When I open my eyes there is a girl in front of me. What the heck— a girl? Are you kidding me?
The girl's characteristics… well, I can consider them cute. She has straight blue hair that reaches past her shoulders, with blue eyes that, when you look closely, shine in a way that makes you feel you can't look her straight in the eyes because you'll feel really embarrassed. The clothes she wears look really like the princesses you see in movies set in castles with an England theme. Her presence… I can only say it's like that princess in the story of Game of Throne I watched last week. When I remember back, I never passed episode 1 because I completely forgot about it.
The breast of the girl— from here I can say that it would fit into my hand, but I don't think so because, if I'm not wrong, princesses of ancient kingdoms— of course with English themes— wear something that makes their body look fitted. It shows the shape of all the right curves that can enchant men. Ah… that story Pirate of the Caribbean. Wahh… I really like that story. When that man fought the pirate and acted like a stupid guy, it really made me laugh. If you ask me the color of her skin? Sorry to people who like tan skin, because this princess in front of me has white skin. The skin of someone born from a western and eastern couple.
Well, for her face I can say it's really cute— like you see a girl that came out of an anime. From this I can deduce this girl is around 15 to 16 years old based on her height. When I think again, I can't use that notion because based on the location of that place, the height is represented differently. Like that one time I saw western children— heck, a 12-year-old was already close to my chest.
Well, you can say she's really cute with her eyes looking at me with…??? Scared?
What? Looked scared? When I look at her again, well, she really looks scared with a little bit of shock. Why would she look at me like that?
Hmmnn… did I say something wrong just now because she really looks scared.
Ahh… did I not say that word just now? She must be shocked when someone says that suddenly. Well, I am a grown-up man, I should show my manners to her. I should apologize or it's going to bring trouble to me in the future.
"Hello, kid, I am sorry for scaring you just now. It's just that I had a weird nightmare. So, I am sorry," I said while doing a posture like the Japanese bow I saw in anime. Not the dogeza— it's the one where you put your head to the front and lower your chest, performing a perfect 90-degree bow. It looks like I transcended to a new height. Well, if I don't do this, I'll feel really embarrassed the next time I need to apologize to someone. Once you stop the habit of thanking someone, you will have a hard time doing it again.
"Ah, do not worry. It's just that I was shocked that our hero yelled when you woke up." (The mysterious girl)
The girl said that to me while her eyes darted around the surroundings with a tint of red on her cheek. Is she blushing? Did she fall in love with me? Yeah, that's right— like hell it is something like that. I can think that the thing that caused her to be embarrassed must be what I said when I woke up.
While I'm thinking about that, my eyes darting to the surroundings— I now realize I am in a small room. From what I see, this room was made from brick that resembles the brick from the Dark Age. Nowadays bricks have holes in them after much trial from physicists to make them sturdier.
I also now realize that in this room, the source of light comes from the torch lodged on the wall. This really… I think something's wrong. I can't shake the feeling that I'm in a bad and troublesome situation.
Other than the torch, I also now realized there are other people around us. The people wearing clothes like nuns from church— yeah right… I'm not that stupid to not realize those clothes are the clothes that mages wear in MMORPGs I played, called mage robes. What did you think— because I'm an adult I can't play it? Did you think money to maintain a game comes from mere kids' pocket money? Pssstt… of course not. It mostly comes from adults who work and spend money to get good weapons so they can blast others to smithereens to release stress from work.
So, there are eight people wearing mage robes, one princess-like girl, and two people wearing school uniforms. I can only categorize them into two groups: the mage-robe group with the princess-like girl, and the school-uniform group like me.
When I inspect the floor— yeah, typical summoning event in the novels I read. It has a drawing with a circle that contains letters I've never seen before. Calm down, me. Let's ask the person in front of me.
"Hello, cutie, can you tell me where this place is?" I asked with the most polite tone I could muster. Well, this style I just copied from my friend who has good relationships with girls.
"Awawawawawa… cutie… blush… blush…" (mysterious girl)
This sucks. I really don't get it. Is there any reason to react like that? The princess's face looks really red. This really makes me regret saying that. It's never good to copy someone. I thought she might be a princess or something.
"Ahem… welcome, hero. This is Princess Alice, the second daughter of King Esvobus." (Unknown robe 1)
It looks like one of the people wearing the mage robe introduced the princess-like girl. But I'm really shocked. I thought they were maybe cosplaying or something, and at the end they would say "gotcha." With the atmosphere here, of course it's not a joke. This unknown robe 1 holds a staff in their right hand and their robe with the left. Okay, from now on I will call him or her— whichever— roberobe.
"This is the kingdom of Kriesvikki. You have been summoned by us as a hero to save us." (roberobe)
"Is that true?" (schoolboy)
Oh… it looks like while I try to understand what happened here, both the school students already woke up. One was a boy with black eyes and black hair, same with the girl— she also has black eyes and black hair. Both of them have characteristics of eastern people. What the heck— it looks like only I am different with black hair and light brown eyes as a typical Asian. They look really anxious because of the sudden event that happened. Don't worry kids, I know your feeling. It happened to me too.
"Cough… cough… sorry for my unsightly behavior, I will introduce myself again. My name is Alice Rasse, the second princess of the kingdom of Kriesvikki. This place is the main castle of the main city called Arcandia." (Princess Alice)
"Sorry for the cramped space because of the special circumstances. We used this place for calling our hero. This place is the summoning room for calling heroes to come to our world using a special method. Because of the special method, we can only use this place for the summoning. So once again, I am sorry." (Princess Alice)
Summoning?? Are you kidding me. It means this is another world. What can I do in this world that can alleviate my boredom? From the look of this place— the stone on the walls and the weave pattern of the fabric on the princess's clothes and the mage robes— I can say it really is like a medieval age.
Nothing can be done about it. Calm down, me. Let's get more information by asking this princess about what happened. I need more information about the situation here. Depending on the situation I will take the necessary steps to tackle the events that are going to happen.
"Is that so? If it's like that, nothing can be done. How about you guys, you don't mind it, aren't you?"
"Don't worry, we also don't mind it." (both students)
Wow… they said it at the same time. What good synchronization abilities.
"Can you explain why we were called here?" (schoolboy)
"For that, please follow me. The king will explain the details of what has transpired." (Princess Alice)
"Okay." (me and both school students)
Well, our answer was almost at the same time, not exactly the same time. This is not a soldier parade, you know.
This princess is really good at changing the pace of the conversation. If we stayed here any longer, we would be really anxious. Especially the two school students. They kept darting their eyes around the room and with the magicians looking at them sharply, it adds more pressure to the kids.
.......
Then we followed Princess Alice out of the room. The princess walked at the front followed by us, and roberobe also followed at the back. The rest of the mage-robed people were tidying up the summoning place. It looks like this room was underground because after we moved out from the room, we climbed a flight of stairs. The stairs spiraled around the wall with a small passage that only allowed two people to walk side by side. The door to the room was a double door pushed from the inside to the outside. Damn… why does this place not have any escalator? That's really tiring.
After we moved out from the place, we reached the garden. It looks like this is the outside, and looking behind me stood a tall tower that can be said to be really tall. If you use modern standards, this tower is really short— only as tall as an eight-story building. Well, that's only the outside when you don't involve any underground network.
We then crossed the garden and reached the biggest building in the vicinity from my perspective. While crossing there, we saw a lot of men using wooden swords, swinging them forward. There was also an armored man at the front giving commands to the mass of people there. I can say they are probably knights training at this practice field.
When the knights saw Princess Alice, they saluted her, and the princess told them to continue practice. We were really shocked and respected her a little. The two kids' eyes looked like they were about to fall off. You guys' reaction… I think it's over the top. It is not that surprising. But this does confirm she really is a princess.
The princess then said this is the place where new knights are trained to become full-pledged knights. Sometime in the future, they will be given tasks to complete so they can be evaluated whether to promote them to full-pledged knights. This field is also one of the practice fields in this castle.
When we passed through the practice field, we entered the hallway. After we saw this place it was almost the same as the castle in western countries. The walls, unlike the castles in the western world, were really even. You can see that the wall was smooth without any uneven parts from top to bottom.
The architecture of this place is really good— you wouldn't think it was from the medieval age. Well, I said medieval age because of the window. The window was made of wood and not glass. They might not have discovered that by heating sand at a high temperature you can make glass. Well, at that age where can you find the reason to create a flame that hot? Flames like that can harm surrounding people if you don't control them.
"Ano… mister, I think we should introduce ourselves first. Because it looks like we came from the same world. Oh, don't worry— based on the conversation with the princess just now, I can deduce that we are not in the same world that we lived in just now." (schoolboy)
It looks like that's a good idea. The student girl also looks like she wants to know her companions' names. I can see her eyes brimming with curiosity.
"Hmm… that's true. How about you guys introduce yourselves first?"
"Okay, my name is Futatsugi Akihiko. Nice to meet you." (Akihiko)
"Ummnn… my name is Chiba Erika. Nice to meet you two." (Erika)
"Then it's my turn. For your information, my name is ....