“Hello.” 

That was the first word Marty heard after he had been unwillingly magically teleported to another world.  After he had taken a couple of blinks to reorient himself, he looked around the room. The room itself was moderately dim, lit by candles on a central desk surrounded by books and bookcases.  In front of the desk was the woman who had previously spoken.

Her most noticeable features were her purple hair and horns which extended out from her head before they pointed forward at a near 90° angle.  From behind, a thin tail with a triangle tip wriggled behind her. It was the same color as her skin, Caucasian with a slight tinge of red. Her body was on the mature side and borderline seductive.  Her face still had some youth to it, which gave her a unique charm.

“Hello,” Marty replied with a soft smile.  He was not particularly concerned with his surroundings.  The purple teleportation circle was still around him, and it created a force field which would repel anyone who tried to approach him.  On top of that, the young woman appeared to be alone. He was confident he could defeat her, even though she impressively had Ki Rank 10, though not at the peak.

At his reply, the young woman’s eyes lit up as she became engrossed in her thoughts.  After a couple of seconds, Marty cleared his throat.

“Oh my, where are my manners?” The young woman asked.  Her cheeks became a tad redder from embarrassment. Right after he spoke, she had begun some somewhat impure fantasies.  [Even though he’s not bad looking and seems nice, I shouldn’t have any thoughts, much less daydreams.] She internally admonished herself. “My name is Lucibelle Regina, Empress of the Devil Empire.  I apologize for the surprise-summons Mr.?”

“Marty, just call me Marty, your highness.”

“I understand, Marty.  Then you can call me Lucibelle.”

“In private.”

“Good,” Lucibelle said with a nod.  She was glad that Marty seemed to be a sensible fellow. “Once again, I apologize for the unwarranted summons.  You see, I need your help. Are you willing to help me?” Lucibelle asked sweetly.

“Depends on what you need my help for.”

“Even if I can only send you back to your world in the next 30 minutes?”

“What do you mean?”

“This magic is quite particular.  It connects with another person in another world, cannot be reestablished once it ends.  In other words, if the spell ends, you can’t go back.”

“I see,” Marty said with a slight nod.  Ultimately, he wasn’t worried as he could already tell he could still go back to his world with his magic. “If I go back, would you summon another?”

“Unfortunately, no.  If you look at the back of your left hand, you will see a magic circle.  If I cast this magic again, it will connect with that circle allowing me to summon you, and only you, from where you are.  It will only be relieved if you die. Oh, and I have no intention of killing you if you refuse.” She added with a flurry.

Marty removed the glove from his left hand and found a purple magic circle that slightly glowed on it.  He also believed Lucibelle when she said she wouldn’t kill him. Given his slight cynicism, he had trained himself to identify the small details that people make when they lie.  Coupled with his magic, which could detect the emotions of an individual to a certain extent, he could very accurately tell if a person spoke the truth or lied. Only the very best liars who had excellent control over their emotions and body, or those with magic to assist them, could trick him. “I see, what do you need help with?”

Lucibelle looked at him with a refreshed smile. “Let me ask you; if there was a possibility of war, would you fight or would you seek for peace?”

“That’s not an easy question to answer.  Naturally, it would depend on the situation.  As a general rule, peace is always preferable as war will cause suffering.  However, sometimes you’re not given the option. In brief, I favor peace, but that does not mean I am unwilling to fight.”

“I see.  That is a good answer.  The reason I asked is that I believe war is on the horizon.  For nearly as far back as our history goes, we have constantly been a war with the humans on the other side of The Divide.  The Divide is a massive mountain that spans from coast-to-coast that reaches upward of 10,000 meters. We live in the lower portion while the humans live in the upper.  There have been several major wars and occasional skirmishes over the years. Even now, my people are calling for war and my spies tell me the humans are preparing as well.”

“It seems you and your people have different viewpoints. Aren’t you afraid of upsetting the popular notion and being removed?” Marty asked as he narrowed his eyes.

Lucibelle gave a slightly sad smile. “That would probably happen regardless.  Normally, the ruler of the Devil Empire would be decided based upon strength, but that isn’t the case for me.  Out of respect for my late mother, the strongest Devil in history, and my talent in magic, I became Empress.” She replied as her face became wary.

Marty couldn’t help but sympathize with her as he realized the amount of pressure she felt. “If I agreed to help you, what do you expect me to do?”

Lucibelle’s expression softened, and she smiled. “The first thing you have to do is protect me. It’s written that those from another world will possess far more talent than us and will get stronger more quickly.  Given that the magic is supposed to pick an already powerful individual, you should quickly become a formidable warrior. Then you’d be able to deter any internal enemies.”

“Aren’t you worried that associating with me, a human, could harm your position?”

“So long as we hide your features, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I see; what else?”

“If the war between the Devils and the human should occur, I would like you to strive for peace and protect my Empire.  You do not need to go on the offensive. I have reason to believe that humans will soon use their summoning magic. Unlike our own, their magic should summon three people.  These people will be weaker than the person that our magic will find, but they will still have explosive growth. On top of this, their magic also has a method of returning the people summoned.  Unfortunately, we can’t summon any other people besides you. So, if those three people enter the war, you’ll have to contend with three additional people. Of course, our warriors will help you.  Just because they may be strong, does not mean they are invincible.”

Marty nodded his head. “Anything else?”

“Well, this is only a theoretical concern but has to do with the foretold prophecy that the Dracul will soon descend and change the world as we know it.

“Dracul?” Marty asked, even though he already knew what the word meant.

“Yes, a creature not of this world; a beast with terrifying combat efficiency that has red scales and can breathe fire.”

Even though Marty did his best to keep a poker face, his eyebrow twitched. “Is that a bad thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Changing the world as we know it.  It could be a change for the better.” Marty replied with a chuckle.

Lucibelle furrowed her brows as she thought it over.  The concept never even crossed her mind. The fact that the Dracul was described as a beast gave the impression that the change would be bad, but not explicitly stated as such.

“At any rate, if I help you, what’s in it for me?” Marty asked.

“We will help with your training and give you whatever you want, so long as we can obtain it.  Also…” Lucibelle paused as her cheeks became even redder. “Also, I’ll be your woman.”

“What?” Marty asked in surprise. “That’s not nes-”

Suddenly, a golden light entered the room. “What’s going on?” Lucibelle asked in a panic as her face turned white. “I’m losing control of the magic.” In desperation, she instinctively reached out to him to save him from the strange phenomenon.

Marty was surprised but instantly realized that it was similar to the magic that brought him here, so he wasn’t worried.  However, he was quite surprised at the genuine look of concern and fear Lucibelle had for him. [She is a girl with a pure heart.]  He thought before he once again disappeared.

Right after he disappeared, an explosion was heard, and Lucibelle was forced back several feet where she collapsed on the ground.  A few seconds later, the door burst open. “Sister, what’s wrong!” a younger, more childish version of Lucibelle with twin tails asked in a panic.

Lucibelle fought the tears in her eyes. “I messed up.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t you going to try the summon?”

“I did, but don’t know what happened.  We were talking, and then a golden light appeared caused an explosion.”

“Then just cast the magic and try again after you rest.”

“I can’t,” Lucibelle said as she shook her head. “Angelique, he… He was handsome and nice, and I could tell he trusted me.  If he is still alive, he probably won’t like me anymore because of this mess up. And if he’s dead…” She said as she shivered at the thought. “I don’t want to summon someone else. What if it happens again?”

Angelique sighed as she walked over to her sister and pinched Lucibelle’s cheek.

“Ow, ow, ow,” Lucibelle said in sudden protest.

“Geez, sometimes I wonder if the older sister is here.  Do you know how tired I am of doing all your paperwork that you run away from consistently?  Then you spend so much time reading those crappy romance novels. If that’s the way you feel, then we need to think of a way to resolve the situation ourselves.”

Lucibelle had that her tears as she reached over and hung Angelique. “Thanks, sis, for everything.”

“If us two sisters don’t look after each other, who will?” Angelique asked with a chuckle. “So he was handsome?  What did he look like?”

“He was human and…”

“Alright, stop.” Angelique interrupted. “I already know about your hornless fetish.  Just don’t let anyone else know.”

“Meanie,” Lucibelle replied as she stuck out her tongue.  The Empress who ruled many showed her childish side only to her sister, though soon one other would see it as well.

 

Marty blinked a few times to regain his vision as the golden flash of light temporarily blinded him.  When his eyes finally adjusted, he found himself in a large, dark, circular room lit only by candles. There was only one door which was slightly higher than he was by a couple of steps.  Standing up from the doorway were five figures, 3 of which looked somewhat pale. They wore long robes and had a staff in their hands. Slightly behind them was a man with a crown dressed in a purple robe.  He looked to be in his 50s and appeared scholarly as he was not very muscular. Marty could tell that he had Rank 8 Ki. While this would have been impressive in Camelot, the fact that the man behind them in full armor had Rank 10 Ki meant that the standard was most likely much higher here.

Marty looked down and the golden glowing magic circle reflected in his eyes.  After pressing down his curiosity, he drew his attention to the apparent summoners.  One of them was a relatively bulky young man. Though he wasn’t as tanky as Carl, he still was quite buff and had a football player’s build.  In front of Marty was a young woman. She had bobcut brunette hair and was thinly built, but did not appear weak. Then, Marty’s vision finally fell on the last girl.  She had long black hair and seemed fairly dainty. Her body was shivering as Marty could sense fear and confusion she felt. Given that she was in her pajamas, Marty figured that she had been woken up by the magic.

Originally, Marty wasn’t going to do anything until the long black-haired girl turned her head slightly, which allowed him to see her profile.  Even though he couldn’t see her entire face, a thunderclap went off inside his head as he instantly recognized who it was. He quickly took off his black jacket, the transformed Cali, and placed it on the girl’s shoulders, both to calm and protect her.  Surprised, the girl turned and looked at him.

“Onii-sama?” She asked, questioning both him and herself as she had experienced many strange things in the last few seconds.

“Yes, it’s me, Yutsuki.” He said as he gently smiled. “Don’t worry; you have me.”

“Yes!” Yutsuki replied enthusiastically.

As he felt the turbulent emotions inside of her immediately calm and become positive, he couldn’t help but smile wryly.  A part of him hoped that this change was due to her faith and trust in him and not for other reasons. Ever since he had learned the magic from Camelot and obtained the ability to sense the emotions of others, there was one emotion that he could never cleanly grasp; love. He believed that Caelia and Shiro loved him as well.  However, their feelings were different. Though they shared universal emotions, like happiness, love was a composite of many mixed emotions that could vary between people. He sighed because he didn’t want to stir up any additional trouble, but what he had done in the past could not be undone.

The other two abductees looked at Marty and Yutsuki slightly envious of the two.  It would’ve been extremely convenient if they had someone they knew here as well. 

“Be at peace.” The man with the crown said. “We are King Augustus of Regnum.  We have had you summoned to help us against the evil Devils that threaten our kingdom.  The three of you are our hope.” The King said with a smile before he was interrupted by the armored men next to him. “What is it.” The King angrily said before the man whispered to him. “Mages, why are there four of them?”

the mages looked at the four Offworlders in surprise as they had just realized that there were four, not three as the spell indicated that would be.

“Did the spell have the possibility of summoning four people?”

“That is impossible.  We use up all our Mana and barely Managed to get this spell to function.  All the references say there should only be three; four should be impossible.”

“Mages, what is the matter?” The King asked again.

Showing a hint of fear, on the mages looked at the four of them. “Could the four of you please show us the back of your right hand?”

All four of them compiled as Marty took off the corresponding glove.  A golden magic circle, similar to the one carved on the ground, slightly glowed on the back of their hand.  The only different one between them was Marty’s, which did not glow at all.  

The three mages took a couple of minutes to deliberate.  While they did so, Yutsuki and Marty quietly made small talk.  The other two maintained a wary silence as they tried to come to terms with their situation.

One of the mages went forward to the King. “Your Majesty, given that this room is completely closed off all the people here must have been summoned.  The fourth person is most likely the man in black, but seeing as he and the other know each other, they must’ve come from the same world. We believe that the reason he was summoned is that he is significantly weaker than the others.  As we know, the more powerful a person is the more power required to summon them. Most likely the spell can summon more than three people, but the fourth had never appeared before. Most likely, his level of strength is similar to a weak peasant.”

Yutsuki’s face turned angry, and she was about to speak before Marty’s voice rang in her head, [Don’t say anything.  I prefer it if they underestimate me.]

Startled as Marty’s voice appeared in her head, she turned and looked to see a sly grin across his face.  She nodded with a smile. Her Onii-sama was very strong in her mind, and her belief in him was almost a blind worship.

Naturally, Marty had no issue with them calling him weak.  At this point, he had far exceeded the previous definition of ‘human,’ though he couldn’t be considered a powerhouse on Earth anymore.  He also came to a similar conclusion as the mages, that the spell should summon more than three people but less than four. However, because Lucibelle already summoned him, he was in this world and still connected to Earth.  This allowed their spell to find him, but it took far less power as he wasn’t summoned from Earth.

When this thought crossed his mind, Marty’s eyes shone.  It meant that the magic of this world had the potential for long-distance travel.  Even though he already had similar magic with dimension door, he wanted a different method.  At most, he could use Dimension Door four times a day, and he would be utterly exhausted after that.  If this world’s magic use a different source or the power were more efficient, it would be a boon to him.

The King took a step forward and began to speak. “Greetings humans from another world.  We are King Georgios of Regnum. What are your names?”

“Giffard.” The young man replied.

“Erica.” The young lady replied.

“Yutsuki.”

“Marty.”

“Good.” The King said with a nod. “We apologize for the abruptness of our summons.  We did not pick you intentionally as the magic will randomly pick people within its criteria.  However, we have needed to take precautions against the annihilation of our human race. You see, there is this evil race called the Devils that we have been at war against for a long time.  Though no skirmishes have occurred recently, we believe that war will soon come upon us. You are humans from another world. According to the records, humans from another world will grow extremely quickly and have tremendous strength.  We intend to train you so that we can defeat the Devils. After, if you desire, we should be able to send you back home. If you have any questions, we will try to answer them to the fullest of our ability.”

“What if we do not wish to fight?” Erica asked.

The King gave a forced smile. “We will not force you to fight, but you should know that we cannot send you home; only the Devils can.  Once we defeat the Devils, we can find the method to send you home. If you don’t intend to fight, while no punitive measures will be taken, we will not support you.”

Marty narrowed his eyes when he heard this.  This King was quite deceitful. He gave the illusion of a kind King who his hand out for peace but had a dagger hidden behind his back.  By doing so, he didn’t give them a way out while giving the illusion that they had decided to help on their free will. On top of this, Marty could tell that he was lying.  Given that Lucibelle had told him the exact opposite regarding getting back home and she had been truthful while this King had lied, it was quite apparent that this King was manipulating them for his benefit.  Compared to the honest and straightforward Lucibelle, this King was crafty and sly.

After no more questions were raised, the four of them were brought to an area within the castle.  The rooms are all adjacent to one another with a larger dining room connected to all of them. The four of them were informed that they would most likely collapse within the next 24 hours, and they should not be worried as it was their body strengthening in this world.  Naturally, Marty knew that this would happen to those who newly acquired Ki. The four of them were each given a personal maid to take care of their needs. Marty couldn’t help but notice he seemed to get an older and less attractive maid compared to the rest, but he brushed it aside.

Shortly after they arrived in the rooms, Marty asked the other three into his room and dismissed the maids.

“Hello Giffard and Erica, my name is Marty.”

““Hello.”” They both replied.  

“Let’s just get straight to the point,” Marty said with a serious expression. “Can you promise to keep what I’m about to say a secret?”

They both nodded.

“Good.  Cali, make sure we aren’t going to be heard by other prying ears.” After he spoke, the jacket still draped over Yutsuki suddenly turned to black dust.  The other three faces turned to shock as black dust suddenly encompassed the perimeter of the room and slowly rotated. Then, some of the black dust came together in front of Marty before turned into a beautiful doll-like girl.

At Cali’s appearance, Marty was also slightly surprised that she could now multitask to this degree.  Even though her face was somewhat expressionless, Marty could see her desire for praise from her eyes. “You did very well.” He said as he patted her head.

“That feels good,” Cali said with a small smile.

Erica, Giffard, and Yutsuki were somewhat dumbfounded, and a tinge of innocent jealousy could be seen from Yutsuki as she watched Marty and Cali.

Marty had a look at the others before he made a small smile. “This is Cali.  She is one of the precious family members I made when I was Abducted some time ago.  As such, I’m relatively experienced when it comes to the sort of thing. If you want to increase your chances of returning home alive, then you should take to heart my advice.”

The three of them nodded.  Giffard and Erica were neither foolish or extremely prideful, and they were naturally worried for their safety, thus were more than willing to defer to someone with more experience. “I’m going to tell you the different lies that the King made.  I obtained the ability to sense the emotions of people to a certain extent. That, coupled with looking for physical signs of lying, while I may not be able to catch every lie, I have more than a 99% chance to be right. The first lie he spoke was that the Devil could send us back, which they can’t.”

“Then we don’t have a way to get back?” Erica asked.

“That is not the case because his other lie was that he could not send us back.”

“You mean you can go back right now?” Giffard asked.

“This is the case, but he would not allow for it.  I guess that the magic symbols on our hands are unique.  So long as he uses the summon magic again, it will summon us and not other people.  This means he would have to kill us to summon new people. I imagine the reason why he lied is that the summoning is not easy, so he isn’t willing to do so repeatedly.  By lying to us, he doesn’t have to go through summoning multiple times and, if we knew and wanted to go back, it would give us a reason to betray him in the future. By lying to us, he makes sure that we are loyal to serve his interests.”

“So that King is a bad man then,” Yutsuki replied with a pouty face.

“The more power someone has, the more likely they are to become corrupt and are more likely to manipulate others.  Currently, they believe that I’m going to have little to no potential, at least compared to the three of you. As such, it wouldn’t look appropriate if you answer to someone who is supposed to be weaker than you.”

“Are you actually weaker?” Eric asked as she narrowed her eyes.

Marty chuckled. “Let me put it this way; from what I’ve seen, if I wanted to leave, there is absolutely nothing anyone in this world could do to stop me.”

Seeing Marty’s confident appearance, the three others began to relax.

“What should we do?” Giffard asked.

“For now, go with the flow and get along with everyone as much as possible.  You may have to fight in the future, so you should train up like your life depends on it.  The next few hours you guys are going to have a fever and collapse as you obtain Ki. It will be rather painful, but I believe it’s unavoidable at this point.  Because I already have it, I won’t be affected. As I can conceal my Ki, they will take it as another reason to believe I’m weak, which is what I want. If there’s something I want you to do or something I want to tell you, I’ll let you know.”

“Should we have a call sign if you have something to tell us?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Marty said with a smile.  [I’ll think of something.] He thought into their minds.

The three other’s eyes opened wide with surprise and happiness as they realized the implications of telepathy.  Not only would it make communication easier, but it would also allow him to instruct them what to say and do at critical moments.

...

Over the next couple hours, the four of them proceeded to discuss minor things including each other’s background.  It was only then that Erica and Giffard realized they knew Marty by a moniker, The Strongest F. This made them somewhat conflicted as the rank implied he was weak, but his fighting strength was high.

Around the time there were wrapping up, the other three started to feel a slight burning sensation in their chest.  Marty promptly got them into the rooms and gave the maids orders to get water and rags to clean off the sweat and lower the fever that was soon to come. Pain-wracked their three bodies, and they fainted.  

Marty insisted on treating Yutsuki personally.  He couldn’t help but feel grieved when he saw her put up a strong face knowing full well the level of pain she was experiencing.  She was an especially delicate young lady, but she clenched her teeth and did not utter a peep. He would occasionally step in on Giffard and Erica to make sure they were faring all right.  It was when he entered Giffard’s room that he witnessed something that rendered him speechless.

Giffard came out of his coma as Marty entered the room.  The first thing Giffard saw was the maid who is cleaning off his sweat as he mumbled. “Did I die? I’m seeing an angel.” He mumbled before he fell back into unconsciousness.  The maid’s face turned beet red as she was embarrassed and excited by the comment. Her position was not very high, so even being taken as a lover by the person who would become a genuine hero would be a significant step up socially and give her much security.  The whole exchange left Marty stunned to speechless as he looked at the maid. Of the maids the King had given them, Giffard’s was the prettiest. She gave a homely feel. Marty previously hadn’t noticed because his standards were too high as he was used to living with several beautiful women.  He continued this routine all through the night.

 

In the King’s study, the King, several mages, and the general, who had also been present during the summoning, were speaking.

“It’s confirmed that the information we had is correct.” The King said with a slight smile. “Soon after coming to this world, the summoned heroes would fall unconscious for some time.  They should wake with a lot of Ki and their Ki Rank will increase much faster than a local person.”

“While this is true, that fourth hero, Marty, is still lively as ever.” The general said with a tinge of disappointment.

“Is it possible he already has Ki?” The King asked.

“He shouldn’t.  At my rank, I should be able to sense Ki, if he has any; unless the amount is minimal.  In either case, he is useless.”

“Could he be mage material then?”

“Perhaps, your Majesty.” One of the mages replied. “However, that is useless to us anyway.  With our information, the devils will probably attack within the next six months at the latest.  It takes years of memorization and study to become a qualified mage. We do not have the time to train him.”

The King tapped on his desk as if lost in thought. “Are we sure that this fourth hero isn’t fake?  A spy of the devils?”

“It is impossible.  There should be no way for this to happen in that closed room.  On top of this, hero Yutsuki has known him since childhood. The only conclusion I can think of is as we previously concluded.  The magic can summon more than three people, but the fourth person would be feeble. He cannot be a true hero.”

The King gave a small smile as he shrugged and said: “Then it’s decided that the fourth hero is a fake.”

End of Day -104