Chapter 1:
The Goddess and the Summoning
“YOU’RE TRYIN’ TO TELL ME we’re in another world?! What the hell?!”
Oyamada’s voice echoed around the dim, stone-carved room, which was more than big enough to hold all of class 2-C.
When I’d first opened my eyes, I found myself and my entire class here, in a room decked out in what looked like antiques, or maybe props from some medieval fantasy movie. Niches in the walls held lamps that illuminated the stone room with a warm glow.
“You have all been chosen!” a voice rang out.
“Huh?! You better tell me what’s goin’ on, right now!” Oyamada demanded, practically foaming at the mouth.
Before him stood a woman in a tiara who seemed completely unfazed by his outburst.
She’s definitely got guts.
The woman had soft skin and light gray hair, and her eyes—were they gold? Color contacts, maybe? But my eyes were especially drawn to her clothes, which were neat, immaculate…and barely there. She wore a scant robe, almost like a western Goddess you’d see in a painting…or maybe if that Goddess had been drawn by a character artist from an anime studio.
“Of course, let me explain. I am the one who summoned you here, after all,” she said. “I am the Goddess Vicius.”
Hang on—a goddess?
Some of the boys started whispering frantically.
“Whoa, so this is, like, one of those isekai stories?”
“Totally!”
“C’mon, it’s a dream, dude.”
“Then how’re we all having the same dream?”
“It’s way too realistic for that.”
So…it’s the trope where the whole class gets summoned, huh?
“Why couldn’t I get brought here alone?!”
“Ugh, I feel you.”
“Yeah, she didn’t choose me, she just grabbed the whole bus. It sucks.”
I’d heard of books and anime like that—isekai stories, where regular people get teleported to—or even reborn into—a fantasy world.
At least we didn’t all end up as babies in this one…
Some of the girls were panicking.
“Where the heck are we?! I don’t get what’s happening!”
“We were, like, on a bus, right?”
“Are we dead?! Am I a freakin’ ghost right now?!”
“All right, you got me! Where’s the camera?”
“Huh?! My phone, like, won’t turn on!”
“Where’s my stuff? You can’t expect me to go without my makeup and outfits!”
I guess I should just go with it for now. If this is a dream, I’ll wake up eventually.
“…”
I reached up and touched my face, then pinched my cheek, hard.
Ouch.
I guess it’s not a dream…but the timing of this whole thing worked out great for me. Looks like everybody already forgot what happened back on the bus.
I looked around. A few dozen men dressed like cliché RPG guards stood around us in a circle, armed with swords and spears.
No use resisting, then…
The whole class was unarmed, of course. Even with Kirihara’s athletic prowess, Oyamada’s brawn, Sogou’s martial arts, and whatever mysterious fighting skills the Takao sisters were rumored to have, it would be suicide to try to overwhelm the armed guards. There was no way our homeroom teacher Zakurogi would try anything, either—the only person you could count on for an outburst was Oyamada.
Zakurogi stood up.
“I don’t understand what’s going on here,” he proclaimed, in a voice that tried to bring us all in line, “but we should clearly listen to what this Goddess has to say!” His attempt at leadership was undermined by the way he kept stealing glances at the Goddess’s chest—even in another world, Zakurogi was still the same guy.
“Thank you, Sensei,” the Goddess said with a neat smile. “If you are all ready, please allow me to explain.”
And she started weaving a tale right out of a fantasy novel. Apparently there was an evil being—called “the Demon King,” or something—who had been resurrected recently. Whenever that happened, the Kingdom of Alion would summon heroes from “the other world” to be “the chosen ones” and take care of it. The last summoning was 200 years ago, so their existence was more folklore than anything.
This ability to summon heroes gave Alion a special reputation throughout the continent—since nobody knew when the Lord of Evil would return, they had to stay on Alion’s good side. Even more respected than the Kingdom was the Goddess Vicius, source of those summoned heroes. Not even the King of Alion could lay a finger on members of the Cult of Vicius.
Of everyone assembled before the Goddess, of course Kirihara Takuto felt that he had the right to speak.
“So, you want us to defeat this Demon King, I guess?”
“That is correct,” came the Goddess’s answer.
“Hunh. And what if we don’t?”
“Then you may never return home.”
“There’s a way to go back?”
“There is, but only if you defeat the Demon King.”
“Why?” Kirihara asked bluntly.
The Goddess signaled for one of her guards, who handed her a jet-black collar.
“To send you back, I require Demon King Essence. This is a very special kind of magical power.” She raised two fingers. “We know of only two ways to obtain it. The first is to get it directly from the source—the Demon King’s heart. The second is to defeat the Demon King and gather the essence in crystal form when he dies, using this collar. I cannot perform the ceremony to return you to your world without the essence in some form.”
“I don’t give a damn about your stupid kingdom or your Demon King! What’d he ever do to me, anyway?! Screw this!” Oyamada yelled. Clearly, learning the full story hadn’t chilled him out.
The Goddess got to her knees and knelt before him.
“Heroes, I humbly entreat you. Please, save this world,” she begged.
“H-heroes? I-I’m a hero too?” Oyamada seemed shocked. Maybe it was because he was so used to being treated like a naughty kid by authority figures, or just because it felt good to be called a hero by a beautiful Goddess, but Oyamada calmed instantly.
“You are our saviors—each and every one of you,” she declared.
“E-excuse me…” Sogou raised her hand as she spoke. “Can I ask something?”
“Go ahead.”
“Um… M-my name is Sogou Ayaka,” said Sogou, bowing her head.
“Oh! How very polite of you, Sogou-san.”
“N-not at all.”
“Please, go on. What would you like to ask?”
“A-as you can see, we’re all normal human beings. I doubt that any of us have experience in battle.”
Yeah…even Sogou’s martial arts skills probably won’t do much in a real fight to the death…
“So, well…you keep calling us heroes and saviors, but…I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to help you at all.”
“That won’t be a problem,” the Goddess replied with complete certainty. “All of you have special powers. Powers that other humans do not possess.”
“But…” Sogou stammered, “we don’t. I don’t understand…?”
“Of course you don’t believe that you have powers,” she continued at the same unhurried pace. “You didn’t…until I summoned you here.”
I don’t know how to describe it, but…it seems like she knows exactly what Sogou’s going to say before she says it. She said that she’s summoned heroes to save the world before, right? Do they all react just like this at first? Is she used to answering these exact questions in the exact same way every time—even the same words?
“I can’t take it!!” Oyamada shouted. “There’s no way in hell this is really another world. You’ve got us on camera right now, don’t you?! It ain’t even funny! Who writes this stuff? I’ll kill ’em!”
“Bring it forth.” Ignoring Oyamada’s outburst, the Goddess gestured to her guards again.
After some time, a ragged-looking man was escorted into the room. His hands were bound in chains, and he looked uneasy, flanked by guards on each side who pushed him forward with the points of their spears.
“Wh-what is that?” asked one of the girls, pointing across the room from the figure with trembling hands.
It wasn’t a person.
It was a three-eyed wolf.
At least, I think that’s a wolf…
The creature was enormous, with three flashing golden eyes and wine-red fur. It wore a rough collar attached to a heavy chain, which was gripped tightly by a particularly beefy guard.
“This sort of beast doesn’t exist in your world, does it?” the Goddess asked.
“Y-you obviously just painted a wolf! Screw you, that’s a costume or something! Just die already!” Oyamada had clearly made up his mind.
The Goddess gave another signal.
“Grrr… Grrrawrrr!!”
The ragged man flinched as he realized what was about to happen.
“No!! S-sto—!”
The three-eyed wolf leaped to the attack, claws tearing into its prey.
“Aaaaaah—!!”
One of the girls screamed, and the shrill noise echoed through the stone chamber.
“Urraaagh! Guuh! Aaah—”
The man’s screams stopped abruptly, and he lay still. The wolf began feeding on the corpse, tearing at flesh with its teeth.
One of the boys threw up.
What happened next, though, would kill all our doubts.
The Goddess stretched her arm toward the wolf and began to speak.
“Oh exorcising holy fire, in the name of the Goddess Vicius fulfil your duty and purge this monster!”
A shimmering circle formed in the air in front of her outstretched hand.
“Fireball!”
In an instant, the wolf was engulfed in white fire. It struggled and writhed as it tried to escape, but it was quickly consumed by the inferno and burnt to ash. The smell of charred meat filled the room.
The boys, who’d all gathered off to one side, started murmuring to each other.
“Th-that was real magic just now, wasn’t it?”
“You mean sorcery?”
“Wh-what’s the difference…?”
“So she was telling the truth about the ‘other world’ thing, huh…”
“She brought out that proof quick, oh man.”
“That was incredible! I’m still in shock…”
“It’s kinda exciting…!”
It was weird—they didn’t seem that upset. They were acting like this was a fun way to shake up their boring everyday routine.