This chapter is mainly dialogue.

As usual, if you find any mistakes, don't hesitate to tell me!

With that, enjoy!

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When I first saw what kind of rooms we were staying in, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Big. That was the first word that came to my mind.

The room was quite spacious. A large double bed, a big round table with four chairs and a closet fit into it and you could still walk around freely.

I opened the closet full of curiosity. Of course it was empty.

Well, with this I wouldn't have to worry about where to sleep for the next month.

I could hear a bell ring. 'Was time measured like it was on Earth?' I wondered.

I got lost in my thoughts.

Earth…

How were my parents doing? Have they already realized that I was gone?

I thought about how worried my parents must have gotten by now when I heard someone knocking on my door.

“Ron? Are you in there?”

I opened the door and a blonde boy with blue eyes stood before me.

“Andreas? What's up?” I asked.

“I'm tired of sitting around. You wanna walk around the castle with us?”

Behind him were Tony, Lily and Chihiro.

“Sure. Why not.”

---

“This castle is so damn big.” Andreas murmured.

Everyone could only agree. This castle was like a maze.

After a few minutes we already got lost and were now just aimlessly wandering around.

Every once in a while, we crossed ways with a few of our fellow heroes, who were just as lost as us.

“Hey, guys.”

Tony suddenly began speaking.

“What do you all think about this whole thing?”

“You mean defeating the demon lord and that stuff?” Andreas asked.

“Yeah.”

“I don't like it,” Lily said.

“They just went ahead and took us here and want us to beat a demon lord or whatever without our consent. We don't even know anything about this place.”

“Yeah, that came out of nowhere,” Andreas said, nodding.

“I thought I was having some crazy dream at first.”

“Really? Do you still think this is a dream?” I asked curiosly.

“Well, the pain when we fell down felt pretty real, so no, I don't think this is a dream anymore.”

“Does everyone think so as well?” I asked around.

Everyone nodded.

“Well, shit. If this is real then I guess we're stuck in this world forever.”

I sighed heavily.

“But- but they said they would return us as soon as we beat the demon lord, right?” Chihiro exclaimed, “That means we can still go home!”

Huh?

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“Wait, did they really say that?”

I couldn't remember anyone saying anything about returning to our world.

Everyone gave me a surprised look.

“Weren't you listening?” Tony asked, “That old mage told us, didn't he?”

“Yeah.”

“That's right.”

“Yes.”

Huh, really?

“When did he say that?”

“Right at the beginning.” Tony put his hand to his chin.

“He also said that the flow of time here was about as sixty times as fast?”

I began thinking.

How could I miss something important like that?

Then I remembered that I was looking around instead of listening to the old mage when he was explaining.

I felt like a weight was lifted from me.

If we really could return home, then it changed a lot of things.

Everyone would be eager to finish the demon lord off as soon as possible.

Moreover, time flowed as sixty times as fast as the time on Earth?

That would mean one hour here would be a mere minute on earth.

A day on earth would equal sixty days in this world.

“No wonder nobody was complaining...” I murmured.

“Still, I don't like it.”

Lily shook her head.

“How can we know that they were telling the truth?”

Chihiro gave her a terrified look.

“Y-You mean they were lying?”

“It's possible. We can't assume that they were telling the whole truth.”

“Aw come on, don't make things complicated!” Andreas complained, “I hate stuff like that!”

“Well sorry, but that's how it is,” Lily replied,

“things are never as simple as they seem.”

“I agree with Andreas though.” Tony said,

“let's not make things complicated for now. It's true that we shouldn't trust them too easily, but it's not good to over-think things either.”

Lily gave him a skeptical look.

“Lily, look at it this way,” I voiced my opinion,

“Whether they told us the truth or not, they gave us a place to stay and offered to train us.

They could just say, like 'Go and defeat the demon lord!' and just send us off.

But instead they told us that it's too dangerous, even though we're the heroes and told us to gather experience first.

That means the thing about the demon king being bad news is real, right?

I think, for now we should concentrate on getting stronger.

After that, we can still think about getting home.”

Lily frowned and crossed her arms.

“Hmpf. Fine.”

With that, our goal was clear.

For now, we would be focusing on getting strong enough to survive in this world.