“Welcome, my groom. Allow me to first offer my apologies for bringing you to my palace without any prior warning. I hope such an action can be forgiven,” said a woman, smiling sweetly.
She was absolutely striking, with red hair and tawny skin.
“Um... what?”
The person she was addressing—a man by the name of Yamai Zenjirou—simply muttered a half-witted noise in response, completely unable to grasp the situation.
What on Earth’s going on? Zenjirou thought to himself. The last he remembered, it was a Saturday... One that he was, for once, not spending at work. He had woken up at his usual time to make sure that he got the most out of his day off—such days being a rare occurrence since he’d started working. He had gotten on his bike and ridden to the nearby convenience store to grab some breakfast. That much he remembered.
In fact, his backside was still atop the seat of his bike, and his hands were tightly gripping the handlebars. The basket on the front held a fried chicken meal that he’d heated up at the store, along with a half-liter bottle of chilled tea.
Zenjirou wasn’t sure if he was going crazy, so he reached out and checked the temperatures of both items. The food was hot, and the drink was cold. The realistic sensations made him feel more certain that this was no dream. It also let him know, seeing as the food had not yet cooled down nor the tea warmed up, that he had not, in fact, lost consciousness and had instead been moved somewhere instantaneously.
He’d been pedaling through Kanto in Japan until mere moments ago. How was he suddenly in some gloomy stone room, being smiled at by a beautiful woman?
He observed the figure in front of him fixedly. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, he thought, though she had a stronger bearing and appeared calmer than most of that age, so she might be a little older. At the very least, it seemed she was older than Zenjirou’s own twenty-four years of age.
She was wearing a sensuous red dress with a plunging neckline, opening up in a V down her chest, but her own form certainly didn’t lose out to the eye-catching clothing. The valley of her breasts visible through that V boasted a chest more worthy of the moniker “huge breasts” than just simply “big ones,” and her waist was as narrow as her chest was prominent.
The lines of her body from the waist down were hidden by the flowing skirt of her gown, so he couldn’t tell for sure, but her legs were probably just as attractive. She had wide, almost square shoulders that some men might not find to their liking, but Zenjirou was well aware of her more womanly charms.
If he had been certain that he was currently dreaming, he would have leaped forward and yelled, “Where have you been all my life?!” That was how perfectly his type she was.
“Your Majesty, there is not much time. Now that the summoning has proven to be a success, it may be best to explain things as quickly as possible,” a young man clad in leather armor suggested monotonously from the woman’s side, while Zenjirou remained captivated by her beauty.
It was that statement that first made Zenjirou realize that he and the woman weren’t alone in the room. He hurriedly surveyed his surroundings and saw four men outfitted in the same way, armed with spears, surrounding him as he sat on the bike. There was also an elderly man wearing purple robes and leaning on a long staff.
His failure to have noticed the others in the room wasn’t because Zenjirou was unobservant. No, it was because the red-headed woman before him was just that imposing. Now that he looked at the armed men, he could see that they were well built and not exactly bad looking themselves, but when placed beside her, they were “extras to the queen” at best.
More than anything, this might all be thanks to what was termed “charisma,” and as he considered that, the woman nodded slightly and looked him in the eye, addressing him.
“Very well. Now, my groom, I am sure you do not understand why you find yourself in a place like this. Would you permit me an explanation and an apology for these circumstances?”
“What? Ah, y-yeah,” Zenjirou nodded, more at the force behind her smile than in understanding of her words.
The woman’s smile deepened at his meek reply. “Good. In that case, a gloomy place such as this is ill-suited to a lengthy discussion. It would be best to change locales. I would like for you to follow me.”
With those words, the woman turned, sending her wavy red hair billowing around, and walked off.
“We shall take care of your vehicle here,” a guard said gruffly.
“Ah, y-yeah, thanks.”
Still completely at a loss, he swung himself off the bike, automatically put the kickstand down out of habit, and locked it with a key from his pocket before hurrying after the stunning stranger, who was now standing at the entrance and watching him over her shoulder.