Summoned Heroes

Another boring and unbearable day at school. I, Hirokumi Araya, am someone who hates going to school; I would rather stay at home watching anime. I love anime, manga, and games—you could say I’m a high-level otaku. But even so, I study so I won’t be a failure. I manage to get good grades, but my parents still look at me with disgust because of my otaku lifestyle.

The truth is that my father forced me to get good grades at school; if I didn’t, he would kick me out of the house. Because of that, I decided to get the best grades possible just to shove the report card in the old man’s face. Every time I scored above average, he stayed quiet.

Besides that, I managed to get part-time jobs during summer and winter. With those jobs, I earned 60,000 yen, but unfortunately, I spent it all quickly on games, manga, and Blu-ray DVDs.

In my games, I usually like to level up my characters’ intelligence and speed stats. That way, I would have a better chance of escaping from an enemy, since I could analyze them and later defeat them.

By the way, after school today I’ll go to a small shop nearby to buy a game or a manga. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough money for both, so I have to choose carefully what to buy—I don’t want to waste my money on something bad.

I entered the shop and talked to the old man who owned it.

“Hey old man, did any new manga or games arrive?” I asked.

“They did. I even put everything that arrived in a box,” the old man replied.

He picked up the box and showed me the manga and light novels that had arrived. They were all expensive, but there was one that was cheap.

“Why is this novel so cheap?” I asked.

“Because it’s unknown and no one wants to buy it,” the old man replied.

Unfortunately, I only had enough money to buy that one, so I decided to buy it.

—The Summoned Hero.

What a weird title. I hope the plot isn’t as bad as the name. I love isekais, but I like them to be creative.

I quickly went back home and started reading the light novel. The plot was very predictable: to sum up, it’s about four heroes who are teleported to a fantasy world where they must defeat the demon king.

That’s so cliché. I’ve already read many stories like this. Let me take a look at the characters—they are summoned and receive random powers. The protagonist got the ability to gain double experience points.

“That’s an interesting ability, but for me it would be useless.”

I kept reading the story. The protagonist befriended the other heroes, and they were excited about defeating the demon king. The heroes in this book leveled up very quickly. By the way, there wasn’t even a pretty princess to be with the protagonist in this story. But if there were, it would probably be terrible, because I bet she wouldn’t be well developed.

Let’s continue with this sleepy story. I kept reading, and it finally reached the fight against the demon king. I bet it’ll be that cliché where the heroes defeat him and live happily ever after.

“Huh?”

The demon king killed all the heroes?

The moment I turned the page, I shouted in shock at what I read. The king who summoned the heroes went to the demon king and sealed him. I couldn’t believe what I had just read.

“What the hell is this?”

I turned the next page, and there was a message written:

—If you want to stay in your world, then close the book. But if you want to go to another world, turn the next page and be teleported.

The author must be a real jerk to write something like this. But since I had free time, I decided to turn the page.

As soon as I did, I fainted. When I woke up, I realized I was in another world.

There were eight men wearing robes that looked like mage cloaks. They seemed relieved to see me—probably hoping I was the hero who would save their world. I looked around and saw three other people who also seemed confused about the situation: a girl with long pink-dyed hair who looked like a gyaru, a blond-haired guy who looked like a delinquent, and a girl with short brown hair.

I observed the place. It looked like a closed room made of bricks. Beneath me, there was a giant circle with geometric shapes drawn on the floor—it must have been the summoning circle used to bring us here.

I tried to imagine how I ended up here, since just minutes ago I was in my room. Then I thought it must have something to do with that novel I had been reading. Probably that novel teleported me here. But what a horrible way to bring someone into another world.

“Where are we?!!!” shouted the blond-haired boy.

“Great heroes, please forgive us, but we need you to save our world,” said the summoner mage.

“What?!” we all shouted at the same time.

“What do you mean?”

These useless people don’t have enough power, so they summon ordinary humans like us.

“To put it briefly, we had no choice but to summon you to save our world,” said the mage.

“Save your world from what?” asked the short-haired girl.

“From the demon king who is sealed,” said the mage.

So this really is the world of that novel. They summoned us with the intention of defeating the demon king once and for all. We’ll probably get random powers.

“Shouldn’t we have received a random power to fight the demon king?”

“You did, but I’d like you to speak with the king first,” said the mage.

“Let me get this straight: you pull us out of our world and want us to fight for you for free?” said the pink-haired girl.

“The king will explain everything, so please follow me to the audience chamber,” said the mage.

The summoner mage opened the door, and we left the room, which seemed to be a summoning chamber. We walked down a corridor, looked through the window, and saw a beautiful medieval city. We were all fascinated by the view and didn’t even notice when we arrived at the audience hall.

The king was an old man sitting on his throne. Beside him was a young, attractive girl, probably his daughter. I’ve seen many types of stories before—I’ll observe these two. If they’re good people, maybe I’ll help them. If they’re terrible and try to harm me, then I’ll just have to take them out.

“Ooh, so these are the sacred heroes!” said the king.

He admired us like a farmer admires his golden goose.

“I am the king of this kingdom called Argarill. My name is Albert. This beside me is the princess and my daughter, Margarida,” said the king.

The girl placed her hands on her dress and greeted us.

“My name is Margarida. I am the princess of Argarill. I hope you can help us,” said Margarida.

“Now I will explain the situation to you. Our kingdom faces a serious problem,” said the king.

To summarize his story: it was discovered that the seal of the demon king is breaking, and he will return soon. To save the world, we must defeat the demon king once and for all.

One thing that doesn’t make sense is why Argarill doesn’t have help from any other kingdom in this fight. Also, according to what was said, the seal will break in a year. So we must become strong enough by then.

What worries me is whether we’ll be able to return to our world or not. My life back home wasn’t great, but I still want to return to read my manga and play my games. Not to mention I’ll miss the seasonal anime.

Something that caught my attention was that, as soon as we were summoned, we could perfectly understand the language of this world. I suspect that summoned people gain an extra ability to communicate with everyone.

“By the way, isn’t the person who sealed the demon king still alive to defeat him again?”

Of course, I knew very well that it was King Albert who sealed the demon king. But I pretended not to know, so they wouldn’t suspect me.

“The one who sealed the demon king was me. But as you can see, I no longer have the strength to fight something of that magnitude,” the king replied.

“Besides, our soldiers don’t have the same power as a sacred hero,” said Margarida.

“You force us to help you and want us to do it for free?” said the blond-haired boy.

The king smiled.

“Of course not. We have prepared many rewards, and we will provide luxury for the heroes as well,” the king replied.

“Those are great conditions,” said the short-haired girl.

These fools aren’t worried about learning the details of this world; they’re only concerned with luxury. But that doesn’t matter. I’ll observe every detail of this world, and if anyone tries to bring me down, I will destroy them without a shred of mercy.