A Royal Summons

A Royal Summons is the first chapter of the The Rising of the Shield Hero manga adaptation.

Summary
Naofumi Iwatani is browsing through the light novel section of his local library as he complains about his lack of money remaining for the month. As he's browsing, he is hit on the head by a book that had seemingly fallen from out of nowhere. He then picks up the book and sees the title of the book, The Records of The Four Holy Weapons. He investigates the book while mentioning that it looks quite old. It begins by talking about the world, stating that when the world is on the brink of a disaster, heroes will be summoned from another world. The four summoned heroes each posses a weapon; the sword, spear, bow, and shield. With the comment that the story is somewhat cliché and mentioning that the shield is not even a weapon, he turns the page to be met with a blank page and a sudden feeling of drowsiness.

In the next moment, he appears in what seems to be an audience chamber where mages begin clamoring about their success in the summoning, much to Naofumi's confusion and surprise as he had noticed that a shield that he cannot remove is attached to him. Requesting that what is happening is explained, Naofumi notices three other people in the room with him. It is then explained to Naofumi and the other three by a unnamed summoner that they had been summoned to a country facing a crisis called Melromarc. He further goes on to explain that a rift from another dimension has been opened, unleashing monsters unto the world in large numbers known as the Waves. Upon the first time that these Waves came, the kingdom's knights and adventurers were able to hold off the Wave, but a tool called the Dragon Hourglass began indicating that another Wave was due to come.

Naofumi comments that this sounds exactly like the book he had been reading had explained, but is extremely excited at the situation none the less. The king introduces himself as Aultcray Melromarc XXXII and explains that for their efforts the kingdom will be financing the heroes' efforts with an additional reward if they are able to save the world. He then commands the heroes to state their names. They introduce themselves as Ren Amaki, 16 years old and a high school student, Itsuki Kawasumi, 17 years old and also a high school student, and Motoyatsu Kitamura, 21 years old and a university student.

Naofumi notes that all of the other heroes appear to be Japanese while also questioning if he is inside of the book. The king then addresses the other three heroes, causing Naofumi to panic as he had been skipped over. Naofumi then introduces himself as Naofumi Iwatani, 20 years old and also a university student. Naofumi then begins to question why he feels so on edge before a summoner tells the group to check their statuses, confusing everyone except Ren who then instructs the other three to look for a blinking icon in their field of vision and focus on the icon. Naofumi does as instructed and is met with his status page that explains his equipment and a level of 1.

Naofumi comments that it's like a game to which Ren responds wondering if he meant as in a VRMMO. Confused, Naofumi asks what it is. Ren responds that a VRMMO stands for Virtual Reality MMO and that this situation reminds him of one that he has played before. Motoyatsu comments that the situation is just like Emerald Online due to the map looking the same while Itsuki states that this is like a consumer game. The others begin to wonder if the towns and dungeons are the same as in their respective games and if it is, it would be relatively simple to resolve the situation at hand. Naofumi voices his suspicions with the others knowing a lot about the place they are in while he knows nothing. Motoyatsu asks him if he agrees with the others, but Naofumi tells them that he only knows what he read in the book before being summoned to the world. The others then begin to take pity on Naofumi as he is the only one with a shield, Motoyatsu calling him a "poor thing". Suddenly, the door in the back of the audience chamber opens and the King explains that they are to be their companions as the heroes cannot group together to level up. The new comers then choose their hero to travel with, five people for Ren, 3 people for Itsuki, and 4 people for Motoyatsu, leaving Naofumi with no one. Naofumi senses that he is being discriminated against and demands that someone explain to him what is going on.

Motoyatsu speaks up and explains that the Shield class is not the best class, at least in the game that he played. He states that they are good in the beginning as they have high defense, but as everyone levels up the shield stops being useful as it's not even a weapon anyways. Naofumi wonders if the feeling that he had was that everyone hates him for being the hero of the shield and wonders what they expect him to do by himself. The King then asks if no one will choose to travel with Naofumi, a volunteer steps forward with the reasoning that it would be too pitiful to send Naofumi out alone. They introduce themselves as Myne Suphia, causing Naofumi to become flustered and Motoyatsu questioning their choice. Once everyone has been confirmed to be with their desired hero, the King sends everyone off with their monthly allowance of 500 silver pieces while Naofumi receives 800 pieces of silver so he may recruit additional party members. Determined to make the others regret not traveling with him from the beginning, Naofumi sets off to purchase equipment for his party.

He arrives in the weapon shop run by Erhard where he attempts to figure out what to buy. Erhard then brings out several different swords for Naofumi to try as he has never held a weapon before. Upon examining the weapon though, the sword that Naofumi was holding flies out of his hand due to the shield rejecting it and stating "The heroes may not, aside from their assigned legendary weapon, hold a weapon with the intent to fight with it." much to Naofumi's dismay. After a bit, Naofumi leaves the weapon shop with newly equipped chain mail that Erhard had given to Naofumi for free along with some additional clothes. On the other hand, Myne had gotten a full set of armor and a sword as Naofumi could not buy a weapon for himself, but it came at a great cost.

Naofumi and Myne then fight in a field outside of the Castle Town where they are fighting an orange balloon. Myne comments that the balloon is a weakling, but is quite aggressive. Naofumi is then rushed by a swarm of balloons and had to be saved by Myne who expresses concerns about Naofumi's well being, but he is not taking damage from the balloons. Myne suggests that she be the one to finish off the last balloon, but Naofumi states that he would like to test his attack rating by attacking the balloon until it dies. It takes a lot of effort for Naofumi to defeat the balloon, several hours in fact, for him to defeat the balloon for a total of 1 exp.

Naofumi and Myne head back to an inn where they begin planning out their next move to a nearby town on the other side of a forest. Myne suggests that they go there because there is a nearby dungeon that is good for leveling up at when just starting out. She adds that it is not good for getting loot, but it's better to level there and due to the equipment that they have, there should be no issue to level up there. To wrap the day up, Myne suggests that Naofumi has some wine to which he politely declines. Naofumi then thanks Myne for everything as he cannot fight at all and would be lost without her, but she still decided to come with him anyways. The two then part ways and Naofumi decides to head to bed first, but shortly after Myne appears in his room with a menacing face while stating "What a sucker".

Characters

 * Aultcray Melromarc XXXII
 * Naofumi Iwatani
 * Motoyasu Kitamura
 * Malty S Melromarc
 * Ren Amaki
 * Itsuki Kawasumi
 * Welt
 * Bakta
 * Tersia
 * Farrie
 * Welst
 * Erhard

Monsters

 * Balloon

Weapons

 * Legendary Shield
 * Legendary Sword
 * Legendary Bow
 * Legendary Spear

Locations

 * Melromarc
 * Castle Town
 * Japan