{Sorceress's POV}
Vuong was shocked beyond his wit's end, but his training had already kicked in, forcing him to calm down and analyze the situation. His eyebrows knitted together in concentration, his breaths became lighter, quieter and deeper at the same time. That was his trick: if he could look calm, he would eventually get calm. Keeping his wit together was a must in situations like these. A lesser boy would break down instantly, but a man like him could do this with ease.
After all, he was Nguyen Minh Vuong, Level Two of Security Bureau, Section Six. He was my guardian, my love, and I hoped that he would never be forced to be the one executing me. On that day, he took three lightning bolts meant for me, thus buying me critical time to disrupt the demon summoning circle, and that was even after escorting me deep into a hostile castle without being spotted in the first place. He was brilliant, frighteningly brilliant, competent and immensely brave.
A standard, normal, by the book "good guy" would probably swear himself to eradicate the evil in this world and ask for a series of lessons in swordsmanship and magic. At least this class was sane enough not to do so. After all, they remembered their history lesson. Magic had a bad reputation in Terran Federation after all. I was pretty sure that within the War, more than 50 million civilians worldwide had lost their lives due to magic in non-combat situations. If one included the collateral damage caused by magic infighting, the number might rise to 70 million.
And that was just the dead, in total, the civilian casualty was something like 500 million.
Such a number was a very strong reminder for humanity why they should keep guard against magic. Even though I was a magical myself, I understood and accepted the sentiment. My ancestors had wronged the no-mag, and it was my job to cleanse that debt of honour.
Anyhow, I was getting sidetracked. My point was that my boyfriend was keeping silent. He had not uttered a single word and instead of spending time observing the surrounding, gathering what little intelligence available here.
From the sideline, I watched in amusement with the whole class trying to make heads and tails of the situation. The teacher was yelling out, something like blasphemy and violation of Geneva Codes of Conduct in Wartime. As expected, the Pope was trying to placate him in religious style, which was calling my teacher "child" and considering him as someone who knew nothing. Needless to say, it was counter-productive.
I cast my glance to the side, and Vuong's eyes caught mine. He nodded…
And people still wondered why I loved such a brooding man. Well, for a starter, I liked brooding men, especially ones that got animated being together with me. Two, he could read my mind. Well, not telepathically or something like that, but he knew he enough to know what was I thinking. So, what was I thinking? Simple, I was hoping to check out for the magical characteristic here. He could check it out with his own devices, but having an expert's opinion never hurt.
I smirked, Vuong was still single, not because he did not find a girl interesting – I had seen him watching the school's (and class's) idols a few times, and honestly, he really needed better browser passwords on his computer – but because I had subtly given the girls hints. He was mine and mine alone. No girl was good or competent enough to be his wife, no one but me.
After all, no one was better than him to be my romantic partner.
Speaking of that, what happened to the school bully proposing to me two months ago? He just disappeared off the face of the earth, not a single trace left… I just knew Vuong was involved somehow, but I had no proof. Mind reading and basic scrying were useless, considering the anti-magic level around, but not even the Internet could give me an answer. Women's intuition told me that the man was just jealous and he took matters in his own hands.
The main and leading female character of a shoujo and romance story would feel blissful knowing that. Or she would get aroused if the setting was erotica… Which brought me to the point here – why the hell was I feeling arouse? The last thing I wanted here was my yandere streak and obsession interfering with the work. In my defence, I would say that I was still sane enough to work at the same time.
Besides, the gestures of my fingers were almost second nature to me, I could practically check the ambient magical signals when I was still half-asleep… And surprise surprise, this was actually magic. Maybe I was not clear enough so I would say it again. The nature of magic here was the same on Earth, utilizing mana particles in the environments as well as within most living beings. There was a major difference though, the concentration of mana here was at least eight times the mean on Earth. Sure, there was a possibility that this was the exception, but Vuong also needed to know about this. It would be used for purely tactical and strategic thinking if nothing else.
Using the ruckus caused by the teacher and the Pope, I slithered toward the man and whispered quietly while trying to remain inconspicuous to everyone:
"Mana concentration is abnormally high, eight times to the mean on Earth."
"And twice the highest value on our home… we are really in another world, aren't we?"
"We are. So, should we stick together?"
"Of course, I still have to stop you from doing anything stupid or reckless here!"
"Me? Stupid? Reckless? So, who infiltrated a castle with a single blade, a belt-load of grenades, and a piece of chewing gum, to fight against five mighty witches in the first place?"
He twitched his eyebrows hearing that. Sure, I loved him, but I also loved shutting him down like that. After all, he was a male, and he still had much to learn in dealing with the fairer sex.
The two of us glanced at each other a final time before breaking off temporarily. Obviously, the most likely outcome of this would be having the natives driving us back to their accommodations, castles most likely. We could not leave our stuff behind, even if they were just books and pens, they were still valuable. A stereotype isekai story would have such a world like this stuck in the Middle Ages. Religion and politics were inseparable, zero development on science, technology and other comfort features of modern life, and wars were still waged in the stupid and inefficient manners.
Pens and widespread use of paper could at least reduce the burden… and knowing Vuong, he would definitely try to make some AKs here. He would probably complain about the stupidity and the naivety of the locals soon, but his dream of making AKs would be hardly stopped.
I wondered what I would be doing then… Probably dual wielding handgun and magic. I disliked assault rifles for being too heavy, and SMGs had too much recoil for me. Handguns were the best for me, light, versatile and concealed, not to mention they were much easier to make and use. Heh, I should probably convince Vuong to make them soon then.
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The Pope finally made a compromise with the teacher and the Class Rep. They would give us a hot meal for the night, a briefing for the situation, and a night bunking somewhere. The next morning, each student would give his or her answer. They could "join the force" and become a Templar, leading the fight against Darkness, or they could simply "discharge" and live like normal people.
There were only two options, which meant they were both craps, so Vuong and I had to find out a third, or even a fourth one. Fortunately (or unfortunately), we had them soon enough. The third option would be going AWOL, both of us would disappear into the night as soon as we know enough intel. With our skills and talents, being mercs would be very easy. The man had the training and Art of War within his muscles and his head, and the woman had centuries of mystic arts under her belt. Sure, both of us were just at "novice" level, but compared to the local, it should be close to professional level… hopefully.
The fourth option was more of a compromise. We both dislike becoming Templars of the Pope, being atheists and witches. But we also knew that this world had much more than just a theocratic country, so instead of serving under a bunch of zealous, we could fight with an Empire or Kingdom.
At least, we still had the night to discuss. For now, we ate, we listened, and we rested. Of course, we tucked some blades under our sleeves, no use getting killed this early in the story after all.
The intel revealed by the Pope and his underlings were interesting enough. Remember the comment about Middle Age above? It was spot-on, and I smelled some serious bullshit over the horizon. But we were just asking for a brief, weren't we? So, a short summary of each "good faction" was barely enough to satisfy my thirst for knowledge, and clearly, there was not enough for Vuong to build a contingency plan.
The map of the whole land looked strange. The area was blocked by the "Great Mountain" on the east and the "Giant Desert" on the south (the local really needed better naming sense) with three rivers cutting through it. All three rivers also began from a mountain range, called "Dragon Nest", and they ended up with a smaller sea of the sort, one that had a similar sentiment to the Mediterranean Sea. Meanwhile, the north side was covered with Great Ice Ring, and the west had the Deep Ocean. It seemed suspiciously alike Europe, albeit with a different land shape.
The politics were quite a mess. Down south, just above the smaller sea, was the land of Pope. Sure, it had a much more proper name, but I did not like pronouncing it. From the look of it, the Pope seemed to have a great influence on everything, ranging from politics to the economy. In fact, half of the talk was about how great his land was, how great his God was, and how well the flock of other nations were following it. Just like a stereotype theocratic country, one of the major powers there was healing magic. Recovery of lives was impossible, but that was the only limit. Cuts and bruises could be treated even with low-grade healing magic, and a higher-tier one could deal with limb loss. At least the second part was theoretical.
The next major power was the Kraut, again, nothing against Germany or their equivalent in this world, I was just too lazy to remember their proper name. It was a highly martial country with a professional standing army, which stuck out like a sore thumb in the land of conscript and levies. Quite a large land under their control too, and if my hunch was correct, Vuong would pick this one. They had basic metallurgy and good offensive magic to complement that. Their aristocracy would be a problem, being somewhat warlike, but at least their army seemed to be sane enough to not launch a strike first.
Two more countries were standing in equal power, the not-Soviet Union and the not-Frenchie. Again, I was not that good in history, but I still knew that the Soviet drank vodka like it was water (and I was pretty sure that it also meant "water" in Russian), and the French had an unexplainable connection to white dress… Anyhow, the not-Soviet seemed to have the best close-quarter, non-magic fighter (think berserker) and the not-Frenchie had the most mobile units on the ground. Their nobles (aka snorting bastards ) seemed to be quite extravagant though. For some reasons, I had flashbacks to Vuong whistling a certain German folk song, something about a great king called "Fred".
Standing right behind them was the fourth power, the Red Coat. I did not even have to use the British analogue here, because they were literally wearing red coats! OK, some worn red and other worn blue, but that was not important, the part where they had the best Navy was. In fact, they were so good with their Navy that they were the only power capable of travelling through the sea undisturbed. Contribute to that was that they had the best water mages available. I wondered how long it would take for Vuong to introduce the concept of "Britannia Goddess" to them.
There were also a few more Europe-equivalent countries here… and I had to admit, it seemed my estimation of the Middle Age was wrong. They had the understanding of how to use their stuff equivalent to early Renaissance era. Sure, it was more on how to use magic and not science, but then, the equivalent was still there…
Speaking of that, how long had they been at this stage? Did the Pope just say something about "for the last two centuries"? Sure, the Middle Age on Earth lasted for five or six centuries, but the Renaissance was freaking rapid… By the end of the same century, nothing was the same anymore. So, it could be said that the locals were a bit slow in the development department. One of the most plausible reasons were magic. After all, who needed to build a dam when they could simply pay a water mage to divert the water away? The Terran magical suffered the same line of thought, and they were brutally rolled over when the non-mag found out that "sparkly stuff" had no effect on the composite armour of a tank.
There was also another probable answer – the Church. Here, they might involve themselves a bit too deep in internal affairs of the surrounding countries, mostly in the part where they forced everyone to play nice. In broad term, it would keep the peace and friendliness between countries at a tolerable level. In technical and political term, well, when there was no conceived enemy, there would be no pressing need to research and invest in military development, which then led to no product being released by the armed forces into the civilian market. In the end, it resulted in a stagnant environment.
I glanced back to Vuong, who was brooding over the newly received intel. His eyebrows were knitting together while his lips were pressed hard on each other. It was quite an arousing sight to me. I had to suppress the desire of licking my own lips, he just looked tasty while concentrating on some matter.
So, honey, what route would you choose?