Finally, for now I'll tell you that I am bad at writing slice of life kind of thing and describing people, buildings or places. So don't expect much from me in that areas. And that's why it took me so long to write this is kinda my weak point.
Also one chapter more of info filler and then I'll begin to write in first person, longer chapters and the rating of the fic going to M because gore and swearing, etc.
I don't own anything.
Eight days have passed since the summon. In Heiligh Kingdom's capital, citizens carry out with their usual routines. Even with the threat of a war with the devil race, Heiligh people trust in that their god, Ehit, and the otherworldly heroes to protect them.
Amidst the crowd of civilians Kaori Shirasaki and Hajime Nagumo were walking together. Or to be more exact Kaori was dragging Hajime by the arm with a smile in her face. Hajime for his part only could let himself be pulled by her.
If you asked Hajime about this he would tell you with an awkward face 'this is merely two friends hanging out' if you asked Kaori she would tell you 'this is a date' with a flushed face.
Hajime could not avoid think about how this began.
Flashback
That same morning.
Hajime was seated in his bed, thinking about the events of the week, what he learned in the books he read, what he doesn't know yet, and planning for the future. In Earth, he already had a plans for his life, that's why he could be lax about school. Here a war is all but guaranteed, and he has no utility in battle. Also he doesn't want to fight.
Hajime missed his family, and was sure the others too. The difference is, guys like Kouki, Ryutarou, and Shizuku, have power and immerse themselves in training in order to become strong enough to defeat the devils, the only way they knew to go back home. But they ignore the fact that in wars blood is spilled and people killed.
He isn't blind, nor is stupid, his low-average grades are because of lack of real effort, not a matter of intelligence. He knows his classmates aren't mentally ready for a war, neither is he for that matter, to kill others is an act that requires conviction they don't have or being somewhat twisted.
Hajime, fear the day he have to kill someone, because he won't be the same again.
"... Nagumo-kun." Behind him a familiar voice said.
Hajime did not scream like a girl and fell from his bed, it didn't happened, the giggling behind him was completely unjustified.
Having recognized the voice already, Hajime turned around to find that Kaori Shirasaki was indeed in his room, somehow having open his locked door. Hajime focused all of his attention on her.
"Shirasaki-san, what are you doing here." He wanted to know the reason behind her intrusion and decided to ignore the how she got inside.
Kaori seemed unsure of how to explain, but after various seconds of silence she got a determined look and answered.
"It's you, Nagumo-kun, since the first magic lesson you have barely gotten out of your room. You don't even leave to eat, nobody have seen you in a while (I haven't seen you)." Kaori words were true, counting the incident in the library, he just left his room twice, all his meals are brought to him by the castle's servants so he doesn't need to go to the dinning hall. He shut himself here for almost a week reading books.
Hajime noticed that his short term plans were all about spent more time in his room doing something, with no plans of leave the castle. He froze, suddenly realizing that he was turning into a hikikomori.
A new phase of depression hit Hajime.
But Kaori tirade was far from finished.
"Locking yourself in this room isn't healthy... you need help, Nagumo-kun, I am your friend, and I... I want to help you, that's why you are goingtovisitthecitywithme..." In the middle of her speech Kaori began to grow flustered and a little nervous.
"What?" Hajime was snapped out of his sad realization by Kaori dangerous words.
"I'm going to guide you through the capital, I'll show you what you missed the entire week. We'll visit lots of places, it'll be really nice. Just you and me (like a date)." Kaori heated and unilateral conversation, reached the point in which Hajime couldn't keep quiet anymore.
"Wait..." Was all Hajime could say before Kaori gripped his arm and yanked him out of his room.
Flashback End
His mind again in the present, Hajime was slightly annoyed by the fact that Kaori was apparently physically stronger than him (then again everyone were), and worried by the consequences of his not-date with Kaori. Hiyama and his cronies weren't going to let this pass unpunished.
Hajime knew a confrontation with them was inevitable from the start, but the time spent alone in his room made him think that maybe if he stayed there... Hajime cut that thread of thought.
'It doesn't matter anymore, It was bound to happen sooner or later, right now I'll be a good friend and enjoy this while I can. I am in the city, together with a beautiful girl, a girl that is my only friend.'
Hajime decided stop thinking about what might happen for now and focus in the present. It worked, old worries slipped from his mind. Then new worries appeared.
'Should I say something? A present maybe? Where are we going? What should I do.'
Hajime had little idea about what to do. Oh, he had lots of experience, if you count Visual Novels and date simulators as experience, but he wasn't delusional enough to believe blindly in that kind of games. He decided to take the passive approach and let Kaori do most the job, after all she seemed to have all planned. Letting the girl take the initiative hurt his manly pride (not matter how little it was) but he didn't know what to do. His attention turned to the present.
In the time he spent thinking, Kaori dragged his distracted body to their first stop.
A large building with enormous open doors. People coming in and out. The Adventurer's Guild.
Hajime Otaku's soul shook. Like any fan of Isekai and Fantasy genres Hajime has imagined himself in that kind of situation. When he was summoned here with the entire class, he had big fantasies he wanted make true. Things like became an adventurer, met cute beast girls, elfs, learn magic, don't involve himself with the Demon King or the big bad, etc.
After his below than average stats, ordinary class and lack of talent for magic were revealed, some of his fantasies were crushed, later on he learned that Heiligh Kingdom and the church in particular are xenophobic, making find other races (girls) very difficult, unless he somehow manages to get to Fae Bergen in the Sea of Trees, were he would be killed, or Helscher Empire were the slavery and exploitation of demihumans is legal and the norm, but like any upstanding society member he can't avoid to dislike slavery, also, the dogma of the Empire is something along the lines of 'Power is the most important, the powerful can take what they want from the weak'. Enough to say Hajime lost any motivation to ever go there.
His last stand were the dagons, this world version of mermaids. They were a aquatic specie that lived in Erisen, a city in the western ocean. Heiligh Kingdom has an agreement with them were they don't discriminate them, nor fight with them and even help them if possible and in change the dagons trade with them.
The 85% of the sea food in all Heiligh come from Erisen, so the citizens had no problems with dagons, the church neither. Hypocrites the lots of them.
But again to reach there he would have to leave and cross a stupid desert, a stupidly hot desert filled with monsters. No thank you, the cons were more than the pros so stay was his only option. Sometimes we have to let dreams be dreams because of the wall called reality.
But that was then and this is now.
The Adventurer's Guild made Hajime feel like a kid again, he wanted get into, met the stereotypical beautiful young girl-woman receptionist, register, complete requests, help people, explore the world and become a legend. The last two were not possible in his current situation but that didn't extinguished the fire burning in Hajime's heart. He was so focused in the guild's doors that he didn't noticed he was smiling, neither noticed Kaori eyes fixed in him.
The two of them got into the building. A half of the guild was a mix of pub and restaurant where people were talking, discussing or eating. Most of guys there started ogling Kaori, a normal reaction everywhere.
The other half contained the reception counters, ten in total. In that moment just four were busy, leaving six counters free. Hajime excitedly walked toward one of them.
For some reason, each and every one of the receptionists were beautiful women. Beautiful, and cute. Very, very cute. But, before Hajime could begin to appreciate how cute, he had a epiphany and suddenly knew it was in his best interest to not do it. That had nothing to do with the sudden decrease in the temperature, the fear stopping his heart or the malicious aura behind him (malicious aura?). Don't ask question.
Hajime looked around. The activity in the guild had stopped, Kaori was behind him, the afraid staff of the guild and people averting their eyes from them were further behind, he looked at Kaori again, nothing was wrong, she smiled at him, all was okay. That frightening feeling was all in his mind, something to worry about later, when alone. His focus again in the receptionist, he asked to be registered as adventurer, giving her his status plate.
Hajime did his best to ignore the scared expression in the face of the receptionist, while she did her best to finish the registration the fastest possible.
During the short moment it took to complete the process Hajime talked with Kaori about her advances in training.
Kaori class was Priestess, that boosted support and healing spells in exchange of offensive power. Also she had high affinity for the element light. She was like the stereotype of White Wizards in some games he played.
Kaori Shirasaki
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Priestess
Level: 4
Title: None
Condition: Normal
Stats
HP: 247
MP: 739 (2956)
Speed: 56
Physical Strength: 38
Physical Resistance: 32
Magical Strength: 173 (519)
Magical Resistance: 94 (188)
Skills
Body Skills
-Mana Recovery (High)
Class Skills
-Healing Affinity
-Spiritual Contact
Soul Skills
-[?]
-Mage Wisdom
-Language Comprehension
Like most magicians she has low physical stats (still higher than his) but had beyond average magical parameters. She had a decent number of skills for a beginner (he only had two).
Still the basic training can only cover so much, they needed real experience to keep growing. There was a lack of details but the gist of it was that in another week there were going somewhere to fight monsters. The idea terrified Hajime and honestly he didn't want to participate, to begin with his class isn't meant to fight.
But Hajime had a short number of options and opportunities. He was aware of the rumors running around in the castle. Even though he just left his room twice he heard the castle's servants commenting about him. Ishtar, the king and most nobles see him like a liability, the rest don't care, after all he is a summoned person with low stats and a common production class. If he doesn't fight his value in the eyes of all people would turn negative and he doubt they won't try to dispose him somehow.
When Kaori finished explaining about what she learned this week the now composed receptionist handled him his Status Plate now with a blue symbol that wasn't there before. She briefly explained about the guild's rank system.
That mark denoted his rank. As it rose it would change to red, then yellow, then purple, then green, then white, then black, then silver, and finally gold.
Hajime then noticed that the adventurer ranks were the same as the ruta coin colors.
Ruta was the standard currency used by the human nations of Tortus. By combining zagalta ore with various metals, one could create alloys of varying colors. Ruta was made from those alloys, and marked with a special seal. Long before, advanced synergists could make their own money with transmutation. Nowadays the seal prevents monetary fraud.
The denominations came in blue, red, yellow, purple, green, white, black, silver, and gold. They were worth 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, and 10000 ruta respectively.
In other words, a blue rank adventurer was basically as worthless as a penny. How depressing. The first guild master who had designed this system must have had a pretty twisted personality.
The standard for adventurers was to settle between black and silver. Only a handful were ranked gold. Actually they were less than ten. While non-combat classes can reach at their best to black, but those were even more admired and rarer than the gold ranked.
Having registered in the guild Hajime hadn't any business left with them so together with Kaori exited the building. The guild's staff, the adventurers, the clients all let out the sigh they were containing and resumed their activities.
Their next stop was the Monster Zoo or Monster Research Center. Although monsters were hard of control, it was not impossible. Only the most harmless were open to the public. The dangerous ones were contained underground, experimented and studied.
Originally the purpose of the center was to analyze captured monsters in order to develop measures that would make fight with them easier and less difficult. With time it was turned into a attraction for citizens and their childrens.
During the tour, the guide explained some facts about monsters Hajime found fascinating.
Inside their bodies they have sort of a core that stores mana. It is different from humans, devils or others whose mana is tied to theirs souls, mana cores being akin to an organ. Monster cores are sought by most people, even countries because they work as mana batteries. Magicians use it to cast magic without spending themselves, warriors too, because their mana is usually less than mages carry mana cores.
Most species are born with a body and a soul, but not all beings possess both. Spirits are beings of pure soul with no body and constructs such as golems are bodies with no soul. Studies have proved that monsters have a primitive form of soul but no progress have been done.
Most of their abilities are based of their bodies, that have this weird energy running in their flesh and blood. It is really corrosive, and mortal. People that in the past ate monster died in seconds.
The monsters found in the wild are different from the captured in Orcus Dungeon (this place has dungeons?), to how extent it wasn't fully clear yet but some key differences were noted.
Orcus monsters are aggressive against any other being they detect to the point of ignore their own lives. Even in clear disadvantage they throw themselves in suicidal tactics instead of retreat. Wild monsters instead, know when are unmatched and only the most furious and desperate of them fight with a vastly strong opponent, they value their lives above all else.
Wild monsters have demonstrated a more varied array of abilities than those in Orcus, this and other observations led to the conclusion of Orcus monsters being artificially created. How? Why? They still don't know, maybe in the past the asnswer would have been available, but today it was lost knowledge.
The two of them spent the next hour exploring the museum and looking some of the creatures captured. It was fun, in his opinion and Kaori seemed to have been enjoying the day herself.
After leaving the Research Center Hajime and Kaori helped themselves into the various food stands of the capital. They tried various products that called their attention, and Kaori bought lots of sweets and candies, for Shizuku she said. The money wasn't a problem, the status plate showing the seal of the king and their status as summoned heroes made people offer their services for free.
Having been inside the castle all the time, Hajime wasn't aware of what the common citizens thought of them. Now here, among them, hearing they discuss about them, he understood that the moral of city, maybe the entire kingdom was tied to them. If they fail people will lose hope, that is why they must not fail, they aren't allowed to fail. Countless lives were depending on them. The fate of this world humans.
The last stop of their visit was the most conspicuous building in the city. Most of the architecture here was old european in style, with the occasional asian-like design. The building before him had none of those and was obviously made to stand out from the others.
It was the Transmutation Workshop, the place where young synergists train under a more advanced master and learn the quirks of the job. A team of well trained synergists can build simple house in less than two minutes, and a castle in less than a day.
Hajime looked at Kaori, his gaze meet hers, he understood what she was trying to say him and he knew she was right. Hajime crossed the doors, Kaori waited outside. Two hours later Hajime left the building, and Kaori was still there. He advanced and stood before her, their eyes met again. The sky was orange, the sun was hiding.
"Thank you." Hajime said. His voice conveyed his feelings. There was no need to say more.
Kaori nodded, she was more than satisfied with the outcome. Her objective today was to lift Hajime spirit.
They stood there for a few seconds more, then began walking.
They returned to the castle, in silence. None of them wanting to ruin the atmosphere. A short while they were back.
It was getting late, the time for dinner was close. Hajime would go to his room where his food is delivered and Kaori would eat at the dining hall with most of the class.
An intersection in the hallway, a divergence. Right for the guest rooms, left for the dining hall.
"I'll see you tomorrow Nagumo-kun." Kaori wanted stay with him, but she reluctantly took the left path.
"What are you talking about Shirasaki-san, I haven't had dinner yet." Hajime was walking behind her.
When they reached the intersection, Hajime natural instinct was to go right, toward the dorms and his room, but he didn't. Hajime already came to the realization of the unsettling he was being and how his attitude and actions were affecting his friends (Kaori). It was time to start a new, better. That's why he decided to eat dinner with Kaori, even if means deal with guys who hate him like Hiyama.
Kaori dumbfounded state lasted two secons, the next instant she happily was dragging Hajime by the castle. Once again incapable of doing anything about it, he gave up.
The dinning hall was mostly empty. Only Aiko-sensei was there.
"Nagumo-kun, Shirasaki-san here" Aiko called them to sit with her.
""Good evening Ai-chan"" They said together.
"Don't call me Ai-chan!" She did her best to sound angry. Then immediately she returned to normal. "It's so good to see you Nagumo-kun, it had been almost a week." Aiko sentence had worry and happiness at the same time. She was a teacher that wanted for her students to be happy. Hajime withdraw worried her to no end but there was little she can do for someone if they don't want her help. When Hajime and Kaori got into the room Aiko understood what was happening and felt relieved.
Aiko talked about her week and Hajime listened. Her ability to enhance and accelerate the growth of plants showed to be beyond what any expected. She could make a recently sow field grew in less than a hour, with the products being thrice as big than normal and of better quality. She had done this several times and gained good reputation with the people, some started to call her 'Fertility Goddess', and it quickly spread out, now all call her that. It was a little awkward.
When Aiko finished rambling about the unnerving some of the her new and more zealous self proclaimed followers were, the rest of the class took seats and started eating the food that was brought to them. Various of the presents saw Hajime to Kaori's side and fixed their scornful glares in him. The worst of all was Hiyama's resentful glare.
Hajime in the slightest missed this, but with more than a year of practice he ignored them totally. If he would have paid more attention maybe he would have noticed the darkness beginning to appear in Hiyama's eyes. But this wasn't such time-line.
Hajime talked more with Kaori during the meal, like when in Japan. Even with the piercing glares he found himself enjoying this.
Once the dinner was over, Hajime say goodbye to Kaori and Aiko, then went direct to his room.
He was tired, it was a very exhausting day, but one he won't change if given the chance. He left his room, learned various interesting facts, obtained a master, got to know better the city and Kaori.
It was in his opinion a good day.
The next update should be ready for next week.