The meal after that was rather awkward. We’ve exhausted the low-level discussion topics and, as if by some unsaid agreement, no one wanted to start one of the more heavy ones. We continued sitting and eating ever since and let the obviously awkward silence engulf us rather than break it. Which was rather surprising to me. People usually abhor this and fill it in just for the sake of getting rid of it. Usually, with the lamest shit if my past is anything to go by. Not this time around thou since, by now, I know better than that. Not being the most sociable one around, I’ve learned the hard way that it''s better to pretend that you are not bothered by the silence and let others fill it in if they wish to rather do it yourself.  Surprisingly enough, this served me very well during the years. Granted, the better solution, in this case, would’ve been to improve my social skills, but oh well, problems for the tomorrow me.


    Nait seemed to be the most affected of us. His earlier enthusiasm started to wane after we moved from the Isekai topics to more mundane ones and, he somehow returned back to his original form. His shoulders and back slouched down, body tensed up and he was eating quite rigidly. He seemed to want and say something the whole time, but in the end, he didn’t.


    Alice seemed genuinely more interested in stuffing herself up with as much food as she can so she did just that.


    Arthur, on the other hand, had a frown on his face and, even after taking a bite from a fried sausage, his features barely softened up. Did he remember something? Did the weirdness of our situation finally kicked in?


    And then there is me. I am surprisingly taking all of this pretty well. I mean, if you exclude my fair share of daydreaming about ending up in a situation like this where I will be going on leveling up sprees, killing monsters, saving princesses and other such stuff, you’d imagine that there will be a little bit more panic involved or something, but nope. I don''t have any inside me. Not to mention that I did not leave that much behind.


    Around 5 minutes later, the door opened once more and a man dressed up in priestly garbs walked in, flanked by honest to goodness knights in full plate mail. The knights looked rather intimidating and the fact that they held their hands on the handle of their swords didn’t help at all. The old man, in contrast, had a pleasant smile around him and emitted an aura of calmness. The contrast between the 2 was rather starking and this only made the situation even more foreboding. Maybe sensing the discomfort or maybe because he felt that the message was delivered, the old man made a signal with his hand and his 2 knights left his side and went to guard the door. Their hands left their swords. He then approached us with steady steps and a grandfatherly smile.


    “Good morning Heroes. Allow me to introduce myself, I am episcop Lamson.” He said with a small bow at the waist. “I am sure that all of you are scared and confused so, let me give you a short version of what is going on." He made sure that he has our attention and then started. "The demons become brazen once again and amass an army in preparation for another war. By now, there are multiple reports of burned villages and raids done by the demons. To help humanity, with the guidance of our Goddess, we summoned you 4 to help us in our struggle.”


    He then proceeded to make eye contact with each of us, one by one, probably to convey the graveness of the situation. To my dismay, when his gaze passed by me, he didn’t have any particular reaction, but when he looked at Arthur, he held his gaze for a whopping 3 seconds and even smiled at him.


    I almost feel jealous.


    This aside though, the scenario so far is, well… not the most original one. What with the demons being the bad guys that are constantly bullying the poor humans, which, after getting enough of it, decided to summon the heroes to save the day. It’s interesting though that we, from his words, were summoned preemptively and not when humanity was at the brink of extinction. This kind destroys the tension if you ask me, but, on the other hand, I guess it’s easier for us since there will be time to adapt and grind some levels. Not to mention that I am not really keen on being thrown right into the middle of the action from the get-go. After all, a game is a game, and life is life, it’s not like I am looking forward to the days when I will be cleaning the blood and gore from my armor on a daily basis.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    Stop, shouldn’t I go with the mage route? Yea, being a mage is for sure better. Throwing a Fireball into their face sounds waaay better than going and personally spilling someone''s guts out. And it is also so much more… cleaner.


    After finishing his theatrical (or at least that’s how it looked like in my opinion) mini analysis of each of us, he changed his tone to a deeper one, as if to make a point, and finally stated his request.


    “Please, don’t let the demons be our doom.” After finishing his lane, the episcop made a very serious face for the sake of transmitting the seriousness of the situation. He actually managed to play his part rather well because the atmosphere became somewhat sterner. Thanks to the suddenly descendent silence, I even heard Alice audibly gulp.


    As for me though… I probably would''ve been affected too if not for the fact that I''ve read a few too many novels and watched a few too many animes.


    “I knew it!” shouted the person with whom I share the bench, Nait, with a big shit-eating grin on his face while looking at him. “So we are summoned heroes after all!” he continued.


    Looking at him and his extremely dopey expression, I had a feeling that if for some reason all light will go out, you''ll be able to see his eyes shining in the dark. He was that happy.


    And stop, more importantly, why did you use an MMORPG username if you knew this is an Isekai scenario? But anyways, not gonna lie, I too am rather happy right now knowing that this is indeed in a fantasy world. I mean, this is a wet dream for a whole lot of anime fans around the world, me obviously included.


    “Well, it was rather obvious if you ask me” I said while looking at Nait.


    “True, but not meeting the goddess and waking up in a strange room instead of the summoning circle kind of threw me off” he responded to me and brought his hand to nudge his nonexistent glasses. Habits die hard. Oh, and he seemed to already undergo metamorphosis and be back into his ‘social butterfly’ form.


    Suddenly I became aware that everyone in the room was looking at us.


    Fuck. That''s because we are the only ones that didn’t respect the ‘grave silence’ and got excited instead.


    “Sorry to disturb, please go ahead.” Nait unabashedly tried to ‘smooth’ out the situation. The fact everyone’s eyes were still glued to him didn’t seem to disturb him whatsoever.


    “There is no need to apologize. It’s very pleasing for my old soul to know that you are so eager to help the human race. May I know your name, young Hero?”


    “You can call NightKnight or KnightOfNight. For friends, just Knight is enough.” Nait said and made a deep bow with his right hand on the chest and the left one spread wide. “Ah, though my companions here seem to prefer calling me Night, so that’s fine as well.”


    The episcop gave a scrutinizing gaze to the performance thou seemed to take it very well and even smiled satisfied at him. “Wonderful! The goddess truly blessed us! With Sir Night on our side, demons truly will have no chance.” He then turned his head at me “And who you may be?”


    Based on the small glitter of expectations in the old man’s eyes, I almost felt bad replying: “Edward. Just Edward.”


    If the episcop was disappointed by my response, he didn’t show. “Sir Knight, Edward, I will be gladly waiting for the bards to sing about your journey to fight demons and save humanity.”


    “Of course, this is my fate after all. I knew this since I was a mere child.”  Nait said with confidence and reassurance in his voice. He seemed to be larping at full throttle by now.


    “I am very pleased to hear this and, I can assure you that our church will help you and the other heroes on this endeavor in any form that we can. Now, can you please come closer so that I can check something?”


    Before I could ask what he was checking with test of his, as if the question was written on my face, the episcop already started explaining it on his own.


    “From our old records about the heroes of the past, we know that the mana density in your world is minuscule at best or totally nonexistent at worst. The problem is that our world is bursting with it and, the process of acclimatization can cause problems but it’s nothing serious as far as we know. Still though, if there are problems, it’s better to deal with them earlier so that it will not cause complications in the future. That’s what I am trying to do right now”


    Huh, that makes sense. None of the novels that I’ve read of the games that I’ve played address the problem of acclimatization and just roll as if that''s not a thing. From a more realistic point of view, it shouldn''t be that easy, right?


    Or worse thou…


    What if a scenario similar to the one during the colonization of the new world happens? While I am not an expert in history, I’ve heard that the diseases brought by the Europeans to the new world claimed the lives of more than 50% of the native population. And these were diseases brought from one continent from another. What about diseases brought from one world to another? What about the complete lack of immunity to the new world''s diseases?


    I felt someone tugging on my arm. After turning my head I saw that it was Nait. He wasn’t looking at me though, his gaze was focused on the episcop, which was looking questionably at me. Just like the 3 others. Right. I moved towards the episcop for him to check me out.