He stood, dumbfounded by what was going on, just like the rest of the class. He had a shoddy, wooden staff clutched in his hand. The peering eyes of everyone in the class made his knees buckle.

What am I doing here? he asked myself.

“Well? We’re waiting, Aiken,” the instructor impatiently tapped her foot. Her annoyance could be felt in her tone of voice alone.

Aiken took a deep breath in attempts to try and understand the ludicrous situation. Just a minute ago, he was having a drink with his co-worker. A couple girls approached them and offered to buy them drinks. The minute Aiken had a sip, he suddenly found himself in a classroom setting, with a bunch of students who all had staffs. They all were green robes, as if they were scholars.

Nothing made sense.

Perhaps, what was the most bizarre phenomenon of whatever just happened was the dizzying illustrations that kept popping up in his sight. Everything that he looked at had a strange doodle next to it.

“I-I’m sorry, where am I?” Aiken finally asked.

The instructor let out a loud groan, “I don’t know why the kingdom wastes money on useless kids like you. Just go back to your seat.”

The class laughed at him, but he couldn’t care less. His identity, location, and the weird symbols he saw everywhere was all he could think about. That is, until another student went to the front of the class and raised her staff. A perfect sphere of water formed out of thin air above her staff.

Aiken’s jaw dropped. He pinched himself. Was he dreaming? Oi, isn’t this magic? This is magic, right? What the hell’s going on here? And is it just me, or am I younger? He inspected his scrawny arms.

A girl next to him was infatuated with herself, and constantly checked herself in the mirror. “Excuses me,” Aiken spoke to the girl, “mind if I borrow your mirror for a bit?”

She looked at him with disgust, but eventually obliged. Aiken finally laid eyes on himself. He hadn’t even grown a stubble yet. It made him panic. He stood up and backed away in reflex. What’s happening right now?

“What is it, Aiken? Feel like embarrassing yourself again?” the instructor teased.

He shook his head and quietly sat down until the class finished. He went over to the teacher once the students were gone. “Listen, um, I need help.”

“Yes,” she stacked her documents, “you do. Now get out of my sight.”

“Wait, you don’t understand. I do–”

“I don’t need to understand. Get out of my sign, lowborn.”

What’s her problem? Aiken gave up on her and left class as well. He was aimless, not even knowing where he lived in this strange world.

The minute he stepped out the classroom, a sphere of water dropped on his head, soaking him. A bunch of students laughed at his pitiful state. Wait, am I being bullied? Ah, kids, still the same even in an unknown world. He glared at the girl who seemed the haughtiest. “Did you do that?”

The slender girl turned around, almost in disbelief that Aiken would even utter a word to her. “Yeah. So what? What are you going to do about it, lowborn?”

Hmm, there’s that word again. So, I guess this world has a class system too. Aiken, being twenty-five years of age in the body of a boy around fifteen years, was a bit more experienced on the life front. He smiled at her, “That was amazing! I’m sure it must come natural to you. You’ll be an awesome woman one day! Keep it up, okay? Later,” he said coolly, then made his exit from the school grounds.

He found himself a secluded area in the school and sat on a bench. Dancing about the air were different symbols on different materials. Wood, metal, water from the nearby fountain, even passers-by had symbols. If he focused, he would see a symbol for the clothes they had on. Whatever his point of focus was, would yield a unique symbol. “Well, this is interesting. But what the hell does it mean?”

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His focus then shifted to the magical test in class. Balls of water, huh? He held his staff out like the other students and imagined a ball of water, but instead, a symbol kept appearing in his head. It almost felt like the symbol kicked the image of water that he thought about out his mind. It frustrated him, and after almost ten tries, he finally decided to pay the symbol the attention it so badly wanted.

He envisioned it, and visualised everything about it, down to the last detail. Although, it was an extremely simple one compared to symbols that appeared when he would look at someone’s skin.

Suddenly, he felt something tug from inside him, and streamed into his palms. He didn’t break concentration, and simply went along with the flow, and felt that strange energy from inside him being focused in the palm of his hands. Eventually, the feeling stagnated.

Aiken opened his eyes to find a mass of water huge enough to completely submerge a human being. He panicked, and the water became wobbly. It looked like he would lose control, so he focused on the water’s symbol again, and it began morphing to any shape he wished. “Unreal…”

“I see you’re having fun,” a woman spoke. Aiken got caught.

He turned around to see a chubby lady in fancy black and scarlet robes, adorned with golden accents. Her staff looked just as amazing as she did. He was so stunned that he got caught in the act, the water he was manipulating began to fall.

The woman simply leaned her staff a smidgen towards the mass of water and it dissipated into thin air. “Natalie Fendora. Just call me Natalie. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Aiken.”

“Y-yes, nice to meet you too, Natalie. Um, this might sound weird, but I feel like I should know you, but I don’t. In fact, I don’t know a lot of things right now, so please excuse my ignorance.”

Natalie giggled, and ushered him along with her, “Well, yes, that’s to be expected. I brought you to this world so abruptly after all. I won’t blame you for being ignorant.”

“W-what?” Aiken paused. He stared at her without qualm. “You did this?”

“Yes, and it’s a secret. In fact, it’s a secret that a summoning like that could even happen. So,” she put a hand on his shoulder for him to continue walking with her, “you’d better be silent about it unless you want to have all the wrong attention on you. Let us discuss this privately.”

They returned to an office, and the number of weird stares they got was innumerable. She explained some things to him, like his background, his family, and where he came from. But she didn’t touch on why he was brought to this world, to this country called Harallen.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss any specifics yet, so I apologise. A carriage will take you to your abode for today.”

Aiken was a bit sour, because he hadn’t learnt anything that he truly wanted to know. Right before he left, Natalie caught his attention. “Make sure to request a do-over on that test tomorrow. Your grades are too low at the moment.”

He nodded and left for home. Aiken had a father and younger brother, maybe a couple years his junior. Apparently, his mother died, but he couldn’t find a right time to bring it up.

It almost felt like he was invading someone else’s life, but the body was identical to how he looked as a teenager before he came to this absurd world. His family however, were different. Everything else except the body he was in, was different. His father in Harrallen looked nothing like his father in his previous world. And he had no brother.

Aiken decided to keep practising the water sphere, and eventually the process for doing it was reversed. The first time, he had to visualise the water symbol, but this time, visualising the water itself automatically drew the symbol.

Eventually, he went to sleep, and found himself in class bright and early in the morning. For a minute, he forgot that he was being bullied. The desk he sat at was soaked in water when he got there.

“Why don’t you have a seat, lowborn?” someone shouted and giggles ensued.

The girl who drenched Aiken in water yesterday walked over to him with a cynical smile on her face. She did the same thing again that morning. Two baths in one morning. That’s so nice of her, Aiken rued. Just before they could continue, the teacher entered the classroom.

“Instructor Watkins, Aiken is soaking wet and won’t go outside!” someone tattled to the instructor.

She glared at Aiken, but then sighed. “It’s too early for this. Settle down and have your seats!” the instructor scolded.

When the kids looked at Aiken, they would find him totally dry. He removed the water right under their noses; practising all night last night yielded interesting results.

Aiken raised his hand and posed his request to the instructor. Of course, she quickly grew irritated, but she grinned maliciously at the prospects of a bet. “If I can make a water ball bigger than everyone else, I get full marks. If I don’t, then I’ll be your mule for a month. Deal?”

Instructor Watkins thought about all her lousy paperwork and was lured in by Aiken’s deal. Aiken was so notoriously bad at magic that she didn’t even bother looking at him when he raised his staff up to conjure the water. Instead, she stuck her nose into some documents. It took the gasps of the students to get her attention.

When she raised her eyes from her papers, she found a swirling sphere of water as large as the common carriage. Her eyes bulged in shock and she could barely hold on to her seat for balance.

“How about that perfect grade, eh?” Aiken reminded.