From human to gap yokai in Arifureta

Chapter 3 - Status plates

We are guided out of the church building to head to [Hairihi Kingdom], a kingdom close to the church, and just at the foot of the [Sacred Mountain] that we are at now. Seeing the vast sky while on top of a mountain would normally be a breath taking view, but not to me with the current circumstances. We are being used as disposable pawns by an unknown being going by 'Ehit', and have no way out of it at the moment. I can only imagine that as long as this 'Ehit' lives, even if we find a way to leave he will simply summon some other poor saps, or resummon us with more restrictions. That's why I need to gain strength before thinking of leaving. At least enough to block his attempts to manipulate boundaries.

「The path of guidance, opens for the faithful. ‘Heavenly Path’」

As the pope says this, a platform forged by a magic circle appears to take us down the mountain. After the magic carpet ride, we went inside a large castle where we passed by many knights, officials, and maids that looked at us in admiration. Considering most humans take the [Saint's church]'s religion regarding Ehit to be truth then I can only imagine how they think of 'Ehit's chosen ones'.

When we get to the throne room we are met with 4 people at the throne. A middle aged man who should be the king, a woman beside him who should be the queen, a young boy of 10 years old that based on affiliation should be the prince, and finally a young girl of 15 years old or so should be the princess. They all have blond hair and blue eyes with the exception of the princess who has green eyes. On the left of red carpet were military, knights if the term is accurate in this world. On the right were government officials, or nobles if I'm right. This round up left the room with a total of 34 people aside from our class, and the pope.

As we were stopped in front of the throne the pope continued, and had the king kiss his hand. This action should be a show of submission if I'm not mistaken which makes me interested in how the government works. It doesn't change my thought of the reason we're here, but I've never heard of a religion being above royalty. If there was a similar occurrence then it would be a theocracy, but here is a normal kingdom that seems to put a pope above their own king like if the church was a country with the [Hairihi Kingdom] as a vassal state.

Finally introductions were made where we found out the king's name is Eric S. B. Hairihi, the queen is Luaria, the prince is Prince Randell, and the princess is Liliana. The knights, and nobles present were also introduced, but I didn't pay much attention. The prince seemed to be drawn to Shirasaki-san. 'Sorry, not sorry kid. Where we're from you'll need another 5-10 years before you can even think of Shirasaki-san.' After the introductions we were served some food from some more maids considering we've only had something to drink so far since we came here. Some food had strange auras to them, but I still ate them to not draw attention to myself. It must have been some magic or skill that increased the food's taste because the aura covered food tasted better. Like it makes the food taste much fresher, or something. After eating we were introduced to the knights and court mages that will be training us for the war. I frown at this, but I still can't do anything about it. I can only hope that I can get strong enough to leave here before we are put on the front lines. They then lead us to our rooms that other than me, who is fairly used to western sized rooms considering my heritage, everyone were amazed about. The bed was the only thing that made me stop, but in the end it just means I get more room to sprawl out at night.

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After a well deserved night's sleep where I woke up with my cover kicked off on the floor, we were all brought to the training grounds. They gave each of us 12 cm x 7 cm silver plates that seem similar to a form of screen. The knight commander, Meld Loggins, went to explain after we were all given one.

“Alright, did everyone get one? These plates are called the Status Plates. As the name implies, these plates will show your status in numerical value. It is the most reliable identity card. As long as you have this, it doesn’t matter even if you become a lost child. Any questions regarding the aforementioned?”