Ezra woke up, his heart pounding in his chest. His body shook like an overloaded washing machine. Pain cropped up in the center of his chest. Droplets of sweat poured down his head. A half-remembered dream danced across his mind before quickly disappearing.
He shut his eyes.
One.
Two.
Three.
[Calm] down. Relax. Hold it in. There’ll be time to work through his emotions later.
Ezra’s breathing slowed and his heart slowed down. He blinked, pushed himself up, and looked around the room. It was a hospital wing of some sort. The walls were made of rough stone, the door was a medieval-style wooden frame with an iron bar viewport, and there were no IVs either. It was like he’d been transported to medieval times. How did he get there? Had something happened? Had he been taken to the hospital—?
The memories slammed into his brain like a sledgehammer.
His hands moved down the fabric of the blanket. He squeezed them between his fists, turning his knuckles white.
His breathing slowed down abruptly and the tension in his chest disappeared.
[Calm] was a powerful skill, there was no doubt in Ezra’s mind. But there were costs to it. He popped open his System menu.
[Calm] - Lv. 2
Stores emotions for later. After a timer expires, user receives all the stored emotions, experiencing them all at once and with their intensity amplified. The amplification can be decreased as the skill is leveled up.
Amplification: 9x
Timer: 15m 0s
Mana Consumption: 21 mp/s
Cooldown: 5h
He couldn’t afford a breakdown in fifteen minutes. No—he wouldn’t even get that much. He only had 245 MP.
It stored the emotions he was currently experiencing, that much was obvious, but would it continue to store them if he turned the skill off? If it did, then that meant he would be able to stretch those fifteen minutes out for a long time. He could activate it only during key moments when he needed the calm, and he would be able to time it so that he’d deal with the aftermath during optimal times. Preferably when he was sleeping like what had just happened. Yes, he would’ve been screaming in terror if he were awake back when the timer initially ran out. He would’ve vomited all over the place because it didn’t matter how tough you were—compressing ten minutes of hell into a single second would crack just about anyone.
He needed to see if his theory worked, so he went back to the menu, searching for a guidebook. There was nothing. He tried to click on the gear icon. All he got was a beep and nothing else. Well, how did he usually turn on his skills? [Bind] happened by instinct. So did [Calm]. He didn’t even remember the moment when he first turned [Calm] on. It just… happened.
That was his best shot. Just winging it.
He shut his eyes.
“I’m good. I’m safe. I don’t need you anymore. Not right now.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Ezra furrowed his eyebrows and concentrated harder.
Ezra’s hands began to shake. What if he couldn’t turn it off? If that happened, this skill became a whole lot more limited—
Wait. He was worrying now?
His eyes shot open. He clicked on [Calm] in his System menu.
[Calm] - Lv. 2
Stores emotions for later. After a timer expires, user receives all the stored emotions, experiencing them all at once and with their intensity amplified. The amplification can be decreased as the skill is leveled up.
Amplification: 9x
Timer: 14m 31s (paused)
Mana Consumption: 21 mp/s (paused)
Cooldown: 5h
He grinned to himself.
“Hah. Take that, Dorian. I’m brilliant!”
“Who are you talking to?”
He jumped and turned in the direction of the voice. “Who’s there!?”
A woman with a sword strapped to her hip stood at the end of the room.
Synica Ashwood
Lv. ???
Commanding General of Cortia
She had her arms crossed, resting on her mail armor. Her hair was done up in the same odd, bun-like style as before.
“Well? Answer my question,” she said.
Ezra glanced over at the window. It was glass. His legs tensed.
“Cease your preparations. I’m not going to kill you, foolish child.”
Ezra leaned in toward Synica, glaring up at her.
“Who are you calling a child?”
“You. Honestly, almost dying from a baby Skinstealer? How absurd.”
Ezra’s eyes fluttered and he backed away.
“Hold on, wait. This is too much. What the hell is happening?” Ezra said.
“It will be explained. Are you well enough to walk? Your HP says you’re fully healed, but I know full well that there are… other side effects… from such an encounter.”
“What, like poison?”
Synica adjusted the sword on her hip. “If that’s your first real question, then you’re fine. Come. Your fellow Otherworlders are waiting for you. All will be explained alongside them.”
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For a moment, Ezra considered just making a run for it, but that was impossible given Synica’s power level.
No, the best thing to do was to go along with Synica. If Synica was going to kill him, there was nothing he could do about it.
What a morbid thought—yet his heart was unmoved. Passive threats of death didn’t concern him as much as they used to. Not after having faced that deer.
He let out an involuntary shiver, then looked at Synica. Ezra would get every last bit of information he needed out of her or this Queen Lysandra. Either way, he’d get the better of them all.
“Let’s go,” he said
----------------------------------------
“So, Miss Synica—” Ezra said.
“You may call me Commanding General, general, or simply refuse to speak to me. But do not use such an informal method of speech”
The two of them walked through a stone corridor. Torches hung on the wall lit up the stone. The stone itself was old and dilapidated. Decorative armor loomed over the random pieces of furniture as if they were guarding it.
Ezra raised his hands. “Right, right, gotcha. I have a few questions, general.”
“All your questions about this world, kingdom, and the method of your transportation will be answered by the queen.”
“My questions don’t relate to those things,” Ezra said.
Synica watched as a bug passed under her feet, she lifted her armored boot and squashed it.
“Four,” she said.
Ezra stuffed his hands in his pockets. “What?”
“You’re an interesting boy who’s suffered the most out of all these brats, so I will answer four questions as honestly as I can. That’s all we have time for. If any of those questions are uninteresting to me, then I will cease this conversation and you will remain quiet. Understood?”
Her tone was snappy and absolute. Like a drill sergeant speaking to a soldier.
“I understand. First question, what’s your true level?” Ezra said.
Synica let out a bark of laughter.
“You Otherworlders have no sense of decorum,” she said. “For your information, it’s considered extremely rude to ask someone’s level. Especially if they’re in a separate social class than you or you don’t know them well.”
“You promised me honest answers.”
“That I did. I am level 1011.”
Ezra stopped in place, almost falling over from his momentum, he swiveled his arms like a windmill and barely kept himself from hitting the ground. What kind of a gap is that!? He’d be grinding for months, no, years to get there! He couldn’t be weak again. He never wanted to experience that same feeling of tinyness that he felt when that monster was bearing down on him. He wanted—no—needed to be strong. Strong like Synica. Strong enough that no one would be able to touch him.
Synica raised an eyebrow. “Flies are going to go down your throat if you aren’t careful.”
“Right. That’s pretty crazy,” he said.
”The product of luck and opportunity. Leveling goes up greatly during war, and we’ve been engaged in a hellish one for the past fifty years”
Fifty years?
“Second question, and make it snappy,” Synica said, her mail armor ringing and dinging as she walked.
Ezra looked between her and the nearby end of the hall. He was tempted to ask about her stats, but he felt that was an obvious question. Besides, no matter how much she was humoring him, that was strategic information. She wouldn’t give that up under these circumstances.
“How old are you?” he said
The words had slipped out before he could say anything. Red flooded his cheeks and he folded his face in his hands.
“Trying to see if I’m in your strike zone?” Synica said. “Bold. Very bold. Also stupid. Suffice to say that I’m older than you and leave it at that.”
For a moment he considered using [Calm] just to remove the overwhelming sense of embarrassment.
“Third question. Go,” Synica said.
Ezra thought back to his stats screen.
“Have you ever heard of the System creating an error?”
“System-related questions are off the table. You said that your questions don’t relate to the world—“ She paused and swiveled toward Ezra. “Wait, an error?”
Her tone was sharper, and her eyes seemed to stare straight through Ezra’s external facade.
Ezra stiffened and forced his back straight.
“When I arrived here,” Ezra said. “My class stated that it had an error. I clicked it, and the System tried to fix it. But it didn’t work. It said Ejection Failed.”
“Curious.”
Ezra tilted his head away from Synica and stared at one of the suits of armor, then looked back at Synica.
“What does it mean?” Ezra said.
Synica was quiet, then turned around.
“There’s only one being that was able to surpass the System. He could warp it to a limited degree, though I am unsure if he still has this power.”
“Who was this being?”
“The creature we’ve fought in this hopeless, ancient war. The Demon Lord.”
Ezra felt a chill go down his spine.
“I’m aware of how this looks,” he said.
“Do you? Because I don’t think you do. You just admitted to either having the interest or the abilities of a creature that I’ve sworn my life to killing. Whether you are a victim or malicious, it would be in my best interests to put you down, here and now.”
Ezra’s hand twitched. He wouldn’t last a second, but he’d be damned if he wouldn’t fight.
“You fear me?” Synica said. “Good. That means you have a brain. Be cautious, Ezra. I’ll be taking a gamble on you. If I see that my gamble was wrong, I’ll slay you in a heartbeat.”
A gamble?
“I assume that means you’ll let me live?
Synica started walking.
Ezra followed after a moment of not moving.
“Last question,” Synica said. “We’re almost there, so don’t surprise me—“
“Can I trust the queen?”
Synica continued walking, though there was a noticeable stiffness in her posture.
“The queen is a woman like any other. She has flaws, despite what her attendants would tell you. However, at her heart, she is a good woman who looks out for the common interests of her people.”
They stopped in front of a door.
“Your fellow Otherworlders are waiting for you, as is the queen.”
As she pushed him through the door, Ezra couldn’t help but note the obvious.
She’d never answered his question.
----------------------------------------
“Holy shit!”
“It’s Ezra—“
“I thought he’d died!?”
A cacophony of voices exploded out around Ezra. Students from his school, most of them still dressed in their casual clothes. Most of them Ezra didn’t know. And the ones he knew, he didn’t particularly care for.
“What are you doing?” Ezra said. “Quit crowding me.”
“Dude, we thought you got merc’d!” One of the students said. “Steve said that he didn’t know what happened to you and Charles hasn’t said a word! Not to mention, where on earth is Jack?”
Who the hell was Steve and Jack?
“Is it true you killed a monster?” A girl said. “All the guards and servants have been talking about it!”
A guy shook his head. “They said it was, like, a hundred feet tall. Man, I had no idea you were that badass—“
“Alright, stop,” Ezra said. “Let me clear things up. The monster was weak. Like, what a slime would be in an RPG. We did almost die, but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as you think.”
There was a collective beat of silence.
“So you almost died to a slime?” he said. “That’s kind of lame.”
The interest died out and students shuffled away from him. Charles looked in Ezra’s direction, an unknown expression on his face.
“Ah, um, Ezra, are you okay?” a new voice said.
Ezra’s eyes rolled over to the side where the voice was coming from.
A Japanese girl with straight bangs and long hair stared at him. She had a thin and slight figure so wispy that one got the feeling that she’d fall over from a stiff breeze. Her clothing hid this well, she was wearing a long, loose-fitting dress that almost reached to her ankles, and on top of it was the school jacket.
Yes, Ezra would recognize that figure anywhere.
“I’m fine, Yuki.”
Yuki spoke, her voice as quiet as a whisper.
“It must’ve been terrifying, almost dying. We were lucky. Most of us appeared in the castle. The rest just popped up in safe locations. No one was in danger.”
“Yeah, I wish that’d been me.”
Yuki’s eyes strained and her lips drew into a loose frown. “Is it true that Jack died?”
“Uh, Jack?”
“You know. Charles’s friend? I don’t see him anywhere.”
Ohhhhh. Lackey 1. Right.
“Yeah, he’s dead,” Ezra said.
Yuki’s jaw dropped. She blinked, tears coming to her eyes. “I can’t believe it. It was only yesterday.”
Ezra made a sigh in the back of his throat, then reached up his hand at the collar of his shirt and adjusted it. He looked around as inconspicuously as he could. Charles glared at him with hatred so intense that it felt like fire was burning in his eyes.
Ezra ignored him and patted Yuki’s back awkwardly.
“There, there, it’ll be better, I guess.”
Yuki sniffled, raised her hands to her eyes, and dried them by rubbing them. “You’re right. Supposedly the queen is very kind. She’ll help us. It’s all uphill from here.”
Ezra didn’t agree. There was a nasty feeling about it because of what Synica said. The queen didn’t have their best interests in mind, Ezra was certain of that much. On top of that, Synica had basically said his life was hanging by a string, but what could he have done? Lie? No, surely Synica would’ve seen through such a trick. And then there were the implications of what Synica had said. Did this ‘Demon Lord’ have a personal interest in him? If so, why?
He turned toward Yuki.
“Say, have you seen anything weird in your System?” he said.
“Weird?”
“Yeah, like… an error, or glitched-out text?”
Yuki shrunk into herself and looked away from Ezra. “No, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
The front door opened.
A tall, regal woman dressed with an emerald green shawl strode out through the door. Her footsteps were slow and measured, forcing the people to her side to keep pace with her, and on top of her head was a crown with a single pale green gem. Lines and blemishes pressed into her plastic-perfect face. She wasn’t old—Ezra could tell that much, but stress had worn away at her features. At least, that’s what it looked like.
As soon as she was within a few strides of the students, she smiled.
“Greetings, Otherworlders. My name is Queen Lysandra. I welcome you to the kingdom of Cortia.”
Lysandra looked over at them from left to right. Her gaze lingered on Ezra’s figure for a few short seconds. It was so fast it seemed to be an illusion.
Ezra shivered.
“Now then, I’m sure you have many questions,” she said. “And I will be happy to answer them.”