Chapter 5 Knowledge for the Heroes

In the king's royal throne room, where many people had gathered, the tension seemed to rise by the second. Although it wasn't as if they would attack one another, it was a strange, tense atmosphere, almost like that of cornered animals.

As if nominated to be the leader of the group, the dryad's body twitched before its vines began to move, making the creature known and seen as a forest spirit, protector, and caretaker.

"My summoned heroes, I am Regulus Umbralis, the third and ruling king of the Skotótopia kingdom," the king announced. He was revealed to be a spiky blond-haired man wearing royal garments with a big red robe around him. He seemed to be in quite great physical shape but stood at a modest five feet eleven inches, nothing made him particularly stand out to the normal eyes apart from the kingly clothing and manners.

"Hello, King Regulus. I am Michiko, the teacher, and my job is to take care of them."

"Would you consider yourself to be the leader here, then?"

"I am simply responsible for them and their safety as a teacher while they are in my classroom, and since we were all there when we came here, I am still responsible for them."

"I see. So, you are the one I shall be speaking to for major decisions on such matters then, when it comes to group activities and such?"

"W-Yes, as their teacher, I am."

"In that case, as I said earlier, I am Regulus Umbralis, the third and ruling king of the Skotótopia kingdom. As you have seen by now, you are no longer at your home."

"Yeah, this doesn't look anything like Japan," Akane spoke up, looking somewhat bored and uninterested. Currently, she resembled a phoenix, also known as the immortal bird of fire. Her feathers glowed with a fire-like glow, and some fire seemed to radiate from her, yet it did not burn the feathers. However, this was not to be mistaken for it not being hot; instead, it was quite the opposite. Looking at the phoenix's claws, the ground cracked and burned, leaving a deep black patch on the ground, burning everything it touched. The bird was obviously not to be messed with.

"Ahh yes, I assume that is the name of your home kingdom or something of the sorts. However, you are correct. As you see, when you were summoned into this world, you were taken away from your own world by a summoning spell."

Everyone's eyes, except for Michiko's, seemed to flash as they heard the words spoken, all thinking, 'Summoning spell, like a spell to summon spells found in those video games, animes, manga, and novels? But you need magic for that, does this mean magic exists in this world?'

"This spell is known as the hero's summoning spell, or one of the big taboo forbidden spells not to be used under any circumstances, even if your very life was on the line, as there were massive consequences to do so. However, this particular spell was to be done by the goddess herself, as it was not only necessary, but she had given her assistance in picking the right candidates and even making sure the spell worked properly and got rid of as much negative side effects as possible. The ritual would involve temporarily manipulating the fabric of reality itself, creating a rift that opens into a space outside the conventional universes and allows the summoning of outerversal entities in the immediate area. This ritual requires someone of vastly larger power for each person summoned, and so this summoning ritual was seen as forbidden and not to be used for not only does it require such great power and could kill you were you not to have said power, it would also put in one or multiple unknown entities of great power into the location summoned, potentially not only killing the summoner but also anyone in the surroundings. However, there were some side effects to this summoning spell, as you see, once this spell was activated, this spell could not only not pick a specific target, but it can also not be measured how many beings would be picked to be summoned, and not only that, but were the summoning to fail, the massive amount of needed magic would go out of control and run rampant, in the end, it would destroy that world, making it quite the dangerous spell if not used by the right people or is to be messed with. However, the goddess herself had wanted this summoning to happen, and not only that, but she also had been willing to step in and assist the spell from failing and destroying the world, and she also had picked special beings for the spell to target."

Coughing, the king continued, "With the heroes' summoning spell being quite dangerous and risky, as it can very much fail and destroy the very world that the spell is targeted at if not done properly, it had been forbidden by not only the people but the divine themselves, such as the goddess. However, we have gained her approval to use this spell, but we also gained her support, as she assisted in not only picking the right people to be the heroes, she also has given you her blessing as well. If you look behind your neck, there should be her symbol on it."

"Oh? Is that so, and why would your goddess go to all that trouble to bring us here and even consistently help us through her blessing and maybe even other means?" another one of the students spoke up, this being Kuro. While he did not look as monstrous as the others, he was certainly not human anymore. He was made out of a clear metallic structure, but it was not regular metal; it was, in fact, Adamantite, perfectly well defined, forming the body of a strong-looking speedster-like robotic being with sharp blade-like structures sticking out of the body. Yet, it's not as if he was deformed, and you could see that he was, in fact, a man. Standing at a height of five feet five, he was fairly short, with his body having the right tone and such, almost like muscles but metal. However, the face was not really that attractive, as it was simply a very super advanced robot, but not with any human skin, and more of a machine.

"Ah yes, Sir Kuro, was it? As you may or may not know, in this world, there are many different races and such, including the humans. There are others such as demons, angels, dragons, fairies, golems, and many more. In the past, not all the races got along; in fact, many used to fight and kill each other. However, somewhere along the way, there were some who made alliances, and others who broke theirs. In the end, the races did not all get along until a certain point in our history, ten thousand years ago, when the fallen one came and stopped the wars after it killed and nearly put all of the races to a point of extinction, causing the very gods themselves to step in, causing a battle of unbelievable size to happen."

"In the end, the races were forced to come together and band together or be destroyed. Others, such as the dragons, phoenixes, and other powerful mythical creatures, the likes of which only spoken of in legends and fairy tales, however, by the end, when the world calmed once more, and a clear food chain was made, many races had gone missing. Whether they had been completely extinct or simply went into hiding like many did, was still left unknown till this very day for some of those races."

"Over the years, the demons and humans ended up fighting with them in a long war. However, thanks to each other's powers, we were never able to fully defeat them, and they could never do the same, thanks to our own power and the goddess's help. However, the demons have started to get more aggressive recently, seemingly as if they have gained an edge, and we believe they have not only thanks to the goddess's warning but also we have felt the Kage no Kōtei, otherwise known as the great shadow emperor's power rise exponentially in recent years, and so we believe he will attack."

"And so you want to take those innocent students and put them all into your war to fight for you to the death? Is that what kind of thing you want to be doing, putting the lives of my innocent students at risk after you kidnapped us all here in this place?" Michiko spoke in a very angry-sounding tone as she cut the conversation from continuing.

"Well, it is not the favorable situation, the goddess has made certain that you who have been chosen have the best chance to do this and have the potential in you needed to succeed, and she is offering her very help throughout the blessings to help you guys gain things as well as survive in the world, and without you, we would lose this war, and eventually, the entire human race would be overrun by the demons, and so for the sake of my people, I have no choice."

Sitting back down and calming himself as the king had gotten up to shout as he responded, calming down, the king continued, "Besides having no choice to summon you, the kingdom will provide as much support as possible, giving each of you a way entrance to Ethos Magic Academy."

"What if we don't want to learn magic?" Takashi, the fiery demon, spoke for the first time since the meeting started.

"Ahh yes, Sir Takashi, while it is known for its magic the most, it is not a magic-only academy, you see. Ethos academy produces everything from merchants to warriors, archers, assassins, knights, and warriors as well. It is simply that the reputation of Ethos mages makes the school stand out more especially with the royal court magician as it's head."

"Good to hear then." As this happened, Takashi saw something; someone in the crowd seemed to be looking at him, watching him specifically.

"Well, I see the situation, and that this is not something I think will be happening, but I will still ask, is there a way to send us back to our home?"

"Yes and no, you see there is no way to send you back using the same spell, however, there are other ways, such as the goddess taking you there herself."

"I see, so it's not something that would happen at this moment, is it?"

"No, however, she has said she would be granting you all one wish once this is settled and the shadow emperor is defeated."

"So if we want to go back, we have to fight then. Fine, I'll fight, but you can't force those who don't want to fight to fight and have to guarantee their safety and not to treat them poorly," both Sora and Kuro said at the same time as the human and robotic hero stepped forward.

"Well now, we can't let the NPC and the loser outshine us, can we, sis?" Takashi said as he put his big hands on both their shoulders, causing Sora to flinch as he felt the heat, while Kuro seemingly didn't at all.

"As the teacher and the one responsible for their safety, I will fight too- no, Miss Michiko, you should stay and take care of things politically as well as take care of the students who don't want to fight," Sora said, cutting her off.

"But- I-" she wanted to argue, but she knew that was the best option, yet she did not like it.

"Fine, but you guys better be careful."

And so the talks continued, with them settling who would go out and who would stay, how to do certain things, what would be needed for certain things, they even talked to some others who were in the chamber, such as the duke, the royal court magicians, and many more.