… Huh?

… What?

… Not dead?

Yuri found herself lying on a cold floor, pained groans resounded all around her.

She looked around and saw twelve people trying to get up from the cold floor just like her.

“I welcome you, Heroes!”

When she looked towards the owner of the voice, she saw an old, white-haired man in a priest-like clothes.

“Eh? What do you mean by that? Who are you?”

“Ooooh, is this like a hero summoning or something!? Maaan, I'm a fucking Hero!?”

The old man looked over the lively people and nodded in satisfaction.

"My name is Jonathan Lichtenberg, I’m this kingdom’s Head Priest! I'm sure all of you have many questions, but please follow me to the Throne room first, the King will surely answer all of your questions!"

... Throne room?

... Heroes?

schlip

Yuri who planned on following after everyone suddenly stepped on her robe and fell.

… Robe … too big?

… Not burnt?

… Looks new.

Baffled by her robe which seemed to be too big for her, she looked around once again.

What she saw from the floor, made her even more uncomfortable.

… People?

… Too big?

... Why?

“Little girl, are you okay?”

An Asian girl worriedly ran over to Yuri, helped her up and dusted off her robes.

… Huh?

… Little girl?

Although Yuri was confused about the girl’s words, she decided to play along for the time being.

She nodded.

“My name is Bai Lan, what is yours?”

“……”

“You can’t talk? We will have to figure it out later, come give me your hand or we will be left behind.”

The truth is, it's not like Yuri can't talk, she just hates talking.

As she decided to play along before, she took the girl's hand and let herself be guided after the priest.

The priest guided the thirteen 'heroes' to a room behind a large, fancy door.

After entering the room, the priest then kneeled before a middle-aged, fat man sitting on a lavish chair.

“Your Majesty, this old bones has successfully brought the Heroes!”

“Oooh! Good job Jonathan! Come, heroes, come closer!”

The fat man beckoned the heroes with a gentle yet awkward smile on his face.

“Our name is Henry Benjamin Schlusser, and we are the sovereign of this Alasta Kingdom. We welcome you to our humble world!”

“I don’t want to be in your humble world, send me back!”

“Oy, shut up man, you are a freaking Hero now! Behave like a one!”

One of the summoned heroes immediately refused, but was instead scolded by another hero.

The fat man who was supposedly the King didn't seem to mind and instead said with a sorrowful voice.

“We are sorry, but this was, unfortunately, a one-way trip for all of you.”

“What!?”

The thirteen people started to panic.

“Please. Let us explain what is happening in our world first.”

The King said sadly, trying his best to appeal to the hot-blooded young people.

“We apologize to all of you, but we had no other choice, but to resort to this. Our world which we call Eternia has been set in chaos 135 years ago, every kingdom known to us has entered the state of war, and our Alasta which didn’t want to have anything to do with the war has constantly been sieged by our neighbors for the last ten years. We were able to hold out because of our mighty military, but our advisors believe, that Alasta will fall in next five years and thus, we decided to use the last resort our ancestors had left behind, the Hero Summoning Ritual.”

The faces of the summoned youngsters immediately turned pale.

"You want us to kill fellow humans!?"

"Are you right in the head! How could we do something like that!"

"Didn't you summon us to subdue a Demon Lord or something!?"

The heroes started shouting one after another. As expected, killing humans is different from killing demons for them.

"What is this Demon Lord you speak of? Nevermind. You do not have to worry about that, Brave Heroes. Our Kingdom is surrounded by three kingdoms of lesser humanoids from the west, east, and south. You will be dealing with those lesser humanoids and occasionally with monsters which come from the forest in the north."

"Lesser humanoids? What are they? Do they look like humans?"

One of the heroes asked.

"Let us give you an example then. To the east of our Kingdom, there lies a Kingdom of lesser humanoids called Qal Morud. The creatures ruling that kingdom are dangerous, tall blue skinned humanoid beings with sharp tusks sticking out of their mouths. They are bigger and stronger than humans. They are led by one they call Shaman, who apparently can speak with the dead."

"Demons! They are demons, after all!"

"Then, how are we supposed to fight them if they are stronger than humans in every aspect!?"

Someone asked the question everyone wanted an answer to at last.

"Naturally, we wouldn't be summoning you if there wasn't a good reason. Many people of this world possess a power which they can manifest at will. Let us give you an example."

The King said and extended his hand.

Out of nowhere, a ball of flame started dancing on his palm.

"Woah!"

"Are you telling us that we can do something like that!?"

"That's correct. It's not that you can do it, you can do it far better than us. The heroes brought to our world through the summoning have their powers amplified by the process as a by-effect. We will give you the best trainers who will help you to discover and train your powers, but ultimately, the choice is yours. We are unable to return you back home, but we can let you leave this castle and live the rest of your lives in our Kingdom. However, we would like if you could take your time and carefully consider your options. Thus, I will hear your decisions tomorrow. Jonathan, show our guests to their rooms."