Watching the 69th protest furiously in front of me, I found myself remembering something from long ago—the day a new hero had stepped into this room to replace my old partner.
It was normal not to hear anything for a while once a hero left the Hero’s Home, so I hadn’t kept my link with my partner active. That was why, when the sudden connection came, it caught me completely off guard.
I had scrambled to re-sync and felt relieved when I sensed he was still alive. However, when his image had sharpened into focus, the transformation left me speechless.
He’d had golden brown hair and pale green eyes—nothing like the black hair and eyes I’d known before.
“Hey. It’s been a while, Kelvy.” He’d spoken so casually it made me angry, and I ignored the greeting.
“What happened to you, Kanade?”
“I was just reborn, is all.”
I knew it wasn’t a lie. His mana was more than double what it had been before.
“And you think that’s an explanation?”
“Oh, come on. You can see for yourself if you sync properly. Why waste time explaining?”
This one never did understand other people’s feelings. It was odd for me to say, perhaps, but he ought to have learned what worry meant by now.
“Anyway, I’m not Tokito Kanade anymore. I go by Kyle now.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so there was a pause. Finally, I managed to force out, “I see. Good for you.”
Kanade had been born the son of a musical family. The name his parents had given him meant “May you perform the great symphony of life together with many people,” and that was how he’d lived in his original world.
Yet in the hero’s life, which was far longer than the one he’d left behind, that name became nothing but a shackle that bound him.
Although he’d always taken pride in it, a life of being confined among only a handful of chosen humans was a life unworthy of his name. He’d wanted to change it, but that wasn’t allowed.
His name had been a hope, a beacon to the masses, so they’d said he could never change it.
“You’re one to talk,” I muttered.
The only people who insisted on calling him Kanade were those who wanted to oppress him. Even the ordinary people who knew the name simply called him “the 23rd hero,” or just “the hero.”
However, he reached a point where he couldn’t stand the name at all. And near the end of his life, he’d even asked in his journals that his wife stop calling him by it.
I once asked why he’d chosen the name Kyle.
“I was drinking in a tavern and picked it on a whim when I was drunk,” he’d said.
I knew that was probably half a truth and half a lie. The hero’s physical makeup was such that he hardly ever got drunk. That part was just something he said to avoid having to justify why he’d picked a name so casually.
The proof of this was that every time he changed his name, he always said it was because of a drunken impulse.
In that way, names came to mean little to him. Maybe he’d grown attached to the first one he’d chosen decades before, though, because he’d eventually gone back to Kyle.
At the same time, he’d started wishing in the dreams we shared when we synced that his wife would call him Kanade again.
Looking back on it, I think he’d already decided to die.
I remembered the words he left behind as his final request:
“I wonder if Setsuna will change his name the way I did, or if he’ll be like the old man and hang onto it until the end. Either way, if you ever leave this place and meet Setsuna, look after him for me, Kelvy. Take care of my little brother.”
That was why I understood the 69th’s protests. Or perhaps I should say, his complaints.
Names were important.
“It’s all because hardly anyone bothers to call me by my name!”
“Why don’t you ask the princess of Gardir to use it?”
“Ty won’t ever stop calling me Hero!”
I realized I’d only made the situation worse and watched as his complaints only grew.
“Fine, I get it. You’re even more irritable than usual. Are you drunk?” I asked.
“I’m seventeen! I’m not even old enough to drink!”
I’d meant it as a joke, but he answered me with a perfectly serious expression on his face.
“Isn’t sixteen the age of adulthood in Gardir? Or did they change it without telling me?”
“It is, but in my old world it’s eighteen. That’s why I didn’t drink at the banquet!” He seemed to be tiring himself out with all that yelling and was losing steam.
“Oh, so you’re still just a kid.”
“I am, but that’s got nothing to do with my name. Plus, I’ll be an adult soon anyway.”
His eyes lit up for a moment, but then he seemed to remember what he’d been complaining about and brought the conversation back.
“I finished every task you’ve given me, Master Kelvy. So I’m not weak anymore, am I?”
“You hate being called Alda that much?”
“Of course I do! Who would want to be called ‘weak one’? I have a name! It means ‘child of light and water’!”
“Yet all you’ve managed so far is to use Light magic in particle form. You’ve finally taken your first step. Not as a hero, but as a Light sorcerer. You’re getting better, but you’ve still got a long way to go as a hero.”
He pouted, but I was telling him the truth.
“So what do I have to do to be recognized as a real hero?” he asked.
“Well, normally you’d need to master using weapons in tandem with magic. But you have no talent at all for anything physical.”
“Master Kelvy, there’s a nicer way you could’ve put that…” He pouted, but I ignored him and continued.
“All right. If you can learn to use a different element while in light particle form, then I shall acknowledge you as a full-fledged hero.”
“That’s it? You’re serious?”
“You can be pleased if you like, but it’s far more difficult than anything you’ve tried so far. And if you can wield Water magic in that light particle form, just like your name, I’ll call you by your proper name.”
The moment I stopped speaking, his body began to shine and turn translucent. He transformed completely into pure light and water materialized in front of me etched with unfamiliar symbols.
“I wrote my name in the writing of my homeland.”
He returned to his normal form and looked at me. “My name is Adel.”
He looked so happy just then that he reminded me of Kanade, smiling peacefully when his wife called him by his name.