Chapter 1-Astria/A Hiro Reborn

*Rattle**Rattle**Rattle*It was the scenery of an evening party filled with monsters. Various noble demonic races gathered upon this grand banquet hall, dressed in posh suits and colourful silk dresses as if it were a ball created just for humans.

“Cheers to our conquest! Cheers to our demon lord!” resounded across the hall as everyone made a toast to their recent victory over another kingdom’s territory. The ambience of the banquet hall was a very joyous one, but even in such an occasion there was gloom.

Standing at the corner of the room was a young lad with jet black long hair hanging up to his waist and obsidian eyes. He was dressed in a navy blue uniform with a violet cape slinging over his shoulders which gave off a regal appearance despite his young age. The melancholic appearance as seen from his drooping eyelids and subtle frown on his face along with his picturesque face and dressing was a real sight to see. The lad gave a sigh as the victory cheers continued for what he seeks was not glory, but peace instead.

“Vincent, I wish for you to remember this,” resounded a strong and husky voice that came from beside him. It was his father, Vilheim Lukevan II, the demon lord ruling over the entire demon continent. He looked at Vincent for a brief moment before returning his gaze towards the party while saying, “You will inherit my place, and lead the armies not too long in the future. This is the duty that you should be prepared to be burdened with, for all the training and grooming was done solely for this. Remember that.”

Vincent said nothing, but gave a slight nod to express confirmation. The party continued on but the rest was just a distant dream.

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“Hmm….hmm” A figure was turning around in the bed of the dark room. Golden threads of sunlight peered through the holes of the blinds of the window, warmly embracing the sleeper whilst pestering him to wake up to a new day.

“Yaaaaaawn” the figure slowly arose from his warm bed as he opened his heavy eyes. The young teenage boy lazily looked around for a moment before realizing that he was at a foreign place. This brought his clouded mind into a full alert as he search around the room to find some clues on how he arrived here. A simple bed, small wooden desk with a burnt out oil lamp, a small cupboard and other lackluster objects that belonged to the room of a commoner surrounded him.

Vincent who was well accustomed with the high end of society would not imagine his lifestyle changing from a posh and luxuriant environment to such a dull and boring one overnight. Noticing a basin of water placed on the ground, he reached for it to clean himself up as that seems like the only means of doing so to start a fresh new day. Despite being in such a pinch, the calm demon lord acts as per usual from his daily routine. However to his shock, what was reflected of the water surface was not the jet black prince he remembered himself to be, but rather another teenage guy with short dull brown hair. This led the composed demon lord to drop his jaw. Well no longer was he composed nor a demon lord, for now he was just a plain looking hero looking stupidly at himself through the reflection of a basin of water.

“What is going on? Hmm, this scene is rather intriguing as it is enigmatic.” Hiro said to himself. Giving further thought, Vincent searched the depths of his memories just to realize that he now shares the memories of himself and the boy whose body he resided in.

Hiro, a young and plain boy blessed with good friends and a happy life, but no talent. His recent skirmish against the Overlord ended in failure once again for the 23rd time and now he has lost all his companions. Vincent could also clearly recall every event that occurred that led to such a depressing situation. He felt the pains and powerlessness of the boy as though he were the one in his shoes and suddenly had a vague recollection of yesterday’s events. A void space with 7 other people of similar age but different styles and dressings, one of those who stood there was the body he was in currently.

“Hmm, so what happened then was not a dream…”Hiro muttered to himself in deep thought. “So this was what he meant by switching our lives, that voice.”

Well there is no point contemplating over overly complicated things, let me enjoy this new life the way I wish to. Guess even in a new body, the easy going yet peaceful demon lord remains as such. The demon lord now hosted in the body of the young hero slipped into a new set of clothes before opening the door of his room to start his grand new adventure.

*Two hours later*

“This guy is pretty much hated, isn’t he?” Hiro gave a silent complaint about himself as he continued to be the source of various stares, many containing hatred and disgust with occasional glances of pity. Ever since Hiro left his room, he has been given a less than expected hero’s welcome, dreadfully and miserably less indeed.

The inn owner gave him a despondent look and told him to quickly pay his bill which he had accumulated over the last 3 weeks, being one of the few supportive people of Hiro by giving him some encouragement in a not so obvious way. Of course, majority of the townsmen ignored his presence and kids would still throw stones at him, for he was a hero who could not save anyone.

Hiro looked at his dull short sword hanging loosely from his waist, dusty blue cape over his shoulders and that rusted breastplate over his chest and gave another of his usual demon lord sighs. It seems he needed to start this guy’s life from step one, fighting small monsters and gaining tiny bits of reputation to cancel off the negative views of the people. Considering the bad faction relations, he might as well consider himself at step -50 at the moment.

To gain the trust of others, one must prove himself was what Vincent was taught as the heir to the throne of Luzenberg, capital of the demon continent. Therefore as Hiro, he quickly left the town and went to the outskirts to find some fresh prey to test his abilities. Even though Vincent had the memories of Hiro, he needed to test out whether the mana tether concentration in this world is similar to his own and whether he could use spells from his world as well.

Vincent could tell that Hiro was a not so talented swordsman based on memory, but that could be simply adjusted through his drills on the sword style which he had used to practice which was renowned to be peerless. It was the Hero and God Slaying(HGS) sword style which was rumored to decimate countless gods and bring ruin to myriads of heroes and countries. It was ironic for a hero to be learning such notorious things, but was it not more of a joke of fate that the demon lord became a hero in the first place?

While continuing the one man conversation with himself, Hiro noticed that he was finally not alone. He was surrounded. Gleaming red eyes shone from the forest depths and as the figures approached he noticed that it was a pack of seven wolves. Hiro then gave a grin as he composedly waved his hand as if gesturing the wolves to attack. The wolves began their assault regardless of the hand signal, indicating the start of Hiro’s first new fight.

Now then, how should I begin? Hiro thought to himself.

(This is the transition phase to accustomize the characters in their new bodies, over time their new names are integrated into their thought processes to avoid further confusion)

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

A spark of brilliance entered his mind as Hiro drew his dull short sword and prepared his stance against the seven wolves. He patiently waited as he observed the wolves approached him at a swift pace. The wolves looked at the boy as if easy prey as it was seven on one and he does not seem to be well equipped either. Without a meal for three days, any wolf pack would rush upon such easy prey without much thought.

Almost there… within my killing range. Hiro’s eyes then grew sharp as he swung his blade continuously to form 5 different arcs while gracefully walking past the rushing wolves as if going on an evening stroll. He then raised his hand to strike his missing jet black long bangs, before muttering out with a small smile of victory, “Crimson Quintet Arc”.

The very next moment, the seven wolves behind his back bloomed as if a bouquet of red roses, leaving behinds a red mass of blood and entrails. Hiro felt very satisfied with the HGS sword style being perfectly performed in this body, and remembered the countless days his former soulmate had spent to refine his sword skills. Sadly, without a proper sword style even with hard work, it does not reward itself. Ever sadder, Hiro remembered the single flaw that he could not wave his once present bangs while executing his move, losing some elegance points in his mind.

That did not came out so well, he thought as he wanted to go search for more poor enemies to test his skills on. Gruuuuuuuuughhhh, Oops. A loud sound rang out from Hiro’s stomach as he realized in embarrassment. Hiro had no eaten anything since the start of the day and it seems that he had gotten hungry.

Looking back at the seven corpses, Hiro then sighed. He began to take out his firestarting kit and gather some wood before setting up a fire to cook up some lunch. Using the flint stone and his previous tenants memories of kindling a fire, the once spoiled demon lord who had dishes served to him by maids made his very first meal, roasted wolf meat. He also remembered some survival skills and began to smoke some of the extra wolf meat and adding some salt to make some dry rations before continuing his journey.

While leaving the meat undergoing smoking alone, Hiro went to practice on more foes not too far away to acclimatize himself with his new body until night fell. Hiro then returned back to his campsite and began pitching his tent cover based on his memories, before settling in for the night. Hiro then lay down while facing the night sky as he stared at the glittering sky.

This life is all not too bad so far, but I wonder if the others back home are okay without me. Well considering the fact that someone else has taken my place, I am sure they can do a better job than me as I am nothing but a peace loving idiot.

Hiro then slowly reached his hand out into the sky as he wondered which among those faraway stars is where he used to belong.

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Over the course of the next few days, Hiro ventured further into the outskirts and traversed from the plains close to the town into the dense jungle which was known for various strong monsters. Hiro also began practicing mana spells not only from this world, but also that from his own as he realized that the concept of magic in both worlds remained the same.

Hiro also recounted the times where he was formerly a demon lord and had to face a few groups of heroes. Some of them had unique chanting sequences which he believed as a hero, it was a prerequisite for him to learn.

“Oh the darkness in thine hand, unleash upon the dark flames in this world and relinquish the evil demon lord, Brummingheidr!” was one of such an example Hiro remembered. So let me see, copying the stock phrase, relinquish the evil person and skill name, this should be easy. Hiro said confidently as he approached a group of orcs.

The orcs realized his presence and being the savages they are, took up their clubs and stone spears and started charging at Hiro. Hiro was prepared for these orcs as he has faced tigers, spiders, kobolds and many other residents in these jungle and a small group of orcs would just be another addition to his killing list.

Hiro stretched out his hand and said out monotonously,”Oh darkness in thine hand, unleash upon the dark flames in this world and relinquish the evil orcs…..hmm wait a minute, something is not right.” Hiro’s stretched hand was then raised to show a stop sign as he muttered “Quel Vie Da Avista, Orbius.” (Lock them in time, Orbius) And the land containing the approaching orcs was then frozen as all life ceased to move. The previous chant was one native to his previous homeland when he still reigned as the demon lord.

Hmm, that did not sound right. Hiro scratched his chin as he slowly recalled how the other heroes did it. Hiro then realized he made two mistakes after some thought. He could not just wholesale copy that stock phrase and say it like a sentence, but he had to say it out with pride and confidence and also enforce his idea of peace in it. Thus, he came up with his newly improvised phrase.

“Oh the darkness in thine hand, in the name of peace unleash upon the dark flames in this world and relinquish the evil orcs, fire storm!” he said out in a loud and confident tone as flaming rocks were about to land on the orcs in front of him. However due to Orbius, the rocks floated in mid air above the orcs at the radius of the field where time has been frozen.

“Oops, my bad….Fien Via, Orbius!”(Release them, Orbius)Hiro then said as the time field closed and the orcs had a splt of a second to move before the the rocks landed on them, leaving behind nothing but craters. The sorry sight of the pitiful orcs meant nothing to Hiro as he believed this was for the peace of the world and he was only cowardly when it came to menacing debates which his introverted self hate so much.

“Well then, I should go and practice more” Hiro said with a smile as he ventured deeper into the jungle, not knowing it is the home of one of the world’s titans.

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Well this concludes Chapter 1-Astria, so what will happen to Hiro in the future? Who is that titan laying in the depths of the jungle? Will he stop his indiscriminate slaughter of pitiful things? Find out next time on Chapter 2-Astria!

On the side note, what would happen to Vincent’s body as he is messing around in another world? This is what we shall find out next. Tehe!

“God, stop fooling around and do your job!” a young girl shouted out at the space. She had blonde hair drooping down her shoulders with beautiful white wings sprouting out of her back and was dressed in a cute white sleeveless one piece dress which one would immediately scream out angel without a doubt.

“And who is that you are talking to!”

“Nobody, nothing really. Sigh, okay so we need to finish these documents huh” the voice said as if referring to the sky high pile of documents which one read out.

‘Rain Oblivion on XXX in 523 years, confirm? Y/N’

Sigh, my job is so boring…I want to go out and play.

“Just keep quiet and do your job! And who do you keep talking to!?” the nagging continues from the sweet looking angel in the endless void.