-Silvea-

The sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds, making it difficult to believe that the sun was shining just a moment ago.

In the distance, an enormous dark figure towers over even the tallest buildings. While I can tell that its shape is similar to a woman's, the solid black color makes it impossible to recognize any of its features, except for the two glowing violet orbs on its face.

The figure is moving closer to me. As it walks, a wave of shadow emerges from its hand and causes a section of the city to disappear. I can hear people screaming all around me.

"Please! Help us!"

Why are they asking me for help? I'm just a knight apprentice, there's nothing I can do against that thing.

"Are you not the silver knight?!"

No, I'm not a hero, you should not put your trust in me.

The dark figure is looming right above me, I'm far too scared to run away or even scream. Its black hand reaches down for me. Looks like this is the end...

I feel it grabbing my ear, and then begins to pull.

"Ouch! That hurts!"

Why is this monster trying to rip my ear off?

"Silvea! Don't fall asleep here!"

"Eh?"

The one tugging my ear was actually my friend Paula trying to wake me up, so that was all a nightmare? Roul and captain Leon are also here, where was I again?

Oh, right! This is the council of kings. Every year there's a gathering of rulers of various countries in which they discuss matters that affect the entire continent. Well, even if it's called the council of 'kings' there are many countries that are not ruled by kings and most countries usually send a representative anyway. But this year many more rulers than usual decided to come in person, and that's because of two obvious reasons... Just a few days earlier there was a prophecy that announced the goddess of wind will attend this meeting. Nobody even knows when was the last time anyone saw a god.

As for the second reason, the queen of darkness is going to be the main topic to be discussed today. That's why I was told to come here, because everyone thinks that I somehow got her to run away back in the Agua kingdom. But that's a mistake! I should not be here at all!

"Captain! You need to tell them that I'm not anyone special!"

"It's already too late for that... And to be honest, you have been far more successful at dealing with the queen of darkness than I was."

Poor captain... even now, nobody has any idea of what the curse that the queen of darkness placed on him was. But he did manage to chop off her head, shouldn't that count as a partial success at least?

"Ah, young lady! I've been looking for you." An old man with a long white beard calls to me. He's walking with his eyes closed, but doesn't seem to have trouble navigating his surroundings.

"Master Alber. Can we help you?" Captain Leon greets him.

Alber? Wait... a blind old man... Is that the grand mage Alber? At level 375 with rank 10 in both wind and water magic, he's the most powerful mage in our continent. Or at least he was, before the queen of darkness... And he's also supposed to be over 200 years old, but doesn't seem THAT old...

"Well, there were a few things about the report of your encounters with the queen of darkness that I did not understand, so I decided to ask the two of you directly."

"What would be the problem?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the queen of darkness has been described as the type of villain that would kill anyone without batting an eye. And yet, you." He turns to point at the captain. "Fought a battle to the death with her and lost. And you." He points at me. "Repeatedly got in her way and were completely overpowered every time."

"Yes, that's correct."

The old man strokes his beard for a moment. "Then how are you both still alive?"

So that's it, a completely obvious question that I have no idea how to answer.

"Silvea followed her for some time, she should know her better than me." Captain! Don't pass the problem to me!

"I guess that she just enjoys toying with us..."

"So you don't know."

"I don't know."

I stare at the ground in shame as he strokes his beard a bit more.

"Well then, I'll be seeing you in the meeting. Sorry for bothering you."

And now I feel even more inadequate than before...

During the meeting. I'm told to stand a bit behind the chair in which the king of my country is sitting. Seriously, what am I doing here? Being surrounded by all these important people is overwhelming...

The first one to talk was the representative of the beastkin kingdom located in the great forest to the south of the demon wasteland, it seems like they were involved in an incident with the queen of darkness just a couple of weeks ago. I don't really know much about that country, my family came from the mountains to the west of the continent.

A few citizens of that kingdom were kidnapped by the demons from the wasteland. Since they said that the queen of darkness was involved I assumed that she was the one behind it, but she crushed the kidnappers instead. That's weird. A hero of their country named Karin rescued everyone and escorted them back to their homes, and the king wanted to congratulate her in person. But apparently, there was an accident when they met which resulted in the hero being exiled from her country and the king being unable to attend this meeting, I wonder what happened.

Next was the queen of the Agua Kingdom. It seems like she was traumatized by her encounter with the queen of darkness. I feel a bit bad for her, her own daughter betrayed her...

"She's clearly recruiting an army of demons! We need to stop her before it's too late!"

"Are you crazy?! We cannot start a war because of some woman who has not even done anything yet!"

"She tried to take over the Agua Kingdom!"

"And then she left without doing anything. Are we even sure that she was trying to take over? That queen seems kinda crazy."

That's basically what the discussion has been so far, but those who are against picking a fight with the queen of darkness greatly outnumber those who want to do something about her. They seem to think that they can beat her easily even if she attacks them. They have not seen her and are not taking her seriously enough...

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind interrupts the conversation, and I see a white and pink feather fall on my hand.

A woman with pink hair dressed in green is standing at the opened window. A gentle expression adorns her beautiful face, her crystal blue eyes make me feel at ease just from looking at them, and the pair of white and pink wings on her back give her a strange air of divinity. Is this a goddess? I bet that's what everyone in this room is thinking right now. And yet, I cannot help but feel like she's strangely familiar.

"Please, stop yelling at each other. You all must stand together to face the threat looming over our world."

Her voice is sweet and very soothing, listening to it makes me feel like she's someone I can trust.

"Who are you?" Someone asks.

"My name is Sefne. I believe my presence was announced by a prophecy."

"Sefne?! You claim to be the goddess of wind?!"

"Indeed. I have foreseen that the queen of darkness will cause a great deal of suffering and destruction in the near future. I have come to offer guidance to defeat her and protect the people of the world."

Uh? It's true that there was a prophecy, and I cannot imagine anything other than a goddess having such an aura of kindness around her. But is everyone really going to believe that she's who she claims to be without any evidence?

"Well, there's a simple method to test if you are really the goddess of wind." That old man from before, Master Alber, speaks up. "The goddess of wind should be able to take control of any wind magic, even if it's rank 10."

Without saying another word, he gathers a large amount of air into a sphere the size of his fist and throws it at her. Is that an air bomb?!

However, the goddess simply places the palm of her hand in front of it and the spell is sent back the way it came from. Master Alber seems surprised for a moment, but then conjures a gust of wind that cancels the spell.

"Are you satisfied?"

"..."

Everyone in the room is murmuring to each other, she actually just gave proof of being a real goddess... But master Alber has a very serious expression and is staring daggers into her. Wasn't he supposed to be blind?

"Well then, let's get back on topic. The queen of darkness might seem invincible, but there's a hero with the potential to defeat her, the silver knight. And that hero is in this very room right now."

Ah, thank goodness. If she identifies the real silver knight, people will finally stop expecting me to become a hero and fight the queen of darkness.

The goddess is pointing with her index finger. It seems like the silver knight is standing right behind me, I should step aside. When I move, she also moves her hand and continues pointing at me...

There's nobody behind me, is there...

"So it really was her?"

"This cute girl is the chosen hero?"

"She doesn't look very impressive."

Nooo! The rulers of the continent are all staring at me!

"I ask for your help to make her gain power. I will also provide various powerful relics to help her in her quest."

No, even if I get help, I'm not a hero. I should say something, but the pressure is too much for me to be able to speak.

"Also, it would also help if you let the people in your countries know about her. Everyone must know that she's the chosen hero that will defeat the queen of darkness."

No! Anything but that! This has to be another nightmare. Somehow this is even worse than the nightmare I had before...

"Paulaaa! Please save meee!"

My friend Paula is hugging me while the tears keep pouring from my eyes. She missed the meeting, but she's already been told about what happened and she's the person I always rely on when I need advice.

"I don't see the problem, you've always wanted to become a hero. Didn't you promise your father that you would become one before he died?"

"But they think that I can fight the queen of darkness, and that's impossible!"

"Didn't you already injure her once? She even ran away."

"About that... I thought that it was weird and just now I thought of something crazy."

"Something crazy?"

"That goddess from before... She really seemed to want to prop me up as a hero for some reason. And then I remembered that the queen of darkness back then was using wind magic instead of darkness. So I thought... what if that queen of darkness was really her in disguise, trying to make it look like I could fight her? Wind magic is good for illusions after all."

Paula looks like she doesn't know what to say, was my theory really that crazy?

"Well, even if that's true, it's probably just part of the goddess's plan. Perhaps she wanted to stop people from losing hope."

"But that doesn't change the fact that the queen of darkness is invincible and I'm far too weak."

"Oh, Silvea, you underestimate yourself too much. I've no doubt that you will become a great hero soon enough."

"You really think so?"

"Yes, just remember all the stories about heroes you've read. The villains are always so powerful that they seem invincible at first, but always end up losing."

"And you think that the queen of darkness is also like that?"

"Of course... She's the villain. And the fate of the villain is always to be crushed at the end."

When she said that last line... For a fraction of a second, I caught a glimpse of a very twisted and cruel smile on Paula's face, but that doesn't seem like her at all...

I must have imagined that.

forli

You know, I probably should have waited longer without posting a chapter back when I took a break, that way I could have a backlog of chapters written for when I take longer to write the next one. But I just cannot resist posting every chapter as soon as it's done...

When I was thinking about the story before I started writing, I was planning on Felias being the main antagonist, and Cureva would be Arana's nemesis. But I realized that Cureva would work really well with the theme of appearances being deceiving and she ended up with a much bigger role.