"As one of the emperor of the five empires on this continent, Creon, I hereby ask you. Hero Freyr, Hero Damian, Hero James, Hero Kai and Hero Luke, can we entrust the fate of this world and the task of eliminating an universal threat, in your hands?"
Putting aside an emperor's demeanor, Creon stared into the eyes of the summoned ones with expectance.
The five heroes looked amongst themselves, baffled with the sudden difficult decision before them. Different thoughts went through their minds as they gauged the risks and benefits, only James and Freyr were the ones who had a tinge of excitement for the future.
The sound of typing broke the silence as everyone's eyes was on Luke.
The phone in his hands were passed to Kai, who readily accepted the task of reading it for him.
"Your highness, Luke's question is, if either of us decides to forfeit halfway on this journey for whatever reasons there may be, what would the empire do about the vacant spot of a hero?"
As if already expecting such a question, Creon looked into Luke's eyes and gave his answer.
"The records in the palace's library did list out such a possibility and offered a solution, that is for the hero who wish to step out on such hardships to relinquish the skills bestowed by the legendary heroes."
"The royal mages will then be able to summon a new target for that specific vacant seat, with the new fated one inheriting all the knowledge and spells acquired by the previous hero."
"Of course, no side effects except losing the hero's skill will occur to you should you give up halfway. The empire will still ensure your safety for as long as your within its borders, as a request for forgiveness from abruptly bringing you into this world."
"Was I able to give you the answer you're looking for, Hero Luke?"
With a nod, Luke thanked the emperor before going back deep into his thoughts.
The silence ensued as tension that's as thick as brick filled the room. The emperor and his children, Princess Beatrice and her older brother, gave the heroes room to consider seriously while trying to hold back their nervousness.
After all, if the first success in the summoning ceremony brought back the results of rejection, things would feel much more impossible, even if they summoned more heroes.
"Ugh, why do I have to think so much just arriving here...I'll hop on your boat, emperor. Just make sure I'll get treated well."
Possibly crumbling under the pressure, or just unwilling to think too much, James gave his answer to Creon before walking off to the side, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall.
"Thank you, Hero James. What about to the rest of you?"
Seeing that one of them had already made a decision, things became quite the rush for the rest as Damian agreed to help too. Following him, Kai and Luke also joined the team, leaving Freyr the last to submit his answer.
"I guess I can't be the only one sitting out, right?" Freyr replied while smiling wryly.
The room's tense atmosphere immediately underwent an 180 change, with all the royal mages letting out silent sighs and the royal siblings having a merry expression on their face.
"Thank you, heroes. Once again, I make an oath to guard the welfare of our heroes for as long as they remain in this empire."
"For tonight, let us celebrate their arrival with a grand feast!"
...
Leaving the throne room, Dwark led the heroes to their respective accommodations within the palace.
Probably having already expected for the heroes to have the urge to discuss something among themselves, the rooms were all next to each other, with no other guests living near them.
Taking advantage of the time and chance, Freyr took the initiative to invite the rest to his room in the name of getting to know each other. Damian quickly agreed to his invitation, with the rest following suit as they now sat around a table with hot tea placed before them.
Sipping in silence to ease the awkwardness his feeling, Freyr looked at the others secretly to observe their expressions, only to find them copying his movements.
'I asked for introduction chat, so why is it turning to a tea party?' Freyr thought to himself while his eyebrows twitched.
"This tea, is good, isn't it?"
"Eh?"
The attention of the room immediately shifted to Kai who made that remark. Unfazed, Kai continued speaking to the others.
"You rarely get the chance to sit down and appreciate good stuff of life once you start working in the society. How about you guys? Life before getting summoned, I mean?"
Cooperating with Kai to lighten the mood, Freyr started sharing his own experience as well. Of course, he left out the bad parts of being badmouthed by his classmates regularly.
"Just the normal stuff. Go to school, waste time, and head back home before repeating things again. Only when weekends come do I get a breather, but it doesn't feel that much different from school life either."
"I-I'm also the same. My grades aren't that good compared to the rest of the class, so I have to go for tuition weekends and sometimes, on holidays if the exams are near."
Damian joined in, as if deciding to stick with Freyr, acting whenever he acts.
However, James and Luke didn't seem to be interested in joining the talk. Well, Luke can't, so he's forgiven.
Soon, silence resumed as everyone kept their heads down, bothered with their own thoughts for the future. Damian, being the shy kid, naturally couldn't stop fidgeting around in awkwardness.
It was at this time, Freyr decided to mention something related to the present.
"Say, have any of you received the skill that Dwark and the emperor mentioned? The ones supposedly inherited from the four legendary heroes of this world."
"Not yet, things feel the same for me." Kai replied.
"Same goes for me." James finally spoke.
Freyr looked towards Luke and Damian, who both shook their head in sync.
"That's weird. Could it be that the summoning ceremony went wrong somewhere? They did say something about it being an ancient spell and is their first time trying it." Kai speculated.
"There's no use bothering about it. We'll meet the emperor after this, right? We can get answers from him. More importantly, haven't you guys noticed a problem?"
Sitting up, James gathered all the eyes onto him as his expression turned serious.
Freyr felt confused as to what James was talking about, but decided to listen in first.
"There's four legendary heroes, four skills if we think about it. So, why would the spell summoned five of us?"