appeared to be a circle of robed figures, as well as two other humans. These robed casters were the strongest mages Astra had to offer - the Mage Corps. As for the two figures, Sirus knew from his schooling that they were the leaders of Astra and the kingdom of demihumans, Aliriya – Archbishop Vincent Miria and Princess Iris Silverleaf.

The image projected began to zoom in on the ritual circle. The image was now clear enough to detail the motions and faces of everyone in the summoning. Several of the villagers caught their breath. Sirus knew why. Princess Silverleaf was breathtaking. Her light blue eyes were like crystallizations of a bright morning sky, her silvery hair flowed down her back like fine platinum threads. With the face of a porcelain doll and a beautifully proportioned body, she was sometimes referred to as a goddess herself by the townspeople. While the two leaders seemingly never broke a sweat, the rest of the summoners wore a tired or pained expression, no doubt from their extreme consumption of mana. 

As the villagers, no, everyone in the Astra Kingdom, watched, the chanting grew louder, resonating through the sphere of water alongside the images. The plaza fell silent, everyone waiting with bated breath. Louder and louder, the somatic phrases continued, until-

“Waaah! Look! Sirus! Look! Look!” Alrick cried out, breaking the silence and excitedly pointing at the projection.

Shimmering white orbs of light slowly flickered into existence in the cathedral. Four in total, their radiance grew stronger, and the whole cathedral began to fill with a blinding white light. Soon, the sphere of water became a small sun as it shone with bright radiance, lighting up the village nightscape. A powerful gust of mana-induced wind blasted out from the sphere in all directions, extinguishing torches and festival lights. Everyone in the plaza shielded their eyes and body as they basked in the pure white glow and squall. Eventually, the sphere’s shine faded, and the wind abated, throwing the plaza into darkness. The only source of light was the cathedral projected in the shimmering water.

Within, the mages had stopped chanting. The princess and archbishop were still standing. The scene mirrored what it was five minutes ago.

The only difference was the four new figures in place of the orbs of light.

The time was almost midnight. In the glowing orb of water, the archbishop raised his hands in greeting towards the newly summoned heroes. His expression one of warmth and respect.

“We welcome you to this reality!” He cried out, arms spread wide, “Heroes, we have summoned you to save the world, to slay the demon lord!”