It took Noah a moment to snap out of the spell his presence had put them under, but as Noah raised his hands in a motion of surrender, the other three came to their senses as well and followed suit.

"We're supposed to be heroes summoned by your king. We hopped by for training; don't mind us, please."

Those words made a few of the men encircling them visibly flinch, but that was it. No further reaction ensued, and the man with the booming voice, seemingly the commander of this group of what seemed to be soldiers, continued to scrutinize them. As the commander took a step forward, the men who stood nearest to him shuffled their feet while keeping their rapiers pointed towards them to create an opening in the encirclement for the commander to walk closer to the four.

Now that the four could clearly see him, the first thing they couldn't help but note about him was his size. Without a doubt, he was the largest person they had seen in both worlds. He would even be able to dwarf most football players, standing tall at least at seven feet. As the commander continued to intimidatingly walk forward to the four, who were currently attempting to make themselves as small as possible, a female voice resounded from the skies.

"They're with me! You can let them go now!"

Though they had wanted the Princess to rest and had personally barged into her quarters together in an extremely uncouth manner to dump the Princess on her bed so she could do so, they couldn't help but feel thankful for her sudden appearance. With expressions that looked as if they had seen an angel descend from the skies, the four looked up to see her gently levitating down to touch down in front of them, then sighing.

"On behalf of my name as Elara, Daughter of King Thorian, this group of people are heroes. Honorable members of the Royal Guard, please continue your training. We will not bother you once again."

The person who the four now identified as the Commander of the Royal Guard allowed a moment of silence to pass, as if silently judging her. It was utterly disrespectful to do so to the Royal Family, but Elara dared not show her displeasure, and the four who had only barely recovered from the weight of the Commander's presence could not easily speak up either. They wouldn't force themselves to, though, considering that Princess Elara seemed to wish to get this interaction over with.

"Hmph. Ensure that it is so."

After the Commander's words came after a lengthy silence, Princess Elara led them away from the soldiers who opened up the encirclement, walked them over to the other side of the arena, stopped, swiveled on her foot, and then knife-hand chopped Evan's forehead.

"Wha-"

"You deserved that…"

As she proceeded to explain, the people they had just interrupted were the Royal Guard, who did what their job actually sounded like, rather than the Royal Knights, who were closer to actors. This was why Noah felt that their equipment was practical, and was marred with scars that were representative of their experience. They were undoubtedly deserving of their name.

The difference in quality of people in the two units of Knights left a bit of enmity between them, and with the exception of Evan, who had requested customized clothing, the other three were wearing clothing from the Royal Knights, which was a white tunic with gold accents and white pants in the same design.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The Royal Guard had, no pun intended, at least partly further put their guard up against them purely because of what they were wearing, even though seeing the outfit of the Royal Knights should have served to prove their identity and thus lower it instead.

"In truth, those were the people you were meant to receive training from, if the summoning were successful. Unfortunately, we've had to settle for the Royal Knights after they refused…"

A somber silence hung in the air for a moment. Over the past month, they had become familiar with the ineptitude of the Royal Knights, and it wasn't just Claus' immature behaviors that gave it away. They had personally witnessed the training of the Royal Knights, and they came to the conclusion that calling what they did 'training' was an offense to warriors in both worlds. Their training was closer to a blend of dance practice and a tea party, where they socialized to build connections while memorizing movements that had no place in battle and served only to dazzle.

Knowing this, it was strange to everyone here that even if the Royal Guards refused, the next option was the Royal Knights. If one required training and was refused by the Royal Guard, the next best option was an experienced knight unit rather than the Royal Knights. For the four to have been relegated to the Royal Knights meant that the King saw them merely as actors as well.

One might then wonder if the nobles would discover that the current heroes were a 'failed product that were better off as actors'. This person would then not have understood the reputation heroes had on the Calysta continent. Heroes were viewed as almighty swords that left rivers of blood in their wake, second only to Calysta Herself. Coupled with the fact that no summoning had ever failed before due to how careful those that participated in it were due to its significance, no noble would ever dare to even allow the words 'failed' and 'hero' in the same sentence.

Recently, their training sessions with Claus had degraded into Claus watching while the four trained or figured out ways to utilize their skills themselves. It was only thanks to Princess Elara, who herself was a 6th circle mage, that they were able to learn proper physical reinforcement, the method to build mana circles, and other ways to grow stronger.

"Well, we just have to do well enough for them to come begging for our help then!"

Emma's blinding smile and bold words were almost enough to ward away Princess Elara's worries. Almost.

"That's nice and all, but now that the entire Royal Guards platoon has seen the four of you, we'll have to reveal your existence to the public, or they'll start asking difficult questions that only their Commander has answers to, due to knowing of your circumstances. And considering the legendary reputation of heroes, it'll be done with a parade. The problem with a parade, though, is that you would officially need to begin your Demon Lord subjugation journey by the end of the first parade, and that would require a minimum of strength."

"How strong is the 'minimum of strength'?"

"From what I've heard about the ogre demon subjugation, I think only you've yet to meet that requirement, Noah."

Noah furrowed his brows.

"I dealt the final blow to that ogre, though?"

"At the cost of both your arms, you dealt a minor blow that left you incapacitated. Though I must applaud your decisiveness to make that choice despite knowing of the painful consequences, it was not an impact that should have left you in that state."

"Hmm…I see, I see. Well, I don't think that's a worry you need to concern yourself with anymore. Take a few steps back, fellas."

Noah watched with a wild grin as the princess and the other three stepped away from him.

"Don't have a heart attack, now."

A ripple of mana pulsed from Noah. In the next instant, his arms turned red, and he began to grow. Over the course of what was no more than 5 seconds, his body slowly turned red, and canines erupted from his teeth. His clothes grew tighter and tighter, and eventually, a loud rip was heard as his clothes tore apart, just as his transformation ended.

A being of 7 feet stood before them, emanating the same presence and appearance of the ogre the four had fought not a few days ago. With a gravelly voice that was several octaves deeper, yet with Noah's unmistakable goofy speech cadence, the ogre bellowed.

"How is it? I'm just as strong as the real thing, too! It looks like my skill requires me to have slain creatures with mana to mimic them. It explains why I haven't been able to activate my skill even once so far."

The three before him and the Royal Guard platoon on the other side of the arena all stared at him with utterly dumbfounded expressions.