The distance from the forest to the gate isn't far, so as we approach a commotion occurs, like with Falacia, at the sight of the Hero approaching, except a bit faster this time and with a much larger crowd.

"Great Hero!! Welcome to Thelian Town." The Overseer says as he comes out to greet me and the boy. Fortunately his reaction seems friendly at least, so the Hero probably had a pretty decent reputation right? I'm hoping it's not fear or just customs that are having him act this way. I drop the boar on the ground by the gate with a large thud! that earns some surprised gasps from the crowd. I quickly say, "I didn't kill it, he did, I just wanted to help him carry it here." I don't want to seem dishonest since the blade that killed it was a dagger that I don't have.

The Overseer nods and says, "We are honored to receive such a distinguished guest and thank you for assisting our little one here. By the way," he pauses and looks around behind me, "I hope I do not appear rude in asking this but although I have never seen you in person before it seems your party is not present."

My heart drops to my stomach as I know what he will ask me next and I swallow nervously as he continues, "Where have they gone Great Hero?"

The lively atmosphere quiets down gradually as I hang my head and don't respond for a moment. Without looking up, I bring out the pieces of their armor and the horn from the Dragon Emperor's skeleton, holding them out in front of me. "They're... gone," I say just loud enough for them to hear me. It feels wrong, but I need to act as dejected and defeated as possible. If I didn't, they would no doubt suspect something, or worse, think I was some cold-hearted uncaring monster.

Gasps, this time in concern and disbelief, arise from the crowd and the Overseer's elderly smile falls. "Oh... I'm so sorry to hear that Hero. Would you mind if I have my armorer inspect these before we send word to the Capital?" He asks reverently. I nod and gently hand them over. He pauses at the horn, "This is the horn of the late Dragon Emperor is it not?!" He exclaims. I nod again. "I was told he perished not long ago but.. don't tell me! The Spectral Sorcerer summoned him?!"

I nod for the third time. The Overseer begins pacing, "Oh what unfortunate circumstances. You were only summoned a few months ago and to go up against such a world-ending threat like that so soon would no doubt be suicide. And yet here you are. No wonder your armor is in the state it is right now." he says woefully.

The little boy, who had been quiet this whole time eating some of the berries in his basket begins to say, "Actually he did-" but I quickly scoot over and cover his mouth, cringing as green goo covers my hand from his messy snack, "Yes, truly a tragedy." I say, trying to sound as upset as possible while struggling to keep the little boy from saying something that could undermine my entire cover story. The Overseer is a bit confused but I quickly say, "I didn't want him to say something hurtful about my party members, as children often have no filter on their thoughts. I'm very tired and hungry, and would appreciate it if I could rest and recover after such a terrible experience."

The Overseer nods and beckons me in "Of course Hero, my apologies, how callous of me," he says, also ordering the guards to bring the spiked boar inside. They struggle despite having 4 of them, and the guards open the gate to allow me inside without a token. I remove my hand from the boy's mouth and whisper sorry! to him as I walk towards the gate. He stares at me in contempt, sticking his green tongue out at me for a moment before returning to continue snacking on his basket of berries.

I can't help but look around in wonder at the massive gate and wall that surrounds the town. The gate has two levels, one for flying visitors as well, and as I watch a featherfallen, or a humanoid being with white wings on their backs and long feathery tails, flies up to the gate and is let in by the featherfallen guard. Thelian is massive compared to my village. There is much more infrastructure for featherfallen, and streams and underwater homes rest underneath the normal houses. I've never seen aquatic species before, but I have heard of their existence. I remember something important and walk up to the Overseer, mentioning, "By the way, it seems other than bits and pieces of the battle with the Spectral Dragon Emperor, I can't remember much of anything. I've tried to recall, but it seems the final attack that took the Dragon Emperor's and my party's lives took my memory as well. All of my supplies were lost too."

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He looks over very concerned, pausing in the middle of the street, "Oh how horrible! This must all seem so new and strange to you, my deepest apologies for not picking up on that when you did not call your party by their names. I will have a guide assigned to you and inform the Capital as well." He says, calling over a messenger who quickly writes everything down and hands it off to a featherfallen.

He pauses before the male feathered figure flies away and says, "Oh, by the way, this here is a featherfallen, one of the main species inhabiting this city. We also have humans of course and animen, such as that gentleman over there," He says while pointing at a man with a very furry body reminiscent of a bobfel (fel-aka felinial). He wore pants but no shirt and had a furry head with a bit of longer hair where humans would have hair, but fluffy bobfel ears and a short tail. He didn't have shoes either, and I saw that a lot of them were dressed this way excluding the females. One of the Hero's original party was an animan as well, but a normal fel type instead with more pointy ears and a long striped tail who wore armor and special shoes.

He continues, "as well as Echidnas which are kind of snake-like people that you don't see very often, and finally most of our aquatic species are Naiads." He says, pointing at a blue and green female getting out of the water wearing a skirt only, but her upper body was smooth and bare. Her long, smooth white lower half with a paddle split tail quickly unfused and became humanoid legs with feet like short flippers. Her hair was similar to seaweed and her hands and underarms retained their webbed folds. I never noticed it before but the ground here was covered in soft green moss, likely to be comfortable for those with more delicate appendages.

We finally approach what seems to be the center of the city with a tall building that has several entrances for the different species. We enter through the front and I am brought down a hallway with what appears to be several guest rooms. "Feel free to take off your armor and relax while you are here. If you leave your armor outside the door we will gladly have our armorer restore it and I'll have someone deliver your food outside the door as well." The Overseer says quickly, politely taking his leave in a bit of a hurry as he is likely a very busy man.

I thank the attendant and sigh once inside the room. There is a window with curtains, a small desk with pencil and paper, and a comfy-looking bed in the room but nothing else. I finally am able to take off the armor, which isn't hot despite the weather, just a bit stuffy. I place it outside the door, thanking the heavens that the room has a lock, picking up my food that was left there too. As I crunch some fried potato crisps, I stare at the much more modern 'electric' light on the wall that would have been powered by magic in Falacia.

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I can remove my other armor pieces in the presence of others, just not my helmet. I doubt very many people have seen the hero's body without armor before, or so I hope, so I shouldn't have an issue if I get injured or specific sections get damaged. It would only be a problem if I needed my helmet fixed. I'm not quite sure what would happen if the helmet was broken somehow, but I figure if I'm in a situation like that I'll either be dead or everyone will have much better things to worry about. I'm not sure what would happen if someone saw me right now, but I have a feeling gods would have no problem erasing the memory of or eliminating whoever it was with the fate of the world on the line.

The fate of the world, huh?

I lie back on the bed and sigh heavily. I don't know who the hero was back on his home world, but I bet he was someone much more qualified than me. There wasn't much I could have done, but I can't help but think that I should have tried to help the Hero more to prevent his death. Do I really have what it takes to do this?

I turn over on my side and stare at the Valiant Effort token my village gave me, thinking casually about the fact that this is my first time ever having traveled so far from the village. I hope everyone is doing ok without me, I wonder, as I fall asleep from the exhaustion of the day's events.