Thwack. A tree fell in the forest and on the bottom broken half was a man beaten up and tied up. Zogard stood over him, his hand closed in a fist.
“So are you willing to tell me why you attacked our mistress?” He said, clearly pissed. The man didn’t answer.
“Sir, I think he fainted when he saw you break the tree.” Roinel, the vice commander, standing next to him said.
“Tsk.” He was pissed off at himself, filled with regret. He knew that lately, Ivana was getting cocky, but then he didn’t set her on the right path. He knew he should’ve sent someone after her, to keep her safe. “Right now we have to go find her.”
“Sir, I don’t think we can right now. You remember the phenomena they had described, right?”
“No? I stopped paying attention after they said they chased the mistress.” Hearing this Roinel facepalmed.
“He said that he saw the mistress disappear in a flash of blue light. What does this remind you of?” Understanding dawned on Zogard as he remembered the tale of almost every hero.
“Divine intervention.”
***
Where am I? Ivana had no idea where she was. The cliff she was trapped by disappeared and now trees and mossy rocks surrounded her. She stood up and picked up a sturdy, big stick. It’s not a lot but I think I can defend myself if anything attacks me. She walked forward holding the stick in front of her. Slowly the trees began to peel away, and in front of her stood the ruins of some ancient temple.
“Where am I?” If there was such a temple in such an explored area, she would’ve heard about it. But no one had ever talked about it. She remembered the voice saying something about the grave of some hero? She looked at a doorway in and entered it, looking to avoid traps.
“Hello anyone home?” She didn’t know why but decided to ask this. It’s not like anyone was living here. What was she expecting, a zombie waiting for her?
Hello.
Brfieubgsobeonfosof. Ivana nearly jumped out of the doorway.
“WHO ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU?” Going into panic mode, Ivana brandished her stick fiercely.
That stick won’t do anything to me so put it down. But sorry about scaring you. I’m Lucius, the hero. You must be the next one if the goddess allowed you in here. The name triggered a connection in Ivana’s head. She constantly read about the heroes, as they had interested her. Politics was boring but reading these well-written and exaggerated stories excited her.
“The hero? Lucius? Like the history books guy? That one? The one who fought a million of the gema?” She was starstruck. Although he wasn’t as cool as the first or fifth, he was still pretty cool “Anyways where are you? I hear your voice, but I can’t see you. Can I get you an autograph?”
Are you sure you can hear me?
“Yes?”
Wrong! I’m talking inside your head. I’m basically a floating spirit. That’s why you can’t see me. Anyways, what were the other questions you asked me? I forgot. Oh, wait yeah… I did beat 10 thousand gema, not a million.
“Tell me more!”
Sure! This is the most fun I’ve had ever since I came here.
***
Hey, Ivana wake up. It’s been a day. Do you have anyone you left behind?
“Mmm. Five more minutes dad.”
WAKE UP!
“AHHHHH. WHO'S THERE?” She sat up and brandished an imaginary stick. “Oh wait, it’s you, Lucius. What happened?”
You’ve been here a day. But do you have anyone who you left before you came in here? As a responsible adult, I’m supposed to ask that. It’s in the manual to crown a new hero that you have to make sure that if they have any priorities to make sure they finish it.
“Shite, you’re right. I’ve got to get back to Zogard. Send me back.”
Wait, not yet. You didn’t inherit anything.
“Then what do I need to do? I gotta get out soon or Zogard will... uh… be annoying.”
Okay, so what you have to do to inherit my legacy is to ask to take anything of mine, like a skill or weapon, and with the transfer of ownership, I can add the hero qualification. This way when you reach 12, you can get the hero job.
“Uh, anything?”
Yes, anything. For example, some of the things I recommend are my special skill lig-
“I want you!” Ivana had never had a friend. After her father remarried, the duchess made sure that no one ever could get close to her, so she considered Lucius her first friend.
Wait, me? But you could choose something better! Is it even allowed?
“Nuh-uh, I want you to come with me. And you told me I could choose anything to take.” Suddenly a screen popped in front of Ivana.
| You have chosen to take 6th hero as your hero qualification. Is thisyour final decisions? | |
| Yes | No |
Ivana didn't hesitate and clicked yes.
WAIT WHAT'S HAPPENING?
Suddenly the voice of Lucius disappeared from her head. Now a new screen popped up in front of her.
| Since the 6th hero's body is long gone, you have designated to design the hero's body. |
Ivana smiled as a dastardly idea came into her head.
***
10 minutes late...
"What happened?" Suddenly a voice can be heard in the temple. "You asked for me to be your hero qualification and suddenly I saw the night sky surrounding me. Then I came back?"
"Lucius! You're back! So tell me how is it?" Ivana stared at the human in front of her. Suddenly Lucius felt like Ivana was looking at her and suddenly felt embarrassed.
That can't be true. Maybe it was a lucky guess where I was? I'm a spirit so unless she has one of those undead related skills, no way she can see me, Lucius thought.
"Your new body I mean? I made it myself!" Ivana said. This prompted Lucius to look down. Earlier his body, which seemed faded and ethereal, looked tnagible. He moved his hand and touched the wall. Unlike before where he passed through it he could now feel it.
"I'm alive again?" His shock grew larger and larger. "I'M ALIVE!" He runs up and hugs Ivana. "I can't believe it, I'm actually alive again." Ivana smiles as he face flushes red, seeing his happiness over this. Feeling a mixture of happiness and embarrassment for what she did. Lucius lets get of her and backs away to look once more at his body. But then he notices something weird. There were was seemed to be two mounds peaking our from her chest. Curious, Lucius grabbed them.
"Ahn." A soft moan escaped his mouth. "I'm a girl? IVANA!"
Lucia, the reincarnated hero
Kind of a jerk thing for Ivana to change Lucius/Lucia’s into a girl like that. Well, at least Lucia is alive again and Ivana has an actual friend now
I'll let you in a secret
This is Ivana's future personality showing through. Often doing stuff and thinking about the implications later. Also a bit of an S who likes teasing everyone.
@Carpio As long as she doesn't go too far or too off the rails, I guess that will be tolerable...
In the future, if you feel there is an issue, just let me know. I'll try and fix it!
@Carpio probably a good rule of thumb would be "If someone did this to Ivana, would she be unhappy about it and would I find it acceptable or not?" If the person doing the thing is someone that's obviously a bad guy then it doesn't apply as much since we already are supposed to dislike them, but if it's someone that's supposed to be an ally or friend that does it the questions apply
What I had in mind was at worst, she's on top at night and she teases people so they get annoyed and flustered to see their reactions. Is that fine?
@Carpio that's fine, if potentially annoying if she teases people too often and is obnoxious about it. I was worrying there might be more "jokes" like there was in this chapter where she permanently changed Lucia's body and gender-that isn't some minor thing or throwaway gag, that's a serious, major, and permanent change for Lucia that she now has to deal with for the rest of her life.
Another concern was that Ivana might go the route of being "tsundere"/"cute sadist" where she attempts to go the tsundere "I'm grumpy and act like I don't care even when I do", but is just a toxic, abusive jack@ss. Stuff like constant gaslighting, always insulting the people they supposedly care about, pulling people into dangerous plans or using them as pawns, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse and manipulation, etc. It's especially sad and disturbing when that kind of thing is something the MC/female lead does a lot, yet the comments on the chapters and story are all supportive/dismissive of it (most commonly for female @sshole sadist characters), like "Sure she literally stripped someone of all their clothes and dumped them in the middle of a city naked, but she kissed them when they made it back to the house." or "Those bruises and scars don't *really* hurt the person she's abusing, she's just doing it because she "loves" them! It's not like she's *actually* trying to make them suicidal!" or "Sure she's burnt people alive and tortured them, but they deserved it, and even if they didn't she's pretty and therefore this is excusable behavior that doesn't matter." or "She may be crazy, but she sure is cute!"
As an example from another series I've read recently that had a "prank" that I thought was just the characters being sadistic @ssholes-the MC's parents went away on a trip, and the MC organized a big "prank" of pretending that everyone in the village got turned to stone and killed, causing the MC's parents to freak out when they returned and break down crying on seeing the fake statue of the MC, only for the MC to jump out and do the equivalent of "It's just a prank, bro! Sure, we made you think everyone you knew and loved was dead, included your beloved children, but it's just a prank, bro!" The MC was even sick and twisted enough to suggest they (the parents) keep the statue of the MC since the MC was getting ready to leave the village to go adventuring and the statue could be a souvenir/reminder of the "prank" while the MC was away
*realizing how long this comment has gotten*- wow, pretty clear this kind of thing *really* bugs me and is potentially enough to make me drop a series if it gets bad enough
Kay then. I see where you're coming from but I guess another reason I added this is she 1. Wants a friend which at younger ages, at least from my experiences is same gender, 2. Is young so doesn't completely think through her actions and 3. Has dealt with Xander and Brian so has a worse view of boys. I currently plan this as the worst thing she dies, as I want her to have more of a classical hero attitude. And definitely no gaslighting. The worst is much later probably her talking as if implying someone is stupid for a very good reason.
Sorry is dies in the middle but I mean does
@Carpio You know you're able to edit your comments for a while after posting them, right? There's a little edit option below the username and picture next to the comment (like I can currently still see the edit option for my comment above despite it being 10 hours after posting), but I think the edit option goes away eventually. Not sure of the exact time, but probably a day or so
Anyways-yeah, Ivana being young and not thinking things through is a mitigating factor (though doesn't she have a lot of memories/mental age from her past life too?), I just hope Lucia calls Ivana out for this and Ivana realizes she did screw up in a big way and do something wrong to Lucia. It can serve as a moment of character growth for Ivana, and she can realize she wouldn't want someone doing that to her, so she shouldn't do it to someone else (barring her enemies, but that's a different matter-I could easily see her being a bit/lot of a sadist against her enemies and I don't think many people would mind as long as she doesn't go too extreme like murdering someone's entire family line)
@Carpio Unless Lucius is transgender, this is a very cruel thing to do. It will give him gender dysphoria and depression.