Our first stop was a small manor that was two stories high. With white bricks making up the wall, the building looked pretty old as the paint from the bricks were coming off.
When you looked at this building, the first thing that came to mind was how all the windows had some sort of black wall behind them. Making it impossible to see inside.
The second thing that came to mind was how I never noticed this building. You would think that such a large building would be noticeable from far away.
Everyone, including myself, thought that we were going inside, but instead, Alex stopped a few meters away from the front door.
And without any explanation, Alex shouted, “It’s time! Come Out!”
As he said this, the front door of the manor shot open, with the entrance leading to a black void.
Soon, people started coming out. Ten in total, and each one different in their own way. Almost like they were trying to tell us who they were, and why they were here.
As they walked in front of us, all took a knee, bowing to us. It felt good, but very awkward knowing I’ve done nothing to earn it.
Alex walked slowly over to them and stood in the empty spot in the middle.
He looked back at all of us and told us, “May I introduce to you your teachers. They will be your teachers in this new world and explain to you all about how this world works, and how to become stronger in your preferred field.”
Hmmm, I think I get it. But I’m still a little confused, “You may be confused, so let me explain. As you may remember, we have never experienced summoning this many people before, so we had to, perform certain events differently. Normally, we would each take our time teaching you the basics of each class or style of combat. And later, have you chose which class you want to be in. But now it’s different.”
That doesn’t sound good.
“My world has decided due to recent events, we will decide who your teacher will be, by checking your magical roots and how your bodies are structured. You may not understand what this means, but you will soon enough.”
Alex lifted his left hand and pointed towards the farthest person, looking like he was about to introduce them until one of my teachers with a name I don’t care to remember, voiced his concern.
It was a man, and I think he was a math teacher, “Okay! That is enough! It took some time to get my head straight but I am done! I am done listening to your stupid and crazy ideas about us being in another world! You're all crazy and I, Demand, you take us home!”
Alex didn’t look assume and just stared at him, “Hm? And you might be?”
“Criminals like you don’t deserve to know my name! Now return us!”
“I see. This suggests that you still don’t believe us?” Alex said forebodingly.
“Y-Yeah, that’s right.”
How can such an old man give off such a feeling of death? But I guess we all just saw him shoot lighting out of his hands five minutes ago.
The next few words Alex spoke made it sound like he wanted to kill someone, “I understand. I didn’t want to do this, but we don’t have time.”
With that final word, Alex’s figure disappeared from my sight, and I felt a strong wind push past me, nearly taking me off my feet.
I saw everyone else look behind them, so I did as well.
I didn’t see much, but I saw the hat Alex was wearing. Somehow he was able to accelerate to the point where none of us could catch him with our eyes, with the only feeling we had of him being the wind when he passed us.
I think Alex tried to whisper this part, but because it was silent, his words were clear as day, “I’m very sorry about this. I truly am. But this is the only way to make you understand in the shortest amount of time.”
I couldn’t see what happened next, but judging by the faces of the people who could see, I guess it wasn’t good.
There were a few seconds of complete silence. But soon enough, I heard a scream similar to that of a dying dog.
I could hear loud crocking from the math teacher, and Alex saying something that I couldn’t understand.
Alex’s hat disappeared without any warning with the same gust of wind pushing against me.
Looking back at where Alex was originally, I found him standing there like a statue.
“Now then. Can we please move on? I’m sorry you had to see that, but we truly don’t have enough time.” Why does he suddenly sound like a villain? Ar-Are you going down that path.
I was scared, it felt like I was staring at some crazed beast. Ready to pounce on me when it pleased.
I’ve felt this feeling plenty of times. Seeing the teeth of monsters disguised as humans. When I was out on the street freezing to death and still having to run away from people who were just having a bad day. But it was different back then.
If it wasn’t bad enough, the people next to him didn’t seem fazed at all. Like this was all planned from the start.
Wouldn’t surprise me really. If you plan on summoning people from another world, you must be ready to use whatever means to get the people to believe you.
This way of thinking does make whatever he did to that math teacher a bit more believable.
If you were told you were summoned to another world, you would not believe it. And even though Alex did shoot lighting, fire and ice out of his hands, we’ve lived our entire lives being told that things like that can’t happen. It'll take much more to convince people unwilling to believe that they're in another world. You would have to use more, forceful methods.
“hehe” makes me laugh.
I felt a little tug on my jacket.
I didn’t realize that I made a little chuckle, so I didn’t know why anyone would want my attention.
Out of pure curiosity, I looked over at the perpetrator. Finding the weird but cute girl I spoke a few words with.
“Why did you just laugh?” She asks.
Now, what should I say? I don’t feel that scared or uncomfortable when I talk to her. Well, it is uncomfortable, but not as much as normal.
But I shouldn’t tell her everything. Especially when I’m trying to figure it out myself, “It’s nothing. Just planning.”
We stare at each other for a while. Or, more like she stares at me, and I awkwardly sweat, wondering why this slightly above average cute girl was looking in my general direction.
“So, you seemed to have figured it out.” She breaks eye contact, looking back at Alex and the people next to him. “In this world. With people like them. We’re essentially prisoners.”
...Would you look at that. I guess this school isn’t just filled with idiots.
You figured everything out even before me. How have I never heard of you?
I stop looking at her, “Sorry to break it to you, but. I didn’t figure it all out yet, but I’m getting there.” It might have been my imagination, but I felt a little smile on my face, “But it’s good to know I’m not the only weird one who thinks of these types of things during a situation like this.”
“hm” was her only response.
Until a few seconds later, “Can you please stop sweating. You look like a fat pig. But, considering how average you look, that might be an improvement.”
…
Meh. I’ve heard worse.
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I’ll take it as a compliment.
“If you’re scared because of what just happened, then I’m sorry. Believe me, to hurt a hero is something that will haunt my mind for the rest of my life. But it must be done.” Alex spoke up, bringing us all back to reality.
“If you disagree with this method, then please. Voice your concern.” That almost sounded like a threat.
I wonder if anyone would voice anything after a scene like that. Not even Satou that’s stupid. Well I hope he’s not.
No one spoke a word, bringing that grandpa smile back to his face.
“Hoho. Now then, I would like to introduce to you all your teachers, but we don’t have the time. So, after arranging you all into your groups, I will let them have that honor.” Groups? Guess that means they’ll split us up. That’s good to know.
It’s hard to imagine because I’m near the front. But, there are around five hundred people behind me.
But there are only ten teachers if we don’t count Alex in front of me. And they’re supposed to take on all of us.
There are around five hundred students that attend my school, not counting the staff, and there are ten teachers. So that means each group will consist of around fifty people.
...Welp, my fear and inability to talk or be around people are going to have a field day tonight.
It’s probably not okay to joke around like this, but, like one kid I used to live on the street with once said. It’s better to constantly joke around than face reality.
She died a few months later, but we don’t have to talk about that.
But, it does beg the question of how all five hundred people behind me could hear Alex. I’ll just say magic.
Going back to Alex and splitting everyone into groups.
He brought his hands together as if he was praying, and soon, a massive pillar of light erupted from his being. At the very peak of this pillar, four circles with strange symbols and images appeared, made out of the same light as the pillar.
Each one was different in size. It also looked like they had different images and writing on them.
I should study it, and it may be useful later, even if I don’t understand it at allllll what is that light on my chest.
A bright purple star suddenly appeared at the very center of my chest.
I wouldn’t have even noticed it if one of its beams didn’t stab me through the eye. And it looks like I’m not the only one with a miniature star.
Looking around, everybody had one, just that theirs were a different color. The colors ranged from red, blue, yellow, purple, green, white, black, brown, and some with a mixed color star of black and white.
Also, for unknown reasons, I saw a few without a star. That has to be embarrassing.
Hell, the weird cute girl next to me had a blue star. Where’s the difference?
I continued to look around, maybe to find some kind of connection with the people who had the same color star as me.
And as far as I could see, there weren't any similarities between the people who had a purple star. Then again, I only know a few things about a few people in my entire school, so I wouldn’t really know.
“Now then. With that over, I’ll let your new teachers explain the rest.” And with that, his whole body disappeared without a trace. There was no flash of light or magic circle that appeared, he was just gone.
With Alex gone, I believe everyone was wondering who would take his place.
Then, that girl Lilly we met a few moments ago stepped up.
She was wearing grey pants instead of that red dress she was wearing. Probably still embarrassed from before.
“Alright “Heroes”! You’ve already met me, but in case your undeveloped minds couldn’t remember, my name is Lilly! Just Lilly, nothing else! You understand!”
We all nodded our heads.
“Alright! Now then, this is how things are going to work. From now on, we are your teachers and you will listen to everything we have to say. But understand this! Technically, you are all above us when it comes to statues. It’s bullshit but that’s how it is!” She took her time as she stared into the eyes of everyone here.
“But also understand this! Your world and my world are completely different! You may look around and see nothing but grass and a few little shacks but that’s the fucking point!” What?
“Because of how different our two worlds are, we have decided that it’s best if we created a more simple environment for you all to learn and become stronger. If we had summoned you all to our world with the last few centuries of changes we’ve had and the combination of both science and magic, it would have been too much... Not only do we have monsters such as dragons, goblins, griffins, and a bunch of other shit! But because of your world’s involvement, my world’s technology which was comparable to the dark age of your world has since evolved and integrated some of your world’s customs and way of thinking with ours... All I’m trying to say is that our worlds are very different and if we were to just shove you all in it. You would not survive. So we have decided to summon you all here and slowly integrate you into society.”
Hmm... Makes sense.
You can’t just drop a lion who lived its entire life in a zoo, out in the wild without any preparation. Even if the lion is the king of the jungle, without knowing how to hunt their own food or ever had to fight another lion for territory, it would die of either starvation or being eaten in a matter of a few days.
But, it does make one curious. Just how different is this world when compared to mine for them to make such a big deal out of it.
After taking a short break to catch her breath, Lilly came out saying, “Now then. After telling you all this. I hope none of you will get any ideas and start believing that because you have a little strength, you can just boss us, your teachers, around and believe you know more than us. Got It!”
We all nodded our heads.
Why does it feel like we’re being recruited into the army?
“Good. Now for the part you’re all wondering. These stars on your chest are nothing more than a simple spell that will both measure your magical roots and the amount of man in your body currently. It does not measure anything like your personality or your physical strength.” Oh thank god.
“Depending on these two factors, you’ll be placed within certain training groups that match your specific characteristics. Past heroes from your world have described this process as selecting your class. Just that now, you won’t be selecting, instead place in. Though this is not permanent and you do have the freedom to switch classes and train in another. But do understand that they won’t be as easy to learn as the one you were placed in. Understand!”
I think you all know the drill. We all nodded our heads.
But selecting our class. Usually, in an RPG setting like this, the classes would be like a warrior, mage, rogue, paladin, priest, and whatever the developers could think of.
But in those cases, we had the choice of what class we wanted. In this situation, we’re forced into the class we’re best suited for, which isn’t all that bad but takes the fun out of picking. But maybe that’s the point.
In a game, you could pick the shittest class there is and die hundreds of times trying to get good at the class. But now, if we die, I don’t think we’re getting a respawn.
It’s best we get a class we’re suited for instead of experimenting ourselves. Especially since that little speech this Lilly girl shouted before that told us about how we should listen to them because we don’t know how this world works. I wonder if there’s anyone stupid enough to not listen even though everything she said was probably fact.
“Now then. Time for me to announce your roles. Let’s begin.” She looks out at a large notebook from God knows where.“For people who have red stars, your class will be. Black Smith,”
Instantly a cry of disapproval radiated out from the masses.
I kinda understand. Usually having something red would mean it’s something for combat. They probably thought they got Warrior or mage or something.
But that can still hold here. Maybe in this world, blacksmiths are badass combat classes that fight on the frontline.
“Shut Up!” She screamed at us. “As I said before, after training in this class for a few days, then you can leave it if you really want to! Now Shut The Fuck Up!”
Everyone silenced. It might just be my imagination, but I think I saw something that looked like a giant turtle behind her. Don’t know what it was, but it freaked the hell out of me.
“Now then, moving on. Blacksmiths, while not a combat class, aren’t people you want to mess with. They have a strong affinity for fire and metal magic and have the physique that’s right for handling heavy equipment. You're pretty much a warrior who can use magic alright. Now shut up… For people who have blue stars. You all are mages, sorcerers, whatever your world calls it now.”
To this, I saw a few people do a little air thrust.
“People with yellow stars are priests. People with black stars are rogues or assassins. White stars are for paladins. Green stars are for shamans. Brown is for the newly found class known as Gunslingers. And if you're really special, then you might have a mixed star of black and white. This means you're a monk alright. Now, if you’re extremely unlucky, you can get a purple star. Making you a summoner. This means you have no magical roots but for some reason have an abundant amount of mana in your body. Sucks being you.” One of the guys behind her who was wearing a purple robe and a witch hat began growling in her general direction.
Really Lilly. First there was the skirt thing and now this. You’re just giving me a bunch of reasons to hate and or lose all my respect for you.
Welp, I guess I got none of this magical root shit this bitch was talking about. Poor me.
It also seems like being a summoner is frowned upon by the locals. Poor me.
“Finally, we’re going to talk about the people who don’t have a star. For them, they have a very low if any mana in their body. Though this may sound bad, this allows them to become warriors, knights, or soldiers. Whatever you want to call them. And don’t worry, while warriors can’t use mana, we have learned of a new source of strength that anyone, especially warriors can use. It’s called Aura and that’s all I’m going to say. Any other questions you might have, you can ask your teachers.” Oh, so you’re saying all my questions are going to go unanswered. Great. Thanks.
She steps back to her original spot. And very soon, the same, but albeit less complex magic circle that transported us to this world, appeared under all of our feet.
Like last time, my entire vision was blocked by light. Though this time, I didn’t blackout, and the transport from one location to the next was quick and painless.
When I gain my vision back, I once again in a large area of grass. This time having no small manor to fill up the empty space.
It was actually kinda nice. Only problem was that seven people were surrounding me, with one of them being the man that was behind Lilly who was wearing the purple robe and witch hat.
There was another person I knew the face of. And that was the fat chick with the chicken face. Other than her, I didn’t know who the rest were.
“Well, now that that’s all done, I guess it’s time to introduce myself.” He wipes off a bit of dust from his robe and takes a few steps back. “My name is Higashi Eichi, and I will be your teacher. If you have any questions, concerns, or you just need someone to talk to, then please, do feel scared to ask me. I’m only here because they’re paying me alright. I don’t care for a single one of you, and I hardly expect any one of you to become the Hero. Understand!”
We all looked at him. Unlike Lilly, his voice wasn’t powerful and didn’t demand respect. But still...
I like him.