It started as a normal day. I woke up, went to the gym, helped my company skim off the market, had a high-quality lunch... And then I died. The details of how are irrelevant, and not really your business. Suffice it to say, it was not exactly an experience that sparked joy.

Then, I found myself standing in the middle of some sort of intricate circle. Before me stood a woman in a graceful but revealing gown. She had a conventionally highly attractive face and body, with shimmering blonde hair. There were some other people, who looked like priests, surrounding the circle, but the woman seemed to be the leader. I supposed it was better than remaining dead. However, it wasn't a good time to wax philosophical.

I stayed silent, waiting for the woman to speak.

"Welcome, hero," she said in a breathy voice, "We're sorry for summoning you like this, but we are in desperate need of your aid."

If I didn't have the awful memory of my own death still vivid and sharp in my mind, I would have assumed I was delusional. Or maybe I was delusional, and I was following the normal line of reasoning for a delusional person. Still, it felt real, so to be safe, I would treat this as reality until I had more information.

Had the priests attempted to summon a specific entity? If so, what did they want it for? I tried to be as neutral and non-committal as possible in my response. Who knew if there was some sort of magic invoked in the circle that turned whatever I said into a binding oath, or something like that.

I nodded at the woman.

"If it's nothing egregious, I should be able to help you," I said.

It technically wasn't a lie. I'm quite confident in my abilities and I didn't actually agree to help them.

The woman beamed, "I'm so happy to hear that!"

That was a good sign. It meant the likelihood they had a low-cost way to immediately force me to do their bidding was reduced.

"Let's discuss this in a more comfortable setting," I said. I smiled at her amicably and started walking towards the edge of the circle. I wanted to get out of this suspicious potential magic trap as soon as possible. To my great relief, nobody tried to stop me and I was able to step over the border without any trouble.

"This way," the woman said, extending her hand, "We can have tea first, and we have prepared a formal dinner later to welcome you."

I pretended not to notice her hand and instead made small talk as we walked, continuing to fish for information. I might've been in a dangerous, unknown situation but I still somewhat valued my dignity. I hadn't yet fallen so low as to prostitute myself for favor.

She brought us to a table with two cups of tea already poured and picked up the one in front of her chair. I pretended to sip a bit at my own tea, but did not drink any. It turned out that this woman, Lenore, was this world's high priestess of the Temple of Light. According to her, they had simply enacted a ritual to ask their goddess to send them a person who could save them.

This was both good news and bad. The good news was that I didn't have to pretend to be an entity I knew very little about. The bad news was in how the priestess described the ritual.

They entreated the goddess for a person who could save them, not for a person who would save them or even for a person who was likely to save them.

And indeed, I had no particular intention of saving a suspicious group of total strangers at great personal risk for unknown reasons.

If I were the one enacting such a ritual, I would make damn sure I had a way of controlling whoever I summoned. And this was a world where magic seemingly existed, so some form of mind-control was probably an option.

But whatever it was, they seemingly (hopefully) hadn't applied it already. Perhaps they needed me to fulfill some sort of condition.

I had to get out of there.

"Is the tea not to your liking?" Lenore asked with a concerned expression, probably noticing my full cup.

"I regret to say it isn't. I haven't tried this variety before, but it doesn't seem to agree with me."

"Then I'll have them bring you another type. Do you have any preferences?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"Perhaps I can sample your teas tomorrow," I smiled in a self-deprecating manner, "You mentioned there was a formal dinner later, and I would like some time to get ready. I fear I am not suitably groomed and it would not do to show up to an important event looking so uncouth."

Lenore assured me that there was nothing to worry about and that I could afford to spend some more time with her, but I insisted. Eventually, she brought me to a lavishly decorated room with a very small, iron-barred window. More bad news.

It took some effort, but eventually I managed to convince her to let me prepare myself without any servants in the room. I had to force myself to look embarrassed and claim I didn't like others seeing my body. It was humiliating, but worth the price.

I had earned myself a few hours alone. The servants had drawn a rose-scented bath, and there were some expensive-looking, but tasteful clothes laid out on the bed. Of course, I didn't plan to make use of either of these.

I looked out the window. The room was several stories up. Putting aside the difficulty of removing the iron bars and enlarging the opening, the drop was more than long enough to almost certainly kill any average human.

But I was far from an average human. Although I could spend all day describing my innumerable virtues, such as my humility, that wasn't the key element.

I had been designated as capable of saving a group who could use magic powerful enough to summon beings from another world. This probably indicated my talent for magic was astronomical.

I focused, concentrating on all the information given to me by my senses. I had no idea how magic worked or how to control it, so I simply tried to find something I hadn't observed before, a feeling different from anything in my original world.

And indeed, there was a something in the air. Similar to how difficult it would be to describe colour to a blind person, I can't really describe how it felt, but I could sense there was a sort of energy throughout the room.

I focused harder, trying to observe the energy in more detail. There seemed to be some concentrated around the window and some on the clothing. I wouldn't have worn them anyway; magic aside, they could have some scent added to make it easy for dogs to track them or something. But it did make me feel like my suspicions were further validated. Of course, I could be paranoid, and it could be some harmless cleaning or protection magic or the like, but I would rather avoid needless risks.

I tried to manipulate the ambient energy in the air, and found it very responsive.

I didn't know anything resembling a spell, and I didn't have the time to learn, so I tried drawing a small amount into the very tip of my pinky.

It didn't feel uncomfortable at all, and in fact as I drew more in, my pinky felt somehow stronger. I tried reinforcing my entire hand, and found my grip strength greatly increased.

Next came the durability testing. I tried hitting the reinforced areas of my body with increasing strength and found it didn't hurt. Great. Like this, I should be able to survive the drop from the room to the ground without debilitating injury.

The window had magic on it, possibly an alarm, so that was a no-go. The walls, however, were clean. That would be my exit.

I tried to manipulate the energy to grind at the mortar, with mixed success, while pulling the stones out with my strengthened hands.

About half an hour after Lenore had left me alone in the room, I had made a hole large enough for my body to fit through.

I grabbed some valuable-looking decorations that didn't seem to have magic on them. Maybe they were also traceable, but I thought it was worth the risk to have something I could use for trade.

Making a mental note of what the surrounding landscape looked from high up, I jumped from the tower.

It hurt like fuck, but I could still move. Running along the open roads would make me too visible from high up, so I opted for the road that went through the forest. It ran parallel to the river, and from the legends in my original world, crossing a river interfered with tracking magic. Obviously, those legends could be complete garbage, but I had nothing else to go on, and there was always a chance that magic once existed on Earth. Running through it for a while would also potentially throw off tracking dogs, at the very least.

I also made sure to muddy my clothes so their foreign style was much less noticeable. I'm pretty fit, but using the ambient magic to reinforce my legs and supply me with energy, I could run much faster and for much longer than I could normally. Hopefully, at this speed, I would be able to get to some sort of village where I could find more information before the Temple of Light caught up.

I may be talented at magic, but I'm not so insane as to face an order of experienced casters when I don't even know the basics.

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The pope turned to the stunningly gorgeous high priestess.

"So, how is it?"

Lenore blushed a bit. "He's kind of shy. It's almost cute."

The pope glowered. "I hope you won't let trivial feelings interfere with your job. You can indulge in your lust to your heart's content after we're done."

"Don't worry. He seems pretty cooperative. He said he'd help us while in the magic circle, and there were no signs of him lying. I didn't feel any mana on him, so there's no way he foiled the runes. He may be a future hero, but right now, he's clueless as a babe. Aren't we lucky?"

"You shouldn't let your guard down yet," snapped the pope, "Remember, until we complete the binding ritual, nothing is guaranteed."

"Yes, yes. Don't worry. It's a shame he didn't like the tea, but it's not that important and we'll have plenty of opportunities at the dinner tonight. He seems pliable, so it should be easy to get him to enter the contract. Everything is prepared."

Lenore left the room and waved a servant over. "It's about time. Go fetch the hero for dinner," she said.

A few minutes later, the servant returned and whispered something that made Lenore go pale with shock.

Then her cheeks flushed beautifully, and her chest began to heave as she panted with rage. The pope could not help but take a second glance.

"That bastard... He tricked me! I won't let him get away with this! Guards, to me!" She cried, running to the gate.

For the umpteenth time, the pope internally lamented that the goddess of light seemed to choose her priestesses based on looks and not intelligence.