A/N: First fic, shield hero discord please don't kill me.

I woke up feeling heavy and tired, lacking all motivation to move. I had never gotten drunk in my life but this is was probably what a hangover felt like. I wanted to move, to figure out what the hell just happened. All I could remember was that he was at the library reading a book titled "The Record of the Four Holy Weapons". When suddenly, everything went poof got all weird. Mustering all of my motivation, I stood up and looked around.

I was in a soft bed, in a relatively small room. I had no injuries, from what I could see but my head still hurt like hell. After, a minute or two of looking around, I realized something was off with my field of vision. There were icons on the top left corner of my vision like a party system. The icons also said had his name and right next to it something about his HP (I guessed that meant health points like in the games he'd played before), MP (That usually stood for magic or whatever, I'm pretty sure), and SP. I had a gist of what most of this meant but I was still confused. There were also names right below his.

"Raph-Raphtalia and Fi- Filo?" I mumbled, confused. This was like a video game, the icons in his vision were something you would call a HUD in gamer terms. If this was true then how did he already have a party? And his level was also pretty high. It was somewhere in the 100's. Did that mean this was a game?

'No way, there's no way that can be true.' I shook my head. That was too farfetched. Maybe he was dreaming?

But everything in the room looked real. There was even a potted plant on a table right next to him. I reached out to touch it and it felt real. Something tangible I could hold. I even tried to pinch myself to wake myself up but nothing happened. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me but this was real.

'I'm getting kinda weirded out' I tried to stand up from the bed but felt a weight on my right arm. It was a shield that had a gem-encrusted in the middle of it.

"Okay, this is extremely weird," I muttered under my breath.

A shield? Like the Shield Hero from that book he read? Like I said before, a shield wasn't really a weapon, it was more like armor. I decided to test something out.

I tried to take it off but it wouldn't budge. I tried for another 4 minutes or so and succeeded by taking it off and throwing it to the corner of the room. I whooped triumphantly until it just rematerialized on my arm. So I couldn't take it off? How was he supposed to shower?

I needed answers and soon realized the door was open. I was gonna look if anyone was around. I could hear children playing outside so there must be someone who had answers for me.

I stood up and headed for the door, and met a woman with animal ears on the other side holding up a tray of food.

"Mast- Master Naofumi, I didn't think you'd be up this fast, Um-" The woman looked surprised but also relieved. She was beautiful, that was for sure, and he caught himself staring at her. The woman was wearing armor and had- what? Were those ears? They kind of looked like a raccoon's but not really. Maybe a tanuki? Maybe she was cosplaying or something?

She must've been embarrassed by me looking at her as she quickly blushed.

"Master Naofumi, you should lay down, that enemy really did a number on you." Her blush quickly faded as she started to look more worried and stern.

"Not to be rude but, uh excuse me who are you, where am I, and why am I here?" I asked politely. He didn't want to be so straightforward but I couldn't beat around the bush.

"It's me, Raphtalia!" Raphtalia looked at me even more worried than before.

"Well it was nice meeting you Raphtalia, thanks for the food, and-" I was interrupted by a little girl's voice behind Raphtalia.

"Master's awake big sis?" asked a blonde girl with angel wings wearing a dress, who was yawning while rubbing her eyes.

"Go play with Melty, there's something wrong with Naofumi." Raphtalia stared at me and her brows furrowed. The girl named Filo looked concerned but decided to listen to Raphtalia. She ran off and left the two of us alone.

"Hey, I'll just go an-" I was interrupted by someone again, this time it was a teenager with short black hair and blue eyes. He had that calm and collected teenager look and looked like he would be a typical protagonist in an anime or something. He appeared right behind Raphtalia out of nowhere.

"Hey, Naofumi, you're awake already? We were kinda worried about you man." The teenager said with a slightly relieved expression.

"Something's wrong with him, he doesn't know who I am-" Raphtalia told the teenager.

I interrupted them, "So what's going on here, who are you people?" I asked clearly confused.

"Wait, what do you mean he doesn't know who you are?" The teenager said worryingly, his face in thought.

"What did that guy do to him, Ren?" Raphtalia asked Ren who was staring at me, getting more concerned by the second.

"We can't know for sure but-" I cut him off.

"That didn't answer my question. Now again, who are you, people?" I asked them, my brain felt so overloaded with weird, I could've sworn it would explode

"Well, it's better if we meet up with the others, we can explain to you on the way" Ren gestured for me to follow him, Raphtalia was also tagging along right behind him.

We left the relatively small house and I was greeted by the site of a bustling village. There were kids who for some reason also had animal ears who were around 12-14 playing around and working around the village. Some people looked like knights standing guard. There were also some adults who also had animal ears watching the kids play and doing busy work around the village

"Well for starters, you don't recognize me or Raphtalia," Ren asked with a confused look on his face. I simply nodded.

"Would you like the short version of what happened or the long version?" Ren asked me while walking past a few kids playing tag.

"Uh, I guess the long version?" I was still confused but he thought he should get the full version of events that transpired that led to this moment.

Ren sighed and proceeded to recap the events of what had happened in the past months or so.

"Basically you and I were summoned with 2 other people to this magical world, with nothing but the clothes on our back and our "Legendary" Weapons. We were told about an ancient world-ending prophecy that the world would experience "Waves" and that if we didn't stop them, the world would cease to exist." Ren explained. I was flabbergasted but kept listening as we walked around the town.

"After being told that, we split off in our separate ways and because you were the luckiest guy alive, you were partnered up with some girl named Malty."(I really couldn't explain it but I swore when I heard that name, I felt a small hint of anger and irritation rising. Weird.).

"She backstabbed you, and basically left you penniless and partyless, that is until you bought Raphtalia over there." Ren gestured to Raphtalia as my mind had officially reached weirdness capacity.

"Wh-Wh- did you just say BOUGHT?" I said as my cheeks flushed. I couldn't believe it. I BOUGHT her? Did I do anything bad to her? What the hell drove me to commit literally one of the most heinous acts a human could do to another human.

"Don't worry Master Naofumi, you didn't do anything to me-" Raphtalia's cheeks were flushed too.

"Oh yeah, you also own almost everyone in this village." Ren deadpanned.

I think I need to speak to my past self, although I don't think I'd like to speak to a person who enslaved an entire village.