The guard had said it with great enthusiasm, his voice loud and carrying. The people nearby turned to look at Jhed. The words reached all the way to the back of the line. Everyone stared at him — people of countless different races, gathered here from all sorts of places, each with their own languages, their own ways of speaking, even their own way of expressing joy.
It felt as though time itself had paused in that place. Shine, who had been standing behind Daichi, stepped out of the line and walked over to Jhed.
"Oh, you as well." Selen the guard said.
"How fortunate I am. I actually got to meet the great heroes who freed our city from the Demon King." Selen said.
The people standing in line began stepping out, one by one, just to catch a glimpse of the two of them. Slowly, the line dissolved into a circle, with everyone gathering around Jhed and Shine.
"Are you the ones who freed Mariana? Please, free our city too. Everyone there is being enslaved and treated so cruelly." said a man with wolf-like ears and a tail, begging them to liberate his own city.
What is happening — I'm surrounded on all sides, and everyone's just staring at me, Jhed thought to himself.
He was genuinely frightened by the crowd. The whole atmosphere there had shifted completely.
"Look, we're not heroes. Please, just let us through," Shine said.
"This is happening because of you," Shine said, pointing at Selen. It was Selen's shouting that had drawn this crowd in the first place.
All the outsiders gathered there were now begging them to liberate their own cities as well.
"Please, help free my city. They're treating my wife horribly... please, save my wife." an elf pleaded with them. Jhed looked toward him and could see tears welling up in the elf's eyes.
"I'm so sorry. Let me get you out of this right now." Selen called over the other guards.
The guards pushed through the crowd, moving people aside, and began pulling Jhed and Shine out from the middle of it.
"Please, help me." The elf kept following behind them. He wasn't alone — there were many others just like him, all pleading for their cities to be freed.
Jhed watched them all up close — the despair etched on their faces, the desperation in their voices reaching him clearly. But he was no hero. Nor was he some powerful warrior. He couldn't even protect himself — how could he possibly help them? Defeating Miruth alone had been an enormous struggle, and Miruth had been so powerful — so how much stronger would the others be?
Wherever Jhed looked, he saw nothing but despair and anguish on people's faces. All of them had fled their own enslavement and come to Mariana, drawn here by the prophecy.
Selen led them away from the crowd. They were now inside the city. Behind them, the remaining guards held the crowd back.
But from behind, people kept shouting, begging for help.
"Please, help us. Free our city." Their voices carried from behind, again and again.
Daichi and Silia had caught up and joined them by now.
"They're with us," Shine said.
"Oh, I see." Selen said, letting Daichi and Silia through to join them.
"Please forgive me. I let my emotions get the better of me. Because of that, I forgot that the people still standing in that line come from cities still under enslavement." Selen said, bowing in apology.
"Can you keep this a secret? Don't let anyone in the city know that we've come to Mariana," Shine said to Selen.
"Yes... I'll make sure of it. I should get going now — I need to hold those people back." he said, and with that, he left.