Chapter 2: New World
"Where are we? What is this place?!" Yuji was the first to recover and demand an answer to the questions foremost in all our minds.
"You are in the kingdom of Altier, I am Cardinal Videl Siejy. I have summoned you to be heroes and save the kingdom. If the coming threat is not stopped, it will mean the end of the world and the death of all mankind," the priest guy answered piously. It was his voice that had greeted us.
A glowing blue screen popped up in front of me.
｢You have been {Charmed}｣
It was visible only long enough for me to read before disappearing.
I looked at the other students near me and thought from their expressions that the same thing must have happened to them, glowing notification screens that appeared out of nowhere.
I must be dreaming. This is like something out of those crazy novels Haru likes so much.
I pinched myself and felt pain. Not a dream, I took deep breaths to try to calm myself.
There was a quick way to verify my suspicions.
"Status screen!" I whispered, not wanting my classmates to hear.
Lo and behold a blue translucent screen did actually appear, confirming my theory. I skimmed through the glowing text.
｢Name: Daiki Genkaku
Primary Class: -
Race: Human
Level: 1
Health: 100
Mana: 100
Stamina: 100
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 10
Wisdom: 10
Intelligence: 10
Luck: 1
Titles: The Loser｣
Oh bollocks.
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It worked, so I wasn’t dreaming. But I had a feeling it was the start of a waking nightmare.
My attributes didn’t look like much, no number different than the other except for an abysmal Luck stat.
Haru looked at me expectantly, he must have heard me call for my status screen.
"Did it work?" he whispered.
I was still staring at the screen in front of me, so I just nodded slightly in reply.
"Status screen!" he said in a loud, excited voice.
Of course, everyone heard him and turned toward us. I rolled my eyes. Jeez, the guy had no sense of discretion.
Haru was bouncing in place again as he stared at the empty space in front of him, wide-eyed with glee.
"Nothing overpowered, but not bad. Ah man, what’s with the title?" he groaned.
Unfortunately, the cardinal had noticed us.
"You there! How is it that you know how our world works? Are you a spy, or have you been summoned before?" he asked harshly. He sounded shocked, and a little angry too.
"No," I answered with everyone staring at us, "Nothing like that. Our world has games and stories which describe situations similar to how things work here. Even though I still have trouble believing it, all those stories might have had some truth to-"
Yuji looked at me as if I was even more of a weirdo and pariah than ever.
"What the hell are you talking about, Loser?"
"Say ‘status screen’ and see for yourself," I replied indifferently.
He hesitated for a moment then called out, "Status screen!"
Just like Haru had done, Yuji stared at the empty air in front of him.
Still looking he exclaimed, "This really is just like a game. I have stats, levels and I even have a title, which says I’m a ‘Hero’ of course."
Yuji, a Hero? That’s a load of something ripe and smelly.
We’d just gotten here and somehow that silver-spoon sucking tool gets the title ‘Hero,’ but I’m still ‘The Loser’. There’s no justice in this world or the last one.
Yuji puffed out his chest and the usual smirk on his face became even more haughty and self-satisfied, something I didn’t think was possible. But hey, we were in a world of magic and superpowers.
While I was fuming at the unfairness of life, the other students had been checking their status screens and looking at their titles. There were exclamations of disappointment or triumph, fist pumps, and I even saw one student blush bright red for some reason. Yet the vast majority of the students were either crying, whining, or complaining that they wanted to go back home.
I hesitated, then turned to the now perplexed looking cardinal, "Why did you summon us all? What is expected of us?"
The old man sighed theatrically, his expression became sorrowful and grave as if he was going to tell a mother that her young child is dying.
"We summoned you here to save our world from a terrible threat. The ritual should only have brought five heroes. Still, with so many of you, our chances of defeating the Demon King are better."
I barely stopped my eyes from rolling.
The Demon King? What a fucking cliché.
"You want us to fight your enemy," I spoke bluntly to the holy man, "Why should we get involved in a conflict that has nothing to do with us? We have nothing to gain from risking ourselves for your cause."
"Simple," answered the cardinal. "The Demon King has magic that can return you to your world. We verified this after the last Demon King died. The heroes that were summoned at that time used his magic to go back."
"So you have summoned others before us?"
"The last summoning was over a hundred years ago when our forefathers were as desperate as we are now. Thankfully, the power of the summoned heroes was enough to defeat that incarnation of the Demon King."
I mentally groaned. I didn’t buy the holy man’s scripted propaganda for a second. It was too obviously a bunch of horseshit. First, this holy-roller kidnaps us with magic, only to offer us a way to get home which (oh-so-conveniently for him) requires us to fight his enemy. We were being manipulated and used.
｢Using your brain to reason through a problem has increased your:
Wisdom +1
Intelligence +1｣
Heh, and that notification just proves I’m right about the cardinal.
"Well, your holiness, you have more than enough heroes here and my title suggests I’m not going to be any help in a fight. So I’m just going to run along and do my own thing."
The Cardinal obviously didn’t like my idea or my attitude. The glare he sent my way and the knights all putting their hands on the pommels of their swords were dead giveaways.
"I’m afraid you don’t understand your place, young man."
｢You have been afflicted with {Fear}.
All stats reduced by 10%｣
Figures, just walking away from this cluster would have been too easy.