Happy Easter everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last story but better late than never. With everything going on in the world now seems as good a time as any to brush off my keyboard and start writing once again!

In terms of what my next story was going to be, it was either going to be this or my Attack on Titan 2 story, but after watching season 2 of Isekai Quartet and seeing the interactions between the Shield-Hero group and the others I knew that I wanted to get this one out as soon as possible.

Now bear in mind the Shield-Hero in my story will be my OC Shield-Hero Fergus Ward from my first story called Rise of a True Shield Hero (Redux), so before reading this I strongly advise you to go and read that story first and the Christmas special if you want to get up to speed with who Fergus is and how he impacted the Shield-Hero story.

This chapter will probably be a one-off in terms of length just so I could set the scene, but I imagine afterwards chapters will be shorter since again I will mostly be sticking to the one episode per chapter format. I also have some ideas of my own for some of the chapters so expect some events to happen that weren't in the show itself.

As for the category I have chosen to put it in, I decided on Rising of the Shield-Hero/Overlord crossover since we still don't have a dedicated Isekai Quartet category on Fanfiction so I'm not expecting as much viewing traffic apart from the regulars who read my stories, but I still wanted to do this because it's a fun idea and I love all the shows and characters involved!

With that out of the way, here we go with the first chapter where Fergus and his crew get transported to their new world and meet the other characters. But before I start, a mandatory disclaimer that I do not own Isekai Quartet, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Overlord, Konosuba!, Re:Zero and the Saga of Tanya the Evil nor any of their characters, locations, events or anything else related to the anime/manga/light novels of each of the shows listed above. The only thing I own is my OC Shield-Hero, Fergus Ward. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 - Transportation! Five Universes Collide!

"It's always good to come back…" I thought to myself as I appeared in the main square of New Rurorona having teleported there from the capital.

"Welcome back Lord Fergus! How were things in the capital?" Ake, the man currently in charge of training our new recruits, waved at me.

"As good as always my friend," I replied with a nod and a smile. "How are things going here?"

"We're doing the best we can given that we're just soldiers, not actual trainers," Ake replied as he indicated the rest of his company putting the new recruits through some basic drills. "Did you get to speak to the Queen on finding a proper instructor?"

"She's still scouring her kingdom for one, she wants only the best. But as soon as she finds one she'll send them this way," I reassured him. "It's been good to catch up Ake but I need to get going, someone is waiting for me I'm sure."

"Understood, give the Lady my regards," He replied with a wink as he went back to the recruits as I made my way towards the town hall.

Now hold up, you may now be wondering just who on earth am I and what we were just talking about. Well, let me give you a quick refresher. First of, my name is Fergus Ward, and back in my world in the U.K I was a university student, but that all changed one day as I picked up a book in my local library and, after skimming through a few pages, found myself transported into another world as the Shield-Hero, one of the Four Cardinal Heroes meant to save this new world from a threat called the Waves alongside three other guys transported from other versions of Earth to serve as the other Heroes: The Sword-Hero, The Spear-Hero and the Bow-Hero.

You must be thinking at the moment, pretty sweet gig right, well except being summoned as the Shield-Hero? Well you'd be dead wrong, and it was because I'd been chosen as the Shield-Hero. On my first night I was betrayed and falsely accused of sexual assault by my only party member, causing the entire kingdom of Melromarc and the other Heroes to turn against me and forcing me to go it alone against the Waves, which compounded an already crappy situation given that, as the Shield-Hero, I had no means of causing damage and was only good for defence.

But I had the last laugh. I was able to put together a party and, despite all the odds and despite the entire world being against me, I rose up to be the strongest of the Four Heroes and, along with my party and some outside help, held back the first couple of Waves thereby saving many innocent lives in the process whilst at the same time picking up the slack of my fellow Heroes who turned out to be completely incompetent, mostly due to the fact they were treating this new world as a video-game instead of reality. I got my name cleared and in turn ruined those who had played every nasty trick in the book to disgrace my name and get me killed, and ended up being given the governance of a small town where humans and demi-humans currently co-existed in harmony.

I couldn't help but let out a wistful smile as I recalled all those times whilst making my way up the stairs from the town hall and along the small corridor towards the living quarters where I currently resided. Yeah the road getting here hadn't been easy, there'd been a lot of bumps along the way and it had taken so long to get my name cleared, but during that time I had met many awesome people and formed a party of the most amazing group of individuals I could ever have imagined, and had even found love with my oldest and most reliable friend from this new world.

"FERGUS!" I heard a female voice scream as I opened the door and made my way into the living area, my face plastered in a huge smile as I opened my arms wide in anticipation for what was coming next, and I was not disappointed as a body with long flowing brown hair raced across the room and flung themselves into my arms. With one easy motion, I caught the flying figure and enveloped them in a warm hug.

"Hey there Raphtalia, you doing okay?" I murmured softly, my face buried in her hair.

"I'm great, even more so now that you are here," she replied as she pressed herself tightly against me. Oh yeah, I should probably introduce this person too. She is, as you may have guessed, my girlfriend Raphtalia who was also my very first party member after I had been falsely accused. After I rescued her from slavery she agreed to fight as my Sword and has been at my side ever since, and throughout our adventure together we had developed feelings for one another, hence why we were now in a relationship and also why she was sharing my quarters in my village.

Oh, and did I mention she's a demi-human as well? I didn't? Well now you know.

"I wasn't gone for that long Raphtalia, and besides this happens every week so you should be used to it by now," I chuckled.

Raphtalia pulled out of the hug to gaze at me fondly with her beautiful crimson eyes as she chuckled and shook her head in response. "Nope, any length of time I'm apart from you feels like forever."

"Well I'm sorry to have inconvenienced you milady, how can I ever make it up to you?" I purred softly causing her to giggle again.

"There is one way you can make it up to me…" She murmured as she leant in and pressed a deep kiss against my lips, a gesture I immediately reciprocated and for a few moments we swayed on the spot making out passionately with one another.

"Hmmm…as much as I hate to stop we do need to start preparing lunch, and since we have guests coming over we can't afford to be distracted…" I murmured as I reluctantly pulled away from her.

"I understand, let's get to cooking then shall we?" Raphtalia replied with one last kiss followed by a fond smile which conveyed her desire for more of that later.

With that, we moved to our small kitchen area and began preparations for the lunch-time meal we were having. Now back in my real world I hadn't been the best of cooks but after coming to this new world and being forced to at first go it alone before eventually having to provide for my party-members, my cooking ability had come on leaps and bounds and now I considered myself quite the decent chef. It also helped that Raphtalia was a talented cook as well, which is why I had decided on a lunch consisting of roast beef accompanied by roast potatoes, broccoli, sweetcorn and herbs all coated in gravy. Since we were both used to these ingredients I figured putting together this meal would be absolutely no trouble at all.

"Were there any problems whilst I was gone?" I asked as we were cooking. I was currently keeping an eye on the meat and potatoes whilst Raphtalia was preparing the vegetables.

"You weren't gone for THAT long Fergus," Raphtalia replied with a chuckle as she chopped up some of the broccoli. "But in answer to your question nothing happened in your absence."

I nodded in relief since I had privately asked Van Reichnott, the man acting as my deputy, to take the morning off and leave everything in Raphtalia's hands to see how she would fare in my absence. Both Van and Princess Melty had been giving Raphtalia lessons and advice on effective governance and all of the issues that came with it since she was technically the Lady of New Rurorona. This meant that she had nearly as much authority as I did.

"How is Queen Mirellia, and is she happy with the progress we are making?" She then asked.

"She is well and yes she is very happy with how things are going. She also asked after Melty and I told her she was fine." In case you are confused, Crown Princess Melty is the Queen's youngest child but is currently the heir to her mother, Queen Mirellia's, throne due to her elder sister, Princess Malty, now known throughout the kingdom as Bitch being, in no other words, a complete and utter bitch. And yes, you've probably guessed that the former Princess Malty was the one who falsely accused me of raping her before proceeding to try and make my life a living hell. Needless to say, she failed. And as of right now Melty was currently staying in our village in order to spend time with Filo, her best friend and another of my companions who you'll meet later.

"And…has there been any news of the other Heroes?" Raphtalia asked cautiously. Ah yes the other three Cardinal Heroes who came to this world from alternate versions of Earth, more specifically alternate versions of Japan, and who had constantly proven to be completely unsuited to being Heroes: Ren Amaki, the Sword-Hero and perhaps the only semi-reliable one of the three. Motoyasu Kitamura, the moronic skirt-chasing Spear-Hero. And Itsuki Kawasumi, the egotistical douchebag currently parading around as the Bow-Hero.

"The only one Queen Mirellia has seen recently is Ren who pops by the castle occasionally to pay his respects. As for Motoyasu, the instant he took Bitch back into his party he swanned off to who knows where. And quite honestly I don't give a crap where Itsuki is or what he is doing." I replied bluntly, not even trying to hide my disgust for the Bow-Hero. With that, the conversation abruptly halted as we focused on making sure the meal was ready in time, and sure enough just as everything was ready we heard an enthusiastic knock on the door.

"Looks like our guests have arrived," I said, giving Raphtalia a knowing look in anticipation of what was about to happen before looking back towards the door and calling out. "It's open, you can come in!"

"MASTER!" Came the resulting cry from the other side of the door as a small white figure barrelled through and launched herself at me.

"Hey there Filo, it's good to see you again," I smiled fondly as I wrapped the small blonde-haired girl in my arms and gave her a warm hug. And whilst Filo may currently be wearing the form of a little girl, she is, in reality, a creature called a Filolial, a large white bird who has the unique ability to change between her human and Filolial form at will and who I had hatched and raised from when she was an egg.

"I missed you, Master! Did you miss me too?" Filo replied happily as she pressed herself into me.

"Of course I did Filo, but as nice as this is can you let go so that I can go and greet our other guests?" I replied, causing Filo to leap out of my arms before proceeding to dash over and give Raphtalia, who was currently greeting the others, a similarly enthusiastic greeting. Whilst they were doing that I made my over to them.

"Mel, Keel, it's great to see you both. Thank you for coming," I said warmly as I proceeded to give Melty a warm hug.

"Thank you for inviting me, Fergus. Did everything go well with Mother?" The small blue-haired princess replied with a warm smile of her own as we separated

"It did thank you. She is well and misses you very much but hopes you are having a good time," I replied before turning and giving the last member of my party a hug. "It's been a while Keel, glad to see you are keeping well. How did the last hunt go?"

"It's really good to see you again Sir Fergus, and it went well thank you. The wildlife and vegetation are slowly coming back to their normal levels so there should be plenty to feed the villagers," she replied with an enthusiastic smile. Keel is a demi-human as well, one who I rescued from dungeons belong to a pathetic excuse of a human noble who took great delight in torturing demi-humans, the less said about that the better, after which she had, in gratitude, become the last member of my party. And since she was a natural with a bow she had rounded off the compilation of my party nicely. And when we weren't off fighting the Waves, she had taken charge of the hunting parties that operated out of New Rurorona providing food and other resources for the villagers. "Is Rishia not joining us?" She then asked.

Ah yes, I almost forgot about Rishia Ivyred, the shy yet talented jack-of-all-trades magic-caster who had become the most recent member of my party after having been unfairly kicked out of Itsuki's group due to her efforts in fighting back the last Wave. Insanely jealous that she had stolen the spotlight that they felt should have belonged to them, despite the fact they contributed absolutely zero to the fight, Itsuki and the rest of his party framed her for a crime she didn't commit and kicked her out, driving her to despair and causing her to nearly commit suicide if it hadn't been for Filo's intervention. After discovering the truth of what had happened and confronting Itsuki, who showed zero remorse for what he had done, I had taken Rishia into my party to keep her safe and unlock her full potential as a magic-caster which Itsuki had seen fit to ignore, which was pretty much perfect timing as Melty, who was also a magic-caster, had left the party to resume her duties as Crown Princess.

"She won't be joining us today Keel," I replied as Raphtalia and I started plating up lunch. "Freya is keeping her busy but she sends her love and hopes she will see you all soon." Freya's the owner of the magic-shop in our village having moved her wares from the capital once she heard that I was going to be the new Lord here, and I had asked her to take Rishia under her tutelage and teach her everything she needed to know regarding magic. "Okay everyone lunch is ready!" I called out, causing everyone to take their seats as I laid a plate in front of everyone, Filo in particular looking very eager to start. Once I had finished serving and had taken my seat, and after a quick toast to our friendship, we tucked in.

❶

Having just finished our meal, Keel, Raphtalia and I were clearing up whilst Filo and Melty were currently relaxing on a nearby when all of a sudden there was a knock on our door.

"I'll get it," I told everyone as I made my way over, and opening the door I was surprised yet not displeased to see Van standing in the doorway. "Good to see you Van, how are you keeping?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Lord Fergus, since I know you currently have company," Van replied giving a polite nod to my guests who all waved back. "But I was given this by one of our merchants with strict instructions to deliver it directly to the Shield-Hero." As he spoke he pulled out a small square package with a round bulge in the centre.

"Any idea what it is?" I frowned as I took the package from him.

"None whatsoever, but not for lack of asking. All I got in response, however, was that it needed to be given to the Shield-Hero immediately," Van replied. "I won't take any more of your time. Hope you all have a pleasant afternoon." He then gave a short bow before taking his leave.

"What on earth could this be?" I wondered as I gave the package a small shake. "Okay everyone, sorry to cut things short but I think we all ought to gather and discuss this." With that I placed the package on the lounge table as everyone gathered around and, after giving everyone a brief summary of my conversation with Van, started to cautiously unwrap it, revealing a small square-shaped object with a large red button in the centre, on top of which was a small hand-written note. "Want to read that out for me Mel?" I asked, passing her the note.

"Of course," she replied as quickly scanned the note, frowning as she did so. "It reads: 'To my most valued customer, I received this device from a mysterious stranger but, after examining it thoroughly, couldn't make heads or tails of it and as such have decided to send it your way to see if you could have any luck. Sincerely, your business partner, Beloukas." She raised her eyebrows before giving me a questioning look. "Business partner?"

"Unfortunately so," I sighed. Beloukas was a slave-trader and the person who I had purchased Raphtalia, and later Filo's egg, from. Whilst I had despised making any sort of deal with the man, he at the very least had proven to be reliable despite his shady nature. "But what I'm wondering is if he didn't have any luck, why on earth does he think I would fare any better?"

"I'm not sure if we can trust anything that man gives us," Raphtalia said with a grimace.

"What does this thing do Master?" Filo asked

"Well, when someone presses a button, which is what the round red object is, it usually activates or sets something off, regardless of whether not the button is located on the object in question," I replied.

"I wonder what would happen if we pushed it then…" Keel mused.

Melty, quite understandably, was supremely wary if her facial expression was anything to go by. "It could be dangerous. We have no idea what will happen if we push it."

"I agree, but at the same time we won't know what it's meant to do unless we try it, and between the five of us we have the best chance of dealing with," I replied before giving the others a firm look. "That's why I want you all to gather up your weapons and armour and be prepared to move." They all nodded and within the space of a few minutes we were all gathered back around the table fully prepared and armed for battle.

"Are we all ready?" I asked, getting four nods. "Okay then, I'm pushing the button…NOW!" With that, I extended my right hand and gave the button a firm push. For a few seconds, nothing seemed out of place, but then the area around us began to distort and fade away, and all of a sudden I felt an invisible tug towards the centre of the distortion.

"You guys feeling that too?" Keel cried out as she struggled to stay upright.

"What's happening?!" Melty screamed as she too was starting to lose her balance.

"Whatever it is we're being sucked in towards it! Grab each other's hands and hold on tight!" I ordered. Within a split second, I felt Raphtalia's hand slip into my left hand as I reached out with my right hand and grabbed hold of Melty's hand. Thankfully we all linked hands just in time before we were all pulled into the centre of the distortion, causing the world around us to vanish entirely.

❶

A few seconds after we had vanished through the distortion I thankfully felt myself and others land on some solid ground, and since we were all linking hands were able to help each other maintain our balance.

"Are we all okay?" I asked

"I'm okay Fergus," Raphtalia replied, with Filo and Melty giving the same response.

"I'm fine but…where are we?" Keel stated, glancing around in confusion.

Following her lead, I took a quick look at our immediate surroundings and my eyes widened in shock at what I saw. We had landed on what resembled a gravel rectangular sports pitch from my reality, and as I looked up my eyes widened even further (if that was even possible) and my jaw nearly dropped all the way to the ground at what I beheld. There was, after all, no mistaking the large white building in front of us, built on three stories complete with a large front door, windows and a clock on its spire, and as I looked around I saw other smaller buildings that resembled changing rooms, bike racks and more. There was no doubt about it, we were back in my original reality, the one I was in before being summoned to Melromarc, or if not that then something that closely resembled it.

"This may be hard to believe but from what I'm seeing I don't think it could be anything else," I said, turning round to face my four companions. "It seems that the distortion we encountered has taken us from our world and placed us in, or at least a version of, the world that I originally came from."

This drew gasps of astonishment from all of them. "Are you sure about this Fergus?" Melty asked.

"Not 100% but from what I am seeing so far, it makes the most sense. For example, that building there resembles a school, which is a place of learning in my world" I replied cautiously as I pointed at the large white building.

"But why did the button bring us here of all places? And what are we supposed to do here?" Raphtalia asked.

"Wish I had some answers but I'm as stumped as you are," I told her.

"But what about everyone back home? Will they be okay?" Keel asked worriedly.

"Given that we're the only ones here I'm guessing they're safe which is a relief," I reassured her. "For now though we should probably figure out what to do next…"

"Hey there! Sorry to interrupt but I couldn't help but overhear…did you really just say that you were originally from this world as well?" An unfamiliar male voice called out, causing us all to turn towards where the new voice had come from.

Walking towards us was a group of people we'd never met before, one male and three females with the male leading the way. The male was a brown-haired boy with green eyes wearing a green cloak over a white shirt, pants and boots and was accompanied by a girl with long blue hair and blue eyes wearing a blue and white dress, a short black-haired girl wearing red wizard robes and a hat and carrying a brown staff and finally a tall girl with blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, clad in yellow and white armour with a sheathed sword at her waist.

"Of all the things I expected to run into today I didn't expect it to be someone else from my world," the male teen said, his upbeat expression and tone in sharp contrast to my guarded and wary one. I felt my companions tense themselves around me but I raised a hand to calm them down. Seeing and perhaps sensing this, the teen raised both of his empty palms signalling that he was unarmed and not a threat. A good start, but now I had questions.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I don't think I've ever met you before in my life…" I said cautiously. "Who are you exactly?"

"Oh yeah, you and I have never met before but I have a good feeling I know where you're from," the male replied. "My name is Kazuma Satou, but you can just call me Kazuma."

"Hold on a minute, that sounds like…but surely it can't be…!" "Hang on a second…is that a Japanese name?" I asked incredulously.

"It is, and since you know where and what Japan is that proves you're from Earth, just like I was!" Kazuma said excitedly. "But I need one more bit of information to see if I'm right. Can I ask you your name?"

"Um sure. It's Fergus Ward, but you can just call me Fergus," I replied hesitantly.

"Fergus…Fergus…that sounds like a name from Western culture…let me guess…you're either from the United States or the United Kingdom right?" Kazuma ventured.

"You're right, I'm from the U.K from back in my world," I replied, my eyes widening as I realised what was happening. "So does that mean…"

"...THAT YOU WERE ALSO SUMMONED TO ANOTHER WORLD AND NOW FOR WHATEVER REASON ARE NOW BACK IN YOUR OWN ONE?!" We both exclaimed at the same time before laughing out loud as we strode up to each other and clasped the other's hand warmly whilst our female companions, both mine and Kazuma's could only sigh in exasperation at what was going on.

"Nice to finally meet someone whose gone through the same thing yet isn't a complete prick…" I said as I shook Kazuma's hand, and yet as I looked him in the eye there was something…slightly off, as if he was a nice guy on the surface but deep down he had some…issues. Probably just my imagination as from first impressions he seems to be an alright guy.

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience. I've had the same issue and as I'm sure you know, it's pretty annoying." He replied. "Oh Kazuma you have no idea, and I really hope for your sake that they weren't as bad as the other three Heroes…" "By the way, what's with that Shield on your arm?" He then asked.

"Ah, so he noticed…" "This Shield is one of the Four Legendary Weapons in my new world and the reason why I was summoned there. I'll be happy to tell you all about it once we've figured what's going on here…"

"Sounds like a nifty little perk, too bad I didn't get the same thing…" he muttered, shooting a glare at the blue-haired girl next to him who pouted in response. "But yeah you're right we should figure out what's going on. Any ideas?"

"Not a clue. We just pushed a random button and here we. What about you guys?"

"Yup same thing happened to us. I didn't even want to push the button in the first place and instead figure out what it was but unfortunately this little idiot…" indicating the girl in the red wizard robes who cried out "HEY!" in protest which he ignored. "…just had to be daring and push it without giving any thought to the consequences and now we're stuck in some new world with no idea what we're supposed to do!"

"B-But it was a mysterious object which looked liked it had mystical properties. The Crimson Demon blood in my veins couldn't ignore it!" She protested. Kazuma looked as though he was about to scold her again but was distracted by the blue-haired girl pulling on his cloak and pointing.

"Kazuma! Kazuma! Some more strange people have arrived, maybe they'll know what's going on!" She said excitedly.

"Sure whatever go do what you want…" Kazuma said with a shrug, causing the blue-haired girl to run off in the direction she had indicated.

"Before we go any further we should probably get introductions out of the way. As you know my name is Fergus and these are my companions from my new world," I stated, indicating my companions one by one as I introduced. "The girl with the long brown hair is Raphtalia, and standing next to her with the white hair is Keel. And in case you were curious about the ears they are both demi-humans. Then there's Melty, she's the one with blue hair. And finally, the small blonde is Filo."

"A pleasure to meet you ladies," Kazuma replied with a gentlemanly bow before indicating his companions. "As you've heard I'm Kazuma, the girl in the red robes is Megumin, the blonde's name is Darkness and the one with blue hair who just ran off is Aqua." With introductions done we all proceeded to shake hands with our new companions.

"So now that we've been introduced to everyone, what should we do next?" Melty spoke up.

Kazuma and I looked at each other and shrugged but before we could say anything we were interrupted by a high-pitched scream in the distance.

"KAZUMA! KAZUMA! COME HERE QUICK!" We heard Aqua cry out, and sensing the terror in her voice I raced over towards her at once, quickly followed by my companions, Kazuma, Megumin and Darkness.

But as we came up beside her and focused on the cause of her distress, my eyes widened and my jaw dropped to the ground, as I'm sure did Kazuma's, at the sight in front of us. Not even I, who was used to demi-humans, Filolials, chimaeras and other sorts of strange creatures from my new world, could believe what we were seeing.

Standing front and centre before us was a large undead skeleton with two massively noticeable shoulders, floating red orbs staring at us from where his eyes should be and clad in what looked like a formal black gown with golden edges which left his bony ribs on show, at the centre of which was another floating red orb.

On the undead's immediate right stood a man clad in an orange suit and wearing round spectacles, but his most noticeable feature was the spiky silver tail protruding from his rear, and standing to HIS right was a beautiful woman with long black hair, two horns protruding from her temples and golden eyes which were looking at us with disdain, clad in a white dress with white gloves and a golden necklace and sporting a pair of small black wings on her back.

Standing next to each other on the undead's left were two small child-like figures, around the same height as Filo and Melty. Both of them had golden hair and different coloured-eyes, one blue and one green, with the one standing immediately next to the undead sporting a blue bodysuit covered by a white vest with a matching white skirt leaving their thighs exposed, white socks and what looked like purple boots, and was clutching a brown staff similar to Megumin's and had a timid expression on his face.

It's fellow, on the other hand, was wearing a red shirt underneath their white vest and sported white trousers, brown gloves and golden shoes and was looking back at us rather unimpressed.

Standing next to them on their left was a small girl with silver hair tied back in a ponytail by a very large ribbon and red eyes dressed in a rather extravagant purple dress with a very wide skirt.

And standing behind them dwarfing them all was a large blue insect-like creature walking on two feet, my first impression being he looked like a cross between an ant and a mantis, clad from head to toe in light blue armour with a large spiky tail, and every breath he let out sent out a small gust of cold wind from his mouth that slightly chilled the area around us.

"Kazuma look! It's an undead, that's definitely an undead!" Aqua screamed whilst pointing frantically at the skeletal being. "We should kill it!"

"Don't be hasty you idiot! It could be friendly!" Kazuma responded whilst getting in Aqua's face.

"You're so naive Kazuma, if it's an undead it's obviously an enemy! Now stand aside and let me kill it!" She retorted. desperately trying to push past Kazuma whilst brandishing a white staff from out of thin air.

"These monsters look very strong, a perfect target for me to test out my devastating magic.." Megumin chuckled with dramatic flair as she brandished her staff

"ARE YOU CRAZY?! YOU'LL BLOW US ALL UP AS WELL!" Kazuma yelled at her whilst still trying to hold Aqua back.

"Look at all of those fierce monsters, staring at me with such depraved and evil expressions…" Darkness muttered, her expression turning more and more ecstatic the more she spoke. "They must be capable of many horrible and disgusting means of tying us down and tearing us limb from limb…oh my god, the tortures they will put us through! I'm getting chills just thinking about it!" She let out a huge moan of pleasure, her mouth drooling in excitement.

"KEEP YOUR FILTHY THOUGHTS TO YOURSELF, THERE ARE KIDS HERE!" Kazuma screamed at her, which in turn snapped me out of the stunned funk I had been in. I quickly ran over to Filo and placed my hands over her ears as Darkness continued her strange rants.

"Okay…one: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?! Did this strange group of people get here the same way we did?! Two: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE GIRLS, ESPECIALLY DARKNESS?! And three: WHO THE HELL ARE THOSE GUYS AND WHAT WORLD DID THEY COME FROM?!" I thought to myself frantically

"I will not allow anyone to hurt Master Fergus! If you want him you'll have to get through me!" I heard Raphtalia call out as she strode past me and levelled her sword towards the new arrivals. Keel strode up beside her and drew an arrow out of her quiver whilst Melty started charging a water spell between her hands, which drew a series of angry growls from the unknown group as they took defensive stances in anticipation of an attack

"Better calm everyone down before this gets out of hand!" "Raphtalia! Keel! Mel! STAND DOWN!" I ordered, taking my hands off of Filo's ears as I sprinted over and placed myself in between my companions and the new group. "We don't know who these guys are or what their intentions are! For all we know they could be on our side, so let's gather some information before we start killing each other!"

The others hesitated for a moment before finally putting their weapons down, and as they did so I was relieved to see that Kazuma had been able to hold Aqua and Megumin back, and whilst Darkness was still in the midst of her creepy tirade, she was whispering it quietly to herself so that Filo and Mel didn't have to listen.

With a sigh of relief, I turned around to face the new group, relieved to see that the undead was also successful at keeping the rest of his group in line. "I'm sorry about what just happened," I addressed them cautiously. "We've only just arrived here ourselves and we're a bit on edge. If you don't mind, can you tell us who you are and how you came to be here?"

The undead stepped forward to respond, but before he could say a word…

"ATTENTION!" A loud booming voice rang out from behind the undead's group, and as everyone turned to look in the direction it had come from we saw a well-built man walking towards us. He had dark grey hair and a bushy moustache and was dressed in what appeared to be a military officer's uniform, although for the life of me I couldn't figure out which national military it belonged to.

"CLASS IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!" He shouted once more after a quick puff of his cigar. "IF YOU STUDENTS WOULD FOLLOW ME I WILL TAKE YOU TO YOUR ASSIGNED CLASSROOM!" Before any of us could protest or question him he swiftly turned around and started marching back in the direction of the school building.

"What should we do Fergus?" Raphtalia whispered to me as we all took a moment to recover from the interruption.

"I think we should follow him," I replied out loud so that everyone could hear. "It's better than standing out here doing nothing, and besides we might be able to get some answers as to what we're doing here." What I didn't mention however was the compulsive feeling that had swept my body as he spoke that was telling me to listen to what he had to say. Raphtalia nodded in response as we both started walking in the direction that the officer had indicated. We were quickly followed by Filo, Melty and Keel and, after a moment's hesitation, Kazuma and the three girls with him followed us as well, with the undead and his group bringing up the rear.

❶

We followed the military man through a series of corridors, up several flights of stairs and through quite a few large doors, and as we walked I couldn't help but notice but the doors, hallways and stairs were all large enough to even fit the large bug-like creature from the undead's group. This was all too convenient, as if something or someone wanted us here or that fate wanted us all here for some strange purpose. As I was mulling this we all suddenly stopped outside a door with a sign on the top that read 'Class 2'.

"Here is your classroom! Go inside and take your seats, and as soon as the rest of the students and your teacher arrive your school life shall begin," the man said, but once again before anyone could question him he promptly strode off down the hallway and around the nearby corner out of sight. I looked at Kazuma to see him staring back at me questioningly. We both shared a shrug before Kazuma pushed open the door and walked in, followed by the rest of his party. After exchanging glances with my companions we followed on after them.

As we entered the room the first thing I noticed was that this resembled a stereotypical classroom from my world, consisting of a large number of desks arranged in a 6x6 grid that all faced the teacher's desk, which in turn was situated in front of a large chalkboard. There were also several bookcases located behind the desks filled with books, but the strange thing was there weren't any labels or titles on the spines.

The second thing I noticed as Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin and Darkness took their seats on this side of the classroom were that we weren't the first arrivals, as currently occupying several desks on the far side of the room were 6 figures, all of whom were wearing the same style of uniform as the man who'd led us here and had turned to face us as we had entered the room. "They must be all from the same world then…but are they from this one or from yet another reality?" I pondered as I studied them closely.

The one who stood out the most to me was the tiny blond-haired girl, who I'm sure was even smaller than Filo and Melty and whose piercing blue eyes were watching us carefully. From that quick glance, I could tell she was already assessing our threat level and ways to deal with us. "That's the look of an experienced military commander. Seems there's more to her than meets the eye."

Sitting to the tiny blonde's right was a slightly older girl with long brown hair and dark blue eyes whilst on her left next to the window sat a middle-aged man with black hair and black eyes, and sitting behind these three were three more men with varying appearances.

We quickly exchanged a small nod of greeting with them as we proceeded to take our seats. I decided to take the seat directly behind Megumin who in turn was sitting behind Kazuma, with Raphtalia taking the sight on my right behind Darkness who was sitting behind Aqua. Filo quickly took the seat directly behind me, leaving Melty to take the seat on her right, behind Raphtalia whilst Keel decided to sit to Filo's left, and as we took our seats I noticed the undead and his group take seats on the far side of the classroom behind the military, leaving the middle and rear seats for now mostly unoccupied.

The silence that followed was really uncomfortable, no-one seemed to know what to do or what to say out of a fear of making things awkward. Even Aqua who seemed to have the largest mouth out of all of us was silent as we all contemplated this new situation we were in. I was just about to break the silence and ask what we should do when the silence was broken for us by the sounds of muffled voices and footsteps from the corridor outside the classroom, and as we all looked over the sounds of their conversation became clearer the closer they got to the door.

"...it really isn't safe for us to run in the hallways…" a soft female voice spoke up first.

"It was Barasu's fault that we were running in the first place…" another female voice said, slightly deeper than the first one and with a much snarkier tone of voice.

"You really ought to apologise for making us run like that!" A haughty female voice called out.

"Hey! It's not my fault that you all didn't wake up on time!" A male voice then cried in exasperation without missing a beat, as though this conversation was par for the course for their group.

"Are you feeling okay Subaru?" Asked yet another female voice.

"Yeah, considering I had to go through hell to get here!" The male voice replied. "I mean not that it wasn't weird and awkward for everybody but let's ignore that for now…" As he finished speaking the door was flung wide open revealing the people behind the voices.

"...And maybe we can enjoy being somewhere where everything's not out to kill us…" The male's voice faltered as he walked through the door and got a good look at all of us sitting there. "And this is what we run into?! What the hell is going on here?!" He exclaimed once he'd recovered from his shock.

"You and me both buddy…" I thought as I took a closer look at the new arrivals.

The teenage boy had just spoken had spiked black hair, dark eyes and was wearing, strangely enough, a black and white tracksuit that was more commonplace in my real world. This immediately got my mind whirring once more. "From a quick glance he seems like a regular guy from Earth, but seeing as none of his companions looked human, he must have gotten transported to another world just like myself and Kazuma…" So that was 3 of us accounted now, now I just had to wonder who the other two were since that seemed to be the theme of each group: One person transported to another world from Earth, accompanied by the companions/friends/allies they had encountered in their new world.

Speaking of his companions there were four others accompanying him, all of them female. One of them was a silver-haired girl with lilac eyes clad in a white dress, and standing next to her on the boy's right-hand side was a petite girl with cream-coloured hair tied back in twin drills on top of which was a small red crown and who had blue eyes with butterfly-shaped irises and was clad in a frilly dress with pink ribbons. On the boy's left stood two almost identical girls dressed in maid's outfits, their only difference being that one had red eyes and red hair whilst the other had blue eyes and blue hair.

"Lord Ainz, I think we should slaughter them all!" A female voice hissed, and as I looked across my row I saw it was the horned black-haired girl speaking in an aside to the undead.

"Not yet!" The undead, presumably Ainz, cautioned her. "First we need to gather intel!"

"Understood my Lord!" the woman replied with a submissive nod of the head. "Gee thanks a lot for NOT killing us!"

"I think…this is going to really suck…" Kazuma said out loud which prompted Aqua to let out a scoff.

"Don't worry! After all, you have a goddess on your side!" She exclaimed proudly, preening herself as she pulled out a pair of blue fans that started spouting water. "I'll handle it!"

"Yeah like THAT's going to be of any help!" Kazuma retorted

"Her? A goddess? Yeah right, and I'm the Devil himself!" I thought to myself with a scoff of my own, causing Aqua to turn around and glare at me which I met stare for stare, unwilling to back down until our battle of wills got interrupted when the small blonde girl in military dress started chuckling away to herself, causing everyone to turn in her direction.

"If this is some new trial Being X came up with then I accept it!" She cried out with maniacal glee, climbing out of her chair and onto her desk as she spoke. "DO YOU HEAR ME? WHATEVER YOU'RE PLANNING I'LL RIP IT TO SHREDS WITH MY OWN BARE HEADS AND HAVE MY REVENGE!" As she finished her laughter turned into a full-blown cackle worthy of a movie villain, causing her companions to nervously ask if she was okay whilst the rest of us just watched in utter bewilderment.

"And just as I'd convinced myself this new experience would be a lot more pleasant than the shit I had to deal with in Melromarc!" I thought to myself despairingly as I proceeded to bang my head against the desk."…but here I am surrounded by a self-proclaimed goddess, a masochist, what seem to be a group of genocidal non-humans and to top it off a crazy little girl who talks like an adult! Can I not go to just one world without having to put up with idiots?!" I suddenly felt a warm hand reach into my hair and proceed to stroke it soothingly.

"It's going to be okay Fergus…" I heard Raphtalia's voice call out softly, as I turned to look at her I saw her red eyes staring back at my with the utmost fondness and a warm smile on her face, and at this sight, my worries instantly melted away. She was right, for as long as I had her and the others here I knew things would be okay.

"Just what is going on here…" I heard the boy in the tracksuit moan, and as I looked up I saw that he too had an expression of hopeless realisation on his face, the sort of look that says 'What the hell have I gotten myself into?'

"There are sure are a lot of weird people here…" The girl with the crown commented. "Yeah no shit genius!"

"There's simply not enough information," the maid with the red hair spoke up as she looked at the male completely nonplussed. "Go and sacrifice yourself needlessly as always…"

This drew an angry reaction from the teen. "Why am I always the one to be sacrificed?!" He furiously asked the red-haired girl.

"There's no need, it would be my pleasure to protect you both." The blue-haired girl exclaimed with a radiant smile and clasped hands

"Hey, Subaru?" The silver-haired girl then spoke up, causing all of them to turn their attention to her as she too let out a radiant smile. "I think…this may be an opportunity to make new friends! So let's go in and do our best to have a good time!"

"You never fail to see the bright side of any situation, like a real angel!" Subaru exclaimed delightedly, his expression instantly changing from despair to excitement as they started making their way towards seats at the back of the classroom

"That girl with the silver hair was right," I pondered to myself. "We may not know what it is we're meant to be doing here or why we were summoned here, but that shouldn't stop us from trying to enjoy ourselves whilst we're here. Plus there's nothing out there trying to kill us which is an added bonus!" With that, I turned in my seat so that I was facing both Raphtalia and the girls behind me. "Between the five of us, I doubt anyone has a clue to what's going on, but I think we ought to try and make the best of it and go into everything with a positive attitude, and heck we may even make some new friends along the way! You guys in?"

"I go where you go Fergus. No matter what happens I'll always be at your side." Raphtalia responded instantly.

"I'll do my best Master!" Filo exclaimed happily.

"Well since we're not in any immediate danger I suppose there's no harm in trying to enjoy ourselves. You can count on me as well." Mel said with a smile.

"Sounds good to me, and if we can make some new friends even better!" Keel said last of all with an encouraging smile and thumbs up.

"Alright then, let's have some fun!" I finished with a double thumbs-up, getting four smiles and thumbs up in response.

"Hellllooooo there classs!" A high-pitched male voice called out from behind me, and as I turned around to look my eyes widened at the latest entry to come through the door.

Everything about this man screamed 'eccentric' and 'clown' and judging by the surprised gasps and cries of "Mr Roswell!" from Subaru and his group, he was obviously familiar to them. The man sported indigo hair and heterochromatic eyes with purple eye shadow and make-up which only served to support my initial impression of him, which was then confirmed by the purple and black jester outfit the man was wearing complete with a hat, cape and red and black boots. He made his way behind the teacher's desk before turning and looking out over everyone with an excited look on his face.

"Now that we are all assembled, class mayyyyyy begin!" He exclaimed in the same high-pitched voice, and as he proceeded to turn around and pick up a piece of chalk I once again banged my head on the table in despair, wondering what else could possibly happen to make this whole thing even weirder.

And that's the first chapter squared away! And I hope you had as much fun reading it as I enjoyed reading it! Next time we'll get Fergus and the others introduced to the rest of the cast and from there the shenanigans can begin!

As you can see Fergus is already a bit wary of the rest of Kazuma's group except for Kazuma himself, probably not a good idea since Kazuma is strange in his own perverted ways! And as you can probably tell Fergus and Aqua are NOT going to get along. I already have plans for that.

And as for the clubs, activities, the characters in Class 1 and the future transfer students, I already have plans for those and I look forward to getting stuck into them when the time comes.

Now before I go I wanted to take this time to put up a seating plan of the new Class 2. I had to expand it to 6 rows/columns of 6 desks to fit both Fergus and his group as well as any future transfer students, so for those who are confused here is where everyone is sitting, from back to front and left to right:

(X denotes a spare seat)

X-Beatrice-Emilia-Subaru-Rem-Ram

X-X-X-X-Demiurge-Cocytus

Melty-Filo-Keel-X-Aura-Mare

Raphtalia-Fergus-X-Albedo-Ainz-Shalltear

Darkness-Megumin-X-Grantz-Koenig-Neumann

Aqua-Kazuma-X-Visha-Tanya-Weiss

(Teacher's desk front and centre)

Hope that clears things up! Now I can't promise a regular upload schedule, but given the current situation I feel confident I should be able to upload every week or at the very most every 10 days.

With that all said and done I will see you in Chapter 2 which will be titled 'Introductions! Meet Your Classmates!' Until then this is theoneandonlyedster signing off for now and I will see you then.

And before I go, PLEASE STAY SAFE AND STAY HOME DURING THIS CURRENT PANDEMIC! Things will get better but for now, you need to do your part for yourself, family, friends and everyone you care about by staying at home and minimising contact with others as much as possible, and together we WILL see a brighter dawn one day.