“What is?” Sir Henri Inolet asked back to Alissa while blinking his eyes in some confusion.
Most annoyingly, thanks to her skill keeping her mind calm and rational, Alissa could tell that the confusion he had was genuine rather than feigned. She was prepared for an angry lecture from him, maybe some empty platitudes further praising those who had sacrificed their lives for a greater good, or other such things. Genuine confusion was something she had not prepared for, however.
“Their deaths,” Alissa clarified as she glanced towards the coffins being covered with soil by the temple guards at work. The way they worked in silent precision and filled the graves in a fashion that resembled a ritual showed her just how much value and respect they gave to the dead. Still, no amount of respect would bring someone from the dead. “I know you said that our… companions were there to benefit from our presence, but was that benefit something worth dying for?” she asked once more. “It would have been more efficient if you had just thrown the three of us into that dungeon and locked us inside until we killed everything. We can’t die, after all.”
“A fine question, Miss O’Connor,” replied the old knight with a surprisingly approving nod. “It pleases my heart that you care for the people of our world, rather than just treat us as disposable pawns. Far too many [Heroes] in history had done that instead,” added the old knight with a sigh. “But yes, What we could gain from fighting alongside heroes like you… they were most definitely worth dying for.”
“Please allow me to clarify that first before you ask more questions,” said the old knight as he held a hand up to allay Alissa’s obvious question. “By fighting alongside [Heroes] like you from your weakest times, the feats that could be attained are the only known route to receive what is by far the strongest class options natives like us could have,” he explained. “Moira? Could you come over for a moment, lass?”
“Yes, sir?” asked Moira. The young female soldier had been the same one who had led Alissa and Ethan to the armory back then, and had also fought alongside them over the past week. She walked towards Sir Inolet with a bright smile on her face as she stopped before them and snapped off a crisp military salute. “Anything I can help with?”
By then the conversation had also attracted Ethan’s attention, who turned to face them, clearly keeping an ear to what was being talked about. Joshua just scoffed and stayed aloof as per his usual self, though.
“Please get Her Royal Highness the Fifth Princess and everyone else who earned their third tier over,” said the old knight with a nod. “That will be all, thank you.”
“Yes, Sir! Consider it done!” replied Moira spiritedly as she nodded and left. The Fifth Princess and the rest of the party’s remaining members were just a short distance away, but to call them by shouting during a funeral would have been the height of rudeness. The young guard swiftly walked over and brought the rest of the party over.
“Now, Miss O’Connor, have you tried to use [Analysis] on them after the last battle?” asked the old knight.
Alissa shook her head decisively. She had far too many things in her mind at the time, especially shortly after her [Respawn]. After that, her thoughts were mostly taken over by worries about her new class and the implications it pointed to. During the trip back she was also too tired to think about other matters, so she had not thought of using the skill.
A quick look at the Fifth Princess returned a result of [Royal Daughter Lvl20/Royal Squire Lvl20/Hero’s Companion: Knight Princess Blademaster Lvl1]. Moira’s result was [Knight’s Child Lvl20/Royal Guard Lvl20/Hero’s Companion: Swift Royal Guard Halberdier Lvl1]. Bronwen returned a [Orphan Lvl20/Temple Guard Lvl20/Hero’s Companion: Fearless Temple Guard Defender Lvl1]. Alissa did not miss out on the implication of the third tier classes that the three received.
Out of the remaining six survivors of the party, half also reached the third tier, while the other half were close to it and were expected to reach that goal after a few more days. It was partly due to how the “experience” and “levels” in this world worked. Nobody had any way to measure how much experience they received after each battle, or how close they were to the next level. They only had a vague feeling about it, which made plans like what the party did in the dungeon, trying to get everyone to level up after one battle, difficult to enact perfectly.
Osmond and Glenn of the Royal Guards, as well as Silvia from the Temple Guards, had yet to gain their third tier due to that difficult-to-measure quantity of experience gain. As for the other three, a pair of Temple Guards named Benedictus – Gregorius’ younger brother – and Leda gained their third tiers, along with a Royal Guard named Maribel.
Their [Analysis] results returned [Priest’s Child Lvl20/Temple Guard Lvl20/Hero’s Associate: Ruthless Temple Guard Avenger Lvl1], [Farmer’s Child Lvl20/Temple Guard Lvl20/Hero’s Associate: Blessed Healing Hand], and [Dancer’s Child Lvl20/Royal Guard Lvl20/Hero’s Associate: Agile Royal Guard Sword-Dancer Lvl1] respectively.
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“You have seen their classes now, yes?” the old knight asked kindly, almost like an old grandfather talking to their granddaughter and patiently teaching them. “No doubt you have noticed that the classes they gained are not what one would have ordinarily expected. Those classes and the subsequent ones they will receive are what they earned with their efforts fighting alongside you three.”
“I… see…” muttered Alissa. She had naturally further checked the classes with her [Analysis], picking Moira’s class to check. The result she received was:
[Hero’s Companion: Swift Royal Guard Halberdier]
A brave Royal Guard who had fought alongside the Heroes from their very beginning, a Companion through thick and thin.
Companion to be cherished, loyal ally from the start, may you be blessed with the swiftness with which to dispatch those who stood in the Heroes’ way.
Naturally, Alissa then picked one of the others to compare it with, opting to check Benedictus’ new class.
[Hero’s Associate: Ruthless Temple Guard Avenger]
A brave soul who aided the Hero’s journey from the beginning, at the cost of a loved one.
Warrior who stood by the Hero’s side, may the rightful vengeance for the lost loved one be driven to the core of those who stood the Heroes’ path.
Despite the one-word difference in the additional class name, the actual descriptions said… a lot. Alissa could tell that those with [Hero’s Companion] likely gained more benefits than the [Hero’s Associate] ones. When she thought back to the dungeon run of the past week, she realized that the Fifth Princess, Moira, Bronwen, and the late Gregorius had always been part of the team that joined them in more direct fighting.
Back then, she had attributed that to Sir Inolet wanting them to acclimatize to fighting in a small team first so as not to overwhelm them. Now she realized that those four had been specifically chosen to accompany them so they would receive the better class later on. The thought naturally brought another question to Alissa’s inquisitive mind, however.
“Why only the four of them?” she asked, referring to the four – now three – people who had been made to accompany them in battle so often. Her thought then moved on to correlate the issue with a larger one as she continued to press the question to Sir Inolet, not without some confusion in her mind. “For that matter, why only the twenty of them? I’m assuming that the classes they get are only available for that particular tier or lower, but surely the Kingdom has more youngsters at their second tiers around?”
“Excellent question once again, Miss O’Connor,” replied Sir Inolet with a satisfied look on his face. While the old knight was a stern taskmaster, he liked it a lot when one of his students was inquisitive and quick on the uptake. Alissa certainly ticked both of those qualities. “This is something you would not have learned unless you delved deep into our history books. Allow me to explain with the short and simpler version.”
“Please do, Sir.”
“We have noticed those who gained the classes of [Hero’s Companion] and [Hero’s Associate] since many, many generations ago. Quite naturally, people tried to group the next batch of heroes to be summoned with as many people as they could,” explained the old knight with an authoritative tone of voice, much like a teacher. “That led to one of the worst defeats of human history instead.”
“Why so?”
“Because out of the thousands of people they made accompany the [Heroes] only a very small minority even gained any benefit, and worse, the benefit was so greatly diluted near the point of pointlessness,” said the old knight. “All that attempt had done was to cause the heroes of that generation to be underleveled, their growths delayed,” he continued with a wistful voice. “They were all too weak when the war started, and we lost miserably, or at least, that was what the history books recorded.”
“I see,” replied Alissa with a nod. “There’s some limit to this… achievement, then?”
“Exactly so. The twenty we sent with you was a number that had been chosen after generations of trial and error, as was their overall power levels. In theory if we could send a first tier child to be one of the [Hero’s Companion] then that child would grow to be the most powerful human being possible,” said the old knight as he elaborated further. “That option was not at all practical however. Those who wished to earn these classes need to fight and contribute to the journey of the [Heroes]. A child of that level would be less than useless in such a situation.”
“And on the flipside, sending people already in their third tiers would mean that they only get to benefit from the new class at the fourth tier onwards. I’m assuming that if the Princess and the others reach fourth tier, they would get an even better class than that hypothetical third tier companion, yes?” asked Alissa as she thought about the scenario in her mind.
“Yes, precisely so, Miss O’Connor,” happily replied the old knight. “Our history books recorded that those who gained either [Hero’s Companion] or [Hero’s Associate] would go on to make their own mark in history after the [Heroes] returned to their homes,” he said spiritedly. “In fact, the current King’s grandfather, the Princess’ great-grandfather, was a [Hero’s Companion] from the previous generation of [Heroes]. He was the only one who survived the war amongst them.”
Alissa nodded at the answer. The war between the humans and demons in that world had gone on in a cyclical fashion, with hostilities exploding whenever new [Heroes] and [Champions] were summoned to their respective sides. The fighting itself was often heavily back-and-forth. The humans had won four consecutive wars in the past, and pushed hard to the point that the demon territory was nearly halved in size. Then they lost the last three wars, where the demons pushed and claimed parts of formerly human territory in turn.
“As you might have guessed, four was also the ideal number we found for [Hero’s Companions]. That said, both of those numbers were chosen with the assumption of a casualty rate of half or more during the process,” added the old knight. “We are slightly below expectation in terms of total number of survivors, but since three of the four prospective companions survived, the overall result could be considered to be better than expected.”
“I see the point you made, Sir Inolet,” said Alissa with an understanding nod. The entire idea of sending in people to their deaths in the hopes of gaining power still sickened her, but she learned to accept that the people of this world also had their own way of life. A way of life they likely adapted to from the circumstances they lived in. She didn’t like it, but she could understand their point of view, to an extent. “I thank you for having clarified my doubt.”
“That’s what I’m here for, girl.”