...
{Ember POV}
I yawned softly as I woke up, stretching my arms for a moment before rubbing the sleep from my eyes.
Getting out of bed, I reached for my toothbrush and toothpaste that were lying on the small wooden table beside my bed.
With slow steps, I made my way to the sink and looked at myself in the mirror.
My hair was messy as always, sticking up in odd directions, and my eyes were still a bit puffy from sleep.
I turned on the tap, splashed some cold water on my face, and began brushing my teeth carefully.
For a few minutes, I brushed in silence, listening to the faint creaks of the old inn as it settled.
Once I was done, I rinsed my mouth, washed my face again, and finally felt a bit fresher.
I reached for the towel hanging nearby, dried myself, and then glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
The small hand was pointing just past six, and the clock showed 6:12 A.M. precisely.
Letting out a small sigh, I walked out of my room, the wooden floorboards creaking lightly beneath my feet.
Descending down the narrow wooden staircase, I could smell faint traces of boiled vegetables and the musty scent of the inn's old wood.
When I reached the dining area, I walked toward the table where I usually sat and took my seat in the same old chair.
As expected, Miss Martha had already left two boiled potatoes on a small plate, sprinkled lightly with salt.
She did this every morning, like clockwork.
I slowly began eating, savoring the simple taste.
The potatoes were soft and slightly warm, and though plain, they filled my stomach enough to keep me steady until breakfast.
As I finished and rubbed my mouth with a handkerchief, I saw Miss Martha approaching from the kitchen area.
"Good morning, lad! A beautiful morning, don't you think?" she said with her usual cheerful grin.
I nodded politely and replied, "Good morning, Miss Martha."
She chuckled, the sound light and friendly, and gave me a playful pat on the back.
"Have a good time, lad," she said with that same familiar warmth in her tone.
I nodded again, pushing my chair back and standing up before heading toward the door.
Miss Martha was always a bit like that—very open, cheerful, and perhaps a little too friendly at times.
She was the type of person who got close to others easily, no matter who they were.
She once told me she liked me better than the previous guest—an Elf woman—because, as she explained, she had once tried to pat that Elf's back as a sign of friendliness, but it caused quite a scene.
Apparently, Elves dislike being touched by other races, so she learned that the hard way.
Anyway, breakfast here at the inn was served much later than what I was used to.
Back in the Palace, I used to have a proper breakfast at exactly 6:00 A.M.—a grand meal with tender meat, warm vegetable soup, and soft, delicious bread baked fresh every morning.
Here, however, things were much simpler.
Breakfast was served at 8:00 A.M., and it usually consisted of a bowl of plain vegetable soup and some ordinary bread that was often a bit dry.
Because of that delay, and probably because she noticed how early I woke up, Miss Martha had started preparing boiled potatoes for me each morning.
She said it was just a little "something" to keep my stomach settled before breakfast time.
I appreciated that small gesture, even if I didn't always say it out loud.
It was simple food, yes—but it showed she cared, and in this quiet inn far from the luxury of the Palace, that small kindness meant a lot.
...
I walked along the dirt path, watching many of the villagers who had already woken up and begun their daily routines.
The faint smell of baked bread and burning wood filled the morning air.
Some people were sweeping their doorsteps, others carrying buckets of water from the well, and a few were preparing their carts for trade or transport.
"Good morning, Sir Ber! I hope you have a wonderful day ahead," said a young man in light armor, greeting me warmly as I passed by.
His voice carried the kind of energy only someone accustomed to early mornings could have.
I nodded slightly and replied, "Good morning, Sir Jason."
He smiled back with a polite nod before returning to his patrol.
Over the last week, I had gradually come to know several people from the village, mostly thanks to Miss Martha's constant introductions and her talkative nature.
She always seemed eager to make sure everyone around her got along.
Jason was one of the more notable villagers I had met.
He was fifteen years old—still quite young—but already a Level 1, which was impressive considering his age.
He served as one of the village's guards, standing watch almost every day.
His duty began early in the morning and didn't end until late at night.
He and another guard named Marthon were stationed at the main entrance of the village, where they kept track of travelers, merchants, and anyone entering or leaving.
Aside from them, a few other people with Falna patrolled the outer perimeters, making sure no monsters or beasts came too close.
Many villagers also went out to hunt in the surrounding areas, either for the benefit of the entire settlement or for their own families
. Getting meat here was surprisingly easier than I had first expected.
Not only did they raise animals in surplus—goats, chickens, and even a few boars—but they also went hunting quite frequently.
Every day, a few of the more experienced fighters took turns scouting beyond the village borders, taking down any monsters that might pose a threat.
This not only kept the village safe but also provided a steady supply of meat and materials.
It was an efficient system, and seeing how organized they were gave me a sense of quiet respect for how the villagers managed their lives.
As for me, I had my own plans for the morning.
I wanted to head toward the nearby forest to train for a while and, if possible, to observe Goddess Aurora without drawing suspicion.
Over the past few days, I had realized something important: the best way to observe someone without seeming suspicious isn't by hiding or stalking from the shadows—it's by being visible, deliberately placing yourself in plain sight, as if you have nothing to hide.
With that thought in mind, I followed through with my plan.
Once I reached the edge of the forest, I took a deep breath and began stretching my limbs.
The air inside the forest was cooler and smelled faintly of moss and damp bark.
I loosened my shoulders, rolled my wrists, and started a series of light exercises to wake my body up.
After that, I began to move more actively—running between the trees, charging through narrow gaps, and leaping from one thick root to another.
Not like a monkey, of course, but enough to keep my balance and control sharp.
After working up a good sweat, I stopped for a moment to catch my breath.
My shirt clung lightly to my back, and I could feel my heartbeat steadying as I exhaled slowly.
Reaching for the hilt of my sword, I drew it from its sheath with a quiet metallic sound.
Standing in front of a sturdy tree, I adjusted my footing and focused my stance.
Taking a deep breath, I raised the blade, tightened my grip, and charged forward.
The sword cut cleanly through the air, and as the edge met the tree's bark, it left a deep, rough mark across it.
The sound of the strike echoed faintly through the still forest, and I stepped back, lowering my sword slightly as I examined the fresh cut with a small nod of satisfaction.
After that, I continued slashing at the same spot, each strike landing harder and cleaner than the last.
Chips of bark scattered across the ground as the deep cuts grew wider and deeper.
After a few more swings, the tree finally gave in with a heavy creak and collapsed to the side with a loud thud, shaking the nearby leaves.
I stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, watching the fallen trunk settle on the forest floor.
It might look a bit strange to anyone passing by — a High-Elf cutting down trees just for the sake of practice — but honestly, I wasn't exactly what most people would call a typical Elf.
The usual High-Elf is supposed to be elegant, nature-loving, and overly sensitive about harming trees, but I never quite fit into that image.
I admired the beauty of nature, yes, but that didn't mean I had to treat every tree like it was sacred.
Looking at the cleanly cleaved trunk, I couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride.
The sight of the cut wood was strangely satisfying.
It was something that would have been impossible for my previous self to achieve.
Even if my strike wasn't anything close to superhuman — it's not like I could slice through a two-meter-thick trunk with a single swing — the progress I had made was enough to make me content.
Improvement, even in small steps, still mattered.
Finally finished with my morning training, I sheathed my sword and wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve.
My muscles ached slightly, a pleasant kind of soreness that reminded me the effort wasn't in vain.
I started walking back toward the village, my pace unhurried as the morning sun began to peek through the forest canopy.
Birds chirped in the distance, and the faint smell of wood and damp leaves followed me until I reached the village's wooden gates.
After passing through the entrance, I immediately spotted a familiar face waiting nearby — one I had come to recognize all too well over the past few days.
It was none other than the village girl, Maria.
Maria had chestnut-brown hair that shimmered softly under the sunlight and a pair of clear black eyes that always seemed a little too confident for her own good.
Her face was undeniably beautiful — smooth skin, delicate features, and a kind of innocent charm that drew attention whether she wanted it or not.
If I were to give her a title, it would undoubtedly be "The Village Maiden."
She was practically the embodiment of the typical "beautiful village girl" you'd read about in some cliché story — though, truth be told, that description only applied to her looks.
As soon as she saw me, she beamed brightly and took a few exaggerated steps forward.
Then, with dramatic flair, she raised a small bouquet of colorful wildflowers toward me.
"Sir Ber!" she began in a voice filled with misplaced confidence, "I present this banquet of flowers to you! Please see my passion reflected in these dazzling stars, and grant me the opportunity to stay by your side — to become your Dao Companion!"
My eyebrow twitched at her words.
Again.
This girl had been pestering me from the very beginning — always coming up with over-the-top romantic lines that sounded like they were stolen straight out of some bad novel.
She never missed a chance to create awkward, overly dramatic situations in an attempt to get closer to me.
To put it bluntly, she was trying to set up every cliché possible to somehow get laid with me, and she wasn't subtle about it either.
I let out a long sigh, feeling a headache starting to form.
I genuinely didn't know how to deal with her anymore.
Maria was bold — too bold for her own good — and half of the things she said made me question whether she was serious or just insane.
Sometimes she would throw around bizarre words, using phrases that sounded like something an obsessed otaku from another world would say, and when I asked her what she meant, she would claim that those "divine terms" were knowledge bestowed upon her by Goddess Aurora herself.
And the worst part?
I couldn't even tell her to just leave me alone.
As much as I wanted to, it would've been extremely rude.
She was the daughter of Miss Martha — the innkeeper who gave me food and shelter — and offending her daughter would be like slapping the face of the person who put a roof over my head.
So instead, I was forced to endure her constant dramatics and weird declarations of love, trying my best not to lose my patience every time she appeared.
...
Jason's POV
My name is Jason, just Jason — a typical village NPC.
You might be wondering, what exactly is an NPC?
Honestly, I wonder the same thing.
It's just a strange name that my childhood friend, Maria, decided to give me one day.
Since she's the one who called me that, I figured it must have some kind of important or meaningful reason behind it… though I've never really understood what that meaning is supposed to be.
Still, because it came from her, I kind of accepted it without question.
Maria and I have been close ever since we were kids.
We grew up in the same village, played together in the fields, helped each other during harvest seasons, and shared food during festivals.
She has always been cute — beautiful even — no, beautiful again and again.
There's just something about her that always manages to shine.
She's like the sunshine in my otherwise ordinary life, the person who brightened every dull morning.
And yes, I'm in love with her.
Deeply, hopelessly, stupidly in love.
She doesn't know it, of course.
Or maybe she does, but pretends not to notice.
Either way, I love her — even now, even after she's changed so much.
I sighed just thinking about it.
Ever since she became what people call the "Enlightened One," everything about her started to shift.
She began following the strange preachment of "Heavenly Truths" under the guidance of Goddess Aurora.
Because of that, my childhood crush — the same girl who used to laugh at my bad jokes and steal apples from my basket — became… well, weird.
Or, as she and the Goddess put it, "closer to the divine realm."
To be honest, around ninety percent of the things she says these days go completely over my head.
She talks about cultivation, enlightenment, divine paths, Dao comprehension, heavenly tribulations — all sorts of things that sound way too complicated for a simple village guard like me.
The only one who seems to understand her properly is Goddess Aurora herself.
I even tried to learn a bit of this so-called "divine knowledge" once, mostly because I wanted to impress Maria or at least be able to hold a proper conversation with her.
But no matter how hard I tried, nothing stuck in my mind.
It was like pouring water into a bucket full of holes — the words just went in one ear and came straight out the other.
I still remember the day Goddess Aurora looked at me and sighed, saying my "aptitude for cultivation is trash" and that I could never hope to achieve the Dao in this lifetime.
I didn't completely understand what she meant by that since I am a farmer, and a pretty good one at that, but I got the general idea — that the divine or mystical stuff just wasn't for me.
And honestly, that was fine.
I've always been more grounded.
I might not be blessed with spiritual talent, but I'm a capable man in other ways.
I may be a guard now, standing watch with a sword in my hand, but I'm also a farmer — and a pretty decent one at that.
I know how to till the soil, grow crops, and work hard for what I earn. To me, that's enough.
Still, lately, things haven't been easy for me.
My heart has been troubled more than usual.
The person I've been in love with all my life seems to have fallen for another man.
The moment I realized that, I felt something sharp twist inside my chest.
I was heartbroken, jealous — or at least, that's how I was supposed to feel.
But then I started watching her behavior, and honestly, I began to doubt whether she was truly in love or just… delusional.
Maria started acting strange — no, even stranger than before.
The way she talked about this man, the High-Elf staying at the inn, sounded more like she was playing out a scene from some ridiculous fantasy than expressing real affection.
I started to wonder if she even knew what love actually was anymore.
Still, jealousy is jealousy.
No matter how I tried to reason with myself, it still stung to see her chasing after someone else.
So I did what any fool in love would do — I began secretly keeping an eye on her.
I wanted to make sure that Elf didn't accept her ridiculous proposals, though I doubted he ever would. He seemed way too serious for that.
Even so, it hurt.
Every day, she would walk up to him with flowers or grand speeches about "Dao Companionship" and "divine destiny," completely ignoring my existence.
I would stand in the distance, pretending to be on patrol, watching her make a fool of herself and trying not to let the ache in my chest show.
At first, it broke me a little.
Then it just became routine.
I think by now I've gotten used to it — used to seeing the girl I love pour her heart out to someone else while acting like I don't even exist.
Maybe that's what being a background character — an "NPC," as she calls it — truly feels like.
From the corner by the wall I watched Maria again, mouthing those weird phrases she always did.
I still had no clue what the fuck Dao was supposed to be.
At least I knew it wasn't something you eat — maybe you drink it?
I grunted, feeling that familiar prick of jealousy, and glared at Maria as if staring could make sense come out of her.
'What the hell does she even see in him?', I thought.
'I mean, he's young, handsome, has a godly body… but so am I!', The thought stung and I looked away, hoping the worst wouldn't happen.
Then she shouted — loud and sudden: "NTRRRRR."
"No, it can't happen," I snapped, clenching my fists without meaning to, watching how close she had gotten to Ember.
"NTRRRRR."
"I won't let it happen."
My voice had a hard edge now; my eyes felt hot and bloodshot as I stared at Ember gently patting her head like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"NTRRRRRRR!!!"
"Noooooooo!!!" I couldn't help the cry that tore out of me.
Despair hit so sharply that I almost crumpled to my knees.
The world narrowed to a stabbing pulse in my chest and the sight of them together—her leaning into him, him smiling like an idiot—felt like a physical blow.
Then something made me turn.
In the instant I wheeled around, I found Goddess Aurora standing right in front of me, as if she'd been there the whole time.
She wore that mischievous, almost teasing expression I'd seen on her before.
"~Ara~Ara~," she cooed, the sound sliding out like silk.
"I thought you didn't understand anything I taught you, but to think you remembered the meaning of Ntr," she said in that sly tone that made my eyebrows twitch.
If I'd met her for the first time, I might have been smitten by her presence — her voice, the way she moved.
But I'd grown up in this village; I'd watched her from the distance that reverence demanded.
Despite the deep respect I felt for her, something darker flared up in me.
I wanted, in that moment, to wipe that smug grin off her face.
How nice, I thought with a violent image, it would be to shove that smiling face straight into the mud.
Goddess Aurora's expression shifted.
Her eyes darkened like a storm rolling in; the playful light vanished.
She stepped forward and grabbed my shoulders with a firmness that left no doubt she could crush me if she wanted.
Her gaze bored into me, sharp and frightening.
"Did you just think something really, really rude about me?" she asked, voice low and dangerous.
At that instant I realized, with a sick chill, that I had fucked up.
"Aghhhhhhhhh!!!" I screamed, a raw sound ripped from somewhere deep inside me.
To be continued...
💬 (A/N: Support the Author!)
Hey everyone! 💖
If you're enjoying my stories, check out my Re:Zero fanfic — Re:Zero: The Great Sage!
You can also join my Membership Program to get early chapters, exclusive stories, and cool illustrations!
🌟 Membership Tiers
💠 $2.5 — Trial Tier
5 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
3 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
3 chapters of Pride if Alternative
5 chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
💎 $5 — Respected Member
12 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
7 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
12 chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
🔥 $10 — Loyal Member
20 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
15 chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
All available chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
Versatile Mage: Infinite Resources (Exclusive Fic Chapters)
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
👑 $15 — Royal Member (Sold Out!)
30 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
All available chapters of Is It Wrong to Be a High-Elf in a Dungeon?
All available chapters of Pride if Alternative
All available chapters of In Mushoku Tensei with the Unique Skill Great Sage
Versatile Mage: Infinite Resources chapters
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
💫 $20 — Mommy Minerva's Sugar Child (Sold Out!)
35 chapters of Re:Zero: The Great Sage
All available chapters of every other fic
Exclusive Illustrations
Discord Role
⚔️ $30 — King Arthur Tier(Sold Out)
All previous perks
Special small animated scenes from my fanfics
My eternal thanks 🙏)
https://discord.gg/Xb47VnFUpQ
https://patreon.com/AkrosZero