I'm a Immortal Tavernkeeper, But My S-Rank Daughter Doesn't Know That!

After meeting the spirit of someone he believed to be dead, Victor obviously wasn’t going to treat the whole situation as just a normal reunion between two people who hadn’t seen each other for a long time. So the hug and the friendly pats on the back were replaced by a critical look from Victor, who drew his sword.

"If it’s really you, tell me something that only the two of us would know."

Elban scratched the back of his head, looking at Victor with his circumspect eyes. "Are you sure about that? I don’t think Aluella will like secrets about her being spread around."

Victor’s eyebrows arched completely and a smile finally appeared on his face. Victor put his sword away and bowed his head in greeting, remaining respectful in the presence of Elban’s spirit.

"Sorry about that, Elban, but, you know, it’s procedure."

"I know, I know." The spirit floated closer to his friend. Its ethereal form made it glow softly.

"I could hardly believe you were dead when I saw the statue in the village nearby."

"What? Haven’t people been talking about my death all these years? Sigh..." He sighed, dejected. "At least they built a statue of me even after I failed. It seems that being a hero has its advantages even in bad times, hehe!"

However, Victor didn’t laugh with his colleague. "Do you remember how you died?" Victor asked.

The mood lifted and the smile on Victor’s face was replaced by a sad look. "Yes... I believe it was exactly fifteen years ago. I was in the Capital, working with Rosalyne at the Church of the Dawn and they asked me to come here to solve a problem with a Demon."

"A Demon Spirit, you mean?"

"No, literally a demon. It wasn’t exterminated, it was one of the remnants. It was sealed by a local wizard a few years after we came to this world, and after fifteen years it managed to weaken the sealing seal. I was tasked to kill it and end the torment of this village once and for all," explained Elban and bowed his head in disappointment.

"However, since you’re here as a spirit, that means you haven’t managed to do your job."

"Exactly. When I completely undid the demon’s seal, I fought against this demon, Gravisk the cursed man’s name, but I had no information about its powers and it managed to nullify me. However, before I died, I drove my sword into the ground and imprisoned the demon’s soul along with mine in this forest. Over the last few weeks, the seal has weakened again and I’ve probably woken up here as a result. My body fell apart at the moment of the seal, but as soon as the seal is completely broken, the demon will be back in the flesh in this world."

"Well, now at least all the pieces are starting to fit together. It means that for me to be able to put an end to the local infestation of Blights, I’ll need to defeat this demon, who is probably the one thinning the spiritual veil."

"Are you sure you can do that?" Elban looked at Victor and asked. "Don’t get me wrong, I saw how you easily defeated the Blights, but fighting a demon is different, you’re older and you..."

"I know. Although I was summoned too, I wasn’t sponsored by the gods like you and the others."

Although it had been thirty-five years since Victor and the other heroes had been summoned to this wild, rustic and dangerous world, he remembered perfectly everything that had happened during that time. It was the complete turning point in his life, so it would be impossible not to remember.

Back then, Victor had black hair and not a single white strand on his head. Like all the other heroes, he was thirteen years old, living on a planet called Earth and studying at an ordinary school.

During his childhood, Victor was a normal boy. He didn’t have great expectations for the future, nor did he think much about it, like most people. In fact, he was even too normal. His grades were average, his physical abilities were average and he had a few friends with interests in common with his, such as playing soccer, but even there he was far from being the best in the school team.

Victor led a relatively quiet life compared to some of his classmates, who already showed exceptional talents in various areas, whether in studies, sports, the arts or social life. Yes, while some excelled in math competitions, basketball, baseball, archery or theatrical performances, Victor ’wasted’ his life playing video games after school.

To be honest, though, Victor wasn’t bothered by any of this. He was content to have few friends and spend his time doing things he enjoyed, without the pressure to stand out or achieve great things. He had a quiet personality and was happy to be himself, without the need to constantly seek the approval of others.

Then one day, during a monotonous math class, everything changed dramatically.

Victor was sitting in his chair parallel to the school window, bored with the lesson. Back then, Victor used to look more at the sky than at the ground, and he twirled a pencil in his left hand while doing just that at the time.

Because of a wrong move, he ended up dropping the pencil. Victor bent down to pick up the pencil from the ground, but at that moment, his face passed next to the pencil, which was floating in the air.

Strangely enough, Victor touched the pen with the tip of his index finger and it floated slightly forward, as if gravity couldn’t affect it.

The next moment, a commotion began to spread through the room, so Victor picked up the pen and straightened up in his chair. As he looked ahead, he saw their classmates’ notebooks, books and belongings floating too.

The girls’ big hair floated sideways and upwards, as if normal logic didn’t make sense, and even the pieces of chalk on the blackboard stand were floating.

Despite this, no one seemed truly frightened. On the contrary, they were fascinated and ecstatic about what was happening to them.

The math teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, was perplexed by what was happening. She tried to remain calm, but it was clear in her eyes that she too was confused and frightened.

"Stay calm, children!" She said, her voice trembling slightly.

Then a bright light suddenly appeared in the center of the living room floor, emanating intense heat. All eyes turned to this light. Then that light began to suck everything into itself. Notebooks, desks, people, everything in the room was pulled into the light, like a black hole pulls in the matter around it, and that’s how they were suddenly pulled into another world.