Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, I know you're confused by all these things happening at once. I'll show you to the Goddess's room first, so please come this way...

The two blondes - the prince and Julius, right? - took Mayu's hands and led her to the door at the back of the room. Squinting closely, I saw that they were both rather dashing. Mayu's enraptured face completely exposed her desires.

Wait a minute, everybody forgot about me! I hurriedly called out to the three who were about to leave.

"Excuse me! If you've reached an agreement, then could you possibly send me back to my world?"

"Oh, Rina, you're still here? They only need me, they don't need you, so why don't you just go back?"

I wanted to go home, please let me go home! And those princes, don't look at me with that expression saying, 'Oh, so you're still here?' That's quite rude!

I wondered if I could even return. I had never heard of someone who was caught up in a cliche like this and left easily. As expected, Zachariah looked quite apologetic.

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you, but although I can summon you, I can't send you back."

Oh... I thought so.

They said earlier that the summoning could only be done once every hundred years, so there was no way sending me back would be that simple!

"So what can I do now..."

"Even though it was an accident, we are the ones who summoned you here, so if you don't mind, we at the temple can care for you for the time being. After that, you would have to figure something out yourself..."

Well, I guess that was the end of the line, or at least that was all I could do. I'd been accepted to the university of my choice and had a new life of freedom ahead of me, but now I was thrown back lower than I was before...

"No, she cannot stay! I'm the goddess and I don't approve!" Mayu suddenly shouted.

"Rina, you're such a pain in the ass. You didn't only intrude on my family; you've also followed me here and caused me so much trouble! Don't bother people anymore, go to town and live on your own!"

"Wait, Mayu?"

"Priest! If you are going to let her stay in the temple, I will never cooperate with the temple again!"

The contents of her monologue were so harsh that I was in a state of shock. I had always felt like harassing me was her reason for living, but this was just too much. If I'm thrown out into the streets like this with no idea of what's going on, it'll seriously be a matter of life or death.

Did I do something to make her say that? Well, right before I was sent here, she was ranting about my glasses; was it because of that?

I remember the day when Aya-chan, my best friend since elementary school, saw me without glasses for the first time.

"Rina's glasses look super strong. Let me try them on once!"

Aya took them off my face, stared at me in silence for a while, and then put them back on again without saying a word.

"...Rina-chan, you must never take off your glasses in front of that Female Giant. She'll harass you even more. You can't do that!"

She didn't tell me why, but what Aya said was right. The harassment was upped tenfold!

The two escorts seemed to be a bit taken aback by the severity of the remark, and Zachariah was frozen in place, unsure of what to do.

No one moved for a while, and silence fell.

...I wondered if I'd be thrown out like this...

I'm just a "nuisance" after all.

Oh no. The nickname " nuisance " crept into my mind.

"Nuisance" was something that Mayu called me many times in my original world, but was I a nuisance even after being transported to another world? There might not have been any place on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter, that needed me. Oh, no, I was tearing up. I raised my chin to keep my tears from spilling.

And it was at that moment.

"Then...we, the Second Knights Order, will take care of the girl."

A low, but firm voice echoed through the place.

"The Second Knights are just 'demon exterminators' anyways. It's not like we're going to be taking care of divine beings or anything."

The owner of the voice, continuing his sarcastic speech, was the brown-haired knight. If I remembered correctly, his name was Leon, and he was the captain of the Second Knights.

"Hey, you. For how long are you just going to sit there? If you don't come, I'll leave you here."

While I was in a daze, he held out his hand to me.

"I'll keep you in the Order, but you'll have to work for your stay."

His gaze was forceful.

"Don't cry that you don't have a place. Make one for yourself. I'll at least give you a foothold."

I wobbled to my feet on shaky legs and took the hand he proffered. The tears pooling in my eyes rolled down in fat droplets.

That was my first encounter with Captain Leon.