Namikaze Haruto was a completely normal student attending Japanese high school in the year 2012. He was a 15 years old boy with spiky black hair and black eyes. 170 cm tall, weighed 60 kg, and had an average build. There was nothing he was especially good at, but nothing he was especially bad at, either.
His grades were on the upper end of average. He was pretty good at PE, but he wasn't one of the best in his class. Both in studies and athletics, he was slightly above average, but that was it.
His looks were quite good, and in the 'clean and nice' category. However, he was a far cry from someone who could be an idol or model. He was simply in the higher tier in his class.
This boy who didn't have much of anything special about him was currently far from his home. Rather, he wasn't even on his world anymore. He had stepped foot into an entirely different world—the world of Midgar.
It all started when a voice calling for help suddenly rang in his head. He responded to the call by searching around for the owner of the voice. If someone was hurt, he would apply first aid before calling for an ambulance. If the person was being attacked, he would find some people to help to stop the attack with numbers.
Either way, the boy responded that he wanted to help, since he'd been asked.
However, his worry was all for naught. By the time he'd noticed, he was in another world and being asked to please defeat the Grimm King and the Black Emperor.
W-what…? He was bewildered and was stuck on one thought. Just what kind of joke is this?
It had been over forty years since the great undertaking that was the Apollo 11 moon landing. Since then, science and technology had taken great leaps and bounds, but humanity had yet to leave the solar system.
Even so, a human who wasn't even wearing a spacesuit just made the jump to another world by himself using some occultish power that was being referred to as magic. Any scientists who were currently doing research in the desperate hope of one day going to space could go ahead and weep.
Such was the ridiculous situation that the boy was thrown into, but for some reason, he was very quick to adapt.
Either that, or he was simply an idiot.
At any rate, the boy who had just been thrust into an unknown situation in an entirely different world didn't shout, flail around, or make a fuss demanding to be sent back. Instead, he remained calm the entire time in order to listen to the people around him as to why he'd been called and what he should do. One such person was an elderly elf who was apparently the one who'd summoned him. After hearing all that, he easily accepted all that new information, too.
It wasn't as if he wasn't scared of fighting. But he had always had a dream, one that he'd had since a much earlier age, a reckless drive towards a future filled with ideals.
When he was much younger, he wanted to be a cop. He admired the modern heroes who helped people. It was a plan for the future drawn up by a child who still didn't know anything about corruption or how tough the world was.
He'd been raised watching the figure of his father, who was a cop, from behind. He was always proud of how people relied on his father. That was why he'd wanted to be the same. He'd admired that and set it as his goal. And even now, that desire hasn't faded.
Haruto never imagined he would be fighting a Grimm King or the Black Emperor or whatever they were called in another world. Rather, there was no way he could have.
Even now, he still didn't want to kill anybody. He wasn't planning to, either. But he also couldn't just snub the people who were asking for his help. If he were to leave the people who wanted his help now, he felt that he would never manage to achieve his dream.
That was exactly why Haruto agreed to help these people from another world. He did so because he felt that his own personal hero, the image of his father inside his heart, would never refuse to help.
"…No matter how much enthusiasm I have, my skills need to be able to keep up…"
Haruto was currently in a training area taking sword lessons from his mentor, Plue, when he muttered that to himself.
However, diverting attention elsewhere in the training area was akin to suicide. This was especially true when one was facing a superior opponent—the Sword Saint in this case, the strongest swordsman in the world.
Plue parried, knocking Haruto's sword out of his hands and pointing the end of it at Haruto's throat.
The match was decided.
Haruto raised his hands to signal surrender, once again looking down at his mentor.
At first, Haruto had been imagining an awesome, beautiful or handsome knight given the cool title of Sword Saint. But when he'd actually met his mentor for the first time, he found that the real thing couldn't have been further from his imagination.
If Plue were to be summed up in two words, it would be… white and round. He was a short and stout white doggy(?) with bland eyes and a golden horn-like nose reminiscent of a carrot.
Haruto had a strange, 40 cm-tall-dog-creature, wielding a giant sword coming at him with great speed. Everybody expected him to drop to the floor with his legs like jelly. In fact, Haruto actually had done that.
"Puu-puun!!" The Sword Saint barks.
It might not really matter in the grand scheme of things, but can you speak an actual language, Haruto found himself thinking.
It wasn't as if the beastmen were a race that didn't understand normal, human speech. In fact, they could talk quite well. However, the Sword Saint insisted saying "puu-puun" whenever he spoke. He could probably actually speak normally if he ever felt like it. At least, that was what the elf grandpa said, but Haruto had yet to see that happen.
"It seems the captain is angry that you were distracted in the middle of your mock battle, Haruto." The one who translated for the Sword Saint was the woman who served as the vice-captain of the knight brigade.
She was a beautiful woman with long brown hair which she wore in a ponytail with two locks of hair framing her face over her large, black eyes. Her name was Hana.
"Puun…!"
"The captain says he wants chicken today."
"What? Even if you tell me that…"
"Puu puun!"
"It seems the captain wants to go out, so that's it for training today."
"…Isn't this Sword Saint a little too true to his whims?"
Plue was a very whimsical person. Just a little while ago, he'd been playing with a ball, entranced, when he suddenly got tired and went off somewhere.
He had all the tendencies and natural instinct of any dog and would often be seen running around chasing small animals and digging holes in the training ground.
However, it was forbidden to refer to him as just a bipedal dog. He was a proud warrior.
Regardless of whether or not he reacted if you threw a ball at him, he was a great warrior. Even if he would sometimes come back with a death animal in his mouth.
Like, is everyone sure he isn't just a dog? Haruto desperately fought the urge to ask that out loud.
Because even through all that, he was still the world's only swordmaster and Sword Saint. His figure as a swordsman was like the symbol of the country. That was why Haruto couldn't badmouth him.
"Sir Haruto!"
"Oh, Mr. Mitokado. What's wrong?"
Haruto wondered what was going on while watching the Sword Saint leave when the old elf ran over. He was the one who had summoned Haruto to this world and the king's advisor.
"It seems we've finally gathered all the members necessary for our travels. Please take Sir Plue and meet up with the king at his palace." Having heard that, Haruto's expression grew tense. So it's finally time, he thought.
Even if he was called the hero, Haruto was still just a civilian who'd lived in a peaceful country until recently. It didn't matter that he'd started training with the sword. Sending him out on a journey was akin to killing him.
That was why the kingdom had to prepare the best comrades and equipment for him.
The king had said that Haruto had to put all his effort into learning the sword until then.
The time had finally come. The kingdom had everything and everyone at the ready, and preparations were complete.
And that meant that the day Haruto would depart on his journey was close at hand.
"…All right."