There, in a room, where students study, somewhere on a little blue sphere floating through space, where a man went to work drawing on a floor. Of course, Del prepared the space beforehand, stacking the desks to the side, and created the perfect area to create. Though he was unsure if the blackboard, with the instructor's notes, would somehow interfere with the overall design. He didn’t expect it to, but he had seen stranger things interfere. He had considered it for a long time before, finally deciding against, erasing it. After all, Del was a professional, and it would not do to erase another's work. A matter of professional courtesy.

Del had been at this work since the early hours of the morning. His painter’s whites were completely covered in pigments from all across the spectrum, some humans couldn’t even see, and all his tools were strewn about, all around him, yet not a single one touching his work as if carefully placed. Now, these tools were not the ordinary tools you’d see a painter use, they were actually quite strange, and defied their own appearances. In fact, one of the tools looked to be an ordinary rope with one end anchored in place, with a paintbrush tied to the end, something one might use to create a perfect circle, and yet it created so much more. When Del pulled the line taught and began creating a circle, the seemingly simple rope, deposited paint in seemingly random points, across multiple dimensions. And this one was only one of these interesting tools he had been using throughout the night.

When the sun crested the horizon, and the sky changed colors, Del, could feel the hours of backbreaking effort, as his design became fully realized across the classroom. It was an extensive collection of geometrical shapes, mainly circles, in all the colors of the rainbow, and some that have not been seen on a rainbow for a millennia, in fact, some could only be seen with special tools or lenses. It was all quite fascinating, and some would say beautiful, though due to the nature of the painting, an observer may go a bit cross-eyed as they stared into, the near-infinite fractals contained within the design. Del had just a few more tweaks to the design before he was done, but even that could take a while. With his head down, he didn't notice the girl open the door.

Inoue Himiko had arrived at school early in the morning, wanting some time alone where she could think and relax, her mom being on her case about her grades. She normally liked the quiet stillness of school in the morning when no one was there yet, it was just the right amount of spooky. So when she opened the door to her homeroom she was surprised to find a man already inside, brushing paint across the linoleum tiles, by the light of the rising sun. She was stunned, not only by the strange scene but by the patterns all across the floor, the morning light bouncing all around. Magical. Was the only word that she could think to describe it, as her eyes trailed the design. Almost subconsciously she pulled out her phone with the cute little case she had purchased the week before that had, what she would describe, as the most charming illustration of a feline wearing a witches cap, and took a photo.

“Excuse me. What are you doing?” She asked a fairly innocuous question, in fear if she asked what she really wanted to know the illusion would be destroyed.

Del, paused as he forced himself to not react to the girl's presence, as it might damage his work, though he nearly jumped in shock. He didn’t look up or acknowledge Himiko for a long moment. It was when he started to paint again that Himiko started to wonder if he would even answer.

“Making a magic circle.” He replied simply.

“Oh.” He answered it so simply, that she couldn’t help but believe it just for a moment, at the very least he thought it was real. She found her mind drifting off on fantasies of magic, “Is it going to work?” She asked curiously how the man would reply.

“It will.” There was such surety in the statement, that she could half believe it could all be real, not to mention the actual design itself, leading credence to his claim, with every line, curve, and impossible color. But, Himiko was under no illusion it was actually magic, she wasn’t a child to believe in such things. Though she didn’t have anything else to do this morning and she wanted to revel in the idea, “What's it supposed to do?”

“Summon Heroes to another world.” He responded dryly.

She had no idea if the man was simply humoring her, or not but he wasn’t telling her to go away or being dismissive. She could help but wonder what would she become if something like that happened to her. Would she be a savior of mankind, fight corrupt nobles, possibly retire from it all and open up, an adorable little shop, with an apprentice or two. She smiled, “Sounds fun.”

For the first time since she walked in Del paused, seeming to contemplate Himiko’s words for more than a second before answering. “Sometimes. Other times, it ends in a nightmare.”

Despite his ominous words, she held her smile, “Well, I hope it’s fun.”

“Me too.” He turned to regard the girl for the first time, and couldn’t stop himself from returning her grin. “You in this class?”

She tore herself away from the drawing and looked at the man creating this masterpiece, only to find quite the ordinary person, wearing a paint-covered uniform. She felt the illusion she had been building up in her mind shatter, seeing it was just a normal man. Probably, hired by the teacher to create something for class, she thought. Then she finally realized she had been conversing with a strange man, in the dark hours of the morning alone. Now a little more nervous about the entire situation she cautiously answered, “Yeah.”

With a snort, Del stood, causing Himiko to jump in surprise, as he began stretching out his aching back. Mumbling to himself about a big order. It was such an ordinary thing to do, despite all of this talk of magic, that Himiko couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well, if you want to find out, come to class next period.” With the way everything was shaping up she was more excited for class than she had been in years. Not for a moment did she truly believe that his sketch was real, but it could be a fun class. I wonder if we’re going over a light novel or something?

For his part, Del was busing himself with cleaning up his tools, strewn all about the room, careful not to touch any of the drying paint. It wouldn’t do to leave anything behind that could interfere with the circle.

“So. Are you a summoner, or something?” She was not quite ready to let go of the fantasy, and she wanted a little bit of a sneak peek of what the class would be like.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Something, like that.” It had never been put to him like that, but bizarrely, she was correct.

With his, seemingly extensive knowledge of the trope, one would have to be to make such bold claims, she decided to inquire about something that had always wondered about. “Why is it always kids from Japan?”

Without missing a beat, he answered, as though he was waiting for that exact question, “They tend to be more open to this stuff. I think it's all the books and manga, with similar themes. So it’s not necessarily always Japanese kids. It’s just they put the idea to paper more.”

That was most certainly not the response she was expecting. Honestly, she had hoped for a more in-depth explanation. It was thanks to that disappointing explanation that she finally noticed his uniform, with the words “Hero Delivery” emblazoned across the back. An odd name for a painting company for sure, but it was his nametag reading “Delivery Man” that made her wonder if he was really here at the behest of the instructor. The more she thought about it the more she realized how strange it was for a man to be creating a so-called, magic circle in the early hours of the morning, and with no light. She narrowed her eyes. “Why are you really here?”

With a pause, the man pointed toward his work, “Magic circle.” After, as he saw it, adequately answering her question, for the second time, he finished packing all his equipment and started to move the desks back to their former positions.

His non-answer was enough proof for her to confirm that he wasn’t supposed to be there. “You really shouldn't vandalize the classroom like this. Although I admit, it is impressive.”

“Yeah, but I got a big order.”

She was in utter disbelief that he wasn’t even going to attempt to deny that this was nothing, but pure vandalism. It was quite disappointing that there wasn’t some magical class coming up in the day, so she was a little bitter when she offered him an out, “Look if you just clean this up you won't get in trouble.”

Hearing her concern and bitterness, Del could only smile, “It’s alright.”

His forthright unconcern for trouble, made her recognize, that she might not be considered blameless for defacing school property, “You know what. I'm not going to say anything, but you're covered in paint. I don't think you’ll get away with this.” She said as she hastily backed out of the room. Del watched amused she slowly backed out of the room, and deeper into the building.

The day moved forward, and students began to appear one by one, each one of them expecting a basic boring day. Himiko’s curiosity getting the better of her common sense, she found herself entering her morning class like normal, not surprised to find the drawing still on the floor. No, what truly struck her as bizarre, was that not a single individual said anything about it. As though they couldn’t see it. It was a conclusion she had come to after no one even looked down at the ground. Indeed, they seemed to be avoiding the ground entirely.

She on the other hand, found her eyes constantly drifting down unable to look away, just like earlier that morning. It drew her in begging her to understand it, tugging at the back of her soul, whispering secrets that she could almost hear.

While occupied with the murmurs of the arcane, the teacher noticing the time, causally walked over and closed the door to the room. With the exit sealed the lines began to radiate a myriad of colors.

As luck would have it, Himiko looked up just in time to notice a familiar man, right outside the classroom door. He was waving goodbye to her. It was at this exact moment that she truly began to believe in magic.

She had one final thought before the light engulfed her, Adventure awaits.

——

On the other side of the door, Del and Ge, both covered in a various array of colors, stood watching the student's departure from this world, the only witness to their send-off. Ge noticed the teacher, had sadly gotten swept up along with the student, but on the bright side a group so large, and with so many children, they needed to have adult supervision after all. She tried to reason with herself.

Like many jobs before, an emptiness permeated the area unnatural, and wrong. Like the world itself was looking for a missing peace. No matter how many times Ge saw it, she couldn’t help but feel as though a piece of herself went with them. A heavy sigh escaped her lips, as the second aura of light radiated from the adjacent classroom. In fact, it was the room she had been working on throughout the night. She had learned that this wrongness, would linger down this hall for years to come. No one truly knew what that feeling was or why. Yet stories will be created, and new hauntings imagined, passed down through the student body as legends. Something Del had explained during their first group summoning.

She pulled her mind away from the feeling of loss inside her, “You know that was the wrong room, right?”

“Yeah,” Del answered simply, his smile fading, as he lowered his hands, no longer having anyone left to wave to.

Seeing his reaction, instead of teasing him, she asked, “When did you figure it out?

He actually had to think back to when he noticed something was off, thinking back to when they first arrived, and he kept jumping back between the two rooms, both felt right. Since he didn’t know for sure, Del thought it would be a great opportunity for Ge to get some much-needed hands-on experience with arcane lore. He had been sure though his room was the target, that was until the girl stepped in that he realized his mistake. “When I was ninety percent done with the circle and the girl walked in.”

“Why didn’t you stop?” She asked unable to hide the bitterness, and accusation in her tone.

“I was almost done.”

She narrowed her eyes holding back a retort, taking a deep breath. She thought that couldn’t be all there was to it. “You know they’re going to be pissed.” She pointed out, “Nowhere did it mention two classes worth of Heroes.”

Watching for some kind of reaction, in fact, he looked entirely amused, “Don't worry, they’ll still get their original class. I’ll make it a two-for-one deal.”

“That's not how it works.” She snapped only to feel foolish, not really knowing if that was how it worked. She felt all over the place, wanting to yell at him. Demand to know why he didn’t stop the other circle, too scared to ask what would have happened if he didn’t. Instead, she asked, “What are they going to do with so many?”

Del shrugged. “Back-ups?”

Ge couldn’t believe how flippant he was being. Shouting, “That's horrible!”

“Look it's their order, and they wanted a whole class.” He began, only to catch the fire in Ge’s eyes. With a great effort of will he continued, speaking fast, “And with a second circle almost complete there wasn’t time to remove it, who knows what would have happened if we tried, and who knows, maybe more heroes will survive if we send more. They would have more people to rely on.” His voice was a few octaves higher by the end.

She felt herself deflate, knowing he was right. It didn’t make the situation easier to swallow. At least they would have allies. She thought, remembering the ones who were left alone. She could only hope that an entire class could thrive in their new world. Anger still bubbling, she tore her gaze away, knowing there wasn’t anything she could do, rankled her, so she tried changing the subject, “We really need to go somewhere else. The Japanese people don’t need more of their kids disappearing on them.”

Thankful for the change of subject, Del realized they had taken a few too many from the same country, even though he would admit it was getting a bit excessive. “You’re right, but what can I say, they love these Japanese teens.” It only took a moment for Del to realize what he had just uttered, and frowned. “That doesn't sound right.”

Caught completely off guard, Ge let out an involuntary snort. “No, it does not.” And with that the two left, leaving only silence behind.