Heroic Conspiracy Theory

Not very many were aware that foreigners walked among the natives. No, not foreigners to any individual country, but rather, foreigners to the very world itself, wanderers who had come from beyond the dimensional veil, brought over to fulfill the nebulous purposes of the gods, or perhaps, crossing over purely by accident.

The problem with that was that not every visitor was a good person. In fact, quite a few of them were quite terrible. Once upon a time, a man named "Hiro" became the very first visitor anybody ever knew of, and due to his actions and great achievements, the very word "Hero" was made and put into fashion, and thus, those who received great power from the Gods were named after him.

But though they had great power granted to them by the Gods or by virtue of whatever method they used to travel across worlds, almost none ever measured up, none of them was truly worthy of being compared to the great Hiro himself, even if they bore his name as a label.

Little by little, it became standard procedure for Kingdoms to seek out, observe and, if necessary, quietly eliminate "Hero" types, before they became a problem. A special multi-national council, guided by the Holy Temple dedicated to the world's creator and guardian deity, would keep track and inform countries of the movements of any existing Hero.

As well as assigning a Holy Man or Holy Woman to their party, because they almost always formed a party to adventure with, to keep an eye on them, and try to guide them down the right path if and when possible.

Thus, Kanata, a visitor from the very same country Hiro came from, was assigned... me.

My name is Chloe Guardiana, of the Guardiana family, servants of the Holy Temple for generations. Though I bear the robes of a Healer Cleric, in truth my duty is that of a spy and assassin, I am a member of the Black Hand of the Vengeful One, directly serving under the God of Justice.

We are endowed with some advantages over others to make our duties easier. I've been told I'm quite beautiful, with long golden blonde hair, a large chest, wide hips and fat thighs, and my uniform is designed specifically to show them off, with slits up to my waist on my robes, and an entirely too tight front.

Kanata seemed to like it quite a bit, and hadn't questioned at all that I sought him out even as he was struggling to form a party, nor did he really question how I knew so much about adventuring even though I was playing the character of a sheltered Healer Cleric.

We took a few quests, and I made sure I became a prominent part of his team even as we collected more members. As expected, our party consisted exclusively of Kanata himself, and other women. And as expected... each of them shared my circumstances.

Thus, while Kanata slept off his very first alcoholic drink, apparently the drinking age where he came from was twenty and he himself was only nineteen so even back home he hadn't even drank a cup of wine, I called a meeting, and rented a private room at the tavern that operated out of the inn we were staying at.

Simple room, with thick walls that wouldn't let sound out, a table and four chairs prepared.

I sat first at the table, and the first person to arrive sat to my right.

She was Clarissa, and she played the role of a Ranger, she was a Dark Elf, with deeply tanned, smooth skin, wearing a white leotard and a green cloak, with long flowing pale hair. She also was almost as flat as a board and a head shorter than me, which she never let me forget. "What's up, Thunder Thighs?"

She had a habit of showing off her legs, which were well toned and quite the distraction.

I frowned, but didn't respond to the provocation.

Directly in front of me was the one among us who served as the party's mobile wall, the dwarf Robina. Like all dwarves, she was about the height of a human child, and much like all female dwarves specifically, she was ridiculously voluptuous, even making me feel self conscious sometimes, almost spilling out of her tank top and pants. Her brown hair had been cut into a short pixie cut, to fit in the helmet she usually wore.

To my left was the final member of our crew, the doll Salta, a magician from the independent organization known by the moniker of the Magicians' Tower, the major player regulating all magical research, wearing mostly just bandages around her small chest, booty shorts, a robe over her shoulders and a hat with a floppy tip. Extremely long blue hair, nearly to her ankles, spilled from under the hat.

"Why have you called us? It's time for rest," Salta said, her tone even and calm. She sat primly and properly.

"Yeah, I was just about ready to go to bed," Robina added, leaning forward, putting her elbows on the table, and resting her head on her hands.

With a smirk, Clarissa gestured at the other two. "Maybe she feels threatened?" she asked. "Kanata does pay more attention to us than he does her, maybe she wants to kick us out of the party so she can have him all to herself?"

Salta hummed. "Possible. The Hero enjoys learning magic with me."

Laughing and shaking her head, pulling back and adjusting the height of her chair, Robina waved her hand. "No way, have you seen how he looks at these?" she asked, grabbing her chest and shaking them.

The doll's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "The excessive fat of your chest is not aesthetic."

Clarissa barked out a laugh and I interrupted their revelry by slapping the table, planting my hand on it with a slam.

"I'll lay it out in the simplest way I can so that you can understand me," I said, tapping my fingernail on the table. "Pretending that we don't know what the others are all about helps no one," I said.

"Whatever do you meaaan?" Clarissa said, pulling her hands behind the back of her neck and looking up, rolling her eyes.

"You're Clarissa of the Last Gasp, she's Robina the Implacable and our little Doll Princess here is the Bolt of Zeus herself."

Robina and Clarissa turned to Salta, eyes wide. "Holy shit for real?" they chorused.

"... that is my designation, correct," Salta said. "I was unaware that my identity was public knowledge."

"The Temple knows everything it needs to," I said, knowing there was no point in lying, but not volunteering the information of who exactly I was. "We're all here to keep an eye on Kanata, and I think we'll work best if we do it together."

Clarissa rested her head and neck on her hands and threw her legs up on the table, leaning back on the back legs of her chair to stretch a little. "Well, I guess so. I'm only here to make sure he isn't one of those freaky fetish weirdos that wants to build a harem of slave elves," she said. "So as long as he doesn't seem to be one of those I'll just party up with him, have some fun for a couple decades and then go back home."

"Same, I swear we dwarves get the absolute worst weirdo Heroes," Robina agreed. "Why are they always the absolute worst about us? It's like they're obsessed with our height," she complained. "And the worst is the ones that don't just treat us like we're kids, but that get turned on by that. Yuck! Really glad Kanata isn't one of those," she said.

Salta hummed thoughtfully. "I am simply here to harvest any useful information about his unique Magic," she said. "My tasks' parameters will not conflict with yours, unless you attempt to make him retire from adventuring before I've learned all that can be learned from his Divine Gifts."

"And I'm here to assess him and if necessary eliminate him..." I said, closing my eyes. "So we're basically all here to keep him from going down the path of Evil like so many Heroes before him," I described, summarizing it in a simple sentence, one that worked for all of us. "Except Salta."

"An early death would represent an inability to learn. In order to prevent his death, preventing him from becoming an Evil Hero would just be logical, as it would prolong Kanata's life."

"Swell," I responded, "that's all of us joined for a common cause," I said, "now here's the problem, we can't prevent him from picking up party members, and if I know anything, he's never gonna notice that the beautiful girls approaching him are likely going to be agents from the governments of the major powers," I said, thinking of several royal families that would be working on bringing the Hero to their country to secure his bloodline.

It happened many, many times, after all. The Royal Families had made a sport of accumulating hereditary gifts, and many of the noble families of the major kingdoms, especially higher rank nobles, possessed skills and traits passed down from Heroes of old.

Kanata had many of the abilities that came standard to heroes, like the extremely fast and nearly effortless growth with nigh unlimited potential, the lack of limitations with regards to magic and the elements and other such traits, combined with his own unique ability to rewind time for himself, a particularly powerful skill that made it nearly impossible for him to lose a battle.

As soon as he started to gain some fame and the nations of the world learned of him, they would all be sending people to him.

Salta raised her hand, while using the other one to brush a strand of blue hair behind her ear.

"You don't have to raise your hand- you know what nevermind, you may speak," I said, changing my words mid sentence when I realized it was pointless.

"Based on prior data collected from Heroes, Kanata appears to be the "pure and innocent" type, that is to say, the type that is stubbornly monogamous, and which will actively resist any attempts at seduction."

"Oh, yeah, I agree with that!" Robina said, "he's suuuuper fun to tease," she said, "a little jigglin' and he's all red and stuttering!" she giggled.

Clarissa grinned, pulling her legs back and with the same motion, standing up, planting her sandal-clad feet down and putting her hands on the table, leaning forward, arching her back to show off the curve of her body. "All I gotta do is this, and he's blushing so hard he won't even look at me!" she said, smirking proudly.

I rolled my eyes. "You guys realize that this is an issue, right?" I asked. "The Temple has the most thorough records, and for the most part, Kanata's kind is by far the weakest to seduction."

Salta blinked in surprise. "How so? My data indicates that seduction is useless as they are too self conscious to believe that a woman is genuine in her affections," she spoke.

"Which is a damned shame because he's a handsome lad, I'd love to go for a romp or two with him," Robina said, nodding and crossing her arms.

"Humans have such big-"

I interrupted Clarissa by clenching my hand into a fist, and coughing into it. "Yes, super weak to seduction, just not the physical kind," she said. "Kanata's the kind of hero who fights most fiercely when defending their virginity. I don't know why, but it seems people from his world consider the first time to be the most precious gift in a relationship," I said. "But... that's a double edged blade."

"What do you mean?" Clarissa asked. "How's that?"

"If a woman does succeed, then they'll be fiercely, and tremendously, loyal to that woman, and will fall in very deep love with her, and abandon all logic and sense in the face of their love," I explained. In fact, it happened very, very often. We at the Temple straight up had an entire handbook written regarding how to create, build up and maintain such a relationship.

"H-Huh, you know, that- seems scarily plausible for someone like Kanata," Clarissa saids.

Groaning, Robina rubbed her palm to her face.

Salta nodded. "They appear to prefer the type that seems pure and innocent as well," she said. "The data fits. This is a problem."

"I propose," I began, "a radical idea. We shall..." I took in a deep breath, "we shall work together to attempt to convince Kanata that he should engage in polygamy. If we can convince him to take multiple partners, then we will minimize, if not outright eliminate, the danger that he would fall in love with a woman who might not have the best of intentions."

Salta tilted her head. "Is Kanata not the type who is averse to polygamy?" she asked.

"Mhm, yeah, that sounds hard," Clarissa said.

The sound of skin on skin, knuckles on palm, brought attention to Robina. "I ain't one to shy away from a challenge!" she called. "You know what, I like Kanata, I don't mind playing wifey for a couple decades, he's cute, he's fun to tease and I like a strong man, I'm in!"

I turned to Salta, who closed her eyes, opening them and focusing her inhumanly blue eyes, shining with the internal light of barely concealed phenomenal magic power, directly on mine, meeting my gaze steadily. "These mission parameters are acceptable, I too shall take part in this operation to secure Kanata's emotional safety and future."

Clarissa sat back down on her chair, crossing her arms and tilting her head forward with her eyes closed, before kicking back and then putting her arms behind her head, once more placing her legs on the table and leaning her chair back so it only stood on its back legs. "Eh, seems like a good plan to me," she said. "But we all have to agree, no stealing him for our own faction either!" she said, her eyes scanning across all of us.

I nodded. "It's decided then," I spoke, "we'll work together and open Kanata up to the idea of engaging in polyamory, this way, we'll prevent any one nation from being able to monopolize him."

I put my hand forward, near the middle of the table.

"We'll also carefully vet any and all new companions and either bring them into the conspiracy, or act together to block them out and shut them away from Kanata," Clarissa said. "Keep all the hussies away from our man!"

She put her hand on top of mine.

"Yeah, together we'll be protecting not just ourselves and the world, but even Kanata himself, since he's such an innocent boy!" Robina said, grinning and clenching her left fist while putting her right on top of Clarissa's.

Finally, almost tentatively, Salta put her hand on top of Robina's. "I have no previous data of any such occurrence, I am quite pleased with this turn of events!" she commented, almost visibly trembling in excitement.

We moved our hands up and down as if shaking on it, the way the original Hiro had done with his legendary, Demon King Slayer party, right before setting out, a ritual that endured to modern day.

"How do we do this though?" Clarissa said, the first to voice the question that we all shared.

"Well... we'll have to make that part up as we go along," I said, feeling my cheeks heat up.

Salta was the first one to offer an idea. "Perhaps we can try the most direct route and simply approach him?"

"How though?" I asked, pointedly gesturing at us. "I know we all appeal to him, in different ways, but he seems too self conscious... he sees himself as a loser and doesn't seem to believe a woman could genuinely be attracted to him."

Robina, it seemed, had an idea. "If we just go to his room in our underwear and wait for him, he's gonna run away," she said, "but, there's an old dwarven legend... an enchanted room in a dungeon that imposes a certain condition before the door will open..."

The plan started to take shape. Each of us would use our connections to set up a quest that would lead us to that dungeon, and into that room, and we would then use our talents to ensure that Kanata would accept us.

Based on everything I know about his type... his sense of responsibility made it so that he would work his hardest to make a romantic relationship work.

And as each of us headed to our beds in the inn, I wondered if what we were doing was right, tricking a young man into a relationship he might not be truly ready for...

I wondered, then, if by putting that plan into action, I would live with that regret for my entire life, thinking about what might have been.

I wondered if I would think back and wish that I had chosen a different path... but that was then, and even now, that we're ready to enact our plan, I can only think... that I am sworn to do my duty.

I will do my duty. Repeatedly, if need be. And I'm not afraid to call in reinforcements, as they may be needed.