"I'm hungry," said Xiao as he touched his belly while waiting for someone to return to his room.

After the ceremony, Xiao has been hiding in his room, not once has he come out from there, he was just laying on his bed, letting his mind wander as he tries not to think of what happened during the ceremony.

Someone did come into his room by the time the sunlight slowly faded away from the window, it was the guard who was stationed outside Xiao's room.

The guard was tasked to check on Xiao, on behalf of Pope Baton, and also relayed a message to him that there was a grand banquet after the ceremony, the nobles, the King and the heroes were there to celebrate the forming of the Heroes Band.

The guard asked if Xiao was interested to join the banquet which he will guide him to, but Xiao let out a tired expression while politely refusing the offer, saying that he was still not feeling well enough to attend.

Although Xiao did not want to attend the banquet, he did ask the guard to grab him some food from there as he was starting to feel hungry since he didn't eat anything at all from the start of the day until night, and Pope Baton did say that it was fine for him to ask for help from the guard.

The guard did not reply in words, all he did was make a light bow and leave the room immediately.

(I guess that was a yes, whatever, I will just share some food with him if he listens to my request.)

Seeing as there was nothing to do in the meantime, Xiao goes back to laying on his bed, while also thinking back on the experience he had ever since he stepped into this world.

Since no one was around where Xiao was, the only sound that could be heard was the cry of the insect and the echoes of laughter coming from the banquet not far away.

(Sounds like a fun banquet to me.)

Xiao smile as he heard how joyful their laughter was, he also wishes to join them as he was also one of the heroes in the Heroes Band, but after what happen in these past few days, and also the ceremony, he would only be a laughing stock to them, or worse, got accuse by something he has zero knowledge about it, which will get him into a troublesome situation.

"How the hell did it all end up like this? And here I thought things are going in the right direction."

Xiao let out a sigh as he pondered on every decision he had made, how everything always ended up bad for him.

"Well, no use thinking, what is done, let's just forget about it for now and wait for my food...if that guard REALLY listens to my request."

Deciding it was useless to think too much, Xiao decided to put aside the worries just for today as he already had his fill of humiliation for today. Right now, he just wants to spend a peaceful and quiet time alone, as it is the only time he can act freely and naturally, without worrying about any unexpected trouble happening.

A few minutes later, someone knocks on Xiao's door, after that, the guards come into his room with two plates of food.

"Here's the requested food, I will leave it here," said the guard as he put the food on the small table.

"Thanks, you can take some with you, I can't finish all the food by myself," said Xiao as he intended to do so in the first place, and the amount of food on the plate was for at least two or three people.

"I have my share while I was carrying your food, now, if you excuse me," said the guard before he made a light bow and left the room.

(Well, that was smart of him to use my request for his gain, whatever, I was going to share the food with him anyway, alright, Chow time!)

Unable to resist his hunger any longer, Xiao goes to the table, grabs the metal fork, picks up one of the juicy mushrooms on the plate and starts wolfing it down.

(Never expect this to taste so delicious! Although It's a bit cold, maybe constantly got blown by the wind while the guard brought it here, but beggars can't be picky, they sure served some good food at the banquet.)

Xiao grabbed the food one after another and stuffed it in his mouth with an expression on his face. The room was so huge and Xiao was the only one in the room, which echoes the sound of Xiao munching the food. Occasionally, the sound of applause and laughter can be heard not far away from his room. Xiao didn't mind the loneliness; he was enjoying his time alone in his room with his meal.

"Oh god! I'm stuffed, it's been too long since I last had this feeling of fulfillment," Xiao proclaimed after he finished all the food on the plates and gulped down a glass of water, he gently massages his belly while looking at the empty plates with a grateful expression.

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Xiao didn't move away from the table as he was waiting for the food to digest while also thinking about how happiness can easily be obtained just by stuffing his stomach with food.

Now that Xiao was full, there were no more things that he could do left, except to go to bed and sleep, while also praying that tomorrow will be a better day, even a slight improvement will make his life more hopeful.

(Well, time to sleep.)

Without putting more energy into thinking what to do next, Xiao walks back to his bed, lay down and closes his eyes, and convinces himself to go to sleep.

The air was cold, the cries of the cricket-like insect continued, and occasionally the echoes of laughter could be heard from the banquet.

The cries of the insect continued, it was not loud enough to create a distraction, the volume was just nice to be some sort of background noise, the noise that makes you feel that it was night time.

The air in this world was cold, especially night time, Xiao need to cover his whole body except his head with the provided blanket, which Xiao think was made from different exotic material, animal skin included, the quality was a few times better than the one Xiao had during his time in the tavern.

There was no clock in this world, which made Xiao feel uneasy as he was used to looking at the time every 10 to 20 minutes. So now Xiao can only rely on his senses to tell what is the current time by looking at the position of the sun and the color of the sky, which only gave him a vague idea of the current time.

(I can't sleep.)

Xiao had been laying on the bed for quite some time already, there was no clock for him to see how much time had passed, which also became one of the stupid things that kept nagging his mind as he was not used to doing something without knowing how much time he has used in doing so.

Xiao changed his sleeping posture to force himself to go to sleep, but no matter what he did, he felt no drowsiness at all.

(This is getting nowhere, I can't sleep at all!)

Having enough of switching posture and counting sheep, Xiao jumps out from his bed and walks around the room, he then moves to the window and looks outside while realizing how inconvenient it is for him to not know the current time.

(I can't even tell whether it's still early enough to go to sleep or it's already midnight.)

Before Xiao came to this world, he always went to bed late at night as he would be playing video games or reading comics. For someone who is used to sleeping late at night, it was not surprising that he had difficulty going to sleep, especially when he had spent the entire day laying on the bed doing nothing.

(Screw it, let's just take a walk outside, get some fresh air and burn some excess energy in the process, no use staying gloomy in this freaking huge room.)

Xiao decided that he would take a stroll outside as he saw a garden from the window, which was not far away from his room.

Xiao successfully reached the garden without being seen by anyone, the guard who was supposed to station outside his room was nowhere to be found, the corridor outside his room was empty, and the guards that guard the gate that lead to outside were laying on the ground, sleeping soundly like a baby.

The air was colder outside, Xiao was wearing a long coat that he took from the wardrobe in his room while also wear his school uniform as it was the only cloth he had, his uniform may lack the thickness to resist the cold breeze, but the long coat was thick enough to keep him warm, which somehow creates a rather comfy feeling for him as he strolled around the garden.

"It's so quiet," said Xiao after strolling for quite some time. He sat on a bench and looked up to the sky, where the scene of a starry sky entered his view, a scene that he wouldn't be able to see in his old world.

Xiao closes his eyes and took a deep breath as he enjoyed the fresh air, he felt in peace and save as there was no people around him, it was as if he was the only person left in the world, no one was there to judge, insult or blame him on something he has no related to.

(Never thought I would spend time in a garden at this age, the usual me would be busy leveling up my character or farming in some dungeon.)

Although Xiao had just started his life in this new world not more than one week, he has started to compare how life at here is so much different than the life he had in the old world, things that used to mean a lot to him, activities and routine he used to do it like it was his nature of doing it, all of those has now become meaningless to him. Here, there were no games, television, comics and internet, and obviously, he was a complete outsider, a person who isn't supposed to be in this world, that means there was no place for him in this place as he was just a replacement.

(Guess I have to fight for a place in this world, hero or not, the first thing I need to do is for them to acknowledge my existence in this world, their world, and to do that, I have to be strong, both physically and mentally...Damn it, sounds to me like a pain in the ass.)

Xiao lets out a sigh just by thinking what will his day be afterwards, every day will be a do or die situation where he will work his ass off to gain acknowledgement from the others, from weapon training, magic training, understanding of the world, the race, the monsters, the enemies and the norms of the society, it may sound fun from a gamer perspective, but only if these were all in the game, which is not, and it was not Xiao's style to put his life on something tiresome.

(Guess that's what will be coming into my life, well, at least I get to learn magic and blast out some fireballs! Cool right?! Yeah right, I can't imagine myself blasting fireballs at that crazy zombie wolf who almost kills me, I will be running for my life first for god-sake!)

Tired of thinking about what will be coming after today, again, Xiao lets out a sigh as he was ready to walk back to his room and wish that he could finally get some sleep before he got stopped by a voice.

"Hmm? Oh my, oh my, oh my, look what we have here. Hehe."

The tone of the voice was like a venomous needle that punctures into this peaceful atmosphere, it was a voice Xiao so familiar until he hated it to the bone, he thought he can finally be free from it as he was ready to let it slipped out from his mind as some sort of bad memories, but fate always finds its way to toyed with Xiao's wish.

(This lunatic toned....don't tell me?!)

Xiao immediately turns around to trace the source of the voice, while also imagining the worst.

"Well, hello there, my precious Hero of the Darkness."

It was Lars, the one person that Xiao did not want to see the most for the rest of his life.