Inside a dim altar room illuminated only by sunlight streaming through the entrance stood a group of priests in ceremonial robes. Before them lay a massive magical circle drawn with faintly glowing materials.
From among them, one priest nervously asked:
"High Priest-sama, are we really going through with this?"
The man addressed as High Priest cast a cold gaze toward the questioning subordinate.
"It has come to this, and you still hesitate?"
"B-but... shouldn't summoning the Four Cardinal Heroes require discussion among all the nations first? Isn't that why Her Majesty the Queen left the country—to attend the international conference?"
"Conducting the summoning ceremony in our nation was the will of His Holiness the Pope and His Majesty the King. Do you still object?"
"N-no! Please forgive my ignorance."
The High Priest snorted coldly.
"Listen closely: Our Three Hero Church has been Melromarc's state religion since its founding. Under no circumstances can we allow other nations to summon the Four Cardinal Heroes before us. Do you understand?"
Immediately, the unified chanting of the priests filled the chamber.
As their chanting intensified, fragments of sacred relics placed within the magic circle began emitting a soft glow.
A stir rippled through the crowd. Encouraged, the priests raised their voices even louder, chanting fervently.
Finally—
The magical circle blazed brighter and brighter. Amidst that dazzling radiance, four shadowy figures gradually became visible.
The glow faded slowly, and the figures grew clearer.
At last, the summoning ceremony concluded successfully.
The legendary Four Cardinal Heroes had truly answered the call of the Three Hero Church's believers and descended upon this world.
"We did it! It worked!"
Witnessing a genuine miracle, the priests were moved to tears.
The High Priest, equally moved, stepped forward solemnly.
"Oh, revered Heroes, please save this wor—"
But his voice abruptly choked off. His mouth hung open, yet no further words emerged.
Because the summoning circle, which had just fulfilled its purpose of bringing forth the Four Cardinal Heroes, suddenly flared again with blinding brilliance.
Shock overtook the High Priest's face, and panic spread among the other priests.
"What—what's going on?"
"As expected, summoning all four heroes simultaneously was too much?"
Yet, unexpectedly, the second burst of light differed from the first, flashing brightly but vanishing swiftly.
After the glow faded, a black-haired girl appeared within the circle.
The High Priest gaped in disbelief at the sight.
"The legendary Four Cardinal Heroes... why are there five of them?"
…
Inside the lavishly decorated throne room, sunlight filtered through spotless windows, scattering onto white tiled floors lined with red carpets. Guards bearing halberds stood proudly at attention along the walls, like an honor guard.
A middle-aged man wearing a crown sat high upon a throne, with ministers in luxurious garments standing by his side.
"These are the Four Cardinal Heroes of legend? But…why have five heroes been summoned instead?"
Kneeling before the king, sweat dripped incessantly down the High Priest's forehead.
"My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty. The timing and location of the ritual were unquestionably correct, but…"
As the High Priest sweated profusely, attempting to answer the king, the so-called fifth member among the Four Cardinal Heroes—a black-haired girl—ignored their exchange entirely, curiously observing her surroundings.
Looks like I've transmigrated, huh.
The girl's name was Kiriko.
It was given to her by her adoptive parents.
Her surname, Kiriko (桐子), came from the line, "Again the tung flowers bloom on the old branches; the evening rain over the pavilion brings melancholy," from the poems of Li Yu, the last emperor of Southern Tang.
They'd taken "branch" (枝) from that poem, modified it slightly to "子" (child), making it sound like, "this is a boy."
Yes, Kiriko was originally ♂.
She merely read My Great Sword, and suddenly transmigrated.
And inexplicably became ♀.
Upon awakening, she'd found herself in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by a crowd of strangely dressed people speaking an incomprehensible language.
Kiriko had taken roughly the same time it usually took after defeating a monster and waiting to return to the village to calmly accept her new reality—transmigration and gender-change—with the massive heart unique to shut-ins.
I'm here now, so whatever...
Kiriko considered herself quite optimistic.
Transmigration wasn't a big deal; losing her beloved Excalibur wasn't either…
At least she didn't have two extra lumps of flesh on her forehead or arms...
But rather than turning into a girl, Kiriko was much more concerned with a far graver issue:
Crossdressing!
Never underestimate this. Crossdressing was a Noble Phantasm brimming with magic. Once you touched it, you moved from zero straight to infinity.
Crossdressing once, refreshing once; crossdressing always, refreshing always.
The conversation between the High Priest and King ended, and now the King spoke directly with someone else who'd also been summoned like herself.
As for how Kiriko knew they'd been summoned as well...
Simple. They wore clearly recognizable modern clothing, just like herself. And they'd appeared with her inside the summoning circle engraved on the altar.
It was pretty obvious, right?
"〇〇〇〇〇〇."
"〇〇〇…"
Kiriko listened briefly, then gave up.
Can't understand a word...
For some unknown reason, the four modern-looking guys could fluently converse with the people of this world, yet when she listened, everything sounded like a bugged fan-translation patch.
Bored, Kiriko began observing the other four.
Though dressed modernly, each held a different medieval weapon.
The one currently speaking with the king held a sword. He had neatly-defined features, though short in stature, with nice-looking short black hair.
Dressed up in girls' clothing, he could easily pass as female.
But for some reason, he gave off a weirdly familiar feeling...
Like he was the type who'd be super skilled at MMORPGs and build harems in-game.
The Spear Hero was tallest among them. A guy who wore a ponytail despite clearly being male, standing proudly like Mordred striking a duelist's pose.
As though sensing Kiriko's gaze, Mordred—the spearman—smiled and waved.
Kiriko silently looked away.
Probably E-ranked luck; likely a mob character who won't survive past episode three.
No need to investigate further…
There wasn't much to say about the Bow Hero. If anything, it was that his name vaguely sounded like "Darabongba-Bandebeidibudobiluonn." (In canon, Bow Hero Itsuki Kawasumi's name pronunciation can jokingly sound like that.)
Finally, the Shield Hero matched his literal role: looking slow-witted and dull.
The conversation between the Sword Hero and the king finally ended, then Spear Hero and Bow Hero took turns asking questions.
I wonder how much longer we'll be stuck here…
Just then, Kiriko noticed a tiny icon floating in the corner of her vision.
It looked exactly like the kind of immersive-game UI described in VRMMO novels.
Kiriko reached out, tapping and swiping, but nothing happened.
Nearby, noticing the girl's odd behavior, the Shield Hero asked curiously:
"やあ,大丈夫か?" Hey, are you okay?
Kiriko shot him a glance.
She understood this sentence, at least. After all, "daijoubu?"—that level of basic Japanese—any anime fan, or even anti-Japanese war-drama enthusiast, would recognize.
She scratched her head and responded using anime-learned Japanese.
"なんでもない." I'm fine.
She then returned to staring at the icon intently.
With a "ding!" the icon opened like a smartphone app, and a pop-up appeared before her eyes.
Is this… a status menu?
It had lots of data, typical of an RPG.
Kiriko skimmed it quickly, paying little attention.
Though, at the gender indicator, she desperately wished she could change ♀ back to ♂.
"Huh?"
Beneath the "Level," the experience bar suddenly began rising without any warning. After reaching the limit needed to level up, her level jumped from 1 to 2, and all her attributes rose correspondingly.
"What's going on?"
It didn't stop there. After leveling up, the experience bar continued climbing.
Kiriko's level naturally kept increasing…
---
A/N: The protagonist can't understand the language because she lacks a Legendary Weapon, unlike the four legitimate Heroes, whose weapons automatically translate for them.
T/N: HIII I LOVE KIRIKO!