I jerk up to the loud sound of a cannon going off.

I couldn’t be back home?

I tossed the thick blankets off me and ran to look out the window. A large green barrier was rippling as large objects slammed into it. I look down into the street to see a convoy of carriages rushing towards the city wall.

Okay, I wasn’t home.

I debated on going out and seeing what kind of demons came out at night when the moon hadn’t even retreated yet.

“Shouldn’t you be reporting in? If not, come back to bed and let me enjoy your company again.” the waitress spoke through a yawn, arch up on her elbow with the cover barely covering her hips.

I licked my lips and made the decision everybody would make. I dove back into bed.

***

Bright beams dragged me out of my sleep. That and the waitress was making all kinds of splashing noises as she cleaned herself in the tub.

I opened my heavy eyelids and looked over her perfect coke shaped body. Even if her breast did sag a bit, it didn’t diminish her beauty. I pulled myself into a sitting position, backed against the bed board.

“Going to work?”

She glanced back and nodded, stifling a yawn with clenched jaws. She draped the cleaning brush onto a rail and began drying herself off.

“Yeah, I still have to work even during this bullshit. If the tips weren’t so great, I would have fled back to my home.” she complained, stretching her leg out to dry it off.

“Oh, where is your home?”

She glanced out the window with a warm smile. “You probably came from the central region with all the trees and rivers, right? My village is actually at the outskirts of that. We get a lot of traffic due to being right on a river and the edge of the vast Emerald Dusk forest.”

I pulled a bottle of water out my storage card, egging her own with a gesture.

She slipped on her panties and bra. “Well, you probably know this already but we have this specialty that you can’t find anywhere else called Moon-river shrimp. When seasoning with night-yeast and some secret sauce, they taste so good that your mind will leave your body. It’s like floating in the clouds and never coming down.” She said, dreamily.

Her eyes gazing up as a bright smile eclipsed any words she was going to speak next.

I watched her in wonder. Wondering what that taste like and if I should make a point to stop by before heading back to the castle to see what that imbecile finished researching.

She sighed as the smile and memory faded away. “Sadly, they cost so much and even nobles rarely eat them. Only for special occasions. Though, I heard some say that they can grant a measure of power if eaten every full moon but they cost thousands of squares and nobody but the king has that much money.”

She started lacing up her dress while throwing me a cocky look. “What about you? Where are you from? Or were you born in the capital? Though I was there once, when I was a teen. I visited during the King crowning ceremony. It was so majestic, the way the mages made the sky lit up at night. The food was good but the people were kind of stuck up. Like being borned a commoner in the capital gave them different rights than people born outside. But I guess it does since they don’t have to worry about any of this stuff.”

I tilted my head in confusion. If she is capable of traveling so much, why is she here on the frontline. She must have seen my confusion and guess what I was thinking.

She started laughing. “I own this restaurant and as a three-star mage. It’s very easy for me to escape if I want to. Regardless if the walls are breached or not. Have you heard of the Dreamscape Tower?” She looked at me curiously.

I shook my head, “No, I haven’t.”

She chuckled while walking to my side. “Well, I am from Dreamscape Tower. Which is just a fancy tower were all magus with certain inclination towards spirit, soul, and illusion magic go. We actually work fairly well with spatial magic, so I can safely teleport back to my tower if needed.”

“Oh, you can do enchantments? Right? Your dress had some kind of enchantment on them that kept tingling my fingers.” I said, grabbing her chin to pull her into a kiss.

It took her a moment to break free from me and she chuckled but it sounded real deep and needy. She sighs like she didn’t want to go but still back away in the direction of the door.

“I have to go but remember my name, Eleanor Wexcombe.” She hurried out the door as if staying would cause her to dive back into bed.

I giggled and looked around the messy room. We had a hell of a night. Sigh, back to work.

Jumping out of bed, I stepped through a card that had enlarged. Appearing out the otherside dressed in tight blue jeans and black turtleneck. I opened up a teleportation card and appeared back in the room they offered me so graciously.

I barely walked out the room when the hero scared the living shit out of me.

“Took you so long. Guess you had to do some recreational stuff, huh? Didn’t know you were into other girls, but remember, if you need a third. I am free.” He mocked, while leaning against a window sill with several books floating around him.

I touched my chest to calm down my beating heart. Maybe, I shouldn’t have been thinking about Eleanor when coming back.

Ha, guess lesson learned.

“This is what I found out.” I waved my hand and the card turned into a mirror, replaying my acts of valor and other things I recorded.

Cecil watched with interest while sending me many looks that said he would no longer teased me but was turned on even more. Such a dickbag, sigh.

“Fascinating. I didn’t know espers had remarkable physical abilities like that. Plus that energy seems to be something different than card magic? Is card magic really your ability or something you used to hide your real power?” He guesses remarkably close to the truth.

I merely smiled in response. “Probably.”

The cards were actually my ability but as S-tier it couldn’t be that simple obviously. The energy is just a by-product of a contracted spirit. Which also helped to increase my physical abilities well past the average for someone like me.

He stared at me, studying my body language but I was more relaxed and still reminiscing that pleasant night. He wasn’t going to get anything off me that I didn’t want him to know.

He clicked his tongue and sighed, “Well, I got some fabulous information while here. This world is magical in nature, we already knew this. However, what we didn’t know is how many different kinds of species exist in this world. And the answer is about four to five. Such as elves, dwarves, dragons, and so on. Does it matter to us? Not really.”

He began walking and I rushed to catch up.

“What matters to us is the fact that our little kingdom has about 70% percent of the population as mundane non-magical entities. You might be wondering what the fuck? Back in our world, almost one out of five had some kind meta-power right? Well the answer is that it was bred out of the mass population due to many rebellions when a King got greedy. Great thinking, it led to a specific group of people hoarding all the power and thus..”

He pointed out the window where you could see a large six ring tower in the distances. “There are a bunch of these magic towers. This one is owned by the King’s forces. It outputs around hundred to three hundred magical entities every five years. They have some way to induce the magical index in their host. The bad news, these are mainly the people fighting on the front lines. The mundanes are using magical cannons but from your report, it seems the frontline lost the ability to use them or ran out of magic crystals?”

He glanced at me and I shrugged.

He continued on speaking. “Anyway, I found out they lost a lot of ground so far. It’s just not in one direction. The frontline you were on seems to be the one bordering this kingdom rival, the Emerald Kingdom. Actually, both Kingdoms used to be a part of the Original Emerald Dynasty but for some reason they broke apart and became what they are now. Small kingdom with their own culture that is similar in many ways but different at the onset.”

I nodded while listening, “but what does this have to do with us?”

He smirked while stopping in a training yard. In front of him were thirty men and women looking as if they were freezing in their thick winter clothes.

“The gist? We have to build our own fighting force. I was going to do this but you are obviously more people oriented than I am. I was a high-level researcher back in my world. Talking to regular people was a chore. Anyway, these guys have a high magical index but weren’t chosen to be taken in by any towers. I already created potions that will unlock their abilities, we just need a training regimen.”

He paused and looked at me. “Can you create a world within your card? Like, something that won’t be interfered with outside of this area?”

I shrugged, “I could but anybody with a more powerful soul then me won’t be able to enter without being attacked. So?”

He smiled, “Train them inside there. Move the time up as far as possible. It would be best if you do like spellblades, have you heard of them? If not, here is some materials.”

He tossed books at me and sent potions at the other guys. “Drink!”