Alone.
I felt alone.
The first time I left home, I was greeted with a brand-new world. I was scared, I was panicked and I didn’t know jack shit. I had this innate fear that everyone would just rip me off or someone would come steal my (dad’s) credit card and I’d be on the streets.
With a literal throbbing heart, I made it to a real estate agency and confessed. The staff member was hesitant to let me stay or even help me. I mean, from his perspective, I was a rich kid who ran away from home. And who knows when my father would just outright cancel the card.
But in the end, he agreed to help me when he saw me bawl my eyes. He charged me for three months of rent and told me to buy a lot of non-perishable groceries in case Dad figured out his card was missing and canceled it; he also advised me to take out some money from the atm since the card didn’t have hefty fees. But Dad never canceled. Not even after a whole year.
The first few days were the absolute worst. I was always paranoid. Paranoid thugs would knock on my door in the middle of the night, beat the shit out of me, and steal everything. Paranoid I’d be scammed outright and be on the streets. Paranoid, I’d lose my one and only source of money; the card.
But as the days passed by, the fears slowly died. My friends helped me out, especially the fatty. Things were finally looking better; and my family didn’t just come knocking on my door. I took a tutoring job for one of my friend’s little sister. The pay was below par but they provided some snacks which made it worth it. I of course saved up however much money I could and didn’t spend money frugally just because dad hadn’t cancelled it yet. For all I knew, he could have just forgotten about the card and could remember any day now.
And that’s how my days went. Miserable, somewhat alone, and mostly paranoid. Granted that did change towards the end of the year, but it didn’t completely disappear. The feelings were always there.
But this time, it was different. For one, I didn’t have a credit card. I did have some money Den and Mom gave me, but that was all. I didn’t have a cushion to fall back on and I didn’t have friends who would keep me company.
First order of business should be gathering as much as information as I can about the church.
If I knew the ins and outs of the church, there was a good chance I could defend myself in case the situation turned ugly. But that wasn’t all. If I knew their history, their real history, then I’d be able to find their weak points and do something about it.
But what?
Build a new religion?
That wasn’t going to work. According to Den, there were multiple minor tribal religions that never really went anywhere. And although there were some variations with the Askavan Church itself, their core tenants were always the same. They had basically brainwashed the people for ages. So even if I somehow managed to create a new religion and even made it somewhat famous, why would the people who were so damn accustomed to Askavan, switch over? Besides, Askavan would surely crush me down, if I took the role of a messiah. So, it can’t be me…
It had to me someone important. Someone powerful. Someone… princely. That being said, I opened my window and located my neighbor who was busy reading something. “Hello,” I said.
“Hi,” he smiled. Rings around his eyes, cheekbones sticking out, brown disheveled hair. Prime example of a shut-in high school student. I looked just like him once. He seemed a bit old to be a fifth year though. Close to fifteen?
“I’m Sol by the way. Soler A. Barack.”
“Ah, Shia’s brother huh.” His face paled. “G-Gerar Shirvana… 3rd son of Baron Gelvan.” He almost shivered.
Huh, was it me or was he afraid of my (fake) sister? That won’t do, that won’t do at all! “Nice to meet you Mr. Gerar!” I shook his hand with a bright smile. He relaxed his shoulders a little. Good, good!
“Nice to meet you. Call me Gerar… can I call you Soler?”
“Sol’s fine. I’m fairly new to this place. Would you mind filling me in the rules and stuff sometimes? When you’re not busy of course.”
“Of course, of course!”
I wanted him to give me a tour too. But that would have come out as a bit too demanding if I did it right now. But first thing’s first. “Where’s the library?”
“Down the hall, towards the right. Be careful not to step over the line. You’ll see a distinct line there.”
Apparently, they had a library in the middle of the dorms, rather than the academic building. Weird.
“Anyone I should be worried or watch out for? Any high ranking noble, I mean.”
“Oh, you might want to watch out for Nisa,” he said.
“Who’s that?”
“You know, one of the sovereigns of Siran.” Siran was one of the bigger nations on this continent. Actually, some claimed it was the biggest. They didn’t have proper measuring tools or a satellite that could map out the region for them though, so I was doubtful.
“She, is a sovereign?”
If memory served me right, there were exactly nine sovereigns in Siran. They were kings of sort. But not quite. Kind of like the US Senators. I didn’t know jackshit about the senators though.
“Oh, no, no. She’s the third daughter of Sovereign Zenec.”
“I see, I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Well, I guess we didn’t have any prince or princesses, but this Nisa lady was going to do for now. Gerar warned me to watch out for her, but I could always just suck up to- wait, no. Most people in my situation would also suck up to her, and do the same. Meaning, she’d probably see it coming. Instead… hmm…
As I kept on wondering, I went out, found my way to the library and just sat in a corner staring around.
It was big, the library. Glass roof, with adequate lighting. And it was exactly four story tall, with spiraling staircases on either side of its symmetry, reaching all the way to its bottom floor. Boys and girls alike were reading books or just chatting quietly. There was a clear line of course and most students seemed to respect it. Some didn’t though.
It took me a moment to realize but Gerar had actually came with me. He took a seat near me and took some time to analyze the whole section. “That’s her,” he said, not quite pointing. “Third floor, just below us, golden braids.” His focus was on his book but dude sure knew how to do things.
Ten. She struck me as a ten-year-old blonde girl who was about to hit puberty. Somewhat upstart, somewhat not paying attention. A crowd of students had her flocked, all on chairs and reading or trying to chat with her. But she was ignoring the lot. A loner of sorts? She looked bored if nothing else.
If she’s the daughter of someone important, means she’s prideful. Especially since she’s the third child, she’s probably even pampered a little. So, she’s used to flattery.
Compared to her rank, my fake family was nothing. So, I couldn’t take the opportunity to officially meet her. but even if I could meet her, what the hell was I going to do?
“Aren’t you distracted,” someone snorted. Taking a side view, I noticed a rather pretty lady walking my way.
“You talking to me, miss?”
Beautiful face, a clear dashing smile!
She snorted. “Is that how you greet your sister,” she pinched my cheek. “Huh?”
“Sorry.”
She giggled and took a step back.
Shia. The first born of the Barack family. Last time I met her, she was wearing rags. Now, she was in a decent uniform but she had a few buttons undone on her blouse and her skirt was a little too short for my liking. In other words, she was probably in that rebellious age. She did look good though.
Gerar was shaking. Dude’s teeth clattered audibly. He was clearly older than Shia but afraid?
“This is my neighbor, Gerar,” I said.
“I know,” she said, taking a seat.
The moment she did, almost all the students in the near vicinity just looked away, almost scared themselves. “You have quite the reputation sis,” I said, looking around.
“I know,” she smiled. I hope she wouldn’t be violent with me at least, assuming she was violent to begin with. “Well, back to my question, distracted? Or do you like her?”
“I wouldn’t say, like.” I didn’t stare at the girl below. But Shia did hit the bullseye. “But it doesn’t hurt to build connections. Who knows when you’d need powerful friends.”
“I like how you think. But our families are at odds.”
“Why? We’re from two different countries-”
The Barack family was based in Slovia. While the sovereigns were from Siran and they were high nobles. How could these two families be at odds?
“Well, I don’t really like her.”
Oh, I see. They had history. I sighed, quite audibly.
She shrugged. “I could help though.”
“With what?”
“You two being friends.”
Okay, okay, time out.
First of all, I barely knew this girl. Second, she clearly didn’t like Nisa and she was also some sort of a delinquent who the other kids were afraid of. And yet, she was going to help me become friends with the daughter of a sovereign? Didn’t that sound a little too fishy?
Yet- “Okay.”
Something’s wrong with me.
I knew what I just agreed to was dumb. I weighed the merits and potential gains against how this all could have just gone down and how much reputation I was going to lose out of this. But in the end, there was only one answer. Hypothetically if I said no, I’d been have out of options. Not only was I going to antagonize my only supposed to family and ally, I’d also be out of luck on what to do with the whole being friend with Nisa thing… so yeah, there really was only one answer. Or maybe I’m just not thinking straight.
“Okay then, just sit tight beneath the chestnut tree behind the second academic building tomorrow afternoon.”
“Which one is the second one again?” I asked Gerar.
“The one with the red roof.”
“I’ll be there,” I turned to my lovely sister who was grinning and all but I had a feeling she was scheming something pretty nasty. Oh well.
Nodding, she left. But then stopped halfway. “What are you having for lunch?”
Den and I came here a little after morning, but it wasn’t lunch time yet. People in this world ate lunch just before the afternoon.
“I don’t have any plans actually.”
“Come with me.”
I bid farewell to Gerar and trailed behind Shia. She took me around the building, towards the other end. Yes, to the left side of the dorm. I’d been warned not to go there alone but Shia was a girl so it was fine, right?
“Food’s better here,” she said.
The canteen. Large open area on the second floor. About eighty seats, ten tables. Definitely not enough but I guess most people didn’t hang around in the canteen. They had a lot of things on display. A lot of things like Bread, soup, and curry. Okay, maybe it wasn’t much….
Both sides of the dorm were clean, but this side just screamed more color. I got a lot of stares from the girls. No, she got a lot of stares.
“Do they just provide meals or do you have to pay separately?”
“You have to pay separately but,” she smiled. Actually, she was always smiling for some reason. Almost made you think, she was up to something. “I’ll treat you.”
Welp, free meal.
She bought me a big soft piece of bread with a nice brown tan, and some sort of dipping sauce, along with a glass of milky white liquid; milk. She bought the same for herself and we took a seat on one of the empty seats. “Gets pretty crowded near lunch time, so either come early or late,” she chomped on her bread. Early would be preferred. Late would mean, I’d basically be having dinner.
The bread was surprisingly good and not bitter at all. Come to think of it, most of the food I’d had in this world wasn’t that good. Especially the vegetables and rice. They were bitter and hardly palatable. But considering the alternative (which was starving) I had to make peace with the taste. But this, this bread was actually pretty good! “This is really good,” I said.
“Yeah,” she snickered. “Oh, and what classes are you taking?”
“I’m not sure. They never told me.”
She grumbled audibly. “I see.”
That was the end of our conversation. As promised, she paid (2 copper) for me and together we marched out of there. Just moments later, the whole place was flooded with more and more people. Lunch time.
Alone.
I felt alone.
The first time I left home, I was greeted with a brand-new world. I was scared, I was panicked and I didn’t know jack shit. I had this innate fear that everyone would just rip me off or someone would come steal my (dad’s) credit card and I’d be on the streets.
With a literal throbbing heart, I made it to a real estate agency and confessed. The staff member was hesitant to let me stay or even help me. I mean, from his perspective, I was a rich kid who ran away from home. And who knows when my father would just outright cancel the card.
But in the end, he agreed to help me when he saw me bawl my eyes. He charged me for three months of rent and told me to buy a lot of non-perishable groceries in case Dad figured out his card was missing and canceled it; he also advised me to take out some money from the atm since the card didn’t have hefty fees. But Dad never canceled. Not even after a whole year.
The first few days were the absolute worst. I was always paranoid. Paranoid thugs would knock on my door in the middle of the night, beat the shit out of me, and steal everything. Paranoid I’d be scammed outright and be on the streets. Paranoid, I’d lose my one and only source of money; the card.
But as the days passed by, the fears slowly died. My friends helped me out, especially the fatty. Things were finally looking better; and my family didn’t just come knocking on my door. I took a tutoring job for one of my friend’s little sister. The pay was below par but they provided some snacks which made it worth it. I of course saved up however much money I could and didn’t spend money frugally just because dad hadn’t cancelled it yet. For all I knew, he could have just forgotten about the card and could remember any day now.
And that’s how my days went. Miserable, somewhat alone, and mostly paranoid. Granted that did change towards the end of the year, but it didn’t completely disappear. The feelings were always there.
But this time, it was different. For one, I didn’t have a credit card. I did have some money Den and Mom gave me, but that was all. I didn’t have a cushion to fall back on and I didn’t have friends who would keep me company.
First order of business should be gathering as much as information as I can about the church.
If I knew the ins and outs of the church, there was a good chance I could defend myself in case the situation turned ugly. But that wasn’t all. If I knew their history, their real history, then I’d be able to find their weak points and do something about it.
But what?
Build a new religion?
That wasn’t going to work. According to Den, there were multiple minor tribal religions that never really went anywhere. And although there were some variations with the Askavan Church itself, their core tenants were always the same. They had basically brainwashed the people for ages. So even if I somehow managed to create a new religion and even made it somewhat famous, why would the people who were so damn accustomed to Askavan, switch over? Besides, Askavan would surely crush me down, if I took the role of a messiah. So, it can’t be me…
It had to me someone important. Someone powerful. Someone… princely. That being said, I opened my window and located my neighbor who was busy reading something. “Hello,” I said.
“Hi,” he smiled. Rings around his eyes, cheekbones sticking out, brown disheveled hair. Prime example of a shut-in high school student. I looked just like him once. He seemed a bit old to be a fifth year though. Close to fifteen?
“I’m Sol by the way. Soler A. Barack.”
“Ah, Shia’s brother huh.” His face paled. “G-Gerar Shirvana… 3rd son of Baron Gelvan.” He almost shivered.
Huh, was it me or was he afraid of my (fake) sister? That won’t do, that won’t do at all! “Nice to meet you Mr. Gerar!” I shook his hand with a bright smile. He relaxed his shoulders a little. Good, good!
“Nice to meet you. Call me Gerar… can I call you Soler?”
“Sol’s fine. I’m fairly new to this place. Would you mind filling me in the rules and stuff sometimes? When you’re not busy of course.”
“Of course, of course!”
I wanted him to give me a tour too. But that would have come out as a bit too demanding if I did it right now. But first thing’s first. “Where’s the library?”
“Down the hall, towards the right. Be careful not to step over the line. You’ll see a distinct line there.”
Apparently, they had a library in the middle of the dorms, rather than the academic building. Weird.
“Anyone I should be worried or watch out for? Any high ranking noble, I mean.”
“Oh, you might want to watch out for Nisa,” he said.
“Who’s that?”
“You know, one of the sovereigns of Siran.” Siran was one of the bigger nations on this continent. Actually, some claimed it was the biggest. They didn’t have proper measuring tools or a satellite that could map out the region for them though, so I was doubtful.
“She, is a sovereign?”
If memory served me right, there were exactly nine sovereigns in Siran. They were kings of sort. But not quite. Kind of like the US Senators. I didn’t know jackshit about the senators though.
“Oh, no, no. She’s the third daughter of Sovereign Zenec.”
“I see, I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Well, I guess we didn’t have any prince or princesses, but this Nisa lady was going to do for now. Gerar warned me to watch out for her, but I could always just suck up to- wait, no. Most people in my situation would also suck up to her, and do the same. Meaning, she’d probably see it coming. Instead… hmm…
As I kept on wondering, I went out, found my way to the library and just sat in a corner staring around.
It was big, the library. Glass roof, with adequate lighting. And it was exactly four story tall, with spiraling staircases on either side of its symmetry, reaching all the way to its bottom floor. Boys and girls alike were reading books or just chatting quietly. There was a clear line of course and most students seemed to respect it. Some didn’t though.
It took me a moment to realize but Gerar had actually came with me. He took a seat near me and took some time to analyze the whole section. “That’s her,” he said, not quite pointing. “Third floor, just below us, golden braids.” His focus was on his book but dude sure knew how to do things.
Ten. She struck me as a ten-year-old blonde girl who was about to hit puberty. Somewhat upstart, somewhat not paying attention. A crowd of students had her flocked, all on chairs and reading or trying to chat with her. But she was ignoring the lot. A loner of sorts? She looked bored if nothing else.
If she’s the daughter of someone important, means she’s prideful. Especially since she’s the third child, she’s probably even pampered a little. So, she’s used to flattery.
Compared to her rank, my fake family was nothing. So, I couldn’t take the opportunity to officially meet her. but even if I could meet her, what the hell was I going to do?
“Aren’t you distracted,” someone snorted. Taking a side view, I noticed a rather pretty lady walking my way.
“You talking to me, miss?”
Beautiful face, a clear dashing smile!
She snorted. “Is that how you greet your sister,” she pinched my cheek. “Huh?”
“Sorry.”
She giggled and took a step back.
Shia. The first born of the Barack family. Last time I met her, she was wearing rags. Now, she was in a decent uniform but she had a few buttons undone on her blouse and her skirt was a little too short for my liking. In other words, she was probably in that rebellious age. She did look good though.
Gerar was shaking. Dude’s teeth clattered audibly. He was clearly older than Shia but afraid?
“This is my neighbor, Gerar,” I said.
“I know,” she said, taking a seat.
The moment she did, almost all the students in the near vicinity just looked away, almost scared themselves. “You have quite the reputation sis,” I said, looking around.
“I know,” she smiled. I hope she wouldn’t be violent with me at least, assuming she was violent to begin with. “Well, back to my question, distracted? Or do you like her?”
“I wouldn’t say, like.” I didn’t stare at the girl below. But Shia did hit the bullseye. “But it doesn’t hurt to build connections. Who knows when you’d need powerful friends.”
“I like how you think. But our families are at odds.”
“Why? We’re from two different countries-”
The Barack family was based in Slovia. While the sovereigns were from Siran and they were high nobles. How could these two families be at odds?
“Well, I don’t really like her.”
Oh, I see. They had history. I sighed, quite audibly.
She shrugged. “I could help though.”
“With what?”
“You two being friends.”
Okay, okay, time out.
First of all, I barely knew this girl. Second, she clearly didn’t like Nisa and she was also some sort of a delinquent who the other kids were afraid of. And yet, she was going to help me become friends with the daughter of a sovereign? Didn’t that sound a little too fishy?
Yet- “Okay.”
Something’s wrong with me.
I knew what I just agreed to was dumb. I weighed the merits and potential gains against how this all could have just gone down and how much reputation I was going to lose out of this. But in the end, there was only one answer. Hypothetically if I said no, I’d been have out of options. Not only was I going to antagonize my only supposed to family and ally, I’d also be out of luck on what to do with the whole being friend with Nisa thing… so yeah, there really was only one answer. Or maybe I’m just not thinking straight.
“Okay then, just sit tight beneath the chestnut tree behind the second academic building tomorrow afternoon.”
“Which one is the second one again?” I asked Gerar.
“The one with the red roof.”
“I’ll be there,” I turned to my lovely sister who was grinning and all but I had a feeling she was scheming something pretty nasty. Oh well.
Nodding, she left. But then stopped halfway. “What are you having for lunch?”
Den and I came here a little after morning, but it wasn’t lunch time yet. People in this world ate lunch just before the afternoon.
“I don’t have any plans actually.”
“Come with me.”
I bid farewell to Gerar and trailed behind Shia. She took me around the building, towards the other end. Yes, to the left side of the dorm. I’d been warned not to go there alone but Shia was a girl so it was fine, right?
“Food’s better here,” she said.
The canteen. Large open area on the second floor. About eighty seats, ten tables. Definitely not enough but I guess most people didn’t hang around in the canteen. They had a lot of things on display. A lot of things like Bread, soup, and curry. Okay, maybe it wasn’t much….
Both sides of the dorm were clean, but this side just screamed more color. I got a lot of stares from the girls. No, she got a lot of stares.
“Do they just provide meals or do you have to pay separately?”
“You have to pay separately but,” she smiled. Actually, she was always smiling for some reason. Almost made you think, she was up to something. “I’ll treat you.”
Welp, free meal.
She bought me a big soft piece of bread with a nice brown tan, and some sort of dipping sauce, along with a glass of milky white liquid; milk. She bought the same for herself and we took a seat on one of the empty seats. “Gets pretty crowded near lunch time, so either come early or late,” she chomped on her bread. Early would be preferred. Late would mean, I’d basically be having dinner.
The bread was surprisingly good and not bitter at all. Come to think of it, most of the food I’d had in this world wasn’t that good. Especially the vegetables and rice. They were bitter and hardly palatable. But considering the alternative (which was starving) I had to make peace with the taste. But this, this bread was actually pretty good! “This is really good,” I said.
“Yeah,” she snickered. “Oh, and what classes are you taking?”
“I’m not sure. They never told me.”
She grumbled audibly. “I see.”
That was the end of our conversation. As promised, she paid (2 copper) for me and together we marched out of there. Just moments later, the whole place was flooded with more and more people. Lunch time.
