Chapter 9 the Heroes Arrival
If Naofumi Iwatani was being honest with himself he had no idea how this had happened, one minute he was in the library browsing the light novel section and in the next minute he was sucked into one of the books he was reading and summoned to a new world with a shield magically being strapped to his arm, it was something he had a hard time believing but everything around him was undeniably real from the hard stone floor beneath his feet to the warm Mediterranean air that brushed against his skin, there was no denying this was real.
Currently he was being lead to the throne room with three others who had been summoned with him a tall blonde man with a spear, a short black haired kid with a sword and another short kid with curly brown hair and a bow.
When they got to the throne room the king greeted all of them, well all of them except Naofumi and when he interrupted to point this out the other heroes chastised him, but he did get to introduce himself and after the introduction the king explained the situation to them, that their world was threatened by something called 'The Waves of Calamity' and they needed them to protect their world.
''We underestimated the potency of the Waves, once we experienced the first one and barely survived we realised only the four cardinal heroes could stop them so we followed the legends and summoned you four'' said the king, after he said that Naofumi realised that this sounded exactly like that book he had been reading.
But after the situation was explained the other three heroes spoke up ''I think we get the gist of it, anyways I'm sure you didn't bring us here thinking we'd save you for free'' said Ren.
''Of course, once you've defeated all the Waves we will pay you most handsomely'' said the man stood next to the king, he had a necklace around his neck with a charm that looked like a combination of a spear, sword and bow.
''Yeah, well it seems we have no choice but to take you up at your word'' said Motoyasu.
''As long as you don't renege, but don't think for a moment you can tame us'' said Ren.
''Exactly, we won't put up with you looking down on us'' said Itsuki.
''Y-yeah'' Naofumi stuttered out, but he couldn't help but feel like the other three heroes sounded so full of themselves and they had the gall to tell him that he was disrespectful.
They then learned a bit about how the world worked and it seemed to function like a video game and they also learned the the four weapons didn't work in tandem with each other.
''Since the sun is about to set-''
''WHERE IS HE!''
A loud shout echoed through the halls of castle and into the throne room which caused everyone to jump and shiver, jump at the volume of the shout and shiver at how angry the shouter sounded.
The throne room doors burst open to reveal a young woman who looked around the same age as Naofumi and Motoyasu, she had red hair, she was tall and well built and she looked absolutely livid, her face was as red as her hair which was quite messy, that coupled with her seething made her look even more furious.
''You'' she seethed looking directly at the king, she started marching forwards only for two women to rush up behind her a woman with pink hair who was the same age as the red head and a girl with green hair who seemed to be the same age as Ren or Itsuki judging by her height, the pink haired woman grabbed the angry red head around the waist while the green haired girl jumped to grab her around the hips, despite this the red haired woman continued to power forwards dragging the woman feet and the girls legs across the floor ''let go of me Eclair! You too Rishia!''
''Not until you calm down!''
''We're trying to stop you before you do something you regret!''
''Too late I've already done something I regret, not killing that dumbass!'' the red haired woman screamed.
The king looked visibly frightened, but quickly calmed down ''M-Malty my dear-''
''Do not take that tone with me you- you- you big dumbass!'' The woman, now named Malty, screamed ''do you have any idea what the hell you've just done!''
The man stood next to the king them stepped forwards and spoke up ''now, now Princess Malty lets calm down shall we'' it surprised the heroes to learn that this was the kingdoms princess ''I know you disagree with summoning the heroes but based upon the threat you've just seen you must understand this was the only choice and with Duke Seaetto dead his majesty needed to make a choice, now you have committed a rather grave crime by threatening the crown but considering your royalty as well I'm sure-''
''Excuse me who said I'm dead'' said another voice and a man with pink hair entered the throne room permitting a gasp.
''D-Duke Seaetto, your alive'' the king stammered.
''Surprised?'' The Duke asked with a quirk of his brow on his blank face.
''Yes, we were told by the churches own shadows you died in the Wave, I guess that was just poor information gathering on our end'' said the kings advisor.
''Yes, its quite fortunate your alive'' stated the king.
''Indeed and I see you summoned the four heroes without my or the Queens consent'' said the Duke.
This confused Naofumi, why did the king need to ask the Queen or the Duke's permission? But his thoughts were interrupted by the princess crying out ''do you realise what you've done!''
''How can I calm down Eclair!'' Princess Malty cried ''mother and Melty are now in the worst position in the world and its all his fault!'' With that the Princess broke down in tears, the two girls hugged and comforted the crying princess, it felt awful to watch but Naofumi didn't know what else he could do.
''Eclair, Rishia take the princess to her room please'' ordered Duke Seaetto, the two nodded and started to lead the sobbing princess away with the green haired girl, Rishia was what naofumi thought her name was, briefly flipping the king and his advisor off, the Duke then turned to a maid ''would you prepare rooms for the heroes, make up some food for them and give them space to rest as you prepare their rooms'' the maid nodded and gestured for Naofumi and the other three to follow her, as they left the room Naofumi could hear Duke Seaetto saying ''I've already messaged the Queen''
An hour later saw the four heroes sitting around a small room, with comfortable chairs and couches set up and a small table that was full of refreshments, the four had dinner but they were there in case they were still peckish, the four sat in silence after what had happened in the throne room nobody really knew what to say, Naofumi was looking over his screen, Ren was checking his sword, Itsuki was just lounging and Motoyasu was picking at the food on the table.
The silence broke when Motoyasu spoke up 'I guess it pays to be heroes of legend, it means you get special treatment and the air who showed us here was cuuute'' it was obvious from his tone he was trying to dispel the tense silence and it seemed to work.
''And though it did taste usual our dinner was quite sumptuous'' stated Itsuki.
''Hey guys, I've been looking at this for a while and is it just me or does this seem like a video game?'' Naofumi asked.
''Thats cause it is a video game duh'' said Motoyasu.
''I'm not sure about that'' said Naofumi skeptically ''to me this seems more like a world that functions like a video game, I've read several light novels where characters are transferred to a world that works like a video game-''
''Well this ain't one of them, this is Emerald Online'' said Motoyasu.
''Never heard of it'' said Naofumi.
Motoyasu shot him a look ''seriously its huge''
''This isn't an online game, its a console game I've been playing, its called Dimension Web'' Itsuki chimed in.
''Your both wrong, almost everything about this place is identical to a VRMMO called Brave Star Online'' stated Ren.
''Ok, ok lets settle this before we all start fighting'' said Motoyasu ''Ren you said VRMMO do you mean an actual literal real life VRMMO?''
''Yeah, why?'' Ren asked quirking a brow as he looked confused.
''You two realise what he means right?'' Motoyasu asked.
''A Scifi game I'm familiar with explored the concept'' said Itsuki before turning to look at Ren.
''Yeah, I've read about them in light novels too'' said Naofumi.
''Alright, now we're getting somewhere'' said Motoyasu ''now if you wouldn't mind continuing to humour me at the same time lets all say who's on the hundred yen bill ready… go!''
The four gave different answers surprising each other, they then proceeded to ask different questions such as: buzzword of the year last year, favourite voice actor, who's the prime minister, which continues won WWII and so on, until they finally came to a conclusion.
''Only one explanation all of us come from alternative versions of Japan'' stated Itsuki.
''And they all sound completely different'' noted Ren.
''Well I guess if parallel worlds exist alternate versions of Japan aren't that hard to believe are they'' said Naofumi with a shrug.
''I thought we all came from different time periods but it looks like I was wrong'' said Motoyasu.
The four had spent an hour now discussing their worlds in great detail, according to Motoyasu different countries fought and won WWII, Ren's world didn't have a WWII which allowed them to become much more technologically advanced since a war didn't hamper their progress, Itsuki on the other hand came from a world where it was normal to have psychic powers, Naofumi actually felt a little jealous because it sounded like the world he came from was the most unremarkable, but their was something else he was curious about.
''Hey Ren you said this was almost like your VRMMO, what did you mean by that?'' Naofumi asked.
''Well, the story of the game is very similar and so far everything looks close to identical, even the king looks similar to the one in the game, but there was no scene of the princess storming in and making a scene like that'' explained Ren.
''Yeah, what was that all about anyways?'' Motoyasu asked.
''Why are you asking us?'' Itsuki questioned.
''I guess we'll learn tomorrow anyways, but it sounded like the king did something he shouldn't do and the Queen might now be in danger because of it'' said Naofumi ''there's no way to know and worrying about it won't do us any good so we're just going to have to wait till tommorrow''
''Yeah I guess your right'' said Motoyasu ''speaking of the princess, man she was hot am I right!'' This caused the others to give him looks ''come on don't deny it, she's tall, beautiful and damn she was thicc''
Naofumi just rolled his eyes, it was pretty obvious now what kind of guy Motoyasu was, but he couldn't deny what he said the Princess was very beautiful and she seemed to be a good person if her worrying for her mother and whoever this 'Melty' was any indication, for now he was just going to focus on something else.
''But, why am I the only one unfamiliar with these things? I don't know any of this'' he sighed, but then he noticed the other three heroes giving him a pitiful look ''what?''
''I assumed it was because your the shield hero'' said Itsuki.
''Likewise'' said Ren.
''Yeah I thought the same'' said Motoyasu.
''What is something wrong with the shield?'' Naofumi asked.
''Well might as well tell you'' said Motoyasu ''only losers pick the shield class, its the weakest one and is basically useless, so your just a loser without a future''
''S-so… I'm going to die'' said Naofumi shakily.
''Probably'' said Motoyasu with a shrug, as a maid entered to tell them there rooms were ready.
Meanwhile in another part of the castle Malty finally calmed down, it had taken a lot of reminding herself that her mother and Melty were alright in the story so they should be alright here, but if Malty was honest she didn't know a lot was different now, which made her worry this outcome would be different but all she could do was hope that everything would turn out alright and that her mother and sister would be ok.
''You ok Malty?'' Rishia asked.
''Yeah, yeah I'm ok, sorry about that girls'' said Malty.
''Its ok, we understand, if my father did something like that I'd be pretty angry too and I'm sure Rishia would feel angry if her father did something like this too'' said Eclair giving Malty a small smile while Rishia nodded behind her.
''So what do we do now?'' Rishia asked.
(Malty summons and assigns the shadows tasks)
Malty took a deep breath to gather herself, she had already planned what to do weeks in advance in case this happened, she was well prepared now it was time to see if that preparation worked ''Shadows to me'' she said, the Shadows her mother had left her to use appeared, there were six in total and Malty knew what to do with them ''alright, one of you will observe my father and four of you to watch the Heroes, that leaves one of you as a spare just incase I need another Shadow to do something, I'll leave it to you six to figure out who does what'' the Shadows nodded and left to do their tasks ''as for us, the Heroes parties will probably be formed tomorrow, we'll join the Shield Heroes party''
''That makes sense'' Eclair nodded ''we don't want to get Siltvelt too angry for mistreating the shield hero, all the kingdoms are undoubtably angry already over our kingdom summoning all Four Heroes we don't want to fan the fire any more and many in this country would mistreat the Shield Hero''
''Including my father'' said Malty thinking about everything Naofumi went through in the story and solemnly swearing to herself that he wouldn't go through that here, her plan was almost set there was just one last thing she needed to do ''theres something I need to get for the Heroes''
Half an hour later Malty, Eclair and Rishia were stood in front of the slave market, Malty hared being here and she knew Eclair and Rishia hated being here too, but it was the only place she could get what she wanted to give the heroes.
As they arrived a short man dressed in a fancy tuxedo with a feathery collar, he also wore a top hat, he had a well groomed handle bear moustache and was wearing some kind of monocle glasses, stepped out of the tent, this was the slave trader from the story Beloukas.
''Ah Princess Malty have you come for an update on the slaves you ordered?'' Beloukas asked ''your very much in luck, they're being transported here as we speak, they should arrive in about five weeks time''
''Finally some good news'' Malty sighed relieved to hear that her cousins were on there way here and as soon as they were here she'd free them ''thank you but that's not why I'm here today''
''Oh, well how may I be of service?'' Beloukas asked.
''You have a monster egg lottery right?'' Malty asked to which Beloukas nodded ''is there a limit to how many eggs I can buy?''
The next day the heroes were in the throne room as they were going to be assigned their parties, Naofumi felt a little nervous, he had gotten over last night remembering to himself that this wasn't a game just a world that functioned like a game and besides the Shield he had wouldn't be a legendary weapon if it was as bad as the other three made it out to be.
Princess Malty and Duke Seaetto were stood in front of the throne as well facing them, with Eclair and Rishia stood behind Princess Malty, a group of people were lined up on the left wall and four maids carrying circular cases of some kind were lined up on the right wall, Duke Seaetto cleared his throat to draw everyone attention before speaking.
''I'm sure you four are curious as to what yesterdays commotion was all about'' he said, to which the heroes too nervous to speak just nodded ''well there are a few things King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, summoned you four without the permission of our Queen, Mirellia Q Melromarc, she intended to negotiate with the other major kingdoms so each major kingdom would summon one hero so all our kingdoms could work together to fight the Waves and left me in charge''
''Um, excuse me but why didn't the king go to negotiate?''
''Her majesty didn't trust him so she ordered him to stay here, but I would be put in charge at her order'' stated Duke Seaetto
''Wait how come the Queen could make those decisions over the king?'' Naofumi asked.
This time Malty stepped up with a proud smile on her face ''because Melromarc is a kingdom based upon matrilineal succession'' she stated.
''Oh I see'' said Naofumi was a small smile as he tried to suppress a laugh, the fact that the king had acted like he was running the show yesterday just made this whole thing funny to him, the kings glowering at the Duke certainly helped.
''Anyhow, I don't know whats going to happen now, I've sent the Queen a message explaining the situation to her, I don't know if we're going to give three of you to the other kingdoms or if the other kingdoms will be given all the Vassal Weapons as a compromise, but until a decision has been made we will help you'' stated Duke Seaetto.
''Wait, what are the Vassal Weapons?'' Itsuki asked.
''They're a group of eight weapons, though we only have seven, they're like your legendary weapons in a sense only they're not as powerful but in return they have less limitations'' explained Malty ''but enough about that, as stated we will help you and to start I will provide each of you with a gift''
The maids then walked up to each hero, standing in front of them each of them opened up their case revealing an egg in each case ''now I got these in a monster egg lottery, so its possible one of them is a dragons egg'' stated Malty which seemed to catch the heroes interest ''but odds are they're all Filolial Eggs, Filolial's are a type of big bird commonly used as a steed or a beast of burden, but legend says that if they're raised by the Heroes they can become they're strongest and most loyal companion''
'Oh, I get it so they're like Chocobo in Final Fantasy' Naofumi thought as he took the case from the maid.
''In addition to that I will be joining the Shield Heroes Party along with Eclair and Rishia'' stated Malty walking away from Duke Seaetto with Eclair and Rishia following her to stand behind Naofumi, this surprised Naofumi and the other Heroes.
''Wait are you sure you wanna party with him I mean he has the Shield'' said Motoyasu.
''Y-yes Malty please do-''
''I'm sure Father'' said Malty turning to glare at her father which caused him to shrink back in his throne ''besides according to you three the Shield is the weakest weapon so he's going to be the worst hero a statement that is completely untrue, all four weapons are equal it just depends on how you use it'' this cause Naofumi to smile, it felt nice having the Princess defend him.
''Alright then, the rest of you choose a Hero and stand behind him''
''Excuse me'' said one of the adventurers in line, when Malty, Eclair and Rishia turned to see who it was they were shocked to see that it was Lesty ''I too would like to join the Shield Hero''
''Not happening'' said Malty, once again drawing the attention to her ''I refuse to let you join''
''Oh and why not'' said Lesty.
''Because I know the kind of person you are Lesty A Lustra and I refuse to let you join this party'' said Malty.
''Well princess its not up to you, its up to the Shield Hero weather I-''
''Actually I agree'' said Naofumi cutting Lesty off ''sorry but I don't want any in fighting and to the looks of it you joining would cause that''
This caused Lesty to cross her arms and scowl but she didn't say anything else, the ceremony went on with the story with the Heroes all having similar parties, with the parties all formed the Duke wished them luck on their journey's and told them they would send messages if needed and so the Heroes and their parties departed from the castle.
So, there's the chapter i hope you liked it and before anyone asks, yes the egg Naofumi got was Filo's but it might not nessesarily hatch into Filo, if you haven't read the Spear Hero spin off Motoyasu goes through time multiple times and each time he goes back he try's to buy Filo's egg and at one point a Filolial named Sakura hatches and its implied this is Filo but since conditions for her hatching were different she hatched into Sakura, so yes its Filo's egg but it might not hatch into Filo if that makes sense.