This is the first time this has happened.

My eyes locked with someone else.

But there is no fear, no disgust, nothing of that sort.

What's going on?

I heard the summoned heroes are usually amazing...

But even someone like Blizzard was afraid at first.

What I feel from him instead are positive feelings.

Just what-

"Success!"

I'm kicked out of my thoughts by Sophia's cheer.

The hero boy also breaks eye contact with me and starts looking around with a surprised face.

"W..."

"Wait..."

"Wha-?"

"Where...?"

Sophia walks up to him and smiles.

"Thank you for hearing our call for help."

"My name is Sophia Mezalodis, may I hear yours?"

The hero boy slowly stands up while suspiciously looking at Sophia.

"...D...Dan...?"

She briefly bows down to him.

"Nice to meet you sir Dan."

"I'm sure you are confused."

"For now, follow me and everything will be explained to you."

"...o...kay...?"

I follow after Sophia along with Dan out of the basement.

The rest of the mages start cleaning up the ritual site.

But a hero, huh?

Other than not being scared of me, he doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

There isn't even any mana in his body, which is just weird.

But from what I heard, a hero's stat growth can be up to ten times higher than that of a normal person.

That in itself is already amazing, but they are also usually very talented at light magic and have high innate resistance to magical attacks.

But he has no mana, how could that even be?

As we walk through the hallways, Dan keeps looking around in daze.

From time to time he steals a few glances at me, but always looks away immediately.

He looks really curious about everything around him.

I guess, that's not too weird.

If i were to be transported to another world, I would be too.

But speaking of other worlds...

I wonder what his original world was like?

"U-um..."

Hmm?

"I...didn't hear your...n-name...?"

My name?

Well, I didn't say it I guess.

"I'm Reiza."

"Ah...hi Reiza, my name is Dan..."

I know...

You said it before...

We finally arrive back at the room where I met the king.

The two guards open the door and we enter.

This time, only the king, Belion and the princess are present.

"Welcome great hero!"

"I give you my thanks for answering our call."

"I'm the king of the Armundis kingdom."

"My name is Venedict Armundis and this here is my daughter, Amelia Armundis."

"Nice to meet you sir hero."

The princess bows and smiles.

...

But the hero boy stays silent.

When I look at him, I see that his lips are squiggling around.

He seems to be at a loss.

Instead, Sophia steps forward and starts talking.

"Your highness, this boy's name is Dan, the hero we summoned."

"And he seemed to be very motivated."

"When I asked him whether he would like to be a hero in a different world, he answered 'With pleasure!'."

"W-..."

"That was...?"

The hero seems confused.

Well, I don't blame him.

Part of the ritual is actually asking the hero if he wants to go.

But it comes in the form of a voice in his head.

He probably thought he was just hearing things and these words he said weren't meant to be the agreement to this.

Hmm, he is holding his head.

It looks like this is too much for him.

"This...isn't a dream, is it?"

"No, this is reality."

After a brief sigh, he releases his head and looks up at Sophia, who answered him.

"You call me a hero..."

"So...umm...I suppose you want me to defeat a demon lord?"

"Eh? How did you know?"

He sighs again and puts his palm on his face.

"I never thought this cliche development would happen to me..."

"What am I?"

"A protagonist of some manga?"

"Ha..haha..."

...?

What's this?

He expected this to happen?

Then why was he so confused earlier?

...

And what's manga?

"Umm...did you perhaps want to stay in your previous world?"

"I'm sorry, I must have made some mistake..."

"Wait..."

"Nonono...no..."

"I just..."

"...I didn't expect this..."

"...s-so...umm...give me some...time...?"

"Oh, most certainly."

"Amelia, please lead the hero to his room."

"Yes father."

The princess leads Dan out of the room leaving me, the king and the two court magicians.

"So what do you think?"

The king turns to Belion, who is rubbing his beard with his eyes closed.

Belion slowly opens his eyes and looks at Sophia, who nods at him.

Then he fixates his gaze at the door, through which the hero left.

"...zero"

"...I see."

"So it's true that heroes start with no mana."

"It feels too unnatural."

"Even air contains mana."

"Seeing the hero is like seeing a hole in reality in terms of mana."

"The records said, that heroes will gain mana when they level up, so I hope it will be fine."

After their short conversation, I left the room and headed for the library.

In addition to being taught the hero summoning ritual, I was also granted access to the castle's library.

I'm allowed to read the books inside, but they said I shouldn't take them out of the library.

I don't really mind this restriction since it doesn't matter where I read the books.

The books I'm planning to read are, of course, books about magic.

More specifically, some about intermediate ice magic.

When I arrive at the library, I notice several people inside.

As always, I'm instantly the center of attention.

But when I look at them, they cover their faces with a book they are holding.

Hmm, this place is too huge...

There are so many books.

It must be thousands...or tens of thousands of books.

How am I ever going to find the book I'm looking for?

I only have a few days...

Hmm...

I walk up to one of the people seated by a table.

"Excuse me..."

His body jolts but he keeps his face covered by a book.

...

I walk to someone else and try to approach them instead.

"Excuse me..."

"Y-y-y-y-yes?"

The woman I addressed started shaking like crazy and put on a really forced smile.

...

It's not weird to be scared of me, but this is a little...

"Hey Reiza...don't bully the magicians here."

I turn around and find Blizzard standing behind me.

What do you mean bully?

What did I do?

"L-lady Blizzard..."

"Sorry miss magician..."

"She didn't mean to scare you."

She comes closer and looks at me.

"You came here to study magic here, didn't you?"

"...yeah."

"Then why don't I help you as well?"

"...sure."

I was lead deeper into the library by Blizzard where I picked up some books on intermediate level ice magic.

We then went to sit near one of the tables, where nobody else was.

I read through about half of it while Blizzard told me some stories from the times she was learning these parts.

Testing it in the library wasn't really an option, so I just studied the theory.

It was getting really late so I decided to continue the next day.

After parting with Blizzard I went back to my designated room.

Locking the door, I lean my sword against the wall again and crawl into the bed.

These past few days nobody attacked me again.

But now that the hero summoning is done, I can't be so sure...

|= A nice sleep later =|

I wake up with a bang.

Well, a knock to be precise.

Someone is knocking on the door to my room.

After getting out of the bed and cleansing myself of the sweat, I head to the door.

I open it and see...the hero?

And the princess is standing behind him.

"G-good morning miss Reiza."

"Can I have a short talk with you?"

Huh?

What could he possibly want?

"...sure."

I walk outside and close the door behind me.

The hero then leads me to his own room, which looks similar to mine.

Except this room has a bunch of maids in it.

"Sorry, I want to talk with her in private..."

On his prompt, they all leave.

The princess also stays outside.

But for some reason she has an uneasy expression...

Just what is this all about?

He locks the door and then sits on his bed.

I follow him and sit on a chair nearby.

...

"...so?"

"U-umm..."

"T-that is..."

...

"Y-you are being discriminated against, aren't you?"

...what?

"The princess called you a monster and said I should avoid you..."

"But don't worry!"

"I won't discriminate against you!"

"I don't find you disgusting or anything like that!"

"M-more like I think you are k-kinda c-cute..."

He was looking right into my eyes for the whole time.

But at the end he looked away and his face reddened.

...

But what is he talking about?

Discriminated against?

I don't get it...

I stare at him while trying to figure out what he is talking about.

He soon recovers and continues talking.

"P-please let me protect you!"

"As a hero I should have some authority...I think..."

"S-so I will make them treat you like a normal human!"

"...I'm...not normal."

"No! This is just something they told you, isn't it?"

"You are a completely normal girl!"

"They have no right to treat you like this!"

...normal...?

...

If I think about it, I never thought about being weird or abnormal prior to meeting other humans.

...But I can't be normal, right?

Just my presence alone makes everyone shiver.

...

No...

Not everyone.

This guy...is yet to show any sort of fear...

...

Hmm...

I stand up.

I look into his eyes.

[Phantom presence]

His entire body jolts as his eyes show fear.

Hmm...

I knew it...

I can't be normal aftera-

"H-hey..."

"Is this some magic spell?"

"Are you testing me?"

"Because even if you try to intimidate me, I won't change my opinion."

"I will protect you no matter what!"

...

The fear is completely gone...

...

This boy...

He is the first human...

...to overcome phantom presence like it was nothing...

37 days left to return.

Bonus:

So what was up with the dragon?

Despite what Reiza thought, the dragon DIDN'T remember the past loops nor could he literally read minds.

What he could though, was predict his opponent's moves using pure intuition.

He could also learn extremely quickly during the fights themselves and further adapt.

That's why the longer the fight went, the worse it looked for Reiza.

The way she eventually defeated him, was using unconventional means.

Since she was trying so hard to defeat him all that time, cutting off her own head really confused him.

And right after that, Reiza used the only magic at which he was inferior compared to her, blood magic.

And why did the rematch go so easily?

It's because the dragon can only really focus on a single opponent.

If there are multiples, he can't accurately predict moves of the others.

It's almost like he was designed to be the perfect final boss of some single player game...

"Oh, is that a compliment?"

"Woohoo!"

"I got a compliment fromthe author!"

Hey...

Where were you last time?

"Hmm?"

"Oh you missed me?"

What?

No.

"Haha again with that tsundere roleplay."

"Well anyway, I was actually busy working!"

...

You actually do some work?

"Of course I do!"

"I was updating my dungeon!"

"Now that my first playtester beat it, I was making some adjustments."

Oh?

So you admit it wasn't perfect?

"What?"

"No way!"

"It WAS perfect!"

"I was just making it even more perfect!"

...

"Like for example, I figured that it needed some checkpoints."

...oh you don't say.

"And I also got rid of some nasty glitches in there."

Glitches?

Such as?

"Like..."

"Err..."

"The mushrooms that make you reset for no reason."

What?

That was a glitch?

"...ummm, yes?"

"I was experimenting with a 'reset button' feature and...well..."

Made an imperfection in your system.

"Nonono."

"You can only call something perfect when it has imperfections."

That makes no sense.

...

And why didn't you update these things when Reiza was still inside?

"I...didn't really want to edit it when she was playing, so..."

You are seriously the worst...

And didn't we already establish that these bonuses aren't canon?

Don't go off doing canon things in them...