Chapter 19

Inside the Palace.

"Oh, please Heroes, please save our world!"

A beautiful girl dressed in a white dress called. Her voice is soft and very feminine.

The strange magic circle engraved on the floor let out a dazzling light and their shine became stronger in response to her call.

However, the light gradually quiets down as it slowly faded.

Not only the beautiful girl but the others with her were also thought that the summoning was a failure. However, at that time a flash engulfed the surroundings that made everyone present unable to open their eyes.

After the light calmed down and disappeared, four no rather after rubbing their eyes in disbelief, there were six people standing within the Magic Circle of Hero Summoning. Five people and one animal to be exact. What more surprising is that the animal beside one of the girls looked like a lion.... no, clearly it should be a lion.

The Lion look around, confused, then suddenly when it saw strange people had surrounded them, the Lion let out a shocking roar.

Baring its fangs towards them, the Lion growled while standing in front of a girl wearing simple work clothes, as if it was protecting her.

"Eh? Wh-What is this? What happened?"

Other than the eye-catching Lion, there were five people consisting of two boys and three girls. The boys were cautiously looking around as if they didn't saw the lion beside them with a surprised expression. Well, can’t blame them. To suddenly appeared inside a castle-like place, surrounded by strange-looking people, those beside you will surely be forgotten.

The girls were also surprised and their bodies stiffened in shock—except for one lone girl which was behind the lion. As soon as she saw the people around, her countenance changed and became alert. Her gaze filled with hostility and doubt. Where am I? However, the people present didn't notice the girl's expression because she as covered by the huge body of the lion.

The beautiful girl was the first one who managed to recover from her shock first as she slowly approached the new arrivals.

Her body was slightly trembling whenever she saw the lion growling towards her but she still endured it and steeled herself.

"Please save our kingdom, oh heroes from another world!"

--- ---

(Serena Hail)

"Oww...just what the hell happened?"

Serena leaked an anguished voice from the pain on her bottom, which was the price for the sudden event to which she couldn't even react.

It was outside of common sense, against logic.

21 years old, a university student. She was working as a part-time animal trainer in a zoo which her uncle manages. She loves animals ever since she was a child. Then, like usual, when she was working while feeding her best pal, Leona, the lion, she suddenly saw the ground they were standing on was glowing dimly.

"Wh-what is this? What's happening?!"

A voice beside her exclaimed in shock.

When she turned around, she saw four people; two girls and two boys, Zoo visitors. They looked like High school students. However, that’s not what important right now. What is happening? Why is the ground glowing?

Then another change occurs. At the center of the glowing floor, a blue disk encompassing the area around them appeared. From the middle of the disk, beams of light began to form a picture—It looked like two broadswords forming an 'X' pattern with a snake swirling around them.

"Two swords and a snake?... Is it some kind of crest? Symbol?" Serena frowned while looking vigilant from this sudden paranormal activity.

And then they noticed that it wasn't just a picture but a three-dimension sculpture made of golden light. That strengthened their impression that it was indeed a crest.

“Is this some kind of performance of the Zoo?” One of the boys asked.

“I don’t think so…” A girl answered as panic flashed across her face.

Just what is happening…?

What do you mean by performance? I’m working here and I don’t even know that such a thing exists? Can’t you see my confused expression?

Serena was bewildered; she suddenly grabbed Leona’s fur that was currently eating in anxiety. As she pondered over that question, all of a sudden the overflowing light blinded her eyes.

"Something's wrong--?!"

Feeling a sense of abnormality, a moment faster than they could move the light covered their vision.

As though swallowed by the light, three girls along with the two boys nearby and one lion lost consciousness.

--- ---

It happened extremely sudden without any sort of warning beforehand. Sure, she had forecast that something is wrong with the sudden appearance of that crest-looking thing but it was too sudden to prepare herself.

The floor was hard. Probably stone paving or tiles. Falling flat on her backside, her tailbone was in anguish. Beside her was one of her best pals; the lion, Leona. At least, there’s someone she knows in this weird place. Although Leona was a Lion, a beast but Serena had been with her ever since she was a cub. Although it was unbelievable, Leona treated Serena as one of her family or friend together with that one other boy…

Feeling relieved that Leona was beside her; Serena then raised her head and began examining her surroundings.

An overly tall ceiling, marble pillars arranged in lines and red carpet underneath. Like those from what she has seen in Hollywood through TV screens, it looked luxurious. Though, this place looked like one of those interiors of medieval-style castles she had seen from television before. It even looked like what she had seen in the Game of Thrall or something.

But what are these people wearing? Some kind of performance? Movie scene? Can’t be…

Serena calmly analyzed the scene in front of her. Where she was now looked like some sort of a Hall or something. There also stood people she had never seen before. On both sides, there were soldiers who were wearing majestic armors while standing uniformly at attention, Priest and some people wearing an expensive-looking robe with various colors. These strange people looked like they just came out from fairytales.

What's more eye-catching was the beautiful girl wearing a beautiful white dress making her looked like a real princess – though probably was, in fact, a real princess. She was beautiful… truly beautiful, in fact. Her eyebrows were shaped slightly thin and elegant looking giving her a more warm and friendly appearance. Her lips were generous but not full and her jaw rounded gently complemented by her high cheekbones to round out her oval face. She had a slender medium-long neck that flowed to her gracefully feminine shoulders to elegantly shaped and well-toned arms. Her hands were dainty and her slender fingers were just made for the piano.

But what is she wearing?

Is this some kind of play?

Serena narrowed her eyes in suspicions. Then, her gaze turned towards the middle-aged man with a medium build sitting on a beautiful throne. His age was probably in the 30s or 40 something. He was wearing a red cape as thick as a coat and a golden crown on top of his head.

He was sitting majestically that made even Serena guessed it immediately. He's a King. That air around him is not something a commoner or an ordinary people could possess. Even Serena can see that. Is he an actor or something? But he had never seen that kind of dandy celebrity before.

Next to him was a young, gentle-looking woman around thirty years of age and was sitting on the same-looking majestic throne. She looked extremely like the princess-looking beauty in front of them. That said, she looked to be in her mid-twenties at absolute oldest. Though with the presence of those crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes, perhaps she was even older, somewhere around thirty, but with the youthful skin visible below her thinly-applied makeup, she could have passed for a teenager.

She was wearing a luxurious dress out from a fairytale and was also wearing a crown on top of her head.

She's probably the Queen.

Her make-up artist truly had done a very good job of making her look young.

Especially the way they styled her long, wavy blonde hair. Her eyes were somewhat slanted, but that did not give her a harsh look at all. The corners of her eyes hung lovingly down, so she looked more affectionate than anything. Her almost transparently white skin looked like porcelain and it greatly emphasizes her beautiful golden hair that look like a spun of gold. Yet her lips were femininely plump and Serena, despite being similar in gender, still could not keep her eyes off of their never-ending smile.

There was also a prime minister looking man mixed in among them. He looked stern like those professors wearing round glasses and would glare at you when you’re not listening in class or not doing your projects or thesis…

It was indubitably a royal palace audience hall...or something like that.

Something straight out from fairytales, novels or even in any RPG opening scenes. Serena thought to herself. Leona beside her seemed to have already fixed her own confusion since she immediately stood in front of Serena while baring her fangs towards the unknown strange people as if saying 'Whoever tried to hurt her will die'.

Seeing her acting like this, Serena couldn't help but felt warmth inside surge inside her. She fought the urge to smile and then checked the surroundings by looking around once again. Although she has already formed her own suspicion, she still needed to confirm it. She also needed to find an escape route if things would go messy. Though, that seemed hardly possible.

Looking outside through the window, she could see the mountain range in the distance and not just the ground. Thus, she concluded that she was up fairly high.

This is troublesome. She thought.

Jumping outside the window seems to be a foolish action.

Examining every corner, Serena could see that place seems to have been based on a middle-aged European concept. The ceiling was supported by various pillars and had unfamiliar, strange drawings on it. There were mysterious drawings or maybe it was some sort of writing as it was quite similar to Ancient Egyptian picture writing; Hieroglyphics.

The picture writings were quite similar to what Serena saw in the Rosetta stone during one of her lectures in the university for History Class.

Oh right, something about...Demonic! Serena thought.

Looking down, she saw a magic circle-like thing drawn on the floor. It was like from those magical girl shows or RPG games.

… Obviously, strange-looking foreign people, an unfamiliar scenery, and a magic circle.

Serena could more or less confirm her suspicions. Yeah, if this play or a movie skit, they are truly going all out. Do they want to win an oscar or something? But that’s only how far optimism can go. Even an idiot would surely be able to guess what had just occurred, especially if you start from the beginning.

… And the beautiful girl that looks like a princess confirmed it with her words.

"I-I welcome you, Heroes!

… …

"I-I welcome you, Heroes!

Yeah, definitely.

This was a so-called different world. And just like from popular novels, Serena and the others were summoned from this world.

What a clichéd development…

The priests, as well as the people wearing robes, cheered merrily. Frolicking with "Yes!!" and "It was a success!!" as they ignored the six of them including Leona. However, Serena noticed that they all looked rather exhausted and they were sweating huge beads of sweat as if they had just run a marathon. There were even some who were panting like dogs while sitting on the floor but each of them still has a big smile as if they just accomplished something great.

On the other hand, the princess-like girl had long blonde hair down to her waist, which made it unthinkable for her to be Japanese or Chinese but more on a western appearance. Overall, Serena thought she was pretty, had big eyes and adorable facial features.

She was without a doubt eye-catching beauty coupled with her presence which was quite remarkable even though there were people who also wore a dress like her. Same as the surrounding men, the girl, although felt frightened by Leona who was looking at her with hostility, she still showed a broad smile.

Looking at them, she bowed her head very, very deeply and said,

"Please save our kingdom!"