"Hostages!!!" Daksha screamed, no longer able to handle the pressure of this situation.
The only reason she lasted so long was because Irina and Oliver were comforting her. However, at the mention of the word hostage, a plethora of worst case scenarios flashed through her mind, causing her to tremble uncontrollably in Oliver's arms.
All the knights and leaders in the room turned and looked with astonished expressions, at the culprit who caused the girl to panic.
Leni, standing behind Leon, got her forehead flicked by Toshiro.
"Dummy"
"Holy shit, you're secretly an idiot, right? They wouldn't have even answered any of our questions if they were planning on doing that to begin with," Li Chang said while face-palming.
Fumiko faced the three leaders and asked with a hint of alertness, "That is the case, correct, Your Majesties, Your Holiness?"
"Of course," they all answered instantly.
"We had absolutely no intention of holding you hostage. However, it is a fact that Lord Septumis holds the key to your return home," King Isaac elaborated in a slightly guilty voice.
"Sigh, Your Holiness, could the 10 of us have a few hours to recollect ourselves and discuss our next course of action, preferably some place where we could have a light meal as well…Alone" Fumiko asked while rubbing her eyebrows with her thumb and index finger.
"Hmm. Very well." the pope said, slightly disgruntled.
As the group began walking out of the audience chamber, Toshiro remembered something he had been wondering.
"Hey, Your Holiness, was there really not one more person summoned with us, an old man with dark skin," Toshiro asked.
The pope looked confused at the question and shook his head.
"Huh. I guess Dr. Johnson isn't here," Toshiro puzzledly whispered to himself.
The group was led through a series of beautifully decorated halls by a blonde maid. All of the halls contained finely crafted marble busts, gorgeous works of art, and golden tapestries. However, the students weren't looking at any of them. They were all too focused on the contents of what was said in the meeting.
"Those bastards seriously called us here without a sure fire way of sending us back. What, did they expect us to live here until we died or something. Yui, Kaa-san, Tou-san…" Toshiro gritted his teeth at the absurdity of the situation.
Daksha was still trembling, absolutely terrified, Irina and Oliver were holding her hands as they walked along.
Fumiko was looking at the ground with a frown on her face and Alex had a similarly bitter expression.
Li Chang was rubbing the stubble on his chin, reflecting on the previous conversation.
After about 5 minutes of walking, the group arrived at an ornately decorated wooden door. The maid opened it and welcomed them all inside. She seemed extremely excited at first, but became increasingly nervous upon seeing the pale faces of the summoned heroes.
When the door was opened, the students were greeted with the sight of a beautifully decorated conference room. There were 10 chairs set in a circle with a large round table. The table had an intricately detailed sun carved into it, with 7 rays of lights shining outward. The students plopped down into the comfortable chairs, sighing with expressions of complete exhaustion.
"Your meals will be prepared soon, honored guests," the maid said dutifully before bowing and leaving the room.
Everyone sat in silence for what seemed like hours before someone finally spoke. It was Leon, surprisingly.
"I know everyone is anxious and not in a talkative mood right now, but we have to decide on what to do. We can't let that pope or anyone else string us along. Miss Kizaki and everyone else, please share your thoughts," Leon said with a flat but steadfast tone.
Everyone nodded at Leon's words. They knew they couldn't just sit around moping. But suddenly being told that your fate was in the hands of a bunch of fanatics would shake any one.
At that moment the door to the conference room was opened and a cart filled with a selection of foods was rolled into the room. There were fruits that looked like raspberries connected by what looked like a grape vine, slices of what looked like smoked ham and beef as well as an assortment of pastries. Several kettles of tea were also brought into the room. The students stared at the food with hungry eyes but were stunned when they looked at the servants who had brought in the food.
They were 12 extraordinarily beautiful women wearing what looked like maid cafe uniforms. Their soft thighs and chests were accentuated by the tight and revealing outfits. The students were even more stunned to see the thick iron collars around their necks. They were glowing while shedding a soft purple light. However, the most surprising feature of the women were their long pointed ears. They were obviously elven women. They all had a soulless look in their eyes as if they were zombies. The students could only imagine the horrors the women must have experienced for them to end up this way. If they were treated like this by a church; how much worse could it get?
The student's stared blankly as the group of women quickly left the room.
"Huh, I thought this would be the case, but didn't think it would be that bad," Fumiko said with a sigh.
"Yeah, slavery existed in our world too, until recently in the last few centuries," Alex said with an uncharacteristically heavy expression.
Everyone had lost their appetite after witnessing such a scene.
"Alright, let's get down to business. I have 1 idea for what we should be doing. In my opinion, we should learn the magic and techniques of this world. Magic seems to be extremely powerful and being able to defend ourselves is a necessity, especially if helping these people is our only way back home," Fumiko stated concisely.
"I think we should also get a handle on the geo-political climate of this world. There's no telling who will try to take advantage of us if we don't know their intentions," Li Chang declared while pushing up his glasses.
"I think I should take the opportunity to study the monsters, animals, and medicine of this world. We don't know if all of the food here is even safe for us to eat. The humans here have evolved in a totally different environment with completely different selective pressures," Toshiro said while crossing his arms.
"I...I think I should study the minerals and geography of this planet. Knowing the layout of everything is important. Also, I might find some useful minerals with interesting pruh...properties," Daksha said in a quiet voice.
"We also have to check out the map of this world that Miko asked for, our clothes too. It might help us understand more about how we got here," Alex said confidently.
Irina raised her hand.
"I might be able to have them fashion some equipment for us, depending on how advanced their smithing techniques are. Creating simple repeating rifles isn't a problem. Who knows, some of the materials from this world may be better. I know the blueprints for the miniature electromagnetic accelerator by heart, I might be able to create a railgun if I get the resources. We're the heroes, right? Then the church can't refuse us. As far as they're concerned we're messengers from their god. Let's milk these cows for all their worth," she said with a cold glint in her eyes.
"Ooh a railgun, as expected by the Russian Railgun. I'll study the biology of the marine life. If we ever want to move around at sea I think it would be best to understand the danger," Choon Hee said while saluting to the group.
"Leni thinks that we should request full access to their archives. We need historical records, books on magic, customs, common sense, and stuff about this "god" and those suspicious hooded guys. Leni can also help with equipment if needed," Leni said with her eyes closed, nodding adorably.
"Queen Lidia said that there were ruins scattered around from the progenitors. We should ask whether any of those would be useful," Leon suggested in a calm manner.
"Splitting up is not an option. We can't let them separate us. We have no idea what they'll do once one of us is alone. You guys saw the collars on those girls, those definitely aren't just for show," Oliver said with a serious face.
They all nodded deeply in response to his words. None of them was eager to get turned into a mindless zombie who could only follow orders.
Fumiko clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.
"Look, I know everyone wants to go home. We all do. I just don't think it would be wise to be too hasty and end up making a mistake. We should be prepared for this to take a while, but we also need a clear goal in mind so we can stay on track. So, I'll set a goal for 5 years. We must return home within 5 years. Let's take a year to prepare ourselves and do some research. We'll train and learn magic under the guise of cooperating with them. But, if we ever find a way to escape back to earth, we take it and abandon this world, we have no stake in whatever their conflict is and we have no hatred for the other races. Well, now that we've decided our course of action, everyone do your best!," Fumiko declared with a triumphant smile.
From then on 12 months of tireless work began.
Later that night, after Fumiko's requests for materials, training, equipment, and full access to the archives were delivered…
In a secret meeting room, somewhere in the Grand Cathedral, 7 figures shrouded in darkness were conversing.
"Oi, guys, look at this list of requests, these kids are being cheeky, right? Full access to the Church's archives, the best materials, equipment, and weapons we have available, 5 workshops and 30 assistants with experience in medicine, crafting, forging, calculations, and drawing, as many monster and sea monster corpses as possible, and the best training in magic and close combat that we can offer, as well as an assortment of learning materials including culture, common sense, and stuff about the Church's history. Who do they think they are?!" yelled a man in a voice that seemed like a gangster.
"Well, we expected to make many concessions. We did summon them here to fight for us after all. We just didn't expect them to be so steadfast. Well, all except for the crying girl," mused a woman in an arrogant tone.
"Just do it. We need them to be competent after all," commanded a low monotonous voice.
The other 6 figures nodded obediently.
"Sigh, sister Annie, you should've just added a Soul Interference magic formula to the magic circle we used," said a womanly voice in a tired tone.
"Hmm. Sure, if you wanted our cute toys to be a bloody mess after summoning them, sure. It was impossible to use Interference Magic while keeping them stable with Communication Magic at the same time. I have my limits, and I still haven't recovered from 500 years ago" sighed a woman with a seductive voice that could ruin any person.
"Oi, you haven't improved at all in the last 1000 years!" Said the gangster-like voice.
"Sweetie, would you want to test out that theory," the seductive voice hissed in a tone that was clearly threatening.
"You wanna go, SLUT," the gangster voice said, not backing down.
"Pipe down. You two, you're always like this," said the monotone voice in displeasure.
"Yes," said the two voices, submissively.
"Well that doesn't matter now, what are we going to do about them?" the monotone voice asked.
"We should deal with them immediately, that Fumiko girl is too dangerous. She has more mana than the 7 of us combined in our current states. If she learns too much it'll be impossible for us to kill her," said a high pitched voice in a fed up manner, you almost couldn't tell it was a man.
"Yawn. Don't be too hasty, let's just watch their movements for now. We can just deal with anyone we don't like by sending them to that graveyard in the Drekkon Mountains," said the tired woman's voice while yawning.
"Hmm. True, even Big Bro couldn't get down there after he wiped out those damn lizards. The monsters in that hole are just too strong when you get deeper in. It wouldn't be a problem if we had fixed our issue, but it's too risky to go there when the reward isn't certain," said the high-pitched male voice.
"We should wait to see what their affinities are. Anyone who can disrupt our plans has to be killed by the monsters in that place," said the pompous woman.
"I'm not optimistic. Why would they even want to go there, we don't even know what's down there. What if they find something powerful?" said a man in a dreary tone.
"It doesn't matter, even if they find something useful, there's no way they could understand it, no matter how excellent they are, they're still babies compared to us," said the arrogant woman derisively.
"Fine. But what about that Fumiko girl, the other ones too. Could you do something about them, Sister Annie?" asked the tired sounding woman.
"Hmm. Maybe, but all of those sweeties of strong mental defenses for their age, even the crying girl. If I try to break through with force I might accidentally destroy their will and break them. They would be of no use to us like that. I need an opening of some sort. Something that will break them down emotionally," the sexy sounding woman said with a seductive sigh.
The arrogant woman smirked.
"I think I know how. It's full proof," the arrogant woman said while puffing out her ample chest.
"Alright then, let's hear it," the low-voice commanded.
"It goes like this…"
The arrogant woman relayed her plan.
…
"Fufu. Fufu. Fufu," the seductive woman let out a laugh that could make any man her slave.
"That's perfect," the monotone voice said with a flicker of madness.
"Do it, in the name of father Septumis,"
"Yes" 6 other voices sounded, filled with nothing but pure malice towards the world.
Dark machinations were engineered that night.