Ten years since Leviathan's arrival in the upper world, a hundred years since the war between humans and demons occurred. During that time, Leviathan, the Demon King who became the world's terror, was no longer seen. He vanished and never returned. The aura of his presence also disappeared, without feeling even a trace of it. He was truly gone. Truly!
However, whether he existed or not, the upper world remained the same. Then the underworld underwent change. Green plants stretched wide accompanied by clear lakes. In the upper world, humans also carried on with their activities as usual. As in this fringe town. The town that borders the human world and the demon world—Artar.
A small town where most of its residents were farmers and hunters, an Adventurer's Guild was also located there. Its location close to the demon world made it easier for adventurers to get jobs hunting demon monsters. Usually, if they were lucky, they could obtain materials worth one gold coin, the highest currency in this world.
There was also Aetheria Academy from the capital holding open classes in the town of Artar. The students were asked to survive as adventurers equipped with academy knowledge and the intelligence to adapt to the wild. Coincidentally, the open class for first-year students about to advance was underway.
"Hey, are they students from that elite academy in the capital?" asked one adventurer to another, seeing outside the Guild headquarters a group of children in official Aetheria uniforms.
"That's right. My son also studies there. He will definitely become the greatest magician in the kingdom!" Shouted an adventurer loudly and proudly.
"Here we go again."
"Hha hha." An adventurer slammed his drinking glass down, "My son will defeat your son and become a candidate for the hero of light!"
"Don't talk nonsense. It's been a hundred years since a hero of light was born." Replied the table keeper, a man who was wiping drinking glasses after washing them.
"What I remember, the only owner of light mana is Lord Niel. But now he is no longer the hero of light, but rather the head of Aetheria Academy." Explained an adventurer.
"What if demons rise again when Lord Niel has stopped being the hero of light, and there are no more users of light mana born?"
"Did you forget? Besides commemorating the late His Majesty Kerthos and the seven heroes of light, Lord Niel's other purpose in building the academy was to educate talented children. The owner of light mana could be one of them."
"Right! It could be my son!" Replied the adventurer who first boasted about his son earlier.
"You... still dreaming."
The table keeper. A fifty-year-old man with a muscular body looked toward the child who had just been silent all along. "How was your work this morning?" he asked.
The child wearing a black robe opened his robe's hood. Black hair, eyes covered with black cloth, skin as white as snow, and sword-shaped earrings in his left ear. So handsome was his appearance, a seven-year-old boy. People knew him as the angel child who came whenever there was trouble.
"Good, uncle." The child. Louis. He smiled warmly. "I helped the woodcrafter uncle and got paid."
"Seems like you'll be able to eat meat tonight." Said the other table keeper, the wife of the first keeper. "How about you have dinner with us? Today our son happened to get a lot of game."
"Is it alright? How much should I pay later?" asked Louis innocently.
"Hha..." The woman table keeper laughed softly. "You really are something. I'm not doing this to receive your money. I'm doing it to repay you for coming to help my son that day." She explained with a happy face.
Louis covered his face again with the robe's hood out of embarrassment. "I didn't do anything big. I only helped him because it was just a coincidence." He deflected.
"Maybe for you it was just a coincidence, but not for us. He is our only son, and you came to save his life without asking for anything in return." Interjected the man keeper earlier.
"That's right!" A male adventurer roughly slung his arm around Louis's shoulder from the side. "You came from who knows where and at first made us suspect you were a demon, before we knew you were an angel sent by God to us."
Louis laughed awkwardly. "It feels strange to be called an angel."
A man who had been boasting about his son earlier approached. "Aren't you interested in entering Aetheria Academy? My son said that this year Aetheria Academy is reopening registration a month early."
"Aetheria Academy?" Louis tilted his head to the left, not knowing about Aetheria Academy. "I've never heard of it."
"It's a great magic academy that doesn't only accept nobles. You can register like my son in the capital."
Louis looked thoughtful for a moment. "Is the capital the center of government?" He instead asked something else, making the man earlier slightly startled.
"Ah, right. The capital is the center of the nation's government. His Majesty the King and His Majesty the Crown Prince are the current center of attention."
"You should go. At your age it would be better to get an education and make friends." Said the wife of the table keeper.
"Could I find him there?" Louis muttered without anyone hearing.
"There, besides being a place of education, it's also a place where people gather from across the continent. Even the queen consort of the neighboring country is a graduate of Aetheria Academy. That's what I know." Explained another adventurer.
"A place where people gather? Can I search for someone there?" asked Louis, making all attention turn to him.
"You... who are you looking for?" asked the male table keeper.
Louis put on a sad face, very sad even visible from behind the eye cloth and hood covering him. "I... have seven siblings. I lived with them in an orphanage before running away after learning the orphanage would sell us as slaves. We ran away and got separated until now." He told them.
All eyes looked at Louis with pity. They didn't know anything about Louis all this time. "So you're a poor child. Sorry, we've troubled you all this time when you came here looking for your missing siblings." Said a man who had not long ago joined in.
"It's alright, because I feel happy when helping you." Louis was cheerful again. "You all also accepted me well without questioning my origins. Do you want to be my family?" He became awkward, especially after finding them only silently staring at him.
"I don't know the exact meaning, but someone told me that family are the people who accept you without looking at your flaws." Louis panicked even more when they still showed no response. "U-um! I-I think I said someth—"
—Grep
They all suddenly hugged him, making Louis freeze at their sudden action. However, after he realized how warm the hands hugging him were, a smile full of tenderness spread across his face. It seemed he had come to the right place.
"This is part of a family tradition, a warm hug that calms." They, including both table keepers who had slowly approached earlier, released their hug.
Louis roughly wiped his tears. "Thank you."
"So, how about it? Do you want to go to Aetheria?"
"I can send a letter to my son, asking him to look after you while you're a new student."
Louis shook his head slowly, refusing the last offer. "No need. I want to try with my own strength. I also don't want to trouble uncle's son."
"You..." The man earlier roughly ruffled Louis's head. "Such a good child that it really feels like an angel."
"You're exaggerating, uncle."
"But, be careful. That's not a place where you can breathe freely. That place indeed doesn't look at your social status, but rather how useful you are. You'll be thrown away just like that if you're useless." Warned an adventurer who had once seen the dark side of the academy occasionally during missions in the capital.
"What you said is-" The male table keeper's words were cut off by Louis.
"-Thank you for telling me, uncle." Louis smiled. "I will take good care of myself."
"Do you really want to go to the capital to take the entrance exam?"
"Mm," Louis nodded. "I want to enter the academy."
They were transfixed by Louis's smile. "How can there be a child this sweet... He really is an angel."
"Your departure might make that old woman cry all night." Quipped someone, making Louis turn.
"Ah, right. Later I have to say goodbye to grandma!"
"How about us?"
"Hey, what kind of question is that?" He elbowed the man earlier in the stomach. "Isn't it that when he's at the academy he'll come here for the advancement exam? We can meet him again then." He continued while struggling to hold back tears that forced their way out.
"You're the one crying, huh."
"Where? This isn't crying, it's happiness!" The man roughly wiped his face.
"Hha hha..." Everyone laughed at the man including Louis.