When the old codger of a pope finished his grandstanding, everyone was either seething in anger, scared to death, or steeped in suspicion.
After calming down a bit, the group came up with one possible explanation for this situation, without even talking to each other. They were all extremely quick thinkers and great at deductive reasoning.
They had all ruled out the possibility of this being a prank, a dream, or anything of that nature. There were several reasons for this.
Number one: they all had some rudimentary knowledge of dreams, if this were a dream, they wouldn't be able to think so clearly. They would have just accepted or rejected the situation without thinking.
Number two: they all saw the same scenery outside their windows. Buildings with rough stone foundations, wooden frames, and clay roof tiles can't be found in any modern city in any developed country, not to mention smooth stone roads.
Number three: the language this geezer has been speaking absolutely doesn't exist anywhere on earth. This wasn't the arrogance of the intelligent; this was a fact. Additionally, it makes absolutely no sense for any of them to understand this nonexistent language. They could only contribute this to some weird phenomenon of another world.
Finally, this is the most important reason. THEY KNEW WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY THAT THE AGONY THEY EXPERIENCED WAS REAL. They all nearly died.
Even the sugary sweet Daksha would clock anyone who suggested that the trauma she received was all fake.
So, after the old guy's pompous speech they boiled his words down to one sentence. 'Hey, our god saved your lives, so fight and die in a war for our world.'
It wasn't so much the request itself that elicited negative emotions, although it was definitely unreasonable. It was mostly the way the pope asked it. He was essentially commanding a group of young men and women to run to their deaths for a bunch of people they don't even know, without even knowing exactly why. If they weren't all smart enough to realize they were definitely at a disadvantage in this situation they would have been spitting curses at this bony old bastard.
The pope raised an eyebrow in confusion upon seeing the mixture of emotions directed towards him.
Toshiro was gritting his teeth in frustration, thinking about how he should make this old bastard into a cadaver.
Leni retreated from Toshiro's side and hid behind Leon with a bewildered expression. Leon patted her head as if to console her while staring at the ground in deep thought.
Irina was directing a look that could kill a person 100 times towards the geezer.
Daksha was shaking in terror while on the verge of tears, and Oliver was rubbing her back to calm her down while glaring daggers at the pope.
Choon Hee was whispering nonsense about someone named truck-kun not appearing in the prologue or something.
Fumiko had a vein bulging on her forehead and had a terrifying look in her eyes while she maintained a strained smile.
Alex was desperately rubbing her shoulders to keep her from flying into a rampage.
None of these were the responses that Caltron III was looking for.
Seeing the dissatisfaction on the faces of the group, the King and Queen of the two countries took the opportunity to step in.
"Your Holiness, surely the heroes are extremely confused at the situation?" said the Natalie Fortman look alike in order to lighten the mood.
"Yes, it is as Lady Lidia says, they came from a completely different world. Surely we cannot comprehend their bewilderment?" the Tom Crew impersonator said to back up the Queen.
"Oh yes, exactly," the pope fumbled out.
He then looked back to the students, plastering on an expression of insincere concern, and said, "Young heroes from another world, I know that you must have many questions. I will allow one of you to come forward and discuss matters with me,"
A vein bulged on Fumiko, Toshiro, Oliver, Li Chang, and Irina's foreheads at the old man's language.
It was to be expected. They were geniuses in their world. The only ones who would dare talk down to them this way were seniors, professors, respected colleagues, and their parents.
There was absolutely no one who would treat them with such blatant disrespect.
However, they were all mature enough to know this wasn't the time or place. They swallowed their frustration with bitter expressions.
Fumiko walked forward as if it were a matter of course, but no one looked dissatisfied in the least. The gentle-looking Fumiko had an infamous reputation as the Weather Witch. She could be gentle as a light summer breeze, vicious and unforgiving like a raging hurricane, colder than ice in a hailstorm, and calm under pressure like a butterfly in the eye of a tornado.
Every single one of the 10 Top Dogs have experienced her wrath on more than one occasion, so they had absolutely no fear of her screwing up.
Alex, her boyfriend, was the calmest out of everyone in this situation. If anything he was more afraid for the old guy.
The King and the Pope both raised an eyebrow in suspicion. From their perspective, this was a young girl who had just barely become a woman. What sway could she possibly have among her peers? The Queen on the other hand, had an intrigued smile on her lips. She saw the slight terror in the eyes of all of the students when Fumiko glared at them early on. Even her lover seemed terrified of her. She knew that Fumiko was no simple girl.
Fumiko walked until she was just half a meter away from the podium.
"Your Majesties, Your Holiness, I'll introduce myself. My name is Fumiko Kizaki, and I will be representing the interests of our group of 10 in this meeting. We all have plenty of questions about this situation," Fumiko said without a hint of nervousness.
The students were all a little surprised by the fact that the pope could understand Fumiko's Japanese, but their expressions didn't change.
This calmness shocked both the pope and king.
It was to be expected. This girl created an advanced weather prediction system 5 years ahead of her time at the age of 18. She even presented her system in front of the most esteemed meteorologists and weather analysts in the world. If she could stare down a crowd of thousands what was the point of being nervous when talking to a bunch of archaic mongrels.
"First of all, you said your god summoned us to this world, correct? Who is your God, why did he have to summon us specifically? Also, where are we currently?" Fumiko said with a slight hint of irritation.
The Pope took the initiative to answer this question.
"Our God is the glorious Lord Septumis, God of the 7 Virtues of Heaven. He destroys all evil and annihilates all impurities within this world. He summoned all of you because you were shown to be excellent individuals, heroes capable of defeating the evil Demon Empire of Uthal. Additionally, the power of Lord Septumis can only reign supreme while within the boundaries of this world. Thus, it is impossible to summon individuals who are alive. Unless they are at the brink of death. Death is the point when a person's soul begins fading out of the world. Hence, it was imperative to summon an individual who was close to death, so that their body and soul could be easily pulled over to this world. We didn't expect that Lord Septumis would grace us with 10 heroes though," the Pope explained with fanatical vigor.
"So, they only planned on "summoning" one person, but they got a 10 for 1 deal in the "summoning". What a joke," Toshiro grumbled in his mind.
"You go on about all of this as though you regard it as a hard truth. You're saying that you didn't "summon" us yourselves; how are we supposed to believe that?" Fumiko asked belatedly.
"It is true! Lord Septumis spoke to the 7 Virtues and gave them the formula for the magic circle of interdimensional traversal!" the Pope howled as if offended that Fumiko would ever suggest he was lying.
Fumiko looked to the group of white-clad figures standing behind the pope.
They all bowed in response to her gaze. It didn't seem like they had any intention of speaking. Fumiko reluctantly accepted the answer and moved on.
"Magic circle formula? Don't tell me…" Choon Hee whispered to the group.
"Furthermore, you are currently located in the Grand Cathedral in Holy Capital of Vleley, located in the Holy Rylous Empire of our Orthodox Septumis Church," added the Pope in a smug voice.
"Alright, please provide us with a detailed map of this world as soon as possible. The more detailed the better," Fumiko asked, wanting to move quickly to the next topic.
"Of course," the pope declared.
"Now, as you said, we were all on the brink of death as well as severely injured. My friend Toshiro could probably outline some of the injuries we may have had," Fumiko stated as she looked to Toshiro expectantly.
She was intelligent, but anything regarding trauma and anatomy was out of her depth.
Toshiro stepped forward quickly. He was extremely interested in what the hell could fix their mangled bodies that were closer to corpses.
"We suffered from some kind of fiery explosion at a close range. I remember most of what I felt at the time. I myself was blown back several meters. This would have shattered several of my bones. My skin was scorched down to the bone, annihilating my muscles as well as my whole peripheral nervous system. Hot shards of metal pierced into my flesh and tore apart my internal organs. That kind of damage is like putting the human body through a shredder. I would very much like to know what could have saved our lives, not to mention what could've repaired our mangled bodies. To be honest, we were in a state where we were closer to corpses," Toshiro said while turning a little green.
He was able to relay all of his thoughts, but he couldn't help but recall the carnage of that time.
The pope looked a little pale at the vivid description as well as a bit confused at the unfamiliar terms, but he answered the question the best he could.
"Well, quite honestly, the injuries you just described would be normally impossible for us to heal with magic. However, when you appeared here you were all perfectly fine. All of your clothes were torn to ribbons, covered in bloodstains, and burn marks though," said the pope carefully.
"So they took off our clothes without dressing us afterward," Toshiro thought, nonplussed as he walked back to the group behind Fumiko.
"Could we see the clothes we arrived in at a later time?" Fumiko asked.
"Certainly," the pope declared.
"Next on the docket, you've mentioned magic and magic circle formulas. Could you describe the types of magic you use? A general yet adequately detailed explanation would be best," Fumiko asked hesitantly.
She didn't want to risk revealing too much information about themselves by asking weird questions, but this was a question that needed to be asked. It concerned the survival of all of her classmates and friends.
The Queen took the opportunity to eagerly answer this question. She realized Fumiko's bind and had no intentions of concealing anything. These seemingly smart, young people looked confused when hearing the word magic. They came from an entirely different world, so it might not be too unusual for their world to call magic something else.
She was wrong, but her thoughts were on the right track.
"Greetings, young heroine. I will take this opportunity to introduce myself again. I am Lidia Apheoria, Queen of the Apheoria Kingdom. I am also an Advanced Level Arch-mage. I think I would be most suitable when giving an explanation of this world's magic, don't you think," Queen Lidia said, winking at Fumiko with a playful smile.
Fumiko gave a soft smile back and nodded.
"Finally, I've been wanting to hear about this," Toshiro whispered.
"We could all hear it if you'd shut your trap," Li Chang snapped at him in a quiet voice.
"Tch" Toshiro clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"In order to give an accurate explanation of magic, I must first give an explanation on mana as well as what a mage is,"
"Mana is the interface by which we manipulate the natural laws of the world. Those of us who can sense it feel as though it is a part of the world itself. However, mana exists in the air we breathe, the water we drink, as well as in the soil we step on"
"Oh, so it's some sort of particle or element," mumbled Li Chang.
"Shhh… Quiet four-eyes," snapped Toshiro in a whisper of derision.
"Tch, bastard," Li Chang clicked his tongue.
Irina turned around giving a glacial glare to both of the children.
They both shut up instantly.
"Mana exists in trace amounts inside the bodies of all living things. This doesn't affect their health in any significant way. However, individuals with only a trace amount of mana in their bodies are unable to handle areas with an extremely high density of mana. Simply put, breathing in too much mana can cause people with a weak constitution to die of mana-poisoning."
"Hmm… it's like carbon monoxide poisoning. But, constitution and tolerance are the deciding factors, interesting," thought Toshiro with an intrigued look on his face.
It wasn't just Toshiro. Every single one of the students was listening intently like this was their favorite subject in class.
"In the case of animals, things are a bit different," Queen Lidia said before putting her finger to her lips as if this were difficult to explain since this was considered common sense in this world.
"They change"
"Their bodies transform into a more powerful and ferocious state in response to the mana they absorb from their food, their water, and even the air. They become what we call monsters. There are a variety of types from dragon types, beast types, insectoids, inhumans, magical beasts, special types, and man-made types including, undead and constructs,"
"Sorry, Your Majesty, but we understand the gist, could you move on to mages and magic? We can have a more detailed explanation of monsters later," Fumiko said with a hesitant expression.
"Wha...Do the animals mutate in response to the extreme levels of mana? What is this stuff, some kind of mutagenic particle?" Toshiro thought with an astonished look.
"Hmm...I wonder how the marine life mutated. They're exposed to the water 24-7. Wouldn't their level and rate of monster mutation be much higher?" Choon Hee whispered with an uncharacteristically astute expression.
"What the hell! Even that weirdo is getting serious! Is she already mutating!" everyone thought at the same time as their hearts connected.
"Oh my, my apologies, yes I will proceed,"
"Mages are individuals from the sentient races born with a high concentration of mana in their bodies. We mages transcend the limits of our races through our ability to cast magic. All mages awaken to their power at the age of 15 or 16. All of you have already awakened. And one of you has quite a monstrous amount of mana to boot," Queen Lidia said with a giggle while covering her mouth.
"Say what?!?!" They all shouted unconsciously.
"Yes, yes, it is by the grace of Lord Septumis that we were able to summon such powerful heroes," the pope said sagely, splendidly ignoring everyone's half-astonished, half-excited expressions.
"I can use magic?!" everyone, including Fumiko, thought with expressions that looked like children on Christmas Day.
Fumiko quickly shifted her expression back to that of serene beauty and asked?
"What decides the type of magic a mage can use?", without a single tremor in her voice.
"All mages are born with one or several magic affinities. These affinities are tied to the soul and can never be changed,"
"There are 11 types of magic currently known,"
"They are Fire, Ice, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Light, Dark, Material, Healing, and Barrier," explained Queen Lidia.
"You said, "currently known," does that mean there are more," Fumiko questioned.
"Well, possibly, many ancient records and texts have been lost or destroyed since the progenitor age," Queen Lidia said with a difficult face.
Fumiko raised an eyebrow.
"Oh my, my apologies. The Progenitors were the oldest recorded human civilization in the history of this world. They had more powerful and mysterious techniques than we could possibly know. It's such a shame for such knowledge to have been annihilated. All that remains is a series of scattered underground ruins and dungeons," Queen Lidia sighed with a regretful expression.
"What other techniques do you have currently," Fumiko asked, genuinely intrigued.
"Well, there's Mana Manipulation, Enchantment, and Ritual casting. Uh, Ooh, there are also Dwarven Rune Arts. I could provide you all with plenty of material and training if you're interested in the subjects," the Queen continued on in a gleeful tone.
All the students felt a strange kinship with this joyful woman and couldn't help but smile gently.
The hostile atmosphere from a few minutes ago had completely vanished and a calm atmosphere was settling in.
At that moment, the fake Tom Crew cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Lady Lidia, it is great that you have restored the atmosphere to one conducive to conversation, but I believe the young heroes still have more questions," the King said, trying to get things back on track.
"Oh my. My apologies, Sir Isaac. This old lady just felt happy to educate a group of cute children," Queen Lidia said while stepping back.
Everyone's cheeks turned a little red at that comment.
"Ahem. Just a few more questions," Fumiko said while clearing her throat.
"Sentient races and Dwarves were mentioned. I assume this world has many different races. Could you list each one? We can find out the details later,"
"Certainly," the King said while stepping forward proudly.
"I will introduce myself once more, I am King Isaac Crowyth of the Crowyth Sword Kingdom. It is a pleasure to meet you young heroes."
"8 different races have existed in Ioglerah. However, only 5 races currently reign. They are us humans, the therianthropes, the dwarves, the elves, and the demons, a collection of different demonic races. Is there anything that you wish to know in detail?" King Isaac asked eagerly.
"Why does this guy look like a dog who wants a bone, " Alex whispered to Leon.
"Huh. Sigh. I can understand the feeling a bit," Leon said as he looked at Leni before sighing.
Alex patted the under-appreciated bro on the back.
"Hmm. You said, "currently exists". What races no longer exist?" Fumiko asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Well there were the ancient Kitsune and Fairies, but they died out more than 2000 years ago. And, well, there was one race that was recently destroyed in the past 500 years. They were the—"
"Lord Septumis helped us eradicate that despicable tribe of lizards. What were they called again, oh yes, the Draconians?! Those filth were closer to monsters than humans, they were no better than the demons!" ranted the pope in a rage.
This outburst startled all of the students, causing them to look around the room. All of the knights wearing a golden crest had ghastly expressions of pure hatred on their faces.
The students felt repulsed by this level of sheer hostility, even if it wasn't aimed at them. They knew instantly that wasn't the kind of hatred directed only at an enemy.
"Your Holiness, please calm yourself!" King Isaac warned in a serious tone.
"Ahem. Ahem. My Apologies, I just thought that the heroes should be concerned about the danger of the heretical races," the Pope grumbled, clearly not sorry at all.
The Queen and the students aimed ice cold gazes at him.
"Well, after hearing all of these explanations I can say that I definitely understand the situation. Guys?"
Everyone nodded, having processed everything clearly. They all reached an unspoken conclusion.
"We have absolutely no intentions on waging war, in a land where we weren't born, for people we don't know, against enemies we don't understand, for reasons that are clearly inspired by blind hate. Your Holiness, please send us back home?" Fumiko said in a flat tone.
The expression of all the knights in the room looked as though they had swallowed something bitter. The King and Queen were smiling wryly at Fumiko's statement. The expressions and body language of the white hooded figures were completely hidden. As for the Pope, he clearly hadn't thought about a scenario where the heroes rejected his request.
"Wha...Wha...What. Young heroes this is a task given to you by Lord Septumis, you are obligated to see it through," the pope rambled on hurriedly.
"Obligated by what? We have never met your God and he never asked for our opinions. How could we just agree to lay down our lives in service to a God we have never met. We are grateful to him for saving our lives, but we won't give up the life we were given by throwing it away in a war with nothing to do with us" Fumiko said in a dignified tone.
All of them had come to the same conclusion. If they didn't make themselves clear now, they would only begin to make more and more concessions.
"So like I said, Your Holiness, please send us back?" Fumiko said with a serene smile on her face.
The pope looked extremely nervous at this.
"Umm. Lord Septumis specified that the return circle for interdimensional traversal would only be provided after the Demon Empire was defeated," the Pope said, unable to look at Fumiko's terrifying smile.
Fumiko looked at the 7 mysterious white clad figures.
They nodded.
"Oi, hey, Don't just go on saying whatever you want!" Toshiro, Alex, Leon, Li Chang, and Irina yelled furiously.
Daksha nearly fainted again causing Oliver to hold her in his arms. Leni, Choon Hee, and Fumiko were left utterly dumbfounded by the bombshell statement.
They didn't think their game of 20 Questions would have such a shitty conclusion. Rather, they didn't think these guys would be shameless enough to pull something like this without a way of sending them home if they refused.
"Hey, aren't we just hostages then?" Leni asked innocently in a voice everyone in the room heard.