I awake as I feel the world around me begin to move. Still feeling sluggish, I sat up and rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes.

Man, I can’t wait to meet up with Lisa and the rest of the gang… I wonder if we’ll all hang out tonight.

“Good morning, Rin.” A familiar voice spoke.

“Good morning, Roy.” I sleepily replied naturally. Almost too naturally.

Huh, wait, who’s Roy again?

I remember once again that I am in the other world.

Instead of waking up in my room, I found myself lying down

across from Roy in armor without his helmet, and the girl in the purple dress sitting together in the carriage.

What was the girl’s name again? I think it was Liz?

“Ara? When did you two get so friendly?” Liz asked in a mature voice which didn’t match her petite appearance at all.

“We just had a little conversation last night,” Roy replied as his arms flexed under the sunlight while he held his sword.

Man, those arms were something else, I wonder if I looked as good as Roy did when I flexed.

Definitely not.

The two of them quickly moved on the conversation to a topic my brain couldn’t quite pick up on. It felt odd, there were a couple of words that they said that sounded like a whole other language to me, but I could get some idea of what they were talking about. Then again, I am in another world, after all, it’s natural some words would sound alien to me.

I sat up and stretched my sleepiness away. I groggily climbed up the seating of the carriage and looked outside.

Woah!?

My breath was stolen from me as the carriage moved down a path of dirt among the grassy plains filled with colorful flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. Despite my current stressful situation of waking up in an unfamiliar place, it was quite a relaxing view to travel to. I breathed in the cool air and looked at the blue sky which had no clouds in sight and, to my relief, only one sun instead of two.

“We’re almost at Lastria you lot!” A girl’s voice shouted from the front of the carriage which had a curtain covering the view from the front.

Out of curiosity, I decided to stand up and make my way to the front of the carriage.

I move the curtain aside to find that the carriage was being dragged by two horses, both of them being controlled by a familiar smile.

“Good morning! Did you sleep well?” The Spirit that had caught my leg in a bear trap asked enthusiastically, “We didn’t get off to the best start, but call me Hilde!”

Although Hilde was very cute herself, nothing was very cute with the same silver bear traps that had trapped my leg before attached to her sides. To the Spirit’s right, was a well…. Familiar not exactly a smile.

It was Isabel, my supposed Summoner.

Since she wasn’t in a hooded robe anymore, I could clearly see Isabel for the first time.

Isabel wore brown boots with heels that reached all the way to the bottom of her knees, long purple pants with a belt around her waist which really helped emphasized her thighs, and a fancy sort of crop top that exposed her shoulders with long sleeves reaching her wrists.

I mean, not that I was focusing on her thighs. I definitely wasn’t… nope! Not at all!

With her right hand, she wore a brown glove while her left hand had a single silver ring on her index finger. She also wore a kind of choker with an expensive-looking orange gem attached to it. I would have called her a classy woman if it weren’t for the black cape with collars out that she also wore, making her look like a vampire. She must’ve had extremely long hair because even though her light brown hair was done in a high ponytail, the ends of her hair went down to around her stomach.

“What are you doing here?” Isabel asked in a rather cold tone.

“I woke up here,” I replied, forcing a smile.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh no, I really don’t know what you mean. Please elaborate.”

Isabel sighs, “By my command, I order my Spirit, Shielder, to sit down in the back of the carriage.”

Pins and needles begin to fill my body as I start to walk towards the back of the carriage without control over my own body. The sensation was unpleasant, I knew that my brain was telling my body to start moving on my own, but I couldn’t control my movements at all.

Did Isabel really just use some sort of spell on me?

It felt incredibly weird to have my body move on its own, but my body sat down with annoyance written all over my face.

Roy gives me a slight chuckle. “She just used a command on you.”

“That’s so not fair,” I reply, still without control of my body.

“It does take up a lot of energy to do, so to have her use one on you… well...”

Roy didn’t need to say any more, I already got the gist of it. My Summoner hates me so much that she would use up a lot of energy just to get me out of her sight.

Once the pins and needles finally escaped my body and I was in control of my limbs again, I hugged myself and sighed.

Oh, my body, how I missed you!

Roy seemed to take pity on me and sat down to my right and patted my back.

I say he patted my back, but it was more like he slapped my back. He had some monstrous strength if the force he put into attempting to console me was enough to almost make me fall face-first onto the carriage.

Liz raised her eyebrow at us with a mischievous grin on her face.

I wonder what that was all about?

We ended up riding for a couple more minutes when suddenly, the carriage came to a stop and my ears began to pick up the sound of children laughing and playing.

I looked outside again to see that we had stopped in front of an amazingly large stone wall. Directly in front of the carriage were iron gates built into the wall that allowed me to see an entrance to an entire town behind the wall. However, the carriage didn’t come to a stop because of the gates, the gates were actually raised high enough for any carriage to pass through. Instead, the carriage came to a stop because the carriage was suddenly surrounded by at least a dozen kids who might’ve been playing outside the town walls.

“Everyone! Isabel is back!” A young girl cheered.

“Look, there are people with her.” A boy noticed.

“Woah, isn’t that guy so big and cool? He must be strong!”

“That lady beside Isabel looks so cool! I want her cape!”

“Look at the girl beside the big man, I love her dress.”

“Hmm, that guy with the shield looks…uhm, cool?”

Hey kid, what was that pause for? Shields are cool too you know?

“Dear children, please do not surround a moving carriage next time, okay?” A soothing voice called out to the children from the front of the carriage.

No way…

I made my way to the front of the carriage again with disbelief at the tone of the voice and peered out the curtain to the sight Isabel smiling and putting flowers into some girl’s hair.

If I had never met Isabel, I would have thought she was a saint.

“Huh, so you do have a nice side.” I accidentally muse out loud.

“Shut up you!” Isabel quickly replied with a harsh tone.

Her eyes widened as she remembered she was surrounded by children.

“Isabel said a bad wooord!” The kids chant in a sort of sing-song.

I looked at Isabel with a cruel grin on my face. Looks like she would be helpless against innocent children.

“It’s not surprising she said a bad word kids, she bullies me all the time!” I say in a sad tone, taking a peek at the kids who gasped.

“Isabel is a bully?” The kids ask, almost in unison.

“I know right? I was also surprised.” I showed no sign of stopping, “I was so sad, she bullied me because I only use a shield.”

“Whaaat?” The kids asked in unison.

Hah, take that Isabel! Come on then, try to get out of this one.

“Mister, do you really only use a shield? That’s too weak!” A boy asked.

Huh?

“Yeah! The big mister has a cool sword! He must be super strong!” Another girl added.

I slumped my shoulders and sank back into the back of the carriage. Liz was politely covering her mouth, obviously hiding her laughter. Rin on the other hand wasn’t hiding his laughter at all as it boomed all around the carriage.

What’s wrong with shields? Have these kids never seen Captain USA?

After getting clowned on by children, Isabel continued entertaining the children by telling them about her adventure of summoning Spirits for the first time and going into a dungeon to get levels to become stronger. Of course, she left out the part where she attempted to kill me from the start and didn’t bring me along to the dungeon.

Soon enough, the kids became satisfied with Isabel’s story time and the carriage began moving again as we entered through the iron gates and into the town.