A part of me was expecting to be severely punished by the emperor for interrupting his speech. Perhaps even being executed. But it couldn’t have been helped, right? He just acknowledged that they had kidnapped—and this totally the right word for what had transpired—us all to their world. And that each of us, supposedly, had been only dreaming about such a fate. He was acting like our kidnapping—that had totally violated our consent and human rights—was not only completely normal, but a favor he had done for us. What else could I call it if not total bullshit? I, for one, had never wanted to go to another world.

“I’m really confused, oh Chosen Hero,” Redion spoke to me, his tone calm and collected, “did something I just say offend you?”

Huh, what’s going on? I thought. He’s already hidden whatever ill intent he had at the moment of my outcry. Strange. Does he have a reason to close his eyes towards my rudeness? A-ha, of course he does! They didn’t summon us just for fun and games, after all. The only reason why a person of power would tolerate disrespect from someone they consider inferior is when they want to use them!

Realizing that the situation wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, I calmed down and my heartbeat slowed. I took a slow breath and met the emperor’s eyes that, unlike his mouth, didn’t smile at all. For the time being, I could speak freely. Though to be completely sure, I’d need to hear the rest of his story, first.

“Excuse my rudeness, Your Majesty.” I made a curt bow before continuing. “I lost control over my emotions for a moment, can I hope for your forgiveness?”

Redion waved his hand dismissively. “It’s not a big deal, Hero. . .What is your name?”

“Jesse, Your Majesty,” I replied. “My name is Jesse Roy.”

The emperor continued in an amiable tone that didn’t trick me, not even for a moment, “I just want to know the reason behind your unusual reaction, Jesse.”

Without showing any weakness in my body language, I proceeded to explain myself, “Your Majesty said that each of us wanted to leave our world for a better place. I can’t speak for the others, but I definitely had no such thoughts. I enjoyed my life back on Earth and had great expectations about my future there.”

“I see.” The emperor nodded before speaking to the twelve sitting Heroes. “Do any one of you share his feelings?”

Almost as one, each of the twelve shook their heads.

“Nah, my life was too boring for my tastes,” said the redhead as she crossed her legs on my seat. She was wearing very tight jean shorts that barely covered her tanned legs. Her white t-shirt was tied at the bottom, exposing her belly with a piercing on her navel. The fabric itself was thin enough for everyone to see the red bra underneath. “And I was already fed up with my sugar daddy. Would you like to have me as your sugar baby, Your Majesty?”

I was speechless at this girl’s shamelessness. And not just me alone, judging from the glances other Heroes were sending her. The emperor and his confidants were unfazed, though.

“A-ahem,” Redion coughed in his fist. “This is a rather abrupt request, my dear guest. I already have a daughter, and I’m not sure that I can adopt someone as old as you. But if you show promise as a Hero, then I will consider your wish. . .”

The emperor completely misunderstood the situation! And if the two women standing near the throne were his daughters, they didn’t seem to understand the meaning of being a sugar daddy, either. Otherwise, they would be more angry than bewildered, right?

“I-I want to be a Hero!” declared my big buddy in the chair left to the girl. “I-I didn’t a-achieve a lot in my past life. . .but now, it’s different! I’ll give my a-all to prove my worth!”

What do you mean, your past life? That which happened to us wasn’t reincarnation, dude! It was a transmigration! Someone like you, of all people, should know the difference, right?!

“Hey, emperor, can you teach us magic already?!” a boy in his mid-teens asked, seated second from the left. His blue hoodie and the large red headphones he was wearing around his neck gave him an edgy look. “Will I be able to do cool stuff like that dude in the golden cloak?”

“You’ll be capable of even more impressive magic than me, young man,” Derryx replied instead of Redion. No one seemed to get angry at the over-familiarity of the brat, which proved my conjecture yet again.

“Cool, cool!” The teenager grinned.

The one person I’d expected to share my dissatisfaction towards unlawful kidnapping was a calm and serious woman who seemed to be a couple of years older than me. She had a plain face with her eyes hidden behind spectacles, and was wearing typical office lady attire. She was slightly chubby and wasn’t my type at all, but she didn’t seem like a teenager or loser to me.

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“My life was awful enough for me to already consider leaping from the roof of a skyscraper,” the woman said, crushing my hopes for her, “so I can’t be more grateful to Your Majesty for summoning me.”

In the end, it turned out that other than me, everyone else was actually glad to be here. Some were even enthusiastic about their new life away from their friends and family. I was the only person normal enough to miss my life back on Earth.

“As you can see, my friend Jesse, the other Heroes don’t share your bewilderment,” Redion said after all other earthlings said their piece. “I’m not blaming, you, though, for the situation this time is unusual, indeed.”

“Yes, this is really different from what our records say about the Summoning Ritual,” added Derryx with a nod.

“Let me guess. . .” It took me but a moment to put two and two together. “Your Ritual kidna. . .ahem, summoned one person more than it should have?”

That assumption was easy to make based on the number of chairs. Of course, it would have been too far-fetched if there was nothing else pointing out the inconsistency.

“You are a very quick-witted person, Hero Jesse.” The way the emperor just called me made me cringe. “I also didn’t miss that you were the first to choose your seat. My empire needs people like you, Hero or otherwise. To answer your question—yes. Things are just as you said.”

At first glance, Redion was praising me. But I also didn’t miss a sort of warning in his words, even if for the time being I couldn’t quite figure out what it could mean.

“According to the ancient records,” Derryx started, “this particular Summoning Ritual was performed eight times in the past. And every time exactly twelve Chosen Heroes were called to Aethelrend. They were thus called the ‘Heroes of Twelve’ and the ritual’s official name is the ‘Ritual of Twelve’.”

Heroes of Twelve what? I thought, but didn’t comment. I had something more important to note.

“So, I’m just an extra?” I concluded out loud, crossing my arms across the chest. “Not a real Hero?”

The emperor shook his head in denial. “You are, unmistakably, a Chosen Hero just like the rest of your group. And we can’t even be sure that you’re the thirteenth person who wouldn’t be here under normal circumstances, it could be anyone else among you. But even if you are the extra, there’s no such thing as a coincidence in ancient magic.”

The emperor didn’t sound very convincing despite his almost overwhelming presence. For one thing, none of the girls could have been the extra, since our group of thirteen had seven males, me included, and six females. And, without a question, a full-fledged successful adult like me was quite an outlier among the so-called Heroes, who accepted way too easily their past lives being taken from them.

“Exactly,” Derryx added, “Her Divine Ladyship, Goddess of Humans and Fate, Aefortunea is the one who guides the Ritual of Twelve. If She decided to bend its rules and call upon an additional Hero, that means that She deemed it necessary for our world. And perhaps for that person as well.”

Thank you very much, oh mighty Goddess! Could you please ask me for my opinion the next time you decide to ruin my date and my career?!

“You shall not worry, Hero Jesse,” said Redion as he looked at me with fake kindness. “As long you complete your sacred duty as a Chosen Hero, you can return to your home world. Though rare, some Heroes of the past did make this choice.”

“Duty, huh?” I murmured with a frown. I didn’t like the sound of it. At last, the emperor was about to reveal how exactly he wanted to use us. I needed to plan my further actions while carefully considering his goals.

“We summoned you for a reason, oh brave Heroes,” the emperor declared to us all as he spread his arms wide. The intensity with which he spoke reminded me of a certain world leader that started World War Two. “Our beautiful world, Aethelrend is about to face a great calamity! Those blessed by the Sin Gods, evil beings known as Dark Lords, gather their power to bring chaos and destruction upon our peaceful lands!”

All eyes were locked on Redion as he explained to us how dire their situation was. His gesticulation was slow but majestic, his voice boomed through the hall like thunder, and, as he continued to speak, more and more invisible power emanated from him. At some point, violet light surrounded his dashing figure as the emperor was levitating a foot above the floor.

“Dark Lords are immensely powerful and know no mercy!” Redion’s deep voice rumbled at us. “Each of their kind can slay armies of brave soldiers, raze cities to the ground, destroy entire nations! And their ranks hold dozens of them! To make matters worse, Dark Lords have servants of their own. Demon clans, each representing a Deadly Sin. Monster hordes, their numbers overwhelming. Devil beasts, cunning and vicious. And the worst of them are the Sin Cultists—spies among our ranks, traitors that could be hidden even among our closest allies.”

If even I was completely entranced by his speech, then what could be said about the other Heroes? I could bet that they were swallowing each word and hoping for more. Though to be honest, so far he was just making us all scared shitless. He would need to really put some effort into making us actually enthusiastic about all this Hero bullshit if he wanted our help.

“But worry not, oh Chosen Heroes!” The emperor gave us a bright, reassuring smile. This time it did reach his eyes, and I was almost convinced that it was sincere. Almost. “You shall have no need to fear! For you are our hope. Our future. Our saviors. I know it’s really hard for you to believe that you could face such mighty foes in battle. And you are right—the current you can’t hurt even the weakest of their servants. But believe me when I say that your success is inevitable, for you have limitless potential for growth! Growth that my Empire will guarantee.”

Those were simple and empty promises. We had no reason to believe him. And I didn’t. It didn’t change the fact that his words provoked gasps from some of the Heroes. From most of them, actually. As the one standing at the front of the group, I couldn’t see their eyes, though. And I could bet that Redion hadn’t even started his actual motivation campaign. Not yet.

“Chosen from among billions of your world’s inhabitants and blessed by our Goddess, you are the beings that can achieve unrivaled power,” the emperor slowly explained. “You will enroll in Al’Delia Royal Academy of Magic Combat, where you’ll be taught by the bravest Knights and Paladins, the wisest Mages and Archmages, the strongest Champions and Paragons. As the saying goes, it’s better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times. Let me demonstrate for you what kind of instructors you’ll have and what kind of power you can achieve.”

At that point, Redion started to do something strange. Okay, that was the wrong way to put it. He started to do some fucking terrifying shit. Still levitating in the air, he raised his right arm vertically, as if trying to reach the ceiling. I was sure that he actually could do that if he really wanted by flying up, but apparently his purpose was different. The violet light that had been floating around the emperor started to gather at one point right before his outstretched palm. Then he made a grasping motion with his hand, and the light turned into a wide blade of violet lightning. Of course, just like throughout all of his speech, I was still standing just a dozen feet away from him.

The blade of lightning was about ten feet at each side and a couple of inches in width. I really didn’t want it to be pointed towards me. I really, really, didn’t. But no one was asking me. Definitely not the crazy emperor who was about to slash his blade of destructive energy at me! Yes, right at me!

So incidentally pissing him off was a mistake, after all. . .

Those were my last thoughts. . . Or were they?