The 5th Legendary Hero

Chapter 1

Echo POV

"I'm Echo, 19 years of age." I say simply when it was my turn not bothering to give much information. I'm normally a good judge of character and right now the only one who seems trust worthy to me is the shield.

"Guess that leaves me, my name is-" I raise a brow at the king as he interrupts him.

"Good, Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Echo." The king says.

"Excuse me king, aren't you forgetting someone? You literally interrupted him while speaking which shows bad manners." I say crossing my arms and glaring at the king.

"Oh yes, forgive me." He says as I look at the shield and gave him a small smile.

"So what's your name?" I ask.

"I'm Naofumi Iwatani, collage student, 20 years old." I smile at him before looking at the king again.

"Now then I suppose I need to explain why we brought you here. My beloved country of Melromarc and the entire world around it is heading down a path to certain ruin." Here he explains the same thing I read in the book, about the waves and how we, the cardenal heroes, must fight them. He also explained about the dragon hour glass which certainly came in handy seeing as we have some way of knowing when they'll be coming.

I really don't like these three, all they're asking for is money and respect. I hate people like this.. and the worst part is I can identify people like this with just one look having been raised by people like them. After a lot of talking we soon were excused to our rooms. They all went to a room to talk making me sigh.

"Hey." I turn to look at Naofumi.

"Hi." I say giving him a smile.

"How were you summon here if I may ask?" He asks.

"Huh? Oh I was reading a book about it when light came out of it and before I knew it I was here." I say looking at him as he smiled so big it surprised me.

"I'm so happy!" He says wrapping his hands around me making me blush.

"He-hey! What are you doing?!" I ask as he quickly lets go of me.

"I'm so sorry! It's just the other three said this looked like a game they were playing and that I was a loser for having the shield!" I blink as he ranted before giggling.

"Well in a way it may be true, the shield isn't really a weapon but it's still important, you can't always be attacking. I don't really believe what they say about the heroes working together being bad but I really don't like the other three." I say looking up at him.

"But I do like you. You're honest and treat people kindly. I wouldn't mind working with you in the future." I say extending my hand to him with a smile.

"I wouldn't mind it either." He says taking my hand in his with a small blush.

"Well if you excuse me I need some sleep, you should rest too." I say as he nods.

"Right, sleep well." He says as I open my door.

"You too." I say giving him a close eye smile before closing the door behind me.

"He's really nice." I mumble before going to sleep.

~~

"We've gathered the greates warriors in the land, these brave souls will fight the waves along side you. Our future champions the time has come to begin your journey." The king says as the warriors started walking toward us doing a line behind each of us. I noticed 6 were behind me and when I look at Naofumi he had no one behind him.

"Yo king!" He yelled.

"I loaf to admit but even I wasn't expecting this." Said the king but something told me that wasn't true.

"No volunteers you must have zero charisma." Said someone as he bent down to speak to the king.

"I've been made aware of an unsettling rumor. The rumor that is quickly spreading around town is that the so called shield hero is ignorant of this world. Legend tells us that heroes come with a firm understanding of the lands and the towns people seem to think he doesn't meet that criteria." I raise a brow.

"Now wait just a minute, I'm not familiar with the lands here either. And I don't have a full understanding of this world either. You can't expect someone from another world to know these things and if they do it's probably from a video game and you want to know what that means everyone?" I say stepping up and cross my arms.

"Is that those who do have an understanding of this land will be taking each of your lives as if this was a game. This isn't serious to them, just something to have fun with. Naofumi at least has your interests in mind instead of his own." I say glaring at the king.

"So I suggest those of you that want to stay alive change to either mine or Naofumi's party." I say loud and clear but they all seemed to stay with their chosen heroes. Until one hand was seen and my eyes landed on her glaring. She was certainly bad news, she reeks of trouble, manipulater, and liar.

"Sir hero, would you kindly allow me to switch parties and join the shield hero?" I clenched my jaw, something's not right here.

"Uh, are you sure?" The blond asked as she smiled.

"Yeah." Fake, I better warn him about it. The king asked if anyone else wanted to switch and they didn't. They gave us money and oh though Naofumi seemed happy something was ringing in my head. Something told me he was going to change, that she was going to do something and make him change.. that somehow he'll be betrayed by the country who summoned him.

As we all walk out I take his hand pulling him away from the group of people.

"Uh, wha-" He seems flustered as I do so but I take a deep breath.

"Ok this is going to sound really weird but, I'm a very good judge of character and I like you which is why I'm telling you this." I say making sure no one was listening.

"Tell me what?" He asks as I lean closer to his ear and whisper.

"Do not trust her, something's not right about her. So I'm just giving you a warning, take it or leave it." I say pulling away and waving.

"Best of luck to you." I say kissing his cheek before walking away towards my new party.