Chapter 01: Dragged into another World
Okamura Hiiro calmly analyzed the scene in front of his eyes. There stood people he had never seen before.
Furthermore, the several men were dressed like priests as one would hardly come across in Japan and amongst them was one girl, wearing a pink dress, too.
He checked out the surroundings by looking around. The building was an atrium, so he could see outside well even while sitting.
But since he could see a mountain range in the distance and not just the ground, he concluded that he was up fairly high.
The building was a tower or alike. The ceiling was supported by various pillars and had unfamiliar and strange drawings on it. It were mysterious drawings like the Egyptian mural art.
What he recognized were the four people near him, wearing the same high school uniform.
They were his classmates, but he had never talked to them. So, why was he here together with them?
A magic circle like from a game was drawn on the ground to his feet.
Obviously foreign people, an unfamiliar scenery and a magic circle.
He could more or less guess what had happened from the current situation. And the girl in dress confirmed it with her words.
“I, I welcome you, Heroes!”
Yeah, this was a so called different world.
Up until now he had been at school. Skipping classes by sleeping the whole time on the rooftop, he had went back to the classroom to fetch his bag after school. There he found these four people here.
Like always, he had headed for his desk without so much as looking at them. They had frowned a bit upon see him, but he had ignored them as he didn’t care.
But then a bright light had suddenly gushed out from under his feet. All five present, Hiiro included, had frozen up on the spot from the all too sudden surprise.
Everything had turned snow-white in front of him and in the next moment, he found himself in the current situation.
The priests cheered merrily. Frolicking with “Yes!” and “It’s a success!”, they ignored the five of them, who were confused from the sudden happening.
However, they all looked rather exhausted and they were sweating as if they had just run a marathon.
On the other hand, the girl had long orange hair till her waist, which made her unthinkable as a Japanese. She was overall pretty, had big eyes and adorable facial features.
She was without a doubt an eye-catching beauty.
Same as the men, the girl showed a broad smile. Most likely the five of them were summoned unquestioning.
He should never have imagined it possible that he would experience something like that. Although Hiiro had been rather composed so far, a part of him still refused to believe it even now.
The others seemed to feel the same from being summoned as their faces showed that they couldn’t keep up with what was happening to them. Then one of them finally spoke.
“H- Heroes? What do you mean?”
The guy named Aoyama Taishi had bleached hair, but an earnest expression and gentle aura.
To add, he was tall and handsome, so he was overwhelming popular with the girls in class.
The girl lowered her head flustered on Taishi’s question.
“Ah, my apologies! His Majesty personally will explain this matter to you! So please follow me!”
She looked apologetic as she said that. On a closer look, she appeared rather pale. It was hard to tell from her smile earlier, but like the men, she was sweating on the face as well, probably exhausted from the summoning.
Taishi seemed to notice her condition as well and likely thought it would be better to listen to her for now instead of staying here longer, since it would probably allow the girl to get some rest then.
Taishi exchanged looks with the everyone except Hiiro and nodded affirming.
“Okay. I’ve a rough idea of what happened, but we’ll listen to what you have to say.”
Seemingly the other four also kind of understood their situation.
Like that, the five of them headed to King in the ?Throne Room? with the girl‘s guidance. Hiiro didn‘t neglect to observe the area on the way.
Judging by the colour of the hair and eyes of the servants and the soldiers, stationed here and there, he once more concluded that this wasn’t Japan.
The building they had been in was indeed a tower and stood in the middle of a big castle.
“Ohh, I appreciate your coming, Heroes.”
The man sitting on the throne said that with a refreshing smile. No need to tell him that they didn’t come of their own will.
“I am sure you must be confused from the abrupt circumstances. But rest assured, I will properly explain it now.”
After saying that, he first started with a self-introduction.
The kingdom’s name was ?Victorias? and the king unified the ‘Humas’ of ?Edea?, of this world here. The continent was partitioned and each race had its own country.
The so called ‘Gabranth’ were a race that had animal traits like a ‘Werewolf’ or ‘Werecat’ and lived in ?Pasion?, the countryy of beasts.
Likewise, the ‘Evila’, commonly known as demi-humans, were a race of ‘Demons’ and ‘Ghosts’ and lived in ?Xaoc?, the country of demons.
Lastly, the ‘Pheom’ were a race consisting of ‘Faeries’ and ‘Spirits’, but they didn’t have a country on their own. They lived in a small settlement as there were extremely few of them. Hardly anyone had seen them, since they don’t interact with other races.
And in front of them sat Rudolph van Strauss Arcliam, the unity king of ?Victorias?.
Next to him sat the queen Māris and the girl, who guided them here, was the first princess Lilith.
‘Humas’, ‘Gabranth’ and ‘Evila’. Between these three races currently existed a tension like never before.
Particularly the Demon Lord of ?Xaoc? plotted to destroy the ‘Humas’ and ‘Gabranth’.
He seemed to think that only his race was suited to rule over a united ?Edea? with their superior strength. So he tried to make a world solely for the ‘Evila’ by eliminating the ‘Humas’ and ‘Gabranth’.
The ‘Evila’ indeed had an enormous magic power and possessed an all too brutal battle strength.
Magic existed in this world and needless to say, the stronger the magic power, the stronger the magic. The ‘Humas’ had magic powers as well, but it was relatively low.
Of course magic wasn’t everything in a battle, but the magic used by the ‘Evila’ was quite powerful and a human had close to no hopes of defeating even a lower demon by himself.
Even a high ranked adventurer from the adventure guild had to form a team to fight against the ‘Evila’.
The king feared that they would be destroyed sooner or later at this rate and considered destroying the ‘Evila’ before that. On that occasion, they used summoning magic, which had been sealed as an old magic.
But it was sealed for a reason. It showed that the summoning magic wasn’t omnipotent.
The summoning magic consumed a lot of magic power and if used by someone untalented, it ran the risk of ?rebounding? and making the used magic power go out of control.
Essentially, the summoning magic could only be used by the royal family, but it didn’t mean that anyone could use it as long as they were royalty. Failed attempts always resulted in a mental breakdown from being exposed to such enormous magic power, or sometimes even in death.
It wasn’t a simple summoning magic. It was a heretic magic that opened a path to another world and thus carried an adequate risk.
So King Rudolph had an idea. He had a couple of daughters and let them use the summoning magic.
At this rate, ‘Humas’ would be exterminated. To avoid that, it was necessary to summon Heroes from another world at all costs. An old book told the tales of Heroes being summoned in the past and saving ‘Humas’ from a terrible calamity.
Heroes possessed an incredible magic power and could utilize physical abilities and magic unthinkable for ‘Humas’. Learning of this, Rudolph hardened his heart and asked his daughters. But the fourth and third princesses both failed and lost their lives from the ?rebound?.
(He sacrificed his own daughters..?)
Listening to the King’s explanation, Hiiro scowled on his insanity. But speaking up here would make complicate matters, so he kept his mouth shut.
The Queen lamented the death of her daughters one after another, but she herself had married into the royal family and was an outsider, so she didn’t have the pure royal blood and couldn’t use the summoning magic. The second princess was next in line.
She managed to avoid death, but was bedridden and still unconscious at this point. That left Lilith and Rudolph as the only ones, who could use the summoning magic. As they couldn’t afford any more failures, he decided to do it himself.
However, everyone was against that. Precisely the losing of the King, the buttress of the country, was what could lead to the immediate demise of the ’Humas’ by the ’Evila’.
Lilith understood that and offered herself for the country. She was scared, very scared, but at this rate everything would vanish. If she was going to get killed anyway, she would rather choose the moment by her own will. She conducted the summoning ceremony with these feelings.
The ceremony was held with the priests’ and Lilith’ magic power as a medium. Lilith felt her consciousness fading during the ceremony and when she gave up, thinking that she was no-good either, the magic circle released an obscure light.
And then the five people appeared.
“I see. So you brought us here to protect the ‘Humas’ from ‘Evila’.”
Aoyama Taishi nodded a few times while listening to the explanation.
“Yes. According to the documents, there are four Heroes in total. Mh? Speaking of, I just noticed, there’s.. five of you.”
Exactly. Five people were summoned this time. The king looked questioning at the nearby scholar. The scholar adjusted his glasses flustered.
“I, I have no clue! But I guess, all of them are Heroes..?”
“Mhm.. Then we just have to find out. All of you, show me your abilities.”
Rudolph said that, but Hiiro and the others tilted their heads puzzled.
“Mh? What is the matter? Do not tell me you are unable to show me your abilities?”
Taishi answered as their representative with “Indeed”.
“Recite ?Status? in your mind.”
Everyone did as told. Of course Taishi recited as well. Upon that a status screen like from a game appeared in front of him.
Hiiro Okamura
LVL 1
HP 24/24
MP 120/120
EXP 0
NEXT 10
ATK 13
DEF 8
AGL 27
HIT 11
INT 23
?Magic Attribute? None
?Magic? Word Magic (Single Chain Unlocked)
?Titles? Innocent Bystander – World Traveller – Word Maste