My Name is Ares
My name is Ares. It's not my real name. I've been using this one ever since I came to this world. I can't remember my original name anymore. They say the hero summoning ritual includes a kind of hypnotic suggestion for that—to help us adapt more easily to this place. I don't entirely buy it, but...
It's pretty arbitrary, sure, but aside from those little quirks, the people here have done everything they can to make things comfortable for us. Life itself hasn't been much of a hassle, so we've been able to focus solely on our training to get stronger. And there's only one reason we need to get stronger: to defeat the Demon King.
The Demon King is exactly what it sounds like—a demon king straight out of comics or movies. Hearing about it for real was pretty disorienting at first. But since we're actually in this unknown world now, we couldn't just dismiss it as a joke. They say the Demon King is vicious and cruel, leading his monstrous minions to slaughter innocent people and wreak havoc everywhere. The locals fought back as best they could, but they were overwhelmed. In the end, their last resort was to summon heroes—us.
This isn't the first time they've done a hero summoning, either. It's a tradition that's been going on for over ten cycles already. Every hundred years or so, the Demon King revives, and each time, heroes get summoned to stop him. But we're different from all the previous heroes. Not me, but us. As far as anyone knows, heroes have always been summoned alone before. Everyone here was thrown into confusion at first by this irregularity—especially since the fate of the nation was on the line.
But soon enough, all four of us were officially recognized as heroes, and now we're training without any hitches. They still haven't figured out why four of us were summoned instead of one, though. I think I have a pretty good idea, embarrassing as it is to say it myself. We're just that close—like we shared some deep bond from our past lives or something. We probably couldn't have brought out our full potential without every single one of us. Sure, people point out how unbalanced the gender ratio is to chalk it up to "just friendship," but I don't see it as a problem. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't aware of them on some level, rationally speaking... but I don't want to do anything reckless that might hurt someone.
Mari, Sera, Luna... they're all such kind, wonderful girls. We've sworn to pool our strength, defeat the Demon King, and make it back to our original world safely.
...
Something unprecedented has happened. The Demon King has revived ahead of schedule. Normally, it would've been about a year after our summoning before he came back—that's the established pattern. But we've barely been here a month. And honestly, we're still far from ready to call ourselves true heroes.
We couldn't just sit around moping, though. The Demon King was already flexing his power, allying with orcs to sow chaos in the empire. No time left for taking it easy. Princess Daimia says that since he revived early, he hasn't fully regained his strength yet, so he probably won't make a personal appearance anytime soon... but that's just speculation. We can't let our guard down.
In the end, we decided to head into the Labyrinth way ahead of schedule. It was more like live combat training than proper exploration. For heroes who'll mostly be fighting monsters instead of people, the Labyrinth's beasts make perfect sparring partners.
Aisha, Luna's mentor and our guide for the expedition, was a stunningly beautiful and kind woman. She mentioned being over a hundred years old, but she looked no older than her twenties. Apparently all beastkin age like that— the girls were jealous. We're still young enough that we shouldn't worry about getting old yet, though.
And as a bonus, we made another connection. Someone else from our world had come here too. He introduced himself as Minwoo. Shockingly, he was the janitor from our school. Sera jogged my vague memory of him, and we exchanged warm greetings.
Unlike us, Minwoo seemed to have ended up here due to some freak accident. He's still using his original name, and unlike us heroes, he's a completely ordinary guy with no mana at all. Aisha says he's a descendant of a previous hero, but he doesn't seem to have any special powers himself.
Meeting him was great, but thinking from his perspective, it probably wasn't all good news. For him, it must've felt like a bolt from the blue. Still, Minwoo's the proactive type who finds happiness even in misfortune. He even plans to settle down here. He already seemed close to Aisha, and he volunteered to help with our Labyrinth run. We were grateful—especially since we're still so green.
He joined us for the expedition. As a professional masseur, he's handling body maintenance for Sera and Luna. Apparently, regular sessions from him help in all sorts of ways. Mari and I politely declined, but Sera and Luna agreed to take turns for beauty, health, and conditioning purposes.
Going into the Labyrinth with a regular human body sounds risky, but Aisha's there to cover that. Oh, right before we left, another newcomer joined: a beautiful woman named Chloe. She's an elf, apparently. We outsiders might not fully grasp it, but elves haven't been seen in over a thousand years, so it's a big deal. Looks like Chloe followed Minwoo here. I don't know the details, but Aisha seems wary of her, so maybe there's some weird love triangle brewing around him. From an outsider's view, though, their bickering just looks like close sisters getting along.
After all those twists and turns, we finally set off for the Labyrinth. Our immediate goal is to grow as strong as possible and awaken as true heroes while the imperial army buys time against the Demon King's forces. No idea how far we can go, but we'll give it everything we've got—for the peace of this world, and to get back home safely.
...
Aisha had briefed us beforehand, but the Labyrinth was even stranger and more mystical than I'd imagined. We'd pictured a massive maze or cave, but its otherworldly structure shocked us. It was like a whole separate little world.
It's known that there are multiple Labyrinth entrances across barren lands, but technically, they're all connected into one enormous realm—just with different access points. The interior is divided into all sorts of areas. No one knows its full scale or how many spaces there are. The Labyrinth constantly shifts its form: lush forests one moment, desolate deserts the next, pitch-black caves after that. You'd swear you went underground, yet suddenly there's sky and sunlight. Each area has monsters suited to it waiting to greet explorers, and most of their types and numbers are still unmapped.
There are also safe zones without monsters, called Safety Areas. Exhausted adventurers use them to rest. With cool streams and natural hot springs, they're perfect for soothing weary bodies.
Minwoo volunteered as our porter. He had some magical gadget that let him carry a full camping kit effortlessly. For us with zero camping experience—let alone adventuring—he was already indispensable. Without him, we might've spent our first night roughing it with nothing.
Even in a mixed-gender party.
From day one, we dove straight into battling monsters nonstop. It was our first real combat, first time facing beasts, but we adapted shockingly well—surprising even ourselves. Sera struggled the most, though. Not just because the monsters were scary, but she seemed averse to violence itself. She'll get used to it in time. She's got a soft heart, so it's unavoidable, but she'll have to overcome it somehow.
Maybe out of consideration for her, after wrapping up day one's training and reaching a Safety Area, Minwoo suggested she try a massage. It was thoughtful, seeing how worn out she was.
While the girls washed up at the stream, Minwoo and I pitched the tents together. We set up three: a small one for me and him, a big one for the girls, and a spare small one for his massage sessions with Sera and Luna. Even simple massages need privacy if they're professional, I guess. And being expert-level, they take quite a while.
Night deepened, but Minwoo didn't come back to the tent. I was pretty beat from the day's training—didn't show it, but still—so despite knowing it was rude, I ended up falling asleep first.