"I want that one".
The king looked confused as he watched Regal point at the shorter female hero.
"You want her?", the king asked in an attempt for clarity.
The girl herself, yet to say a word, blushed slightly while looking at the other heroes unsure of what to do.
"Damn straight, this girl here is loved by mana, I'll turn her into an excellent mage or whatever so for now just give her to me", Regal goes on while making a 'gimme' expression with his hand.
"I'll teach her all the annoying stuff too… probably".
Suddenly the whispers started increasing once again
"Loved by mana…"
"A magic genius?"
"Just like Lord Riverwood…"
The king looked around, listening to the whispers and also thinking in agreement.
Turning his head toward Regal, the king decided to make a compromise on this matter.
"I do not doubt that having the Archmage teaching a future hero would be the most ideal scenario. I have no problem putting her under your supervision, however…", as the king spoke, Regal crossed his eyebrows being very aware that he was going to get something annoying pushed onto him.
"You must also take the other heroes under your supervision", the king finished.
In response, Regal made a disgusted face blatantly at the king.
'Should I just refuse? If I insisted on it then I could wiggle out of this…
Taking care of the other 3 won't be a problem, but they won't be getting any good treatment from me, magicless… tall bastards…'.
The other heroes were indeed quite tall, Eric especially.
The lot of them were starting to get annoyed themselves. They were summoned to another world, dragged along to meet the king, and now they're about to be put under some rude… short, and apparently, old guy.
"I don't think I'll be any good at teaching the others, they aren't that special when it comes to magic compared to that girl". Regal pointed out the obvious flaw in placing all the heroes with him.
"You don't need to teach them that much, you can choose who to teach magic.
I simply want you as their supervisor, you don't intend to separate that girl from the only other people she is familiar with, do you?", the king tried to appeal to Regal's conscience.
"Huh? She can cry all she wants but she'll definitely be my disciple.
Heck, she'll be begging to be my disciple once she gets a taste of magic", Regal said while completely unfazed by the minor attack on his conscience.
"That aside, I guess they can live together or whatever, I'm no demon".
Many in the room disagreed with that statement.
'I can't ignore my intuition here... even if I think it'll be annoying, it's people from another world. They could be interesting... No, they're sure to be interesting. They are more or less destined to be on the same of level as my disciple...'
Regal shot up as if he realized something, 'The king putting the heroes under me is whatever, but he wouldn't simply disregard a teacher for the other heroes…'
"…you want us to stay in the capital, don't you?".
"Indeed, is that not obvious?", the king answered as if the result was natural.
'Ugh, this king. Yeah, that's not happenin- No, wait… my residence in the capital is much more abundant in teaching resources, I never bothered to bring much back to my main residence.
I don't want to be so close to all this nobility, they're so annoying, always sending invitations for random nonsense.
But if I want to teach my first disciple… I'll need the capital's resources, I need to show off.'
Regal looked toward the girl of his interest before turning back to the king.
"Yeah I guess that's pretty obvious, while we're at it, give me a budget for them. Preferably a pretty big one so I can teach them well."
The king was surprised, but glad that Regal was being compliant for once. It was natural that money would be invested into the heroes, giving it to their supervisor should be fine.
"Very well".
'Yes! I totally forgot to bring money from my territory, I could get Pamel to fetch it but this method works too. I wonder if I still have any spare change in my residence here in the capital'.
"Great! Alright heroes, let's get out of this place, we depart to my residence immediately!", Regal demanded quite loudly.
Rosel who remained quiet all this time sighed and spoke to Regal, "You haven't been dismissed by the king yet! Go stand back there!"
Regal whipped himself around and spoke to the king in a playful tone, "King~ can I go?".
Rosel and the king looked equally disgusted.
"Call him your majesty!", Rosel cut in.
The king answered while still thrown off by Regal, "Y-you may take them to your residence tomorrow, for today they will be allowed to reside in the palace.
You should explain things to them, you may use to reception room".
"No, I'll take them to the garden."
Rosel decides once again to cut in, "You are not allowed to just use the royal garden whenever you wish-".
"Am I dismissed?", Regal asks while ignoring Rosel.
"…you may excuse yourself and the heroes", the king says as if defeated.
Regal then walks away with a smile on his face. Today he received a disciple who is loved by mana, he gained 3 servan- guests, he got some cash, and he gets to keep the book on ancient magic.
No one said he could do that last part, but he needs to be rewarded for the whole summoning thing as he sees it.
Regal looks at the heroes, "Let's go dullards! I'll learn your names later!", he says while waving them over to follow him.
The heroes look at each other for the millionth time while confused. They have no idea what they've watched happen for the past few minutes, but they're definitely getting taken by someone troublesome.
William, the blonde hero, still had many questions. But as he understood it, once they reach the 'royal garden', he may ask as much as he wants.
The group of them obediently followed Regal as he strutted along the red carpet spread along to the door.
They were all watched as they left the room and the door closed.
"Haha… Lord Riverwood never fails to make these sessions interesting.", the king sighs in relief that Regal has left.
"You should punish him sometime, throw him in a cell for a while, your majesty", Rosel suggested.
"You know exactly why we can't do that", the king responded.
"Indeed… we need the Archmage on our side…", Rosel spoke aloud.
"Regal may not see it the same way, but this is no game. We need him on the kingdom's side to both protect our land and defeat the demons."
"…I'll check on him and the heroes in the garden soon", Rosel proposed while imagining Regal and his attitude.
"Yes, you should.
For now, send the prepared investment money to the Riverwood residence.
Send a letter to the guild requesting an appraiser, and make it quick, Lord Riverwood will drag the heroes away before we know it.
Send another letter to the sword king… I have no doubt one of the heroes will be a swordsman.
Lastly… was there any outstanding information about the heroes and their powers in the records?", the king, sounding more competent than Regal made him out to be, started handing out commands.
"I shall have those letters sent as soon as possible, Your Majesty", a butler on a lower floor than the throne said as he stood again to wait. He dares not leave until the king dismisses the audience session.
One of the king's aides by the side of the throne then spoke, "According to the records, the previous heroes of the past were a swordsman, a shieldbearer, a mage, and a priest.
Just like Lord Riverwood briefly mentioned, they were incredibly talented and became the renowned heroes we know in a relatively short amount of time".
"Hmm… request a bishop of the church along with the appraiser from the guild.
Find a well-known shieldbearer, whether they are an adventurer or not, and invite them to the palace.
That is all for today, the rest of you are excused!", the king ended the meeting on that.
The nobles and servants bowed before leaving in an orderly fashion.
***
"Now then…", Regal began to speak as he and the heroes sat at a table in the garden. He groaned with his voice as if uninterested in what he was going to say, "What are your names?".
The first to speak was the blonde hero, despite already being introduced, "My name is William Relish Sir Lord Riverwood"
"That's a long ass name", Eric joked.
"I told you earlier, just call me Regal, I don't care about titles unless I'm feeling petty", Regal said while still maintaining a bored tone.
Eric was next to reintroduce, "My name is Eric Rettman".
Eric has calmed down a lot since earlier, he never actually acted out much, but he was quickly overwhelmed by the situation and everyone's status. It's not like he had a chance to act out.
"Right… Eric. You seem a little different than earlier, you looked ready to beat someone up at a moment's notice", Regal highlighted.
"Well, I was pretty pissed off with everything that's going on… I held back though. Let's just say that fighting hasn't been the best solution in my past."
"You're more rational than I expected, I bet you still pick fights though", Regal guessed seemingly correctly since Eric remained quiet.
"Anyway, what about you", Regal directed his gaze toward the black hair girl he first noticed in the summoning. He wanted to save the name of his new disciple for last.
"My name is K-Kaneko Hikari", Hikari stated, embarrassed by her name.
Her face changed to a confused expression, like something she said just now didn't seem to be correct.
"Wait, what language is this?", Hikari pointed out an overlooked factor of this whole conversation as her name was said. Suddenly the other heroes were surprised too. William and Eric are likely from a similar country, but Hikari was no doubt from the East.
"Yeah, I'll explain that in a second. First though, I want to hear your name", he said with some interest in his voice this time while leaning toward the final girl who had maintained silence all this time.
She took a moment before nervously blurting out her name, "ANne-! Anne… my name is Anne F-Fischer…". The other heroes were surprised by also unsure how to respond, as if an awkward air was being created from the varying volume.
Anne nervously twiddled her hands before bumping her forehead a few times with the tip of her knuckle. 'No no no no no, I messed up my introduction, I ruined everything! Now they'll think I'm weird… maybe they'll kick me out, or perhaps they'll feed me to other world sharks that can walk on land o-or maybe they'll chuck me in the dungeon and have me tortured for eternity'
Suddenly Anne had a dead look in her eyes and pushed out her hands together as if asking for them to be tied.
The lot of them watched this strange internal strife unfold while a maid was serving them beverages. The maid was similarly watching this all occur.
"Hmm? Fisher? Are you from a family of fishers? Then perhaps you have an affinity for water… also put your hands away", Regal was consumed in his own thoughts and intentions and dismissed the act he just witnessed as nothing.
"Maid, find my servant Pamel and tell him where I am. And make it quick, there's a lot of explaining to be done and no one to do it", Regal ordered while eating a biscuit that was in a bowl on the table.
Regal spat the biscuit with horror on his face as he dropped it on the ground.
"W-what have I done!? I ate a children's snack as if it was natural… AM I A FOOL!?", the heroes were startled, Anne simply perked up as if her trance was broken.
The maid was also startled, but was already in the process of leaving so she continued to do so.
Confused about his actions for the last time, William finally inquires, "Uh… Regal, are you perhaps related to the king or something? Disregarding what just occurred… you spoke rather casually with him earlier".