Freeday, 27th of Janus, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era

The night was getting colder and I could feel the chilly air grazing my skin. Of course it didn’t help that me and Ivan were on the roof of the village’s main office building. The sounds of conversation and laughter could be heard seeping through below us as Alfred and the rest of the old folks were still immersed in their hours-long conversation. Ivan and I decided that the rooftop here was the best place to have our conversation away from prying ears and we’d been talking for hours since the evening about the incident at the lab that might have caused the entire academy to be brought to this world as well as our experiences awakening in the world as ‘users’.

I found out that Ivan had awoken in the world nearly a month before I did in some monster-bear cave on the northern edges of the Kingdom. That’s where he was founded by Hunt and his party and he’s been traveling with them ever since. He also told me how he wrestled the bear into submission with his own hands which was quite a feat indeed even in this world. The discrepancies between the time we awakened would perhaps shed some light on the nature of the transport itself that might have caused a rift in both space and time. But regardless, I was glad I had finally been able to meet with a friend from my previous world.

Next to us were a couple of tankards and a half-empty barrel of beer that I had acquired from old Bertha down at her house. The village didn’t have a dedicated tavern yet, but the locals would usually flock to Bertha’s house for their good fix of beer. They’ve even started referring to her abode as ‘Bertha’s Alehouse’. Who knows, maybe if the village were to actually be given a township, she’d be the tavern owner. But regardless, I was still thankful that we had beer in this village.

Ivan was laying down on his back as smoke came out of his mouth before he took another huff from a silver pipe he was holding. He had earlier given me a pipe but I wasn’t feeling it yet until the air got colder and I began to feel slightly shivery. I took some of the tobacco from a small container Ivan was carrying and put it into my pipe.

“Give me some of that light…” I said as I held out my pipe

“Coming right up…” Ivan took his pipe and shaked some of the embers from it into mine. I let the embers simmer a bit before I went in for my first huff. “Honestly, it’s rare seeing you smoke, Carl.”

“Hah…” I let the smoke simmer in my lungs a bit before blowing it out “Yeah well, with Isabella constantly breathing down my neck about these things, I didn’t really have much of a choice.”

“I’ll give you credit though, these things are one of the best things your sorry excuse for an empire ever gave to Europe.”

I snorted at the man’s comments. It was indeed the Spanish Empire that imported the new exotic ‘tobacco’ from the Americas to Europe. The early stuff was quite crude and incomparable to the modern variants but it was still nothing like anything we’d seen before in the old world. Indeed the cash crop was a treasure in more ways than one.

“Alright, for one, we’re not on Earth anymore so neither I nor any country I ran had anything to do with this being here…” I said as I raised the pipe towards Ivan “And secondly, what do you mean, ‘sorry excuse for an empire’... The first Empire where the sun never set! I was ruling the globe before anyone west of Poland even bothered to know what ‘Russia’ was.”

“Hahahahah! Always so defensive…” Ivan said as he shook his head and continued to look at the gleaming and starry night sky “But yeah, none of that matters now does it?”

“It didn’t matter much when we were at the academy either…”

“Oh it mattered a little bit, though. At the very least our achievements all went down in history and it afforded us at least some clout.”

“Aye, you’re not wrong there…” I nodded as I took another huff “But still though… a different world huh. It still feels awfully surreal.”

“Like one of those anime or manga series, eh? Hahahahahah!”

I chuckled along at Ivan’s statement. Yes, the modern world introduced us to all sorts of new things. Among those things of course being modern entertainment media which blew anything mine or Ivan’s era could ever hope to accomplish. Movies, games, comic books… The indulgence was insane and I hardly could believe anyone could get anything done with those things being so accessible. But among those things, eastern anime, comics or ‘manga’ were very prevalent amongst the male demographic of the academy with all the absurdities in the media providing a useful coping mechanism for us.

“It really was like that…” I said “Complete with this whole gaming system business and some sort of ‘Goddess’ introducing us to the world. It’s absolutely insane.”

“Carl, we’ve literally experienced being reincarnated centuries after our deaths in a modern world with flying ships, portable ‘magic’ mirrors that allow us to do anything we want, and metal wagons that can run without horses. Why are you still so flustered by some stupid fantasy world?”

“Yeah, but all of that could be explained by science, physics, chemistry-...”

“Brother, you’re smoking Tobacco, not crack. Explain to me with your modern science how a 500 year dead Spanish king got resurrected inside of a younger body and put in a school with literally thousands of people like you. I’ll wait.”

I was about to answer but I only sighed with exasperation. “Trying to rationalise things is how I cope, Ivan, leave me alone.” I said “Besides, with what you described, people would think you’re the one smoking crack.”

“Fair point.” Ivan shrugged as he took another huff from his pipe “Or you could see it this way… From what I’ve learned from Jenny’s ramblings on magic, it’s basically just mana manipulation. Mana is as abundant in this world as energy is in ours. Difference is mana can be directly manipulated into becoming something else like matter. So this world still operates on a kind of logic unique to its setting.”

“Whoa. That’s uncharacteristically profound of you.”

“I can be smart when I want to, Carl. It’s all a matter of mindset.” Ivan gave me a stupidly cheeky grin as he tapped the side of his forehead with his pipe. I kicked him a bit in the shins in response as we laughed.

“I wanted to ask, but was the Goddess who introduced you to this world called Intea?” I asked something I was curious about

“Hmm? Nah, her name was uh… Taneber or something…?”

“You mean Tenevria?” I had read that name in Al’s book about heroes as being one of the meny prominent deified Heroes of the Heroic era.

“Ah yes! That’s the one. A real pretty dark-haired lady with blood-red eyes.” Ivan said to which I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows in confusion. Ivan caught this and asked, “What?”

“You’re telling me you saw your goddess?”

“Yea? Why? Didn’t you?”

“No, she was just a disembodied voice and all I had in front of me was my user panel.”

“Huh… interesting.” Ivan said as he continued to smoke as if what he heard wasn’t that one bit interesting.

“You know, you could be slightly concerned about the topic…” I said slightly despondent that Ivan didn’t seem all too interested in uncovering the mysteries of our current situation

“And why would I do that?” Ivan asked me with a smirk “Would worrying about something I have zero knowledge about help the situation in any way?”

“I mean, some curiosity wouldn’t hurt in our quest…”

“I don’t see how thinking about some pagan-ass bimbo goddesses would help us in killing some mangy mutts and their masters.”

“No, I mean our quest to get back to the academy.” I said in a deadpan manner

“Oh… that.”

“...”

“What now?”

“Are you telling me you don’t want to find a way back to our world?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but, look at it this way. Was the academy even our original world to begin with?” Ivan started getting into a serious mood. I could tell by the way he was now sitting up as he put his pipe to the side and chugged his tankard instead “For all intents and purposes, Charles, we died already. I died of a stroke while playing chess, and you died lonely in some monastery in the middle of nowhere in Spain. Our stories should have come to a close then, but suddenly we woke up in a different place and time that might as well be another world. Honestly, I don’t see much of a difference between when I woke up in the academy and when I awoke here in this world. I was just as confused then as I was back at the academy.”

“Yeah well, minus the bear that tried to kill you.” I retorted

“Okay, that’s indeed a point. But still! You and I don’t need much adapting to live in this world. Minus the magic tech and some other mix-ups, the tech in the world isn’t much different from when we were reigning monarchs and for everything else, what we learned in the modern world would equip us with enough knowledge for further adjustments.”

I don’t know if it was the alcohol starting to work it’s magic on me despite the biology of an awakened body, but Ivan was indeed making the least bit of sense as I was starting to ponder on the things he was saying despite still being bugged out by the whole situation.

“And not to mention, in this world we could be more powerful than ever before!” Ivan said excitedly “The rush I get everytime I swing my axe and send monsters flying limbless or freeze them to death with my powers. It’s exhilarating…”

Of course I understood how Ivan felt. The rush of power that made us feel like we were above the world and all sorts of beasts falling beneath our feet with both arcane and martial prowess. To be frank it made me feel like the protagonist of the old sagas or the newer novels and anime or superhero movies. But I did realise something.

“You should know better by now that getting drunk on powers we can’t understand would only lead to problems.” I said as I put out the flames in my pipe “And the world is huge. Acting like hotshit just because we’re a bit strong would make us act stupid. At the very least it’d get us acting like our friend Harry from earlier.”

“BAHAHHAHAHAHA!!” Ivan laughed at my quip “Alright, I’ll give you that one..”

“And besides, while I guess the power-trip is nice once in a while, but, I know for sure it’ll get boring and frustrating soon. If you’re talking about using our powers for world domination, you and I both know ruling massive Empires is not what it’s cracked up to be. Well, maybe your schizophrenic ass doesn’t but remember, I abdicated from my position. All the politics, war, and intrigue… It costed me friends, family… Do you know how much I thank God everyday for the second chance at life that He provided us so that I was able to reunite with my family even under these weird circumstances?”

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Ivan grew quiet as his face became more serious, glancing at the night skies.

“You yourself know that, being reunited with Stacy after so long.” I said egging him on

“...Not a day goes by that I’m not thankful either, Carl.” Ivan said solemnly “...Anyways, I see your point. But we have to be able to get our priorities straight at least for now. Both you and I are no-names in this world and even though we might know some powerful people now, we still don’t have enough to go on to even begin to think of finding a way of going back…”

“True, and I would agree with you there, Ivan. But meeting you here brought me great hope. Hope that we might find even more of our friends here to figure something out. But again, I wasn’t promised a way back either by any form of deity. And I’ll be honest, if there truly is no way back then perhaps that’s that, but I’d be damned if I accepted fate just like that without putting out the least bit of a fight.”

“Now that’s the spirit…” Ivan said “Not gay-ass fear or worry, none of that! But pure grit and determination. We love to see it… But really though… this world ain’t so bad, right? We have magic here!” As Ivan said that, he waved his arm and immediately the chilly night air became even colder as ice began forming.

“Look at this, Carl, this is even better!” As Ivan blew into the air, beautiful snowflakes started to appear as if dancing in the night, glimmering equally splendid with the stars of the night sky Pretty, ain’t it? This one gets all the ladies I’d bet…”

It was indeed a very pretty sight but, “Ivan, it was already freezing before you used your powers, but now I’m starting to wonder whether you’re actually trying to kill me.” I said as I was beginning to shiver a bit.

“Oh you are such a killjoy. Nastja would’ve loved it.” Ivan said as he waved his arm again and immediately all the chill, ice, and snow vanished into the air. “But you agree it’s amazing, right? That’s why I said this world ain’t so bad.”

“It’s not bad…” I said as I rubbed my hands together to warm myself again “But I’d be damned if I have to take a shit and wipe my ass with a stick or dig a hole somewhere like some animal. No internet, no modern showers, no electricity that I’ve seen yet, no phones, no computers!”

“Oh how the modern world has spoilt you, tsk tsk…” Ivan said in a teasing tone. If that was how he wanted to play it, I’d bite. I looked at Ivan with a deadpan smirk and a snort before I started my spiel.

“No games, no anime, no playstation, no movies, no cafes, no karaoke, no K-pop, and most especially, none of that Hentai you’re so fond of!” I said to which Ivan gave an offended look at the last item I listed off.

“I’ll have you know that I-...” As he was about to go on a tangent, I only gave him a coy and petulant look for him to sigh and give up “отъебись, cyka…. Pffft… Hahahahaha! Man, just when I was about to fall for my own copes about being sent here…”

“I indeed have that effect for ruining other people’s moods.” I said cheekily “Arghh, God damn it, why’d you have to make it so damn cold…”

I held my pipe again as I put more tobacco into it. Since Ivan put out his fire, we had to use a glowing ember to make another fire light up again.

“See what I mean? If we had a match this would all be so easily over and done with…” I said as I was busy blowing on a flaming chord to keep its fire alight

“I mean, this world has matches though? I’ve seen plenty of ‘em.” Ivan said

“Yeah, but they aren’t as convenient to get in areas like this one.” I said as I got the chord to light up my pipe and I quickly took another puff “I realise I might have taken too many things for granted in the modern world…”

Just as I was enjoying the tobacco once more, something else popped into my head that I wanted to ask Ivan.

“Oy, can you show me your status window?” I asked nonchalantly

“What'd you say?” Ivan asked me like I asked for the weirdest thing ever

“Have you gone deaf? I told you I want to look at your status window…”

“But why?”

“Why not? You were going on and on about how powerful you felt in this world, so I was curious to see if you’d put your money where your mouth is.”

“Oh those are fighting words, Carl! Alright, I’ll show it to you, but only after you put your money where your mouth is. Two gold royals say that I’m a higher level than you!” Ivan said

“Actually piss off! Two fucking royals? My friend, you can literally not do anything for a month with that kind of money and still be eating well!”

“Oh well, that just tells me you’re too much of a bitch to take the bet.” Ivan teased

“Piss off, I never said I wasn’t in! You’re on, Ruski! Besides I don’t even know whether or not showing each other our status window is possible…” I said as we shook on it. After that, we both immediately waved our hands to open our user interface and not long after I could indeed see two blue panels floating next to us as we were able to move them as well. Immediately me and Ivan turned our panels towards each other as we gouged each other’s level and it was then…

“Argghhh!!! FUCKING HOWW?!!” Ivan shouted in despair

“Bwahahahahahha!! Give me my fucking money, NOW! Ahahahah!” I was absolutely jubilant. Ivan immediately took out two gold coins from one of his pockets and threw them at me with much gusto. I managed to catch the coins and put them in my purse.

I saw Ivan’s level was at the upper threshold of level 20. His stats were focused more on the traditional ‘warrior’ archetype, being focused more on strength and endurance. What was interesting among all of his skills though was his blessing, ‘Blessing of Tenevria which greatly increases his infinity with both the Ice and Dark attributes’. This blessing was of course nothing to scoff at but even so.

“HOW ARE YOUR SKILLS SO GODDAMN BROKEN??!!” Ivan was exclaiming while holding his hair frustrated to which I only laughed.

“Quiet down, Ivan, you wouldn’t want to alert the old folks down there to our presence here now do you?” I held a finger in front of my lips to quiet him down. Ivan acquiesced but he was still flabbergasted as his glare was still focused at me. It was only after a couple of minutes did he finally give an exasperated sigh and calmed down.

“Blyattt…” Ivan exclaimed before grabbing my pipe and lighting his own back on “Regardless of where you are, the world is never fair… How could you who’s only been here for a month at best have already reached level 23 while I’m still stuck at level 20? Nevermind, it’s this broken fucking blessing of yours! Twice the exp from all sources and extra stats from leveling up? Might as well just give you an ‘I Win’ button! Fuck, you’re right. This world sucks Tatar balls, take me back, O Lord!”

“Pffft, what happened to ‘ThIs WoRLd hAs MAgiC, It’S AwEsoMe’...?”

“Fuck that shit. No world this unfair is worth anyone’s effort! Just end me now and let me be done with it…” Ivan finally laid down on his back in resignation while taking another puff from his pipe. I patted his head jokingly to comfort him but he swatted my hand away and threw me a glare.

“Don’t be too dejected. Lord only knows if we stumble across another one of our old friends from the academy and they have even more broken powers than me…”

“You’re right… Pffft, could you imagine if we ran into Napoleon here? I can’t even begin to picture what sort of bullshit he was given if in fact our past achievements have anything to do with the skills we’re given…”

“You know, you might be onto something..” Ivan wasn’t wrong, but thinking about Napoleon just rubbed me the wrong way. It’s not that we were on bad terms per se, in fact sometimes we would have just as much friendly banter as Ivan and I had, but the both of us seemed to just always have a different vision of everything, like during my face off against him when we both vied for the seat of President of the Student Council. But regardless, I’d still be glad to meet anyone from the academy here. “Speaking of which, have you run into any other people from the academy on your adventures? A peer, an upperclassman, a junior, teacher or staff member, anyone?”

“Hrmmm…” Ivan scratched his chin while he was thinking “Not really, technically speaking I haven’t met anyone and introduced myself to them like I did with you.”

“What do you mean, technically?”

“Well, there were a couple of faces I might’ve found familiar here and there as I was in some of the Association’s guildhouses and offices, but I could never be too sure. I didn’t really want to ask them ‘Hey, are you from another world like me?’ randomly and make myself look like an insane person.”

“You could’ve just hummed a popular song or whatever to gain their attention.”

“You know I don’t know many popular songs and even if I did, it wouldn’t guarantee that they’d know it.”

“I mean you could’ve tried singing the academy’s anthem-...”

“I would legitimately rather choke on a bear’s balls than sing that stupid-ass song.”

“Pffft, it isn’t that bad…”

“Bro…!”

“Regardless though, I take it this means that you haven’t run into any of our close friends yet, right?”

“That, I can be assured of, Carl. Haven’t seen any of the boys yet nor have I seen any of the gals. You’d know it if I met with Natsja, I wouldn’t ever have her leave my side, not especially in a world like this…”

“Aye, you’re right… But still, meeting you here, I can’t help myself but hold out hope for the best you know.”

“Yeah, I understand. Not trying to sound like your sentimental ass, but I agree. I don’t know what this feeling is but I can just tell. It won’t be long ‘til we meet with our friends.”

It was a nice feeling to have someone I could really talk to openly like this. Alfred is wonderful and a great conversationalist as well as the fact that he and Rosie were one of the only people besides Blakebow to know of my situation and they’ve been doing a great job of keeping my secret, but to talk with a friend who was in the exact same predicament I was in was just different as I could unload much more of what I wanted to say. I would bet that Ivan was feeling largely the same as I was.

“Speaking of friends, besides Hunt, does anyone else know of your situation?”

“No one. Hunt’s done a good job of keeping things on the down low. What about you? Besides the Lord Count Royal and his granddaughter?” Ivan asked back

“I think Sir Blakebow knows a part of the story but I don’t think he’s fully aware. Besides them though, no one. Besides, I don’t think anyone else would readily believe what we’d say even if we’d told them. Best case scenario, they’d think we were hitting the ale a little too hard. But oh boy, Alfred’s gonna have a field day when I tell him about you. If it weren’t for the expedition he might even trap you here for a good week of just questioning.”

“I’ll count myself lucky then that while he’s been supportive, Hunt doesn’t even seem half as inquisitive as the Lord Count.”

“Alfred will grow on you, trust me. He’s been mentoring me a whole lot and he reminds me greatly of my own grandfather.”

“Well, while that sounds sweet and all, you and I both know it’s good old Granny Bella that you just can’t wait to meet again… You absolutely sick individual…”

“SHUT UP!! YOU KNOW IT’S NOT LIKE THAT!” I said in a panic

“Hey, all I’m saying is it wouldn’t be the first time you got with one of your grandpa’s wives, but…”

“Ivan, I swear to God-...”

“Pffft, relax. Can’t believe some jokes would get your panties in such a twist… AHAHHAHA…”

Just as I was about to give the bastard a piece of my mine, the doors to the office building below opened up.

“Only the best for our *hic* expedition..!!” I could hear Blakebow’s slurred voice resounding as me and Ivan sneaked a peek to look below and saw him stumbling drunkenly while being supported by his knights. They were followed by Hunt and the Reverend Mother Margaret.

“I guess this is our cue to exit. See you tomorrow then, Carl.” Ivan said as he gave my shoulder slight jab with his fist

“Don’t you think I forgot what you said, bastardo!” I exclaimed in a loud whisper to avoid being detected by the old folks below. As if teasing me, Ivan only gave me a middle finger before, as if melting or melding with the shadows, he vanished into a smoke of darkness. Honestly, the pretentious prick thinks he’s so cool. I shook my head before I too quietly jumped down and made my way inside the building.

As I entered the building through the door, I noticed Alfred was sitting back relaxed at the dinner table. Usually at this time of night, he would still be engrossed in one of his studies. It looked like he was trying to get some sleep when he woke up and realised that I’d finally returned.

“Awfully late are we, Charlie?” Alfred asked as he gave a glance at me before closing his eyes again and facing up towards the ceiling as he folded his hands atop his stomach “Just because we didn’t have any training or studies you immediately ran off somewhere to play hooky.”

“Oh it’s nothing like that. I didn’t want to bother you veterans while you were all catching up. Besides, I was doing a little catching up of my own with a friend over drinks.”

“Oh really now?” Alfred’s tone sounded a little curious “Who was it? The young men of the village?”

“Oh nothing. Just with a friend from my previous world who came along with Sir Hunt’s party. Anyways, I need to get some rest for tomorrow’s expedition.” I said as I had already opened the door to my room. “Goodnight, Alfred.”

“Mhm. good night…” Alfred said, clearly showing that my words had yet to be processed in his mind. Oh well, I closed the door to my room before laying on my bed as I started counting down.

3… 2… 1…

"Charlie boy, you have some explaining to do!" Al exclaimed, all of a sudden barging in my room, ramming the door with his wheelchair. It seemed it took three seconds for the old man to process the information in his head.

And with that it looked like I was going to lose out on a bit of sleep again.