These past few weeks at work have really made me contemplate my life’s choices. I moved ten hours away from my family for a promotion at a job I didn’t particularly enjoy in the first place and now I’ve even been hating the job. I’m the assistant manager at work but it sucks because of a multitude of reasons. We were short-staffed with a terrible employee, the store itself is super busy on top of that, and then additionally I haven’t actually been able to do the assistant manager part of it and just end up helping customers most of the time.
I’d go to this job, which I’m honestly just a wage slave for, and then come home with about four to six hours of my time. This me time is split into adult responsibilities, good cat owner time, and dinner, and then I’m usually left with two to four hours of enjoyment. But work has been draining me of so much energy that my enjoyment time is simply eating junk food and watching YouTube and anime. I also like to write but I can really only do that on the weekends when all my energy isn’t being leeched away. I was also looking forward to going to a world-class jiu-jitsu gym out here but that just can’t work out with me having no energy left from work and picking up writing as a hobby again. That part actually sucks because I’ve spent about six years of my life learning different martial arts after school and eventually after work.
Ever since I saw Sebastian get killed with an arrow I’ve been a little less energized as well. I chalked Nateen up to a weird vivid dream I had while drunk. However, that second two-day adventure really honed the fact that these places were real. It makes my escapade with Nateen, even more saddening with that point of view on the entire situation... Sometimes I’ll just catch myself daydreaming about being summoned back again though and maybe I could have done something differently. I’ll usually snap back to reality with a shudder when I remember Nateen or Sebastian’s lifeless faces.
But with work sucking and my cats comforting me after work, life carried on. I was going to buy a gun after moving out here but I’ve gotten too paranoid that I’ll listen to some intrusive thoughts and make a bad decision. These intrusive thoughts grew even louder, a measly week before my dad was supposed to come to visit me, when I was almost fired from work. Granted I did break company policy, but I was being a good soldier and listening to my manager. Basically, some customers’ accounts were locked out and he made the decision to send the product out without charging them nor collecting payment. Normally I avoid doing this whatsoever, to the point where I have lost customers before because I refuse to do it, but I was also confident that by the end of the next day, the accounts would be opened to charge again. However, just to our luck a randomly scheduled auditor was waiting for me the next day at the store.
I ended up getting lucky though. Rather than immediate termination as I thought, I was told I would be getting a final written warning. Which basically means any more screw-ups and I’m gone. This whole stressful situation really had me down in the dumps again and if I did have a gun, I might have already made a terrible decision.
The night after my meeting with the loss prevention lady was when it finally happened. I was eating some frozen Cajun popcorn shrimp I heated up in the oven like the masterful chef I am. I was watching an episode of anime and just plopping a shrimp in my mouth when I saw the blue glow from my eye’s peripheral vision. My elbow had started glowing and it was travelling outward from my elbow.
I was able to plop one last shrimp in my mouth before all I saw was black.
I opened my eyes to see myself on some white stone podium. But the hexagonal podium had some cool circles engraved in it like a magic circle I’ve seen in anime. I took two steps forward off the platform and then looked up. I was greeted by a crowd of people looking at me in horror. Oh boy, here we go again.
OK ignoring the crowd for now I took a quick scanning of my surroundings. The floor and walls were in a gray-blue stone block. Rather than torches on the walls, the room was lit up by grand chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. On opposite sides of me, my left and right, the podium had a red carpet starting on opposite sides where it eventually made it to a door on one side as well as a wall on the other.
In front of me were two sets of some wooden bleacher-looking furniture with people sitting on it just staring at me. The people in the bleachers were wearing one of two sets of clothing. Some were wearing robes I would expect a priest to wear in the Vatican, and the other group was wearing silky clothes like that of nobles from medieval times. Directly in front of me between the two sets of bleachers, but a little bit more towards the podium, was one of the hottest women I have ever seen in my life. She was about my height with pale skin and long hair to her waist that was as black as night. Well as black as me in this world. She was wearing some bright red robes lined with gold embroidery at the edges.
Her face, like those in the stands, was looking at me with yet another face of horror. I took a step towards her, which caused her to recoil from fear and fall on her bum. It was then that I noticed it, a very familiar insignia, right on her chest. Looking at the stands they all had the yellow rearing horse with a rapier cross insignia stitched into their outfits. Some were on the chest, some had it on their sleeve, and one robed priest had it on his hood.
I looked down at her right in her eyes. Even more color drained from her already pale face. I could feel myself getting angry. These people looked to be higher up within the society that has killed a cool dude and a young girl for no reason other than me being summoned by them. I looked at her for a few minutes not saying anything while basking in my smoldering anger. They didn’t seem to mind and just stared at me, faces still contorted in horror.
I went first in my deep crackly voice still more pissed than I expected myself to be. “So are you just going to sit there or are you guys going to call for guards?” That seemed to get a reaction from the spectators, and they quickly started whispering amongst themselves, but that was when she decided to speak up with something just so remarkably intelligent.
“You can talk?” she asked in disbelief. I waved my hand, “Yes, I can, how observant of you. I can even move around, it's pretty crazy right?”
Her face immediately switched like a bipolar chick from fear and confusion to a heated glare when she got up and immediately got argumentative. “I have NEVER had someone talk to me as disrespectful as you just did!”
I shrugged, “Well someone did just talk to you like that.” Her face turned a bright red.
“What the hell have I ever done to warrant this attitude?”
I poked and pushed her, “It is not what you yourself have done, it's what others with that insignia have done the past two times I’ve been summoned. Frankly, I don’t know you and I quite frankly don’t care.”
Her pink face started lightening up back into her pale skin. I guess she calmed down. This was confirmed when she calmly introduced herself, “Well my name is Isabelle Van Wilhelm, and I am the one who summoned you as your master.” She gave a little curtsy with her robe.
“My name is James. So, uh… who exactly are you and who am I probably going to have to shield you from?” She looked confused as she answered. “I am the princess; I don’t think I need you to protect me.”
Now I am confused. So far both times I’ve had to immediately jump into combat, first against some crackheads, then against some bandits. Now you’re telling me I can just relax.
I puffed out my chest and saluted with my hands. Holding back my anger I solemnly said, “Order away Master.” The words came out long and a little bit whistly rather than crackly this time.
She looked at me funny and then started for the people in the bleachers. A man detached himself from the front of one of them, one of the robed men. He swiftly walked up to us and held a bracelet made of beads. He shoved right past Isabelle and threw the weird bead bracelet in my face as he shouted, “Leave us you filthy demon.” And he just repeated it over and over. Isabelle just looked shocked at this.
I slapped his hand hard. I heard a loud snap of the bone and felt extreme satisfaction as he screamed in pain. “You’re the ones who brought me here dumbass,” I said. Isabelle looked at me in shock, “What did you just DO?”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
I shrugged, “Just handing out some proper punishments to a naughty lunatic.” She looked taken aback now.
“What did he do to deserve that?”
“Well, he is a member of your country, additionally he just started acting like a crazy person by screaming in my face. So, I stopped it so we could have a nice civil discussion.” I felt extremely euphoric knowing I’m right.
“Ok no more hurting my people for no good reason.” She stomped as she turned around. Oh no I made the spoiled brat mad…
“Follow me”, she sternly ordered. And I followed. We walked twenty feet or so to the right set of bleachers where all the noble-looking people were sitting. When we got closer the now calmed faces briefly would flash with nervousness but would quickly vanish as fast as it would appear.
Isabelle motioned for me to stay so I stayed. She took four big steps forward and put her hands on her hips in order to make a proclamation. “From this moment forward the citizens and soldiers of this country are not to treat this summoned familiar as evil. I am the perfect example that not all those who summon it have evil intentions. Spread the word, and I expect it to be spread by the end of the day.”
The nobles quickly scattered and scurried away for the door. We started for the big door to the left side of the room. Isabelle gave one last glance at the robed people, who, I’m making the fair assumption, probably belong to their church.
We walked to and through the wooden door at the end. Oh. My. God. This was a fancy hallway. The gray stone bricks were now white smooth limestone bricks. Additionally, the room was a wide hall about as wide as that chamber we were in. Throughout the middle of the hall, making a sort of path was a red carpet with golden embroidery along the edges. And out here there were glass chandeliers instead of the bronze golden ones that lit up the previous room.
We walked on, and there were knights stationed every ten feet. I got up in one’s face, which freaked him out, just to triple-check that it was a human and not a statue. But indeed, these silver armored knights were all humans and there were tons because they were every ten feet or so. They all had a longsword they had planted on the floor while resting both hands on the hilt.
We went through hallway after hallway for probably a good hour or two. I lost track of time due to me marveling at Master’s hip movements. Eventually, we found our way to three doors.
Isabelle explained the middle one was her quarters while the left one was for her lady-in-waiting. I would be living in the right one as it was empty most of the time.
We turned around and went back the way we came but eventually went down a turn that I had missed. This hallway had no openings to other rooms, unlike the others, and slowly widened up until it was double the size of it. Then shortly after there were steps leading up to a massive metal door. The dark gray metal door had a huge yellow insignia on it.
At the top of the steps, there were four knights in bronze armor wielding some sick-looking halberds. The halberds themselves had a dark brown handle and a smooth silver blade. Meanwhile, the helmets they had on had some cool red plumes that looked to be the size of the helmets themselves. The two middle ones locked halberds and barred entry. No words were said. Isabelle seemed to understand and walked off. I didn’t, where the hell were we going?
This entire time she hasn’t spoken to me besides the living situation. So I decided to start walking off and explore myself. But was quickly stopped as she finally decided to speak up.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Well, your majesty, I figured I’d go do some exploring as we seem to be wandering about with no aim.” I retorted.
“You’ll get lost you know. It takes about four hours of walking to get from one side of the palace to the opposite side. There are thousands of rooms and hundreds of duplicate hallways. Now stay by my side for the foreseeable future.”
The last part was a command and so I went right back to following her. I positioned myself to her right but a little behind so I could at least enjoy myself while I was bored.
We… Literally… Walked… For... Hours… just down hallway after hallway in circles. To the point where I actually learned my way around the surrounding area of her quarters... I stopped suddenly in my tracks, “You’re trying to teach me the layout of the area aren’t you?”
She turned her head and gave me a sly smile, “What else could I possibly be doing just walking around for hours with no conversation whatsoever?” I grinned wide and shook my head. “Ok I think I got the hang of it let's do something else. “
“Then take me to the gardens, we’ll have a late-day snack, and I can chat with the other ladies of the court,” she said while cocking her head back and looking down at me. Ok you’re on.
I took her the way I thought it was, A left at this hall, past the hallway that leads to the big door, then another right. And… I led us to one of the Servant Hubs. One of the central checkpoints within the palace that servants can use as a midway point for a lot of miscellaneous reasons. She giggled behind me. “Follow me.”
We went to the last intersection and went down the hallway to the opposite turn. I was close at least. We went straight and eventually, the hallway turned into one of those weird overhang hallways outside. We took a left off of it and went through one of the prettiest gardens I’ve ever seen. There were flowers of all colors here, just name a color and there was probably some flower here. Additionally, just like in the Disney movies, there were plenty of butterflies here.
We went past flowers, bushes, and some ponds with some large fish in them. Until we eventually found ourselves in a large opening with a gazebo in the middle. There were a few women in dresses similar to Isabelle’s red silky dress, but they weren’t as good-looking. Additionally, there were some butlers standing behind the women outside the gazebo.
I think these were the first people I’ve seen besides the one or two servants in the hub cleaning. Besides the copious amounts of knights of course.
Isabelle walked right up to them and greeted them. They all gave greetings back and everything was going smoothly until one of them finally noticed me on the other side of the courtyard. It was one of Isabelle’s friends, she screamed while pointing at me. My grand entrance was prepared so I tried to have some fun and walk across the area like I was a model going down a walkway. This didn’t seem to help because the other ladies screamed. The butlers were just as scared I think and two were literally shaking while standing there.
It took a second, but Isabelle was able to calm them down right as some knights started to appear. I gave them a wave and a small shout, “No need to be alarmed gentlemen, I’m just hideous” The cracking in my voice really seemed to drive the joke home. They seemed to recognize me though and abruptly left.
I walked up closer to the ladies, and one just shook her head while she passed out. Ok I know I look like a demon but now you’re just being rude. Isabelle motioned for me to go and stand next to the butlers, and I did. These guys were super chill though and they just stood there now not acting scared of me at all.
I was there eavesdropping for about an hour or so before I zoned out. They were just doing girl things and gossiping. Apparently, one of those ladies got around so she was wailing in despair because her promiscuity was exposed, thus she was now the brunt of a lot of jokes. Another one’s brother had accomplished some great feats in the war on the Eastern Front and was being rewarded with his own territory in the north. Those were the only two I could care to remember before I zoned out. When I snapped back to existence it was sunset and everyone was leaving.
To be fair we did get here fairly late, as we did spend the majority of the day walking around. I followed back to our quarters. The hallways were bustling now. Servants were running around, we passed a few noble families, and there were even knights in custom sets of armor. Those guys are probably leaders of renowned orders or something. I don’t know for sure though because I didn’t exactly ask.
Eventually, we made it to the rooms. I tried following her inside, but she shot me a glare and just pointed at my door. I sullenly went in for the first time. It wasn’t as nice as I expected but it was pretty good. There was a bed that looked to be supported by a metal bed frame and there was a dresser and a nightstand. That’s more than I really need to be fair.
I flopped back first onto the bed and just stared at the ceiling. I was not sleepy. Not even a little bit sleepy. I stared at that ceiling for a long while. I tried closing my eyes a few times, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. I got bored as I always do and got up and went to do some solo exploring.
Not a single soul was out now, there were a few silver armored guards roaming the halls, on some patrol probably, but overall no one was out. I explored that whole night, I didn’t stop, I just kept making mental notes on the palace as I walked. The main places I now had ingrained in my memory were the throne room, which is that big metal door we were barred entry, the kitchen, three separate Servant Hubs, the garden, the dining room, and the training yard.
Eventually, when the moon was about halfway done falling, I found myself on the upper level of the palace atop a balcony and I just stood there leaning against the railing, just staring over. Below me was a vast open sea as far as I could see. I gazed over, not thinking about anything at all with just a blank mind until Sunrise.
When I noticed the sky starting to light up, I took that as my cue to head back. Maybe I’ll try to sit on a throne. I wonder if it will make me feel like some majestic king. So, I made my way there. Took me about an hour from where I was but I eventually found myself in front of the doors.
There were no halberd-wielding guards here, so I just pushed the doors open. I was immediately disappointed because my cool theory would not be fulfilled. It wouldn’t be tested at all because atop the throne at the end of the room was an old man with a crown. He was smiling at me.