Oneshot (Yuri writing competition) I was summoned as a saint, but why is the kingdom only throwing men at me

This is my entry for the The Yuri Garden Writing Competition (2019).
There are mentions of sex, but nothing detailed or explicit. (mainly because 2.5k word limit made me remove any details of lewd scenes)
Also, if someone can come up with a better title, that would be awesome.

Spoiler: story

Tatiana was walking to her university’s cafeteria, when suddenly, a bright light shone at her feet. She reflexively closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the familiar streets were replaced by a large room. Before she had the chance to gather her bearings or even look around, an extremely handsome young man began to speak.

“Greetings, saint. I am the first prince of the Wycan Kingdom. We have summoned you over since our world has been plagued by miasma and only a true saint can purify it. Before I continue with explanations, may I have the pleasure to know the name of such a fair maiden, with lustrous, long black hair and skin as fine as porcelain?” He ended with such a brilliant smile, and coupled with his princely looks, it would have won the heart of any straight woman. Unfortunately for him though, Tatiana was a lesbian.
Reflexively, Tatiana smiled politely and lied, “My name is Jane.” Because of her stunning looks, she gets hit on by guys a lot. Through her experience, it was a lot easier to feed misinformation than to not answer their persistent questions.

“Well then, my sweet Jane, let me explain what is going to happen to you as well as the background of this fabulous kingdom…”

While Tatiana half-listened to the prince’s bombastic praise of how fine the kingdom was, she looked around the room she was in. Standing around her, she spotted handsome knights in shining armor, a dandy old gentleman, some rugged bodybuilders, and a whole variety of various men. As she was scanning along the numerous people in the room, she did not see a single woman in the lineup. Have they never considered that homosexuality exists or something?, she thought. Their attempt at seducing is going to fail.

As the prince continued on talking about how the kingdom would take care of her every need, a young woman in white mage clothes collapsed behind the wall of men, which brought Tatiana’s attention to her. She had unkempt white hair and a haggard face with bags under her eyes and looked as if she was exhausted, but even so, for Tatiana, it was love at first sight.

In fact, the only reason why the young woman was in the room in the first place was they didn't have enough strong mages to complete the summoning process. Otherwise, the kingdom would have replaced her with another man.

After the prince finished his long-winded details about the kingdom and how well they would treat Tatiana, she pretended that she was only concerned about the well-being of the girl while subtly asking for personal information. In the end, the only thing she managed to learn was that her name was Mandi, and she was a 19-year-old single woman working as a mage for the royal court.

After the explanations, Tatiana was escorted to a luxurious room, where a few handsome men introduced themselves as her personal butlers. She told them that she wanted to rest for a while and chased them out. Finally alone, Tatiana tried out the first thing she wanted to know after being summoned as a saint: magic. For her, a saint evokes images of healing or holy magic, so she tried various methods to evoke a harmless light spell. After some chanting some embarrassing lines and failing to produce any results, she strongly imagined a light bulb being turned on which caused a soft light to emit from her hand. Further experimentation convinced Tatiana that a strong mental image was the key to activating the magic, as well as light magic being the easiest to evoke. Armed with that knowledge and suspecting the kingdom is dishonest (otherwise why would they need to try to seduce her?), Tatiana activated camouflage magic and snuck out of the room to gather information. Most of the talk she overheard were harmless comments, which included two men whom she definitely remembered seeing in the summoning room talking about their wives. The only useful information she heard was that Mandi collapsed because of mana exhaustion and was perfectly fine otherwise. Disappointed, Tatiana headed back to her room.

To gather more information, Tatiana pretended to be physically frail, so she could use the excuse that she needs to rest in her bed for extended periods of time. Worried, the kingdom sent skilled healers to check on her and found nothing wrong, but through her insistence of feeling tired, they let her be. During the times she was supposed to be in bed, she snuck out of the castle to gather information. Meanwhile, during the day, handsome men threw themselves at her or she was sent to learn how to use magic, which she pretended she was not good at to avoid suspicion.

On one of the trips out of the castle, Tatiana entered a restaurant, where Mandi was sitting alone eating her dinner.

Tatiana walked over to her and asked, “May I sit with you?”
Mandi was feeling lonely, so she answered, “No problem.”

While enjoying dinner together, they made small talk. Finding an opportunity, Tatiana nonchalantly asked, “I keep hearing rumors of this miasma problem, but I wonder how much of it is actually true and how big a deal it is.”

“How could you not know? The miasma outbreak is a global problem, and if it isn’t contained everyone will become sick!”

“So what are we doing about it?”

“Kingdoms from all around the world are sending in their top holy mages to purify the miasma. Well, they are keeping it from spreading for now, but who know how long that will last.”

“What about the rumored saint summoning I heard about?”

“How do you know- I mean, it is true that the kingdom is trying to summon a saint, since everyone knows that the king wants to solve the problem instantly so he can force some unreasonable demands onto the other kingdom under the pretext that he was the one who saved the world. But whether that will actually happen or not, who knows?” Mandi said, feigning ignorance.

They continued on with some more delightful conversation, until it was closing time.

Outside, Mandi said to Tatiana, “That was pretty fun. Oh, it’s a bit late, but I’m Mandi, a mage working for the castle. Would you mind introducing yourself?”

“I’m Tatiana, the saint that you summoned,” she said in a quiet voice.
“Wh-what? Why are you out here with no guards? Why -”

“Shh, not so loud. If you know a place where we can talk without being overheard, I can explain it to you.”

Mandi invited Tatiana to her house, where Tatiana told her about feigning exhaustion and then using magic to sneak out of the castle. While still worried about having someone so important run around unguarded, Mandi stopped questioning her about it. They continued on their conversation, and at some point, Mandi started talking about the pressures from her family, which included being forced into an arranged marriage with a handsome, but unpleasant, man.

Mandi complained about how insensitive and selfish he was, as well as how terrible he was in bed.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that. He sounds like such a jerk. By the way, do you have anyone you love?”

“No. And not that guy for sure.”

“I know this may seem sudden, but on the day of the summoning, I fell in love with you at first sight, and today’s conversation only further served to strengthen my love for you.”

“Huh? Well I like you to.” Mandi replied in confusion.

“I mean romantic love.”

“But aren’t we both girls? How does that work?”

“If you don’t mind, we can have sex right now so I can show you through example.” Tatiana replied with a wink.

“Isn’t that immoral?”
“Oh, if you aren’t comfortable, it’s fine. I’m not going to force you. We can still be just friends.”

Mandi started to fidget as she replied, “Uh, I can’t decide. Can you come to my house at 9 PM tomorrow? I’ll let you know then.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Tatiana continued engaging in conversation of other topics to dispel the awkward atmosphere.

Afterward, Tatiana snuck back into the castle, while Mandi flipped through pages and pages of religious scriptures to find if two women having sex was actually immoral. She couldn’t find anything on the topic.

The next day, Tatiana showed up at Mandi’s house at 9 PM.

Mandi opened the door, and while fidgeting, told her, “The Goddess has said nothing about two women have sex, so it should be fine. So, I guess we can do it.”
Tatiana noticed her apprehension, and assured her, “Don’t worry. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, we can always stop at any time.”

They then went to the bedroom, where Mandi experienced her first time with another woman.

____________________________________​

After the pleasure subsided a bit, Mandi was convinced that such a wholesome and comforting feeling can no way be evil, thus cementing her belief that sex between women is not immoral.

As Tatiana got up to leave, Mandi realized that the entire time, Mandi didn’t actually do much, so she called out to her, “Wait, that was the best experience of my life, so shouldn’t it be my turn to please you?”

Tatiana replied in a gentle voice, “As long as you feel good, that is all that matters. Besides, I can always come by your house again where we can both feel good. So same time tomorrow, I can expect you to please me?” Tatiana ended with a seductive wink.

“Of course,” Mandi replied happily. “See you tomorrow!”

____________________________________​

The two women developed a routine in which Tatiana “goes to sleep” at 9 pm and then sneaks off to Mandi’s house. They then talk about random topics, and afterwards they have sex. In the rare times when they don’t, they still enjoy their time together doing other activities. Afterwards, Tatiana sneaks back into the castle and pretends nothing has happened. This routine continued for about a month until Tatiana received a message from her handsome holy magic tutor.

“I have deemed you ready to purify the miasma that plagues this world. We will depart in three days. Please prepare yourself.”

Tatiana regretted performing so well in front of the tutor. She could have easily helped purify the miasma since day one, but she faked incompetence. However, she didn’t want to overdo it, lest she gets labeled as completely useless and then gets quietly disposed of by the kingdom. Now she has to worry about what will happen to her after she purified the miasma. Will they let her go? Quietly dispose of her? Force her to be a servant to the kingdom? Send her back to Earth?

That night, Tatiana showed up to Mandi’s house as usual with a serious look on her face.

Noticing her odd state, Mandi asked, “What happened?”

“The kingdom is sending me out to purify the miasma in three days, and I don’t know what they will do afterwards. I’ve always loved you since we met, and now is a good time to ask: Will you marry me? We can elope together.”

At this point, Mandi has already accepted having sex with Tatiana as normal, but is unsure about marriage. She decided to voice her concerns as she said, “But what about my family and their plans with the arranged marriage?”

“I mean, does your family just treat you as a tool to establish relationships with other nobles? If so, you owe them nothing. On the other hand, if your family truly cares about you, then they should be fine with whatever makes you the happiest.”

Mandi was convinced by Tatiana’s answer, and was about to accept on the spot, except she realized that the entire time, it was mainly Tatiana that was making all the decisions and leading the two of them. In Mandi’s mind, a good marriage implies equality between both members, so she felt like she needed to be proactive in something. Mandi mulled over it a bit and came up with a plan.

“I can’t decide now,” said Mandi, finally breaking the long silence. “I’ll give you my decision tomorrow.”

“Okay, not a problem.”

The next day, Mandi skipped work and ran all over town, buying things for her plan, looking up information, and getting prepared to leave the kingdom. At 9 as usual, Tatiana knocked on her door, and when it opened, she saw Mandi kneeling on one knee with two golden rings in her hand.

“Will you marry me?” asked Mandi.

Pleasantly surprised, Tatiana smiled as she replied, “Of course!”

They slip the rings on each other’s finger, and then shared a deep passionate kiss.

As they separated, Mandi asked, “So should we consummate the marriage?” while leading Tatiana to her bedroom.

____________________________________​

The next morning, Mandi informs Tatiana about her elopement plans. They were to buy a wagon and load all their belongings onto it, and travel to the neighboring kingdom, which was powerful enough that the Wycan kingdom can’t just show up to try to take their saint back. Mandi already had everything prepared.

“The only thing I’m worried about is that I’m not sure if we can get a good job there, since mages need to be certified, and foreign certifications aren’t going to count,” said Mandi.

“Don’t worry, as long as we are together, we can do anything.”

____________________________________​

One year later:

Mandi walked through the field of grass, heading towards a villa in the bucolic countryside. As she walked into her home, Tatiana asked, “How was work today?”
“The usual. This time, I was asked to help dig out a well with magic, so I’m a bit more tired than usual. How about you?”

“It was more relaxing than usual at the clinic, with the miasma problem now officially over. Because of that, not many people are sick anymore.” Tatiana smiled mischievously as she said, “It is our first anniversary today, although I suppose if you are tired, we can always do it later.”

“What is this? I suddenly feel full of energy all of sudden!” Mandi held out her hand and said, “Come on, let’s go to bed together.”
Smiling at the anticipation of the fun they were going to have even though they do it almost on a daily basis, Tatiana took her hand and they walked to the bedroom.

Also, this is my first time writing yuri, so please be gentle.

 

The only one here that isn’t being gentle is

Spoiler

Mandi’s shitty (ex-)fiancé.

I feel like the premise of the story is great and so is the execution, but some of the narration could use more variety.
(Using ‘flowery language’ so to say.)

Spoiler: Opinionated Critique

An example would be rather than saying:
‘if two women having sex was actually immoral’
You could say:
‘if two women eloping was immoral’
‘if it was immoral for women to embrace one another’
‘if it was immoral/sinful (either works) to indulge in another woman’s body’
Of course it’s not necessary to change your work as it’s just my opinion, but (as stated) in my opinion your narration could use some more variety.

Thank you for the Yuri!

 

Iwould like to participate sounds like fun..I have a question Im not too familiar..can you use a gender bender twist ?

 

I think this breaks the "no rape" rule. Would you be able to remove this part?

 

*Near had a spitting reaction* Lol, really nice title you got there, i will read it.

Yep gender bender is accepted.

EEEEeeeeeh !? Guess i need to read it fast before author edit it.



Eeeeeh... typo ? "Their attempt at seducing going to fail." Isn't there some words missing ?

Edit: Eeeeeeeeeeeh ! How can you write a fluffy story like thaaaaaaat ! Now i am really skeptical about which series to vote for ! In previous competition there was only 1 fluffy series so it was easy to choose but now... Hmmmm... i think i will still vote for the devil one...
Sorry but i guess it's because i feel that your writing style is kinda rigid... can't really explain it, it felt like you can easily imagine the characters or maybe it's because there was not enough length for everything. Btw, only 1 royal mage ?

Also i agree that the hetero sex scene kinda turn me off.

 

I'd prefer to avoid gender bender since we have too much of it and not everyone considers it true yuri.

 

That counts as rape?
I specifically mentioned that she accepted the offer, so consent was received. I am aware that just because consent was given in the beginning doesn't mean anything goes, but in this case, I was trying to convey that he was simply lousy at sex, and she was not unwilling, just disillusioned by the bad experience.
Any tips on how to make it not seem like rape?

 

fixed, thanks!

 

I don't want to read anyone else's until I write mine but in the excerpt above she was having sex w/a man ? ..need to do research on yuri.. lolol

 

I think it's probably easier just to remove it or summarise it as her just saying the sex is no good?

The fact that he just charges at her as soon as he has consent, along with the fact that he's hurting her and doesn't stop when she tells him he is, makes it read like at least borderline rape. Consent is more than just verbally agreeing to sex.

That extract isn't part of the yuri, it's a description of unpleasant sex with a man by one of the characters.

 

Basically FL reveal in details that she had an horrible first experience with her fiancé/husband.

 

I had to cut a whole bunch details (why only 2500 words), so I wouldn't be too surprised if it seemed like there wasn't enough length for everything and why my writing might come off as a bit stiff.
Looking over what I've written, I could see how you could come to the conclusion that there is only 1 royal mage, so I changed it.

 

Removed

 

Thank you~! This entry should now be acceptable as it is.

 

Hmmmm... *trying to help*

My crappy mind could only think for title as : I was summoned into another world by a not reliable country to save the world so i eloped with their only female royal mage.
/ (less spoiling) ... world and so created another plan with a partner.

 

Kudos on being able to add that much content within 2.5k words

 

I like the title just the way it is Its a good story the way it is, you fit in a lot of description and plot in with the 2.5k word limit....but I had to google what bucolic meant....

 

This is now officially accepted.