Chapter 10. Part 1.

(POV Rina)

Ten men stood around a complex magic circle depicted on the ground inside the king’s throne room. The lines painted were both intricate and profound with an ancient feeling of mystery hidden within them. The ten men simultaneously chanted aloud, their hands moved rapidly and formed all sorts of different gestures perfectly in sync with one another.

“We call upon the power of the gods to bless our lands with light in the name of our noble cause to scatter the dark forces of the demonic lord. From the far off worlds we seek aid, please answer our calls. Countless heroes from beyond the stars, please pick up your swords and heed our prayers to fight the greatest nemesis of our world. Great summoning magic initialization sequence engage!”

Slam.

Right as their chant came to an end, ten great sages slammed the palms onto the ground. A loud bang sounded out as they poured all their mana into the great summoning circle.

A bright flash of light entered our eyes, all observers in the room were momentarily blinded. I was forced to shut my eyes from the pain. The moment I reopened my eyes, contained inside the previously empty summoning circle stood a group of thirty individuals. Eighteen males along with twelve females who wore all sorts of different attire. Based upon appearance alone, there were clear indicators that suggested some of them were from the same world. There were several groups and it appeared each group was from a different world.

There were a few rather shady and sketchy looking characters, while others looked a bit scary. There were four in particular that really stood out, one female and three males.

One was a female with aquamarine hair and light blue eyes. She appeared completely indifferent to the situation and she wore a deadpan unimpressed expression as she scrutinised her surroundings. She was the only female with such a unique hair colour and uninterested expression, so she stuck out like a sore thumb from the crowd of thirty people. If I had to say what really stuck out about her though, it was probably that she was presently naked, but completely oblivious to it. Her hair was wet and it was clear she might have been bathing when she was summoned just now. What was the strangest though was the fact that there were nine females prostrated around the aquamarine haired girl with their heads lowered to the ground. It seemed very likely that she wasn’t the easy type to manipulate and control with how things looked.

As for the three males, they all had different appearances and airs about them, in all honesty it felt like they wouldn’t mix well at all.

For the time being I forgot about the peculiar female I deemed the most troublesome to deal with and I put my focus on these three males instead. The first male who caught my eye had red hair and a very bulky build. He looked like your typical muscle brained idiot. I figured he’d be the easiest type to deal with. He had a long scar that ran diagonally across his face from the top of his right eye to the left side of his face down to his chin. For now I figured I’d call him Scarface. He looked like the hot blooded impulsive type who got into a lot of fights easily. Like a country bumpkin his eyes wandered all over the room eagerly like he was raring to pick a fight. Upon first glance it appeared he had a rather fiery personality.

The second male who stood out to me was a skinny looking boy with glasses who appeared cool headed about everything. He examined the surroundings calmly like he was secretly calculating or plotting something. His hair color was a mix of black with dark blue highlight streaks mixed in. His eyes were a dark violet colour. I was certain, he was definitely in my strike zone as well.

What can I say? My strike zone is pretty wide after all.

As for the last male, at first glance you wouldn’t normally pick him out from the crowd with his plain scruffy black hair and eyes; however, what I found completely bizarre was that I sensed not even an ounce of mana within him. All the others summoned oozed mana like broken fountains.

All creatures in this world had at least an ounce of mana, yet this person seemingly had not one shred of it. If it wasn’t for my abilities as an elf, being more attuned to mana in addition to my unique ability I’d acquired as a former member of the hero party to observe the flow of mana directly with my eyes, I wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual about him at all. I’d have just thought he was a complete incompetent nobody, a failure of a summoned hero, likely the same way everyone else would soon view him as. Upon closer inspection, the mana of the world actually avoided him. There was even a perfect sphere two meters in diameter around him in which no mana approached him.

Did he have one of the forbidden abilities to neutralize all magic, only ever spoken of in legends of the far off past? That ability was thought to have long been lost throughout the ages. Isn’t this too perfect? I doubt anyone here would notice the peculiarity to him except for me with the way the tests were designed, I’m sure he’ll be thought of as a defective product and tossed to the side, only to be completely forgotten. In his lowest moment, isolated in this new world, won’t I be able to easily capture him and make him my most loyal dog? When I scrutinized him more closely, his appearance was far less than desirable. He was a bit too chubby for my liking at the moment, although, with training he might shape out to be fairly attractive. It was actually more convenient for me if he was the unpopular type when I really thought about it though.

When I compared him to the popular Seth and his disobedient playful nature with his flirtatious breath of fresh air personality type, this kid was definitely the faithful to one for life type who was far easier to reign in. I could probably put more trust in him compared to Seth if I groom him up from the start to suit my personal needs. After all, there were several occasions where I found it difficult to understand what was really on Seth’s mind despite his enslavement.

As for Kurotsuki, he’s definitely a hottie, but he’s a bit shy and timid at times. He’d also been rather distant since the event with the hero and although he was similarly enslaved, I felt like I was unable to let my guard down. Whenever I thought about how he was born and raised as an assassin from birth I felt slightly wary. For all I knew, the personality he displayed on the surface was all just an act, it wouldn’t be a strange occurrence for an assassin to act out different personas.

Anyways, I must do everything in my power to capture these three targets if possible. I immediately gave up on the females in the aquamarine haired woman’s group since their situation seemed impossible to grasp at the moment.

“Where are we?”

“What’s going on here?”

“Who are all these weirdos?”

“Is this another world?”

“What? You’re crazy, right? Stuff like that only happens in fiction right?”

Amongst the crowd, if we ignored the anomalies I’d personally picked out, there were individuals with much more normal reactions. They reacted much like one expected of someone who suddenly found themselves in a strange foreign place. Some were completely confused and baffled while others panicked and freaked out. Some were in denial, while others showed excited and expectant eyes.

Since I was given the role of a slave, I had no right to speak first when in the presence of the king. Those from our world maintained their silence stoically and waited for the group to calm and quiet down. It was already arranged before the summoning took place that the king would wait for them to calm down before he spoke out.

After ten minute passed, the crowd finally quieted down. It was only then the king on the throne graced the heroes with his voice.

“Great heroes from another world, we have summoned you to slay the demon lord.”

“Hahaha, I knew it! See! I told you guys it had to be that pattern!”

Yeah, yeah, we know, we know. We already get that it’s a common trope in your world. I looked up records of past heroes and found a bunch of worthless information recorded about things like this. It looked like there were some summoned heroes from that place called Earth again. Really, why do we get so many clowns from that world? The king’s whole speel was even tailored based upon the assumption we got summoned heroes from that world. It’s actually annoying witnessing it first hand in person.

Looking at the king I was internally deeply disgusted with, I knew even he had long grown tired after he’d said that same line on so many different occasions. The reason he waited for silence for so long before he spoke was likely because he didn’t want to repeat himself. I found it a bit funny that the only variation to the king’s line was that he occasionally mixed it up a bit sometimes with how he referred to the so-called ruler of the demons. Sometimes it was the demon lord, other times the demon king, demon overlord, demon progenitor, or even the demon emperor. That was probably the only way he could continue spouting the same line without frustrating himself to death from the overly repetitious nature of this event.

There were some people in the group that still looked confused, it was clear they weren’t from Earth and didn’t get it. This was also our way to test whether heroes were from that idiotic planet or not. Although it was a bit unreliable at times since some people from Earth didn’t necessarily pick up on the inside joke.

The one who retorted to the king earlier stepped out from the group to try and make himself appear more heroic from the rest. Ugh, I actually disliked his goody two shoes type the most. I already knew exactly what he was about to do.

“Your majesty, I, Kenji Yamato, hereby make an oath that I shall stake my life for the betterment of the human race. I will undoubtedly eradicate all the vile demons from this world. There will be no demon lord that will be left alive in this world while I’m still standing.”

He got down on one knee, bent his head forward and placed one hand over his heart while making such a grand declaration. Yep, he’s the useless type that if told something is evil he’ll fight it like a brainless idiot. Simply put, he’s the stupid gamer type led by blind righteousness. I definitely didn’t like these self righteous foolish types very much.

It was also that very moment as soon as he’d lowered his head, he shot a glance off to the side in my direction. Our eyes locked for a moment and I noticed when his eyes lit up. I also heard him when he mumbled under his breath, “jackpot! Hot elven babes in another world as well!”

“Ehem.”

The king awkwardly cleared his throat, a bit thrown off by how readily the naive kid had offered up his services.

“Yes, it’s good that you’re eager to work for the betterment of humanity. It would be good if all the summoned heroes could follow a good example like you.”

“You may raise your head fine hero. As a reward for your prime example, if you slay the demon lord I shall bequeath my daughter to you fine hero. Of course, a reward this good can only be given to the hero who personally slays the demon lord.”

“Of course! It is only natural that I will be the one to personally slay that accursed demon lord!”

“Umu, all is good then, but hero please understand you are not the only hero. Everyone in the group behind you are summoned heroes as well.”

“Of course! That is only natural!”

Slightly taken aback by the stupid kid’s response filled with vigor, the king stuttered out, “W-w-well then, heroes I must ask that you introduce yourselves. The royal court must record your identities and provide you with appropriate documentation to have you all become citizens of this kingdom belonging to I.”

It was at that moment that the girl with aquamarine hair calmly interrupted by letting out a long drawn out sigh.

“Haaaah. This again?”

Everyone’s confused eyes in the room naturally fell upon the girl’s beautifully indifferent, yet nonchalant face. What did she mean by again, was this not her first time?

“My name is Akua Marin. First of all, I’d like some clothes please.”

There were of course quite a few males that secretly gawked at her discreetly, but nobody had the courage to bring it up. The majority of people in the room likely presumed she was either a nudist or just an extreme pervert as she looked perfectly comfortable standing nude amidst the large crowd the entire time. The nine females around her had stood up and blocked off the view like they were her personal guards for some time now as well.

“O-o-of course! Guards get the finest female garments prepared for this nudist… I mean perv- ehem… hero immediately.”

“Thank you.”

She really was far too indifferent to the situation and I was slightly startled when I gazed at her pure, light blue tranquil eyes that were completely unfazed by the strange gazes of the people within the room. It was only now that I actually appraised her level that I realized she was only level 1, but somehow it didn’t quite feel right. There was a strange sort of unexplainable dissonance and It felt like my eyes had somehow been deceived.

From this strange offputting sensation, at the very least I ascertained she definitely wasn’t a simple character.

“Ah! Akua? Is that you?!”

The hero who had first stuck his head out from the crowd to strut his stuff appeared as if he knew this mysterious woman.

“Eh?”

“You don’t recognize me? Well, it’s been ten years after all. It’s me, Kenji Yamato from elementary school. You suddenly disappeared back in second grade when we were only eight years old. The adults said you’d moved overseas due to your parents' work back then.”

The woman he called Akua looked back at him, and for the first time since they’d appeared, she wore a face of utter confusion. The look on her face suggested she was trying very hard to recall if such a person existed in her memories.

“Sorry, are you sure you have the right person? I really don’t remember anyone like you.”

“How rude! For an arrogant male like you to speak and act so familiar with Miss Akua like this is unforgivable! To even be looking at her body so boldly and disrespectfully like this, you deserve the death sentence!”

One of the girls that surrounded the mysterious Akua roared out and took up a fighting stance. She appeared ready to launch an attack like a rabid guard dog in the name of defending the dignity of her master.

“Bad girl. Sit. Down. Be a good girl, you’re too overly sensitive. He doesn’t have any bad intentions… probably.”

The moment the words left Akua’s mouth, the girl made a 180 degree change in attitude from her mad dog state. She obediently plopped her butt on the ground like a docile little puppy in front of Akua with big innocent watery eyes that suggested she could not possibly do any wrong.