It has already been past 12 noon, I and the others were assembled at a nearby dinner table and a long one spanning quite a few meters with 12 chairs on each side. On the front part I presume was a large chair, it was elegant and jeweled, it was obviously a show of wealth from the king, considering it was embroidered with gold with gems placed on it.

“So, what does that mean? Addelyne you’re from a noble family, right? What do they mean by this?”

I asked, I was suspicious I didn’t know how this type of dinners work, was it to start talks? What are they planning? They are the royal family and this world is from the medieval age, so it was more or less him trying to get our trust and support for him.

“Considering they are the royal family and we are their supposed heroes, it is obvious… they’d want to be on our good side, a royal or noble family are only powerful because of their lands and the wealth they possess.”

She looked at our surroundings and saw two armed guards at each door, protecting it. We were currently in a large dining room with only two doors both to enter and exit the room. It was a good architectural design if you were to have your enemy come and dine for peace talks when actually you’ve already surrounded him.

As she soon noticed that the guards were a few meters away from us, thus unable to hear what she was about to say, she signaled her hands on the dining table, telling us to come closer as if she was about to whisper something very important and serious message.

As we clumped our heads together, she then whispered:

“Royal and Noble families'  power only depends and rely on their own soldiers and forces, nobles only swear allegiance to the king, but that doesn’t mean the king has control on the nobles’ army.”

She then added.

“That’s why to control the nobles from rebelling the royal kings will neither have to marry his daughters to some powerful nobles for absolute loyalty and for them to give them his army. A king must also have a larger military force and personal army than the nobles to strike fear.”

I see.

I thought in my mind, so this is how medieval politics and militaries works, the nobles have their own land and they have their own sovereignty to govern more or less, they also have they own personal army that they can lend to the king in times of war, but they can also use it for their own. So to counter that a king must have neither a lot of connections with loyal nobles and a larger army to control his lands.

I see, that’s why large empires tend to collapse, like the Mongolians, their generals went rouge with their armies and split the empire in four.

So if what Addelyne said was right, it would only mean the king plans to negotiate with us on not betraying him and his family, because if we remember that there are also other kingdoms with other heroes and they’re currently en route here now. There will be a kingdom that owns more heroes, so I presume.

He plans to consolidate his control over us.

That about sums it up, well it all depends on the other heroes and their kingdoms, if the kingdom we are currently in now is the most powerful in terms of military and economical power then there is no need to worry. It’s just that what do these kingdoms use to bargain with us.

I mean we were also humans just reborn or reincarnated more powerful than before, we also have the minds and beliefs that we took with us from Earth.

Greed, Lust, Power, Jealousy, Pride, Etc… that’s what all humans have…

I thought in my mind, before an announcer finally came inside the room and announcing:

“Attention, Heroes! Ladies and Gentlemen! I present to you… His Majesty the King! And her highness the Queen.”

Trumpet’s were then blew in accordance with the address of the royals, its bright and piercing sound was heard throughout the entire room, after a few seconds the ruling monarch soon entered the room with a grand entrance.

The King and the Queen walked side by side, both wore extravagant and flamboyant suit and gown, showing their wealth. The king, based on his facial feature he is in his mid-60s and the queen in her mid-40s.

They slowly and elegantly entered the room, as they reached their seats in the dining table Addelyne suddenly stood up from her chair and did a curtesy.

Shit! we’re we supposed to greet the king, I forgot.

I and the other three soon stood up from our seats and also bowed to the king, greeting him. The king’s face was stern and serious, showing his place and asserting his power at us.

As he finally noticed that we all bowed in front of him, greeting him. He signaled his hand so that we can sit back at our seats, as we sat back at our chairs, he also sat down.

“Greeting, Heroes, I am King Timore Vestilio III, the monarch of this mighty kingdom.”

He said in a low and deep voice he then signaled his hands again signaling the maids and butler to serve the food.

“I apologize for making our esteemed guests wait, I presume all of you are hungry by now.”

He said in a polite manner, but I was already able to see behind his façade, he was trying to make it seem that he was a good and benevolent ruler and he even apologized to us, we are just strangers that even look like commoners, if we were not heroes, he would’ve already thrown us out of the castle or maybe even killed us.

The maids and butler came in a long line holding a cloche, or a stainless-steel circular tray with a dome covering it. It’s like I was being served in a 5-star restaurant, I’ve never experienced this before since I was always at the front of the battlefield.

But I knew what the king was trying to do, winning us over in return for our support for him, I won’t support him obviously but I don’t know about the other three, Addelyne being part of the nobility maybe, Justin he will be blinded by greed so I think obviously, Simon on the other hand I don’t know.

“Please, eat ‘till you’ve filled up.”

The King insisted us to eat and act like this is our home, he was more or less trying to get on our good side, of course if I follow the rule of give and take, he is most likely to charge us with something later on, maybe even the accommodation, not everything is free.

But nonetheless we also ate the extravagant and exotic food given to us, we were starving since yesterday, we needed to eat, so we just straight up ate what he gave us.

***

After our little feast, the king finally started to talk about the situation concerning us, the kingdoms and humanity’s sake, or so I thought, as it was all just a pretext.

“Heroes, as you would know, you wouldn’t be summoned here without any respective reason… and that reason is none other than to save not only my kingdom but also the others and our people, as this matter concerns the continuation of humanity’s centuries-long war.”

He stated to us, his way of explaining was making us feel like we were very important people, he even waved his hands and acted in response to his explanation.

“There are monsters and demons coming from another world, threatening our peace, prosperity and stability. Our cherished world, all of our hard work, sweat, tears and blood will disappear into thin air, we humans have been fighting them for centuries but to no avail.”

He said to us, as if he actually loved this world, royalty and nobles alike sit in their lavish mansions filled with delicious food as they live of the backs, sweat and blood off their slaves and serfs.

“Heroes, we only wish for you to protect our cherished world from those monsters, we will give you the necessary time and resources to prepare for their next attack.”

He said to us, before adding.

“Until the next wave of portals appear that is.”

Portals? Next wave?

What does he mean by next wave of portals, I mean I could understand if it was just a single portal but an entire wave of portals that is connected to another world or dimension. If I combine all of what he said, I get this conclusion:

He said the humans of this world have been fighting for centuries in a never-ending war with these demons and monsters of another world, he also stated there are waves of portals that is the gateway for the two worlds.

So I presume, the demons or monsters whatever they are, is an organized force complete with a hierarchy and command structure, their military is also a problem for the humans, wave of portals means they can appear everywhere, so I presume they have all three branches: the Land Forces, A Navy and an Air Force.

But to think they are monsters, that must only mean one thing, the leader holds the command, if he is somewhat killed in battle there is a chance that all of their forces will collapse immediately because if I’m right, demons and monsters have different races and racism is not limited to only us humans.

I also have a guess, that the weak and strong monsters are also segregated into what kind of force will fit them, so for the most part, only the leaders are the Achilles heel, if we strike them down all command structure will collapse.

“There is a total of 20 heroes but only 19 of them are the real heroes, one tends to hide with his enemies to strike them when the time is right, just mentioning that hero’s title or his god makes us humans think that he could’ve just died, why even summon him, a worthless monster, here to save this world and fight his own kin?”

He said in a manner of contempt, by how he said it not only him but the entire human populace seem to hate this said ‘hero’ but I have a vague guest on who that might be.

Yeah, you could’ve at least fix your reputation here, death? Because of you I’m getting harassed here and I’m even supposed to be a hero that will save them?

He knows who I am, by how it’s currently going it is only a matter of time before I get backstabbed, just like my previous experience, but I’ll try and fix this, I can’t die the second time around, not like that.

“But I still respect him as a person, Afterall he is still human and us humans must work together to protect our world from peril and crisis… I won’t let hate consume me.”

He said to us in a both forgiving and apologetic manner, but I still knew what that mean.

I am still a human… for now…

It was easy to decrypt his message, he already took a guess that I’m a monster more than man. Sooner or later that king will backstabbed me and shift the blame to somebody else, but since I am the ‘hated hero’ there will be little to none caring or even mentioning that my death was ‘important’.

“For now, in three days’ time, the other 16 heroes will come here and meet with you, all of you are to communicate with one another and talk about your abilities or plans on dealing with the next wave.”

He said to us, the planned ‘heroes banquet’ where all of us that came from earth will obviously show their powerful and amazing abilities while being cocky and arrogant, showing their place in the list of 20 heroes.

But, who are the other heroes…

I thought in my mind, I obviously can’t ask him that, I’m the revered hero of darkness, he will think I’m a cocky and arrogant type and will speed up the process of assassinating for me.

“Excuse me, your Highness, may I ask a question?”

Addelyne asked the king, to which the king nodded back and extended his arm at her.

“Of course, young lady, ask away.”

“Who are the other 16 heroes.”

That was a good question, did she somewhat read my mind? But of course, we need to know whoever our allies are, for good communication and coordination with each other.

“Good question, the other 16 heroes are…”

He took a deep breath and then stated the other 16 heroes that we have yet to meet:

Hero of the Earth and Mountains

Hero of the water and seas

Hero of the Wind and Skies

Hero of Fire and Flames

Hero of Wisdom and Knowledge

Hero of Animals and Beasts

Hero of the Anvil and Blacksmiths

Hero of Medicines and Remedy

Hero of Fields and Nature

Hero of Fortune and luck

Hero of Shelter and Protection

Hero of Thieving and Greed

Hero of Thunder and Lightning

Hero of Mischief and deceit

Hero of Music and Melody

Hero of War and Destruction

And then added at the very end:

“Of course, I’m not forgetting you four, as all of you heroes are important.”

He then added:

“You Four, the Hero of Light and Hope, the Hero of Life, and the Hero of justice and Truth.”

He then stopped mid-sentence and looked at me with a glare of contempt and disgust

“And… The Hero of Darkness…”