This Clueless Hero

The forest in front of us began distorting to something unrecognizable. Our surroundings gradually became grey.

My eyes blinked a few times and then we were at the edge of a canyon, with no sun in the sky. Far down below us was a village where everything was grey.

The village itself was unbelievably large, spanning farther than my eyes could even make out.

There were countless people in this village that looked like tiny dots, slowly moving along.

The old man turned to me.

"Do you see them? All the people who have fallen."

My eyes widened.

"That is a lot of people."

The old man nodded.

"These are all the people I have taken. People only remember the heroes that succeeded, never the people who have fallen. Once someone has been determined to be inferior, there is nothing left for them."

My hand rubbed against my chin.

Mark's story of someone suddenly being erased from a village popped in my head.

"So that's how those people disappear. That explains when suddenly there is a missing person in a village, yet nobody can remember that person. Even with all the evidence that points to someone existing."

The old man's face twitched.

"...Not that. These people are not forgotten in that sense. People in the back of their mind know of their existence, but they become so insignificant that the thought of them never appears. That way, even if they suddenly disappear, nobody realizes."

The old man cleared his throat.

"As for that... I would recommend you don't look into it."

My eyes blinked a few times.

"Uh, ok."

The old man shook his head.

"Anyways, the reason I take these people is for their fear."

My head turned to the old man.

"Why do you need their fear?"

The old man smiled.

"It is something I enjoy and will give me power."

My eyes looked down the canyon.

"...What do you do to them?"

The old man laughed.

"I give them hope."

My eyebrow raised.

"What?"

The old man had a shaky smile on his face.

"All of them were in despair. They no longer feared anything as they could not even fathom the possibility that good things could happen to them."

My eyes narrowed.

"So, you helped them?"

The old man tapped his cane on the ground.

"You could say that. I simply give them a small chance within this village, to succeed. The reason why is because fear is not coming from one place, but two."

The old man shakily raised a finger.

"These people have been traumatized by their failure, but pulled forward by hope. The lingering fear of the obstacles they must overcome is far scarier than any beast I could throw at them. Yet, their hope forces them to confront it."

The old man shakily raised another finger.

"These people have another fear deep inside them, even if they don't know it. The fear that their entire lives will end up meaningless. That they will never be happy. Normally this fear would quickly turn to despair, but hope prevents such."

The old man began laughing.

"Not only are these two big fears, but they contradict each other. Simply the existence of the two amplifies each other."

My fist suppressed a cough coming from my mouth.

"What do you do if they overcome those fears?"

The old man shrugged his shoulders.

"I just let them go. Their fear isn't worth much anyway."

I subconsciously nodded.

"Ah, that's nice."

The old man smiled shakily.

"Is it? Perhaps you don't understand how few people leave here. Not everyone can be like you, moving forward in the darkness."

A bitter smile appeared on my face.

"In the end, they are locked up by their contradictions. If they remain logical, they will never break out of it. Only by devolving into insanity can they break out of their illogical prison."

A soft sigh left me.

"After all, the world you put them in is not so different from the world we are in right now."

The old man let out a small chuckle.

"You're right. It isn't so different from the world we live in. After all, I made this place by drawing inspiration from the real world."

A silence hung in that air as I looked at all the people moving about.

After a few minutes the old man looked at me.

"Do you want to get closer?"

After a few moments of hesitation, I nodded.

"Yeah."

The necklace behind me trembled.

"Wait, wait can we not go there?"

The old man sighed.

"If you follow your guardian here, you will be fine, child."

Before the necklace could respond, the old man lifted his cane and the ground that appeared so far away rapidly came closer... until our feet were touching the ground.

My head turned around to see walls high up in the sky.

How did he do that?

"Have a look my friend."

The old man's words broke me out of my stupor. The place around us felt lifeless, even with all the people moving around. The houses and paths were all in a dull grey. Not even the people themselves were an exception.

Me, the old man, and the things floating behind me, were all strange exceptions to this monochromatic world.

The people around us were no exceptions to the dull atmosphere. Their faces did not reek of anger, agony, or sadness. There was only a slight frown on their neutral faces. The only thing they carried with them as they walked around.

The old man slowly walked forward and I remained shoulder to shoulder with him.

We did not walk forward much faster than the others, nor did we threaten them in any way. Despite that, before anyone got within a one-meter radius from us, they cringed and backed away.

Strangely enough, they were fine with getting closer to each other, but not us.

It's because of the old man right?

Like, the necklace was scared of it too so this should be the same.

But... in the back of my mind was a feeling that they were scared of me. Their eyes told me that they wanted to avoid me at all costs.

As we continued, there was a large shelf of books randomly placed by the side of the street. There was a large area that had various tables about a meter away from each other and seats to them.

There were a few seats taken and those people had a book in front of them.

One of them had their fingers tightly clenched on the cover page, having opened it partway. Yet, even though time passed, the cover page would not move.

Another one had the book open, but their hands over their eyes. The person's hands were shaking and would slowly part from his face, but immediately covered his face before his eyes could catch a glimpse of the book.

A sigh escaped me.

"How do things end up like this?"

The old man had a shaky smile.

"Fascinating isn't it? Such simple actions become the hardest for them. Though they want to work and better themselves, they can't."

The old man looked at one of the people sitting at the table, trying to read a book.

"I've found that the mind always tries to protect itself. Once an endeavour hurts someone, be it physically or mentally, the mind tries to avoid it."

The old man walked past the shelves of books and tables.

"This becomes an uncontrollable subconscious instinct. Only if one's conscious will overpowers the subconscious, can this be reversed."

My steps hurried after the old man.

"So... they can get out with their conscious will?"

The old man shook his head.

"Many people can overpower their subconscious. The only problem is they are unable to keep doing so."

The old man had a shaky smile on his face.

"If that wasn't the case, then nobody would be sitting at that table, trying to read a book."

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"...Their motivation wasn't strong enough."

The old man nodded.

His words made me think of the time I was trapped in another canyon. The one with a pool of water below it and a strange translucent fish. My body was still weak at the time and injured.

Part of me still doesn't believe that I actually did that. Part of me still dreaded ever doing that again.

But... another part of me didn't want me to give up.

My eyes could not help but continue surveying the people around me.

Why hadn't I become like them?

...Would I become like them?

Perhaps one day I would lose what moved me forward and join these people at the bottom of the canyon.

My head turned to the old man.

"What kinds of people do you take here? ...Has a person that once escaped come back?"

The old man narrowed his eyes.

"In a certain sense, yes."