Chương 247: The Unwanted Ones

"Leader Ganiel Kalersky, Prime Minister Tanaya Uolip–I am repeating myself a lot, but do you REALLY want to do this? I am telling you, it is highly unlikely that it will work. The Assembly will tear you two apart without the shadow of a doubt if you do something like this without running it through them first… You know they already do their best to discredit and devilise both of you""I appreciate your concerns, Mister Jimeni, but what else are we supposed to do?

The economy is in shambles, we have mountainous debts–And not the kind we can ignore, might I add! Real debts we owe to other countries, who will want to get their money back! We might as well bite the bullet and use this unknown threat to try and do something" Standing outside a room shut by heavy doors made from enchanted stone, three figures were going back and forth with each other.

Johnpol Jimeni, Archmage of the Republic, was trying to convince the other two that the idea they had was foolish, idiotic, short-sighted, and would cause far more problems than it would resolve–If it resolved any to begin with. On the other hand…

Ganiel Kalersky, Leader of the Republic, despite being the least popular leader during his first term, was reelected by sheer force of propaganda and the usage of scare tactics to gain the votes of the uninformed masses, but even the fools he was using as mules had grown dissatisfied with him. The Assembly had always been out of themselves, but they had fully gone into mindless opposition to everything he did or proposed to gain good points with the populace, to little effect.

Such tactics had worked since the very beginning of the Aestherian Republic, but it seemed like things had changed. People had been pushed too much, and the boogeyman Kalersky and others like him had been heated to the point of incandescence. They had done such a terrible job of being good leaders that even with their best misrepresentation of the opposing side, more than half the population was completely on board.

This was especially worrisome because the opposing side wasn't just another party that wanted to be elected anymore. It was the monarchists. Unfortunately, being surrounded by kingdoms headed by kings and seeing them do much better had pushed people to reject the clearly unreliable and diseased republic.

"We have enemies within, and outside as well. The surrounding nations will not hesitate much longer to tear Aesther apart–We have been annoying them for far too long by meddling in their affairs and acting like we were better than them, despite the republic only being as good as it is thanks to what was left behind by the monarchy we dethroned" Tanaya Uolip, Prime Minister of the Republic, was really regretting accepting this post.

She had already tried to resign, but with how things worked, the leader had just picked her again for the post, so she was pretty much stuck having to be associated with a man she had come to realise was a bumbling buffoon without any understanding of anything beyond being a pompous prick and a vile character who couldn't stop himself from spitting in the face of the people of Aesther. As it turns out, nobles hadn't disappeared. They had just changed name…

They were called ministers or other flowery titles that made them sound important when, in reality, ninety per cent of them could be removed without altering anything about how the country functioned. Thus, Johnpol had no chance of convincing either of them that what was going to happen was a terrible idea. One was genuinely not intelligent and foresighted enough to understand the full ramifications of his actions, and the other was fully willing to make the republic crash and burn.

The archmage shrugged and sighed.

"Very well, then let's do this, I suppose" With a snap of his fingers, the impossibly heavy doors began to open, the stone dragging against the floor into an unbearable screech as the room hidden behind this robust gate lit with mana-blue flames, revealing a large, incredibly complex array. Made from hundreds of magic circles, runes, sigils, glyphs–One could basically start naming anything magical, and they would be correct that it was present within this circle.

"How grand. I did not think that it would be so large""It is an incredibly costly array… Please stand back as I activate it" The archmage cleared his throat and stepped up to an especially large crystal, and channelled just a bit of his mana into it. This triggered the whole array to come to life, flooding the room with abnormal amounts of several rare elements. Everyone was blinded by a bright, white light as the air itself shook under the magical pressure. …

All came to a grinding halt in an instant, leaving only a thick fog covering most of the room.

"... Did it work?"

"Don't you worry, leader, it did work" The archmage walked back to the side of the other two and, with a flick of his arm, cleared the fog completely, revealing three figures lying on the ground. Two young men and one young woman.

"As you can see, the summoning was rather successful. It usually only yields a single individual""Incredible! How do we know if they were granted something during the summoning?" Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Typically, Unwanted Presences will be granted abilities relating directly to the Universal System, as that is usually the only thing they and we share in common to an extent. As you know, the summoning array pulls those people from worlds much different from ours–You can see it in their clothes. Some might look alike to what we have, but the materials are different and unseen in our world" Tanaya Uolip stayed mostly silent, watching the three summoned individuals as they lay unconscious on the floor.

In her eyes, the best case scenario would be if they turned out as most others like them had in the past–If there was nothing special about them at all. It should speed up Kalersky's removal once word got out… Once she let the word get out. Even if they did have something special about them, it was unlikely that they would be of immediate use. More funds would have to be funnelled into them, and that would also work out well, but preferably, if they were useless, the leader would have nothing to hide behind.

"Let's wake them up. They'll be able to tell us if they received something" The archmage readjusted his long beard as if trying to appear wiser before snapping his fingers again, causing one of the three Unwanted Presences to suddenly wake up. A young man with brown hair cut extremely short to the point that he was just one step away from showing off his bare head, his brown eyes darted around the room in confusion.

"Welcome, you are in the Aestherian Republic. Our summoning ritual has pulled you out of your world because you were deemed to be the right man for the job–Perhaps even a hero!" The old mage was shamelessly lying. Everyone knew that the summoning spell was completely random and unreliable. However, the young man he was addressing had no way of knowing that he was being lied to.

"How… How can I understand you? I don't know the words you are using, but I understand what you're telling me…"

"That's just a nice effect of the spell. We wouldn't want to summon people and be unable to converse with them, heh? Why don't you tell me about yourself, boy?"

"I… My name is Kevin Baker, and I recently joined the military as a trainee!"

"Nice, that's a good resume. Listen, I need to talk with the other two. Why don't you step outside and have guards escort you to a room? Settle down and digest the situation properly""Sir… I don't know what's happening, I don't even know if this is real or a dream, but… If it isn't, there is a way for me to go back, right?"

"Of course, it is just a matter of reversing the spell used to bring you. It is an elementary endeavour for someone as experienced as myself!"

"I see…" Baker soon left the room, although appearing calm, he was clearly disoriented. Without guards to help him, he would have walked into walls the whole way. He definitely did not truly understand what was going on in full. Johnpol awoke the other young man next, who introduced himself as Daniel Williams, a black-haired youth with blue eyes. Unlike the previous one, he was much thinner and claimed to be a student. His speech was somewhat slurred, and he was completely unable to walk on his own at the moment.

As for the young woman… The archmage frowned before waking her. Unlike the previous two, she was clearly from the countryside. Dressed in an old checkered shirt and faded overalls. She smells of freshly cut grass and… Cow dung. Nonetheless, she sprang to her feet and immediately pointed at the archmage.

"Try to touch me, old pervert, and I'll shove my fingers into your eyes!"

"First of all, I am just old, not a pervert""He only lusts over the dryad illustrations in his books""Dear leader… Let's not be unserious, shall we?" Johnpol cleared his throat.

"I am the archmage of the Aestherian Republic. You have been summoned to our world to be a great hero! I can tell at a glance that you are something special. May I ask for your name?"

"Are you a junkie, old man? How about you go and suck a fat old d-""Aherm, my apologies, Mister Jimeni. It would seem that she doesn't enjoy your presence very much. Why don't you let me talk to her?" Tanaya stepped forward and tapped on the mage's shoulder, walking up to the redhead.

"Sorry about him, he doesn't realise that his face scares people. I am Tanaya Uolip, Prime Minister of the Aestherian Republic. Unlike the two before you, it seems like the voyage didn't shake you too much. Why don't I show you around?"

"... I guess I want to get out of this creepy room anyway" The leader and archmage were left on their own.

"Johnpol, you didn't ask any of them about their abilities and such!"

"They were too disoriented, Sir. It is best to let them focus before interrogating them too deeply, as for the girl… There is definitely something special about her. We might have gotten lucky with this summoning. Normally, they are all like that Daniel Williams""Incredible, this should boost my popularity with the people!" The mage didn't say anything and instead stroked his beard. Johnpol could see the writing on the wall at this point.

He had been following orders for a long time now, managing to maintain his cushy position as the archmage, being one of the few figures of the republic that wasn't completely reviled. He could certainly manage to keep his head if a change of regime occurred, but just in case, he shouldn't just sit on his hands until it happened. He knew that the prime minister wasn't too fond of the leader, and it seemed like she was going to be taking the girl under her wing–In this case, he could do the same with the two boys.

Summoning was almost certainly a terrible financial decision, but if they were as special as he believed them to be, then making sure they would want to stick around with Aesther was a logical decision to make. The country was already at its lowest, so any help was welcome…

"On this note, Sir, I shall take my leave. The summoning took quite a lot from me. I will be resting" Johnpol left for his private quarters, but the moment he set foot inside…

"This place is freezing" His gaze focused.

"I maintain several powerful barriers around me, even in my sleep. There is no point in lying in ambush. Show yourself and do your worst" Instead of a voice or a figure, words wrote themselves upon the wall. I CAN HELP YOU GET RID OF HIM. YOU ONLY NEED TO PROMISE ONE THING. TO HELP ME DRAG HER TO HELL.