Chapter 71 - The Legendary Hero
Nero looked at the woman and waited impatiently for the money.
"Uhh… is there something else you need?" the woman asked.
"Where is the money?" Nero asked with a confused and curious look on his face.
The woman pointed her finger at Nero's guild card and said, "There is no way you can carry gold coins worth that amount, so you can use this guild card to debit the coins at any guild in the world; Whenever you want."
"..."
"And you can also directly use this in inns or big shops if they have a similar device," she added.
"..."
'Is this something like bank cards? Now that's interesting. Who came up with such an idea in this fantasy world?' Nero wondered.
"How long has this system existed?" Nero asked the woman, but the woman looked at him as though she couldn't understand Nero's question.
"Who invented these card transactions and stuff," Nero asked in simpler words.
"Oh! So that's what you meant." The woman turned the device at Nero and said, "This system was invented by the same S+ rank adventurer I told you about."
'Was he a reincarnation, or someone from my previous world?" Nero pondered.
"What will happen if the card gets stolen? Would I lose all my money?" Nero frowned his brows.
Though someone stealing something from Nero was just like asking a god to wipe one's ass— quite literally.
"Yes, and to prevent such cases, the card user will need to pass his mana when making transactions," the woman explained.
'Now that's some dope security system— a lot better than those, fingerprint and face scan securities. And OTPs are jokes.'
Nero remembered some more awful memories from his past life.
"Where is that S+ mortal? And where can I find him… or her?"
Nero wanted to give a pat on the back to that adventurer for inventing something like this. And if that adventurer was really from Nero's previous world, then he wanted to ask some things.
"It was a female hero, and the legend says that she went missing with the rest of her party members during one of the quests. No one has seen them since," the woman grieved.
"Ooops." Nero tried to hold back his laugh and cleared his throat. "What was the name of that adventurer?"
"She had many aliases, so no one knew her real name, but there was one book written on her that said her name was…" the woman stopped before saying the name.
"Was?" Nero raised his brows.
"Hera."
After a brief moment, Nero squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows, "And?"
"I don't know much, nor does anyone else here. It's been over 5000 years, so you won't find anyone alive either," the woman shrugged.
"I was hoping to learn more since it piqued my interest, but never mind. Was there something else she invented other than this device?" Nero questioned with a calm look on his face.
"Not much since she never really came to this continent. But you might find more information about her in the other continents."
Nero shook his hand and scoffed, "I am not that desperate."
"Although there are rumors that many people have seen her on multiple occasions," the woman added.
"Now I am desperate," Nero said with a straight face.
"Some say her ghost came back to life to take revenge."
"Revenge? What revenge?" Nero asked curiously.
'It must be something related to her last quest— since she went missing after that,' Nero thought.
"No idea. This topic is so confidential and controversial that no one really talks about it."
"There was also a legend that she possesses you if you think about her too much," the woman asserted.
The woman glanced around and said in a low voice, "Some even say that you can summon her ghost if you dive beneath the surface of the sea or lake, and call any of her names with dedication— she will appear in front of you and do anything you ask for. But in return, she will take your life."
"Now that's some horseshit. That's not how summoning works. You first need sacrifice to summon one, and the price comes after. And it is one of the rules of summoning that the summoned entity can't kill the summoner— unless the summoner asks for it," Nero asserted.
The woman turned silent and stared intensely at Nero.
"Of course, it also depends on the entity they summoned. If they summon something stronger than the summoner, then…" Nero shrugged his shoulders and added, "They should prepare their graves, I guess."
"Although a summoner can't summon something stronger than themselves. And the cause I said above occurs in very rare cases." Nero couldn't help but spout his knowledge on how summoning works.
"She is obviously stronger than the summoners, so she can kill them, right?" The woman was somehow interested in this topic.
"Here is the thing, if one end up summoning an evil entity, then there is no way it is going to listen to the summoner's request or words. And you said that girl does anything the summoner asks for— so that hypothesis of yours is factually incorrect. Unless I am missing something. "
'Or some major shit happened, and they fucked up the summoning systems,' Nero sighed inwardly.
"Anyway, don't believe in such things, or at least use your mind before believing in it."
Nero then left the guildhall with Sophia, Elise, and Emilia.
The woman watched as they left, then glanced around the guildhall to ensure no one was looking for her.
"Yeah, you are right, Zane. That's not how summoning works, but you of all people know that reverse summoning exists."
The woman placed Sophia, Emilia, and Nero's old guild cards on the counter.
"So your name is Nero in this world," She tapped on the cards, and they turned to ash in an instant. "Wait for me, Zane. I am coming for you soon."
The woman then froze and stared at nothingness.
After a while, the man returned to the counter and sat on the chair beside her, "What's wrong? You look lost in some thought."
The woman blinked once, then blinked again and held her head in her hands.
"Argh!" The woman groaned in pain.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?" The man asked with a concerned look on his face.
"Yeah," she glanced around and said, "Where did the three of them go?"
"Huh?"