The Hero's Villain

Prolog:

'When people think of heroes, they think of men or women who will protect people with whatever power they have gained, or were born with.

Heroes that won't kill for their cause because it's 'wrong' or because 'it makes you stoop to the level of the villain' when in reality.

Sometimes, killing a villain is the only way to make the world a better place.

I'm one of the heroes that will do anything to keep the world and its people safe, even if it means killing someone or losing my life in the process.

Though maybe, that's another reason why I've been called a villain.

Meeting him, I stopped feeling like I had to prove I was a hero.

To stop trying to prove how good of a person I really am.

Because he sees the real me without me having to prove anything.

I just wish, he would let me see the real him and stop hiding.

But maybe, he's scared too. That if he lets me get too close, I would leave him too and that's why we're still distant with each other.

We're both scared of letting the other get too close.

Scared of loving openly because it could bring danger instead of peace.

Can I, love him without feeling guilty about it?'

~~

Amil's POV

I woke up to the sun glaring at me as if it had a vendetta against me. Well, I guess that's how it's always been.

The sun, most of the people of Rotan, even my own parents, they all hate me. Why? Because I'm a Hero that looks like a Villain.

With short and messy raven black hair, and eyes the color of stone grey.

My parents, along with almost everyone in Rotan, have blonde hair and blue eyes.

I'm the only one with black hair and grey eyes in the entire kingdom of Rotan.

Which is one of the reasons why I'm called a Villain.

In our world, Villains are the only people with black hair and unusual eye colors.

Though almost everyone in the kingdom of Vallan, the kingdom of Villains, has black hair.

The kingdoms have been separated and at war for years.

It's been going on so long that, no one remembers how the war started.

No one knows how to end it either. All we know how to do, is fight and kill each other.

Our world is slowly crumbling because of it.

Stretching, then getting out of bed. I go to my bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and brush my hair.

After that, I get dressed and head downstairs.

"Good morning Amil!" My little sister, Kiara, exclaimed with a bright smile when I walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning. Do I have a mission today?" I asked, giving her a hug before sitting at the table in the dining room.

"Yep. Han wants you to check out the Mordino woods. Says that there are monsters there, acting oddly." She places a plate in front of me, filled with a Cloudberry Melon, a Solfilo Twist, Moonrise Bites, a couple of her special Herb stuffed Pockets.

"A Solfilo Twist? What's the occasion?" I question as I take a bite of it. The crunch of the pastry is amazing. She did good.

The Solfilo Twists are a delicacy here in Rotan, especially in our small town of Novalyn.

"Well, the Flamewaltz festival is happening soon. I just want to make sure I have the recipe right." She smiles, sitting on the chair across from me with her own plate.

"You're going to set up a stall there? Do you have enough ingredients?"

"I was hoping you could get more of the powdered spice and citrus syrup for me while you were out."

"All you have to do is ask. How much do you need?"

"Enough to last me all day. Han assigned everyone who was going to set up stalls what they would be selling."

"Let me guess, people were wanting to do the same thing?"

She sighs, "Yeah. Anyway, hurry and eat. You have an hour to get there."

After eating, I head out to the Mordino woods. The place is an adventurer's paradise/graveyard.

The woods are always brimming with monsters' F rank, to S.

The reason it's also called a graveyard, is because some adventurers die fighting the higher ranked monsters. Either because they're doing solo missions, or they're rookies trying to level up too fast.

I know these woods like the back of my hands. I grew up playing in them and when I was teaching myself how to fight.

Using my summoning magic, I summon my familiar, a teacup-sized dragon made of soot and cinders, called a skreep.

Skreeps are good for scanning places that need more than one person to search and to spy on people to get information.

They're also good for sending letters too. Though because they constantly shed ash, you have to cover the letters.

"Alright, Aelith, report back to me when you're done." I tell her before sending her off.

As I walk up to the woods, three men are there, standing at the edge and talking.

They all look to be B rank or A rank adventurers.

One of them has short and messy, dirty blonde hair, while one has long and wavy light brown hair. The last man has short and spiky sandy blonde hair.

All of them have light blue eyes.

The closer I get, the more I can see what they look like and hear what it is they're talking about.

"I hope the trackers weren't lying about the monsters. We can't afford to not have a detailed report," the man with the dirty blonde hair said.

"Yeah. The trackers are good, but they make a lot of mistakes. Mostly with monsters." The man with sandy blonde hair added.

I walk up to them, "Hey, are you here to check on those monsters?"

They looked at me before one of them answered, "We are. I assume you're Amil? Han told us you were coming to scout the woods for us. I'm Tank, by the way." Dirty blonde-haired guy offered me his hand to shake after introducing himself.

"That's me. I have my Skreep scanning the woods right now," I tell him.

"I'm Hearon," the guy with long light brown hair introduced himself and offered me his hand to shake next.

I shake their hands, giving a polite smile.

"And I'm Gen. We're A rank adventurers and were told by Han to come here to check out the monsters the trackers said were acting odd. He thinks that 'The Blood Moon Curse' is approaching. I want to believe him, but I think it's something else entirely," Gen explains.

"I see. Well, the only way to know for sure is to scout the woods. It could be 'The Black Moon' instead. Or something much darker, like the awakening of a dark god." I think it could be another thing.

"What if, it's 'The Night of the Bloodshade Lilies'? Those flowers could kill a lot of people," Hearon suggested, making us think about it.

Maybe, but we shouldn't lose focus, no matter what.