In the year 770 of Pioneering History, in the Reeves Manor of the Baronry of Reed situated in the southwest of the Human Kingdom - Heracles, a boy was born and named Byron Reed by his father.
The elderly Baron and his wife, well aware that this was their second and final child, showed him endless affection.
Everyone happily welcomed the baby's arrival except for one person - Byron’s own brother, Javi Reed, who was nearly twenty years older. Simply put, there would be one more person to share the inheritance with.
Byron was brought up with the love of his parents. At three, his mother personally taught him to read in the study, and at five, his father taught him their family’s traditional sword techniques on the training ground. Byron never failed to meet expectations. He was clever, quick to learn and clearly had a talent far surpassing his peers and particularly his mediocre older brother.
For Javi, Byron’s potential was increasingly terrifying. Initially, Javi had only been upset about having to share the family wealth. But now, he was slowly realizing that the title of Baron, which was destined to be bestowed upon him, seemed to have another more suitable candidate.
The Baronry of Reed was located relatively close to the frontlines where the Human Kingdom did battle with the Demon Tribe. From an early age, Byron was lectured about how humans and demons were natural enemies. Thus, he redoubled his efforts in honing his swordsmanship.
In the 780th year of Pioneering History, when Byron turned ten, the Capital was abuzz with exciting news. A hero from another world had arrived as humanity's savior, destined to eradicate the demonic race and bring eternal peace to the humans. This news was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from the public.
Legends claimed that one year of the hero's training would be equivalent to eight years for ordinary people. Upon hearing this, Byron was filled with admiration and envy for the hero. He yearned to join the Hero's Squad and thus began training even harder, vowing to fight alongside the hero.
Only two years passed until news came that the hero had completed all his training in the capital and was ready to subdue the weaker demonic tribes.
Even though he hadn't been selected for the reserves of Hero's Squad, Byron still believed in himself. He could defeat the weakest demons one on one and that filled him with confidence.
In the 785th year of Pioneering History, when Byron was fifteen, there had been fewer and fewer attacks from the lower-grade demons. The reason was evident; the hero had relentlessly been defeating them and even took down three lower-grade demon leaders. The elusive Slime King was the only one remaining.
In the same year, Byron defeated his older brother for the first time in a face-off on the training field. But this did not bring him joy because he knew that with his growth rate, he would never be able to become a member of the Hero's Squad.
Heartbroken Byron quickly set a new goal for himself. He told Javi that he aimed to become the best sword in his brother's hand when he grew up. If there was a war with the demons, Javi, who would be inheriting the Baron's title, would only need to stay in the territory and protect the subjects. Meanwhile, Byron would lead the fighters to defeat the invading demons.
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This commitment brought tears to the eyes of their parents, the butler, and the servants, all of whom believed in him, except for Javi Reed.
In the following years, messages of Hero's victories started pouring in one after another. As a result, areas not protected by the hero were attacked by demons more frequently. The situation was in a delicate balance.
Until one day, all the human elites felt a strong aura coming from the southwest. This indicated that the true Demon King had awakened.
In fact, neither the human hero nor the demon king necessarily had to be summoned from another world. Humans had a tiny chance of being born as heroes, endowed with talent beyond mortal reach, and mature quickly. Similarly, every demon had a chance of awakening as the demon king for reasons no one knew about, and only after several prolonged periods of hibernation could they appear in their complete form.
As the Demon King woke up fully formed, the equilibrium between humans and demons tilted once again. Morale was low in the human army that lacked a hero, while the demons' spirits were high.
The balance of power started to tilt in the following years. The humans turned from offense to defense as the frequency of the hero's squad's raids on demons gradually decreased. The tacit understanding between the two parties was a signal that the all-out battle was imminent.
As the old baron aged, Javi started to take over various governmental affairs of the Reed Baronry, while Byron started training the guards. All this preparation was for the inevitable battle.
In the 790th year of the Pioneering History, the entire Human Kingdom celebrated the news that the Gods were to bestow divine grace on the hero in the capital city.
Witnessed by a million people in the capital, the hero's body slowly radiated a comforting force that put the entire city at ease. The Goddess of Light, Olivia, who was worshiped by the Kingdom of Heracles, descended to personally appoint the hero as her representative and changed her sacred name from Goddess of Light to Goddess of Victory, filling the entire kingdom with a conviction of certain victory.
Then, no surprisingly, the full-scale war between humans and demons began.
The human army endlessly marched towards the battlefield located in the demon territories, Reed's battalion was amongst them. Byron, now 20 years old, fulfilled the promise he made five years ago. As per his promise, he recruited and personally trained the young and robust men from his father's dominion and headed to the battlefield.
Five months later, during a war council at the main headquarters, the elder Reed received reports claiming that the ten thousand-strong force that included Byron and his two thousand soldiers had completely perished in a battle at the lightless gravesite.
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Several years, decades, perhaps even longer, a skeletal hand emerged from the soil of the Lightless Grave, followed by another hand and a skull with the flame of a soul burning inside.
A transformed skeleton was born.
He wandered aimlessly for many years before the confusion in his soul gradually cleared, restoring minimal awareness.
However, his memory remained tangled, only giving him fleeting feelings of familiarity at the sight of certain inexplicable items.
He came up with a name - Byron. He asked all the self-aware skeletons, but they all responded that they had never heard of it before. So, he believed this was his own name.
Years passed, and the skeletons discovered that this introverted transformed skeleton called Byron was the most articulate of them all, so they elected him as their leader in charge of the monthly meetings.
Time passed this way until one day, the newly born Demon King thrust a dagger into Byron's skull, making him experience death once again, only to resurrect him afterward.
Perhaps it was because he died again; after that, Byron's memories transformed from a wound ball of yarn into scattered beads. Although they were still hard to chase, the fragments Byron could remember kept increasing.
When he finally recalled all the fragments, he decided to find the string that could piece together all his memory-beads. So, he went to Count Reed Territory and started remembering everything.