*RIIIIING*
The school bell rang signaling the end of classes and the start of our summer break. Some of my classmates bolted out of the room as soon as they heard the bell, but they were immediately stopped by our instructor.
“Get back inside! I have not yet dismissed you.” Our instructor shouted at them. Some of them came back inside while the others ignored the warning. “Dammit! Those three who didn’t follow my instructions will have a severe punishment after the summer break.”
Sheesh, good thing I wasn’t one of them. I thought to myself as I cleaned up my table. There were just a handful of students that decided to run off and only three managed to succeed. The rest of the class remained seated.
Our instructor hastily packed up his belongings and walked to the door, “Okay class dismissed.” He said before walking out of the room.
The majority of the class rushed out of the room as soon as the instructor was gone. But there were still some who decided to stay behind, and I was one of them. I didn’t want to join the other students rushing out of the room and besides, I also found that my friends were behind too, so I went to them.
“Hey guys.” I called out. “You guys ain’t going home yet?”
“Sup Jan, Kelvin and I was just planning what we’ll be doing after class.” Carlo replied.
“We’re just gonna have a bit of fun.” Kelvin added. “First up, we’ll have some dinner then we’ll be hanging out somewhere while waiting for the bars to open up and hit some hotties while we're at it.”
“What is this ‘hitting some hotties’ that I am hearing?” said another voice from behind us and when we looked over our shoulder, we saw a girl glaring at Kelvin, her name is Princess, Cess for short, behind her is another friend of ours, Rika.
“Typical Kelvin.” Rika said jokingly.
“Hey what’s wrong with that? It’s not like I’m in a relationship right now.” Kelvin Retorted. “And besides me and the boys need some guy time.”
“Haha, yeah sure.” I replied with a laugh before asking, “Anyways, are you guys going to invite Cess and Rika?”
“You sure you want to invite them.” Kelvin asked Carlo. “You do know where we’re going, right?”
“Yeah of course. It’s not like they ain’t allowed there.” Carlo answered.
“Where are you guys planning to go anyways?” Rika asked, Cess tilted her head quizzically too.
“We were planning on having some lunch and just wander around the city or something and afterwards we'll-.” Carlo answered but was cut off by Cess and Rika.
“” So can we come?”” Cess and Rika asked in sync.
“Wait I haven’ told you where we’re goi- “
Carlo was once again interrupted, this time by Kelvin. “Sure, you guys can come along.”
“You sure ‘bout that Kelvin?” I asked, “You won’t be able to do your thing if they're there.”
“My thing?” Kelvin asked with a perplexed face before turning to a shocked one. “Wha-!?”
While Kelvin was still reeling from the shock me and my friends were talking, but I still heard Kelvin muttering ‘Damn, how can I hit on pretty girls when they’re around.’ I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that. Aside from the 5 of us, 8 more of our classmates decided to wait for the hallways to clear out a bit.
Well, we'll just have to sit back and talk with each other until the hallways are clear. Which will probably take a few minutes.
A few minutes later, Carlo stood up and said, “I guess the hallway’s already clear. I can’t hear any noise anymore.”
It's true, I couldn't hear anything. It’s too quiet and it’s eerie.
“I think so too, hey Jose, can you check outside if it’s clear or not.” Kelvin called out to Jose who was nearest to the door.
“Aight.” Jose replied before going to the door, “Yeah, looks clear enough, heck I can’t even see anybody.”
Kelvin and everyone else in the room turned to Jose with bewildered faces. Everyone went silent for a couple of seconds before Kelvin managed to speak, “Huh!? What do you mean you can’t see anybody? It’s not like we’ve been here for hours.”
Kelvin rushed outside and shouted, “HELLO!!”, but sadly no response came back, only the echo of his voice. He came back inside with a bewildered face, “What the heck!? Where is everybody?”.
In our confusion we failed to notice the glowing circle on the floor. It was only when Mia screamed that we noticed it. The whole room was enveloped by a bright light and a mystical feeling. I covered my eyes using my hands, but the light was so bright I think I even saw my bones through my closed eyelids.
My body was enveloped by a warm sensation for a second before I felt I was falling. I opened my eyes and saw that we were indeed falling, and we were rapidly falling to what seemed like a stone surface.
Preparing for the impact, I crossed my arms together and braced myself, but the impact that I was expecting didn’t come. A couple seconds passed before I decided to open my eyes. What greeted me was a room straight out of the Middle Ages; stone walls and floors, candles and oil lamps line the walls, a single candle chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and clerestory windows let in sunlight to illuminate the room.
My friends and I, together with our classmates, were standing on a circular stone platform with intricate designs carved in it. Everyone in the group was looking around restlessly, which was to be expected. I mean who can stay calm in this situation? One moment we were in our classroom when a glowing white circle suddenly appeared and the next thing, we knew we were inside some sort of Medieval structure. Humans may have been to adapt in any situation. But everything happened so fast that we don’t even know how to react, much more so adapt to our situation.
I felt someone tugging my jacket, “H-hey, J-Jan?” I looked over and saw Princess clutching at the hem of my jacket, “What’s go-ing on?” she asked.
I shook my head and shrugged, “I don’t have a clue either, but it looks like we’re inside what looks like a Medieval castle or fortress or some other stone structure.”
She looked crestfallen after hearing my answer. Seeing her looking so dejected, I patted her head instinctively. She was surprised at first, but she let me continue patting her, I only stopped when she finally calmed down.
“Thanks Jan.” she said to me.
My other friends also came closer when they saw Cess looking so down. Rika hugged Cess and stroked her back, “It’ll be okay.” While Rika was consoling Cess, Kelvin and Carlo stood there not knowing what to do.
“Hey, Carlo, Kelvin, come here for a second.” I called out to them.
“Jan, what the hell is going on!?” Kelvin asked, but sadly I also don’t know what’s going on.
“I don’t know.” I answered, “But, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“I did a head count and counted 13 of us, everyone who remained in the room.” Carlo said, he paused and looked around before continuing “The five of us, Jose, Richard, Marvin, Mark, Karina, Mia, Nicole, and Claire. That’s everyone.”
As we were talking, one of our classmates, Marvin, shouted, “GUUYS, WE’VE BEEN ISEKAI’D.” he looked so ecstatic, “WE’RE GONNA SAVE THIS WORLD AS HEROES.” he exclaimed.
Dude, control your emotions, I understand that you’re happy to live your dream. But look around you, not everyone’s as happy as you are.’
As we watched Marvin jump up and down, a door opened and several people entered; 6 people wearing armor, 4 people wearing hooded robes, and an old man wearing a white robe with golden embroidery and holding a staff as tall as him. After entering the 6 armored people formed a semi-circle around us with the 4 robed people going in between them and the old man placed himself at the center.
The old man approached our group while the others stayed back, “Greetings young heroes, I am the Court Sorcerer of the Holy Kingdom of Bathal, Antonius de Palazio. Will you please follow the knights to the audience chamber? The King awaits the young heroes.”
Wait, did I hear that right? Court Sorcerer? Holy Kingdom? Dammit, Marvin’s right then. We did get transferred to another world. A world of swords and magic at that.
After introducing himself, the old man hastily left the room and let the knights lead us out and escort us to the Audience Hall. We just followed the knights silently taking in the sight around us, we walked for a couple minutes before the knights stopped in front of a large double door. There were 6 more armored people in front of the doors holding halberds. One of our guard knights whispered something to one of the door guards afterwards the 6 door guards slowly pushed the doors open.
The doors slowly opened with a loud creak and the knights entered before they beckoned for us to enter too. As soon as we stepped inside the room, someone announced “The summoned heroes have arrived.” Together with several blasts of a trumpet which was then followed by a loud cheer.
The room was huge; the floor and walls are made of stone, ornate lamps line the walls and chandeliers hang from the ceiling, knights stood in attention along the walls, a red carpet spread out until the base of the throne, important looking and wealthy looking people line both sides of the carpet, and behind the throne is a massive mosaic window of a king holding a sword and an orb.
The knights led us until we reached the end of the carpet at the base of the dais, after which they left us there standing. As we were left alone in front of the throne, we stood there not knowing what to do until someone told us to take a knee which we followed.
Marvin was the first to bend his knee followed by our classmates one by one until all of us were kneeling.
“Rise Young Heroes.” said a dignified voice, we stood up and saw whose voice that voice belongs to, it was the King’s voice.
The King stood up from his throne and looked at us, “I am Yoshua Paleña de Heraَña, King of the Holy Kingdom of Bathal. I have asked Antonius to conduct the summoning the ritual so that the heroes might help my country in its time on need.”
“You will ask us to defeat the Demon Lord or something, right? right?” Marvin said, not even caring to use polite speech since he’s talking to a King.
Dude seriously!? Wait, is it just my imagination or is the King looking irritated?
“No, not a Demon Lord, but the countries surrounding us are getting aggressive.” The king paused before continuing his explanation, “Our Kingdom is a land bestowed to us, the chosen people, by the gods, but our greedy neighbors want to conquer us. Our country might be a blessing from the gods, but we are all alone and powerless, thus we performed the summoning ritual passed to us by the gods.”
Huh? I think there’s something more to this than what the king has disclosed. And why would they summon 13 students with no knowledge of warfare or whatsoever if they could just train a regular army.
“So, Young Heroes, will you lend us your strength and push back the invaders?” the King asked.
I wanted to ask something but before I can even ask some questions, Marvin answered confidently, “Yes Your Majesty, we will lend our power as heroes to help your country in despair.”
What the hell man!? I grumbled internally. You’re just going to agree to it willy-nilly? Like, no plans or anything!?
The King smiled after hearing Marvin’s reply, “Very Well, we shall now check your status. Antonius, lead the heroes to the center of the hall and measure their stats for everyone to see.”
“Hey mister king? Your majesty?” I tried to ask but my voice was drowned out by the blaring of the trumpets and the loud cheers of the people around us.
“Holy Crap, this is it, we’ll measure our stats and I’ll be super OP and then…...” I heard Marvin muttering.
Unlike Marvin, who was extremely enthusiastic about the status checking, the rest of my classmates, including me, are all filled with uncertainty.
The old man, Antonius, approached our group and he led us to the center of the Audience Hall, “Now then, young heroes, we shall measure your status.”
