Chapter 1: The Strongest Man and the Strongest Choice

Foreword: This is very much amateur work by a first time author, inspired by a talented author and well written story, who wanted to see a proper ship sailed that did not get developed further due to the likely indefinite hiatus of the story. This will contain spoilers for the light novels of Rokka No Yuusha so if you have not read them and plan to do so please hold off on reading this.

Note as I am nowhere as experienced or talented as the author of Rokka No Yuusha, this will not contain the major themes of unpredictability, psychological thriller and mystery that the series is well known for. It is a love story written by an inexperienced author based on as much info I have on the pre-established world and story and how I would have liked the story to go.

Story Start: A man with long orange and red hair walks up an old, familiar mountain trail. His travel wear not notably unique or special and his dozens of small bags have been abandoned long ago, with only his familiar short sword and a few pouches at his waist. He wore the brand of one of the brave flowers on his hand, the brand was a pink series of circles with six flowers in a circle, one of which was missing. The man's face had a large scar that looked as if a great beast had raked his face with its claws and the wound had healed over time. The man wore a large smile on his face and said to his companion. "It has been almost three months since the mission of the Braves had been completed and you still haven't gotten any lighter."

The man's companion, a pale girl with one blue left eye and a right eye hidden by a black eye patch that connected to a covering over her forehead with a beautiful white flower sits connected to it. The girl wore a revealing black outfit with only a thin piece of cloth covering and binding her chest, a pouch strapped to the back of her waist, a sizable traveling pack on her back and slung over her shoulder, a intricate rifle out of place with the rural mountainous setting around her. She wore the brand of one of the brave flowers on his hand, the brand was a pink series of circles with six flowers in a circle, one of which was missing. The girl notably was missing her legs from the knees and down and was currently riding piggy back style on her companion's back. The girl gave her companion an annoyed and curt response. "You should have just got a horse."

The man only smiled brighter looking over his shoulder and said, "I told you before Fremy, it isn't about the destination, it is about the journey, we wouldn't have gotten to have half as much fun if we were on a horse!" The man refused to ever admit that he was truly worried that she would have difficulty with staying on a horse due to her injuries and would rather have had their journey taken much longer than for her to be put in danger due to haste.

Fremy frowned and said, "Adlet, you still haven't told me where we are actually going and why we are climbing a mountain."

Adlet laughed and boisterously replied "Even the strongest man in the world needs to get his workout, mountain climbing is good for you." He than added still smiling but with a bit more seriousness in his tone "I made many promises after we met, I intend to keep as many as I possibly can, one of which was to find you a home after all of that had ended." He also said with a slight blush on his face that he tried unsuccessfully to hide, "and if you would allow it, I want to call that place my home too." He had said sappier things and had more tender moments in these past months than he had in his life, and he was still no better with them than when he was before he became brave.

Fremy stayed silent for a while looking over the mountain scenery around her as she thought back to where she thought it would all end.

Before this day Fremy began to believe, to hope, to dream. She never thought that she could be happy, that she could be loved and that she could love. Yet time and time again a man shattered her thoughts and expectations all the while screaming that he was the strongest man in the world. At some point she began to think he was the strongest man in the world.

Then the Braves defeated Tgurneu and Adlet learned the fate of his sister.

After defeating Tgurneu Adlet dragged Fremy by the arm to a secluded wooded area nearby. Fremy did not know what Tgurneu had said and was still worried that everything Adlet had said would crumble, that he would no longer protect her or support her because he was no longer under Tgurneu's spell.

Finally they stopped moving, standing in the middle of a clearing,

Adlet let go of Fremy's arm and turned around. Adlet shook with rage as he said, "who else did you kill? Who else! Who besides the saints?" Adlet screamed these words at Fremy "Who else besides my sister? How could I trust in you, how could I want to protect you?"

Fremy's knees gave out, her eyes watered, it was everything she feared. She told him from the start he would want to kill her once he knew what she had done, yet he just smiled and ignored it. She wanted to look at him with the blank face, telling him I told you so, yet she couldn't, she couldn't control herself. The only word she could mutter was "Adlet."

Adlet pulled out his short sword that he had retrieved from the fighting and raised it over the kneeling Fremy's head, she was defenseless, one swing and it would be over. Adlet screamed "We have an extra brave so you might as well just die!"

As Adlet moved to kill Fremy she looked up at him tears streaming down her exposed left eye, the only thing she could do was look him straight in the eyes and with a voice choked by tears scream out "Adlet!"

A blade descended, blood dripped on the ground, tears fell to the floor. Fremy was shocked, Adlet had pulled his blade down just past her face and cut into his own leg, it was not a shallow cut and he would likely need a saint to get him in fighting shape quickly.

Adlet, now kneeling, looked up, his bright smile contrasted with the tears running down his face. Adlet said, "Sorry Fremy. I almost made a huge mistake. I have decided. It doesn't matter what Tgurneu said or if it was true. It doesn't matter if he created me to be the strongest man in the world or if I did that myself. Regardless I am and will always be Adlet Mayer, the strongest man in the world. Likewise when I was about to kill you Fremy, I kept trying to justify to myself why I should be angry, why I should hate you. Yet my heart wouldn't allow it, no matter what I couldn't settle on the idea that you were at fault. You were controlled by Tgurneu just as I and even if you had control over your actions, you were raised to think all humans were filthy and horrible. I can't judge you for killing those when you could not have known better."

Fremy stared for a long time, tears running down her left eye and starting to flow from her right as her eyepatch could no longer contain so many of them. Finally after a long time of silence trying to figure out what to say Fremy noticed Adlet's still bleeding leg. "Adlet your leg, we need to get you to the others to have it healed." Fremy moved to help Adlet get up.

However he stopped her and said, "Fremy, can you forgive me? I almost broke my word to protect you and nearly killed you, can you forgive me for that?"

Fremy now nearly nose to nose with Adlet, puts her hands on Adlet's shoulders and said "How can you forgive me, for those I killed and all that I have done that has made the world suffer, especially you." She asked because she could not believe that it could be true.

Adlet still replied while still smiling, "Of course, if I couldn't forgive you, then I wouldn't be the strongest man in the world." Adlet pulled the girl into a tight hug, biting back a wince of pain to keep a smile. Fremy returning the hug somewhat meekly, the tears returning with a vengeance and staining Adlet's shoulder.

The two knelt there in silence in a somewhat awkward but sweet embrace, that was broken up by a cheerful man with bangs that hid his eyes, who had a tendency to add cat sounds to the end of his sentences. "Nyahaha, sorry to break off the sweet moment nya, but it seems Adlet's wound is somewhat serious and we should get that treated quickly. There will be time for you two love cats when we defeat the majin, so let's go neow."

As Fremy finished her reminiscing Adlet was busy rattling off various questions, most of which she did not hear.

Adlet not knowing he is being ignored continued with his questioning. "So have you ever been fishing there is a beautiful lake on the other side of this mountain? Since half of your eye is fiend, do you have a special vision when you look through it such as seeing in the dark, seeing movement or anything like that? Have you ever heard of the laws of motion coined by an old, famous scientist?"

Fremy's mind still set on her belief of the impossibility of the continued passion of the man carrying her and the idea that he may still betray her because the alternative is too kind for her to consider. She decided she needed to ask, to confirm his feelings, as she still could not believe it. Fremy asked in a tense voice, "Adlet do you love me?"

Adlet did not hesitate with his reply "I never seemed to stop loving you, real or fake all I ever felt was love."

Fremy continued her questioning. "What do you love about me?"

Adlet not missing a beat gave her a long reply. "Last time you asked I told you I had no idea what I loved about you, only that when I saw you in pain I also felt pain that I could not bare. I can't say I can put all my feelings in words but I can tell you that when you feel pain I feel pain, when you are sad I feel an incredible sadness, when you're scared a pit forms in my stomach. Most of all though it does not occur often, when you smile, when you laugh, I get an indescribable feeling of warmth and happiness in my chest. I want to find more ways to make you smile, to laugh, to be happy."

Fremy, still struggling to comprehend the genuine feelings that seem to pour out of Adlet in droves, said to Adlet "Adlet I lo…"

Fremy was interrupted by two things, first Adlet saying "we are here Fremy." Second a loud shout from in front of them "So you have returned boy!"

Fremy looked in confusion as Adlet said, "meet my master, Atro Spiker."

To be continued in Chapter 2: The Strongest Man and the Strongest Teacher

Afterword: Thank you for everyone who has read this far. I greatly thank you for taking the time to read my ameatur work. If you have any feedback on the writing, story or anything else like if I should just give up altogether, you can never fix something you don't know is broken. If the story receives no love I will likely only write one more chapter, if it is liked by even a few I will probably write as many as my mind can conjure.

Questions: I will try to address as many notable choices I made that some may question here so the rest of the afterword will be as such.

Naming: I stuck with the names that are given to me by the Rokka No Yuusha wiki fandom page. So anime viewers probably wondered but Flamie is referred to as Fremy in the novels (as far as I know) and I will do as such unless there is a great cry to change the name. The only exception being fiends and kyouma as I just like the name fiends more, personal taste.

Where are Fremy's legs: I decided that as a result of the final conflicts that took place in the land of wailing demons, Fremy would have lost her legs in the fighting. I did this for two reasons, one I like the idea that such conflicts came with loses and scars, such as Adlet's face and Fremy's I did it to give direction to the story after it left the territory of the novels.

Pacing Adlet's hatred and love in the flashback: The change from hating Fremy to loving Fremy again came very quickly and likely feels rushed. This is due to two things. One, I believe that a more skilled writer such as the original author could have written a much longer and more tangled story where eventually Adlet learns to love Fremy for real. Two, I liked the idea that Adlet's feelings weren't entirely fake, that just because he was no longer forced to feel those emotions did not mean they disappeared entirely or that they were entirely the product of Tgurneu's ability to begin with.

Why do you dance around the actual conflicts and journey of the braves after the events of the novels: The answer to that is simple, I didn't want to try and write something that would try and compete with the writing that came before it, and to try and tell the story of this complex, mysterious and vast series after the sixth volume would be a task I could not complete. Telling a small fragment of it focused around the conflict of two characters after the events of the story was something I could at least feasibly attempt. Because it is a story based after the events of the journey of the braves I don't have to answer every question the story left us like, what was Adlet's true purpose as the special brave, what would the fight with the Majin looked like, etc.