Noah woke up to a gentle knock on his door. As he jolted awake, the memories of the past day hit him, and he froze until another series of knocks came and he broke out of his stupor to run up to the door. Right as he extended his hand about to open the door, he hurriedly withdrew his hand to straighten up his appearance, then opened it. Feasting his eyes on the sight before him, he froze again.
'Whoa. A real maid.’
To the modern man, the maid outfit was almost exclusively used for certain nightly bedroom activities, and his 'appendage' that he had flattened in a hurry before he opened the door was in full agreement.
"Hero Noah, your presence for breakfast in half an hour's time has been requested by Princess Elara. I shall come in 25 minutes to lead you to the dining room. Do you require anything?"
Noah unfroze, hurriedly taking a step back in a fluster.
"No, yeah, sorry, no, yeah you can leave.
"Understood."
Noah slammed the door shut. He then proceeded to slowly cast his gaze down in horror, just realizing that his holy sword was in its full morning glory. It was even worse that the maid had not reacted, in typical maid fashion.
Sighing, he trudged on over to the bathroom to freshen up. According to Princess Elara, summoned heroes would have an abundance of mana from soaking up the abundant mana in the void between worlds. They were also to receive multiple skills, unlike them, a consequence of low mana input to the summoning circle.
To the modern teenagers, they had translated it to mean that the archmages had paid for a cheap second hand car, received exactly that, and expected the cheap car to somehow beat the foreign sports car in a race one day. To be clear, the four were the cheap secondhand car. The demon lord and his army was the sports car.
The room Noah had been given was pure luxury. The color scheme was mostly white and gold, and the king-sized bed had a canopy, which left Noah feeling surprisingly comfortable. Considering the level of technology of what he had seen so far, he had fully expected that the bed would be stuffed with feathers, without the modern touch of springs that made modern beds what they were. It seemed that magic had played a large role. He had also expected marble flooring, but the floor was warm and felt like wood despite possessing the gloss of marble.
20 minutes later, Noah sat on the bed and spoke with a slight flush to his face.
"Mimicry"
Nothing happened. The flush on his face turned a brighter shade of red.
"Mimic on."
Nothing.
"Mimic mode."
"Transform!"
"3, 2, 1, Become Lion!"
"With the skill bestowed upon me, I call upon you, oh magic, make me a li-"
Creaaaak. Noah had not locked the door, and there stood a maid with twitching eyes. With his palm in front of him and the other covering half his face, Noah froze and stared at the maid, who stared back.
"..."
"..."
-
5 minutes later, Noah arrived at a royal long table, where he found the three others patiently waiting for the arrival of Princess Elara, as instructed by the maid. As Noah sat down, an awkward silence made its presence known, which Emma decided to break.
"You tried it, didn't you?"
Noah immediately stiffened up, then relaxed and spoke with a sly smirk.
"And you didn't?"
It was Emma's turn to stiffen up. As the two started to bicker, Mia and Evan looked at each other in confusion. After a short interval of time, Princess Elara arrived, which was when the two promptly shut their trap. Ignoring the two who remained awkwardly silent throughout breakfast, the others engaged in conversation.
After a while, Princess Elara seemed to have figured out something as she alternated her gaze between Emma and Noah and spoke with a gentle tone, as if she were reassuring an upset child.
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"The use of active skills requires one to grasp the existence of mana first. You will learn this today. If we're all done with breakfast, shall we leave for the training hall?"
At that moment, to Emma and Noah, the Princess who skipped around the issue seemed like an angel. They departed for the training hall, but contrary to the expectations of the four, the princess led the four to a nearby wide balcony with handrails. As she turned around with a slightly mischievous expression, the group began to levitate.
To the four, who had only ever flown through the use of big metal planes before, the novel experience left them feeling like wide eyed children, though it ended in a short minute, much to their chagrin. They landed outside a large rectangular building that followed the color scheme of white and gold, where the princess opened the doors in the middle of the length of the rectangular arena to a large open arena with smooth stone flooring, and a few dozen spectator stands on the other side of the entrance, where a number of older individuals in posh outfits sat.
Out of the spectator stands, a good looking man in his late twenties with black hair and blue eyes in unnecessarily fancy armor walked up to the four, and smiled at them like he had just met the love of his life. It was quite creepy. Though his smile would make even a man feel like his chastity was in danger, what ticked Noah off was the hint of disgust that had flashed through his countenance before he flashed his smile.
"Oh great heroes, I am Claus, Commander of the Royal Knights, son of Duke Elowyn, and I am overjoyed to have the pleasure of meeting your esteemed selves. I am honored to serve as your instructor in the way of the sword and the wand, and I look forward to your cooperation."
Noah immediately noticed that they weren't given an option, and basically were forced to reply in a way that complimented him as well. His words seemed to be dripping in sarcasm as well. This man gave Noah the serious creeps, and it was clearly the same for the other three as well.
And this sort of situation was what Emma excelled at.
"Thanks, uncle, but why's your armor so funny? Like how is that funny protrusion on the side of your armor- wait are those wings? You guys gave yourselves wings on your own armor? Pffft-"
She proceeded to promptly instantly demolish the unease that had been building up in the group against Claus, who then interrupted their chuckles.
"I do hope you are not mocking the proud armor of our Eldoria Kingdom."
Instantly, a tangible bloodlust exploded out of Claus, which made the teenagers freeze up. Having lived under the protection of the authorities their whole lives, their first exposure to bloodlust utterly overwhelmed them. Yet they stubbornly refused to fall, which only pushed Claus further. He had heard that these heroes were fakes, and had lived their whole lives in a sheltered environment. How could he allow such brats to mock him and get away with it, especially after they had mocked the design he had spent so much time poring over! Eventually, a tear dropped out of Mia's eyes, which signaled to the onlookers, who couldn't feel the bloodlust, that something was out of place.
The decisive and intuitive Princess Elara did not hesitate and immediately cast First Circle - Thunderclap. A single clap that sounded like a quietened sonic boom reverberated throughout the arena, after which she reminded Claus of what he should have been doing,
"Claus, for today's agenda, the heroes were to be introduced to the presence of mana in their bodies. I do wonder what you happen to be doing at the moment."
This bitch! Claus had a low standing in Eldoria, sure, but hers wasn't all that much higher either. She was only at the summoning to act as eye candy for the otherworlders. With the King's four children, her only fate as the fourth was to be married off to some powerful old noble four times her age, while he was commander of the royal knights!
The Royal Knights were different from the Royal Guard, who were what you actually thought of when someone mentioned the Royal Knights. The Royal Knights, in reality, were a platoon of spoiled children that their noble parents saw no use for. The Royal Knights would parade around in their excessively fancy armor, like peacocks, and only were trained in the basics of swordsmanship, and even that was not swordsmanship meant to kill but to impress. In reality, they possessed the actual combat ability of a rookie soldier platoon.
And the not very prestigious position of Commander of these spoiled Royal Knights Claus held was only due to his position as the child of an Archmage Duke. He knew this, but having this fact rubbed in his face was not pleasant!
With a darkened expression, Claus redirected the conversation.
"My apologies, great heroes. It seems our little bout of fun may have gotten us off track. I will now circulate some of my mana within your mana circuits. Do not resist it, and familiarize yourselves with its movements. Lady, as you seem to be the bravest here, perhaps we should start with you."
"Would have be nice if you said that without looking at my ass, but okaay~"
Claus's face turned red enough to probably see smoke billowing out of the top of his head soon. Emma was clearly lying to embarrass him, but he had to stay calm to maintain the demeanor of a knight commander. Besides, this brat would be squirming in pain in a moment anyway. Claus inwardly sneered and instructed Emma to turn around, then placed his palm between her shoulder plates.
After a moment, Emma felt like a weird fluid was slithering around inside her, but it didn't feel uncomfortable, more like a gentle rippling of a lake. As for Claus, he was utterly dumbfounded. These were fake heroes? No matter how much mana he pumped into the woman, it felt like he was trying to color the sea with a bucket of dye. By now, she should have been squirming in pain and discomfort! This was only possible if her sheer mana quantity made it an utterly futile endeavor. It had to be archmage tier, minimum, and that was with no mana training at all. What would her mana quantity be after her mana pool had been expanded? Claus’s face darkened. If the mana in her body was overwhelmingly hers, she would experience no discomfort no matter how much mana Claus pumped into her.
"I think I get it now, thanks uncle!"
That word again! He was 26! Why was a 17 year old addressing him as 'uncle'?!
"So, how do I use my skill?"
Claus took a deep breath to calm himself, then spoke.