The Replacement of the Sword Hero

Chapter One: Heroic Summons

[Volume 23 of THE RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO by Aneko Yusagi, successfully downloaded.]

I swiped my finger across the screen of my tablet to turn the page but instead of cover art or a title page appearing, the screen turned white and a bright light began pouring out of my tablet. I blinked in surprise and in the brief second that my eyes were closed my surroundings changed.

"Oh wow..."
I heard someone say in an awed voice. My vision was still blurry, it was like I had rubbed my eyes too hard and was seeing a micro-constellation behind my eyelids. I blinked again to clear it and noticed something different in the meantime. There was a faint draught in here. I wasn't in my bedroom; I wasn't lying on my bed with my tablet in hand. Instead, I was lying on a cold stone surface and in my hand was not my tablet but a weapon. A sword.

There were three other people of similar age to myself sitting or standing on the same stone surface as I was. We were on an altar in the middle of a large chamber built with ornate stone brickwork. Straight ahead, a little in front of the altar were several robed men staring at us speechless. I felt a coldness travel down my spine as I got to my feet. I turned to the young man next to me, a Japanese looking guy with spikey black hair and a shield attached to his arm. He was sitting on the altar's surface as if he had just fallen out of a chair. I immediately offered him my free hand and asked. "You alright?"
In a typical British greeting.

He blinked at me. It was a face I had seen before, albeit, in an illustrated format. My suspicions deepened. He took my hand with a mumble of thanks and I help him up. Then I turned to the other two people on the altar. I was apparently the tallest among us, as I was nearly 10 centimetres above the man beside me, the one holding a spear relaxedly against his body. He was the next tallest in our group. He noticed my gaze and his eyebrows creased slightly as he looked back at me. He had a blond ponytail and a handsome oriental face. Again, it was one that I recognised. I stared into his eyes and searched his expression for any sign of recognition but he blinked and opened his mouth.
"Woah, easy there." He held up a hand between us.

My heart began beating violently. I pinched myself hard.

"Oh heroes! Please save our world!"
The robed men chorused, as if in prayer. The responses from my companions were a unanimous "What?!"
I kept my mouth closed as my brain diverted all of its functions to processing the current situation. Standing to my right was the protagonist of a series of light novels I had read, the most recent of which I had just been about to read before I appeared here.
Naofumi Iwatani.
The Shield Hero.

To my right, the man with the blond ponytail.
Motoyasu Kitamura.
The Spear Hero.
He was the protagonist of his own spin off series, one in which he has a regression ability and repeats the events of the original series multiple times. That was why I checked his face for any hints of recognition, in case I were in one of his regressions instead of the original story line. Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

There were two other heroes in 'The Rising of the Shield Hero.' They were:
Itsuki Kawasumi.
The Bow Hero.
And Ren Amaki.
The sword Hero.

I looked down at my hand. It was holding a sword. I glanced past Motoyasu to see if anyone was standing next to Itsuki. The altar was empty save for us four. Ren Amaki didn't exist in this timeline.

"What is this supposed to mean?" Motoyasu asked. I continued to turn over my thoughts inside my head as I dimly listened to the explanation given by one of the men in robes.
"There are many complications in this situation-"
"You can say that again." I covered my mouth just as quickly as I had opened it but the intrusive thought had already slipped out and interrupted the man's speech.
"Sorry, sorry. Go on." I said.
Itsuki shot me a dirty look but I ignored him and focussed on the group of robed men as they began their explanation again.
"To offer a simple answer to your question, we have just completed an ancient ceremony and summoned you four heroes."