Chapter 5 – Audience

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When the blinding white light faded, I opened my eyes and find myself standing in a huge room covered with luxurious decoration. Below my feet, a magic formation that shines with every step can be seen. When I looked around, all the guys from the class are present. All of them had an expression of surprise or astonishment.

「What’s this!? What was that rumbling!?」

「This isn’t the classroom!? What kind of place is this?」

「What’s happening? I’m scared!」

「This is a dream…isn’t it?… What kind of phenomena is this?……」

As expected. In my case, I can accurately grasped the situation because of my talk with grandpa god in tea-ceremony room, the other guys’ senses must be still in the classroom right now. When they opened their eyes and found themselves other than the classroom, it’ll naturally cause a great confusion.

「Heroes, please welcome to the Garuzu kingdom!」

Suddenly, in a slightly faraway place at the front came an unfamiliar voice, there stood a magician-like old man wearing a white robe. Behind him, stood more than 10 people wearing the same white robe. They all held a staff-like thing.

Ah……while looking at the old man, I felt that I really came to a different world.

「Where on Earth is this? What’s happening? Is this your doing?」

I tried to remain calm as much as possible but Sawaki who was still confused called out to the old man. As expected of Sawaki, even in an unknown situation like this, still took the role of the leader of the class. This fellow is really fit to be a hero. Well, old man in a robe, what’s with the「Please welcome」. To begin with, this is kidnapping. Let’s see how the old man answer.

「The answer to your first question, this is a different world called Asgard and you’re summoned as a hero. And this place is called Garuzu kingdom governed by Maxim the Great, His Majesty the King.」

「W-what are you talking about? This isn’t Earth? Please, stop joking around.」

「I’m not joking around. I’ll answer your second and third questions, the people of this kingdom want you to save Regulus continent from the brutal and unjust hand of the great demon king. Thus, we summoned all of you, heroes from another world!」

The guys from the class began to make a fuss.

「B*llshit! Return us to our original world quickly!」

「That’s right! It’s impossible for us to do such a thing!」

「Can’t you just let us return quickly!?」

「It’s the great demon king. There isn’t any justice to confront such an extremely dangerous guy!」

「Hero?…… We’re just high school students. We……」

Yup. This is the normal reaction. If they found out that they can’t return, I wonder what they’ll do. I thought the kingdom will hide the fact with every effort. While ignoring everyone, they declared「Great!」casually. This is more like dictatorship. More than that, they aren’t seem interested in Sawaki who became silent since a little while ago.

「That…… this isn’t really Earth? Besides, subjugating the great demon king as a hero?……」

Sawaki is murmuring something to himself……. it’s a little eerie. He’s reaction is different from everyone else’s.

「The one in the robe, I have a request. Please, let me meet His Majesty the King. Everything will be decided after that. Everyone! Though I understand you’re a little confused, let’s calm down a little. This situation will not progress if we do nothing.」

「U-understood. This will certainly not progress if we do nothing.」

「If Sawaki-kun says so……」

「For the time being, let’s meet His Majesty the King!」

Whoa. Though I don’t understand what happened, everyone gathered with Sawaki’s words. The heck, it’s useless to progress the situation. Didn’t you guys want to return home? I think, it’ll be more difficult to do that when you meet His Majesty the King. Well, I want to leave this country as soon as possible but I’m quite interested to see the face of the alleged ‘great king’. I want to confirm if you’re just some arrogant King.

「Ee. But of course. Heroes, please meet our King by all means, since He is originally the one who’ll determine if you’re worthy to save this Kingdom. So, please follow me.」

「Very well. It’s natural to meet the King as a Hero.」

What? T-this guy Sawaki said「as a Hero」just now. Didn’t he declared「Everything will be decided after meeting the King」just a few minutes ago? His Hero self already came out.

「Saotome-kun…… what will happen to us……?」

「Saotome-kun is very calm even such times. I feel somewhat relieved~」

On the way to the throne room, Ebihara Kotomi and Segawa Chinatsu spoke to me. Come to think of it, I’m summoned when I was talking to this two. I’m different because I met grandpa god, this two must have been overwhelmed with fear like the rest of the class. I have to give them courage as a man.

「Ebihara-san……it’ll be okay. We are summoned as Heroes. I think, they will not treat us badly. Segawa-san……if you can be relieved by being near me then stay with me for a while.

「Th-that’s right! A hero. I felt a little relieved. Thanks!」

「Oh! Can I stay by your side?」

「Aa.」

I didn’t think that being expressionless will be useful at such times. I felt a little better. I’m worried about what happened to the two, their turned faces deep crimson. But, if this is such a development then I need to raise my favorability points by doing something like this……MUFUFU!

「Ahead of us is the throne room of His Majesty the King. I must ask you Heroes to act as polite as possible.」

After walking for about 5 minutes from the location we were summoned, we arrived at the door of the throne room. The door is also decorated luxuriously, in front of it stood two guard-like knights wearing blue heavy armor. The guard made an eye contact with the old man who guided us here, they opened the door after confirming that we don’t have any weapons.

(Excellent throne room…… is this something we can deal with?)

When the door opens, the first thing we saw was a slightly fat middle-aged man with a Caesar-like beard, he looks respectable sitting on the King’s throne in the middle of the throne room. Two people stood on each of his side. From the looks of it, the person on the left with a mole on the forehead seem to be the minister.

On the right, a well-featured young lady who seem to be the princess. Sky blue hair draped down her shoulders. It’s probably better to not worry about the color in this world. It suits her. With drooping eyes, a gentle-like atmosphere oozes out a little. Uh-oh? The princess is somehow different from what I had thought. She wore a not ostentatious, beautiful blue dress and looking in this direction with great interest. I’ll say it again. She’s not looking at me.

And lined up on both sides of the aisle are knights in blue armor stood uniformly up to where the King is. When something happened, they’ll be the one who will deal with it first. Our group should kept quite if we don’t want for these guys to act. I think it’ll be alright since Sawaki is here.

「Are they the summoned heroes, Moses? This is more than the number of people I heard beforehand. Didn’t we expect just about 10 people?」

「Yes. It’s considerably more than what we expect but the more hero the better chance we have of succeeding……」

「Oh…… You understand well……」

You mean this old man in a white robe is Moses? Well, it doesn’t matter. So our number is too much. We are 30 people. The ones who didn’t return to the classroom at lunch break are only two people. Those guys weren’t caught up in the summoning.

He said, the more hero the better because the possibility of subjugating the great demon king increases. The more I see the exchanges, the more it aligned to grandpa god’s presumptions. Anyway, after defeating the great demon king they will probably come up of some pretext to use the heroes for invading other countries.

「Heroes. You have come.」

「Are you His Majesty?」

「Aa, it is so. I am the King.」

「Please pardon me If I happen to say something rude because I don’t know the etiquette of this world. May I ask you a question at once?」

「Very well. There’s no helping it about the courtesy. But you have to understand that if you are speaking to me, you have to kneel.」

「I thank you for your consideration.」

Aa. Good luck Sawaki. There will be no problem if you are the one who will speak in behalf of the class. But with this guy, fighting the great demon king seem to be inevitable……

N? I felt someone’s gaze……

The princess is glaring at me. And with that timing, Sawaki probably caught the princess looking. You mean, you’re looking at me not the entire class? I wonder if there’s something on my face. Looking is fine and all but…… did I just hurt someone’s feelings after entering the throne room for just a few minutes? I’m not even saying anything just simply standing……

「It seemed you summoned us heroes because of the extremely evil great demon king? Is there justice to that?」

「Aa, there is definitely justice to that.」

「I’m relieved to hear that. Because I won’t fight if there’s no justice. And as everyone’s question, is there a way to go back to our original world?」

「There’s an oracle, if you defeat the great demon king, you shall find your way home.」

Sawaki! Why didn’t you confirm whether the others want to fight!? Justice my arse! Its definition can easily change depends on anyone’s standpoint. You don’t even know what justice this King is talking about yet you already accepted it, don’t bite off more than you can chew. It seems there are guys who want to say something but they can only swallowed their words back because of the daunting atmosphere. I can only prepare for the worst and release the fire in my belly¹……

「Sawaki…… everyone is different than you who can fight if there is justice.」

「Saotome? It’s been a long time since we had a conversation. But, if the evil isn’t defeated, the innocent people will be sacrificed. I can’t permit that to happen. I think everyone thought the same too because they all simply listened to my conversation with His Majesty in silence, right?」

Huh? Are you seriously saying that? We are the most innocent people here! This is a different world, right!? It’s worrying whether you are brainwashed. I always thought that your sense of justice is indiscriminately strong, but when we came to this world, your desire to become a hero is much more stronger to the point of being reckless. Sawaki……I don’t even know what to call you.

「You can’t casually decide that in our place. Don’t force your judgement to everyone.」

「When we came here, we should probably obtain power as a Hero. What else is the use of that power if not to protect people? His Majesty the King. Do we have power as Heroes?」

「Aa. that’s true. You have been bestowed with special abilities when you are summoned here. The plan is to confirm it tomorrow. You are probably already tired by being summoned. We’ll prepare a room for each person, you should take some rest. A maid will deliver a food to your room. Also, don’t go out in the hallway in the middle of the night so you won’t trigger the traps laid for thieves.」

The King didn’t give me any chance to further speak unnecessary things and adjourned the audience, every single one of the class was guided to their respective rooms by a maid. When we came out of the throne room, for an instant, I saw the King take a quick, hateful glance at me. I was loathed. I’m not entirely sure why but the princess turned towards me like earlier……

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Translator notes and reference:

¹If you have fire in your belly, you are ready to fight with energy and determination for what you believe is right ― thefreedictionary.com – fire in belly

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