"Nnngh... Holy crap, my neck is as stiff as a board. Freakin' hate sleeping on trains like these..."

With a somewhat-weary sigh, Michael groaned as he woke up, rubbing the back of he neck as he opened his eyes. The tech conference was interesting, to be sure, but some of the objects seemed to be a bit too abstract to be of any use in daily life. Regardless of their usability, though, most of them seemed to do their intended job well enough...

But, quite frankly, all of them could be improved further. That was the life of an innovator, after all: making things better and better, then letting someone else pick up the torch and keep doing it.

It wasn't as if he was trying to get lost in his thoughts trying to rationalize this entire mess. Nope, no way. That text was a prank text. Had to be. So much so to the point where he didn't even take a look at the second message. He had simply fallen asleep and was at the train yard or something. Or maybe at some random stop somewhere along the line. Those were the only logical things that could've happened... Right?

"Okay, this is nice and a- shit, is my stuff all still here?" he muttered to himself as he checked his pockets for his valuable and his backpack to see if everything was still there.

It was.

"...Phew. Okay, well... I guess I might as well see what stop I'm at, right?" he continued, still muttering to himself as he grabbed his stuff and walked out of the train car. He didn't hear the engines running, so it seemed as if the 'random stop along the line' idea was probably wrong. It seemed as if a few other people had slept on the train, too. Well, it was everyone's fault for sleeping here, then... And, quite frankly, probably also the fault of whoever was conducting the trains. Wasn't there protocol in place to not let something like this happen?!

Saying that his expectations were thrown out the window after he stepped out of the train car would be a bit of an understatement. Rather than a plexiglass-covered dome or an underground station (or, well, both in one), Michael found himself in the middle of a forest, with nothing but a simple dirt road in front of him stretching to his right and left.
...
"...The hell?!"

Turning around to look at the train, Michael's eyes nearly bugged out when he saw that the train car was tucked quietly in between the trees--ONLY the train car, actually.

"...Is this a dream or something...?" he muttered to himself before pinching himself in the arm. Nope. Pain. Totally real.

"Okay, not a lucid dream. Huh. Damn. Does this mean that text wasn't just some prank thing? I swear, this is the craziest thing I've ever had happen to me..."

With a sigh, Michael casually pulled out his phone again and went to read the second message--the one that he had written off just moments ago. Things were becoming more and more surreal with every passing moment. As far as he knew, there were no forests anywhere near the city, so... How long was he out for?

"Hm. My tablet got... Upgraded? Well, whatever. I think getting somewhere safe takes priority right now. Is there still anyone sleeping in that thing? It's dangerous out here, after all," he said, stepping onto the dirt road before turning towards the train car. At the very least, he wasn't alone here; that was as good of a saving grace as any.

Pleasant. It had been some time since he had woken up to the sun rather than to his alarm clock, and, as he felt the warm light carress his face, Darius decided to remain asleep a little while longer. The train was extraordinarily quiet. Was this the final stop? The final stop for a train that operated on a loop? How strange. The sun was up, but the train wasn’t moving, even though today should have been a Tuesday.

The foreigner opened his eyes, looked out the window, and found a verdant curtain instead of ad-plastered walls.

A low whistle passed through his lips, before his phone vibrated thrice. A prank then? Or perhaps…

Sorry~! I'm kiiiinda in need of some help here, so I dragged you and everyone else here to this world. Don't worry, I've handled all that messy stuff about possibly being missing, so could you please help me with some stuff? I know you're, like, not all strong or anything, but I've given everyone here a special ability~! The details are in the next message you'll get.
After you guys get your bearings straight, pop out of the train car and follow the road to get to the nearest town. You'll learn more there. Have a great adventure~!

Had he been spirited away by a God of the Land in order to serve as warriors meant to banish evil spirits from this sacred realm? Darius smiled, scratching the side of his cheek. He was taking this too well, huh? But then again, who cared? Peering over the plush headrest in front of him, he nodded with some approval. Two ladies still dozing off and a young man taking his first steps out of the door.

His phone vibrated again, and Darius made his decision. Hopping onto his feet, he finger-combed his messy hair as he exited the singular train car. A dirt road and sunny day, in a lush forest largely unspoiled by man’s touch. Birdsong wafted through the air, and a faintly sweet aroma danced by as the youth turned around, drinking in everything.

“Looks pretty safe here,” Darius replied as the dark-haired man muttered darkly about dangers and priorities, “And dunno why you’d ask the air if you could just check yourself, but there’s two girls still dozing off in there. Glasses and rock.”

The freckled youth thought for a moment, before smiling mischieviously.

“If you’re in a rush to go down the road, feel free to wake them with a kiss.”

"...I'm awake my eyes just felt heavy for a second wasn't sleeping!"

The tone indicating she'd just gotten a new message had cut into the music she was listening to, rudely awaking the blonde girl from a rather pleasant dream about... Well, she couldn't exactly remember what it was about but she just knew it had to be a good one, since otherwise the world wouldn't have decided to cut into it like this.

Hum... Go see America, they said. Stop acting like a kid already, they said. Just the same old boring, monotonous... Boredom as back home...

Sighing, she paused the music she'd been sleeping to (Helloween's 7 Sinners album, track 5... A shame, really, since she liked that song) and grudgingly checked the text.

...She had to take a few moments to take it all in, but soon enough...

"...YES! IT FINALLY HAPPENED!" Bolting up from her seat, any residual sleepiness she had seemed to have suddenly and dramatically burned off. Her eyes seemed to glow with an inner fire (or was that just the light reflecting from her glasses?) as she rushed outside the train, out into the verdant greenery of a new world. She definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore, that's for sure... Not that she was in Kansas before. Actually, she couldn't remember what state she'd been in and which she was heading to next, but that didn't seem important at all anymore. The only thing that was important now was that she'd finally been called forth. The only thing that was important was that she'd finally be able to fulfil her destiny.

There was nothing that could stop her from becoming the Hero of Justice she'd always dreamed of being.

In all her excitement, it took her a moment to realize that she wasn't alone out here. Two guys had already left the train before her, one who seemed a lot more confused by these turn of events than her and another...

"Oi, try it and you lose an arm!" Rin half-jokingly responded out of the blue to his suggestion, lightly punching his arm for emphasis. "A-ahem... So uh... So hey! Howdy! I'm Rin!" Her blonde hair, blue eyes and vaguely Scottish accent cast doubt on whether that was her actual name. "...And I think we probably should wake up that cute Japanese girl, really. Probably not a good idea to leave her on her own in a strange new world and all, and I know I can't be the only one psyched up about getting on the road and finally becoming a legendary hero of justice and... Um..."

Rin really couldn't shut up when she was excited, honestly.

She couldn't be certain, exactly, what was the source of all that sudden commotion. Someone shouting? There were voices, some of them quite raised. It was only natural to conclude that there was some kind of conflict going on. Perhaps a robbery? Regardless, the redheaded girl couldn't allow whatever it was to continue going on. After all, she was a Sword Saint. Anyone who could call themselves nobility and was so skilled could never allow whatever was occurring to continue... whatever it actually was. Perhaps charging in was an act she would have normally derided as foolish, but in this circumstance, well...

Angelese Winterbloom felt that random ruffians accosting someone were so inherently inferior in skill to herself that they would quite possibly surrender on the spot the moment she defeated one of their number. At her age, her father had made six bandits flee in terror without actually slaying a single one. She was just as much of a Sword Saint as he, so could she not perform the same feat? Besides, it wasn't as if whoever they were attacking could wait at the moment.

Angelese had to set an example. How could she do so if she passed by someone in need?

It wasn't as if she charged in blindly. She drew her rapier, moved swiftly forward and...

As soon as what was going on came into view, she stopped dead in her tracks. Several people in strange clothing, standing in front of some... big... metal... thing.

"... What," Angelese said, flatly, lowering her rapier as she stared blankly at the oddly-dressed people and the big metal object.

"...YES! IT FINALLY HAPPENED!"

The shriek awakened Haruka. It was unpleasant, to say the least. Not because of the voice itself, but any noise that breaks the peaceful slumber of oneself would be considered unpleasant. Her eyes slowly opened, taking in the world around her. It was the same old train that she had taken most midnights, however, what once was illuminated by the bright train lights was now revealed by the outside light. It was quite odd, Haruka thought. It was also odd that Haruka fell asleep while on the train; she had never fallen asleep on the train before. She was always too busy for things like rest.

She tried to remember what happened before, but the memories were all replaced by nothing, not even a dream. She, in an attempt to make sense of what was happening, looked out the window of the train. Forests. That wasn't supposed to happen. There was supposed to be a concrete platform. She, in a panic, quickly grabbed her purse and rushed outside of the door to check if what she saw was real. There, she saw 4 others. A decently tall and moderately attractive man, a shorter and younger man, a slightly taller and extremely excited foreign woman, and a petite warrior woman, complete with armour and cape... Wait, what?

The entire situation reminded her of the past. She couldn't stomach it. It was absolutely disgusting. The sort of fantasy garbage that would be heralded as a new genre seemed to be her new norm. Rather quickly, she disregarded everything. Not in some attempt at rationalizing it, but more to deal with the shock and total disgust that she felt.

"Hahaha... Nice joke, folks..." She nervously said, still standing in the exit of the train. "Nice jokes, you lot, but I have work, so if you could please just let me go home and all that..."

She was still in shock, nervously laughing to herself. She, like many other normal people, was in complete disbelief of the situation.

"Ah, young miss..."

Cecilia creased her eyebrows slightly at the empty seat and open carriage door. Angelese was a noble and upright young lady of the Winterblooms, but she may be a little too headstrong in her youth. The sound outside really did not sound like someone in distress, but Angelese's excitement ignored that. No doubt the girl would mellow into wisdom eventually; Cecilia had watched over the growth of six generations of the Winterbloom family now and she could think back to each and every generation with pride.

"Wait here," she said to the carriage driver before chasing after her young protégée. Despite wearing a frilled dress and heeled boots, her speed far exceeded that of any ordinary human. Of course, the fully fledged Winterbloom Sword Saints could easily surpass her, she always looked forwards to when they did, but Cecilia managed to catch up to Angelese quite quickly. The young lady had not gone too far.

The reason she stopped was dead ahead. "Young miss," said Cecilia sternly. She considering stepping in front, but even though she worried about the strange scene before them, she decided Angelese was getting too old to be sheltered behind her servants. Her voice softened. "I have never seen their like, please exercise caution."

"Huh? You crazy, man? Who in their right mind would give a kiss to a complete stranger?" Michael asked, turning his head toward the person speaking next to him--probably someone who was dragged along for the ride, all things considered. "Something stupid like that is the kind of sexual harassment people only get away with in anime and fairy tales. I'd like to keep from going down that path, aight?"

With a slight smirk on his face, Michael took solace in the fact that at least one of them had the state of mind to laugh about all of this. The first girl to walk out of the train car, though, made him a bit hesitant. If the first one was relaxed about the entire affair, the second one was far too... Energetic. Well, different folks, different strokes, after all...

"...Right. Sure. Hero of justice. Whatever you say, I guess," he sighed, shrugging his shoulders as the last one popped out of the train. This one was... Panicking considerably more than the rest of them. Granted, that was the given reaction for most people, but... Well...

At the very least, he should try to comfort her, ri-

"...What."

The sound of an unfamiliar voice caused the college student to turn around, only to see someone in... Fantasy armor. And pink hair. And a sword that looked particularly.. Pointy.
Then another woman that followed suit, moving far faster than someone in that outfit should be able to...
Oh.
Oh shit, this totally wasn't a joke, was it? To say nothing of the train car (emphasis on car, singular) they just came out of... Even he could put two and two together.

"...Um. Right. One moment," he said towards the knight and her maid before moving over to the woman who seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown. Right. If she was about to break, that'd have to be handled... And if this was how he thought it was, then that might give the two that discovered them good reason to... Well...

That probably wouldn't end too well. At all.

"Deep breaths. Deeeeep breaths. I'm pretty sure that a prank on this scale isn't doable, even by the biggest TV marketing companies, so... I'd recommend that you try to compose yourself, or everyone here might be in a spot. I mean, look at me; no matter how calm I look right now, I'm freaking out inside. You're not alone, though. Don't worry," he said, patting the woman's back a few times before moving off to face the knight and her maid... Again.

"Ah... Sorry, sorry. We're kind of... Uh... 'Lost' right now. Yeah. 'Lost.' Can you tell us where we are right now... Please? Any amount of detail would be fine, though the more you have, the better," Michael asked, a bit of a nervous smile on his face. "Oh, and, uh, about that train ca--that metal thing behind us, uh... Well..."

With the smile still locked on his face, Michael quickly turned to Rin and the other young man near them and began to talk somewhat quietly.

"Shit, I didn't think this far ahead. How do we explain the train car?!"

Well, someone was certainly excited.

Though Darius had seen many otakus during his Japan travels, this was certainly the first time that he’d seen someone so boldly, so seriously speak about her heroic aspirations in this new world. If it was, in fact, a new one. After all, the setting could just as easily be ‘the Earth, two thousand years after humanity got reset’ or some other silly sci-fi like that. Nevertheless, Rin was excited, the ikemen was super cautious (and terribly normal for someone that dashing), and the third member…

“Moshi moshi,” Darius said, his head tilted to the side, “Train ain’t gonna train with no tracks, and there’s no signal anywhere as well. So yeah, we all be spirited aw-”

“….What.”

And there it was, confirmation that they were indeed in a bland Euro-medieval world, instead of post-apocalypse Earth or a Far Eastern fairy tale. A pink-haired sword girl and a white-haired speed girl. Such impossible pigmentation. Such impossible physical ability. And yet, what was the strangest about this was…

“So…you two speak Japanese? Or is this something else…Ni hao? Bonjour? Hola?” He tried a few more scraps of languages that he picked up, but before a proper response could be returned, the normal guy spoke up once more, trying to get some information out. Good, that was smart. Darius could nod in approval at that.

He could nod all the way until, for whatever reason, consultation was needed in regards to the train?

The freckled youth scratched the side of his cheek.

“Like, what’s the problem here?”

With that, he took a step forward now, an easy smile on his face. “Ciao, I’ll be picking off from where he left off! Anyways, metal thing behind us is a ‘train’. Essentially, a giant carriage that moves itself, without horses. An example of…scientific witchcraft! Anyways, we were all basically just sleeping in it, but woke up to find ourselves here. Now, this is super strange because we literally came from another era or world or dimension or what-have-you, but luckily, we have at least one place to find answers in!”

A flick of his wrist produced his cellphone, and a series of taps brought out the message he just received.

“Turns out, funnily enough, we were brought here by someone. This ‘someone’ wants us to go down the beaten path to a nearby town, in which we'll get more information about whatever's going on. Now, my friend here,” Darius said, patting bishie boy in the back, “has a terrible fear of nature, what with the man-goring horns of a deer or the silent stalk of a tiger, so if you two mademoiselles could find it in your hearts to escort us there, that’d be real nice. Super helpful. Even helps you two out, keeping an eye on trouble-making foreigners such as ourselves. Truly a win-win situation.”

“So yeah. I'm Darius Jacks. Got anything to say, or shall we be on our way?”

Normally the sound of conversation would have done little to wake Kir, but in this case it was what wasn’t there that caused him to awaken. The steady clunk of wheels over tracks, the background buzz of city noise, and other such noises were noticeably absent.

Covering up a yawn, he blinked a few times before looking around blearily. Upon actually taking in the surroundings, both inside and outside the train, Kir froze momentarily. Although being alone was slightly distressing, it was quickly mollified by a few vaguely familiar individuals immediately outside the train car. That wasn’t to say he knew any of them, but they were faces he had seen at some point tonight when he was on the train. Any relief was quickly drowned out by the fact it was now some time in the morning and public transport had somehow gone so far off the rails that he had wound up in the middle of a forest…

Taking a few deep breaths to try and still himself, he glanced down as he fished his phone out. The time… was actually surprisingly accurate, reading just slightly before noon, the lack of signal was expected, and the two messages were… not. He took a few moments to read the messages over, once and then twice. His arm flopped down to the seat as he leaned into the back rest, stunned at this unexpected turn of events. Looking at the seat next to him and then at his own attire, Kir frowned at just how little belongings he had with him.

Running a hand through his hair, Kir eventually stood and made his way towards the train’s exit. He had to duck slightly to get through, and wound up scratching a cheek as he looked between the gathered individuals.

"... You're all a bunch of lunatics."

Even as her maid warned her to stay on guard, Angelese sheathed her sword and folded her arms across her chest. Scientific witchcraft? How moronic. All of this was either stupid or insane. They seemed to have brought some sort of big, dumb machine with them. It looked quite stupid, which was a reflection of the intelligence that seemed to be on display at the moment. Exactly how was a tiger going to pop up an attack here, exactly? The redheaded girl was well aware that tigers were not exactly known for wandering this region. And were they really dumb enough to be at risk from a common deer?

Angelese glanced back over her shoulder, towards her maid. "You needn't worry, Miss Cecilia. They are plainly a bunch of fools, or madmen. Either way, I don't think I'm at any risk."

And to think, she thought someone was in danger. Only to see it was a gaggle of loons around some big, silvery piece of garbage. It figured. What a waste of time. Even still, her attention returned to the strange individuals. They certainly seemed like idiots, but... she might as well hear exactly what they needed.

"Why, precisely, can you not find the nearest village yourself?" she asked, "Putting aside the ridiculous claims you've made about another world, it's hardly particularly far. Surely your 'train' could protect you from all the tigers that are clearly stalking the land."

Haruka watched a new woman chase after the first. This time, it was more abnormal; it would appear that this new person was Usain Bolt's brother, Insane Bolt. Well, more like sister afflicted by a rather extreme case of albinism. Still, the entire situation was absurd. She wanted to cry, but her jaded years of being an adult blocked the tears rather well.

She was startled by the sudden hand patting her on the back. She understood that the man tried to comfort her, but touching strangers within minutes of realizing that the other existed was a foreign concept. Her nervous laughter was replaced by a more moody expression. She didn't show the outward signs of her disgust of this entire scenario.

She, knowing that she couldn't mope around in failure, picked herself up. She was still upset, yes, but she could at least act like she had the situation under control. She reevaluated her surroundings. Same old people, same old jokes that could be made about them. Pretty boy, check. Normal guy, check. Extremely excited girl, check. Absurd knight girl, check. New albino lady, check. Tall pretty foreign boy, che- wait a second.

Another person had prepared to exit the train, just like Haruka. It was odd. Her identifiable entrance into the scene was overshadowed by another person doing the exact same thing. Though, Haruka didn't really care about things that were that petty. However, in a cutthroat salaried business, you had to be identifiable or you would forever be low on the business pyramid.

She left the train and entered the grassy forest landscape. She didn't exactly speak to anyone, as she was still upset about what she said earlier. However, she still listened attentively to what the others said. The question of do they speak the explanation of the train, the embarrassed stammering of being lost, the talk of what trains were, and the pretty boy being afraid of everything. That was new, at least.

"Yawns~~" Joan was on the last train home after the long day at her grandmother's house. She is tired and wanted to go back home to have a good night's sleep. As the train crosses the countryside, she closed her eyes a little to ease her fatigue.

"Shit... I overslept..." Joan found herself leaning against the train window which shows the bright orange sun of the morning. "Just how far off did I travel?" She muttered to herself, half-awake & rubbing her eyes whilst getting up and alighting the train, vaguely looking at her phone a bit. "Did I just reach the other end of Japan...?" She wondered at the realization that the ground was made of grass instead of stone flooring that one would see typically see at stations. She's definitely in some sort of secluded, desolated location that she doesn't know about. Grazing herself against the grass groggily, she approached the Knight Angelese and asked, "Yawnsss--- Excuse me, do you know which train leads back to Tokyo?"

Joan doesn't know why she was unusally tired for today, even after she 'slept the whole night'. Now being more awake & conscious of her surroundings, she was surprised on the Knight's strange clothing. Forget about that, why did the train stop in the middle of a forest? And why is someone cosplaying here? Then she remembered a strange message that she've skimmed through a moment ago, she opened it again and read it carefully. "What...? Really?" She muttered as she looked around, noticing other people in the same situation as her. Great, she would be stuck in this place for quite a while. So long for her trip back home...

There existed plenty of children's tales about heroes arriving from other worlds, idle, preposterous fantasies that were unsuited to proper adults. Cecilia had a few memorised as the kids often enjoyed them. This scene almost seemed to come straight out of one of those tales. Regardless of whether the foreigner's claim of coming from another world was true or not, it certainly appeared that this mob was disoriented and perhaps needing of direction. However, Cecilia had no inclination to help strangers, her duty was solely to the Winterblooms. If a member of the family were to extend their grace, then it would be different.

"Perhaps we should get going now, Relfan Town is just ahead," said the maid. "Unless you really wish to take these into the carriage... It would be a rather tight fit."

She took stock of each of the foreigners. Certainly, if the men went to the front to squeeze beside the driver, they would be fine.

"...Wait, say what now?!"

Michael stood by in silence with his mouth agape as the fellow he had been talking to--Darius, if what he was saying was any indication of anything--began to talk in one of the most untactful way he could possibly fathom. Normally, he wouldn't take offense to whatever tale he was trying to spin, but painting him as a cowardly shut-in? Now that? That was just RUDE.

"...Ahem," Michael coughed, clearing his throat and interjecting himself back into the conversation. "I'm just gonna... Cut in right here real quick before this escalates any further, alright? Regardless of what has been said already, I'm going to clarify, first and foremost, that I most certainly am not afraid of nature. That aside..."

Well, given the fact that they were in a fantasy world... Would blaming magic work?

"...We were caught in a bit of an incident with some teleportation magic, I guess. As such, we've basically got zero clue where we are or how to get back right now... And, quite frankly, it doesn't seem likely that we'd find any planes or-- Actually, never mind that last part. Point is, though, we're stranded here at the moment, and we'd highly appreciate it if you could help us. At the very least, just pointing us in the general direction of the nearest town would do just as well," he continued, taking into account the maid's words from just now.

...

Before promptly noticing the rather tired-looking girl walking up to the female knight that was currently interrogating them. Um.

"Er... Right. As you can see, not everyone's fully aware of the situation right now, either..."

He could afford to wait in regards to coming up with a better excuse for the train... Right?

Honestly, Darius sorta saw that coming. Noble types like this sword-wielding knight girl weren’t exactly the most open-minded bunch in fantasy novels, and as she went on to completely miss the point, the freckled youth could only shrug. Hadn’t it been made clear? They totally could find the nearest village. The message was totally clear: just walk down the path and you’ll come across a village, town, city, or whatever! But really, all he wanted was to make his latest buddy feel at ease with walking through unknown territory.

The Speedy Gonzales maid, at least, gave something worth thinking about. ‘Relfan Town is just ahead’. Charming, so they were all heading the same direction regardless. No doubt, with her superhuman legs and their fancy-smancy carriage, this master-and-servant pair had no real reason to stop on the side of the road to assist a bunch of otherworldly peasants, eh? It was honestly a missed opportunity on their part, but hey, Darius totally understood it. In medieval times, everyone was an asshole to everyone else, and even fantasy nowadays was grimdark and depressing.

That being said…

“Eh?” he tilted his head to the side, turning back towards the ikemen, “You’re not afraid of nature? Then what was that whole ‘It's dangerous out here, after all’ thing? Like, that sounded like the beginnings of agoraphobia to me, when sunlight, trees, and a dirt path were all super dangerous things…but you know, what, sure. I’ll just chalk that up as being super cautious of this brave new world.”

The rest of the ikemen’s little speech was fine though, even if Darius was still somewhat irked about his insistence for directions. Wasn’t it fairly obvious that they could just pick either direction and land somewhere? After all, paths were meant to connect, so either way, they were going to get SOMEWHERE. If ikemen-boy was a skirt-chaser, they could follow the carriage. If ikemen-boy was a rebel, they could go the opposite way.

Regardless, Darius shook his head with a wry smile on his face.

“Good grief.”

That being said…it would be fun to ride on a carriage. When was the last time he had rode on one of those things anyways? Three years? Five years?

Rin had been... Oddly quiet all this time. As everyone else had talked and talked, all she did was slowly circle around the knight from a distance, inquisitively staring at every inch of her being. To think, a real live knight... And not just one of those weird LARPer folks either, by the looks of it. Soon enough, she'd began to close in on her, and...

"...So it's decided!" She said, wrapping her arms around Angelese from behind. The knight would find her... Oddly heavy, despite her slim frame. "Our cute little knight here is going to lead us to this Relfan Town place! I mean according to the laws of narrative we're bound to find something interesting in the nearest town! Something worthy of the attention of our ragtag band of heroes from another world!" She was just so... Enthusiastic about the whole thing, really.

Angelese raised an eyebrow as one woman approached her slowly. Exactly what was she doing...? Well, she hardly appeared to be attempting to threaten her, and it wasn't as if she'd be a particularly difficult foe if she suddenly became hostile. After all, the redheaded girl was a Winterbloom Sword Saint. Angelese nodded her head a little towards her maid. That was a good point, there was no point in cramming these people into her carriage when the town was only a short distance away. In spite of the foolishness on display, the fiery-haired girl simply could not bring herself to abandon them.

Especially when one of them, the man previously accused of being scared of nonexistent wildlife, now revealed himself to be, well, speaking actual, logical sense. Angelese's experience with magic was more of the combat focused variety, so she couldn't say for sure if this seemed like the results of a teleportation spell. However, it would quite handily explain their strange clothing, if they were foreigners who had come from some distant location.

"Hmph," she began, "While you still seem quite foolish, that makes far more sense. While I can't stress the stupidity of your actions enough, as a daughter of the Winterbloom family I can't turn away from those in need."

Set an example. Do what's right. These were important matters in the redheaded girl's mind.

"I am Angelese Altheion Talothere Maykell Winterbloom," she introduced herself, "And I won't-"

Arms wrapped around her from behind. A shiver immediately ran up Angelese's spin, as heat filled her cheeks, embarrassment swelling within her as she went rigid. And... and... cute knight?!

"L-Let go!" the short girl shouted, flustered and squirming, attempting to break free from a surprisingly heavy grip, "L-Let go let g-go let go s-stupid dummy idiot moron let go what are you thinking let goooooo!"

Sooo, I'm in another world huh... At least this isn't the afterlife or something... Joan now realized that she is not in Earth anymore. The world seemed like the typical fantasy worlds that often appeared in shows that she watched as a child. Though she looks like a child, she's not one, its just that she's short and everything... Still, she's glad that she doesn't need to handle school assignments anymore, thats the good thing. The sad thing is, she didn't bring her bow here...

"Ohh, I almost forgot..." Joan asked, taking out a 1000 yen note and a 500 yen coin from her purse, "I know this sounds a bit stupid, but does this work as a currency here?" She had a hunch that they don't, but she just want to confirm, maybe she could buy a bow & arrow with this. Don't tell me I have to take on quests like how I see in anime...? It felt weird at the thought of that.

"Huh?" Joan doesn't know what to say about the hugging scene. She didn't really expect to see that side of that Knight. She felt kind of awkward on seeing that, This will going to be a loong day... She yawned, still tired from that train trip.