When it hit morning Vikir woke me up whilst holding some ice to his forehead.

  “Sober up, the king's announcement will be happening in an hour.” Vikir said whilst handing me a cup of water

  I drank the water, ate breakfast with him and Val, and we headed to the town square where the king would be making a speech from his castle.

  When we arrived there was already a crowd of people waiting for the kings announcement, the three of us didn’t have to wait long before the king appeared on his balcony to resounding applause. Following behind him were royal guards and a beautiful woman with blonde hair and green eyes. I elbowed Vikir when I saw her and he swatted my elbow away.

  “MY LOYAL SUBJECTS!” The kings voice boomed carried by some sort of magic amplification.

  “WE HAVE SUFFERED AT THE HANDS OF THE NOTORIOUS DEMONS FOR YEARS, FIGHTING JUST FOR OUR SURVIVAL, YEARS AGO WE SENT THE HERO RAMSEY TO SLAY THE DEMON KING AND ALTHOUGH HE LOST HIS LIFE, HE WAS VICTORIOUS IN KILLING THE DEMON KING AND ENDING THE 1ST DEMON WAR. BUT THE HEINOUS DEMONS PUT THE DEMON KING'S DAUGHTER ON THE THRONE AND THEY WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THEY ERADICATE ALL HUMANS, SO TO PROTECT MY PEOPLE AND ALL OF HUMANITY, I WILL DECREE A NEW HERO, TO NOT ONLY CARRY THE TITLE OF HERO, BUT TO CARRY THE HOPE OF HUMANITY. IN 1 MONTHS TIME I WILL MAKE MY DECISION AS THE GODS AS MY WITNESS, SO IF YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF WORTHY, THEN ANSWER THE CALL AND LET ME KNOW OF YOUR EXISTENCE, LONG LIVE BREUFIDEM.”

  The king finished his speech and retreated back into his castle with his entourage as the crowd below gave thunderous applause and cheers, all feeling excited and patriotic from the king's decree. The crowd began to disperse, but the excitement in the air was palpable.

  “Well you we’re right about it being a decree involving a new hero.” I said to Vikir.

  “I’m not surprised, my informant is quite reliable.”

  The three of us followed the crowd out, I said goodbye to Val and Vikir and split from them. I did my training for the day and went back to the adventurers guild to pick out a quest for the day. I saw Tace at the adventurers guild and invited them to quest with me, but they turned me down, since they were gonna be going with their group for a quest tomorrow, so they couldn’t risk getting injured before it. Well Tace didn’t say that, but I’ve gotten good at understanding their charades, so I let Tace be and chose a solo quest for myself today and left to complete it. After completing the quest I returned to the main gate, said hello to Vikir and entered Breufidem, but it was different from how I left. There were decorations, vendors, and people all bussiling about the street, it looked like a festival was taking place. I reached the adventurers guild and chatted with Friedman..

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  “What’s with the festival outside?” I asked Friedman.

  “The king sent parchments for a festival to be held for a month leading up to the hero’s selection.”

  “Oh, that makes sen-”

  “Wait, this is gonna be for a month?” I asked Friedman with confusion.

  “Yes, but today is more extreme due to everyone's excitement at the proclamation of a new hero, but it will probably be more relaxed until a few days before the hero is selected and then the festival will ramp up again.”

  “That’s good, I didn’t know how I would deal with crowded streets everyday for a month.”

  I said goodbye to Friedman after turning in my quest and adventured around the festival, hopping from stall to stall checking them out. I tried a few games here and there but it was kinda boring without a friend to compete with, I wish I knew where Tace was or Vikir was off work, but alas, so I just went around trying out different festival foods from the stalls and after a while my arms had a variety of foods in them, which I brought to the main gate to enjoy with Vikir and the other knights.

  “Yo Vikir, have you tried any of the festival food yet?”

  Vikir looked at me bewildered by the sheer amount of food I was carrying.

  “No, it wasn’t setup before I worked.”

  “Well here you go then, I gestured with my head towards the pile of food in my hands.”

  Vikir just look at me dumbfounded.

  “Sorry kid, can’t right now, I’m working and I’m too busy.”

  When he said that, I noticed the long line of people entering Bruefidem.

  “Oh, I see, well what am I supposed to do with all this food?”

  “How about eat it.”

  “All by my lonesome, but I’ll get a stomach ache.” I sad with a puppy dog face.

  “Hey Vikir, take 15 and eat with the kid, we got you covered.” One of the other knights told Vikir.

  “You sure?” Vikir asked the fellow knight.

  “Yeah, he’s also kinda distracting, so I think this would be the fastest method to get him to leave.”

  “Sigh, alright.”

  Vikir walked with me a little bit away from the guard post and we sat down. We began to talk about everything going on as I handed different festival foods to try.

  “Some of these are cold.” Vikir told me.

  “Well, some stalls I visited a while back.” I replied.

  “Also did you wash your hands befo-”

  BOOM

  Vikirs question was cut short by an explosion that resounded from inside the walls of Bruefidem.