Is This the Way It Is Now?

"The prince's orders were to detain them….the hall...justice....weapons….in the war."

"Alright then, to the justice hall."

My eyes open to the bright world the loud, monotone voices waking me up. Great! Still alive!

Akari is still sleeping but the slime is nowhere to be seen. I don't even want to ask him what that was about.

I look around the wagon and from what I've seen, it's actually a bit fancy. It's enclosed and has shabby curtains and moving the curtains a bit i'm met with bars on the window. Of course.

A sigh escapes my lips. One step forward and twenty steps back. I slump in my seat and decide to listen to the noises around the wagon.

From the overall noise around us were in a city, a pretty busy one as well. Great, all for hiding.

Those bickering voices haven't said shit and it's a bit irritating, if I woke up a bit earlier I could actually figure out where were going. I heard something about a hall but that could mean multiple things. For all, I know we could be on our deathbeds right now!

My nails dig into my palms, I have no fucking clue what's going on and Akari really isn't gonna be any help. Fuck!

I pull up my stats screen for any help.

Stats

Great, just great. My stats all dropped like 200 points. 200!! That is fucking ridiculous! I close the stats page, it only infuriates me more rather than giving me any information. No wonder I feel like shit and I couldn't fight back against that guard.

"What the fuck!" The carriage stops abruptly and my head bangs against the wall in front of me. Akari awakes to my loud outburst, fucking finally.

The guard opens the door and takes both Akari and me out of the wagon. He just directed us out of the wagon very passively aggressively with d-dao? Duo? I forgot his name.

With the fancy man standing behind him watching his every move.

We stand before an impressive-looking building on a very busy street, I feel like I could be crushed. Around us 4 and the carriage people are moving around us. The steps up to the building are empty even if people can barely fit in.

My first instinct is to pull up my hood, but, we're already caught, so I look back to the fancy man and the guard. I have no clue what we're doing here, though we did get caught so this is usually the part in movies where they die.

The guard and the fancy guy start to walk forward while me and Arakri are forced to walk in front of them into the building.

"Shadow Twins, the kingdom has ordered a trial, whether you live to serve the kingdom or you are beheaded at noon."

In the building it looks even better than before, very fancy, there are three larger doors and banners hanging from the walls. A bit barren but I think that's part of the appeal.

"So what do we do?" I eye the fancy man and he looks at me with a smug grin.

"Well Shadow Twin Sal, I will inform the priestess of your capabilities and he will decide if your fit to serve or if you're useless to the kingdom."

I blink at him, I am one thing, but I am not useless. I've always held my own, motherfucker, of course, we're going to have to serve this kingdom. I do not want to be a little pawn for these corrupt bastards.

And what did he call me? Sal? Yeah, it's not like I've told the people hunting us down my name but still, they could have come up with something better...

It's always one problem after another, huh.

"Ren, my name is Ren and this, Is Akari" I point to me and him respectively.

I nod at him and glance at Akari, he's quiet, but that distant look in his eyes is not really there anymore. Does this still count as a shock? I mean he would have said something, but nope, no witty remark or a sarcastic huff.

A shiver runs up my back, alright, no more Akari time. Bitch can be creepy as fuck when he's quiet.

The fancy man leads us to the big door across from the one we entered. The room is lavish, dark-stained marble furniture paired with dark wood furniture and gold trimmings. There's a lavish podium where the presumed priestess is.

Other than a round table that's also very fancy in front of the podium, it's a pretty spacious place.

"The Shadow Twins, sit." the robed priestess points their staff at the chairs in front of us that face the podium.

Me and Akari sit, I have no clue what their decision is yet so theres no use putting us in harm's way. Even though I have to clench my jaw and hands so a retort doesn't come tumbling out of my mouth.

The trial starts and the sound fizzles out of my ear. Dao, I've learned from him presenting himself, is stood tall.

What will happen to us? Will we get turned into weapons? Or our, head, chopped off like we read about in class?

I can't fight! Not in the way they want! I can't use mana like a normal person in this world. I would then get put on the front lines

I want to leave this world, not die in it! Fuck, fuck, shit!

How do I weasel my way out of this one? I don't know anything about where I am or the landscape or the hiding spots so escape is useless.

Dao stops speaking and the guard slowly talks himself.

Oh god, they are definitely going to kill me off because of my weakened stats. My cheek feels raw from chewing on it, I didn't even know I was doing that.

I have to put a hand on my leg to stop it from bouncing when the guard stops talking and the priestess looks back up.

The priestess makes their final decision and slams his staff down. "The Shadow Twins, Akari, and Ren will be sent to Katursh Dai Academy and implemented into The Kingdom's military!

A sigh of relief escapes my mouth but then a burning hatred forms in my stomach.

What the fuck will they do when I can't use magic. I can but with magic circles and even those, I have to make myself.

I can't worry about that too much because then I'm being dragged out of the hall and back to the outside world.

The sun is actively leaving from its spot in the middle of the sky, so around 1 ish.

It felt like way longer than an hour.

Me and Akari are put back into the carriage and my mind goes blank looking at the passing scenery.

We go from a robust city to a more suburban farm type of roads to fields of crops and stop in front of a fortified castle it looks like.

There's an old man with two guards at his side and a girl with brown skin and dark blue curly hair put into two space buns chatting excitedly and talking with her hands. She sees me and waves excitingly as we get out of the carriage.

I wave back and put on my smile(™) as a plan forms in my head. Maybe I can survive after all, maybe not with normal magic but some extra stats might help.