I woke up feeling sluggish and tired, I was even struggling to sit up. And as soon as I sat up, an excruciating headache assaulted me. Urgh! What the fuck!?

[C##r# #es####n## A##u###d… #h##m ##e#l #u####s##ly ##s##t#d]

There it goes again, the voice I heard during the appraisal ceremony and last night just before my consciousness faded away. WAIT!? My consciousness faded away!? I clutched my head as I tried to remember what happened yesternight, my sluggishness from earlier was suddenly replaced with adrenaline rushing to my brain.

I looked around the room only to find my clothes scattered on the floor along with a lady’s undergarments. Oh, hell nah. I then looked beside me and saw a sleeping woman covered only with blankets. What the hell!? Did I sleep with her? But I can’t remember anything from last night.

Since she was still fast asleep, I got out of bed and quickly put on my clothes. I’ll be getting an earful from the girls if they find out what happened here. I rushed out of the room and was greeted by a maid cleaning outside.

“Good morning, sir hero. Don’t worry about the mess in your room, we’ll be cleaning it later.” she said with a grin.

Ah hell no, my friends will for sure know about what happened. “Please don’t tell the others what happened last night, okay?”

“Of course, sir.” she answered with a bow.

“And tell the other servants too.” I said before rushing past her.

Now which among this rooms is Kelvin’s? I think it was that room there. I knocked at the door and opened it without waiting for a reply. Inside, I saw a single figure covered by sheets. Did Carlo not sleep with Kelvin? Oh well, guess I’ll just wake up Kelvin then.

“KELVIN WAKE UP!” I yelled as I pulled the sheets off of the figure.

“HUH!? WAI- WHUH!” I was expecting to hear Kelvin’s voice but instead it was a girl’s voice. And beneath the sheets was actually a lady, Maria Angelica, one of our classmates and also one of the prettiest girls in our class.

Holy crap! Her shirt’s already almost off of her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, I thought this was Kelvin’s room.”

“Get the hell out!” She yelled angrily.

“I’m really sorryyyy!” I replied before bolting out of the room.

Several maids rushed to the room as soon as I bolted out. “What happened?” someone asked, but I just kept on running until I was out in the Mansion’s courtyard. Dammit, it’s like the god of lechery’s giving me his full blessings.

I came back inside after a few minutes; everyone was already up, and Maria was surrounded by her two friends and when they saw me, they glared. Everyone else noticed me afterwards.

“Jan Gabriel Fernandez! Come up here right this instance!” Cess said with a smile.

Holy crap. I just felt shivers going up my spine. “Yes Ma’am!” I replied and went up to them.

“Why did you barge into a girl’s room without even knocking!?” Cess asked, still smiling.

“I-I did knock.” I answered, “And I thought that it was Kelvin’s room since that’s where we were hanging out last night, remember? I didn’t know that you guys changed your rooms.”

“What you did is still wrong.” She said, “But I do wonder how we got to bed last night.”

Everyone in the group looked at each other, but everyone was just shrugging.

“Wait, were you guys so drunk that you forgot how you guys got here!?” I asked them.

“I actually don’t know.” Carlo answered.

“Last thing I remember was the King’s speech or something, and I even raised my cup.” Kelvin added.

“Same here.” Rika said.

“Same with me.” Another one of our classmates said which was followed by others who also had the same answer.

“Wait! So, you guys also came back to the mansion just a few minutes after me?” I asked.

“I guess? Coz the last thing I remember was seeing you leave together with the maid.” Cess responded.

Shit, I hope they don’t ask about the maid. “Damn, you guys were that wasted?”

“I guess? Ehehehe.” She answered.

Don’t you ‘Ehehehe’ me. I continued to ask the others about what they remembered but they were just as clueless about what happened last night. Not a single one of us remembers what happened to us last night. Well, I do know what happened to me last night, but I don’t remember anything about it.

A servant called us and said that breakfast is ready. Just as we were about to go down the stairs a door opened. The maid I slept with yesterday came out, still covered in a thin sheet. “Good morning heroes.” She greeted us with a smile.

The boys have their eyes glued at her shapely figure underneath the sheet. “Wait! Whose room did she come out of!?” Rika asked. “Is Marvin still asleep there?”

“No, milady hero. That is Sir Jan’s room.” She said with a bow which slightly exposed her cleavage.

“Jan!?” Cess said as she turned and faced me, there was that emotionless smile on her face again. “What happened last night?”

“Uhmmm, you know-” I tried to reply but I could not say anything to defend myself.

“Please don’t blame Sir Jan for what happened, I was just doing what His Majesty ordered me to do.” The maid replied. “Please direct all the blame to me.”

“Er, it’s nothing...” Rika said.

“It’s a matter between Jan and us, his friends.” Cess added, “Please don’t concern yourself with it.”

“As you wish milady.” The maid said before finally raising her head. “If you’ll excuse me for now, I’ll need to borrow some clothes from the maids here in the manor because mine was damaged last night.”

The maid quickly went down and as soon as she was gone, the boys surrounded me while the girls shot me judging looks. “Bro how was it!?”

“He’s a grown man now.”

“What do you know. While we were out wasted, he was here partying with a maid.” Kelvinsaid.

“Damn, we get transferred to another world and you start banging random hotties?” Carlo said as he smacked my back, “Maybe that’s why your stats won’t show up, they’re all sex related. HAHAHA”

All the boys around me laughed in response and I was getting to embarrassed now. “Guys let’s just have our breakfast for now.”

“Don’t you change the topic, Jan. But I really am getting hungry.” Kelvin said while rubbing his belly, “You better tell us what happened.”

The boys didn’t ask me any more questions as we made our way to the dining room. The girls? They were still keeping their distance. When we arrived at the dining room, food was already prepared on the table which was mostly bread and meat. A bit heavy for breakfast if you ask me, especially those thick cuts of meat.

There was a lot of food on the table so that even after everyone from our group was already full there was still some food remaining. Only when we were finished eating did someone finally realize that Marvin was missing. We asked the maids, but they said that only eleven were returned to the mansion. They suggested that maybe he was still at the castle.

We thanked the servants for the meal and asked them to accompany us to the castle, but they said they should not be the ones escorting us but knights. They told us to wait for the knights, but we refused and rushed outside. We rushed through the courtyards and into the castle, we asked the first person we saw and asked them if they saw Marvin. The first few we asked did not know where he was. Maybe they were not present at yesterday’s banquet? But after a while someone finally did say that they knew where Marvin was and he even offered to lead us to Marvin’s room, which we immediately agreed to.

The servant led us for a few minutes before we arrived before a door. We were hearing laughing and some indecent noises coming from the room. “Now if you’ll please excuse me.” The servant said with a bow before leaving.

The indecent noises continued as we were lost on what to do. “Uhmm, you guys want to knock?” I asked them.

“Not me.” Carlo said as he backed off.

The girls also refused and were standing further away from the door than us. “Actually, you know what. You boys deal with this.” Maria Angelica said before turning around and leaving, most of the girls followed her with only Rika and Cess remaining.

“Don’t look at us.” Rika said.

“Urgh let’s just leave him be for now. At least we know where he is.” I said to them.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and we just decided to let him be. With nothing else to do we decided to split up in groups to explore the castle. My friends and I were in one group, and we decided to climb to the top of the castle. It took us a couple of minutes to find the stairway leading up and some more minutes climbing up. The last flight of stairs led us out to the castle rooftop. The area was enclosed by battlements and a pair of archers were stationed there. And when we were spotted, they nocked their arrows and aimed at us.

“This is restricted area; how did you get here!?” The archer shouted.

“Wait!” Rika said, “We just got lost.”

“Lost ehy? Ya sure ya aint thievin around’ere?” Another one said. “Ya lot better coop’rate if you know what’s good for ye.”

One of the archers un-nocked his arrow and reached for a rope. “You’re gonna have to explain yourselves in the dungeons.”

“Wait no! We’re not thieves!” Kelvin shouted and resisted but he was socked in the guts. “Euuurgh-”

“Hey what the hell man!” Carlo spat out before tackling the archer who socked Kelvin. The archer nimbly dodged and elbowed Carlo on his back. Once down on the ground the archer kicked aside Carlo and went for Cess.

“HIYAAAAH.” Cess screamed as she was grabbed by the archer.

“Ya better stand down now lad.” The other one said as he slightly drew his bowstring and aimed at me.

What the fuck!? What can I do!? Someone please do something! I can’t let these men hurt my friends! If only I had something to protect us!

[Processing user request... Request: Get something to protect...]

Huh!?

[Converting request to skill... no valid skills found... creating new skill... Item Summoning Lv 1 created...]

Who’s there!?

[No Exp. To be exchanged... Converting Life Force to Exp. … Success...]

What the hell is happening!?

[Item Summoning skill ready... Think of something to protect yourself... Get a clear picture... ]

Picture something to protect myself!?

I pictured holding a gun in my hand and a few moments later a swirl of light formed in my hands.

“STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING!” The archer yelled and drew the bowstring further.

The following few seconds felt like an eternity as a gun appeared in my hand. The archer released the bowstring, and the arrow flew to me. It was happening in slow motion in my eyes, and I still managed to aim the gun and pull the trigger before the arrows struck me on my shoulder. I felt it digging through my shoulder and out.

*BANG*

The archer was shot in the head, his face was that of confusion. He stood still for a few seconds before falling to his knees.

[Experience gained: 100xp... Lvl 25 Archer...]

“OY! Hubert! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!” The archer who was grabbing Cess shouted. He released Cess and went for me instead. He grabbed me and pinned me down to the ground. I aimed my gun at him, but he managed to disarm me. “YOU’RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!”

He raised his fist and punched me, I tried to defend but his punch came faster and landed squarely on my face. “Urgh-!”

Cess and Rika tried to stop his fist by grabbing his hand, but he just shoved them away.

His punches wouldn’t stop coming and slowly, my consciousness was starting to fade. Rika and Cess’ cries were becoming faint as if they were slowly becoming further.

+ + + + +

In the King’s study, the King and the Court mage were doing one of their daily scheming.

“Antonius, I want those otherworlders to be trained and deployed as quickly as possible.” The King demanded.

“Yes, My King. I will personally take charge of their training and make sure that they are ready in a month.” Antonius answered.

“A month? Hmm.” The King closed his hands together and rested his chin there. There was a silence before he continued. “That is actually perfect. I need them to be deployable in one month’s time, I place them in your care.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Antonius answered with a slight bow. “I would like to ask about the irregular, did-”

“Anna failed to charm him.” The King answered flatly.

“What!? That woman has Succubus blood and although her charm is not as strong as a pureblooded succubus, it should still be enough to charm a low-level individual.” Antonius said in disbelief.

“It seems she herself don’t know why and now she even started to take a liking to that irregular.” The King replied.

*Bang*

“What was that?” Antonius asked. “It sounds like the ‘Vulkan Rods’ of the dwarves, but smaller. Much smaller.”

“We have captured several of those from the dwarves in several skirmishes. Did one accidentally go off?” The King asked as he stood up and looked out of the windows.

“Those produce a bigger explosion and are safely locked away in the armory. I also cast a barrier around it, so it is highly unlikely that one went off.” Antonius explained, “Someone might’ve cast some sort of magic and failed. Maybe it’s an assassin someone sent?”

“Bah! Let the guards deal with whoever’s responsible.” The King said, “If they survive the guards, I’ll deal with them myself.”

+ + + + +

Guards rushed up to the rooftop where the small explosion was heard. The classmates of Jan who saw all the guards rushing joined them and they found themselves on the rooftop where several guards were holding a raging man.

“LET GO OF ME, DAMMIT! THAT MAN KILLED HUBERT!” The man shouted.

A guard punched the raging man on his guts. “That man? That man you just assaulted is a hero!” The guard said.

“Whuh!?” The raging man’s anger quickly died down as soon as he heard what the guard said, “h-hero!? Wait, NO! NO! I DID NOT KNOW! DON’T DRAG ME TO THE DUNGEONS!”

“Save your excuse for the dungeon.” The guard said, “Those two who are down on the ground are also heroes. Those crying ladies are also heroes. Don’t make it any harder for yourself and come with us quietly.”

“WH-huh!? NOOOOOO!” The man raged again and broke free from the guards. “YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME THERE!” He yelled before jumping off the battlements.

The guards could do nothing else but to watch the man fall to his demise.

“Men take the injured to the infirmary!” A guard ordered.

Several guards took the battered Jan and his friends and took them to the infirmary. The dead archer was also carried to be turned over to a church for the burial rite. The classmates of Jan remained in the rooftop, still processing what had transpired.