Chapter 2 : Yuri-chan cries !

The remainder of the afternoon was used to show Yuri around the castle while clearly explaining that she was not to leave the east wing alone. The east wing of the castle is a place reserved to the mages and court wizard. Books upon books are lined up the shelves, up to the top, divided in several sections. There are some wheeled ladders to get the upper ones and the apprentices are in charge of guiding newcomers through the sections to find the appropriate books.

With a short lesson from Kirylle and frequent rendezvous with reference books, she managed to get a pretty good idea of where she was. Mana was the country's capital for several reasons. First being that it is at the country's exact center and as such, it is easier for everyone to get there. The climate is temperate and the soil rich enough to allow for year round cultivation, so settling a population here wasn't a problem. Then came the infrastructure matters. They settled near a major river for an easy access to water, so that they could actually use boats to trade with Occidens easily and to water their crops.

Then the books mentioned some drivel about the beauty of the land attracting scholars from every lands and that they built a big city and the mayor became king by divine mandate.

From her other world knowledge and what she gleaned from the lies in the books, the true reason this city has been chosen as the capital, is that the then mayor, Rifal Erumnos, decided that , to increase his city's prowess, he had to improve its citizen's first, and as such incremented laws that seemed ridiculous back in time, but were terribly effective. As in Earth's Alexandria, this place was already a good trade route for everyone. So, for each and every trader that passed here, all of the non confidential documents, papers, books, etc were copied and stores in the library. The acquired knowledge was then processed , a copy was sent to the castle's archives, and the other copy was put to use. Techniques improved, which allowed children to go to school, which taught them to improve what they already had, and more.

The scholars didn't come from everywhere, they were made there.

The problem was that the city grew too quickly, and as always someone sought to put it under control, be it because of greed or fear. Mana's people put the aging Mayor on the throne, crowning him as Rifal I the Wise. A king for a city, preposterous, other probably thought.

Most of the documents regarding this war has been lost. What is known, though, is that an entity was summoned and freed itself from its chains, killed and destroyed most of what was related to magic, and went into hiding.

Whether that is true or false though, if she could help it, Yuri didn't want to discover it, ever.

She had to ask Kirylle if it was possible for her to get a notebook or something.

This ended her first day. A servant went to get her and lead her to her room to supper and sleep.

In the morning, she had the humiliating experience of using the chamber pot. It was utterly mortifying. She changed herself and once again, servants were surprised when she was all ready when they arrived. Feeling chatty, she explained herself with a curt

"If you can't look after yourself for such menial tasks, you're not fit as a human being."

She wasn't about to let them do as they pleased with her ! The hair yesterday was already bad enough as is. She was informed that she was called in by the council of the eight. Curious, she let them lead her until she arrived in a circular room, at the end of the East wing. There were no windows, but a magnificent tinted glass ceiling that was representing eight figures she didn't recognize let some light in. There was a circular table in front of her, with eight persons seated at it. They all looked at each other before a man, pretty young going by his voice spoke up.

"I'm sure you are curious so as to why you are here , child?"

She was pretty sure she was busted. She didn't know why, but that tone clearly indicated that she was, so better go all out.

"Umu. If you're talking about why I was summoned here, one of you implied that you had a demon problem that needed solving. Probably the one who caused the information blackout during Mana's first war ? If you're talking about why I'm conscious, then that is a matter of fulfilling some requirements ? The answers that were given to me were pretty vague, but I assume there were mistakes during the summoning, since you apparently asked for able bodied demon hunters, not for children."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The man, that Yuri decided to dub Council chief, made a noise of annoyance. If you can't fail a test ace it so hard that they send you somewhere where you can't blow up in their faces. Then, disappearing is a piece of cake.

"Ah, yes. That would be correct. We just received word that the demon reemerged by taking over a human host. But that's not what we were going to test you about. You see, the magical pollution usually kills babies with magical abilities and severely weakens the ones strong enough to survive pregnancy and childbirth. Our current generation lacks powerful enough mages to faces the trials to come."

'Well, that's all nice and dandy but ...'

"What trials to come ? I understand there's a demon on the lose, but for him to be so weakened that he had to take on a human body, he shouldn't be a problem for you guys, right ?"

The person on the right coughed. It was Kirylle, who seemed entirely too amused by the situation.

"Then, there is the matter of those 'requirements' I can understand the whole demon killing one, but what of all the others, they wouldn't be needed if it was only about killing the demon king right? No matter how you look at it, there is more to it, right ?"

Kirylle took pity on him, Yuri was right in thinking she had a good grasp on her (projected) personality of a child genius.

"Indeed, there are more, dear child, but those are state secrets and cannot be revealed yet. Now if you could stand on the circle on the ground ?"

The girl hesitated a moment, but she didn't have much choice right now. She went to the place where a big circle with runes was on the ground and glared at the council chief, crossing her arms in disapproval.

The circle shone, with eight stars lighting up and several segments at different places seemed to take life, somewhat. A line became covered in ice, while the neighboring one generated bubbles floating lazily. Intense rays of multicolored light shone from near the biggest star, ans plants grew from yet another line. Yuri did recognize what those were, and wanted to swear. That stupid game world wouldn't leaver her alone even in another universe ?

There it was, the tempest of whispers, even a shout of 'impossible!'

"You guys better get used to it, most of us will have the shiny thing that turned you into gossiping housewives that saw an old maid land a rich guy."

They looked properly chastised for now.

"Ahem. Now that your strength has been attested, we must ask you, will you lend us your strength to loyally serve our King, to save our country from the demonic forces of evil ?"

Yuri bit back a laugh, and , listening to The Queen's 'advice, tilted her head and looked at the council head like an insect.

"Would those demonic forces of evil be conveniently allied to a rival country of yours ? Why would I need to swear myself to the man who ordered my abduction in the first place ? Why would I accept to work hand in hand with my abductors to bloody my hands at their beck and call ? Why would I even consider not to go back home and submit myself to that degrading breeding program you ever so subtly alluded to ? No, I won't do any of that until I got to talk to my friends ! You're just old people that are too lazy to get out of their chairs and want us to do horrible things and I want to get hooooooooome "

Yuri started bawling out breaking her composure, the benefits of looking as young as her, is that the adults underestimate her and let her get away with a lot more than her adult form. Now, she wasn't free to go, but managed to buy time until she found out a suitable sacrifice replacement among her colleagues. Because there would be at least one that that prospective wouldn't disgust.

Weirdoes.

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Weee, third chapter in a row, thanks roadroller-sama !

Things are spicing up, but Yuri-chan milks the situation for all its worth.

What an actress, Yuri-chan.

So, yeah, no grinding before long, and she's much more focused on the lore now that her life actually depends on it. Later on, I'll do separate povs u_u