'Seed of Chaos' System

As soon as Alesha realized the wizard was speaking again, she turned her attention towards his words in hopes that she hadn't missed much while she was distracted.

"... different groups. Thank you in advance for your brave service to the Kingdom, and good luck with your training!"

Nope, she had no such luck. She'd clearly missed all the important parts of his speech. While the attendants in the room started leaving, the people on the platform (namely, the King, Queen, priest, and a few others) took their seats. Was the training starting now? Were they going to watch?

The woman clad in white armor, the one who had been standing with their group from the very beginning, then spoke. Her voice was sharp and commanding. "Alright, Heroes. It's my job to turn you from the soft otherworlders you are into an effective fighting force for His Majesty. I'm Captain White Swallow of the Swallow Knights, and you will refer to me as Captain Swallow, Captain White, or simply Captain. Our first order of business will be to acclimate you to the act of killing monsters. This may seem harsh, but we need to know as soon as possible if you will be unable to battle the Demon King's army. Any questions?"

Alesha was speechless. Were "Hero Summoning" stories supposed to go like this…? Off the top of her head, she couldn't think of any stories where Heroes were treated like soldiers from the outset. They were always pampered like honored guests, then gradually trained, all the while spoiling them so that they would think kindly of their Kingdom. Did they not care to impress the Heroes they summoned? Or was there some other motive to treating them this way?

The others seemed to share her sentiments. The woman in white, however, took their lack of response as understanding and nodded. "Very well. Come with me, then." Turning around briskly, she walked off. Everyone hurried to follow.

Several in their group started whispering to one another. Alesha didn't join them, instead listening to snippets of a nearby conversation. "I hope this isn't as harsh as the tests during the last six months," one of them complained. It was a gorgeous elf Alesha didn't recognize. Another student, this one the long-haired boy she thought might have been a Sage or something, quickly agreed with her statement. The elf and the boy talked about how harsh the exams were and how low the passing rate was. When the long-haired one cursed "Mr. Zorhellian" for his spartan, even sadistic, ways, Alesha started to wonder what they were talking about. Was Zorhellian the name of their instructor? Had her assumption been wrong? Was this not another Story, but instead an actual Hero Summoning?

She tapped on the elf girl's shoulder, determined to find out. "Hey, what tests are you talking about? Is Mr. Zorhellian your teacher?"

The girl looked confused. "You're joking, right? Don't tell me you don't remember that frog-faced, sadistic teacher?" In a quieter voice, she muttered, "Unless she's an NPC in this Story?" Then winced and clutched her head. "Dammit, shouldn't have said that aloud."

Seeing the girl's reaction when she brought up NPC's and Stories, it clicked. Alesha remembered how speaking of things outside the "Story" on Werewolf Island had been punished with headaches. To avoid that, they were speaking in a kind of code. Instead of speaking of their past as it truly was, they re-interpreted it so that it could be plausible within the "Hero Summoning" context. "Zorhellian, the Chaos Demon" was off-limits because it broke the story, but "Mr. Zorhellian, the teacher" made sense within the story and, as such, talking about him wouldn't invite punishment.

"No, I remember Mr. Zorhellian. I just don't know the tests you're talking about," Alesha replied.

The elf girl looked at her incredulously. "Seriously? You don't remember those horrifying tests that we had to study our butts off for?" After pausing for a moment as if searching for the right words, she continued, "Not even the participation points we had to slave away to earn or the ranking system from hell? And how at the end of every month, the bottom half of the class would be expelled? How could you forget that?!"

The long-haired boy nodded emphatically, almost sending his glasses flying off his face.

Alesha shook her head in response. "None of that rings a bell, sorry." Then, deciding it would be best to clarify, she added, "The last thing I remember is playing Werewolf with a group of my friends after class. No tests or ranking boards."

A few people in their group stopped talking to look at her. Realizing slowly that their gazes weren't friendly in the slightest, she asked, "What? What's wrong?"

A well-muscled redhead with a nasty expression cussed at her, saying, "You're freaking lucky, you know that? I hate you."

"Not sure whether to call you brave or stupid for announcing to all of us that you got to skip class for six months, kiddo," a teenage girl said while examining her polished nails. She had bright red hair, pointy animal ears and a white-tipped fox tail, which swished as if to emphasize her words.

The elf Alesha had originally been talking with placed a hand on her shoulder, as if to comfort her. "Well, just don't tell anyone else, okay? Everyone here is jealous of you, myself included. Though I'll try not to hold it against you. Call me Kennedy, I'm the Class President by the way." She gave Alesha a kind smile, though it seemed a little forced. Then she walked back up to the long-haired boy, calling him by name and restarting their conversation without Alesha. So his name was Arlo.

Just what had she done wrong? What "class" had she unknowingly managed to skip? Was this not the second Story of the "Storytelling Games," but the third? And if so, how had she managed to skip the second?