Chapter 3 - Meeting the King

The throne room was ornate.

Every inch was well lit and had something or the other occupying the space. Expensive vases with beautiful flowers whose fragrance seemed to spread through the room. Lovely tapestries littered the walls. Even the support pillars had something painted on them. It was a room meant to show off the wealth and power of its inhabitants and despite that; it was not overwhelming to where it felt ridiculous.

Kenzo was certain that it was not something the king had arranged for.

The king was sitting on his throne, on a raised dais. Next to him was an empty throne that was higher than his own, something Kenzo wouldn't have noticed had he not been paying close attention—something much easier done with the habits and skills Kenzo the Dragonborn picked up over the course of his life.

There were dozens of people on both sides of the room, with few more on the balconies high above the floor, every one of them dressed in elaborate ways.

The women had complex hairstyles, clothes with jewels embedded in them and wore makeup, they looked every bit aristocratic as one could've imagined. The men wore the finest silks and leather possible, trimmed with gold or silver and their jackets ornate with precious gems and materials. Even the guards were dressed in pristine heavy armor.

The King had prepared for the Four Heroes and was more than happy to make a spectacle. The king was a pragmatic sort, making grand speeches and scenes not because he believed in them but because it gave him control over the flow of information and how powerful it was to control the perception of oneself to others.

Kenzo could respect that at least. He's seen it before, after all.

'It's weird,' he thought as he walked up to the thrones. It felt as if his life as the dragonborn was very real and actually happened—as though it never was simply a video game but a real world with memories of it. Yet, he also had the memories of the life of Kenzo the software engineer. It an odd way to put it—it felt as though both Kenzos fused into one.

Looking around Kenzo noticed that the entire court was full of well-dressed nobles, the room had an upwards slope as one approached the thrones. The raised dais and the balconies all forcing anyone who sought an audience to look up to these people was nothing more than a power play.

There were guards surrounding the room, but Kenzo was not worried about them.

What concerned him were the Shadows that were probably in the palace at this moment. Somewhere on one of the balconies or within the groups of servants peeking from behind to catch a glimpse of the Legendary Heroes, were the Queens, and the Church's Shadows. At least, Kenzo assumed so, with the little knowledge he remembered from the anime.

A good first impression would be important.

While the head cultists had guided the four Heroes through the long halls made of nothing but stone, Kenzo had a bit of time to consider what to do. On his Status Page, it said that his Dragonborn Class was hidden, so if he was correct, it meant that nobody should be able to see his true level but only that of the Sword Hero Class. Which in turn, meant it was safe to keep it secret.

Knowledge is Power, after all. He'd be much better off keeping it secret.

"So, these men are the Four Cardinal Heroes of ancient legend?" A voice brought Kenzo out of his thoughts; the King had spoken. His statement was nothing more than a power play, condescending, yet respectful enough that it clearly stated his station was above of the ones he was talking about.

"I am King of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII," he said with pride, yet kept his face devoid of any emotion. "Heroes, name yourselves," his tone contained authority, demonstrating to all the two-faced nobles that the Heroes had less authority than the King, despite them worshipping said Heroes as Gods.

Kenzo took the first step, in his left hand, he held onto his Holy Sword, and with the other, he removed the hood of his armor—revealing his face.

One of the many mods Kenzo used, was one that remodeled faces, so, instead of a gruffy Nord, Kenzo had a very handsome and aristocratic face—high cheekbones, sharp jawline, intense sunset-orange eyes with light blond hair combed backwards.

Kenzo bowed, he watched Game of Thrones; he knew enough about politics that it was a seriously bad idea to challenge the King's authority on his first day.

Especially because the current King, the fat one sitting in front of him, was a consort. He was married into the royal family—all his power and authority came from the support of the people and nobles, otherwise the Queen had all the legal power.

That meant the King was insecure about his power, even more so when he summoned Heroes of legends, worshipped by his own people as Gods.

And if the king decides that the Heroes held too much authority or power—he might as well summon another batch that would be more willing to submit to him.

And that would be a whole new series of problems Kenzo didn't want to deal with.

"Greetings, your Highness. I am Tenma Kenzo, twenty-two years old."

The other three heroes stared at him with raised eyebrows and questioning looks.

Next, was the Spear Hero, who also stepped forward but did not bow or even incline his head, instead he took a quick look around, and had his spear loosely resting on his shoulder.

"I'm Kitamura Motoyasu. Twenty-one, and a college student." He said confidently.

"I suppose I'm up next," the Bow Hero said. He took a step forward and calmly introduced himself, "Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, and a high schooler."

"And lastly, me. I'm..." Naofumi went to introduce himself, but the king cut him off.

"I see, Kenzo, Motoyasu, and Itsuki, was it?" The King said, his tone was warm and had a small smile dance across his lips, the same way one's grandfather would say after they'd meet their grandchildren.

Naofumi took two steps forward, pointing at himself, "Y-Yo King, aren't you forgetting me?" he asked frantically.

Kenzo thought of the pros and cons of helping out the protagonist of this world. And settled to observing for the moment—he didn't have enough information to start acting up.

The King for his part apologized, well, he looked anything but sorry and didn't even so much as glance at Naofumi.

""Yo, King?" You mustn't be so disrespectful to royalty," Itsuki scolded Naofumi.

"Should I call him His Highness, then?" Naofumi asked obliviously.

"That's too formal, no?" Motoyasu added, Kenzo could only wince at their antics and how dense these guys were. They were completely oblivious to the fact that the entire court of a Kingdom were whispering among themselves and had the same look Kenzo used to give that one student that would fart in class.

"King is fine," interrupted the king, his voice was soft but still contained authority and Kenzo could sense some irritation seeping into his tone.

"Well, whatever works. My name's Iwatani Naofumi. I'm twenty, and a college student."

"Now then..." The King started, once everyone's attention was on him, he continued, "I suppose, I owe you an explanation..." He went on and ignored the crestfallen look Naofumi displayed when he hadn't acknowledged the Shield Hero.

The King proceeded to explain his motivations behind the summoning. In a brief summary, this world has an apocalyptic prophecy, which led the 'Waves' to appear and ravage the world. Unless the calamities wrought by the Waves are thwarted, the world will end. Each country has an ancient dragon hourglass which could predict the arrival of the Waves. The first Wave washed over Melromarc before Kenzo and the other three were summoned. 'Local Knights' were able to fend off the Wave, but the following Waves will be even more potent, so with less than a month, the King summoned the four Heroes.

"We underestimated the Waves. We realized once we experienced one that only the Four Cardinal Heroes could counter them. And so, we followed the legend and summoned you four." The King displayed emotion when he gave his grand speech, sadness, guilt and despair. Kenzo had a hard time figuring out whether they were real or fake, even with his Dragonborn's past experiences.

"Excuse me your Grace, but I can't help but be curious. You said this is a gobal threat, no?" Kenzo asked, inclining his head.

The King raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly.

"So, may I know what the other Kingdoms doing for their part? I find it hard to believe that there isn't any international cooperation going on, especially to help any smaller Kingdoms." Kenzo finished, titling his head to the side.

The King hesitated a moment and smiled, seemingly pleased with Kenzo's observation—that smile was fake.

"The other nations have their own armies and heroes, who are dealing with their own calamities. Melromarc is a peaceful place; we need you here, to defeat the Waves," he said a little too quickly, his tone was calm but faster than before. Probably rehearsed that argument before summoning the Heroes, Kenzo silently noted.

If he didn't have the experiences and memories of his dragonborn past stuck in his head, he would have undoubtedly missed all of these details.

"We understand what is going on now. But you can't expect us to save your world for free," the Bow Hero exclaimed, puffing out his chest. Kenzo had to wonder how the brain of this so-called Hero worked, before he remembered that they thought this world as a game.

"Of course, after you defeat the waves, you shall be rewarded most generously," the advisor to the King said, firmly yet without the tone of authority the King used.

"Will we now? Well, if we have your word then, I'm good," Motoyasu concluded appreciatively.

"We'll work with you people, but don't think for a second that you can control us. We can't have you looking down on us," Itsuki spoke up once more.

"Y-Yeah, what these guys said..." Naofumi added, unsure of himself.

Kenzo wanted to speak up, maybe to reduce the damage done to their reputation for speaking to a King in such a manner, but he held his tongue and waited for the King to continue.

The King, who must have seen Kenzo's expression wore a ghost of a smirk, seemingly having expected the Heroes not to understand the subtleties of politics but was pleased that at least one Hero was smarter enough to understand.

"Then, Heroes, you should all check on your statuses," the King said.

"Wait, what's a status?" Naofumi asked, dumbfounded.

"The icon in the corner of your field vision, focus your attention on it," Kenzo responded with a light tone.

"Oh, it works," Naofumi said in awe.

Kenzo also used this moment to further examine his Status Page. There were two black windows with white text in front of him, one with a profile like Page that originated from the Hero System, and other window with four options, the Menu System from Skyrim.

==================

▷ Name: Kenzo Tenma

▷ Class: Sword Hero Lv. 1, Dragonborn (Hidden Class) Lv. 272

▷ Equipment: Small Sword (Legendary Weapon), Nightingale Armor (Legendary), Nightingale Boots (Legendary), Nightingale Gloves (Legendary), Nightingale Hood (Legendary), Silver Ring, Enchanted Amulet

▷ HP: 1010 (+200)

▷ MP: 1000

▷ SP: 1000 (+200)

▷ ATK: 1982 (+717)

▷ DEF: 578 (+520)

▷ Skills: Alchemy Lv. 100, Archery Lv.100, Block Lv.100, Heavy Armor Lv.100, Light Armor Lv.100, Lockpicking Lv.100, One-Handed Lv.100, Pickpocket Lv.100, Smithing Lv.100, Sneak Lv.100, Speech Lv.100, Two-Handed Lv.100

▷ Magic: Alteration Lv.100, Conjuration Lv.100, Destruction Lv.100, Enchanting Lv.100, Illusion Lv.100, Restoration Lv.100

[Skills]

[Magic]

[Maps]

[Items]

=================

'Interesting,' he thought as he examined the pages.

He had both Systems, the Hero System that focused only on his Legendary holy Weapon and the Skyrim one that focused on skills and magic just like in the game. The Status Page was exactly like how the Light Novel had described it, and the Skyrim Menu was the same UI and HUD, with the same skills, maps (expect instead of Skyrim it was Raphtalia's World) his spells, weapons and potions were all there.

But the most peculiar thing was that he had his entire inventory with him.

This made things a lot easier than he previously anticipated. From enough gold and jewelry to buy a small Kingdom, to enough gear to outfit an entire party with high-grade weaponry and armor. Kenzo was a type of player known as a Hoarder. He kept everything he found, and had a multitude of the same items as long as they were anything but iron or steel swords.

And throughout six years' worth of playing—Kenzo had amassed quite the collection of items.

"Level 1?" Itsuki muttered, "that's worrying."

"Yeah. No telling if we can fight like this," Motoyasu commented as he presumably looked over his Status Page, both of the Heroes had lost much of their previous confidence.

"They aren't maxed out of the box?" Naofumi sighed. "And mine isn't even a weapon."

"Anyway, what should we do from here on out? Being such a low level is making me uneasy," Itsuki said, addressing the advisor with a pleading tone.

"Ah, about that." The advisor spoke, "We would like you to go on a journey to polish your skills and strengthen your legendary weapons." The rodent-like man finished, rubbing his hands together.

"So can we at least use something else until these things are strong enough to be useful?" Motoyasu spoke up, twirling his spear absentmindedly.

"We can worry about that later. For now, we should just focus on getting stronger like they asked." Itsuki said, pulling the string on his bow.

"Well then, should the four of us party up?" Naofumi asked, looking over the other three heroes.

"O-one moment, heroes. You will each recruit and adventure separately." Said the advisor.

"And why is that?" Itsuki asked, his tone tense.

"It is said that the legendary weapons repel one another by nature."

A pop-up window appeared in front of each of the Hero's status explaining exactly that. When in proximity the weapons would incur a penalty in the experience gained, depending on the distance it would even nullify experience gained altogether.

"The sun is about to set. Rest up tonight and set forth tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties." The King declared.

With that, the four Heroes were led to a dining area where a grand feast was waiting for them, prompting all of them to take their seats with Itsuki and Motoyasu on one side whilst Naofumi and Kenzo on the other. The dining area was hazy with smoke and heavy with the smell of roasted meat and fresh-baked bread as they ate their fill.

"I really hope the adventurers they send tomorrow are cute girls," Motoyasu laughed whilst drinking a glass of wine. Naofumi and Itsuki chuckled at his comment while Kenzo smiled knowingly.