Hello, we decided to bring a new series for you dear readers.
This series will be released weekly every thursday.
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I hope you guys can enjoy this novel as well.

Here is the first chapter.
Enjoy~

TL: NyX
ED: Onihikage

Chapter 1 – Summon & Action

The blue sky was so bright it was almost painful to look at. I was heading to school as usual, and felt the sunshine was particularly intense, which reminded me that summer was coming soon.

It took me a while to make the bento for lunch, so I barely made it on time. I usually prepared it in the evening the night before, but it's been hot lately, so I'd decided to make it in the morning.

The alarm was still set for the usual time, so I had to sacrifice a lot to get enough time to make my lunch. On top of that, I haven't been able to sleep well — not that anyone would notice anyway.

…No, no, don't call me a loner!

The bento was just right; it was made with great haste, after all. It's not luxurious, but it's not bad, either. It's baby chicken karaage, boiled broccoli, asparagus ham rolls, dashi* rolled egg, and onigiris lined up in a row. (smug)

I slipped into the classroom just before the bell rang and sat as if nothing happened. No one cares about me, and no one would even say hello. Just so you know, I'm not a loner; I have a great friend!

Yes, it's on the internet, so what? I have a lot of friends online!

The bell rang while I was catching my breath from running in such a hurry to get to class. Homeroom lessons were about to start, but there was no sign of the teacher coming in like they usually would. Huh?

Whether you're a teacher or a student, you can't be late, I thought… and suddenly the whole classroom was enveloped in light.

“Gah!?”

“Whwhat's going on!?”

One of the students tried to escape through the door, but they couldn't seem to open it.

“It won't open!”

The student who tried the door then tried to open the window, but it didn't budge either. The whole time, I was pretty cool, just staring at myself.

One student seemed to be elated, saying “It's finally happeniiinng!” but most of the students were panicking. This is exactly what I think it is, isn't it? I never thought I'd get caught up in this.

I put the rest of the chicken karaage in the fridge because I was going to eat it at night, but that doesn't seem possible anymore… It was a shame, but there was nothing I could do about it. Soon after the light enveloped us, we found ourselves no longer in the classroom, but in a large stone room we'd never seen before.

“Where are we?”

Even if you don't ask, someone will tell you what you need to know, but most of the students were just making noise, having completely lost their cool. The noisy ones were mainly the handsome and smart students. The girls weren't making much noise, but I could see one blonde chattering a bit.

I could understand the situation so far. The real question was what kind of people would appear after this, and what kind of story we'd be part of. When the door opened, people in armor came clanking in and surrounded us, followed by people in robes, and then some very well-dressed folks.

“Wh-who are you people? And where is this place?”

Aikawa Takeru, a good-looking guy, spoke to them as our representative, and one of the well-dressed people came forward.

“We are permanent members of the delegation board, and we would like to ask you to help us.”

I understand the term permanent member, but I have a feeling they mean something different from what I'm familiar with.

Honestly, this person was asking for a request with a really bossy tone. There's a right way to ask people for help, and I think it's safe to say this person has never once asked anyone for anything.

“What's up with this? You're asking us for help, aren't you?”

As usual, Takashima “Steel Fang” Kouga, a brown-haired nose picker, tried to shove his way through, but was blocked by a big dude in armor. As expected from Takashima, who only trains his physique and nothing else! Up against a hulk like that, he was the one getting shoved to the ground. What an idiot.

“You are the heroes that we have summoned. After confirming your status from this plate, you will each be assigned to a country.”

Hoo boy, this is new.

The status plate was just made of iron, but being assigned to each country after that means education and training are carried out separately in each country, huh? Usually, one country summons a hero or dispatches one to some country, but to suddenly separate out all the heroes is just…

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Aikawa asked the man who seemed to be in charge because he didn't understand what they meant. The guy began to explain without at all concealing his disgust.

According to his explanation, this time the heroes' summoning was carried out jointly by a total of fifteen countries, with the permanent delegation of nine countries and an additional six.

We were summoned for the usual trope of subjugating the demon king, but since the demon king isn't alone, it seems the heroes were going to be auctioned off to all the countries. That's just too crazy. They wanted to drop us right into the foreign countries, through a system no different from human trafficking, yet it seems to be perfectly normal in this world.

By the way, he said we couldn't be sent back from this world to our own world. Some of the people who heard it screamed and cried, but about 30 percent of them were making a different kind of noise. While everyone was quite noisy for a while, they finally calmed down under the intimidation of the armored soldiers and started confirming their statuses.

There were a total of 118 students summoned as heroes. It seemed three classes were summoned, and all of us were high school seniors. For some reason, no teachers or adults were mixed up in it.

Every country has the right to at least one hero, but whether they get more depends on how the results of the auction.

If this follows the usual tropes, someone will be found to have a terrible status. Who's it going to be?

The status checks continued. They weren't noisy in a bad way, on the contrary they were basically celebrating, and they'd only finished checking about half of us.

About 80 percent of them have finished now, but the atmosphere from the foreigner side is not bad.

And now it's finally time for me, the last of the 118 people to be checked. I didn't think that was my style, but what's it going to be?

As explained in the beginning, I held the copper brown metal plate and spoke the words "Status Up."

Name : Tsukuru Sumeragi
Job : Chef, Level 1
Skills : [Cooking] [Ignition] [Dismantling] [Detailed Appraisal] [Material Storage]

The characters appeared, and the armored man who read my status wrinkled his face in disgust. From his expression alone, it's pretty obvious my status is lousy. I never thought that I'd be the one with a bad job like in the cookie-cutter stories.

However, I can imagine that a job such as [Chef] can't be used for fighting.

I returned to think that it can't be helped even if it was too much for me, but I saw that man in armor reporting about me to a man who was well-dressed and the well-dressed man was also wrinkled his face.

If we go with the trope, you'd have to consider the possibility of being discriminated against, or even erased because you're useless.

“What kind of job did Tsukuru-kun get?”

I was surprised when someone behind me called my name. When I turned around, it was a girl with beautiful black hair, snowy white skin, and a gorgeous, well-shaped face: Suzuno Ichinose, one of the top-three beauties at school. She was looking at me with a gentle smile.

“I got the [Chef] job. How about you?”

“I'm a [Saint].”

I already knew about that. The soldiers had gotten really excited when Ichinose showed her status, so I heard what it was back then. No matter what anyone says, I think it's a cheat job.

“Who cares about a [Chef] Job? I'm a [Holy Warrior]! Those old farts were going crazy when they heard about me!”

That was Kai Saruyama, who came butting in on the conversation between me and Ichinose. He was interested in her beauty, and I'd say has somewhat suspicious intentions toward her. There are plenty of guys like that hovering around her all the time.

“Isn't that great? Ichinose is a [Saint], so we're aligned with the same Holy job, aren't we?”

“Oh yeah, man! You totally match her job!”

He's a simple idiot. He might have come to make fun of me as a [Chef], who wouldn't be much use in battle, but if I lift him up like this, he'll be in a better mood.

“Actually, I wonder if there are any other Holy jobs?”

“Well, it's not unique, there'll be other jobs like it!”

Ichinose doesn't seem to like Saruyama very much, so she just laughed nervously and pushed him away. However, Saruyama has neither the brain nor the consideration to respect Ichinose's feelings.

Plus, they didn't seem to realize it yet, but we're all going to be auctioned and sold. There is a chance that Saruyama will be sold to the same country as Ichinose, but I think it's more likely they'll end up in separate places. I want to see what kind of face he makes when he figures that out, but I'll leave it at that or it might cause trouble.

And so, the auction has started.

There were two categories of students: those who understood they were going to be sold, and those who didn't. The expression of those in the first category was quite gloomy.

“First up, Kazuki Fujisaki, Job rank C, [Berserker], a job that can be relied on in combat! Bidding starts at one million!”

Fujisaki was the quiet type who didn't stand out so much, but he apparently got a job with high fighting power called [Berserker].

The prices went up really fast; many countries were competing for him. In the end, his auction was won by one of the countries called Rade Crude Empire with an offer of 8.9 million. I don't know if 8.9 million is expensive or cheap, but it seems to be what Fujisaki is worth.

However, while it didn't appear in the status, it seems every occupation has a rank. This rank probably represents their usefulness in combat.

The auction continued. Some students were outraged about being sold off, but each person generally went for about 3 to 5 million. I don't know if that's high or low.

“Next, Hideo Kujou. Job rank S! [Sword Saint]! As you all know, this is a core job of the hero party!”

Hideo Kujou, who was apparently the central figure of the hero party, was the student council president, and quite handsome besides. When he was introduced, all the well-dressed people looked at him more intensely. I think that job might also count as a Holy one.

The initial bid was set at five million. We can understand how much they're expecting from a [Sword Saint] because Fujisaki, the highest bid so far, went for 8.9 million, and now there's about 30 people competing for Kujou.

His price went up like a rocket, exceeding 30 million in the blink of an eye, and soon breaking past 40 million. The closing price was 55 million, from the Rade Crude Empire, the same country that bought Fujisaki.

“Next, Kai Saruyama. Job rank S! [Holy Warrior]! Bidding starts at four million!”

Saruyama also has a high starting value because his class has Holy in the name of it. Yet again, it was the Rade Crude Empire that won. The relative power of each country has become roughly clear.

Among the fifteen countries, the Rade Crude Empire seems to be an existence three or four times in excess of the others, let alone double.

About 80 of us had been sold so far, and 14 countries had won bids. The last one is presumably at the bottom in terms of scale and finances.

“Next is Suzuno Ichinose. Job Rank S! [Saint]! Starting bid is five million!”

As expected, Ichinose also had a high starting price. She just frowned about the whole thing, considering it was pretty unpleasant, and ended up being sold for 44 million. It was hard to say whether the bidding had gone downhill or not, but prices remained at just a few million for a while. Eventually, more than 100 people had been sold.

“Tsukuru Sumeragi… Rank G [Chef] …we'll start at 10,000.”

The auctioneer introduced me in such a casual voice, and from the reactions of the buyers, it was obvious nobody cared. It was a pretty bad rank, even though I was expecting it. With the low rank and the starting bid of 10,000, both the foreigners and students chattered in the same way.

Even the students were looking down on me, to say nothing of the locals.

“Uh, the bidding has begun, so… does anyone have an offer?”

“…”

This development is just as you'd expect. However, I was experiencing all this for real, so I was sweating buckets.

“Is there anyone who wants to bid?”

“……”

“………”

“There's no one who'd want to bid for that useless trash!”

“Come on! This is a waste of time!”

“Hurry up and show us the next one!”

There were calls from here and there that my bid was a waste of time, and that I was useless, and my bidding closed without a single offer.

No way, not a single bid… in fact, they outright refused to bid on me.

What would happen to me now if I didn't have a buyer? I was nervous, but I had no choice but to keep my wits about me.

TL: Dashi is a kind of Japanese soup.