(POV: Reinhart Astelios, the king of the Astelios Kingdom)

  Just what is happening here? I don't understand it at all. Is this already what the warning the Will of the World gave us was about? Back then, we were warned that an event of cataclysmic proportions was approaching this world. In extension, it enabled us to tap into some of the realm's base energy to conduct the summoning of a hero alongside a small group of hero candidates.

  All of that was not unheard of. The last summoning was ages ago from our perspective, but there are still some ancient people out there that were alive during that time. When it comes down to it, beings at tier four can survive for millennia if nothing else kills them first.

  However, the summoning itself took a bit of an unusual turn. In the end, we never had such a large amount of otherworlders in this realm at the same time. I passed it off as a coincidence since they all seemed to be very familiar with each other and were probably summoned here as a group, but maybe that was a mistake.

  It was not a coincidence that we received that much support. The Will of the World doesn't do anything by accident. While we technically executed the summoning, it was not us but the world itself that facilitated their transport from their world to ours.

  It's also not a coincidence that the density of rare and epic classes is extremely high among this group of otherworlders. While other groups from the past also had higher than average starting classes, having multiple among them as rare grades was already nice to have, let alone having any epic classes among them. Instead, however, this group consisted of almost entirely rare and epic tier one classes.

  And then there is that [Hero], Blake. What did the world think by designating a guy like that as a hero? His entire existence is like a double-edged sword for all of us. His questionable actions have already cost us one hero candidate just a week after they were transported here. What more will he demand in the future?

  Luckily for us, it was just that poor uncommon-grade girl that fell victim to his antics and not one of the rare or epic classes. While I don't support willful and harmful actions like these, we didn't have much of a choice in this case. No matter what we do, we cannot, under no circumstances, position ourselves against the [Hero] in any way.

  We need the hero to such an extent that we're almost entirely dependent on him. If the hero starts acting against us, we will be wiped out faster than we can even blink. He is still somewhat weak now, but not for much longer. Last I heard, he was already at the cusp of achieving tier three, the same tier that I am at. Actually, that specific piece of news is already long since old enough for it to not be correct anymore.

  No matter what, as soon as he reaches tier three, he basically becomes untouchable to us. While that does nothing to reduce our guilt in the case of this blatant murder, it's a cost we have to accept. A necessary evil for the greater cause, so to speak.

  The things that are currently happening only support my claims. As it seems, the 'peaceful' times of our current era are almost over. All over the kingdoms, strange anomalies are starting to be spotted every now and then. Similar to how magical beasts just seemingly spawn out of thin air in mostly uninhabited places like the underground or the wildernesses, the anomalies also seemingly appear completely without any prior warning signs. Unlike the monsters, however, the anomalies spawn everywhere.

  The anomalies themselves look like weird distortions in the air. They aren't all equal, though. Most of them are almost invisible and do nothing more than bend and distort the light that passes through them. From what we've observed so far, they persist for a couple of hours to maybe a few days at most before dissipating with no signs of their previous existence remaining.

  [Identify] doesn't seem to work on these at all, one can't even really target them with the skill. We had sent Recordkeeper Wyn to try his unusual system-related skills, but he couldn't discern anything at all either.

  Even worse, however, are all the other types of anomalies we have observed. Instead of being just some visible distortion in the air, they have a certain heft to them that the others are missing. While all the stronger anomalies are quite different in their actual manifestation, they all have in common that they are permanent.

  And as if it couldn't get any worse, they are expanding. For now they don't seem to be doing anything except for that, but it is still extremely worrisome. A few daredevils have tried interacting with these distortions through touch or mana, but they don't seem to be responsive in any way. At least not yet.

  I wanted to think about other matters, but this topic didn't want to leave my mind. Mulling about any actions I could take, I soon came to a decision.

  "Adrian."

  "Yes, your Majesty?"

  "Send a missive to the Kerian Kingdom and the Turian Kingdom in my name. Write a request about holding a crisis meeting, preferably as soon as possible. We don't yet know the true extent of the approaching crisis, but we must take action now. For the first meeting, let us restrict the participating members to as few people as possible. It's important that we don't spread panic among the populace."

  "Understood, I will get on it right now."

  "Wait, before you leave, please go and request Carmelia to come see me as soon as possible. She is out with the group of heroes right now, but they should soon return."

  "I will see to it."

  "Great, then off you go. Report back to me as soon as the kingdoms send a response."

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  Adrian nodded sharply before swiftly turning around and leaving the audience hall. He was still quite young but very reliable as my right hand, one of the best there is out there. All in all, I had great expectations for his future, even if his role was not one of a competent combatant.

  As soon as Carmelia and the group of heroes come back from their excursion, I need to organize a research team together with her. No matter what these anomalies are, we have to get to the grounds of what's happening.

  ---

  (POV: Carmelia Seyvin)

  "His Majesty called for me?" I asked in confirmation as one of the attendants brought me the news.

  I had just returned from taking the group of heroes into the wilderness beyond the reaches of human territory. It was only supposed to be a few days at most, but it turned out to last for just over a week in total. We didn't have a specific time limit to meet, though, so it didn't matter in the end.

  Still, the excursion had achieved exactly the goal we had set out to fulfill. Recently, the population of monsters beyond the reach of civilized land had grown restless. While this made the expedition a lot more dangerous, there weren't many, if even any, tier four entities out there. For them to come this close to our land would be highly unusual, even in these times of restlessness. We fought a few tier three opponents, but the heroes fought well and overcame them even without any intervention from my side.

  During this trip, both Jane and Leyvin achieved tier three, though neither managed to acquire a class beyond the epic grade. A pity, but not unexpected. Epic is already the peak anyone has ever achieved in known human history, except for any [Hero], of course, but they don't count in this metric. For anyone to surpass this incredible roadblock within just a year would be miraculous and require either unnatural luck or unfathomable amounts of danger combined with the skill to survive the danger.

  Speaking of the [Hero], he and his two friends didn't accompany us into the wilderness. Good thing for him, I would never want to see him ever again if I didn't have to out of pure necessity. His majesty was right back then, even if the decision pained me. We couldn't position ourselves against the [Hero] by protecting Hanah from his wrath, which was exactly what we were ordered to do back when I and Austen first led our protégés into the Great Labyrinth. No matter what the [Hero] did, we were to not intervene, no matter what.

  It was a cruel decision from his majesty, but we followed it despite any doubts we might have had. It was a bought favorable position for the cost of a life. Not something I would have accepted if I were the one to make these decisions, but I am not. When it comes to strategic decisions like these, I put my full trust in our head strategist, the king and ruler of our kingdom.

  Even so, it pains me to this day. I liked the girl, even if I hadn't known her for long. She seemed a bit lonely and lost, but it was kind of cute. Her class was interesting as well. It was only uncommon-grade, but it had such interesting skills. It was also unusually specific for a tier one class. While having an uncommon class in tier one isn't unheard of for the natives of our world, none ever had a class with abilities like hers.

  I had taken many lives before, but never that of someone fully innocent. Even if I wasn't directly responsible for her untimely death, I could have easily prevented it from happening. The guilt of looking away that day is something I will have to live with, even if it plagues me until the day I follow her in my eventual death. Or maybe I will learn to accept it some day.

  My mind wouldn't let it go, but I managed to pull my thoughts back to reality. I couldn't sink into my own world too much now, I was basically in the middle of a conversation.

  "Yes, he emphasized meeting him as soon as you are able to. If you can, I'd recommend going straightaway.

  I was still a bit tired from the long excursion, but I could easily last for weeks with my tier four body if it came down to it. While I had spent the entire time awake as a guard and nightwatch, I barely expended energy apart from that. After all, every fight was handled by the heroes themselves and not by me.

  "Thank you, I will do just that."

  I made my way down the extravagant halls of the palace as I continued thinking. This was probably about the anomalies that had been popping up all over the place recently. We even saw some in the wilderness as we traveled through there, even if they were rather hard to spot from any kind of large distance.

  I didn't know what to think of them, but they posed no immediate threat for now, even if their slow increase in frequency of appearance was worrying to a certain degree.

  As I reached the audience room, one of the attendants noticed my arrival and went to notify the king of my presence. After a few minutes of waiting, he strutted into the room with his permanent presence of regality immediately pressing down on me the moment I laid my eyes on him. I was long since used to that, though, so its existence was only really subconsciously acknowledged.

  "No need for any formalities, let's cut straight to the main point. Carmelia, I need you to put together and lead a research team with the anomalies at the core of the operation. Whatever is happening, it's happening fast. We need to figure out what exactly causes these distortions, whether or not they are dangerous in any way, and if there is any way to slow down or even reverse their expansion and appearances."

  "I'll leave whoever you draft for this mostly up to you, though I'd recommend you take Aurelia and Bronya with you. While they unfortunately mostly lost their will to fight after the loss of one of their classmates, they later joined to support our research division. Especially Aurelia, with her incredible epic class, has brought us much progress in quite a lot of research fields already."

  A specialized research team, huh? Sure, I can do that. While I was more of a fighter than a researcher myself, any mage with a good formal education could potentially qualify for doing research as well if they so desired. Also good to hear that all those hero candidates who did not join the war effort still found some place for themselves in the end. I hadn't heard much from them after they left except for overhearing some conversations, but I was glad they were doing well overall.

  "Besides doing research on the anomalies, I also want this special team to function as threat mitigation, a first line of defense, so to speak. As soon as anything changes in the current status regarding the distortions, please report back to me immediately. I'd also like to be informed regularly of any progress made in the research."

  He made a short pause, indicating to me that he expected an acknowledgement regarding this operation from my side.

  "Understood, I'll make the necessary arrangements. Do I have the permission to draft whoever is required for this operation, regardless of their current position?"

  "Yes, do whatever you think is necessary. This matter is classified as critical, and I'll grant you the highest authority in this matter. Please do remember to keep this mostly confidential, though, and try to avoid spreading any kind of panic regarding this topic among the general masses. I've already started slowly spreading words of caution among the populace to make it seem like we have it entirely under control. Still, if the anomalies continue getting more and more prevalent, panic will undoubtedly spread. When that inevitably happens, we will need to be prepared for that. Is that clear?"

  "Yes, I will commence the operation immediately. Any news, whether it may be good or bad, will be relayed to you immediately."

  "Great, you're free to go then. For the prosperity of Astelios and humanity as a whole, I wish you great success in this endeavor."