Chapter Text
"Fantastic, the summoning was a success! Oh Brave Heroes, won't you please save our world and our people?"
"What?" Naofumi asked. What the heck is going on here? Wait, were there other voices too?
Still on his hands and knees in the middle of what looked like a glowing fantasy summoning circle, Naofumi turned to see two boys and a girl on his left who were also rising to their feet.
"An Isekai summoning?" the girl assessed softly.
"I mean, I guess it looks like it. Huh?" the tall guy looked in surprise at his own spear, and then Naofumi checked his own arm as well.
"A shield? What is this, where am I? Isekai light novels aren't supposed to happen in real life," Naofumi complained, his head spinning.
The glow of the summoning circle finally dimmed enough to see without squinting, and the robed guy at the head of the summoners stepped forward.
"We implore you for aid, oh Brave Heroes. Our world is in dire need of salvation."
"Is this for real?" Naofumi wondered.
"What do you mean it's in need of saving?" the youngest of the four, who was carrying a bow, inquired.
"The story involved is long and complicated, but suffice it to say that you are the Four Cardinal Heroes, summoned here by an ancient ritual," the lead summoner declared. "Our world is in a most fragile state, and life teeters on the brink of destruction." His face looked stricken and gaunt, and he bowed his head as he spoke.
Naofumi couldn't exactly say no to that kind of plea, now could he? "I mean, I guess I could hear you out," he offered. I really don't feel like a hero, though. Even with this thing on my arm.
"You can send us back to our homeward, right?" the tall guy with the spear checked.
The girl in the red and white school uniform (or maybe it was cosplay or a normal fancy dress) stepped forward. "Did you perform this ritual of your own will, or on instructions from someone else? I believe we have the right to hear the situation from our host, if possible," she insisted, her voice flat.
"Not to mention, we need to know what we need to do and what happens when we're done," the boy with the bow declared. "If you throw us away once we've restored peace, what then?"
"How willing are you to accommodate our requests?" the spear guy pressed.
Naofumi stared, but apparently the two boys being so full of themselves inspired the girl to do an about-face. "If we have been given legendary weapons or cheat powers to solve a problem they cannot, then I expect we will be able to provide well for ourselves. After all, if it was possible for them to solve this problem, people in this world would have done so and gained the glory for themselves, rather than asking for help. Mister Summoner," she continued, "you are asking for our help, but we cannot agree in good faith without learning what calamity is threatening the world. Has a Demon Lord begun to muster his armies? Is a poisonous monster spreading a deadly plague? Legendary weapons seem more fit to fighting foes than to ending a famine or halting a natural disaster."
Impressive speech. Though she looks pretty tired out. She immediately identified this as "Isekai" so I'm betting she's an introvert otaku girl... although compared to our street clothes, she looks much fancier and prettier than I'd expect from an Otaku girl. Was she going to a convention in cosplay, or is she just rich?
While Naofumi had been thinking, the spear guy had puffed up. "You're right! we can't figure out anything here when we don't know the situation, so there's no point talking to small fry. Take us to your leader!"
"What are you, a martian?" Naofumi muttered, and the kid with a bow burst out laughing. Right, he's Marvin the Martian until I learn his name or something.
Standing in the second throne room of her lifetimes, Yumiella firmly felt that Balshine did it better than Melromarc. When she'd been called before Prince Edwin's parents, there had been brighter lights, better decorations, and a larger audience. Additionally, she'd also had instructions from the herald on how to behave to avoid embarrassment before she'd been announced, which Melromarc apparently didn't bother with.
If it was because the kingdom was cutting costs due to whatever catastrophe threatened them, then she could understand it, but even if it had arguably given her a third life after her second time dying she wasn't sure she could hold a high opinion of a nation that pulled in ignorant people from other worlds rather than solve their own problems.
"So, you are the Four Cardinal Heroes of ancient legend?" the old king rumbled from his throne. "I am Aultcray Melromarc, thirty-second king of the land of Melromarc. Welcome, brave heroes. Please identify yourselves."
Yumiella she was the only one who had any etiquette training in how to address aristocracy, but she wasn't an extrovert and she wanted to get a read on the room first before she dropped her revelation, so she remained silent and gestured for the boys to go.
(She belated realized that this might have been a violation of some "Ladies First" etiquette, but overall she decided that she didn't care.)
The crowd burst into murmurs as the boy with the spear stepped up.
"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu, college student, age 21," Motoyasu declared, his voice warm and proud.
There was a pause.
"Guess we're going by age? I'm Iwatani Naofumi, college student-,"
"Yes," the king interrupted tiredly, "but I don't know what a college is, so saying that won't explain much to me. And you, sir Bow Hero?"
"Hey!" Naofumi yelped, only to be stopped by Yumiella's hand.
"Patience," she cautioned as she scanned around the room. Naofumi and I both have black hair and black eyes, while the other two have much lighter coloring. I cannot see any similar appearance in the people in this room, other than some redheads and brunettes. If we are to be discriminated against, let us not make enemies too quickly.
"My name is Kawasumi Itsuki. I am seventeen years old and I was.. about a year from graduating my homeland's... training to be a national guard," he introduced proudly.
That sounded like a lie, unless he's from a world where Japan is more militarized and he's very fit despite his slender physical stature -- seriously, Oswald Grimzard might have better muscle definition than Itsuki -- but it's also clever. No one will know the truth unless they have lie-detecting magical abilities here, so either we can raise our stature in the eyes of others or flush out the existence of an ability to tell truth from lies.
"And you, Lady Sword Heroine?" King Aultcray wondered.
Yumiella stepped forward and dipped into her most formal curtsy.
"I am Countess Yumiella Dolkness, Protector of Valshine Kingdom, Order of the Orange Dawn Third class, Dragon Knight in Training, made by birthright and by might the leader of Dolkness County in the Kingdom of Valshine. If there is a risk to the innocent people of the world then it is my duty to oppose it, so please explain why you have summoned us here."
Everyone in the throne room shifted uncomfortably or started muttering, and it was then that Yumiella realized something which she had suspected but had not thought about up to now: she was no longer Level 99.
My Level 99 ears ought to be able to decipher each individual whisper easily, but it all sounds indistinct. My eyes as well... when I look out the window, I see less far and less clearly than I am used to. I cannot test my strength or my magic in front of unknown witnesses, but I suspect that when I died my Level was reset.
It was an idea that gave her mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was vulnerable to danger again and even if she had better ideas for grinding now it would still probably taker her 4-5 years of grinding to recover her own status.
On the flip side, Yumiella had been very sad that she had hit the Level Cap in her past life and could no longer enjoy growth through her grinding, so the chance to do a New Game Plus with her knowledge and experience and to beat her record in hitting the Level Cap... That was a little exciting.
She put those thoughts aside for the moment to focus on King Aultcray finally giving them the Lore Dump they'd been asking for.
In essence:
1) at various times throughout recorded history, there would be a series of spacetime distortions through which hordes of monsters would arrive to rampage destructively
2) each individual event of a distortion is called a "Wave" and they are collectively the "Waves of Calamity"
3) An artifact called the Dragon's Era Hourglass can predict the time until a Wave arrives, allowing people to get ready for a fight even if they don't know where the wave will occur
4) Rather than preparing for the Waves of Calamity, time had run out unexpectedly and the First Wave had hit the kingdom of Melromarc only a few days ago. It had been fought off by the kingdom's military and an impromptu alliance of local adventurers, but it had lasted longer and done much more damage than predicted, and each successive Wave would only become stronger.
5) Even though historical texts claim of previous Waves of Calamity occurred over the course of several years and even up to two decades, Melromarc's Dragon Hourglass predicted that the Second Wave would strike in the next month or so, meaning the schedule needed to be accelerated and the expected losses were likely to be horrendous if new methods were not used.
6) Waves may or may not have a time limit -- it would be a limit several days long or more if they did, since the first Wave had lasted well over 12 hours -- but each Wave had a Wave Boss who could be slain to end the Wave immediately, which meant a fast-moving strike team hunting down said Boss ASAP was the best method to save the most number of lives.
7) Because the monsters invaded from another world, they could be more successfully opposed by defenders who were also from another world. The Four Cardinal Weapons chose worthy souls to become these defending heroes and lead the world to safety through the coming conflict.
8) Given that the progressive Waves would be stronger, Yumiella could undoubtedly gain tremendous EXP and protect innocent people by fighting them, but she'd probably have to rush since she missed the grinding opportunity of the first and weakest Wave.
Also, the sinister-looking evil old Vizier character standing beside the king promised that they would be handsomely rewarded if they succeeded. Yumiella noted him down as being suspicious -- and the king as potentially being either gullible or corrupt if he wasn't worried about the presence of someone so suspicious -- while Motoyasu seemed happy to accept the offer of future wealth and glory and Itsuki made clear that he didn't want to be looked down on.
Yumiella was looking down on him in her head all the same, but it seemed no one could notice it in her face so it passed without comment. I don't want to let these suspicious people know that I am suspicious of them and of the situation, but since we haven't been branded with magic slave controls or such then I suspect that they cannot force our obedience but need some form of cooperation from us to fight the Waves.
I'll have to see if I can get the other three alone to discuss this. But they look Japanese... I suppose it makes sense to be summoned from your first life instead of your second life, but we'll probably need to cooperate to form a plan of action so we don't set off the wrong kind of political alarms.
At least in Balshine I was too powerful for the assassins to threaten me, but now I'm weak again and I need time to do proper grinding, plus resources for equipment. How troublesome.
"I would ask you brave heroes to now check your statuses," King Aultcray continued.
"Is there a magic tool we will need?" Yumiella checked. She wouldn't enjoy having a Level 1 reading after all she'd lived through, but if it also included STAT data that she didn't have in her past life or an EXP gauge to measure how quickly she could grow...
"There is something called Status Magic that is exclusive to legendary heroes," the king explained.
"Oh! Yeah, like a video game menu in the corner of your eye guys, see?" Motoyasu declared.
Yumiella focused on a little glowing overlay symbol she was quite certain had not been there ten seconds ago, and a video game menu popped up.
"Only Level 1? Well that's really disconcerting," Itsuki commented.
"...I agree..." Yumiella grit out, trying not to cry tears of blood at the damning numbers that hovered in front of her.
YUMIELLA DOLKNESS (COUNTESS) -- SWORD HERO -- LEVEL 1
HP = 99/99 _____ MP = 99/99 ____ SP = 25/25
ATTACK = 9 ____ MAGIC ATTACK = 19 ____ DEFENSE = 14 ____ MAGIC DEFENSE = 11 ____ AGILITY = 17
Has some otherworldly being at least given me a lot of 9s appearing interference to my old achievement? It looks so low, I must be weak! Yumiella grit her teeth and forced herself to stop moping, because conversation was continuing on as the King and the Vizier were explaining how they needed to go on adventures and quests to increase the powers of the Cardinal Weapons.
Naofumi was just voicing how he'd look forward to teaming up with everyone when he got interrupted again (which made Yumiella more sure there was something dirty behind the scenes).
"I'm afraid, great heroes," the Vizier elaborated, and Yumiella also made note of him trying to butter them up by switching from 'brave' to 'great', "that you are advised not to cooperate too closely during your quests and training, only during the Wave itself. Records state that by their very nature, the Cardinal Weapons repel or inhibit each other when kept too close for too long. If you try to work together, it will apparently hinder their development."
Yumiella's eyes narrowed and she silently searched her Status Menu for some kind of HELP or DATA function to potentially confirm this.
HELP --> Cardinal Weapon Functions --> Experience Enhancement
In order to save the world, the Cardinal Weapons receive the "blessing of the land", also known as "the support of the world", where the world itself supplements the energy that the Cardinal Heroes gain through achievements like slaying dangerous monsters.
However, it is the area that immediately surrounds the Cardinal Heroes which supplies this support, and thus if the Cardinal Heroes step within each other's territory, the same piece of land will be forced to divide the blessing it provides between multiple Cardinal Heroes, slowing or inhibiting their growth.
Sadly, there wasn't any search bar to type in any of the dozen question Yumiella wanted to ask, and the King was still talking, so it looked like she'd have to endure an unskippable cut scene before they got around to the point of being summoned here.
At least it would give her the opportunity to figure out how to make a better good impression on these people. If she wasn't Level 99 anymore, then instead of being a mild inconvenience, being mistaken for an evil demon lord could get her killed yet again, and she could end up in some craizer video game world even further away from Ryu and Patrick!