Chapter 12: Saint Sanriel

I'm sitting on a couch in a fancy waiting room being served coffee.

Yep, looks like coffee and tastes like coffee.

Yuck.  I don't like coffee.  Except with chocolate and sugar.  Lots of chocolate and sugar.  And whiskey.

Five girls are with me.  Juli is way to curious too leave now.  Red is holding Sanctity and Frankie, Tormentor.  This room is on the first floor of Kashiwa Hall.  Just to the left of the double doors I was standing in front of.

Light colors, rugs, victorian, maybe, era furniture.  Another what anime was this stolen from scene.

Edel and Ushi are standing behind me.  Keeping my swords in easy reach.  Ali is on my right and Chani is on my left.  Juli is pouting but sitting in a chair to my right.  There wasn't room on the couch.  Directly across from me is professor loli.

Excuse me.  Dean of Magic Studies at Stormgarde Academy, Franziska Frost.

A three and a half foot tall girl with no rack, looking like a loli, but dressed like a professor.

The only others in this room are two ladies in maximum lift and cleavage maid outfits standing by the door.  They may look easy, really easy, on the eyes?  But their auras are like steel.  Combat maids?

Its late in the afternoon now yet its spring and we are on the shaded side of the building.  So the maids militant have started the fireplace to warm up the room.  A front has rolled in so there isn't a lot of light coming through the surprisingly clear and clean glass windows.

Not as big but as clear as the windows in the Grand Suite.

And of course we are being watched.  The mana in the room has an interesting feel.  Almost like there are holes in the paintings and the scooby doo villain is staring in. Odds are at least lamer saruman is watching.  Probably a few others too.

Oh yeah.  Paintings.

Landscape type stuff except over the fireplace.  A very dignified, and dressed in very fantasy looking armor, woman is staring back at us from a very large portrait painting.

A very oriental looking woman.

Crap.

Really don't feel the need to ask but loli can't stop herself as soon as she sees me look at it.

"Saint Sanriel Pearimon."  Frosty says wistfully.  "Hero of Tourin and founder of Stormgarde Academy."  And sip of coffee.  The cup looks big in her tiny hands.  "They could never get the eyes right."

This draws some stunned looks from the girls.

Juli is the first to find words.

"F-founder?"

Mischievous grin from loli.

"Stormgarde is a lot older than you think Lady Juliote."

Sigh.

"So what." Seriously.

This catches loli so off guard that she freezes mid sip.

But Blue backs Juli up.

"Darling.  That means Stormgarde is over three hundred years old!"

"Blue.  Whether this school is a hundred years old or three hundred years old.  Why should I care?"

"Because, tall dark and edgy."  Everybody is tall to a halfling.  "She is where those words came from. She is where these uniforms came from.  She is where this school came from."

Give loli my full power doubting it face.

Red isn't convinced either.

"Dean Frost.  These are not the uniforms I wore."

Loli nods.  "Well, it has taken centuries to get this far.  Developing the materials, techniques, and craftsmen, that could make this."  Hmm...  "Every couple of decades we are able to get a little bit closer to her dream."  Wistful look again.  "We are so close."

"Her, dream?"

I am super skeptical.  Centuries?  'This is all a VR simulation' would be more believable to me.

"Yes oji-chan.  Mistress was an artist."  Oji-chan?  "She was a student and missed her friends.  Her school.  So she started drawing.  What the campus should look like.  The buildings.  Even the furniture and uniforms."  Sad eyes.  "Making her dream real was the least we could do.  We owe her so much.  I owe her."

Jesus.  Loli is staring, hard, at the portrait and getting teary.

Sigh

"Then that means you are not a halfling. Right?"

Frosty is surprised.

"Right on oji-chan."  Can we go back to 'buddy?'  "This babe is an elf.  A total failure of an elf."  There's the thumb again.  "Such a failure that when magic failed to fix me?  I was sold off to slavers for a short brutal life in a dockside whorehouse."

"And she bought you."  Of course.

Loli giggles.  "No way.  Mistress hated slave auctions and brothels.  Refused to go near them."  Then how?  "I escaped and she saved me." Giggles again.  "Ended up burning down half of Raelera.  Wiped out the slavers and their noble bosses."

Ushi, our resident Sanriel fan-atic, tilts her head.

"I do not recall any such story."

"Fufu."  Fufu?  Ugh.  "Mistress did more than kick elf and demon butt.  She kicked noble and church butt too.  They just don't like to talk about it."  Mischievous grin again.  "Get me drunk and I'll tell you about when Mistress leveled the royal palace."

We are getting off track here.

Ignore Ushi's pleading gaze.

"Later.  First.  Why are you waiting on me?"

"Cause you're the hero!"  Excited loli.  "You're from her world.  You're close to her."  Dreamy loli.  "I can get close, t-to h-her, again."  Fidget fingers touching crazy loli.

Yeah.  That doesn't sound, stable.  Better handle this diplomatically.

"One.  Not a girl.  Two.  Not japanese.  Three.  Not into breastless twigs.  Four.  Not a hero.  So-"

"I don't care!"

Sigh.

"What about those empire heroes?  Heard they are japanese and students?  Bet they would love a loli that comes with a restraining order."

Fidget fingers again.

Whispering loli.  "They won't come."

"What?"

Mumbling loli.  "They said no."

Ushi tilts her head in confusion.

"Then go to them, Dean Frost."

"They said no to that, too."  Whoa, depressed loli.  "Mistress fought the nobles.  She didn't join them."  Disgusted loli.  "The heroes killed the emperor.  Put a puppet on the throne.  Made a slave army.  Created secret police.  Like your world's Gestapo."

There's another word she shouldn't know.

Great.

"Fantasy Nazis?  I hate Fantasy Nazis."

I am looking less and less forward to meeting those kids.

"And all her stuff is here."  Kicking legs that don't reach the floor.  "I could never leave it behind."

"Stuff?"

"You know, stuff.  Her clothes, purse, books, art, phone, guitar."

Ushi is staring so intensely at the back of my head?  I can feel my hair starting to burn.

Oh yeah, her whole body was brought over like those kids.  Maybe she was stolen on her way to or from school?  Wait.  Phone?  Guitar?!

"Wha...  When?  When did she come to this world?"

"Almost four hundred years ago.  Her arrival day is coming up."  Fidgeting loli again.  "Its Mistress's birthday too."

Wow, stolen on your birthday?  That must have super sucked.  Augh!  Stop getting sidetracked!

The glare of Ushi is thru the hair and burning my skin now.  I can almost smell the bacon.

"You said, phone?"

Smug loli nods.

"Can I see it?"

Happy loli nods again.

Whew.  The divine demand of the greedy goddess Ushi having been met.  The gimme, gimme now, death gaze of Frankie vanishes like it never was.

Leaving the waiting room we take a left and enter the rotunda.

A large three story round room in the middle of the building.  Ringed with windows on the third floor.  There is also a balcony ringing the second and third stories.  As well as two staircases following them upward on the north and south sides of the room.

Followed by the two militant maids, all nine of us follow the stairs all the way up to the fourth floor.

Feel the static of the barrier as I walk through it.  Like electricity on my skin.  This one is ridiculously strong.  And as soon as I pass it?  My [Super Senses] light up like a christmas tree.

The fourth floor is one large room, also ringed with windows, and capped by a dome.  In between the windows are bookcases and chairs in front of them.  Lots of little reading nooks.  The center of the room is, a museum.

Pedestals with items displayed on stands.  Benches spaced around them so you can sit and stare at the items.  Okay...

Every one of those items is a light bulb of mana to my eyes.  No where near as strong as Sanctity or Tormentor?  But every one of them with its own mana pool.  Possibly the largest collection of living magic items in this world.

And the items themselves?  Like some pervert stripped and robbed a high school girl.  Every piece of clothing down to her bra and panties are on one pedestal or another.

Her purse and everything in it.  Oh god.  They've even got a tampon still in the package and, a rubber?!  Well, at least she was prepared.  There's her, school id?  Not sure because I cannot read japanese but it looks like one.  My auto-translate doesn't kick in either.

And?

"A mother fucking iphone."

Its ridiculously over decorated with stickers and such, but I recognize the screen.

How?

That would put her abduction within the last ten or twenty years.  Not four hundred.  Well that doesn't make any sense unless...

Fuck.

Time.  The ritual must have a time element.  Not just a where and who?  But also a when.  Okay.  This is bad and good.  Good because it means I might be able to return at the same moment I left.  So no one will even realize I was gone.

The bad?  Those fantasy nazi heroes could be cyborg death machines from my world's future with frickin laser beams attached to their heads.

Also bad?  The demons changed the ritual.  How much did they change the when?  And Frankie was guided by visions.  Only partially translated ancient texts.

So she's lying or misunderstanding.  Maybe never realized part of the ritual was for when.

So Ushi...  Ushi?

Oh god.

Like a virgin in a porn convention her eyes can't rest.  They get a second at most on one item before darting to the next.  Poor girl is going to give herself whiplash soon.

Red, tugs on my sleeve.

"Uh...  Husband?  Is sister going to be...  Okay?"

"We're gonna have to give her time to wear herself out."

I walk over to a bookcase and see books about Sanriel's life.  Battles fought. Powers. Her impact on the world.  There are even books about Earth, Japan, and our world's history.

Now its not all accurate.  The WW2 stuff glosses over Japan's war crimes.  But its what you would expect an overachieving high schooler to know.  No noticed differences either so probably not a parallel Earth.

Walk to each bookshelf and see some repeats.  Extra copies for some.  Later editions for others.  Most of it is about Sanriel.  There is even biographical stuff on her childhood.

"Its a monument."

'Kashiwa Sayo.'  That was her name.  Oh yeah, last name first and first name last.  So, Sayo.  Her real name was 'Sayo.'

Paintings of her are scattered throughout too.  In different outfits.  Poses.  Places.  Situations.  None too adult.  Her hair is grey and she has winkles in some of them.  She certainly had one hell of a smile.  Loli's right too.  The eyes never look quite right.

My god.  She must have been here for decades.  Fifty years?  Sixty?  Eighty?

Her whole life.  On this shitty world.  Never to see her parents, siblings, boyfriend, friends, again.

"I'm, so sorry, Sayo."  Fuck, tears.  God dammit.

"Husband?"

Red's worried.  I pull her close and hug her so tight her chest plate groans.

"Everyone back home who loves her.  They don't know where she is.  Don't know what happened to her.  Don't even know she's dead.  Been dead.  For centuries."  Don't wanna but gotta ask.  "Frosty?"

"Eh?"  Confused loli pose.

"How did she die."

"Its mostly like the nobles and church say.  Demon invasion.  They flanked the entire front with a second army."  Her shoulders shake a bit.  "Mistress lead the charge to buy time for a new defense line."

Eyes turn distant.  Looking into the past instead of present.

"We were, losing.  Badly.  Friends we had adventured with for decades were dying.  Even Mistress's healing powers couldn't keep up.  There were just, so many."  Sad smile.  "We all know what happens if demons take you alive."

Yeah, I do.

"The demons were getting ready for a final charge and we were getting ready to kill each other."  Shivering now. " Better that than become a cursed sow."

"Mistress stood on top of a pile of demon corpses.  Screamed 'you won't take any more of my friends.'  And stabbed herself through the heart."  She points at my hip.  "With that sword."

"Everything turned white.  When I could see again?  Only a handful of demons remained.  Out of hundreds.  And they were running away."  Sad loli.  "She saved me over and over again.  I never saved her once.  So, we she saved one last time?  Decided we would save her dream."

Holy shit this is depressing.

"Brought her body back here and gave it a quiet burial in a beautiful spot by the church.  She always liked the view from there.  I gave that sword to the Metians.  Wanted nothing to do with what had taken her from me."

"The church pretended she fought to the bitter end.  Put some random woman's corpse in a tomb.  And built a monastery over it."

"Why isn't all this."  Motion to all her stuff.  "Better known?"

"Fufu.  We don't brag."  She motions to all the, stuff.  "The nobles and church only talk about the 'great patriot.'  They are not interested in the real Mistress."  She giggles.  "And most students don't care.  Wrapped up in their own dreams and troubles."

"I was here for four years and never saw this room."  Blue seems hesitant to admit.

"Master?"  Ushi finally left her private world.

"Yes?"

"Do you know what all of this is?"  Holy crap that's an expectant look.

"Yes, mostly."

"Show me.  Please?"

God save me from pretty girls with big eyes.

Frost, Franziska (female, elf, tourinese)

Pearimon, Sanriel (female, human, japanese)