07. To Denmark Adventurer’s guild

Princess Märthina came around, trying to reach out to me.

She was the not so inconspicuous agent of her parents, trying to reach out to me since the blunder, I mean the big ceremony where I stood out weirdly.

Because the royal invitations I received went weirdly unanswered for too long.

F - You... Stood up the king?

S - All I want is to stay here with you guys... I know I won’t be able to if I start going this way.

Felicia’s face went rapidly through an impressive collection of colours and emotions. Incredible.

I knew I was on unsteady grounds, but I wanted to stay with them as long as possible. And I told her so. She was a bit embarrassed again.

But then came the real reason to go.

Before I could graduate.

A letter from Quinn.

Because weirdly enough, letters on paper were still a thing. Perhaps for a better chance of confidentiality.

Q - My lady, I regret to inform you of your father's passing. Your cousins will shortly reach out to you. I hope your journey home will be a shorter Odyssey.

Every other word that followed was just diplomacy.

He died.

They'll come for you next.

Please escape before they get you.

They must have seen my face on TV with the royal ceremony I messed up previously.

If my real name was about to be revealed, the political strife would reach my friends, and there was only so much protection the royal academy of Norway could grant me.

So I escaped.

I used my abilities to hitch a ride on a tanker heading at sea, and made my way to the kingdom of Denmark, sadly abandoning my friends behind.

~

With still the same fake identity of Siline, I went to the local adventurer's guild to register.

I was still a small girl, perhaps too small for my age even, but I had the ridiculous power of a legendary albeit old technology.

So I aced the tests, and enrolled in the mercenary academy. Not the royal one with better hopes of nobility, but the public one, without too much investigation over your past, and good jobs fighting monsters on the front rows.

Albeit given my age, I was still sent to a boot camp for teenagers. Because magical abilities still required training, and some kids required discipline. Most of which were orphans, but others like me were voluntary foreign legion basically.

I expected a rather awful place, where at least I could get a job to eat and have a roof over my head.

I was incredibly lucky to get a world more than that.

I met my second trio of best friends.

~

Two of them were indeed orphans, now just like me... I hadn't taken the time to mourn my father until then. I got pats on my back when I found myself crying, beginning to explain my story to them.

Cécile was a ferocious young girl dreaming to become a rich business lady someday. Josephine was our fake kind and equally ambitious lady. She was always smiling, but we could tell it was mostly fake. She could act kindly, toward me especially. She quickly took a liking to hugging my small frame and shoving her advantages toward my face. Okay she was a bit creepy at times, but she was still a kind friend to have.

Both of them had landed there a bit like me. They were orphans without much inheritance, and a bit of magical power for their only capital to invest. Since they had no name to enrol in the more prestigious Royal academy of the kingdom of Denmark, understanding they had no noble name nor rich parent backing them, they joined the guild instead.

It was the third rate school system for adventurers, but better than nothing. And if they proved themselves in the top of the guild academy, they could make a name.

Add some Cesarism I wanted to say, and if they were skilled magicians with enough power to make the difference for the politics above them, and they could very likely raise their own private military company and then increase their business shares in various domains.

I was there with them for a bit of a similar reason in the end. I wasn't countess de Montecristo, but I was considering my time here in exile as a way to plan my return to my homestead.

It would take me time, and I was shared between binding new friendships with them, and planning my return with forces to reclaim my legacy.

And the third one was the odd bird.

The cutest, in an androgynous way, was Aster von Murgarden.

She was... a dreamer alright.

Her father was the count von Murgarden, a domain in Denmark, and he was a knight of the Order of the Dannebrog with renown. The elite clearly.

Her brothers had become white knights of that order there as well... And the little girl Aster had grown up with the knightly environment, drinking like milk since infancy the tales of honour, loyalty and protecting the weak.

She came with a sword on her back, to become a knight. She was the only one around carrying such weapon, normally only meant for some fancy ceremonies nowadays.

We were all a little flabbergasted by her innocence and naive prospect.

J - Why didn't you join the order of Dannebrog then? With your name and family...

A - Well, that's because my father and brothers kept refusing and forbidding me from doing so. So I ran away... I came here to become a knight on my ow. work and prowess.

My eyes at least were shining a bit. A real knightly spirit! So romantic!

And Aster couldn't really use any magic, nor any firearm, but she had trained like crazy to use a sword instead. It was antiquated and foolhardy, yet she had still done enough of an impression in the guild to rpove her worth, there she was.

Ready to train to become a real adventurer, with sword instead or magic, for the same purpose of fighting the roaming monsters and protecting the innocents.

Her innocence put our two friends' avarice and my plot for revenge to shame a little. Aster was our better heart for all of us as we teamed up.

~

The adventurer's guild academy was the more rugged, less glamorous counterpart to the royal one I had lived in before. Spartan dormitories instead of individual rooms. Bad food instead or good meals.

And exhausting grunt physical and magical training instead of academic lessons.

Since we weren't exactly in a school meant to breed, I mean protect and educate the nobility of this country, we weren't handled with nearly the same care for our wellbeing.

The teams had been formed, sufficient training been done, and we were all sent to support police force in handling monsters around the neighbouring cities!

We were still teenagers, but hey, no better school in life than facing your job to come from a young age, right?

The police forces held the normal weaponry, rifles and guns, searching through the forest and meadows for the reported monsters.

And we followed closely, ready to support with magic by their side.

Imps and other little monsters, a good bullet did just as good as a minor spell.

But bigger things, nicknamed orcs and ogres, bullets didn't always work so well. Magic casters could fare better then. Furthermore since the most intelligent monsters could also cast magic spells. It was better to have two fireballs cancelling each other and saving some wounds and lived, than taking cover and damage.

We were still basically grunts, almost fodder...

But since I had quickly given my friend a notch of help, things went out differently than expected for everyone.

Cécile threw spears or rocks and ice to impale and decapitate the beasts as powerfully as if she had a quake gun. Josephine did just the same and just as well.

Aster the reckless proved she actually had trained with some intelligence and where a sword could make a difference, against a charging monster like a giant boar.

We were all impressed. Although after looking mighty and prevailing, she was trembling on her knees. So we helped her recover.

One thing and another, we were an efficient team.

S - Are you an efficient team?

They all yelled in unison, yes we are an efficient team. Excellent.

~

Felicia was no longer there to teach me, so I asked for history lessons from my new friends instead.

Cécile and Josephine knew a thing or two and helped me. They also gave botg Aster and I some lessons of common sense since we seemed a little similar in that prospect sometimes.

I didn't mind anymore being a bit nerdy, giving up on pretending being otherwise. I wanted to understand how the world had changed and why.

And so on our long trips that lasted over night for wild hunts, they kept telling me stories of the past.

While I kept wondering of the kind of future I wanted to see someday.

Along the century of changes, the European Union faced independentism from its Kingdoms again, and it took an authoritarian turn. It eventually became the European Union Empire led by a restricted consulate. Since then, tensions around the borders never dimmed.

More sadly, through the tensions of the countries and empires, facing competition shifts and independencies, education had plummeted.

People became less and less tolerant against adversity and differences in these times.

I came from a world where gender and relationships could be rather freely chosen, in most civilised countries. Now we were back to enforcing slavery onto our enemies... Never mind gender-based sociology and inequalities, we had regressed to darker ages, and worldwide apparently.

Where had my simpler and easier isekai gone?

S - Let’s make isekai great again!

J - What are you saying miss Siline...

S - Never mind...

And crises coming from all sides when things began to fail, the crime rates had increased.

Prostitution went through the roof. It turned endemic. Things had always been rough here and there but I think in my previous time it had been more limited and better addressed by the states.

Nowadays it was almost like nobody cared, and it had become normal.

Nobles lived well in their guarded cities. But outside, it had returned to near lawlessness...

I didn’t like that. But there was not much I could do. As an adventurer I was strong enough to pummel down the criminals I encountered and found. But while I brought one to the police, how many mores were picking up the deal? Our society was weak and rotten, allowing the frailest and weak, the younger ones, getting abused and utilized.

The countries still hold onto high riches and technologies.

But the overall level of literacy, safety and security for the common citizen has plummeted without mercy for over a century. We pitied the ghettos of South America and some countries of Africa in my

previous life.

But now I saw Europe had effectively regressed to no better. And I suspected that if Russia and the United States of America had fallen to independentism, they fared no better.

Much to my dismay, the passing time had not brought only progress for everyone, even if unequally shared. Sadly, things can regress, and more than imagined.

For billions of people, this world that had all the tools and cards to become a utopia had fallen down into something far worse than my previous life.

~

When I was hearing more of that, we were camping in the wilderness for a week long training exercise.

The adventurer's guild often tried us against low level monsters to hunt. We were getting used to it by then. Monsters hunting wasn't the hard part anymore. Aster tanked, Cécile and Josephine doing the DPS, and me the heal and support. We were a good hunting party.

Although it was still a bit rough to share tents for a while, to smell a bit, and to have little to eat for days.

And in the evenings they taught me a bit more about the depressive state of the world.

Human trafficking was at its highest worldwide since before my old life! That was awful, and summarising it well...

That was not how isekais were supposed to be!

They’re meant to be easier! Simpler and nicer!

I was very saddened to still hear the word sustainability muttered in every other sentence like it’s a holly ideal we would never achieve as a society. This mentality of looming doom and hopelessness is even worse nowadays...

S - Cheer up guys! I know we will be able to do something.

C - Well...Let's try to make it through the day and then year at least.

S - Of course! I'll cook something amazing to get us going! Nanites, help me?

The nanites helped me in a majestic spell that turned out in dazzling light to manufacture sweets and small sandwiches. It exhausted me a bit, but it was worth the sweat. I gave my friends their treats while they stood petrified and gawking at me.

I tried my best to be the optimistic one when everyone is in a slump. It worked, reasonably.

C - You can make... Food appear, out of nowhere?

S - Hm... I shouldn't have? I think it's good.

Never mind that magic never had been utilised to engineer such complex chemistry. I wanted to see them happy.

C - Gold...

S - What is it Cécile?

C - Can you make gold?

S - Hm... Probably? Yes, I hear I can.

Cécile had the creepiest smile I ever saw.

My two other friends took her by the shoulders and dragged her out of the room before she could speak further.

Did I say something weird again?

~