Flames.
Everything before her was dyed red by fire as explosions tore through it.
Houses and shops, cars and roads, even the earth and the sky.
At last, the flames that had swallowed everything tried to swallow [me] as well, but in that instant, a "flash" and an "ashen gray" bloomed first and wrapped themselves around [me].
Along with a certain voice that rang out without emotion.
[Confirmed extreme fear of flames. Extra Skill [Flame Manipulation] and Resistance: [Flame Attack Nullification] have been acquired.]
**
"...You mean to take this girl as your disciple?"
"Yes. More precisely, she will be our disciple."
Flames, and then a flash and ashen gray.
"...Where... is this...?"
Before the [girl], who should have died trapped in the flames, stood two people who looked as though that flash and ashen gray had taken human form.
One was a man like an emperor, wearing a dark navy cloak and golden armor. The other was an ash-haired man with a pitch-black longsword hanging at his waist.
In the imagination of the still-young [girl], there was no other way to describe them, so she thought of them as people. But both had long since transcended the bounds of humanity.
"Are you all right?"
Then, after finishing his conversation with the emperor-like man, the ash-haired man spoke.
The man, whose eyes resembled a clear open sky, gave off a bluish aura much like those eyes, then reached out a hand toward the [girl].
"What is your name?"
As his hand gently stroked the [girl]'s head, that bluish aura flowed through his touch and into her body.
By the time that strangely warm energy had spread through her whole body, every burn left on the [girl] had faded as if they had never been there.
It was truly a magical sight.
Witnessing something that felt like a miracle, the [girl] widened her eyes in shock and answered him.
"...Shi...zue..."
Shizue.
This [girl] was the very hero who would one day be called [Shizu].
"Shizue... that's a good name."
Hearing the [girl]'s name, the man drew a faint smile across his lips.
At long last, he had finally met the child who would become his disciple, and so he passed a fragment of the [Hero's Egg] within him on to that [girl].
Praying that this child would never know unhappiness from this day forward.
"You don't need to worry. There is nothing here that can threaten you."
**
From that day on,
the fate of the woman who was meant to die as a demon began to change, little by little, into that of a hero.
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