The people around Sett had given him a wide girth, whether or not that was because they were considerate of him or because of the stench of his sick was to be determined. Whatever the reason, he was glad to have some moments to himself.

It had been a strange couple of days. No, Sett had to remind himself that it had, in fact, only been a single night. Time passed much differently in Selt’s realm and to Sett it had felt as if many days and nights had passed, but in the outside world barely any time had passed at all.

To Sett, it was surreal to think about. Only last night he had been totally oblivious to the fact that magic existed. That vampires walked among them with their monsters hunting for humans and crusaders that secretly protected the world from these abominations.

In a single day, Sett had been kidnapped by monsters, stabbed twice in the chest, journeyed in a world that turned nightmares into monsters, met an ancient god, merged with said ancient god, and finally he had been instrumental in defeating a vampire master and his golden construct.

It was safe to say that no one in the orphanage would believe his stories. Hell, it was more likely that he would be laughed out of the building. That was if he could ever go back there.

Sett almost felt like laughing out loud when he thought about the absurdity of the situation he had been put in, but barely managed to stop himself from seeming even crazier to the crusaders.­

After a couple of minutes, Sett decided that he had spent enough time regathering his essence. If he spent any more time, he was afraid that the crusader would just up and leave without him noticing. Something that he did not want to happen. He did, after all, not have any idea where he was.

With that in mind, Sett finally got up from all four and looked around him. What he noticed first was not the flurry of movement from the crusaders, but rather the world around him. To say that the world was completely different from what he expected would not be an understatement.

The sky was anything but normal. It was far from Gliese Prime’s greenish-blue or the pure blue from the pictures of earth’s sky that he had seen a couple of times. No, the sky was red. Red like blood. The clouds that floated on the celestial sphere were odd as well, traveling whichever way they wanted with no regard for wind conditions.

Stranger yet, it almost felt as if the heaven above was much closer than normal. It was as if he could simply reach out and touch the border between atmosphere and space.

In the background, many huge black structures stretched towards the skies. They were much like the great hall that Sett and Crusader Thomas had just exited only much smaller.

In short, this place was strange.

“Ahem.” A light, but a stern voice interrupted Sett’s confused cloud gazing. “Crusader Captain Thomas has ordered me to escort you to the transport shuttles.”

The voice was the most angelic one Sett had ever heard. It was perfect, without a single stutter or crackle to be found. It would not be weird to find this voice being the host of one of the most popular radios on Gliese Prime. The pleasant voice, however, did not mean that the person before him was without enmity.

The owner of the voice was a petite woman. Her hair was a wavy blonde that reached her upper back, its only imperfection being the blood from the vampire monsters that had been spilled on it during the battle. Her facial features, that was faintly visible underneath her helmet, were gentle.

Her frail and pleasant looks, however, did not mean that Sett would not fear her, far from it. He had been around ascendants for long enough to know what their aura felt like and this female crusader was certainly among them. If he had to wager, he would guess that she was bordering on the second tier, not quite as strong as the fake vampire master but close enough.

The power that far exceeded Sett’s own and her very downturned lips and glare meant that Sett felt quite uneasy around her. He had an inkling that she had seen her superior’s attitude towards him and copied that with even more hostility. One thing was certain, she did not seem to trust Sett very much.

“Identify yourself for the records.”

The female crusader procured a record datapad from seemingly out of nowhere and questioned Sett intently. Her tone of voice suggested that she would not allow any lies to pass.

“My name is Sett.”

Sett decided to truthfully comply. It was not as if these ascendants could not procure his information some other way if he decided to not give his details. A couple of beeps followed as the crusader scribbled down the information.

“And your last name?”

“I have none.”

The crusader’s eyes narrowed.

“How come?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I was never given one. I am an orphan.”

It was clear to see that the crusader did not believe him. Truth be told, even to Sett it seemed rather shady not to have a last name.

“What is the name of your orphanage?”

“Sunny Dawn Orphanage. The current director is Margaret Dawn.”

More beeps.

“Your address is in section 7, district 15B, correct?”

“Yes, eastbound road 347 to specific.”

Sett could rather easily figure out that the crusader was trying to guess whether or not he was speaking the truth. Thus, he decided to include a little more information than she had asked for in the hopes that her stance on him would improve.

“Faction affiliation?”

Sett’s eyebrows came together in light confusion. Factions? Could she possibly be referring to the collection of people like the vampires and the crusaders?

Sett had wanted to ask Selt about it but quickly reconsidered. For starters, the knowledge he had regarding the social structures of human society was likely to be woefully lacking. Second, he did not have the time to ask questions either, unless he wanted to arouse even more suspicion.

“None.”

“Have you registered with the arcane bureau of The Council of Gliese?”

Sett felt a migraine announcing its presence. There were so many words that he did not understand. He had heard Crusader Thomas mention The Council of Gliese, but he still had no clue what it actually entailed. As for the Arcane Bureau, he was even more blank.

“I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Sett decided that it was for the best that he came clean. Lying his way out of this would make sense.

“I see.”

With a final swipe of her fingers, the female crusader finished noting down Sett’s information. If her stance on him had changed during the interview, her face did not display it.

“Adjutant Jackson!”

The female crusader yelled at a group of crusaders that were busying themselves with the former sacrifices.

Another crusader came hurrying from the group. This one did not wear the heavily fortified plate mail that the female crusader and Crusader Thomas had, but rather wore some slightly armoured pieces of priestly garbs.

“How may I be of service?”

The adjutant saluted before the female crusader.

“Check whether or not this profile exists. Top priority.”

The female crusader gave the adjutant the datapad.

“It will be done, vice-captain.”

As adjutant Jackson left for another part of the courtyard, Sett fell into thought. The female crusader before him was a vice-captain. He had expected as much. With her power, there was no way that she would be any menial soldier.

In consideration that he would soon be enlisting in the army, Sett had done a great deal of research into the ranks of armies. The armies made out of mortal soldiers, that is. Unlike the armies of Gliese Prime where ranks were primarily based on social status, the army structure of the crusaders seemed to depend entirely on how much strength the person had.

It was all guesswork, but Sett reckoned that the even stronger Crusader Thomas was the captain of the crusaders.

Sett wanted to attempt to speak with the stone-faced crusader to build up a relationship but found that he had no topic of conversation. They were, after all, of two completely different worlds. He was from the mortal world and did not even know of magic yesterday, while she was an important part of a magical faction. It was not as if he could ask her about the weather.

Just as Sett was scouring his brain for any topic that they could resonate on a pair of crusaders carrying a stretcher with a body on it passed them. The sacrifices! Sett suddenly remembered a very important topic that he actually wanted to know more about.

“What will happen to them.”

“Hmm?”

The vice-captain had simply been standing still, content to not speak with Sett while they waited for the adjutant to double-check his information.

“The sacrifices. What will happen to them?”

The vice-captain thought for a couple of seconds, seemingly debating whether or not to tell him until she ultimately decided it was for the best to inform him.

“The sacrifices, that includes you, will be brought to a trauma facility within the occult bureau. There they will undergo intensive surgery to remove whatever causes their magical coma.”

“And after that? Will we just be released back into the world as nothing happened?”

“That is up to the bureau to decide. Standard procedure is, as far as I know, to observe the individual for an extended time to ascertain whether or not they can function in society. If they can, they will be given amnestics and returned to where they belong. If not… I would rather not say.”

It all seemed very bureaucratic, but maybe that was for the best. The sacrifices had, ultimately, been through hell and back. Their minds would more than likely be broken beyond all recognition.

“What about me? I feel completely healthy.”

Sett worried about going to the bureau. If his suspicions were correct, this would be where some of the strongest ascendants gathered. Given his unique situation, it was a place that he should avoid with all his might.

“Your health matters little in the large perspective. Your body might be fine, but you never know if you contracted some kind of dormant parasite or perhaps a contagious disease created by the vile vampires. It is all procedure.”

Every action in his future seemed to be determined by mind-numbing procedures, ensuring that he could do nothing with his free will.

Sett did learn something else from his conversation with the vice-captain. She seemed very hostile towards the vampires, even for a crusader. The way that she had uttered the word ‘vampire’ had felt as if it was dripping with poison. He could not help but feel that there was some untold story behind this hatred.

“They really were horrible…”

“Vice-captain!” The adjutant returned, interrupting Sett’s words. “The report is complete. The profile exists in the database and the information match.”

Sett had wanted to steer the conversation towards their shared hate for all things vampires but was rudely interrupted by the adjutant claiming his innocence.

“I see.” The narrowed eyes of the vice-captain softened ever so slightly. “How is the situation?”

“Let me check.” A few beeps later, the adjutant got his reply. “One hundred percent of the sacrifices have been loaded into the shuttles. Captain Thomas has surrendered control over the platoon to you, vice-captain Adina.”

The commotion in the surrounding area had indeed died down.

“Very well. Relay my order, we depart in five minutes.”

The adjutant saluted quickly and left to prepare.

“You.” The vice-captain, Adina, turned to Sett. “You will be coming with me. Based on your truthful words I will grant you some amount of freedom, but you will still be expected to follow my orders. Am I clear?”

“Yes, vice-captain.”

Sett readily nodded his head, glad that he had gotten some small amount of trust.

“Good.” The vice-captain began to move towards the far end of the courtyard where their shuttles were parked. “Follow me.”