Chapter 1

“...Ugh… Just what… happened…?”

A boy woke up in an unfamiliar location. He found himself on a soft, beautifully woven and embroidered red carpet.

…What?, He examined the surroundings. The boy was terribly confused, and anxious―nothing to be ashamed about though, since the last thing he remembered was...

I was in the classroom, before…

He recalled coming late into class because of an incident that occurred on the way there. It was the last lesson of the day, too. Not long after he arrived, he remembered there was a great flash of light, before hearing a strange voice and losing consciousness. Unfortunately, however, his head only throbs in pain when he tries to remember what the voice said.

Glancing around, groans came from the boy’s surroundings.

...Oh, right.

There were, of course, other people in his class, and they seemed to be waking up now, as well. Maybe together, could they figure out the situation?

...

.....

It took about 5 minutes for everyone to wake up. There were many opinions of what happened; kidnapping, a surprise movie shoot, et cetera. They were in what looked to be a large hall, gathered on a red carpet as previously mentioned. The hall was big, but not grand. It had a similar feel to that of a waiting room, just bigger, and was intensely decorated with things such as silken curtains covering the walls, extravagant furniture and paintings, as well as intricate detailing on those curtains, and a large set of double doors at one end of the room.

On the ceiling above the class, a strange chalk formation could be seen. Around it, were dimly glowing, blue crystals hanging from the ceiling, arranged at regular intervals―the boy knew what this was at first sight.

Is that… a magic circle...? Like, from anime...? From manga and videogames.....?

Of course, it wasn’t set in stone that it was a magic circle. It simply looked similar to one―that's all. But, from this, the boy could guess that this magic circle was what transferred them to this place. Normally, he would be thrilled at the thought of another world transfer, but oddly enough, he wasn’t. It felt strange. He wanted to be excited―he already convinced himself that they were now in a fantasy world, after all…

But to his displeasure, he only felt a sense of foreboding.

...Well, whatever. I’m finally in a fantasy world, right? I want to enjoy it. It’ll probably be fine., And so he ignored the feeling for now. Tuning back into reality, the boy found that people were arguing; certain classmates wanted to take control of the situation, and others opposed it, saying they should work together.

“Everyone, silence!”, The teacher of the class called out, causing many students to be quiet, and others to sigh.

“Obviously, this is a mass kidnapping and we need to get out of here with haste! Firstly, let’s go through the door and see if we can find a way ou--”

Someone interrupted the teacher.

“Oi, oi, oi. What d'ya think ya doin’, teach?”

It was one of the students, Ryan―a so-called delinquent, truant, and tyrant, among other things. In contrast to his tone and actions, he was genuinely smart, and he knew how to get away with things, so he rarely ever actually got into trouble.

The first youth, Jae, knew this, and so understood that Ryan probably had a good reason to be doing this. Of course, there was also the chance that Ryan simply didn’t like the fact that the teacher was in control.

“Ryan… Just what do you think you’re doing? Do you not see the urgent situation we are in?”, the teacher spoke, baffled, as Ryan slowly walked up to him―a suspicious and dirty smirk on his face.

“Me...? Ohh, nothin’ for you to worry 'bout. Why, ya scared or somethin’?”

The teacher frowned deeply at Ryan’s continuous advance, “Do you even understand the current circumstances we are in right now!? We need to get out of here as soon as--”

“Why?”

“…Excuse me?”

“Why’d we need to leave, exactly?”, Ryan asked.

The teacher was dumbfounded. Ryan stopped just a couple of inches in front of his face―still with a smirk―causing the teacher to become slightly anxious.

“"W-why"? Ryan, that's enough of this nonsen--“

*Slam!*

Ryan punched the teacher square in the face, causing an uproar amongst the other students.

*gasp!*

“What are you doing?!”

“Why’d you do that!?”

“What the hell man!?”

―Though, there were some contrasting reactions as well.

*Whistle*

“Headshot!”

“Nice one!”

“Hahaha!”

These were the people who, evidently, held some kind of a grudge against the teacher. Jae was surprised, but didn’t even open his mouth at the incident. Everyone stared at the teacher, who was getting back on his feet.

“Do you know what you’ve just done!? When we get back, you--! ”

*Bang!*

Ryan opened his mouth to the once-again speechless teacher, who now lay on the ground, unable to recover after being punched a second time.

“Hah. Dumbass. You prolly think I’ll be excluded or somethin', huh? So who’s gonna exclude me, exactly, in this situation, eh? In fact, don’t even answer―your words don't mean shit.”

“...What do you mean?”, someone bravely called out. Surprisingly, Ryan replied somewhat normally.

“Hm? Are you retarded? Why does it even matter what the teacher says? Are we in a situation in which he holds more power than us? No, shithead, we’re not.”

“B-but when we get back--”

“―Hah.”, Ryan snorted, “Have you idiots even looked outside?”, he gestured to the curtains that covered the windows, ”Isn’t that common sense? To first figure out where you are in a kidnapping-like scenario. God, you really do have some brain damage, don't you?”

He continued with a laugh.

“And, hahah, let’s be honest here. Who actually wants to go back to that shithole? Isn’t being free here much better? We have more power, and no restraints for it. We can do whatever we want, granted we escape from this place.”

Nobody noticed it, but as soon as he said that line, Ryan gulped. There were conflicted murmurs among the rest of the class. Of course, it would be nice if they didn’t have to worry about going back anymore, and could stop worrying about all the work they had, but if they couldn’t go back, then what about their family? Alhough some disliked being at home, or even hated their family, that was an extreme minority.

Whether they were aware of this or not, the class was too affected mentally by the current, abnormal situation. They eventually heeded Ryan’s words, went over to the curtains, moved them out of the way and looked outside the clear, crystalline windows.

“””........”””

No one could say a single word. Outside, the class saw a huge city, though it was strange―there were no buildings that looked modern. The entire visible world on the outside looked medieval―as if they travelled back in time to the middle-ages or something. Some pupils were excited about this, and some, anxious or frightened. Especially the girls, for various reasons.

Although, some thought otherwise. Like Jae, they were the people who had read or watched anime, manga, and other medias with these types of tropes. They were the ones terribly excited for what was to come.

In other words, they were nerds.

Anyway, there were other students who had helped up the teacher, including the class representative, Chris. Once done, he began to reprimand Ryan.

“Ryan! No matter if we can go back or not, this violence is unnecessary and wrong! What's wrong with you!?”

“…”, Ryan, having glanced uninterestingly at Chris, simply ignored him after shrugging. This caused Chris's glare to severely worsen. If looks could kill, one might say Ryan was already dead.

“You…!”

*pat*

Someone placed their hand on Chris’s shoulder to calm him down.

“It’s okay, Chris; don’t worry about it. In this situation, anyone would find it hard to maintain order.”

“…Thank you, Ashley. However, I can't let this slide...! Ryan's gone too far...”

"....."

Ashley, noticing there was nothing she could do to soothe Chris, only nodded and walked over to a group of girls as they began to chat. Chris then turned his gaze at the floor in discomfort, after looking at Ryan’s turned back, and clenched his fists. Jae watched this sight, rather apathetically, before falling back into thought.

*creaaaak*

All of a sudden, everyone stopped whatever they were doing and turned. They all saw the double doors at the end of the room creak open slowly, and watched as many knights covered head-to-toe in shiny metal armour flooded into the room, like a ceremony was taking place. The knights bordered the edges of the room, and following them, came three really important-looking people, including one that seemed to be the knights’ captain, as indicated by the special-looking badge that shone brightly on the unique armour they wore.

One of the other two―a girl, about the same age as the students, dressed in a magnificent, white-gold dress and covered in exquisite jewellery like a tiara, necklaces, earrings and bracelets, stepped forward with great elegance.

She curtsied politely and gracefully to the students―

“Greetings.”

―and began to introduce herself.

“My name is Eleanor Astavau Seronia.”

The students listened silently in anticipation of the girl. Many gulped in nervousness at the sight of the beautiful fantasy princess and her enchanting smile, including even some of the girls in the class.

“It is most pleasurable to be able to meet you all. Our great country, Seronia, has summoned you heroes, and we ask for your assistance.”

With every word that flowed out of her mouth, the class felt like they were getting more and more charmed. Despite this, however, it didn’t take long for someone to interrupt the speech.

“―Hoh? So ya kidnap us before beggin’ for our help, huh? How fuckin' courteous indeed.”

Of course, it was Ryan. He silently looked around at the numerous, luxurious-looking ornaments in the room and on Eleanor, and grinned greedily. It was obvious at first glance that these people were the top brass of an entire country, and so he would take advantage of that. Ryan quickly spoke again before anyone could react to his previous sentence.

“If we’re doin’ work for you an’ your country, then what’d we get for it?”

Some of the knights’ facial expressions seemed to twitch at his attitude and tone, but fortunately they managed to keep it under control and didn’t do anything. Eleanor replied to Ryan without batting an eye, as if she had expected this type of response already.

“Of course, you will all be compensated on a meritocracy-based system, so, the better you do, you will be treated appropriately. I can guarantee that on the name of my country, and on my title as Princess.”

Murmurs broke out at the word ‘princess’, but Ryan’s grin only grew further, as if he thought 'as expected'. Eleanor continued.

“For the time being, we have pre-arranged suitable accommodation that I think you will all find to your liking. You must all be exhausted from arriving in an unfamiliar location without warning, so I will save you all the necessary explanation until tomorrow.”

Ryan, satisfied that he can be rewarded―by the princess of a country herself, no less―as well as everyone else, who were all very interested, listened as Eleanor mentioned one last thing.

“Oh, and, an evening meal shall be ready in about three hours, so feel free to explore the palace grounds until then. The bell will ring when it's time, and the accommodation is―”

Jae listened silently to Eleanor’s words along with everyone else. He had been thinking of many different things since he woke up and until now, and with the appearance of Princess Eleanor, he had confirmed it―this was precisely the development of a common isekai light novel.

This advancement, although incredibly cliché... Well, I can say for sure that it is one of the better scenarios out of the ones I've seen...

So far, it didn't look like those types of settings where the people summoned to another world just get executed randomly for being useless or whatever, and to Jae, that was a godsend, but he still wasn’t 100% sure of anything just yet―He had to make sure this was really it, and Jae knew just the right thing to know for certain.

In his head, Jae recited the words he had always wanted to try.

Status, open.