I sighed as I closed the book, the 4 strangers still gazed upon me quite often as they whispered, I couldn’t hear if it was about me or not but that didn’t matter much. I had finished all three of the books and came to a conclusion
‘I’m screwed…’
Body augmentation, put into the simplest terms, makes someone superhuman for an extended period. Weapon augmentation allows a simple sword to cut a building in half. Magic is magic so it can just destroy a house, then you have unusuals who might as well just play the lottery with what abilities they can get… and I’m stuck here with none of that.
“Are you okay?”
I looked up to see the green eyes of Tetra and shook my head
“Not really… I can read this but it’s hard to understand some of it and that means that this is all real.”
I spoke with a bitter taste in my mouth as I heard the muscular purple-haired guy scoff
“Took you long enough.”
I met his eyes with my old detached feelings as I asked
“If I told you that where I come from we didn’t have magic but we’re able to level a city in a matter of seconds what would you think?”
The man looked at me as he creased his eyes, trying to see if I was lying or not. Before he could conclude the older woman spoke
“With that type of ability, I can see why you were chosen.”
The woman looked at me with her platinum eyes and hair as she tried to read my expressions as well. I shook my head as I spoke
“I can’t make them.”
I spoke
“And sorry for being rude earlier… kinda hard to deal with kidnapping right after my whole perception of the world just got destroyed…”
There was silence at the end of my words as I got up from my seat
“This question is late, but, what are your guys' names?”
By the looks on their faces, I could tell that this had slipped their minds just as it had mine. The green haired green eyed girl no older or younger than me spoke
“I’m Tetra Calibre, a spearman with weapon augmentation.”
I nodded as I looked at the pale blue-haired blue eyed girl about the age of Tetra as she spoke
“Luna Rosearia, but just call me Rose.”
She spoke not formally or informally, as I noted her name in my head I heard the purple-haired man who was a head taller than me speak
“Lance Varint, body augmentation.”
His introduction was rough and rude but I couldn’t blame him as that’s how I acted when I first got here. Finally, I looked at the older women. She looked to be in her 40s as she spoke
“Queen Mavis Alexandria, an unusual who can use celestial magic.”
I raised a brow
“Queen, a title or name?”
She laughed as she spoke
“Queen is such a silly name, I’m the queen of this empire.”
I looked at her with a blank expression, trying to read any hint of jokes or lies but she kept her silly smile plastered on her face as she looked at me as if I were cute. I sighed as I spoke
“My apologies for being so rude to you earlier your… majesty?”
At my words she laughed, it wasn't a mocking laugh but rather an amused laugh as she asked
“So you know what a queen is? That’s good.”
“Yes, but that title is normally just for show and holds no real power in most places in my world.”
“Interesting…”
She spoke keeping her smile on her face
“Well, it’s getting late wouldn’t you 4 say?”
The queen looked out the windows that had begun to shine a faint orange light through them
“I would love to understand more about you and your world Thomas but you should head to bed, all of you. There will be lots to do tomorrow.”
The other three nodded but before I could say anything she spoke again
“You can stay with those 3 Thomas, don’t worry, they might not kill you in your sleep.”
Before I could even oppose the idea she vanished, it was hard to understand how or why but the shimmering blue particles informed me it was some form of teleportation. I looked at the spot she was once in with evident curiosity as Rose spoke
“There are points she has marked as parts of a constellation, she can move from one to another as long as the paths of the constellation are linked.”
“Teleportation…”
I mumbled, both intrigued and surprised at this revelation.
“Is there a way to artificially use magic?”
I asked looking between the three of them, they all looked at me in confusion as they spoke
“Several ways but…”
“All are inefficient and extremely dangerous.”
Tetra and Lance spoke, I smirked as I asked
“Can you get me a book on how that works?”
They looked at me like I was crazy
“Her majesty ordered us to sleep…”
Rose spoke and I smiled at her
“Insomnia is a bitch, can I get that book, a pencil, and some paper?”
Tetra went back to the pedestal as Lance looked at me in confusion
“You can’t use magic or any other abilities, you wanted to make this all fake but you see her majesty disappear in front of you and-“
“I decided to have some fun? You're right.”
I smiled bitterly as I spoke
“I’m fucked if I can’t find a way to fight, no?”
He was silent as he tried to find a way to argue my point but kept his mouth closed. I watched the books Tetra had grabbed for me float back to where they once were as another book floated down into her hands. As she walked over Rose asked
“What exactly was your world like?”
I took a second to think but shook my head
“It’s difficult to put into words, from technology and science to politics… this place is too different.”
She narrowed her eyes at me as she spoke
“Try me.”
I looked at her and spoke
“We used a magnet to fire an iron rod and 3 times the speed of sound. We split atoms to vaporize people within hundreds of miles. We utilize explosions to power motorized vehicles to go to work.”
At my words, the three of them looked at me blankly as I shrugged
“I can explain some things in more detail but as I said, a lot is different so it’ll be hard for you to understand.”
“Yeah…”
She spoke before taking a deep breath as if to process what I had said before asking
“What did you do? Before we ‘kidnapped’ you?”
She used air quotes on the kidnapping which I laughed at before saying
“I was going to school for my degree in engineering, I didn’t know what sector I would go in so I just was going broadly before specializing.”
I saw their faces gloss over as I sighed
“I didn’t know if I was going to make a house, or weapons… well… I guess we know what I’ll be doing here.”
I laughed at my joke but the other three were silent, it was still hard for me to wrap my head around this situation but I could tell these three had more questions than I had answers. As I gingerly grabbed the book from Tetra I asked
“Where are we… staying?”
I spoke questioningly as I didn’t know if I was crashing at their house or somewhere else. Lance spoke up as he said
“Well, we are in charge of babysitting you so follow us.”
He began to leave the library as I trailed behind him. I continued to consider everything I have learned thus far but one thing bothered me the most
“How can I understand you guys? Like… I doubt you know English or write in it so how does that all work?”
I spoke openly as Lance was in front of me and the other two girls were behind me
“It’s a benefit of the summoning magic, your knowledge of basic communication skills is switched so you speak and hear what’s intended, and also read in our language.”
“I see…”
I answered Rose cautiously
“So if I were to write something in English you-“
“Wouldn’t be able to, the magic would translate what you mean to write into our language.”
‘That sounds like a pain in the ass’
I thought to myself, it’s already a pain in the ass to remember everything about magic and aura but now we have translation magic and such. I kept my hands on the book Tetra handed to me as we continued to walk wherever we were headed. I continued to try to figure out if this world was fake, that it was all a dream or something but the more I thought about it the harder it was to deny the fact that this was all real. I had my phone, and the people I was around were asking questions as if they were a fragment of my psyche and they were far too detailed to be a part of my imagination. We walked in silence, myself trying to figure out what happened and where to go from here while I was pretty sure the others were either evaluating me or letting me adjust, either way, I was grateful for the silence.
An evening wind blew as the sun began to set not too dissimilarly to my home as I thought of everything that I wouldn’t be able to see if this was real, and what must have happened to me if this was a delusion. Soon, Lance stopped in front of a relatively large building as he spoke
“We’re here.”
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