No Longer The Hero | TBATE

Chapter 5 | Sylvia

A/N [Read before you read the chapter!]

While writing I decided to change Sylvia's personality so it more reasonably reflects her situation.

Frankly the original overly kind Sylvia, although good when it comes to getting Arthur attached to her, doesn't act in a reasonable way according to her past experiences.

First, her father (Who never loved her) betrayed her and banished her husband for his own selfish gain, then, when she escapes the Asura to reunite with her husband he not only betrays her but also tries to lock her up so he can experiment on their unborn child. Next, when she tries to escape from her now insane husband he attacks her and leaves a fatal wound. And finally he sends his subordinates to hunt her, making her live in a cramped cave for a completely unknown amount of time with the ever present fear that she'll be found, and her unborn child will be left to her deranged husband's experiments without anyone to support her.

And because of these reasons I've made my own version of Sylvia slightly more insane, but also emotionally broken.

Alright back to the book!

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{Timeskip - Two Months}

{Arthur POV}

Two months ago my family and I, along with my parents' old adventurer's party were attacked by a group of bandits, and as a result I was forced to throw myself off a cliff to save my sister from certain death. Unfortunately because of the bazaar situation and my weak state at the time I was unable to come up with a way to save my own life and resigned myself to an early end.

But miraculously, against all odds, I had somehow managed to come out of the situation alive and in one piece because of the intervention of a strange being.

"Yes, in fact you learned that you have a guardian demon king who saved you in your ass in your moment of need, and now, overflowing with thankfulness, you've decided to dedicate the rest of your life to repay them."

"Fuck off."

The me of the past would have considered being saved from certain death as a lucky break in my oh so awful life, but now, after interacting with my more than eccentric savior for far longer than I'd have liked to. I'm no longer so sure that this was better than my impending death.

The demon who had saved me, or Sylvia, as she liked to be called, was one of the select few people that had the rare but unfortunate ability to piss me off on a regular basis through her unconscious but annoying remarks.

"Now now, just because you don't know how to properly express your thankfulness doesn't mean you have to be rude~"

"Stop reading my mind."

To be completely honest I wasn't exactly sure what about her made me so angry but I decided that even trying to find which of her hundreds of unlikeable traits got to me was a waste of time, and that I'd rather spend that time training.

"Oh come on, I have at least a few redeeming traits! I mean I even went out of my way to teached you mana rotation."

"Teach my ass, you just said that mana beast can do it naturally and left me to develope the technique on my own."

Just a few weeks after I arrived in her cave she told me about a technique to absorb mana while moving, saying how it would speed up my training efficiency by at least double. However when I asked her how the technique was actually done she just shrugged and told me she had absolutely no clue.

"It's not my fault I learned how to use it naturally, rather you should just be more talented, Hm!"

"Sorry, but unlike you, I'm not a mere mana beast, rather I'm a human. You know, a superior life forms whose race hunts beasts for cash."