Has a thought like this ever crossed your mind, even once?
That the beings from myths and legends might not have been mere fiction, but actual threats that once endangered humanity's continued existence.
If so, someone would say this.
-If that were true, humanity would already have gone extinct by now.
But the answer to that question was also in myth. After all, the gods bestowed special abilities upon humans.
For example, there was Gilgamesh, said to be humanity's first hero, and Heracles, who overcame countless trials and rose to the realm of a demigod.
Everyone may have different opinions on why the gods engineered such a thing, but this is what I think.
‘Maybe they were just bored.’
Honestly, even watching neighborhood kids fight has its appeal, so a fight that calls disasters to mind?
I think it would generally make for a fine spectacle. Or if not that, then in the span of eternity, even the gods might have forgotten the reason.
But...... not even the gods could have known an age like this would come.
***
I looked at ‘Garuda,’ a magical beast from Indian mythology that had manifested through a rift in the middle of the city.
‘It’s pretty close.’
Garuda, visible through the window, scattered terrifying heat across the area with nothing but a flap of its wings. Its mere existence turned the blue sky ash-gray, filling it with ill omen.
Just then.
CLATTER!
Mom, who had been washing dishes, set a plate down in a slight hurry. Not because she was startled.
As always, Mom merely wore an awkward smile.
“Where’s my head? Son, Mom’s going to pick up some groceries!”
It was fairly far away, sure, but going grocery shopping with Garuda standing there in plain sight......
BANG!
But before I could answer, Mom left the house. Of course, I didn’t look worried about her either.
‘She still thinks I don’t know.’
It would take a long time to explain, but this happened all the time.
Whenever a magical beast or a monster affected by a rift was near our house, Mom would always use grocery shopping as an excuse.
‘Already......?!’
Only about a minute had passed, yet Mom was already standing opposite Garuda.
Still, I was her son in name and in truth, so it wasn’t as if I wasn’t worried...... I mean, I wasn’t.
‘Sure, I should at least watch.’
I had to do the bare minimum.
But Garuda and Mom had moved away at some point, and now they were so far off they looked like dots.
It was clear that Mom had deliberately put distance between us.
‘Phew...... Let’s do this.’
It was certainly a grand state of mind, but all I did was close my eyes.
FWOOOOSH!
When I opened them again, however, the world spread out before me and the clusters of light began to warp within my eyes.
It was more like someone had randomly dripped paints of every color into a bucket of water.
‘I keep telling her to take off the apron.’
The scene that had been nothing more than a dot became as vivid as if it were happening right before my eyes.
‘I’ve definitely gotten used to it.’
Doing the bare minimum came together with the process of becoming accustomed to these strange eyes.
Strictly speaking, my current eyes were not originally mine.
‘Hmm, when was it again?’
I do not remember exactly when, but it was probably back when I only came up to Mom’s waist. Back then, I met a puppy.
Every single strand of the puppy’s fur held fire, so its whole body looked as if it were burning.
Mom had always annihilated every nonhuman being that approached me.
Surprisingly, however, Mom did not notice the puppy at all, nor did she perceive it.
Because of that, even though I was young, I could tell this puppy was not some neighborhood mutt.
‘......Who would’ve known our first meeting would be our last?’
It was a little bitter, but it was true. The strange puppy came out of my arms, spoke with me briefly, and then died.
‘It was pretty cute, too.’
For me, it had simply been an intriguing time, but for the puppy, it was the moment when a death that would have been lonely became a death that was not.
The puppy, wishing to thank me, passed its Authority down to me in the form of a special ability.
The result was the eyes I had now.
Its name was...... Oh, right.
‘It was the Heavenly Hound, wasn’t it?’
That was the name of the puppy I learned later.
The Heavenly Hound was also a Divine Beast, a mythological being said to look down upon the world from high up in the sky.
While I was briefly soaked in memories, the ominous ash-gray sky had turned clear and bright again.
I thanked Mom from afar.
“Good work, Mom.”
As you might have already guessed, Mom could be called a Hero disguised as a housewife.
Heroes were, simply put, those who handled mana and their own unique special abilities.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Mom returned with the familiar pattern of the door lock.
“......Mom?”
Unlike usual, Mom’s expression was a little stiff.
Her apron was stained with Garuda’s blue blood, which had not been there before she left, but that was nothing new.
Mom was staring intently at something in her hand, so my gaze naturally went there as well.
‘If it’s mail...... could it be?’
Unlike Mom, my face began to brighten. I carefully read the sender in my mind.
‘A training institution under the National Hero Association.’
If it was this, then Mom had every reason to be flustered. After all, I had submitted an Awakened admission application without anyone knowing.
***
Decades had passed since magical beasts and monsters first appeared in the world.
Thus, in the present age, they had even reached the point of professionally training young Awakened who had awakened to mana in Hero training institutions, commonly called the Academy.
‘Still, it feels strange now that it’s actually arrived.’
The admission letter from that Academy had now been issued to me.
“I’m telling you, it felt like Wonwoo was watching me.”
“Well, that could be.”
The one who answered Mom was Dad, who ran a small café.
‘There really isn’t anyone in this world I can trust.’
Mom had been hiding the fact that she was a Hero from me all along, and even Dad was no different.
Still, it had been easier to figure out that Dad was a Hero. When other people brought home fried chicken on their way back from work, he would bring home by-products from magical beasts.
In other words, he had no intention of hiding it.
‘What are they talking about for so long?’
My parents were talking in the master bedroom, and I was eavesdropping from the kitchen.
“If, by any chance...... he ends up going to the Academy, he could get hurt or die.”
Mom’s tone was anxious, but in contrast, Dad was unbearably sly.
“That’s right. Someone could get hurt or die. It just will not be Wonwoo.”
Silence settled over the master bedroom for a moment before the conversation continued.
“I think Wonwoo...... knows.”
“Of course he does. You said you felt Wonwoo’s gaze.”
What does she mean, I know?
‘Could it be the Heavenly Hound......?’
BANG!
The question had barely taken root in me when the master bedroom door opened. Gazes carrying different emotions rained down on me.
‘Tch...... I stayed too long.’
Whether the magical beast Garuda was the king of birds or not, it had been caught by Mom in an apron.
Because of that, I had guessed that my parents’ Hero Grades were quite high.
In other words, eavesdropping like this was never an easy thing.
Mom spoke with a gentle smile on her face.
“Wonwoo! Is there something you want to say?”
Normally, I would have said there was not, smiled, and quietly gone back to my room.
But not today.
“......”
Because anxiety showed through Mom’s gentle smile.
‘Right. The notice has already arrived, after all.’
With nothing more than that decision, resolve settled into my gaze.
Maybe it was because I knew how hard the two of them had tried to raise me as an ordinary child, and I even knew why they had cut me off from the world of Heroes.
“Well, so......”
The moment I began to speak, Dad looked at me with a meaningful gaze.
Mom’s smile had collapsed.
“I’m just going to the Academy. No, I want to go.”
“......”
As expected, no answer came back. But that was fine. No answer was the same as an opportunity to keep talking.
Whether the tide came in or not, I kept rowing without rest.
“I know it’s dangerous. But the notice came, so it’s not something we can just ignore.”
The Hero Association’s authority was immense, so an ordinary household would never be able to avoid it.
‘Then why do I need to persuade them?’
But my family was a little different. There was a feeling, if I could call it that, that they could brush off something as small as an admission notice.
Since it had come to this, I decided to say everything I had been holding inside.
“And I know you and Dad are Heroes. So now...... stop lying to me.”
At that moment, Mom looked as if lightning had struck her, but I had finally said what I had been holding back all this time, so I only felt incredibly relieved.
On top of that, Dad’s eyes were brimming with great pride, so a strange confidence rose in me as well.
‘You wanted to tell me all along, didn’t you?’
More than anything, Dad was still holding the fang of some unknown magical beast in his hand as if he were giving me a thumbs-up.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Still, Mom was the problem.
‘Haah...... I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t think it’d be this hard.’
One by one, Mom’s emotions slowly began to be erased. Now she showed no emotion at all.
At the moment, she was the towering wall I had to climb over.
‘Is this really right?’
This was my first act of rebellion that was not quite rebellion, so I did not know if this was the right thing to do.
‘Forget it. After coming this far, what’s the point?’
But for a long time, I had been hiding a small desire to become a Hero from both of them.
The world of Heroes I saw through the Heavenly Hound’s eyes was brilliant, so that desire swelled larger and larger.
So I steeled my heart.
‘I didn’t think I’d end up showing them like this, though.’
Showing them would be better than telling them.
Just as I had watched Mom during the day, I filled my eyes with will and opened them anew.
SSSSSS-.
In an instant, my irises shone in countless colors, then began to warp.
Mom soon let out words in a drained voice.
“Haah...... I thought it might be this, but still.”
Judging by Mom’s reaction, it seemed she had encountered it a few times in the past, back when I could not control the Heavenly Hound’s special ability.
‘That’s even better, isn’t it?’
If so, my action now carried even more meaning. It showed her that I could use it freely now.
Dad, who had kept his mouth firmly shut, spoke for the first time.
“Yeah, I figured you knew. This is why blood does not lie.”
Seizing that momentum, Dad spoke heartily.
“Right! Honey, if Wonwoo wants to go, we should support...... Oops, I’m getting a call.”
But before he could finish speaking, he escaped under Mom’s stinging glare.
“Phew......”
Mom sighed, then spoke in a voice full of concern.
“Wonwoo, that is an unknown power.”
“I know.”
I knew.
It would be stranger if I did not.
The Heavenly Hound’s eyes pierced the essence of things, and if something was made of mana, nothing could hide it from my sight.
Mom continued.
“......This world still isn’t ready to accept you, Wonwoo.”
“......”
I did not answer right away. Because it made my chest ache a little.
‘That’s exactly why I want to become a Hero even more, Mom.’
Everyone feared unknown powers, but the fear of the lot called Heroes was not mere words.
For that reason, the two of them had cut me off from the world of Heroes, even going so far as to hide the fact that they were Heroes from me.
‘You don’t have to feel sorry.’
She did not show it, but even now, Mom’s guilt was reaching me.
“I know how you feel, and I know everything, so just send me to the Academy. Please?”
That was why, for the first time, I wanted to go against my parents’ wishes and become a Hero.
Because I also wanted to show them that all their guilt until now had been unwarranted.
‘......This is going to be fun.’
With parents like these, it would be strange if I did not feel the appeal of Heroes.
***
Wonwoo’s mother remained alone in the master bedroom, gazing at a picture frame.
‘Right. I’ve done something that doesn’t suit me for too long.’
She closed her eyes and recalled Wonwoo when he was young.
In her memory, Wonwoo was spending time with unknown beings that even she could neither see nor hear.
She had not known.
That the beings her son had spent time with were mythological Divine Beasts with power rivaling the gods.