“Okay. So he’s like one of your problematic holy hero types, huh?” I said.

“I think so, but that isn’t the issue,” Itsuki replied.

“So what is?” I responded.

“I think the route by which he became a hero is strange. Please confirm this for me, Naofumi,” he said.

“Go ahead,” I told him. Itsuki prompted Ethnobalt to take over. Among the gathered members, Ethnobalt was the one who could read the best. Rishia was almost genius-level smart—it was true—but not enough to even read a language after such a short time.

“We found an article telling how the musical instrument vassal weapon holder Hidemasa came to be selected. According to this, he was just a regular person who got caught up in the summoning when the four holy heroes were called,” Ethnobalt explained. What did “caught up in it” mean? Did he get caught up when the heroes selected by the holy weapons were summoned?

“Is that true?” I asked.

“I can only say that it does appear to be the truth. However, he doesn’t appear to have any connection to the heroes of the holy weapons or anyone back on their original world. Various stories seem to back all this up,” Ethnobalt replied. There were all sorts of ways to get summoned to another world, that much was true. All I had to do was read a book, while Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu had all been about to die when they were summoned. Kizuna had just thought she was playing a game and ended up in a whole different world as a result. “He vanished the same day he was summoned,” Ethnobalt continued, “and the next time he appeared, he had the heavily guarded musical instrument vassal weapon. Then he pulled the musical instrument vassal weapon out in front of everyone. When he did that, he also explained that he was from another world.”

“Still, this is all very odd,” I said.

“Indeed . . . very odd.” Itsuki nodded at my comment. “When a hero is summoned, they obtain their weapon immediately after being summoned, correct?” That was right. That was how it had been for me and the other four holy heroes. It was how it had surely been for Kizuna. When people from another world were summoned, they already had their weapons by the time they arrived. Which meant this Hidemasa Miyaji character had not only been caught up in someone else’s summons but arrived without a weapon.

The weapon was the thing that translated the language, right? Without a weapon, he wouldn’t have even been able to understand what the people here were saying.

The order of events was all wrong. I hadn’t heard of a situation of someone getting caught up in a summons either. The weapons selected an individual and summoned them, right? So how was it possible for someone else to get caught up in that?