Shield to Support

Hero Introduction

Naufumi hit the ground hard. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as he thought it would.

"Oooh..."

A voice full of admiration brought him back to my senses. As he settled down, a bunch of men wearing robes filled his view. They were looking past him and seemingly ignoring him entirely. "What?" Following the robed men's line of sight, Naofumi found three others who also seemed to have trouble grasping the situation. 'What on earth happened? Just a few seconds ago, I was at the store. Where am I now?' He restlessly checked my surroundings, and all that he found were brick walls in every direction.

The room was made out of bricks. Looking down, there was an altar and various geometric patterns that were painted with fluorescent paint. They looked like Alchemic circles from Full Metal Alchemist. The four of them stood on top of the altar.

Looking at his arm, Naofumi frowned. 'Why do I have a shield attached to me?' The shield fit perfectly and was strangely light. It took him seconds to connect his situation to the book he was just reading. 'Oh, god. This is actually happening. I became the Shield Hero.'

"Where is this place?" The guy with the sword gave into his anxiety and asked one of the robed men.

They responded in turn. "Ooh, Please brave heroes! Please somehow save this world!"

The four newcomers were shocked "WHAT!?" All of them said unanimously.

"What did you mean by that?" the teen with the sword continued.

"Many things have happened to our world. It is in grave danger. By tradition, we were able to summon you brave Heroes through an ancient spell."

"Summoned..." Naofumi muttered. 'So this is like the book.'

The robed men went on. "Brave Ones, please lend us your might." The robed man bowed deeply to them while saying so.

Before Naofumi could answer, the other three gave theirs.

"Well... This is a bit sudden-"

"What a pain."

"Is that so?"

"Can I just go back to my old world? I already heard this kind of story before."

'So much for brave heroes...' Naofumi thought. "Uh... Okay?" The other three were all glaring intensely at him now. 'You guys sound as if this is the easiest choice in the world! I don't want to know the consequences of refusing!' He gave them a half smile to ease the tension.

"Aren't you people guilty over summoning us without our consent?" The guy with the sword, who looked like a high school student, pointed his sword at the robed men. "For instance, we won't just fight for world peace and then return to our old world empty-handed, right?"

The guy with the bow scowled at the robed men's direction. "You guys don't seem to take much consideration into our own plans, do you? Depending on what you have to offer, we might end up becoming this world's enemy instead, got it?"

'Well, this is going south fast." Naofumi wouldn't lie. They all had lives back home, and now they were dragged here. They are new to this place, and they would need all the help they could get to adjust here.

"Well first, I'd like you all to have an audience with the king. We can discuss your reward then." The representative of the robed men opened the heavy looking door to guide us through.

"...Guess it can't be helped."

"Right."

"Duh, the guy we'll be meeting changes, but I bet the story's still the same." The macho bunch arrived at their own conclusions before following.