Avian at the beginning wasn’t completely aware that he was transported into a different world, but that cluelessness quickly disappeared within seconds as Avian inspected his surroundings, things such as unknown animal meat in his dishes strange paintings with bizarre depictions and people with impossible hair and eye color quickly made Avian understand that he likely wasn’t in the place he thought he was, the king himself soon after even confirmed this fact more specifically, Avian actually should have realized this after listening to the kings opening statement once when he said “Heroes from another world” but he at the time simply thought of it as mere sophistry then take it seriously.

Either way Avian’s first day was very quiet, at least for him that is as everyone around him who were his past classmates and teachers had all degenerated back to when they were 14 years old.

Avian couldn’t remember how he was when he was 14, but at least he knew for certain that he wasn’t as weak minded as those around him who were more than a bit scared with their runny noses and tear stained swollen eyes.

Soon events occurred at lightning speed, the king was called Charles Von Redria the third, after the opening statement, he escorted them with his soldiers and immediately started a grand feast to welcome everyone, he knew that everyone had a lot of questions and were also panicked, so he prepared a lot of things to accommodate and put everyone at ease.

The teenagers were still confused, but since they were too scared to do anything they could only follow along with the king, soon enough everyone started to loosen up, it helped that a lot of the people in the group actually knew each other which made them feel slightly safer.

At the end most of the people stopped crying or feeling scared and started to treat this more like a dream or a fairy tale with all the luxurious foods and rich surroundings like in those story books.

Avian on the other hand kept his façade as he observed and analyzed everything around him, on the dinner table as everyone ate and talked the king who was at the far front of the table suddenly tapped his glass pulling everyone’s attention towards him turning the dining hall quiet as everyone silently watched him.

-Ahem, I am glad to see that everyone has calmed, and believe me when I say that I intend no harm towards any of you, I am sorry for taking all of you from your homes and forcing you here, but you have to understand we had no other choice, without you our world may soon face extinction and to protect my country and its citizens I am willing to do anything even if it meant spilling my own blood.

He said, his voice commanding a type of authority with sincerity as everyone suddenly felt solemn from his speech, king Charles soon after started to clarify the reason we were here and what he wanted from us.

As he had said before, there was an evil that was threatening the wellbeing of his country and all others as well, this evil were the demons or also known as the demon kind.

The demons were known for their incredible physical strength and magical prowess, they came in all shapes and sizes, but what they all had in common was their bloodthirsty nature and their war mongering impulses.

Because of this wars were frequent between the demons and all the races, at first this wasn’t much of a problem considering that the demons were never really unified meaning they couldn’t completely harness their power under one flag.

But one day which was 100 years ago an extremely powerful demon appeared that was capable of gathering all the other demons under his flag, this demon was called the demon king, and with his power the terrible strength of the demons could finally be harness creating an unimaginable threat never seen before.

For ages the humans together with other races bunched up into an alliance had fought those demons in a never ending war for over 100 years, but as they continued to fight the more they started to realize that they were slowly losing, their losses were small at first which began with a small village which then turned into a town before whole cities were lost to the horde of demons under the demon king.

Finally seeing that they were going to eventually lose, the alliance decided to search for all sorts of methods to win this war somehow, Redria which was the biggest and most powerful human kingdom that existed and the current leader of the alliance had found a method in its deep archives which recorded a summoning art to call forth heroes from another world to help them fight.

Using a lot of and extremely rare items they painstakingly build the summoning circle before activating it hoping for their saviors to appear which was them which finally brought them here as the king finished his explanation.

-I see, so it was like that.

-But! We aren’t heroes!

-Yeah, what are we supposed to do against those demons when even you can’t deal with them?

-I don’t want that! I want to go home!

Soon after chaos once again ensued, not surprised in the slightest Avian started to look around noticing that most of the soldiers who were standing guard looked like they were about to act, but the king gave a discreet sign with his hand stopping them before slamming his fist onto the table once again pulling everyone’s attention back to him as silence returned.

His expression was of deep remorse and apology mixed with pain, making one pity him just by looking at him, not even Avian could tell if it was fake or not, but he still listened as he spoke.

-I know, I know that I am asking for too much here, but you have to understand I simply had no other choice, as for getting you back, I am sorry but currently we are unable to do so, the summoning instructions only described the way of summoning and spoke of no way to returning you back, but we are not completely clueless, having done research on the circle we have a suspicion that all of you may be able to return back once you fulfill the reason you were brought here in the first place which is to kill the demon king, and yes I know that this is unreasonable, but please I ask of you.

The king stood up as you spoke seemingly shaking, he suddenly bowed down to everyone present before speaking up loudly.

-Please help us! Only you can help us and save our world! We need you!

His words reverberated in the dining hall, the soldiers beside them never once changed their expression but their hands were visibly shaking and gripping hard with some even gritting their teeth silently, Avian seeing this judged that this king had quite a reputation to make these soldiers so loyal to him.

Honestly Avian didn’t understand why the king was acting like this considering he was in a position of extreme political importance which automatically should make him aware of how humans worked, having extensively interacted with all kinds of people throughout his life, Avian knew human nature like he knew the back of his hand, people always prioritize themselves over others if they’re not blood related, basic survival instinct dictates that to continue their bloodline a creature has to live until the day they have offspring, this isn’t being selfish it is just the way nature is supposed to be, no one would willingly put themselves into a situation of selflessness if they didn’t have anything to gain from it, on the other hand it can also be that individuals like that had a little too much righteousness in their veins but those were few and far between, Avian had seen individuals like that and almost always they met with bad or horrible ends being used by others until nothing was left of them, and even at the end some of these people still refused to change which was one aspect Avian could not understand as he always lived for himself and his mother.

If he was the king Avian would have gone about it differently, like using threats or lording over the prospect of a way home in exchange of fighting for him, since the king already kidnapped them which was a hard method why he was trying to use a soft method such as sympathy, it didn’t make sense to him.

Which is why at this moment Avian was expecting the teenagers to protest and continue demanding a way to return home, he was thinking what he could do while they would argue, but unexpectedly something else happened as he was thinking to himself.

The air around the table unknowingly turned strange as everyone looked at each other before speaking one after another.

-I think we have no other choice.

-I don’t like it but, we can’t leave these people after all…

-I am scared but I don’t want people to get hurt…

-We just have to defeat this demon king to get home right? Why not help these people along the way?

-While they did kidnap us they didn’t do it without a good reason, they also treated us decently and since we are all humans why shouldn’t we help them a bit?

Suddenly the atmosphere around the dining hall took a sharp turn, Avian for a moment couldn’t believe what everyone was saying, he felt like he was in a dream for a second as he looked around trying not to look surprised or shocked, for a moment he thought that maybe these were completely different people and not his past classmates and teachers.

But looking at their faces and seeing how they resembled his past classmates and teachers Avian quickly discarded the idea as he was certain they couldn’t be anyone else, admittedly he knew close to nothing regarding his past classmates and teachers but there was one teacher he did know very well.

-So its decided, we will help the humans here defeat the demon king and all return back home!

15-year-old Ashley announced, with everyone else soon agreeing as they all raised their fist in the air with an ay!

Avian wide eyes looked at his past teacher and tried to remember if she always been like this, he vividly remembered a conversation they had about the past specifically when Ashley was Avian’s age.

-Back when I was your age, I was quite a loner kid, though honestly it was more like I was more focused ahead to care about anyone else just like you, I am honestly very selfish and not good about caring about others which is why I like math since it’s so direct and simple with no inconsistencies or confusion, I imagine if it wasn’t for the teacher who helped me and supported me I would have likely never helped you to begin with.

She said, at the time she could have been lying, but Avian didn’t see a reason to lie, but the current Ashley was nothing like she described herself when they were in their original world so what was the discrepancy?

-The transportation circle…

Avian muttered under his breath, forming a theory as he started to think that the circle may not only have reverted their memories and bodies but also messed with their personalities, a cold sweat ran down Avian’s back as he couldn’t help but think how horrible this was, the fact that he stayed the same must have been something incredibly lucky on his part, things also started to make more sense as it looked to him like the king seemed to know what would happen though he couldn’t be 100% sure of that.

Avian couldn’t imagine who he would be like if he turned into a righteous idiot like these people.

Think people! Think! Are you all really going to risk your life for people you don’t even know?!

He wanted to shout, but he kept his mouth shut all along as he simply played along with everyone while feeling sick inside and thoroughly disgusted.

The king seemingly overwhelmed with emotion thanked everyone for their help, the soldiers and every other servant present too couldn’t help but crack a smile and all this while Avian felt like he was stuck in room full of lunatics who had cotton for brains.

He wanted to get out, run as fast as possible, but he couldn’t and simply waited it out as he decided in his heart to get out of his place as fast as possible.

The idea of returning back to his world became secondary compared to being turned into one of them and losing himself.

Either way his mother was going to live a carefree life even if he did never return considering how much money he saved, meaning Avian only really needed to focus on himself.

Yes, he needed to care about himself, everyone else, this godforsaken war and the kingdom or whatever had nothing to do with him.

That day, which was full of celebration and merriment was one of Avian’s most uncomfortable days, the steak he despondently ate didn’t taste like anything and when he was finally lead to his quarters he couldn’t sleep until deep into the night.

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