“Which one of you wish to go first?” Randoul asked as we approached him, which prompted me to quickly point to the burly guy next to me. He couldn't do more than show some slight surprise before accepting his destiny though, so that was it.

“I’ll go first, sir.” He said while moving even closer to the table and to the mage that nodded at the answer.

“Cast your hands over the bigger gem and focus. The intensity of the reaction will give us a rough idea of how much mana your body produces. Then, the smaller crystals will light up and show the kind of magic you’re capable of... We have many reports of heroes that could use them all, so this much would be reasonable too.”

“What do you mean by ‘kind’?” Hayato asked with his hands already on top of the central crystal, and with it already starting to glow.

“I shall explain after either of them turns up. It’s a little too complicated with this one device.” The old man went on with his eyes focusing on the ever-growing light at the center of the table. “One of them should turn up at any moment now…”

Still, even after he said so, the only thing that kept on shining was the white one Hayato was holding. Heck, if that was a light bulb, the thing would’ve blown up a long time ago. It kept on getting shinier and shinier until I was forced to close my eyes and heard a not-so-interested comment come from Randoul.

“Looks like you’re an all-rounder. Training you will be easy with the amount of research on it… Very powerful, and very useful. Well done.”

The room was in a somewhat silent uproar, but the mage didn’t even bother to pretend he was impressed. Looks like they were really used to these heroes or something. I could hear lots of whispers around my still-closed eyes, though (I won't open them until that brat stops making sunlight indoors!).

It also meant that I didn't need any magic for the world to be saved, which was good news. I still would like to have something... I could even help the protagonist over there... Maybe... I think... Gimme some magic, please.

So, when my same-world compatriot finally took his hands off the thing, I opened my eyes and tapped his back in congratulations.

“Well done, Mr. Hero!” I smiled amidst the impressed members of the court in a show of camaraderie. “Three lights up should be a hell lot, right? By my random knowledge, you should be able to do whatever you want like this.

“Yes, but…”

He seemed as confused as the people who understood the situation, but that was a good situation for me.

For one, if he was that strong, dealing with whatever problem around would be easy. And two, if he had enough to make everyone stop working due to shock, then it wouldn’t be weird if I had some normal magic too. A special skill of sorts for once in my life.

“Well then, can I have my turn now?” I called the archmage which seemed to be enough to push him back to paying attention. He still seemed bored and, worse even, a little too interested in what I could show, but that was fine.

“Do go on, please.”

You’re setting yourself to disaster, old man, but alas… Give me something average, or even better, something useless but very convenient. Like the power to summon bullshit from my world! That would be super useful...

With these thoughts in mind, I set both my hands on the big crystal, closed my eyes, and focused everything I had (possibly) on it.

And then I waited…

And waited…

And waited a little more…

And waited until I heard some whispers from around me, some of which I couldn’t even find the origin of.

So, I opened my eyes and looked at the table for once. It was a nice table full of gems with four of them being more noticeable than the rest, but everyone knew this already. What mattered here was that those gems were the same as when I first touched them... Almost so.

I mean, the big one would sometimes blink a little bit, but none of the crystals by the sides changed.

“Well, well…” I removed my hands and saw as the fingertip of light in the depths of the central crystal vanished. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“That’s… Unexpected.” The chief mage held his chin as if what he was seeing was something very interesting, and then, without saying much more, started to walk at a brisk pace to the exit. “Excuse me for a moment, my king…”

He then left the room right away and left everyone looking in silence, I mean, almost in silence. There were lots of whispers going around, but everyone was mostly silent, and now this situation felt very bad for me.

I explained it before, but I don’t like this kind of 'silence' at all. It always makes me feel very worried for no apparent reason, and how there were so many eyes on me while it was happening only made it worse.

In special, the worried look that the hero had and the overly serious thinking face the king was making.

If at least I could cut into it and get hold of the situation… But that wouldn't be happening. The most I could hope was for Randoul to go fast. And luckily, with less than five minutes accounted for, he came back with a crystal ball in his hand.

“Touch this now. The same procedure as before.” He said right away without explaining a thing or even caring about how exactly I would feel about whatever the heck was happening. Goddammit, old man! It would hurt to be a little to not look at as if you were seeing a very interesting lab rat?!

Still, something weird was better than nothing at all, so I touched the crystal ball as told like I did before. And lo and behold, this time the damn thing started to shine properly.

It wasn’t exactly filled to the brim with light or bright like the sun, but it was glowing with a silvery color and a good intensity. All in all, I felt this result was quite decent. Silver wasn’t as good as gold, but it was still pretty good, right?

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The only worrying bit was how, differently from anything until now, the serious close-faced mage seemed to be interested. Very much so.

Worse than that, how the room actually got silent this time was also shocking. Only the mage and the king seemed to react to what I was doing at all. It was giving me the vibes of something that was very rare, but not of the good kind...

“So… What does it mean?” I asked since no one seemed willing to explain what the hell was happening here. Even Hayato was looking in pure confusion at the whole situation, and he didn’t even flinch a moment earlier when they explained nothing to him about his own supposed powers.

“This here, kid, is what we use to measure magic. Normal magic instead of what is found on the summoned people. I thought it would work since your reaction to the gem table was like that, but I wasn't expecting this...” He went on in some lecture mode once more and then moved his face closer to the silver orb I was still holding. “This here, this isn't a color we see on the elemental system.“

"Elemental system...?" I muttered by mistake since, even if I had some ideas, I wasn't expecting to hear about it right now.

"I would take too long to explain right now, so all you need to know is that I have no idea of what element is your affinity. And this, like how the summoning somehow brought two people, means that you’re an abnormality in the system." He continued while getting more and more fired up. "You're a summoned person that can only use a single element and one that isn’t inside any of the known ones. A very interesting test… I mean, a very interesting situation.”

He was going to say ‘test subject’ wasn’t he? So he IS the magical scientist type, right? Better than a villain, I guess… Or maybe not.

Time to use my ‘protection protocol’ either way!

Meaning that I took my hands off the crystal ball and hurried around Hayato to let him stay between me and the archmage. Sadly, though, I’m a little too interested in the situation to fully hide away and try to not grab too much attention anymore, so let me finish this whole talk fast.

“So, it shone because I can use the ‘normal’ magic, right? What magic and how do I do it?”

“That… As I said, I don’t know. It may be something explained on the older records, but ‘silver’ isn’t an element, which only makes it more interesting...”

His eyes are glowing. This stupid harsh-looking old man is glowing with excitement, dammit! I don’t like it! And what the hell will I do with a power no one knows how to use? Give me a manual this instant! Or at least don’t make things focus on me so much out of the blue like this.

And now everyone is being noisy around us again just because this whole thing is so weird. If I wasn't so focused on the old, I would be giving them an angry glare. Bunch of noisy whisperers...

“Aham!” The king drew everyone’s attention back to him, but even he couldn't fully shut the whispers down. “Now that it was proved that both of you aren’t helpless here, I ask again for your decision on my request. Will you leave or will you help us, Mr. Hayato? I would ask the same of Ms. Illia, but we are yet to know what she can do.”

“Still…” Mr. Hero spoke before glancing at me and my glorious figure using him as a shield. And from what I could see, this stupid brat was still thinking that staying here wouldn’t be for the best! Fine then. I don’t wanna do this, but since you’re forcing my hand…

“Let me say a thing, your Highness…” I cut into the standstill between the conflicted hero and the untroubled king. I also pretended to not notice how he put on a small smile when I spoke up and took my proper rich-girl stance.

“Do go on, please.”

“So, you there, Mr. Hero,” I pointed my finger at Hayato with the most serious expression I could get. “Are you really thinking about this?! It may not be my place to say much, but these people are in enough danger to force a stranger into their lands and beg for help, right? Do you really have the gall to not accept?! You, someone who’s famous for going around helping people with things no one wants to do, are now trying to not be the hero of a whole country? Do you have any idea of how many people would do anything to be in your place? Heck! I know you yourself want to do this, but are only holding back for some stupid reason…”

“My reason isn’t…” He went on with that same stupid worried look on his face from the first time I saw him. “I mean, don’t you worry about your home or…”

“I. Am. Fine. Got it?! If you want to go back so much, you can do so after you finish saving this place. And by then, forget about me and whatever you think I did. Now shut up and go save the world! If anything happens, I’ll help you… Whenever I can... A little… I guess...”

No way I’m letting you mess up with my jackpot here, Mr. Hero. Even if I have to put every stupid little trick I know to use, I’ll get you to do the right thing… And then I’ll get you to deal with me later on if things go bad. Also, ignore the last bits, please.

Still, this kind of manipulative speech is really some asshole play, you know? I’m not very fond of it at all even if I end up doing it all the time. Damn you, king, for forcing me to use it! If I knew your name, I would curse it.

“This… The rumors about you weren’t accurate at all, were they? I was sure you were a more troublesome person…” The generic-faced protagonist gave a small laugh while I stood my ground to not throw myself from the closest window. “But since you’re so adamant on this, I’ll follow my instincts and help these people.”

“Please do so.”

“Can I take it that we reached an agreement, my guests?” The king asked with a happy expression on his face that made me slightly want to punch him. “If so, could you finish the process, Randoul?”

“Process?” Hayato asked before I could disengage from my ‘serious mode’, so I ended up answering without putting much thought into it.

“The awakening thing. We did the reading, but there should be some next step too…” I stopped when I noticed that my inner and outer voices were synchronized. “I-I mean… I guess…?”

Maybe I should really throw myself from some window… The king and the mage seemed to be acknowledging what I was saying with their heads, though.

“It is as the young lady says, and a very simple process. In fact, as simple as closing your eyes and trying to visualize what you can do. Magic is a gift from the gods, so all you have to do to use it is ‘feel’ the spells ingrained in your body. The crystals help with the connection, so the only missing is ‘acknowledging’ it.” He explained with the now usual lecture voice. “In most cases, a person will learn the simplest spell of their affinity and go from it, so it may be a little different for you. Either way, after that, all you have to do is train or study, whichever works better for you. Even if each person’s spells are a little different, the patterns are very well recorded for most elements, so one can get a lot from studying them.”

“You’re saying that we kind of already know all the magic, but we have to ‘remember’ the information or something?” Hayato asked the moment Randoul stopped talking, which was good since I wanted to do the same.

“A very simplistic way of putting it, but not wrong. It’s good to see that the youngsters understand easily this time.”

Oh? So that’s all? That’s interestingly easy, isn’t it? And what I have is rare too, so maybe, just maybe…

Without even waiting for the signal to start or hearing if the old mage had something to hear, I closed my eyes and focused as best as I could. Getting to hear the people around me whispering better wasn’t good, Randoul was still talking too, and not seeing who was moving around me made me uneasy, but it would be worth it. It had to be worth it! So shut the hell up everyone and give me some magic!

Then, all got silent as I hoped. That was, until the silence became filled by a single noise coming from below me...

“... ..- -- -- --- -. / .. –“

The noise wasn't any language or anything like a language, and it was also as low as a whisper, but I could understand it somehow. It made no sense and was a little scary too, but I could somehow understand what it wanted me to do, and more so, it was such a protagonist-like thing...

So, with more excitement than I would like to show, I opened my eyes and extended my hand in the middle of the throne room.

“It seems I already got the idea, so…” I called the attention of the archmage to be sure I wasn’t doing anything too dangerous, and then I focused on the symbols that were on my head feeling as if something was leaving me and moving through the floor as I did so. “Now get me a freaking gun!”

The spell materialized itself in a glowing silver circle around my hand while the area around me started to shine a little. It was working toward the most isekai-like spell I could have. In a moment, I would have unlimited power. The unlimited power of GUN!!!

But my vision started to darken out…

And my body started to feel wobbly…

And the next moment, even before I could see my ticket to victory appear, my consciousness wandered away while my face went towards the floor...