"Who the hell are you?" Zeigel asked.

The man ignored him and held out his right hand. One of the gems on his bracer began to glow and a small wooden container appeared out of thin air in his hand. He bent down in front of the shard, focusing only on it.

"Hey wait a second! I found that shard! It's mine!" Zeigel complained, but was once again ignored.

I can't lose that shard! If it's related to the portal that sent me here then it might be the key to getting back home!

The moment the man scooped the shard into the container, Zeigel kicked him at the side of his head as hard as he could, only to injure his foot. The man didn't budge even a little and was unaware that Zeigel had kicked him.

"What the heck are you doing!" The girl yelled furiously. "Why'd you kick that guy!"

Zeigel was on the floor groaning in pain, gripping the foot that he used to kick the man.

What the hell is with this guy? It felt like I just kicked a brick wall!

The man turned his head as if someone had lightly tapped him to get his attention and found Zeigel on the ground. "What happened to you?" The man asked Zeigel. "Did you get a cramp or something?"

"I need that shard!" Zeigel begged, reaching him arm out towards the container.

"Don't be stupid. You'll get cursed if you touch a cursed shard. Did you not see what happened to the ciraken?"

It doesn't matter! I need it to go back home!

"Why do you need it anyways? It's illegal to keep or sell these things."

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn out wallet. "Here, take this and stop bothering me." He said while handing him a few crumpled notes.

I don't need money god damn it! I need to get back home!

Zeigel gritted his teeth and reluctantly took the money from the man, not wanting to look too suspicious. He doubt that he'd be able to snatch the shard away from him and get away, but at the very least he needed to know what the shard could do.

"Can I at least just take a closer look at the shard?"

"No." The man sounded increasingly tired.

"What part of 'You'll get cursed' do you not understand? If you come into contact with a cursed shard you'll go insane, and unlike monsters, humans are capable of using the ability granted by the shard, which will cause even more chaos."

The word 'ability' had caught Zeigel's attention. It meant that he was right, the shard did in fact have something to do with the portal. Someone somewhere must've used one of those shards to create the portal that sent him here.

"So these shards can grant people abilities right? Is it possible that one those abilities can create portals to other worlds?"

"I hope not." The man groaned.

"Then what about this shard? What ability does it have?"

The man shrugged. "We won't know unless we use it, and I'd rather not let anyone get cursed just to test something we can't use without going insane."

Zeigel could only curse internally. A clue about the portal that sent him here was being taken away from him and there was nothing he could do about it. It was frustrating to say the least.

Calm down Zeigel. He said that only humans can use the ability of those shards. That shard was stuck on a monster so it probably isn't the one that sent me here. I don't know who sent me here or why they chose to do it, but if I ever find the bastard who did it, I'm gonna send him off to hell!

"By the way," the man asked. "Can someone explain why the two of you are in the middle of the forest without any vanguards nearby?"

"Oh don't worry, we have a perfectly good explanation," The girl confidently replied. She threw her arm around Zeigel and pointed at him. "He'll explain everything."

Zeigel did a double take upon hearing what she said. "Why Me?" He exclaimed.

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"Sorry bout this but I gotta keep where I'm from a secret, at least until I become popular enough. Just tell him how you got here and say that I tagged along." The girl whispered in his ear before shoving him towards the man.

Zeigel nervously gulped as the man stared at him with half opened eyes. "Well? Go on." The man waited for an answer.

I hate you. I hate you so much you masked piece of shit.

Zeigel struggled to get anything out of his mouth. He didn't know how this place worked. Should he say that he recklessly ventured into the forest? What if there were people guarding the entrance to the forest, then it wouldn't make sense how he got in without being stopped by a guard. He could also say that he snuck past the guards, but what if he was asked to demonstrate how he did it. Maybe there isn't even an entrance to the forest and people had to use portals to travel to the forest.

Come on! Think of something! It doesn't matter if I look like an idiot or not! I just need to convince this guy that I somehow wound up here without falling through a portal, but I don't know what to say! Fuck!

The man pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ugh, I think I know how you ended up here."

A cold sweat ran down Zeigel's face as he slowly backed away, preparing to run if needed.

"You two found that juvenile gardvern and decided to ride it and ended up getting lost, correct?"

"Huh?" Zeigel glanced at the gardvern behind him and nodded. "Uh, y-yeah. It's kinda embarrassing to admit it." Zeigel breathed a sigh of relief.

Oh thank god, I thought I was gonna die again.

"Yup, that's exactly what happened, right?" The girl turned her head to see Zeigel giving her a death stare. "What?"

"Asshole." Zeigel muttered.

"Don't you two know that you're not supposed to ride wild gardverns? I know that occasionally some of them would land in Mezio, but it's common sense that you shouldn't ride one unless it's been trained by a tamer. Wild gardverns don't understand us so they'll aimlessly fly around the forest and get you lost." The man groaned. "God I hope there aren't more people doing this."

The man squatted down and leapt high enough that he was above the trees. He quickly scanned the area before landing with a loud thud.

"Mezio's borders aren't too far from here. Follow me I'll lead you there."

The girl was awestruck by his incredible jump while Zeigel felt a little scared, wondering what the man would do if he found out he's from Earth.

"Are you a vanguard?" The girl asked enthusiastically.

"Yes."

"Oh that's perfect! You see, me and funky eyes here are planning on becoming vanguards! We even came here to do some training." The girl bragged.

Did she just call me funky eyes?

The man raised an eyebrow. "I thought you came here because you got lost after riding a gardvern."

"Oh uh, we did get lost! We just decided to do some training while we were lost. It just goes to show that we've very committed to becoming a vanguard."

"Why would you think about training after getting lost in a forest? You're not even a vanguard yet." The man found himself pinching the bridge of his nose once again. "If you really want to become a vanguard then please, stop trying to pull these kinds of stunts or you'll get yourself killed."

"Don't worry! As a vanguard we'll we sure to be extra responsible!'

"Why do I get the feeling that's a lie?" The man sighed. "By the way, I haven't gotten your names. Care to introduce yourselves?"

"Oh! My name's Saliza! And this guy here is funky eyes!"

"Stop calling me that asshole! My name's Zeigel!"

"Alright, Saliza and Zeigel. My name's Reizo," the man introduced himself. "I just so happened to be looking for trainees, so if you two are still interested in becoming vanguards then I'll be happy to be your trainer." He said with a voice so emotionless that it was hard to tell if he was unenthusiastic or just incredibly tired.

"Hey wait a second, you're Reizo?" Saliza sounded surprised. "I've heard about you, but I didn't expect you to be this...gloomy."

"I'm just tired."

"You know this guy?" Zeigel whispered to Saliza.

"Yeah, I heard he's one of the few people who survived the mission where the Earth people betrayed them."

"Maybe that explains why he looks so depressed."

"What are you two whispering about?" Reizo asked.

"Oh uh, nothing. It's an honour to be trained by you sir." Zeigel bowed.

"Right, let's get a move on. Stay close to me."

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

After walking for about ten minutes, the borders of Mezio were in sight. The country was surrounded by massive trees 30 meters tall with stone walls built between each of them.

"Oh man! We're so close to becoming vanguards! Aren't you excited?" Saliza was giddy with excitement, while Zeigel on the other hand looked traumatized.

While making their way to the borders, Zeigel had a few encounters with the wildlife in the forest, most of which were rather unpleasant. The worst one was when a large blue tarantula with wings flew onto his face, causing him to shriek so loud that it attracted a T-Rex clad in wooden armour. Luckily for him, Reizo was able to knock the dinosaur unconcious with one punch.

This world is cursed. This world is so cursed. Why does that thing have wings. Why are dinosaurs not extinct here. Couldn't I have at least gone to a world that isn't so nightmarish.

"Before we go in, there's one problem." Reizo gestured to the gardvern that had followed them all the way to the borders. "We can't have a wild gardvern roaming around the country, especially a juvenile one."

"What? Why not? Verny's a good boy. Just look at him." Saliza pulled the gardverns face towards Reizo. It stared at him and let out a friendly chirp.

"Verny?"

"Yeah, that's his name."

"Well, even though Verny here is very mellow for a juvenile gardvern, if it starts feeling playful or mischievous it may end up causing plants to grow all over the place. It's happened before in the past and it caused quite a bit of problems."

"But I can train it." Saliza begged.

"It takes years for a tamer to train a gardvern, and I doubt you have any experience as a tamer."

Saliza slumped down in defeat. "Well Verny, I guess this is goodbye. The big meanie Reizo says you have to go."

It took three minutes for Saliza to say her goodbyes to Verny, and another three to get the gardvern to fly off.

"I'm gonna miss him so much. I feel so empty without him."

"I'll take you to the headquarters and you'll be able to join the vanguards."

"Wooo! I'm gonna be a vanguard!"