At a large table sat a group composed of ten people dressed in all sorts of typical fantasy clothes, a paladin dressed in golden armour and red cape, a mage wearing violet robes, an archer with a green tunic and a leather vest over it as well as a green hood and all other kinds of people.

They sat in a large wooden room, with walls as thick as a castle's and windows which were stained to be a golden hue, paintings hung from the walls displaying castles, towers and all sorts of fantastical sights.

A massive fireplace roared in the background as the cracking and snapping of wood interrupted the lively conversation at the large table in the centre of the room.

Upon the table lay a massive feast composed of a boar-like creature with an apple in its mouth, several bowls of stews, salads and side-dishes placed neatly in the middle of the rectangular table.

"To the death of the demon king!" exclaimed the paladin-like person, he was a man, bright blond hair and a bright almost golden eye-colour, he looked like he was somewhere in his early twenties.

The paladin raised his pint of ale into the air as others repeated the same action with a few exceptions.

A troubled looking girl wearing a thick scarf and leather vest over the clothes in which they were summoned into this world, a grey, long-sleeved sweater and bike shorts under a grey skirt, as well as a man wearing what looked like a nobleman's suit and a younger-looking girl wearing a witch's hat.

"Come on Gab, you're not joining us?" the paladin laughed as the suit-wearing man waved his hand in protest, he pushed up his glasses and began to speak, "No, no, it's a bad idea for a strategist to get drunk," he replied with a polite smile.

The paladin looked over to the young witch-girl and didn't press the matter of her joining them for a toast before turning to the scarf-wearing girl.

"How bout' you Abby? You don't have anything important to do tomorrow, right?"

"Isn't she minding Kevin tomorrow?" asked the witch-hat girl.

"As I said, nothing important." He replied, "We'll get Adam to do it." he added.

In what seemed like a millisecond her personality did a one-eighty as she smiled an innocent smile and replied: "Oh, no thanks, I think I'll head to bed early today, I'm still sick from yesterday's party." she let out a slight laugh.

"Aww, don't leave yet!" cried a slightly older woman, her "class" was difficult to tell from just the outfit, which was essentially just gloves and boots, aside from that she wore the clothes she was summoned into this world with.

She was a monk, basically a super fast melee fighter.

Her hair was black but it was turning white at its base, for whatever reason the hair of the people summoned often changed, sometimes the colour matches a trait of a person's "class", like the paladin's blond hair which was once a light brown.

The woman was clutching a bottle of ale in one hand and a loaf of bread in another.

The paladin turned to the semi-white-haired woman, "Don't listen to her, if you're feeling sick just go rest up!" he advised as the white-haired woman rolled her eyes and had another sip of her ale.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." the scarf-wearing girl said before excusing herself and heading up the stairs placed at the side of one the walls of the building, they lead to a long corridor of doors labelled with numbers.

She stepped into room number eight and sat down on the bed breaking her previous smile and shifting it into an expression disgust and anger.

"Fucking finally, I managed to escape..." she said to herself quietly.

'Pretending to like those assholes is such a pain...' she thought as she fell back onto the bed before letting out a sigh.

A candle on the side of the bed was the only source of light in the relatively empty room, the only things inside were a bed, wardrobe and a small nightstand on which stood the candle.

The door to her room swung open, thinking someone over-heard her a second ago she sat up making an expression akin to a weak, tired smile and a face someone makes when they're very ill.

"Who is it?" she asked weakly, as if she was trying to politely say "I was falling asleep, what do you want?!"

Her face turned back to normal as she saw who entered her room, a thin, lanky man in his late twenties with scruffy blond hair and a bit of hair on his chin which he referred to as a beard, he was wearing a lab coat over a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

"Oh, it's just you..." he said coldly but with a hint of relief.

The man closed the door behind him without a moment of thought.

"What a cold way to say hello..." he replied with a light chuckle.

As he turned away from the door and towards her, he was met with a pillow to the face knocking him back a little.

"I told you to fucking knock like a normal person! I could have been changing!" she scolded him pinching the middle of her nose.

"Wouldn't that be a shame..." he said quietly but purposefully loud enough for her to hear.

"And that's why nobody likes you," she replied bluntly.

"Yep, and not because I'm an "alchemist" and also off my meds for the last few months on account of them not existing here. Not to mention I usually pretend to have the mental-level of the average crustation."

"It's alright, one day I'm sure you'll find that one special body pillow you for needs," she replied with a sarcastic smile before leaning back onto the bed and crossing her hands behind her head.

"Why did you come here anyway? it's still early," she asked.

"I'm just checking in how my partner is doing!" he answered faking disappointment in a theatrical way as he placed the back of his palm on his forehead.

"But alas it would seem I'm not wanted here!" he added turning on his heel in an equally theatrical way towards the door.

"Wow, that means it’s just like back at home for you!" she replied giving him a thumbs up.

The room became really silent for a while.

"You're thinking of backing out?" she asked still not looking at him directly.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Nah, you couldn't pull it off," he replied bluntly.

"I so could," she argued back.

"And the bodies?" he asked with a tone that screamed: "I got you there!"

"I'd... fucking... burry them or something," she replied uncertainly.

"Abby, you have the collective stamina of a forty-year-old neck-beard with a god complex and a katana collection." replied the man plainly.

The sudden sound of footsteps alerted both of them to someone coming close.

A knock came from the door as Abby shot the man an "Oh look, they knocked." look before putting on a more innocent voice and replying "Who is it?"

The lab-coat-wearing guy scrambled around the room for a place to hide as a reply came.

"It's just me." replied a voice from across the door.

'Thanks a fucking lot, man. You really narrowed it down to about sixty percent of the party since you sound like a guy...' she thought but instead of saying it just replied with an "Oh, you can come in."

In through the door entered a short guy with equally short and spiky hair and glasses.

He was wearing a long cloak which dragged on the ground behind him and a pouch full of vials and powders in his pocket.

"The guys downstairs said you were feeling sick, I came to check up on you."

'Oh god it's him... he's been doing this thing for the entire three months, I did everything aside from straight-up telling him "Man, I'm not going to sleep with you." but he just won't leave me the fuck alone!'

"Oh, thanks, but there is no need to worry!" she replied nicely.

'Or be here...' she added in her thoughts.

The short dude kneeled down on the ground and closed his eyes as his cheeks flushed red.

"Still, I should at least cast a healing spell on you, I'd hate for you to get hurt, I really c-care about you." he stammered out as an unexpected voice replied.

"Aw, thanks man, that's so sweet of you." He opened his eyes to see the face of lab-coat-guy poking out from under the bed, feeling more appreciated than ever.

He looked up to the bed seeing that Abby was nowhere to be seen.

"Wha? - Wait, where's Abby?!"

"I dunno, man..." he replied.

Flustered the short kid stood up on the verge of crying and rushed out of the room.

After he left and closed the door behind him a moment of silence passed before Abby stepped out from the wardrobe breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thanks fuck for the assassin abilities..."

[Shadow Blink] allows the user to move to an otherwise accessible place as long as it is shrouded in darkness and within twenty meters of their current location, for example escaping a conversation into a wardrobe. But you couldn't blink into a cube of magical indestructible steel.

"Poor kid." lab-coat-guy chuckled to himself before getting out from under the bed.

"What about me, huh? I'm actually sick now because of his speech thing..."

"At least he had the balls to come up here and say something, y'know."

"Alright, when we kill him I will specifically go for the balls first," she exclaimed wryly.

Lab-coat-guy raised his eyebrows, "Bet he'd like that."

"I'm so fucking done with you people..." she groaned.

"Heh, what are you gonna do kill them?" he asked resulting in a few seconds of silence before they both burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I am!" she managed to say in between her laughing.

More footsteps rushed towards the door and both Abby and lab-coat-guy assumed their personas.

The door swung open, in the lead was the paladin followed by the white-haired monk and the hulking form of the berserker.

"Are you alright?! We heard from Adam that Kevin broke into your room again!"

They looked towards Kevin who displayed only a blank expression as he stood there with his mouth agape.

"Oh, it's alright, he probably got lost on his way to the bathroom," she replied smiling politely.

The paladin looked at the lab-coat-guy, he was called Kevin. "Look at him, too bad we're stuck dealing with this retar...-" he was cut off by the berserker from behind him who smacked him on the head lightly.

"Right, right, sorry, what I mean is, he is mentally challenged," he said raising his hands in defeat as they both lead Kevin out of Abby's room and down to his one.

'Ever since the first day we were all summoned here, Kevin was faking some sort of disability, not a bad plan, nobody expects anything of you and you can slack off all day and they'll applaud for not snapping anyone's neck like Lenny'

They met a good bit before the downfall of the demon king, specifically when they were figuring out how to "care" for Kevin.

All "heroes" summoned into this world received a propper workplace to practice their skills, for the Kevin it was a massive alchemy lab. 

As Kevin performed his carefully choreographed routine of staring into space and occasionally saying something random, Abby was left in charge of him, 

"Why do I have to deal with this guy!?" she demanded, though she made sure to speak quietly enough for nobody to hear her.

she was bored out of her mind and was looking around when she leaned against one of the tables which much to her surprise was partially eroded by one of Kevin's previous experiments, the top surface of the table slid off launching several vial and chemicals into the air.

Kevin stood up and pushed her out of the way avoiding some light burns and damaged clothes.

"For fuck's sake, Abby, pay attention to what you toss into the air in the lab!" he scolded her.

"Shit! Sorry!" she exclaimed.

An awkward few seconds passed as Kevin stood back up and realised his secret was out.

"You're not a potato?!" she asked in a whisper-shout.

"You're planning to kill us all," he stated in a normal whisper.

It was a stand-off of knowledge.

"I could just kill you off now," she warned "You're not even a combat class..." she added.

"True, but you are the one who's guarding me, even if you blame my death on myself you'd still be responsible."

"Plus, if I had hypothetically let another member of the group in on the secret you'd have a one-in-ten chance of finding the right one, but two deaths would really raise the suspicion of the people anyway, and you were present when I would have died, so y'know."

"You really thought this through... didn't you?" she asked gritting her teeth in a mix between confusion and defeat.

"Well, you shouldn't be saying you plan to kill all the heroes out-loud to be fair," he replied.

"I didn't expect you to be able to talk much less blackmail me!"

"Why didn't you tell them?" she asked turning to the door as if she expected the others to burst in any moment.

When she turned back to Kevin he stood up and reached into his pocket for a vial of some clear liquid, he had some before handing the vial to Abby who looked at it hesitantly.

"It's vodka," he explained upon seeing her eye the liquid.

"What if it's poison?"

"It is, for the liver, but that's better than dealing with you people sober," he replied.

After some further contemplation, she brought the vial to her lips and took a sip before recoiling.

"Fuck! What is this shit?!"

"I never said it's good," Kevin replied.

"As for your question, I didn't tell anyone because I'm fine with you killing everyone, I guess," Kevin explained.

"Seriously?! What are you some sort of psychopath?!" Abby exclaimed.

"Says the murderer..." Kevin replied.

A while of silence passed before Abby began laughing, Kevin joined her soon after.

"Seriously, I've been leaving out bottles labelled "Poison, kills in X seconds" for you for weeks but you never took them!"

Abby looked over to the shelf by the door and saw three colourful bottles with a label that had the previously mentioned text as well as a skull drawn on it.

"Ohh, I thought someone in the group was leaving it out as a suggestion we poison you."

"You people are terrible." Kevin chuckled before heading over to his chair and sitting down.

"So why exactly are you pretending to be disabled?" Abby asked stepping away from the broken glass in a puddle of sizzling liquid.

"It's a cushy job, I just sit around and we get wiped out in some dungeon or something," he explained.

"If you're so eager to die you could to drink some of your own poison," Abby remarked.

"The way I see it, if other worlds exist, there's a decent chance I'll appear in one after death, so all this is just temporary, but suicide isn't really my style, besides why rush through things, for all I know we keep reincarnating in an endless cycle of worlds."

"That's a bit of a leap in logic, we were summoned here, remember?"

"Yeah, alternatively I'll die and that's it, I don't really buy the heaven and hell thing," he replied with a shrug.

"So what would you do in the next world then?" Abby asked confused.

"I'll just keep going through worlds until I find a really cool one and I'll live out my days chilling there, I'll find a perfect world!"

"A perfect world?" She asked.

"Maybe I'll reincarnate into a world with cat-girls... that'd be nice."

"...gross."

"Take that back! Do not diss my waifu!"

Her face twisted into a look of absolute disappointment magnified by the pitiful look she was giving him.

"So... you're alright with me killing you?" she asked.

"Sure, I'm not in a rush so whenever you want to kill me now or next year is fine." He replied simply.

"Though I'd prefer if you didn't tell the others my secret," he added.

"You really are a psychopath."

"Maybe," he shrugged.

A while of silence passed as the sizzling of the puddle of mysterious liquid stopped and the two of them looked at each other and around the room awkwardly.

A minute later they locked eyes once more.

"You got any more of that moonshine-tasting vodka?" Abby asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." He replied reaching into his coat pocket and tossing her a vial.

"Keep it, you're shift of potato-care is about to be over, I'll see you around."

He replied before pulling out a vial for himself which he chugged and put back in his pocket before putting on the same face as before, staring off into the distance blankly.

As he did that the door swung open and Adam, the healer walked into the room.

"Oh, Abby you're here!" he said immediately smiling the widest smile he seemingly could without tearing his skin.

'Oh fuck it's him...'

"Oh! It's you! A-A...Andrew?" she struggled to remember his name.

"Adam..." he corrected her not letting his smile fade for even a second.

"Long time no see!" he exclaimed.

'Not nearly long enough.'

"I know! Anyway, I have to go now, it was nice seeing you!" she said trying her best to look apologetic though she was already speed-walking towards the door.

"H-hey, Abby, wait up!" he called out as she shut the door behind her.

Adam hung his head in defeat letting his glassed drop to the ground and allowing the glass to crack.

"NO!" he called out falling to his knees before his broken glasses.

"How am I supposed to get a replacement for these here?!" he sobbed.

'Smooth.' Kevin though feeling really bad for the kid, though not denying his mere existence was that of a failure.