Rise of Shaun Rodriquez, the Baron's Illegitimate Son

Chapter 5: Meeting the Heroes (1)

"Halt," the guards said as they stopped the carriages that were approaching. "We need to perform a check."

The Rodriquez family scowled as they reluctantly let the guards do their job of inspecting the carriages for anything suspicious. After looking for several minutes, they couldn't find anything wrong and sent the Rodriquez family on their way. What none of them realized was that there was a stowaway hitching a ride on top of one of the carriages.

Shaun calmly observed his surroundings. He hadn't been allowed to leave his house except for a few rare occasions, and none of them had been anywhere near the castle. His family had probably been afraid to let him get so close to such important figures where he could ruin their reputation. Well, he intended to make this outing a memorable one.

Of course he had to be smart about it, or else his family would come back and blame him even though there was no reason to suspect him. In their minds, he was a plague on their house. In his opinion, the family was rotten to the core along with the rest of the nobility. Shaun couldn't honestly name a single good person among the nobility. No, if what he knew from his previous life was true, then that was an understatement.

As the carriages finally rolled to a stop, he waited for his family to get off and make their way to the castle before jumping down. He winced as his landing made a noise, making the guards scan the area. Quietly following his family into the castle, he made sure to keep some distance in case he needed to move quickly. He couldn't afford to get caught.

After what seemed like ages, they finally reached their destination. Shaun wasn't sure what he was expecting when he chose to follow. What he didn't expect was to see the heroes lounging around, acting like they were royalty in front of the nobility. Even though they were heroes, it was quite insulting to see them boss around the servants like they owned the castle.

Glancing at the other nobles that had gathered to see the king and prince, he could see they had fake smiles on their faces. They were probably seething on the inside because of the heroes' actions. Well, in his opinion, if he were one of the heroes summoned, he would make demands too. It wasn't like they were brought here willingly.

Turning his gaze back to the heroes, he tried to get a better look at them. Since he was in the back, it was hard to make out what they looked like. He counted fifteen of them, but it was possible that he might have missed someone or counted someone twice. Also, their backs were to him, so he couldn't see their faces even if he wanted to.

There was a loud laugh that nearly stopped his heart. It couldn't be. There was no way he could be here. It was just his imagination. There was no way one of his bullies had been summoned as one of the heroes. There was just no way. That's when the laughing man turned around, and he caught a glimpse of his face. Shaun instantly recognized him.

There was no way he wouldn't recognize him. He could recognize Jason anywhere. How could he forget when the man had been one of the people who made him miserable? A sharp pain in his hand distracted him, and he saw that he had dug his nails into his palm. There were lines of blood from how tightly he clenched his fist. Staring at the cuts, Shaun could feel the muscles in his face twitching.

How could someone like Jason be summoned as a hero? If anything, that man could only be summoned as a villain. Looking at the other people, Shaun slowly began to recognize each person. Out of the fifteen people, ten of them were his bullies and ex girlfriends. Out of all the chances, they had been summoned here in this country to be heroes.

Forcing himself to leave the area before he gave himself away, he waited until he was by himself to ask, "Did you know about this?"

[Is the user talking to me?]

"Yes," Shaun snapped. "Did you know they would be summoned here? Is that why you encouraged me to come here?"

[The system has no control over who is summoned. The system was just created after the user regained their past life's memories.]

The system had mentioned it before. In that case, there was no way the system could have been involved since he regained his memories after the heroes had been summoned. However, that didn't excuse the fact that the system had kept quiet about it. It could have told him instead of sending him here to see his hated enemies parading around as heroes.

[The system deduced that the user wouldn't believe the system. Also, the system determined that one of the user's desires was to get revenge against them. That is why the system provided a quest.]

"What does the quest have anything to do with getting revenge?" he muttered.

[Let me show you.]

[Quest]

[Meet the Heroes]

[You have met the heroes and discovered that they are your hated enemies.]

[Quest Rewards]

[You have unlocked the ability to capture and enslave targets.]

He stared at the screen blankly for a few moments before he asked, "What is this?"

[In order to help the user, the system has determined the best reward. The user can now capture targets and either turn them into slaves or whatever the user desires.]

Even though he had been caught off guard by the information, Shaun found the idea appealing. The thought that he could turn his bullies and ex girlfriends into his slaves acted as a temporary balm to his anger. However, he couldn't let himself get too caught up in the quest reward. He had long since learned that things weren't that easy.