Behind the Scenes II

Behind the Scenes II

 

AT THE TIME, Aira Misono was a sixteen-year-old high schooler. An only child, she lived with her mother and father. Both of them worked, so Aira was often home alone.

One night, both her parents were under deadline at work, so yet again, Aira was home alone late at night. While reading a magazine in her room, she became thirsty and wanted to snack on something sweet, so she headed downstairs to the convenience store on the first floor of her apartment building.

She slipped her shoes on in the foyer, and just as she reached to open the door, white light spilled out under her feet. Aira closed her eyes against the brightness.

When she sensed the light had subsided, she slowly reopened her eyes and found herself in a room she had never seen before.

What the heck?

Moments before, she had been in her apartment, yet now she faced an unfamiliar sight. Surrounded by walls and floor made of stone, people wearing strange clothes cried out joyfully all around her.

Aira gaped. This looked like a scene out of some kind of movie.

One other person had been summoned like Aira, but Aira didn’t notice her because this other woman sat on the ground at a diagonal angle behind her. Also, shocked beyond thought, Aira didn’t think to look in that direction.

The fact that Aira failed to notice this other woman was her first crossroad.

A few moments later, she heard the door open. She reflexively looked in its direction to see three young men entering the room. They wore strange clothes, too, but they were all handsome enough to be Hollywood stars, which further convinced Aira she had stumbled into a movie.

The three young men swooped down on Aira, and the stately red-headed one kneeled in front of her. He smiled as he spoke to her. “Are you the Saint?”

Aira perfectly understood Crown Prince Kyle Salutania of the Kingdom of Salutania’s words. However, while she understood what he said, she didn’t grasp its meaning. She could only gaze up at him silently. Kyle kept talking, but his words just went in one of her ears and out the other. Aira didn’t comprehend a single thing he said.

The dark-blue-haired guy—Damian Goltz, Kyle’s friend since childhood and the son of the current prime minister—noticed Aira acting strangely and whispered in Kyle’s ear.

“Let’s take her to another room in the meantime then,” Kyle said. Then he took Aira’s hand and stood.

With that, Aira followed Kyle and his entourage out of the room, down the long corridors of the palace, and at last to a sunny room. The walk calmed Aira down enough to let her start taking in her surroundings. She sat on a couch until she composed herself enough to have a conversation.

“Allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Kyle Salutania, and I am the crown prince of the Kingdom of Salutania. May I ask your name?”

“Misono Aira,” she answered in a thin voice, but then realized she had said her family name first, like they did back in Japan, and given the European-style architecture surrounding her, that probably wasn’t right. “Uh, Aira is my given name.”

“I see. So name order differs in your land.” Kyle’s and his friends’ smiles deepened. It gladdened them to see Aira finally speak. Kyle’s first botched introduction had left them worried the summoning had affected her health.

“Uh, why am I here?” Aira asked. She could think of nothing else.

Somehow, she had opened a door to Europe instead of a convenience store. Though this was a metaphorical door, it sure felt like that was what had happened. The true answer bewildered her.

“We summoned you here using the Saint Summoning Ritual.”

“The Saint?” Aira gave Kyle a quizzical look.

Damian, standing next to Kyle, then explained the meaning of the Saint and the ritual to call her. Aira learned she had been summoned to another world to defeat monsters.

Summoned to another world.

Something that only happened in books and manga had actually happened to her. It didn’t feel like it could be real, but hearing all this made Aira suddenly begin to wonder whether she could return to Japan. In those stories, some managed to return to their worlds once they completed their tasks.

“Um, so will I be able to go back home if I defeat all the monsters?” Aira asked, clinging to a tiny fragment of hope.

However, Damien answered as if adding a footnote to his previous explanation. “I don’t believe so. I haven’t heard of anything like that.”

According to him, the last ritual had been performed in another age, and no records indicated the prior Saint had returned to her world.

“So…I can’t go home?” Aira said slowly with a dazed expression.

Until that moment, Kyle had been elated by the successful Saint summoning, but now his expression grew perplexed. Kyle and his people rejoiced at the successful summoning; Aira would not and could not. Kyle didn’t realize this until he saw a single tear fall from Aira’s eye.

 

***

 

A month or so after the ritual, around when Aira had grown used to life in the Kingdom of Salutania, Kyle told her she would begin attending the Royal Academy.

The children of noble families all attended this academy, and Aira would be able to learn everything she needed to know as the Saint, from fundamental lay subjects to the use of magic.

Aira nodded without hesitation.

She had become dependent on Kyle. Ever since he saw her cry, he had taken extra good care of her. He felt guilty for separating her from her friends and family, and he wanted to atone for that sin. That single tear was all it took for him to feel compelled to protect her.

Kyle did everything he could think of to comfort Aira’s heart even the littlest bit. He attended the academy and had official business to manage as well—though it wasn’t all that much compared to the king—but he tried to be with Aira as much as possible. He lavished gifts upon her: the most fashionable dresses, accessories, and anything else she might need, as she had come to the kingdom with nothing. He even gave her cute-looking cakes and cookies.

Kyle’s close associates similarly took turns waiting on Aira when Kyle wasn’t available, eating the snacks they had brought while talking about the kingdom and the world Aira had come from. They took excellent care of her, and Aira depended on them all the more, especially since she had no one else to turn to.

Aira had been an only child, and her parents had given her everything. Her well-off family gave her toys, clothes, and more, whether she wanted them or not without much fuss. Her mother in particular had liked to dress Aira in adorable clothes.

On her days off, Aira’s mother routinely dressed her in nice clothes for going out and then took her to different places. To her mother, Aira was a cute doll, and Aira never felt strange about it, since her mother had done this since her earliest memories. As long as she did as her mother said, she never had any problems.

Now that she had been summoned to another world and separated from her family, the way Kyle and his associates acted toward her reminded her of her family. Therefore, she grew accustomed to it and accepted everything Kyle gave her without question and did whatever he told her.

To Aira, that was what one ought to do.

 

***

 

Three months passed as Aira attended the Royal Academy at Crown Prince Kyle’s recommendation. Her powers developed at a goodly pace.

She neither loved nor hated studying, but she had taken her classes seriously back in Japan as well and received exemplary grades. That attitude hadn’t changed at the academy, where she studied the history of the Kingdom of Salutania, magic, and all manner of other subjects.

Since she joined after the school year was already underway, she took special supplementary classes as well, but with Kyle and his associates teaching her, she managed to keep up in all her studies.

Meanwhile, Aira’s grades far exceeded those of the other students in subjects she had studied back in Japan, such as arithmetic and natural sciences. Her original world had been far more advanced in its knowledge of these subjects.

“Ah, I leveled up.”

“Congrats. Try using this magic next.”

After school, on the training grounds, Aira practiced casting magic with Mark Jahn, one of Kyle’s close associates. As the eldest son of an earl and the most proficient at magic in Kyle’s generation, Mark was widely expected to become a leading mage in the Royal Magi Assembly.

Before Aira started at the academy, it had been discovered she possessed skills in Holy Magic—just like Sei. All of the previous Saints had possessed Holy Magic as well, so on hearing of Aira’s aptitude for it, Kyle nodded in satisfaction.

Thus, at Kyle’s order, Aira began magic practice with the prince and his entourage after school every day without fail. Among the entourage, she paired up with Mark most often, due to his general expertise in the field. While he lacked an affinity with Holy Magic, he was skilled in Wind and Thunder Magic and widely read in the topic beyond his personal proficiencies.

Thanks to these lessons and extra practice sessions, Aira’s Holy Magic Skills leveled up at an astounding rate. Some suspected her improvement was partly due to the generous supply of high-grade MP potions provided for her practice—with Kyle’s support. Magic skills leveled up with use, and drinking potions allowed one to cast a greater number of spells by replenishing MP.

In actuality, since Aira had been summoned from another world, her base level and Skill levels improved at a far better than average rate compared to the people of this world. Sei leveled up rapidly as well, which was why her Production skills improved as quickly as they did, though no one had noticed this due to Sei’s obsessive potion-making.

“Let’s end it here for today,” Mark said.

“Okay,” Aira said with a nod and put down her hands.

They had expended all of the MP potions they had brought that day, so practice ended at about the same time as it usually did.

Aira and Mark left the training grounds, meaning to return to the palace. As they walked down a hallway, Mark furrowed his brow. He had noticed something amiss at the entrance to the academy. “The carriage isn’t here.”

Normally, a carriage came for them from the palace, but today, they saw no sign of it. At Kyle’s orders, one of his close associates was to accompany Aira at all times for her protection, but today, only Mark was available. Therefore, Mark couldn’t just leave Aira to summon another carriage, so they both wound up simply waiting.

They soon grew tired of silence and began chatting. Usually, Mark and Aira only discussed Holy Magic when they practiced together, but now their discussion tracked to other types of magic. Other people might have found the topic difficult, but since Aira had studied natural sciences back in Japan, she had an analytical mind that allowed her to follow Mark’s thoughts. She also found him quite interesting.

They had a surprisingly nice afternoon together, but they didn’t notice someone watching them laughing and chatting from the shadows.

 

Aira had grown used to the academy by this point. One day, just as she was heading to the training grounds as usual, someone called out to her from behind.

“May I have a few moments of your time?”

Aira looked back to find a pretty girl with a somewhat cold demeanor. This particular girl had never spoken to Aira, but it wasn’t the first time one of the other girls had stopped her.

Early on, someone from Kyle’s entourage had always been by Aira’s side, but now that she had grown accustomed to daily life, in some rare moments, she was alone. During those times, girls from the school spoke to her, almost as if they had been watching and waiting for the chance.

Unfortunately, it seemed like every girl who talked to Aira had only the same things to say: stop following Prince Kyle and his noble friends around, stop trying to seduce someone else’s fiancé, etc.

These demands always left Aira bewildered. She had never intended to follow anyone around, nor did she have any memory of seducing anyone. True, Kyle indulged and cared for her, and ignoring the fact that his close friends were just following their prince’s orders, they treated her well, too. However, Aira was sure they only did so because they all felt bad about summoning her.

As for the demand for her to stay away from Kyle and his friends, Aira had no one else to rely on, so she simply couldn’t obey.

“My name is Elizabeth Ashley,” said the cold girl. “I am Prince Kyle’s fiancée.”

Aira reflexively frowned at the word “fiancée.” This girl was surely here to scold her for the same things as all the others. She did recall hearing a bit about Kyle’s fiancée, and she was certain this girl was the daughter of a marquis.

“I believe others have warned you about this in my stead, but it does not reflect favorably upon you to be so close to His Highness when he already has a fiancée,” said Elizabeth.

There it was. It all made Aira want to sigh.

“If it would be all right with you—” Elizabeth began, but then an angry voice interrupted her.

“What are you doing to her?!”

The two girls turned toward the voice to find Kyle wearing a stern expression, accompanied by his friends.

“Elizabeth, what business could you possibly have with Aira?” Kyle continued in a rising voice.

Elizabeth, unfazed by Kyle’s shouting, pinched her skirts and bowed gracefully to him. Meanwhile, Kyle strode over to Aira and blocked Elizabeth’s path to her.

“I only wish to speak with her for a moment,” Elizabeth said.

“You want to speak with her?” Kyle’s expression remained stern.

“Indeed,” Elizabeth replied with an unruffled air. “Since Lady Aira always studies with Your Highness and your friends after school, I wanted to offer to help her with her studies as well.”

Her words took Aira by surprise. They hadn’t gotten that far in their conversation, but it very well could have been true that this was what Elizabeth had been about to say—before Kyle intervened.

“Your help is unnecessary. I am the one looking after Aira.”

“But, Your Highness…”

“I am the one entrusted with the care of the Saint. Now, is that all you wished to say?”

Elizabeth sunk into silence, helpless in the face of Kyle’s harsh attitude. As if to say this conversation was over, Kyle put a hand on Aira’s back and made to walk away from Elizabeth.

Just then, another voice piped up. “Ah, so this is where you were.”

Everyone turned toward the voice to find a young man with bright copper hair and close resemblance to Kyle walking toward them. It was Rayne Salutania, second prince of the Kingdom of Salutania. He had a soft aura and a gentle smile as he made his way over to Kyle. His very appearance eased the tension of the moment.

“I’ve been looking for you, Brother,” Rayne said.

“Why?” Kyle demanded.

“Professor Herzog wants to speak with you.”

“What about?”

“Something to do with the expedition into the eastern forest next week.”

“Ah.”

Kyle and the others planned to go monster slaying in the eastern forest the following week in order to raise Aira’s base level. However, at their base level, the eastern forest was inadequate for training, so their professors and the Orders of Knights who acted as their guards had proposed they head into the southern forest instead. Kyle had refused, fearful that something might happen to Aira. Therefore, his mood declined upon hearing Professor Herzog sounded likely to try and change his mind again.

However, while Kyle thought the professor’s interference annoying, he possessed a serious character in spite of his attitude, and therefore headed toward Professor Herzog’s office along with Aira and his friends.

Rayne and Elizabeth, having been left behind, glanced at one another and exchanged wry smiles.

“Bad timing, huh?” Rayne said.

“Indeed,” Elizabeth replied.

Rayne and Elizabeth had known each other since childhood, and they were able to understand one another’s thoughts with only a short exchange of words.

Rayne was referring to Kyle’s sudden appearance while Elizabeth tried to talk to Aira. Rayne had a grim outlook on the situation; he didn’t like Aira being so thoroughly corralled by Kyle. He had heard their classmates gossiping and had talked to Elizabeth to see if they could clear things up.

The fiancées of Kyle’s friends had also pleaded with Elizabeth to do something about Aira. After discussing it amongst themselves, they had suggested Elizabeth should try to be the one to help Aira at school instead of Kyle and his friends.

When Elizabeth happened to run into Aira when she was alone, she tried to bring up the topic, but Kyle showed up before she could get to the important part, and she lost her chance.

Kyle treated Aira as the Saint, but Aira hadn’t been the only person summoned in the ritual. There were no reports about the other potential Saint having the powers characteristic of the Saint, but Rayne had heard of her numerous achievements.

In fact, recently, a wave of rumors claimed the other woman was the real Saint. Sensing his older brother tipping toward a precarious situation by attaching too much importance to Aira alone, Rayne had made various propositions to his brother, but Kyle wouldn’t budge on matters related to Aira.

That day, Rayne and Elizabeth each left the academy knowing the only way they’d be able to get in contact with Aira would be to watch and wait for the right opportunity.

 

When Aira got back to her room in the palace, she dismissed her maids and, alone in her room, flopped onto her bed. She felt far more mentally than physically exhausted.

Lately, Aira had been trying her hardest to stay close to Kyle and his friends in order to avoid having to talk to other girls, but she still found herself on her own once in a while. She hadn’t been too surprised when Elizabeth approached her, but Aira couldn’t shake the feeling that this girl was different from the others. They hadn’t been able to have a full conversation after Kyle descended, but it sounded like Elizabeth wanted to help her out with her studies like Kyle and his friends did.

That was a first.

Since she had arrived in this world, Aira had only ever been with Kyle and his friends, so she didn’t have a single friend who was a girl. Would she and Elizabeth have become friends if Kyle hadn’t interrupted? Maybe Aira should have spoken up over Kyle’s rejection and accepted Elizabeth’s proposal.

Despite thinking it over, she couldn’t convince herself to reach out.

It depressed Aira when the other girls said angry, accusatory things to her, but she could avoid having to hear any of it if she was careful—so long as she was with Kyle and the other boys, no girl dared talk to her.

Also, she didn’t know if Elizabeth would be true to her word. Considering how the other girls had acted toward Aira until now, she couldn’t just take Elizabeth at face value.

This was her second crossroad: choosing whether or not to take Elizabeth’s hand.

She couldn’t decide! She distracted herself with thoughts of Professor Herzog.

The conversation had gone just as Kyle expected—Professor Herzog suggested they go level up in the southern forest instead. Due to Kyle unreasonably insisting on the eastern forest because Aira’s level hadn’t yet reached Kyle’s, they decided against the southern forest, but Professor Herzog had been certain Aira would be fine so long as Kyle and the others were with her.

In all honesty, whenever Kyle made Aira’s level the lynchpin for his decisions about where they would go level up, Aira felt like she was holding Kyle back, and it made her uncomfortable.

In order to quell that feeling, she was willing to give leveling up in the southern forest a shot, but seeing Kyle so obstinate about leveling up in the eastern forest robbed her of the courage to speak her mind.

“Stats.” She cast one of the Practical Magic spells she had been taught and a translucent window appeared before her eyes.

Aira sighed as she looked at her level. From what Professor Herzog said, the southern forest was appropriate for people with Base Levels of 12 to 20. Aira’s level was already well into that range. In fact, she had begun feeling she was leveling up more slowly. She should probably tell Kyle that she wanted to give going to the southern forest a try, right?

She wasn’t sure what to do… But Kyle was. She would let Kyle decide what was best. He wouldn’t hurt her.

She got out of the bed, and the window disappeared.