Side Story - Record of Heroes (Patreon)

Side Story - The Journal

Circa Year 124

Harris remembered a series of letters left by Lady Mika of Oakwood Hotel, in it contained tips for tackling the challenges of heroes. Then came Aeon's suggestion of leaving a legacy for the next generation.

“Books are the way and means for the next generation to make sustainable advances. Look at the society today, it is stagnant because so much knowledge is lost when people die in wars and various other causes. Knowledge is confined, boxed in by the existence of skills, and the preferred means of transmitting knowledge across generations is still direct apprenticeships and tutoring.” Gerrard explained at a gathering of the three surviving heroes. He activated his [hero’s forge], and a massive latticework resembling a book appeared.

“You can’t blame them, to be fair. It’s surprisingly difficult to learn skills from books, less so from tutors and apprenticeship programs. Also, language differences and terminology differences in a world where there’s no uniform language of knowledge meant books are very much ‘local’ and ‘region affairs anyway.”

“That, leads to my next point. We should think of a journal as more than just notes. Look, we are in a magical world, and we have star mana which can do all sorts of stuff.”

“What are you on about.”

“Remember the cartoon about the Avatar, where each of them can commune with past Avatars?”

“You watched that?” Harris seemed puzzled. “I wanted to, but I was following the sequel instead...”

Mirei looked lost.

“Point is, what if we could kickstart that cycle. This magical book of ours, as the memory of heroes. Something that future heroes can add. Something all of us will write together.”

“For?”

“We’re weak. We are given gifts of power, but it is clear that the gods have an agenda we have yet to understand, and we may never understand as we face the challenges of multiple demon kings. We will die to one demon king eventually.”

Gerrard lifted a cup of wine.

“And, the gods are meddling with our minds.”

Harris and Mirei nodded.

“We are not strong enough to resist it on our own. You, me, all of us are weak on our own.”

Gerrard made a pose as if he wanted to say something dramatic.

“But what if, what if we can use this book as a means to empower the next generation with not just knowledge, but also spiritual strength. Emotional, spiritual power. A fragment of us, for the next generation to feel, touch, and sense.”

“Won’t that make us weaker?”

“Yes. But a small sacrifice to pay. Together, after many generations of heroes, maybe someone will be able to fully resist the gods.”

The other two didn’t see a reason to stop him, and so work started. They were helped by books, and it was now their turn to write one, or in their case, forge one out of star mana and magical ingredients.

Gerrard put a bit more of himself in the book than the others. The book was made with the strongest, most magically compatible items they could find, and Gerrard spent the most star mana on the book than any other item.

He was driven, inspired by the idea that each generation stood on the shoulders of the giants, to enable the next one to see further, and higher. It was a cause he could believe in. More so than this endless cycle of hunting and fighting demons.

What was the point if this never ended?

It may seem noble, to serve in an eternal watch and vigil against demons. But fools. He believed heroes should do more than that.

A hero should not be a glorified demon hunter.

A hero should change the world.

Gerrard stared at the incomplete magical book. It would never be complete, intentionally so. It begged for each hero to contribute to it, to add to its wealth of sights and sounds, and places and memories. Of dreams and lives in the past. Of love lost, and love found.

If a mind could be downloaded and made into a book, this was as close as Gerrard could do it. It was a time capsule, a letter to the future. To never forget where they came from, and why they are here. Of the peoples they’ve left behind in the home worlds. A biography of their lives, and their past.

“I hope they don’t find me too... preachy.” Harris wondered. “We’ve overdone it, a little.”

If he lived through the next demon king, he would come back to update it. He closed his eyes and remembered the fragments. Those fragments of souls left by his fallen friends. The journey of his friends has ended, and he hoped that the gods did what was promised.

He daydreamed that he would join them someday, that they would all wake up and live life like nothing ever happened.

That they are young children again, on a bus to school.

They were children and young teens, made to fight a war.

The gods robbed him of his childhood, his naivety.

He hoped and he dreamed of his innocence lost. Of young love and what could have been.

Of friends that he never got the meet again, of family he never got a chance to say goodbye to.

He had a lot to give, and he was taken away.

He tried to bottle it all up, and poured it into the book.