Aneko Yusagi (Aneko Yusagi)Shared Pain
I woke up in the castle storeroom.
It was musty. I really hated it in there, but I felt pretty well rested.
Snoring…
I could hear rhythmic snoring coming from the pile of straw next to me.
A young girl named Raphtalia was sleeping there.
Let’s take a minute to review what’s happened.
My name is Naofumi Iwatani. I’m a sophomore in college.
I was born in Japan, just like everyone else. To be honest, I was always a bit of an Otaku.
I was at the library flipping through a book called The Records of the
Four Holy Weapons when, for whatever reason, I found myself transported to the fantasy world it spoke of. I had been summoned to serve the role of the
Shield Hero.
The world was suffering under “waves of destruction,” in which hoards of monsters and horrible disasters spilled over from other dimensions through rifts in space. Four heroes were summoned to protect the world from harm. I had a shield on my arm that I couldn’t remove—maybe it was under some sort of curse? I found myself unable to go on the offense at all. All I could do was defend.
But I had some experience with online MMORPGs, so I focused on defending myself, and recruited someone else to attack for me.
We set out on our adventure, and I was very excited. But I fell into a wicked trap. Someone framed me for a crime I didn’t commit, and I found myself convicted. So nobody trusted me from that point on. I couldn’t make any friends or get anyone to help me, and they ran me out of the castle without a word. I was in a really tough spot.
I figured I would just not do anything. I thought I didn’t have to fight against the waves of destruction. I was wrong.
The waves of destruction arrived around once every month, and we heroes were instantly transported to the site of destruction.
I was forced to protect a bunch of people that I didn’t care a lick for—it wasn’t fair at all. I did all I could to raise money to survive, and all the while people jeered at me. They threw rocks at me.
So that girl that was sleeping next to me, Raphtalia, she’s a demi-human slave. I bought her.
Slavery still exists in this world, and in this particular country,
Melromarc, there were people with animal attributes called demi-humans.
They were sold into slavery all the time.