We followed behind the prince and his escort as he led us through the castle. Here and there we got glimpses of the building we were in through the windows. It was a massive structure. Towering stone that reached far higher than the medieval castles of our world. Made of an off white stone almost like granite, it shone in the midday sun.

The halls were lavishly decorated, it was apparent that the country, or at the very minimum it’s royal family was exceedingly wealthy.

As I was idly thinking on these lines I glanced at the prince in front of us. Strong of stature and well dressed, he struck a mostly imposing figure. The only thing that ruined this was the anxiety on his face and sloppy posture. He struck me as someone more suited to a life on the battlefield striving for glory than someone ready to lead his people from a throne.

Apparently he noticed my gaze as he locked eyes with me and tentatively smiled. It felt less forced than before. He waved me up to him. Since I had no reason to refuse I complied and walked up next to him. His guard looked wary but Altru brushed of their looks and began to chat with me.

“I’m sorry about earlier. While Black is a loyal and extremely smart individual he… he has a lot of trouble holding his tongue, and it’s hard to tell when he is jesting.” The king sighed “I hope you won’t hold it against him.”

“I wasn’t really put off by what he said earlier, honestly” I admitted. “I am curious though, why are you only apologizing to me?”

He looked a little surprised but it passed quickly and was replaced by another loose smile. “Honestly you seem like the easiest to talk to out of your group. You and that ‘Bobby’ fellow seem to be the leaders but I don’t think that Bobby over there would be too open to… cordial conversation.”

I followed his gaze and saw Bobby near the front of the group. He looked simultaneously pissed off and worried; it was a strange expression. I think I get where Altru is coming from, but I couldn’t overlook his large misunderstanding.

“Actually…. Sir, me and Bobby aren’t leaders. In fact I don’t think any of us could be considered leaders.”

“Really?! Aren’t you some sort of military force? Where is your commander?”

I took an educated guess that the summoning was supposed to summon soldiers. Suddenly I felt a small sense of connection with Black, as I felt the urge to be violent with the people who messed up the summoning.

“Sir, I think that you may be underestimating how much your summoning was screwed up. I’m not 100% sure but I think we are all students and faculty of a college.”

Altru looked a little stupefied, before his face drooped and a sigh larger than the last escaped his lips.

“That would definitely explain why you all look like non-combatants, and why most were so terrified. Dear Gods, I can’t believe this has gone so wrong.”

As we spoke we approached a large arch, through which we could see a large table laden with food. The dishes looked like fine china, and the food was high class but also hearty. Many of the summoned people finally regained a bit of their senses at the smell of the food. Despite the fact that we were all summoned from the college commons where they serve food, most of us were starving college students who treated coffee like a meal on most days. With everyone studying for finals I can guarantee that half the people here had an empty hole where their stomach should be.

Altru saw their looks and laughed heartily. “Please, everyone sit down and eat. We have prepared the finest food in the kingdom for our heroes. I will explain more as you eat your fill. No need for decorum by the way, I don’t really care about silly things like table manners. Please everyone, sit.”

I sat down near the head of the table where Altru seated himself. May came up and sat down meekly next to me. She looked fairly downtrodden. Julian and Kristen sat near me as well.

While some still looked skeptically at the food as though it had been poisoned they all proceeded to sit. Some dug in immediately and the atmosphere lightened by one degree.

Altru waited while people dished up and then slowly opened his mouth to speak. His face looked more serious than before and it commanded attention from the whole room. Despite his earlier words most stopped eating to pay earnest attention to him. Perhaps this was the presence of royalty.

“First thing is first.” He said and slightly lowered his head while still looking at us. “I would like to reiterate that we are extremely sorry for what has happened. While I am sure many of you do not feel that “sorry” is nearly enough” he glanced in Bobby’s direction “for now I want to at least say it with sincerity.”

Altru then raised his head back up and spoke with a clear voice.

“I have been informed by Tony here that you are not the people we were expecting so I will begin by explaining what was “supposed” to happen for our summoning ritual.

Our summoning circle should have sent a request for aid to a multitude of people from Earth, with promises of riches and glory. These people were to be the finest warriors with strength to back them up. This request, if accepted, adds them to the summon to our world. Those who refuse lose the memory of the offer with only a minor headache as a side effect. After they have accepted they would receive a ‘tutorial’ which would explain their circumstances and what they were to do.”

The more Altru spoke the better the atmosphere got in the hall. Finding out that this was all a mistake might not be the most comforting thing to know, but it did make it hard to be truly angry at Altru and his retinue. Well, maybe with the exception of a certain few people that Black had jokingly threatened to kill.

“Also, as far as the magicians who so utterly and completely ruined this summoning, they will receive a harsh punishment tantamount to kidnapping. They obviously overstated their ability when they offered to do this job and their incompetence has placed you all here instead of willing participants in our struggle. I know this won’t change anything for you who are already here, but at this point… this is all I can do.”

Prince Altru slumped into his chair with a sigh, immediately dissipating the royal aura he had until then. From this point on he spoke more quietly and with less energy, but the silence in the room still made his words clear.

“The worst part of all of this is I have no way to send you back. There has never been a need for that in a proper summoning. The spells simply don’t exist and earth doesn’t have enough mana to send a link the other way.”

He closed his eyes and remained silent for a moment. This finally gave someone the opportunity to ask a question. The quiet voice of May broke the temporary silence.

“So what are we supposed to do now?”

Altru straightened up again before he spoke.

“Since there is no way to go back, you will have to remain in this world. By rights, you are now citizens of the empire. As much as I would like to just tell you that you can simply choose how to lead your life from here on, I don’t think that is going to be possible.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Growled Bobby.

“It means that a country in a losing war cannot let fighting potential rest when we are so very close to destruction. Unfortunately for all of you, even if we left you all to your own devices you would all inevitably die within the next two years. When the demons swallow our land they will not take prisoners unless it is to be kept as pets. This will happen, and our generals expect it within two years if nothing changes. Since you will be forced to confront the demons anyway, it is better that you fight with us to ward them off. We…. we will conscript you into our military. It is the only route to survival for us both.”

Well there goes the improved atmosphere. So we will be conscripted huh. Our country didn’t have mandatory military service and I have never served. I’m a little frightened to fight something I know nothing about like the demons, but I see that I’m not going to get a choice in this matter. In a corner of my heart I had hoped Altru would treat us better than Black, but now I see that they are backed too far into a corner to think about our wellbeing. Honestly at this point I felt like resisting somewhat, but would that change anything if we were going to be killed by demons soon anyways? My thoughts continued to spin around the future that awaited us without coming to anything helpful.

“What if we don’t want to help anyways.”

I don’t know the person who asked that, but he was a tall man with glasses. He looked more like a professor than a student. His face looked cold, and not nearly as worried as most of the other summoned.

Altru didn’t flinch at the man’s question. His face grew more stony and determined. His mirth from earlier in the day was well and truly gone.

“If you do not join us, we will die. My family and my people will all die.”

He looked the man with glasses square in the eyes.

“If you will not join us willingly we will have to force you.”

The man with glasses glared right back.

“If what you say is true and we have massive military potential then what is stopping us from resisting?”

I looked at the man more closely and saw a glint of metal under the table which I could see from my angle, but Altru could not. I guess that everything we were holding came with us in the summon did indeed come with us, but it’s strange that this man had what was in his hands on a college campus in the first place.

That glint of metal was from the barrel of a gun.