Side Story 2: The Heroes of Deramis

Heroes existed in this world. Just like their portrayal in many RPGs, their appearances would coincide with the rising of a Demon Lord. In response to signs of a Demon Lord’s impending arrival (such as monsters growing more ferocious), the Oracle of Deramis would receive a prophecy that would instruct her to summon otherworldly Heroes who could oppose the Demon Lord. This was the way in which peace and equilibrium were maintained. Roughly a year before Kelvin was transmigrated over, such a sequence of events had once again taken place within the most sacred part of Deramis. In the same manner as her predecessors, Colette, the Oracle of a new generation, was about to attempt the Hero-summoning Ritual in accordance with the prophecy that she had received from Goddess Melfina.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

The Great Cathedral was enveloped in silence. Around Colette stood Cliff Strogav, captain of the Holy Order of Knights, and a few other devout knights that Cliff had deemed trustworthy, all of them stiff at attention and on high alert. The Pope was also present, despite being hidden from sight behind a huge curtain at the end of the hall. Before the curtain was a stone statue of an angel and a lion who seemed poised to protect the area behind them.

Amidst the softly falling moonlight, Colette repeatedly took deep breaths in an attempt to calm her nerves. It had been only a few days before that Melfina, the Goddess of Reincarnation and the very target of Colette’s worship, had provided her with a prophecy. Colette had been praying to Melfina for as long as she could remember. Even after becoming the Oracle, she had continued to dedicate herself to proselytizing and spreading the sphere of influence of the Holy Order of Rinne. Everything she did, she did for Melfina’s sake. If it was for the sake of her goddess, she would bear — nay, overcome! — any pain and suffering. There was perhaps even a slightly unhinged side of her that would have welcomed and enjoyed such tribulations.

As such, when Melfina finally descended, things almost spiraled out of control. Colette’s emotions ran high and she fell into a state of almost complete shock from the sudden visit. However, the overwhelming drive to not allow her beloved goddess to see her truly embarrassing side proved just enough to pull her through the visitation. In a way, what Colette had managed could be lauded as quite a feat.

“Colette, have you calmed down yet?”

Coming from the other side of the curtain, the Pope’s voice sounded not only gentle, but young. More specifically, the timbre of the voice sounded like that of a young boy in his mid-teens.

“Y-Yes, Your Holiness. Thank you for waiting for me.”

“We want you to be calm enough to perform the Hero-summoning Ritual. If it helps, feel free to call me ‘father.’ Are you still feeling nervous?”

“A...bit, yes. But I’m fine now. I’m ready to start.”

“Is that so? Then good luck. Out of curiosity, which kind of summoning are you planning on performing?”

“I’m thinking of summoning several people from another world. Reincarnation summoning always carries the risk of the subject being a bad person, whereas for transmigration summoning, Melfina-sama will do the choosing for us, which guarantees the personal character of the targets. Um...what do you think?”

“This is the answer that you have arrived at after thinking it through. Do what you feel is best. I will be supporting you from over here.”

There had been no more visitations from Melfina since then, and Colette had only one chance at the ritual that would determine the fate of the entire world. Shoving her nerves down, she stepped forward to stand before the magic circle that she had personally drawn with painstaking care over the past few days. The tension in the air was so heavy that even the knights held their breaths.

“Melfina-sama, please lend me your strength!”

As if in response to her call, the magic circle began to glow faintly. An instant later, the glow burst into a pillar of blinding light that reached all the way to the ceiling of the Great Cathedral.

Thud!

Something had fallen within the light of the magic circle.

“Ohhh, so this is the Oracle’s summoning magic!”

“What a divine sight! And look! Within the holy light are human silhouettes...”

Even while crying out in wonderment, the knights stepped forward protectively between the fading pillar of light and Colette. Their ability to discern what needed to be done, even before receiving explicit orders from a superior, indeed proved them worthy of being entrusted with the safety of the Oracle. However, Colette waved her hand to indicate that their concern was unneeded.

“These are the Heroes that Melfina-sama personally handpicked. Greeting them in such a manner would be akin to a declaration of our distrust. Stand down.”

“Then at least allow me to stand beside you. If it’s just me, I’m sure Melfina-sama, with her generous, benevolent nature, would forgive us that much.”

Before Colette could say anything, she found Cliff already at her side. She glanced over and, after a brief pause, murmured, “Do as you please.” Then she quickly turned back to the fading pillar of light.

Soon, the figures of four males and females could be seen. Although they looked dazed and puzzled, it was clear that all of them had very pleasant features. The clothes they were wearing all shared the same design, prompting Colette to deduce that they were affiliated with the same organization. Naturally, there was no way that anyone in this world, Colette included, could have known that they were school uniforms.

“U-Ughh...”

“Where are we...? Huh? Where’s the goddess from just now?”

“H-Hey, guys. Is everyone all right?”

“My body...is fine. But our situation...is maybe not fine.”

The silver-haired girl who had woken up first looked around and began to analyze the room. Before there were any misunderstandings, Colette stepped forward with her face in the saintly smile that she usually reserved for believers.

“Welcome to our Holy Empire of Deramis, oh great Heroes. I am Colette Deramilius, the Oracle of this country and the one responsible for summoning you. I pray for a long and harmonious relationship ahead of us. I understand that this might be a strange situation for you and that there is a lot to take in, but would you grant me the opportunity to provide a brief introduction first?”

“S-Saying that out of the blue —”

“Nana, hold on. The goddess in the dream told us about this, didn’t she? Let’s at least hear her out. Perhaps these people need our help for something.”

“W-Well, if Kanzaki-kun says so, then sure...”

“Agreed. Information is top priority.”

After the only male in the group, an adolescent with a stunningly handsome face who was supposedly named “Kanzaki,” voiced his willingness to listen, the other three also consented, albeit with differing reactions. In spite of the suddenness of the summoning, it appeared that Colette had managed to make a passable first impression. However, her true trial was only just beginning. Carefully choosing her words, she proceeded to explain the circumstances that her world was currently facing.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Suddenly telling us about Heroes and the Demon Lord and whatnot...I mean, we were in our classroom only a short while ago.”

“Y-Yeah, I also can’t really relate. It feels to me like it’s all just a story...”

After hearing Colette’s account, the summoned Heroes looked only half convinced. Or to be more precise, their opinions were literally split in half. In response to Colette’s request for them to become Heroes and defeat the Demon Lord, the two who had just spoken, a petite girl with a sizable chest and a girl with her black hair up in a ponytail, seemed reluctant, whereas the guy who seemed like the group’s leader and the silver-haired girl who had first woken up were quite open to the idea.

“I want to try. Sounds like a game. Exciting.”

“Everyone, listen to me. I want to help these people, as well as everyone else in this world. I don’t know whether we truly have the power to do so, but if there is even the slightest chance that we do...we must try!”

“Mmm, I don’t know...”

“Ah, geez, look at you two going into another one of your spells again. Touya and Miyabi, calm down and think about this properly! We are students, all right?! And Nana, when you have an opinion, express it clearly!”

The girl with the ponytail was frowning fiercely while rebuking the other two. The familiarity with which she launched into admonishment seemed to hint at it being a rather frequent occurrence.

“Umm, in that respect, I think there is no cause for concern. Melfina-sama should have bestowed power befitting a Hero upon each of you. Despite being Level 1 at the moment, you should already be stronger than the average adventurer.”

Setsuna’s agitated words fell on deaf ears as Colette backed up the other camp. And indeed, her words seemed to have triggered something within the silver-haired girl.

“Wait, ‘adventurer’? And you just said ‘level’? Touya, only we can save this world. Saving people on the verge of despair is a given. A no-brainer. I’m so excited, I can’t help myself.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking! Setsuna, if it’s us, we’ll be able to pull it off! So let’s do it! This must be fate!”

“Kanzaki-kun! Somehow, I suddenly feel like I might be able to do it too!”

With that, the petite girl also joined the “let’s defeat the Demon Lord” side. As the only person left in what was now the minority, the ponytailed girl groaned and the frown on her face grew even deeper.

“It appears that your discussion has come to a conclusion. Once again...welcome to our world, oh great Heroes. All of Deramis will provide you with every bit of support that it can.”

Colette lifted the edges of her skirt and lowered her head in a graceful curtsy. The surrounding knights also drew their swords and pointed them upwards, with their perfectly synchronized movements leading to resonant crashes caused by their armor, which echoed throughout the hall. The sight was like something right out of a medieval movie.

“Oh geez, seriously, arrgh! After being shown something like that, now even I want to say yes.” She sighed. “I’m Shiga Setsuna. For what it’s worth, I’ve done kendo, which means I have some experience with a sword. But don’t expect too much from me.”

“I-I’m Nana...my name is Mizuoka Nana. I don’t really have anything that I’m particularly good at, but I’ll do my best!”

“Kuromiya Miyabi. If there’s magic, I want to learn it.”

“We officially accept your request, Colette-san. I’m Kanzaki Touya. You can just call me Touya. Let’s defeat this Demon Lord together!”

He extended a hand towards the Oracle.

“In that case, please feel free to call me Colette. We will be in your care, Tou—”

Just as Colette lifted her right hand to exchange a handshake —

“Eeek!”

“Aaah!”

Rustle.

Touya suddenly tripped, despite there having been nothing in his way on the perfectly smooth ground. Of course, when falling, it was a natural reaction to try to grab something, and Touya was no exception to this. However, his hand was stretched towards Colette at that very moment. With what was arguably god-like coincidence, Touya’s hand managed to grab the skirt of Colette’s outfit and pull it down. Right in front of everyone who had been fixated on the scene of what should have been a historic moment of the representative Hero shaking the hand of the Oracle. Even the highly trained knights were frozen in shock, unable to react to what had just happened.

“Ahh, right. Colette, we haven’t had the chance to mention this yet, but Touya...simply has that disposition. He might — no, he definitely will — accidentally do many more extremely impolite things to you in the future, and there’s honestly no alternative but to just get used to it.”

“Umm...l-looks like the underwear in this world is the same as in ours. Guess that’s one less worry, ahaha...”

“The Oracle wears black? Profound.”

“S-Sorry, Colette! It wasn’t on purpose!”

Setsuna’s and Nana’s words did not enter Colette’s ears at all. Her mind was currently completely frozen.

M-Melfina-sama, is this a trial? It surely must be.

As Colette’s brain slowly began kicking back into action, it directed all of its limited resources to processing her circumstances. Unfortunately, this day’s episode was but a mere preview of Touya’s lucky lecher accidents, and there were to be many more of them in the future. Of course, there was no way for Colette to know that at the moment. Those with sharp ears might have heard muffled giggling emanating from behind the curtain, but Colette did not hear this either.