A homecoming?

Since the farms yield increased and the kingdom became more industrial, the old village's main source of income was now workers from the cities who would come on the weekends to reminisce about the rural ‘good old days.’

They forget or choose to forget how hard rural life was when an acre of land was barely enough to feed a person. Now the town is a tourist destination and had more than just one tavern. It now had restaurants and even a ‘café,’ it wasn’t like the coffee that you had and were addicted to in the other world, but it was enough for your countrymen.

You visit your parents’ manor. Your father still had a forge and works some artisanal swords and armor now and then to keep busy. Your mother, on the other hand, has actually been busy renovating and improving the town. She has become the unofficial mayor with your money.

“Mother!” you say as she hugs you.

“We missed you so!” your dad hugs you and almost smothers the life out of you with his strong blacksmith arms, “it’s been months since you’ve been here! how is the war going?”

Your father thankfully never served in a war, but he loved war stories and thought it a grand adventure.

“Your ships surely did give those imperial bastards a whooping!” he laughs, and you try to smile.

“Richard! Language!” your mother admonishes him. “Besides, I don’t think our child came all the way here to talk about war," she looks, and "are you finally going to give us a grandson or granddaughter?”

“No” Your smile is more genuine now. It’s almost refreshing how simple life back in your hometown is.

“You know you two aren’t getting any younger, and…” almost refreshing.

“Mother, we’ll talk about this later; I need to see some friend while I am here; I’ll be back by dinner.” You say as you exist hastily, you had no time to think of children. You had a kingdom to save.

Despite the town’s growth, the hill the cave was in remained the same, a land out of time. The road to the cave is cleaner thanks to your mothers’ trash collection effort, but besides that, the cave remained isolated, dirty, and mossy.

You knock on the door.

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

“So, what brings you back, kid?” Mr. Vorlds lights a pipe that you’re certain isn’t tobacco “tired of being the most successful and powerful person in the world yet?”

Mr. Vorlds sits on that same cursed chair, and you’re silent for a while, remembering the old magus’ warning.

“I feel like a fraud” the best lies are often ones that have a grain of truth in them. “I didn’t invent any of the things people think I did. The best I did was try to invent ways to make things that I already knew existed there” you nod toward the same book on the bookshelf. It was still the same spot Mr. Vorlds put it in decades ago. “I want to learn for real; I want to have true knowledge, and be something great there too, not just here, I want to prove….”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mr. Vorlds smiles mischievously. “You want a taste of the chaos again, doesn’t you” he puffs out smoke in circles. “I did warn you though; sometimes you get more what you bargain for”

“I know, but also; I need to know for certain,” You say this, and you’re not sure where you’re going with this, but go on “I want to know that this is the real world, and not just a dream or some coma I am having since I’ve been in that car accident.”

Mr. Vorlds smiles sadly and not unkindly now. “I am sorry, kid, but you can never know for sure, I…” he pauses, looking uncertain. “I don’t which world is my original world or if there is an original world” he looks at the books around him hundreds if not thousands “I am not sure who I am anymore or where I belong” He gets up and walks toward the book you pulled years ago, you still recognize the spine.

He hands it to you, but before you can open it, he stops you, “Not here, take it with you outside the cave in your house and read it, it won’t transport you there, but reading it will help you retain your memory there.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Thank you, Mr. Vor—I mean Worlds,” his name making sense now “I….”

“Don’t thank me, not for this, and Mr. Vorlds is fine; I am used to it by now. Come back tomorrow.”

--------

“So, how are your friends? we’re sorry we didn’t tell you about Earl Baker,” Your mother tells you at the dinner table

“What?” you pause, remembering your childhood friend. “What about Earl?”

“They didn’t tell you!?” Your mother is surprised

Your father continues, “I guess they didn’t want to upset you, good kids, your friends. Well, Earl went missing a few months ago; we looked everywhere. The new constable even went to Mr. Vorlds’ house! No one can find him. He was having a hard time though and might’ve….”

“Don’t say that,” your mother says as she brings another course of food. “We don’t know what happened”

You worry about your friend, but only for a second. You already have a kingdom’s worth of worry and feel terrible that you can’t find it in yourself to worry about your childhood friend. If I didn’t find the answer to stop, we would all follow Earl.

You excuse yourself early and go to the study room.

You can fully read the books’ title now. “The Lives and Tribulations of the Steel world, by Mr. Vorlds.”

As you read the book carefully, you’re relieved that you’re not transported into another world, the book is about the lives of different people in that world, sometimes the people would know Mr. Vorld, and he would talk to them other times he's not mentioned except at the beginning.

The last life in the book is your own when you were a boy named James. It’s strange reading the chapter about a version of you, but you go on, surprised to see things from a new perspective. Your wife, for example, wasn’t the abusive copy you remember, but she was a kind woman who tried to help you, but all you could see was your mother.

Your father was abusive, as you remember him, but you also gain a new understanding of him as you read about your sister’s death. You had forgotten about your sister. She had died when you were young, but it shook your parents, and they never treated you the same.

Your sister’s death was partially your fault as a child, when of your plays where you were pretending to be a prince and she a princess waiting to be rescued. You were but a child, but your parents never forgave you, and now you weren’t sure if you can blame them.

The book shook you the second time you read it, almost as it did the first time.

You go to bed and dream about another world, another life, and the baby sister asking you to help her as she drowned.

-----

In the morning, after breakfast, you go to Mr. Vorlds. And you knock. You keep knocking, but no one answers, you turn the doorknob, and to your surprise, it was unlocked.

Inside, you see Mr. Vorlds. He was sitting on his chair reading a red book, “The Chronicles of the Eternals.”

“Mr. Vorld” You shake him, but he doesn’t answer. You go behind him and read some of the words that he’s reading.

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

.--. .- .. -. / .--. .-.. . .- ... . / ... - --- .--. / - .... . / .--. .- .. -.

“Estaria, wake up The Darklord has arrived!” Estaria’s husband wakes her.

“Who?” she was dreaming of… she stops herself. No, not again!

She was in another world again, but she wasn’t a child now, her name is Estaria, and she lived in the free city of Havenport.

“No! I can’t lose myself again!” she said

“What!?” Her husband Jonathan was shouting as he was packing their things, “Don’t panic, we have a plan, remember? The Immortal Shield is letting Havenport citizens pass without having to pay. We just have….”

She ignored her husband as she ran outside their home. There was smoke in the distance, the Darklord was the Empire’s lead general, and he was shelling their city.

“No!” the old magus warned her in that other world, “Please, I can't handle this!”

This wasn’t the world she went to as a kid, but another high magic world. She understood what that meant now, magic wasn’t something weak, and only a handful of old practitioners knew like the magic in her old world. Here magic was common and horrible. She had memories of 3 lives. But her memory as Estaria was growing stronger. ‘We have to leave,’ she whispered.

Her husband followed her outside the house and was pulling her but before, she couldn’t hear him over the sound of shelling. Something fell on top of them, and they died.

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

... - --- .--. / .-. . .- -.. .. -. --.

You wake up again in the cave. Vorlds looks at you with an amused look. “You know, for the smartest inventor in the world, you’re not really smart!”

“What the hell was that!?” You exclaim as you touch your body, making sure you’re not burning.

“A mistake!” He hands you a drink, a Soda which you were never able to reproduce in this world. “Don’t read stuff without my say-so; I could’ve lost you as well!”

You sip from the drink; this one tastes like pineapple.

“So, each book is a world,” You say, looking at the red book cover “every book is a life?”

“Yes and no,” Mr. Vorlds says as he puts the book back on the shelf, “the books are a window into another world. To travel into another world requires a lot more than just a book.”

“I remember something in that world but not much,” you say as you try to remember the details something about a Darklord, an empire invading the free city, immortal warriors battling each other.

“Yeah, you didn’t spend much time there thankfully, that world is dangerous. It’s the only book that I lost people in” Mr. Vorlds looks sad. “I was trying to find your friend, the Baker boy.”

“Earl Baker!?” You’re surprised that he finally got the courage to go to the place he hated and feared so much as a kid.

“Yeah, he wanted to be a great magus and requested the book with the most powerful magic. When I refused him, he started reading the most dangerous book I have, the only book I specifically told him not to!” Mr. Vorlds sighs. “Anyway, you read your book. Are you sure you want to go back?”

You’re still startled by what happened to Earl, but you have no time. “Is there a possibility that I will get stuck in my book like Earl?”

“Doubt it,” Vorlds looks sad as he takes the book from you and opens it “your world doesn’t have eternals. And besides, you’ll have me there to guide you. Just remember my name once you’re there; come find me if I can’t find you.”

You stand behind Mr. Vorld as he starts reading "The Lives and Tribulations of the Steel world" from behind his shoulder.

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