White light shone through the window to my left. I lazily looked to my right to see that bookshelf and wooden desk. I sat up as I smelled the familiar scent of bacon. I closed my eyes tight a few times to ward off the grogginess and memories of that dream, but only the grogginess faded. I pat my pockets as I sat at the edge of my bed and checked my phone
“7:24…”
I mumbled to myself before biting my lip. I finally got off the bed and I walked to the door out of my room. Now that I could see the room in more light it was quite nice, a nice oak or mahogany-like work made up most of the furniture with a much lighter color made up the room itself. As I left the room, I could hear the sizzling of food, although it smelled like eggs and bacon, I didn’t know if this world even had those. I walked down the hallway and I saw Tetra and Rose at the table I joked
“Here I thought that 7 was early, did you guys let me sleep in.”
My eyelids were still heavy as the two looked at me, Tetra closed her lips tight as she tried not to laugh but Rose giggled
“Do you not comb your hair?”
I tan my fingers through my black bedhead as I spoke
“Yeah, I left my comb back at school though, think I should go grab it?”
I watched in amusement as both their faces became horrified but I waved it off
“It’s the morning, mix common sense with broken logic and you're bound to say something stupid.”
I heard Lance chuckle in the kitchen as I finally left the hallway, he looked over at me over his shoulder and chuckled himself
“Screw combs, do you know what a haircut is? I knew you had long hair but didn't it get in your way?”
I shook my head as I spoke
“Something about sharp objects near my face bothers me.”
“You shaved.”
He remarked as I shrugged
“My world’s version of magic, technology is an amazing thing.”
The three of them looked at me warily as I gingerly took a seat opposite Rose with Tetra to my left with her back facing the door.
“Tech… nology?”
Tetra muttered questioningly, Rose looked at me with intrigue as I sighed
“Depends on what you wanna hear about, I can explain something poorly or REALLY in depth.”
Both the girls looked at each other when Lance spoke up
“How about what started this conversation? How you shave without a blade near your face.”
I laughed a bit, I explained the basics of an electric razor which both confused and shocked the three of them. They continued to ask questions about everything and anything from prosthetics to my phone which got a variety of answers and lacked explanations. By the time the questions were done, we had also finished breakfast, and luckily for me, they answered that they still had normal farm life and such. As far as I could tell, this world's ecosystem was similar to my home. As I helped Tetra wash the dishes as they answered my question about this world we heard a knock at the door, when Lance opened it an older man stood there, he looked at Lance as he spoke
“I’m here on the order of the queen to give you this.”
I watched the man hand over a brown pouch of something, I heard metallic clanging which gave me a vague idea of what it was. Lance looked into the bag as he nodded
“50 gold pieces should be enough to get you suited up for all the stuff you need… like a haircut.”
I ran my hand through my hair as a way to tame my bedhead a bit more before I spoke
“Is there a shower or something?”
“The door dividing our rooms.”
Lance spoke
“Thank you.”
I spoke as I went to wash up, I was glad there were many similarities between this world and earth and I prepared for the day of what I anticipated to either be the most boring or the most interesting in a long while.
——————————————-
As we walked through the large city, I kept my eyes on a swivel, analyzing and evaluating everything as the more I knew, the more likely I was to survive being some sort of hero. The architecture of this world was similar to log cabins with large slates of rock held together by large wooden planks. There were windows on some but not on others. The homes were quite nice but it was hard to see them as… homes due to how lifeless they all seemed. They almost seemed… empty. As we continued our trek to the ‘commercial district’ as Tetra called it Rose spoke
“No one’s gonna assassinate you, why do you keep looking around?”
I looked back at her with a smirk
“You never know when the mole people will come to get me.”
As let out a small chuckle she shook her head disapprovingly when I spoke again
“It’s to look around. It’s the same thing to you, but new to me. I can get a vague idea of your guys' culture and ideals from home structures.”
I had already looked forward at Lance’s back but could feel the questioning gazes so spoke
“The homes, most are empty or dim. This means either no one is home or the home is empty. Looking at our little abode with minimal furniture and amenities means you guys have very little spare time. Either the parents are all working, kids are at school-“
I looked back to see Terra and Rose staring at me as I finished
“Or the war is worse than I thought.”
“Smart.”
Lance spoke
“What were wars like where you came from?”
I took a second to process his question as I spoke
“Politics, resources, religion… There were too many reasons to start a war, but we got good at throwing rocks… eventually, we split atoms to level cities. Wars for us eventually became a way to make money… something my country was great at… War is a hard topic, so let’s change it.”
I spoke
“School, I was still attending college but what about you guys?”
Lance looked over his shoulder when Tetra spoke
“What’s… that?”
I looked behind me, mimicking Lance ahead of me before speaking
“In my world, after high school, you could go to another level of school for a higher and more specialized degree called College. MIT was where I went but there are many, it’s expensive but gets you better jobs.”
“How many months?”
Rose asked in a questioning tone
“Months?”
I echoed with a similar tone
“School for us is levels. You have a few months to learn in class, 3 to 4 on average but after that, you have 6 months to work on your own before you take an evaluation test to see if you advance to the next level. If you fail the test you retake the classes or stop if you're satisfied, but you need to attend those classes to take the test each time. There are 10 levels to the classes, and after that, it’s up to you to get stronger.”
I nodded, several things were confusing about their school system before I spoke
“About 8 months per grade, there is a minimum of 12 grades but some go up to 24 or more.”
“24 years of school!? Goddesses grace…”
Lance spoke as I chuckled
“Intelligence was what drove our civilization. Schooling was needed but not… It's complicated. It’s also ironic and stupid, to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the same amount of money as a plumber, but because you wear a suit you are respected more.”
I laughed at the ridiculousness that home had, from politics to schooling there were many flaws.
“You said you wanted to be an engineer? That means to build buildings, correct?”
Rose asked
“Yeah, but there were many types of engineers, I wanted to be a chemical engineer. I would be in charge of making processes to make drugs, food, fuel, and drugs more efficient and faster. It was quite fun because I got to learn a lot about chemistry and physics and-“
I turned around to see Rose and Tetra looking at me with a confused expressions and chuckled
“I made dangerous stuff less dangerous. I might show you someday.”
“That’d be interesting.”
Lance spoke
“Nothing like that has even been heard of, I assume it might be some form of alchemy? Like you learned how to make iron from gold?”
I laughed at his joke but slowly came to realize he wasn’t kidding by the awkward silence and nervously laughed
“Alchemy… existed but only in fantasies…”
The awkward silence set in once more as I followed Lance like usual, we walked similarly as if they were guarding me rather than guiding me when I asked
“So, after level 10 or whatever, what happens?”
“Depends.”
Rose spoke and was silent before continuing
“Some stay at level 10 while others try to reach higher levels of understanding.”
I was confused when Lance spoke
“Our powers are based on our knowledge of how they work, it’s a double-edged blade. If you think you can’t do something, then you can’t. It’s what makes the queen such a powerhouse.”
The three of us held as Tetra spoke in a less cryptic manner
“The more free-spirited someone is, the more likely they can figure ways around pre-thought ideas.”
I nodded my head at their words. It made sense in some ways but was illogical in others. Suddenly I bust out laughing
“Well thank god I don’t have magic if the limits are knowledge, understanding, and imagination, I would be omniscient.”
“Yep.”
Tetra spoke casually
“The last person that got summoned was a mage, long into her years she was such a powerful existence no demon king could rise till now, 300 years later.”
I raised a brow
“So that was what you hoped for when you guys summoned me? You must be disappointed.”
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