Kyoji was… disappointed. When they’d been summoned to this world, he’d first thought that they’d become [Heroes], respected and envied by the masses for both their roles and the amazing powers they’d have. Never had he been as disappointed as he’d been in all of his seventeen years of life as when they’d all been collared and caged like animals. Showing that this was one of those shitty isekai settings he’d always hated reading.
Still, he’d held on, hoping that things would change for them. And, sure enough, they had when their savior, Joram, had arrived.
Now?
He was disappointed again, this time for another reason entirely. Well, maybe a couple of reasons, if he was being honest with himself.
First, the Skills he’d gotten for being pulled into this world weren’t what he’d ever remotely hoped for. [Heal: 5], while being a Legendary Skill, wasn’t very… heroic. Nor was [Cure: Panacea]- another Legendary Skill-, his other granted Skill.
Even his “massive” Attribute, Spirit, wasn’t anything heroic in his eyes. Sure, they said that starting with a Spirit of 25 was unheard of, and quite amazing, all-told. But. It wasn’t anything like that Canadian girl, Sara, who had an awesome Attribute like Speed that was her granted ability from the “Great Protector”.
They said that her Skills were just Common and Uncommon ones, but that they were already at the “Greater” level was, apparently, remarkable. So, she got to do awesome training with the dark elf, Arise, as well as the stunning Qyress. While he was stuck with an older foxkin woman named Lory.
While Lory was nice, she certainly wasn’t someone who brooked anything less than total attention while she was teaching.
Kyoji suppressed a sigh before it could escape his mouth and get him into more hot water than he would have liked. At least the stunning Myra Manelle’s training was after this.
Two weeks. Two weeks of training six days a week, from sun-up to sun-down. The mornings with Lory and the afternoons with Myra. He wasn’t sure which instructor was more exacting in their expectations.
He was glad, though, that he’d developed the skill in high school of paying attention with one ear while in class while his mind was off someplace else, as Lory would often break off her lecture to suddenly ask him a question or six. Which is what had just happened.
“Please describe the inner structure of the abdomen. Specifically, which organs are where, and which ones can wait to be healed before others,” Lory asked, prompting him to quickly review the biology lessons he’d been subjected to over the past two weeks.
After giving an answer that seemed to satisfy the fox oba-san, his mind went back to reflecting on, well, his new life.
That Joram fellow hadn’t been around much, but he’d learned- very quickly- that he was basically considered a right proper [Hero] by not just the girls and young women that made up the population of his small village, but also by the residents of Kirkwall, the town just a couple of kilometres to the east.
Having been regaled many times by the former slaves Joram had bought and freed, he’d learned that Joram was probably a true Hero here, and not just in name. The man- only about a year or so older than him- had only been in this world for a few months now. Four? Something like that.
But in that time, he’d made quite the name for himself. From fighting goblins, defending Kirkwall, single-handedly digging the ditch/mote thing around Kirkwall, to pretty much soloing a Dungeon meant for a very high-level party, to buying and freeing about a hundred slaves, all the way to building everything out there.
It was, quite frankly, a daunting list of achievements for anyone, let alone someone who’d only been there for a few months.
Besides being ridiculously handsome- he could admit it, he was very secure in his own masculinity after all-, Joram was also humble! Which had made things very hard for Kyoji. Specifically, when it came to Tomoe. He’d been crushing on her since middle school when she’d transferred to his school. That they’d wound up in the same high school had been like a sign from the heavens that they had been meant to be together.
It was just that he hadn’t had the courage to approach the idol of their year, in each of the following three years they’d spent in the same class. Which had, once again, felt like a sign from the heavens when they’d been miraculously assigned to the same class for so many years in a row. Though, it had also felt like a cosmic joke on him due to his inability to express how he felt about her.
This time he couldn’t suppress a sigh before it escaped his lips, making his eyes widen in horror as Lory turned around from writing on the chalkboard to look at him.
“It’s close enough to lunch time,” she said with an oddly understanding look on her face. “Get going. I’m sure that you could use the fresh air,” she finished, though given just how crazy the ventilation system was in the Academy, her last comment seemed more like her throwing him a bone than anything else.
“Thank you, sensei,” he said, reflexively falling back into old habits.
Fortunately, he’d already explained what the word meant, which meant that Lory just nodded before turning back to the chalkboard to finish what she’d been doing before he’d interrupted her.
As he got to the door, Ilyenna-chan- one of his other two morning class-mates- paused politely for him to go first. He smiled and bobbed his head slightly at her before quickly stepping out of class and into the hallway.
They’d all gotten used to eating at the cafeteria that they’d first eaten at, but had eventually just switched to the one here at the academy for the sake of expediency. It was a good ten minute walk to get there from the edge of campus, which would cut into their down-time before the afternoon class(es) started.
It was still odd to him, though. Joram had given each of them a dark-silvery ring the day after they’d arrived, letting them know what it would do for them. A [Ring of Sustenance], as he called it, allowed the wearer to not only get by without eating or drinking, but also reduced the sleep the wearer needed to only two hours per night. It was, quite frankly, an item any Asian student would likely kill to get their hands on.
Only two hours of sleep!! He silently marvelled, still in awe over having received such a precious item. Then he began to wonder if it would still work back on Earth… if they ever got to go back, that is.
That was the other thing: they’d flat-out asked if it was possible to return home one day. The answer hadn’t been anywhere near what they’d hoped.
“Not that I know of,” Asami Miki said, shaking her head, distracting him with how amazingly soft and fluffy-looking her ears were.
“So, what do we do, then? I am reasonably sure that none of us want to stay here playing at the sacrificial hero,” Seif said, the one surviving Egyptian, as he certainly looked ill at ease to be there.
“That’s up to you,” Myra Manelle had said with a shrug, also distracting him from the topic at hand, but for different reasons. “Joran said that he should be finished with a- an academy, of sorts, later today. Maybe early tomorrow morning, depending on how things go.
“That said, I’m sure that everyone can take their time learning something while he works on the… issue,” Myra Manelle said, trailing off at the end.
It certainly was an “issue”, that was for sure. Never mind the ones who’d been killed, how were they going to explain where they’d been or even how they’d returned? Would they keep their new, for lack of a better word, superpowers? And what would that lead to?
He was very much conflicted over the matter, truth be told.
His father was a widower and a workaholic. Not only that, but he’d been sent off to live in his own little apartment when he’d started high school, getting one call a month to check up on him the same day he’d receive his monthly stipend/living allowance.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Both of his parents had been the only child their parents had, leaving him with no extended family to speak of. But, that wasn’t the case for the three girls who’d survived with him. So, what to do?
He somewhat enjoyed the thought of remaining in a new world, one where he could live at his own pace and not have to worry about keeping a minimum GPA set by his father….
Though, if Miss Lory was any indication, he’d not be able to even remotely slack off in his learning here. Though, in a sense, it was sort of nice being in a class that only had a few students, making the classroom feel so much more… personal. Intimate, but not in a weird way.
At any rate, most of the others had fallen into school life again, probably due to how familiar that routine was for them. And, honestly, also probably how comforting it was to have such a normal thing to do. Heck, in the last few days, he’d even started to hear talk about trying out Joram’s personal Dungeon. Which, they were told in no uncertain terms, was beyond ridiculous.
Not wanting to try the Dungeon, no. That was normal here. It was the fact that he had is own personal Dungeon! Something, he was also told, would normally be under the purview of the local mayor or lord. Not something personally owned by someone like… a commoner.
He shook his head, wondering at the weirdness of the world, and also just how similar it felt to most isekai literature he’d read over the years. A System, Levels, Skills, Health Points, Mana Points… Classes. Everything!
Between Seif, the Egyptian, and Anton- a Ukrainian who’d joined a sort of militia to fight the Big Bad-, there were at least two vocal people wanting to go home as soon as possible. And who hadn’t taken a liking to their new world. Not that he could blame them, not at all. They had, after all, had to watch as their fellow countrymen were taken one-by-one to never return.
Well, they weren’t the only ones to see their countrymen taken away to never return, but they were certainly the most vocal about returning to Earth. And not participating in the activities of the Academy.
“What’s on your mind?” Tomoe asked, lightly elbowing him in the side to get his attention.
He blinked as he realized that he’d been on autopilot, his feet having taken him to the Academy’s underpopulated cafeteria where Nami and Mitsuko were already grabbing food from the buffet-style island near the kitchens. He didn’t know why they bothered with the food, other than they were perhaps taking comfort in simple creature comforts.
“Just thinking about the future,” he said with a shrug, knowing that his three classmates were on Team “Going Home”.
“Mmnmm,” Tomoe hummed, nodding as she grabbed a salad of some sort before grabbing- of all things- a can of Coke and stepping over to a table close by.
“So,” he started, not really knowing what to say, then latching on to a sort of normal topic. “How’re your classes going?”
Tomoe blinked at him as her hand paused in pulling the tab on the can, then finished before taking a sip. She seemed to take in the flavour for a few moments before she finally looked at him and forced a smile.
“Surprisingly, the ‘demon’ Arise is actually the… easiest to get along with,” she said, then shook her head slightly as she seemed to suppress a shudder. “Myra is… well. She’s certainly… driven,” Tomoe finished, obviously working hard to be polite with her wording.
Given what he’d seen of Myra Manelle over the past two weeks, he wasn’t entirely sure if that assessment was accurate or not. If anything, Myra Manelle was… mopey. He thought that it might have been because their benefactor, Joram Smith, had been away on “business” since their second day at his… community? Village?
People called it an orphanage, and he could certainly see that there were enough young people to merit that appellation. The thing was, he’d only seen young women here. Was it a new sort of orphanage that was all-girl? Like some schools back home were?
Anyways, he’d noticed that Myra Manelle’s mood had steadily dropped as the days had passed by without Joram Smith returning. In fact, he also noticed that Asami Miki’s mood had also slowly devolved until not many people would approach the woman. Even the foxes, or “Spirit Foxes” as people called them, weren’t as friendly as they’d been when he and the others had arrived.
“But that’s what it is,” Tomoe said, bringing his thoughts back to the present. “How’re your classes going? I remember that your grades weren’t the best in biology,” she said teasingly, obviously trying to lighten the mood.
“Ah~, don’t remind me,” he said as his head bowed slightly. “It’s not as detailed here as back home, but having to learn all new terminology, along with the biology of new races, isn’t fun,” he said, shaking his head.
“You’ll be fine,” Nami said with a grin. “Besides, don’t most guys fantasize about ‘treating’ animal-eared girls?” she asked as her grin turned a bit lecherous.
He paused as he was about to deny that fact, but then swallowed said denial for fear of uttering a lie. It was true that there were many people out there who fantasized about animal-eared, and tailed, people. Was he one of them?
Thinking about the many forms of media back home that had portrayed “beastmen” in their various forms, he could honestly say that most hadn’t appealed to him very much at all. Now that they were in front of him, he wasn’t so sure that he could still say the same thing.
“It’s different,” he said, shaking his head. “Even though I never thought I’d be some sort of doctor, especially a magical one, it doesn’t change the sacred duty one takes on as a healer of any sort,” he said, drawing hard on the [Divine Arte of Bullshittery], a skill that allowed him to basically make things up without having to actively lie about something. Also, not an actual Skill, but something that he’d developed growing up.
“Uh-huh,” Nami said, obviously not buying it. “Anyways, things here at least seem nice enough,” she said, rudely pointing around with her chopsticks, likely indicating not just the room they were in, but the entirety of Joram’s little village. “If there really isn’t a way home from here- and I’m stressing the ‘if’- then this place doesn’t seem too bad to me,” she finished with a shrug that he couldn’t help but agree with.
It was certainly infinitely better than the people they’d been summoned by, that was for sure.
“You’re not scared to start Dungeon Diving?” Mitsuko asked with a slight frown.
“From what I hear, Mr Smith’s Dungeons are… easy, compared to most,” Tomoe said, now also frowning slightly. “Though, I’m not sure how easy it’ll be for me to kill farm animals,” she finished with a slightly disturbed look.
Kyoji nodded his understanding, not-so-secretly sharing her feelings on that.
They came from the very modern, and civilized, Japan that had conveniently pre-packed meats. No longer did your average citizen need to slaughter and prepare their farm animals for consumption. Nope! No need to get your hands dirty beyond meal-prep. Now?
“I’m sure we’ll get used to it,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster. “Besides! Isn’t it much better than fighting goblins, or something equally… revolting?”
His three classmates paled at the thought of fighting those notoriously cunning, vicious, evil, and lustful green menaces. But they were also probably imagining killing a sapient being for the first time, just like how he was trying not to imagine having to do such a thing. He was suddenly very glad that he was a [Healer] type.
Heck, his Class, or Path, as they called it here, was [Hero: Healer] for crying out loud!
“Yeah, maybe I’ll hold off a bit longer,” Nami said with a slight shudder.
The conversation died off then, leaving them to eat in silence for a while before they eventually parted ways, heading to their afternoon classes. Which, really, was actually less desirable for him than the uncomfortable silence that had fallen upon them.
“All right!”, Myra called out, getting their attention shortly after he arrived. “Today we’re in for a treat! Instructor Miki will be joining us for the practical portion of today’s lesson!”
Kyoji didn’t even bother trying to suppress the shudder that came upon him this time at the thought of Asami Miki joining today’s lesson. For as harsh as Myra Manelle could be, she paled in comparison to Asami Miki, who was able to floor anyone who she was paired with as though she could read their minds.
Firming his resolve, Kyoji also mentally prepared to have his ass handed to him.
* * *
Joram heaved a sigh of relief as he was finally “allowed” to leave today’s interrogation.
Erys, though, didn’t seem too phased by it all, likely thinking of everything as a mere moment of time, a blink of the eye for a dragon. She was probably right. And even though he was now technically immortal, he’d grown up a human who would literally count the minutes before a tedious thing ended. Like school, or these seemingly endless interrogations- er, “interviews”, as the Queen was calling them.
Heaven forbid that the royalty and nobility be seen as anything resembling something as low as a common investigator.
Which wasn’t fair, really. To the Queen, who at least seemed semi-reasonable compared to everyone else he’d had to deal with. Like the families of the various “nobles” who’d been killed in the raid of the illegal [Hero] Summoning camp. The very same people who were trying to throw shade on him, and to some extent Erys, though not too much for fear of angering an Elder Dragon.
He nearly snorted out a laugh, then, as he imagined what their faces would look like if they knew that he’d already beaten Erys and who, as a result of that, was pursuing him romantically.
“Do you think they’ll be done with us any time soon?” he asked Erys once the door to their rooms was closed and the wards activated.
“Who knows?” she asked with a shrug that jiggled her chest a bit too much to seem normal. “Humans, at least, go quickly with their investigations,” she said, confirming his thoughts on her perception of time.
Grunting, he plopped down on a comfy chair that he [Summon]ed, preferring that over using the so-called furniture that came with their rooms.
“At least the land and property transfers went smoothly enough,” he said, remembering just how quickly Matun al’Maim had settled everything once Joram had arrived.
The things that hadn’t gone well were the various transfers of contracts, or the cancellation of a good deal of those contracts. Not to mention going through the staff, keeping only a fraction of them due to moral reasons, and hiring new ones to replace them as he renovated the properties.
“At least the restructuring is all done,” he said, referring to the new business plan and staff of Myriad Wonders.
Erys just shrugged again as she once more raided this world’s equivalent of a booze fridge you’d find in most hotel rooms back on Earth.
“So, what’s next?” Erys asked after taking a long draw of what looked like an expensive wine.
“Well, once we’re ‘cleared’ of having done what the Queendom should have done in the first place, I’ll see about getting official area rites for my land.”
“Didn’t you already buy it?” she asked, looking puzzled.
“I did, but it’s still under the jurisdiction of the local count, like Kirkwall itself,” he said, shaking his head. “If I can get set up as a proper landowner, things’ll go much more smoothly,” he said, wondering just how hard it would be to do that.