A long, musty corridor made of dark stone flitted through my vision. Bricks lined the walls, indistinct panels made up both the floor and the ceiling. Eerie, blue-burning torches provided sparse spots of light, but left plenty of darkness between them. I went around another corner in my mad dash, fearing for my life. The cool air did nothing to help as my shadow ran along the walls; my heart was racing, I was out of breath, and my small, bare feet on the uneven stone were hurting, swollen and raw. Something was loudly chasing me until a few moments prior, but perhaps I had finally managed to give it the slip.

I crammed myself into a hole in the wall and tried to calm down. My breathing was still out of control, but calm down I did. My heart rate slowed back to normal.

"Ahh... hah, haaah... *Sigh* wh-what the heck was that thing...?"

I looked down at my sweat-drenched body, shrunken and de-aged and weak as it was.

...And also naked except for three sticky slips of white cloth barely bigger than band-aids. A strand of sweat-drenched light-blonde hair fell on my face, so I pushed it aside. As for a weapon? I certainly had a spear before, but by this point it was stuck in the ground somewhere far away because I dropped it in my panic. Yeah.

Summary: became a weak little girl? Check. Near-completely naked? Check. Absolutely defenceless? Oh-so-checked.

You might be wondering how I got into this situation. I was frankly wondering roughly the same, as well as what god I had offended to deserve all this in the first place.

~~~~~

It all started like most days would in my life. I woke up, washed myself, had breakfast with my fa- had breakfast, checked my emails... so on and so forth.

A normal day where I would get to my high school by public transport to attend mostly-boring, mostly-pointless classes and by mid-afternoon could finally go home unless it was fashion club Wednesday.

'Oh, you'll be 16 soon, that's a very special time for a girl. You should look forward to it!'

Pfft. My 16th birthday had come and gone, as had my 17th and recently even my 18th. Nothing special happened during any of them. The only difference it all made was that I could legally drive a car and buy porn... and since most of the latter didn't interest me in the slightest, I never did that. Voting? Okay, that was a thing too I guess, but how often do you go to the booths in this sort of country really?

In any case, it seemed like just another normal afternoon. I said goodbye to the only true friends I had at school - we were sarcastically known as the trio of trendies, misunderstood and looked down upon no thanks to the usual rumour mill - and went home by tram as I usually would. Someone called me on my phone as I was listening to a podcast giving updates and opinions on the w-

*Boom*!

A transporter had crashed into the tram. I can't explain why, but fire engulfed the train car, or maybe the light was just a trick my dying brain played on me. Everyone crashed forward into something or someone; I think I hit my head against a metal pole. I felt cold and weak, dazed; my vision was swimming, my ears ringing. I think people were screaming, but I couldn't hear them.

That was the last thing I saw before I passed out.

~~~~~

"Ohhh, it appears the ceremony was a success! Heroes from another world, please heed our call for help. We have need of your extraordinary powers and wisdom. Please, please open your eyes."

Everything was dark. My body felt weightless for a moment until I opened my eyes as the old-sounding voice pleaded. Naturally, I was not alone. My body hurt all over. What about the crash? The fire?

The chamber I saw was huge. A domed, oddly transparent ceiling let starlight through, while an assembly of men and women in dark robes adorned with gold, gems, and other expensive things stood around us. The ground was glowing in concentric circles for a moment longer before its faint greenish light faded.

"Wh-Where... is this? Who are you people...?"

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"Dear heroes from another world, have no fear. I am Dean Kristofferus, leader of the astral mage college of the Holy Empire of Smirnov. Our beloved Emperor has graciously allowed us this summoning."

That did not exactly answer every single question I really had, but the bearded old man was already wildly gesturing to his robed underlings. I looked around and noticed what he meant by heroes, plural: I was not the only one present. Several dozen other people had also been summoned, though not everyone was moving.

"Dean, three of the ones we summoned are unconscious, possibly dead. Another eleven are badly burned and-or suffer broken bones!"

Someone cried behind me in pain, but I still felt dazed and could not pay them as much attention as I would have liked.

"Ah, unfortunate. Bring them to the medical wing post-haste. And hm, check their ears, they seem to have undergone slave cuts."

"Did we rescue an entire batch of slaves by accident...?"

I was confused by that comment for a moment and touched my own ears, but aside from a tiny trickle of blood, everything seemed normal.

"Wait... blood? I'm bleeding!"

Another robed person, a moderately tall woman, helped me up and brought me to the medical wing as well. It was all so surreal that the following events had to be told to me again since my brain had just shut down from the shock.

~~~~~

"...And so, in summary, you people summoned me, 12 adults, and 14 children or teenagers from 𝟰𝟱𝟲𝟭𝟳𝟮𝟳𝟰𝟲𝟴 via a magical ritual because of some prophecy stating that only 'the heroes of the Otherworld' can help when you are in 'a situation most dire and feel beyond saving'... which means you basically kidnapped us to solve your problems."

The young-ish adult bear man - and he was absolutely a bear beastkin from something like an isekai anime - looked at the floor, possibly ashamed, possibly unwilling to look at me as if he could not properly answer my accusation.

Admittedly my rant was misdirected since he was just a healer who dutifully fixed all my cuts, burns, freckles, and even childhood scars. Blemishes live in fear of otherworldly magic. In any case, he genuinely could not answer this.

"W-Well... I have heard the magic only allows summoning those close to death's door. It was effectively a given that you would've died in your world..."

The Dean stepped into the room; he had probably overheard us, so his head was surprisingly lowered to not offend me. The healer quickly excused himself. With his hood down, I noticed he had dark red fox-like ears with many grey hairs in-between.

"Dear heroine from the Otherworld, we are certain this is a second chance at life for you." He raised his head, his excessively long, grey beard no longer quite touching the floor. His blue-grey eyes were sharp and piercing despite his age. "Judging by your stature and especially your strange round ears, surely you must be an aesir, a powerful being from a world far greater than ours and with abilities and kindness to match?"

I mean, I knew I had worked out a little to be physically fit, and I also had good reflexes from basketball... But the gaze the old guy gave me was as if I was expected to fight like Wonder Woman or something. Maybe Xena.

At least it made sense that he referred to my apparently amazing stature. With my 175cm, I stood rather taller than him.

"...Why do we speak the same language anyway? How come everyone here speaks Russian of all things?"

He rubbed his chin at that.

"I have not heard of this 'Russ' you mention. 'Smirnovizik' is what we call our language. But is this not convenient then?"

He was right, at least I would not have to agonise over learning yet another language. I already hated French class with a passion so fiery I actually celebrated when I was finally allowed to get rid of it after 10th grade. Don't get me started on German, either - even as my mother's native tongue its weird grammar always made my head spin.

"In any case, please rest some more. Tomorrow you are to meet the Imperial Couple, and begin helping with our issue."

I looked at him cross, arms folded below my chest.

"I still haven't agreed to help you. What's in it for me? And don't tell me I'd marry a princess or something and get like half the Empire, that would be just stupid."

"*Sigh* Of course, of course, I'll see to it that you get appropriate recompense... A manor in the capital will be the least of your rewards. But please, for now just rest. Ring the bell there if you need anything. Ah, and... may I please know your name?"

"Constanze Czarina K-... K-? *Sigh* ...Constanze Czarina. 'Czara' is fine, too."

"Then, Lady Czara, may we meet again tomorrow."

~~~~~

Constanze was asleep. Someone had cast a calmness spell on her, which had in fact calmed her down enough from the initial shock that she was not even tossing around on the hospital bed.

The Dean spoke outside the room with someone else.

"...and then she mentioned she does not want a reward like 'marrying the princess and getting half the Empire because that would be stupid' or something. The audacity of that girl..."

"Is it audacity? Maybe she's just very humble... or embarrassed. I would be if I was summoned to an unknown land."

"...Perhaps, perhaps. We shall see tomorrow once she sees his and her Majesties. But hmmm... might her wording imply she favours girls? What do you think? It could hamper her during the first test..."

"Maybe if we fudge a little with the selection lottery..."