All of a sudden, I was in a fantasy world of swords and magic straight out of medieval Europe.
My name is Mukouda Tsuyoshi. 27 and single, I'm just a humble salaryman living in the suburbs of Japan.
If asked why I'm in a world such as this, it's because I was caught in a "Hero Summoning" ritual. I've read web novels to kill time, so I'm familiar enough with this trope as to be sick of it, but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would actually happen.
And to think, I'm not even the Hero, I'm just collateral damage... this is no joke.
The country that held this "Hero Summoning" ceremony was a place named the Kingdom of Reijseger. Even though there were supposed to be three people summoned, four people showed up ,
so the higher-ups in the room all made troubled faces. Although the ones who were most troubled by this were the people who've been suddenly whisked away into another world: in other words, us.
I mean, they're coming at us and calling us heroes all of a sudden.
I had already caught on to the fact that this was another world because I've been reading all those web novels, though. To be honest, I got my hopes up just a little because they were calling me "hero." But those hopes were dashed pretty quick...
Right after we were summoned, they immediately had our Statuses appraised with a magic tool. In the job column of our statuses, everyone other than me (they were all wearing school uniforms, so I think they were all high schoolers) had "Hero from Another World" written down, but I was a "Victim from Another World." On top of that, all of their stats like HP and MP were between 700 and 800, while my stats were only about 100.
Even so, those numbers apparently were above average for this world, so I was told that I was at least somewhat powerful. But my stats clearly didn't measure up to theirs, so that fact was no consolation at all. The number of skills I had was no comparison to those three either. Including Skills we all had like "Appraisal" and "Item Box," they all had stuff that shocked the higher-ups that were there, like "Holy Sword Skill" or "Holy Spear Skill" or even "Sacred Magic." And on top of that, they all had the skills for elemental magic like Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Sacred, Lightning, and Ice. They were the definition of Overpowered.
Compared to them, I only had the unique skill "Online Supermarket."
My immediate reaction was: No, no, what the hell kind of skill is that? I mean, I knew what an online supermarket was. I owed online supermarkets a lot.
But it's a skill, you know? A skill.
There ought to be something more magic-like or something, no?
The people of this other world had no idea what the skill was, and the three with the Hero job all laughed at me, so thanks to this unique skill I was immediately branded as useless. Even so, there was no doubt I was summoned to this world with the "Hero Summoning" ceremony, so I was able to participate in the audience with the King, but what he said was shady as all heck.
According to the King:
・The demon king frequently attacks this country because he wants to conquer it.
・They've somehow managed to stall him for now, but they have no idea how long they'll be able to keep the status quo.
・The kingdom's people are suffering under these continued conditions.
・With those feelings, they had no choice but to rely on the ancient ritual of Hero Summoning.
・It's a selfish wish after summoning us here at their convenience, but they want us to somehow save this country.
・They don't know of a way to return us back to our world here in this country, but the demon king might know of a way, as he has lived a long life and is extremely skilled at magic.
Well, it was that kind of excuse.
There was clearly something going on here. Especially them putting off responsibility for returning us to our world for later.
Also, the king said that this country was in dire straits, but the people here had none of that grimness about them. Not only that, but the king was a very obese old man, and he was wearing a gemstone-studded gaudy-as-all-heck mantle that screams "Just how much money did you put into this?!" And sitting next to the king, his wife, and their daughter beside her, are both wearing flashy dresses that put on display just how they're living in the lap of luxury. Would a royal family expressing grief over the state of their people put forward an appearance like they're indulging in every luxury they can? Putting together all these observations, I came to the conclusion that this was one of the no-good types of otherworld summonings.
Even though they called us heroes, in the end we'll probably just be used conveniently by the country, like being sent out in wars to expand the country's territory. Moreover, I wasn't even a hero so I probably can't expect to be treated well; in the worst case, I might even be executed. I decided that it would be best if I left the castle as soon as I could.
That's why, at the time, I acted as humble as I could and said this:
"Seeing as how I'm not a hero, I'd only be causing everyone trouble by remaining here. Doing that would riddle me with guilt, so if I could just have enough money to live during the two or three months it would take for me to find employment, I'd like to leave and live on my own." And just as I expected, they gave me 20 gold coins and tossed me out of the castle with the haste of someone getting rid of a nuisance.