Chapter 3 : Three weeks at Yuri's

After my little stunt which ended up in tears, I was treated indeed like a highly volatile element and mostly left alone, save for a maid that was assigned to me. Poor thing didn't really know what to do with me, so after the first day, she brought things to occupy herself while I was reading.

As expected, servants cannot read in this society.

So, it can't be helped that I managed to get my hands on less... ah, commonly accepted books, ne ?

Ufufu, forbidden knowledge is always the best. Leave it to the hero to go heroing nobly, me I'm off as soon as I can !

We're currently in our second day here, and nobody woke up. They found out what was wrong, there was an error when drawing the circle, and instead of using the rune for present, they used the one for future, which means that it summoned people who would eventually grown up do defeat the demon king. Apparently, that used so much magic that they can't try it again for a few years.

If you're going to kidnap and try to enslave people, at least do an effort to catch the right guys, seriously !

But currently, I'm staring at ledgers. Not any ones either.

You'd think they would put an effort to hide their major trading company's accounting books, but noo, I found it on top of the shelf, near the ceiling of the economy section.

Well, from a certain point of view, nobody would expect it to be there, and most of the readers here are trying to decipher the magic section. Good luck to them, it's in their so called 'lost language'.

Latin.

Starting to see a pattern here.

Anyways ! Due to most of the documents and laws being lost during the wars, they are not implementing the rules created under Rifal I anymore, so it's pretty much stagnating. The lands around yielded less and less because they didn't think of crop rotation and now they lose a lot of money by importing food. The income is slightly superior, if you include the border taxes but their situation is precarious at best.

The current king, Rifis II is an idiot when it comes to economy, but overall a just king from what the laws he passed indicate. One in particular being taxes proportional to income and work done. The nobles hate him, but are kept in check by the peasants. He's the one who ordered our summoning.

I don't feel anything in particular about him, he did what he had perceived as necessary for his country, I can respect that, even if I'm a victim here.

But I'm not gonna stick out my neck for him either.

There is something worrying though. The reports to the magical council that I managed to intercept said that the demon king took a human form the day of our summoning. Would that mean there a ninth person from our world here ?

Hm. What to do, what to dooo...

I want to get home alreadyyyyyy.

The following day, I puppy eyed the servants into submission and I learned lots of juicy blackmail material gossip about everyone!

And that's great already.

Day 4:

I finally got my journal and a pen ! It was hard, but promising to behave and not tell the Council chief's wife where exactly he spent his time when he was supposed to work was pretty convincing.

I even managed to wrangle myself a pass for the lower mystical section ! Come to me, shiny knowledge !

Day 5 :

I don't know whether to be gleeful or disappointed. Apparently magic is much less obvious than what people usually think. It is generally unseen and if people realize it's at work, most of it loses its effects.

Lame.

That means that the eight that summoned us here are certainly monsters in their own right. For now, I'll focus on the most known aspect of the mystical arts, potion making, but that needs heavy botanical knowledge. I hate memorizing stuff. Thankfully, those plants are the same as back home.

Day 6 :

I'm tired of washing myself with a drenched cloth ! Off to the river !

COLD !

So cold !

But I'll manage ! Swim swim little fish ! The cold will slow my aging !

Ah ! The servant found me !

Mwahaha ! You won't catch me !

Gee, don't look so pitiful, I'll get out alright. I'm squeaky clean now anyways.

Uuuu, good bye fresh smelling river, good morning stinky city.

Seriously ! First thing I'll do when I get myself an alchemical set will be some perfumed balm to put under my nose to mask the stench !

Stolen novel; please report.

Day 7 :

Alchemical set Get !

Well, it's an apprentice's, but Kirylle said that if I'm going to stay here, she was going to work me to the bone, works for me, I'm a hard worker when I want to anyways.

I think my child-genius-ness frustrates her.

He he the days I spent cramming botanic came in handy here ... Besides, knowing what plants you can eat in the wilds is necessary.

Oh well, she'll deal with it.

We tested some spells, so far I managed to make cold water and make the fire brighter. That sucks.

Now, we're currently setting up a garden for me, because a magician planting and growing their own plants make them more efficient once used, and since it becomes imbued with magical energy, it often gains additional abilities depending on what the mage's affinities are. Since I  have nature, my plants will grow faster and have better effects, light and water will help with healing additions, and Ice will make them more resistant to the cold.

All in all, once my apprenticeship becomes official, Kirylle plans to whisk me away to Septentrion and conveniently lose contact with the court. She said a war was no place for anyone, especially children.

She was one of those who didn't want to summon us you see, so she'd been looking after us to gauge who could be saved. Since I hold no love to those guys, I won't say anything, but there is probably more that she doesn't say.

That also gives me an excuse to get out at least once a day, so that's a victory !

We were planting some aloe vera in matching green dresses and white aprons when she suddenly got up and led me away. We dashed towards the infirmary and saw that several people had woken up. The haremettes, to be exact, and they were currently panicking.

Kirylle was trying to calm them, but there was a little problem.

"Nee, you two, instead of playing games, you should have focused on not flunking your English courses you know ?"

I spoke to them in Japanese, and they immediately turned towards me, taking in my blonde haired, blue eyed magnificent loliness. Yes, admire me more, mortals !

Ahem.

"F-freyja-san?"

"Yup, that's me." I put my hands on my hips with a playful expression. " Apparently, I was summoned, I didn't know you guys were too!" Big, fat lie.

I put my finger to my lip before continuing.

Think fast, think fast, possible allies that will rely only on you for a while...

"Something went wrong with the ritual, so we've all been de-aged, in my case my mind's been affected too . Not that I really mind, being an adult sucks, you know, there are all those stupid boys that kidnap you, and girls hate you, and you can't just be left alone..."

I ended up looking at the floor dejectedly, before fakely cheering up.

" Since those guys speak English, I'll translate for you, so feel free to ask, this is Kirylle, she's my guardian right now! She's great !"

And to Kirylle...

"They can't speak, so I'll translate for them."

This is going to be a long evening...

By the end of it, and after I refused to translate the old coot's speech on loyalty to the king, We were fairly sure of everyone's reason for unconsciousness.

Those two girls, Irina and Yumeko, fulfilled seven of their summoner's requirements, and have been unconscious for a week. That means the more the others sleep, the more people will be wary of them.

Perfect, focus on them and forget about me.

Right now I'm tutoring the girls in English. Can't have my servants be illiterate after all.

Kirylle was nice enough to give them potions that enhance learning. She refused to give me one though, the meanie.

Being the council's only female, she obviously took care of them too. Especially since I mentioned what dirty old men back home liked to do with little girls in front of them all...

I'm still learning geography on my spare time, and my only semi-meanie teacher gave me the first edition of the ranger's guide.

Apparently, I wasn't as subtle as I thought with my preparations.

Aside from that, our calm, female only time came to an end two weeks later.

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Lots of timeskips, but as I said before, grinding isn't interesting u_u

Yeah, so it's one week's coma per requirement failure, so how much longer will the others sleep ?

Back to the first person ! But there are remnants from the 3rd person here and there. I'm more verbose than usual, dunno if ti's a bad thing.

Random fact : I had time to bake a cake while typing that !

Probably should check up on it already x)