Chapter 2: The Summoning After Being Late
“Ugh!”
When I came to, I found myself kissing the ground. Or rather, I had awakened with my face slammed against it. I could spend an hour questioning why there wasn’t a better way to summon me.
As I looked around, I noticed familiar and unfamiliar faces all staring at me. The silence made the atmosphere incredibly awkward. There were eight classmates besides me, four boys and four girls. Additionally, there was a girl dressed in priestly robes and an elderly man in similar attire.
A massive Magic Circle was drawn on the ground. The air was chilly, and everything around—floor, walls, and ceiling—was made of stone.
“What the hell is this…?”
“…It seems the last Hero has finally appeared,” the girl in priestly robes said, stepping forward.
“Is that you, Mizumoto?”
“You were here too… and you’re really late, aren’t you?”
The first to react were Shimizu Masayoshi, the central figure of our class, and Manaka Hitoshi, the gaming enthusiast. They both looked surprised, but Manaka’s wide grin was a bit unsettling. The expressions of my classmates varied; some wore smirks that made me furrow my brow.
“Most of the explanation is done, but we can’t just stop here. You might not understand everything yet, but please touch this crystal.”
“Haha, I can’t wait to see what kind of job you’ll get!”
As the elderly priest spoke, Manaka’s comment made me frown even more. Job? Isn’t it supposed to be a Skill? Now that I think about it, I didn’t ask the god about what kind of world I’d be summoned to. Is the system different here?
“They say you’ll find out what job suits your skills best,” Manaka chimed in.
Since when was Manaka this talkative? I guess this situation gets him hyped up as a gamer. For now, I should go touch the crystal. As I reached out to the crystal beside the old man, it glowed faintly before quickly fading.
“Whoa! Seriously?! Unemployed?!”
“Ahahaha! There’s someone worse than Rio! This is hilarious!”
Following Manaka’s loud laughter, Hino Kyoka, with her brightly dyed hair, pointed at Yuzuki Rio and laughed. It seems Yuzuki-san is at the bottom of the hierarchy here… so it’s my turn now?
“Um…”
“Let’s move on, shall we? Everyone, please follow me.”
Still confused, I looked around as the girl in priestly robes announced this and exited the room. I hurried to keep up, walking alongside the downcast Yuzuki-san at the back of the group. I knew it, but standing next to her made it clear that I was shorter than her. In fact, I seemed to be the shortest among my classmates. Why couldn’t a smaller girl have been summoned instead?
“Hey, Yuzuki-san. I have a lot of questions, can I ask you?”
“Uh, sure.”
Her semi-long hair swayed as she nodded. She had a slightly plump figure and a gentle aura, but right now, there was a shadow over her expression. It seemed Yuzuki-san’s job was “Mage,” but it had only appeared faintly, indicating her aptitude was low.
The names of the two priests were revealed: the girl was Lily Arclight, the Third Princess of the Arclight Kingdom, and the old man was the Archbishop, Servista Regret. Summarizing what they told us, it sounded like a typical story. A Demon King had emerged in the Demon Tribe’s country to the north, and they wanted us to repel him.
“I see… So they abduct us from Earth and then send us to the battlefield. What a terrible country…”
“Eh…?”
Yuzuki-san looked taken aback by my words. No matter how I tried to spin it, from Japan’s perspective, this country seemed like a criminal nation.
“Plus, the fact that we can return to our original world by killing the Demon King is particularly suspicious.”
After all, the god told me, “It’s not impossible, but it’s meaningless.” It’s a matter of whether to trust the god or this country, but any nation that relies on summoning is inherently suspicious.
“So what do we do now?”
I could feel the skeptical gazes directed at me. It was clear they didn’t trust my words since we hadn’t spoken much before.
“That’s the thing…”
I wanted to run away, but escaping from here without knowing anything would be dangerous.
“We still don’t know the stance of this country.”
“Stance?”
“Yeah. Whether they want to use us like slaves or if they’ll actually pay us a salary. And what will happen to me and Yuzuki-san, who have been deemed unemployed?”
“…Don’t lump me in with you—”
“Of course, they wouldn’t honestly say they plan to use us like slaves, so even if they provide an explanation, I wouldn’t trust it much.”
I interrupted and continued. There’s no basis for feeling safe, even if we weren’t unemployed.
“…That’s true.”
As we were having this exchange, it seemed we had arrived at our destination. The Third Princess, who had been leading the way, entered a room at the end of the hallway, and we all followed suit.
It was a spacious room that resembled a conference room, with a long table that could seat about twenty people.
“Everyone, please take your seats in order.”
The Third Princess and the Archbishop took their seats at the head of the table, and my classmates began to sit down one by one.
“Now, I will inform you about the future plans for everyone, now that your jobs have been clarified.”
With those words from the Third Princess, which carried a hint of something unsettling, the discussion began.