CH.8 A royal surprise

Alen was shocked by the results of the selection; how could he have possibly been placed in the same group as Jack of all people? The two didn't even get along and yet here they were glaring at each other, Jack didn't want Alen in his group he couldn't stand the sight of him. Ever since the banquette Jack has despised Alen and to him, it felt like the latter was stealing what was supposed to be his spotlight.

Ever since they were summoned Alen had been in Jack's way, to Jack it felt as if a side character was actively trying to steal the role of MC from him. It was bad enough that he wasn't the only great hero summoned but now it felt personal.

"Okay we advise you to please separate yourselves into groups and plan accordingly, we will notify you of your destinations and provide starting funds for all of you," The head priest said as he made his way to the noble's area.

Jack made a break straight for Alen, but before he could get to him, Alice and Quinn had bolted straight to their friend. Although Jack wanted to have some words with Alen, he wasn't going to risk going up against the highest-level hero among them.

Besides, he had more than enough time to get to his foe as he was assigned to the same group and was the group leader.

"Dude, you have to fall back, Jack is going to kill you," Quinn said as he walked beside his friend.

"I agree, we made a deal that if you were not assigned to my group, you would back off the deployment.

"I can't do that." Alen voiced his opinion. "Doing that would be the same as admitting he gets to me. If a bully knows they get to you, you automatically give them a reason to bully you even more."

"Better that than you die!!"

"I'll be fine, Jack has a hero complex and as long as I keep out of his way, I should be fine," Alen said.

"Okay but first I'm going to talk some sense into him," Alice said as she turned around ready to head for Jack.

"Wait, doing that will only anger him. For now, it's best if we don't do anything to agitate him" Alen voiced his opinion as he walked over to the group he was assigned.

Jack had no interest in Alen and matter of fact he tried to avoid even the slightest contact with him, he knew Alice would get angry at him, and not only that even though he was at a higher level than Alen he couldn't shake the feeling of inferiority.

Alen had managed to launch an attack on Jack and if it wasn't for the assistance of Commander of the holy knight Sir Zelda, Jack feared he wouldn't be standing right now. Before the group meeting could begin the royal family had made their way to Jack's group accompanied by a dozen or so royal knights in their full set of red and gold armor.

As the leader of the group Jack was summoned by the King into a private room for some discussions, this gave the rest of the group some time to sort out some of their stuff and form new connections. For all, they knew these people beside them would be their companions until the end of their journey.

Alen had noticed that even among the summoned discrimination was common as the stronger ones seemed to completely avoid the weak ones, most were already level 7 and above while a select few still had trouble leveling up. Whether this was a psyche holding them back or whether it was the lack of talent and ability to adapt to the changes, no one knew for sure.

Alen noticed that even the low-level individuals seemed to avoid him. The strong wanted to bully him while even the weak wanted nothing to do with him, now Alen stood in the middle of a ring of hatred and discrimination he didn't know what else to feel. He just stood there in silence and watched as people avoid him, he felt like everyone kept at least a five-meter distance between them and him.

"Why?" Alen thought to himself " Why must I be treated this way, why me? Why didn't I get assigned with Alice or perhaps with Quinn? What did I do to deserve this treatment?" As he looked around, he could see some of the heroes whispering to each other as they stole glances at him.

His head was spinning as he felt like the whole world was against him from the day he came here, the sinister looks from the others haunted him he felt like everyone around him wanted him dead. Their cold stares and stupid chuckles irritated him.

"I wish you all just dropped dead!" Alen said, not realizing he had uttered these words out loud, and now the people around him stopped in their tracks. No words were said, and the heroes just stood there and looked at Alen with expressions filled with fear and disgust.

Realizing what he had done Alen simply walked away from the group of people and isolated himself while he waited for Jack's commands, a few moments later Jack and his majesty returned. Their meeting didn't take long, and Alen noticed the displeased look on Princess Sakura's face. She looked bothered by something.

"Tomorrow, we start our journey into this new world, and our first adventure would be a very important one as we are to escort his majesty to the Kingdom of Gamel." Jack's words had improved the morale of the group, many thought that the King saw potential in the group and deemed them strong enough to be his escorts.

But Alen had a different opinion, usually, he would voice his concerns and how this was a bad idea but now as he stared at the ground the only thing that was on his mind was the desire to find a way to go back home. Following this train of thought Alen decided to ditch the whole group planning thing since everyone planned on avoiding him anyway and make his way back to the royal library.

Jack could see Alen leaving and to him, it felt like a challenge like the former couldn't care less about what the group was discussing nor for the fact that King had chosen him to be his escort. This angered him further.

Back in the royal library, Alen was surrounded by various books that teach about summoning and researched how other world summoning worked, to him this was the most important task at hand as he couldn't care less about anything else.

Suddenly a hand reached out to Alen holding a book with the title the legend of the Ruins.

"Don't you think you're working too hard?" A sweet caring voice said at first, Alen had thought it was the princess but as he looked up at the mysterious girl he was met with crimson eyes and long green hair. The girl had a small figure and held a black pitch-black book with golden patterns.

"Theresia!" Alen said as he tried to get up but tripped on the pile of books before him causing him to fall and be buried with a variety of books.

No one had seen nor heard from Theresia ever since the banquette, her assigned maid had also gone missing. The black book Theresia had was the result of the ability she got, and this was the cause of change in her character as well as her eyes.

"Don't worry about me Alen just, keep doing your research. I was in the library and decided to say bye to you since this will probably be the last time, we see each other for a while." She said as she took a few steps away from Alen before turning around.

"I'm sorry, I truly am if there was any other way to do this I would."

With that said Theresia bolted out of the library leaving Alen buried in a pile of books and papers, Alen was more confused about what Theresia said and wondered what she needed to apologize for. Since he didn't find it helpful to try and solve a puzzle, he didn't have all the pieces he decided to put it on hold and would talk to her later on.