one more day
"This is the place, the adventurer guild" said Annie, one of the teammates the king has assigned me. She has steel armor and red cap with dark brown eyes as if she was some hero referenced in every isekai, hair short as it is with black from the top slowly turning pink as it goes down below her shoulders.
She's a massive adventurer fan, which would explain why she doesn't wear a helmet.
The adventurer guild it's quite ironic how this is the first place I visit in a new world though. Even if I'm excited I can't just go hunting or adventuring in this world. I'm a hero and my only job is to kill the demon king, not to play the hero. Especially when I first got out of the castle and saw how severe the kingdom situation was. The closest buildings to the castle were partly destroyed while the further you see the more ruble and destroyed buildings you see. I could hear many people begging for money, others were in a delusion that nothing has happened and the demon king never declared war, some of them but very few were crying as for the rest, they were all helping rebuild.
"Hay Shiroi what are you doing standing there, let's go" Damian smacked me on my back hard enough to wake me up from reality. "Shit, wait up." Damian, unlike Annie who's similar to a knight, he wore a black and red tailcoat with matching pants and boots as if he was some vampire, his noble looks were annoyingly accentuated by his brown hair and blue eyes.
When I entered it was full of people that were in armor or ripped clothing and tattered armor, some were hurt slightly or very severely, it was chaos to the point where you just feel bad for the clerks. "Shiroi came over here" The prince had me and my teammate push through the mass of people to enter a room that's being guarded.
"ahh, the hero's are finally here I see" in a desk across the room sat a man that appeared to be a dwarf similar to the ones in the castle, brown hair and eyes but there weren't kind or riddles with despair but instead seen many people of all shapes. And he wore clothes that didn't seem rich nor poor. His room was filled with armor and swords each one with a name, it felt like he was keeping a promise to the owner of the names.
"Have the cards been created yet?" "no prince, it was far to sudden for us when the order came" "cards? Henry, why do we need cards?" "the cards were to allow other countries to identify us as heroes." "Let's go, it doesn't seem like they'll finish it right now." "hold on hero, I must warn you the cause of this destruction wasn't a sudden invasion but a summoning" summoning? What does he mean it wasn't an invasion?
He had to be referring to the demon king if so then what did he mean by a summoning and not an invasion. If he was right then why did so many people die and who summoned the demon king and for what it doesn't add up? If the culprit was human then he had to be a cultist but that only happens in stories such as the cliche of the king or the closest friend being the villain. But still I can't roll out the possibility even if it doesn't make sense.
There isn't enough information; It's best to report this to the king. Pulse even if he was summoned the probability of being summoned are low but I could be wrong. Shit I guess i'm going to stay here a little longer.
"Shiroi, Hay Shiroi are you okay?" I guess I'm a pit out of it today, Probably from exhaustion. But thanks to Olivia I managed to wake up from it. Olivia, she is the most different from the group with her light brown skin and her clothes seemed like a combination of a priestess and a nun, it was innocent. But what was so different about her was her eyes and hair they were white there was no hint of gray it was just pure white but her hair had brown from its tips and from what my brother called it she had braids.
"Sorry Olivia" "its fine its fine, pulse were already at the inn" Henry led us to sit down in a table. It was a bit confusing since we should've registered first but seeing how prepared everything was it's probably already registered for us. "Olivia, Annie, and Damian I need you all to start setting the rooms up while me and Shiroi will be looking for information. In the meantime let's talk about our plan for tomorrow." "How may I serve you today." with that each person ordered a combination of meals such as Henry ordering a dan dan noodles from what I read it was a cheesy egged noodle, Annie ordering a slow cooked porked and it sounded like a tacos that my brother would make but he called it 'Carnitas', there's also Damian who ordered Moqueca which sounded like a fish stew, or Olivia who ordered Beef Bulgogi which I really wanted to get but instead ordered Haricots Facis and from what I read it was pupusas wich got me excited.
"So where in the district should we start looking?" "Damian that part we don't know that's why me and Shiroi are planning to gain more information" "so why are we even planning this right now?" "for any back up plans in case the plan doesn't work" "um, don't you need info before making any plan?" "From what I researched Olivia, it's best to come up with a back up plan before you go on ahead" "no but that's only when you gain enough information and we have none." "you too Shiroi?" "you know Prince there right" "you, no is everyone that is against me!?" "yea pretty much" "Sh- all of you quit shoving it in I get it, please!"
"Your foods here" As our food got here one by one we continued to talk endlessly as if there was nobody around. It felt like I was the main character of my story, but the only problem was "I'm curious, what are they whispering about?" "could it be there talking about you Shiroi?" "Could it be because of that flashy armor?" "or could it be that we're the hero's?" "Annie, you realize that information is secret, right?" "let me dream okay"
"Shiroi, before it gets any darker we need to get information quickly" "oh yea, just let me pack my food real quick." "Wait, you haven't eaten anything?" "Yeah, I guess I've been too distracted to eat anything." as I packed my food me and Henry went to every house, every store and every stall we could find open. Unfortunately we couldn't find much information and the only information we did find were only rumors. After what felt like 3 hours of searching we sat down on some stars so we can reference what information we gained. "Looks like it's time to return to the inn" "those lowly fucks, kidnaping people and enslaving them!" It was odd seeing him mad, especially over the kidnapping of his citizens but he's only a prince who doesn't know much of the world, I guess. "Shiroi, shouldn't you be getting mad!" "Really? No, yea I think I should but honestly it would be hypocritical if I did." "What do you mean 'It would be hypocritical'?" "Well in a world full of humans this type of thing is more common than you would think." "I- I didn't, I'm sorry I guess that would be hypocritical" "Hey don't worry about it." as I took my helmet and pulled out the food I've been carrying I looked at Henry and "I know this out of know where but the only reason I got is because it reminded me of home" when I took a bit out of it, it didn't taste the exact same as my brother made it but yet because of it, it brought more memories I didn't realize I cherished so much until I got here. "It tastes amazing, you know?" "Shiroi, no hero by the name of the second prince, I Henry shall become your sword from now on!" What, no, huh? As I sat there surprised by the sudden proposal of Henry bowing down he left me with a dropped jaw. "That's a pit sudden but how?" "don't worry hero I'll figure something out" with the moon light shining at us it felt as if we were in a story. I couldn't help but laugh at it all. "Hay, this is no laughing matter!" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry but yes I'll accept it from now on you're my sword"
As soon as we got back I met with our team who were waiting for us in front of the inn. "Finally we can get to bath!" "you all were waiting for us?" "yes, Henry we were" when we got to the bathhouses and went in our gender bathhouse Olivia and Annie stopped me before I could enter. "Wo, wo, what do you think you're doing? I know you're the hero but you can't enter the women's bath!" wait I never really showed myself to them did I? But I thought they'd know from my voice? So I took my helmet off and showed them who I was. "You're a girl!?" wow and I thought saying the same thing only happened in anime. "So can I come in" "ye-yea I'm sorry" "no need to apologize it was an honest mistake"
"Wow those are some scares" "hmm?" "Yeah, how did you get it? Where were you abused?" "no, no these are simply from my training" "training? What type of training would get you those scars?" I feel deja vu from that repeated question. "Survival" well he did say the training was for survival but never said for what.