Nobody could believe their eyes.

Darius simply stared, dumbfounded, while Holstein’s eye twitched.

Suddenly, Darius burst out laughing. As much as he found it enraging, he found it equally as amusing.

Yaaro bowed.

But to Holstein.

As he raised his head, Yaaro cocked his head.

“Your Grace, it is proper to bow your head to the worthy. You are right. But you are not worthy of my respect.”

Immediately, Darius’ mirth vanished.

Silence stuck uncomfortably to everyone in the cafeteria. Silently, it strangled everyone in the cafeteria.

With the exception of Yaaro of course.

“Such arrogance will cost you.” Darius said and simply waved his hand, “Leave.”

There was a slight hint of arrogance in his tone. But that was all. He was surprised. He had expected a clash of heads, a duel, or maybe even an impromptu execution. Contrary to his expectation, nothing happened. Only a simple dismissal.

But nobody else was surprised. Instead, the faces of the crowd turned even more grave. Noting the change in the crowd’s mood, he cautiously moved to the other end of the cafeteria, where he could eat his meal in peace.

By now, the tender inside of the bread was hard and dry. It was as good as stone. The meat stew was also cold and unappetising.

The crowd was slowly dispersing, with everyone leaving either to their rooms.

With great difficulty, he ate his food, and like everyone else, retired to his room.

Just before he left the cafeteria, he threw one last glance at the far end of the cafeteria.

Darius sat unmoving, his lackeys surrounding him like stone statues.

All of them glared at Yaaro.

Shutting the door, he walked back to his room with a sigh.

Rather gravely, he recounted the events of his day in this new world.

I didn’t know nobility had sticks up their asses.

More seriously however, he began to wonder. Of all places he was expecting to run into trouble, a University wasn’t on the list. There was no proof to back it up, but his gut told him this:

Going home was not going to be a walk in the park.

----------------------------------------

Going home was not going to be a walk in the park.

And the first obstacle to that walk had already appeared.

“Hi,can I ask you a question?”

“#@!$ $!” Came the reply.

He tried another person.

“Hello, can you use the voice?”

They completely ignored him. It didn't matter. He just had to ask someone else.

“Hi. Voice?”

Ignored again. Someone else?

“Do. You. Know. Voice?” His hands motioned wildly.

Ignored.

Like that, the process repeated fifty times. But every single person treated him like the plague. And of those few that didn’t, nobody knew how to use the voice.

The sun mercilessly beat his face. Sweat dripped from his eyebrows and stung his eyes. The day before was cloudy and overcast. But today was unbearable.

With his head hung low, he sat on the stairs in the University courtyard. He couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the few classes scheduled for the day. Even back on Earth he had the habit of skipping lectures. Even if he went, there would be no point. He couldn’t understand anyone!

At this rate, the University seemed like a lost cause.

“#@! |}!$” Someone spoke to him.

He looked up, but in front of the sun he only saw a silhouette. After getting rejected and ignored by fifty people however, he couldn’t be bothered to reply.

“Hey man.”

Yaaro’s head swiveled to face the figure, “You can talk???”

The figure laughed and sat next to him. Now that the sun wasn’t directly behind him, Yaaro could see him clearly. It was a boy with an energetic smile and spiky orange hair. He seemed like one of those fiery youths who were passionate about sports. Volleyball in particular.

“Yeah, I can use the voice.” He replied and handed him something.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Yaaro’s eyebrows rose subtly, “It’s…” He received a bulbous object with a smooth terracotta exterior. Liquid swished inside and it had a cork at the top. There was even a rope wrapping around it. “It’s a water bottle?”

“I’m guessing you haven’t had much to drink. Drink up.” The spiky-haired boy said.

Unplugging the cork, Yaaro took a whiff inside the medieval water bottle and took a large swig. Thankfully, it tasted as expected. He’d heard a lot of horror stories about water in the medieval ages. Especially about how contaminated and diarrhea-inducing it was.

“I don’t think it was right.”

Yaaro glanced at the boy.

“They shouldn’t have humiliated you like that. It was only your first day!”

Yaaro chuckled, “So it would be alright if it was my second day?”

“I mean!… No, it’s never okay… But you know nobility. And…” His voice lowered to a whisper, “Darius is the Duke’s eldest son… There’s nothing anybody can do about him.”

This seemed to elicit quite the laugh from Yaaro.

The boy continued, “If you don’t apologise and bow to him, he’ll make your life a living hell!”

“I’m Sholin. By the way.” The boy extended a hand, “Sholin Kuln.”

Yaaro looked at the hand, and handed back the water bottle.

“Look Sholin.” Yaaro said.

“I’m not here to make friends.”

“And I won’t be here for long.” Yaaro looked at Sholin, “So let him do it. As long as he doesn’t kill me, I’ll be fine.”

Sholin gulped, “See that’s the thing…”

Yaaro furrowed his brows, “He’s killed people before?”

“No! I don’t know… But… Everyone who’s spoken out against him have suffered horrible fates.”

Yaaro abruptly stood up.

“Well Sholin, thanks for the water.”

And then he turned around.

“Sholin.”

“Yes?” The spiky-haired youth stood up.

“Where is Mount…” Yaaro furrowed his brows, trying his darndest to remember, “Mount Zermat. That’s right…”

The boy simply shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. But the only mountain range anywhere on the continent are the Alvina mountains. Maybe it’s there.”

“Okay, how do I get there”

“Depends how you’re traveling.”

That was a good point. Yaaro was so used to trains, buses, airplanes and cars that he’d completely forgotten where he was. But this was a world with magic. A completely different path of technological progression.

“Alright. Give me a list of all the ways to travel to the Alvina mountains.”

Just what kind of exotic forms of travel would a world with magic have? Cruising on a flying carpet? Hitching a ride on a walking behemoth? Teleportation? The anticipation kept him on his toes.

Sholin looked at Yaaro quizzically. Yet, he answered, “Well. You can go there by horse, by carriage or by foot.”

“...”

“And?”

Once again, Sholin gave Yaaro an apologetic look. It seemed he had never met a man like Yaaro, who didn’t even know methods of travel, “That’s all. I’m sorry, I don’t know what you were expecting.”

Yaaro sighed, “It’s fine. How long does it take…”

“A week on horseback. A month by carriage and almost a year by foot.”

His jaw dropped. From this, he gleaned one thing. He had to learn to ride a horse.

“It’s south of Tuszeldwarv, just ask any coachman and he will help you… if he’s worth his salt that is.”

“Thank you.”

Yaaro nodded and bade farewell to Sholin, leaving the spiky-haired boy on the steps of the courtyard.

Now that he knew where to go, he could leave at this very moment. So why not spend some time leisurely enjoying this other world? Given an opportunity like this, it was completely idiotic to immediately go home. His course of action for the next few days was decided then.

He was going to experience University life in another world. And the first step to do that was to attend a lecture.

And learn about mana!

----------------------------------------

20 minutes later, Yaaro regretted his decision.

After half an hour of listening to the professor patting himself on the back, he was seriously starting to fall asleep.

With his head hung low, he sat all the way in the back. If he had his phone at least, he could keep himself occupied by scrolling endlessly.

This is why I never come to lectures

On his way here, he had peeked inside a few lecture halls. What caught his interest was that he could understand every single professor. And of those he couldn’t, there was another person who served as a translator.

It seemed that it was a basic requirement for all professors to know how to use the voice, or atleast have an assistant who was capable of doing so.

It was then that the professor, a wiry haired old man, clapped his hands together,

“Now that the introduction is over with, would anyone like to explain what the history of magic is?”

Not fundamentals or techniques, but the ‘history’ of magic?

Yaaro looked at the professor quizzically. A hand shot up from somewhere in front.

“Professor, the Lord, wanting to renounce his Lordship over the elements, carved out four gems from his body. One for each of the elements. The elements, distraught at being separated from their Lord, pledged instead to serve the Lord for all eternity. Then the Lord said that serving mankind is equivalent to serving him. So we have magic.”

The professor nodded with a warm smile, “Splendid answer.” And then his smile took on a more inquisitive look, “But then, where does this leave mana engineering?”

The student blanked. Reluctantly, he lowered his hand. The professor chuckled at the lost expressions of his students.

“The Lord, distraught at seeing humanity suffer through the long night, bestowed upon us a part of his divine powers of creation. Today, we call this mana engineering.”

A chorus of “ahhh”s and “ohhh”s erupted from the students.

Yaaro meanwhile, listened intently. Interesting… they believe that a God gave them magic… Pondering that statement even for a little bit however, raised some questions. But I can use fire magic with no blessings… So where does that leave me?

But no matter how much he thought, with only a part of the story, he could never get the full answer. So for now, he gave up thinking about it.

“Students, the reason why I am starting our course like this” The professor took a solemn stance, “Is because I want every one of you to be grateful to the source. Do not for a moment forget where our powers come from. Even Harun was humbled by the sky above him.”

What the hell does that mean? Yaaro’s brows furrowed. For all his confusion however, Yaaro grinned. He felt like a child learning about the world for the first time. Everything he heard about this new world sent him into a child-like glee.

Even back home he’d always loved history: choosing to spend hundreds of hours clicking away at map games and poring over books.

This other world was like a treasure trove for him. He half-heartedly considered staying here for longer; learning until there was nothing more to learn. But on second thought, he’d rather see his friends and family sooner.

Creeeeak

His thoughts were interrupted by the door creaking open. Absentmindedly he threw a glance at it.

His jaw dropped.

And he seriously considered living in this world forever.