Chapter 6- A Former Hero Arrives

[Blake Smith POV]

After six months of marching, we made it back to the Beast Kingdom Savanna.  After making it to the capital, there were many things that needed to be done.  For starters, there was the matter with the Hero and Saint, then there was the returning of personal effects to deceased soldier’s families, as well as the reports to the king.  General Deacon told me that he won’t have time to fulfill my request for a while, so he gave me a letter addressed to his wife and sent me to his home.

The place where he lived is called a hidden shrine village.  They call it hidden, even though it’s well known as a tourist location, because of some tradition.  It took two weeks to get there from the capital, and when I arrived, I was greeted by several people.  The one who led the greetings was General Deacon’s wife, Lady Amagi.  She was a beautiful, tall kitsune with pitch black hair and an equally black tail.  She was also quite well endowed.  When I noticed this, the first thought that crossed my mind was to keep that creep Alchemist from ever coming here.

After thinking this, I returned her greeting with my own.

“It is nice to meet you, Lady Amagi, I have heard many things about you from General Deacon.  My name is Blake Smith, a blacksmith and former summoned hero.”

“Well met, Sir Blake.  If you would follow me, I will show you around and allow you to acquaint yourself with the layout of the shrine.  After that, I will show you to the room prepared for you.  You can choose to rest from your journey today, when the time comes for dinner, I will send someone to get you.  At that time, I will introduce you to the rest of the family that is here at the shrine.  Tomorrow I will have someone available to show you around the rest of the village if you want to.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me or Anastasia.”  She said all of this with a tone that showed she had experience in dealing with guests at the shrine.

“Thank you for your hospitality.  Before we go anywhere though I have a letter addressed to you from General Deacon.” After saying this, I handed over the letter.

“Thank you.” She said, as she opened the letter and started to read.

“Ufufufu, very interesting, so something like that was going on, how amusing.” She said after reading the letter.

“It seems we will have to have a discussion about a few things after you have settled in some , Sir Blake.  Especially since it concerns the Hero and Saint and one of the curses they received.” She said.

“I understand, when that time comes, I will relay everything I can.  Just out of curiosity, which god or goddess is worshipped here at this shrine?” I asked, though I had a feeling that I already knew.

“Here at this shrine, the Goddess of the Moon, Tamamo, is worshipped.  She also happens to be the patron goddess of the Beast Kingdom Savanna.” She said.

After walking around a bit and learning the key areas of the shrine, Lady Amagi led me to the room I will be staying in.

“Thank you for taking time to show me around, Lady Amagi, I know you must be busy, so I will stay here until dinner.” I said.

“It was no problem. In fact I should be the one thanking you for helping out my husband while he was out fighting.” She said as she started walking away.

Once she was gone, I entered the room only to find someone else was already in here.  She was a small child about one or two years old.  She had black hair and tail the same shade as Lady Amagi, but the tips of her ears and tail were silver.  When she noticed that I entered the room, she opened her closed eyes.  Her eyes were a striking silver color that almost seemed to glow a little.  Before I could ask who she was, she started talking.

“So, you chose to stay after all.” After saying this the room’s temperature started to drop, and a white mist enveloped my sight.

Once the mist cleared, the little girl was gone.

[Luna POV]

“Crap.  I can’t believe I said that out loud.” 

I said this to myself as I ran to one of my other hiding spots in the shrine.  To think that the hero that my mother said was staying here would get here today.  And to top it off, he just so happens to be one of my friends from my previous life.  Now keeping my reincarnation a secret is going to be even harder.

“I guess I am just going to have to avoid him as much as possible.”  I said to myself while sighing.

“I guess I can’t use that room to train anymore.  That’s fine, it’s not like that is the only secret straining spot here, though that was the beast place to train my Ice Mist unique skill.”  I said as I arrived at my destination.

This is one of my favorite spots in the shrine.  It is quiet and wide, and no one ever comes here.  I use this spot to train my space magic. 

“I wish space magic wasn’t so difficult to use, I mean I can understand why, but just knowing why doesn’t make it any less difficult.”  I said frustrated.

I remember that space magic is mostly used as support and transportation.  If I can get it to a high enough level, I could use it to teleport me or large groups of people long distances.  I also remember hearing that, if it reaches level 10,  you can use it to see in a 360-degree radius around the caster.  The only other problem with space magic is the MP consumption.  It’s ridiculous that just one small barrier takes almost all my MP.

“Ugh, now I’m really tired.” I complained to the air.

Just as I was relaxing, my Mana Regeneration skill leveled up.  Just as I was about to check my status to see how fast my MP regenerated after the skill up, I heard Ana calling me.

“Lady Luna, its time for dinner.  Where are you, I know you are around here.” She called.

“I guess she is starting to learn all of the places I loke to hide.  Anyway, I wonder if I can sneak up on her again?”  I thought to myself while slowly getting closer to Ana.

Just as I was about to jump and grab her tail, she turned around and caught me.

“Gah, and I was so close too.” I said while pouting.

“It won’t be so easy to sneak up on me anymore, Lady Luna, ever since you started pulling this prank on me, I’ve been training my Presence Detection skill.  Now, it’s time for dinner, we have a special guest staying for a while.  You need to give your greetings to him during dinner.” She said while pushing me towards the dining room.

Once we arrived, everyone else was already seated.  At one end of the table was my mother.  Next to her on the right was my father’s youngest brother.  He came here to tell my mother that he got engaged to the third princess of the Celestia Kingdom.  When I first learned this, I was happy for Princess Nia.  Though I was only in this world as a summoned person for two months, I managed to befriend Princess Nia and helped her straighten out the heroes’ behavior.  During that time, I learned that she had feelings for a court mage.  It makes me happy to think that she finally got her wish, though I was surprised to find out I was now related to that court mage.  I guess fate works in mysterious ways.

I took the seat to the left of my mother.  Blake was sitting next to my uncle.  When he saw me, his eyes widened a little.  Before he could say anything, I introduced myself.

“Hello, Mister Hero, I am Luna the daughter of Lady Amagi and General Deacon, it’s nice to meet you.” I said hoping he wouldn’t say anything about our little meeting earlier.

It seemed he realized what I was leaving unsaid in my greeting and introduced himself.

“Hello, Lady Luna, I am Blake Smith, a blacksmith and former hero.”

I suppressed a chuckle.  It was always funny that he ended up with a class that sounded so close to his name.  When he said it out loud like that, it made it even funnier.

“Now, now, Luna it’s rude to laugh at a person who you are meeting for the first time.” My mother said.

“My apologies.” I said, feigning regret.

“It’s all right, I know my name and class sound similar so it’s only natural for a child to laugh.” Blake said to my mother.

“If you say it’s all right then I can hold off from scolding you this once Luna, but remember there won’t be a next time.” She said.

“I understand.” I said with actual regret this time.  I really don’t want to be scolded by mother again, she gets really scary when she does that.

As the night continued, everyone exchanged small talk.  I asked what happened with the United Army, and we heard several stories from Blake about what happened.  I secretly wished I could have been there to help, but there is nothing I can do about it now. 

As the stories continued, I started to feel sleepy, so I excused myself and went to bed for the night.  Before I went to sleep, I looked out my window at the moon.

“Tamamo, I wonder when I will be able to talk to you again.” As I thought this, I fell asleep.

Author's Note:

With the magical powers of coffee, I bring to you all a new chapter.  While there was a noticeable lack of fluff this chapter I did actually describe what the MC looks like.  I was rereading the previous chapters and noticed that I never really described what she looked like.  As a little heads up for the next few chapters, there will be a few time skips.  I know some people don't like those but I feel they are necessary so that this childhood arc doesn't drag on.  I hope those of you who don't like major time skips will stick with me because I don't plan on abusing time skips after the next few chapters unless absolutely necessary. Thank you all for reading so far, see you again soon.