When a bright light had engulfed Nicholas and he opened his eyes to a different place other than his own room, he knew something was not right. After all, last time he checked, teleportation was not a feasible thing yet. He looked at his new surroundings.
First of all, the place he presumably was teleported to was a luxurious throne room of some sort. Then again, was there ever a throne room that was not magnificent? In any case, other things of note were that there was a handsome middle-aged man sitting on the throne, people in armor–knights perhaps–were lined up on the side and other than Nicholas himself, there were three other people in the center of the room.
Nicholas scrutinized the three people; they had confusion written all over their faces. One of them was a boy and the other two were girls. From the looks of it, what he shared in common with all of them was that they were close in age, teenagers or young adults still struggling with what the hell they were going to do with their lives...or not. Well, Nicholas did not know if these three people had their whole lives planned out or not before they were forcedly summoned, but he surely was of the latter.
"Where the hell is this?!" The boy shouted and Nicholas swore that had he been closer to him, his ears might have to suffer from temporary ringing. "And who the hell are you guys?!"
"Stop shouting! That's what I should be asking you!" One of the girls put a hand to their ear and glared at the noisy boy.
"Um, guys, I don't think this is the right time to argue..." The other girl looked around anxiously.
Nicholas glanced at them and yawned, his hand lightly covering his mouth. "I'm sleepy."
The bickering of the boy and the girl stopped. The two of them as well as the fidgety girl turned to look at him.
"What? You guys have not read this kind of development in a novel before?" Taking their silence as an affirmative, Nicholas nonchalantly commented, "Huh, you guys actually have a life."
Just then, a cough interrupted them. It was the man sitting on the throne. "Welcome, summoned Heroes!" He spread out his arms. "My name is Roland Ace Bertrand. I'm the current king and ruler of the Country of Light, also known as the Kingdom of Radiance." He then gestured towards Nicholas and the other three. "May I know the names of the respected Heroes?"
"Well, it's an honor to meet a royalty and a king at that...I suppose. You can call me Nicholas." Nicholas rubbed his right eye and yawned. This made all of the people in the room to stare at him. "My apologies. As you can see from my less than presentable appearance, when you summoned me, I was just getting out of bed." He let out another yawn.
The loud boy rudely pointed at Nicholas. "What?! You're just going to introduce yourself?!"
"Well, yeah... Why not? Besides, I already know what's going to happen. Probably. Going with the flow saves me from unneccessary energy usage anyway." Nicholas stretched as his body made cracking sounds. "Mm, that felt good."
The girl who quarreled with the boy ignored Nicholas' unusual lack of tension. She looked at the king and spoke, "I'm Lilith. Mind explaining this whole situation? I do have an important appointment to go to and I don't plan on missing it."
"I need to get to my sister's birthday party... Oh, um, my name is Wendy." The other girl shifted her foot and tucked a loose strand of brown hair behind her ear.
King Roland nodded and turned his eyes towards the only other unnamed Hero. "And your name, our Hero?"
"I'm Gareth." The boy took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. He gave a brief glance towards Nicholas. "Unlike that weird smart-ass who thinks he needs no explanation, I don't know what on lovable Mother Earth is going on. I need a damn explanation for this situation, and it better be good."
Nicholas shrugged. "I did not say I did not have the need for an explanation. I simply implied that I had a gist of what's going on."
"Same shit, and I don't care." Gareth shot back.
Lilith looked at Gareth and muttered, "How vulgar..."
"What did you say?!" Gareth turned his head towards Lilith and gave her a glare. "I dare you to say that again!"
Lilith simply rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Stop speaking. You're dirtying my ears, you hooligan."
Wendy went in between them to pacify the situation. "Guys, you can fight later! Right now we need to hear what the 'king' has to say!" Seeing that Nicholas was about to yawn from the corner of her eyes, she called out to him, "And please stop yawning!"
Looking at the Heroes arguing with each other, King Roland decided to finally interfere. He cleared his throat and successfully got their attention. "The reason why you Heroes are gathered here is because we have summoned you."
Gareth was about to open his mouth to retort but the king continued before he could. "We were only able to summon you four Heroes by using a tremendous amount of magic. We were pressed to do a summoning ritual as it was needed to call forth saviors from another world such as yourselves. The Demon Lord has resurrected and our forces alone are not enough to fight the Demon Army. Therefore, shameful as it is, we would like to seek and request help from you otherworldly Heroes in order to fight back against the forces of evil." The king humbly bowed his head.
Lilith, Gareth, and Wendy was dumbfounded. For a moment, the air stilled and silence permeated the room as the King's head remained bowed.
Finally, Lilith spoke to shatter the quietness, "And you found it fit to forcedly kidnap people to do your bidding?! And if your words are true, then we are not even on Earth anymore!"
"We are well aware of that." King Roland's solemn voice echoed in the large throne room. He cast a glance towards the knights in the room, silently signalling them to stay their hands.
"Well aware?! You were well aware of the fact that you were committing a crime, and yet, you still did it?!" Lilith huffed and ran a hand through her long, black hair. "God, I can't believe the nonsense that comes out of your mouth!"
"C-can't we go back to our world?" Wendy trembled.
The king looked at her before lowering his head even further. "As the king, I can only offer you my sincerest apology."
"N-no, it can't be...!" Wendy shakily covered her mouth before she collapsed to the ground. "This can't be real... This must be a dream! After all, magic doesn't exist..." She pinched her cheeks "Ouch! It hurts... I-it's not a dream..." Her whole figure radiated despair.
"Did you just damn say that you can't return us back to Earth?! You son of a bitch!" Gareth stomped towards the king, his hands clenched till his knuckles were white and his veins bulged visibly on his forehead. "Why I oughta—!"
Despite their king's will for them to not take actions, the knights unsheathed their swords and moved to block Gareth's way. "Stop this instance!"
"Move out of my way!" Gareth yelled, ignoring the menacing glint of the weapons.
The knights readied their weapons; the person in front of them was currently not a Hero in their eyes but was instead a madman and a threat to their king that needed to be subjugated.
"All of you, cease your fighting!" King Roland's authoritative and dignified voice boomed in the spacious room. "Dear Heroes, I as the representative of this whole kingdom has acknowledged my mistake readily. My subordinates know of this." He lifted his head and looked at the Heroes sternly. "However, there is nothing I can do to return you to your world as of now. If you continue to behave in this way, however, even I can not guarantee your safety."
"Are you threatening us?" Lilith glared at the king but it withered as soon as she laid her eyes on the daunting figures of the knights.
The king had a grim look and remained silent.
At this moment, a certain bystander who thus far only watched the debacle that was happening said, "Sure, I'll help you kill the Demon Lord or King or Queen or whatever."
That certain bystander was Nicholas.
"By the way, when are we going to have a feast to celebrate the successful Hero summoning? I'm getting a bit hungry here."