“(Crap, I shouldn’t have used a rifle.)” [Ryner]

Ryner thought in his head while forcing himself to not puke in front of so many people.

“… Excuse me?” [Ryan]

Everyone was confused at what he had just said.

“Well, you’re one of the heroes summoned by the Elea kingdom, right?” [Ryner]

Ryan nodded at his words, understanding what he meant before.

“I see, so you’ve heard of me.” [Ryan]

“No, I just guessed because of your flashy armor.” [Ryner]

He replied while scratching the back of his head with his usual sleepy eyes, remembering what Trish told him at the inn. Now, everyone was shocked. When people were in the presence of the heroes, they would show great respect and admiration. Many even had fan clubs with both men and women screaming their name. Although there were some who picked fights and quickly lost, not once did they meet someone who acted so casually and rudely around them. Ryan didn’t expect this and simply stood there while staring at him, unsure of what to say next. Seeing this, knight commander Cain took the lead.

“We came here to deal with the horned wolves that were gathering near the capital, but you guys have already dealt with them.” [Cain]

He said as he looked around him, bodies and blood everywhere.

“Ah, those guys… They came to pick a fight so we scared them off. Did you guys want a piece of the action?” [Ryner]

Although everyone present wanted to retort that they didn’t scare them, but massacred them, they held their tongue and Cain thanked them instead.

“No, that’s not it. The two of you protected Elura in our stead. As such, you have my gratitude.” [Cain]

He bowed while saying so and took a good look at them again. The woman was smiling while still covered in blood and the man was… yawning loudly.

“*Yawn*Don’t worry about it. We just beat the crap out of some annoying fellows. If that’s all, we’ll be going.” [Ryner]

Just as the man was walking past them with the woman following right behind him, a voice called them to a stop.

“Wait.” [Ryan]

Ryan couldn’t let them leave like that. After all, that sleepy-looking man was in possession of something he shouldn’t have.

“You… Where did you get that gun?” [Ryan]

Everyone, especially the heroes, also kept their eyes on this unknown individual with inquisitive gazes. Ryan asked while scrutinizing him as he tried to see through his eyes. But, what he got in response was completely unexpected.

“I made it myself.” [Ryner]

“You made it? Where did you get the parts? The equipment?” [Ryan]

“With my daily allowance.” [Ryner]

“Please don’t joke. This is a serious matter.” [Ryan]

“Then, seriously, that’s a secret.” [Ryner]

He was starting to get annoyed at this man who seemed to be making fun of him. He walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, staring straight at his face.

“You, you came from another world too, didn’t you? Answer truthfully.” [Ryan]

If he didn’t find the gun, but really made it himself, then he and his classmates weren’t the only ones to be summoned here. He had to get some information out of him to know if there were others besides him. Ryner, while thinking that things became troublesome, decided to entertain him a bit.

“Maybe~. What do you want exactly? Do you want to take a look?” [Ryner]

He took out his assault rifle from his pocket dimension and handed it to the hero who received it with a dumbfounded face. The weapon was heavy so he strengthened his body a bit before looking it over. He never saw anything like it in his world. It fired like an automatic rifle, but it was bulky and had a chainsaw under the barrel as well as a fore-end of a shotgun.

“If you want, you can try shooting it once.” [Ryner]

Ryner pointed to one of the trees that were still standing on the side, thirty meters away from them. Ryan suspiciously looked at him for a second before facing the target and raised the gun at the trunk. Everyone was observing him as he carefully took aim and stared through the iron sights. He then pulled the trigger and bullets flew out towards the tree with a loud noise, but none of them hit it. They flew past its side or hit the ground right in front.

“… It didn’t hit?” [Ryan]

He murmured while staring at the rifle in his hands, wondering if something was wrong with it. At that moment, Ryner approached him and took it back.

“That’s just because you suck at shooting.” [Ryner]

Irritated by those words, Ryan frowned and tried to talk back, but before he could, Ryner casually took aim and fired. All of the bullets hit the tree head-on, not one missed their target. Everyone was taken aback by such a difference in marksmanship and stared at him with wide eyes.

“Don’t blame the gun because you missed. This thing’s got an effective firing range up to five hundred meters.” [Ryner]

Then again, considering that the heroes were normal high schoolers who lived peaceful lives before being summoned and never held a gun, it was obvious that they wouldn’t have accurate aims. Ryner, on the other hand, trained with all types of weapons and firearms since he was a kid and reached an absurd level of mastery. If he couldn’t do that much, then he would be dead already. He put the rifle back inside his pocket dimension and clapped his hands.

“So, now that you’ve had your fun, we’ll be leaving.” [Ryner]

“What-wait! You haven’t answered my question! Are you from another world?!” [Ryan]

He quickly asked him as he turned his back to leave. He put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face him. Ryner sighed before telling him the truth.

“Well, yeah pretty much.” [Ryner]

The onlookers started talking among themselves when they heard him. There was another one besides the heroes. Ryan put a hand on the hilt of his sword while glaring at him.

“Then I’ll ask you just in case. What are you doing here, using weapons that shouldn’t exist? If you came to cause trouble, then-“ [Ryan]

Before he could finish, Ryner put a finger in front of his face.

“What are you doing jumping to conclusions, idiot? I’m just here on vacation.” [Ryner]

“I-idiot!?” [Ryan]

“Right, so now I’ll be leaving ok? Let’s go Maya… And here’s a towel to clean the blood.” [Ryner]

He took out a towel from many blue rings forming a circle and passed it to Maya who was trying to wipe the blood covering her with her hands.

“Wait. I have more questions for you. You’ll be coming with me.” [Ryan]

Ryan fully strengthened his body and pulled his holy sword out of the scabbard which was pure white and had strange engravings on the blade as well as a red diamond-shaped gem incrusted in the guard. There were too many unknowns with him. As a human who lived in an era where guns were used for wars, he knew that it was dangerous to let someone who could pull out an assault rifle out of nowhere walk around this world. So, he had to find out more about him, even if it was by force. The others, feeling the tension, readied for battle as well, their eyes locked on to the man who could so casually insult a hero.

“Oh my, are we fighting again?” [Maya]

Maya continued to calmly wipe the blood off her arms while strengthening herself as well. Although she kept smiling, she was ready to tear apart these guys if they tried to hurt her master, whether they’re heroes or not. As for Ryner, he just kept looking at the pretty boy with his sleepy eyes.

“Wait Ryan. They did us a favor by taking out those horned wolves. We shouldn’t show such rudeness.” [Cain]

“No Cain, we can’t let them go.” [Ryan]

One person tried to stop this situation before it got out of hand as he walked in front of Ryan to restrain him. Although he also had many questions, Cain believed that they should talk it out peacefully instead of pointing their blades at them. Rather, his honor as the knight commander compelled him to. After all, they owed them one for protecting Elura, even if they didn’t mean to. But, the young man was adamant with his decision.

“That’s right Ryan. Knight commander Cain has a point, so please put away your sword.” [???]

“Yeah. I know you’re wary because he’s got such a huge gun, but this will only make things worse.” [???]

Two new voices sounded out to support the old knight. They were two girls, both the same age as Ryan as well as his friends. One of them had grey eyes with long brown hair and the other had brown eyes with black hair cut short around her shoulders and a longer mesh tied behind her back. Both of them were beauties of their own league with different airs around them. The one with brown hair had a gentle aura and worriedly looked at her friend while the other seemed stern and observed the situation with sharp eyes.

“Elena, Aria, don’t stop me. We need to take him in. He’s too dangerous.” [Ryan]

“Stop that. He didn’t do anything to us. Jayce, say something too.” [Aria]

The girl with black hair asked their friend, Jayce, to help and talk some sense into him.

“Personally, I think it’s fine if we do this. Guns are pretty dangerous for normal people and it’s not like we’ll lose.” [Jayce]

“Jayce! Don’t encourage him!” [Elena]

“This stupid muscle-brain! I should have known better than to ask you to stop a fight!” [Aria]

Unfortunately, he was ready to go and had a grin on his face.

“It really doesn’t seem that we can avoid another fight, Master.” [Maya]

On the other side, there was another person who couldn’t wait to bash some skulls in. Having finished wiping the blood off, Maya knocked her knuckles together while Ryner put a hand on his face and wearily shook his head.

“Master!? And that collar! Don’t tell me she’s your slave?!” [Ryan]

“Well… I’m not sure if she acts like one, but yeah pretty much.” [Ryner]

“You! Don’t you have any shame?!” [Ryan]

Ryan gritted his teeth and seemed even more intent on taking down the one before him as his sword started to glow faintly. He couldn’t forgive someone for treating another’s life like an object and could only imagine what this bastard did to such a beautiful woman every night.

“The hell are you imagining, kid? Puberty? Is this puberty acting up?” [Ryner]

He got startled when his lazy-looking enemy saw through his thoughts and teased him while waving his hand in front of his face.

“Oh my, he is at that age after all. If only they knew how amazing you were in bed.” [Maya]

Maya playfully said while putting a hand to her cheek. At her remark, most of the high schoolers turned red in the face. The boys on the horses crouched a bit after they stared at her body and imagined the master and slave together at night. Some of them even glared at Ryner with envy.

“Don’t say that sort of stuff in front of kids, or anyone else. It’s bad for my non-existent reputation. Anyway, the old knight over there!” [Ryner]

Ignoring Ryan, he pointed at Cain who was a bit surprised from being single out.

“You’re from the capital Elura, right? Our horse just quit on us, so we need a new one. If you really are grateful, then give us one for free, please. Oh and tell them to stop pointing their swords at us. It gives my friend the urge to punch someone.” [Ryner]

“(Things have become really annoying, so let’s ask for a horse as compensation.)” [Ryner]

He shamelessly made his demand by using the favor that the knight commander spoke of before.

“There’s no way we’ll give you one.” [Ryan]

Ryan was quite mad at him for being so disrespectful towards the strongest knight of the kingdom and quickly rejected his request.

“… Alright then.” [Cain]

However, after a moment of thinking, Cain accepted, much to Ryan’s shock.

“What?! Cain!” [Ryan]

“We owe them that much, don’t you think?” [Cain]

“You know as well as I do that letting him leave is too dangerous for the world. We should at least make sure if he’s an enemy first!” [Ryan]

“Don’t kid yourself, mortal. I am neither an ally, nor an enemy.” [Ryner]

Ryner cut into their conversation using a serious tone that they haven’t heard before. As all eyes were on him, he made his declaration with a cool face while pointing at himself.

“I’m a tourist!” [Ryner]

Silence fell on them as no one could utter a word. Everyone stared at him with a dumbfounded look, except for Maya whose shoulders were trembling and was trying to subdue the sound of laughter by covering her mouth with her hand.

“Not this! This won’t work!” [???]

Inside a dark room, a young woman was zealously working at her desk. The place was spacious and had luxurious furniture, easily rivaling one of the offices of a king’s castle. However, hundreds of parchments covered the carpet, chairs and tables with stacks piled high. The woman was writing complicated formulas before getting mad and tossing it to the ground. She took a new parchment by her side and began writing another set of strange symbols. She didn’t have any trouble seeing without any light as her softly glowing red eyes quickly darted back and forth while she wrote down more formulas.

“If I add this, then… No, no, no that won’t be enough…” [???]

What she was doing was something that no one ever managed to do and considered it a fantasy: teleporting to another world. If she succeeded, then her name would go down in history as an unrivaled genius that accomplished the impossible along with her many other achievements.

“Lady Evelyn, it is time for dinner. The Minister of the Right, Lord Daniel Redheart, is also present again.” [???]

After a knock, a female voice was heard behind the door to which the woman with red eyes, Evelyn, responded without stopping her hands.

“Thank you, I will be there shortly. Please convey it to Lord Daniel.” [Evelyn]

She could feel the maid had left by sensing her presence and focused back on the parchment before her. Eventually, she gave up, crumpled it and tossed it on her carpet. With a loud frustrated sighed, she wearily rubbed her forehead with her hand and closed her eyes. She bit her lower lip lightly, careful not to pierce it with the two fangs in her mouth. How many years had it been since she began looking for a way to travel through worlds? Was it fifty, or a hundred years? But, no matter what, she didn’t plan on quitting until she succeeded. As such, she stood up from her chair and went towards the door to eat. She couldn’t keep working on an empty stomach after all, nor could she keep her long-time friend and guardian waiting. If it wasn’t for that old man, she wouldn’t be able to selfishly continue her research and would be force to attend to her duties.

“I’ll find you.” [Evelyn]

She talked to herself as she walked through the pile of parchments and brushed her long blonde hair with her hands to look more presentable.

“No matter what…” [Evelyn]

Her words were her way to reaffirm her resolve. They were words that she repeated to herself over and over again since that dreadful day.

“Ryner…” [Evelyn]

Reaching for the doorknob, a name spilled from her lips in a soft and pained murmur.