PROLOGUE
I found a piece of rolled up paper at the end of my bed sheet when I woke up this morning.
At first I ignored the paper. I was still half asleep and didn't want to bother with anything.
After a while I opened my eyes again, and took a closer look at the piece of paper.
I picked it up, and felt a weird pulse emanating from the seal.
I was thinking about breaking the seal and reading the contents, but I noticed that this was a bit too fishy.
A shining wax seal? An old looking piece of paper? And a weird pulse too?!
I slowly started to completely wake up and moved my cadaver from the bed to my writing desk.
I started my computer up and searched the internet for any information to this seal.
The seal has the drawing of two purple swords crossing each other, with a circle behind it.
I searched the internet for an hour at least, without any results. I tried every way to find information on this seal.
I was quickly getting impatient, and after a while, I gave up on searching and broke the seal.
The moment that I broke the seal of the closed letter, the seal lost its pulsating glow, and the content of the letter started to shine with purple light.
I rolled the paper open and read it.
________________________________________
TO THE CHOSEN ONE,
YOU ARE HEREBY SELECTED TO JOIN THE NATIONAL EXPEDITIONARY FORCES OF SALVADUM.
YOU MUST ACCEPT OR DECLINE.
IF YOU WISH TO ACCEPT THE INVITATION, THEN YOU NEED TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS.
YOU MUST SIGN THIS LETTER WITH YOUR SIGNATURE ON THE FIRST SPOT UNDER THIS LETTER.
YOU MUST ALSO SELECT THREE COMPANIONS TO ACCOMPANY YOU.
CHOOSE WISELY, FOR ANY INFORMATION MUST BE KEPT SECRET FROM EVERYONE ELSE EXCEPT FROM YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS.
WHEN A COMPANION ACCEPTS THEIR RECRUITMENT, THEY MUST SIGN ONE OF THE DESIGNATED SPOTS UNDER YOUR SIGNATURE.
IF YOU WISH TO DECLINE THE INVITATION, THEN DESTROY THIS LETTER.
FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE GIVEN IF THE REQUIREMENTS HAVE BEEN MET.
AD INFINITUM ET ULTRA
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CH. 1
I'm baffled. Completely out of words.
In front of me is an intriguing letter. The letter looks more like an old parchment, with a broken wax seal, that I broke to read the content of the letter.
Its words are radiating purple light, which utterly amazes me.
I'm reading the letter for the second time, and I still can't believe it.
This is too good to be true. An escape out of this world.
This parchment could be everything I wished for. Perhaps even what I have dreamed of.
But can I trust this parchment? Is this just an old joke? Am I being tricked?
I spent about half an hour searching the internet for any information, but I took the requirements in thought.
I wouldn't like to spread information about this invitation.
Perhaps I am taking this too seriously.
After a bit of thinking, I eventually decided to accept the invitation.
But now, I've gotta choose three companions.
I have no problem choosing them myself. The problem is that I need to convince them to join me and sign the invitation.
And why do I need companions? What do they mean with the national expeditionary forces? Am I going to a war?
I'm becoming constantly less and less trusting of this letter. Am I simply going to join the national army? Is this their new way to get new recruits? Is this just simply some digital trickery?
But this letter feels... unnatural.
Well, there is nothing to lose, so...
I decided to message my potential companions to stay at my place tomorrow for the night. Luckily, tomorrow is Saturday, summer vacation has started and I haven't seen my friends in a while.
And for the rest of the day, I spend it like I normally would. Gaming, browsing the internet, watching videos...
But... Could this be like I am imagining it?
________________________________________
Chestnut colored hair, in the style of a bob. Light brown eyes. Nose and eyebrows a bit bigger than normal. Rectangle shaped glasses.
It's the same face I see everyday, when I wake up and brush my teeth. The face I see when I look in the mirror.
My face may never change... but my life could...
I really got depressed after I failed my first year of university, and I was wasting my time at home, waiting for the next school year. Days quickly felt like they went over with a blink of an eye, and years felt like they passed over a nighttime.
I want to believe. I want it to be real.
But I could also just be lying to myself. This letter could just be a joke made by my little brother. Or some recruitment for the army, some terrorist group or something different.
This could all be fake. Magic isn't real. If it was, the world would have noticed. Right?
I can't be the first one...
After thinking to myself while looking at the mirror, I decided I have thought for too long, and have accepted that I would tell my friends about this letter. I can only hope that they will not think that I've gone mad.
But I know my friends well enough. They are all extremely curious about anything that is different. All of them have the desire for something new in their lives. Something that is different than the system that we live in.
I'm done with brushing my teeth, and I walked back to my room to take another look at the letter.
The letters still shone in a bright purple glow.
What would happen if I wrote my signature on it? Would my signature also shine? wouldn't that also be pretty unnatural?
I'm checking if there's anything digital about this letter, but it still feels like ordinary paper, every part of it. Even the letters themselves don't feel digital. They just feel like ink should feel.
Ding dong~
It looks like one of my friends has arrived at my house.
Luckily, my parents and my brother won't be home for today. They will come back tomorrow. They went to an island north of our country, mostly to relax and be away from the noisy and busy city.
I quickly hide the letter under the pillow that's on my bed, move downstairs and open the front door.
As I open the door, I see a blonde haired boy, a little bit shorter than me, with a short nose.
It's my friend Jonas.
"Hey, David! How's it going?"
"Yo Jonas, fine with me. I thought no one would come, about thirty minutes have passed after the appointed time. I started to get bored. Come in!"
After about 15 minutes of talking, eating snacks and playing a fighting game, the doorbell rang again.
I quickly stood up and walked to the door.
It looks like my other two friends have finally arrived. One has short black curly hair and big eyebrows, named Ollie, and the other has, somewhat longer than short, brown hair, named Matt.
"Yo guys, come in. We'll visit the convenience store soon and buy some snacks for the whole day."
"Sounds good." Said Matt, as he and Ollie entered the house, took their shoes off and hung up their jackets on the coat rack.
After having spent multiple hours gaming, talking, and eating, I thought about how I would Introduce the letter to my friends.
After making my final decision, I told my friends that I was going to take a dump, and went upstairs to take the letter and hide it in my pockets.
I was starting to get anxious the moment I was thinking about telling them about the letter. My head started to feel hot and I began to feel nauseous.
This feeling. The feeling that you just want to run away, but you can't. The feeling that what is going to happen will be inevitable.
But this is what I want. Maybe they will think that I'm just joking, and that I'm just acting stupid, just to find a way to trick them into believing it.
But this letter is telling me a different story. It just feels too real.
Or am I just tricking myself?
Either way, I've got nothing to lose, and this is taking too long.
I entered the living room and told my friends that I've got to tell them something.
"You wanna tell us that you're gay?" Said Jonas with a smirk. Ollie and Matt started to laugh.
"No, I'm not gay you idiot. I wanted to tell you about this letter I found." I said, while I took the letter from my pocket.
"What's the letter about?" Said Ollie, standing up and looking interested.
"You should see and read it for yourselves. Even I can't tell if this is real."
I opened the letter, and its purple radiant light shone again.
When my friends saw the light, they instantly were interested about the content of the letter.
They all took turns reading and thinking about it.
The first one reading the letter was Ollie, and when he finished it, he was acting pretty skeptical.
"I can't believe this is real! This is probably just some shit you made up. how did you do the light effects though?" Said Ollie.
"Dude, I'm serious, this isn't made by me, but the only thing I want is you guys to believe in me. Perhaps this letter might be something out of this world. Didn't you feel... a bit weird reading it?" I said.
Ollie took a second look at the letter and started to feel every corner of the letter, investigating it and judging its authenticity.
"You know..."
"Give the letter to me! I wanna read it!" Said Jonas impatiently.
After he finished the letter, Jonas started visibly contemplating about what he just read.
"Well, if this is real, I win a free ticket to some college, and if it is fake, then you sure trolled us David. I guess I'll be your... ehm... companion? Sure, whatever." Said Jonas after a bit.
"I don't know what to make of this. Here Matt, read it." Said Jonas while looking at the shiny glow of the letter and giving the letter to Matt afterwards.
Matt had a blank face after reading the letter.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt doing what the letter does, but it's probably fake, and if it isn't, I wanna know where the hell you bought this thing. Looks pretty sick." said Matt.
After Matt gave the letter back to me, I was pretty surprised. Looks like they are all somewhat interested, but don't really know what would happen if they signed.
The problem is, I also don't know.
"So, guys, wanna sign this letter? The letter says that I need to take the first spot, so I guess I'll start."
I opened a drawer that has some pens, and took one out.
"Do you really wanna sign an official looking letter with just a cheap pen? don't you want something looking a bit more professional?" said Ollie.
"I don't really have a feather and ink ready to go and, does it really matter? I mean... I think that this will be enough."
I flatten the letter on the table and start to put my signature on it.
When I was finished with putting my signature on it, Jonas said with a grin: "Your signature looks really shitty."
I replied: "Piss off, I'd like to see yours. probably looks even shittier than mine."
"Sure."
I gave Jonas the pen, and he drew his signature on the second spot.
I made a fake laugh, and said: "Wait a minute, is that a dick? and what the fuck is that?" While pointing at some places on his signature.
"I don't know what you're seeing, but that looks like a fairly normal signature. Don't act retarded." replied Jonas.
While Jonas and I continued to ridicule each other, Ollie put his signature on the third spot.
"Ehm... I did my best guys. I don't really have a signature, so I just wrote my name and scrabbled a bit on it." Said Ollie.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"And you said you wanted it to look a bit more professional... Anyways, give me the pen, and let's wrap this letter up." Replied Matt.
After Matt finished his signature, the purple glow and all the sentences started to fade, including our signatures, until they disappeared. We started to quietly watch.
And then, other sentences came. We all started to read.
________________________________________
TO THE CHOSEN ONE,
WELL DONE. YOU HAVE ACCEPTED THE INVITATION AND SUCCESSFULLY MET THE REQUIREMENTS.
THE CONTENTS OF THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BACK TO OUR REALM. YOU WILL BE SUMMONED WHEN YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS ARE UNCONSCIOUS.
AD INFINITUM ET ULTRA
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I was amazed. I think everybody was amazed, looking at their faces.
"What the..." Said Jonas.
After a few seconds of us looking at each other and attempting to understand what is going to happen and guessing if this is real, the letter started to fiercely vibrate in my hands.
The letter was shaking so hard, my hand started to hurt. I threw the letter to the ground in reflex.
When the letter hit the ground, it stopped to vibrate, and the letter started to burn up.
But it wasn't regular fire. The colour of the fire was blue.
I didn't even feel the heat of the fire. How does the fire not emit any heat? Is it like ice cold fire? Well, I wouldn't stick my hand in that.
And, a few seconds after that, the letter was gone, and nothing was left. Not even ash.
"Did you guys... See that?" I said, looking around in shock.
But I wasn't the only one in shock. Everyone looked surprised, even Matt, who isn't easily surprised.
"What the hell was that? You've gotta tell me David, are you fucking with us or not?" Said Jonas.
"No, I'm dead serious. It all happened this morning, when I woke up. I found this scroll on my bed, and even I don't know how it got there. I knew there was something eccentric about it, but I didn't expect it to be on this scale. Or we all are getting trolled so hard by one of our other friends, or this is actually real... And we will be... Summoned when we are all unconscious? When will that happen?"
"I don't know, but if I were to guess, we are just getting trolled." Said Jonas.
"Do we have to like... Beat each other up? But how will the last person get unconscious?" Said Ollie, looking at us in fear.
"I don't think that we are going to beat each other up." Replied Matt, "but doesn't sleeping count as being unconscious? If so, we can just sleep and then we will see what will happen."
"I guess that that's pretty logical. If it's all fake, we will have a good laugh when we wake up, but if it's real, then I don't know." I said.
I looked at the clock. It's 22:17. I think I should lighten up the mood.
"We'll see. Let's play some more games and watch a movie or two. My parents won't come home till tomorrow, so you guys can stay overnight. I've prepared three beds, so someone will be sleeping on the couch. Any volunteers?"
After a few rounds of rock, paper and scissors to decide who will sleep on the couch, we all had some fun, playing some games and watching a movie. But time goes quick while having fun, and it was obvious we were all tired. I think it was time we started sleeping, because even I couldn't keep my eyes open. Movies really make you tired.
"Guys, I really want to sleep. Let's sleep."
"Dude, the night is young. Are you already tired?" Said Matt.
"It's 2:30 AM. The night is not young anymore. Isn't anyone else tired?"
"I am, and I really need to sleep. What about you Jonas?" Said Ollie.
"I am also tired. Let's sleep." Said Jonas with his eyes closed. I guess he is extremely tired.
"Sure. Let's sleep then." Said Matt.
After a few jokes about how I successfully trolled them with the scroll and imagining where we could be summoned to, we started to get pretty ridiculous.
"What if we are going to be summoned to, like, a world like Harry Potter? With wands and magic and stuff? Wouldn't that be amazing?" Said Ollie.
"What if we enter the world of Game of Thrones? That would be even better!" Said Matt.
"I hope it will at least be a world with a lot of magic. You all saw the scroll right? How it vibrated, how it ignited and how it left nothing? Sounds like some weird magic to me." I said.
"I don't care. Let's sleep. I'm really tired." Said Jonas.
After having told each other good night, we all moved to our beds or couch, and started to sleep.
Today was a good day. I had a lot of fun with my friends.
I am happy with how my friends have accepted the letter and its content, but at the same time, I am also terrified.
What if we actually enter another world? Is that even possible? And how would it happen in our sleep? The more I think about it, the less I believe in it.
At least the scroll didn't kill us.
________________________________________
It feels like I'm awake.
Before I slept, I set my alarm clock at a time that I would wake up at least before my friends would, but it seems like I've awoken before my clock went off.
This is my favourite moment of the day. You just woke up, completely fresh, like a reboot of a computer. There are no worries, no stress. You only have to wait for your alarm to go off, but when it does go off, it all starts over again.
But wait a moment... My room is apparently very well lit. Did someone move my curtains around?
I can see the light through my eyelids, but I don't want to open them. I'm still tired and I am still waiting for my alarm.
And... What is this smell? My room doesn't even smell right. It smells so fresh... I can't even smell myself. It feels like I'm sleeping in a hotel or something. Did my friends trick me? Was the scroll from yesterday just a trick to bring me to a whole new place or something? I guess I'll wait it out. I'm still too tired.
Did I just hear movement?! I think I heard someone turn in their bed... Okay... Now I'm getting pretty paranoid about this place... Is my phone even here?
I stick my hand under my pillow, which is where I always put my phone, but I can't find it.
Okay, I think I am in another room. Shall I open my eyes and investigate the room I am in? Or still wait it out?
After a few minutes, my fear took over my tiredness, and I opened my eyes.
Looking at my right I saw... A big closet, a door next to it, and another big closet? This is definitely not my room. Where the hell am I?
And when I turned around, I saw... Matt lying down in a bed a few metres away? Are we seriously all in a hotel? Why is he sleeping? And... Is that Jonas in another bed next to his? And if I were to guess, Ollie is sleeping in another bed next to Jonas, but I can't see him from here.
I lifted my upper body up to take a better look around, but then I noticed something I DEFINITELY DID NOT EXPECT.
THERE ARE GIRLS. HERE. SLEEPING IN FRONT OF US. FOUR BEDS. FOUR GIRLS.
Okay. Don't freak out. Don't wake them up...
What should I even do in this position? Wake my friends up? Just stand up and leave? I don't even know...
"EEK! A GUY!"
And at that moment, A blonde girl points at me with a gasping face. I think that that will wake everyone up. I'm scared.
"Chaton, Shut up, I'm sleeping." Said the red-haired girl that sleeps in the bed opposite to me.
Another girl, with long dark blue hair, let out a big yawn, and stretched her arms.
I look to my left, and my friends are wide awake, and utterly confused, but none of them want to speak up.
well, I guess it's time to say something...
"Excuse me... do you know where we are?"
Damn. That came out really awkward.
All the other girls instantly woke up and looked at me.
The girl to the far left had short light brown hair, in the shape of a bob. The second girl had blonde hair reaching her shoulders, with bangs and visible ears. Her name is apparently Chaton. The third girl had very long dark blue hair that fades to a lighter blue at the end and... She's gorgeous. I just needed to point that out. The last girl has long frilly crimson red hair.
"What the hell? The other four that needed to fill our squad are guys? And they sleep in the same room as ours? That's unusual..." Said the red haired girl.
"I didn't expect that... this does make it more interesting..." Said the blue haired girl.
"Interesting? I never wanted them to be guys! how will I get dressed up everyday when we need to sleep with guys.. Let alone, what will they do in the night..." Said the red haired girl.
The blue haired girl and the red haired girl started to argue about if we should stay or not, but my friends started to get impatient. We are extremely confused, while these girl act like they know the place. I guess we should ask more questions.
Jonas stood up, which triggered Ollie, Matt and me to also stand up. My friends started to walk towards me.
Jonas spoke first: "Should we check out what's in the closet on our side? Perhaps there are some clothes we could put on."
We moved to the closet and opened it. The bottom racks were full of clothes, all lined up perfectly. The clothes looked somewhat... militaristic?
The top racks had four books. I could read the titles on their spines, they all had the same name. "The basics of Reconnaissance." Isn't that like... scouting an area? I haven't played enough grand strategy games...
We picked some clothes up and wanted to change. We have no problem changing in front of each other, but the girls...
"No, you will not change in front of us. I don't want to see your half-naked bodies." Said the Red haired girl.
I think the red haired girl is somewhat of the leader of the girl group. Does that mean... I'm the leader of my group, since I selected my companions and my signature was on the first spot?
"What if we move to the back? That way, you girls won't look at us, unless you choose to look at us." Said Matt.
Good move, Matt.
"Sure, not like I want to look at your bodies." Said the red haired girl, as she got off her bed. The rest of the girls also stood up, and moved to the closet on their side.
"Make sure not to look at us while we put on our school clothes, or I'll make sure you'll be expelled." Said the red haired girl.
Wait what? School clothes? Expelled? Are we in a school? With rooms and beds? And girls? Which we will have to share a room with? Is this a dream?
"Sure." Said Jonas.
And suddenly, When we all were in the progress of getting dressed, we hear a loud knock on the door.
Who the hell is that?
"Ah, is that our squad leader? If so, we are in the middle of getting dressed, please wait." Said the red haired girl.
After she said that, the door opened, and revealed a man. He had long black hair, and his clothes look fairly messy.
"Ah, it seems the guys have finally arrived. Follow me after you're done getting dressed. By the way, there's a meeting at 11:30 in the first general education room. I expect that you girls will arrive in time" And then, he closed the door.
"YOU HAD NO REASON TO OPEN THE DOOR, WE COULD'VE HEARD YOU THROUGH THE DOOR!" Yelled the red haired girl. There was no response on the other side.
After we were all done dressing up, we joined the black haired guy.
I noticed that his uniform is slightly different from ours. It looks like he has two of those very wide v-shapes on the sides of his shoulder. I believe that those indicate his rank in the military? I don't specifically know what that rank means.
"I'm sure the guys have a lot of questions, but I'll answer as much as possible soon," Said the black haired man. "I'm Isaac, and I'm your squad leader. Now, follow me, we're headed to the main building, where we'll explain the situation."