Adrastia

I stood out the window of my room, letting out all of my excitement to anyone who might be listening below.

“Yaaaaaahooooooooo!”

Of course, no one was probably listening. But if they were, they were probably as excited as I was at that moment! Laughing and cheering, I was making a total ass out of myself...but who could blame me? I was suddenly thrust into being the hero of an isekai anime, I loved it!

“What are you laughing so hard for?” I hadn't even heard the door open when I heard a woman speaking behind me.

I tried my best to go straight-faced before turning around. There she was: a woman almost as tall as myself, about 5'8'' or so, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed.

“Are you deaf or something? I asked you a question.” She crossed the room about halfway, and started scanning the room with her eyes. Her white and navy dress was hit by the sunlight of the window, but instead of the bottom portion bowing out like every other dress I've seen in this world, it seemed to hang down like a normal dress. Her blonde hair hung down in locks on either side of her face, and her hair was tied into a braided knot

She stopped looking around to flash me a look, as if neither of those questions were rhetorical.

She's so intense!

“Um....uh...I mean...oh…I...erm...” Why couldn't I get any words out?!

When she realized that she wasn't going to be getting anywhere fast, she let a sigh and rolled her eyes.

“Hmph. So the great “Hero” can't even talk to a lowly person like me? Such courage, such bravery!”

She finished with what seemed to be an impression of the king, and laughed mockingly.

“I'm sorry…But who are you?” I finally managed to talk like a functioning human being again.

“I thought you could only laugh and cheer?”

She said, crossing the rest of the distance towards me.

“I was originally supposed to meet you tomorrow, but I suppose I could do it now that we've met. I am Tonya Adrastia, the finest swordsman of all the land! Not even you, the Hero, could possibly hope to beat me!”

I was sure I could win, but her words were so soaked in self-confidence that I didn't want to challenge her on that. She came up to me and poked me square in the chest.

“You better be as good as everyone claims you are, otherwise if the monsters don't kill you...”

She clutched the neck of my tracksuit and pulled down on it, forcing me to bow, and leaned closer to my ear.

“...I'll kill you.”

My eyes widened, and she let go, smiling at me as I straightened up.

She turned around and began walking slowly back to the door. Stopping at the door, not bothering to turn around, she said, “You better be ready tomorrow, because I won't go easy on you.” and slammed the door behind her.

So scary!

She had a point, though. I'd never even held a real sword before or anything that was really above a kitchen knife in terms of lethality. I went and sat down on my bed, thinking of all those MMO's I'd played.

This certainly wasn't turning out like anything I've played before, and I had experience with a multitude of different titles.

My mind raced back to that dream, and I remembered I had pulled up some kind of heads-up display before I passed out on the floor. Now that I think about it, there was always some light flashing at the corner of my vision.

I focused in on it, and when I did a giant window popped up in the middle of my vision.

DAISUKE YOSHIDA

LV. 1 - LEGENDARY HERO

ANTIOCH CASTLE, THE KINGDOM OF THE AQUILA

So, even that I was being as the one who was supposed to have the ability to save the world, I was also just starting at level one? Seemed about right. The training would give me some experience to possibly level up with, but I would need to defeat actual enemies in order to gain any meaningful amount of experience. Judging by the third line, this was the exact location that I was currently located.

There were other blank spaces, and those must be for items I can obtain later on. Things like currently equipped weapons, armor, magic, and so on would probably be displayed there. There was also a flashing box at the bottom of this window.

When I focused in on it, it the entire window disappeared, and a multitude of information and bars and such were relegated back to the corners of my vision, but more prevalent than before.

Bars marked “HP,” “SP”, and “MP” were located in the upper left of my vision, but the “SP” and “MP” bars were empty. What did they do?

To the right, a long bar stretched from the end of those bars to the other side of my vision. Since it was also empty, but long, could that be experience? Just below it, it said “LV. 1 – LEGENDARY HERO.”

The lower right hand corner seemed to have some boxes with symbols in it. A sword was in one, shield in another, and if I focused on the arrow to the side, it seemed to bring up more boxes until the shield and sword boxes were now out of view. I kept swiping on, finally focusing on the box with what look like a shirt and pants in it.

In it, a large window of more boxes opened up, but only one of them was actually occupied. Focusing on it, it said “EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL TRACK SUIT.” The shield symbol on it had a number on it – zero. So in a fight, I might as well be naked in terms of defense.

I got out of that window, and the last thing left to see was a clock in the opposite corner on the bottom.

“12:31 P.M. – ANTIOCH CASTLE, KINGDOM OF THE AQUILA”

It seemed weird to have all this information just sitting in your field of vision. It wasn’t super intrusive, mind you, the letters were pretty transparent and nothing was occupying an unduly large amount of space. But still none of this was present back in my own world. I stopped focusing on anything, and let my eyes relax. When I did that, all aspects of this HUD seem to vanish.

Thinking back to it - I wonder if my friends and family knew I was gone?

If I could fight off these monsters, would I be transported back to the instant I was summoned? Or…does time pass there the same way it does here? If so, that would mean I’d been gone for a week. At-least.

My excitement turned to sadness. I really hoped that Sagiri or Haruka weren’t worrying about me. To them, it probably seemed like I just vanished into thin air.

I stopped thinking about it. It didn’t do me any good to worry before I could possibly get home. And besides, this would be an amazing story for me to tell them!

I brought my HUD back into view, and looked at the time.

12:53 P.M.

I disengaged the HUD, and laid down in my bed. The dinner wasn’t until this evening, and I still had some time to kill, so I closed my eyes and took a nap.

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I slept for a little bit longer than I thought I would, since I felt that grogginess you usually get after a nap that goes on too long. I brought up my HUD to check the time.

6:12 P.M.

It seemed like the banquet was going to begin pretty soon. When I looked out the window I could see the sun setting, and a small crowd of people entering the castle.

I went over to my closet to see if I could change into something nicer than a track suit. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the only things that occupied my closet was yet more track suits, and two back-up school uniforms.

Did I really go out so infrequently that my clothing was restricted to just track suits and school uniforms? I cringed at the prospect of wearing a school uniform to a fancy function, but it seemed to beat wearing a track suit to it.

I got quickly got changed and splashed some water on my face to clean it up, and wake up before I left my room. I really needed that map located in my HUD to find my way around this place, and if I couldn’t focus my eyes on anything I couldn’t pull it up, and I’d get lost trying to get there. I pulled it up and started speed-walking through the hallway, with the map in-view. It felt a bit weird, but I navigated this castle much better than I did earlier today without it!

Eventually I made it into the hall that I had met the King and his two daughters, and passed through it, ducking into another vegetable with those Honor Guards lining the hall. Turning a corner, passing some of the nobility on my way, I went on until I came to a star that appeared on my map. Where the star was on the map, there was a gaggle of men and women all in fancy clothing. They were talking amongst themselves, some were shorter than I was and some were much taller, some had short hair and other long hair, and some were relatively bulky while some others were bit more on the slim side.

At this point, I relaxed my vision and the HUD dissipated from my vision.

They heard me coming, because one of the taller ones started to wave in my direction. He had curly blonde hair that went down below his shoulders with sharp facial features, like the kind of handsomeness you’d see out of those old medieval or renaissance artworks.

“Hello Hero! Have you come to join us all for the dinner?”

“Ah, yes. The said that they were having some to celebrate my arrival, and that I should attend it.” Since he was significantly taller than I was, I almost had to raise my hand to shake his. He reciprocated the gesture and, as we let go, I heard a familiar voice.

“Wow you’re late?! I don’t know why you even bothered showing up at this point.” Adrastia said, walking up to me with a look of exaggerated disgust. The towering figure that had just greeted me started rubbing the back of his head and laughed nervously.

“Hmm, Tonya, weren’t you the one that said we needed to go make sure he-”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” She cut in, jamming her finger as close as she possibly could get to his face.

“Forgive Adrastia, Hero.” A short portly man with short hair came up me, putting his hand on my shoulder. A large scar ran across his from his right temple through his...eye...down through his beard and lips. Still, despite his mangled appearance, he had a wide smile across his face.

“The young lady cannot help herself. She gets angry if there's even the slightest possibility that someone might be better than her at anything.” He clutched his chin on his other hand, shaking his head.

“A truly horrible condition, indeed! To be in the presence of the Hero, she may yet have but a few hours to live...in anguish!” He took the hand that was on my shoulder and threw it up in dramatic fashion, posing as if he were dying then and there.

The others in the group started chuckling, and I could feel the anger radiating from Adrastia, whose teeth were now clinched.

“Maximilian, you ba-”

“The King's Banquet is about to begin. Enter now, if you wish join His Majesty!” The golden Honor Guard at the door bellowed out.

“Okay, everyone. Tonya, Maximilian, are you done?” The tall man asked. Maximilian nodded in amusement, but Adrastia took a moment to glance at the taller one, Maximilian, and me before she answered.

“...Let's go.”

I followed the small group into the dining hall. There were long wooden tables running down down the length of the hall, with large pillars of stone between them, reaching up into another stone ceiling, but glass skylines also broke up the artwork painted on it. Thick cloth banners that were identical to ones in the Throne Room hung from the ceiling, with the exception of the red banner depicting a golden Aquila. That hung on the wall behind another shorter table, which ran perpendicular to the long ones and overlooked the hall.

Judging from the people who were already seated, it seemed as if the dinner was exclusively for higher-ranking soldiers as well as members of nobility. I felt ridiculously under-dressed wearing my school uniform when everyone was wearing such fancy clothes and gems and medals that looked as if they could fund my college tuition individually.

Following the group, I pulled an ornate chair from one of the tables in the center, closest to the platform, and was about to sit down before the tall figure I spoke to stopped me.

“Forgive me, Hero. We all would love for you to dine with us, but remember: you are the Guest of Honor this evening! Perhaps another time you could dine with us, but right now your place is at that table with the King and the Princesses.”

He walked with me up the platform, and bowed before the King. I followed his lead.

“Your Majesty, the Hero is here to join you.” He then turned around returned to the table below.

“Good, good! We're honored to have you join us! Please choose your seat, so that we may begin this glorious feast!” The King was jubilant upon seeing me, and gesturing the two seats that were vacant.

The King sat in the middle, with Isabelle, with her very distinctive blue hair, to his left and Meine to the right. Two Honor Guards sat at the ends, with empty seats between the Princesses and the Guards. Isabelle was waving at me frantically, all smiles, and even leaned over to the vacant to pull it out and start patted down on it. Meine was just staring at me.

Geez. After Isabelle practically tackled me earlier and how we talked, I was worried that I might be thought of as a lolicon if I spent any more time getting friendly with Isabelle, but...Meine was clearly annoyed at having seen me here. It would be even more uncomfortable if I couldn't eat because of her.

So I bit the bullet and decided to sit next to Isabelle, and I saw what looked like a servant rated just for a Princess sit next to Meine. She had a much more colorful outfit than the other servants I'd seen so far.

“Yaayy! I'm so happy you came here, Daisuke!” Isabelle was practically bursting at the seams with excitement. Except for Isabelle, who was given some sort of juice, a servant passed by each of us at this table and filled our glasses with white wine. I guess they just assumed I was old enough to drink, so I took a sip of my first alcohol in my life and was surprised at how sweet it tasted.

The King stood up and made a toast.

“Everyone, I'm grateful at your presence this evening and I wish to dedicate this toast and this evening to welcoming the Hero, Daisuke Yoshida, to our realm.” He gestured to me.

“We may now rest a bit easier that we have such a legendary asset on our side, and we may yet have a chance to bring our world back from the clutches of dark forces that seek to seize it!” The crowd raised their glasses with the King, and stood up, along with those who said alongside me, the Princesses, servant, and guards.

“We still have a long road ahead of us. But please, everyone, enjoy yourselves this evening! With full bellies and warm hearts, we may take the first steps in our steps in this long fight!” The crowd cheered, drank from their glasses, and sat back down to their food.

From what was in-front of me, it looked familiar to what was in my world, but yet was different. There was chicken, beef, and other food being passed around, but yet it had different enough tastes to it that I knew it wasn't exactly what I was used to. Still though, it all tasted delicious and I couldn't get enough of it!

“So Daisuke, what is your world like? Is it like ours?” Isabelle turned to me and asked.

I had a feeling this question was coming.

How should I answer this? Our world's were so different. Mine was world's ahead of theirs in terms of technology, but this world had magic and the supernatural and all the things that would've been dismissed as myth or fiction in mine.

Also, they said that their world was largely peaceful for almost all of their recorded history. As you might already know, our world built largely on war and conquest, with some breaks in-between. It might break her little heart to know that my world is honestly a lot more unforgiving than hers.

“Ah, well, my world kind of different than yours. We have different things: like I think the food in our world is a little different, and we have objects that allow us to talk to people really far away in an instant. But we used to have kings too, and some places still do! We're also peaceful, or at-least try to be, and everyone tries their best to help each other in times of need like you do.”

Her eyes widened, and she was getting excited.

“Really? That's so amazing! I wonder if I'll be able to visit your world one day?”

God I hope not.

“Haha, may so.” I smiled back at her,

But Sagiri would love her. We talked a bit more and she had that love of education that Saigiri held and was so smart, even if she was a little thing.

Haruka will probably hate her. Like I said, she hates it if she thinks anyone's getting my attention but her. I'd pay to see that interaction.

We talked and ate, avoiding topics concerning the Darkness, and about things like what she's in charge of and what she does in her free-time. Apparently she's in-charge of a group that cleans up the streets of the castle town and helped demi-humans obtain sanctuary in this country, as most of the other countries tend to hold them as slaves.

Seemed like a lot of responsibility for a thirteen year-old. I remember all I did was study, take part in the Going-Home Club, and bum around with video games when I was that age. I was definitely impressed. She seemed like good person, like her father. I told her as such, and she was positively beaming, before she went back to her food.

As we talked, I glanced over to where that group I had came in with, and that woman, Tonya Adrastia, kept glancing at Princess Meine in anger before her group forced her attention back to them. I looked at Meine, and she looked like she was saying something in her direction. She had to have been saying it pretty loudly, since the room itself was flooded with conversations and music.

Finally, Adrastia pounded her fists on the table, causing her plate and glass to nearly bounce up and down, and stood up so fast her chair flew backwards.

“What the hell did you just say?!” She shouted, pointing straight at First Princess Meine. The hall went silent in an instant.

“I believe you know.” Meine responded eloquently.

“Please, Tonya, sit down. It's nothing!” The taller man was trying to grab her shoulders to sit her down, but Adrastia kept knocking his arms away.

“No! I want you say it aloud!”

“Do you? You let my mother die, like you my husband die.”

“YOU BITCH!” The Princess was taken aback at the retort, and her face was shocked at the language, as if no one had ever spoken to her like that. “We fought our way to rescue the Queen, we had to kill hundreds of those blasted monsters to get to her! We tried our best!” Her group, now mostly drunk, was responding with agreement.

“Your best wasn't enough! It will NEVER be good enough, all you do is fail and fail and fail and fail. Like you failed my husband!” The Princess broke her usual demeanor, and was now screaming at Adrastia. I could see the spittle jetting out of her mouth from where I sat.

“Meine, please...” Isabelle was starting to cry, and the King as aghast, unable to respond to either party.

“I...That was an army of AT-LEAST fifty-thousand strong against the ten-thousand we were able to muster in those fields! We did everything we could against them, and we still won! When sangie-”Adrastia had suddenly lost her momentum, and couldn't speak.

“'Sangie'? What the hell did just call him?! He is 'Prince Sanguine'!” Tears were streaming down both their faces. “Face it! You let him die!”

“No! He's not dead and I tried to save him! I even wanted to pull it---” Adrastia was stuttering.

“He is dead! He's as good as dead, we even having a viewing of him in the town below so the people can view his last moments! It's all because of you, YOU LET HIM DIE!” Meine's scream turned guttural, and she began hurling anything she could grab off the table infront of her towards Meine.

One of Adrastia's group members, a robbed figure, threw his hand forward while muttering something I couldn't hear, and a blue wall of energy appeared in-front of Adrastia, who still instinctively went to shield her face against the flying objects. Isabelle was wailing, and threw herself into my arms, and I could feel my shoulder starting to get soaked.

The shield dissipated as soon as Meine ran out of things to throw at her.

“You!” She got up and rounded the corner of the table, her eyes wide and began an insane laugh. “I don't care what it takes, but you'll pay for your incompetence! I'll make you feel every ounce of pain I feel and I'll have your head!” She was pointing at Adrastia, who had tears streaming down her face and was bearing teeth.

“Is that so?! So, then! Why down you come down here and take it yourself, you crazy fucking whore!” She pulled her sword out, the light of the room gleaned off the blade and the gold hilt, before pointing it straight at Meine's face. She was forcing a smile.

Guards from the opposite side of the hall began sprinting towards Adrastia.

“NO!” Her fellow group members jumped up and got between her and the Honor guards, with their weapons oriented at the Guards. Guards from the platform now flanked the First Princess.

“Tonya! Stop this!” The tall man screamed.

“If she's going to stand there and accuse me of-”

“She's the Princess! Even if she's wrong and even if you do kill her, you'll still die!” The Princess was now smiling at Adrastia, smugly, which seemed to infuriate her even more.

I guess the guy had hit some button in Adrastia, since she stopped pointing the blade at the Princess, and went to sheathe it. The Guards behind her were still standing off with her party members, the Tall One included, and the platform Guards slowly proceeded down the stairs to Adrastia, weapons pointed at Adrastia, with one reaching on his belt for a pair of restraints.

“Guards!” The Guards looked towards the King, who had broken his silence, and gestured for them to return to their spots. The Guards broke off from the party, and the ones that were going to arrest Adrastia reversed course.

The group returned to their seats, Adrastia included, and seemed to return to their normal routine. However, I saw Adrastia throw her towel onto her plate and barge out of the room, with the Tall One following close behind.

As for Princess Meine, she took a moment and recollected herself, wiping away her tears. She regained her posture before walking back to her seat, but the King was glaring at her, and I saw him shake his head.

“Father! You saw her! She threatened me!”

“You know as well as I do that everything you said just now were utter lies. And you threatened her, first.”

“You...You're supposed to support me, Father! You're going to take that filthy whore's side over your own daughter?! Me?!”

The King didn't respond.

“I can't believe you'll do this to your own daughter!” She screamed at her father, and also barged out of the room, to a door at the side of the platform. Her personal servant followed close behind her.

“I'm sorry you had to see this, Hero. Please forgive us, and I apologize on the half of Meine.” the King said, dryly, lacking that enthusiastic tone he had in the previous times he spoke to me.

“Are you okay, Darling?” He got up to comfort Isabelle, changing his tone completely, who was still wailing in my arms.

“Yes...yes, I'm okay now.” It took some comforting and a couple of attempts, but eventually Isabelle was able to regain her composure and calm down. “Ever since Prince Sanguine fell, she's become so horrible! And every time she sees that woman, she starts abusing her without mercy, I feel so bad for her. She didn't deserve that!” The last bit threatened to throw her off, but she didn't lose it again, thankfully.

The King returned to his seat, and the hall became as loud as before, with music playing in the background and people acting more and more drunk as the night on.

Isabelle didn't eat anything for the rest of the night, only taking light sips of her juice before eventually excusing herself and returning to her room. The King was the same - he just sat in his chair as if his mind were completely engaged in thinking about what just happened.

As for me: I don't know why, but even though I had front-row seats to this fight of fights, I still starving! It might have been the alcohol, or the fact that I hadn't eaten anything today, but I couldn't seem to eat enough. I felt pretty bad for the servants, they had to keep running back and forth to fill up my glass and give more even more food. Eventually though, I had my fill of food and drink, and was starting to fill pretty loopy.

I'd been relaxing back in my chair when I saw that portly man, Maximilian if I recall, come up to the table.

“Well, I can't say I've ever seen them get that heated before, but I also can't say I'm surprised to see it come to this.” He had a grim look on his face. He looked towards the site of the fight, and looked back at me with a smirk, leaning over to whisper, “It was nice to see the First Princess finally get put in her place.” He leaned back, winking at me with his scarred eye. I looked over at the King to see if he heard him, and it seemed as if he were still consumed by what happened earlier.

“Nevertheless, we have to focus on the future. You have a long day tomorrow, Hero. Our group will be in charge of training you, bright and early tomorrow. So once you're finished, I suggest you go get some rest, since we're going to have to train you pretty hard if you're going to be ready for our quest against the Darkness. It'll begin about at about nine.” He bowed slightly and started down the stairs.

Our quest?  Was I going to be traveling with that group I had met earlier?

“Oh, and Yoshida?” He stopped at the base of the stairs leading to the platform, calling me by name.

“We're glad to have with you with us. Even if Adrastia won't admit it herself, and despite everything she says to you, she is too.” He chuckled to himself, and went to leave the room.

I had one more glass and decided it was time to go. I went to the King, who still consumed in thought, and excused myself. He jumped when I spoke, but he gave me his thanks for being so understanding during the screaming match earlier. Wishing me luck on my training tomorrow, he bade me a goodnight.

With liquid courage, I decided to stumble my way to my room without relying on the HUD map, and fortunately made it back to my room with muscle memory alone.

The room was brightly lit by candles, probably done so by some maids why I was away in the banquet hall, I stripped down to underwear and crawled into bed after putting out the candles.

I was so excited by tomorrow! Even if I never used a sword in real-life, I was about to learn how to fight in this world! I could probably even earn some EXP!

I was getting pretty giddy at the prospect of becoming a warrior like in my games. When I looked at my HUD, the time was “12:32 A.M.” Since the room was dark, the HUD seemed to be quite a bit brighter than it had been earlier, and I took a moment to adjust to it.

If that's the case, then I'd have to go to sleep now if I don't want to be utterly exhausted tomorrow. I readjusted my position a few times before eventually finding a sweet spot to fall asleep in.

Depending on how I do tomorrow, I'll see how prepared I am for the new world I've found myself in. I removed the HUD from my vision, and finally relaxed. My eyelids began sinking, and eventually I fell into a deep sleep in preparation for tomorrow.