I walked up the stairs with the other three as I looked outside, admiring the new world before me. It was a simple, yet seemingly marvelous Victorian Era styled world, as I looked out from within the castle windows. Or maybe hidden dungeons, as the windows had bars on them instead. "This must truly be another world, huh?" I couldn't help but comment, giddy for the new adventure that was to come our way. "Air feels as clean as the travel brochures love to say. Well, if they were multi-dimensional travel brochures."

"You never been outside of Japan?" The boy with the bow called out from up the stairs.

"No. But you can tell it too, right? How the air is perfectly untouched. You know, not polluted?" I couldn't help but point out to them, causing them to look in confusion at me.

"I don't sense much of a difference." The guy with the sword said with a shrug. "Just another standard Mediterranean climate."

I couldn't help but huff at that. "Well, believe what you want. But I'm telling you, the air is so unbelievably clean here without that general air pollution. Almost makes me wish to stay here forever."

The dude with the spear and blonde couldn't help but smirk at me for that comment. "You mean the pretty girls we'll meet around this new world aren't enough?"

"Ok playboy," I fired back in mock annoyance, as I walked up the stairs. "Just don't come running to me if you get a yandere with a knife."

To my and the other two's surprise, we saw him flinch at that, rubbing a spot on his body as his face turned into a frown. I ended up pausing at the sight, before continuing on. In retrospect, I really should've taken him for a Chad with the blonde hair and smug attitude back there.

"So you've died too, huh?" The boy with the bow couldn't help but comment. "I'd say we are in the same boat, but umm... I don't really-"

"Let's just change the subject." The blonde interrupted, as he kept on walking. The bow and sword followed suit, and I decided to keep up with them as the conversation seemed to have finally gotten to the introductory part. "I'm guessing everyone here was brought to this world?"

"Truck." The bow kid said immediately in response to the question.

"Defended a friend. Not sure if they made it." The sword said after a moment of consideration.

Damnit, they're all bland, and I have nothing similar to them. "Book."

"Oh." The three of them all collectively said as they turned to look at me torn between a mixture of relief and jealousy.

"Yeah... not the best way to go." I commented as we kept moving along in silence. Which, only lasted a few seconds.

"Wait, you died to a book!?" The bow almost yelled out, as he turned to look at me while we were walking. "Did someone like, throw one at you or something?"

"Well actually, a bunch of books did fall on top of my head as I was trying to read, but-"

"Ok, that's gotta be pretty rough then." The blonde guy cringed at the notion of what I was saying. "How long were you hospitalized? I completely understand as some of that stuff can be pretty heavy."

"Ok, you guys need to hold up a second here. He didn't finish." The sword cut in, stopping the stream of ideas and pity coming out of the two. I breathed a sigh of relief for my newfound buddy in this unfamiliar world.

"Thanks, uh..." I ended up trailing off, just now realizing we hadn't shared our names. The three realized it quickly and pulled up a short and quick introduction for themselves.

"Ren."

"Itsuki."

"Motoyasu."

"Naofumi. Nice to meet you all." I said with a smile. "And for the record, no, I didn't die by a book. I was sucked into one that I was reading. It just started flipping pages on its own, and now I'm here. It's seemingly familiar to what's going on now though."

The three nodded along. "Well regardless, we're here now. Once we coerce the King into giving us our own reward for the hard work, we'll just go home." Itsuki laid down the plan as if it was something that was on all our minds. I just simply held a poker face at the idea of returning home. "Though I don't think Motoyasu is willing to return."

Motoyasu-Chad crossed his arms. "Oh come on guys! I only really care about saving the world... and maybe getting a new girlfriend." He quickly added that last bit under his breath, but instead of going unnoticed, it definitely went noticed. It was so well noticed by me in fact, that I had to quickly hide the grimace on my face as he turned to look at me. "Say, you didn't seem interested in asking for a reward back there, Naofumi. You got any ideas of what you want?"

I hummed in thought, as I wondered what I could want. "I guess I'll just wait until I see what the future has to offer. Felt fine just laying around reading and watching stuff." A thought then struck me in regards to the book I was reading.

The bitch from the book.

I looked myself over to see if the book was on me to see if I could quickly read it again to immediately figure out who she was, as I regretted skimming through the book. No signs of it.

"Actually, after the whole introduction thing with the King, I think I'm going to hit up some books tonight..."

"We've gathered the greatest warriors across the land. These brave souls will fight the waves alongside you across the land." The King said as armed men and women came before them, looking as if they were ready for the challenges to come. I couldn't help but be impressed, they looked like they were armed to the teeth! Maybe being a shield hero wouldn't be so bad after all! Especially if I get that smoking hot babe!

...I think she just looked at me.

Ok, so how does this work? Do we just point and choose and take turns doing so? Are the party members pre-chosen as to fit our respective weapons? I could honestly go with anything all things considered, except other shield users. The other three though would need at least some kind of defense. I mean, the defense would be weak, but surely there'd be some benefit to it all later on, right? I bet shield users would be needed to fend off an armada of arrows or fend off the breath of dragons! ...Actually that wouldn't work realistically as the breath would go past me.

Wait, what am I doing questioning what's essentially video game logic in this world? Ugh, I probably should've gotten a bit more sleep. Stupid me being too excited about making the best out of this new life, even to the point of staying up all night to find out who are the princesses in this world...

"Our future champions!" The king just bellowed his order to the group of warriors in front of us. "The time has come to begin your journey!"

Oh shoot, they're walking right at us now! So this is really pre-made! Aw man, thanks King! I'll be sure to drop this whole 'yo!' thing if this works out.

I closed my eyes in nervous excitement for what was to come. This was it! In just a few moments, I'll receive my party members! I don't even care if it'll be all girls or not, I'll make the best of my weak class and show that I still have some value! And all the while, I'll have my party members to thank for it!

I opened my eyes as soon as I heard the movement stop and looked behind me... Motoyasu has 3 girls... Itsuki a party of four... Ren 5...

"Yo King!" I called out in concern.

"I loathe to admit that even I didn't expect this." The king said almost immediately, as some a-hole said I must've had zero charisma. Not like no amount of charisma in the world would get him a girl anyhow, due to how big that nose is. Then somebody else whispered in the King's ear, causing him to nod and close his eyes. "I've been made aware of an unsettling rumor."

"Something wrong sir?" Motoyasu asked, ready to fight whatever threat that was interrupting this meeting at the time.

"Not exactly. The rumor that is quickly spreading around town is that the so-called shield hero is ignorant of this world."

Whoa whoa whoa, that's not entirely true! That's not even close to it at all! Who the heck went and gossiped about us?!

"There must've been someone eavesdropping..." Motoyasu became captain obvious for a split second, as he scratched his chin in thought. Thanks a lot, dude, I definitely couldn't figure that out!

"Excuse me king?" I called out, but he seemed to ignore me, prattling on about something else. I then looked to Ren, jabbing him a bit. "Ren, can you get his attention?"

"Excuse me sir, Naofumi has something to say." Ren cut the king off, forcing him to pay attention to me once more, being slightly irritated as a result.

"I just want to point out that while the rumors aren't entirely true, they aren't false either as I also have future knowledge of what'll happen to us."

This instantly piqued everyone's interest, including the other three that came with me, with Itsuki immediately piping up. "Oh, is that cause of the book thing that brought you here? Did you by chance see any information regarding our legend?"

"But such knowledge may never be the case, and could've just been fake text meant to draw you in." Ren couldn't help but add. "What threats did you find that could present a potential game-ending consequence to us all?"

"Still kinda miffed you got off easy by the way... half of us were stabbed y'know." I overheard Motoyasu mutter in slight envy of my arrival, but I didn't feel the need to address it at the time as I then proceeded to continue.

"While the book I came from said a decent enough portion about this world to help me gain a decent understanding of the world, it also presented valuable information that may be necessary to use now." I said as I looked towards the other three's party members. "The book spoke of a princess that'll manipulate us, though never defined where or when she'll appear. I read earlier last night when I was having trouble sleeping, that this place has two as of this very moment, so I think it'd be best if we kept your daughters out of our parties.."

Almost instantly after I mentioned a princess that'll manipulate us, the three went on edge, looking at all their party members for any potential similarities to the king. That was until one of them outright spoke up. "I believe that you two must find yourselves thinking of my sister at this very moment."

No it can't be... the hottie from earlier is stepping up?

"Malty? What are you doing in there?"

"I apologize, father, for not making it public knowledge. I didn't think much of joining their parties, and forgot to let you know." Malty clarified, before turning to me. "It could be that my younger sister is-"

"Don't believe you." Ren immediately cut in, causing Malty to pause and look at him as if he had slapped her. In response, Ren just casually continued. "Not only did you decide to join one of our parties, but you also didn't tell us you were a princess before-hand. You're also immediately shifting the blame onto someone else, a common tactic for the accused to get away with whatever they're planning. All in all, your story is hard to believe, and you most likely don't have noble intentions because you didn't rush to come to Naofumi's side when there was no one with him."

"And your little sister no less?" Itsuki couldn't help but be offended by how she immediately went and did that. "That's just plain wrong."

Malty looked like she was slapped not twice, but thrice, as the crowd began to murmur. Before Motoyasu tried to speak up and defend her, seeing as she was being ganged up on, Malty spoke first. "I-I'm simply trying to show I'm not malicious! I truly thought that somebody else would see the wrong, and I wouldn't have to move from my choice!"

"But you still didn't do it immediately." Ren pointed out. "His charisma stats may be extremely low, but your care for the country should've been enough to not care about something like that. He should've been your first pick, just in case he wasn't given one."

Alright, Ren, I liked you at first, but now you're officially the same person as that guy.

"Hey, what are these strange amulets everyone is holding..." Itsuki couldn't help but let out in suspicion of something bigger here, as he looked to the people for their own opinion regarding Malty. "Is there a religion that's the leading cause of all this?"

"Enough!" The king yelled out, causing everyone in the room to fall silent. "It seems the heroes cannot trust our princesses due to the circumstances of how the shield hero got here. I will put down the rumor that is saying you know little of this world, and will instead just send out some-"

"Alright, I'mma head out." I said without letting the king finish speaking, much to the shock of everyone in the room.

"Wait, you're leaving?!" Motoyasu began to sputter in shock, unable to process the whole situation. "W-what, what about saving the world?! Y-you live on this too now!"

"I could just return home instead, seeing as the odds are heavily stacked against me. Bad class, nobody trustworthy willing to join my party, and I can't even fend for myself here. I was actually better off back home." I then looked to the King once more. "But I'm willing to bet that I can't go back to that, can I? Considering that they died and still got here."

The king expressed shock at how quickly I figured it out, before looking down solemnly. The other heroes widened their eyes, the whole situation making sense to them, and realizing what I was forced to leave behind.

"Now this is injustice!" Itsuki called out in anger. "I can understand us being unable to, but not even Naofumi can return home? Someone who hadn't even died?!"

"This is just plain disgusting..." Ren couldn't help but mutter as he stared at the king as if he was little more than bandit scum.

Motoyasu was silent, only staring at Malty in pity as the crowd became unruly. Some were throwing insults at me for some odd reason,

"Look, clearly you all don't want me here," I said calmly as I came to the doorway. "So how about you send the other three on their way to be heroes, and-"

"If he leaves, I leave." Itsuki swiftly follows up, not willing to let me leave and causing me to pause at the realization that they were forcing me to stick with them.

"Same here." Ren joined the bandwagon almost immediately. "What is happening to one of us is an injustice. He may be a weak link, but he doesn't deserve to be treated in such a manner, especially when he cannot go back home. If he doesn't get the party members and armor he needs, then I shall leave myself."

"Goddamnit guys, now I can't leave and just do farm work or something!" I almost yelled out in annoyance. "You lot still need to fend off the waves, remember?"

This caused the two of them to pause for a moment as they looked at me again. Ren quickly came up with something to say, though. "We all came from different Japans... but we never spoke of which one was the best class in our Japans."

"Who cares, honestly?" I waved them off as if it wasn't a big deal. "If the nation doesn't want me, then I'll just settle down... seriously, I appreciate the attempt, but it's better for me to just blend in."

I then left the castle without another word spoken to them, aiming to enjoy a new life just helping out the townsfolk. Rumors had it that the other heroes had decided that, while my mistreatment was uncalled for, they still had a duty to perform. However, if Melromarc was to ever come under attack by the waves or another nation, they would refuse to defend the city, seeing as its king, princess, and church were corrupt, and would also refuse to take orders.

I myself, just decided to maintain a low profile for the upcoming weeks ahead by remaining hidden in a town. While I was noticed a lot and given looks of pity by the townsfolk, I didn't pay them much mind and just resorted to helping others in a non-violent way. As a result of this whole fiasco, I was given slightly more pay than usual for my odd jobs, and inns often offered to let me stay for free just in case I couldn't pay. I never took them up on the offers, as I couldn't bring myself to possibly take advantage of such good deals when I was already in a decent enough position as it was.

I eventually did meet up with the other three heroes again when they stopped by the village to find out where I was. Motoyasu looked very happy to see that the townsfolk had been treating me well, while Ren and Itsuki talked about the various monsters they had come to slain, as well as their loot. Ren had lamented that his party members couldn't 'make the cut' as he put it, and had to let them go from his party because they were holding him back, though was wanting to drop them off on me as another effort to get me back into the fight.

Itsuki seemed to be more focused on having been beating back the bandits as of the late, stating he just recently took care of a bandit chief that was causing trouble. Oddly enough, nobody knew that he had actually done it, as I had never heard of the townsfolk speak of his deeds.

Motoyasu in particular though, was pretty much in the position I expected him to be from the start. Lucky bastard managed to get himself another harem of girls, some of which I swear looked to be a little too young to fight off the waves with him, and he spoke of how nice they all were, if not slightly troublesome due to their antics. He said that the small mage with him was obsessed with explosion magic, and that the other party member he had with him was a healer with a lot of party tricks up her sleeves. It was rather amusing to hear about how the little girl's battle attire was mostly red and brown, and got me to think of some stuff I saw in hentai. I had to restrain myself from giggling and joking about how eerily similar the outfit looked to be.

But even then... things tended to get boring and lonely. No longer had I the pleasure of images in my books, or the easy access to talking with what few otaku friends I had consistently. I didn't even have my mom or dad to talk to, and while I did have friends... I never truly felt whole. Satisfied.

Like I was missing out on something big these last two weeks, because I did nothing but do odd jobs and grind those orange balloon mobs.

Then one day, I was approached by a small man in what seems to be a circus outfit who 'accidentally' bumped into me with some rather expensive stuff. I found out later as we talked that he originally planned to kidnap me and make me a slave by forcing me into debt, because I would be very valuable as one of the four legendary heroes being under someone's beck and call.

But after seeing my business sense, he decided that, in trade for making me a slave, he would instead just let me go and put me in high levels of debt. At first, the demand for pay would be low, but as time would go on, it would become higher and higher. Seeing as I had little options, as I guessed he was either stronger than he looked or had allies in the shadows, I begrudgingly accepted, though asked if I could get a slave to start with. He presented me with the cheapest ones, as that was all I could afford at the time.

One in particular caught my eye. She was a small tanuki girl, only level one, and was sick and weak, had nightmares on a consistent basis. She had long, unmanaged hair and a dirty cloth gown, a problem I intended to fix if I chose to buy her. Compared to the other options though, such as the demi-human with the genetic disorder, and the overpriced slave that was level 75 and cost a ton of gold, she was the only one that I could pick at that time.

I cringed a bit in what I was about to force her into, hoping that things would work out for the best. I don't want to sound like some typical villain, but it was very much likely she'd work by my side considering how young she was. Young minds are easy to influence after all, and so I'd have to be careful as to not give her any ideas... as well as protect her innocence until she was fully matured. The only issues were no longer making her sick, and stopping the nightmares.

In short, treat her like a daughter.

As soon as we left the underground slave house, I turned to her with a half-confident, half nervous-wreck smile and said while staring her in the eyes. "You wouldn't happen to wanna do some mercenary work with the shield hero, would you?"