A Side Villain…

Going back home in a merchant’s carriage pulled by mana beasts was more than enough to get the attention of all the residents living in lower and middle districts of Origin city. Normally you won’t see this means of transportation in the city as it was a ‘status symbol’.

 

A symbol used by the rich to reinstate the ideology of the divide that was ever present in their lives with rich being able to afford all the luxuries and poor not so much. 

 

So when the carriage drawn by two beautiful white horse mana beasts stopped right in front of Akira’s house everyone in the neighborhood had gathered to see what was going on. First a maid of the Feodor household came out, second a butler and then they opened the main door.

 

Everyone was looking with anticipation as to who would come out of the carriage and sure enough help but get jarred up when Akira stepped out of it and looked at them with a smirk on his face. 

This entire situation was making no sense for the onlookers as Akira’s reputation was pretty bad and their family was also an average one not having finances to showcase something like this so right now the situation looked out of place.

 

“Thank you so much Mary-san.” Akira bowed to the maid who opened the gate for him.

 

“No need for that master Akira. You are the benefactor of our house, it’s the least we could do for you.” The maid said in a polite manner.

 

“Well why don’t you and Mr.Gerald come inside to meet my parents? We could have some tea and snacks.” He offered.

 

“Thank you for your offer master Akira but we have to decline as we need to get back to our master as quickly as possible, there’s a delicate situation there demanding our presence.” the butler Gerland replied.

 

“Oh yes, how could I forget about that? Well thank you two for dropping me.”

“Anytime master Akira.” They both said in perfect sync and returned to Ivan’s estate with the carriage.

 

“It’s strange why hasn’t mom or dad came out even after all this?” He thought.

 

Somehow even after all this commotion his parents had not came outside of the house so he walked in front of the house and knocked it twice but still there was no response from inside.

 

“Maybe mom has gone to buy the groceries and other necessities.”  During this time of the day Evelyn would always go outside and buy the necessary items for the household.

 

“Shit she has locked the gate.” He muttered to himself and sighed.

 

By now the crowd had dispersed and all of them went back with a lot of unanswered questions whose answers they wanted to know but didn’t have the courage to step forward and ask Akira.

 

Akira suddenly remembered that his mom hides a spare key under one of the flower vases that are kept near the door. After searching for a bit he found the key under one of them and opened the door.

 

It was evening and the weather was pretty humid making it a perfect time to take a good soaking in the bathtub which he did and it has to said that it felt heavenly. The water took away all the built up frustration, soreness and the mental fatigue leaving him in a jovial mood.

 

“Come to think of it, Ivan and other members of Dark Swords have met the emperor.” He said to himself.

 

“And they narrated the whole incident which definitely included my fight with Amelia’s puppet though it was a good thing that they concealed the fact that I had true fire skill.”

 

“But why were they asking whether I was a godkin? No, in the first place what exactly is a godkin?”  Akira asked himself.

 

According to him when he played the game there was no concept of a Godkin in the Origin continent, sure there were gods worshiped by the people and other races but it was a minor thing.

 

The true belief system of this world relied on the concept of ‘true power’ meaning that the one who holds the bigger stick rules the others and can do anything he wants.

 

It was truly a great thing for Akira that Ivan and Dark Swords did not give anything about his skills which otherwise could have caused a huge shock in not only Akira’s life but in the entire continent as his skill was most likely to be perceived as that of a Godkin.

 

Godkin’s are said to be descendents of the six true gods, four males and two females that roamed this World ages ago and since that a lot of folk tales and stories have been made up relating to them.

 

One of those stories narrates that one day one of these six gods descended from the skies up above and helped the human race which were quite primitive at that time and were hunted down by the other races. 

 

This one was called God of Light and overtime he became the first entity to be worshiped in a real sense. On one hand where humans revered him the beastkins and demons hated him and sought to either eradicate him or bring upon their own gods.

 

Their prayers were answered as soon enough two new gods arrived in the world, one was God of Darkness worshiped by Demons and other was ‘Narsimha’ the beastkin god.

 

These gods were also the ones that introduced the ‘system’ and subsequent ‘spells’ and ‘skills’ that the residents of this world use to the very present day. Many people doubt the validity of many stories relating to Gods but one thing is sure that they existed.

 

And the current religions practiced in different parts of the continent attest to this fact. The term ‘Godkins’ also appeared from the tales which said that when the Gods made intimate relations with mortals these half God like childs were the results.

 

These half god half mortal beings had much greater power than a normal mortal but still less than the actual Gods which was not liked by their believers as it was akin to something as polluting the blood of Gods so they vehemently denounced any relationship of Gods and mortals.

 

The majority of these Godkins always treated themselves as superior beings when compared to normal people which caused a lot of resentment in the general public, resentment which later led to their demise.

 

Much before the Great War the Gods of Darkness and Light fought against each other which resulted in both of them getting killed and their followers waging subsequent wars for avenging their respective gods.

 

Narsimha the beastkin god wanted to use this anarchy to expand his rule in the human and demon territory so he along with other beastkin marched towards the battlefield. The humans and demons who were fighting against each other were totally alarmed by this impending doom so they did what they could do.

 

They put up an alliance, yes once in the history of this world the humans and demons fought together as comrades in arms. Their main enemy being a God was more than enough for them to unite and forget all the previous grievances.

 

A great battle ensued which proved deadly for all the factions as the beastkins lost not only their God but many of their able generals and rulers of different clans, the human and demon side also lost a significant number of godkins and able warriors.

 

The beastkins retreated and so did the other side thus making way for a much awaited period of peace and tranquility. Gradually time passed and in thousand years these things were forgotten, the people did follow the new religions zealously but the greater history became story tales.

 

The two other goddesses didn’t pay much attention to the silly wars of their counterparts and went on with their lives in their respective places but with time they too died.

 

That’s why a godkin in this day and age was extremely rare, one could count their numbers on both of his hands and still have some space. The prominent royal families and stronger nobles are always in search of a godkin as it could change their lives.

 

Once identified the royal family of that state would take the custody of a godkin and then it would brainwash him or her to be absolutely loyal to that family and also they were trained to become powerful entities.

 

But how does one determine that someone is a godkin or not? Very easy, they take the candidate to the Elven kingdom where the god leaf is situated. One is required to pour one drop of their blood on the leaf which would identify whether they are a godkin or not.

 

And this is one of the reasons that the Elven kingdom is so important for the other nations and has managed to keep good relations with them in both economic and diplomatic ways.

 

The concept of new gods and godkins is not known to Akira as it was not present in the game and that’s why it was a great move on Ivan and Dark swords to hide the matter.

 

Akira was still soaking in the water when he heard someone unlocking the door and coming inside the house, startled by the noise he quickly wrapped a towel on his lower body and went to see who it was.

 

And not surprisingly it was his mother who had came back carrying some groceries and other necessities in both of her hands. Seeing the heavyweight he quickly went forward and took the bags from her hands and then stored it in the kitchen.

 

“Here, drink some water.” He gave her a glass and went upstairs to wear some clothes.

 

When he came downstairs his mother bombarded questions after questions regarding the things she had heard when coming to her house like ‘there was a merchant’s carriage outside Evelyn’s house’ ‘why was that boy inside of it’ or ‘why were the maid and butler talking to him with so respect’

 

“Mom… mom calm down, it's okay.” He hurriedly said to stop her from further questioning.

 

“Calm down? Young man, I want to know everything, first you tell Adam that you are going on a mission with some group and then there’s this news of cultists trying to cause a war and in all that you came home with a carriage? What is going on?” 

 

The news relating to the cultists attacking Ivan Feodor and the subsequent action by the Dark Swords had hit the town hard, it was a hot topic and was discussed everywhere. The emperor’s plan to hold the medal ceremony only added more oil to this growing fire.

 

Akira then began explaining the entire story to her of course he did not mention the dangerous parts like when he got stabbed in the gut or when he went toe to toe with a tier one entity and how it ended badly for him, he just didn’t wanted to make his parents worry too much about him.

 

“So not only you are going to get a medal of honor the day after tomorrow but you also got sponsored by the merchant Ivan Feodor?” She asked him skeptically not believing his story.

 

“Mom, what do you think of me? Of course I am going to get all those things.” He said while sighing as he could understand as to why she was not believing him.

 

Your only son who had not shown any special abilities suddenly one day drops bombs after bombs on you is definitley going to be something unbelievable.

 

Evelyn watches him for a moment and then pulls him into a big hug telling him softly,

 

“I don’t care about that stuff, I am just happy that nothing happened to you.” She says in a tender tone making him unable to reply.

 

His body couldn’t move an inch and stayed like that until she decided that it was enough for today.

 

“Your father was right, you certainly have grown up.” She reminisced about those times when he was a kid and relied on her for everything.

 

“I.. I was afraid in that place, there were too many things for me to handle and I-I didn’t knew if it was going to work. Brian and me were fortunate tha-” His words were shivering; it was like all the pent up feelings he had were let loose.

 

“Ssshhh.. it’s okay, you are here.” His mother said while stroking his head.

 

Even though he has some edge when compared to others in this world, deep down he is still a guy who has never in his entire life faced something like this. 

 

The fear of death is something that could be described only after one goes through it and in that alternate dimension he was constantly on the verge of it, people assume that after transmigration these things become easy but that’s not the case.

 

Ask anyone in modern society would they be comfortable in killing people or fighting a life and death battle? No they don’t, their fundamental moral compass doesn’t allow it. Yes there are psychopaths who would love to go on a killing spree but Akira ain’t one of them.

 

But can he go back to his world? Can he live as a normal guy in a world where power reigns supreme? Can he protect his parents like that? No he can’t and that’s why Akira was somewhat thankful to this whole experience into the alternate dimension.

 

He was already training hard, doing everything possible to become stronger, spending hours and hours in the dungeon but that was not enough, not anymore. He has to up his level or he could be meeting the lady death very soon.

 

After the hug Akira stabilizes himself and says,

 

“But mom everything I said was true, I am going to get the medal of honor.”

 

“Okay okay I believe you, no need to get so started about it.” It wasn’t like that she didn’t believe him but this was still a pretty heavy thing to take in.

 

“Well just wait and watch for tomorrow.” He said in a happy tone.

 

Deep down Evelyn was going crazy with happiness and how could she not? His only son was going to get a medal from the emperor making him the only person in her entire family to be ever given something like that.

 

But on the surface she has to maintain her facade and not show too many emotions. She didn’t knew what happened with Akira but since the last month or so he has completely changed his behavior and personality.  

 

Earlier he would always try to be with Lily and ignore everything else including herself, it was like he had only one goal to pursue Lily even when she had clearly stated that she hated it. But suddenly one day after his lunch with her he came home and hugged him.

 

When was the last time he did that? She couldn’t remember and when she was thinking what could have forced him to do this she heard him crying and it pained her heart.

 

After that day everything changed and Akira became the perfect son she could have ever asked for. So today when he told her about getting the heart she showed that she cared about him more than anything else.

 

“Talking about tomorrow, do you remember what else is there to do?” She asked.

 

He thought about it, ‘There is something tomorrow? Ah shit my visit to Jasmine’s house. How could I forget that?’

 

“Yes I have to visit Jasmine right?” He asked.

 

“Finally you do remember.” Her mother said while sighing.

 

Well he did forget it in all the mess that was happening earlier but now he was more than excited to visit her home, Jasmine had always been kind to him and one of the few people he actually cared about so going to her home is always welcomed.

 

Well, let's see what happens tomorrow.