“So, what are we supposed to be doing here?” Yatsutake crossed his arms as he looked around at his surroundings.
The party was standing on one of the many streets in the city of Seiwayan. Around them, the place was bustling with actions with many people moving virtually everywhere, doing things like carrying stuff, engaging in conversations, or going into various buildings such as shops and restaurants. Because the street was so crowded, from their point of hearing, the noises created by all the people and all the other things that they were doing were mixed in together, forming a chaotic torrent of sound that was very distinctive of places filled with activities such as this, and which couldn’t be recreated by just an individual person or a single object.
“You didn’t pay attention? Well, that is the typical Nakagome we are talking about here. No wonder why you never get high marks,” Ayase said in a mocking tone.
“Why you-“ The swordsman seemed like he was rubbed at the wrong way a little too hard.
But before anything escalated further, the hero intervened. “Now, calm down you two. Ayase, you shouldn’t say such things. Yatsu, you should really pay attention when others were speaking or else you might someday end up in a situation where you will just embarrass yourself, or worse.”
The two grumbled, they had backed down, but Yatsutake still stared at Ayase for a good while before deciding that he had better things to look at.
“Alright, let me remind you.” Munemitsu began seeing as the two of his friends had calmed down. “The Princess said that our trainings were at a decent level already, so now we shall be going to the commoner district and help these people around by doing some jobs for them.”
“Eh? That’s what she said?” The swordsman of the party questioned. “…Don’t you think that our trainings and helping people out are… completely unrelated matters? It would make sense if she told us to go hunt monsters or something, and I don’t mean cleaning her garden.”
The assassin of the party chimed in as he finished the sentence. “So you want to fight monsters that bad? It’s not like your usual self at all. I suggest you shouldn’t let those manga you’ve read in the middle of the class influence you too much.”
The hero, sensing another trouble incoming, took his turn to speak before any emotions could arise. “The Princess has her reasons. She said to me that we can use the opportunity to get to know the people of this city better.” As his strategy seemed to have worked and the two won’t be jumping at each other any time soon, he continued. “Also, I think that less fighting is all for the better, we don’t want to take many risks here.”
Yatsutake nodded and gave an affirmative hum. “Fair point, so where should we begin?”
The healer of the party finally talked after much silence. “Uhm… There Is someone over there struggling with his cargo, I suppose we can do something.”
Everyone else in the party agreed and they all moved through the crowd of people to a certain corner of the road. There, a man was trying to load some wooden boxes onto a wagon. He appeared to be able to lift a box by himself and a lot was on the wagon already. However, there were many that were still on the ground and the man looked pretty tired from the work he had been doing with his heavy breath and his face full of sweat.
The four students approached the man but only after he had set a thick roll of some kind of fabric did Mineko speak. “Hello sir, you seem exhausted.”
The man heard the small and polite voice by his side. “’Course I am. Been lifting all these stuff for hours, the others who are supposed to do this with be got sick.” He tried his best to muster a ragged voice from under his breath. The man then turned to the party. “And who are you supposed to be?”
“We are…” Munemitsu trailed off, he thought of the most suitable way to go about it but couldn’t find any. Finally, he resorted to just stating it as plainly as possible. “We are the heroes that were summoned from another world.” Munemitsu stated plainly.
“Oh? Are you? Well, by the looks of it, it seems that you really are.”
“You don’t look that… shocked?” The hero honestly expected more reactions from the man, not that he wanted much attention, it was just that he imagined such a thing was pretty big of a deal.
“Eh,” The man shrugged. “We’ve been hearing that the royals have been preparing the summoning ritual for like, a couple months or so. Yes, we quite startled when those blue meteorites or something fell on top of the castle and the official announcement came, but then everything went back to normal.”
“Then, at least you should be more surprised, right?” Ayase jumped in. “We are here right in front of you, after all?”
“Ha ha ha!” The man gave a good laugh, which did nothing but confuse the four summoned students. “I totally expected the heroes to be sent here, if the ritual was indeed successful. Maybe you don’t know it because you are not from around here, but this kingdom is known for being somewhat… unusual. I mean, we are treated especially well here compared to other countries, and I’m grateful for that. But sometimes people think that the nobles and royalty are going overboard with it. Look around and you’ll see.”
The party listened to his words and observed everything that they could see. They then saw a certain thing that stand out so much they couldn’t believe they hadn’t noticed it sooner while they were here.
Further down the street was a spot with grass and trees which everyone in the party guessed was probably a park or playground. There, knights in shining armors and regular soldiers in their easily recognizable uniforms alike were, of all things, playing games with children. There were about a dozen of knights and soldiers, their towering height as compared to the fifty children looked extremely comical while they were chasing each other.
“Uhm… What is happening over there?”
“See? You would think that soldiers are supposed to be standing guard and knights aren’t even supposed to be in this district, but no. Some family that has both parents who went out to work had asked them to look after the children and they happily agreed, but that’s not all. After that, the children got bored and asked them out to play.” The man flicked his head in the general direction of the bizarre scene. “Rest is history.”
“But won’t they get punished for neglecting their duties? And what of the knights?”
“That is the thing that I’m talking about, people are being treated too nicely, soldiers included. They hardly get punished, if anything their positions would be temporary replaced by another. The knights? They have much free time at their disposal, and this district is their favorite spot.”
“Is this situation a commonplace?”
Yes, but luckily we are far from the frontlines so even if many soldiers slack off, the remaining will still be enough to handle troubles if anything arose in the first place. This country is relatively peaceful all the time, even before the demons appeared.”
“…I don’t have anything more to say…”
“Ha ha, that’s just one of the many strange things about this place.” The man gave another chuckle. “And don’t worry, foreign tourists usually react like that as well. Enough time and you will be familiar to the peculiarities here.”
“Uhm… sorry for the interruption, but” the healer in the party nudged the hero, her voice barely heard. “Aren’t we forgetting our purposes here?”
Munemitsu’s eyes opened wide. “Ah, right!” He quickly turned back to the man. “Sorry that we didn’t tell you, we-“
The man held his hand up, stopping the hero in his line of speech. “I kinda guessed why you are here already. Knowing how our Third Princess conduct her business, did she ask you to come here and help people out in whatever trouble they are facing?”
“Uh, yes… You really understand the Princess that much?”
“I didn’t want to bother anyone but now if you’d like to assist then go ahead. Maybe I will tell you a thing or two I know when we get to work.”
The hero turned back, and three of his friends nodded. They then proceed to load the cargo with the man, following his instructions on which boxes to lift first and where to place them on the wagon. The girls in the party helped with lighter things while the boys dealt with the heavier ones. During the time, the man talked about interesting things like the fact that the Second and Third Princess put their entire allowance from the king into the social welfare system, or that a normal citizen could freely visit the noble district and go into any mansion at will, even including parts of the royal castle is public.
The students remembered about certain big rooms on the first floor of the castle that seemed to be full of people that didn’t look like any nobles, was the man referring to those?
Eventually, everything on the ground was already placed on the wagon and there was nothing left to do. The man thanked the party and left. Before that though, he gave them the address of a restaurant he usually went to inside of the city. Getting his intention, Mineko quickly wrote down said address.
“Ah, we forgot to ask but what is your name?”
“I’m Harold Johnston, just an ordinary merchant.” The man said as he began pulling the wagon away. “It was nice meeting you. I hope we have a chance to talk again.”
The four looked at the man until he disappeared into the crowd of people. After the healer had noted down that they had helped a merchant to load their cargo, as per the Princess’s request to give her a summary of what they had done for the day, they began walking along the street searching for anybody in need of a hand.
The sun was setting. As the magnificent ball of fire hid behind the wall of the city, leaving only a bright orange spot where it was last seen.
The rest of the sky was painted in a bright red and the cotton cloud above started to fade. The red tone gradually became deeper as one directed their sight following the opposite direction of where the sun had left the sky and on the far end, a little patch of dark grey of the night sky could already be seen approaching with stars beginning to shine their twinkling light to the world below.
The party had been doing various odd jobs around the city, including catching a stray cat, taking the role of a waitress because a restaurant was lacking beautiful girls, guiding a child lost in the crowd to his parents, and some more weird things.
Well, being a waitress because the restaurant was lacking beautiful girls was already weird. For reasons Mineko was asked to become a permanent employee, to which she politely refused, but still promised to come when she would have the time.
The day was tiring but they found some enjoyment when doing the work. There was just a problem that occasionally overexcited people would loudly announce their presence and then they would be surrounded by curious observers.
Now, they were on their way back to the castle. The road was completely different from what it looked like in the morning. It was for the most part deserted save for a few that were sluggishly dragging their feet back to their home.
“It’s reassuring to know that the people are happy with their government…” Mineko made a comment.
“I know, wouldn’t do us any good if an uprising is to happen, right-” Ayase said, but immediately retracted her words after seeing the unamused faces of her friends. “Sorry, I was joking.”
The four resumed their tracks. “…Anyway, this is the first time we’ve actually ever been out of castle, but we had become some sort of celebrity already.” As Yatsutake finished, a person passed by the party and gave them a greeting. “Not that I’m complaining.”
With that said, the conversation died down and nobody added anything. The students enjoyed a calm walk in the picturesque scenery of the medieval city in the late afternoon, the only sound coming from their own footsteps.
That serene feeling, however, was then suddenly interrupted.
“I must say, summoned ones that haven’t gone and cause disruptions already and is doing that kind of things instead of hunting monsters? Even the strange tendencies of the Ruten Kingdom are reflected in their heroes, huh?” Came a voice from a dark alleyway. The voice was distorted enough that nothing about its owner can be deciphered, not even their gender.
“Who are you?” Munemitsu immediately asked, he switched to a cautious stance alongside with the rest of the party.
“No need to worry.” A figure came out from the alley, standing less than five footsteps away. They were wearing full black with a cloak covering their frame, gloves on their hands, and even their entire face was hidden under a featureless black mask. Overall, the figure couldn’t have resembled a shadow any better, which made it stand out like a sore thumb under the still-very-visible orange light of the late afternoon. “That was a compliment from me. I myself value those who know to stay in their place and how they are supposed to act.”
“And?”
“I won’t do anything” The figure shook their head, showing that they meant no harm. “I will leave this place soon. As long as you get what I said and don’t make too big of a ruckus, you are going to be safe. Outside of that, do anything you want. Have fun studying this world? Make new friends with the locals? I don’t care.”
“Okay? That’s good?” The student questioned, his muscles relaxed.
“Yes indeed. I feel the same way.” They let out a sound that through the distortion could be best described as a sign. “After so many of those bunch, finally my job can be a little bit easier-”
The party didn’t know what the ‘person’ wanted to say but right that moment, the ground glowed blue by something from above, prompting all of them to raise their heads. “Huh? Is that…” The four students stared in awe.
Massive streaks of light appeared over the wall and passed through them like beautiful blue streams flowing through the sky. “Augh, not again!” The person stomped their feet and punched a nearby rock, leaving behind a hole and massive cracks, and four students slightly shivering.
Munemitsu was the first to get back to his senses. “Ex- Excuse me for asking, but is that the thing that bought us here? I recall being told about these blue streaks of light.” He asked nervously, being very aware of the rock that was barely holding up.
“Specifically, the streaks are carrying the souls and bodies of the newly summoned heroes and they are being guided somewhere… Wait, why are there only four?”
“Is there a matter…?” Munemitsu asked uncertainly.
“There should be five of them… And before you ask, it is different from you because while your fifth member was intercepted but the streak was very visible, I can only feel four signatures from this one, as if…”
There was a mansion fully painted in scarlet. It had a pretty big size, with a wall surrounding the premise and a tall clock tower.
Among the balconies of the said mansion, a small girl was having tea. This spot in particular overlooked the flower garden at the front of the mansion.
“Ahh… Such a nice afternoon… And the tea is as nice as always.” The girl was as tall as someone in their early teens. She had red eyes and short light-blue hair. She was wearing a light-pink dress with a red ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes, a light-pink mob cap with a red ribbon, and a necklace. She also has a pair of large black bat-like wings on her back with a wingspan wider than her height.
“It’s my pleasure, mistress.” Next to her was a textbook example of a perfect maid with grey eyes and silver hair worn in long braids on both sides of her face, a white maid headband, and a white and dark blue maid outfit with an apron.
The girl took a sip from her cup and then put it down, her small frame did nothing to stop her from radiating out an air of elegance.
A while passed and with two refills of her cup, the girl thought of something. “Say, isn’t Patchouli quite late? She promised to have afternoon tea with me today.”
“I will go and check on her.” The maid bowed then suddenly vanished, but the girl wasn’t bothered by the phenomenon at all.
Some time passed…
Some more time passed…
And some more… now her cup was empty.
And some more… now the cookies on the plate were gone.
“Hmm… And now Sakuya is taking too long…”
Time kept passing by, but still no signs of both of the expected people.
“Alright,” The girl stood up. “This is too much, I wonder if Sakuya is getting sloppy, I need to be more serious on her.” She walked to the balcony door and opened it.
The girl was in a large hallway, in front of her was a giant wooden door.
She had arrived, this is the place where her maid was supposed to be since inside was basically the ‘fortress’ of the magician, rarely could she be sighted outside of this one room.
As the girl reached for the door and was about to push it in, she heard rumbling noises from the room.
“Hang in there! I’m almost done!”
“What- What if…”
“Don’t worry, I have jammed the spell, the only thing is to dispel it! You won’t be going anywhere! And… done!”
At this moment, a noise almost like thin glass breaking could be heard. “Phew… I thought that I… Huh?”
And then, suddenly a massive explosion rang out, shaking the walls and even the floor under her feet, which was outside of the room. The door was quickly pushed open, and the girl rushed inside. “What in the world is going on?”
The room was a total mess. Tens of bookshelf reaching two stories tall were toppled over like dominoes with their books scattered all over the floor. The center of the girl’s attention, however, was two people. On the right, the magician was lying headfirst on the ground, she was in a pretty rough condition with her clothes heavily torn and a mountain of books was pinning her down. On the left, her maid was in a much more concerning status. Despite trying her best not to appear vulnerable in front of her master, the maid couldn’t hide some of her obvious wounds that were bleeding out heavily.
“Remi…”
“M- Mistress…”
The girl just stared at the scene dumbfoundedly.
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