I'm currently sitting on a stone block, staring onto solid iron bars that locked me away in a certain humid dungeon cell.

Why am I stuck here in this dirty cell? I'm innocent you know, in fact, I'm the one that's being offended, being kidnapped and then imprisoned.

*Sigh...*

I let out a long sigh as I watch the triple handcuffs on my hands and legs. Let's see, from when did it get wrong....

 

 

Around three hours ago at a certain pizzeria in downtown Brooklyn

In a fine afternoon with no clouds on sight.

"Ryan!! Get yo ass right here! We got one delivery right now!"

An old, heavy voice can be heard resounding throughout the store.

There is usually no one that order pizza at this hour, it has already passed the lunch time. I wake up from napping on the sofa after I heard my boss calling me. I feel tired. I've been having similar dreams for the last few weeks, fleeting dreams that keep saying 'it's almost time' or 'soon'. The heck is that suppose to mean, can't I have a fun dream instead?

Looking at my appearance right now, I'm just a regular guy who has just entered his thirties. Having heights around 190cm, my shirt and pant are of medium to large size still appear quite loose, in other words, I'm not fat but not skinny either. Nearly shoulder length dark blond hair, slightly wavy. It still looks untidy even after being tied back like a little ponytail. Whenever I look on a mirror, I definitely see a not bad-looking man, at least for common standard, but nobody has ever call me hot either.

Doing various odd jobs like plumbing, fixing leaking roof, running errands, that kind of stuff, I'm known as a useful handyman by the people in the neighborhood. Today, I'm working as a substitute pizza delivery man. Yep, a SUBSTITUTE.pizza.delivery.man. What a wonderful occupation I have, one does not simply get any lower than this.

It's not because I want it to be like this or I was lazy or something you know, it's just 'circumstances' in life made me what I am right now. No romantic relationship, no proper job, no proper education. Great future awaits me. I'm not complaining about my current lifestyle, but sometimes i do envy those with proper jobs and normal family.

So, back to the pizza call. I checked the address, apparently it's the Indian guy again. looking at the hour and how cheap the menu he ordered, he's definitely shooting a prank video again. That guy is notoriously famous around here for having a well-known prank video channel in an online video site.

"Hey boss, it's that prankster again, I'm not sure we should take his order."

"Don't cha complain on any order, son! Any order, whatever kind it is, is money going to ma pocket. In fact, we might got our store famous from being featured in one of his video. That said, be sure to wear all potential advertising material, the uniform, hats, store jacket, everything!"

In appearance, the boss is what you can consider as a big fat old black guy in his sixties, no racism intended, but he really looks like the typical stereotype old black man you can find in most downtown area. The only distinction is that he wears a black sunglasses and uses a walking stick.

That's right, he's blind. I heard he lost his eyesight and family back in 9/11 tragedy. An average guy would go insane or kill themselves from such misfortune, but boss Ben is different, he keeps on living even when he had nothing more. What a tough man. I know all this because I was there some years ago when he still had nothing.

Thankfully, after that series of misfortune, he won himself a lottery, gain just enough to open a store of his own which also become his home.

So he runs a local pizzeria, a little bit stingy on paycheck but is still a nice guy, he even gives free [leftover] pizzas to the homeless around the neighborhood almost everyday.

People around here call him as old Ben, big Ben, or papa Ben like what the name of the pizzeria. I myself prefer to call him boss Ben, it suits his attitude and personality.

"But boss, it's a prank video, I'm not sure it will be a good publicity for the store."

"Prank video or cuisine video, I don't give a damn, he got viewers and I heard it's nearly hundred thousand each."

Aaah, the boss's way of thinking is flawed. But well, for our kind of store, that shouldn't be a problem. After all, we barely got any reputation to be further tarnished anyway. Compared to the popularity of those fancy bistro and chain restaurants, ours is already as low as it can get, we are not even registered in google maps.

*Sigh...*

I just go with the order and begin delivering the pizza. By delivering, I don't mean with a car. It's a bike, one without that bad air-polluting engine. No no no, Our store's bike is very 'green'-centric, it emits no air pollution and no sound pollution at all. It's even further equipped with self-propelling mechanism, an eco-friendly plastic pedal. It's a bike in its purest original form.

When I left the store, Jerry, an old Labrador who lives in the street around here barks at me as if greeting me. He has a shabby dog tag on his collar, People assume that it was given by his previous owner who maybe left him here because as far as we know, Jerry currently doesn't have any owner. People do feed him leftover food though, especially boss Ben. He barks at me again and wags his tail, what an adorable dog. Too bad I can't play with you right now, got works to be done.

So I ride that badass eco-friendly bike around the streets with a pizza bag strapped to my back. The destination is a six stories building, one that's being used for small scale offices. It doesn't look too shabby, being well-designed and properly maintained.

The customer's office is at the seventh floor, a.k.a. the penthouse, a.k.a. the rooftop. He works in a self-made glass house there. That guy really lives to its name as being eccentric. I heard he was exploiting his racial trait to be a lecherous Yoga guru before. Definitely public enemy number one.

I enter the building. The receptionist girl sees me and give me a pitying look, she knows what happened to me on the several times I delivered a pizza here. For what actually happened that several times, let's omit them for now.

I ride the elevator to the sixth floor. Then I walk-up the stairs to the roof. I stopped in front of the door to the rooftop. I brace myself for whatever kind of prank he sets up behind this door.

"Pheew."

Exhaling deeply, I opened the door slowly.

.

.

.

"Huh?"

There is nothing here? No big-ass styrofoam pendulum trap, no lunatic killer clown with chainsaw, in fact, there is totally nobody here.

Thinking that this is unusual, I go ahead to the small glass house, the only thing atop this building aside from the usual antenna stuffs.

This glass house is the Indian guy's studio, his workplace. One does not simply get any more swag than this dude. The ceiling glasses are heavily darkened with variety of color while also being covered by plastic vines. Variety of small plantations (fake and real) are being put both inside and outside the glass house, making the inside only half visible. The sound of air conditioner exhaust machine can be heard loudly. So much for being green.

I arrive in front of the door which is also made out of glass. It has a sign that says [chillin and rollin] on it. Man, whatever. I knock on the door.

Oh, I can see a silhouette of a person. Apparently there is someone inside, the glass wall doesn't necessarily show all of the inside.

I can see him coming to the door. Azeez the prankster. He looks the same as always. Dread hair, Caribbean style. Some humongous fake gold ring with dollar symbol on it. Overly big basketball T-shirt that almost looks like a one-piece for men. I'm amazed he doesn't have gold teeth yet.

"Yo ma bruh!" He greets me like a black man with some Indian accent. Please remember your nationality.

"Here's your pizza. One promotion pepperoni extra cheese with no meat on it. $9.49." I don't reply his greeting because I'm still suspicious. This guy smells like a bad luck waiting to happen.

"Wooah, playin da cold dude huh? Me like it!"

I keep my face expressionless.

"Alright alright haha. Don't give that pouting face. Here's your money. Keep the change."

He gives me $10 for the payment. Keep the change.... it would be something if it's at least $15 or $20.

I turn back after I received the payment. But he stops me. Oh no.

"Bruh, you gonna leave me alone with this big-ass pizza? Come inside and chillax a bit will ya?"

Come inside? My alarm is ringing as hard as it can be.

"Nah man. I'm good. I should be going back. Need other stuffs to be delivered." I try to decline politely.

"No no, I insist. I need someone to review my latest work, man. I have nobody else to ask but you right now. From one nigga to another, you'd help right? It's just watching some videos and giving comment, nothing that takes a long time to be done. 5 minutes top!"

Why would you need me for reviewing videos... any of the security guy downstairs is enough. And most of all, who's your nigga, you aren't even one, much less me.

I knitted my eyebrows, giving a look of being annoyed.

"Alright man, you win. I understand I understand haha. Nothing's free. I'll pay ya alright, 10 bucks, how's that."

Ten dollars... My price isn't that cheap.

"$50."

Yeah, I know, that's still cheap, I'll probably get pranked a little but at least it's better than getting nothing like before.

"What!? Are you trying to rob your brother? Fifteen!"

"$50."

I've got to stand my ground. We both know this isn't just about watching videos and giving comment.

"Damn bruh, twenty! Give me some slack will ya?"

His tone shows that this isn't simply about giving video review anymore.

"$50."

"Thirty, I'll even share the pizza with you! And that's the limit, don't push it anymore!"

I thought you said you need somebody to help you finish the pizza. This guy. I turn back and begin walking toward the stairs.

"Alright! Alright! You greedy punk haha. You got your fifty bucks. Come on inside."

He chuckled from my determination. His eyes already silently saying "I pay you so you better give good reaction on this one."

I received the $50, then come inside the glass house. It appears to be more spacious than expected. Contrary to how hot outside, this glass house is pretty comfy.

I can already spot some cameras facing towards my position. I don't know what kind of prank is it this time, but if it dirtied my clothes then I'm going to charge him more.

I follow him and arrive in front of a bunch of monitors. Apparently this is where he does his work. He shows me some prank videos that to my opinion is just mediocre. I wonder whether those poor people got paid too.

He gives me a slice of pizza. Although I slightly doubt him, I still eat it out of being polite.

Now then, midway watching the videos, I notice a figure through the transparent glass walls. That figure is standing facing the safety fence of this rooftop area.

Ah, he takes off his shoes. I immediately stopped eating the pizza and slowly stand from the chair while keeping my eyes on that figure.

Azeez also notice the figure of a guy who's currently climbing the safety fence.

I take a look at Azeez, he also looks at me. Ah, so that's how it is huh, you want me to act the suicide negotiator. Alright, that much I can do.

Azeez takes one of the cameras lying around. We immediately exit the glass house. By now the suicide guy is already on top of the nearly 3 meters high fence, he's sitting sideway on the top curved railing part while firmly holding it with both his legs and hands to keep his balance. Seems like he's playing the scared suicidal, giving me room to talk negotiation.

We arrive near the guy, only around 2-3 meters away. Azeez is standing behind me with camera recording on me.

"Ma man, yo! Isn't today too good to be dying? Look, not a cloud on sight." Azeez tries to start the talk. Bad moves, shitty lines.

The guy who already notices us approaching from before reacts to Azees's statement. His face that looks like nearing fifty years old shows an angry expression.

"Good day?! You call the day I got accused for sexual harassment and being fired a good day? You prick! You picking a fight with me?!"

The guy furiously exploded. He pointed a finger at us while the other hand is holding onto the fence. His acting is pretty realistic, I'm impressed.

"Wooah wooah, chill out man. Life can always become better, take a look at me here, I was jobless and even nearly homeless some time ago, now I got a proper delivery job. See, you lose one job you can always get another."

I tried to throw some persuasion too, too bad it's also crappy like Azeez's. I shall never work on a suicide hotline service.

"It ain't easy if you are over fifty you f***tard!!"

Ah, apparently he's not nearing 50 years old. He begin to use cursing words. Wow, this is so realistic.

"They don't even give me my pension because of the accusation! I f***ing worked 20 years for those as***les!"

He said that with furious tone and now begin crying with a reddened face. His shirt and hair are getting disheveled.

The setting is that kind of being framed and laid-off without pension huh. I've heard this kind of story a few times before, apparently some company can be as heartless as this just to reduce a little bit of expense. Nice job on the backstory there, Azeez.

"Well, uh, you wouldn't leave your wife and kids alone right? Think about how they'll feel if you die. Man up and try again okay?"

The man bursted even more tears after I said that. Is it working? Will this end soon?

"I'm fu**ing sterile you as****!! And my wife left me for a richer man, that bit** is, is.. damnit!"

Woaah, they really make it hard for me, isn't it too much? Can such a sad life drama be coincidentally captured on camera like this?

"Okay okay, just calm down, alright. You know life can be much worse."

I take off my shirt and show him various marks and scars I have all over my body. This should be a good enough show for today. Please don't ask for more.

Both the suicide guy and Azeez are stunned on the view of a body full of scars. The guy even stopped crying. Maybe this is too effective?

"Damn bruh, that's some insane abs you got, what the hell, man?!"

You ignore the uncommon sight and ask about the abs? What a mindset you got there.

"Hush. So, now you understand right, losing a job doesn't mean you lose everything. You were accused? Then you better fix things up, get a lawyer and sue the company for millions."

What a wonderful solution I just gave him. Well, to some extent, my advise is correct though.

"I-, I can get millions of dollars?!"

That's it, that's the cue that the scenario is ending soon.

"Yeah, if not millions, at least hundreds of thousands. See, all you need to do is get down from the fence, then we can talk about it. Look, this guy right here has a famous online channel. He can help your cause too, that dollar will be in you hand in no time."

I begin to say various hyperbole persuasion. Azeez has a famous online channel? Right, a prank channel. I don't really know about such cases, but realistically, I think at most he will only get a few thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars top. But let's not be totally honest for now, this is a white lie and only for show after all.

The suicidal guy begins to shift his gaze between me and the asphalt floor way down below.

"I don't... I don't want to die yet, I want to have revenge... on those bastard that ruin me like this."

Finally it's over, easy $50.

"Good, now come down slowly, we can discuss what to do later. Hell, this creepy Indian guy will even treat you to any dinner you want."

"I can't. Uh, I can't move my body, I'm too scared. I can't move at all."

Oh no... now they want me to get him down too? This is too much.

"Just throw your body to this side, we'll catch you!"

Right at this moment, a strong wind blows from behind me. It's not so strong that it can blow people away, but it carries dust with it.

It frontally hits the suicidal guy's face. Surprised, the guy let go of his holding and begin to wipe his eyes.

His posture waver a little. This is bad.

He begins to waver onto the wrong side of the fence. I instinctively jump, grab the wire fence with my left hand, strongly pull my body up, and try to catch the guy with my right hand before he falls.

*Grabs*

I just barely able to catch his tie but his body has already leaned over 45 degrees to the other side.

I strongly pull it before his body lean even more to the death side.

This guy... is heavy. My left hand has already released its grab on the fence to allow me reach higher position. Because of that, I'm currently pulling him without holding into anything. Since he's heavier than me, I managed to pull him back but it's me who's now over the fence and is actually falling down.

Now the situation is bad for me. Really bad. I tried grabbing onto anything, trying to stick my feet to the edge of the rooftop, but all is in vain. I can already see the asphalt far down below getting closer.

When I turned my head back, I only see the fence getting farther away. I think I also hear someone screaming something.

I avert my sight to clear blue sky.Everything seems like in slow motion. My adrenaline is probably pumping like crazy.

Am I going to die? Me? Dying like this? Who would have thought... "Those guys" will probably laugh out loud when they learn about how I die.

Was there any case where someone survived falling from a six stories building? If there is any, what are the chances that it will happen to me too. Even if I survive, the injury... ah I don't want to imagine it anymore. Just make it instantaneous and painless.

That Azeez..... No, I can't really blame him, I should have realized, there was no safety rope on the suicidal guy. That was probably a true event. That guy probably really got fired and was about to kill himself. If I realized sooner, I could have prepared a safety measure for unexpected events like this.

.

.

.

Uuuh, why haven't I reached the ground yet. This slow motion is agonizing.

*ziiiiing*

What's that? I see a bright flash of light, is it the flashback moment now?

The light keeps on getting brighter. Eventually everything appears bright white. It's too bright, I decide to wait my demise with my eyes closed.

Ah I feel like I'm losing consciousness. Have I reached the ground already? There is no pain whatsoever.

So this is what dying is. It isn't that bad. At least I've already finished my goal in this world and I don't know how long I can keep on living normally anyway. Although there are some little leftover regrets, overall, I should feel satisfied. Yeah, I should.

As I convince myself, my consciousness begin to fade away... I truly can't feel anything anymore. This is probably my last moment.

.

.

.

Huh I heard a voice?

.

.

.

.

Uuh, my body hurts and my head feels really dizzy. It feels like when you woke up after being overslept a long time combined with a heavy hangover feeling. Like when your whole body is stiff, bones and muscle all hurt and you feel like puking but nothing is coming out. Huh? Wait, I can feel something?

I feel like I've been sleeping for a long time while also feel like I'm forgetting something. Did I had a bad dream? It's very confusing. My head is in a mess. I'm coughing really hard.

I opened my eyes but everything is still dark. I also can't hear anything, everything is silent. My sense of direction is also gone.

.

.

After a few moment, slowly, I can feel like strength coming back to me. My vision is also slowly coming back. The bright light isn't here anymore. I can feel something hard is pressing against me, it appears that I'm currently lying down on a floor.

I take a glance on my surrounding. My vision is still adjusting to the current condition so it's still kinda blurry, but I can see that there are many people around me. More like, they are surrounding me and seemed like to be dressed in unusual clothing. By unusual, I mean like they are wearing dresses, fancy coats, and some even wear metallic armor. There are over dozens of people circling around me.

My hearing is also slowly returning, I can hear chatters and tell that those people are discussing with one another while looking at me.

In less than a minute, my vision and hearing are nearing their normal condition. I take a look around once more. It seems I'm in some kind of circular hall. It's big and decorated with many fine engraving. This is like those old-catholic cathedral which are made from sculptured stone and marble slabs.

I put my body in a sit down position with my hands holding my upper body. My gaze stops on the fanciest dressed person in the room. His face looks familiar.

"Oh great hero! We've been waiting for your arrival!" The old man with fanciest clothing that I mentioned just now begin talking after our eyes met. Everyone else also shut their mouth to listen to the man speaking just now.

Great hero? What the heck is he talking about. My mind is still a little bit muddled. All the gazes from the people around me also makes me feel uncomfortable.

Seeing that I don't reply his greeting, he continues on.

"It is through great efforts that we can summon you. Oh great hero, with the blessing of the goddess, you shall embark on a quest to slay the demon lord!"

This old man says something about summoning, goddesses, and demon lords. I still can't process it at all.

All the people around has a tense but hopeful expression on their face. I wonder what are they hoping for.

"We shall aid you with all we can in preparation of your—"

"AAH!!" That guy keeps on rambling some nonsense but then I yell while pointing at the old man. That's because my mind finally managed to settle up.

I understand now.

I can already see his figure clearly. That appearance, even with the fancy dress and amazingly long beard, he can't hide that one trait, his Indian face. That's him. Azeez. The prankster. Prick.

Everyone is surprised when I suddenly screamed and pointed at him. Almost everybody has their eyebrows raised.

I immediately stand up and begin to walk towards the bearded Azeez but then some guys with partial metallic armors and spears try to block my route.

Now that I think about it, isn't the prank this time quite high on the budget? Did that guy finally get a sponsor? What kind of person would sponsor a prank show? A bored rich teenager? Anyway, this time I utterly fall for his prank. I really didn't see it coming. Well played, Azeez.

But this is already beyond both the $50 reward and my patience, my body still hurts you know. I wonder how long did I slept. That guy must have drugged the pizza that he gave me like crazy. I feel like I can still taste the drug on my tongue.

"What a great job you've done this time!"

I gives my remark toward him loudly. I even lift both my hands up in exclamation. I've this really wide 'friendly' smile on my face.

Seeing this, Azeez seems to feel everything is okay. He told the guard looking people to stand down and allow me to approach him.

"All of you, stand down! The hero just want to exchange greetings! This is probably how he exchange greeting in his culture!"

All the people around become noisier on Azeez's statement. Got to give this man an applause, he does his job heartfully.

I approach him until I stand right in front of him. I can feel that all eyes are on us. I put my right hand on his shoulder like greeting a comrade. We both have a huge smile on our face.

"Good job on your work today!"

*SLAP!*

I swing my free left hand and slap him on the cheek while my right hand still grabs his shoulder firmly.

""""Wooooooaah!!""""

The crowd uniformly make a huge reaction. The guards from before quickly approach us after being surprised too. Azeez holds his right cheek that probably stings a little while looking astonished.

"Wait! Wait! I believe it's just how the hero exchange greeting. It's alright, it's alright!"

The guard stopped right away after Azeez says that. The crowd also gives an understanding looks on me. These people are really professional huh? They can keep up with unscripted events.

Azeez return a smile on my direction. I also gives a 'genuine smile' to him.

Oh, he put his right hand on my shoulder. His left hand seems like readying to be swung.

I blocked his approaching left hand that is being swung to me with my right hand. He seems surprised and looked toward my right hand. He must have not expected me to block him. I bet he wouldn't expect the next one too.

*SLAP!!*

I slap him once more on the same right cheek when he was looking toward my right hand. What was he thinking, did he think I would play 'exchange ridiculous greeting' with him?

"""""Woooooah!!!"""""

Flabbergasted, his eyes show disbelief and surprise. Not only him, now all the eyebrows in this room are definitely raising at maximum point. Everyone's mouth are also wide open making an 'O' shape.

He begin to look at other people like asking for what just happened and people begin to look at one another too. Has he realized that this prank is going to be a big failure now?

"Nice job on making me feel like dying back then. I really really fell for it."

*SLAP!!!*

"""""WOOOAAH!!""""

The peanut gallery are making noises again.

"Azeez you punk! Do you think I'll keep up with all your pranks? I demand a bigger payment, and you better add several zeroes behind it!"

I grabbed the long bushy beard and try to remove it from his face.

"Aaah!! Ouch!! Stop him! Stop this madness! OUCH!!"

He begin to retort violently. Huh? This is a really fine fake beard. What kind of glue did he use, I can't take it off.

The guards immediately grab my arms and tackle me down so hard to the floor. They drag me away from Azeez and pin my body and face onto the floor.

Huh? Something feels wrong. They treat me really rough. It actually really hurts when they tackled me down to the ground. Even if I ruin the show, these security guards shouldn't hurt the guest like me this much.

"Such insolence! You dare to lay your hand on his majesty the king!"

One of the important-looking person gives such remark at me.

I'm currently lying down and has my face being held down touching the floor. I don't know how many guys are holding me down. I can only turn my head a little to see Azeez that has both confused and contempt expression.

My alarm sense is tingling again. Something feels wrong. Everything is too realistic to be a set up.

"Arrest this man and throw him into the dungeon!" Says the important-looking man to the guards.

What? What did you just say? Now I'm the one that's confused. Before I can say anything in defense, I already find myself inside a cold dark dungeon....

2: Chapter 1 - In Another World, Getting Visited By A Girl At Night

I was brought into this dungeon with my head covered so I don't really know where exactly I am. I can only tell that's it's not that far from the hall where the accident... I mean incident happened because it only takes less than thirty minutes of walking and riding something slow to arrive here. 

Today is the second day since I was thrown into this dungeon. By now I already realized that things aren't quite normal. If this was really a prank by Azeez, the event should be long over by now.

After rethinking the situation at the cathedral like room, the Azeez back then was actually slightly different, he was... older, I think. At first I still make denial, thinking that it probably was just a make-up. But after a day has passed and the situation hasn't changed, I begin to accept the reality that the situation is too weird. I recall what one was said by the Azeez look-alike, am I really being summoned? To some kind of other world? Isn't this some kind of supernatural things like being spirited away?

Talking about supernatural, it's actually pretty believe-able for me. I have an acquaintance who is an esper, or as common people call as freak of nature, back in Earth. At least that much proves that although very rare, supernatural things do exist to some extent. About the possibility of getting summoned to another world, although not impossible, the timing was really great huh. I don't know whether to consider myself lucky for surviving a fall or unlucky for getting imprisoned here.

Although I'm not a big fan of supernatural stuffs and that I don't exactly know why am I suddenly here, I still feel relieved that I'm still alive. I'm still wearing my pizza delivery pants, that means I was transported here wholly. I survived a fall from six stories building, what a miracle. 

The dungeon cell I'm currently in right now is pretty small, probably only around 3x3m with a thin cotton-filled bed atop a stone slab as my place for me to rest. Since it's most likely an underground dungeon, there is no window, the only air ventilation is the cell bars which is also the door. There is also no mirror or toilet in here. I have to get to a latrine room while being guarded to relieve myself, not to mention I haven't even allowed to take a shower or clean myself for the last two days. The lighting is from outside on the wall facing my cell. There is an old lamp-like thingy with some kind of stone that emits dim light in it. Definitely not a normal lamp because it doesn't look like a light bulb, LED, nor a candle.

In these two days, I've actually received a pretty hospitable treatment despite the bad lodging. They actually give three hot meals a day. Although the taste is pretty bland, it's still a proper meal enough to fill a man's stomach.

I'm not sure how long a single day is in this world, so I'll only call it a day after a full cycle of day and night. And talking about days, day three at the dungeon is almost over, it's already night now since the guards have brought the dinner for today a an hour ago.

There is nobody to talk too, the guards are all grumpy and barely reply to my question, not even when he took me to the latrine room. The guy literally stand just 3 meters from me. He was watching over me while I take care of my business. That was pretty awkward for both of us. I tried to start a conversation to break the ice but he mostly ignores me.

Oh did, I mention that the toilet is pretty pseudo-medieval? I don't know whether it is because this is a toilet in a dungeon, but the place is terrible. It's a small room that's just slightly bigger than my cell with only a single pit with a cover to be used as the toilet. Although I must say the place doesn't appear to be dirty, it still smells a little.

There is a pseudo fabric-tissue thingy for wiping purposes. It's a relief that it's not a multiple-use kind of wiper or sponge. There is also a clean water in a bucket to be used too. At least they have the bare minimum for being hygienic.

Back to the current time. As said before, it should be night now. I'm not sleepy yet, I barely do anything that can make me feel tired. All day long just lying on a thin bed made out of cotton. I wonder how long will I have to stay here. Since this is most likely another world with different kind of science, there are too many unknown factors to be prepared against. So I've decided to gather more information before trying to break away from this dungeon.

I recalled that one of the man in the room where I was summoned said something like insolence and a king.

If this really is some kind of another world and that old man really was the king, did I actually slap a real, bona fide, royalty? That was a new experience. I've faced many big figures before, but this one is new. An actual royalty huh? A king to be exact.

While I'm lazily lying around. I can hear a sound of footsteps nearing my cell.

There shouldn't be anymore meal today. Have they finally decided to let me out? Has the verdict on my lese majeste came out? No, wait, if it really is that, it can't be in the middle of the night like this.

The footsteps are now really close. I can already see a silhouette of someone in front of my cell.

It's a hooded figure. A figure of a kid to be exact.

I'm still laying down on the bed. Pretending to be asleep while stealthily taking a look.

The little visitor is standing in front of the cell bar, looking at me. I can't figure out his/her appearance due to the dim light and the hood.

"Mr. Hero..."

It's a girl's voice. What the hell is a little girl doing in a place like this.

I still keep on pretending to be asleep.

"Hey, Mr. Hero."

Who is Mr. Hero. Why the hell is she keep calling me that.

"Mr. Hero. Hey, I need to talk with you. Hey."

She seems a little desperate, let's try to tease the kid a little and see what is she up to. This might be a chance to gather information.

"Mr. Criminal, you will be hanged tomorrow and I can help you get out from here."

I jumped right away from the bed and rush to the cell bar, my face bulging out between the bars.

"HANGED?! THEY GONNA HANG ME?! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Now you talk, huh."

"Hah?!.... huh?..."

"..."

"..."

Our eyes are staring at each other. This kid, she actually tricked me. And I actually fell for it. Well, who would not be intrigued when the topic is about your execution. I just had my life saved from a falling to death, can't lose it again so soon like this. This kid, she's going to be a smart one in the future.

"Haaaah..." I let out a heavy sight, pull my face away from the cell bars and turn back to my bed.

"We need to talk."

She keep insisting on talking with me.

"...What is it?"

I just lazily reply while lying down on my bed, facing the ceiling.

She looks at my attitude and wait a little before continue speaking.

"I just want to see what kind of person the hero is."

What kind of person am I? And by the way, I'm not a hero, please don't call me with such an embarrassing name.

"I've heard that heroes are noble people of great character. My sisters have always told me stories about how they will save the world from bad monsters and evil."

The usual heroic stuff huh? Sorry to shatter your dreams, kid. But I'm not a hero material. Blame your sisters for giving such a false hope. Monsters and evil? Does this world have that kind of things? More reason not to rely on me, nuh-uh.

"But seeing you now, it's more like a criminal thug without manners. I'm disappointed. You even hit lord father despite his benevolence."

"Say what you want, kid. I heard that I was summoned or something, for your information, I didn't ask to be brought here, that was a forced kidnapping. A breach of my right. If you want to call someone a criminal, look at those who does the summoning." I retort against her claims. I'm grateful for being miraculously saved at critical moment, but they don't need to know that for now. 

Did she say 'lord-father'? Is she the princess or something?

"Silence, you who easily hit people even after being shown kindness must be a bad guy."

"I admit that it was my mistake to slap the old guy. He really resembles someone I know after all, and that somebody is in a need for a beating."

"...."

She seems surprised after I suddenly apologized, did she think I will keep denying her statements?

"You actually have some heart. I almost lose hope on you."

What the hell is this kid saying to her senior.

"Oooh, I have a big heart indeed. In fact, I'm the most heartful person you've ever met. Tell that sisters and father of you that the 'Hero' is actually a really nice guy." I say that with a ridiculing tone to tease her a little. I shifted my gaze to her while still laying lazily on bed.

"Hmph. I commended you a little and your head actually gets this big."

The little princess snorted and takes off her hood. She appears to be just around 11-12 years old. She is one cute little lady. Way different from her nasty father. Long chestnut colored twin-tail hairstyle all the way to below her shoulder, with a wavy part by the end of the hair. Fair skinned and with face like innocent little angel if she isn't frowning and didn't make such an unchild-like remarks just now.

I can't believe it. If she's really that Azeez look-a-like guy's daughter, then the mother must be one hell of an angel.

She can already speak like that at such a young age, I'm afraid on what her future will be. She's like a little angel that acts like a little devil.

"Well anyway, I'll talk a little with you, but be sure to put a good word for me. I might actually be hanged if the whole royalty is like you."

"Don't worry about that, lord father is busy with something else. Your matter is already unimportant to him."

Hey hey hey, does that mean I'll be forgotten and have to rot in this dungeon?

"Then try to talk with your sisters, royal princesses sound like a position with some influence right? Tell them that the hero is a good guy and was just confused back when he was summoned or something."

She paused a little on my words, her gaze which is still frowning fall straight on me. Am I being too demanding?

"My sisters are not in the castle. They are in a faraway place, don't expect anything extravagant from them. Hmph!"

Not in the castle? I see. They must be either on some distant places for education or political purposes. By politic, I mean getting marriage and stuffs. I'm not much accustomed, but I figure that this kind of thing should be common in such type of high society, especially since they look like in pseudo-medieval era. High class ladies sure have it cruel, huh? Well, not like it matters much to me anyway.

"I see. I understand. I'm sorry for not noticing."

I apologized once again. The looks on the little princess' face shows that she is also against forced marriage. Seeing how intelligent she is, she must have known that she too will have to do the same thing in just a few years from now.

This remind me of some of the people I met back then. Back when my 'odd jobs' are still a little on the extreme side.

If I was still the same character as before, I would offer my assistance to at least help her run away from home. But this time the situation is different. Since I'm most probably in some kind of different world (If I'm not in some kind of dream), I don't even know what the world outside looks like. Much less helping her, I'm the one being stuck behind bars and needs help.

She stares at me silently with her eyebrows knitted. Really, don't pity me like that, I feel like I'm the one that need to pity you instead.

"You have decent understanding after all. I thought you were just an ignorant savage."

Ah there she is, she's back to her previous attitude. Does that mean my value has rises a little in her eyes?

"Well, I'm a totally 'good' guy after all."

"Yeah right..."

She no longer gives big reaction to my joke. She's quick in getting used to this stuffs.

"So, what do you want to know? Something about what my world is like?"

"No, such thing is unimportant. I'm just curious to what kind of person the legendary hero is like."

"Only that? You only want to know things about me?"

"Yeah, although you might think it's nothing, it means a lot to me."

I smiled a little. I have to do it right, got to make my image good so I can plead for a help. Now then, how much should I tell her?

"Okay... So, uh, from where do I start? People call me Axl. I should be 31 years old soon. I don't know how does your world's time system work, but you can think of it as a young adult."

She gives this disbelief look when I say young adult. Hey, no matter what, I couldn't have looked that old right?

"I think I'm most likely half western and half Asian. I speak English, a little Spanish, a little mandarin, and some other languages, just enough for everyday communication."

...I paused for a moment. Now that I think about it, how do I understand the language of this world, or at least, the language of this country. In my ears, they speak English with a little bit of foreign accent, almost unnoticeable. I also noticed that sometimes the movement of the little princess's lips are inconsistent to the words I heard from her. There's nothing to do with that, let's just be grateful that there is no language barrier for now.

"I don't really understand, but does what you mean is that you are a descendant of different races? You also speak our language fluently, how do you that?" 

She's also a sharp one huh.

"You can think of it like that. As for the language, I don't really know about it myself."

"Hmm, that's probably one of the Goddess' blessing." She crosses her arms while making a thinking posture.

Goddess' blessing, I remember something like that being said at the summoning event.

"What Goddess? I heard about it back then, am I supposed to receive a blessing of some sort?"

She pauses a little and gives me glare. Did I say something bad?

"The Goddess is the one that oversee our kin! The protector and the deity of our great Kingdom of Gloumell Altaire! The lore stated that when a hero is successfully summoned to this world, the said hero will receive great blessings from the Goddess. That's the one thing that differentiate a summoned hero with the one from this world. They wield great and mysterious power, powerful enough to vanquish the evil and protect the just!" Wow, she says it with great spirit, like how a teenage girl explains her favorite boyband to someone. Anymore than that her eyes will begin to sparkle. Her inner self is flooding out, she is still a kid deep inside after all. Now that's a more familiar look. That's how a kid is supposed to act.

"I see. But I don't feel anything different with my body though. I don't feel stronger, healthier, or smarter in any way. You sure the goddess gives blessings?"

"That can't be. The legend tells that the summoned hero will always receive a blessing. It was recorded that one time there was a hero with super strength, another has flying ability, there was even one with an exotic charm ability. The record stated that they get to ask for what kind of power they want."

"There were other heroes before? So I'm not the first and only one huh." Apparently hero summoning might not be a rare thing.

"The hero summoning ritual has been done for ages. There were many recorded cases and also many that were done in secret."

"They summon so many people, does the being you called as demon lord is so strong that they can't defeat them or what?"

"The demon lord... is... he has been defeated long ago. It's just a new one will rise from the remaining demon tribe. So heroes are always necessary to suppress the demon kin."

So it's like that huh, an repeating loop of hating each other. I've guessed at least that much. Even if the variables are different, the situation is the same. Even on Earth we can state various similar cases if we compare a demon lord and heroes as a two group with differences, whether in term of race, religion, political view, or even just favorite sports team. This so called demon lord from the so called demon kin is probably just another race of this world.

"Wait there, missy. that sounds like a never-ending cycle. Why were you at war with the so called demon kin anyway." I ask her with serious tone.

"It has always been like that. History shows that the demon always try to harm our kin and we have to fight back. The only solution to end the war is to exterminate the other party." She replies with a straight forward reason, as if quoted from a book.

"Harm the human kin? Are they some kind of monster? What do they look like?"

"The book shows that they are mindless beast with horns and spikes. Unnatural being that devour everything on its path."

"Wait, history this, book that. Have you even seen the real thing?"

"Well, uh, I... I haven't. I've always been in the imperial city and the demon kin mainly stays at their own continent to the east."

She's getting fidgety when I ask her that question. Let's push her a little bit more, maybe I can establish a higher standing here.

"So how can you say that they are bad. Saying that those so called 'demon' as mindless beast."

The little princess lose her words on my rebuke. She looks down and doesn't argue back as if acknowledging of being wrong or maybe thinking about something

A moment later she speaks again, "So it's true. She was right, you really are different. "

She looks back at me straight on the eyes. The previously down look on her is nowhere to be seen. She has this glimmering eyes full of happiness and hope. I wonder what is this about.

"Now then princess. Tell me about this world. I haven't seen the outside world, but it's most probably different compared to my world. I need a major picture of what is going on if you want me to do something."

I'm trying to extract information from her. Now the situation is more like I'm the one interrogating her instead of her asking me questions.

Till now, I've concluded that this world has different level of technology, or simply saying, different era. They still use spear and swords for weapon, metallic armor instead of composite materials for defenses, there doesn't seem to be any tools that resemble high-tech machine around or at least being carried around. The only unusual one is still the lighting method which is from a flashing stone, or at least that's how it is here in the dungeon.

My assumption should be correct, even if this is some kind of backwater jail, the least they could have is electricity as a source of power. At most they should be at medieval era right now.

Am I gonna stuck in this world forever? Is there a way for me to go back to earth? That kind of thoughts are swimming around my mind right now.

"I don't know when you will be able to get out, so be grateful, the kind me will be telling you things about our world." She says it with a prideful look, really similar to when a senior employee acts superior toward the new employees , as if they own the company.

"My, what a kind little lady you are. Not only cute, but also kind and knowledgeable."

I teased her a little, let's see how she react to praises. If she's easily pleased, I may be able to get even more benefit. Might even be able to ask her for the cell key.

"..."

Hmm?

"What do you think you are saying to a kid. So you have that kind of interest, huh?"

She puts on a looks of disdain while stepping a back a little.

"Wha-, what?! Hey, who is what. No, you misunderstand!" I immediately change from laying down position to sitting position.

Oh no, things are going the wrong way, I didn't expect her to be knowledgeable on such a thing, is she really a kid? I'm in no way a pedo. I like boobs, and I like 'em big!

"Hahaha, look at yourself!"

What's this? Is she....

"You must have thought that I maybe an easy girl because I'm still a kid, praising me a little and expecting me to help you more."

It really is.... is she an esper? Can she read my mind? Or is she really that mature in the inside.

"Let me tell you this, don't expect to get anything more from me. You lecher."

Ugh, that last word hurts. I should just use a joke as a reply.

"Whatever are you saying, I, in any perspective, am a noble-hearted man. Such a thought never crossed my mind." I say it with my eyebrow raised and my index finger pointing up while firmly looking at her.

"Yeah right." She chuckled.

"Enough joking, so kid, can you tell me about this world?"

"Is that how you ask for a lady for help? Such nobility, I'm impressed, if you ask with the 'magic word', then I may consider telling you."

*twitch*

If only there is no cell bars separating us I will pinch her ear and drag her around mercilessly.

"Alright then your highness, the one blessed with an unparalleled beauty and kindness under the blue sky, would you PLEASE share a small part of your great knowledge with this lowly humble man, as a pure act of nobility?"

This time I go without limit. It might be a little bit sarcastic, but so be it.

"*Che* Well, I planned to tell you from the beginning anyway. Just be sure to tell me about your world too." That prideful snort, she's not intrigued by the sarcastic remark at all. I had hoped for her to be at least a little angry. Getting her flustered is simply impossible after all. She has yet to tell me her name... Not like it matters. 

Also, did I hear it wrong? Tell you about Earth? I thought I heard you say that you are not interested on what the world where I come from is like just a moment ago.

Anyway, that's how the night ends up. We talked a lot about each other's world. I learned a lot about this world. 

As expected, this world has a limited technology, but there seems to be other kind of energy that power things up, so it might be not that inconvenient in here, I look forward to seeing it. The little princess is really fascinated when I told her about how far ahead the technology of our world is. She really did put a big front when she said that she wasn't interested before.

3: Chapter 2 - In Another World For A Few Days, I Already Go Back To Earth​

Things stay the same for the next few days. She comes to talk with me nearly all day long. Firstly, she brings me a change of clothes. The set of shirt and long pant she brought are made from good material which is nice but it's highly adorned with some kind of 'artistic' golden embroidery which appear unnatural considering where I'm right now. Therefore I only take and wear the shirt because I was shirtless ever since coming here. 

From then on she brings various kind of delicacies. Apparently, after I told her about the variety of the food we have back on Earth, she has been trying to get me impressed with the best cuisine of this world. I wonder whether if I told her about various wonderful places on Earth she would take me out from here and let me see the many places outside.

I get closely acquainted with her along the way. In the last two days, she opened up a little to me. She shared with me many of her stories. She told me about the royal family, especially about her elder sisters. Thus, I learn that she is really close with her sisters, in fact, she really admires them. She told me about how the third elder sister is a tomboy and spoiled her the most. She told me about how both her second and first elder sisters are a kind and noble-hearted person, a person of truly down-to-earth character despite their royal status. Lastly, although they are all from different mothers, they still have a really close relationship, probably closer than what a normal sibling usually be. 

I feel relieved that this little princess has such a good people to rely on. Even if they are currently away from her, it's not like they are gone, they should still be able to meet each other from time to time.

Also thanks to getting well-acquainted with her, I tasted many kind of foods and drinks, there was a mango-shaped fruit that taste like watermelon but with a texture of a durian, a cake made from the extract of herbs which taste like high grade alcohols, and even a hot drink that has a mint touch in it. She said that that hot mint is called 'Pallanua' and is a popular drink in this world. They all taste very exotic to my tongue.

It's all one-sided. She is the one that always brings the cuisine of her world to me while I can't let her taste any kind of food or drinks from earth.

I really hope that I can let her taste something that we have back on earth. She was very proud when she presented that hot mint, I bet she is equally curious to how does the popular drink in my world taste like. I wonder how she will react if she ever taste a cola or any other carbonated drinks. 

Maybe I should try to make one in this world later on, how do they make carbonated drinks anyway?

Thinking about food, I remember Boss Ben's pizza. It has been 8 nights since I arrive in this world. He must be mad that I suddenly disappear. I hope his stroke doesn't act up. The business should be running just fine, Jimmy and Ron are still there to help him run the store and do the delivery after all.

Boss Ben's pizza, it taste just average but it has that one thing that, although isn't exactly the tastiest one I've ever eaten, I can't stop eating it. It's a kind of homemade feeling, warm and cozy, and the toppings are plenty. Because we at Papa Ben's Pizzeria can't afford to use many expensive stuffs, so Boss Ben just went with "Then we should just use more ingredients to compensate that! Let's just use the much cheaper ingredients but with higher quantity!", as always, his way of thinking was really straight-forward.

Boss Ben, I'm sorry for leaving without a word. He helped me a lot when I first settle-up in Brooklyn some years ago and even gave me shelter and jobs too.

While lying down on the prison bed, I'm reminiscing such old memories. The time I met Boss Ben, and even the time from way back, all the way to my dark complicated past.

"Boss Ben's pizza... I still want to at least taste it one last time..."

I'm still thinking about that. Maybe it's like the holy bread for me.

*Dziiing*

Huh?

*Vroaaam*

What the?! What's this? A door-like hole just opened mid-air. The surface is a sparkling but also looks glossy as if it's wet. it's spinning around like a slow vortex of galaxy, quite enchanting, I must say. But still, what the hell is this? Why did it suddenly appear?

I wait for a few seconds and it's still here, nothing else is happening except the inside of the hole is still spinning and making low space-like sound effect. The front and behind is the same, void and spinning.

I decide to touch it.

*Psuu*

What's with this space like sound? I touched it and it feels like thick water yet my finger doesn't feel wet. It probably more accurate to say that it's like going through a soap bubble, a very thick soap bubble, almost like a pool of mercury. That's what it feels when I put my fingers through it.

I continue further put my hand inside. This sensation, it kinda tickles but also electrifying to the skin. I've got to say, it does feel quite nice. I might become addicted to this. I wonder, what exactly is this thing.

Experimenting with it for another minute and not feeling anything bad is happening to my hand, I become convinced that it's not a dangerous thing. I decide to see through it, in other words, put my face inside. 

Although convinced, I'm still being very cautious. First I make a temporary rope from twisting the bed sheet and tying it to the cell bar. 

Now I'm ready, it won't be like when I fall from the rooftop. My right dominant hand is firmly holding the twisted bed sheet which I've even tied to my wrist.

I put my left hand in, then slowly and steadily I further put my left arm inside. The inside feels breezy but not wet. I can feel wind blowing on my arm. 

First I try to touch or grab anything around my inserted arm. There is nothing. Okay, that's not a bad sign. I tried to touch the floor if there is any.

I can feel a hard surface.... and quite flat but rough. The texture is like the surface of a stone and it feels kinda hot too, like a stone that has been exposed to sunlight for some time.

All clear, seems like the inside has air and a floor, it should not be an empty void. I take a deep breath.

*Huuuuft*

And I exhale it.

*Pheeew*

I take another deep breath and this time I hold it in. I position my inserted left hand on eye level to cover my face when it goes inside. I slowly put my face inside.

"..."

It's blinding bright. After I've adjusted in a few moment. I can see the scenery around. It's day time in here. When I say day time, I don't mean there is a sun inside the void hole, the place I'm seeing right now is actually the place I've seen numerous times. It's a small area behind Boss Ben's store which is used as a temporary garage.

I look at the sky, it's half cloudy. Although I said blinding bright before, that's only because I came from a dim-lighted dungeon, and the current me is seeing a day time outside. The contrast between these two places are too huge thus my eyes need to adjust for a few seconds.

I confirm that this is not an illusion or dreams by pinching and even slapping myself a few times.

"..." I'm a little bit stunned at the moment of realization.

"No way... Hell yeah! I'm back?! I can go back? Just like that??!" I immediately let go of the twisted bed sheet on my right hand and go straight to the hole. 

"Ah, huh?" Oops, I forgot that I tied it onto my wrist. I untie it and immediately throw my entire body into the hole.

"Hahahahaha! I don't know how it happened, but I'm free. Man, what a miracle! Again!" I have a huge grinning smile on my face right now.

While rejoicing on my unexpected freedom, I take a look at the door-like hole behind me. It's still there, hovering in mid-air.

A thought just crossed my mind. If this hole can stay for long enough, then there will be a chance to bring the little princess some of Earth's culinary. The first to cross my mind is to present her Boss Ben's pizza. I'm definitely being objective here, it's not because I'm a fan of it, but because I should start with the less tasty one and build up impression as the taste escalate to a much tastier one. Yeah, definitely because of such reason.

Although I plan to do that, I save it for later. For now I should be checking the condition around. Whether it has been over a week too on Earth and the current situation since I went missing.

I go into the store to look for papa Ben. I wonder what should I say to him as an excuse, I haven't thought of that. But who cares, showing that I'm okay and well is my first priority. For now, I should be focusing on meeting him.

I look around, there doesn't seem to be anyone in the store. That's weird, the store opens everyday and it's still day time, it shouldn't be closed yet.

But indeed, looking around, I feel like something strange is going on. There is nothing prepared at the kitchen. If the store is just temporary closed because either boss Ben, Jim, or Ron is away, there should be at least a trace of dough prepped at the kitchen, and yet, there is absolutely nothing at all. 

Nobody, nothing. In fact the store seems to be desolate, as if abandoned. Some spiderwebs are building on various corners of the store and dusts are piling up to visible level. There is no ingredients or supplies at the usual place. There isn't even any kitchen equipment to be found, they are all gone. It appears to look like the store has been abandoned for a few days already.

I don't understand. What's going on?

I decided to leave the store and ask the people around. I leave through the window by the front door since the door is locked and I can't find the key at the usual place.

"Really, why is the store being abandoned." I ponder around after exiting the store.

Could it be, they were looking for me? After all, I suddenly disappeared just like that. Seeing how boss Ben's nature, it's very likely that they are still searching for me until now. There is another possibility that come to my mind in case I disappear like that, but it's very unlikely, those people wouldn't dare. They wouldn't, or so I convince myself.

Not far from the store, just around the corner, I see a familiar face.

It's Crazy Joe, an old homeless veteran with mental disorder. It's not like he's fully retarded, you can still make conversation with him, it's just sometimes the context of the conversation goes way out of logic. In the middle of the conversation, he often change topic to weird stuffs like non-existent things, supernatural beings, conspiracy theories, and other common craps. But the baseline is, he stays in the same spot for most of the time, so he should know what's going on with the store for the last few days.

I walk closer to him, thinking that asking him some simple questions is still feasible.

"Yo, Crazy Mad Dog Joe!"

I try to talk with a friendly street style tone. People usually do this, and he likes it too.

He looks at me while grinning.

"Yo man, whad up? Say, you know what's been going on around? Especially on Boss Ben's pizza store?"

He doesn't immediately reply. His gaze is focused on my 'artistically' golden embroidered shirt.

"Nice shirt." That's what he says. This old fart, his homeless soul is burning up.

"Oh, this shirt? You like it? I'll give it to you, but you've got to tell me about what's been going on alright?" I take off my shirt and hand it to him. I don't really need it anyway, although it looks expensive, it's not to my taste at all. He grabs it and take a closer look at it, he looks like a little kid that just found an imaginary treasure chest but more on the eccentric way with bulging eyeballs and huge grin.

"Now, then, the information please."

"Oooh, ya ya, information. I know know what's on." He has this wide grin on his face while saying that. I hope his mad sense is not revving up at the moment because I'm really in need for correct information.

"Benjamin been busy lately."

Oh, okay. I keep a firm gaze at him, listening carefully.

"He was sad at first. You know, sad like, really sad."

"..."

"When I asked him, about uh... about why was he sad, he said that he lost a son again. Boy, I been here for a looong time, but I didn't naw he had a son. Uhum."

... Something is amiss.

"So yeah, the very next day, some scary-looking people in black suit came and took him away. I tell you this, they are bad, really bad. They dragged poor Benjamin to a car.. ah uh was it a truck? No wait, uh... what was it again?"

"It doesn't matter what car! Do you know where they took him? Or at least, which direction?" I get impatient. This is likely true and is a serious matter. As I said previously, I had thought of such possibility, it's just that this is unlikely to happen only because I disappear for a few days.

Startled, Crazy Joe continue his story. "Well, uh, um, I don't know where they took him."

This is bad. I should immediately try to find him.

Thinking like that, the following story from Crazy Joe is like pouring cold water to my uneasy feeling.

"But I do know that he came back yesterday. Brought back with the same people that took him. Poor Ben looked like even worst, tell you what, he did not appear to look hurt outside, but I know, ooh, it can't escape ma sharp sense, deep inside he is hurting real bad. Like, uh, really really bad."

I feel relieved when I hear that the boss is still okay. Although CJ says that Boss Ben might be hurt, at least he's already back in one piece, that's a worst-scenario evaded. Those people that took him away, they dare. I'm gonna need to pull a few strings again now.

Ah this is bad, my dark side is surging up. I need to suppress it for now. Let's hear what Crazy Joe has to tell till the end.

"So, I heard that today he's going to the cemetery to visit his son's grave or something like that. He was wearing all-black clothing and all. Hehe, even though he's already black. Hehe ha haha hehehe."

CJ throw a stupid joke at the end. Nobody would laugh at that even in normal situation. This guy is crazy indeed.

Boss Ben is going to the cemetery? This son of his, I have a really bad hunch about this, his family is not buried here in Brooklyn. I don't want to think of it. Let's just confirm it myself.

I left CJ as he is and run straight to the cemetery. 

For some reason, the city seems a little empty. There are less people and cars on the road. Is it because it's getting darker from the rain cloud that's been gathering up above? It's logical for pedestrian to seek shelter when rain is coming soon, but cars shouldn't find it as a problem right?

After nearly 15 minutes of running non-stop, I arrive at the cemetery. I feel somewhat tired and hot along the way. That's very unusual, I'm not the type to get tired over running for 15 minutes like this. It's already beginning to rain half-way along the way but somehow I started feeling a surge of heat raising little by little on my skin. I'm currently shirtless and is just wearing the usual pizza delivery pant that's already drenched from the rain.

Since I don't come via transportation, I don't need to go in via the gate. I go inside the cemetery area by climbing over the nearest cemetery wall. 

Inside the cemetery, I plan to look from higher ground, it should be easier to spot boss Ben that way.

The cemetery is not exactly a large one, the edge where I'm right now still has a number of trees, looking like an edge of a forest from the center of the cemetery. There are several small hills, many statues and even house-like tombstone, making the visibility rather small, especially in a rainy day like right now.

I spotted number of people some place away from here near the center of the cemetery. I decided to lay low and watch from some distance first. 

I go to one of the small hill by the edge that has some trees so I can hide behind one of it.

Arriving on the top of the hill, although the visibility is bad because of the rain and the distance, I still have a clear view over the various sized tombstones and statues in the cemetery.

I can see several people in black suit gathering in front of a certain tombstone. When I look closely, boss Ben is among those people, he's currently standing right in front of a grave and the other people are around 5 meters behind him, giving him some private space. With several agent-like people being here, it only further suggest my bad hunch. I don't like this. 

As far as I know, Boss Ben has no relative being buried here. For those people to come accompanying Boss Ben here in this time period can only mean one thing.

.

.

That so called son of his, that must have been me inside that tomb. Laying dead, cold, and probably deformed. Those people wouldn't have come if there is even a slightest possibility of it being a fake or a body double. 

"..." I'm in lost for words. So I really did die back then... If so, then what am I? The one standing here, behind a tree by the edge of the cemetery, watching over his own tomb.

What am I? A ghost? A spirit? No, I talked with Crazy Joe not long ago, I can communicate with him, I can even give him my shirt, I should be a living being.

Then what would you call me? A living-dead? A monster? 

Standing here alone, drenched in rain, I feel that my heart is empty and my mind confused. I don't know what to do. Should I come over and show Boss Ben that I'm actually alive and well? I can feel the heat and fatigue I'm feeling from before is intensifying.

I died, but somehow is alive while being summoned to another world. Is that what I'm supposed to tell him?

Boss Ben knew a bit of my dark past, my dark bloody past. Many of my deeds which have taken a lot of life. 

He lost his eyesight, his home, his family. He lost everything back then in that tragic event. The very tragedy where I was involved in. Indirectly, I was responsible for the death of his family and many others. He knew about it and still gave me a helping hand, truly a big-hearted man, that's one of the reason why I really respect him.

.

.

.

I just stare at him from afar. Then my body suddenly begin to feel heavy and blazing I unconsciously let out a scream.

My body still feels like burning despite the heavy rain, and my head begin to feel really dizzy. I can see steams and black smokes coming from my skins, like water being poured to burning coal. On further inspection, I can see lines of red glowing cracks on my skin under the smoke.

My body feels sluggish and weak. What's happening?

In just a minute, the burning intensifies as the smoke getting thicker. Sizzling sound can be heard now and the glowing cracks widen and spread from my chest to all over my body.

I begin to feel pain like my skin being scratched off while being burned. The glow intensifies so much that the people behind Boss Ben notice my present.

The smokes are thick, although it's being blown by the wind, it still almost envelope me wholly. I was taken by surprise, the pain escalate so suddenly that I let out and agonizing roar.

I feel like I'm beginning to lose consciousness. Am I dying again? Even worse than before, I feel intense pain and doesn't even know what's killing me this time.

That's it, the pain subside and I fainted.

.

.

.

When I woke up I find myself atop the usual bed in the dungeon cell. 

It takes me a few seconds to gather my thought and realize what just happened.

Dammit, all that hype and it was only a nightmare. I hold my head after taking a sitting position on the bedside. My head still feels a little bit dizzy from that agonizing nightmare. Man, I never had one that bad and realistic before. That was so freaking realistic that I'm sweating like crazy.

*Pheeew*

I exhale a lot. That was one hell of crazy dream. Since my mind is currently in a mess, it's only later on that I realized that I'm once again, shirtless. The little princess is surprised when she came again, she called me a pervert nudist this time... Even though I'm only topless and she has seen me like this before. Then again, I wonder where my shirt's gone to, was that dream...

 

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

Around the same time at a certain military base somewhere in USA.

In one of the meeting room inside, an old man, wearing a high-ranking commander attire, is sighing as he read the report in front of him. There are a couple dozen of people with an important-looking military attire who seat side by side in this meeting room and they all are looking at the old man, as if waiting for his reaction and command.

Among those people, one of the younger-looking guy looks like he does not understand the situation. He leans to his superior who brought him to this meeting and ask him about what's actually going on, about why is the old man, the commander, is looking so distressed over the report. 

This young man also hold a copy of the report in his hand, but he can't find anything distressing in it since the written report basically only mention a certain person is sighted and is confirmed to be alive. He doesn't know who the person mentioned in the report is so he can only vaguely make a guest that this individual is dangerous that just by being alive he can make the commander goes pale like that.

His superior turns his head and looks at this subordinate of him.

"You weren't qualified to know about this information so you didn't know, just wait, the commander will brief you and the others soon, just pay attention, this matter has importance above Regal Code."

The young man is shocked. 

"Above the safety of the President? So we are facing a national threat?"

"That's correct, and depending on the circumstances, probably even global threat."

"A global threat! we haven't had one since the cold war and World War II!"

"No, we have, since 15 years ago. Just wait and listen to the briefing."

The young man is getting more tense after hearing how bad the situation is.

Just a minute after that the commander begin the briefing. All the people are tense, including the several men who are yet to know about the gravity of the situation.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming in such a short notice."

Everyone can see how dire the situation is from the commander's tone and how tense his expression is.

"Two hours ago, we received a report... A man, who we thought, no, confirmed to be dead, is possibly still alive."

Everybody has their eye focused on the commander.

"A man with enough power to make the entire western hemisphere crumble. He hold with him information, intelligence, secrets... of our nation, other super power nations, and even most of the underground organizations ever known."

The several new people who just heard of this gulped down their saliva. They didn't know such a powerful man existed before.

"This man basically hold enough information to start world war three on his own."

"There is somebody like that?" One of the listener can't help but to question the information due to how absurd it is. 

"And such a man is our enemy? From where did he come from? Is he a remnant of the Exitialis Phantasma?" He asks again, mentioning the possibility of such person coming from one of the most ancient underground organization ever known.

"No." The commander's expression darkened. He looks down as if remembering something awful. "He was one of us. To be precise, we created him."

"One of us? So he's a rogue agent then."

"No, Hector, he's more than a rogue agent. He was one of the subject under our previous experiment to create a highly efficient super agent. We found him from a very young age, barely ten years old, in a prison." The commander then pauses a bit, he looks away from the young subordinate.

"Wait, how can such a young child be in a prison. Our regulation doesn't allow such a thing."

"For normal crime, yes, but not his. Our investigation back then found that the child's parent were killed by local thugs near their home. Then just a couple of weeks after his parent's death, he went missing for a few days. You guess what he did." The old commander ask the subordinate with his eyes sternly focused on him.

"Don't tell me the kid killed those thugs alone." The young man raises his eyebrows as he thinks about the possibility of a ten years old kid killing a number of adults on his own.

"No he didn't."

They young man let out a relieving sigh.

"He destroyed the entire group the thugs were in together with another group from nearby area. Killing 89 people in total, all by himself."

"!!!" The young subordinate and some other younger personnel make a very surprised face, their eyes almost bulge out after hearing that.

"That can't be! How did he do that!?"

"That's when we noticed his talent. He didn't rely on brute force, what he did was pure brilliance, a feat that no ten years old kid should be able to figure, much less accomplish. He made use of false information, made the groups gather and fought each other in one building. While they were killing each other, he sealed the exits and burned the building down. He even prepared contingency plan to finish off any survivor of the fire. He was caught by the police when he tried to continue his vigilante streak on another group of thugs just a few days after the first incident. He was deemed mentally unstable and was placed in prison under special circumstances. He fitted our criteria for the project, thus we take him as one of the candidate."

"So he got our attention, got trained for that special project, came out as a highly efficient super agent, and later went rogue?"

"No, as I said, he was more than that. Even among the many candidates we trained, he was the finest. The boy, Ryan Maxwell, code name Axl, an ultra efficient and emotionless killing machine. There was one time, when one of the enhancement tools broke and electrocuted the subjects. Among the dozens of victims, he was the only survivor. Although barely living, he was indeed alive. The specialists who treated the aftermath back then called him to be as tenacious as a cockroach, unyielding to die even in such situation."

*Gulp* At this point, the young man doesn't dare to make anymore speculation and just listen obediently.

"From over a hundred candidates, he came out as one of the only five who managed to overcome the brutal training. He was only 14 years old by then but was already a perfect agent. He was assigned to various special missions. We had high hopes for him, but it was over in less than a year. He broke free from our circle, somehow he managed to access a high-level criminal database that we have and went missing right after that. Our investigation found out that the thug groups he destroyed back when he was a kid was actually just one of the many branches of a much bigger organization. So he went on a criminal hunting frenzy outside our control, completing his revenge to a whole new level. We tried to subjugate him but all end in failures. The situation became much more dire when he reached the point where he learnt that those criminal organizations and our government are actually having give and take relationship. He learnt how us, as a government need a certain entity to take care of the other face of the american dreams. As all of you know, most countries are the same, government and mafia are just two side of the same coin."

The commander's gaze is unwavering, the seriousness when he talked about this is unquestionable.

"Since then, over the past decade, he took down countless criminal organizations and corrupt governments, gaining himself a massive amount of highly sensitive information along the process, something that could be used as leverage or blackmail against many governments and organizations. We began to truly fear what he has on his disposal and tried to capture him and secure the massive information he has. As always, none of our attempts worked, then one time he let himself out of hiding to warn us of an incoming terrorist attack and that we should take care of our airspace."

The commander then continue with a face like he has deep regrets.

"We paid no heed to his warning and focus on the rare chance to capture him. It resulted on the tragedy of 9/11, a huge regret we can never hope to atone. We had a chance to stop that tragedy, but we didn't take it. While we failed to prevent it, he on the other hand, managed to stop the fifth plane."

The young man is utterly shocked after he heard such untold facts. He'd never dare to think such possibilities. 'We had a chance to stop that tragedy, but we didn't take it', that sentence keep on ringing in his mind. Then he realizes something.

"fifth plane? There was only four airplanes that were being hi-jacked, sir."

The commander glances at this young man.

"That was what the public know. The truth was different, there was supposed to be a fifth airplane planned to be crashed onto the white house, but that man, former agent Axl, prevented it from being hijacked."

The young man trembles when he listen to that story. Even among the many listeners, everybody who has known the facts beforehand, including the commander himself still tremble when they remember and talk about it.

"From that day onward, we lessened our intervention on his activity and begin to stay as an observer, that's the least we can do to show our gratitude and if possible, our faith in him. A believe, that he didn't have any ill intentions towards our nation's interest."

The entire meeting room is silent, they are thinking about the story that's told just now.

"Not only that, he also prevented North Korea from starting a nuclear war."

"!!!" All the young subordinate are even more shocked upon hearing the word 'nuclear war'.

Without further ado, the old commander continues his story, "That man personally stopped ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead from being launched by North Korea and hitting nearby countries. Although it was a success, there was a major collateral damage. The nuclear warheads still exploded, but away from the population, far and deep in the pacific ocean. It then triggered a seismic quake which broke the tectonic plate, causing the tsunami that swept over the Sendai area of Japan a few years ago."

"To think such a thing happened behind that major natural disaster... Is such a thing even possible?" Another young subordinates shows his disbelief upon the outstanding story.

"Why do you think North Korea stayed silent when a film that mocks their so-called great leader was released? That film was sponsored by a Japanese company, it was one way to have a passive revenge for them. There were many more of his incredible feats, therefore in just a decade, he became so powerful that he didn't need to be hiding anymore, there was an unspoken treaty between his enemies not to offend him anymore out of fear that even if somebody managed to kill him, one of his accomplices would leak the critical information he has. After that he himself ceased his hunting activity and begun to start living openly."

The young man has his mouth gaped open. He was just mind-blown by that story. After he regain his composure, he begin asking again.

"What an incredible personage. But why is he becoming a threat to us now?"

"As stated in the report, around a week ago the news that he died came to us, we who have been keeping distance immediately tried to confirm it. To our surprise, he really did die, and to surprise us even more, he died from a very unexpected accident! That shocked us and many other parties. Since he has been confirmed to be truly dead, we immediately went on a race to recover the device which hold all the information he has but we couldn't find it. We searched the places he's been to in recent years and the people he got acquainted to. We literally turned the entire Brooklyn upside down but still failed to find it. Suspicion that other parties may have acquired it begin to raise, for the last few days our government begin to suspect each other. Then suddenly the news that the man, Ryan Maxwell, is still alive came. This afternoon the security we assigned on one of the people that we deemed to be highly related to him spotted his figure in the same city where he died. We even have a video recording of the event."

The commander gives a sign to a one of the man then the man starts a video on the briefing screen. The video contains a footage taken from the camera implanted in the personnel's specially modified sunglasses, giving a first person view of the event where a hand holding a pistol can be seen from the bottom-right side of the video. 

The video is short, which only show the time when the sighting was. In it, a figure of a man in a distant who was being clouded in raging black smoke despite in a rain can be seen, the pistol being held by the man wearing the recording glasses is pointing at the smoking man. Although clouded, his face can still be seen and he is also shirtless, showing the body that's decorated with numerous scars, further proving him to be the real person in question. 

So far the face and scars match the known data of his recent appearance, but it doesn't avert the fact that something bizarre is happening. His skin begins to show glowing red cracks. The glow soon spreads and intensifies, even his eyes begin to change into glowing red spot. In just a few more second the glow become dazzling flash that blinded the video recording. Then on the peak of the blinding moment, it abruptly stop, leaving nothing on the spot. No more flashes, no raging smoke, not even the man in concern, Ryan Maxwell, is there. Only trails of leftover smoke are left behind, being blown by the windy rain.

Everyone is astounded. Even the commander who has seen it already is still slightly astounded. The man he previously know as agent Axl has once again does something beyond human understanding.

"Men, watch it well, this is the man who has defied death for so many times. The fact that he died a week ago must have been a test to see his enemies' reaction in case he really died, and we all fell for it. I don't know how, possibly a clone, but he managed to create a perfect replica of himself to fool us. Learn from this, he's someone who would even kill himself just to gauge the reaction of his enemies. For him to reappear after faking his death must mean that he reached his objective and is up to something again. The fact that he lived openly before must have meant something too. From now on we are on full alert until his objectives are clear, I want a defensive measure to be prepared as soon as possible, raise our observation perimeter and do not, in any circumstances, engage the target if he appeared. Expect the unexpected, you have seen it yourself, this man's capabilities are beyond common sense."

The commander conclude the briefing and gives his order. Everyone on the room begin to discuss strategies to raise their defenses and are on full alert.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, in a certain cell in a certain world, a certain man is laying sideways on a certain thin bed.

*tuuuu~t*

"Aah, that's a good one."

*scratch-scratch*

The man that those top military personnel so afraid of is currently lazily spending the night without care and with a very unsophisticated behavior. If they ever see Ryan's deed just know they would deliberately believe that they were hallucinating. Apparently there is a 'slight' misunderstanding about the facts known about Ryan and his actual behavior. The man they think to be a monstrous individual is actually a very laid-back person. In a sense, this could be a bigger shock to them than knowing that he stopped a nuclear war by himself.

________________________________________________________________________________

*Author's note:

The twist of several known facts in this story are all fictions. It's all made simply for story material purposes because after all, conspiracy theory is always interesting. So please don't take any offense on the mentioned stories. I don't want no dictator launching ballistic missiles to my house.

The theories about nuclear war and the other actually came on the spot while I was writing this chapter, I only planned to write something amazing but hasn't concretely thought about what it would be before. At first, I wrote more incredible feats about Axl, but since they look too much, I limit the feats to only the current ones.

4: Chapter 3 - In Another World, Summoning More Heroes

It's been two weeks since that weird nightmare, nothing unusual has been happening lately. In total, I've been around 3 weeks in this dungeon cell without ever going out once. The little princess always come everyday and stays for a few hours to chat and bring variety of foods. She has been trying to ask her father, the king, and also the country's council or senates to forgive my crime and set me free already. I could force my way out of here but if I do that now, it will only hurt the little princess' reputation and trust among those higher-ups of this country. Thus I patiently put my hope of getting out from this prison on her, it would be a rare thing for me to get out of detention legally.

 

Today, as always, she comes to visit me. She has been pretty cheerful lately and looks like enjoying our chats despite the location being in a humid and dark dungeon.

"Yo little princess, what do you want to hear today, the story about how humanity fought again invading alien life-form or the story about 300 half-naked soldiers repelling a million enemies with just spears and shields?"

The topic of our conversation has very much dwells beyond everyday things and common knowledge of Earth, I began to tell her the story from some popular movies which my master recommended to me before. She is really interested, that's why she has been staying for several hours every time she visited me, even the guards secretly stand closer to be able to hear the stories too. Although they can't 100% understand the stories due to differences in culture and technology, she and the guards are still really fascinated, their reaction were very amusing every time a plot twist or the climax of the story arrived.

I've asked her about how the world here, especially about the country I'm in right now. But she kept saying "Just look at it yourself" while mischievously grinning and saying that I might be released soon. I positively take that statement to mean that I will be released soon and there will be something awesome to be seen.

"Mr. Criminal, what do you think about being a hero is?" She said while leaning on the nice chair that has been prepared for her to use. There are a small round table and a standing lamp being brought for her use too.

"Excuse me?"

That was very much out of topic. We were just taking a short break during my story telling of how a giant stone falling from the sky and messes up the planet. I was taking a sip of a hot rum-flavored drink she brought.

"You know, the kind of ideal hero, if there is any. You seem to know a lot, what do you have in mind?"

"Ideal hero? Well missy, aren't you too farsighted? You are looking at one right now hahaha. Any hero that's similar to me is an ideal hero!" I answered semi-jokingly then take a sip of the hot rum again. This drink taste better and better every time I take a sip!

"Geez, it was mistake asking you serious stuff." The little princess knitted her eyebrows, making a slight frowning expression. Nonetheless, that was still cute. It's fun teasing this little princess.

She also takes a sip on the hot drink. Apparently this rum-like drink is non-alcoholic. She has been bringing a lot more lately, even the guards have been getting foods and drinks too, they are very delighted every time the little princess come because of that. I bet she's a popular princess among the people, or at least among the castle staffs.

I don't know whether most royalties in this world are down-to-earth like her or it's only her alone who's treating everyone without looking down on them. It would be really nice if everyone can be like her, right?

I then continue and finish today's storytelling. Usually it's time for her to go back, but this time she stays a little bit longer for some more chatting. She seems a little bit down for some reason, is she having some kind of problem?

I take the initiative and ask her what's wrong.

"So then little missy, something bothering you? You've been looking down for a while now."

She looks at me then looks down again while leaning on the comfortable chair. After a few seconds, she answers me with a low and dispirited tone.

"You see, it's about the matter like my sisters'. It's my turn soon, I'll be going too in just a few days."

She put her feet on the chair and hides her face behind her knees.

"I see." I just give a short reply. She seems afraid of that matter, not like I can't understand why. Being sent to faraway places to keep family tradition or honor must be a scary thing to do, she's still a kid after all.

She doesn't say anything anymore and keep that sitting position where she hides her face while hugging her legs. For her to share her worry with me like this, she must have seen me as a dependable personage. I guess after her sisters left her, she might not has many people to depend on. I guess that's why she has been coming everyday for the last few weeks. Really what's that Azeez look alike thinking, forcing such a young child a heavy burden like this. I know that our culture might be different and that being someone of special position, they would have special obligations and responsibilities too, but from my point of view, having this child comply with such responsibility from such a young age is too much. Later on I'll need to interfere with this situation, as for now...

"I will not urge you to run away or defy your responsibility, I'm an outsider after all and I don't know the whole situation on the matter"

She is silently listening to me without looking at me at all.

"But let me tell you this."

I stand up from the bed and walk closer to the cell bars. There, I reach out my hand outside and gently pat her head. She makes no reaction and still hides her face.

"No matter what the circumstances are, you should know best of what you really want and what you feel you need to do, so just do whatever you believe is right in your heart, don't let others influence and take command of your future. Because everyone is, after all, the master of their own fate."

She's still silent. Is it not effective? I thought I said something good just now. Not everyday I can say something that cool. 

The guards who stand some distance away have been getting more wary since I pat the little princess just now, but they relax a little after I do nothing more than patting her.

After a few seconds still being like that, I suddenly changed my gentle patting to a rough patting, making her previously neat silky hair disheveled and messed up. With a "Kyaa" sound she retaliate and brush of my hand off her head then raise her head to look at me.

"What do you think you are doing?! Touching a girl's head without permission and even worse, make a delicate girl's hair disheveled!" Says her while frowning a little. There she is, in her usual self. I can see transparent wet streaks on her face, so she really did cry just now.

"Ha! there you are, I thought I lost you there for a second." I give a teasing remark with the usual joking tone.

"Sheeesh!" She wipes her tears and is smiling a little.

She gently wipes the trails of tears on her face and says to me, "The master of our own fate... That sounds really wonderful." She then looks at me straight on the eyes, "I'll put my believe in you, so you better make it true, we as the master of our own fate."

She then stands up and prepares to leave. After a few steps walking away, she turn back and says, "Axl, you know, like you said, it might be not so bad if all heroes are like you." 

She has an unexpectedly wonderful happy smile right now, "If there is a chance, I hope that together with my sisters, I can meet with you again next time."

I smile and reply to her, "You will, princess. By then, I'll be the one with a smug face while showing off all kinds of amazing dishes you have never tasted before."

I say that while proudly standing straight, folding my hand on my chest and grinning at her. I can't wait to see her reaction when I managed to create and let her taste carbonated drinks later on.

"And it's Maxwell, Ryan Maxwell. That's my real name." I decide to tell her my real name, not my code name from the past.

"Ryan Maxwell is it?" She makes a wonderful smile upon learning my real name, "Hehe, alright then Ryan, I'll be waiting for that time." She left while smiling and looking happy. Just like that, she never come again for the next few days, I take it that even preparing for the duty is a major work. Only then I realized, I haven't even known her name yet.

 

 

It's been a little bit over a week now, I haven't heard anything about her since then. I wonder when will I be allowed to go out. I don't want to cause the little princess trouble when she's already facing a tough problem of her own, let's just lay low for a few more days then I'll figure out something else for that time.

Just a day after I thought of that, a number of guards in different attire than the one that guards the dungeon come to my cell. From the looks of it, the are ranked higher than the usual guards I normally see here.

"His majesty the King has given the decree to summon you. You shall come before his majesty and apologize by kneeling and beg for forgiveness!" One of the guards coming here says so.

The new guard, or should I say, the envoy, is stating so with a prideful tone. These bunch of new faces really are thinking highly of themselves. Thankfully I'm not easily offended now, if it was me from long ago, I'd break out of this cell right away and these people will see a very realistic nightmare.

But that doesn't mean I'm easy to look down to. So I make a wide grin and reply to the envoy.

"Well, it's about time I'm getting out of here." I give out a sinister smile with a piercing gaze. To spook him further, I say, "Tell the old geezer I'm coming for him."

The envoy is startled with my insidious reply. He seems to be taken aback a bit. This guy is easy unlike the little princess, I wonder who's the more matured one.

"A-, alright come with me now. We're going right away." Says the man as he gather his composure again.

He and the whole envoy took me out of the cell. They put a special handcuff on my hand again, it's been a while since I last wear one. The little princess allowed me to be released from handcuffs while in the dungeon cell some weeks ago. 

I'm walking with four men on both behind and in front of me. Why would you use so many guards now when you just use a couple of guards when I go to the toilet everyday? Nevermind that, unlike when I was brought here back then, this time I walked along the stone corridor without my eyes and ears being covered, allowing me to see the places I'm passing by. 

I soon walk past the door to the latrine room, now I've officially ventured beyond the furthest area I've gone to since I'm stuck in this dungeon cell. So far I can see that there is nobody else here beside me and that my cell is maybe the furthest cell in this dungeon.

I continued on to several more corridors before finally arriving to a circular stone stairs going up. This is it, I'm going out of this damp place. It should be daytime right now since it has only just been a few hour since breakfast time. It's been so long since I last see sunlight!

I climb up the stone stair which is barely two meters wide. Soon, we reach a corridor again. It's still the same style corridor as down below but this one is shorter and wider, I can see a big wooden door just ahead.

We arrive at the three meters high and three meters wide solid wooden door that's reinforced with iron bars and nails, it looks really sturdy. We go through it and what's beyond is a big rectangular hall which looks much better than the dungeon area. It's big and spacious, the height must be at least five meters high, and most importantly, the air feels much better than down there in the dungeon. It's been a long time since I feel this refreshed.

The room is lighten up by a several small circular holes or windows way up on the walls on my left and right. I can see a person standing behind a counter near us, it appears that this is a checkpoint room before people enter the dungeon. They actually have a receptionist for an empty dungeon, or maybe that guy is specially assigned because I was in the dungeon, I feel weirdly honored. 

The group of envoys unlit the lamp-like thing they have been holding as a lighting measure in the dim dungeon. I don't know what kind of thing they use as the lighting material in it, it doesn't look like a candle or an electric lamp, it might be one of those glowing stones I've been seeing in the dungeon.

The envoy that talked to me before grabs a piece of clothing that has been prepared on the receptionist table and hand it to me, "Change your clothing to these, we can't have you face his majesty while looking like a bump."

He has an arrogant way of speaking but he actually still pass the set of clothing to me by hand without arrogantly throwing them to me. I can tell that normally he's a nice guy, but because of my action last time, my image must be pretty bad among them until now.

I then change the simple shirt that I borrowed from one of the dungeon guards when I lost my fancy shirt after the weird event back then. I remember that the little princess was unhappy when I said I lost the shirt she gave to me, she angrily said "How do you lose a shirt in place like this?" I've got nothing to say on that matter.

The new clothing have the same taste of fashion with the one the princess gave me back then, it's beautifully adorned with extravagant color of glossy velvet and amazing embroidery. Now that I see it, the attire of these envoys also looks really fantasy-like cool. Such type of clothing fashion is definitely not a normal sight on Earth.

We then walk past the receptionist and onto a slimmer and nicer looking corridor but still with no window on eye level. The stone floor changes into decorated stone tiles somewhere along the way.

Oh, I can see that the corridor ahead is brighter than here, it might be an open corridor. As I get nearer to that corridor I can see railings instead of walls on both side of the corridor, it must be bridge-like corridor that connect buildings.

I soon arrive at the bridge corridor and is stunned. My eyes almost fall off from bulging out looking at the scene outside. Let me fix one thing, it's not a bridge-like corridor, it's a sky bridge! There is literally nothing below this corridor! It's all clouds as far as I can see. In fact, I notice that the whole building is actually above the clouds. I can see the that there is nothing below the building, no mountains, no pillars, nothing! There is no structure supporting the building to be high up in the sky like this. Only a pile of rocks that looks attached to the bottom part of the building.

They pull me who was standing still from being stunned by the view. They brought me up over the short stair just ahead onto a small platform. There, with a gentle breeze of wind constantly hitting my face, I can see everything. All this time, all along, the whole place, the entire city, no, probably the entire country is actually a floating group of islands! It's an archipelago of floating islands! The country that summoned me, the first place I arrived to in this foreign world is actually a city in the sky!

Woooah! I rarely ever have goosebumps but I'm definitely having one right now. The view is so stunning that my mouth is gap open. 

It looks like the dungeon island is one of the higher located islands among the archipelago, it's around a few hundred meters or maybe nearing a kilometer above the biggest island which is already higher than the mountain peaks on the real surface way below there, a good choice for keeping prisoner out of reach from others and still keeping it visible to be watched from afar. Thanks to that, I get a clear view of nearly everything on the entire islands. The whole place is a group of floating islands with different sizes and are located in similar or different heights. The biggest island or should I say, the main island where the biggest city located at has a size of nearly twice of Manhattan and is shaped in a more oval shape. I can see a really huge set of buildings near the edge of one side of the main island, that must be the royal palace since it's the biggest building among the city. It's pretty far away from here, did the little princess come here from there everyday? 

Aside the royal palace, there are also many other pretty tall and wide buildings in the city, probably between three to five stories high, some might be up to ten stories high. Other than the distinct tall buildings, I can see many kite-like things floating high above the city, they look like one of those advertising kite in Earth but these ones are beautifully decorated, so I don't think they are meant for advertising something, probably one of the city decorations, they unexpectedly really suit the image of floating islands theme. 

Outside the city, there are hills and small mountains on my view, green forest and golden-ish farming field which are similar to paddy field can also be seen not only in the main island but also on the smaller islands floating around the main island which are either located lower or higher than the main island. 

When I look closer, there are actually a waterfalls which make a lake in the outer area of the city, the unique thing is, the water is coming from a river on the smaller islands that float above the main island. There is a chain of short and long waterfalls among a series of islands with different heights. It chained up to many more islands way above the island I'm standing on right now that I can't see the end of it.

Since we are high above the clouds, the wind can blow pretty strong from time to time so some of those waterfalls have the water blown upwards instead of downwards, spreading and creating many layers of spectacular circular rainbows. The scenery is totally out of the world, it's so magical that I stare at it for a long time.

When I realize that I've been staring at the scenery for a long time, I can see a smug face on the envoy that brought me here. He must be feeling proud about the whole place being a beautiful floating island country. This must be why the little princess said to take a look at it by myself. She was right, words alone can't describe how incredible the scenery are. One would find it really hard to believe if they only heard about it, especially if they are coming from Earth like me. Even I find it hard to believe after seeing it myself.

I avert my eyes from his smug face and look around. When I turn around and look at the scene behind me, I'm once again shocked from the things that I'm currently seeing. 

"Holy mother of chessus!" 

I unintentionally let out a word of awe, I mean, how can I not?! There is big circular something popping out far on the horizon. It's a planet! There is another planet beside the one I'm in right now and it's located like, wooah, really really close! That brownish green planet with some traces of blue I'm looking at right now is covering nearly half of the the entire sky behind me. Around half of its surface is visible while the other half is still hiding below the horizon.

Not only that the first city I'm in right now is a mind-blowing floating city, the planet I arrived at is a twin planet which maybe orbiting each other! What a great new world I'm brought to. I was prepared to see some real magic in this world but what I'm seeing right now totally overshadow my expectation by an astronomical margin.

"Astonished by the splendid beauty of our great country, eh?" The envoy is pridefully grinning while saying that. Maybe having a city floating in the sky is still pretty rare and unique in this world.

With the seemingly blue sky, and some clouds below and and above me, I take a look around once more before replying him. "Indeed, your country is truly mesmerizing. I'm utterly fascinated to the bone upon seeing all these magnificent views."

I say so while making a hand gesture and looking around. The envoy looks surprised on my modest admiration, he probably didn't expect me to actually agree with his prideful statement just now. Even if I want to deny it, I can't find myself able to do so with all this mind blowing scenery appearing right before me.

The envoy gently laugh a little, "Okay, that's enough sight-seeing. Let's move on to our destination."

The envoy bring me along towards our next destination. Along the way, I can see other building that probably serve as another entrance to different dungeons, that's probably why mine is empty, normal criminals might be placed on those other dungeons and I was placed in a special dungeon. I did, after all, assaulted the King of the country. 

We then walk pass a place where there are several guards like people being stationed, this place must be where the guards mainly gathers and work at. After confirming some document like stuffs, we finally exit the building. Mind you, the whole building is a stone building similar to the kind of building you see in ancient Greeks but with several iron-made stuffs supporting the foundation. I wonder how do they build it, is there a convenient magic in constructing buildings? I keep that question to myself for now.

We walk along a short stone-paved road on a meadow area before arriving at a smaller building by the edge of the island. There is no doors or actual walls, it's just a small post with pillars and a roof on top of it.

We go inside and approach the edge, then I can see what's the function of this small building is. This post is like a ski lift thing that transport people up and down a hill except this one is for slightly bigger use. There is a cable connecting this building to a building on the main island below us. and there is a box like room hanging onto the cable. That must be where people get in and get transported between the posts. The shape of the box is like a city tram, it's not entirely like a box, the edges are rounded and there are doors and windows too, making it look closer to an actual tram being attached to a cable. The size is around 4 by 8 meters and it seems to be made from metal but the flooring inside seems to be coated with wooden plates. The seats are not positioned side by side like a bus, they are positioned around the perimeter of the tram so that the center area is empty. They probably use it to transport stuffs other than people too so this shape is the best for an all purpose transport.

We get inside the pseudo-tram lift. One of the envoy guards touches a panel-like board on the front side of the tram with some scribble on it. 

Oh, it glows and the tram lift starts moving. Was that magic? Does the tram lift powered by magic? It was very subtle I barely notice it.

The tram lift moves with a speed similar to how a casual bicycle ride is. Some wind also blew inside through a number of small ventilation holes above the viewing windows.making the ride feels like an enjoyable pleasure cruise. As the tram moves not too fast, I enjoy the view through the clear windows of the tram. Upon closer look while still on some heights above the main island, I can see that not only the rooftops but the walls of the many buildings in the city are pretty colorful. They are dyed with various bright colors. This is like one of those tourism cities I have seen on Earth, they have colorful walls too. But unlike the fantasy-like city I'm seeing right now, most of the ones on Earth still use the classic red tile for the roofs while in here, the roofs are colored with many colors.

It's a fantastic scene no matter how you look at it. Many of those roof tiles are glossy thus reflecting the bright sunlight, which can make anyone seeing the scene to be more spirited in doing their daily activities.

I also notice that the buildings are not made from stone slab like the prison building. Some look like a common house in countryside, a colored brick walls with thick wooden beams supporting the structure while some are made from smooth concrete-like materials. They seem to have some kind of cement material to build the common houses with bricks but concrete is probably still uncommon or probably more expensive because I can see that only big mansions and important looking buildings are being made with concrete-like materials. I also wonder what kind of material they use as a paint here.

The post the tram is heading to is located next to an important looking huge majestic building with a number of people training on an open field. From how they dressed, being all uniform and armed, that building is probably a military base. The military base looks like a wide university or school building, almost like a fort if it's made from a stone slab instead of sky blue concrete-like walls. The building is only 3 stories high but it covers a wide area and the entire building is beautifully engraved with many artistic decorations, making it looks even more majestic.

Similar to the Pentagon in USA, a number of rectangular shaped buildings make a rough circular shape. The difference is, there is an epic-looking tower standing firmly in the center. It has a statue of a man holding a sword and a shield on both hands being put on top of the tower's roof. The statue hold the sword down with the tip of the sword touching the floor like how a someone would hold a cane while the shield is being held firmly in front of the statue's chest. The statue shows an expression of dignity and pride, it's a really cool looking statue not only from how it looks but also from where it's being positioned.

The envoy man notice that I'm staring at the statue. He begin explaining about the statue and the place to me without being asked.

"That statue you are looking at is the symbol of our military principle! The sword being held leisurely while the shield being held firmly means that we have a non-aggressive principle. But don't mistake our pacifist attitude as being weak, that sword means we have strength and are not to be looked down to. Our military purpose is to defense and protect, and this place is our country's main military base where many of our talented individuals are trained to take on the important mission of protecting the peace and safety of the people of our great Kingdom of Gloumell Altaire!"

Wow, there is so many 'of's there I lose track of it somewhere along the way. But it reminds me one thing though, the name of this country, or to be precise, the kingdom, is Gloumell Altaire. That name sound really thick with fantasy sense.

"We have thousands of soldiers! Elite knights, wizards, and riders are gathered here and are ready for battle on slight notice."

That's cool with elite knights and wizards things, but what's a rider? Do they ride something while fighting? A horse cavalry? No, this is a fantasy world, it should be more than horse.

As I think of that, a shadowy figure fly past our tram lift in high speed, blowing wind onto the tram lift making it shake a little. What was that!?

I stand up and take a look at the direction where the shadowy figure flew to. There I see it, a giant azure colored lizard with a pair of wings is soaring through the sky. I soon notice that there is someone riding on its back.

"Good timing, take a look at that. That's one of our kingdom pride, the elite Wyvern riders!"

Oh, I see. So the rider he's talking about is a dragon rider huh? Oh wait, was it a Wyvern? I think I've heard that term before. Well, let's just call it dragon riders for now, don't sweat on the trivial stuffs. Then again, that's the first fantasy beast I've seen till now.

Not long after, we arrive at the main island. We exit the tram lift and walk toward the military building. Since there are many soldiers training around the open field that we're passing by, we can't help to draw their attention toward us. 

I can see that they talk with each other from afar while looking at me. Most of them have a look of disgust or contempt on their face. That's to be expected, I assaulted their King in public after all. Especially after that King showed good hospitality towards me.

"You ungrateful savage! I hope you face execution soon!" Oh, there it is. I was expecting for something like this to happen soon. The atmosphere has been pretty bad since we arrive here after all.

One teenager-looking soldier exclaimed that to me, a hot-headed one, eh? That's not good, kid. You need to learn how to determine who you are allowed to provoke. Thick muscle can't help you defend against bullet after all.

"Stop it, Azgoff!"

One of the youth standing next to the hot-headed youth tries to stop him. So his name is Azgoff, huh? Let's teach him something quick that will remind him to control his attitude better. It's good that I'm not a psychopath murderer (anymore), or else he might have put his life in real danger already.

I stop my feet and turn only my face towards him. 

"You there... Azgoff." I put a very intimidating look on my face as if I'm about to butcher the one I'm looking at right now. The hot-headed youth flinched when I call his name. The surrounding onlookers' attention are all on us now.

"Be prepared, kid." I let out a very sinister grin that can silence even crying babies then make them cry again in fear.

"You're next after I'm done with the King." I calmly exclaimed so while pointing my index finger on him. I make my voice extra hoarse and sinister while saying that.

It appears to be very effective. The kid along with his friend immediately goes away, he has a slightly scared and upset look before leaving. This trick has always been effective with such a hot-tempered kid. I remember that I tried something similar before. Back then I tried an online first person shooter video game that Jimmy, my coworker in Boss Ben's pizzeria, lent to me. I was totally pawned and lose all the time in that game, then some kid yelled some crap to me in an open mic chat where everybody can hear. I taught him the same lesson like just now. I hacked into the game server and gather the addresses of all the players in that game session. Then in an open voice chat too, I read all their home address with a heavy and sinister voice. Lastly, I said that I will be visiting that yelling kid soon. Everybody immediately disconnected from the game session right after I said that. That was the first and probably will be the last time I ever played a first person shooter video game. I much more prefer the real one after all, it's more... natural.

"Alright, that's enough!" A man with big build and tough appearance in his thirties or forties come in front of the onlookers. He yelled at the surrounding onlookers and they all dispersed in an instant. This man is probably someone with authority around here.

The man makes a slight nod to the envoy, he has a very grim looking face right now, I don't know whether this is his usual expression or not. The envoy reply with a slight nod too and immediately order me to keep on moving.

We continue walking toward a certain place. It's not the military base but to a cathedral-looking building on a separated small floating island near the base. We ride another tram-lift and arrive on said island. I can see that there is only a single big and wide building which occupy this small island.

The entire building seems to be really similar to how the old cathedrals look like in European countries. Except that the one in front of me right now is not a plain grey color cathedral but a rather unique one with sky blue-colored walls, white glossy roof, and colorful stained glass.The envoy tells me that the cathedral-looking building is the place where they hold the summoning ritual. That was the building where I was summoned around a month ago. He said that I'm meeting the King, right? I thought we're going to the royal palace, but when I ask the envoy, he told me that I'll be meeting him before the King conduct another summoning ritual. Apparently there will be another poor guy that get dragged to this world. 

Now that I think about it, isn't what they are doing can be called as kidnapping? I mean, aside from my case who is being saved by the nicely timed summoning, if they drag, no, I mean summon someone here without asking for the other party's approval first, isn't that no difference than plain act of kidnapping? They'd even place a heavy burden of slaying some demon or monster after that. I wonder whether I should consider that King and his bunch as a group of villain based on this logic.

As I thought of that, our group arrive at the summoning cathedral. The front door is huge! It's a five meters tall solid marble double door. The top part is rounded and the surface has some kind of art and scribbles engraved on it, making the massive door looks even more impressive. 

The envoy tells the guards in front of the building to inform the King that we have arrived. The guard immediately do as he told and enter the building. In just a minute the guard come back and tells us that we can enter now, so we enter without delay. 

The inside of the building is similar to what I remember, only slightly looks bigger because I'm clear headed now and I can observe the surrounding clearly. It has a wide round hall or chamber at the end of a smaller square hall where we are right now. As seen from outside, the ceiling is nearly ten meters above us and is highly decorated with painted arts and ornaments. The square hall is maybe 10 meters wide and 15 meters long and the round chamber over there is around twenty meters wide in diameter. There is a smaller round-shaped flat stage or altar made from probably a mix of marble and crystal in the middle of the area. 

I can see the King and his retainers standing by the side of the round marble stage. They are all looking at our group who is walking towards them. We soon arrive just a few meters from the King. The guards who have been walking alongside me stand closer to me, they seem to be in alert since I've assaulted the King before.

Before anyone managed to open their mouth, "Yo Azeez! Finally decide to let me out? I told you through the little princess that it was only an accident."

I casually start the conversation. I don't want to act submissive or beg for mercy towards him, I might have done wrongly by hitting him when he was being hospitable, but he in no way has a right to control me. Let's test him a little, if he really is a wise and generous King, he should be able to overlook minor mockery like this.

"You insolent savage! Who told you to speak!? You are in the presence of his majesty King Ramsarast Imbeculle The Fifth! You have no right to sa--"

"PFFT!! Bwahahaha!" I couldn't resist! I burst out laughing upon hearing the King's name, cutting the the King's retainer in the middle of his speech.

"YOU!!" The retainer and several others' face turned red in anger after they hear me laugh so suddenly.

"Sorry, I couldn't.. I couldn't resist! Imbecile really suit his face, it's really similar to someone I know!" I'm not wrong on that, he looks really similar to Azeez after all. The King's retainers all look even angrier after I said that. That was really bad of me, right after I taught a kid to watch their attitude, I myself breach the teaching right away. But still, I didn't see that coming. Imbeculle... Pfft!

When the knights that stand guard by the King almost move to bind me, the King raised his hand to stop the commotion. He looks only a little bit irritated, only one of his eyebrows is raising, not to the point where he succumb to anger. He's a rather calm and collected King huh? No wonder he can take my first slap positively, he might be a decent ruler if he has that character. I really should start looking at him with a better image already.

"Enough, Let the small matters over already. You, the one who goes by the name of Axl, from what I've heard, you received no divine blessing from the Goddess upon being summoned to our world, is that true?" Old man Imbecile, I mean King Ramsarast, calmly says that while looking at me. He has quite a sophisticated image despite that face of his, I feel even worse for laughing at him.

"That's correct, I didn't receive any power whatsoever, at least I can't feel anything special happening to me."

"No greater strength, flight ability, or something similar? Even feeling healthier can be considered a blessing." He continue to ask me for other possibilities of a divine blessing.

"Well, I haven't felt any sickness so far, can that be considered a divine blessing?"

"No, forget it. I was hoping in meaningless thing, you are a failure after all." He says so and turns away. I take it back, he's King Imbecile after all.

"We will commence the summoning ritual, prepare the Supreme Trixium Crystal." The King gives an order and the people around begin to do the preparation for summoning. Some people check on a magical looking scribbles written circularly on the marble-crystal altar and some others bring in a box shaped something that's being covered by a curtain. It's pretty big, around twice the size of a public phone booth.

The people managing the box carefully pull down the curtain, revealing a transparent box made out of glass that's being used to contain a big crystal inside it. The crystal is truly beautiful! I'm again stunned by how wondrous the things this world has to offer. The overall shape is like a reversed tear drop and it has three small beams intertwined together with the top and bottom spreading out. It's semi transparent, meaning that you can see through it to some point. It has three colors in it, not one for each beam but is mix colored with a prominent color between the top, middle, and bottom which are sky blue, milky pink, and mild yellow respectively. The surface of the crystal also gives out a brilliant luster upon being showered by sunlight which is coming from the circular glass roof of this chamber. It's becoming more mesmerizing the more I look at it. I can even see the King not taking his sight away from the crystal, this must be a rare and important type of crystal, probably one of a kind which is also needed in this summoning ritual.

"Hey King, what will happen to me after this?" I shouldn't forget to ask this, it's the real reason I'm meeting him in the first place after all.

After a few seconds, he slowly shift his gaze from the crystal and look at me, "I've promised my daughter before she left, you will be a released and become a free man. But we won't give you any support on how you start living from now on, we'll cut all ties you have with us. Mind you, we can't spare the effort to send you back to your world."

"I'll be a free man after this? That's good enough. I don't need any support from you and it's not like I'm desperate to go back anyway. It's all good, I take it that you don't need a 'fail' hero after all."

"That's right, a fail hero is just a liability to us." We finish our short conversation and he look at the crystal as if appraising it.

The little princess keeps her promise, she helped me being released from the prison. Also as expected, they won't bother to send me back home. It's all okay, in fact, I would refuse if I'm given the choice to return to Earth, that would be a total waste after the miracle of being transported to this incredible world. I want to explore this world as I please. Let's shove the absurd responsibility of slaying demons or monster to the incoming summoned hero. I pray to whoever Goddess there is so she'd give good blessings on that guy to lessen his burden.

 

In just a few minutes, the people in charge are finished with the preparation and have brought the transparent box to the side of the marble stage.

"Your majesty, it is ready." One of the gaudy priest-like looking person around come to the King and says so. The King slightly waved his hand and the priest move away to stand in his position. The King then move toward the box alone.

He places his hand on the glass box. Dim light can be seen coming out on the parts where he touch. A flash of glowing ripples appear from where his hand is touching and then the glass box slowly fade away like a fleeting light, vanishing into thin air. That's some real magic right there. After that I realize that the crystal is floating all along since the beginning.

After the glass box is gone, the King slowly places both his hand onto the crystal as he look at it for quite some time. I can see that he's mumbling something quietly but because I'm some distance away, I can't hear what's he mumbling about, most likely a spell for the summoning ritual. The people here in the round chamber are all circling the marble stage, waiting the ritual to begin any moment now.

After just a couple minute, it seems the King finished chanting the magic spell for the ceremony, he then let go of the crystal and it slowly floats toward the middle of the marble stage. The King then walks back and stand on his position beside several guard knights. Gusts of invisible wind begin to blow in the chamber, circling the entire area. Our hair and clothing are flapping vigorously.

"Watch it well, failure hero!" Amidst the strong gust, King Ramsarast strongly exclaimed so towards me with a serious face, "This is the divine hero summoning ritual. Soon a real hero will appear, one with heroic demeanor and divine power, one who will defeat the demon lord and bring salvation to our kin!"

That annoying statement makes him looks closer and closer to the actual Azeez. I just ignore him and stay focused on the summoning altar.

The magic scribbles on the altar's surface begin to glow in white color but as it glow brighter, the room seems to appear darker. It's a very weird scene. Soon the crystal begin to glow out a radiant light too, not losing to the glowing altar. In fact, it seems the crystal is empowering the altar light. The gust of wind lessened a little then trails of colorful light seep out from the crystal and circle around the chamber. They look like fleeting mini comets that're slow and colorful. They emit whistling kind of sound, pleasant to the ears. Some of them even circles around me, I can feel a warm and comfortable feeling coming from them.

After around half a minute of circling around the crystal and the chamber, the mini comet gather and intertwined with each other, making a compilation of many smaller comets into one trail of light. It then fly up above the crystal which is floating above the middle of the altar. Then the lump of mini comets suddenly drop down into the crystal and is converted into many beams of colorful light from the crystal. At first the beams spread randomly across the round chamber but then they gather on one spot, making one big beam of light, and that one spot is on my direction. The concentrated beam of light penetrated through me. Just from being pointed by one of the smaller beam before is enough to make me feel blinded from the dazzling light, now the entire thing combined is actually directed towards me. What's happening? Don't tell me, this was a set up, could it be that I was called here to be part of the ritual material? Do they need the previous summoned person as a summoning material? Damn! I didn't think of such possibility, this could be really bad. As I was thinking like that, the concentrated beam of light suddenly dissipate in just a few seconds. I take a look at my body, it looks like to be still in one piece, then I let out a sigh of relieve. I glared at the King as if asking what was that about. He also look toward my direction with a confused expression. I look around and notice that all the people around have a confused face and are looking toward me.

The ritual is still going on. After the concentrated beam of light dissipate, a ray of light, or perhaps, another beam of light is now gushing out from the bottom of the crystal towards the surface of the altar. The magic scribbles glow as intense as it can be then suddenly a huge pillar of light rise up high towards the glass ceiling of the round chamber which is made of dome-shaped stained glass. The intense pillar of light probably soared sky-high where anyone can see it. There are several comets swirling up around the pillar of light as it continue to rise like that for several seconds.

The pillar of light then slowly vanishes, thinning out and leaving dense mist in the room as an after effect.

I can see a silhouette of a person within the dense mist. The knights are firmly standing guard in front of the King and other important looking people. So this is how it looks from the side when I was summoned before. I felt numbness all over my senses after being summoned, not knowing what's going on and with unknown people surrounding me. Definitely a suspicious situation for anyone being summoned, I hope the new hero doesn't act rashly like I did.

I can hear panting, groan, and coughing sound from within the dense mist surrounding the marble altar. So he does experience the same thing as me.

Huh? Wait, did I just hear three different kind of voices? 

The mist gradually dissipate, the first one visible is a kneeling young man in an expensive-looking very dark blue business suit. From a glance, he appears to be Asian and is around his early twenties. With neatly styled black hair that looks solid from being handled with pomade and a clever looking glasses, he looks like a normal young executive in prominent companies if not for two things, he's holding a handgun in his right hand and there are bloodstain all over his expensive suit and clever looking face, making him looks like a murderer who has just shot someone. He's coughing up badly right now and has a agonized expression on his face.

Not long after, the the second silhouette reveal himself. Oh wait, it's a 'her'. A very beautiful and mesmerizing 'her' to be precise. There, sitting in a [W] position, a very enchanting woman who looks to be in mid twenties and is wearing a very sexy near see-through negligee meant for adult's night life. She looks like a Latina type of woman, with a lightly tanned glossy skin, long and silky wavy black hair down to below the shoulder blades, a well-proportioned body with plump twin peaks poking the thin negligee, and a face so beautiful it can charm every man who looks at her, she could win any world class beauty pageant competition. Right now she can be described as a dream woman of any men if not for the following things. She's holding a bloody knife in her hand and there are blood splatters all over her clothes. She looks like someone who has just slice a throat of a man, turning the lewd vibe she has into a dangerous devilish woman image. She is groaning while hugging her body with both hands, with the knife still being held in her hand, as if her entire body is in pain.

The last one to appear from the mist looks like able to stand straight, he's..... a straight up disaster waiting to happen. I'm not joking, the guy is being hold tightly in a multi layered grey colored straitjacket and his body is being strapped to a human trolley that looks especially made to transport him, there are even a number of belts and locks tightly sealing his straitjacket. His body is pretty huge, at least reaching two meters in height. I can't exactly tell how old he is because his face is covered by an iron mask that looks like meant to prevent him from making damage to anyone or anything near his head but his long and untidy dark grey hair which have some strands of white hair among them show that he's at least over fifty years old. His four limbs looks very thick as if they belong to a wrestler or bodybuilder, making him look even scarier. Being put in such condition can only mean that he has done some real nasty shits. He looks like the very embodiment of the word 'psychopath' right now. Although he looks so scary already, his piercing blue eyes, which are the only visible part from his covered face, are glaring left and right at the moment make him look even scarier. He's not groaning, coughing, or looks to be in agony, only some sound of irregular panting can be heard from behind his iron mask.

So much for expecting a heroic appearance, their appearance right now is screaming the very word 'criminal' loudly.

After I thought that all the summoned heroes have appeared, from the furthest mist, appear another one. I didn't hear any sound of coughing, groaning, or panting from there so I didn't realize there is still somebody within the dissipating mist.

What appeared this time is... another beautiful woman. Wait, that would be an understatement, the term beautiful like a goddess would suit her exquisite beauty more. She is standing there elegantly, I was a little bit taken aback by how beautiful she is but then I realized something. Her long hair which is straight and silky has a wondrous orange-golden color, to the point of sparkling and glistering. That's not the kind of color people on Earth have. Her hair is so beautifully enchanting that it looks like it's almost glowing too. Oh wait, it is glowing faintly! She has a heavenly pearl white skin that looks so smooth. Her face which could make any normal man drop dead from admiration looks like a sculptured masterpiece of the most beautiful woman in existence. She's wearing a magnificent bluish-white dress, the contrast with her hair color makes it even more mesmerizing. This is a fantastic combination of exquisitely magnificent dress and a supremely beautiful woman, people would undeniably agree if she is called as a real goddess herself. Such an appearance would throw the mind of any man to chaos. If I were a normal man, I would be mentally melting already.

The last one doesn't have a red flag yet, but she definitely doesn't look like a fighter material to me, at least not the type that looks like will go and fight a monster. Then again, as a summoned hero, she can still have some uses, say, to raise people's morale or other non-physical related works.

 

I glance at the King who looks dumbfounded like all the other people in here. He noticed that I'm currently looking at him. Then I say it to him, "It's buy one get four today, huh? Let me congratulate you on getting four heroic heroes, your majesty!"

"Four?" The King immediately look toward the altar again and appears to observing keenly before finally turning toward my direction again and with intrigued expression says, "What do you mean four? No matter how you look at it, there are only three people there!"

"Excuse me?" What's wrong with his sighting, has he become instantly senile from the shock? "One, two, three..., four." I count again, there is definitely four people on the alter.

"Again, are you toying with me?! No matter how you see it, there are only three people, no wait, having three people summoned in a single ritual is unheard of, but still, these three people! They reek of being criminal themselves!" The King says so with looks of being enraged, frustrated, and disappointed. 

It seems he's frustrated from having summoned a possibly failure hero again. But more importantly, he can't see the goddess-like beautiful woman?

... As I think about it a little more, I then realize the biggest anomaly about her yet, she doesn't appear to be in pain or suppressed by the burden of being summoned.

I look toward her direction again. Over all the people in the chamber to look at, she actually focuses her gaze at me and with her eyebrows slightly frowning. Our eyes are locked toward each other's.

The mist is almost completely gone from the altar. Then I see it, she's.... floating...

5: Chapter 4 - In Another World, Finally A Free Man

Alright, apparently the fourth one is an oddball. As of now I can conclude that she is not from Earth since she's able to float like that. She's currently still glaring at me without moving or saying anything. Is she doing this because she realize I can see her? Alright, for now let's confirm whether she is invisible to the others too.

I turn my sight to the envoy that brought me here. He has been standing guard near the important-looking people on one side of the chamber.

"Hey you!" I shout to the envoy.

Hearing my shout, he and the people around him all turn their attention to me.

As of now almost all the people are pretty confused on what to do regarding the situation. From what the King said just now, having multiple people being summoned in the same time is a rare event, so they don't know how to proceed with the situation. In times like this the one leading (King) should act and do something, but he himself looks like taken aback with the result of the summoning. You can't blame him, anyone would be taken aback if the hero they are expecting turns out all bloody and looks like criminal.

"I can't see very well due to the light beam from before, can you tell me exactly how many people are summoned? There seems to be multiple silhouettes." I fabricate my condition a little so the conversation can run smoothly.

"Huh?" The envoy has only just realized that I was talking to him. "Eh. Ah...." He looks toward the altar again as if counting the number of people on it and reconfirm it one more time. "Three! There are three heroes being summoned!"

Right after he said that the people observing the summoning ritual begin talking with each other and soon rise to a clamor. There is nobody who deny the envoy's statement that there are only three people on the altar right now, so it must be true that the woman with incredible beauty is invisible to the others.

I wonder, why am I able to see her?

The three 'not so normal' people are still under the side effect of the summoning, they are still either coughing or panting intensely. That old man with the straitjacket looks pretty fine to me though, he can already gaze around left and right to figure out the situation he's in right now. Man, that gaze is scary, please stop it, you'll only unnecessarily intimidate the people in here.

The people are still clamoring, probably deciding on how to deal with these summoned 'heroes' since they don't look much like a hero for having blood splattered all over them (except for the old man in straitjacket, but he still looks the least like a hero).

Some old men wearing fancy robe are discussing something with the King who currently has a blank look on his face. The shock of failing to summon a proper hero seems pretty huge to him.

"NO!" The King suddenly yells loudly, he has an enraged expression right now. All the people stop talking when they hear the King yelled.

"It can't be like this! Not again! Impossible!" He looks mad and suddenly walks toward the altar.

"No your highness! Stop! Don't go near them!" Some of his subordinates try to stop him but the King turn his quick walk into a floating like jump, landing on the altar.

"Young hero! I welcome you to my great country of Gloumell Ataire!" The King madly exclaim so toward the Asian businessman guy.

Bad move, you shouldn't yell toward a guy who is in pain and confused, especially if the said guy looks like he has just killed somebody and is holding a gun.

As if hearing the King shouting at him, the Asian guy who is still in kneeling position turn his face toward the King who is standing in front of him, trying to look at the one shouting at him. Realizing that the people who have been clamoring around are currently looking at him, he immediately try to stand up while pointing the gun in his right hand toward the King who is closest to him.

Seeing the Asian guy suddenly standing and pointing something toward the King, the guardsmen who have been standing guard right beside the King immediately took defensive position, making a human wall in front of King Ramsarast with their shield up and spears pointing toward the Asian guy.

I can see that the Asian guy's eyes are being focused back and forth as if trying to adjust themselves, his vision must be still kinda blurry right now.

Seeing that the situation might turn toward the worst, I interfere by walking up the altar too.

"Alright, that's it! For your own safety, King Imbecile, you step back now! Let me handle the situation for now." I say so while pointing toward the King, ordering him to step back so that he and the guardsmen don't agitate the Asian guy.

"And you, young man, don't pull the trigger, at least not now." The young Asian guy is pointing his gun between the King's group and me right now.

"Okay, give these people some time to adjust themselves with the situation, at least wait till they regain their senses back! Especially you, King, you gonna get yourself killed sooner or later if you keep acting like that." I order the people and warn the King like that.

The King only doesn't say anything, he only looks at me for a second, still with a mad face before finally stepping down from the altar area. His guards keep the meat wall formation and step down the altar while still facing the gun man and me.

I don't come down from the altar and wait there until these 'heroes' finally able to completely regain their senses. It doesn't take long for that, only a minute or so. The room was silent for that one minute, nobody dared to talk, even King Ramsarast only silently watching from the side.

The young man looks fine now and the sexy woman on the floor has stopped groaning. Both of them, plus the psychopath-looking old man and the beautiful floating woman are staring at me, so I decide to begin mediating the situation.

"Alright, you people looks fine enough, let's tal-"What's going on and where the hell am I?!!"-k now." the Asian guy frantically cut my speech and point the gun at me again. Contrary to his professional look, he appears to be a pretty hysteric man. He speaks a really fluent English with some Japanese accent mixed in, he appears pretty educated so I expected that he could speak English, but not this fluent. From this, I can guess that he's a Japanese.

"Calm down alright? Geez, no need to be hysteric like that."

"What's this about? Who are you people?!"

"I told you to calm down alright. If you want to point the gun at someone, point it toward that old man." I pointed my finger toward the King. The King, in turn, glares at me.

"You are a victim of kidnapping, just like me. These punks, surrounding us, are the one who kidnapped you people." I make a hand gesture to point at the people around me.

"Such insolence!" several people from the side yell like that right after I describe the situation. Well, I'm not wrong in stating the situation right?

I don't give any attention towards such retort and continue with my explanation. "Now then, I know it sounds strange, but this isn't Earth. I'm not exactly sure whether this place is some kind of distant planet but magic does exist in here, so it's most probably a different world altogether."

"Di-d-different world?" The Japanese guy looks shocked upon hearing my statement. I had hoped for him to argue on my statement but he seems pretty easy to accept the situation of this possibly be an other world.

As for the other summoned people, they just silently listen to me without giving any feedback.

"Right, other world. Now if you'd let me, I want to ask whether you met a certain entity upon being summoned here, something that might resemble a God or a Goddess to be precise. Think about it carefully because your future in this world might be decided on your answer right now." I decide to cut to the chase and ask whether they possibly have the so called gift as the legend said, meeting the Goddess and all.

"W-what?" He looks like genuinely doesn't know what I'm talking about so this guy is most likely a failure too. 

"You don't?"

"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about, I was in the office wit--"

"Okay, you are failure, next."

I cut his speech short and look toward the other three for their reaction. The sexy woman still has un-trusting expression on her face but I notice that she frown a little, that's a sign. The scary old man does't say anything and his expression is not visible, let's skip this guy for now. As for the last one, she's currently folding her arms in front of her chest while looking around, avoiding my gaze... She's really bad at hiding it, even a kid can act better than that. I marked the woman as suspicious for now.

"Any of you two met the Goddess or feel anything special in your body?"

Both of them don't reply my question. They just silently look at me.

"Okay, I see." I turn my direction toward the King and casually say, "Apparently this time the summoning also failed, your highness."

"That can't be!" He furiously retort my statement.

The King strongly gaze toward the people here on the altar. He first look at the Japanese guy and decide that he most probably really doesn't know about said Goddess from his reaction. Then he proceed to appraise the scary old man but soon turn away to look at the last person, probably because even if that scary old man does receive the Goddess's blessing, the Kingdom wouldn't let such a dangerous-looking man roam freely. Onto the sexy woman on the floor, her expression is hard to read but she doesn't exactly say or show whether she receive the blessing or not.

Being the last of his hope, the King quickly walk toward the sexy woman, hoping that she actually receive the blessing and can be a hero like the legend stated. 

"You haven't answered yet! Tell me! You must have met and receive the blessing fro--. Gaah!" King Ramsarast frantically asks the woman while grabbing her shoulders. He has a very hysteric expression not befitting a King right now. But in a surprise, before he can finish speaking, the sexy woman he's currently holding suddenly jump up from sitting position and pins the King from behind while holding her knife right beside the King's neck.

The situation suddenly turn very dire with the sexy woman holding the King as hostage. The guards immediately move forward to apprehend her. The Japanese guy is also surprised by the sudden turn of event and is now pointing his gun toward the coming guards while the scary old man maniacally laugh at the chaotic situation, really, this old man is insane.

"STOP!! Damn it. You, You, You, and YOU stop whatever you are doing right now!" I shout and point toward the knife woman, the Japanese guy, the guards with the spears, and especially toward the laughing old man.

"I don't care where this is, but I want to go back! Bring me back to where I was, right now!" The sexy woman finally speak, she looked calm before but apparently she too has been holding it before finally bursting out her feeling. The knife in her hand is touching the skin on the King's neck. 

She's speaking English with some Spanish accent mixed in, I'm impressed that she could speak English very fluently, seeing that she has Spanish accent meaning English is not her native language. At first I thought about the possibility of her being some kind of a hit women but seeing how unskilled she's in holding the knife and pinning the King, that thought soon vanish from my mind.

"NO! Don't send me back! You go back, I'm staying here!" Contrary to the woman, the Japanese guy claims that he doesn't want to go back. What the hell man, she didn't even say that she's taking you with her, you really should calm down a little.

To make matter worse, instead of stopping, the scary old man laugh even louder toward the situation. Making the situation sound even more chaotic than before.

Seeing that this is getting out of hand, I decide to take drastic measure. I swiftly move toward the Japanese guy who is currently focusing on the armed guards. His hands are grabbing the pistol tightly so it will be hard for me to take it away from him when my own hands are being tightly handcuffed. So instead I grab his hands and push it upward.

Panicked, he pulls the trigger and shots are fired toward the glass ceiling, breaking them. The loud sound of gunshot and breaking glass surprised the people around, they don't seem to know what a gun is which caught them completely off guard against the loud sound. 

" " " Waaaaah! " " "

Complemented with the broken glass raining down on them, most of them panicked. In that short moment, the guardsmen activate some kind of magic to protect the area around the King, as expected of a royal guard they do their job properly.

Since the area around the King is protected by a semi transparent shield, both she and the King are untouched by the rain of glass. 

In the midst of confusion, I managed to take over the gun from the Japanese guy who is panicking and covering himself from the glass. The rain of glass soon subside but the people around us are still panicking.

"Alright lady, calm down a bit would you?" I ask her once again while checking the remaining ammo in the pistol's magazine, there seems to be still plenty in it, a quick glance shows that it still has a dozen bullets left.

"I want to go back. Send me back, or I kill this man." She still insists to be sent back to Earth.

"Believe me, you won't be going anywhere by killing that old man. Definitely not home, possibly to jail, most likely to the guillotine."

The guards are slowly getting closer toward the woman and she slowly step back while still holding the King. Then suddenly the King, as if not caring about his current situation, angrily shouted. "ENOUGH!"

*BOOM!*

A burst of semi transparent force spread out, repelling the woman away and the people around him which include me, the Japanese guy, and the guardsmen. Just like that, he manages to release himself from the hostage situation. 

His expression looks angry and furious, but there are also traces of sadness and disappointment. His clothes flutter wildly and his body is emanating some kind of oppressing aura that would make the one receiving it to feel pressured. Apparently he is not a simple King. 

I should have thought so, this is a world where magic existed. The system and structure here are most likely different from Earth. To be able to stand on the top of the hierarchy must mean that he has something more than just name and lineage to back his position. He was even the one who conducted the summoning ritual and personally chanted the summoning spell. This old King, he himself might be a powerful magician.

The woman fall down on her butt a few steps away from her previous position, a look of surprise and little bit of fear can be seen on her pretty face. The knife in her hand is also blasted away somewhere. The repelling force is pretty strong, I myself is even forced to step back a bit.

After the oppressing force lessened, I look at the King. He's staring at the three summoned heroes that failed to meet his expectation. The fourth person is still there standing nonchalantly as if nothing is going on.

"What now?" I ask the King.

He looks at me and scan the surrounding one more time before answering, "The summoning ritual is over, as promised, you are free to go." He expressionlessly answers me, as if he doesn't care about it.

"And them?" I look at the slightly cowering Japanese guy who is still covering himself from the small oppressive force emitted by the King, the sexy woman who has fallen down, and the crazy old man who has stopped laughing and is currently glaring at the King.

".... I don't care, take them with you."

"You highness!!" As if disagreeing with the King, many of his vassals frantically yell at the King's decision.

"Silence! I've promised and decided so. Don't question my decision!" He only shortly stated so before turning and preparing to leave. All his subjects immediately fall silent, nobody dares to argue with him right now.

Then without looking back at us he says, "This is the last mercy I will show to you. Do not mistake this as an act of kindness, I simply wish to hold my promise and let it over with. You are now free and has no relation with the royal house from henceforth!" 

He doesn't show his face when he said it but I can tell that it's grim. He quickly walks away and exit the building from the main door with his subjects and vassals following him shortly after.

Seeing how the sudden turn of event ends up, I'm a little bit surprised too. I truly didn't expect it to be like this. I expected the King and his 'ministers' to apprehend and imprison these failed heroes, especially since one of them even threaten the King and took him as a hostage. 

But they just simply left us here alone, not even one guard stays behind to lead us out somewhere. I look at the four people around me, they are not saying anything about the situation we are in right now.

As I thought of that, one man return inside, it's the envoy from before. Apparently there was supposed to be someone leading us out but due to the sudden turn of event, the one that should have managed this kind of thing simply walks out following the King. Looks like they are all as surprised as me that they even forgot their duty, none of them expected the King to be as lenient as this.

He said that he's been ordered to lead us out from this place toward the public area like the city or anywhere that doesn't belong to the royal house.

That's fine by me because in conclusion, I'm free to go.... Wait, that would be 'we' are free to go. 

I look at the those four. The Japanese guy is currently looking at me, to be precise, he's looking at the gun I'm holding in my hand. Too bad for you young man, I'll be keeping this for now. 

The sexy woman is just staring dagger towards me, she has a hostile attitude right now. It hurts when a pretty lady has such a scornful gaze towards you.

Then I look at the scary old man and he looks straight at me too.

"Old man, you sane?"

"Would normal people be bound by such a cool jacket like this? Hehehe..." He replies with a little bit of chuckle at the end. Just like the other two, his English is pretty fluent but with a mix of accent in it. From the sound of it, he seems to be Russian.

His reply is not exactly the kind of answer I hoped for but that's fair enough to show he's still sane, being able to answer with a joke.

"Alright, I don't know what you did to get yourself like that but I can't just leave you to rot here, so I'm gonna release you for now. But don't even think to do anything stupid, I'm the one with a gun here, so be nice, at least until we get out from this place, then you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't concern me, alright?"

He only laugh a little in respond to my question, creepy.

I proceed to release him from his straitjacket. I pick up the knife that was blasted away from the woman and use it to cut open his jacket. The woman is staring even more intensely after I pick up her knife for myself. The iron mask is chained to the human trolley so I also need to open it but it's made from iron so the knife doesn't help much in opening it and I can't seem to open it in normal way.

He himself after being released from the straitjacket try to force open the iron mask with bare hands but failed, he then proceed to banging his head onto the stone wall, wanting to break the hinges and lock of his iron mask only to fail once again.That was insane. 

I then offer to help break the chain attached to his iron mask by shooting my gun at it, but he asks for an even more insane method, he asks me to shoot the lock which is right beside right eye, just centimeters away from his face. 

So instead of breaking only the chain now and try to open the iron mask later on after we get out from here, he prefer to just risk it and break the iron mask right now. No hesitation, simply seeking the most efficient method while ignoring the danger, this crazy old man really has no fear. This is the kind of man that would survive the underground world, no wonder he got himself in such situation, he must have a lot of experience himself. 

Complying with his request, I point the gun from point blank range and take the shot, easily blasting the lock away. I notice that this old man doesn't even blink when I shot the gun right next to his face. I need to improve my evaluation of this guy, he might be even more experienced than I think he is. 

He's now free from his boundary, since his straitjacket are cut open and his iron mask is taken off, his figure can be clearly seen. He really does have the figure like that of a wrestler, a huge body with well-built muscle and thick limbs. His face is that of a man in his late forties or early fifties, not ugly, but more like scary with lots of facial wrinkles and unshaven facial hair, showing his age which is already past his prime. I say scary, but he actually grins a lot, which in turn only makes him look scarier instead of friendlier.

I then walk toward the last one, she's still floating with uncaring attitude and is still looking at me.

"So, are you coming too?" I try to start a conversation with her. Now that I look at her closely, she is even more outstanding than before. Her orange hair which has richer color than that of a ginger really is glowing with subtle golden light. Her face, although frowning, still looks pretty and enchanting.

I can feel that the other people behind me are thinking strange thought about why am I speaking toward nobody at one side of the chamber. 

Even after I try to start a conversation with her, she just turn her face away from me like a prideful lady. I try to ask her again, this time with hand gesture, but she still gives no respond. I know that she realize I can see her and that she has been staring toward me all the time before, but now she is ignoring my attempt to talk with her. Then so be it, I'll leave her as she is. I'm not even sure what she is in the first place anyway, who knows, she could even be some kind of spirit or ghost who happen to wander in here during the ritual process as a spectator, this is a world of magic after all.

"If that's what you want, so be it." I turn back toward the envoy, ignoring her. "Alright, all done, lead the way."

"Ah? Oh, right, let's go." 

The envoy exit the building with me following after him. The Japanese guy follows behind me just a few steps back, the old man who is now wearing a cut-up straitjacket follows behind him, and the sexy woman is following at the very back. Surprisingly, the floating beauty decide to follow us and even following closely just a few meters behind me.

"Holy hell!"

*Gasp*

"...!"

As expected, when we exit the building, I can her them being surprised, gasping, or inhaling deeply upon seeing the view. The small island where the summoning ritual took place is around thirty meter higher than the main island, although not as high as the prison island I was in, we can still have a good view of the surrounding area, especially since there are many higher floating islands visible around the area, showing that this really is a magical foreign world.

But unlike last time, the envoy isn't stopping to give them some time to enjoy the view so we have to keep following him. Nevertheless, they still look around with surprised expression while walking, even the scary old man has a surprised look on his face.

6: Chapter 5 - In Another World, Getting To Know Each Other​

Chapter 5 - In Another World, Getting To Know Each Other​

 

"It really is another world!" The Japanese man say so while excitedly looking around.

"I can't believe it, I thought I was a dead man for sure! But to suddenly arrive here in a magical world, I must be the luckiest man alive!" He excitedly says so in monologue.

The word 'dead man' intrigued me. From his words he probably has near death experience right before being summoned here like me. No wonder there are blood splatter all over his shirts, that means the woman probably has similar circumstance when she was summoned.

As for the old man, only special prisoner will be treated like that, seeing that he was put in human trolley means he was being transported somewhere when he was summoned, execution chamber perhaps? The very thought of him possibly being a psychotic killer makes me wary, but I don't judge people by appearance alone, let's see what kind of character he really is first.

"Tell me, where exactly are we? I saw that magic or spells exist, does that mean magical beast and demi-human races exist too?" He asks me while still being excited. What's with the sudden change of attitude?

I can see that the woman and old man seem pretty interested on that topic too.

"I don't really know, I was imprisoned underground for several weeks and has just been released an hour ago. What I know is that we were forcefully brought here to be a hero material of some sort."

"Hero material? Is there a demon lord, demon king or something like that? Does that mean we have hero power or cheat abilities?" The Japanese guy is suddenly getting even more excited upon hearing the word 'hero'. He doesn't seem really perplexed with the whole miraculously-brought-to-other world-thing but is instead really excited for the event.

"Yeah, there was something like that mentioned. But forget it, by the looks of it, you also didn't get to meet the so called Goddess to receive blessings from her. That's why those people just ignored and left us like this, they think we are a failed summoned hero again and are only normal people with no special blessings."

"What?! No cheat?! That can't be! Just like that? Can't they inspect or appraise our status or something? Are they gonna left us just like this? Can't they at least give proper explanation first? No information, financial, or other kind of support from the King? We were supposed to be a possible hero, right?" He frantically asks for many things.

"Calm down a bit, man. I don't know about any status or appraisal you are talking about, but the King has determined that we are a product of failed hero summoning. Not to mention your appearance which reeks of being a criminal. Especially you, missy, you even took the King as hostage." I pointed at the woman.

"Don't even hope for a good treatment, you all are lucky to be let go just like that, I was imprisoned for weeks because I 'accidentally' offended the King when I was summoned. I myself am still surprised that he would let your offense go just like that, just be glad that you are not sent to execution but instead are released as free men right away."

The Japanese man seems disappointed on my answer, as for the woman, she only frowns when I said that to her. The old man doesn't even seem to listen to me and is looking around the scenery. The floating lady is as indifferent as ever, she only silently follows us.

As for myself, I am quite content with how practical things turn out, I was prepared to break away forcefully when things got too hot back then.

Just like that, we continue walking but now the Japanese guy has a depressed and disappointed look. On the way out, we walk past a water fountain located in the middle of the garden in front of the Cathedral. They wash the blood on their face and hands with the water from the fountain. The envoy looks like wanting to say something when they did that but in the end he doesn't say anything.

We ride the tram lift and reach the main island in just a minute. One thing then occurs on my mind, so far these people are still obediently following without making a ruckus, but who knows what will happen if they meet with the jeer from military people from before.

The Japanese guy and Latina Woman might ignore such a thing but the old man doesn't seem to be the patient type. There will be confrontation for sure if we go through that place, especially since these people are wearing conspicuous clothing that is different with the standards of this world, especially this Latina woman, she's still in her sexy negligee, that would definitely attract too much attention.

"Hey, can you give them a change of clothes? They'll attract to much attention like this." I ask the envoy who is walking in front of me.

"Clothes? Sure, I'll get some when we reach the gate post."

"Are we going through the training field again?"

"No, I was ordered to bring you straight to the city area, we'll go past the district gate, we can find some change of clothes there."

"Okay."

Just like that we follow him toward a big gate with tall walls around it which look like a fortress wall. We walk pass many huge manors and mansions and meet with some people along the way but they only look from a distance and doesn't try to interact with us.

Inside the small building by the big gate that looks like a small barrack or guard post for the big gate, the envoy asks a young man there to fetch several set of clothes for us.

While waiting for the clothes, I start a conversation with the envoy, wanting to gather some general information regarding the city. He doesn't say much but I managed receive some advice on how to start living the city. He told me that since the royal house has decided to cut ties with us, therefore they won't provide IDs for us, so we must make one ourselves by registering on one of the guilds in the city such as the Adventurer's Guild, the Merchant Union, Academies, or other organization that has authority to provide an official ID or membership.

He tells us a simple explanation about the kingdom which is really helpful because miss little princess was really secretive about this country and almost didn't tell me anything, especially about this city. As we've seen, the Kingdom ofGloumell Altaireis a country located on an archipelago of floating islands. It's one of the few countries located in such a high altitude. The chain of over a thousand islands are differed in term of altitude and sizes.

Altaire Erebaz, or in definition: Sky Capital, is the name of the capital city where we are right now, is located on the biggest island with around middle-low position within the range of altitude the archipelago has.

The country has a population of around 13 to 15 million people where around 5 million of them are residing in the royal capital and its nearby island while the rest are scattered in some distant floating island in either higher or lower altitude.

I'm surprised with that statistic. Not by the number of total population, that number of population is not very big compared to the average number of population the countries in this world have, much less compared to the countries on Earth.

What surprised me is there are around 5 million people living in this city area? That's on the level of rather big metropolis city on Earth while this island only looks like two or three times the size of Manhattan, not to mention that the city also only occupies half of the island. The buildings look pretty well coordinated and not so crowded so any place that resemble a slum area are nowhere on sight. It really looks like one of those vacation spot cities where everything looks beautiful and wonderful.

The city is also divided into several districts, which in the order of location from the city's front gate, are Commercial District, Academy District, Residence District, and Noble District. The city shape is not divided like circle within circle formation where the Royals would reside in the innermost part like in classic medieval castle city. In here they are coordinated next to each other, like from west to east with Noble District at the Western-most part and Commercial District together with Academy District at the Eastern-most part, right next to the city gate. Residence District is located in the middle and occupy the largest area in the city.

The district we are in right now is the Noble District, it's the most luxurious area where most nobles live. It's next to the Royal Palace where the royal family resides. The military base is also located in here so that in times of emergency, they can be quickly deployed to protect the royalties and nobles.

Prioritizing the one in high standing is justifiable in common perspective, I just hope they also put proper security attention to those in the outskirts because according to the little princess from before, it's in the outskirts of the city and villages away where wild beasts and even monsters from the nearby forest and mountain area would often wander into and cause damages to the locals. Thus making the positioning of the military base very much inefficient most of the time.

The Residence District is located next to the Noble District and occupy around 40% of the area in the Royal Capital. It's located in the middle part of the city and is split right in the middle by the main road connecting the city's front gate and the Noble District. This district serves as the main residence area for general populace with some lower nobles mixed in the area near the Noble District. There are several parks and open areas where people can hangout and are often used as a place to hold and events and festivals.

Next is the Commercial District and Academy District. These two districts are located between the Residence District and the city's Front Gate, and are split by the main road to be the north and south area.

The Commercial District which is in the northern part is the area where markets and commercial businesses are concentrated in. All kind of shop from small one like a roadside grocery store to the major one like international trade firms all located in this district.

The district itself further split into three level, the middle-lower area where the cheaper items and services are offered, middle-upper area for those who have more, and the high-end area where only the best and most extravagant items and services are offered.

According to Mr. Envoy, this type of class differences are not made by the government, it just naturally formed by itself. Cheap stores were gathering in one spot of the district while the more expensive shops were gathering in another spot of the district.

The Commercial District is also the home of many big organization's branch group as mentioned before, the Adventurer's Guild, Merchant Union, Blacksmith Union, Alchemist Association, and many more. While Mr. Envoy's telling us about this, Mr. Japanese Guy is happily shouting "Adventurer's Guild!!" or "Alchemist Association!!! Oh yeaaah!" as soon as he heard about those things mentioned. He looks super excited to this fantasy-like organization. I'm not exactly sure what they are but I can guess a little from their name. This Japanese guy seems pretty resourceful in this aspects, I may be able to learn something from him if needed.

As for the Academy District, this is the area where schools and research institution are located. They have one national academy and many other private schools here. It seems most of them teach not only the common teaching materials like literature and math calculation, but also magics and other fantasy-like stuffs. I don't exactly understand those terms but they sound really magical.

One more thing. As expected, modern science like physic, chemistry, or biology are not a huge thing in here, although they exist, they seem really minor and unpopular that Mr. Envoy would not mention them if I didn't ask him about them.

The main road mentioned before is a straight highway spanning across the city from the city's Front Gate to the gate of Noble District. It's so wide that it's enough for 12 carriages to move side by side safely. The purpose of the main road is not only to allow easier travel between districts in daily activity, but also to be used in times of parades and festivals. People would fill the main road whenever the country hold a grand event like the birth of a new royalties, victory parades, or other grand events. That's why at the highway in the western Residence District, near the Noble District, part of the road is turned into a very wide circular plaza with a big statue of a giant bird, the symbol of the country, standing proud at the center. This huge central plaza serves as the main gathering place over all the other open area in the city.

I'm really impressed upon hearing the general structure of this city, their civil engineering is rather advanced! Although the buildings don’t look like a modern 21st century with skyscrapers and whatnot, they have coordinated the city very well by differentiating the residence area from the business/commercial area. This really helps in organizing and controlling business activities in the city. Imagine if it isn't organized like this, some shady businesses may sprout in every nook and cranny of the humongous residence area, hidden among the home of normal citizens, how hard would it be to eradicate or even detect such malicious factors from growing in the city.

After the city, I ask about the surrounding landscape, about the area outside the city, just general information would suffice and so he tells me so. Right outside the city is the farmland and small villages for farmers. The main road from the city continue a bit outside through the farmlands and end on a wide open area with several buildings in it. This wide open area is aerial transport landing zone and those small buildings are inspection post meant to check the goods and visitors that came from outside the island.

By this time the Japanese guy is vigorously cutting the speech, asking whether there are dragons, griffins, and other flying beasts. The envoy looks startled from being questioned with machine gun questions so I flicker my fingers hard onto the too excited Japanese guy's forehead to shut him up. I tell him that I saw a dragon this morning so they do exist. Hearing that, he makes a winning pose while still rubbing his now red forehead with his left hand.

Continuing the story, apparently there is a law to prohibit flying transport to enter the city's airspace, any flying transport not bearing noble or royal crest will be shot down upon sight. All visitors and transports through aerial means must land in the landing zone outside the city and enter by feet through the front gate. This is a security measure to prevent possible attack from air.

Now that he mentioned it, I look straight up and realize that there are no other floating island located above the main island. For as far as the eye can see, only clear blue sky exists right above the main island. Other higher floating islands make a chain of island towards a direction away from the main island.

Of course I don't forget about what kind of weapon do they use to shot down an aerial object and what kind of flying transports is he talking about. To this question, his answer is very simple and short, only "Mana Cannon" and "The usualAerial Transport Beasts". He tells us that these are irrelevant to us for now so I don't pry on it further. I might as well check it out later myself, flying beasts sound really awesome.

The requested clothes, complete with a pair of shoes and even gloves arrive soon after we finish our question and answer session. It's in simpler fashion compared to what they gave to me this morning. I decide to change only my shirt because my pant and shoes are the only things left that I have from Earth, not to mention that it holds some sentimental value too so I feel more comfortable wearing it than the pants I was given just now. The eccentric red color with pizza icons and the word Papa Ben's Pizzeria are not an issue for me, at least for now. I will change it later if it turns out to gather much unneeded attention in the city.

The other three also change their clothes, and of course, in different room for Ms. Sexy Negligee. She changes all her clothing and looks like a real local except that she looks really pretty and would appear rather different than the common citizen. She still looks kinda sexy because her shirt is the type with an open back.

The old man wears the given shirt and shoes but keeps the trouser part of his straitjacket that has some loose belts dangling around, he still looks kinda creepy because of that.

The Japanese Man changes all his clothing with the given one, he will totally look like a local if not for his Asian face which is really contrast with the local people who mostly look like European. We keep our old and unused clothes in small leather bags that are also prepared for us. Now that we are dressed like normal citizen of the city (except me with my iconic red pants and creepy old man), we are ready to set off into the city.

Right when we're about to exit the district gate, Mr. Envoy calls me again. He then tosses a small item to me. I catch it nicely and see what it is. It appears to be a beautiful gem-like crystal with an oval shape. The color is purple-amethyst and the size is just enough to be fully held in hand.

I look at him shortly after I inspect the crystal. "It's a little bit of money from me, a token of gratitude for appreciating and praising the beauty of my country."

This guy is unexpectedly very thoughtful and shy. He just said his thanks while still looking aloof.

"You're a shy one aren't you. Thanks for the money, then while we're still here, do you have any extra? There are four of us here you know." I reply my gratitude and shamelessly ask for more as a joke.

"You're a really shameless and hopeless one aren't you. Here take these." He throws a pouch to me and I receive it.

I really didn't expect him to actually give me more money. Now I feel bad for asking, even as a joke. I can't just return it and say "It was a joke!" and laugh it off, that would be really awkward.

"That's some chump change I have in me right now, that's all I have, don't ask for more!"

....By the name of every God on Earth and this world, this is so embarrassing! It looks like I just forced him to surrender all his money down to his meager chump change! I feel like I could dig a hole and bury my face in it. No wonder Little Princess said that my jokes were bad, I think I kinda get what she meant now.

"Now go! Don't do anything rash out there! Not everybody is as tolerant as me."

Just like that he turns back and walks away before I could say anything. Only now that I realize that I haven't ask for his name yet. Again, I forgot to ask people's name. So far the only person whose name I know is that imbecile king, Ramsarast Imbeculle the third... or was it the fifth. Sorry, I know it's the fifth, but I just realized that the 'third' sounds more... fitting.

I also turn back toward the four behind me. The scary old man is only smirking as if he almost laughed at me. Ms. Sexy Negligee is only pouting on my action. Ms. Floating Beauty is only observing with cold look as always. Only the Japanese guy who understand my action.

"I understand buddy, you only meant it as a joke but he took it seriously." He pats me on the shoulder.

Four Eyes, I misjudged you. You are actually an understanding guy. If I could take back that flick, I would do it right away.

I then open the pouch that I just received. Inside it I can see a number of coin like metals, this doesn't look like a normal coin we can find on Earth. These coins don't even look like made from copper, silver, brass, or gold. They are made from shiny metals too, but their color vary from emerald green, sky blue, and red crimson. I don't know yet how precious these coins and gems I received, but on appearance alone they already look beautiful, so they should be worth a bit high.

So then we hit the main road. This highway looks even bigger than what the envoy described, I think we can fit at least a dozen car or more side by side in here.

The highway looks like made from white slab of stones that almost looks like painted pure white. These stones are around as big as a coffin each and are joined together in a neat arrangement. I don't know how they did it but the road looks really level and stable on plain view.

On our left and right, we can see pretty big mansions with their own private land and garden. Although not as big as the one we saw in the Noble District, it's still an impressive sight. These mansions must be the one that was mentioned as the house of lower nobles.

We continue walking along the highway. Not long after we arrive at the central plaza, this area is really huge! It could probably fit four football fields or more.

It's crowded with people and carriages busily going around in the plaza. There are a lot of stalls by the road side selling various kind of items and foods, making the place even more crowded with people buying and selling stuffs. Apparently although there is a restriction conduct business activity in the Residence District, the rule doesn't apply to the highway part of the Residence District, making it a very busy marketplace because not only it's closer than the Business District, it's also located right in the heart of Residence District.

The giant bird statue at the center is really huge, almost as tall as other popular landmark likearc de triomphein Paris. This giant bird is said to be the mythical beast who brought the first group of humans to this sky archipelago who later become the founding father of the country. That's a legend from thousands of cycles ago, where a cycle is a like a year in this world, a complete cycle of four seasons. The said mythical beast has not been seen for a long time and is predicted to have gone extinct a long time ago.

Back to the current issue how will the group act from now own, in fact, will we even stay together or will we go our own separate way.

"Alright, this is it. I'll ask now, what are you people want to do from now on. I'll split the money with you all if you want to go your own separate way. Decisions are entirely up to you. I'll not restrict or forbid you from doing anything." I say that as I hold the pouch of money in front of me, jiggling it a little.

Upon my question, Mr. Understanding is the first to answer. "Are you going to the Adventurer's Guild first to make and ID?"

"I'm not, and until I know for sure what's all the function of an ID in this world, I'm not planning to make one."

"Well, that's too bad, I'm planning to register at adventurer's guild right away so that means I'm gonna go a separate way. Any of you planning to make an ID too?" He asks the other two after telling us his objective.

"No. I'm not going with any of you men. You all don't look like a decent man. So just give me my share of money and I'll be gone." She answers with criticism-like manner. She's correct though, we didn't look like decent man at all on our first meeting.

"Alright milady, anything you wish~." I open the pouch and take out some coins for both her and the Japanese Guy.

"That knife too, give me that knife, it was mine." She pointed at the knife that I hid under my shirt by the waist.

A knife like this should be pretty common in here and she needs at least one way to protect herself in this foreign city, so I non-hesitantly return the knife to her.

Seeing that, one man looks at me with pleading eyes. "Uum, can I have my gun too?"

"Nope, sorry buddy. This one stays with me." I give him a firm look with one raised eyebrow.

"Oh... okay. Alright. That's okay... you can keep it..." He looks pretty dejected. This guy, although he looks rather sinister with the bloodied black suit and professional hairstyle before, he turns out to be a pretty timid and normal guy. Not the kind that you would expect to have a gun and looks like to have killed somebody.

"What about you, old man?"

"Explore and enjoy myself." Short and simple, and he speaks with a rather loud voice.

"Okay, I take it you want to go your own way then." I give him the rest of the coins left in the pouch, I only plan to take on the gem or crystal thing. I don't know the difference in value yet, but this should worth a lot more because the envoy said the coins are worth only chump change. I take only this one because he said this is a personal gift to me and it's not like I can split the gem anyway, so giving all the coins to the others would be the fairest thing to do.

As they prepare to leave after inspecting the coins I gave them, I ask one last question. "Say, since we are all people of the same origin and fate, would you like to tell me your name, maybe later we might need to find each other. People call me Axl by the way."

I don't forget to ask for their name this time.

"Axel?" The Japanese Man is wondering whether he heard it wrong.

"No, Axl. A-X-L."

"Oh, is that code name? then mine will be Tokyo!" He excitedly claims his code name.

He's not entirely wrong about it being code name, I just lived with that name for too long that it feels like my actual name. Code name Tokyo huh, that's fair enough for this occasion.

Following him, the old man with his loud and husky voice says, "Vodka!" while grinning widely.

He immediately claims the code name Vodka for himself. That's fine by me. Tokyo and Vodka really fit their image anyway, one appears to be a normal Japanese city guy and the other is kinda messed up and lunatic like the effect of consuming too much alcohol.

I turn toward the only visible lady in the group.

"I don't need to know your names and we won't meet again." Just like that she turns back and walks away.

"Okay then, I'll call you as Ms. Sexy Negligee if we ever meet again." I tease her when she has just walked a few steps from us.

There is no response from her, she completely ignores me.

"Alright then, I guess this is our farewell. Good luck out there." I say that to the other two and we begin walking our separate way.

I walk for a minute following the highway to the east. Then I notice that someone is following me.

It's the invisible lady. She's still following me. Now I'm getting more convinced that she's more likely to be some kind of a ghost or spirit who is haunting me.

I walk to an area with less people then turn myself to face her, "Okay, we're alone now. So if you want to talk in private, this is your best chance." I folds my hand in front of my chest as I say that to her.

I don't hate being followed by a beautiful woman like her, but first I need to know her purpose and what she really is.

She just faces away from me and put up an aloof expression. This woman can be a little bit annoying.

"Suit yourself, let's see how you handle it when I go to the toilet and something like that."

I can see her one of her eye just twitch a little right when I said that, that means she really can hear and understand what I say.

While I'm pondering about what to do with her, a familiar voice calls my name.

"Axl."

I turn toward the source of the voice and see him walking towards me. Tokyo.

"Hmm? What is it? Already feeling lonely being alone in this foreign city, buddy?" My hands are still folded in front of my chest.

".... No, it's not that...."

"Something wrong? I gave all the coins already, I don't have anymore with me."

"No, no, it's not about the money. It's just..... the language."

"Language?"

"Yeah, everybody around me suddenly starts speaking gibberish soon after I left."

"They speak what?"

"Gibberish, like a totally foreign language that I have never heard before. I was surprised by the sudden change in environment, so I decide to look for you and ask what was that about."

"I was looking for you and was able to notice you from afar because of your wacky pants. Then when I walk closer to you just now, suddenly everybody starts speaking Japanese again. Do you know what's happening?" He asks me with a confused face, surely he's not joking right now.

Wait a minute, did he just say that everybody started speakingJapaneseagain? Could it be...

"Wait, did you just say everybody speaks Japanese?" I stopped folding my hand talk with him seriously.

"Huh? What do you... aren't you yourself speaking Japanese right now?"

"No I don't. I'm speaking with you in complete English."

"No, no, you are speaking Japanese right now, a very fluent one, in fact."

Aah, I see. No wonder that somehow everybody even the people of this foreign world speaks English. Looks like some kind of translation mechanism is at work here. Is this one of the Goddess' blessing that Little Princess mentioned before? That must be it. I have noticed that I can understand what the people around me are speaking but I can't read any written object around me, it probably translates only the spoken language in a certain radius around me, but not the one being written. In conclusion, I can hear and speak the language, but not read and possibly write it.

Then if Tokyo lose the translation effect when he left me, does that mean he doesn't have his own translation mechanism? Why would that be, we're all the same summoned people. Is he a more failure result than me that he didn't even receive the translation blessing? No, I feel like I'm missing something.

Then I soon realize what is it that feels off. I turn my sight toward the invisible lady.

Could it be because of her? She's the one that's been around me all this time. No, wait, she wasn't around before the time of summoning ritual this morning and yet I was already able to understand the language all the way from the time I'm being summoned here.

It's getting complicated.

"Listen, in my ears, you and everyone else are speaking English. And you said that in your ears, me and all the others are speaking Japanese. That means there is probably some kind of translation mechanism working that helps translate all the spoken language around us. Or, as you said, around me."

He nods to hint that he understands what I'm saying so far.

"I don't know yet why is it only me. It's probably because we were summoned in different times that you and I have different unknown results like this translation perk."

He makes an expression as if he finally understands the reason why there are no language barrier before and why is it only me that currently have the translation perk.

"If you don't receive the translation blessing, then the other two probably don't get it either. They are probably confused by the sudden change of environment too, let's look for them for now."

I decide to look for the other two to see whether the same thing is happening to them too. As soon as I look around, I notice that the angry sexy lady is standing no so far away from us and is looking on our direction. Looks like she's in the same situation as Tokyo and was searching for me.

I wave my hand up high on her direction. She realizes that I notice her presence. But instead of coming closer, she hides herself behind a food stall next to her. This woman is really difficult to interact with.

As I plan to come closer to her, a loud commotion occurred on a stall near us.

"You dirty cretin! You dare bumped into me!" A loud yell from a chubby man wearing expensive looking robes and various adorned accessories can be heard clearly.

Me, Tokyo, and Ms. Sexy turn our sight toward the source of that annoying sound.

The fat man looks like beating something on the ground with a walking stick in his hand.

After a slightly closer look, I can see that he's currently swinging his wooden stick onto a crouching little kid who is covering an even smaller kid under her body. There are traces of bluish bruise and even streaks of blood seen on kid's back, neck, and arms.

I'm really perplexed. A grown man is beating children in public? He looks like a rich person, or even probably a noble. But still, how could he do something like this so openly and yet it looks like nobody is interfering his action. Is he really beating those children only because they happen to bump into him?

F*ck it. There is no use analyzing the situation now, let's stop that man first. Thus I run toward the scene. But before I arrive, Ms. Sexy Negligee has already reach the scene first.

Indeed she was closer to the scene than me, but I already almost immediately rushed to the scene after seeing it, which mean that she also immediately rushed toward the scene, probably without even trying to analyze the situation first.

She's covering the kids with her body. Because she suddenly appears like that, the furious man can't manage to stop his swing and the walking stick hit her back once.

It hit her rather strongly, a thin mark of red line can be seen on her open-back shirt, and yet she doesn't let out any painful groan. She just silently put her body over the kids, covering them from more harm. Although her face is facing down and her long silky black hair is covering it, I can tell that she is hurt but decide not to show it.

This woman just instinctively rushed there to protect those children without thinking about her own safety, anyone can tell that she was very concerned with those kids and decide to cover for them upon a simple glance of what was happening.

"What's this?! Who are you?!! Are you their owner?! Their Mother?!" Upon seeing that someone suddenly come and protect the children, the man only surprised for a little before furiously yelling again. He even prepares to swing his walking stick again without waiting for any answer.

I was going through a number of onlookers before I finally I reach the place. It took me several seconds after she arrive on the scene for me to reach the scene too.

I don't waste this opportunity. As I rush through a number of people, I act like I'm running towards the furious man while being staggered, thus I 'accidentally' tackled him down upon exiting the crowds.

"Whoops. Sorry there, I accidentally bumped into you. The sea of crowds and heat makes me dizzy sometimes. Let me get up first." I successfully tackled him till he kissed the ground, and is currently on top of his wide back.

I smoothly act like I try to get up while looking a bit dizzy and staggers a bit, but in fact, I centralize my center of gravity toward my palm, elbows, or knees making them really heavy and pointy. I especially put those pointy weights on his weak part of the body. Knee on his shinbone and elbow on his shoulder blade. But since he's so fat, that probably doesn't hurt so much, so lastly I use my palm on the back of his head to support myself in getting up. The man has, again, successfully kissed the ground for the second time today.

The fat man is currently shrieking while still laying on the floor. Suddenly a couple of bulky men appear from the wall of onlookers, "Lord Wazzada!"

"Gaaah! Quickly, help me get up!" They harshly push me back and frantically help the fat man gets up.

They are probably his bodyguards, their feature really fit the usual brawny type bodyguard.

"You bastard! Aaaaah! How dare you did that to me. Don't you know who I am!!" He angrily roared so and I notice that one of his front teeth is gone.

"Well sorry there, big man. I didn't mean to do that, it was all an accident. There was so many people crowding the area and I was swept by the sea of people. I was pushed a bit when right when almost exited the crowds, I think it was one of them who pushed me." I point at one of the bulky men. Of course it was all made up, although there are quite a number of onlookers, it's not so crowded that it would swept me away like what I just said.

The fat man shortly glares at those bulky men and the two of them strongly shake their head with a scared look, denying my accusation.

"It doesn't matter, you were the one who bumped into me and even make me lose a tooth!!" He glares back at me while analyzing the damage on his face with his hands.

"Wait a minute, you'd beat up people simply because you accidentally bumped with each other on a crowded street?!" Tokyo who has also arrived on the scene and is standing behind me now speaks up.

"What kind of nonsense logic is that?! Are you a retard?!" Tokyo loudly shout so as if making sure that all the people around can hear him.

"WHAT?! DID YOU JUST CALL ME A RE--" Fatso try to argue back but his speech is being cut midway by Tokyo.

"You'd beat up people so one sided-ly because you are rich? Because you have higher social standing? What the f*ck?!"

"What if a sick person bumped into you because he's not feeling well? What if a blind man bumped into you because he can't see? In fact, what would you do if you bumped into a street lamp? Will you raise your stick again and beat up that innocent lamp pole? Seriously!!" Tokyo shout all that while looking really offended like a victim of accusation.

Hearing that, the onlookers all begin to chatter with each other, some even laugh at the rich-looking fat man.

Woah, this guy is really good in misdirecting information. Just like that he slips in some messed up logic or examples and voila! A twisted fact suddenly become acceptable and sensible. I understand that he's trying to direct the crowd opinion against the fatso and he has done it really well. I can begin to see the crowds begin to jeer at the fat man and his two bodyguards.

"YOU!!! BEAT THEM! BEAT 'EM UP RIGHT NOW!!" He roared again, ordering his two bodyguards to attack us while he himself move backwards as if trying to escape the jeer from the crowds.

As the two bulky men approached us with intention to attack, the fatso's annoying voice can be heard again.

"Aaah! What do you think you are doing!!"

I look behind the approaching bulky men who have also stopped walking toward us upon hearing their master's cry from behind. There, I can see fatso is down on his butt. In front of him is a towering old man with big build that can be seen even from the outside of his clothes. Not to mention that his clothes is a weird one where his pants has a dangling unstrapped belts.

The grim expression on his face suddenly change into and evil smirk while saying, "You just bumped into me."

It's crazy old Vodka!

He picks up the walking stick that is lying down on the road next to him.

"Here, let me help you get up." He declares so with a very sinister grin on his face.

He then proceeds to raise the walking stick up and swings it down so hard that the sound of splitting wind can be heard.

*PAAK!*

The sound of a hard wood hitting soft fat can be heard clearly.

"GYAAAAH!!" He begins screaming like a girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I you need another help?" One more swing.

*PAAAK!* This time the sound is a little bit louder.

"UWAAAA!" He's covering his head with his hands and the swing hit his right shoulder this time.

"My lord!"

Awaking from being perplexed, the two bodyguards immediately rushed toward their master. One of them tries to block Vodka from swinging the stick at fatso again but only resulted in him receiving a hard swing to his side. The other helps fatso get up while struggling to hold the pain on his now bruised body.

"TAKE ME AWAY FROM HERE!"

He is then carried by his bodyguard by the shoulder.

"I'LL REMEMBER THIS! YOU WON'T GET AWAY FOR PROTECTING A DEMI AND EVEN HURTING A NOBLE!"

Oh, so he really is a noble, not some normal rich man.

"Anytime, fatso!" I reply back and see him being carried away through the crowd of onlookers.

They are ssoon gone from sight. Some of the onlookers are applauding before slowly dispersing. Some of them even kind enough to approach us and tell us to be careful or say that they are impressed by our courageous feat against a noble.

I only nod or wave at them shortly before going to check on Ms. Latina and the children's condition.

"You okay?" I ask her as I check up bruise on her back.

It looks like she's not hurt really badly, only a thin line of bruise that will probably disappear after a few days.

"I'm okay, but the kids..." She confirms her condition to me and looks more concerned about the kids, I've expected her to be like this from seeing her action just now. Inside that previously tough and cold look, she's probably a very gentle and kind-hearted woman.

The two children seem unconscious. The older one looks like fainted from being hit while the younger one probably from the shock. Really, these poor kids. They look like only around thirteen and eight years old.

As I check on the injury on their body, I realize that something is out of place. There is a pair of bunny ear each on top of their heads.

Upon noticing the weird thing on their heads, Tokyo excitedly say, "It's a bunny ear! We just saved a bunny ear loli!"

His previously serious expression that can fool simple onlookers is long gone. His usual timid and sometimes excited looks are back. He seems to know something after seeing these extra ears on the children's head. Does he really know what these are?

"You know what these are?"

"Of course! That fatso just said we protected a demi, he probably meant a demi-human! Like these girls. Demi-human should be a type of human with some mixed features on their body, mostly features from beast or animals!"

"How do you know that?"

"Of course I know, in fact I know a lot! That's like standard template for every fantasy world!"

"...Okay, we'll talk about it in detail later, for now let's get out from here and find a proper place to treat these children."

I opted to bring the unconscious children somewhere for a proper treatment. So we move out from the scene and look for clinic or a place to rest. Of course Ms. Latina tag along with us too. Even old man Vodka unexpectedly appeared and decided to rejoin the group.

I get the gist of their personality now. I think we've just understood each other's character better through this short and unexpected event.

7: Chapter 6 – In Another World, Learning So Many New Things​

Author Note: I edited some minor detail in previous chapter. I changed the color of the crystal given by the envoy from reddish-amethyst to purple-amethyst. The reason can be found in this chapter.

We are trying to look for a clinic, but since we don’t even know whether there is something like a clinic or a hospital we decide to ask the local first. Tokyo was excitedly saying that we should look for a priest for a healing service. I kinda doubt him on that suggestion, and to my expectation, the so called priests indeed exist but they don’t have a healing services to heal injury or cure illness.

The two locals who were also the onlookers from before suggest us to rent a healing crystal or ask for a treatment from the Adventurer’s Guild’s medical center, but they also warn us that it will cost a lot of money. They then take a closer look at the children’s injury before finally concluding that medical ointments and some rest should be enough.

They direct us to the nearest medical shop, it’s a small shop in an alleyway just a minute from the main street. While waiting for the shopkeeper to prepare the ointment and for Ms. Latina to apply the ointment onto the children’s injury, I don’t forget to ask about the healing crystal they mentioned before.

They look confused when I ask about it, apparently it’s a common knowledge in this world. Nevertheless, they kindly tell us that it’s one type of Trixium crystal that adventurer’s usually have because it has stronger healing attribute compared to other type of Trixium Crystal.

When I ask them about what a Trixium crystal is, they make an even more confused expression.

“How come you don’t know about Trixium crystal?”

“I’m sorry, actually we’ve just come to this place from a remote village today and something like Trixium crystal has never been used in our village before.”

“Waah, I didn’t know that there is still a village who don’t use Trixium crystal in time and age!” They look honestly surprised.

“Sorry for being a country bumpkin.”

“No, no, no, that’s alright. I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect it, I’m once again reminded that the world is a big place and there are still many uncharted places out there. I take it that you were brought here by a travelling merchant, no?”

“Right, right, a merchant who happened to stumble upon our village told us to try explore and see the outside world. His direction lead us to this place.” I’m such a smooth liar.

“Oh, no wonder you were so daring in dealing with the nobles, plus I have never seen someone like him before.” He pointed his hand toward Tokyo.

“Yeah, I definitely have never seen someone of his race before too.” The other guy also tells us his thought.

“Well, good for you then, Tokyo. You’re like an exotic man now. Maybe an ‘exotic’ woman will take an interest in you.” I joke a bit on the occasion, pointing out on the word exotic woman which mean… ‘that’ type of woman.

The two locals understand my joke and are laughing while Tokyo only smiles wryly.

“Then, can you tell us about the Trixium crystal?”

“Oh, right. Trixium, it’s a type of crystal that are able to store Mana in it. That Mana can be used as a source of energy for various purposes. You see that street lamp? It’s powered by a common type of Trixium crystal. The Trixium crystal for that kind of small machine is the smallest and most common one while bigger and more complicated machinery require a bigger and rarer Trixium crystal to operate, it mostly goes by that rule.”

I see, so it’s like some type of energy battery then. That Mana he mentioned must be a type of common energy of this world, like Electricity in Earth.

“Other function of Trixium crystal is for rejuvenation. The mana stored in the crystal can be channeled into the holder’s body for a variety of benefits. Each type may have their own strong attribute among those variety of benefits, one can transform the stored mana into healing power that can hasten your regeneration, one can restore the expended mana in your body, one can be used for mind-relaxation, another to enhance various aspect of the body’s capability, and many more. Being strong in certain attribute means that type of crystal can convert the stored mana energy into the desired effect more efficiently, making each almost used specifically for that feature.”

Wow, this stuff Trixium crystal is actually a really useful thing!

“Among the many features each type of crystal may specialize in, all of them have one universal use which is also the main purpose of having a Trixium crystal.”

“Oh, it still has an even bigger feature? What is it?”

“Money.”

“Money?”

“Yes, the mana stored in the crystal is used as a universal currency. It can be equally transferred to other Trixium crystal no matter what the type. The Mana inside the crystal is a raw type of Mana, it can only be obtained by mining new Trixium crystals which have naturally absorbed natural Mana in the world over a long period of time, which mean that it can’t be restored using the Mana from your body and can’t be artificially made. Well, some madmen have been trying to create them but nobody has ever succeeded in making one. You should be careful not to be scammed into getting fake Trixium crystal by those kind of people.” He kindly explains and warns us.

“The Mana content in Trixium crystal is basically mined resources, a compact unrenewable energy with various uses and a lot of demand, making them a very nice instrument of currency. A common Trixium crystal with a size of a nut in full capacity may have equal value with a sack full of metal coins.”

It has that kind of incredible uses? What’s this, an ATM card? This world actually have such a convenient and useful type of currency!

“That’s actually very very impressive...” Tokyo tells us his opinion.

“It really breaks the traditional standard of using precious metal in the shape of uniformed coin as a form of currency. What they have here even transcends the purpose of paper money and outrank the usefulness of e-money in our world. This Mana currency may not be able to be transferred to distant places instantaneously like in online credit transfer, but its fundamental usefulness is simply above e-money.”

“What do you mean by that?” He looked like an executive level businessman before, so he probably knows a lot about economy or financial stuffs like this. I may know some about it but probably not so deep to the root like what a real businessman would know.

“Let me make a simpler example. The form of money we use in Earth are basically metal coins, paper money, and intangible electronic money. These money have value in our society because they are based on something. E-money has value because they are based on hard currency like paper money or precious metals stored in banks, they are basically the avatar of hard money being easily exchanged electronically as a form of data and records without the real hard money being exchanged.” He complicatedly explains so.

“Err, okay. I still get it.” The two locals already look confused to what we are talking about, Latina is focusing on the treatment, and Vodka already left the conversation when Tokyo started lecturing.

“Then about the hard money themselves. Cash, coins, or even gold and gemstones. Why do you think they have value?”

“Because people like them? Because they know they can be used a currency to be exchanged with commodities?”

“Exactly! People use that type of money because they have common ‘believe’ that those money are valuable! If you think about it, paper money are nothing more than paper with some images and numbers written on it. People determine the value of paper money but they have no other practical use other than being exchanged for consumable or usable things. You can use that type of money to buy food or houses, but you can’t eat money or use it as a material to build a house. Even gold and gemstones are like that. They have value simply because they are a limited mined resources and people deem them to be precious because they look beautiful while in fact, they barely have common usability in the society. Yes you can use gold as a material in rocket engineering and some other specific things, but what about common use in society? Nothing!”

“Oh, I kinda get what you mean. Basically that type of money themselves are useless without something to be exchanged with.”

“Right. Then we have this flexible Mana energy in Trixium crystal. This is a revolutionary form of money! Not only it’s compact to be carried around and can be easily exchanged for something, the Mana itself can be directly used for various things. It’s a form of exchangeable and consumable currency! You can use Mana to power things up or even directly consume Mana into your body! It’s like, other than having an exchangeable e-money, you also have electricity, gasoline, cigarette, candies, medical items, or possibly many other useful stuffs in one ATM card!”

“Wait, cigarette and gasoline in one place?” Did I miss something? I think I lose myself somewhere within the lecture because he talks too fast.

“No! What I mean is, unlike our type of money in earth, not only Mana can be used as a form of exchangeable currency, it can also be consumed directly for various usability!”

“Ah, I get it. I see, that really is a revolutionary form of money. This Mana currency fixes up the fundamental flaw of conventional currency being inconsumable themselves.”

“I know right?!” Tokyo sighed after successfully explaining it to me.

“You really know your stuffs, young man.”

“... I was part of Japan’s leading conglomerate group after all.”

“I’ve predicted that you were a businessman of high caliber, perhaps like a CEO? Still, good for you, being an executive at such a young age.”

“Well... complicated things happened and I ended up with such position, something like that.” He doesn’t look like to be in a mood to explain it in detail. Let’s not intrigue him more about his past.

“It’s alright, no need to tell us if you don’t want to, everyone has their own past.”

“Thanks.” He replies with a slight smile.

“Excuse me, what were you talking about?” One of the locals finally talks.

“Oh right, sorry, we were talking about something from our ‘village’. Nothing important now.”

“Oh, okay.” He politely stop prying more into the topic.

“Ah, right, we received something from the merchant when we parted ways with him, he said that it’s money but he didn’t explain how to use it, could this be a Trixium crystal?” I take out the amethyst-like crystal from the pouch given by the envoy.

“It is! A high grade one to be precise!” He immediately spurted and both of them have a surprised look on their face.

“High grade?”

“Yes! A Trixium crystal of this size alone could fetch a fortune. Common Trixium crystal used by the people are around the size of a nut or as slim as a pinky finger, this one is at least three or four times thicker and bigger! It should be able to hold up to a hundred times more Mana than common size Trixium crystals. Only nobles or great merchants uses this kind of Trixium crystal, us common folks could only dream of having one in possession!” Both of them are excitedly inspecting the crystal I brought out.

Apparently that Envoy guy has given me something really valuable. Thanks, Mr. No Name Envoy.

“That’s great. So how do we see how much Mana it has in it?”

“Oh, you want to know how much Trix stored inside?”

“Trix?”

“It’s the common name of raw Mana stored in Trixium crystal, it’s also used as the name of our universal currency.”

“Oh that’s a cool name, kinda like Gil or Zenny. By universal you mean every country in this world use the same currency?” Tokyo excitedly says as he spouts some unknown terms.

“I don’t know about Gil or Zenny you mentioned, but Trix is indeed a currency used by all country. The currency value is uniform no matter where it’s used because it’s also the unit of scale that shows how much raw Mana remain in the crystal.”

“Cool, so how do we check the remaining balance in the crystal?”

“That’s simple, just hold it in your hand and recite the spell to identify a Trixium Crystal’s Mana points. Here, like this, I command thee to reveal thy value, Galdean Trixium!” The Trixium crystal which is being hold in his fingers glows slightly and reveal a small hologram like foreign words above it. The couple last words in the spell are untranslated, I don’t know why.

“It’s almost full! It has nearly 150 million Trix in it!” Both of the locals excitedly yell and their eyes are almost bulging out.

“A hundr... A hundred and fifty million??!” Tokyo is the first to reply, also with total excitement.

“Boss, you are rich.” Vodka says so while grinning at me. Why ‘boss’...

“What boss, really...” I rebuke his sentence.

“Anyway, is that a lot? Exactly how much is that?” I ask them for to explain in detail.

“It’s a lot of money, although not enough to purchase a big property, you can live extravagantly for some time with it. For example, the price of staying overnight plus a breakfast in a standard inn would cost around 100,000 Trix while a more expensive and luxurious inn would cost up to 1,000,000 Trix a night. A common breakfast or lunch set in a restaurant would cost around 20,000 to 50,000 Trix each. For simple items like a glass of water or a loaf bread, they usually cost 5,000 Trix and 15,000 Trix respectively.” He kindly explains with easy to understand examples.

“That’s like.... around 10,000 Trix per US Dollar, right?” I ask Tokyo about it.

“Yeah, the value is around that level. So the total value this Trixium crystal currently hold is around 15,000 USD huh...” He dejectedly reply me, looks like he hoped that the value would be a million dollar or something. This level of money may look like a chump change for someone of his position, but it’s still a rather big money for ‘common’ people like me.

“No cheat starting money huh...” He mumbles to himself.

“Isn’t it alright, it’s still a pretty big money, right? This should be enough for probably a few months for us all.” I pat him on the back.

“The maximum this Trixium crystal can hold is probably around 150-160 million Trix. That means the crystal itself as a container would have value around that level.”

“The Trixium crystal itself costs that much?” That’s unexpected.

“Yes, a Trixium crystal of this size is a rarity. It’s also a symbol of wealth and prestige for the bearer, common people normally carry Trixium crystals which can only store around a million Trix.”

“What about these coins?” Tokyo takes out the metal coins from his pocket.

“Oh, these are the local coins used here and in nearby countries. They don’t have much value and usually only used as chump change for small transactions. The Kingdom now only mint new coins for image purposes, it’s like a souvenir for when someone visit the country. Around here only kids would use coins because they are not considered old enough to have a Trixium crystal yet by their parents.”

“Those really are a chump change! The three of you almost go with pocket money while I have the gold bar for myself hahaha.” I laugh upon learning the coins’ value.

“Right, good thing we came back looking for you.”

“I guess that’s true.”

The conversation then continue to talk about the local recommendation. Good place to stay, popular restaurant, places to avoid, things like that. While talking, we introduce ourselves and get acquainted with each other. These two kind souls are called Farajee and Nimbus, they are common merchant selling groceries in the Residence Distric’s highway area. Their stall was nearby so they came to look at the commotion from before and were impressed by our daring action towards a noble. They felt sorry that they couldn’t help during the beating so they tried to at least help us in treating the abused children afterwards. It’s nice to know that there are good men among the people here.

They tell us that although not every nobles are like that, some can be pretty oppressive and tyrannical. They say that discrimination against Demi-Human is not much of a thing in this era, but some human supremacist like that noble still exist and they can be really cruel towards non-human.

They themselves really hate those people who discriminate others like that, they say that such way of thinking is outdated because the war between Human and Beastmen are long over now.

I ask them about the war but Latina who has done applying the treatment and is currently seating on a long chair under a shade with both of children laying on her lap left and right suddenly talks, “She wakes up!”

We turned our face and see that the older kid is waking up from laying on Latina’s lap. She’s timidly looking around, assessing the situation. She has a worried look on her face but it suddenly disappear when she finds that the younger kid is sleeping peacefully next to her.

“It’s okay, we won’t hurt you. You’re alright now.” Latina gently speaks.

“That’s right, we even beat up the baddies who hurt you.” Tokyo follows up.

“That’s true, kid. You were lucky that these fellows were nearby, if not, I don’t dare to imagine what would’ve happened to you.” The local says so in confirmation of Tokyo’s statement.

She still looks a little bit scared, probably traumatized by the abuse.

“Everything is okay now, nobody will hurt you. Is your injury okay, how do you feel?” I kindly try to calm her down too.

“It... still hurts a little, but I’m okay. Truly, I think I can do just fine. Ouch!” As if trying to prove that she’s fine, she forcefully try to stand and walk but soon stumbles and falls down.

“You are not fine at all! Please don’t force yourself.” Latina and the others worriedly help her get back up.

She’s being helped to seat back on the chair. Seeing that, I ask Farajee something.

“Farajee, you said that Trixium crystals can heal injuries right?”

“Correct, if you are thinking to use your Trixium crystal, I would advise you not to do it.”

“Why is that?”

“Your Trixium crystal is not the healing type, a healing type is red-blood or red-crimson in color while yours is purple in color which is a mind-relaxation type. Even though the color is similar, the functionality and attribute differ greatly. Using your crystal for healing will cost you at least fifty times more Mana than the healing type, it could even be a hundred times.” He sternly warns me about the consequences.

“That’s alright isn’t it? Money exist to be spent after all, and to use it for saving someone is money well-spent isn’t it?” I tell him what immediately come to my mind after I heard his explanation.

“That’s....” Farajee and Nimbus look like taken aback on my statement.

“True, very true! Money used to save a loli bunny-ear girl is money very well spent!” Tokyo gives a thumb up.

“You’re unexpectedly kind.” Latina says to me.

“Well, aren’t you unexpectedly a kind and gentle one yourself.” I reply her with a slight smile.

She looks friendlier now that things are properly explained.

Old man Vodka only nods a little at me while grinning, showing his agreement in spending the money for this.

“All things considered, please use this to heal her.” I pass the Purple-Amethyst colored Trixium crystal to Farajee.

“Okay.” He nods in understanding.

“I command thee, surge and let my subject retains its original form, Seraphica... Enielle!” He holds the crystal with both hands in front of the little bunny girl.

After he recites the spell, the crystal glows a bit and a thin line of transparent purple light slowly shoots out from the crystal, it then changes color midway from transparent purple to transparent red before reaching the kid’s body. The light then envelope her body, making a thin red glow over her skin.

The light soon vanishes after only half a minute. The bruises are all gone, showing a healthy skin of a young girl after the healing process, she now looks completely fine.

“It actually costs 30 million Trix! It must be at over a hundred times more costly than treating with healing attribute.” Farajee looks very surprised upon seeing the amount of Mana used for the healing treatment.

“Isn’t that great, looks like there is enough to completely heal her injury. Girl, how are you feeling now?”

“So much money! This, for a stranger to actually help someone like me... and even to go this far, I don’t know how to repay you, kind sir. I don’t have anything on me worthy to repay you with...” Her eyes are slightly teary and her body looks like trembling a bit.

As she says that, Latina who has always been standing next to her instinctively hugs her.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about that. It’s all good as long as you’re okay now.” Says Latina.

The little girl is almost crying, but then the smaller kid also wakes up.

“...Big sis?” The first thing this little girl looks for after waking up is her big sister.

“I’m here, Mira.” The older girls wipes the tears on her eyes and goes to her younger sister.

“Everything is okay, these kind people helped shush away the bad guy.”

“Ooo...” She innocently makes a cute sound upon hearing her sister said that, one of her long bunny ears folds down while doing so.

“Uwaaa, so adorable~ whoops.” Tokyo uncontrollably moves closer to the little one while making a weird expression so I hold him back by grabbing the back of his shirt.

“Oh right, the Golden Rule! YES Lolita! NO Touch!” He makes such statement. This guy says weird things from time to time.

“Namira, say your gratitude to these kind people.”

“Tha, Thank you for saying u— *growls*” Before she manages to finish her sentence, a small growl can be heard coming from her stomach. The little girl called Namira has just unintentionally showed that she’s hungry.

“Thi, this... I’m so sorry.” The elder sister frantically bows down in apology.

But then suddenly a much louder growl can be heard.

*GROOOWL!*

We unintentionally look toward the source of the sound.

... It’s old man Vodka! It was his stomach which growled just now.

He’s still grinning, now while rubbing his stomach. Really, this guy has the best timing ever.

“Boss, when are we going to eat?”

Again with the ‘boss’ thing. Please stop, no matter how you look at it you are much older and much scarier than me.

“Geez, you old man. Alright then, Farajee, Nimbus, lead us to your most recommended restaurant, we’ll all go for lunch. It’ll be my treat!” I happily declare so.

Thus we all go to a restaurant for lunch after paying the medicine shop. It costs us only 30,000 Trix for the ointment. I learn that the spell name to transfer Trix to another crystal is called Trixium Senalis, and to receive from another crystal is called Trixium Rivilis. Nimbus and Farajee tell us that it doesn’t take much to evoke this spell, anyone should be able to do it if they try for a bit.

Along the way we learned the name of the elder girl, her name is Namine. Both she and her younger sister, Namira, are Muffiny Demi-Human from a village on the surface. They were sent to the capital city by their parents to look for work because their village is poor. Nimbus then explains that it’s common for parents from rural villages to prematurely send their kids to work in the city so that there will be less mouth to feed, but Namine strongly disprove the statement. She says that their parents were a loving one and would not send them away because of such reason.

After that topic, Nimbus explains to us about her species. Muffiny is a species of Beastman with distinct traits like long ears on top of their head, a short almost round tail, and fluffy hairs over their body. They can jump very high and the female one has a pouch on her belly. The description is very much similar to a mix of bunny and kangaroo except that he also tells us that male Muffiny are usually very strong and brawny which ruin our imagination of all Muffiny being adorable beast.

He says that according to his analysis, the siblings must be at least a quarter Beastmen or probably even lesser. That’s because there aren’t much trait of a Muffiny left on her appearance.

He explains that A Demi-Human is a race from a mix of human and Beastman, and the siblings, with only having the ear and tail trait left on their appearance shows that they are a few generations away from the original Demi-Human. Namine confirms his statement and says that many in her generation are also like that, having more human traits than the Beastman traits.

We see some more variety of Demi-Human along the way, there really are many kinds. Some resemble an animal we know from Earth, some are a mix of several, and some are even from a totally new kind of animal.

While chatting, we finally arrive at the restaurant recommended by Farajee and Nimbus in the Business District. It’s located in a pretty big road directly branched from the highway so there are still many traffics on the street. This is a restaurant owned by the family of their childhood friend.

We enter the restaurant slash bar. The name is ‘Wonderful Day’, a really fitting name whether to start a day with a breakfast or to finish the day with a dinner after a hard work. The place is not so big but also not too small. There are a lot of people currently having lunch but there appear to be still some spots left for us to occupy.

“Nona, a table for eight please!” Farajee called one of the waitress.

A Cat Demi-Human with cat ears, tail, and sharp cat eyes but refreshing smile come to us.

“Right, this way please!~” She sounds energetic.

She leads us to a big round table enough for all of us to sit together.

We sit down right away.

“What would you like to order?~” Nona the waitress asks us.

The siblings who sit next to Latina is fidgeting, they look reluctant to order anything.

“It’s okay, order anythi—“

“*Braak!* I WISH TO DEVOUR THE UNBORN GYAHAHAHA!” Old Vodka suddenly cuts my sentence and yells loudly after slamming the table with both hands holding a spoon and a fork.

“Nyaaaa!~” Nona is very surprised that she jumps back a little while holding an order note tightly onto her chest, both her tail and ears are standing straight up.

“!!!.....” The rest of us are also startled. Namine and Namira instinctively hugs each other and are now trembling. Even the people on other tables are surprised and direct their attention toward us.

“... ... ... ...” There is a long silence following Vodka’s loud declaration. All eyes are still on him.

This crazy old man... really.... I can’t help but let out a big sigh on his behavior.

“Eggs... He’d like to order some eggs, please...” I dejectedly explain so to Nona who now looks very alert towards our group.

“Eh? Ah?... Eggs?” She looks at me while being confused.

“Yes, some eggs please.” I dispiritedly confirm her question.

“Tear ‘em up, mince ‘em, and burn ‘em up!” Vodka talks again, his scary eyes are locked up to Nona, making her almost jumps back again.

“...Scramble eggs. Make it into a scramble eggs...” Please old man, talk normally.

This little commotion doesn’t get bigger than that, but we definitely attract the attention of the whole restaurant. As an apology, I treat everyone here to a glass of alcoholic drink, and because of that, we get to talk with other people and get friendly acquainted with some of them.

Nona takes all our orders and before long, the food come to our table. Most of us ordered the recommendation of the day while Tokyo firmly asked for a meat-only dish, saying that he’s expecting to see a certain type the meat dish in this fantasy-like foreign world.

I’ve got to say, the food being served looks very appetizing. The recommendation menu is a grilled meat that looks similar to a chicken wings and thighs with some veggies and something that’s similar to a mashed potato as a side dish, while the meat that Tokyo ordered is a thin slab of steak with green sauce over it. Nona explains that the grilled meat is from a breed of wingless local bird and the steak is from an orc meat.

The surface of the grilled bird meat looks almost glossy from a certain flavor oil poured onto it and the inside looks very juicy and tender. The aroma is also so good that Namine and Namira unconsciously drool while looking at the plates of grilled meat in front of them.

On the other hand, Tokyo disappointedly stabs the slab of steak in front of him with his fork. The steak looks not bad but the green sauce smells so spicy that I can smell it from meters away. What’s that, green chili sauce?

The scrambled eggs Vodka ordered comes in large portion and with a mashed potato thingy too. The difference is... the color is blue, not yellow or brown, an authentic blue scrambled eggs. I don’t know yet whether it’s from the seasoning or the eggs themselves are simply blue in color.

He eats up the scrambled eggs as if nothing’s wrong. I guess the blue color doesn’t make him the least bit hesitant to eat it, this old man is now confirmed to have a few screws loose.

As I hold the wonderfully smelled glossy grilled bird meat in my hand, preparing to eat it up, a gulping sound can be heard from behind me.

“*Gulp* That looks so tasty...”

Wondering who it is, I look back and see an astonishing scene.

The floating beauty has just wiped a drool on her mouth. I forgot that she was there following me all this time because she’s silent all the time.

Our eyes meet.

“Ah...” She lets out another sound, it’s a pleasant voice to the ear that I almost forgot the main concern, she just talked!

She really can speak and she has been avoiding my effort to communicate with her all this time while the thing that actually manages to make her speak up is food! This delicious looking thing in my hand!

-------------------------------------------------------------

Author Note: I changed the crystal color in previous chapter because I want to make the red color as the one with healing attribute. It’s to make it easier to remember, you know that in games, health potion usually looks red and mana potion looks blue, right?

As for several things regarding this chapter, before you even manage to ask, let me answer them first.

Charioles’ Friendly Q&A Corner 1​

1. Will you use original spell names?
Correct, I’ll be making original spell names for this series. Something like Earth Arrow as Guijda Notar, or Firewall as Lavanexe.

2. Will there be more animal-ear girls?
Hopefully.

3. You described the economy terms wrongly!
Well, sorry about that, please enlighten me with your wisdom so I can fix it.

4. Will there be more world system lecturing?
Most likely yes.

5. *Sigh*
Hey! That’s rude! I worked very hard to thought it up you know.

6. You promised us that the floating beauty will have screen time this chapter!
Well, she does, doesn’t she? *Walks back a bit*

7. What about the mystery behind translation perks that you promised to be unveiled in this chapter?
Sorry, I thought the topic can be squeezed together with the money topic, but it turns out that only one topic already takes so much space. At least I managed to squeeze in floating lady into this chapter, right? *Run away in panic*

8. What do you mean by ‘exotic’ and ‘that’ type of woman?
Oh come on, you know what I mean.

9. Axl spent 30 million Trix while he could have just brought Namine to adventurer’s guild and let her have the same treatment with much cheaper cost!
So you’re saying that he shouldn’t have spent such money to treat the injury of a bunny-ear loli girl? (Tokyo comes and helps put an intimidating look).

10. Err, no, what I mean was...
Shame on you, son.

11. Grrr...What are your opinions about loli then!
Eh... that... I prefer ‘em big and bouncy. Wait a minute, this is going out of context.

12. Will you post the next chapter in three days too?
I’ll try, I’ll try, no promise.

13. You must!
Hey! This isn’t a short Q&A anymore, and there are too many questions already! I’m out!

8: Chapter 7 – In Another World, Getting To Know Each Other 2

She just talked. I can’t be hearing it wrong, she even wiped a drool on her lips following her statement of ‘that looks really delicious’.

As I’m currently locking eyes with the floating lady, Nimbus who is seating next to me, enjoying his food, asks me whether there is something wrong. He sees that I’m looking back at something instead of enjoying the food in my hand.

“Did you hear that?” I ask him for confirmation.

“Hear what?”

“Someone saying something looks delicious.” I explain to him.

“Hm? I thought it was you who said that. I definitely heard someone said so in low voice from your direction.”

That confirms it. I look at her again, she’s now hiding her face behind her fingers which is pretty pointless. Let’s test her a bit.

I extend my hand which is holding the grilled meat to her and she peeks at it between her fingers. Her gaze is shifting between me and the food. It only took a few seconds before she suddenly tries to snatch the food in a flash.

*Swoosh*

The food is still in my hand. Her hand just went through the food, unable to touch it, much less grab and snatch it. Now she has an upset face and her hands are tightened to a fist in anger.

Weird, can’t she touch the food?

*Munch*

I take a bite at the food.

I can eat it just fine, and of course, it tastes really delicious! I’ve never tasted such a juicy and tender meat like this, it feels like it almost melts in mouth and meat juice also splurges out inside my mouth. It’s already delicious as it is but I feel that it could tastes even better with stronger seasoning.

As I unconsciously savor the taste, something grabs and pulls my hair. It’s her, she’s yanking my hair!

“Grrr! Why are you the one eating it!?”

Our table once again attracts unnecessary attention due to her yelling.

“Ouch, stop it lady! Take the food, take it!” I try to give the grilled meat to her but she’s unable to grab it again, much less take a bite. She can hold my hand and yank my hair though, so that at least means she’s not some kind of illusion.

“Axl? Something a matter?” Tokyo asks me with a concerned look due to my hair suddenly getting messy and a yell that came from nowhere.

Now the floating lady is pouting while facing away from me, her previously aloof and proud attitude drastically changes into one that’s like a child who’s upset because she doesn’t receive her long-awaited Christmas present.

“It’s alright, it’s alright.” I reply him as I tidy my hair a bit with my fingers.

I look toward Nona who’s also looking towards me because of the commotion.

“Nona, this place also has an inn upstairs, right? Is there currently any empty room?”

“Eh, ah, right…. We have an inn upstairs~. The furthest room is also available~.”

“Great, let me take that room right away.”

“Eh, right away~?”

“Yes, here’s the money for all the food and the room.” I take out the pouch containing our group’s Trixium crystal and hold it in my hand.

“Er, okay, please wait, I’ll fetch the shop’s crystal~.” She runs back behind the shop counter and come back with a Trixium crystal and a small item that’s apparently a room key.

I hold the pouch close to her crystal and chant the Trix transferring spell, Galdean Senalis. I don’t need to take out the crystal out of the pouch, this is a common thing to do by the people in order to hide what kind of wealth one might bring with oneself. And in our case, it’s an important thing to do, knowing that our Trixium crystal is pretty high grade and can catch more ‘unnecessary attention’, especially from the wicked minded.

The cost of today’s lunch and the room is nearly 900 thousand Trix, around half of it is from treating the guests in the restaurant to a glass of alcoholic drink. I don’t pay much attention to the cost and receive the key from her right away.

“Thank you for your patronage nya~.” She happily checks and confirms the amount of Trix received.

“You have something to do?” Ms. Latina asks me.

“Yeah, the three of you also please come upstairs when you’ve finished your lunch.”

“You’re not going to finish yours? Is the matter really urgent?”

“I’ll grab something else for lunch later. It’s not dire, but best to be taken care of right away.”

“I’ll come with you, I lost my appetite after I heard that it’s orc meat…” Tokyo joins the conversation.

Nona looks dejected after hearing that.

Realizing the blunder he just made, Tokyo immediately try to fix his statement.

“Ah! No, I mean, it’s not like the food is bad, I just personally can’t eat orc meat. I’m sorry, I’ll order something else later for sure.” He looks a little bit in panic, I wonder why he can’t eat it. It’s not like he’s a vegan since he asked for a meat dish and the steak also looks very tasty in my opinion.

Nona nods to his reasoning, showing her understanding of his cause.

“I’m coming with you too, boss.” The food on old Vodka’s plate is already gone, he sure eats fast.

“…..For you to ask us to come too means it involve our case right? I’ll come with you too then.” Ms. Latina says so in understanding.

“We, we…” Namine and Namira are somewhat at loss on what to do in regards to the situation. I can understand them, we were the one who’s treating them for lunch but we suddenly decide to leave, knowing their character, they must be anxious on what to do to cope with the situation.

“It’s okay, take your time and enjoy the food. We’ll back soon, I’ve something to ask you too after this, so please wait a bit for us, okay?”

“Okay, sir Axl.” Namine politely answers me.

And like that, the four of us plus one more go upstairs towards our rented room. This floating lady still follows me even when she looks angry at me, that means she’s restricted to keep following me by some kind of rule. It’ll all be clear soon.

Inside the room, everyone is still standing. I look toward the still pouting beautiful woman.

“Alright. I’ll say it again. We’re alone now, you can talk.”

“…..” She’s frowning and is folding her arms while glancing at the other three for a bit.

“Who are you talking to?” Ms. Latina asks me while checking the room.

“I’ll be honest, there is actually another one being summoned together with the three of you.” I blatantly tell them about it.

“Eh, another one? Where?”

“She appears to be invisible. I don’t know why, but it looks like I’m the only one who can see her. She can touch me and you can hear her yelled before so I’m sure it’s not a hallucination.”

“I did hear a woman yelling…” Ms. Latina confirms my statement.

“Invisible… is she a ghost?”

“I’m not sure, let’s ask her directly. Lady, can you reveal yourself to them? I know that your voice can be heard by them, so you probably able to reveal yourself too.”

“….” She still keeps being silent.

“If you’re not going to do anything, then I’ll let it be as it is and you can stay invisible like that while watching me eat all kind of delicious food from now on.”

“NOOO!” She panics right away, the simple threat is super effective.

Hearing a yell coming out of nowhere again, Tokyo and Latina are shocked. As for old man Vodka, he’s just standing there as if nothing special is going on.

“Then please reveal and introduce yourself.”

“Umumu…” She’s frowning and looks really displeased.

In the end she complies with my demand and reveal herself. A slight glow appears on her skin for just a moment then according to the other’s reaction, she can be seen by them now.

I can hear Ms. Latina gasping in awe and says, “How beautiful…”

Even from a female point of view, an already beautiful woman herself, this floating lady’s beauty is still beyond earthly comprehension.

Then right after her gasp, the other one’s reaction does not fail to amuse me. Tokyo suddenly throw himself toward the floating lady and perform a grovel while sliding which later on I learn that it’s called a sliding dogeza.

“PLEASE GRANT ME CHEAT ABILITIEEEEEES!!!” He shouts so after finished sliding and with his face nearly kissing the floor.

The very act surprises us all, even Vodka who always looks indifferent is raising his eyebrows in surprise.

“Kyaaa!” She instinctively flies away and hides behind Ms. Latina.

“O’ graceful Goddess, please give me super strength! Ability to fly as I wish! See-through vision! Laser beam from my eyes! Fire breath! Invisibility! And… and….” He vigorously asks her without knowing that she’s not in front of him anymore.

“Hey man, calm down a bit, will you? You’re unnecessarily scaring her.”

“No! You don’t understand, this is very important! We finally meet the Goddess, this is the moment we can receive special abilities when we are transported to a different world. I didn’t receive any ability before so I must ask for one right now!” He realizes that she’s not in front of him so he locks onto her new position and performs another sliding dogeza toward Ms. Latina and the floating lady’s direction.

“Kyaaa! Don’t ask me! Ask him!” She points her finger towards me while still hiding behind Ms. Latina.

Why is she pointing at me?

“Both of you, calm down!” The two stop shouting, but she’s still hiding and Tokyo keeps the begging posture.

“Alright, please first introduce yourself and explain why you’ve kept being silent all this time.”

“Why would I want to talk with someone like you, humph!”

“Why? Did I do something that upset you?”

“Of course, you took my precious! My everything! And you wasted it all like it’s nothing!” She angrily yells at me.

“I did what!?” I’m almost speechless toward her sudden accusations. Tokyo also shows a very surprised look and even worse, Ms. Latina is glaring daggers at me.

“Boss, you’re a real pimp!” Vodka, this old man, his grinning face definitely shows that he understands there is a misunderstanding, but he actually decides to add oil into the fire.

“I misjudged you, you dare to taint a woman and avoid taking responsibility. You don’t deserve to call yourself a man!” Ms. Latina falls to Vodka’s unnecessary provocation easily, she extends her hands to the sides as if covering for the one behind her.

“Wait, no matter how you look at it, something is amiss! Lady, don’t spout something so outrageous!”

“What’s wrong with what I said? You definitely took all my power and authority away from me then wasted it all for nothing!”

Ah, that clears things up a bit.

“Power? Authority? Please explain in detail because I can’t remember to have ever done something like that.”

“It was when you came to this world! Don’t tell me you can’t remember it.”

“I really can’t. I don’t remember meeting you at that time, much less taking something from you.”

“You don’t remember it? Truly?” She’s calming down a little.

“Truly. If you’d be so kind as to explain what you mean, it would be much appreciated. Please start with introducing yourself first.”

“Okay… I’ll explain first. Let’s see whether you remember any of it.”

She’s somewhat convinced and agree to explain herself first. The others have also calmed down, especially Ms. Latina, at least she has stopped piercing me with her glares. Thus we decide to hear what she’s got to say.

“I’m Sephiria Pixiv Lilumel Makhia, the revered Goddess of the Human kin in this world.” To our surprise, she really is the Goddess. Tokyo was right to some extent.

“I’m the one who administer souls which travel into this world through the unnatural mean of summoning by the Human race. In their terms, it’s commonly called as hero summoning ritual. All those souls who managed to be summoned will come to me first for an introduction and to receive certain blessings before finally forming their body in the new world and enter it.”

We are all silently listening to her explanation, this could explain a lot of important things. She then points a finger towards me.

“You were the last one to come after some period of time has passed since the previous one came. Like all the previous ones, I welcomed you and introduced this world to you. Most souls will be restless when they travel here, you were no exception, except that you quickly regained your composure. It was a normal introduction, nothing was wrong. It’s when I gave you blessings that problems started to occur.”

When she tells us this, some images of an event flashes in my mind.

“I gave you the basic blessing of language translation in the form of thought transmission then asked you what kind of unique ability you would like to receive. *sigh* You asked me how many abilities you can receive and I explained that you may only receive one and it’s also limited to your own aptitude. You then shamelessly asked me to just give you my power as a Goddess so that you can bestow all kind of abilities to yourself whenever you need it. I strongly rejected the idea and you laughed, saying that it was only a joke. But then to my surprise, my power really got absorbed by you!”

I nearly facepalm myself. Bits and bits of seemingly lost memories resurface in my mind, I slightly remember the scene she’s describing. That was really only meant as a joke. I’ve previously heard jokes about a genie who’d only grant three wishes and the receivers would ask for more wishes as their first wish, exploiting the possibility of making the number of wishes infinite. So on that occasion, ‘it won’t hurt to try it’ I thought.

“Your power got absorbed by me? So the thing you mentioned as your precious is really this power as the Goddess?”

“Of course it is! What else could it be?”

“Well, miss Goddess, when a woman says ‘my precious’ like that, it can mean a lot of things, especially that one ‘thing’.” I especially put a higher intonation when mentioning the word ‘thing’.

“And that is?”

“Why don’t you ask her, she seems to understand it very well.” I throw a glance at Ms. Latina.

She looks somewhat apologetic after learning the real story.

“I-, I’m sorry…. Again…” She faces down in embarrassment.

“Hey, can you tell me what he’s talking about?” She’s curious to know what it means, I thought she was very simple-minded when she pouted over a food, but this lady is probably even more of an airhead and childish than I thought.

“Umm, that… *whisper whisper whisper*” After hesitating a bit, Ms. Latina whisper to her ear in low voice.

This airhead Goddess, Sephiria, listens closely to what Ms. Latina whisper and her face immediately turns red like a tomato with a very shocked eyes, even her hands cover her mouth which is gaping in embarrassment.

“You pervert! Beast! You… You!” She one-sidedly complains to me for understanding common sense.

“Geez, it was you who created the mess first. Even if I did take your godly power or something, you shouldn’t say something like it’s your everything, that would really make people misunderstand.”

“That… really is my everything...” She faces down with a dejected look, traces of red is slowly fading.

“Excuse me?”

“My body is ethereal, so when I said you absorbed my power, what I meant is you absorbed me whole…”

“Boss, you really ‘ate’ her up.” Old Vodka strikes again with his lame jokes, I find a pattern that shows he only speaks when there is a chance to tell a lame joke.

Tokyo, Me, and Ms. Latina only glance at him for a moment and unanimously restrain ourselves from commenting.

“Ethereal as if not having physical body? Like a spirit? A ghost?”

“Correct, my body is made of mana, it doesn’t have a physical body.”

“Wait, let’s get back a bit. How did I able to take away your godly power in the first place?”

“That’s… I don’t know. It’s as if your very soul has greater standing than me, it simply superseded my authority as one of the administrators of this world. Truly, such a thing is unheard of before.”

“Okay, so far I get it. Now that you mention it, the memories of meeting you are slowly coming back, that far I can be sure of. Other than taking your ‘everything’, you also mentioned I wasted it all for nothing, what was that about? Do you also know why I lose some part of my memory?”

“I’m not sure why, but your transfer was partially incomplete, resulting in some part of yourself being sealed, which probably include a part of your memory too. I, as the one being absorbed is also sealed inside and has no way to do anything. As for you wasting it all… It was later on when the seal happened to be weakened and I managed to break free for a moment that I realizes the situation. You used an ability to tear through realms and return to your world, but you used it very inefficiently, costing a lot of unnecessary mana that’s beyond your capacity. And when I say your mana, what I mean is my mana that you absorbed!” She’s sighing and looks upset after remembering the event.

So that event really wasn’t a dream. I’ve suspected so since I lost the shirt which I gave to crazy Joe in that dream-like event.

“Personal mana would normally regenerate after resting for a period of time, but in your case, it was depleted way pass the point of no return! It was truly gone for good! You wasted all my mana for nothing. It could never regenerate back to its previous level because the mana consumption continued and progress to eat up your life essence instead, reducing your mana capacity to the extreme. That was also when your condition turned from mana exhaustion to actually dying for real. I couldn’t believe you were still able to stand as if nothing is happening back then, the pain of having your life essence eaten up normally would have been very excruciating, normal people would go insane just by experiencing it for a few seconds.”

It did feel a little bit painful, but not to the point where I would go insane from the pain. In fact, that feeling is pretty nostalgic, I used to experience something similar everyday when I was younger after all.

“That event you’re saying, it must be when I went back to Earth through a weird space hole that appeared out of nowhere. I do remember feeling tired and feverish back then. Glowing cracks also appeared all over my skin.”

“That’s it, your body is made from implemented mana, so when the consumption began to eat your very being, that means it began to consume your body as it is.”

“Wait, my body is made from mana? I thought you said your body is made from mana and it’s not a physical body.”

“Yours and I are different, mine is from pure ethereal mana, untouchable by physical being, while yours, a summoned entity, formed an unnatural body made of mana to exist physically in this world.”

“By summoned entity do you mean they also have the same kind of body as me?” I point on the other three here.

“Correct, you summoned entities originally travelled to this world only in a form of soul, ethereal being like me now. When you enter the world for real, you formed a physical body through the implementation of mana, an avatar that needs to keep consuming mana to stay exist. It’s like casting a simple fireball for example, you keep on channeling your mana to keep it formed and it will disappear when you stopped the mana channeling, your body is like that fireball, a perpetually casted spell.”

“I see… I understand. So, were you the one who brought me back here in that dire moment?”

“I am. At that moment when I realized your situation, I was able to take control of your weakened body for a moment, immediately stopped the inefficient mana consumption, casted another spatial hole to this world, and return immediately.”

“Such a critical situation actually happened without me realizing it. Thank you miss Sephiria, for saving my ass, and sorry that I unknowingly took your power and even wasted it all.” I sincerely mean to thank her and apologize for being a scumbag who messed up her peaceful life, even if it was by mistake.

“Wha-, what? What are you apologizing for, what’s done is done, the noble me is not so petty to scorn you over something small like that. No need to thank me too, it was only proper for me to save the one in need! And no need to call me with honorifics, just Sephiria is fine!” She’s being very aloof again, she was bashing me for my mistakes just a minute ago and now she’s acting very noble. This lady, could she be…

“A tsundere Goddess!” Tokyo quickly exclaims.

“Right, that was very cute of you to suddenly act all high and noble.” I’m not sure what ‘tsundere’ means, but I can guess of what it probably means, thus I complement Tokyo’s statement, teasing her.

“Umumu…Stop teasing me!” She puffs her cheeks. The appearance of a mature heavenly beauty puffing her cheeks like an upset child is very refreshing to look at.

Vodka is also nodding in agreement while Ms. Latina is…

“According to your story… does it mean he has the ability to return to Earth, our original world?” Ms. Latina asks with a look full of hope.

“That would be correct. Even if my Godly mana power that he absorbed is already gone, the fact that he could create a spatial hole means he still has the authority to use all kind of abilities. Opening another spatial hole as a gate to your original world should be feasible.”

“Then please! I have to go back! Someone needs me, I have someone to protect there. I need to go back! I have to!” Droplets of tears are forming under her eyes and she’s even down on her knees while grabbing my clothes, desperately pleading for me to take her back to Earth.

“Please stand up, I’ll definitely take you back! but I don’t exactly know how to do it. Do you know how I can create that spatial hole, Sephiria?” I try to help Ms. Latina stands back up again.

“It shouldn’t be hard. Abilities and spells obtained from blessings don’t need a chant, it can be evoked just from thinking about it, but doing a gesture or certain actions like loudly yelling the spell name may help in making it easier to cast or make the spell output stronger. I can’t help you cast it myself, so try to remember what were you doing when the spatial hole created for the first time back then.”

What I was doing back then? I was… thinking about boss Ben’s pizza and wish that I could eat it one last time. Is that it? A desire or a wish for something.

“I understand, let’s try it.”

I think up about the pizzeria again and how I wish to eat it one last time. 10 seconds…. 30 seconds…. Finally a minute passed with no result on sight.

“That’s weird, the spatial hole previously appeared when I strongly wish to eat my favorite food on Earth, but now when I wish for the same thing, the spatial hole does not appear.”

“Maybe your desire for that is not strong enough at the moment. Using blessed abilities may be easier than casting a normal spell, but it still need you to get used to it too. Try to think up of something else that has strong impression, maybe it will work. The more recent one probably will be better too.”

“Something from Earth that’s impactful and recent? The last one should be…”

An image of me negotiating with the suicidal man together with Azeez comes to mind, then poof, with a unique spatial sound effect, the spatial hole appeared right before me like last time.

“It works!” I say so in surprise. For Azeez to be useful in times like this, that’s also a surprise in its own way.

“Quickly enter! Keeping the gate open is the thing that cost enormous amount of personal mana, just a couple dozens of seconds would deplete your current mana capacity!” Sephiria strongly inform us the condition with a serious face.

“I don’t want to go back!” Tokyo suddenly says so when we begin to enter the spatial hole

“We can return here again later on, this is only a trial! Get in!” I immediately drag him inside too.

We all manage to quickly enter and with Sephiria’s instruction, I close the spatial hole. I can already feel some kind of energy leaving me, making me feel a little bit tired.

I look around, right now we are on the rooftop area where I fall from, inside Azeez’s glass house studio to be precise. Several turned on computer monitors showing videos being edited are in front of us, some other equipment like video cameras and costume props are scattered around messily like when I last came here.

“We’re in Brooklyn, USA. This area is near the place where I work at and this place belongs to someone I know.” I inform them about our location.

The four of them, including Sephiria is looking around, analyzing the place.

“Is this a studio?” Tokyo asks me.

“Yes, this is a studio of a prank video maker. The prick has been making prank videos for years, I’ve even become his victim ever since I moved in to this city back in 2013.”

“That’s tough.” Tokyo tries to comfort me out of courtesy.

“The exit is over here, we are on the rooftop of a six floor building so we can see some view if go near the fence.” I tell them so and we exit the glass house.

I notice that Sephiria has been looking a bit uneasy, maybe the distinct objects of our world scare her a little. As for Vodka and Ms. Latina, the both of them are unexpectedly silent, even the usual grin on Vodka’s face is nowhere to be seen.

We approach the fence and silently look at the scenery for a few moment. The building we are on right now is located between the residential area and the city central, so there are only a few other tall buildings in the area, allowing a good view of the many tall city buildings some distances away from here.

Then the door behind us, the one that connect the rooftop area with the inside of this building suddenly opened.

“Huh, someone’s here?” A familiar voice can be heard. Not nostalgic, and if possible, I’d like not to hear it.

“Azeez!” I yell his name as soon as I see who it is.

“Eh? Who are you peo-, no way! NO! It can’t be! I saw you died! I was at your funeral, I saw you being buried!” He panics upon noticing me being alive and well.

“Well damn, I’m here am I not.”

“This is bad! Open the gate, we have to return to Archeloz right away! Go back, now!” Sephiria who has been restless for some time now suddenly shouts in panic. Could she be mistaking Azeez with that look-alike King? Archeloz is the name of the foreign world, the name of the planet we were in to be exact, the other one visible on the horizon is called Genexeus.

“Don’t worry, he’s not that imbecile King, he just looks very similar.”

“It’s not that! Quickly, open the spatial gate or we will die!” She’s looking even more panicked.

Die? I’m not sure what’s this about but it’s better to follow her advice so I try to open a spatial hole connecting to the inn room from before. Thankfully this time the spatial hole appeared on the first try. We immediately enter the hole and disappear one by one with me entering last.

“I’ll be back!” I shout toward Azeez before entering the spatial hole.

The last thing I hear right before entering the hole is, “Please don’t haunt me! I’m sorr—“.

Looks like he mistakes me as a ghost or a haunting spirit, that should be normal considering his point of view. It’s not bad, at least I could left him with a ‘present’ before returning.

Back in the inn room, I inquire Sephiria of what was the matter.

“That world of yours… was odd.”

“Odd?”

“There was no natural mana at all. I sensed that the entire world was devoid from the presence of natural mana!”

“The concept of mana is unknown in our world. That probably means that mana really doesn’t exist at all in our world, is that really bad?”

“It is! Remember that I told you our bodies are made of mana and need to perpetually being supplied with personal mana? If there is no natural mana around us to be absorbed so we can regenerate our personal mana, then eventually our personal mana will be depleted just to keep our body intact and there will be no mana left to create a return spatial hole. We would die just by staying there for a few minutes!”

The explained fact is like a thundering bad news for some of us. I look toward Ms. Latina, she only stays silent while slightly looking down.

“Ms. Latina, I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say to comfort her, she seemed so desperate to go back and when she found a glimpse of hope, it’s soon shattered.

“No, it’s okay… I was being rash. It doesn’t matter much anymore. I’m sorry for putting us in unnecessary danger.” She looks slightly dispirited but not desperate like before. I wonder why she suddenly changes like this.

“Don’t blame yourself, it was a good opportunity to test things out, no harm was done anyway.”

“Thanks…”

Now that one thing is sorted out, let’s check on the other one.

“By the way, what about your current situation now? Didn’t you say that you were sealed within me? Why did you suddenly appear together with them when they were summoned?”

“I’m not sure why, but something powerful broke the seal and complete your partially broken transfer. Allowing me to break free from being trapped inside you. Although I’m still bound to you and can’t leave your side, at least I can look around freely instead of staying in a lonely desolate space which is no different than a prison.”

Something broke the seal? Could it be the beam of light that hit me during the summoning ritual this morning? That must be it, she appears right after that event after all. So just by being there during the summoning ritual, I happened to fix something broken within me that I myself didn’t realize? What a coincidence, lucky me.

“What exactly do you mean by being bound and can’t leave my side? Is that why you have been following us around?”

“Correct... I’m bound to you and is restricted to stay near you all the time. As I said, you have taken my everything, and I don’t know how to unbind myself. Even if I could, without any mana left, I’ll just be a powerless ethereal being. So sticking to you would be the best choice for me right now.” She timidly explains her current condition.

“So... you’re like being bound by master and slave situation with him?” Tokyo cuts in and asks her.

“Sl-, slave? That’s... not entirely wrong...” She looks very depressed but still acknowledge the question.

“Uwaaah! Goddess familiar in early start! Get~!” He cheerfully says so, sometimes he can be a thoughtless guy, read the situation a bit.

“Umumu...” She looks down and frowning in depression, but that expression of her instead looks adorable.

“We won’t treat you like a slave! Isn’t that right, Axl?” Ms. Latina immediately hugs Sephiria by the shoulder to comfort her. Contrary to Tokyo, she’s a pretty sensitive and understanding person, isn’t she?

“True, we won’t ever treat you anything like a slave. You are a former Godly being after all, even if you lose your power, you should still have vast knowledge over this world which can help us a lot. You could be a living Gooogle of this world, an all-knowing being that can answer most questions we have.” I help comforting her and hit Tokyo’s head lightly to punish him.

“About that...”

“Hm? What about it?”

“I can help you with the basic rules, history, and magical laws of this world, but I... can’t help much regarding the common knowledge...”

“Eh? Why is that? I thought you were a Goddess that administer this world?”

“I was, but I lived in separate space and has never entered this world myself. All I could see and hear from that place was through the prayers of people made under my name.”

“So you can’t tell us information like where secret treasures are located?” Tokyo asks her again.

“I can’t.”

“Sensitive information regarding the powerful people of this world so we can blackmail them?” I ask her.

“Don’t know.”

“Latest market prices of items so we don’t get scammed?” Tokyo again.

“Sorry...”

“Type of weapon and level of technology the countries have?” Me.

“Uuuh...”

“...That’s pretty... useless isn’t it.” Both of us.

“UWAAAAA” She bursted to tears towards Ms. Latina’s chest.

“You two!” Ms. Latina who’s patting Sephiria scolds us.

“We’re sorry for being blunt, but calling it anything softer wouldn’t change the fact.”

“Uuuu, I can help in learning all kind of spells.”

“By that, do you mean we can learn all kind of magic we want?”

“You can, I still retain the knowledge of how to learn them. But I can only teach you, you need to still pass the learning requirements yourselves.”

“That’s still pretty cool! Alright!” Tokyo is excited upon hearing the statement.

“True, that will be a really major help.” I complement her too.

Indeed that can be a really great help later. We have zero knowledge about magic in this world that runs on magic for almost everything after all.

“It’s settled then, welcome to the group, miss former Goddess. Let’s reintroduce ourselves on this occasion, this time for real. I’m Ryan Maxwell, Half-American. I’m often called as Axl but you can call me as Ryan or Max too.”

The moment is good, so I take the initiative to get the group closer by introducing ourselves with our real name this time. The first to be caught by the moment is of course Sephiria who is being welcomed.

“I’m next then! As said before, I’m Sephiria Pixiv Lilumel Makhia. People worshiped me by the name of Goddess Sephiria.” Her expression quickly changes from being sad to slightly cheerful when she reintroduces herself.

“Is there many people with the name of Sephiria in this world?” I notice something that might become a problem.

“No there isn’t. The name is considered sacred and is almost considered forbidden to be used to name someone. Why are you asking?” She puts her index finger to her right cheek and tilt her head a bit while having a question-like expression on her face.

“It will be bad if we talk with you using Sephiria in public then, even if you were invisible to them. So we should call you as Vivi or Lilu instead.” I tell what the problem is and make a simple recommendation as the solution.

“Mmmn! I like it! Please call me Vivi or Lilu from now on.” She has a wide cheerful smile. Now that’s a more fitting expression as a former Goddess.

“I’m Matsumoto Junpei, no need to call me by my family name, you can call me Junpei instead.” Next is Tokyo who tells us his real name, but it’s...

“Tokyo sounds much better, so I’ll stick on calling you with it.” I nonchalantly declare so.

“Eh?! But it’s.... can’t you just call me Jun instead?”

“Nope, Tokyo is a good nick. You look like a city boy so that name suits your image very well, you chose it yourself too anyway.”

“Err... okay then... it’s true that it’s not bad and I did chose it myself anyway.” He finally concedes to be called with his self-claimed codename.

“What about you Ms. Latina?” I proceed to ask her.

“Stop calling me Latina. I’m indeed a Latin descent from Venezuela but I have a proper name too.”

“Alright, so what is it?”

“What?” She seems to be somewhat at a daze.

“Your proper name.”

“That... umm, it’s Amelie...” She looks slightly depressed upon mentioning her real name.

“Why do you look like you are uncomfortable with your name? Is there something wrong with it?” I inquire her about it, this much should be okay, I’m planning to stop asking if it turns out to be too personal.

“That name was given by someone that I loathe, it’s tainted and bears old wounds, but it’s also the name that the people I care about use to call me...” She has a bit of sad expression while explaining it. So she dislikes her name but it’s also the name that her important people know her as.

“I see. Why don’t you change it a bit then?”

“Change it?”

“Yeah, change it so it won’t be the name you received from that person you hate but it will still easily recognize-able by the people you love. Something like... Emelia, for example. Yup, just swapping the first and last letter already gets you such a nice name, different but still similar, perfectly fits the criteria we’re looking for.”

“Emelia...” She ponders about this name. I myself think that it’s a really great name, not only it perfectly fits the criteria, it also perfectly fits her character as she herself is not only hot and beautiful, but is also gentle and caring like what the name means. I’m amazed I could come up such a great name on the spot like this.

“Wow master, you are very good at giving names!” Sephiria cheerfully acknowledges my suggestion. Why does she suddenly call me master, this woman is already influenced by Tokyo...

“Please, one already calls me boss and another calls me master... stop it.” It could become an unnecessary trouble if someone heard it.... I think.

“Maybe I should call you as sempai too to make it merrier. Oh, I also need to create a maid uniform for Sephiria. Yosh!” Tokyo is falling to his own delusion while striking a winning pose, let’s just ignore him.

“It’s a wonderful name, Emelia... I really like it, thank you Ryan, I’ll take up on your suggestion.” She looks happy, an honest smile can be seen on her face. She also decides to call me as Ryan which feels closer compared to the usual Axl nickname.

“You’re welcome. It’s a pleasure to see that you like it.” Now that one is settled, last is Vodka.

“What about you, old man?”

“Russia and my real name is Vodka.”

“Haha, enough with the joke, old man.” Tokyo laughed at what Vodka said.

“….”

“…. For real?”

“My name has, and will always be Vodka.” He affirms his statement.

“…Somehow I’m not really surprised, it’s as if I’ve expected this to happen.” That’s what I have in mind, Emelia also nods to what I say.

 “Okay, now for the last thing to discuss, what happened to you guys before you were summoned? I noticed that you were all in terrible condition, holding weapons, having blood splattered all over you, or even being put in such restriction. You can choose not to tell if you don’t feel comfortable to do it.”

For this topic, the first to tell their story is Tokyo.

“That… I killed myself… I was forced to do it.” He looks dispirited while telling us. I’ve predicted this much, after all, he appears to be not the type that have the courage to kill a person.

“I killed that person I hate, and was probably got killed on the process too.” Emelia also looks down when she tells us about it. For someone as kind and gentle as her to do that, that person must have been a real bastard.

“I see, I’m sorry to hear that, but thank you for being open about it, it will help us easier to trust each other. What about you, old man, will you tell us your story too?”

“…I went into a building, killed all the people inside, then got caught by the police. I was sent to prison, and I butchered everyone in there too before I finally being sent to the execution chamber. I think I died there, the last think I can remember are sparks and zaps.”

“….” We all fall to silence.

“Hahaha nice one, old man. You almost scared me there.” Tokyo then laughs at Vodka’s story.

“….” Vodka don’t say anything and only have the usual grin on his face.

 “This one is also not a joke?” The expression on Tokyo’s face immediately changes. He who stands next to Vodka take one step away from him.

“Hehehe.” Vodka specially grins toward Tokyo.

“Uwaa!” They look like a senior bullying his junior, except that the senior looks almost fifty and the junior is only early twenty. Perhaps saying it as a father joking with his son would be more correct.

“Even if it’s really true, I believe that he must have a proper reason for doing that. Am I right, old man?” Somehow I just feel like this would be the case, he did voluntarily beat up the douche noble from earlier after all.

“Bad people, they were all bad people. I killed them all to protect my loved ones.” He’s still grinning, but it feels different, a slight look of grievance can be seen on his face.

“So you were like me too. I can feel your pain, Vodka.” Emelia kindly shows her sympathy to Vodka.

“As expected, I know that you’re not a bad person.” I express my thought to him.

“Right, right, I also thought like that!” Tokyo speaks up very contrary to his action just now.

“So we all indeed died right before being summoned here and only our soul is transferred to this world. I can vouch this much because I also saw my own grave when I return to Earth last time.”

“Oh right, you haven’t told us about how you died. What’s your case, X?” Tokyo realizes it and immediately asks me.

“What X, you punk. Geez, my name just got shorter and shorter.”

“It’s okay right? So, how did you die?” He ignores my dissatisfaction of the shortened nickname. I can’t object it though, I did force a nickname on him too.

“Like Vodka and Emelia, I died saving someone too. But the different thing is, the one I saved was a stranger. He was about to kill himself by jumping off a high place but I saved him and I was the one that fell to my death instead. I died saving a suicidal stranger, kind of a laughable death if I must say.”

“No! It’s not laughable at all! It was a very noble act, to sacrifice yourself and save someone you don’t even know, at first I thought I was bound to an evil person who would steal my power and exploit them, but now I’m glad to see that the person I’m being bound to is actually such a great personage. You all also don’t discriminate and saved the beast kin children from before, just that much has already show how noble the four of you are.” Sephiria strongly objects my modest statement and expresses her admiration on our feats. It doesn’t feel bad to have someone appreciate our actions.

“Right, about that, how much did you get, boss?”

“Oh, so you did realize it, old man.”

“Of course, I also got his wallet.” He takes out a nice looking leather pouch from somewhere inside his pants. I don’t dare to guess where exactly he stored that leather pouch.

“Nice, I couldn’t get that one because it was kept in front of his body, but I managed to strip him off of his unnecessarily flashy accessories. Look, these can fetch a pretty good sum if sold correctly.” I take out several expensive-looking jewelries that I hid within my shirt.

Except the both of us, all the others stare blankly toward the things in our hands.

“What’s this?” Sephiria asks us with a blank expression on her face.

“Still need to ask? Of course this is the loot from that commotion. Why do you think I wriggled on top his body instead of simply beating him up?”

“WHAT!? How? Wait, really? You! I misjudged you! I take back what I said! You thief!” She suddenly yells in disdain and is about to grab my hair again.

Whoops, I evade her and she almost stumbles and falls.

“You were not exactly wrong, I may really be a noble. Haven’t you ever heard of Robin Hood? That douche is definitely the evil rich man and I’m the noble thief.” I nonchalantly declare the messed up logic, teasing her.

“You!!” She’s turning into her furious mode again like before.

And so the bunch of misfits finally get to know each other better and really become a group that will venture and eventually wreck havoc in the foreign world together.

 

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Charioles’ SHORT and FRIENDLY Q&A Corner #2

1. Do you realize that your previous chapters have many typos and grammar errors?
Yeah, I re-read chapter 2 for plot alignment and noticed some typos like missing ‘s’ for plural object and missing ‘to be’ too… There might be more that my limited Engrish not able to notice.

2. What are you going to do about it?
For now I’ll finish the book first and edit/fix them all in one go because I post this series in multiple sites and fixing them will take a lot of time.

3. Archeloz and Genexeus, how did you came up with such names?
Everyone has their own dark past…

4. It seems there are multiple type of mana, what are they?
If it was not clear enough, here is a short summary. Personal Mana is the mana your body have. Natural Mana is the stray mana lingering all around the world that can be absorbed by the body to become personal mana or absorbed by the earth in which will become Raw Mana in Trixium Crystal.

5. When can we finally see some action? It’s been 8 chapters ffs!
Alright, alright, chillax man. I’ll rush to the adventurer guild plot after this.

6. Yaay! I notice that it’s mentioned Axl has the Goddess’ power, does that mean he can use all kind of spells?
If he wants to, yes. But he still doesn’t have enough personal mana to do that.

7. Cool. Ah right, you’re late in posting this chapter!
Well, uh I was hospitalized?

8. Lies!
I was working all day long?

9. There was a holiday yesterday!
Arrgh, this is getting out of topic again. I’ll try my best to follow the schedule, I’m out! *Run away in a flash*

9: Chapter 8 – In Another World, This Is How We Roll

Chapter 8 – In Another World, This Is How We Roll

 

“Should we head back down? It’s been some time now.”

Counting the time spent on the conversations and the short travel back to Earth, it’s about time we head back to the restaurant below.

“Okay, but before that…” Tokyo’s fidgeting unnaturally.

“What? Stop fidgeting, it isn’t cute.”

“Can I receive an ability or two?” He crosses his fingers while still fidgeting a bit, please stop it… It’d be different thing if it’s Sephiria or Emelia, but you…

“Can he?” I glance to Sephiria, signaling her the same question.

“I don’t think he can, at least for now. Although you have the authority to do that, your aggregate personal mana is nowhere near enough to perform such a thing.” She bluntly and thoroughly explains so.

Tokyo’s previously smiling face of expectation immediately sinks to disappointment.

“You heard her. Maybe later.”

“H-, How long will it be?” He’s still clinging to hope in getting a unique ability which is…

“Raising aggregate personal mana is a slow process like growing up or exercising your muscle, so it may take months or even years.” …Soon shattered to pieces.

“Alright, let’s wrap it up. That granting ability thing will wait for later, for now let’s discuss on what to do from now on. I’d say we stay for some time in the city in order to get used to this world. We’re already in the capital, this should be the best place to learn about many things.”

“I agree with that, it’s not like we’re in a rush to go somewhere.” Emelia shows no objection to the plan, Vodka also nods in agreement, while Tokyo is dazing off in the abyss of disappointment.

“Okay then, for now the plan is to secure living place, learning the common things of this world, and probably securing future travel fund along the way too.”

“ADVENTURER’S GUILD!” Tokyo suddenly shouts so, recovering from the abyss, “If that’s the plan, then first we must go to the adventurer’s guild! That’s the place to gather information and look for jobs. Then we can go fight some monster and level up too along the way.”

“What the hell are you talking about. How do you know anything about this adventurer’s guild, you’ve been there before?”

“I just know, okay. It’s only common sense that something like adventurer’s guild is a place to look for job offerings and to gather information.”

Only common sense… On what basis would he say so. He confidently guessed Sephiria being a Goddess and was correct. Although it was pretty obvious seeing how majestic and beautiful she is, maybe he does know something about this world. Well, I can just check his guesses about adventurer’s guild by asking Nimbus and Farajee later.

“Job offerings? Like a place to look for employment?” I ask him about that statement.

“Err, that’s not exactly wrong. Normally you should be able to find job offerings ranging from everyday job like gathering herbs, finding lost items, or delivering goods to something more combat related like transportation guard or monster subjugation. That’s what a template adventurer’s guild usually be.”

“Wow, that’s exactly my kind of thing. I was a handyman myself back in Earth. Plumbing, fixing leaking roof, walking client’s pets, servicing cars, that kind of odd jobs. I’d even exterminate pest if it’s for the right price.”

“Umm, I don’t think we’re exactly on the same page here.”

“I agree with Mr. Tokyo. Although I don’t know much, I’ve heard that adventurer’s guild is a good place to train oneself while also obtaining some additional income. Since Ms. Emelia wishes to return to her original world and Mr. Tokyo wishes to receive his rightful blessing soon, raising your personal mana level by exterminating monsters should be the best option.”

“Why is that?”

“If you have more mana then that means you can stay in your previous world longer. With high enough mana, you could possibly stay there for hours or even days. And of course, by then master can also perform the requested ability blessing too.”

So raising my mana level is only proper. Let’s put it on top of the list of things to do.

“What about now, how much mana do we have? I can use that space hole magic, so that means I have mana, but exactly how much is it?”

“Right, right! How much mana do I have too? I haven’t uselessly burnt out any mana like sempai, so my mana should be pretty high, right?” Tokyo insolently says so.

“I’m not able to tell exactly how much you have in the common Colt scale, but although only small quantity, master does have some personal mana within his body. As for the three of you… I can’t feel any mana presence coming from you at all.”

“Eh, don’t tell me…” Tokyo knead his brows.

“You currently have no personal mana power at all.” Sephiria drops the bomb.

“NOOO!” Tokyo screams after falling down to his knees.

“It-, it’s probably only because you have just arrived for a short time so your body is still devoid of mana. Normally, people transferred to this world would already bear some level of personal mana from their original world, but since your original world is different, I think having no mana right after being transferred actually makes sense.” Sephiria looks sorry for him so she tries to come up with a reasoning that actually makes sense.

“Master lost all his mana before, but his body must have been absorbing the natural mana around him ever since. That’s probably why although little, his personal mana is not nil.”

“Then adventurer’s guild it is. We’ll try to raise our personal mana level as our main goal.” I can see that Tokyo’s face is brimming with joy, but there is only slight smile on Emelia’s face.

For her not to be excited is weird considering she was so desperate to go back before. Or maybe she has an issue with trying to raise our mana level through monster extermination, it does sound dangerous so maybe she’s concerned about it.

“Are you alright, Emelia?”

“Eh, what’s wrong?” She’s surprised when I ask her so.

“You don’t look really excited with the possibility of being able to go back, or are you concerned with the fighting a monster plan? No need to worry about that, I’ve got plans in mind, it will be an easy thing to do.”

“It’s not that, don’t worry about it, it’s just me being paranoid.”

“Alright, if you say so. Then let’s go back down for now. They are probably already waiting for us.”

Thus we go back to the restaurant below with Sephiria returns to being invisible again like before.

When we arrive, Namine and the rest of them have already finished eating and are merrily having conversation with each other.

“Ah! Sir Axl, you’re back.” Namine looks joyful upon seeing us return that she stands up right away.

“We’re back. What’s up, you look really happy, did something good happen?” I notice that there is an extra joyful atmosphere about her.

“Yup, big brother Nimbus and Farajee introduce us to the owner of this shop, we land ourselves a job as a waitress here!” She has a really bright smile while telling us this.

“Oh, that’s wonderful indeed. What’s with the occasion, Nimbus?” I show her that I’m also glad to hear the news and ask Nimbus while I’m at it.

“Nothing special, really. It’s just that they appear to be nice kids so we helped them get some proper job. We just introduced them to the madam of this shop, they landed the job themselves, we did nothing much.” Nimbus modestly explains what happened.

“Still, that was very nice of you.”

“Ryan, about the living place we talked before, could we stay in this inn?” Emelia asks me with a concerning look.

“I’ve thought the same thing too since this place looks decent, but let me guess your reason.” I then pat Namine’s head and brush her hair. “Them, right?” I grin toward Emelia.

Bullseye, she nods to my question and hugs the nearby Namira on the process. Looks like she’s already attached to these girls.

“Well, they are such a cute and nice children after all, anyone woul— ouch.“ Tokyo also gives his remark while trying to pat Namira’s head but was blocked by Emelia.

He looks disappointed and we all laughed at the event. We then sit down and order a new lunch. Well, it’s only Tokyo who orders a new lunch, me and Emelia only ask Nona to reheat our food since it would be a waste not to eat them.

When we are about to decide what to do with Tokyo’s previously un-eaten orc meat steak, it’s already gone from the plate, it vanishes without a trace in front of Vodka when we were having our short conversation just now. This old man sure can eat fast, a lot, and sneakily. It was a 300 gram steak, how did he eat it in just a minute?!

While eating our new lunch, I ask Nimbus and Farajee about the adventurer’s guild, and surprisingly, Tokyo is mostly correct again. I wonder where he got the information from.

According to Nimbus, adventurer’s guild is divided into two divisions, the worker division and the explorer division. Worker division mainly deals with common job and request that doesn’t involve combat while explorer division deals with combat request like subjugation and guarding duty.

He explains that the adventurer’s guild is different from the mercenary’s guild because there are rules and laws that strictly regulate the members, making the organization more trustworthy and respected compared to mercenary guild who will work as long as rewards are involved.

I ask him about IDs too, about the purpose and capability of an ID. It turns out that the IDs in this world are pretty simple, although there is magic involved, having IDs published by recognized organizations like the adventurer’s guild, merchant union, and such only serve no more that identification device for entering or exiting the cities and as proof of membership of said organizations.

At first I was afraid that the IDs in this world will have annoying magical features like tracking the owner’s position or unknowingly giving out other private information from distant location, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. All information stored in an ID can only be seen on direct contact, not secretly from a distance, so I’m alright with making an ID at the adventurer’s guild later.

Namine asks me about the thing that I mentioned to her before I left earlier. I tell her that I was planning to have her guides us around the city. She’s delighted to hear that and agrees right away. Thus after we finish our lunch here, we are going to tour the city with them as our guide.

Sephiria is frowning while watching us enjoying the food. She gives out a very pitiful look that’s similar to how a dog would wait next to the dining table to be given part of the tasty food it master’s eating. Of course I try to give her the food again but she still can’t touch it. It appears that the only thing she can touch is us summoned people whose body is also partially made from mana. So that means she can’t touch anything that’s not at least partially made from mana. She looks very depressed, let’s find out how to let her taste food too later on, maybe there is a food for spirits or something similar in this world.

I tell Nona about having the room booked for a few more days and pay the fee right away too. She thanks me again for using the shop’s service then we head out from the restaurant.

As we are about to leave the restaurant and begin touring the city, Farajee speaks to me one last time. He warns me to be careful of the noble that I provoked earlier. He says that arrogant noble like that will surely plot for a revenge. I tell him not to worry about it with a confident attitude. They are still somewhat not convinced, but when I tell them I’ve got proper countermeasure for such things they finally look a bit more relieved.

We are currently in the Commercial District which is also where the adventurer’s guild is located. So it become our first destination.

Emelia is walking while holding Namine and Namira’s hands on both side. She looks too young to be their mother so she probably looks more like a big sister even though their age are maybe more than a dozen years apart. Tokyo also wants to merrily hold hands with the kids but Emelia’s fending him off like usual.

As we walk through the branch street of the highway, I see that the people from around us, especially the men, have been ogling toward Emelia’s direction. It’s actually has been like this from way before. The eyes of several male nobles in the noble district were stealing glances on her, the people in the restaurant just now have also been ogling her figure too.

“Emelia, people are stealing glances to look at your figure, you know.”

“Yep, yep, they are freely ogling our princess, we should charge them for every glance they make.” Tokyo also notice the people around and makes absurd suggestion.

I tell Emelia normally but Tokyo is being ridiculous as he usually is, suddenly calling her our princess like that.

“Miss Emelia is a princess?” Namine raises her head and look at Emelia with curious look.

“Melmel, princess?” Namira who is much younger also looks at Emelia in awe.

Emelia herself looks troubled on what to say, she glares at Tokyo again then glances at me, signaling me to help her.

“Now listen here, kids. This is supposed to be a secret, but if you promise me to keep it to yourself then I don’t mind sharing with you this fun secret, alright?” I crouch down to their heights and tell them so.

Both of them nods their heads vigorously to show their agreement. They have a strong look of anticipation that their eyes almost sparkle while Emelia frowns upon hearing me.

“Good, then listen.” I move nearer to their ear and whisper in low voice. They also move their ear closer in excitement.

“Emelia is a princess of a distant kingdom and we’re her aides. We’re currently travelling in disguise as commoner in order to learn more about the world. Sounds fun, right?”

Oops, looks like it’s more effective than I thought. Their big round eyes are locked onto Emelia. A look of pure admiration can be seen on their expression right now.

They try to hug Emelia but because their heights are so different, they only manage to hug up to her hips.

Emelia didn’t hear what I whispered to the children just now but she has sensed something troublesome is happening.

Namira pull the hem of Emelia’s clothes, asking her to crouch down a bit. After Emelia crouches down, she says to Emelia in a low voice as to not letting the people around us able to hear it.

“Melmel, beautiful princess and kind! Mira’s glad!” She’s still too young so her manner of speech is incomplete, but that only makes her cuter.

“Yup! I’ve always thought that someone as beautiful and kind as miss Emelia must be someone of noble status. For miss Emelia to really be a princess, I feel really honored to be in your care!” Namine also expresses her admiration with sparkling eyes.

Emelia looks troubled but is still smiling toward the children.

We’re still walking to our destination, and as Emelia’s currently busy with the kids, I talk with the others.

“This princess in our group is remarkably beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Yep, if she doesn’t glare that often then she would definitely be a dream girl of any man. With appearance like that, I think she might even qualify to be a super model or enter a world class beauty pageant.” Tokyo replies me with his honest opinion while Sephiria also nods to my question.

“True, she’s a woman of stunning beauty, other than Sephiria here, I don’t think there is many other who could match her.” I notice Sephiria blushes a bit. It doesn’t really fit her appearance of an already adult woman though.

“Yep, yep, it’s a miracle we could have two eye candies in our group like this.”

“From the way you say it and your behavior from the beginning, you don’t seem to be seeing her as potential love interest, why is that?” I inquire his ignorant attitude toward Emelia’s beauty which is very unusual as a man.

“I’ve got a woman of my own already. This heart of mine is already sold, out of stock. Nobody can buy my love anymore.” He answers me jokingly while smiling and yet I can feel sadness from his expression.

“That’s so like you. But, you have someone precious back in Earth and yet you don’t want to return. Could it be that she…”

“Nah, I bet she’s all well and healthy.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“No, wait, I said that she’s alive and well.”

“I didn’t know that you have such a strong one sided-love to not even glance at other women.”

“It’s a mutual love, damnit!” My bait works really well.

“Alright, alright, I get it. I won’t joke with your love affair anymore. I was just making sure you’re not gay or something because you didn’t even look at other woman as a love interest.”

“I’m straight!”

“I know, I know. What about you, old man?” I direct my question to Vodka now.

“I’ve got a grandson already.” He just answers shortly.

“Oh, so you already have a family. Alright, that answers it all.” Vodka just nods to my statement.

No need for me to ask more, apparently old man is a family man. He even has a grandson!

“What about yourself then? You suddenly ask us this, could it be you’re aiming for her? Need a wingman?” Tokyo in return asks me my own question.

“Me? Nah, I don’t have any special someone. All my relationships are probably one night stand only. Two nights at most. I’m also not in a hurry for a relationship, I want to get used to this new world first before looking for any real relationship.”

“That’s so pitiful.” Tokyo shows his sympathy to my love life.

“Boss, I thought you were a pimp.” Vodka is instead still clinging to that joke.

“No need to pity me. It’s just that maintaining a relationship was a difficult thing to do in my line of work (rogue agent).”

“I see, indeed with your kind of work (handyman), finding a desire-able woman could prove to be challenging.”

He probably misunderstands what I mean, but it doesn’t matter.

“Anyway, I’ve been wanting to ask you, how did you know about all those things related to this foreign world? The things about the Goddesses, abilities, and adventurer’s guild, you’ve guessed them all correctly. Have you been to this world before?”

Although I grew up in a secluded life in a certain facility, I’ve been exposed to normal life later on in my early twenties thanks to a certain someone. So, at least I know common and popular things in society and I’m pretty confident with my skill on high-tech stuffs. I’ve even watched all the popular fantasy movies like the King of The Ring trilogy and the Larry Potato saga, but I’ve never learnt anything similar to our case right now. How Tokyo knew about all those things really intrigues me…. Oh, so that’s why. Now I understand why he didn’t eat the orc meat steak. Never mind that, right now if possible, I’d like to learn more in advance so I can prepare measures for future events.

“Oh that? That’s from novels. Mostly J-Novel, though.”

“J-Novel? I take it that J stands for Japanese. Care to tell me what is it about?”

“Sure, I’ll be glad to.” Tokyo grins and starts telling me various things about this J-Novels.

Apparently there is a popular genre in Japanese novel that revolve around being transported to another world, either through summon, reincarnation, or just simply spirited away.

This is a totally new kind of information to me. He explains that these novel mostly have similarity, including the transported character getting certain kind of cheat ability upon arriving in the foreign world, which’s very much like our situation. These novel also tell that there will be gods or goddesses managing the world. Things like adventurer’s guild and other organizations are also almost always appear in those type of novels. Having other species of sentient being is also to be expected. These are what’s commonly known as templates, a common setting of a transported to another world stories.

He tells me that being summoned to be a hero is a very common template and from his knowledge, we shouldn’t simply believe the kingdom who summoned us. I’m very much aware of such advice ever since the beginning.

“Right, rule number one of survival, never trust a stranger. Especially if you are in a foreign place that you know nothing about.”

I then tell him about how I was put into prison due to a ‘slight misunderstanding’. No matter the offense, I was a hero candidate, it was weird how the King just put me in prison for a month and disregarded the problem with me. He even skipped my matter and went to summon another hero, I feel like a disposable tool.

“Yep. There are many stories about the summoned hero being misguided, manipulated, and even betrayed after all his effort in fulfilling his duty. You being disregarded like that only prove that the people who used the summoning spell was straight up no good.”

“You know where I can find stories like that? I’d like to read them myself to understand the content in detail.” Stuffs like these are especially worth the time to be properly studied, because right now, more than reading it, I’m living it.

“Cool, but can you read Japanese?”

“I can’t, I can only speak Japanese a little, barely enough for daily conversations.”

I know Japanese because I had a ‘mission’ involving Japanese special forces during my rogue days and the preparation for that also took weeks in Japan, so I just happen to learnt enough Japanese for minimum everyday conversation.

“It’s okay, there are still other ways to read J-Novel. Apparently Novels like these are pretty popular outside Japan and have attracted enough demand for them to be translated into English although not official. There is this website called Novel Updates which connects all translation sites together like a free virtual library of translated novels so that non-local are able to enjoy the novels too. If you want more, there is a site where amateur fantasy novel writers usually post their works for free, it’s called Royal Road Legend, you should check this one out too because they do have good stuffs in there.”

“Looks like this whole thing is bigger than I thought. So, about this one….”

I learn many useful information and Tokyo is happily explaining things. Until this point the conversation is going smoothly, at least until Vodka suddenly cuts in the middle of our talk.

“Boss, you said that the number one rule is to never trust a stranger.”

“Hm? Right, I said that.” I who’s talking with Tokyo next to me turn my face to look at Vodka who’s walking right behind us.

“Then why do you trust us?” Vodka has an extra menacing grin on his face when he asks me this, unlike the usual tone which is ironic, this time his tone is cold and serious.

“Why would I not. Will you do something bad or trick us?”

“Nope.”

“Then there is nothing to be doubted, right? I’d say beating that douchebag together showed our characters to some extent. For that I’ll value your actions and trust you.”

“Alright, since you trust me, can you let me be the one to hold the gun?” Vodka extends his hand to me, asking me for the gun which I hide under my shirt. On his face is a rather evil expression.

I’ve thought about it before, this old man is probably not insane at all. He just acts like one, the most troublesome kind of opponent one can find.

“Why is that? You don’t trust me in handling the gun?” By now we can feel the situation is getting tense.

“Ya, I don’t trust a plumber who has bullet and knife scars all over his body who’s also quick with his hand and has tempered muscles meant for combat.” The four of us stopped walking when he said that. Emelia and the children who walk in front also noticed that something is going on and stopped walking.

This guy deliberately points out that parts of me, making me look suspicious. I don’t reply him and only sharply look at him in the eyes.

“… Haven’t we settled this earlier? We are going to get through this together and for that we need to trust each other.” Tokyo tries to reason and mediate us.

“Oh, don’t worry, I trust him.” Vodka answers with a light tone.

“Yeah me too, I trust him, a lot.” Tokyo’s eyebrows frown upon hearing the pointed intonation on the word ‘a lot’.

There’s a short stalemate after those two statements. Namine and Namira who don’t know what’s going on is a little bit scared and are cowering behind Emelia while stealing glances to us. Sorry for that, kids.

“You two, what’s wrong?” Emelia takes the initiative to interfere.

“Nothing, it’s just Vodka here said that he’d cook for me and thought that I don’t believe in his ability to cook.”

“Oh no, I believe that you believe in me, truly.” There is a slight ironic tone in his way of speaking.

“See, nothing is going on, it was just a misunderstand. I trust him and he trusts me, it’s all good.”

“…Alright, I hope you boys can keep it together. Namine said we’re almost there, so please don’t start any trouble now.” Emelia sighs upon hearing our reasoning, she understands the problem and doesn’t meddle with it for now.

And like that, we drop the issue and continue walking toward the adventurer’s guild. In just a minute we arrive in front of a wide two stories building.

The first impression upon seeing it upfront is a bar. I can see people eating and chattering through the front windows.

The front door is a big swinging double door like in the oldwest cowboy movie, I think they are called batwing doors. Tokyo is excitedly yelling: “There it is! The template swinging double door of adventurer’s guild!” Apparently this type of front door is a typical door for adventurer’s guild in the many reference literatures he has read.

Unlike the one in those cowboy movies, the batwing door in this adventurer’s guild is tall and wide, the door is probably two meters tall and the door frame itself is probably more than three meters tall. In conclusion, it’s a really big front door.

We enter the building. The inside is as expected, a bar and a lounge. There are people discussing something by the lounge to the side and on the other side is a bar with people drinking ale from a wooden ale mug.

This place is supposed to be where people get and do jobs, right? I didn’t know alcohol and workplace could work well like this.

The inside is like a big hall. The second floor is on the other end of the hall with a balcony on the edge, allowing nice visibility of the whole room.

“Alright, we’re here, where do we get to make IDs?” I look around, analyzing the place.

Then I notice that most of the people are having their gaze onto us. Oh wait, it might be only onto Emelia, again.

Some of them begin to chatter while looking at us. Some are even giggling with a no good expression.

“It’s probably there, that looks like the counter for job related business, the one from my references are mostly like that too.” Tokyo points toward a counter that looks like a bank counter near the lounge side of this hall.

I nod to him and we walk toward that spot. There are three counters with a clerk on each counter. We go toward the left one because the other two counters have long queue. They are crowded because they are managed by young and pretty clerks while the one on the left is managed by an old woman, almost a granny to be precise. What a discrimination, poor ol’ granny.

“I’d like to make an ID, please.” Says me after we arrive to the empty counter.

The granny with streaks of white hair on her head holds and focuses her glasses while analyzing our group from head to toe.

“Do you realize what you’re asking? This isn’t the place for civilians to joke around.”

Apparently she determines us to be civilians by inspecting our clothes. That actually makes sense. If I look around, we’re the only one who wear casual clothes while all the others are wearing something meant for combat, protection, or utilities. They also carry weapons on their body like swords, knifes, bows, or… is that a throwing glaive that man has on his back?! Anyway, nobody wears comfortable everyday clothes like us.

“Does our equipment matter? Don’t you have a division for everyday jobs here?”

“Even that requires certain level of proper equipment, just come back when you have proper attire to be a member of the guild. At least get some weapon first, will you.”

As the granny tells us that, a shout can be heard coming from the lounge behind us.

“That’s right, you punks. You think this place is some kinds of playground? This isn’t a place for sissies like you.”

A big man that’s probably a bit taller than Vodka is standing up from his table and shouts towards us. He shouts loudly and is gathering all the attention in the hall. His arrogant and mocking tone shows what kind of character he is.

He’s a bald, big, and pretty muscular man that looks like in his thirties. On his body is a half-plate armor made from some kind of brown metal, including the armor for shoulders and knees. That metal plates look like at least 2cm thick, it looks pretty heavy on short glance.

He walks toward us after yelling like that. There is a broad grin showing bad intentions that looks like a cheap mask being plastered on his face.

“You should scram and joke around somewhere else. But before that, why don’t you leave the cutie here to have some fun with us. Maybe we have some kind of you-know-what job that she can do.” His ridiculing voice coupled with his nasty stares are very much mocking our group and is especially insulting Emelia.

His words scare the children. They are hiding behind Emelia again, this time with an almost teary eyes. Do the people of adventurer’s guild usually behave like this?

“There it is again!” Tokyo exclaims in excitement again. This has become the signal when he finds something related to his reference.

“You know him?” I ask him while ignoring the arrogant bald man.

“No, I don’t know shit about who he is, but his timing and attitude is very much the template of typical arrogant adventurers that think too highly of themselves. Basically a weakass prick that barks loudly.” Tokyo purposively tells me with such manner to provoke the bald man.

“What did you say!?” Enraged, he glares toward Tokyo.

“Oh, like a dumb muscle-head that only knows how to bark but no bite?” Ignoring the big bald man again, I encourage Tokyo’s words, further enraging the man.

“That’s it! I’m gonna bea—“ He quickly loses his temper and is about to charge toward me.

“Hold it!” I loudly warn him, making him stop on his track with a surprised look.

“Stay right there or I’m going to take it out.” I insert my hand into my shirt, the place where I hid the gun.

“What’s this? You dare threaten me?!” He takes another step forward.

“That’s it. You forced me to take it out.” I yell and quickly pull my hand out of my shirt, pointing the thing toward the arrogant bald man, my middle finger, that is.

“Huh? What’s that supposes to mean?” Apparently this gesture is not known in this world. Too bad.

“You blockhead, this means ‘f*ck you’! Still need me to explain more?”

“You bastard!” He loses all reasoning and madly charges toward me, almost leaping.

The distance between us is no more than five or six meters. He furiously charges at me with his big heavy body which is also wearing those heavy-looking metal plate armor.

I pull my hand and put it inside again, this time not into my shirt where the gun is, but to the side pocket of my red pizza pants. Then I took a relaxing stance, not minding the charging brute in front of me.

Why am I relaxing? I said it, didn’t I? I trust him.

A thick muscular hand appears and grabs the incoming baldy by the neck, stopping him on his track, then raises him up high in the air before strongly slamming him down to the wooden floor.

It’s Vodka and his goddamn fantastic chokeslam! It came out from nowhere!

He glances and smirks at me while holding the man down on the floor. I spontaneously smirk back at him while giving him a thumb up. Good job, old man. What a great cover, he doesn’t fail my trust at all. Lifting up a man bigger than him with one hand, that was pretty fucking amazing.

“Uhuk, ah!?” The baldy doesn’t look like he’s hurt but maybe shocked due to the choke and sudden impact. He wears thick protective clothing and the floor is made from planks of wood after all. There were some weird sparks when he was slammed, but I don’t pay more attention to that since it only happens in a flash and disappears right away.

“Wa--, wait, please stop!” One of the person from the baldy’s table, a boy that’s probably his companion, stands up and frantically pleads us so.

What’s this, they stopped being arrogant and act meekly now. Could it be…

“That’s right, isn’t this enough, granny?” Another one of his companion, a pretty woman in a swordsman attire says so toward the granny by the counter beside us.

“Tch! Alright, alright. That’s enough, you can stop now, Bruno, they pass.”

“Waaaaaaaaaah!” Nearly all the people in this hall, especially those in the bar and lounge tables, suddenly yell loudly together.

This…

“Alright, alright! Who bet fo’ the pass, go get yo’ money right ‘ere!” A really old man with a humped back by the bar shouts so.

“Told you that the scary old man is good!”

“The others didn’t get intimidated too, your hunch was wrong!”

“Man, I was expecting them to get provoked first, not the other way around.”

“My wife’s grocery money! Nooo!”

Such yells and shouts are being spoken all around the hall. I think I heard some weird statements mixed in, but let’s not mind the small stuffs.

The pretty swordswoman approaches us. Vodka has already stopped pinning the baldy on the ground ever since the loud yells were spoken.

“We’re sorry about this. But please understand, this is a common test for newcomers that try to join the guild, especially the one with unconvincing appearance. It’s a customary measure to prevent half-assed people from joining the guild. Consider it a ‘welcome’ or ‘try again later’ greetings by the people of the guild.” She courteously explains what’s the commotion is all about.

So it really is like that. I’ve a slight feeling that it’s actually an initiation ritual like this because a mercenary place that I know from before also has similar custom. But nevertheless, it’s good that everything turns out okay.

“It’s alright, we get it. That’s why we hold back a little too.” I kindly reply her. A little look of disbelief can be seen on her face when I said that we were holding back ourselves. That was true, though. Although not intentionally, I really did not use the gun.

Noticing that the two children are still confused to the sudden loud commotion and are even tightly grabbing the hems of Emelia’s shirt, the swordswoman crouch down to their eye-level.

“I’m sorry, young misses. Nothing bad is happening, this is just a customary welcome by us adults in the adventurer’s guild.” When she specifically explains so to the children, they nod in understanding, calming down a bit toward the situation.

This lady knows a good deal of proper manner, unlike the other bunch in here. She doesn’t act wild and is pretty refined. She might be not a simple commoner. A noble in disguise? Let’s just observe her for now.

“Need a hand?” Vodka unexpectedly being courteous and offers a hand to help the baldy gets back up. This is very much not like him.

“Sure.” The baldy takes the offer and immediately stands up with Vodka’s help.

“Nice charge back then, you have real strength.” Vodka grins while saying so toward the baldy.

Did Vodka just complement someone?

“You too, I didn’t expect that you could stop me, much less lift me up. I’d say you’re the one with real strength.” Baldy grins back at Vodka.

What’s this? Am I sensing a weird companionship is in the making? Enemies yesterday, friends today kind of thing? Oh well…

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A/N: Please don't sue me to whatever references I make, I'm just a small author making small novels. Well, at least until Warner Bros decide to make my novel a movie in the future.

No Q&A today, that questioner guy is taking a break. What a lazy bum, really.