(3rd Person POV)

 

The whole colosseum was speechless at the might of the hero. The unique sword art of the hero showed off the potential might that could grow from him. Everyone knew it had only been about a year since the hero came, so the fact that he could one shot a rank 2 adventurer was unprecedented.

 

But in truth, he would have been able to do that almost the whole time he was in this world. The hero of ages title did a few things, but the most important for this fight was his heroic sword art skill. All sword arts worked in two different ways. One was the basic aura blade of the sword art. The other was techniques using the sword art.

 

The attack Arthur used to win the fight was a technique based on his heroic sword art. Karmic Breaker was as close to a sure win attack as anyone could ever get, depending on the target. The attack did all the damage done by a person in there life back at them, but it could in no way kill. This meant, for someone like an adventurer, every attack they have done on a monster was done back on them. If hit with it and enough damage has been accumulated, all Arthur would need to do is hit you with a normal attack and you would die.

 

(Chloe POV)

 

The first round of the tournament was over. Except for two exceptions, each round took some time so it was getting late in the day. The second round and the semi-finals would be happening tomorrow, with the finals happening the same day as the ball.

 

“His power seems interesting” I say to the group in the private box, talking about the hero. He had just won his fight using a single attack. I had always been interested in sword arts, just as much as magic, but having no skill in the sword made it hard for me to learn them. They had the same basic idea as magic, just applied differently. This meant that seeing a practically unique sword art, like those from the heroic branch, was super exciting.

 

“Yeah, Arthur’s skills grow super quickly and he dedicated himself to learning a lot of powerful attacks.” Olivia said. She seemed really happy when watching him fight, and when talking about him. It was pretty clear that she had a crush on him. “He spent most of this year learning sword things, but recently he switched over to magic.”. The way she said this had a tone I didn't really understand, but hearing her talk about him with such passion was nice.

 

I was going back to the castle tonight so along with Abby and Olivia, I said bye to Amelia. Amelia was going back to the hotel tonight since she is staying there with Tess and None. I kind of wanted to go back with her as well to find out more about None’s summon, Uriel.

 

“Hey, why don’t you come with us to meet Arthur?” Abby asked me while we were leaving the box. The original plan was for me to meet him at dinner tonight. When Abby asked this, Olivia seemed kind of annoyed. “We could really use someone to show us around the city right now.”

 

“Oh, yeah. We hadn’t spent any time in the city yet.” Olivia said after Abby clarified why she was asking me. The three of them were going to spend some time in the city before dinner tonight.

 

“Yeah, I would love to show you around town”. I say to them. Beats just sitting at home trying to do some work. With the new plane in place we head towards the staging room for the tournament.

 

After a little waiting, the hero, Arthur, comes out of the room.

 

“Oh, Abby, Olivia. Sorry. Didn’t know you were waiting for me.” He says when seeing his friends. “Oh, and who are you?” He asked when seeing me.

 

“Hi, I’m Chloe von Analight. You're staying in my house right now.”

 

(Tess POV)

 

“Wow” I said, after watching the hero’s attack in the tournament. Before he went out he told None and me that he would win the fight in a single attack. It seemed like he was boasting to me, but knew the power that a hero could wield.

 

It also became clear that he was hitting on me, or at least trying to. The hero I knew in the past was a womanizer, and because he was a hero, nobody said no to him. That was, except me. It wasn’t just him, but a lot of people over the years I spent traveling have hit on me.

 

Whether it be nobles or high ranking adventurers, I always told them I wasn't interested. Before now, I had only loved one person. But now they are gone, and I meet None. I hadn’t told anyone, but the way I feel for None, is the same way I felt for them in the past. I fell in love with None.

 

“So, what do you think?” the hero asked us when he got back to the staging room.

 

“It was a powerful sword art. If you train hard, I think you could be quite powerful.” I say honestly. When I look over at None to see if he has any to say, but he just looks confused.

 

“How about you, anything to add?” the hero asked None.

 

“No, I'm fine.” None said after a second. He still had a confused look on his face.

 

 “Um, we have some things to do tonight, and so probably do you. So, we'll see you tomorrow for the next two rounds.” I say to the hero, guiding None to leave as well.

 

As we leave the staging room, I can see Chloe coming up with two other people. They didn’t seem to notice us, so I just left with None.

 

“So, what's up with you?” I decided to ask None. He hadn’t said anything and still had that confused look on his face.

 

After a second he asked, “Was his attack really that strong?”.

 

“What do you mean?” I ask him. It was clear that the attack from the hero was powerful, and i didn’t really understand what he was asking.

 

“The amount of energy coming from him wasn’t that much. His attack did a lot of damage, but didn’t take that much energy to do.” He answered. “My wisdom skill has sense magic as a part of it so I can tell when an attack has a lot of magic and power behind it, but I can also tell where the magic is coming from. And for his attack, there was a lot of magic, but it seemed to have a low casting cost, meaning that very little was coming from him”

 

None’s explanation made sense to me, but I couldn't tell if he was right. When a skill evolved into a new one it had a major jump in power. I had magic detection so I could use magic and sword arts correctly, but it wasn’t at a very high level, so I had no clue what he could have seen. “If you're right, then the hero’s attacks draw on other energy to work. That would make him even more powerful.” I say to None in response to his point.

 

“Well, yeah. But where is that energy coming from” he asked.

 

“It could be that his power borrows energy from some god?” a disembodied voice brought up. Very confused and startled by the voice, I pulled out one of my swords.

 

“Who is there!?” I yell.

 

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t get a chance to tell you in the staging room but I was able to perform the summoning today, and that voice is my summon. Her name is Uriel.”

 

“Hi, you are Tess right? Im Uriel” The voice says again.

 

Putting my sword away, I ask something about the situation”Why is she just a disembodied voice?”

 

“Umm, if i tell you can you promise you won’t hit me?” None asked.

 

Very confused by this question, I respond, “I won’t hit you None”

 

“She doesn't have any clothes so she is naked right now.”

 

[Amelia POV]

 

I beat both Tess and None back to the hotel. Tess was participating in the tournament and None would probably wait to talk to her afterwards, so this made sense. I had some work I could do before they got here so as I worked on that I heard a noise coming from the entrance of our room.

 

“Yeah, I understand that you were mad, but I asked you not to hit me.”. The voice was None’s, and he was apparently talking about being hit. I knew that Chloe had got mad when she learned about None’s summon and I guessed that this was about the same thing.

 

“I said I was sorry. It’s just, you shouldn’t be doing things like that yet. You're too young, and you had just met Uriel.”

 

“Tess, we have no clue how old I am. And I didn't choose for her to show up like that.” The tone of Nones voice wasn’t angry, just confused about what Tess was doing.

 

Deciding to participate in the conversation about this angel Uriel, I walked out of the room I was in to see None and Tess in the main room of the hotel room. “Welcome back guys. What are you talking about?”

 

“Hey, Amelia. Can I ask you a favor?” None asked me.

 

“Of course. What do you need?”

 

“So, I was able to use the summoning ritual at the church this morning.”

 

“I heard. Chloe told me about it earlier.”

 

“Did she tell you everything?”

 

“She told me enough. Let me guess, you need someone to help this angel you summoned get some clothes?”

 

“I have a name” a voice suddenly says in the middle of the conversation. She sounds like she is faking being annoyed by my comment. Her voice is that of a girl about the same age as me and Chloe.

 

“Um, yeah that's what I need. Also that's Uriel” None says, basically ignoring Uriel's outburst.

 

“Well, it would be bad if she went to the store naked and we wouldn’t be able to help her there… I got it. Ill take any measurement we need for some basic clothes she can wear. After that, we can go to the store to buy some things she might like.” My idea would work, but it meant time away from None tonight, but i still do like picking out clothes for people.

 

“I could go with you tonight to help pick out clothes.” Uriel said. “I would just need to stay invisible, but it would let me pick my own clothes.”

 

“That could work” With the plan set, Uriel and I head to the branch of the Card Trading Company in the capital.

 

“So, if you don’t mind, can I ask about None?” Uriel askes me.

 

“Um, yeah what's up?” I say in response.

 

“So, he hasn’t told anyone about this yet, but I knew some of the people None used to be. Some of them were good people and some weren’t. I just want to know what you think of None.” 

 

“So, he was right. There was a person he used to be.” None didn’t really talk about it, but I knew that his inability to remember the past really ate at him.

 

“It’s a little more complicated than that, but you really should think about the past people. They are basically dead.” The way she said this was very sad, like she was mourning someone.

 

“Well, None is a complicated person. He doesn't really emote very well. He doesn't ever get happy or angry. But he gets really cute when he gets embarrassed. The really big thing though is his depression. I’ve only ever seen parts of it, but None sometimes feels completely alone in the world. He won’t talk to anyone about it, but when he is asleep, he talks sometimes. It never really makes sense, but it usually is about being alone.”

 

“Thank you” Uriel said in response.

 

The rest of the time we talked about what kind of clothes Uriel likes.

 

(Arthur POV)

 

Many times in my life I have gone out and hung out with friends. And for various reasons some of those times, I was the only guy in the group, so what I’m doing right now isn’t that new.

 

But I’ve never liked it so much. During the tournament Olivia and Abby meet the third princess of this country. She is just as beautiful as anyone else I have met in this world.

 

But, I would have to wait to make my move on her. Abby being here made it hard for me to flirt with her. I never did it in front of Abby to make sure she didn’t see me in any bad light.

 

Olivia on the other hand knew about what I was doing already. Currently I was just planning on creating a basic relationship with Chloe and then growing it into something else.

 

Chloe spent the afternoon with us. She showed us around the city. We went to various sightseeing places, like parks. We also talked about our lives. Turns out that she is one of the court mages of the county.

 

The last thing we did was go to a store. The store is the major trading company on the continent. Olivia really wanted to get some new clothes. The church would normally buy stuff for us, but now that we are in a different country and not just staying in the castle so we can buy are own things. They even gave us some money for that very purpose.

 

“This is it. The capital branch of the Cars Trading Company.” Chloe told us.

 

The building was a several floor building. It wasn’t really what I would describe as medieval but not are a lot of things I had seen since coming to this world.

 

With us being here, we went inside. Our time was spent looking around the store. There were large sections that had weapons and armor for adventurers, but because the church had some of the best weapon makers working for them, we didn’t really care about those. The place that got some of the group's attention were the clothes. The clothes in this world were more modern than anything else we had seen, compared to things like buildings and technology.

 

The clothes were split between men’s and women’s in different sections. Because I was fine with clothes for now, we went over to the women’s section.

 

There, there was staff who happily helped them find clothes that was their size. Olivia seemed quite excited about this, and went to go try something on. Abby followed behind her and did the same, just with less enthusiasm.

 

This left just me and Chloe waiting behind.

 

“Why don’t you try something on as well” I ask her to make some small talk.

 

“Oh no, that’s fine. I already have enough clothes.” She says in response.

 

After that one tail exchange we spent our time talking about some stuff but never really got deep into conversation. Every now and then, Olivia would come out and show us one of the outfits she picked out, and would ask about how it looked.

 

After a while someone called out to Chloe. When we turned to see who it was, there wasn’t yet another cute girl.

 

“Amelia, what are you doing here?” Chloe said to the newcomer.

 

“I need to buy some clothes for someone. She’s trying them on right now, and I saw you waiting over here. The real question is what are you doing here?”

 

“Oh, well Amelia, this is Arthur, the hero. His party members are trying on clothes right now, after I showed them around town today.”