Chapter 1

Escape

Japan, 8:25 am

Home room, like any other day it was filled with the sound of the rustle and bustle of chairs, bags, chatter and laughter.

‘Thud’

“Ha ha, watch out ken kun”

‘Smirk’ “What’s with the kun, Hachiro?”

‘Pfft’ “He’s just being friendly Ami”

“Your right Arata ‘grin’ oi, ken kunnnnn, why do-”

‘vruuuuuu’ (sound of door opening)

"Morning class!"

A young woman, dressed in a business suit arrived carrying a bunch of books.

“tsk, Haruna sensei’s here, Ami lets go”

(Ami) “Okay~ Honooooka chan!”

Yes, this was like any other day in the classroom, with the sight of the popular group or ‘the royals’ being ‘friendly’ or so it was called to kenshin or just ken to make it simpler.

(Haruna sensei) “Okay mina, take your- hmm? Ken kun, are you tired, do you want to go to the nurses office?” she asked with genuine concern.

‘Guzun’

Smiling wryly the person called Kenshin takes a chair

”…… thank you sensei but I’m fine”(Kenshin)

(Haruna sensei) I see, okay mina takes a se- whaaa!?

White light suddenly started to begin manifesting on the classroom wall

(Kenshin, Hachiro, Arata, Honoka, Ami and the class)

“gu!”

“wa!?”

“Ami!”

“Honoka!”

‘Thud’

Suddenly, everyone was on the floor groaning and writhing in pain as they suddenly touched the air for a moment, then felt the hard ground.

When they came to, they were assaulted with the sight of milky white walls of a large square hall.

As their eye sights cleared up, the group of 30 could see each other getting up from the ground holding the sore parts of their body like their ass cracks.

What came next to view was a row of what appeared to be soldiers that stood in attention.

It looked like they came straight from the time of kings and queens from Europe.

They were knights that wore full plate armour.

The sight of the swords on their sides made the classmates plus teacher wary but seeing them sheathed without seeing them having the intention of being drawn made them sigh in relief.

At the end of the row of soldiers, a woman was seen walking towards the group of 30 with a somewhat tired expression.

She wore a light blue robe that covered everything except the face.

Her height was most likely to be 5 ft 8 that was clearly shorter than the knights who were about a head taller than her of varying sizes.

The group was dumbstruck at all the knights in armour at first but their attention turned to the stranger that was walking towards them. Most of the students could not turn their gazes away from the woman due to her otherworldly beauty.

''''''Wooooooah!'''''''

The class expressed their admiration in unison.

This was because her face was, what most would call something that belonged to a Goddess. She had white skin that seemed to shine that was complimented with her blond with streaks of brown hair and her crystal blue eyes.

Her appearance seemed to be of the same age as the students.

If she were to go to their school, she would easily be appointed the school idol.

“Greetings saviours! I’m Katherine Einsworth, the candidate for arch mage of Palami kingdom and daughter of the Queen Sarah Einsworth with King Alfred W. Einsworth who rules the capital kingdom of the humans.”

Proclaimed her to the group.

"…......"

"…......".

The class remained silent, some trying to process what Katherine just said while some was still taking in the phenomenon of being in the classroom then taken somewhere else.

”Oh! Do forgive me, I know it is all too sudden but everything will be explained in the courtroom” (Katherine)

She gestured them to follow her to the next room at the end of the row of soldiers.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Courtroom

The class who at first were reluctant eventually gave in to their curiosity.

The place they were taken to was a room that was the same size as the other room but with a group of soldiers that wore full plate white armour without the head gear.

They all had the Palami emblem that was the crown that the soldiers in the first room had on their chest armour. But they had it on their right arm.

The knights were besides two people who were obviously not soldiers as they wore high quality clothing that were embroiled with fancy designs that had an majestic appearance, fit for royalty.

They were seated on a throne that was on a higher platform that looked down on the group on the centre who were looking around the courtroom.

The two people on the throne were smiling looking at the group looking glad.

The woman on the throne that looked like the adult version of Katherine spoke first.

“Greetings heroes, I am Sarah, the Queen of Palami and this is my Husband Alfred, the King of Palami.”

She introduced the two of them to the group as the rulers of Palami and the parents of Katherine.

“I know that you are all confused as to why you were summoned. I will explain. As you may have figured out, this is not the world you know, this world is called Lowe. We have called you here using magic that was used long ago. We summoned you here because we are at war with the 'enemy' that made our people, from long ago, resorting to using this summoning magic. Please I ask you on behalf of the people, give us your strength in fighting the 'enemy'.” (Sarah)

The Queen gave a pleading look to the group while the knights and soldiers kneeled

.

The first one to break from the pressure of the events was Haruna sensei who had a reputation of caring a lot for her students.

” What! Saviours? Summoned? Fighting? Youre telling these children to fight your war!? Take us back! You have no right to order us!” (Haruna sensei)

She blurted out everything that piled up inside to release both stress and concern. She was angry, confused but more scared for her students as she cared for them deeply.

That’s why she was adored by her students.

”I apologise for this but we wouldn’t have done so if we weren’t desperate. We will take care of you with all our resources and we would have our top knights and teachers teach you everything you need. We will give you benefits as the heroes with our power that includes top rate treatment only higher nobles get.” (Sarah)

Benefits was what resounded in their thoughts.

The students started to imagine the treatment they would get but, some also, were still scared.

They started whispering to their friends about what they thought about. Haruna sensei was about to protest but was stopped.

”Its fine isn’t Haruna sensei, they didn’t have any choice and they said they would guide us, right Katherine?” (Hachiro)

Hachiro looked at Katherine with his smile that charmed most girls in the school.

Surprised that she was called, looked at Hachiro and was immediately charmed by him for a second hesitated

“y, yes, I, I will also be guiding you”.(Katherine)

‘smooth’ some thought among ‘the royals’.

With the class leader’s approval, no-one else from the homeroom group had the choice to refuse anymore.

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Kenshins room

‘........’

He was staring into space.

He was on his back with one hand on the back of his head.

After Hachiro declared that they were staying.

Opposition came from Haruna sensei but because the class leaders, who were also class idols wanted to cooperate, the rest of the class followed suit, leaving Haruna sensei no choice but to give up.

In the courtyard, a very spacious area, the class was told to come.

Outside, It was daytime with the sun unobstructed by the clouds. It made the group think that they were still on Earth in Japan summertime. The class were told they were on top of the highest mountain overseeing the city. There were no walls around the courtyard so they could see the city. It was similar to the cities of fantasy animes in their world. Taverns, inns, stalls etc.

The City was divided into three areas.

Where they were in right now was the royal palace in the nobles area, the next area was the common area after that was the slums area that was supposed to be part of the commoner’s area but there was a huge difference between the structures as the slums building were filled with old, rundown buildings compared to the commoners area that had newer buildings.

The reason they were in the courtyard was for introductions.

”I've heard from the group that in your world you do not have magic, so I will tell you about it. Magic is something that everyone is born with and we use it for a lot of things. It is also found naturally in everything in the world. With magic, you can alter phenomena to do things for you. Like this.” (Katherine)

The Princess holds up her hand that was now emitting something pale blue and chanted “common, flame light” in that time an orange flame ball manifested five inches above here hand.

‘Woooooah’

The class was surprised with glittering eyes.

“Nfufufu. I probably had the same reaction when I first saw magic. Now, as heroes you have more than the average amount of magic, could you tell me your status so we can determine your courses?” (Katherine)

“status? We also have that, like in a game?”

“how do we see our status?!”

Some shouted with excited voices questioning Katherine who became wide eyed due to their excited tone.

”Ah, forgive me. I sometimes skip ahead when doing explanations. For the status, you can bring it up by saying ‘status show’. Only you can see it if you use this command. But if you say ‘status show all’ everyone will see your status shown in front of you."(Katherine)

As they did, the homeroom group became wide eyed at the transparent panels that showed up in front of them.

The group saw their statuses .

“Nice”

“Whoa cool!”

Was some of the reactions.

Starting from ‘the royals’ to Kenshin, they stated their status.

Not very surprisingly the popular group got the highest stats.

[

Status Window Name Hachiro Matsushita Gender Male Class Hero Knight Race Human Level 1 Health 500 Strength 850 Mana 300 Stamina 900 Endurance 100 Dexterity 90 Intelligence 90

[

Status Window Name Ami Matsuoka Gender Female Class Hero Cleric Race Human Level 1 Health 700 Strength 50 Mana 900 Stamina 60 Endurance 50 Dexterity 50 Intelligence 120

[

Status Window Name Arata Takahashi Gender Male Class Hero Mage Race Human Level 1 Health 680 Strength 90 Mana 870 Stamina 90 Endurance 70 Dexterity 51 Intelligence 85

[

Status Window Name Honoka Yukimura Gender Female Class Hero Brawler Race Human Level 1 Health 500 Strength 689 Mana 300 Stamina 795 Endurance 230 Dexterity 100 Intelligence 70

“And lastly Kenshin Hashimoto. Stats please.” (Katherine)

What showed after that was his stats. Everything except endurance, dexterity and intelligence was less compared to the average stats of the Palami soldiers who were weaker than the summoned heroes.

Only his intelligence was high compared to the group. Endurance and dexterity was quite high from average among the group.

”…. Kenshin kun was it? I see.” (Katherine)

She was looking sorry while smiling wryly.

[

Status Window Name Kenshin Hashimoto Gender Male Class Commoner (classless) Race Human Level 1 Health 200 Strength 15 Mana 30 Stamina 30 Endurance 100 Dexterity 80 Intelligence 350

Smiling wryly while scratching his head

“….ahaha…. it seems im not fit for combat”(Kenshin)

”Pfffft, even in another world he is still hopeless! LOL! 30 mana?! Is this what they call a noob?! Eff my life! ” (Hachiro)

”Guhaha! Right, right? Wait! It's also classless?! Ha!” (Ami)

With that everyone that followed ’the royals’ started snickering, Kenshin just laughed it off.

Haruna sensei tried to console him by mentioning he had high intelligence but that pissed off 'the royals' who began to tease him more as they thought they were superior in everything.

When the information of his status came out, discrimination for Kenshin reared its head.

After the introduction they assigned the group their living quarters saying they would start proper lessons tomorrow.

Everyone got their own separate room in the castle where the boys and girls rooms were separated.

Kenshin, however was told there wasn’t enough rooms so he was given a room that peasants slept in.

That was their excuse anyway.

His low stats were obviously a reason for the difference in treatment. But there was no complaints from him though as he was used to it.

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One week later

Everybody was given magic and fighting lessons by the knights in the palace.

They studied magic theory for one period everyday learning basic spells plus their nature.

The basic elements were air, earth, water, fire.

They all needed chanting that included words that related to their elements. For example, the air bolt spell that compressed air molecules 5 inches above the palm to a sphere that would shoot off that would expand when it hits a solid or something that was denser. The strength could be adjusted by the casters will by putting more magic into the casting. The explosion could be adjusted to the same effect an exploding deodorant would have.

The chanting formula included its element first ‘air’ then its shape ‘sphere’ then its movement ‘blast’. So in summary, it would be ‘air sphere blast’.

When they tried it in the practical lesson, Arata’s was the strongest with ‘the royals’ following after her as her class was more mage oriented.

Incidentally, kenshins was the weakest. He just laughed it off when everyone found out.

After that was physical education. Hachiro was the strongest due to his advantage in having the highest stats for fighting and kenshiro was the weakest. In the sword training, Hachiro easily managed to fling the training pell while Kenshin barely managed to move it.

The week after that, discrimination against Kenshins strengthened as sometimes they told him to do some errands for him like cleaning, bringing refreshments, equipment maintenance, carrying books etc.

Basically, he was a sort of errand boy.

Eventually they told him that he didn’t need to attend the extra specialised lessons that the others needed to have in the afternoon so he had a lot of free time.

As usual, he voiced no complaints nor showed any opposition.

Even though he did errands for a lot of people, his room was always cleaned thoroughly everyday to the point that it sparkled.

Having free time in the afternoons, he went to the palace library to pass the time

He was researching all sorts of things, from the difference in knowledge and culture compared to earth.

Because he was tasked with lots of errands that sometimes included working with the servants to go to the market area gathering supplies and such, Kenshin got to know quite a lot of the people in the city area.

Using his connections he got to learn from the people who were masters of their craft. With that, he not only learned the theory but he also got to put it into practice, of course most of it was the basics.

He also was friendly with the people around the town and the soldiers who he maintained their equipment for. He was especially close with the servants of the palace. The one who was most intimate with him was his neighbor next to his room.

They met each other in the night after their first week.

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‘knock knock’

“Hmm? Come in, its open.”(Kenshin)

“Excuse me, I’m coming in”

Closing the door behind her, she stood there in a maid outfit with a smile. She had white skin, green eyes and short green hair. If you put her in a cosplay maid costume she would look prettier. Her outfit right now was of course a maids but without the frills and such.

Looking around the room she was surprised.

“Evening, my name is Beth Twine, I am on laundry duty so I'm here to take any laundry you have...." (Beth)

She starts looking around the room. Surprise and fascination was present on her face.

The reason was the room.

The floor that used to be an old rotting wood was now replaced with something similar to glazed cherry wood. The bed was gone and on the space where it used to be was a futon It was laid on top of two tatami mats. On one corner of the room was a japanese folding screen that had patterns. The room was allso decorated with pottery, lacquerware, sculptures, swords, clothes and armour. It sort of looked like a store.

”Ah. Please forgive my staring, master Kenshin I was just taken aback” (Beth)

"No need to call me that. I may be a summoned but i amjust a free loader here. Beth-san, since we are going to be seeing each other often, please stay for tea”(Kenshin)

With that they spent the time in idle chit chat during the time that was supposed to be the time for cleaning his room.

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2 months later

In the courtroom all the summoned heroes were in there having a banquet. It was night time and two full moons hovered in the night sky.

”Here, here. Now I know that you want to get started with the banquet, but, remember we are here to celebrate the departure of our heroes, their departure for their first live training. It will be dangerous and it might only be training but tomorrow they depart to the dungeon where only 50 floors have been explored. It took our soldiers and adventurers around more than decade when it was first discovered to get to the current floor. But now that we have our heroes with us I know we will advance, discovering more floors and more monsters. I know they will come out successful because we have two full moons, a sign of success. Hazaa!”(Alfred)

”Hazaa!”(Crowd)

It was as the king said, they would depart tomorrow. They were done with lessons now. Tomorrow they would experience live combat.

In the hall, were the royal family, the knights, the heroes and nobles.

Among these nobles were the sponsors for the heroes. They would use the heroes to spread their fame and power. Of course, the heroes would have the right to choose if they wanted to be sponsored by them. Some of them used this party to persuade them to let them be their sponsors, So they were dressed in their most expensive attire, with gifts and some even brought their children to court the heroes.

‘The royals’ of course, especially Hachiro who wore a tailored suit that complimented his face, had nobles with offers crowding around him. There was a similar sight with the rest of his group.

Everyone in the homeroom group had at least one or more sponsor.

All except Kenshin who had none.

The nobles had heard about his stats.

He was in a corner in his school clothes.

More discrimination.

The excuse this time was that the tailor called in sick.

Still Kenshin didnt mind.

He kept himself busy by tasting all the food in the banquet.

He still thought about home.

They were told that the 'enemy' had the proper magic to send them home.

This was what they said at the beginning but they didn't say which enemy.

The Humans were at war with different races.

When they were told this no one remembered or just didn't bother to ask which enemy had the proper magic to send them home.

This showed that getting back to earth wasn't the first thing in their minds anymore.

It seems that they had lost their desire to go home as it was won out by the notion of the adventures, encounters, respect, fame and glory they would get here.

Some of the homeroom students had read light novels about being transported to another world where the summoned would fight for the people that called them here becoming heroes who respected and revered.

Sharing this with the other students who weren't too familiar with these types of stories they began to get excited at this celebrity type treatment they would get, they were eventually favoring this world than the other.

Were they so lost in the flattery and praise they would recieve that they would forsake their home?

Kenshin had a thought.

The summoned, even before they were called here had next to no attachment to what was their current life back on earth.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he failed to notice a maid waving at him and walking towards him.

"Beth, sorry I was lost in thought." (kenshin)

"Hehe, you should pay attention you know, you are going to a dungeon and it needs your 200% focus! " (Beth)

"I wil keep that in mind" (Kenshin)

"You better! I would miss you if you were gone you know?" (Beth)

"It's nice to hear that from you. Don't worry, I don't plan on dying anytime soon." (Kenshin)

"That gives me relief. I better go, so eat lots okay?" (Beth)

As he saw her go, Kenshin looked down and clasped his left ring finger that was covered with a workers glove and caressed it.

".......Viktoria..........." (Kenshin)

He muttered.

Though his voice was normal, there was a slight quiver of his lips.

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Day of the training expedition

In the Palace city, there were people on the road giving their farewells and good lucks to the heroes. The homeroom group was in between two groups of soldiers 15 at the front with two royal knights and 15 at the back as well with two knights and four carriages carried by horses.

Kenshin was in the middle of the homeroom group with 'the royals' at the front and Haruna sensei at the back. Hachiro, in a shining white full knight set of armour without the head gear that didnt hinder his movement was waving to the crowd along with Arata who wore a white light mage armour, Ami who wore a blue clerics robe with white bracelet on both hands and Honoka wore white metal bracers, shin guards, chest armour and headgear that looked like a boxing training headgear.

Cheers sounded from left and right.

"huh is that..... Kenshin!?"

"Really? It is, why is he with the hero group?"

"Oi! Kenshin, are you a summoned hero?"

"What!? Kenshin my boy was a summoned hero?"

A group of men, women and children were making a bigger ruckus that made the crowds cheers drowned out. They were the people he got to know well in this world as well as those that taught him basics. The homeroom group slowed down after 'the royals' were turning their heads as if they heard an impossible thing. The rest of the homeroom group turned their head towards where they looked at as well.

(Kenshin)"?..... Oh. Ossans, Oba chans, big sisters and big brothers. The children as well"

"Boy, you didnt tell us that you were a summoned hero."

"Thats so cool! Big bro is a summoned hero!"

" You didnt know? I thought Beth told you?"(Kenshin)

"Big miss? Ah she loves surprising us. Must be why. Anyways, I didnt know I was teaching a summoned hero."

The other teachers of Kenshin started saying things similar.

"Ahaha.... im not that strong to be compared to the other summoned heroes."(Kenshin)

"What matters is that you return alive! Strong or not, I still need to teach you more about tailoring Ken."

That's what most of his teachers called him.

From far away, Hachiro saw him being surrounded by people with genuine happy expressions. Something he didnt see much from his own surroundings.

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1 week later

The Dungeon

"Ken! Ken! Where are you?"

"Captain! lets change search duties, i'll tell you if i find something"