10. Fellowship of the Weak

After dinner, everyone headed for their room. Suzuki has been missing, but none of the four seemed to be too anxious about that. They walked down the guest corridors in an awkward silence, only broken when Naomi arrived at his room.

"I guess this is it." Naomi unlocked the door. "Not how I imagined being isekai'd, but hey! At least we got a second chance in life! Or something like that…"

He laughed quietly, almost in a mocking manner. Stevie tried to reach out to him, but Naomi disappeared behind the door. The lock clicked and all sound of him ceased.

Further down the road was Pepon's room. She didn't say anything as she went into her room. She waved awkwardly, then closed her door.

After walking a bit more, Gabriel arrived.

"This is my room." He looked at the number plate on the door. His was room 330.

"I guess this means goodbyes." Stevie forced a smile. "Mine seems to be on another floor, heh…"

"Oh." Gabriel entered his room. "Good luck finding it!"

"Y-Yeah, thanks…"

Gabriel shut the door.

The room he got was small but still better than whatever he had in his other world. Candles lit his room with gentle gold light, showing him a large queen-sized bed. Fittingly enough, all beds were this size in the castle. The only exception was the king's bed which was, of course, king-sized.

A large painting was above Gabriel's bed, depicting a strider. Its long grey tentacles swept the ground like a rake, shaping the desert below. There were people depicted above the strider as guardians of humanity. Most of them were kings, while others looked like scientists and engineers.

Gabriel always liked the fine arts, but he wasn't in the mood to appreciate them. Despite that, he stood before the painting, stubbornly gazing at it.

Something felt… off.

He got an uncanny vibe about the painting, but he couldn't put his finger on the exact cause of it.

"Huh..."

It must have been his imagination.

After taking off his clothes, Gabriel cleaned himself and headed straight for his bed. He put out every candle beside one, which he placed on the night table.

Then, he waited.

He lay in the dark. Every part of his body was concealed by the cover of the night. Only the night desk was visible and the painting that he watched very patiently.

– – –

"Stop lying!" Pepon screamed, spitting her breakfast tea everywhere.

Gabriel sighed and cleaned himself with a handkerchief. He was very patient despite the girl screaming in his ears.

"Once again, I'm telling you: I cleaned myself, went to bed, and slept."

Pepon was fuming with anger, which slowly crept itself into her tears. She fell to the table and cried.

"Quit being so calm! You ran around in your room like an idiot and kept me up all night! Just admit that you were wrong and let's move on, alright?"

"No."

"Bwaah!" Pepon cried even louder.

Naomi watched them with a tired look. He bit into his sandwich again and spoke with a full mouth.

"Does one of you know where the kid might be? I haven't seen him since last night."

As if his timing couldn't have been any better, Stevie appeared next to their table. He looked the freshest out of the bunch. His eyes were full of life and he even bore a small smile.

"Sorry for being so late!" He bowed to apologize.

"No problem. Have you overslept?"

"The truth is, I've been up for quite a while. I've overheard that today is when we'll get our first Sigil."

Naomi gave him a confused glance.

"And what the duck is that?"

"I guess that's what they call a "System". Or a "Class", if you're a fan of the MMORPG genre."

Their eyes lit up. Pepon stopped crying and even Gabriel felt something akin to excitement. He heard that in his previous world the heroes of the Empire, members of the heroes' guild had the ability to choose a class for themselves, which allowed them to reach inhuman powers.

"A class could allow me to regain my powers." Gabriel thought to himself, then continued aloud. "What are we waiting for? Let's go and get ourselves a sigil!"

However, that is where their problems began.

In any other circumstance, the heroes would have already gained a mentor who guides them early on. But, since the test last night, nobody was interested in teaming up with them.

Thus, instead of a guiding figure, all they got was a map.

"You have to be kidding me!" Naomi took the map. "At least they could've given us someone to show us around!"

Stevie laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"The king tried to give us someone, but all the possible candidates suddenly became sick."

"Poor souls," Gabriel said with a straight face. "Is that map usable?"

"Sort of. It's pretty old and there are lots of missing parts. If I had to take a guess, I'd say we need at least two hours to get there."

"Two hours?!" Naomi yelled.

Footsteps sounded down the corridor. Suzuki appeared around the corner, bearing a friendly smile. It was a far cry from his serious demeanor during yesterday's test.

"You didn't really think I'd leave you behind, did you?"

"S-Suzuki!" Naomi exclaimed. "Did you come to help us?"

"Sure thing! Throw that map out the trash, I got a better one."

"H-How?!"

"One of the heroes gave me. They said I had some potential and they wanted to win me over." He chuckled. "Well, truth be told, I think they were after something more than just my two swords, so I accepted their map and declined."

Suzuki was an enigma. Everyone had a different opinion about him based on the little he has shown. Naomi saw amazed by his coolness, Stevie found him an inspiration, Pepon didn't think much of him, and Gabriel… He was cautious.

Suzuki could sense that Gabriel was suspicious of him.

"Hey, you must be Gabriel, if I'm correct." Suzuki approached. "I'm sorry about last night. I don't know why they didn't give you any weapons to defend yourself, but it was pretty cool to see you stand up for your friends."

Suzuki wanted to shake his hand. Gabriel thought about it for a second, then accepted Suzuki's offer and shook his hand.

"Thank you. I suppose you were a strong human in your previous world. Do you feel like your body has weakened since you arrived here?"

"You bet! It's like I'm a child once again and I get hurt by the simplest of things. But hey! That's why we got to get ourselves a sigil, am I right?"

"Correct. We'll regain our strength in no time!" Gabriel said enthusiastically.

Naomi and Stevie were swimming in a fanboyish ooze of excitement. Pepon finished her tea with a bring smile. Their worries died now that Suzuki was finally here, completing the team.

Unbeknownst to them, Gabriel's excitement was an act. He shook Suzuki's hand not as a sign of fellowship, but to test something out for himself.

What Suzuki failed to realize is how sternly Gabriel was holding his hand. He put all his power into it as if trying to crush Suzuki's hand.

But despite that, Suzuki felt no pain…