Sabatsday, 18th of Febrinna, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era

The sounds of wind brisked past Charles’ ears as the morning sun was shining upon his bare sweaty back. He had only his cloth training trousers equipped as he stood at the edge of a small mound next to a large pond situated close to the northern outskirts of Dansville. With one of his blades on each hand, he was focusing himself on five large stone rocks which he had pushed from the edges of the pond before standing them up. Around the five rocks were dozens of other similar rocks which were either cut in half or broken into even smaller pieces. Charles had been training in this area for over a week since he resumed his apprenticeship to Prince Alfred.

The old man himself was sitting not too far from where Charles was standing, carefully observing the young man that he wished to adopt as his grandson as he sipped on his teacup. As always, before training started in earnest, Alfred had Charles start breathing exercises to better help regulate the mana within his body and to attune himself more with the element of wind. After a while of concentrating and taking deep breaths, Charles finally opened his eyes fully as in the next moment, without moving his feet an inch from his starting position, Charles had launched successive slashes to the air towards the five large standing rocks. As he did so, beams of energy appeared from his sword strikes as pressurised wind shot out and into each of the standing rocks. Soon enough, one by one the rocks started to slice in half and break as after the fifth and final rock bursted into pieces, no stone was left standing intact.

“Not bad, Charlie boy!” Alfred nodded as he scratched his chin at Charles’ progress. They had already been training since dawn and the sun was slowly but surely going to reach its zenith. “Alright, boy, noon will be approaching and training in the heat would give you a nasty tan that’ll make you look like a Moslem, so I’d say we end today’s session here. Besides, your lessons are coming up in the afternoon and you best pray that you have everything I told you to study for this week memorised. I will test you.”

Charles let out an exasperated sigh as he heard Alfred’s reminder. While he had always been a scholarly type, studying right after one was fatigued physically was honestly a daunting task. Charles’ training routine had become a daily habit as for the past week after the return of most of the expedition’s forces along with the retinue of Duke Osgiling, Alfred had given his pupil a strict training regiment consisting of physical exercises for an hour after dawn which included running laps around the village and the pond, usual workout sets of push-ups, sit-ups, planks and the like, as well as specialised breathing exercises. It was gruelling to say the least, but Charles couldn’t complain too much as he admitted to himself that he had never felt better physically before than he did now. Nothing could prove that sentiment more than when he walked up close to the pond to wash his sweaty brow a bit and he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water and noticed the very toned nature of his muscles, in particular his abdominal ones. In addition to his physical changes, Charles’ stats also increased in tandem with mostly his stamina, agility, and focus increasing. He even managed to level up once more due to the experience gained from all the training and miscellaneous tasks he’d been given by Alfred.

Immediately, Charles started to pull out some poses to show off his muscles. “Your training truly has its uses, Al!” Charles said with a cheeky grin as he held his arms up to his side before kissing one of his biceps in jest to which Alfred only rolled his eyes.

“You’re not trying to impress me with those muscles, are you now?” Alfred said jestingly before throwing a towel and a simple short red tunic towards Charles “Now hurry up and dry yourself and put this on. We don’t need you to cause any scandal among the village's young women, now do we?”

“Indeed… Although, if it’s beautiful young women you would perhaps be interested in making an honest woman out of, there’s always Rosie…”

“I’m going to stop you right there, Al!” Charles raised his hand to immediately shoot down the proposition “Honestly, why are you so eager to sell Rosie out like that? Does she even have any thoughts regarding such matters?”

“O Charlie, you insult me so! Is this to mean you consider a Princess of the Royal Blood of House Lamellarouge to be beneath your stations?” Alfred dramatically put the back of his right hand towards his forehead while his left held his chest. Charles only returned the move with a shrug and a chuckle before he got up, dried himself with the towel and donned his tunic before walking up to the wheelchair-bound old man to push him back to the village.

“Alright, I think we should really be getting back right about now.” Charles said as he began pushing Alfred’s wheelchair towards the village. Enjoying the serene atmosphere of the peaceful village before noon, Charles even closed his eyes a bit as he walked, lending himself to feel the vibrations of the wind and sounds in the air to help navigate a bit. It also helped that the path to the village wasn't all that rough. As he was pushing the wheelchair, he finally breathed out a sigh before he started trying to start a conversation with Alfred. There was something he’d been meaning to talk to Alfred about that he still didn't know how to bring up with the man despite him being nothing but kind and accepting. “Y'know Al, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about…”

“Hmm?” The old man slightly cocked his head upwards towards the younger man who was pushing his wheelchair behind him. “And what would that be?”

“Did you remember when I said that my previous world was devoid of any form of mana or magic and that it was far more technologically advanced than Orbis was?”

“Ah yes. Very fascinating tales indeed, Charlie. Though the way you described it might as well be magic, hahahah! I mean, small tablets that allow you to access unlimited information, metal box carriages that can drive on their own… Flying machines to an extent do indeed exist here, but they are still few and far between and are a relatively recent development that does indeed include mana in its design.”

“To be fair with the added special properties of mana and the limitless potential application of magic, I'm surprised the denizens of this world aren't as advanced as my previous one.”

“From my understanding, the technological developments that happened during the age of Heroes was unprecedented but they weren't too interested in spreading said technology throughout the world, preferring to continue to rule people as gods and whatnot. It's a shame that it is still some time before we can once more meet with Lord Malcanis. There are lots of things I'd wish to discuss with the boy-urmm… I mean… man-...wolf?”

“Pfftt… as inquisitive as ever, Al.” Charles shook his head at the man’s comments. “But we're getting sidetracked here. What I wanted to say was that… though my previous world was indeed very much more mundane and technological, that did not mean there weren't things that science couldn't explain at all. Some happenstances remain… supernatural or unexplainable to a great extent at the very least. One of those things being me and my friends who are like me.”

“Oh, what? Do you mean you're special or something?”

“Sort of. You see, the year in my world when we were all summoned to this place was the year of our Lord, 2022…”

“Yes, and?”

“...I was born in 1500.” When Charles said that, Alfred had pulled the brakes to his wheelchair before he turned and stared at Charles who had a perplexed expression on his face.

“Huh?” Alfred said as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard but soon enough he laughed before he playfully punched the younger man in the guts which caused Charles to wince a little “Pfft! Hahahaha! You’re fucking with me, boy! I may be old but I’m not stupid!”

However, Charles merely continued to give him an apologetic smile as he didn’t laugh along with him as he intended. “Wait… you’re serious?” Alfred finally recovered his bearings as his laughter ceased with his face once more becoming serious. “...I thought you were a human though?”

Alfred took back control of his wheelchair as he turned it around to properly face Charles both with a look of bewilderment but also with a slight hint of curiosity in his eyes as he was re-analysing the pupil he had been training for the past month or so. Charles could see from the old man’s eyes that though he was doing his best to remain calm, he was still in a state of confusion. Noticing this, Charles breathed out a sigh before he sat himself down on a nearby rock to try and start explaining himself.

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“So do you want to start by interrogating me or should I give you the gist of things first?” Charles said softly with a smile as he tried his best to show his sincerity. “I didn’t mean to keep anything from you, I just didn’t quite know how to bring it up… I mean, the worst-case scenario being you not believing me and thinking I was some sort of lunatic, but after seeing the situation with even a figure like Malcanis the Dread Wolf returning, I thought that I might as well come clean about my true origins regardless of the confusion that it may cause…”

“...If you’re fine with it, please, go on with your story.” Alfred said as he folded his arms and stared intently at Charles to egg him on telling his story.

“Alright, I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible because you wouldn’t be able to fully comprehend it either…”

“Save the patronising tone, boy, I may be old and crippled but I reckon I could still give you a proper beating, now speak…”

“Oh! No, I didn’t mean it like that, I mean-... What I meant to say was I myself am not privy to the exact details of my own situation. It sounds insane, I know, but if you meet more of my kind I’m sure you’d start to understand it a little…”

“Charlie, I’m fine… Enough of the prefaces and get on with it please.”

“Right, yes. Well, to start with, a brief reintroduction of myself… I am Charles V von Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Germans, King of all Spain and her Empire, of the Indies, King of Italy, et cetera et cetera. When I was born I was already set to inherit much from both my parents. I ruled my lands for over three decades, I had waged wars in order to protect the interests of my many realms and I had done so and juggled the politics of an Empire upon which the Sun would never set. For three long and tiresome decades I struggled to hold together the idea of a Universal Christian Monarchy. I had wrestled with the accursed Protestant Rebellion, I had overseen the defense of my realms as well as all of Europe from the dreadful hands of the Moslems… And at the end of all that, when I couldn’t bear my burdens any longer, I abdicated my throne and split my realm between my brother and my son… And then I spent the rest of my days in peaceful retirement in a quaint and quiet monastery. There I spent the remainder of my life before I died two years later due to my poor and ailing health and that should’ve been where my story ended.

But then I awoke… I awoke in a strange environment that was completely alien to me, it was as if I had arrived in another world. But what had happened would probably sound even stranger to you. After what I had felt was like a brief spell of darkness and void, I had opened my eyes once more but I didn't recognise what I saw. I was wearing strange clothes, speaking and thinking in a strange language I had never spoken before, and I even looked younger and felt healthier than ever! I died an old man of nearly sixty but I awoke in a body not much older than twenty. It was a truly jarring experience and I had thought that I was dreaming. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to find out I had landed 5 centuries in the future in a country and society so alien to my own it might as well have been a new world.

The life and world I had known for most of my life was not too dissimilar to that of Orbis… in fact when I first had awakened here, I felt an immediate rush of nostalgia come over me. A land of swords, knights, feudalism, armies, though I must admit many of the aspects of this world were in some aspects more advanced than my first life but compared to the years I had spent in the modern age, it still can't compare.

I had soon found out that I wasn't the only person in such a predicament. In fact, I had awakened and had been enrolled in an academy both attended and staffed by people in my circumstance, with some even having stranger things happening to them. Thousands of my world’s famous figures from history from any and all fields had inexplicably come back to life and were called the ‘awakened’. We were physically healed of any and all ailments in life both acquired and those we were born with. Most were resurrected with their bodies reverting to how they were in their prime while others weren’t. But the most peculiar part, many were even resurrected with different genders, though curiously, it's always the case of a male becoming a female.

Long story-short, the academy was conducting experiments to try and understand the occurrences of why all of these things were happening in our world but during one of these experiments, things went awry and… well when I came to, I had woken up once more in the middle of the woods not too far away from here.”

As Charles had finished his story, Alfred could only sit in silence for a while. When the silence almost became deafening, it broke as Alfred let out a sigh before he turned his wheelchair once more. “Let’s go back, Charlie, I’m absolutely famished.” Alfred said as if nothing had happened. Charles didn’t know how to react but he did as his master told him and began pushing the wheelchair once more towards the village.

“Are you not going to comment on anything?” Charles said as he was pushing on the wheelchair. Funnily enough, contrary to his expectations, the old man merely laughed.

“What do you want me to say…? Well, I guess I can only say that your explanation - regardless of how insane it sounds - does lend credence to many things I myself had been pondering about your origins. When you first came to this village, I don’t know how to properly explain it, but I just sensed that you had a special air about you, but I didn’t know what it was. A young man who looked no older than twenty, of unknown origins, yet the way you first conducted yourself was a telltale sign that you were not lowborn at the very least. You had equestrian skills, immediately riding horses like you had done so for years, your style of combat was definitely trained and not something you picked up yourself. And anyways, when I accepted the fact of your claims that you were not of this particular world, why would you expect me to be any more surprised than when I first encountered you? This new information you have provided me with is interesting but it doesn’t change much.”

At Alfred’s words, Charles couldn’t help but gain a smile on his face as he let out a relieved sigh. Though there was still one thing he wanted to ask, “Does the true nature of my age not bother you in the slightest?”

“You honestly underestimate me, boy. I’ve travelled a great expanse of this world and have had the distinction of meeting many sorts of people. If you think I’m going to be daunted by someone five-centuries old, do you know that I have met with members of the council of the Elven Republic each of whom had been born before the Great Emperor Augustus had even been conceived. Five centuries would only be half of that. And if we’re counting the years you’ve been conscious, based on your story, you can’t be much older than sixty, hence, if you’re expecting me not to call you boy, you’re dead wrong, boy.”

“Pfft… I wouldn’t dream of it…”

“Though there is indeed, a slight adjustment to my plans. I’m guessing all of that factors into why you’re so apprehensive with the idea of marrying my granddaughter, eh?”

“Well yes, and no… you see I-...”

“You said you had a son? Well obviously you’d been married in your past life being a monarch and all that. But, as you said in your story that many historical figures had been awakened into a new future, would that include your family members, too?”

“Of course! Hahahah… It honestly was basically a family reunion! I met once more with my father who died when I was very young. My grandmother, even my son! There were also some cousins and a few more of the sort. Every year, there’s a batch of new students who enter into the academy and the excitement is always there when we were guessing who it was that would appear next, hahaha.”

Alfred smiled as he cocked his head while smiling. “I’m sure that’d be quite the interesting experience. Meeting old friends, family members, and maybe even rivals.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Bloody hell, when I saw that accursed Suleiman I had wanted to give him a good socking to his face! Besides that though, meeting once more with my father, we managed to talk about a few things and I was able to get to know about him… When my own son came in as my junior, he had a lot to say to me. Pfft, gave me an earful for the massive debt I left him to deal with. Can’t blame him… Though the first thing he did was embrace me with tears in his eyes, the big baby…” As Charles was saying that he gave off an exasperated laugh.

“It must be nice… To get the chance to make amends like that. Saying the things you need to get off your chest.” Alfred closed his eyes as he looked upwards to the clear blue skies. “I don’t know what I’d give to have that kind of chance… I’ve wronged too many people in my life. Most of them I even cared about…”

“The Lord has always been a good solace.”

“Aye, I can agree with that.” Alfred nodded before he took a breath and quickly rubbed his eyes before he turned his head to face me. “Thank you, Charlie. For trusting me enough to share that story of yours. I may not be able to give much useful advice, Lord knows where that’s gotten me before, but I’d still be willing to lend a listening ear.”

“That’d be great.”

After a while, as we had finally reached the entrance of the village, Alfred cleared his throat before he began to talk to me. “Ahem! Anyways. Don’t think I’m going to go soft on you or shirk on your training just because of this. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still my whippersnapper young student, and I’ll work you to the bone, you get that, boy?”

I laughed as I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have it any other way…”

“Good…! Because after we grab our lunch, I’m still going to quiz you!”

I let out a sigh as I continued to smile. The day will at least still be somewhat eventful.”