3 Bewilderment

There was a light whip to my head and my vision was still blurry.

"Um, why are you here?"

I... I was captured, that's why!

The anxiety crept in fast.

"I... I have to run... they are going to kill me."

My feet stumbled, but they still got me up. My legs took me as fast as they could. Before they took me far, there was a strong tug on my arm. Someone had a firm grasp on my arm and sighed.

"What are you so scared of, take a look around, nobody is chasing you."

My bearings came back to me as my eyes locked on the person holding onto me. It was a girl in a frilly maid outfit that had long brown hair and green eyes. This was the maid from when the four of us were first summoned.

"Ah, thank you so much, you, you..."

I forgot her name...

My assumption was that she had saved me after noticing my disappearance and my reaction was overdramatic. The maid had a sweet smile.

"My name is Mildred Aryana, you must have had quite the fright."

Mildred gave a light laugh. My lungs took in a deep breath and my shoulders loosened.

"Yes, yes, Mildred."

Mildred let go of me and looked at me curiously.

"And what is your name?"

Huh? Oh, I guess she was playing around with me seeing as I forgot her name.

"Haha, what do you mean?"

Mildred seemed puzzled by my response.

"Well, how am I to know your name if you don't tell me."

She sounded annoyed, not playful which made me feel unsettled. Furrowing my brows, my head turned around to actually look at the place around me. Ned, Alyx, and Erin were all very flustered on top of... the summoning platform... and we are in the summoning room.

"What… What is happening? Why are we here? I… I must be dreaming"

Ela looked at me then turned to face those on the summoning platform.

"Alright, I would like to welcome everyone here, I understand you are confused about what is happening right now, but I hope you realize this is not a dream."

Not... Not a dream? Ned shook off his flustered face fast and asked.

"We were summoned to another world? Will we have to fight the Demon King?"

Ela looked at him without changing her expression.

"Yes and no. You were summoned but there is no need to fight the Demon King, regardless, I will go into more depth later. We should introduce ourselves, I am known as Ela of the house Enberos."

Wait, what?... Why does this sound so familiar...

"My name is Mildred Aryana, may I know your names?"

This... this is what happened when I first got summoned.

"Hi, my name is Ned."

If these guys were acting... that would be scary.

"My... my name is Alyx"

But...

"Um, um..."

It would be much scarier if...

"She is my friend, Erin."

It was all...

"What's your name?"

Real.

"What do you mean? You named me Ned... It was Jay, remember?"

There was a weak and wry smile on my face. Everyone was looking at me strangely. Ned cleared his throat.

"Er- Hello Jay, anyways Ela please continue."

My heart dropped. My ears weren't really listening to what was happening and my mind muddled along as they conversed.

So... I got sent back in time? It seems only I remember the things that happened. Did... did I die? Now that I think about it it makes no sense that Mildred could've saved me as I really did wander far away.

A headache was coming on.

I suppose I was given a second chance. It is a chance for me to correct my mistakes... but...

"Hello?"

My body suddenly tensed. Mildred was waving a hand in front of my face.

"Ah, what?"

Mildred pointed towards the food in front of me.

"The food..."

Ah, originally we talked about the foods that we liked.

"Oh, the same as them."

Mildred looked at me confused.

"I asked why you are not eating, are you not hungry?"

Ah, well I guess that makes more sense.

"Sorry, I just… am not really hungry."

Mildred nodded and went back to stand next to Ela. Ela then took us outside to a carriage.

"We will take this carriage to my palace, where you will be living from this point forth."

As my eyes landed on the carriage, the memory of what happened came back to me. The sounds of crying and screams echoed in my mind. My eye closed yet my vision was still filled with the boy who was beaten to death. There was a tug on my arm towards the carriage and instinctively my foot took a step back. Snapping out of it, my eyes looked at Mildred, who was holding my arm. She seemed a bit annoyed.

"Get on the carriage will you?"

"Ah- yes, sorry"

Breaking out of my fluster, my foot stepped on the carriage after a few moments. My body uncomfortably squirmed in the seat next to Mildred. As the carriage went along it was mostly silent. My mind uncontrollably began to wonder about what happened before.

"Um... Ela?"

Ela looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, what is on your mind Jay?"

My hand clumsily scratched the back of my head.

"Do you know about a thing where there are people that capture others and then... take them somewhere?"

Ela furrowed her brows.

"Are you referring to the slave trade?"

Uh... probably?

"Yeah, yeah, uh do you think it is possible to stop that?"

My decision to ask her was based on the fact she seemed to have the highest authority here and was most likely to be able to do something.

The inner corner of her eyebrows angled up.

"Many kingdoms have reigned and many have foolishly thought that they could create paradise. Yet in the end, success in vanquishing evil comes at great costs. However, while some succeeded, they had fallen into despair as they saw the evil that once disappeared rise once again to plague the lands... and I am no exception"

Ela muttered the last part. Mildred reached out to hold onto Ela's hand. Ned put his hand on his chest.

"Even if it is foolish I can still respect someone that tries their best to fix this world."

"Thank you."

Ela nodded, but it seemed that she did not want to continue this topic any further since she remained silent. The rest of the carriage ride held a somber tone, but once we reached the palace, Ned and the others brightened up. They seemed to be at a loss for words looking at the palace.

"Alright, now that you are here we will bring you to where we keep our dorms. You can do as you wish. Just be careful and make sure you return before nightfall."

Ned bowed and sighed.

"Thanks for your hospitality."

Ela smiled.

"Naturally"

My head unconsciously looked in the direction of the village and flinched. My eyes closed and my head whipped back around.

"Haha, well it is hard to resist exploring the palace."

Ned grinned and gave a chuckle.

"Well that's a guarantee, could we have a tour please?"

Mildred smiled.

"Haha well while Ela has some business to attend to I am free to take you around."

Ned and Alyx were quick to thank her. Mildred and the rest of us bade farewell to Ela who left swiftly. From there, Mildred proceeded to take us into the palace.

The palace was quite high, the whole thing reaching a height of roughly 30 meters and 50 meters wide. When we walked in the ceiling was very high up, about 10 meters or so.

We walked into a large room with various stairs leading to places and a large table in the middle on top of a marble floor. The walls had various golden statues of various people clad in armor and wielding various weapons, a maid had a duster and was cleaning one of them as we stepped in.

The lighting was bright and there seemed to be some sort of massive chandelier with jewelry for bulbs in the middle of the ceiling.

Once we walked in Erin let out a small gasp, while Ned and Alyx were curiously looking around. Mildred gestured towards the room.

"This is where Lady Ela would host visitors to our palace."

We nodded to acknowledge what she said. She then led us across the room into a cased opening at the left of the room. Our footsteps echoed loudly as we followed her. There was a hallway that had a stand with a vase containing various flowers every couple meters.

The hallway soon came to a split where a path continued forward and another to the right. Once we reached this point she pointed towards the right.

"Over there are our servant's quarters, where they rest. Up ahead is where the kitchen is where our chefs work hard to cook for us."

Ned's eyes lit up. Ned did not try to hide his curiosity and looked at Mildred.

"So we could cook here if we wanted to?"

Mildred appeared a bit surprised.

"Ah, what do you mean, you don't have to prepare anything, we have it taken care of."

Ned shook his head.

"No, no, I enjoy cooking and I think I do a pretty good job."

Mildred laughed a little.

"Alright, if you are not jesting I will work it out so that you may cook."

Ned smiled and said his thanks. Mildred took us back and into another cased opening at the back of the room, where there was a large courtyard. There were various trees and flowers as well as a very neat cobblestone path.

"If you wish, you can have some fun here."

Alyx seemed to be quite excited and Erin wasn't that calm either. We continued exploring the place from the dining room to the bathroom and the needlessly large hot spring which made Ned show quite the exaggerated expression.

Mildred did take note of the pathing to minimize our walking, but because of how long the hallways were, it soon became evening and my legs were starting to tremble... though everyone else was holding up fine. Mildred had taken us upstairs to a long set of rooms and assigned four of them to us.

"And these are our rooms, the last of the palace, if you have any concerns just know that if I am not busy I will be in that room over there."

She pointed to a door that was noticeably different from the others and not too far away.

"If you cannot find me, ask one of the servants here and they should help you or find me."

Ned nodded and thanked her. Alyx was soon to follow and before a word could leave my mouth, Erin had been at her loudest, normal speaking level, and very softly said.

"Thank you."

After quickly repeating after Erin, my legs started to tremble more. Mildred smiled at us.

"This is only what we are obligated to do."

Mildred then left to go downstairs. Erin yawned, and although Alyx and Erin were assigned to different rooms after Erin whispered to Alyx they went into the same one. Seeing the girls rush so quickly to bed, Ned turned to me.

"Goodnight Jay, we should all talk later when we get recharged."

My hand scratched the back of my head.

"Yeah yeah, we should do that. Goodnight, Ned"