Unruly Summon Chapter 53: Heroes (Patreon)

I woke up in a state of some confusion. No, that was underselling it. A state of immense confusion.

First question; where was I? It took a few seconds to remember that I had eyes, but once I did, opening them revealed our inn room back in some random border city of the Ti'zharr Empire. Did I ever get its name? I couldn't remember it, if so. It was likely Minoru mentioned it while I was too nervous about the arena to absorb it.

Speaking of Minoru, her distinctive snore-purrs gave away her presence in the room.

At least two others were here, too. It was hard not to notice them with the way they were clinging to me, leaving me sandwiched between them in a bed that was designed to only sleep one. Definitely Eve and Mary. Had they engaged in some sort of hugging-to-sleep competition while I was trying to get us home? I didn't remember one...

So that hadn't been a dream... Eve really had followed me here.

I couldn't move without waking them, which made checking for the presence of Wendy and Stephanie rather tough, but given everyone else was here, they presumably were too.

Everything back on Earth had been a bit of a rush, but now that I was alone with my thoughts, perhaps I should have suggested that Mary or Stephanie stay there? It would have been an interesting way of keeping them safe, although I wasn't sure where they could stay.

On second thoughts, probably not Stephanie. With her collar out of action, there was no way she could be cared for without specialist help, and seeking that sort of help would result in people asking difficult questions, like 'who is she?' Even if we could get around that, did I really want to leave her bed-bound indefinitely, unable to feed or clothe herself? Or was there a chance that Earth medical technology could cure her?

"Oh, you're awake," whispered Wendy excitedly, confirming that Wendy was indeed present. "It's about time! Did you know my mana capacity increased by five percent overnight?"

"No, I did not know that..." I whispered back, wondering how she'd resisted the urge to wake everyone, and how she'd measured her capacity so accurately.

"Mmm... Five more minutes," mumbled Eve cutely.

"Yeah... Just five more..." agreed Mary sleepily.

"Oh wow. That's just precious," whispered Wendy, sounding like she was barely holding in a snort of laughter.

"Mrrreowww," yawned Minoru. "I just had the weirdest dream. I dreamt I was..."

She froze mid-sentence. I couldn't see her from my position as sandwich filling, but I imagined she'd just spotted Eve.

"... It wasn't a dream?" she asked.

"If you're talking about a brief stint elsewhere, at the behest of Thomas's girlfriend, then no, it wasn't," confirmed Wendy, no longer bothering to whisper.

"Oh well, it's probably time we all got up," I said, trying to untangle myself. "The sun's already bright."

"Do I have to?" moaned Eve, still asleep.

"But first chime hasn't sounded..." mumbled Mary. "Oh, right... It doesn't anymore... Need to get up..."

She stirred and opened her eyes. With me having moved, that resulted in her coming face to face with Eve. Her eyes narrowed again in displeasure.

Eve's eyes opened, and then instantly narrowed in a mirror of Mary's.

"Ooo, a catfight over the hero!" said Wendy eagerly.

Both girls immediately transferred their ire to Wendy. As ever, I had no idea if she actually meant what she said, or if she did it deliberately, diffusing the situation in her own way.

"How did we all end up in bed together, anyway?" I asked. "The last thing I remember was back on Earth, worrying about how I was going to fall asleep."

"No sandy foggy place this time?" asked Wendy.

"No."

"Interesting."

"The last thing I remember was you lying down," said Eve. "I was just standing there, and then I woke up here."

"Me too," agreed Mary.

"Oh, Mary! Try casting Sanatio!" said Wendy.

"But I can't?" she said. "Oh! That thing about us all being heroes! Sanatio!"

No-one was in need of healing, and I wasn't entirely sure who she'd aimed it at, but it didn't matter. She hadn't cast subvocally, so the successful spell was obvious.

"Woah, what was that?" asked Eve, who'd never heard a successful spell-cast before.

Wendy whistled.

"I'm a hero?!" exclaimed Mary.

"It seems I've missed something important. How long have you been awake?" asked Minoru.

"Only half an hour or so, and we're not exactly heroes, as far as I could tell. My mana capacity has increased, but only by a small amount, and I don't seem to have improved my affinities. We'll need to see if my capacity keeps growing. Mary's must have grown more than mine, relatively speaking, to cast Sanatio without experiencing any symptoms of mana overuse. We'll need to measure the exact effect, as well as her affinities, but that can wait until we're on the move again. And Minoru needs to check if she can get bigger now. We also need to check what Eve can do. I'll teach her Lux while Thomas gets Stephanie ready."

"... Yay," I said, unenthusiastically. "My favourite part of the day. Stephanie? It's time to wake up and get dressed."

With no preamble, Stephanie sat bolt upright in bed and expressionlessly pulled off her nightie. That was actually something of a relief: with the talk of the whole party gaining heroic powers, the worst-case scenario would have been her gaining an immunity to mind magic that prevented me from ordering her around, but that didn't restore her missing sense of self.

"Okay, I ignored a lot of questions back on Earth, in the interest of getting here before Mum came home or you thought of any good excuses to stop me coming, but you're really going to need to explain her," said Eve. "That's Stephanie? As in Princess Stephanie? You told Simon she was supposed to be undergoing some sort of slave training, but was probably just being hidden away somewhere by the king. You didn't mention anything like this. She's a complete zombie, not at all like how you described Mary."

"Long story. I told Simon I 'healed' Mary, right? Well, the king assumed I would do the same for Stephanie, so he deliberately arranged for her to end up like this, to guilt trip me."

"And you just left her like it?"

"No; I can't heal it."

"Wow. He must be... unhappy. No, wait, you're talking about the previous king, right? The dead one?"

"Yes," I confirmed.

"But Wendy isn't dead?"

"I was, but I got better," chimed in the mage in question as I tried to direct Stephanie to put her clothes on in the correct order.

"You... got better? What about Christine, then? Or maybe it'll be better if you just catch me up on everything that's happened since Thomas's last visit."

"First, I think someone needs to explain this whole last visit thing to me," requested Wendy. "Thomas? You went home at some point? And then came back?"

"I accidentally fell into the summoning circle you made back when you tricked me into casting Pereo. Anypha helped me get back. Said that if I didn't, with Minoru and Daniel dead, Mary would be taken captive as a bargaining chip to control Glenda, and Glenda would get killed in the ensuing fight as various powers tried to seize control of the knowledge of Miraculum."

"... I'm going to ignore the tail end of that, because I'm pretty sure you mentioned having help from a goddess and that's utterly insane, so I must have misheard. I'll just laugh at you accidentally falling into a magic circle instead."

While our party was getting dressed—I decided to use my armour again, for safety's sake—I regaled Eve with the tales of my adventure since returning, while Eve tried to follow Wendy's simple instructions to cast Lux.

By the time we left the city, she still hadn't managed it.

"It's a pity I don't have my proper equipment," said Wendy. "I'd like to measure your affinities; I suspect you don't have any. Lux is technically white magic, but it's so close to the bottom of the minor rank that affinities don't normally matter. Anyone with any magical ability at all should be able to cast it."

"So I don't have hero powers?" she asked.

"You certainly don't have Thomas's aptitude for magic, but that's only a part of it. You do have the language blessing; you had no problems conversing with the guards on the way out."

"Sorry about that, by the way," interjected Minoru. "It really should have occurred to me that they'd flag up someone trying to leave the city who had never entered it, especially since you're human."

"It's fine. You managed to explain it to them."

"No, I used the authority granted to me for my hero escort mission to order them to stop asking questions. There's a big difference, and I hope it's not going to come back to bite us."

"Anyway, it's possible you have improved physical abilities, even without the magic," continued Wendy. "Thomas really needs further physical combat training himself... Maybe we could arrange that at one of our future arena stops?"

... Right. The arena plans. Our little trip to Earth and associated memory blurring, followed by the sudden introduction of Eve when we'd returned, had snapped me out of whatever state I'd been in immediately after the arena. Was it safe to think about it? Would I end up spiralling again?

Whatever. I had another person with me I needed to protect now, so the ability to deal with kill-or-be-killed situations without hesitation was even more important. When I'd agreed to Eve joining us, we'd hoped she'd have the same powers as me, but that didn't seem to be the case. If she didn't show any increased physical abilities either, and Simon managed to summon everyone again, she was going straight back to Earth.

"So, are you going to try transforming again, Minoru?" asked Wendy. "There doesn't seem to be anyone else around."

"I suppose I should. And Thomas needs to cast Miraculum. We've travelled far enough now that the noise should be maskable, and if we go much further, Vence will end up out of range."

Ah, so the city did have a name. Not that it was particularly important. I didn't even think it likely that I'd hear it again. "Maybe I can make a rock/water sandwich. Terra."

"And I'll measure some more of Eve's abilities," said Wendy.

Our tasks decided, I enclosed myself in a temporary shell of rock in the hopes of not broadcasting a massive 'Thomas is here' message to everyone in range. Not that I could mask the mana or the spell effects. Or rather, masking the spell effects would completely negate the point. But broadcasting 'the hero is in the general area' was better than 'the hero is at this exact point, where all the noise is coming from'.

"Miraculum."

By the time I dismantled my shelter, Minoru was in the middle of redressing herself. "Added an extra foot or two, or can hold my old size for a minute longer. A definite improvement, but a small one."

"That's nice, but why is Mary unconscious?" I asked, spotting her laid out on the ground. Hopefully nothing too bad, given that no-one else seemed worried about it.

"Turns out that while she can cast Sanatio once, she can't cast it twice," said Wendy. "It seems that we've all gained some slight improvements, but that's all."

"And you?" I asked Eve, who was frowning, so I assumed it wasn't good news.

"She has no ability to manipulate mana at all. Her physical abilities are... good. Nothing exceptional, though."

"I'm certain I'm stronger than I was yesterday," she countered, seemingly unhappy about the outcome.

"Maybe, but I'm afraid that in absolute terms, you would have no hope in any fight against anyone with even a smidgin of training."

"So you think I should just leave? Let Thomas continue to fight alone."

"He's not alone," pointed out Minoru.

"You know what I mean! Besides, you've already got two non-combatants in your party."

"We do," I confirmed. "But we agreed yesterday that if you didn't get hero powers, you'd return to Earth today. And... while Stephanie's unfortunate condition means that she can't stay anywhere without mana, I'm giving serious consideration to leaving Mary with you for her own safety."

"... She would not agree," pointed out Wendy, glancing at my unconscious maid, but I wasn't quite so sure. She'd already expressed to me an opinion that perhaps she should have remained with her parents, even if she wanted to stay with me.

"I don't care. If she insists on calling me 'master', then she needs to deal with the consequences. She doesn't get to choose when to follow orders and when to not."