Naofumi Iwatani was not in a good mood. As a matter of fact, he hadn't been in a good mood for a week.

He had been summoned to some sort of medieval world that was dealing with apocalypse while reading a book. It wasn't that bad at the start, what kind of Japanese teen didn't dream of going to another world and becoming a overpowered hero at least once in their lives. But instead of being overpowered, he was supposedly the weakest of the summoned heroes with a weapon that couldn't attack and wouldn't let him attack. And then the day after they were supposed to begin their adventures with companions, his sole companion not only stole all of his equipment and money but she had also accused him of raping her!

Ever since that day he had been going around with people treating him like trash and expecting him to risk his own life for their stupid world even though he couldn't attack which meant he couldn't gain experience and level up.

He had managed to somewhat overcome the last issue with Raphtalia, a demi human slave he had brought from the slave tent controlled by that weirdo. Having a slave was somewhat… irritating. He didn't like it and he hated the world that had pushed him to the point where this was his only solution. But in the end, his dedication to survive and go back to his original world was far stronger than his morals.

But now it felt like all of that might be for naught as this stranger stood in front of him with a smile. No one in this world would smile at him with good intentions which meant that he was likely here to either belittle him or even kill him. He wouldn't be surprised by either option.

"Come now, just lower your shield. I am here to talk, that's all." The man said with a smile as he raised his hands, not that Naofumi really believed him.

"Who are you?" He asked harshly as he jumped in front of Raphtalia, if the bastard went after her he wouldn't be able to fight.

"Hmm, oh yeah. My name is Theus, wandering magician, how you doing?" He said with a smile while offering his hand for a shake, which Naofumi ignored while glaring at him.

"Wow, quite a distrustful lad aren't you. Not that I can blame you, considering the sheer amount of shit you dealt with since you came to this world."

…what?

"Oh don't look that surprised. Sure, I may have believed the allegations against you if we were in a different country, like Siltvelt. But you were accused here, in Melromarc, by a pathological liar and have been judged by the said liar's father. Your innocence is crystal clear to me." He said with a shrug and Naofumi's emotions were in turmoil.

The knowledge that Myne was supposedly the king's daughter and a pathological liar didn't even matter to him that much. Someone believed his innocence. Someone believed that he was innocent even before talking to him like that old man blacksmith.

Such knowledge somehow managed to get pass even Naofumi's recent paranoia that had reached an all time high and the Cardinal Hero of the Shield did something he hadn't done since he was summoned to this world.

He cried.

Ok… I did not expect that.

Honestly I was hoping that my introduction would end up getting a little amount of trust from Naofumi and lead to a talk where I would try to get his allegiance. Instead the guy started to cry and now we were sitting down while Raphtalia was trying to cheer up her 'Lord Naofumi'. I guess the guy was more traumatized than I thought.

On an unrelated note, Raphtalia is a cute little treasure and I want one of my own.

"You okay now?" I asked as gently as I could, which probably wasn't gentle enough.

"Yeah… yeah I'm okay. I'm sorry for that, it's just… you are the first one to actually say that they believe me after hearing the rumors." He said while sniffing. Damn man, I actually am starting to feel bad about him.

"Don't mention it. As I said, I could see the inconsistencies in the rumors. Honestly, among the people who actually know her only her father might believe her and that's simply because he is a doting father." I said with a shrug while Naofumi's face took an ugly turn at the way I had described the moron king.

"Don't look at me like that, he might be an absolute bastard and a moron when it comes to anything he has emotional attachments to but he does have certain attributes that made him the king. There is a reason he is known as the Wise Ruler in other countries after the war." I explained to the Shield Hero.

"Wise Ruler my ass. And what do you mean by war?" Finally asking the right questions.

"Before that, I need to tell you things that you don't know about this world." I said and started to explain to him.

About how the world wasn't just Melromarc. How Melromarc wasn't supposed to summon all the heroes and that it was a scheme of the king done behind the Queen's back, who is the actual ruler of the country.

"Wait, if the Queen is the actual ruler, where is she?"

"Not sure exactly where but she is supposed to be meeting with the other nations so that there could be some sort of united front against the waves. Which is more or less ruined by her dumb husband." I said with a shrug.

"Why did he summon us in the first place, especially since he just seems to hate me."

"He likely wanted the other three heroes under his control. You on the other hand, he wanted to make suffer. The Shield Hero is considered to be the lord and savior for those who follow the religion in Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden. The dumbass king fought in the war against Siltvelt after all. Oh, and you are supposed to be the devil of this country's religion too."

"WHAT?!" And that was my cue to explain about the hogwash religions of this world, with each of them making Naofumi's expression to turn darker and darker.

"From everything you just explained, I feel like I should just go to this Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden places."

"You could, but that would likely start a war. And that is assuming that you somehow manage to get pass the borders without getting killed." I said with a shrug, I have been doing that a lot in this conversation.

"The hell should I do then?!" He finally exploded and slammed his fist to the grass, causing the little raccoon demi human to jump in fright and making me smile.

"You could join me." I said with a smile as I opened my arms.