chapter 4 settle

"What? What is this?" Looking down with disbelieving eyes, he saw it: there, limply flopping, was his hand, hanging broken and limp with scorched skin burning.

"What the fuck? Why's my hand broken? I've punched people before; it shouldn't be broken from just that. Wait, why is my hand... it's burning with scorched marks on it. Why is my hand burning?"

"Hahaha, did you really just break your hand punching me in the face? Hahaha," the mocking words, followed by boisterous, mocking laughter, came from a rough, gruff voice.

Sora almost froze. Looking up slowly with scared eyes, he saw it: there, standing in front of him, was a ten-foot-tall monstrous creature. Most of its body was covered in a dark layer of rocks, with many cracks and parts covered in dripping magma. Yet, it seemed to not only not burn the ground but also seemed to not do so to anyone around, except him, when he had punched it.

"Who- what are- smash bang," before he got a chance to even finish what he was looking to say, he was instantly cut off by a massive fist, bigger than his whole head, as it smashed into his face and threw his whole body off the ground. The punch from the creature sent him flying, breaking his nose.

Getting sent flying all the way back, he hit a tree that had been standing not too far off. Sora lay there, feeling his body going limp and not responding to him anymore, not even enough to move his hand anymore, thanks to the powerful blow.

'Ahh- shit, did I just get isekai'd to some other world? What was that thing that just punched me? Could it be Takashi, that thing that I just punched? It would make sense, wouldn't it? I was gonna punch him, then he appeared, and I was sent here… maybe it was just me, and that thing is just a monster? No, that magic circle looking thing… it was in the entire classroom; I can't be the only one who came here unless we were separated or they became those monsters…' Those were Sora's last thoughts before he passed out completely in the field of Ethos Magic Academy, located in the Skotótopia kingdom.

"Sora, are you okay? OMG, someone help him!" A woman with green, leaf-like hair, that did not seem to be real hair, it seemed to be a mix of leaves and vines, and even her very skin seemed to be something else instead of skin; it seemed to be wood of sorts, some very stretchy and flexible smooth wood, and yet none of this seemed to bother the young, curvy-looking woman, even the fact that her legs were nonexistent but instead, many roots and vines seemed to crawl on and in the ground as she moved, yet it did not truly leave traces behind.

And so the two days passed, with the group of summoned heroes being put into luxurious but shared rooms, to make them feel more at ease and have a more familiar environment despite the situation they found themselves in. All but Sora who had been put in a resting room by himself.

"Ugh, what happened?" Groggily waking up, he groaned as he was blinded by the bright sunlight coming from the sun.

"What the... wait a second… Was that real… it can't be right?" Reaching down, he grabbed onto the strange, unfamiliar blankets, gripping tightly onto it; he hesitated for a long second before stopping his hand from shaking as he pushed the blankets down, showing his shirtless torso.

Looking over at his skin, he sighed. "It seems it was really just a dream after all then. He thought as he looked a his healed hand and none existent burn marks as well as the injury he must have taken but thy was no longer there Wait? Where am I? This room looks strange..."

'Did I, is this really some sort of isekai stuff? What happened in that circle and then that demon-looking thing…' Staring down, seemingly as if trying to burn a hole in the blankets, he was broken from his staring contest as there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

With a small "click" sound, the door opened, and a maid stepped in with short brown hair and green eyes, a surprisingly pretty face, and delicate skin; she had a nice figure, standing at five feet three.

"There you go, Master Sora," the maid seemed to look down as she brought the tray of food and tea over to him.

"Thank you."

"There is no need to waste your thanks on me, Master Sora; is there anything else you would like?" the maid said as she bowed her head towards him even more.

Looking at the beautiful maid, Sora hesitated for a moment as he wondered why she seemed so stiff and on edge as if trying to do her absolute best around him, yet also trying to not gain much attention at the same time.

"W-" Stopping himself from asking where he was, he decided to go against his better judgment. "Well, I just want you to tell anyone that might have been looking for me that I'm awake."

"Yes, sir. However, I was told to inform you that you will be called into a meeting with the king along with the other heroes as well." Finishing, the girl bowed once again.

"If you would excuse me, I will take my leave now, Master Sora."

"I- yes, go right ahead..." Mentally groaning a bit at his not asking questions, Sora watched as the girl left, closing the door behind herself on the way out.

Sighing, Sora got his feet off the bed, sitting down as he started to eat the food, which tasted pretty good for such a simple-looking bowl of soup.

"Wonder who made this."

Hours later, as the sun started to go down, the castle seemed to be even more lively than ever before.

Everywhere you looked in the castle, you could find many guards in armors and such, standing with their swords, spears, halberds, even the occasional mace and warhammer.

But if you looked closer, not only could you see more guards than usual, but looking at the massive garden and such, there were many wagon carriages as well as horses, which were being taken care of and looked after; however, even in all of those, some stood out as some lined up wagons had some people coming out of them with some expensive-looking clothes on, with everything from the way they walked, talked, and carried themselves seemed to scream nobles.

Everyone seemed to be heading towards a specific area, including the ones who did not look like nobles; those being ones who looked like they were powerful warriors of some type as well as others who seemed to be merchants.

The strong and boisterous laugh and word of the powerful looking armored warriors ran through the castle walls and echoed all over as the people made their ways into the castle.

"Hahaha, this is a great opportunity; we can use this opportunity to impress the king," one of the nobles in one of the biggest groups of them spoke in a confident tone.

"Yes, it is, but he knows that we will all be trying to get more power and do all of this, so why could he be doing this at a time like this?" an older, wise-sounding noble spoke, stroking his beard as they walked to their destination in a group.

"Yes, you're right, why do you think this summoning of all nobles was called?"

"I don't know what could have pushed the king to do something like this, especially in a time like this when the Kage no Kōtei has started to get so aggressive recently."

"Yes, this is quite a peculiar situation, but even so, we will have to do the best of it."

And so time passed, with many people coming into the castle, joining the welcoming party where the maids and butlers of the castle served the guests in the castle.

As the party went on, the many people interacted together, many making new contacts and others breaking ties with old ones, but yet the welcome ceremony continued on, with none of the guests even knowing why they had truly even been here.

Deeper inside of the castle, as the ceremonies went on, a few selected people stood in the king's royal throne room, many of them bowing their heads in respect to the king and others, while others standing there as if not truly understanding the true situation they had been in.

Looking around, there sat the king, the one who ruled the kingdom, then there was one of the most powerful nobles, one of the great noble dukes, then there was the royal court magician, said to be the strongest magic caster in the kingdom and maybe even the world.

Lastly, on the long red carpet, there stood a numerous amount of diverse people? No, not people, maybe beings, or more like creatures, powerful monstrous-looking creatures varying from powerful-looking demons, dryads, fairy-like creatures, and much, much more creatures, even a single human stood there before the king as if they were ready to take on the very world itself.