After burying the corpse and wielding the sword, the man clad in a tattered robe once again took to the road with a newfound determination to survive. His cold eyes and overbearing presence seemed to tower above even the highest peaks which surround him. His killing intent alone was enough to make the ground shudder and flowers wither. He left blood splattered on the ground as he advanced at a slow pace. His speed was slow. His movements, at first glance, sluggish. However, each step carried with it the might to crush the world.
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“I believe you have cried enough for one day. You should return to your tent soon... People will start getting suspicious, you know?”
Aki said to the woman standing in front of him with a voice that could only be described as gentle while wiping her tear-stained soft and supple cheeks, and puffy eyes with the loving strokes of his fingers. His gaze was as gentle as his stroking fingers, he handled her like she was a precious doll, fragile and easy to break. Aki's hands moved around her cheeks to console her turbulent heart, he caressed her lustrous hair which her feel a certain sense of dependence.
His gentle stroking combined with his gentle tone made the lady extremely reluctant to part with him.
“I-I a-am terrified... And n-not just me... Everyone else is also filled with grief, despair, fright! They’re trying to appear strong on the outside but… but inside… they’re already at the breaking point...”
Her expression was of genuine fear and concern. Fear, for herself and Aki. Concern, for the rest of the students. Aki was always proud of her selfless and kind disposition, she was the kind of person who couldn’t even hurt an ant, and this innocence of hers was always a type of salvation for Aki's psychological well-being. He softly smiled at her natural display and pulled her into his embrace while gently stroking her hair.
“I know… I am terrified as well. Heck, from what I heard, I was almost killed back there in the cave. If you guys hadn't saved me, I would be a dead man by now... However, we have to be strong now. We’re in an unfamiliar location and surrounded by unfamiliar people. We can rely on ourselves and the other students, so do not make things difficult for yourself and me. Okay?”
Aki’s tone was incomparably gentle as if persuading a child. And in return, the woman reluctantly let out a sound of affirmation.
“Mn.”
Aki planted a soft kiss on her forehead which made her eyes moist with love. Deep down, Aki was reluctant to part as well, but he knew he couldn't act selfishly in his situation, so he lightly pushed her toward the female tents and waved at her until she was out of his field of vision. Following the woman’s departure, Aki turned around and continued staring at the night sky filled with stars. Aki unfastened his watch from his wrist and brought it in front of his eyes. He continued to stare at the sky filled with an unusual amount of stars while simultaneously keeping an eye on his watch. After a certain amount of time passed, he mumbled to himself with an extremely grave voice.
“So it’s true, huh… We’re not on Earth anymore...”
A frustrated and tired sigh escaped his mouth as he made his way back to his allotted tent, which he shared with Vinayak. The camp was set up in a barren location with occasional patches of grass where the mounts had been tied down. There were small puddles as well, indicating that it had rained recently, however, these puddles were rare and were used by the soldiers to wash themselves and their mounts. The thousand or so soldiers which the students had accompanied until now had treated them very kindly and respectfully, and this was also a huge concern for Aki. While the others enjoyed the hospitality, he couldn't help but doubt their motives. As they say, 'there is never a free lunch'
“Vinayak, give me a paper.”
There was still a decent amount of paper and stationery with the class. The only things they were initially left with were the equipment in the class, so they did their best to bring back as much as they could. Vinayak, who was initially laying on the ground with a fluffy piece of cloth under him, got up and prepared a pen and a piece of paper for Aki.
Aki placed the small piece of paper on his palm and wrote several abbreviated sentences on it, and returned the pen to Vinayak for safekeeping.
“Where are you going?” Vinayak asked in confusion. “It’s already this late, you should sleep soon.”
“It’ll just take a minute.”
Aki left the tent with soft steps, making sure that he doesn’t wake up the people sleeping in the nearby tents. Aki made his way toward the female lodgings, which were about a hundred meters away from the male ones, and while crossing over a small puddle of water, he encountered the perfect person for his current objective.
“Ayuzawa-san,” Aki called out while approaching her fragile back. “Shouldn’t you be asleep by now?”
Akio, who was absentmindedly staring at the beautiful night-sky, heard this familiar voice and slowly turned around to look at her beloved’s worried expression.
“Muranaka-kun… We aren’t in our world, are we?”
Akio looked into Aki’s eyes and solemnly asked. Her voice contained a hidden sense of loss, her eyes radiating the light of weakness and endearment. Her expression was grave, her clothes were dirty, her hair disheveled, but even so... Her beauty knew no bounds.
“Why do you say that?”
Aki asked without losing his composure, he was aware that his classmates weren’t idiots, they were the cream of the crop, top students from around the world. He believed that at least half of them had already realized the fact of the matter while the other half would be trying to escape from reality and convincing themselves that the truth in front of their eyes is a mere illusion.
Akio raised her arm, her soft and porcelain white skin reflecting the moonlight, her index finger pointing toward the sky.
“I was already suspicious because of this inexplicable pressure weighing down on us… Misaki said that us being in a world different from our own might be a possibility, but I didn’t believe her… However, after looking at this beautiful sky, I am forced to face the facts… I have been to many places around the world… Unlike the others, I am not knowledgeable about astronomy, but I love looking at the stars, so I know, I know that this magnificent sky is not our own, it belongs to someone else, it belongs to the natives, and we… We are just outsiders.”
Every word that left her lips had a story of their own, a sadness and loneliness nobody could understand. It sounded like she was talking about her life… Her own house… Her own family… Only someone extremely familiar with the inhumane and unreasonable circumstances surrounding her could grasp a fraction of her pain, and Aki was one such person. He could feel something gripping his chest tightly as he looked at his classmate's transcendent face covered in an incomparably lonely expression. He had a sudden urge to take her into his embrace, let her vent out all her frustration just like in the past, however, he was aware that this situation wasn't appropriate for that sort of intimacy, and he had to hold himself back and let nature run its course.
I want to hug him... I want to run to him and wrap my hands around him... I want to drown in his warmth... Why is it that fate is so cruel...?
Akio and Aki had forgotten about their embarrassing display in the cave, the only atmosphere between them was a very heavy one with emotions a teenager should never experience clashing about. Both of them had thoughts which they couldn't articulate, feelings which they couldn't express, an action which they couldn't take... Truly... What a sad ordeal.
Aki adopted a sincere smile and approached her… As the distance between them decreased, Akio slowly lost some of her grief-ridden expression and proceeded to adopt a smile as well. When Aki stood beside her, she glanced at his face from below, she loved him, she was infatuated with him, she couldn’t bear to part with this feeling which surged in her chest when Aki stood just ten centimeters away from her.
“Should we look at the stars together?”
Aki asked with a gentle smile, his face visible under the unfiltered moonlight. Akio felt her heart melt away as she nodded and stood beside her crush, their arms touching, both of them looking at the sky filled with white twinkling lights and a dazzling moon. Nobody knew how much time passed, but when it was time to leave, Aki placed a piece of paper in Akio’s hands.
“What is this?”
“Please pass it over to Arashiro-san. I have written down some important information for her to take a look at. Do tell her that all the information is guaranteed by me and is probably a hundred-percent true. Also, before we depart tomorrow, tell her to talk to me once.”
“Understood.”
Akio nodded her head, reluctant to let Aki leave. However, she knew better than anyone that if she didn’t part with him right now, it would undoubtedly create a lot of trouble for Aki, which she would never wish for even in her death.
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After parting with Akio, Aki strolled around for a bit, pondering about some matters before returning to his tent where Vinayak lay asleep. He grabbed the fluffy piece of cloth which was supposed to be a mattress and placed it on the ground before laying on top of it himself. There was even a large piece of thin cloth provided to act as a bedsheet. He covered himself, and before two minutes had passed, entered the realm of unconsciousness.
He was woken up the next morning by Vinayak and led to an empty spot for breakfast, the twenty-six people sat together on the dusty ground. Most of the students were stinking, their uniforms were dirty, and bodies drenched with sweat, blood, and various fluids from the cave. Nobody cared for hygiene anymore, they were counting on their destination for having bathing facilities which could help them revive. The boys were still fine, well, they were boys so they didn’t care. However, the princesses of the large households were on the verge of mental breakdown. Their bodily stench repulsed them to no end.
After wolfing down what seemed to be some kind of porridge, they proceeded to mount the strange animal whose species was still a mystery. Before setting off, Misaki gave Aki a visit and they talked about some matters concerning their current situation.
They had approximately traveled a hundred kilometers during the previous day, the students realized that they were weighing the soldiers down, but what could they do? For people who were accustomed to traveling in luxury vehicles and private jets, riding on an unknown animal’s back seemed to be a rather difficult endeavor.
After they began to move in the morning, they took a break for lunch, but this time, their portions were very modest, and from what Nikki had inquired, the rations in soldier’s possessions were almost exhausted. This was a cause of alarm for the students, however, when they found out that they would reach their destination soon, they relaxed and did their best to speed up their advance.
When they were about one-hundred-fifty kilometers away from the cave, the soldiers halted the advance and allowed the students to break the disciplined formation to come in front, they were allowed to beside the commander of the group and look at the scene presented to them from on top of the hill. And what they saw dazzled the students, their initial dead eyes lightened up and their pale faces regained color. It was beautiful scenery, a sight to behold indeed.
They were standing atop a pretty large hill, mountain even, and what they saw in the distance was a huge settlement. They could see thousands of soldiers dressed in metal-armor in front of the wall. If they were to descend the hill, there was something like a barricade, a fence that stopped any outsiders from intruding. The soldiers were all dressed in the same attire, they had a green t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes to go along with them. Also, their metal armor covered their abdomen, arms, and legs, the armor seemed to be in a set which also came with a helmet which the soldiers weren't equipping right now.
Aki’s eyes lingered on the bustling city. He could hear the lively sounds of people going about their lives from more than ten kilometers away, of course, the sounds were a hallucination. He could see the city from an elevated point because of the hill. Beyond the barricade lay various military camps and training fields, and beyond those lay a huge wall, the wall’s height was indiscernible from this distance, but it sure wasn’t something any normal human could scale. The wall was very thick, Aki could faintly see people moving about on top of the wall, carrying firearms and bows, there were also several small posts and forts on the wall, small establishments which could hold about five-six people, each post had about hundred meters distance between them, however, from this distance Aki couldn’t accurately tell.
What shocked the students further was that this barricade and wall stretched out over the horizon, there was no end to the wall and the military camps and barricades accompanying it. The wall wasn’t in a straight line, it curved as if to accommodate the mysteries behind it, however, looking at such a huge and thick wall stretch so far, Aki was amazed, this wall seemed like a border. The distance between the wall and themselves was about eight kilometers, and the distance between the wall and the city behind it seemed to be about three kilometers, and this whole eleven kilometers of distance was covered in barricades, military camps, training fields, military tents, etc.
Everything seemed small since Aki was looking at them from above, however, it was later that he realized that this was something bigger than he could ever imagine. The students returned to the center of the formation and moved according to the soldier’s instructions. They crossed barricade after barricade, stopped each time for interrogation, though the commander seemed familiar with the soldiers, he was still delayed and asked for an explanation at each check post. Hours went by as they finally managed to cross all the barricades and approach the wall.
“This is huge!!”
Vinayak, who was sitting behind Aki exclaimed loudly while gazing at the approaching wall. His chin gradually turning upwards while his body slowly falling backward.
“At least two-hundred meters…”
Aki made a wild assumption while looking at the soldiers stationed above the wall. As Aki was looking at them, one of them seemed to notice Aki’s gaze as he waved at Aki with the hand not holding his gun. Aki was startled, but he still waved back at the heavily bearded man.
From what Aki could see, along the wall of unimaginable length, there was only one way to enter, and their group was moving straight towards it. The gate had somewhat of a majestic design, the height was about ten meters and the length was more than eight meters, making it quite the large contraption, and it seemed like they had butchered a piece of the wall to make the gate since it did not have any kind of murals or graffiti or such around it. They had to wait almost thirty minutes before passing through the gate, and this was a chance for Aki to discern the wall’s width.
“How did they make this wall? Two-hundred meters in height, unimaginable in length and at least ten meters in width. The Great Wall of China is a joke in front of this monstrosity!”
Vinayak exclaimed, his voice ringing in Aki’s ears.
“Vinayak, the Great Wall of China has a length of twenty-one-thousand kilometers since it is not built in a straight line, whereas, this wall seems to be built in somewhat of a straight line, so unless this world is a hundred times larger than ours, that isn’t possible. Also, stop joking about one of our world’s wonders.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
After they passed through the huge gate, they were again thrown into the sight of military camps and half-naked men running around. However, this time, they weren’t stopped for checking and marched forward without any interruptions. After about three kilometers of riding, they reached what seemed to be another, much smaller, and less imposing version of the wall which stretched for the same length as the real thing did. This was more like a thicker version of the fence rather than a wall, and this time the gate which stood proudly had an aesthetic superiority about it. There were many unknown creatures engraved on the huge gate, the were words carved from the metal on top of the gate which seemed to be indicating this location’s name. And beyond the gate, there lied the city.
As the group passed the final checkpoint and entered the city, the students suddenly felt their bodies fill with life. It was a real city with real people. There were shops, stalls, and buildings. People were moving about and living their daily lives. The city of more-or-less was like their cities... However, one thing which stood out was that the buildings mostly seemed to be limited to five-storeys or less. The materials seemed to be primitive and less reliable in the student’s eyes as they had rarely seen buildings being constructed from just bricks. There were no layers above the bricks, no paint, no sign of cement, and no sign of glass. Yes, there were windows, but they just seemed like holes in the brick walls covered with grills from this perspective, there was no glass, the only thing stopping anybody from entering the houses were the metallic grills, for better or for worse.
One could say that the students were spoiled by the infrastructural superiority, but it was a fact that the buildings and such were primitive in construction when compared to the modern buildings. Even the stores seem to be compact compared to the supermarkets they were used to. The people weren't holding smartphones in their hands, their hands clasped their partners, and for the more unfortunate, they were holding bags and such. They came across many types of buildings, and each one of them stupified Aki and made him observe them with even more enthusiasm.
As they moved, the mount’s feet stomped on the road which was similarly constructed from bricks. The only thing distinguishing one type of brick from another was their size and color. However, nothing of this sort mattered anymore, the student’s curious and hungry gazes moved about unceasingly and anything and everything present was able to catch their fancy.
“Hey... Aki... Isn’t this strange…?”
“What is?”
“I’ve been looking at women ever since we entered, and I haven’t seen a single sub-par looking woman yet. Every woman is beautiful and every man seems handsome. Also, why does it seem like everybody is white and has big eyes here? Is this foreign? Are we in America or something? Are all the people in America attractive-looking.”
"Stop staring at women! Do you want me to tell Ohori-san that you were ogling at women!?"
Aki was astonished at Vinayak’s words. Aki’s gaze was concentrated on the primitive infrastructure, however, he completely ignored the existence of people. After reprimanding Vinayak, Aki also sought out the 'women' his friend talked about, and what he saw was truly captivating.
“You are right.”
Aki said while turning his head to look at the people giving way for the soldier group to advance. Since the road wasn’t very wide, the student group was allowed to independently move with the soldiers covering them from the front and back, and because of their low hierarchical standings, Vinayak and Aki’s horse was on the outside of the ring, exposed to the people who stood by, watching the students move.
“There seems to be something else…”
Aki muttered to himself, but he immediately shook his head, abandoning the thought.
I’ve been reading way too many psychology books. There is no way that it can be true... Right?
Following behind the soldiers obediently without raising and complaints, they were led to the middle of the city. Although they had to cross various narrow paths and suffer endless suffering on the animal-backs, it all seemed worth it when they reached their destination. The building at the exact middle of the city truly shook the students' spirit, positively. It was a castle, in any way one cuts it, it was a huge, white, and dazzling castle. The humongous castle itself was in the middle, more shocking was the area that the entire property covered. Aki could see fields, mansions, paths, mini-lakes, benches, gardens, trees, and whatnot. The castle's height itself exceeded any of the buildings in the whole city, it acted as the center and origin, it radiated tranquility and peace. Subconsciously, all the students were hoping to be led to the said white castle. However, the reality isn't so warm and accommodating...
The place they were dropped off at was a much smaller version of the white castle. Honestly, it was more of a huge mansion than a castle, beside the color and size discrepancy, the two pieces of infrastructure were quite similar in superficial appearance. The area that the mansion covered was relatively huge, there were gardens and fields in the vicinity of the mansion building, making it an enviable residence, even for the students. The mansion was supposed to be just beside the white castle, however, due to the sheer amount of area that the castle covered, the main castle building and the mansion building had more than four kilometers of distance between them.
After the ‘head’ students discussed the current situation, the commander himself led the students into the mansion after a bit of what seemed to be sweet persuasion. They were stopped at the gate by the guards who were dressed in the same clothing as the soldiers who they traveled with. However, after the commander pulled out a metal token, they were respectfully welcomed into the property. The path that stretched to the mansion from the gate was very long, and since the students were in dire conditions, their walking speed was considerably slow. The greenery and plantation on both sides of the path was a sight to behold, the fresh smell of the flowers and the refreshing and pure air revitalized the student’s spirits.
Fifteen minutes later, they were standing in an enormous hall. The floor was covered with a red carpet and the students were served with water to drink. The halls' ceiling was high and an enormous chandelier hung from the top. The only people present inside the hall except the students were five maids and two butlers, or so the students perceived them to be. The women were standing in a line, their head lowered and hands clasped in front of their abdomen. Their etiquette seemed like that of a servant, however, their attires were that of harlots or prostitutes. A brown piece of cloth covering the crotchal area, and another piece of cloth covering the breasts, and except for that, everything was left bare for the eye to see. All five of the women were extremely beautiful and charming from the student’s perspective, and looking at the alluring women dressed up so flirtatiously, the boys had to try their best to hold themselves back. They couldn't be blamed, the pure white and enticing thighs, the narrow waist, and soft arms. Mature charm wafting off of their whole being, these were highly 'trained' women. How could these adolescent males full of hormones not be enticed?
The men, however, were dressed in what seemed to be a less classy version of the black suit from their world. It was a black robe covering the upper body and arms with black colored pants and shoes to go along with it. In contrast to the timid and extremely respectful appearance of the women, the men seemed to be less timid and were standing with their bodies straight and chest puffed out. The men were handsome beyond compare and seemed to be in their twenties, which drew the female students' attention.
Vinayak was doing his best to restrain his hungry stare which couldn't leave the women's voluptuous bodies, and while Aki was looking around the hall, observing the fine construction and the expensive chandelier, through one of the corridors leading into the hall, two men entered the hall to face the confused and slightly afraid students.
The man was dressed in a luxurious robe that had a shine to it as if it was made from gold or silver. Although the design was not something the students could recognize, there were some artistic designs embroidered on the man's robe.
His height reached one-hundred-ninety centimeters and his face was quite handsome with brown hair and blue eyes. Accompanying him was the same commander along with whom the students had entered this mansion. The students formed a semi-circle with the two men in the addressing positions, and when everybody seemed to be mentally prepared for the worst, the man clad in the purple robe spoke up.
“I, Shainaq Jawaz, welcome you all to the city of Masquara.”
“Eh!?”
All the students, including the indifferent yet amused Asahi, and the calm and composed Aki, raised their voices in surprise when they realized that they could understand what the man in front of them had said.