It took them a while for the session with the A.I. to come to an end before the lecturer rose to his feet and arrived at the front of the room. He asked them one final time whether they had any more questions for the A.I. and when none came, he bid the A.I. goodbye.

“I wish you all a pleasant day,” the A.I. by the name P said to them with a smile and then bowed to them.

As everyone said their farewell, the lecturer aimed his hand at the A.I. hologram and pressed several buttons on his M.E.D. device. In an instant, the holographic image of the A.I. had vanished from sight and left nothing behind, not even the virtual notes that he had written down for them to take down.

“Alright. Everyone but the heroes may leave,” the lecturer said, turning around to face them.

“Eh?” The other students, including the heroes, said reflexively in surprise.

“Only us?” One of the students asked curiously.

“Correct,” the lecturer replied simply.

“What about the heroes?” Another student asked, turning to glance sideways at the Nine Heroes of Legends who were seated at the back.

“They have other things to do,” the lecturer replied, now becoming a little bit irritated. “Hurry up! You’ve got elsewhere to be, so go on already!”

“Y-Yes!” The students exclaimed, all standing up in unison and looking nervously at him.

As they left the room, several of them turned towards the heroes and bid them an energetic farewell.

“See you later, heroes!”

“See you soon!”

“Bye!”

Vikram laughed while Nara, Maxwell, Fred and Lakshman smiled before waving them goodbye. Once the students left, someone entered the room wearing a recognisable mask that covered her face.

“Raze!” Fred said brightly in an instant upon recognising who it was.

“Hello,” she said simply before turning towards the lecturer. “I’ll be taking over from here.”

“Go on. It’s not like I care anyhow,” replied the lecturer, who appeared to be bored.

He picked up the book he had brought in earlier and left through the exit, leaving her and the heroes in the room. As soon as he left, the Nine Heroes of Legends rose from their seats and made their way towards her at the front as she waited for them.

“Why are you here, Raze?” Lakshman asked with a curious voice.

“I am directed to escort you around the city so that you become accustomed to the surroundings,” replied Raze in a calm voice.

“Oh? So, it’s just you? Bolten, Santa, or Erza won’t be joining us?” Lakshman asked, looking a little hopeful to spend some time with his future wife.

His hopes were crushed when she shook her head and said, “No. They have priorities, so I was sent in their place.”

As Lakshman sighed with a crestfallen look on his face, Nara smiled and said, “Thank you though for making the time. I’m sure it’s tough to escort us around and miss your classes.”

Raze appeared to faintly smile behind her mask because she said, “Not at all. Helping our heroes is an honour for me, so please don’t worry about it. I’m a hard worker, so I’m confident I can catch up on today’s lessons.”

With that, she thumped her arms in a gesture to show her determination, making them all smile. A moment later, she beckoned them as she exited the room, and found an escort of Royal Guards waiting for them outside. Upon seeing them there, quite a bit of energy appeared to get drained from the group.

Sensing this, Raze turned around and asked them, “What’s the matter?”

“You know… when you told us you’re going to escort us, I was under the impression that we’re going on a tour,” said Vikram, looking disheartened at the number of the Royal Guards present in the corridor.

“Having an escort breathing down our necks isn’t fun,” said Martin, speaking a little sadly while glancing nervously around.

“Plus, it draws too much attention, and we won’t really get to see anything,” added Nara in their support.

Raze seemed to think for a moment over their words before nodding in agreement and saying, “Understood. You make a valid point; however, it is considering the danger of the unknown you might face outside.”

“I think it’s fine, Raze?” Fred asked curiously with a small smile. “For starters, no one on the outside knows who the Nine Heroes of Legends are, correct?”

“Yes. It’s being kept under wraps with consideration of your safety.”

“In that case, no one will know who we are, unless Vikram behaves so wildly that they start suspecting something.”

“Hey!” Vikram exclaimed indignantly, eying him with a look of annoyance. “I’m a well-behaved person, thank you very much!”

“Well-behaved might be an understatement,” said William, eying him in bemusement. “The term ‘crazy behaviour’ fits you well.”

“Dammit, William!” Vikram snapped, rounding on the tall man. “Call it different, okay? Maybe crazy to you, but I’m different! I’m not a robot to behave like the rest of you.”

As William chuckled, Fred said, “He’s only joking, Vikram.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“He might be, but the seriousness of his face doesn’t make it a joke!” The Sonic Hero said, pointing at the Titanium Hero. “This guy needs to work on his dialogue delivery if he wants to make a joke and not make it sound too serious!”

“My jokes were always well received,” replied William smugly.

“And I’m telling you they’re not!”

“You’re annoying.”

“What’s that?!”

As Vikram was boiling himself into a rage, Nara suddenly intervened by saying, “Whatever’s the case, we all agree that with our identity hidden, we’re safe. In addition to that, you are escorting us, Raze. Besides, we have a king from another world on our side to take care of things if it gets dangerous. Am I right, Asura?”

At the last word, he turned to smile at Lakshman, who smiled faintly in return and said, “Actually, my name is Lakshman.”

“Oh! Sorry! I got carried away since I’ve been calling you this for over a week now,” replied Nara and laughed in embarrassment. “Anyway, Lakshman, what do you say?”

Lakshman blinked once and said, “Actually, judging from the strength of our group, I’d say we wouldn’t need to worry that much. Gram is strong, Vikram is fast, you’re a quick thinker, William’s always at the ready, Fred is ready to give a helping hand, Martin can cover for us and Maxwell can attack before the rest of us. So, we’re actually pretty covered in all directions when it comes to safety.”

Nara looked amazed and said, “Wow. You… actually summarised us pretty well with that statement.”

The king from another world smiled and winked as he said, “I’m a king, and I’m a master of many things.”

The Zeklock Hero smiled and said, “You certainly are.” Then he turned back to Raze and said, “I think it’s fine with you as our escort and with the power we have at our disposal.”

“We’re not weak,” added Maxwell with a smile.

Raze, looking at the anticipation on their faces through her mask, finally shrugged her shoulders and said, “Very well. You made your point.” She turned to the Royal Guards and said, “Return and inform the first prince of the change in plan.”

“But, madam, we were ordered—!” One of the guards began when Raze raised her hand to stop him.

“I am aware, but this is an order from me. Get going,” she said in a cool voice. Sensing the threat in her voice, the guards nodded their heads and quickly left the place. As they left, Raze turned to the heroes and asked, “Shall we go?”

“Hell yeah!” Vikram replied excitedly.

Together, the Nine Heroes of Legends and Raze departed from that corridor and arrived at the entrance of the academy, where a long vehicle was waiting for them. Once they all entered the car and closed the door, the driver activated the vehicle using his Magic Enhanced Device and moved the vehicle into motion. Slowly, it rose into the air and joined the throng of traffic that was already moving high above the city.

“How do you manage the traffic at this height? I mean, isn’t there a danger of any accidents, or sudden drop in energy levels to keep the vehicles afloat?” Ward asked telepathically, curious to know how such a system worked.

Raze seemed to ponder for a moment before replying, “There is a backup safety feature that automatically activates and makes the vehicle descend gently to the ground. As for the possibility of collisions is very minimal because each vehicle is embedded with a barrier device that projects a barrier around each and every vehicle if one of them goes out of control.”

“Oh. That’s some neat tech your world got,” said Vikram with a grin. “In my world, if an accident happens, there are these air bags that shoot out to save the driver and his passengers while breaking their noses. If they fail, I guess they end up with broken bones, twisted limbs and—!”

“Enough with the gruesome details!” Martin exclaimed, looking pale and distraught. “You’re making me… feel sick!”

“Okay. Okay,” said Vikram, raising his hands in surrender while the rest laughed, all except for Gram who remained quiet.

Once the laughter died down, Natsu said to Raze, “By the way, you haven’t told us where we’re be going first.”

“We’ll be first heading to the Rapid Transit Network, and we’ll get you to become used to the local travelling ways instead of using your powers and flying around the city,” explained Raze in a cool voice. “We will also get you to start using this world’s money in order to perform any of your expenses.”

“Fair enough,” replied Natsu simply, accepting the logical sense behind it

Vikram suddenly asked, “By Rapid Transit Network, are you referring to using bullet trains and something similar?” When she nodded in reply without saying anything, his smile broadened as he muttered, “Oh…! This ought to be interesting.”

At that moment, Maxwell saw a flaw in her procedure and raised it by saying, “But we don’t know how your currency work though.”

“Plus, we didn’t bring our reward money with us,” added Fred, a bit perplexed as he too realised the problem.

Raze seemed to smile behind her voice as she cheerfully said, “There’s nothing to worry. Here. Take this,” and she pulled out a set of palm sized cards out of her pocket and handed one to each of them.

After handing them out, she lifted one out for them all to see and explained, “This is called an Identification Card, or ID Card for short, which is used to present yourself as your proof of who you are. It can also be used as a transaction tool to pay for things like drinks, food, transport, luxury, and much more.”

The group were amazed by such a device, and Vikram was the first to say, “This is cool! It’s almost like one of those Credit Cards that we use back in my world!”

“This is neat,” commented Natsu with a smile.

“Ah! This makes things easier!” Martin said with a grin on his face.

Maxwell, William and Ward eyed the card with great interest while maintaining their silence. Out of the three, William appeared sceptic because what she said sounded more like magic than what he had witnessed so far.

“So, there are no paper notes for a physical transaction?” Fred asked Raze, turning the card around with a curious look on his face.

“Because the physical papers were less reliable, the government combined all banks into what is now known as the Bank of Government. All money is deposited directly into the bank by employers, or if you’re a shop owner, the amount gets deposited for selling an item and vice-versa in withdrawal when someone spends the money.”

“Wow… That is incredible,” said Fred softly, blinking in surprise as she twirled the card around in her hand.

Lakshman looked at the card with interest as he thought, “Okay…! So, this is like the Adventurer Card that holds our identification information and works like the Item Box, where we can insert and take money from. This is something I could ask Wolfenstine to look into making in the future.”

“Yes! Out of all the inventions that I’ve seen after coming to this world, this is the most useful of them all!” Asura replied in agreement.

His present-self smiled and said to Raze, “It’s great that your people were able to come up with something like this.”

“Thank you,” replied Raze, and he sensed that she was smiling behind her mask before looking at the window.

Their car followed along the traffic along with other motorists for several minutes, in which the occupants were just talking casually with one another. Gram was the only one did not join in and kept himself composed as he looked at the passing traffic through the window. A few of the heroes, such as Lakshman, Maxwell and Fred, noticed his odd behaviour but did not interact with him because they realised he would just get annoyed at them for trying.

“We’re here, madam,” the driver said from the front, who was separated from them by a wall with a small window space for him to listen to and speak through.

“Good. Take us down,” Raze said calmly, a hint of commanding tone in her voice.

The only ones that noticed this was Maxwell, Natsu and Lakshman, and they were amazed by it. They were unsure, but somehow her tone was similar to the commanding tone in which the people from the high family speak. Their doubts did not last long because it was already established that Raze was from a noble family, and she was accustomed to doing these things.

The driver slowly broke away from the traffic and headed towards the ground, where there were a lot of people going in and out of a building. As the vehicle soared down, mass of crowd looked up in surprise and quickly parted so that the vehicle could land directly outside a large building, and they saw many people coming out and going into the building in a nonstop procession.

Raze, in a bright voice said, “Dear heroes, welcome to the Rapid Transit Network.”