Chapter 13 The Mysterious Master's Greeting

The mansion in front of them stands tall as it exudes a grand aura which makes it seems as it was built for a noble or a person of stature. If they had met the mansion in Japan they would think 'Damn what a rich family' and while passing by look at it before continuing on their journey, but for them to meet this kind of building here in another world is nothing less than amazing especially in this kingdom which culture is clearly western and add to the fact that they heard from the villagers that the mysterious master built it himself from scratch, how can they not be surprised?

Their astonishment is cut short by a voice saying "Umm, what is wrong with the building lord heroes?", hearing the voice the three heroes turn to see Malty with a concerned look on her face which made Motoyasu respond "No it's just that the design of the building is from our country which made us surprised and nostalgic."

Hearing Motoyasu's reply Malty responded. with a pondering look "Is that so lord Motoyasu? Then perhaps this 'master' has some sort of connection with your world?" The last part of her sentence drew the attention of the 3 heroes and they came to the same conclusion, otherwise why would this 'DLC quest' pop out of nowhere.

So with a high morale the three heroes take a step forward to open the door but when they took one step the 2 fox statue's eyes flashed with bright light as an androgynous voice rang out "HALT, before any of you are to enter this mansion you are to be tested and the treatment you receive would depend on your result. Also note that the leader is the one to recieve treatment."

The heroes and their parties freeze for a moment before a member of Itsuki's party steps out and yelled "Have you no idea who your talking to these three here are the heroes of legend that will save the world!" Itsuki after hearing what his party member yell he said "Now now I think he just didn't realized that we're heroes Mald hence his arrogant attitude, but since you know who we are you'll let us in right?" Itsuki despite his friendly tone has a face full of pride and arrogance that betrayed his 'polite facade' but the other members of the party also displayed a certaint amount of arrogance after hearing Itsuki.

But against their expectations the gate didn't open amd the voice said again "There are no exceptions in my eyes, and IF you are truly the legendary heroes then that adds more reason for you to take the test."

Hearing his proposal being mercilessly denied Itsuki let his displeasure show on his face but didn't lash out, the other members of the party also has varying levels of displeasure but didn't lash out while Motoyasu looked a bit excited at the chance to prove himself as a hero and Ren displaying a serious look.

The voice rang again "Now your challenge is to face these 3 opponents." As the heroes heard that they stood ready with their parties as they eye the gate and not soon after 3 shadows leapt from behind the gate and they landed in front of the gate making dust rise and obscure their figures from the heroes party.

But as they wait for the dust to settle they thought of 1 thing 'Why are the 3 of them look so.. small' but soon after the dust settled they found the reason as the 3 'challengers' are revealed as 3 little fox-like beings with grey fur covering most of their body and white fur covering their belly and paw they also have horns on top of their head. The three foxes have different eye colours and different numbers of horns the one horned has blue eyes, the 2 horned has orange, while the 3 horned has purple. Besides the eyes the colour also extend to their bodies as tinges of their colour can be seen on their fur and horns.

The heroes party freeze as they see their 'opponents' before looks of amusement made it to their faces, Motoyasu walked to the front of the 1 horned while laughing and saying "Ahahaha it looks like that the test are indeed 'special' for us heroes as they only sent 3 pipsqueaks to test us hahaha..ah?" His laughter was interrupted as the 1 horned did an uppercut with gloves that he wore on Motoyasu's crotch and as a result he was sent flying with tears dripping fron his eyes.(the same expression as Motoyasu is kicked by Firo)

The other members that were about to laugh paused at that and the males tighten their legs covering their crotch. As they stood still the voice from before rang again with a hint of amusement in his voice "Now the challenge begins." and when the voice ended the 3 foxes put on gloves and pulled weapons that are CLEARLY bigger than them from behind them such as a warhammer, a gaunlet with a fierce look, and the last one... is that a broom? Their pondering about the last 'weapon' is cut short as the 'foxes' charged at them.

-2 minutes later

Sounds of groaning can be heard in the forest along with the sounds of someone sweeping, but if one were to see the 3 heroes's current condition they would be dumbfounded. As they along with their party are sweeped together by 3 little fox like beings, and some of the members of the party are being plucked from the ground and trees.

It was truly a sight to be seen as the 3 foxes previously either sent them flying to the trees and somehow getting them stuck as they are 'nailed' to the trees, or getting slamed to the ground with force enough to 'plant' them until only their heads are above ground, some unfortunate males also suffered the same as Motoyasu.

After the 3 foxes organised the party into 3 piles according to their original parties with the leaders being on the top, the voice sounded again "With your current abilities you are only granted entry after your leaders wear these." After the voice said that 3 wooden plates with ropes attached to them appeared in front of them but as the members of the party are still busy healing themselves they didn't listen to what the voice said afterwards.

Motoyasu surprisingly being the first to recover took the 3 wooden plates and handed 1 each to Itsuki and Ren while keeping 1 for himself. After handing them out he said to the other 2 heroes "We'll wear this together on 3." to which the other 2 nod to agree. After seeing them agree Motoyasu sighed before counting down "Alright then, One.. Two.. Three!"

As he said three, Motoyasu resolutely wore the plate as a necklace alongside the other 2 heroes. After they put the plate in front of their chest the plate shined and as voices of surprise such as "What!?" sound out the party of the 3 heroes closed their eyes and after they opened them to see the plates on the heroes they are dumfounded as writings are present on the previously blank plate, it wasn't the sudden emergence of the writings that surprised them but the words that are written of them.

After they read the words the members of the party have strange faces and some are snickering, the 3 heroes confused by their reaction looked down to their plates which writing is in 2 languages(one in Japanese and the other is this world's language) and instantly Itsuki and Ren blushed out of shame while Motoyasu is confused by his writing.

The writings on their plate are "I can't swim,and somehow I drown on knee level waters"(Ren) "I wet my bed until I was 12 every night and I still wet my bed sometimes"(Itsuki) "Cursed by E-rank luck and Lancer's luck"(Motoyasu)

"Huh? What's this? Hey Ren Itsuki how. are.. yours... Pffft!" The confused Motoyasu asked but after seeing Ren's and Itsuki's plate he tried and somewhat failed in not laughing as he held his stomach with both hands and bending his body while letting out suppressed laughter.

Itsuki being pissed about his secret being revealed yelled at the gate "Hey what the hell is this!? I didn't hear anything about this!" After he said that Ren also chimed in to show that he agreed with Itsuki, while Motoyasu who managed to stopped his previous laughing started another feat of laughter after seeing Ren and Itsuki again originally intending to support them but after seeing their plates he started to laugh uncontrollably joined by the other members ofthe party with their laughter being surpressed into chuckles but the constant shaking and them holding their stomach while bending their body shows how much laughter they want to let out.

Ren and Itsuki who wanted to explode after seeing such a scene is interrupted by the voice saying "I did explain previously, it's just that you were to busy tending to your wounds that you didn't listen. Also I'll let you know that you can't release them until you exit the mansion." The last tidbit made Itsuki and Ren react like someone punched them in the guts and made one of them kneeled over and the other.. simply lay down like a corpse, both of them emitting aura's that tell people 'please kill me now and end my pathetic existence' ...which just made Motoyasu roaring with laughter and the others couldn't take it anymore and started to laught out loud.

Yes this is just isn't their day.