Chapter 2
The dazzling light and floating sensation vanished in an instant. After a slight jolt, I felt the cold tile beneath my palms and knees.
Startled by the sudden return of gravity, I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by suspicious-looking people in strange robes.
The lines of what looked like a magic circle beneath my feet gradually faded.
(Where am I...? This isn't a convenience store...!?)
Before I could scream at the sudden change in scenery, the people around me started making a commotion.
"It's the Saint! The summoning was a success!!"
"Wait, there are two of them."
"Which one is the Saint?"
(Saint... Summoning... Two...?)
At the excited words of the people dressed like mages, I looked beside me and saw a woman sitting on the tiles just like me.
She was the woman who'd been looking at sandwiches next to me while I picked out a bento for lunch at the convenience store.
She'd dropped her keys, and just as I picked them up and handed them to her, we were both enveloped in a mysterious light...
"W-what is this!? Who are you people!?"
The woman looked a little older than me, probably a working adult.
She was a beautiful woman in stylish office-casual clothes, with glossy chestnut hair, light brown eyes, and long, prominent eyelashes. She had a strong-willed look about her.
(Saint... A saint? They summoned a Saint!?
Wait, hold on. Is this... that familiar template scenario!?)
Meanwhile, I was an unsophisticated college student in a casual hoodie, shorts, and sandals.
I hadn't been to the salon in a while, so the ends of my black, mid-length hair were dry. The whites beneath my irises made me look mean, and I was skinny on top of that.
I could hear the mages asking which one was the Saint and calling for someone important, but...
(No matter how you look at it, the beautiful one is obviously the Saint...!!
There's absolutely no way it's me!! I'm definitely just some mob who got caught up in this!!!)
As I trembled and thought about the anime airing this season and the novels I followed, a handsome, dignified man emerged from behind the mages. He offered his hand, helping both the woman and me to our feet.
Unlike them, he wasn't wearing a suspicious robe. He was dressed like a noble... no, like a prince.
(He's not wearing obvious pumpkin pants, but he's probably in the prince role...
He seems so kind, helping even someone as obviously mob-like as me... I was about to feel relieved—wait! But it could also be a story where the one who looks like a mob turns out to be the Saint...!?
What would happen then!? I can't be a Saint or anything! That'd be a huge problem!!)
While I anxiously imagined popular novels, the person they'd called for arrived, and they thoroughly examined us with an Appraisal Skill.
As it turned out, the woman had the Holy attribute and the Purification Skill, making her undoubtedly the Saint. I apparently had the Holy attribute too, though only barely, but no Skills. I was just an ordinary person who'd gotten caught up in it.
(...Yeah, figures...)
Once it was confirmed that she was the Saint and I was a mob, the dignified prince from earlier invited us to leave the place where the ritual had been performed and move to another room.
As we walked down a long corridor with several mages in robes embroidered more intricately than the others, the prince, and some knight-looking people, the woman was somehow holding my hand tightly.
"Um...?"
"...It's okay. I'm sure everything will be okay..."
"...Yes."
Her hand was trembling slightly. She was putting on a brave front, but she must have been scared.
(...At least this beautiful woman seems like a good person...)
◇
In the room we'd moved to, four of us sat at a table: the woman, the prince, a man who looked like a noble, and me.
The nobleman pulled out my chair when I went to sit, but it was my first time having someone do that for me, so I stiffened up and had no idea when to sit down.
Fragrant tea was poured, and cookies and other treats were placed within easy reach on the table, but I wasn't in the mood to eat at all.
"...First, allow me to introduce myself.
I am Theodore, the first prince of the Kingdom of Viene. I am responsible for this summoning of the Saint."
"I'm Julius of House Ashford. It's a pleasure to meet you both."
After the prince, the nobleman greeted us with a sweet, gentle smile, and the woman and I looked at each other.
"...Kawasumi Toko. Toko."
"I'm Riko... Miyake Riko..."
I gave my name, thinking of stories where stating your real name forced you into a contract, and hoping this wasn't one of them.
The prince murmured both our names, then straightened up and got to the point.
"...Now, regarding this summoning of the Saint..."
"I don't care about being a Saint. Just send me and this girl home already!!"
At Toko-san's words, the prince's handsome face twisted. Julius-san's expression clouded over as well.
"I'm afraid... we can't..."
"What!?"
"The summoning is a magic spell that responds to a strong Holy attribute and draws a Saint from one of many indiscriminate worlds.
We might be able to send you to some other world at random, but it's impossible to guarantee that you'll return to 【the world you came from】..."
"That's so selfish...!"
Toko-san's delicate fist struck the table. The tea in her cup rippled a little.
"...I know an apology can't make up for this."
"Being told out of nowhere that I'm a Saint and in another world... What am I supposed to do...!!"
"Your anger and confusion are entirely understandable.
...But would you hear us out first?"