It really is nice to be dressed in a colour other than white. Can white even be called colour? In reality it’s just a lack of colour. It’s boring. But then again, is black a colour? A lot of my current clothing is black, or at least a very, very dark grey. Still, it’s my first time dressing up in non-white clothing for quite a few years now. It’s not like we weren’t allowed to go and buy our own casual clothing when we were back in training, but I have issues with spending money when it’s not essential. Why by more clothes when you get uniform for free? Well, I think this shopping spree was well worth it. I look rather dashing if I do say so myself. Wouldn’t you agree Serenity?

… Yes

Stop, you’re going to make me blush! I stopped admiring my attire when I finally reached the palace gates. As I observed the tall gilded metal gates and smooth, light grey stones making up the building I noticed that I was the last to arrive of the church nominees. Gant and Mary were already waiting by the gate alongside stone-face (Knight-Captain). They don’t look too bad.

Gant wore traditional formal attire, sticking to the colour theme his armour followed: a bright white with gold trimmings. He wore a tail coated jacket over his buttoned shirt and the same trousers as he normally does when wearing his uniform. Next to him was Mary, looking quite nervous. She was wearing an extremely pale yellow dress with an absurd amount of frills which actually kind of suited her. It put a lot of emphasis on her childish features, making her look, well… adorable. Stone-face was just wearing the same thing he had in the office.

“Greetings!” I called to them as I ascended the stone steps leading up to the gate.

“Hi!” “Hello.” greeted Mary and Gant respectively.

“Now that we’re all here, let us be off” said stone-face.

The guards by the gates quickly made way for the Knight-Captain, opening the gates at his request. These guys should be part of the royal guard. They certainly look better trained than regular bunch that protect the city from criminals and keep the peace. After my father was removed from his position in the guards, I hear it took a turn for the worst. They’re pretty corrupt these days and in the majority of the population’s opinion pretty useless. These royal guards however! They have the air of a fighter about them.

The royal guards were wearing full scale armour with skull caps to protect their heads, over a steel coif. Over their armour they wore a tabard with the insignia of the royal family stitched into it, a sword’s silhouette encompassed by a sun. The royal guard are primarily responsible for the safety of the royal family, but also regularly go out to subjugate bandits and roaming monsters that come too close to the proximity of the city, so they’ve had their fair share of experience. From what I’ve heard, they’ve only had one genius crop up recently, becoming a full guard at the age of 15 a year ago. They’ll probably be the only nominee. I don’t think there are any other fully-fledged guards within the age range of the heroes.

I’d never been in the royal palace before, so as we followed the Knight Captain to the summoning chamber I took the opportunity to observe my surroundings. It wasn’t as extravagant as I had imagined it to be: the corridors were quite plain with only a bit of carpeting present. I’d been expecting works of art lining the walls and priceless treasures lying all over the floor or something, but… no.

We finally came to a stop in front of a door, which I could only assume led to the summoning chambers.

“Stay quiet and follow me” said the Knight-Captain.

He then quickly entered the room, after which we followed. The room was smaller than I had imagined, only 10x10 metres. Where’s the massive hall with a ceiling 100s of metres above us? Am I asking too much? The only thing this room had was some sort of magical circle on the floor, with a diameter of about 4-5metres and a bunch of old guys standing around it. Oh those are the priests for the summoning.

10 priests were standing in a circle, evenly spaced around the summoning circle. They were releasing huge amounts of magical energy into the crystal in the centre of said summoning circle, its light slowly growing brighter and brighter.

Overseeing the ritual were a few people off to the side, most of which I didn’t recognise. If I had to take a guess then, the broad middle-aged man with grey hair and neatly trimmed beard is the king… He has a golden crown and robes after all. The woman in her early 30s next to him would probably be the queen then. She had some pretty good features, in addition to flaming red hair and eyes to match. She was wearing an extravagant emerald green dress and seemed about as adorned with jewellery as you can get. It was a bit gaudy, but she was a good looking woman so it didn’t take away from her appearance too much. Of course Serenity’s much more beautiful. I decided to through in a little compliment there.

I appreciate the sentiment.

Alright back to the people! To their left stood some old royal guard fellow, his atmosphere kind of reminding me of stone-face here. By his side stood a youth of 16 years of age, also dressed in the typical attire of the royal guard. He was quite the effeminate fellow, having too many delicate features to be considered masculine in any way, but some girls like that I hear. His auburn hair was long and hung loose to just below his jaw-line, and his grey-blue eyes were focused on the priests and summoning circle.

And last but not least, the adventurer representative and nominees! The representative was basically a bear: big, hairy, and grizzled. He looked kind of ridiculous in formal attire, but at least he was making an effort. Of the three in front of him only one stood out to me. It was a she, and she was dressed in practical battle attire, despite the formal occasion. She had a wild atmosphere about her, similar to that of a ferocious predator. Her face was good too; she was quite beautiful, having a healthy looking tan on her skin, short cut, glossy dark blonde hair and sharp maroon eyes. You don’t normally see a shade of red in eye colour in this part of the world, so she might be foreign. The other two nominees looked like gorillas stuffed into formal attire.

We walked over and stood in place, adjacent to the adventurer group and waited for the summoning to finish. I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer the whole thing was going to take.

…1 hour later…

Serenity, I’m bored!

I’m aware, this is the 63rd time you said that.

I know, but I’m reeeeaaaaaalllllyyy bored!

As I said, I am aware.

It was taking ages. In order to pass the time, I had been making conversation with Serenity for the past hour or so, but after declining to hear about any more on the different people I’d burned alive or torture techniques I’d found the most effective in practice, I was at a loss on how to continue the conversation. Damn, I just realised it’s been days since I last burned anyone. Don’t think about. Don’t think about. Don’t think about it.

That uncomfortable itch was creeping into my hand as it often did to light something ablaze. Unfortunately now wasn’t the time.

Luckily it looked as though the ritual was coming to a close. The summoning circle was getting progressively brighter, releasing a low humming sound. As the priests released the last of the necessary magical energy into the diagram, the bright light reached its pinnacle, blinding room with white. I wasn’t really expecting it, so I was taken by surprise. That really hurt my eyes just now. After cursing internally, I looked back to the summoning circle with now blurred vision, obscured by dark patches. Really, some warning would be nice next time.

“What?!”

“Where are we…?”

“Eek!”

The 3 figures now present at the centre of the summoning circle each let out voices of confusion before observing their surroundings. In the past cases of hero summoning the typical trend was that one male and two female heroes would be summoned, and it looks like this trend had continued. My vision was still somewhat blurry, but I could at least make out that one was male and the other two female from their voices and general outline.

Previous heroes all had varied degrees of reactions according to the church records. Some would show excited reactions and immediately accept the kingdom’s plea for help, no questions asked, while others would thoroughly interrogate the royal family and representatives before making their decision. In the end they had to be convinced to help; heroes are considered free existences and previous attempts to enslave them with good old fashioned inscribed collars ended up with spectacular failure… for example blowing their heads off.

Due to this freedom there were quite a few heroes in the past who either left to explore the world or used their power to gain power and influence. In the end though, most were ‘good’ people who ended up helping the kingdom.

My eyes finally regained their lost vision and I scrutinised the 3 individuals in the centre of the room, who were gazing around with dumbfounded looks. The male was muttering something like ‘no way…’. Are they familiar with being summoned? Perhaps we have experienced heroes this time. They all had similar foreign features, of which you would probably see if you went to the far eastern Isle’s on the continent next over.

The male had short black hair, black eyes and in general looked… what’s the word? Boring, wimpy, weak… average. Shouldn’t a hero look more like a hero? I couldn’t help but let some distain flash across my face before quickly hiding it. The male was looking at me with a confused look. Oh dear, did he see that just now? Looks like I’ll have to make an effort to get friendly with them.

The taller female of the two had long, straight black hair, droopy black eyes and a very feminine features. Her figure was extremely… womanly, despite her relatively young age. She would be quite the enchantress in a few years.

In comparison, the last of the 3 was significantly less curved… Weren’t they supposed to be 16? If this one’s lack of curves, short stature and childish features were anything to go by then I’d say no. She had short curly hair that reached to just above her shoulders, and unlike the other two it wasn’t black, but a light brown. The colour looked a bit unnatural though, so maybe it was just a dye. Her big, innocent eyes were darting around the place while she sported a frightened expression. Tears were starting to gather in her eyes, after which she threw herself towards the average male, clinging to him tightly.

“Yuki-kun! Where are we! What’s going on?!” she whimpered.

The more womanly one of the two gave a small frown at her actions before telling her to calm down. Looks like they’re all acquainted, which is pretty rare for these summonings, although now that I think about it they are all wearing similar styled clothing. The so-called ‘Yuki-kun’ wore a short sleeved white shirt with both a collar and buttons with a navy blue tie, in addition to navy blue trousers and a pair of black shoes. The cry baby and the curvy one both wore the same white shirts, minus the ties and had navy blue skirts that went to just above their knees, accompanied by black knee socks. After the crying one calmed down, the curvy one turned to where we were all standing and took the lead. Guess you can’t expect much from average guy (already forgot his name).

“Who are you people? Where are we?”

“We are sincerely apologetic towards you and your friends, but we need your help. Please take this time to listen to our story and decide on your future actions.” replied the king.

Both of the girls looked confused, whereas the guy was getting visibly excited. Calm down would you! The king then explained our situation, how they were summoned, why they were summoned, and how we would be eternally grateful if they helped us ‘cleanse our sins from this land’ (deal with the shadow uprising) and yadayadayada. The girls slowly came to understand the situation as the king continued to explain, the curvy one with growing interest, and the cry baby with a worried expression. Average guy looked like he was ready to jump with joy after hearing all that. I on the other hand could barely stay awake. I still hadn’t slept for days, and the king’s droning was taking its toll on me.

“Now heroes, will you come to our kingdom’s aid?” ended the king.

All three heroes looked to each other, and had a hushed discussion, after which the curvy one turned back to the king to give their reply.