The Mentor and The Ten Heroes

Chapter 1

The sun was shining brightly, heating up the asphalt road that seemed to be twinkling emitted by its rays. Birds flew happily while chirping happily singing to each other, enlivening the atmosphere of the hot afternoon.

And the sound of insects typical of summer creaking in each tree makes the afternoon even more noisy. Then, Paul appeared, a burly young man whose face was full of scratches, pedaling his bicycle leisurely across a very hot asphalt road. He was also seen wearing a school uniform from a well-known local high school; white shirt wrapped in a white jacket and white trousers, all white.

With sweat covering almost his entire body, making his clothes wet as well, he kept pedaling his bicycle, even though the sun, which was quite hot at that time, stung his brown skin until it hurt.

The streets were still quiet, there weren't any other vehicles passing by, even though it was already very midday, but that was natural, because the area where he lived was in a residential complex which was known to be always quiet.

After spending nearly twenty minutes, Paul finally arrived at the front gate of his house, he parked his bicycle first, then he went down to open the gate of his own house, after it was open, he guided his bicycle to enter the front yard of the house.

After storing his bicycle in the garage, Paul immediately went into his house, and as usual, he was greeted by a very familiar quiet atmosphere, only the sounds of ticking wall clocks, tap water, and the other things.

With slow steps, Paul started to climb the stairs to go to his room, after arriving at the door of the room, Paul felt something strange, for some reason, it felt like something was inside, not as usual, he even heard voices like someone who was chatting.

Is there someone in the room?

As Paul recalls, his private room was always locked tightly, in fact, the key is still in his trouser pocket now, but why does it seem like someone, no, several people have entered his room?

"This is weird."

Paul started to be amazed, but out of curiosity, he quickly took out his key from his trouser pocket, then put it in the lock of his room, after the lock was released, slowly, he pushed his bedroom door, followed by a very tense feeling.

The door to his room was wide open, and Paul entered, but he found absolutely nothing in the room, because all that was in there, was just the furniture of his room; a messy bed, a cluttered bookcase, a broken guitar hanging on the wall, his childhood portrait stuck to the mirror of the cupboard, and broken frames piled up in a corner of the room.

And that's all, the rest is just ordinary stuff.

"Maybe it's just my hallucination." said Paul with a sigh, and massaged his slightly dizzy forehead. "Okay, now what?"

He asked himself worriedly, still standing upright, looking at the atmosphere of his room that was like a broken ship. Paul also started to remember the little problem that happened to him this morning, to the point where he was expelled directly from the mouth of his school principal, and also got his mother involved to come to school angrily.

Just thinking about it, made Paul's head feel very dizzy.

"WHERE IS HE! I WILL PUNISH HIM!"

Surprisingly, suddenly the sound of his mother's shriek which was very loud from outside was heard up to his room which was on the top floor. This is bad, his mother has come home, Paul will definitely be scolded after this.

The sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, coming into his room, made Paul shudder with fear.

Ah, damn, he forgot to close the bedroom door. That means, he's just waiting for his mother to come into the room, finish him off.

"HERE YOU! STUPID BOY!"

Paul quickly laid his buttocks on the surface of the mattress, sat up straight there, because it would be tiring if he had to listen to his mother's long babbling while standing. Paul also prepared mentally so that when his mother mentioned everything about him, it would not break his heart.

Not to forget, he also lowered his head, so that the impression of guilt felt natural, even though he didn't feel guilty in the slightest.

"WAIT!? WHAT IS THIS!? PAUL! WHY I CAN’T GET INTO YOUR ROOM!" Suddenly his mother's shrill tone started to sound different, Paul lifted his face again to look at his biological mother, and to his surprise, he found something odd.

"Eh?" Paul immediately moved to approach his mother who was pounding the empty air at the mouth of the bedroom door, looking confused. "What are you doing?"

"DON'T YOU SEE!? I CAN'T GET INTO YOUR ROOM! PAUL!"

"Eh!?" Paul started to jerk, he couldn't believe that his mother couldn't get into his room, even though the bedroom door was wide open.

When Paul pulled his mother's hand into the room, it was so hard, as if there was a wall in the doorway, blocking them, but there was nothing there. But strangely, when Paul tried to get out of the room, he could do it normally, and when he came back inside, so could he. However, why is it only his biological mother who can't enter his room?

Very weird. Really weird.

As his curiosity grew, Paul tried to feel the air around the door, and he found nothing but emptiness. Meanwhile, his mother felt like there was a stone wall blocking her way into Paul's room.

"Mom, I think there's something strange in this house," said Paul, his eyes searching every corner of the doorway. "How about we ask the experts, maybe there are people who hate our family and then they send some dark magic to our house."

"That's impossible! Paul! How could there be a magic in this day can make the air become like a wall like this! This must be your doing! You must have put some kind of device around your bedroom door so your mother couldn't come in to scold you! I knew it! You bastard brat!"

Surprised to hear the bad prejudice from the mother, made Paul a little annoyed. And, just as he was about to reply to his mother, something tiny and bright flew past his nose, making his mouth that was about to open, closed again, and there were many of them. Paul and the Mother were shocked to see that; like fireflies, but they are round and glowing, and each of them has a different color of light. When Paul counted, there were ten of them.

Ten fireflies.

"Paul, why are there fireflies here!? It's still afternoon after all!"

"I don't understand either, Mom," Paul replied, eyes still focused on the fireflies flying around his face. "I wonder, actually, where do these fireflies come from?"

"No kidding! Paul!" Snapped the mother in a grumbling tone. "Since childhood! You always hide animals or strange things in your room!"

"But I really don't know about this Mom! I also don't know why you can't come into my room! So don't think that all the strange things that are happening here are my doing! Mom!"

"BUT YOU ALWAYS DO WEIRD THINGS FROM YOU'RE CHILDHOOD! SO I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY! PAUL!"

Suddenly, all the fireflies flew to the mother's face until the woman screamed in pain from being bitten by the strange animal.

"PAUL! THEY ATTEMPTED ME! STOP THIS! PAUL! THEY BITED ME! HURRY UP! PAUL! ARGH!"

Paul nimbly approached his mother who was attacked by the fireflies, until the woman fell to the floor, with her hands moving, chasing away the tiny animals, which tried to bite her face.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't hurt my mother!" Paul chased the tiny insects with both hands, and strangely, as if they understood human language, they began to fly away from his mother's face. "Come on, Mom! Let me help you up!"

The mother took Paul's hand and he was finally able to get back on her feet, although her face still hurt from being attacked by the fireflies.

"Paul, is my face okay!?"

Hearing that, Paul looked at his mother's face and with an awkward tone, he replied, "Don't worry, your face is fine." In fact, the woman's face was not fine.

"Thank God, I thought my face was damaged," Then the mother's eyes glanced at the firefly. "Paul! Get some bug spray in the kitchen! They've gone too far! Hurry up!"

However, just as Paul was about to rush into the kitchen to get the object, a man with pale white skin, black hair, a black robe, with cold eyes suddenly appeared in front of him.

The mother was just as shocked as Paul.

“Wh-Who are you!?” Paul's brows furrowed, astonished by the sudden appearance of a strange man in his house.

The pale man smiled faintly at Paul.

"Hello Mister Paul, nice to meet you," said the pale man with a friendly face. "Ah, let me tell you, the reason why your mother could not enter your room was because of my will, including when the fireflies attacked your mother's face. Then, actually, the appearance of the ten fireflies was not just a decoration, they had meaning, sir."

Hearing the explanation from the pale man, Paul was aghast and a little confused, especially with the 'mister' nickname he gave him. Paul really didn't get it.

"Wait a minute!" The mother is starting to not accept this super strange situation, logically she cannot accept all the strange things that are happening here. "Before you talk about those fireflies to my son! I want to know! Who are you actually! Coming suddenly without excuse me, what do you think my house is!? At least! If you want to visit, knock on the door first!"

Hearing the screams of the woman, the cold eyes of the pale skinned man shifted to glance at Paul's mother.

"Hm... I see, you're curious about who I am, huh. Fine, I'll tell you. There's nothing special about me, I'm just a lowly maid, who happened to be ordered to come here." said the pale man with a faint smile and a very friendly tone.

"Then what's your name?" Now, Paul spoke up.

"My name? Actually I'm a bit reluctant to say my own name, but since you asked, it can't be helped," then, he continued, "Roswel, my name is Roswel, sir."

"Okay. Then how did you suddenly appear in front of me, Roswel?" Paul asked again, because that was what was still stuck in his mind.

"To come here, I actually used agios, a candy that can teleport one's body to a faraway place, of course when the candy has been eaten, Master."

"Impossible! Just by eating a piece of candy, you can move around!? It's too weird," Paul said in astonishment.

"Very well, Mister Paul," said Roswel, bowing respectfully to Paul. "So you see sir, in fact, you have been chosen by the Lord to be a Mentor to the ten fireflies."

“Be-Become a Mentor!? For ten fireflies!? What do you mean!?” Paul was very surprised to hear that.

"Let me be clear again, sir, so..."