After finding out that the heroes still needed to grow before becoming useful, they were sent off to a remote village accompanied by Auparith's crown prince.
"It was obvious from the very start that most of the heroes wouldn't get along because of our personalities but... why did everyone go their separate ways after just a few hours...?"
A woman with black hair sighed. Her face had features of the east from Earth.
"We can't really help it. The fire hero was wild and unruly, the wind hero had little care for everyone else, the dark hero wanted to be separated from everyone, the earth hero had her disagreements about being heroes but stuck to the wind hero like glue..."
It could be said that their personalities greatly matched their elements.
The woman who answered the black-haired girl had brown hair with a hint of red. Her features made it evident that she was from the west.
Still, despite their clashing cultures, they both understood each other's words perfectly, one of the perks to being summoned. Even Kai and Erina understood words spoken by the people of this world from birth, though they did have to learn about letters manually.
The black-haired woman sighed and muttered complaints to herself while the brunette kept on trying to comfort her.
It was only a few minutes ago that the heroes were traveling away from Auparith which was on the verge of collapse when they were summoned. They arrived to this remote village close to a day after departing from carriage.
The moment they arrived here, the fire hero started something.
"We should decide a leader!"
His ginger red hair swayed as he laughed. His words were natural but... among a group of unknown people, deciding a leader was difficult.
"Then, I should become the leader."
A woman with dyed violet hair, the earth hero answered him first.
"What's the point of getting a leader? It's obvious none of you will be helpful in the end anyway."
A blond man, the wind hero chimed in with an air of arrogance.
"Daiki... so cool..."
The woman with dyed violet hair muttered.
"Haha! You pathetic fools just decide among yourselves. I'm going to live by myself and take down the demon king by myself."
The dark hero who could only be described as being delusional cut in and turned to leave. When they were summoned, a variety of things were explained to them about which elements rule over the others and the like but they had never spoken about the demon king.
"Demon king?"
The black-haired woman, the light hero spoke up after remaining silent for the duration of the travel.
"Don't mind his ramblings, he's one of those types."
The brunette whispered to her.
"Those types?"
She whispered back.
"You know, the ones from your side of the planet. The ones who have delusions about having special powers and stuff."
"Ahh... I see."
The black-haired woman nodded repeatedly in understanding.
"Now that I think about it, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, right? Everyone was silent on the way here. My name is Sophia Adlet."
Said the water hero while brushing aside her brown hair. Even though people had hair colors matching their elements when they were born, it didn't change afterwards. If that was the case, then Kai who had all six elements would have six different hair colors.
"I'm Sa- Karen."
Sophia raised a brow at her obvious attempt at hiding her own name but thinking that Karen had circumstances of her own, shrugged and didn't mind it.
"Adlet-san, I know this maybe sudden but do you remember anything before being transferred here?"
"Adlet-'san'? I'm not familiar with honorifics from your country so please just call me Sophia or Soph. Let's see, I was going home from the library, stopped by a convenience store and just when I went out, a magic circle appeared right beneath my feet and before I knew it, I was here."
Sophia said while showing the plastic bag she had on hand filled with empty plastic bottles and half-eaten chips.
"I see..."
Karen muttered while nodding from time to time.
"What about you?"
Sophia asked. Karen laughed slightly and became sullen as she recalled her memories.
"...I was dying, or it was better to say I had died already? I saw my little brother crying for me at my bedside, I can't seem to remember what I told him but he cried even more afterwards. Then, I saw a magic circle on the roof which made me end up here."
Karen hugged her own hand.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"I miss my brother already..."
Sophia didn't know what to say.
"Uh... I'm sorry? Condolences doesn't seem to be the right word here so..."
Karen waved her hands at Sophia and told her not to mind it.
It's amazing how two people from different sides of the world could understand each other perfectly despite not knowing a thing about the other's language.
Before they could continue their conversation, the voice of the dark hero interrupted them. While the other heroes were arguing, Karen and Sophia stayed silent and ignored them but they couldn't afford to any longer.
"Suit yourselves!"
"Ah, wait!"
Karen called out to the dark hero who was really set on going alone.
"What?! Do you have something to say too?!"
Wearing a threatening expression, the dark hero glared at Karen but she didn't flinch or get scared, instead she released the sword from her scabbard and pointed it at the dark hero.
"If you have the ability to defeat me, then I'll allow you to leave."
Karen's bold declaration finally prompted the meek prince into action.
"W-wait, hero of light, please reconsider! This is not the time for heroes to be fighting..."
Karen glared at him.
"Then why didn't you stop them from arguing? In any case, I can't allow his behavior to continue on any longer."
Karen focused her gaze on the dark hero once more and glared.
"Ha! Do you think you can defeat me, Hell Fang Iron Hero of Camelot?!"
What is this guy talking about...?
Karen felt a headache and instead of answering the fool, she leapt forward and thrust out with her sword. Unlike standard practitioners of this world, she held the long sword with two hands instead of one.
The dark hero quickly unsheathed his own blade in what could only be described as clumsy.
DING CLANG
Right after Karen's sword was blocked by the dark hero, she swung again which caused his numb arms to falter and his defensive stance to collapse. Then, she stepped within his reach and launched an elbow strike on his abdomen just after releasing her grip on her sword.
The dark hero coughed over and over while holding his stomach as he was sent down on his knees.
Karen looked at the dark hero with wide eyes. She looked at her hands and muttered.
"My body feels so light..."
The prince quickly went up to the dark hero.
"Hero of darkness... are you alright?"
It appeared that hearing the prince knocked him out of his daze as he stood up immediately.
"*cough* Y-you're not half-bad, it seems I've underestimated you. Now, prepare to face my true power!"
The dark hero aimed his palms at Karen.
"[Dark Ball]!"
Nobody had taught him but with his experience on Earth, he could somehow figure out how to cast a basic spell.
The ball of darkness wasn't fast. Karen had enough time to pick up her sword and get into a defensive stance but as soon as the ball hit her sword, it exploded and sent her crashing into the floor a few meters away.
The power behind the ball wasn't much, or perhaps it was just her identity as a hero, but it had just pushed her and failed to do any real damage. In fact, she was sure that a punch would hurt more.
Seeing as how the dark hero finally launched a magic attack, the prince stood in front of him.
"Hero of darkness, please stop! If you go any further, I will be your opponent!"
Hearing the prince, the dark hero scoffed.
"You? The pampered prince thnks he's able to defeat me, the Hell Fang Iron Hero of Camelot?!"
The fact that he could use magic had gotten to his head. Perhaps he really thought he was invincible.
The earth hero, the other woman on the hero side snorted.
"What a pathetic man. He can't even hold a candle to my Daiki, right?"
She said to the wind hero while grabbing onto his arm.
"Hmph."
The wind hero turned his head to the side as if such comments were beneath him but the smile forming from the creases on the side of his mouth betrayed his true feelings.
The prince grit his teeth and began to use magic to stop the rampaging dark hero. Although they were all amateurs when it came to manipulating magic, they all felt that the prince's magic was different from the dark hero's. Not just in the looks, but its strength. Was it the intuition of heroes? They all instinctively knew that the prince's magic was dangerous.
The fireballs gathered around the prince all began to aim for the dark hero.
"Hero of darkness, please surrender."
The dark hero's body was trembling. Like the other heroes, he could tell that the prince's magic was levels above his. No, they weren't even something that could be mentioned in the same breath. On one side was the dark hero at F-class while on the other side was a prince at A-class.
Although the dark hero was rash, he wasn't stupid enough to face that.
"...Fine, I'll let you all go for now."
Still, he couldn't let go of his arrogant bearing.
The prince breathed a sigh of relief and dispersed the fireballs surrounding him.
Now that everyone had cooled off because of the prince, they could finally hold proper conversations.
"...Kawano Shunsuke, Shunsuke is my given name while Kawano is my last name."
Perhaps because he found out that his power wasn't exactly strong enough for him to resist anyone, he became a lot more normal compared to before. Shunsuke, the dark hero introduced himself reluctantly.
"I am Akagi Karen, Karen is my given name and Akagi is my last name. I'm apparently the light hero, I hope we all get along."
Karen introduced herself right after. Perhaps it was because they were briefed that light and darkness were superior to the other elements, they had been told to introduce themselves first and it seemed like the other heroes agreed.
"I'm Rob Johnson, the fire hero!"
Without minding the other heroes, he introduced himself immediately after Karen.
"Amano Daiki, I'll say this now but I believe that all of you are going to be worthless in the future."
The wind hero, Daiki spoke in a condescending tone.
"Himekawa Ayano, I don't care about anyone else but Daiki."
Karen looked at her as if she seemed familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on who she was. Well, considering they were from the same country, they might've run into each other at one point.
"Sophia Adlet, water hero. I hope we can all get along."
Though I doubt that's going to happen.
Swallowing her next words, Sophia remained passive after introducing herself.
"I'm the Crown Prince of Auparith Kingdom, Raul Gylbard. Though, now, the kingdom is reduced to a few hundred."
He gave a self-deprecating laugh before continuing. With introductions out of the way, it should've all gone smoothly but...
"But why did it end up like this...?!"
It only took a few more hours before the wind hero and the earth hero departed together. The dark hero and fire hero also left separately. Seeing as how the water hero and light hero were a lot more peaceful than the other heroes, the prince stuck with them.
"My apologies... I already feel horrible that we had to summon you from your world so I couldn't really push matters..."
Karen waved her hands at the prince.
"It's fine. Despite most of us being from the same country which is also famous for its hospitality, they were quite violent."
Karen felt a headache thinking of the days to come. They were told the truth the moment they came here, that once summoned, it would be difficult for them to return as there was currently no way to do so. But, since she had already died, then she decided to make full use of her life in this world, even as a hero.
"...I'm actually looking forward to the future."
The water hero, Sophia muttered in amusement.
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Kai knocked thrice on the door before asking for permission to enter. Once he got into the room, the door closed behind him but he kept his eyes on front. There, the chairman who had his eyes on Kai’s armor sat behind a desk and by his sides was two S-class.
"Welcome Mr. Satou Kenji. I've heard of your exploits these past few days and I even personally saw your performance in the tournament."
Meaning that he already knew Kai was stronger than he seemed.
"Then, that makes things faster. What do you want?"
Kai glared at the chairman. In response to this, the two S-class by the chairman's side released some mana to pressure Kai but let alone be pressured, he didn't even flinch. The chairman didn't mind his lack of manners, the temptation of living metal was just too much.
"I'm afraid I have to confiscate your armor of blades temporarily."