Sleep. That was simple enough notion, but it was actually hard to do in practice. I turned over in my bed, the mattress sinking slightly to accommodate me. The white nightgown I was dressed in felt like I was wearing air, though without the uncomfortable feeling of actually being nude. What was it made of?  Everything was of such a high quality that it was the first time in my life that I felt something like it. I had expected that this kind of setting would be so far backwards in comparison to the modern age I came from, but it seemed not. The only reason I could think of was that it was because of Ranzel. He did come from the future, technically…sort of.

He was the son that I never had, which still felt unreal to me. I turned so I was facing the ceiling once again. That was probably one of the reasons that I couldn’t sleep. The mere idea of it was so fantastical and strange, but was it really weirder than being teleported to a different world? I thought I had a pretty open mind from all the anime I have seen as well as the manga and novels I have read. Yet, it still struck me as something I couldn’t quite feel as real and tangible. If things had gone differently four years ago, I could have became a teenage mother.

Teen pregnancy, huh? I think it was a good thing that it didn’t happen to me. My life would have been pretty much ruined.

But on the other hand, that also meant that he was never born. That made me feel bad for thinking of how glad I was, but what were the chances of him being born anyways? Another child could easily have been born since there was like what, millions of different tiny lives in one goop? No, it was probably just a thousand or something. In any case, that was a once in the lifetime chance so it wasn’t something I should feel bad about it. I mean, did I ever meet his father anyways? Ranzel really didn’t look like anyone I knew besides…well, me. That chin, that nose, those eyes, and that hair. Maybe even that cheekbone if I looked closely enough.

Sighing deeply, I slowly sat up. It looked like I wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight. Therefore, I should organize my thoughts instead of just lying about listlessly. Scooting to the side of the bed, I swung my feet out and felt along the carpeted floor for my slippers. After a little bit of groping in the dark with my toes, I found the pair and slipped them on. My joints creaked as I stood up and stretched. Walking over to the curtains, I pulled them apart.

The night’s sky stared out at me, illuminated by the red and blue moons—wait what?

My head snapped up, and I gazed at the two moons that lit up the black of night. Alongside them was the sparkle of stars, glistening like diamonds in the sky. I licked my lips as I continued to stare. It was just so strange. A blue moon and a red moon. Those kinds of colors were only found from rare phenomenon on Earth. I could even remember a time back then when I was lying on the grass of a field, looking up at the stars with friends. It was a simpler time, watching the stars gradually fall away, leaving a trail behind. Back then, that once in a decade series of falling stars left its mark on me. I never did study a bit about astrology, but I always loved to stare at the night’s beauty.

I felt like a child, looking up at these stars with new eyes. Even though I knew they wouldn’t be here, I looked for some of the more well-known constellations. The Big Dipper, the North Star, and Scorpius. Of course, I didn’t find them, but I still tried to match them up in any case. Some of the star formations came close, but not close enough. While I was immersed in the stars, I almost didn’t notice the almost quiet knocking on the door. I blinked and turned to face that direction.

“Who is it?”

From behind the door, I heard a muffled voice: “Your Highness, this is your faithful maid, Alina.”

“Come in.”

The door slowly opened as a tall maid stepped into the room. In her hands was a tray of tea and a plate of biscuits. I blinked in surprise.

“How did you know I was awake?”

“One of the guards in the gardens saw that your curtains were open and that you were staring at the moons.” I nodded my head slightly as she set the tray down at a nearby table. I should have expected that; guards were always be active no matter the time for important locations like the palace. The only reason I didn’t see them was probably because I didn’t look down. Without hesitation, I walked over to circular table and took a seat at one of the four chairs. I motioned for her to take a seat as well, but she shook her head. “It would not be proper, my Lady.”

“I’d prefer if you drink with me. Being stared at while I’m the only one drinking makes me nervous.”

The maid looked conflicted but in the end, she relented and took a seat on my right. I suppose she wanted to be close enough to pour me more tea when the time comes.

“I’m still confused about everything here.”

“If you have any questions, Your Highness, you may ask them of me. I will endeavor to answer them to the best of my abilities.” Alina placed a cup in front of both of us and careful poured the tea from the teapot.

“You don’t have to if the question hits on a private matter.”

“Hits?”

“Um, touches. That is, I mean, if the question infringes on things you would rather not say.”

“You do not have to worry about that, Your Highness. All of my being is solely devoted to the palace.”

“That’s very dedicated of you,” I said as I took the teacup into my hands and looked down at it. It was a brownish hue, but I could smell a hint of Cinnamon. “I wouldn’t be able to do the same if I were in the same position.”

“You flatter me, my Lady.”

“It’s not flatter,” I said bluntly. “It’s fact.”

“T-thank you, my Lady. I will endeavor to be worthy of your praise.”

I merely sighed in response. It was hard to really talk to her when it felt like there was a veil between us. Still, I had some questions, and she was the closest at hand to answer them. I took a sip of the tea and immediately grimaced.

“Your Highness! Is the tea not to your liking? I can brew another to your taste.” Alina got up from her seat, but I quickly motioned her down.

“It’s fine. I just never really liked tea in the first place. I’m more of a fan of coffee.”

“I will make a batch immediately.”

“Stop, stop, stop, stop.” I motioned for her to sit down again. “I just said I don’t like tea, but I can still drink it. It would be just like eating plain vegetable without sauce—stop standing up, sit! It’s like no matter what I say, you keep trying to get up.”

“You shouldn’t drink something that you dislike unless it’s medicine.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. Besides, tea is pretty healthy, and this will make me fall asleep, right? I don’t caffeine would be good to drink at this time of night,” I said. “In any case, I have some questions for you.”

“I’m ready, Your Highness.”

“Good, what’s two plus two?”

“Four.”

“Two times two?”

“Four…”

“Two to the power of two?”

“That’s four as well…”

“I see.” I tapped a finger to my chin as I thought about it.

“Was there a purpose to that, my Lady?”

“Just seeing if some things were the same as my world,” I said. “Count to twenty.”

“One, two, three, four, five, six…”

I listened as she counted off to twenty. That confirmed my thoughts. The basic mathematical system was still the same. This was important because if there was an extra number added on, it could throw off my calculations in the future. It would be bad if I said something like eleven, but it actually meant around twenty due to having some extra numbers. I could have used some of the more complicated mathematical formulas, but I only wanted to check it real quickly before I got onto the meatier questions.

“So uh history, history. You were telling me all about that System stuff right before I had to go to dinner. Can you elaborate more on them?”

“Is there something confusing you about them, Your Highness?”

“Let me rehash what I know. Fill in any details I miss, okay?” Seeing her nod, I continued. “Okay, so a thousand years ago, in order to stop the flood of monsters, two systems were created by the uhh…”

“Our god, Ranvia.”

“Yeah, him. Anyways, the first one is the Heroes System which allows nations to summon heroes once every five hundred years. The second one is the Age Immortality System, which allows strong people to stop aging as long as they stay within the nation’s territory. Am I right so far?”

“That is correct, Your Highness,” Alina said. “There are more details, but in general, it is correct.”

“Okay, so how did these systems work out for your world? You told me some things, and I can see that this kingdom survived so it must have worked, but can you tell me more?”

“Then allow me to explain, my Lady. At the eve of destruction, humanity was…”

Mankind yadda yadda on brink blah blah rallying and stuff yadda yadda fighting other nations blah blah.

Well, time to summarize. Honestly, with all the fluff she added on, it sounded like something out of a religious bible, so in order to keep my mind properly organized, I decided to restate the history in a much less detailed form with a lot fewer religious fluff to it. In a sense, that was cutting it down to one-tenth of what she originally said. Really, this was just a little bit too much from her. Still, it almost made me fall asleep, until she noticed and tried to make it more dramatic by raising her voice randomly and swinging her arms around. With how enthusiastic she was, I didn’t have to heart to tell her what I really thought of her storytelling skill.

So starting from one thousand years ago, mankind was pushed to the brink. There were still countries, but they were rather sparsely populated. It wasn’t like the monster horde was technically crushing everything or driving them to extinction, like Alina dramatic said; it seemed more like they were doing a sort of population control. That meant there had to be a controlling hand to it, a demon lord of some kind, but it doesn’t seem like any such individual was recorded in history. In any case, the one god left on the pantheon finally got off his ass and did something about it, making two weird systems that supposedly saved humanity. The Heroes helped to drive back the monsters from civilization, though a lot of them—especially from the many smaller nations that sprung up—were killed. However, it stabilized the situation to allow humanity to repopulate itself.

For that first five hundred years, they fought tooth and nail against the monsters to keep them at bay. In that time, many individuals managed to reach the Threshold—the line that dictates if they could receive the benefits of the Age Immortality System—and became known as Immortals. The situation was becoming increasingly stable at the end of the five hundred years. When the second summoning of the Heroes began, that was when things changed. Allowing ample time for them to grow, the Heroes managed to almost completely push back the monsters. It was supposed to herald a time of peace and prosperity that the land hadn’t known since the End of the Pantheon, but that wasn’t quite what happened.

The Age of Strife happened. When the threat of monsters declined, humanity turned on each other. Nations fought other nations out of greed and lust for power. Many powerful fighters as well as Heroes died, and the world’s landscape changed dramatically. Armies rose and fell like water, the same with countries. Hundreds of years had passed, leaving behind the aftermath of their destructiveness. The superiority of humanity had been lost, and while monsters didn’t have the same foothold as before, they were also gaining traction and wrecking havoc. This was the world that I was living in now, one where every nation didn’t trust the other, letting them suffer even if they had the power to help.

Honestly, even with how bleak of a picture she was painting, I couldn’t really say this was anything different from Earth. Nations trusting each other? Hah! It was called economic reliance. If I screwed with you, I would only be screwing myself. That was the kind of thing that would stop them, and that was the same anywhere there were humans.

I even told Alina as much.

She looked at me like I was a blasphemous heathen.

“Your Highness, please do not say those words in public. The consequences could be dire.”

I shook my head at the backwardness of the whole thing, even as I bit into a biscuit. “So what about this kingdom?”

“Please, Your Highness, chew and eat your food before speaking. It doesn’t matter in your servants’ presence, but it would be very impolite with other nobles and royalty.”

“I’ll take that in mind,” I said, even as I kept openly chewing my food.

“Yes, please do…” The maid sighed, but she continued nonetheless. “This is the Kingdom of Ashran. It was a small nation formed six hundred years ago under the protectorate of another Empire for the sole purpose of producing another Hero. That Hero was His Majesty, Ranzel Ro.

“A hundred years after his summoning, during the Age of Strife, he orchestrated a rebellion and broke the Kingdom away from the Empire’s control by disposing of the puppet King and organizing the defense against the retaliatory force from the Empire. Through many difficult battles, he finally managed to win independence for Ashran. Since then, he has acted as King and protected the Kingdom from numerous invasions.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” I said. “I can’t even begin to imagine the hardship he went through.”

“Not many can. I do not presume that I could understand a fraction of his feelings,” Alina said. “This nation is small and has always been small, but we carry an unusually high number of Immortals within our borders. That was only possible due to King Ranzel’s guidance and strength. It is for that reason that larger countries cannot invade us lightly.”

“Interesting. So basically, Ranzel can do anything he wants here.”

“Ack.” Alina choked on her tea. “Don’t say such a thing!”

“It’s true, isn’t it?”

“That’s…While it is within his power, he does not abuse it. He protects our country, and the policies that he put into place are less harsh on the commoners.”

Commoners, huh? Peasants and nobles. I never did like caste systems, so it felt wrong to me. Still, I could imagine the economic consequences on the short-term, especially since most of the wealth would probably be held in the nobles’ hands. It made things harder to reform without a complete wipe, but that brought other problems. In particular, I was definitely not an advocate of mass murder. Still, this was terrible system that would result only in the continued abused of the peasants.

Why was I even thinking about it? There was nothing I could do in any case. It was not my problem.

“Your Highness, are you feeling alright?” At those words, I quickly shook my head and cleared my thoughts.

“I’m fine, Alina.” I wiped my hands on a napkin and rose from my seat. “I think I’ll be able to fall asleep now.”

“There is only a few hours until morning, Your Highness. Please sleep well,” Alina said as she stood up and began gathering the plates.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

As I walked over to my bed, my mind was still filled with all the information I collected. Despite that, I was really feeling fatigued now; trying to decipher Alina’s history lesson from the religious jargon had been a trying experience. When I climbed into bed, I found Alina leaning over by my bedside, pulling the blanket up for me.

“Sweet dreams, Your Highness.”

“Good night, Alina.”

I fell asleep shortly thereafter.

~o~

“Wak…up…ur Highness…”

“Five more minutes,” I mumbled out as I turned my head and covered it with a pillow.

“Please wake up. Your Highness is late for breakfast, and His Majesty is waiting for you.”

“I don’t care if the Queen of England comes to my front door, I’ll get up in ten more minutes.”

A bright light seemed to flash through the darkness of my closed eyes.

“Agh, I already said I’ll wake up in fifteen minutes!”

“Your Highness, please stop increasing the time.” I could feel hands shaking me now. However, from the depths of my memory, I felt like I knew what was coming next. A cold water bath while still in bed.

“I’m up, I’m up, I’m up!” I abruptly sat up, slamming my forehead into something.

“Your Hig—ow!” Alina fell back off the bed and started to roll on the ground while holding her forehead.

I just rubbed my forehead. It didn’t really feel like a bruise was forming so I didn’t mind at all. Mom always did say that I had a hard head. I even remember her saying that if I started crushing cans with my forehead, I would have to sleep in the backyard for two weeks. Seriously, I wouldn’t ever start doing that. It wasn’t really interesting and pretty disgusting at that since whatever was left in the can would drip down my face. Besides, that was only one time! And it was more like an experiment than anything else, just to see if my head was hard enough. On that note, I have to say that I passed with flying colors.

I hopped off the bed and started stretching out the kinks in my body. Despite it being the softest bed I had ever slept on, my body wasn’t used to it so it felt strange to me. Still, I would have rated it ten out of ten, if I still had access to the internet. The other maids were quick to seize the opportunity to dress me while Alina was rolling around on the carpet. This was the second time they were dressing me, and I still felt uncomfortable. I would have told them I could dress myself, but I felt sympathy for them; if they couldn’t do this for me, they would probably be assigned to a harder task like cleaning the basement or something. I knew the hardship of that kind of work life—even though I never worked a single hour in my life—so I didn’t want mess things up for them when they haven’t done me any wrongs yet.

By the time they were done, I was in a brand new sky blue dress with my face plastered up like a China doll. Next time, I would need to tell them to lay off the make-up. I believed that it was better to accentuate my own natural beauty instead doing a total conversion. Seriously, they caked so much on me that I felt like I was wearing a mask. Still, when I looked in the mirror, I could see that I was very pretty with it, perhaps even beautiful in some regards. Then again, I had a bad habit of underestimating myself.

By the time everything was done and I was swept into the breakfast room, half an hour had already passed. I was surprised to see Ranzel still there, waiting patiently in a seat at the table as if he wasn’t a king and had all the time in the world. I even told him as much.

“I don’t mind waiting,” Ranzel said with a small chuckle. “I waited five hundred years. Another hour won’t kill me. Besides, it’s just for today.”

I couldn’t really retort to that so I simply took the only other empty seat at the table at the opposite end. It wasn’t a very large table, but there were actually a few people waiting on me at the table as well, it seemed. I felt like I needed to apologize, but when I saw their tense yet curious faces, I had a hard time bringing it up. To be exact, there were actually four more seats, two on each side of the table. On the left side of me, there was an older matriarchal type of woman along with a teenage boy sporting a crop of blond hair. On my right was a relaxed woman in her mid twenties along with what seemed to be her auburn-haired daughter of eight or nine years.

“Let me introduce them to you, mother. On your left is one of my wives, Melissa, along with the 17th prince to the throne, Regio.” The two in question bowed their heads slightly to me. I blinked. Seventeen princes? That was a big amount of children to have, but I guess that it would be obvious considering that he was a king and couldn’t age.

“It’s nice to meet both of you,” I told them politely. I could see a little frown forming at the edge of Melissa’s lip so I knew I did something wrong, etiquette-wise. However, I wasn’t willing to actually learn to correct my mistake either; etiquette was a waste of time better spent on entertainment. I looked to my right as the king began to speak again.

“To your right is my concubine, Karrol, and the 43rd princess, Lisa.” My head immediately turned from the mother and daughter to stare aghast at Ranzel. Just how many children did you have?! I know there was a Sultan that popped out like a thousand children back in my world, but this was still too much!

“Hi grandma.” The little girl waved at me, catching my attention and bringing me out of my shock. It took me a little, but when I waved back, I saw a smile light up on her face. She was adorable!

What was her name again?

“With that out of the way, let’s eat breakfast.” Ranzel clapped his hands and few carts came at his call, far more than the amount that was served for dinner. Obviously, it was because of the four extra mouths at the table, but it presented to me an opportunity to try out more varieties of new dishes.

I was the first to pounce on the servant nearby to serve me food. It wasn’t long before I had pile in front of me, but since I wasn’t starving, I ate it at a much slower pace than I did last night. Still, in spite of that, I could see the disgust rise on the wife’s face. However, she held herself back, which was something I was glad for. She seemed prim and proper enough to chew me out for it, but it seemed like my status was higher than hers so  she couldn’t do anything about it.

Hohoho, my dear daughter-in-law, it seems like you won’t have your moment today.

…not that I wanted to take on the role of the wicked step-mother or anything. I was too young for that kind of thing!

“Dear grandmother, you seem to have a little something on your cheek.” With a charming voice accompanied by an equally handsome face, the blond haired son of Ranzel reached over and wiped my cheek with his napkin. I blushed in embarrassment at having my face cleaned up like a child.

“Thanks,” I muttered almost shyly.

“Regio, don’t flirt with your grandmother,” Ranzel said casually as he ate another spoonful.

…huh? He was flirting with me? What?

“I was only doing what I always do for my elders,” Regio replied.

“Boy, what do you expect her to say? ‘If only I was a few years younger’? You’re nearly the same age.” Ranzel scoffed. “If you keep this up, you’ll get into trouble. Mark my words.”

“I’ll be fine, father.”

“You do not know the length vengeful husbands will go, even against those of royal blood.”

“I’ll be careful, father.”

“There’s no reasoning with you, boy.” Ranzel turned his gaze upon his wife. “Melissa, I expect you to keep his future indiscretions under control.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Melissa said, bowing her head.

Just looking at this “family” interaction killed my appetite. It wasn’t like a real family at all. There was a huge distance between each of them. I could see that his concubine was satisfied with saying nothing, probably because of the presence of the wife here. The daughter was being similarly silent, though I could see her glance over every so often, like she wanted to say something but she couldn’t. There was a strict hierarchy at this table, and that made me feel very uncomfortable.

I was used to my brother and sister just hanging out with me at the kitchen table while mom and dad brought out the food. Discussions about our day and even about the events around the world. Those were actually happy times, especially since most of the day, my parents were out working at their jobs. Yesterday, they were working late so it was up to me as the oldest to make the meals for the two when they finally got home from their after school clubs. Unfortunately, I had vanished, but I would bet they would still find the food on the stove top. They would probably wonder—

No, I had to stop this train of thought. I could feel my eyes clouding a bit, but I quickly blinked it away.

“Is something wrong?” Ranzel’s eyes were staring at me. Those words quickly brought the rest of the table’s attention to me.

“No, nothing. Just thinking about some things,” I said, hoping I covered up my loss of control. Still, there was something I had to ask. “I know this is a small chance, but is there any way to go home?”

“Home?” Ranzel frowned. “No.”

“Thanks, I just wanted to confirm that.” I took a deep breath through my nostrils. It was now or never. “There’s something else I want to talk to you about.”

“Go on.”

“What am I supposed to do here? I mean, I was summoned for a reason, right?” I asked nervously. Ever since I arrived here, it had been one weird thing after another. Even though it had only been a day or so, it felt so much longer.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Ranzel said. “You can live out the rest of your life in the palace.”

“Eh? But what about lending my power? Didn’t someone say something like that when I first arrived?”

“You can forget that. There’s no need anymore.”

“Is…is that so?” I was pretty confused at this point. “Um, so I guess all the monsters left or something?”

“No.”

“Huh? Then…”

“It was before we found out your identity,” Ranzel said.

I frowned. “You shouldn’t be giving me special treatment because of that.”

“Why not?” Ranzel placed his fork down and gave me a mild gaze.

“Well, um, I was summoned by the Heroes System, right? That means you can’t get a replacement.”

“That’s true.”

“Then shouldn’t I help out? I don’t want to be dead-weight.”

“Perhaps,” Ranzel said noncommittally. “Maybe at a later time, once you’ve adjusted more to this world. It has only been a single day, and you have seen very little of the palace. Would you like me to have someone give you a tour?”

I could see that he was trying to redirect the conversation away, but I didn’t want to get on his bad side by trying to push it. Even though I was supposed to be some kind of parallel version of his mother, I didn’t feel any of that familial closeness that you would think would be there, even with all the weird circumstances. I mean, they were family, right? Though, I guess that was the same kind of thing with estranged family members.

I simply nodded my assent.

“Excellent,” Ranzel said. “I do believe Regio and Lisa have some free time on their hands. Show your grandmother around after breakfast.”

The two looked up in surprise, but they didn’t say anything. I supposed that shows how much power he had over his children, in a way. Or maybe how much fear they had of him. I couldn’t really tell, but then again, this was all new to me.

For the rest of the time, Ranzel aimed some questions at me concerning my life. Things like who my parents were, how did my siblings act, what my favorite ice cream was. Generally, it was kind of random, but I could see that he was intensely curious about my life. I suppose that I would be too if I ever got the chance to to talk to my great grandparents or great great grandparents. That was the kind of information that was usually lost down the line from generation to generation. I answered them honestly with as much detail as I could cram in there. He seemed pretty satisfied by it.

After breakfast ended, the adults went their separate ways, leaving just me and my two grandchildren. Ugh, grandchildren at my age. I felt like I just lost something precious.

“Are you alright, grandmother?” Regio asked as he rose from his seat.

“I’m okay,” I responded as I got up as well. Lisa was quick to follow in line. We started to make our way out of the room and down the hall. “You know, you both can just call me Jen."

“How could we do that? We all need to be aware of our status and decorum,” Regio said.

I didn’t miss the subtle glance he gave toward Lisa. The little girl in question seemed to look down at herself. I might not be that smart, but I wasn’t dense. Wife’s child, concubine’s child. This was what Asian TV dramas were made of. I wasn’t going to let that fly.

“You shouldn’t do that. You’re both siblings.”

Regio looked confused for a moment before his face seemed to wrinkle up. “It’s an issue of legality.”

I thought about saying more, but I knew it was just going to fly over his head. Period dramas were like this. It could be considered the common sense of this world, so I wasn’t sure how to break that notion. Though, he seemed to have gotten the idea that I dislike the segregation because he simply motioned for the little girl to follow closer. Lisa, for her part, seemed to brighten up as she began to walk closer. It was small and something he would probably only do in my presence, but it was a start.

It looked like I would need to bridge it. With one hand, I grabbed Regio’s hand and with the other, I took Lisa’s hand. They gave out an expression of surprise as I pulled them closer to me so we were all walking together.

“See? This isn’t so bad, is it?”

Regio didn’t respond, but Lisa nodded enthusiastically. Oh so adorable! I would have bent down and given her a hug if my hands weren’t already occupied.

Just like that, we made our way through the palace. Mostly, it was Regio speaking, pointing out rooms and talking about the battles and people some of the paintings were modeled after. Lisa interjected here and there, though she got reprimanded sometimes for faulty information by Regio, though it was perhaps a little too harshly. I couldn’t really speak out, but I squeezed her hand to reassure her, especially when she looked like she was about to cry.

Honestly, I thought the tour would take only up to a couple of hours. However, in spite of what I thought, it ended taking nearly the whole day. Of course, we took breaks for lunch and snacks. Yet, by the time it reached dinner, we had only covered roughly half the palace. It was huge, far larger than I thought it would be. I could understand since this was because so many lived here as well as worked here, but it seemed a bit too much. In the end, we decided to continue the tour the next day so I promised to meet up with them at breakfast.

I was tired from all that walking as well as trying to remember everything, so when I finally landed on my bed, I fell asleep right away.