The hero is now gone, but I’m still here, now what? (Undergoing editing)

Pledge and Light Theory was the class that followed after Demon Biology and our teacher for the subject was this man named Han Vonhaum- a relatively short guy with a clean shaven, handsome face and a head full of dark hair, - and he wore a simple checkered shirt on his person as well as the mandatory pants that the Academy enforces needs to be worn, which he modified; in our teacher’s case, his is a pair of dark-gray Cargo pants with six pockets.

 

After entering the room with a confident gait, he walked up to the stage and gave us all a warm smile, “congratulations for passing, and welcome to Pledge Academy,” were the first words he said to us while placing his personal belongings on the teacher’s desk to the side of the stage.

 

He then grabbed a piece of chalk before walking over to the blackboard to write down his name:

 

Han Vonhaum- also known as a favorite teacher amongst players because his and another teacher’s classes give the ability to create “unique” Techniques after attending them a few times, and the process of making them is pretty easy too since creating the Techniques used pre-determined assets such as a blank “wall” asset that the player can turn into a Fire Wall, Water Wall, Wind Wall, or Earth Wall depending on their build and preference.

 

Not that the simplicity lessened their usefulness by any margin of course.

 

Our teacher faced us with a kind smile, “I see that all of you are well behaved, good on that,”

 

Moving over to the front of the stage, Sir Vonhaum started his lesson with a question, “to start, I want to ask something- what is a Pledge?”

 

Expectedly, because of their first hand experience with Pledges, most if not all of the nobles/everlast citizens were confident in raising their hands while the Florists and Faunists kept their hands down, our teacher scanned the room and let out a small yet encouraging smile, “it’s okay, no need to be shy,” he said to everyone who didn’t have their hands raised.

 

Meanwhile, I silently eyed Lucille, who looked constipated as she wrestled her hand, which was constantly going up and down.

 

Our teacher followed his words of encouragement with ones of reassurance, “this isn’t graded and no one’s here to judge you,”

 

“R-right,” I heard Lucille say and with a sigh of relief from not being graded, she raised her hand.

 

Sadly, no one other than her changed their mind and raised their hand and our teacher continued the lesson without any further delay on his part, “Now, I’m curious about what most of you think a Pledge is but in particular, I want to hear your opinion on it, your majesty,” I held back a groan, it could only be one your majesty he’s referring to isn’t he?

 

All eyes turned to me, I chuckled nervously, “I think he means Charcoal?”

 

“Not quite,” our teacher shook his head, “if you will?”

 

I stood up and prepared to answer, well… according to the lore- “Pledges are materialized emotions, it’s what makes them so effective against Demons,”

 

Sir Vonhaum nodded, “good answer, and a factually correct one,” he complimented,  “but a small correction, Pledges don’t represent the entire spectrum of emotions but what fuels it,” I tilted my head, is that- no, no of course not, it's not what's written in the lore, “Pledges are more like materialized will, making her majesty’s second answer correct, in that they are effective against Demons, especially that of sins, because what else would defeat the temptation of vices but our will?”

 

I nodded at that… I guess it does make sense but the Lore is literally the thing that explains this world so uh, yeah…

 

“It’s fine to speak your mind about what you think Pledges are,” Sir Vonhaum commented when he saw that the raised hands had now gone down, “the princess’ answer is factually correct yes but I didn’t ask this question for that alone, I want to know what you all think of the weapons gifted to you by our Goddess, even if the answer is wrong, it just has to be technically correct."

 

A few hands raised themselves again and our teacher picked a random student, who just happened to be Korbinian, “how about you miss?..”

 

“Korbinian Unleer, sir,” said the girl sitting in front of me.

 

“Nice to meet you,” our teacher replied with a nod, “now, what do you think Pledges are? And remember, it doesn’t have to be correct, just right.”

 

“Pledges are proof of our responsibility,” was the admittedly good answer, at least in my opinion, and from the way a few hands went down, a few of my classmates felt the same way as well, “they are also reminders that we have the Goddess by our side, always.”

 

“Good answer, and you are right, Pledge Bearers are responsible for not just our personal safety, but the rest of humanity as well, we are what stands between safety and total oblivion,” Sir Vonhaum nodded and Korbinian took a seat, “next would be… how about you young sir?”

 

Inferno stood up, “Pledges serve as a reminder that power reveals and what a Pledge Bearer does with it is entirely up to them, be it good or bad,”

 

Yeah sure asshole- I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at Inferno’s back and mock him for being such a hypocrite, yeah, power reveals, definitely, it fucking shows just how abusive someone like him can become just because he has it but also-

 

“Are you okay?” Fafnir asked, cutting my internal tangent.

 

“Yeah, I am.” I said, huffing, “just thinking that Pledges also mask someone's reputation, not just reveal their intention,”

 

Inferno turned his head slightly to look at me and I stuck my tongue out at him. He quickly looked away like the coward that he is.

 

What an asswipe.

 

The lesson went on with the teacher asking several students- Karsten said that “Pledges are a gift we must share,” Brine said “Pledges are a source of power,” and finally, Lucille said that “Pledges are a proof of purpose,” adding that Pledges are also, “a guide for a better world,”

 

Which is kinda similar to Korbinian’s answer but also not really? I don’t know, she didn’t seem like she minded it so I guess she either didn’t care or didn’t even notice it because of how far off Lucille’s answer was from her own.

 

“Good answer, all of you,” nodded our teacher.

 

Sir Vonhaum walked to the front, “now, let’s discuss what Pledges really are shall we?” He started, “her majesty was right, Pledges are materialized emotions, specifically, our will,” he went back to the blackboard and wrote things down and that was when I realized that this is why Bismuth said we needed notebooks- I turned to my right and frowned, how did Laceresta of all people come prepared for this?

 

As my classmates wrote things down- while I was memorizing everything and burning the words into my memory, that’s what I was doing yep, not just staring into blank space, - Sir Vonhaum went on and explained the things he wrote down, “and the growth of Pledges is highly dependent on our will and perseverance-” those two particular words are underlined, “- so with that in mind, we can all conclude that the personal power of a Pledge Bearer is their own, never the Goddess’, so when people claim that the power of a bearer is dependent on the Pledge itself, it is safe to say that they are wrong,”

 

Pfft, see? Even a teacher thinks that all Pledges are the same in terms of power- Lucille raised her hand and I instinctively looked at her Sanguine Pledge… wait- obviously Sanguine Pledges are the exception to this rule since by definition, they’re meant to grow, and it’s obvious that it’s because of that they are meant to start out as weak…

 

But then again there has never been an explanation for those ingame other than “it’s for Hardmode, obviously,” and so I considered them not canon but they obviously are…

 

“Lucille?” Our teacher called.

 

“Well… what about uhm- Sanguine Pledges?” The Heroine asked.

 

Sir Vonhaum, completely unlike what I expected, kept his confidence and gave out an answer that made complete and total sense, at least in terms of him not reading about ingame lore- “Sanguine Pledges are unique in that aspect,” he answered. “see, the Goddess is benevolent and patient so she gives those who have yet to decide on what kind of Pledge Bearer they want to be an opportunity to walk a path of their own,” 

 

“Although it is the Goddess that mostly picks what kind of form a Pledge will take, she understands that the Pledge is worth just as much as its Bearer and thus, knows that those who don’t understand their given weapons won’t be effective, and that is why Sanguine Pledges exist,”

 

I nodded in understanding, it does make sense, so I guess the teachers do have an understanding of their own when it comes to the Pledges huh? Kinda neat, I thought that they knew the same stuff they did ingame.

 

And going by his words, how did Lucille get- wait that can’t possibly mean that she mistook me for the actual Hero right? And that’s why she has a Sanguine Pledge-

 

As if to answer my paranoid thoughts, Sir Vonhaum added an explanation as to why Lucille has a Sanguine Pledge- “Now, as for the Heroes of the past who possessed Sanguine Pledges of their own, I think it all boils down to them being placed in a rather unique, but in the end, dangerous circumstance, see, whenever the Demons rise in number to the point that they become hard to control, the Goddess gifts the Hero a special Pledge, one that can grow based off of the amount of Demons and Monsters that they slay, and the constant conflict from the large number of Demons means that the Hero’s potential for power also increases, and it’ll just go up the more Demons that's felled by his blade, hence why heroes also have Sanguine Pledges.”

 

So it’s because things went out of control huh?.. it’s still my fault…

 

I swallowed down a bitter sigh and continued listening to the lesson, and eventually, we went on to stop talking about what Pledges are to the functions of Light, and our teacher’s take on them is definitely interesting- “Light makes up everything,” obviously it’s atoms or whatever but go on teach, tell us what might as well be Fantasy science, “but why is that?”

 

Before anyone could raise their hand, our teacher continued, “it’s because everything has a soul, even if it is rudimentary, and thus makes everything be in possession of Light,” he explained with such a serious face I might just believe him, “it is what makes reincarnation so random because in one moment, you might be a human but in the next? You can spend millennia as a rock,”

 

“And Light, in the next context, is the power of the soul,” he explained and went back to the blackboard to erase what he had written down and replaced it with a new series of explanations, this time about the power of the soul, it even has a neat little equation, which our teacher explained once he went back to talking, “this equation right here is what makes Techniques possible,” he pointed to it, “this,” he turned his finger to the letter W at the start of the equation, “is our willpower and what it does is it acts as force for Light while Light affects the power of Techniques,”

 

It’s willpower till the bottom huh? First Pledges and now Techniques?

 

Our teacher pointed to another part of the equation, “and since Light is the power of the soul, our will affects that as well, allowing for mortals, under the right circumstances, to even overpower Omegafaunas,”

 

“Wow,” I heard Naviri say and I turned to my right to see that she had gotten goosebumps while writing down the teacher’s words.

 

Neat. Never saw that before.

 

“Our will is what allowed for the people of the past to fight back against the absurdity, to push it back, to go against it.” Sir Vonhaum said with a proud smile, and honestly, I am too, even when they’re not really my people, “and right as long as we continue to fight back, there is always a chance that we’ll rise to the top,”

 

A beeping sound erupted out, interrupting my continuously spiraling thoughts as well as calling the end to our lesson.

 

Everyone turned to the source of the sound, Sir Vonhaum’s bag, as our teacher gave us an apologetic smile, “well, I guess that’s the end of our lesson for today,” he said, “tomorrow we’ll talk about the different types of Pledges, then discuss how those can affect Light, and then go into detail about each of them as the days go on, for now, you can all sit back and relax, oh, and make sure to study your notes!”

 

When he left, I groaned, “but I don’t have them?..” I trailed off with a small whine.

 

“I have written them down for you, mistress,” Zath, the light of my life, my ever reliable friend said and I faced her with a smile.

 

“I really can’t thank you enough-”

 

“Start by not getting her to copy your notes,” Charcoal barged in and I glared at her, she glared back, eyes flaring red, “write your notes Neophyte.”

 

“... fine,” I reached my hand out and Zath gave me the spare notebook she was writing for me on.

 

“Can I ask you both something personal?” Korbinian and her seatmate- Sleet Nimbusegia, - both turned to me, and I nodded, “what is your relationship with your maid exactly? I thought that you two are beyond asking each other for chores-”

 

“Zath insists,” I snapped.

 

“Oh.” Korbinian turned to my maid, “is this true?”

 

“Yes,” Zath nodded, face red from anger- you can snap at her Zath! Tell her that your duties are important! It’s fine! You always say it! You can do it now too!

 

“Zath takes care of us actually, like last night when she cooked dinner for us,” Fafnir chimed in while Laceresta nodded, “I’d say she’s the dependable big sister when it comes to our relationship,”

 

“Right. That.” Laceresta chorused. “And you should mind your own business, you turning back like this is getting annoying,”

 

“... I will, next time,” Korbinian nodded and faced me, “I am sorry, I didn’t know.”

 

“It’s fine,” I waved her off, “you were clearly just worried about Zath and I get it, I did just get her to copy my notes,” on accident, but I would never say that because that’ll make me look incompetent for not bringing a notebook, “and like I said, I’m gonna start taking these from now on so you can sleep tonight knowing that my maid doesn’t copy stuff for me during class, only cook, like yours.”

 

“Again, I’m sorry,” Korbinian bowed before turning away.

 

I nodded and turned to Zath, I smiled at her, “sorry,”

 

“I’m only doing my job-”

 

“You’re a student,” Charcoal cut her off, “when you’re in this classroom, not a servant. Got that?”

 

“I’ll remember that, thank you,” Zath bowed.

 

“Okay, so now that we’ve established we’re all equal, I want to ask, Fafnir, can you sense the soul of this desk?” my smug smirk fell when Fafnir nodded. “What?”

 

“It’s very faint but it’s there,” she answered, “existing within the desk,”

 

“Maybe that’s just light?” I suggested, I mean, the Academy would enchant their desks right? There’s no way that there’s actually a soul in this desk..,

 

“No, it’s a soul,” Fafnir said, “or else I wouldn’t be able to sense it,”

 

“That’s…” weird? “Are desks alive?”

 

“No, no they’re not alive,” Fafnir cut my train of thought before it could spiral, “they merely have a soul,”

 

“But didn’t someone reincarnate as this thing? How are they not alive if they… you know, got reincarnated?” I pointed out and that got Fafnir to frown.

 

“Maybe the Goddess wipes the soul clean before she puts them into reincarnation?” Suggested my Dragon and that just got me to wonder how the fuck do any of these make sense because if the Goddess does wipe souls- including their memory, - then doesn’t that mean that I would’ve reincarnated as Neophyte anyways? And if I did, then why are my memories intact? Are there others like me out there like I always thought?

 

If so, where are they? I haven't seen a single sign of them existing and if they always have, then where are the signs?!

 

Wait- is that what Vigoliths are? No one has figured out how a species of living rocks came to be but what if they're souls who reincarnated in rocks with their memories intact? But they don’t visit their family though?.. Or even talk about their past life?..

 

Was their very first ancestor just like me and then they just turned into an actual species over time?

 

Goddess this is confusing.