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Rising of the Sleeping Soldier

Summary:

He thought after defeating his father he could finally have a fresh start with his loved ones. Instead he finds himself pulled into another world as their "shield hero." And he would like nothing more than to return home. Unfortunately it seems the world has other plans for him.
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An alternate universe where Alucard is summoned as the shield hero instead of Naofumi. He is very done with everything very quickly. This is a weird crossover tbh.

Now has a TvTropes page!

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/RisingOfTheSleepingSoldier

Notes:

This is a work that honestly took me way too long to write but I hope you enjoy the first chapter. Castlevania is one of my favorite shows rn along with shield hero. Does it justify his crossover? Who knows. Comments are extremely appreciated!

Chapter 1: I don't think we're in Wallachia anymore.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

He had been awaiting their arrival for two weeks now. While he was staying behind to guard the castle some brave courier approached the grounds with a letter saying that they were close by, having finished their latest mission in the north visiting the speakers and dealing with a demon problem. They may have put an end to his father's war but demons still roamed the land, and with no master to direct them they ran wild.

He had his equipment on him today as a precaution. The three of them had terrible luck and he wanted to make sure nothing would interrupt their reunion. He had on his signature coat on, which Trevor lovingly said it made him look like a "pretentious as fuck noble", and of course he had his longsword on him along with some other tools on his person.

It wasn't long before he could hear their wagon off in the far distance almost 300 feet away. Of course any normal person wouldn't be able to hear that far but vampirism had its perks. Filled with anticipation he moved to open the castle doors to welcome them back. He was hoping to surprise them with how much he's changed the castle since they've last seen it

During the time they were gone he'd had taken to cleaning up large parts of the castle and the entrance was one of the biggest undertakings. Debris had been the first thing he handled, sweeping away broken class, dust, stones, and the occasional vampire corpse and depositing them in a trash heap towards the back. Cracked stone pillars were filled in and restabilized. Luckily none of them were completely destroyed so they only needed touching up. The rug on the other hand was torn in many places and ultimately he decided to just have it replaced rather than wasting time or resources replacing it. The scratches and burns on the door had been sanded out and restored to its former glory. It was a good thing he could levitate or he'd never be able to fix the top.

He must have been lost in his thoughts as he heard a wagon grinding to a halt and didn't notice it coming in the first place. Stepping outside he was greeted with the sight of his two companions climbing off the front of their wagon, and Trevor nearly falling off before catching himself. It was a minute before the two of them noticed him standing there waiting for them. Trevor walked over to him first, disregarding the luggage he was unloading.

"Quite the homecoming. Expecting someone?" He said with a shit eating grin on his face.

"Of course I knew you were coming. I could smell your stench from a mile away."

Trevor grinned and punched his arm "And I see you're still the same cockwart as when we left."

Sypha on the other hand made a loud ahem noise. "Not even a minute back home and you two are already fighting like children."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Agreed."

She glared at them with a slight pout for a moment before all three of them started laughing. Adrian in that moment felt such warmth blooming in his chest that only these two could inspire in him. Having them here in front of him reminded him just how much he missed their presence in his life.

He looked to his two companions with a gentle smile "it really is good to see you two again. "

"Oh don't get sappy on us now I might get sick" Trevor said as he turned his head to make exaggerated gagging gestures.

"It's good to see you too Adrian."

He couldn't help but smile at that. Hearing them calling him Adrian made him feel at peace with himself, happy even. After the battle with his father he felt like he was slowly breaking apart from the inside out. Alucard's job was over. Humanity seldom needed a savior anymore, what it needed now was to rebuild and recover. What reason did he have for living anymore as well? His family was gone and he'd never be accepted by either side of his heritage. Too human for vampires and too vampire for humans. He was fully prepared to make the castle his tomb but then Trevor stopped him. Instead of leaving him to rot he gave him a new purpose, a new life. Instead of leaving the castle and the hold to rot he said to make it their new home, to make something out of it. And he said to do it by both of their sides.

While they were busy traveling he was fine staying back to watch over the grounds. There were many times where he felt he couldn't take it anymore and wanted to run to their side or even worse bury himself back in Gresit but he resisted the temptation every time. He knew they cared for him deeply, just as he did for them. So he'll continue to live each day waiting for their return, eager to hear their new stories and to have them home again. He felt like a lovesick puppy in that regard almost but of course he wouldn't show it too much.

Shaking him out of his thoughts was Trevor loudly groaning off to the side. "So are we are we gonna stand around all day being mushy or are we gonna unload the wagon?"

"I think I'm more partial to standing around all day. Quite relaxing."

"Oh shut up you..you fangy bastard."

"I swear your insults are getting better and better by the day." He said as he began helping them unload everything. He was moving several boxes at once as Trevor called him a show off under his breath when he noticed something.

From the pile of goods that they came home with one item stuck out to him as odd. A book to be precise. While normally a book would never really be abnormal or out of place it was different with these two. Trevor had no interest in literature beyond his own beastiary and the only books he's ever seen Sypha handle were the ones found in the Belmont hold. Though it is possible she picked it up on their journey, maybe she's starting her own collection despite speaker tradition.

"Sypha, what is this?" He held up the book in question for her to see.

Sypha looked visibly confused when she saw the book in question. "I don't know, I don't remember picking up any books on our journey. And I certainly know Trevor didn't get this."

"I take offense to that. Just because I'm not a nerd like you two doesn't mean I'm illiterate."

"Is this your book then?" She held it up for him to see.

"No..?"

"Then my point stands."

They had a good laugh at Trevor's expense and that was that. They all continued unloading the wagon and began talking about more mundane things like what to make for dinner.

It wasn't until the evening he thought about the book again. The three of them after dinner had taken to relaxing in front of the fireplace in one of the spare rooms on the lower floor. Trevor was dozing off to the side while Sypha handled the fireplace. As she was stoking the fire he wondered about the book again. He didn't even remember it's title at the moment but he was still curious about it.

"Sypha."

"Yes Adrian?" She took her eyes off the fire to look at him, the light coming off of it giving her face a soft orange glow.

"Do you still have that book on your person still?"

"Uh yes! I should have it in my bag one moment." She leaned back and scooted towards the chairs behind them where she left her bag. She looked to leave the heat of the fire in the first place so she was rather quick to dig through her bag and sit right back down.

"Here you are. I flipped through it a bit earlier and it just seemed to be some sort of story for children. A rather simplistic one at that." She handed him the book as she spoke and he finally got a good look at the cover. It was extremely worn out and stained, smothering the original red binding. The title was 'The Records of the Four Cardinal Weapons.' Odd title but he's seen worse. At least it wasn't a book entirely dedicated to penis spells.

The book itself was just as Sypha said. Simplistic and boring. It was about these four magical heroes each wielding a magical weapon, a bow a sword a spear and a shield to be exact, being summoned so that they might save the world. The story itself however mostly just had them wandering around, gaining strength and over all doing nothing important to the grand scheme of things. Not very riveting. There weren't really any other characters besides the heroes themselves but one character stuck out to him as particularly annoying. The princess character in the story seemed to be obsessed with the heroes, constantly jumping from each one and bringing nothing but disaster wherever she went.

"I thought these characters were awful but the princess is something else entirely."

"I know right? It's amazing how little shame she has. Whenever she's around it's like a complete tonal shift too. Maybe the author was writing from experience."

Trevor decided to chime in for once "Oh yeah venting about your bitchy girlfriend in a children's book. A real champ."

Adrian smirked at that before continuing reading. Towards the back of the book every hero seemed to have a section describing their personality.

"Weird way to structure your book. Why would you put these in the back?"

"Put what in the back?"

He leaned over to show her what he meant. "See these? They put character descriptions towards the back."

She looked rather confused. "That's odd. When I was reading it there were nothing but blank pages back there."

He flipped through the character sections for each of the heroes in order. The sword, bow, and spear each had their own descriptions, describing them as extremely strong, fiercely loyal, and justice seeking individuals. Overall par for the course for a hero. When he turned the page to read the section on the shield hero he found it...blank.

"You're right. The back is filled with blank pages, but only with the shield hero section."

He was going through the remaining blank pages when the pages started flipping themselves at a rapid pace in his hands. The book itself started softly glowing, alarming everyone in the room.

All of a sudden he felt wrong, like something was tugging at his very being.

He could hear Sypha ask him "Adrian are you ok-?" Before being consumed by a bright yellow light as both Sypha and Trevor reached out for him yelling.

He felt himself rapidly falling through the air, light blinding his eyes. And as quick as it happened he stopped falling as his body thwumped onto the ground. He could hear muffled voices saying something about a successful summoning.

"Oh great heroes, please save our world!"

...what?

At the same time he heard 3 other voices speak out loud the exact same exact thing he was thinking.

"What?"

From where he had fallen he could see three other people to his left. Harsh shadows were obscuring their faces but their voices sounded rather young. They wore unfamiliar clothing and looked to be holding various weapons. A sword, a bow, and a spear.

Just like the weapons in that book.

Taking his surroundings in more he saw he was surrounded by various people in robes. His vision was slightly obscured by a profit glowing light coming from his feet and looking down he found himself standing on top of what looked to be some sort of magic sigil.

As he brought himself up to stand he could feel something weighing on his arm and when he looked down he found a shield..?

A sword. A spear. A bow. And a shield.

What the fuck?

What looked to be the head of the group of cloaked figures repeated his statement. "Great heroes, I beg you please save our world!"

This didn't seem real. This was too much like that fairy tale for children to be real life. Maybe he had fallen asleep in front of the fire place after reading that book. "I think there's been some sort of mistake." Was all he could really say.

One of the other people to his side nearly talked over him as soon as he got his words out. "What do you mean by that?"

"There is a long and complicated story behind this-"

"Shorten it."

He was ignored as the robed man continued talking. "-But we've summoned you Four Cardinal Heroes here using an ancient ritual. Our world teeters on the brink of destruction. We beg you, O' great heroes! Please help us!"

All the robed figures bowed before silence took over the room. He understood their plight but this was not his battle. Instead he chose to give them a simple answer.

"No."

Apparently the others were just as against fighting as they voiced their opinions right after him.

"I refuse as well."

"Likewise."

The one closest to him with the spear asked the question that was foremost on his own mind. "We can go back to our world, right? We'll talk about your problems after that."

The one wielding the sword seemed to agree as well as he raised his weapon towards the robed figures. "Don't you guys feel any guilt at all for bringing us here without our consent?"

Next the wielding the bow spoke up. "And if you throw us out as soon as peace is restored, we'd have worked for nothing."

Each of them brought up valid points he found himself agreeing with but somehow it felt disingenuous, like they had a different motive. This suspension wasn't helped by the spear wielder's next statement.

"How willing are you to compensate us? Depending on your answer, we might end up becoming your enemies instead."

Ah. So that was their motivation, the rewards and benefits. He really shouldn't be surprised but at the same time their almost familiarity with the situation was questionable. He would have expected them to be more confused, not asking for rewards upfront without even knowing where they are.

The head of the group was obviously taken aback, stuttering as he answered their questions in a non answer way. "F-first, we'd like you to have an audience with the king of our country, Melomarc. You can negotiate your reward after that, so please..." The man then gestured for them to follow him out of the room. The kid pointing his sword at the man lowered it before giving his answer. "Fine I guess."

The others quickly followed suit, the bow hero being first. "I suppose we could consider their offer."

The last was the spear hero who just smirked and slugged his weapon on his shoulder. "Not like our demands are gonna change, no matter who we talk to."

They were led up a stone spiral staircase and he got his first glance of the outside world. In the far distance there seemed to be a mountain range.The surrounding buildings reminded him of Italian style architecture with its pale bricks and red clay roofs. It was very sunny and he could feel the humidity hanging in the air. The ones with the sword and bow had stopped to admire the outside landscape as well.

"We really are in another world, huh?"

"Seems so, and judging by the weather it seems to be a Mediterranean climate."

He also got his first good look at the other heroes. The one with the sword was short with black hair, blue eyes and slightly effeminate features. The one with the spear had a longer face and reddish brown eyes. His hair was blond and pulled into a high ponytail, he also looked to be the oldest of the three. Meanwhile it was the bow hero who looked the youngest with baby fat still on his cheeks. He has dirty blonde hair with light green as and was just as short as the sword one. Overall they all looked incredibly young and inexperienced. Surely they don't want these children to fight for them ...do they? This was getting more sketchy by the minute. Forcibly taking four people from their homes to fight in your war they have no part in is bad enough but sending what is essentially children to the front lines? He's not liking this one bit.

While they were still walking up the stairs, the one with the spear turned back to face him.

"Soooo are you a cosplayer or something?"

There was a moment of pause.

"Pardon.?"

"I mean with that fancy coat, the high boots, and the belts strapped on you look like you walked straight out of Harajuku. You get summoned during a bad time?"

"I'm not following at all." Cosplay? Harajuku? The fuck is that?

He looks like he's about to say more when the swords man puts his hand on his shoulder and tells him to drop it.

They remained silent for the rest of the walk. It was uneventful beyond walking through a courtyard. For a brief moment he thought they were being watched but when he looked around he found the courtyard was deserted. There wasn't anyone in the windows either so it was probably nothing, at most a passing servant. He couldn't help himself feeling tense. He didn't know what kind of man this king would be and for all he knew he could be walking into a trap.

Eventually they were led into a massive space. It had an entire wall covered in windows flooding the room with light along with half a dozen chandeliers with lit candles. There were high arches spanning across the room, all white and gilded with gold. He could see guards lined up the entire stretch of the room as well as several people who looked to be nobles, and at the end of the hall sat a man adorned with a crown and various jewels and furs. It couldn't possibly be anymore obvious that he was the king. They were led down the room until they were stopped about ten feet before the king, and the men in robes bowed towards him before stepping off to the side.

The man before them on the throne was old with silver hair and a silver beard to match. He had a somewhat portly body and had high quality purple robes on along with various pieces of jewelry besides his crown. He looked at them with barely a twinkle of interest in his eye. It looked fake.

"So these four men are the cardinal heroes of ancient legend?" He said in a dull tone.

"I am the king of Melromarc, Aultclay Melromarc XXXII." His brow furrowed as he looked towards them once more. "Heroes, name yourselves."

The swordsman was the first to introduce himself. "Amaki Ren, sixteen years old, highschooler."

The one with the spear followed suit and stepped forward with a cocky look on his face. "I'm Kitamura Motoyasu. Twenty one and a college student."

"I suppose I'm next." The bow hero spoke. "Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, and a highschooler."

One would presume he'd be next to introduce himself but before he could even think about getting a word in the king continued talking.

"I see. Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki I take it?"

He narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance. The cold shouldering from the king couldn't be more obvious. If he didn't want to acknowledge his existence then fine, he didn't owe him anything. The others seemed to notice that he had been blatantly skipped over but they didn't say anything, rather they seemed to be waiting to see if he or the king would say anything about it. However, he wouldn't be giving him the satisfaction. He knew how court politics work and he knew that this was a power play. The king looked him in the eye for a moment, almost challenging him to call out the mistake but instead all he got was a blank stare and silence. He coughed into his hand before speaking once again.

"Now then, I suppose I owe you an explanation. My country, Melromarc, and the entire planet is being threatened with total destruction."

As the king continued talking it was obvious his silence was bothering him immensely. Melromarc must have been waiting for him to speak up about it so he could make a fool out of him but it never happened. The nobles seemed tense as well, not expecting this either. This reminded him too much of the vampire court his father would regularly attend years ago. Every move and stare would be calculated and pointed, every subtle action a power play. They were all too obvious.

The story he proceeded to tell was nearly identical to the plot of the book. Apocalyptic waves were threatening to destroy the world, each wave stronger than the last. Each county had something called a "dragon hourglass" that would keep track of the time between waves and predict when they would arrive next. Apparently the first wave already happened before they were summoned. Various local adventurers and knights were able to fight it but just barely. The devastation from the first wave led them to the conclusion that they needed the four heroes of legend, or they'd never survive a second wave. So that led them to perform a ritual to summon said four heroes, which led to their arrival.

"-This is why we have no time to lose! The next wave is in a month's time and we need you."

The one he knew as Ren loudly slammed the blade of his sword on the ground, grabbing everyone's attention. "We get the gist of it now. Anyway, surely you didn't summon us expecting us to save you for free."

Another expensively dressed old man who looked to be some sort of shady advisor answered them instead of the king himself. "Of course, once you repel all the waves we shall reward you handsomely."

The three of them had what looked like a silent agreement before replying in succession.

"Will you now? Well, as long as we have your word."

"We'll work with you provided you don't turn on us. But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."

"Exactly. We can't have you looking down on us."

Such pure arrogance. Only fools would respond like that. The king however looked satisfied at their conclusion, meanwhile not even sparing a glance his way for his own answer.

"I trust we have an agreement then-."

He's had enough of this. While the others might be content to play hero and live out this fantasy he had his own problems to deal with. What he needed was to get home as immediately not be fighting a war for some other world without his consent. Sypha and Trevor must be screaming their heads off back home wondering where he's gone.

"No."

The king looked absolutely confused, whether it'd be his refusal, or the fact that he's actively challenging him.

"Pardon?"

"I said no."

This was the first time he had spoken at all in front of the court and there were mixed reactions from everyone present ranging from surprise, confusion, even anger. The once cocky heroes looked baffled, with the one named Motoyasu verbally stuttering out a "what?". The king himself had a look of confusion still on his face, but his eyes spoke of annoyance at his insolence. But maintaining appearances was more important to him so his next question had a much kinder tone than what he was truly feeling.

"What do you mean by no? Is there a problem?"

"I understand your plight but I cannot fight for you. I never asked to be summoned here and I must ask to be returned home immediately."

The king quickly dropped any illusions of pleasantry at that moment and snapped back at him. "Why is that? What could possibly be more important than the fate of our world? And who are you to demand such a thing?"

He held his head up high as he stepped forward with fire in his eyes. If he finally wanted to know who he was then he was going to get it. "I am Adrian Fahrenheit Tepés, Known to the Wallachians as Alucard, the sleeping soldier and defender of humanity. Age 19." He said that last part to be a bit cheeky. A sort of reflection of the other heroes' introductions.

He would have to choose his next words very carefully. While he wanted the respect of the court he did not want them to outright fear him in case of panic or retaliation. It was even more important to get his point across as to why he couldn't stay.

"My world is already under constant threat from all manner of monsters and demons. They wish to snuff out the entire human race or turn what's left of them after mass slaughter into nothing but slaves. The people have no means to defend themselves as all those who could have fought back have long since passed except for me and my companions. We are the last line of defense for humanity and I know they cannot fight without me as I cannot without them. That is why I cannot fight for you. Without my presence my world will suffer."

He gave them a few seconds to linger on his words. The other heroes looked at him in disbelief, as if they couldn't believe what he was saying was true. The other nobles and officials in the room seemed to be whispering amongst themselves. Melromarc on the other hand was silent for the most part, staring him down while he looked to be contemplating something. It was an agonizingly long two minutes before the king made his reply.

"I see that your circumstances are dire but I'm sorry we cannot send you back. We need all four cardinal heroes and only once the waves have been defeated that you can be sent back."

"Why not find a replacement then? Surely there's someone out there who'd certainly want the honors more than me."

He must have said something because he got odd looks from people around the room.

"Legend states that new heroes may only be summoned once all four cardinal heroes perish. Just as that weapon is bound to you you are bound to here."

He felt like he just got slapped in the face or rather punched through several walls again. He was stuck here? This can't be he can't just leave Sypha and Trevor behind to fight in some random war, but if what he is saying is true then...

"My only option is to fight the waves..."

"Yes and we are offering our support to you heroes so that you may fight these waves in the most efficient way possible."

"I see. Then until I am able to find a way home I will offer my services to you. But know that my loyalties lie to my world first. "

As of now there seemed to be no way around the situation. Even if they were lying he still has no clue how to return to his own world or even where to start. So it would seem he would have to play the part of their shield hero, just for a bit at least.

The king looked to be pondering his words for just a moment before quickly brushing it off and pretending nothing happened. "Hm. Anyways heroes you should all go ahead and check your statuses."

'Well that was a quick change of tone. And what the hell is a status?'

The others seemed just as lost except for Ren who looked rather smug despite the attempt at a blank face. "What's wrong with you guys? It should've been the first thing you noticed in this world. Don't you see an icon in the corner of your field vision?"

No he hadn't noticed some sort of 'icon' when he first arrived. He was more focused on his surroundings and mentally screaming to himself. His field of vision was completely clear until all of a sudden a black dot appeared in the lower right half of his vision. There was no such icon there a second ago until Ren mentioned it.

"There it is, what do we do with it now?" Inquired Itsuki.

"Try focusing on it."

He didn't really know what that entailed so he settled on staring at it until something happened because what else could he do.

Something quickly flashed across his vision leaving behind a strange floating image in front of him. It was semi transparent with various abbreviations with numbers next to them which he had no idea how they correlated. In summary:

He didn't know what the fuck he was looking at.

The only thing that immediately made any kind of sense was the equipment section. That was blatantly obvious at least listing everything he had on him. Small shield, otherworld clothing, Alucard's Heirloom sword.? Not what he would call it but he doubted he could change the label.

While he was completely baffled at the 'status menu' the others were a lot more calm, seemingly familiar with. He didn't quite understand what a lot of these numbers meant or even correlated to but he knew something was wrong with his when itsuki complained about his own stats.

"Level one? That's worrying."

"Yeah, no telling if we can fight like this."

His level looked rather different as instead of only just level one it had more numbers tacked onto the end.

Level 1+60

Max HP: 85+1043

Max MP:30+281

Max SP: 45

It'd probably be best not to mention it. Actually there were a lot of things that would be best not to mention at all. It'd be best to keep as many cards as possible to himself and not alarm them. But currently the most that would happen would perhaps be some jealousy or confusion from his higher level. If he had to guess as to why their own levels were so low he would say it's because those three have never seen combat. And if that's the case then these "levels" log the amount of experience a person has with a numerical based system.

His own speculation could only get him so far. As much as it pains him he needs to ask what the hell this is.

"What exactly is a 'status'?"

"Status magic, is ability exclusive to the heroes." The old noble from before answered, looking satisfied with his response.

That was incredibly unhelpful.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Ren questioned.

"You must leave on an adventure to develop and upgrade each of your individual legendary weapons."

Itsuki continued to complain, and his familiarity with all this still bothered him. "Our weapons aren't maxed out already either? This is a bad start."

"Couldn't we just wield other weapons until these are usable?" Motoyasu grinned while twirling his spear, striking a pose at the end and making a big fool out of himself.

"They are usable as long as you're not lazy about learning how to use your own weapon." He snapped. Good god he was getting quickly annoyed with these three.

Motoyasu looked offended but Ren spoke up before he could say anything. "We can just figure it out as we go. Anyways, it looks like we'll have to train ourselves."

Itsuki finally stopped his bitching to agree with something. "We'll have to level up as much as we can."

"Just don't get too ahead of yoursel-"

"One more thing heroes."

He was of course cut off by the old decrepit looking nobleman from before. Because apparently manners were dead in this country.

"It is important to know that each of you will need to recruit and adventure separately. Partying up with each other is unfortunately not recommended."

"And why is that?" Itsuki scoffed.

"It is said that the legendary weapons repel each other by nature. If you work together, it apparently hinders their development.

As he spoke a warning popped up in his vision under the bold letters of 'HELP'. "When two more wielders of the legendary weapons operate together, it causes an adverse reaction in the weapons. Working separately is advised."

Well that sounded like a major design flaw. Why divide up your four heroes up and risk one of them being killed off? He was personally fine with this but it seemed more so inconvenient overall.

After a long period of silence the king seemingly remembered their existence. "The sun is about to set. Rest up tonight, and set forth tomorrow. In the meantime we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties."

He waved his hand and a well dressed woman came to approach their group. "We've prepared rooms for you. Please come this way." She bowed to them before motioning for them to follow her.

For a potential trap they were acting rather chivalrous.
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Before being taken up to their rooms they were asked if they needed anything after dinner. He tried asking if he could actually visit a library before retiring for the night but he was met with confused stares. Their escort looked uncertain on how to respond like she was never expecting him to ask that.
"I'm unsure if I'm allowed to take you so I'll have to ask a higher up."

"Why is that? It's just a library."

"Well um you see.. the librarian.. is very strict in maintaining the collection and he doesn't allow just anyone into his collection. Not to mention he has already retired for the night so unfortunately you'll have to wait for his supervision."

She was then quick to move past him and ask the other heroes if they needed anything else for the night. It was obvious she was lying out of her teeth but what he didn't get was why. Unless they were hiding some terrible secret there should be no reason he can't visit something as simple as a library. He doubted it was anything like the Belmont hold or his father's study and it did nothing but raise his own suspicion. He'd let it go for now but it rid himself of the feeling of unease.

Soon after they were finally escorted down a hallway to their rooms. Four individual bedrooms with two on each side facing each other. He was about to turn in for the night before Motoyasu called out to him.

"Yo dude, meeting in my room!" He hung out of his door way to wave at him before popping back inside.

The other heroes were already filing into his room so might as well follow suit. Stepping inside, the bedroom was rather spacious but was sparse in terms of furniture or decoration and looked rather nondescript. It had a queen sized bed with no pillows just a quilt and a small table at its foot with some chairs spread around it. The room was illuminated by several candles hanging from a small chandler and the occasional candelabra. It had a large window mirrored by a balcony on the other side.

Alucard and the other heroes each took a seat around the table while Motoyasu stretched out on the bed.

"I guess you get special treatment when you're heroes of legend huh? And the girl who showed us here was a real cutie pie too."

"And our dinner was sumptuous, though it did taste unusual." Itsuki commented.

'Well obviously' he thought to himself but he decided to say something a bit more polite. "Considering this is an entirely different world it makes sense that they wouldn't have exact equivalents to food commonly found in ours."

"That's true." Motoyasu turned his attention to Alucard.

"By the way, that was a real good performance out there in front of the king well done."

He narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by performance?"

"The whole "I'm a high class warrior from another world send me home immediately or face my wrath" bit in front of the court. You practically had the whole room shaking in their boots man. Are you also a theater nerd or something?"

"That wasn't a performance. I meant every word of it."

"Seriously man? Aren't you a bit too old for a chuunibyou phase? I know we're in a game and all but you don't gotta role play."

"You keep saying these strange words and referring to things but I have not a single idea of what they mean." He snapped with annoyance laced in his words.

He looked dumbfounded. "Have I been talking gibberish to you this entire time? I mean, you at least got to agree this place is just like emerald online right?"

Itsuki quickly interjected, scoffing at Motoyasu. "Of course it's lost on him. What kind of game even is that? This place is obviously like the console game Dimension Web, not some obscure MMO."

"Hey! Emerald Online is a mega popular game, you're just out of the loop like Alucard over here."

Motoyasu gestured towards him and he suddenly had the intense feeling of wanting to disappear from existence.

"By the way I can call you that right? I didn't catch your surname and I don't think we're on a first name basis yet."

"I would prefer if you would call me Alucard."

"Cool. And Itsuki you're still wrong."

He looked offended but was quickly cut off by Ren before he could offer any sort of rebuttal.

"Well not like it matters anyways because you're both wrong. It's a VRMMO, exactly like Brave Star Online."

He swore he could feel an argument brewing and started shifting his chair away from them. But he was quickly surprised to see Motoyasu actually trying to diffuse the situation instead of escalating it. He banged his spear on the ground loudly to gather everyone's attention.

"Something doesn't seem right. So let's try sorting out the information we do have. Ren, can we take "VRMMO" seriously?"

"Yeah."

"You guys get what that means too right?"

"I think a sci fi game I'm familiar with explored the concept." Itsuki replied, meanwhile he responded with "No. I'm completely unfamiliar with the term."

"Ok I'm starting to sense you're a bit of an outlier here. Before asking anymore questions I have to ask. What do you think games are?"

He decided to answer as honestly as he could. "Games are typically activities invented by children or in a more serious context a tabletop game such as chess or various games using a deck of playing cards. But I very much doubt you mean any of these."

Motoyasu grimaced. Hard. Along with just about everyone else present. "Yeah....Just..To check all of our general knowledge I'm gonna ask some more questions and I want you to answer as best you can along with everyone else ok man?"

He raised an eyebrow to this but didn't verbally disagree so he decided to take that as a yes.

"Great! Now first question, who's the person on the thousand yen bill? One, two..."

He pointed his spear towards them in the place where three should have been said. They all proceeded to tell their answers at the same time and it went as smoothly as one would think.

"Yawara Gotaro."

"Yuda Masato."

"Kodaka Enichi."

"What's a 'yen'?"

It was nothing but chaos from there.

"Who the hell are those guys!?"

"Do all of you live under a rock?"

"What do you mean you don't know what a yen is?? The heck do you use!?"

"There's not exactly a single straightforward currency used but the Florin is fairly popular, and last I checked St John the Baptist is stamped onto it."

From there all asked several questions at a rapid pace from there and each one would garner a different answer each time. Besides himself. He didn't know what the hell they were talking about but they all seemed to have an understanding of what was being asked besides the vastly different answers.

"Which countries won World War II?"

"Who's the prime minster?"

"What websites do you guys use for streaming?"

Eventually it looked like Motoyasu finally came to a conclusion.

"it seems we're all from different versions of Japan, except for..."

He turned to face Alucard once more.

"Alucard do you really know nothing about what any of these are? I mean at least with the rest it seems we're all generally from some version of Japan but you didn't seem to know anything. Not to mention you use some currency not a single one of us knows..."

"Well for one I'm not from Japan I'm from Walachia."

"And that is...?"

Ren held up a hand to interject. "Wait Motoyasu, I think I've vaguely heard about that place in history class once.It's where Romania is now but Walachia hasn't existed for hundreds of years."

"Seriously? And that's where you're from?"

"Yes..?"

His eyes widened for a moment and like that it was as if he had some sort of realization.

"Ok guys one more question for everyone. What year is it where you are? Ready, set-"

"2017."

"2025."

"2013."

"1476"

Everyone in the room was alarmed by his answer. "WHAT!?"

"I figured some of us could be from different eras but you take the cake."

"A 500 year difference is definitely a big cultural difference to say the least. No wonder you didn't know what we were saying."

"Ok either you're the best role player I've ever seen or you're really this noble warrior guy from medieval times. If it's the latter then you gotta tell me your secrets to self care cause damn." Motoyasu vaguely gestured to his upper half.

Ignoring that last comment he focused on the rest of his response. "Do you really think everything I've been saying this entire is a lie?"

He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "W-welllll it'd be awfully convenient...."

At that moment he thought to himself, 'What would be the simplest but most effective way of getting his point across?' His patience was completely worn and his solution was of course fairly overdramatic but effective. Looking back there would've been many other ways to prove his point but he was very tired of dealing with those three.

He took a deep breath and dead dropped to the floor.

This alarmed the three of them and they called out to him but no loud thump to the ground followed. One of them asked if he was ok but he didn't respond. Instead he started slow clapping and slowly rising from the floor, back completely straight and legs together.

Clap

Clap

Clap

In their dead silence and shock his clapping seemed all encompassing.

"Oh yes of course, the moment I arrived in this world I flawlessly started acting out this elaborate persona and backstory so I could start living out some sort of pathetic fantasy. I planned out an entire speech to the court and made up all sorts of tidbits to seem more believable. Well done and congratulations Motoyasu you figured it out." Alucard drawled.

And by the time his small rant was over he was floating a foot over the air. This immediately caused some uproar from the other heroes.

"ALUCARD HOLY SHIT."

"Are you using cheat codes already!?"

Ren didn't speak out so much as his jaw was practically hitting the floor. This was honestly the most emotion he's seen out of him thus far.

"This is an ability I had possessed long before I arrived here. Have I convinced you yet?"

Everyone seemed to believe him except for itsuki who would spend a couple minutes frantically searching the menu before begrudgingly accepting the truth. Though he couldn’t help rubbing in the salt in by hovering over a good half meter over his head as he searched. The others got a good laugh out of it.

When the room eventually settled down, Motoyasu continued talking out his ass once more.
"It's a shame you ended up as the Shield Hero. Bad luck of the draw, huh?"

"What do you mean? What is wrong with using a shield?"

The room grew deathly silent as they all stared at him.

"Oh yeah you really don't know huh. Well never fear big bro Motoyasu is here to help."

"I'm older than you."

"Semantics. And you haven't technically lived those 500 years so it doesn't count. Either way I'm here to catch you up to speed on the basics."

He was not looking forward to any sort of lecture put together by the idiot before him and didn't appreciate being called his "little bro." If this is what siblings were like then maybe it's best his mother never had anymore children, no matter how much he pleaded as a child.

"Ok so first I'm gonna give you a quick rundown on what video games are. I consider myself a game historian so I'll try to explain it as best I can. They're basically simulated, or at least in this case, fantasy battles using technology that lets you control a tiny figure representing you to let you play in an environment that otherwise wouldn't exist. People tend to play these either for fun or competitively. You getting the gist so far?"

"Sure."

"Cool. Now typically in these games you can play various classes with different weapons and abilities including ones similar to our current weapons. However when it comes to the shield class-"

His expression slowly turned more serious as he finished his lecture. "No high level players play the shield class, only losers play as shielders."

"But why?"

"Well the thing is...shielders tend to have a bad rep because they're super useless. They barely get any abilities outside of being a damage sponge and at higher levels they can't even keep up anymore. Enemies do more damage then they can take and at least in my game the developers never patched it. Plus no one wants to play as support when you could be the one doing the damage."

"And I'm guessing this is the case with both of your worlds as well?" He referred to the other two.

"Yes."

"Likewise"

"Hm. Well luckily this isn't a game and that won't be the case. A shield has many applications when used correctly and can be quite invaluable in battle."

It's been awhile since he has used a shield but he was trained how to use it in his youth. So he was at least confident he wouldn't be flailing around with an unknown weapon.
However, the others didn't share the same sentiment and looked at each other uncertainty, almost pity. Motoyasu clapped him on the back. "That's the spirit my dude. I'm sure you can make it work."

He scrunched up his face in subtle disgust. "Thank you for the vote of confidence..."

He didn't understand the sarcasm and proceeded to grin widely like an idiot.
He was completely done with all of this. He doesn't understand how they could act so casual about all this. At some point their conversation turned to how they arrived to this world, or rather how they died. Ren presumably succumbed to injuries inflicted by a serial killer after he tackled them to save his best friend. Motoyasu's death wasn't all that surprising. He had been caught having relations with another woman and was more or less stabbed to death. He didn't quite understand what "cram school" or a dump truck" was but he could at least understand that Itsuki died from some sort of collision on his journey home. When it came for his turn to share he didn't know what to say because...

"To my knowledge I never died to get here."

"...Say what..?"

"Then how did you get here?" Ren inquired.

"My companions had come home from a long hunt with a strange book. We had brushed it off as nothing initially and forgot about it until later in the evening. While we were in the study skimming through the book the pages started glowing. I start falling through the air and next thing I know I'm in some sort of summoning room. That answer your question sufficiently?"

He was met with different reactions. From across the table Itsuki and Ren stared at him with contempt. They were seemingly offended over how he never experienced some horrible death to arrive there.

Motoyasu on the other hand, was quick to change the subject to something else. "Since you're not from Japan, how about you tell us about what your home is like."

"Covered in shit, piss, and gore. The church is corrupt and everyone is dead or in the process of dying."

"Um...Anything more lighthearted? I mean there has to be something good if you want to go back so bad."

He was silent for a moment, contemplating his answer before responding.

"I do have something worth going back for, it's my companions....Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. We had just started carving a life for ourselves before I was summoned here. I had fought for so long and lost so much and yet I gained something in the end. There was finally a place for me. And said my place is with my friends."

"Hmmmmm "friends" huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows while giving him a cheeky grin.

He mentally apologized to Sypha in his head before making a quick comeback. "They're both male Motoyasu."

"Well. Huh. Guess you swing that way..." he muttered under his breath. "Oh wait! If you live in like the medieval times and you're some noble looking guy do you live in a castle?"

"I certainly don't live in "medieval" times as you put it. You're approximately 300 years too late with that. And to answer your question yes we happen to have the castle grounds, not including the underground hold."

Itsuki quickly interjected with an annoyed look on his face. "So let me get this straight. You're already an experienced fighter, you have your own equipment and abilities you came with and know how to use, you're already used to fighting monsters, and you live in a large castle with party members who also know how to fight said monsters?"

"In quick summation, yes."

He looked down right infuriated to as his face quickly turned an unflattering shade of red. "This is completely unbalanced. You've got a clear unfair advantage over the rest of us."

"Well if you can find someone to complain to be my guest Itsuki."

Motoyasu quickly moved in to diffuse the situation once again. "Hey hey chill out itsuki. It's only fair in a way since he got the shield. That's practically a full on handicap."

"I suppose you're right on that account." he huffed.

God he's not even the oldest person in the room yet he feels surrounded by children. Really he should be more offended by all the doubt on his ability but ultimately actions speak louder than words. He doesn't have to prove anything to anyone either. All he cares about is leaving this place as quickly as possible. To aid in that objective he has some work to do, and not just simple monster slaying.

"I'm going to retire for the night. If what the king said is to be believed we're going to have a very long journey ahead of us. I believe it's best we get as much rest as possible then."

"Yeah you're right. It's getting pretty late. We should probably all go to bed."

"Agreed. Let's head back to our rooms and get a good night's sleep."

Alucard swiftly stood up and left the room, only giving the other heroes quick glance before heading out. The other two soon followed him out after wishing Motoyasu good night. Finally stepping into his own room it quickly came to his attention the differences between his room and Motoyasu's.

For one it was noticeably more shitty.

The most obvious thing was how much smaller the room was in comparison. It was barely half the size of the other bedroom and in comparison to the ones back home it was pathetic. The furniture was noticeably more worn out; The bedpost was splintered with old age and the varnish long since had faded. Above it there was a window just big enough for a person but not nearly as massive as the other one. The nightstand, if it could even be called that, could barely even fit a book on top of it. There was a door to the left side that presumably led to a bathroom but he couldn't imagine it'd be in a better state.

The state of his room came off as completely bizarre considering how well they wanted to treat their "precious heroes." Although he was starting to suspect a strange sort of bias was in play. In the end it didn't matter how shitty his room was. He wouldn't be using it much if at all tonight since he had other plans.

Sitting upon the poor excuse for a bed he couldn't help but cringe inwardly. It's sad that a full on bed is more uncomfortable to lay upon than a coffin. Nevertheless he sat there concentrating, fine tuning his hearing for a moment. The heroes weren't quite asleep yet with only Ren currently in bed. In the nearby halls he could hear people moving around and vague whispers of conversation. This was no good. There were still people up and active. It was an annoyance but he could be patient.

He waited a full hour before getting up again, just to ensure the heroes had settled for the night. He could never be too careful for his hearing to heighten. In the distance he could hear the clinking of armor but luckily it was moving away from him. Other than that there was nothing but dead silence to be found. Feeling secure, he crept slowly across the room to the window.

If they wouldn't assist him then he would find his own answers. Surely there had to be some sort of library or archive within the castle. Slowly he opened the window, preventing it from creaking too loudly. Climbing onto the window sill he did one last check before facing towards the dark skyline. Taking a deep breath, Alucard leapt from the window and a bat flew into the night.

Notes:

Ok this monster is finally DONE. Thank you for reaching the end of the first chapter of this bizarre cross over. This was originally inspired by a plot bunny I happened to see a few months ago. At first I thought it was an absurd cross over and then one hour later I had 1300 words written out.

I figured down here if put some authors notes. I included some Easter eggs, references and head canons into the first chapter.

If you were confused on his level stats they're a reference to his stats in SotN. I originally was going to give him level 1 stats from the game but considering how powerful he is in the show and how much lower they would be than the other heroes I decided not to. Instead there are the base stats before the game gets into super hard game+ territory. I didn't feel it would do him justice if he was extremely nerfed from the beginning. Not to mention it'd be fun.

I'm going to be taking liberties with some of his vampire abilities not really stated or dwelled on in the show. For example the ability to dull his senses to a more human level or heighten them to the standards of a pure blood vampire. I figured it'd be heavily annoying if he had unreasonably good hearing 24/7. Both for him and for plot lol.

Thank you so much for getting this far. This is my first fan fic (though I do have a jojo once I technically started first but it isn't done yet.) So I hope you guys won't be too harsh if there are mistakes, but feedback is immensely appreciated! I'm unsure when the next chapter will be out because of college but I'll try to write as much as I can. Also comments and kudos will fuuueeeell me. See you next time!