Chapter 2: Arrival

“Are you sure you don’t have anything more comfortable?” Jerry said. He was wearing green chest clothes with leather shoes. However, it was very tight and a bit difficult to move around in.

“This is the best we can do. Anymore comfortable and I don’t think I can show you in the Royal Palace.” The girl said as she got into a carriage.

“Hurry up, It’s only a few hours out. We need to get to the Royal Palace quickly.” She said, waving him in.

“Yea, yea. I’m coming” Jerry said as he got in.

An hour into the ride and Jerry was sweating.

“Hot?” The girl asked.

“Very” Jerry said back as he pulls his collar out to get some air into his shirt.

“Here.” The girl said as she waved her hands around. All of a sudden, Jerry felt significantly cooler than before. It almost seemed a bit too cold now.

“What the hell?” Jerry said confusedly

“What? You guys don’t have magic like you guys don’t have a monarch?” She asked laughing a bit.

Jerry sighed before she spoke again.

“My name is Emile Kerrington the Fourth” She said “And I’m the Princess of the Empire. The man in the robe was Likro. He’s my mage.”

Jerry looked at her with a smug look. “Is that so?”

“Yes, is there a problem?” Emile asked.

“No ma’am”

“Ma’am?”

“Just a way of referring to a female”

Jerry and Emile sat in silence for a while. Jerry thought of killing time, so, he thought of things to kill time. He first thought of a joke

Record Scratch, Freeze Frame. Hey, that’s me. And you might be wondering how I ended up in this situation. Well, lemme tell you. Jerry first thought.

“And, what’s your name?” Emile asked looking annoyed

“Oh, sorry. My name is Jerry.” He said

“Jerry, what?” Emile asked

“Jerry Ask Later”

Emile sighed and then looked out the window while Jerry thought of more jokes.

After a while of making terrible jokes, the finally arrived at the Royal Palace. As they disembarked, they were approached by guards that seemed to be Royal Guards judging from their gold-lined armor.

“Your Highness! Welcome! You must be here to meet the Hero! Please, com-” The Royal Guard stopped mid-sentence as he laid his eyes on Jerry.

“Your Highness, may I ask who is this man here?” The Royal Guard asked.

“Don’t mind him. Where’s my father?” Emile asked.

“R-Right. He should be in the Throne room now.” The Royal Guard said.

“Thank you. Come now, Jerry.”

“Right”

As they entered the Throne Room, they were greeted by a loud laugh that was from a man on a throne followed by another laugh that was from another man with Golden Armor, a bit thick on the shoulders, chest, and a little on the leg. He had blond hair, was taller than Jerry, and had better looks than him.

“Ahh, Emile. Welcome. Say hello to your future husband!” the man on the throne said.

Before the king could laugh even more, he looked at Jerry

“Who’s this, Emile? Don’t say you’ve gotten a husband without my approval.” the King said while looking at Jerry with murderous intent.

“No father, this is another Hero that was summoned.” Emile said, doing a curtsy

“Another Hero? Fantastic! Now we have a higher chance of sending the Demon Lord to where he came from!” the King said laughing.

The other Hero approached Jerry with his right hand out.

“Hello there, fellow hero! Nice to meet you, my name is Larmen” The other Hero said, holding his hands out.

Jerry shook his hand “Hello, my name is Jerry. Nice to meet you.”

“Since Larmen here has already been announced to the public as the hero, you will have to tag along. Had you both been here at the same time, I would’ve had you both announced to the public as heroes. I apologize.” the King said.

The King stood up “But don’t worry about it. You will be treated with the equal amount of respect and hospitality. Now, let’s have a royal feast tonight, shall we?”

“Of course” Larmen said.

“But, before that. We must grasp your ability. Larmen, can you bring him to the testing room? We must test him.” The King said.

“Of course Your Majesty” Larmen said as he bowed his head to the King.

“Come now, Jerry. We must take you!”

Jerry followed Larmen out of the room and down the halls of the Royal Palace. They then came to a door which Larmen opened. Jerry entered the room to be greeted by talk from the people above. The room Jerry was standing in had seatings elevated to the front, left, and right side of the room. In the middle was an crystal orb that sat upon a pedestal.

There were still some people in the seating areas above talking.

“Larmen’s magical abilities were spectacular!”

“Jenny, you must marry him”

“Who’s that?”

Larmen stepped into the room after Jerry and looked into the seating area.

“Everyone, this is Jerry. Another hero from another world that has been summoned here. He is here to take the magical ability test.”

‘Magical ability?’

“Jerry, if you could place your hand on the ball on the pedestal.” Larmen said.

Jerry walked forward, and looked at the crystal ball. It was fairly small and was about the size of a baseball. He wrapped the crystal ball with his hands, waiting for something to happen.

He waited. 5 seconds, nothing happened. 10 seconds, nothing happened. 15 seconds, nothing happened. Eventually, 30 seconds elapsed and nothing had happened.

“Don’t tell me…”

“He can’t use magic?”

Laughter erupted from the seating area.

“What kind of pitiful hero can’t even use magic?”

Jerry let go of the ball, and walked towards the exit, where Larmen stood.

“Come, let’s go back to the King”

“Yea”

Jerry and Lermen exited the room, and hurried back to the Throne Room.

As they entered, the King stood up.

“Ah, you have returned. How did the tests go?” The King asked.

“Nothing happened” Jerry responded.

“Oh, I see.”

“Let’s bring you to your room! Let’s have you settle in before anything else. The King clapped his hands twice and a butler came into the room

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The Butler said.

“Can you show our guest here his room? It should be the same as the Hero.” the King said

“I apologize, all of the royal rooms have been taken by Royal Guests.” the Butler said.

“Then remove one of them!”

“It’s fine. Just find me a room, and get me something comfortable to wear that is acceptable to be at the feast, and I’ll be fine.” Jerry insisted. He did not want to cause any trouble with the Royal Guests.

“What a noble deed! Taking the short stick to not disturb the other guests!” Larmen exclaimed.

“Yea, sure.” Jerry replied, looking a little ticked off.

The King nodded to the butler and he stood up.

“As you wish, follow me” The Butler said.

The Butler led Jerry down a series of corridors. The doors passing by ranged from golden ivory, silver, and even a mix of all three. However, Jerry got the short end of the stick. He was placed in a room with a stone door.

Jerry looked at the butler with a face that said ‘Really?’

“I’m sorry. This is the best we could do. All the other rooms have been taken as the feast was a thing planned for months with a large advertisement campaign behind it. If there were any other open rooms, I would’ve wanted you to stay in them” The Butler said apologetically.

“It’s fine. I’ve been to worse rooms” Jerry said scratching his head.

“Ah, I can however get you more comfortable clothing for the feast. I will fetch them for you.” The Butler said.

“Yea, just leave it somewhere in the room. I’m a bit tired, so I’m gonna sleep a bit. Wake me up before the feast starts though, yea?” Jerry said.

“Of course” The Butler said, as he bowed.

Jerry entered his room to be greeted with a queen bed with curtains in the northern most part of the room with windows on the left and right side of the bed. To the western most part of the room was what seemed to be a makeup table, and to the left of the door was a table and a chair and to the right laid a chest. Jerry fell onto the bed and undid his clothing a little and quickly fell asleep.