«”It’s pretty cold today…” muttered Seiji Mibuto to himself as he slowly opened his eyes: a human child of medium-standard build, eyes of an unusual red colour, light-brown medium-length hair tied behind the nape with a low-tail and a tuft partially covering the right side of his face. Adventurer by profession.

“Ah…” he sighed once he had assumed a sitting position
“It happened again while I was asleep… the world changed again… I fell asleep under a tree in a beautiful plain full of plants and flowers washed with a small brook… and when I woke up here I was… in some kind of… I wouldn’t even know how to define this actually…”

What Seiji couldn’t find the words to describe was a completely desolated heath, full of dry trees and plants, with boulders and rocks scattered here and there.
The land was barren, dry, devoid of nourishment despite the presence, just a little bit further from where the boy stood, of a small stream… but perhaps it was precisely the pitch-black liquid inside that had the better over the colours of the landscape.

It was as if the world itself – or who for him – had picked up, entirely at random and in a completely indifferent manner, anything that happened to be at hand and thrown everything into the same place, so that the result could barely be called a landscape.

In this world without rules after all, who else could be the first not to follow them but the world itself?

Once he had finished scanning his surroundings, Seiji looked up.
He saw it.
It was there, as it was every other day and always in the same position; gargantuan stood at the horizon a colossal tower which, even from afar, was perceived to be gigantic in size and disproportionately high, so much so that it touched the clouds and who knows, perhaps even beyond.
This enormous tower had a name, which everyone knew from birth, it was called

“The Tower of Babel…
… I wonder why it never changes place, but always remains there… unphased…” thought Seiji who then slowly turned his head, first to his right, then to his left and lastly behind him
“…These huge pillars too never change places… one for each cardinal directions… from here I can see the East, West and South pillars… the Nord pillar is covered by the Tower of Babel…” he continued as he gazed at one of them

The all had the same features, the pillars: mighty constructions that from the distance seemed to be rectangular in shape, completely black, as if to compete with the candid white of the Tower of Babel only to be utterly defeated in height, because of the clearly visible and distinct tops of each of the four pillars. Each pillar bore, on its summit, a letter indicating the assigned cardinal point: an ‘N’ for the North pillar; an ‘S’ for the South pillar; an ‘E’ for the East pillar and, last but not least, a ‘W’ for the West pillar.

“… they seem to be the only things that follow rules in this world… I must thank them though… given that they’re the only things that allow us adventures to find our way through this chaos”

Having finished his contemplation, Seiji rose from his seat.
Only then did he notice that he was actually standing on top of a small hillock, at the foot of which a village could be glimpsed.

“Ah, a village has also appeared… it wasn’t there yesterday” he said impassibely

Even villages seemed to change places every day in this world without rules.
The inhabitants, for some strange reason, at the end of the “change of scenery” always found themselves inside their houses; the same was true for tents or cots used by adventures during their travels. This led to the conclusion that, the “change of scenery”, worked like some kind of teleportation that could move objects and contents simultaneously, day after day; sometimes it even happened that one went to sleep in the desert only to wake up in a swamp.
For this very reason, villages were usually able to withstand any kind of environment.
The typical house was made of a material that seemed to not let the frost of the winter scenarios pass; the windows allowed to bear the heat of the summer scenarios; the roof had concocted shapes which could break the strong wind currents of catastrophic scenarios; and the whole was sustained by four long, sturdy pillars, one for each corner of the house, which gave the building a stilt-like appearance and would lift it from the water of oceanic scenarios.
The buildings that made up the villages were also all detached from each other, so as to make room, on one of the sides, for a small canoe, used to move around when the ground below turned to liquid thanks to the “change of scenery”.

The village at the foot of the hill, on which Seiji had just awakened, was no less, indeed, it had all the features needed in order to survive in this outlaw world.

Seiji stared at the little pitch-black river he spotted earlier.
“hm… I don’t really trust that liquid, it doesn’t even resemble water…” he then averted his gaze towards village, paused for a moment to think and then, once he had made up his mind, objectively said
“I think I’ll go to that village to buy some water and maybe even look for a nice inn where I can spend the night”

The entrance to the village was rather shabby.
Now that Seiji was near, he could see cracks in the buildings and, occasionally, even whole chunks of structure completely missing.

“I wonder in what kind of scenery it was before” thought the boy

“HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

A scream caught him by surprise as he was overthinking.
Seiji turned over sharply, dropping his adventurers backpack, and immediately assumed a stance that would have allowed him to either run or fight, if necessary.

“For heaven’s sake!
How many times do I have to tell you that just like WE FED you, WE also decide WHAT to do with you?” said a female voce

The voice belonged to a woman in her forties. She was talking to a girl, apparently sitting on the ground, who was rubbing her bottom as if she had just fallen down: the scream was probably hers.
The young girl boasted long golden hair, truly a wonder to the eyes, and was wearing a completely different dress, both in tones and appearance, to that of the woman who was scolding her: it was made up by a single piece, adorned with laces, which leaked a glimpse of her moderate bosom and did not include any skirt or garment underneath, as it ended just below the girl’s backside, starring her pale, long legs, which did not carry any kind of footwear. The sleeves were, on the other hand, pretty long, almost to the wrists, and were dangling as to create some kind of small slit.
Her face was covered by her hair, from which, however, sprouted something unusual: a pair of long, pointy ears.

Seiji, who had not noticed the pointy ears, sighted with relief at sight of the scene, then took his backpack from the ground, put it back on his shoulders and resumed his walk. All this while the woman continued to shout wildly at the maiden who, meanwhile, had almost prostrated herself in adoration at her feet, as if afraid, scared to death even, of the human being standing before her.

“Tsk… here we go again… that stupid fairy” murmured a man, a little more than two steps away from Seiji
“It’s still a mystery to me why no one in this stupid village had the guts to kick her out … damn that fairy… damn all races, the world is supposed to be only of humans!”
“…”
“Hey kid!” said the man then, halting his train of nefarious thoughts, as soon as he saw Seiji
“I’ve never seen you around here… If you’re looking for an inn, you’ve come to the right place! Ours is the only one in the village and the price is far less than any adventurer who has ever been to our place had imagined: only 3 Dallac per night!”

“Good morning to you good sir… I think I’ll stay one night. I pay in advance” was the reply

Seiji’s room was on the second floor, it wasn’t very spacious, but neither too small; it had everything the average adventure could ever dream for in order to spend the night: a bed, not even made up to boot.

“Yet another inn where there are no rules… even in spite of rule 2392 which clearly stated that accommodations services must comply with hygienic standards and ensure minimal comfort…” he thought as soon as he stepped into the room

Once he had made his bed almost maniacally, had rummaged through his belongings, had counted his money and done the maintenance of his equipment, he eventually sat down on a chair leaning against the wall.
It was now night outside.

“So… another human village… I have only met humans since I left…”

He then looked at his right shoulder: engraved on skin was a depiction of a snake biting its tail.

“We all have this symbol carved somewhere in our body... but I wonder… why? Who bestowed it on us? Were we born with it?... Has it something to do with our powe-“

KYAAAAAAA

A scream immediately made Seiji jump to attention, who, recognising the voice, rushed to the window and looked in the direction of the alley where the blond-haired girl was.
It was just as he feared.