Merry Christmas everyone and hope you're all having a wonderful time when friends, family and loved ones!
Just a quick disclaimer before we begin. I do not own Shield Hero or any of the characters.
Also, this story follows a completely different plot to the original works, so keep in mind that any differences are intended.
Enjoy.
Prologue - A girl named Glass
"If you manage to slay the Demon Dragon Emperor, I shall let the villagers know of your heroic deed, and convince them that you are rightfully one of us. Once you successfully finish the task, we will offer you a place to belong at our side."
As far as Glass could remember, she had always been alone. Ever since the day she was born in her village, she had received nothing but scornful gazes from everyone around.
"Why have we not banished her from the village?"
"What if she gets us all killed?"
"She is such an eyesore, if only she would just disappear."
Since no one within the town that she was born in was willing to take care of her, she had never been permitted to even set foot in the place. Instead her small place of residence was a small makeshift shed a fair distance out from town, if you could even call it that, for it had long since seen better days.
As result, she had no one but herself to rely on for matters such as gathering food.
She never knew her parents, or what had happened to them since they were already gone by the time she was old enough to think. She was different yes, but the fact that every single person she had ever seen wanted her gone, it well...affected her the poor girl mentally.
All glass could ever remember during her younger days was cry. Her heart was always heavy and her body was constantly crushed by the weight of loneliness. Yet her tears always dried without another soul ever coming to comfort her. During the day, her only companion would be the sun and the moon at night.
But despite all of this, Glass never managed to give up on hope, always managing to hang onto reality by just a thread. The reason for this, was none other than her mother's books.
Of course, she had never really known if her mother had intended to leave all of them to her in the first place but it was thanks to these, that Glass was even able to learn how to read, write and speak in the first place since no one had ever taught her. But there was one book in particular that had interested Glass the most and that was the tale of the Legendary Heroes.
What's even more interesting was the fact that her town had a relation to this tale.
Her village was a small insignificant town that was located very far from any major cities, instead planted right in the middle of what most would call "the edge of the world". It had no noteworthy produce as the soil was infertile and it's position at the border of two kingdoms meant that it was constantly surrounded by warfare. Due to this, the town was extremely poor due to heavy taxes. Yet the village always had one thing that kept it's citizen's alive, and it was the fact that it had in possession the Vassal fan.
According to the books, the Vassal fan is a weapon that will eventually belong to a vassal hero who will later aid the legendary heroes to save the world and these great heroes are said to be summoned from another world during this time.
This meant that the vassal fan would soon choose a wielder, who would be someone from Glass's village.
"Maybe...maybe the village will accept me if I get chosen as the Vassal Hero."
This glimmer of hope was what kept Glass going all the way to early adulthood, knowing that someday she may be accepted into the village. As a result, she spent every moment of her free time either absorbing as much knowledge as she could from books or training herself physically in other to become worthy of wielding the fan.
And then day of her dreams really came.
"If you manage to slay the Demon Dragon Emperor, I shall let the villagers know of your heroic deed, and convince them that you are rightfully one of us. Once you successfully finish the task, we will offer you a place to belong at our side."
Her heart was still overcome by joy at those words that the Village Elder had told Glass when the Vassal Fan had chosen her as it's wielder a couple of days ago. They were willing to give her a chance...
"I will surely succeed."
Glass whispered to herself these same words for the tenth time since her journey had begun, but she couldn't stop herself. After all, all those 19 years of being alone...all that was going to change. She simply needed to get past one last hurdle and that was to beat the Demon Dragon Emperor.
She gave her cheeks a like slap in order to focus herself before glancing straight ahead, the infamous demon dragon was just ahead. But a the sound of rustling grass and the snap of a fallen tree branch caused Glass to immediately glance her. However the person that filled her vision caused the young woman to freeze momentarily.
This brief moment allowed the assailant to make their move as a flash of steel swung through the air.
As pain shot through her body coupled by the warm sensation caused from her trickling blood, Glass managed to utter a few words before her consciousness faded.
"Village Elder...why...?"
Author's Note - So just to clarify again, this chapter is a prologue so it is a rather short one. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and don't worry, Naofumi will be making an appearance soon.
Once again, Merry Christmas to you all and wish you all a happy new year as well ! Stay safe and hope to see you all in the next chapter!
Coming soon...
Chapter 1 - Meeting of the Fated Pair