The next day had come and I had spent most of my day within the bookstore nearby. Shabby and desolate. As much as I wanted to read these books, I couldn’t help but think about the ridiculous events that had occurred to me in only the span of a week.
No money, no income, no food, nothing.
I had seen that a group of what seemed to be this country's doctors had come to the scene and cleaned up the mess and took away the bodies. I clenched my fist so hard I felt that my nails would rip my skin within. A power to change the outcome is what I somehow got, but I couldn’t change anything. The feeling of helplessness only grew further and I had to plan my next moves again.
I could possibly go to another district and find another carpenter to work under, but that would only get me so far in this world.
I need to go home.
There were too many secrets and things I didn’t know about this world and I wasn’t foolish enough to think I was not special.
Something or some plot is revolving around me, or else why would I have been brought here? And not only that, but being able to cheat death?
I remembered those bewitching, pearl-like purple eyes that gazed through me. “Princess,” I whispered. A woman of status, power and the likes to even hold Angel on reigns.
Surely, she knew the secrets of the world.
On earth, it was all the same. Grow your connections, network with high profile people, and you would find out much more about the world than you ever wanted to know and be granted a list of opportunities. The same mechanics had to apply here. Princess.
I can do two things. Go to another district and get another job, or build my connections.
And to do so, I had to orchestrate a meeting with that woman, the Princess of this country, Vollaria.
I couldn’t afford to be passive about this world anymore, I had to actively go out and pursue the answers because sitting around in a carpenting shop would only make me a resident of this world and I just wanted to go home. Fuck this place.
I set out, leaving the library to go search for some answers and the only person I felt like I could seek was Sylvie. She was pretty much the only other person I knew in this district and she could be a useful presence.
I need food.
I searched around the area, spotting one of her cat-eared friends walking toward that same old bar that I had first met. Not knowing her name, I called the woman out, “Madam! Madam! Excuse me!”
I felt a drop of water tap my arm when I looked up at the sky. The clouds didn’t look dark at all, it didn’t seem like it should be raining any time soon. The cat-eared woman replied with an overjoyed smile for some odd reason and replied, “Oh it’s you again! Sylvie said your name was…”
“Axure,” I helped her finish.
“Yeah, that, that. You looking for her?” She read my mind when I nodded my head in response.
“Come on in,” she booted the wooden door open to enter into the bar, as if trying to let everyone know she had entered. But no one looked. It seemed that everyone was used to nonsense like this every day. Loud like a british pub, men and women getting up to all sorts of activities and scanning my eyes, I had located the woman.
The brown skinned, cat-woman. I couldn’t believe I even said cat-woman without laughing it off as a joke but here we were.
I walked over to her and tapped her shoulder as she paused her conversation with her table.
“Oh, Axure,” she said in a surprised tone but then quickly died her voice down, “I heard what happened. I didn’t know it’d be Jay to die next.”
“Sylvie, I need a bit of help,” I replied quickly when she replied with a confused look.
“Are you alright?” She asked, “Come take a seat beside me.”
I slid the chair out and slumped down to face her as she placed her huge, bubbly mug on the table.
“I know you got ears all over the streets, so I’m sure you know the princess of this country was there yesterday,” I said.
“Oh yeah, that?” She took a huge gulp of her drink and slammed it down as she licked her lips, “You see, she’s an interesting one. None of the nobles, let alone princesses even step foot in these areas of the city but there she is. Acting like she’s so righteous, but I ain’t ever seen one change happen, all she does is parade around these bits acting like she’s going to save everyone.”
“What’s her name?” I asked, slightly getting the gist.
“Nora…Nora Van Vollaria.”
A grand name indeed.
“You say she comes and parades around these bits. So I can assume she does that often?” I questioned.
“Well, let’s say every few months she would,” she said boorishly.
“Do you have any idea when she may come next? Or?”
She shot me a look, a weird one at that.
“I’m surprised this is all you’re asking, considering the old man died,” she said with a slight glare.
I just realised, I had been asking too much with no consideration of the context and I had to act like I was at least somewhat concerned.
“Well, you see. It’s not like I want to keep remembering it, since he gave me a whole new life and all,” I spoke in an upset tone as I solemnly drooped my head low while fidgeting my finger on the table.
“I came to this city with nothing, and he helped me pick myself up. I’ve just been so stressed out and I’m sure you know, I’m from somewhere else so I’m trying to understand everything,” I continued. As I finished with those words, the glare in her eyes faded and she had adopted a more cherishing look on them. One far more calm and earnest.
“Well, word on the streets spread that you avenged the old man on the spot. Those scumbags working for loan sharks,” she said, “Thanks for that.”
She looked my way and gave a small smile. Thinking about it now, Sylvie must have known Jay for some time since they even had their own level of banter. It was good I maintained a sad look while talking about the topic or else I may cut off my only useful link in the city.
“Anyway,” she spoke again, “With Nora, I’m surprised you don’t know. The princesses' names are taught in all schools, spread across the whole world in fact. Why don’t you know anything?”
“I guess in a sense I was like Jay. Obsessed with machines.”
“Well… at least he was still clued on. Whatever, anyway. When it comes to Nora, if you want to see her, the Selection Of Eighteen is starting soon,” she said.
“Selection of?”
“Eighteen royals,” she cut in perfectly, “Eighteen siblings, quite a few of them are coming back to the palace tomorrow and I know Nora will be there as well. It’s probably why she did a round around the slums. Just go near the palace and you’ll probably see her from within the crowd.”
“But what are they coming back for?” I constantly shot questions at her.
“Oh my Axure, did you come from another world or something?” She asked sarcastically.
Bang on Sylvie, exactly that.
“You see, Vollaria’s King has been dead for a while and now that all siblings are of age, the whole country will choose who their next Emperor is.”
Well great. I’m in the middle of an election too. Just great.
But it won’t hurt to see. I sat in silence for a brief moment till she nudged my arm. “So what are you going to do now?”
“I’ll probably have to go to another district and find a job there, I still have no money,” I responded in a nervous tone. Slapping my back, she responded with a smile, “I’ll treat you tonight. After all, you avenged the old man.”
“Thanks,” I responded knowing full well she was going to do this anyway. Now, it was time to set my scopes higher and farther.
Straight to the royal family. Straight to the top.
I’m going to find out everything, why I am here and how to get home.
If anyone was going to have access to unrestricted events, hidden history, archives and information hidden from the world, it had to be them. It was only a hypothesis right now, but it was my best bet to finally put my foot on the gas.
Part Two
The next day came quickly and Sylvie had given me a place to stay for just the night and had fed me dinner, but it was clear to me that from here on out, I was alone again. I probably would have to go and get a job and quietly plan how to get in contact with the royal family. But for now, the priority was just seeing this ‘Nora Van Vollaria’ woman, and maybe even seeing the rest of these royals while I was at it.
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Maybe I could somehow get in touch with one of the others, but Nora was definitely more likely with her being a princess that didn’t mind existing with the commoners.
I set out from the small cramped room occupied by six others, and made my way to the palace while asking for general directions. Someone had told me to just follow the middle of “Stargazers Bridge” and the palace was right in front of it. And sure enough, that was the best direction they could have given me because my God, was that thing huge. It was unexplainable how a primitive society had even built such a colossal structure like that but then again, in this world with their magic, anything was possible.
Even on earth, it would take ages to build such a thing. Built like it was meant to reach for the clouds, the enormous structure was made of some sort of rigid dark stone, stretching out along the back of the city.
The city being built as a huge circle with a large wall surrounding it, Stargazers bridge seemed to replace the wall behind the palace. With six arches facing toward me, slightly curving around the back of the city and had huge blue crystal-like formations tattooed across it, glowing in the daylight. And as the name suggested, atop of it all, remained a stone bridge tall enough to reach the stars.
Following that was easy, but the journey there was one very interesting. The further I walked toward the middle, the more I watched the class divide grow. Like I was walking through Victorian Britain, even the roads beneath my feet began to change. The smell of the air began to smell more fresh, orderly and clean. But even that, had a slight loss of beauty, where I had stayed in the slums of Rozaria, I was slowly losing the diverse smells of street food. The smells of hundreds of new world dishes I had never seen before, just floating around in the air was slowly diminishing while I traversed forth.
The disorderly fashion of the streets began to change, the roads became wider and slowly there was more transport visible. “Horses!” I exclaimed in ecstasy, finally seeing an animal beside humans that resided on this planet.
The buildings became more grand, with intricate designs crawling across them of gold and silver. White walls began to become the common theme here, clean and glossy, some matte and some even a dark grey. The clothes of the people walking besides me were still mixed with commoners walking through, but the number of suits, top hats and flamboyant dresses slowly emerged more. The sun that gleamed down complemented all the new bright colours I was seeing, realising how much I had not seen while cooped up in Jay's house.
One thing I had realised, is that most of the commoners were walking towards the slums while most of the well dressed were making their ways toward the palace. It seemed that these people had more interest in the royal family than the commonfolk and it was safe to assume that amongst these people, were the aristocracy or rich.
Twisting and turning, the architecture became more grand and interesting and while the general theme remained white, the magic surrounding me became more apparent. Twisted bridges stood above my head as I watched people walk across it, completely defying gravity as their head hung down. Pink trees stood on either side of the road, occasionally growing longer, lowering their branches down to dogs and cats passing by feeding them apples. Like they were a living human.
It was a magnificent sight and the wonders of the laws in this world fuelled my curiosity drawing me to understand it more. And I eventually would. It was just now, was not the time to be doing so. Drawing closer, I realised the circular city had stopped showing off their extravagant buildings and I had reached a vast, open space at the heart of it all. A huge white circle within another circle. The road had vanished and all that lay before me were white marble tiles, encompassing the area. It was shiny, clean with no dirt to be seen nor footsteps.
And as I followed the marble floor with my eyes, I slowly reached the next sight that truly stole my breath. I know, I had seen incredible things in this country imbued with magic, and the greatest creations of humankind on earth, but this one had shaken my core.
A huge length of white stairs in the middle of it all, led upwards to another plane of land, above my head. And where that plane of land sat on, was a floating cloud. Like someone had pulled it from the sky, this five hundred or so pound, behemoth of a cloud, sat this far down near land, and held one of the most extravagant palaces atop it.
Standing tall in the center, was a herculean, vast gold entrance and what seemed to be encased in that gold frame was-
Water? You’ve got to be joking me.
There, encased in the pointed prodigious gold frame, remained a sea of water, standing vertically with no windows keeping it afloat. It just stood, like it was another layer within the door. And then encased in that, going smaller, was another gold frame following the shape of the arch. Engraved with curled writings smothered across it, the crystal blue water surrounding it glistened softly.
Surrounding this massive, domed palace, were four tall towers that stared out to the whole city and while at distance seemed skinny, when nearby, the base of them were titanic too. They all had pointed tops, with long passageways and paths leading into the palace at different levels. Some with railings, some enclosed and some with just empty paths. But they were all connected to the palace and as if to stomp my being further, orbiting the whole place, were smaller marble white cubes floating around.
You’re taking the piss aren’t you?
There were a good hundred of them, all in slightly different sizes going around it at slightly different levels. Some of them were enclosed, while some of them remained open as I watched a few people seated or stood within them. In one, I saw a half opened room, with two bookshelves against the walls, and a red carpet with a woman seated inside.
“A library?” I asked.
“Quite so,” a man's voice spoke next to me, “It’s always fascinating to see the marvels of their Highnesses palace. Truly, the descendants of the final prophet.”
I looked to my right as the two of us stood atop the empty marble floor. Wearing a green suit and a black waistcoat within, the man slicked back his brown hair and brushed his mustache. “And who might you be?” I asked while the man stared out into the distance.
“Jackell Erwin Smith. It’s nice to see a fellow noble admiring the architecture behind this grand building,” he replied in a posh accent. It seemed the man had mistaken me for a noble and considering the clothes I was wearing, it made sense. Over my time staying at Jays, I had cleaned it up and sorted out all the small wears and tears. After all, this was my only physical memory of earth and I wanted to keep this safe.
“What is your name, sir?” He asked.
“Axure Saint Avante,” I replied proudly, matching the man’s energy.
“What a splendid name. Truly fit for an aristocrat. I for one, own a relatively large franchise operating within Stargazers Bridge.” He said with a look of arrogance and glee in his eyes.
“Hmm, so you operate from within there?” I replied when the man erupted into a small laugh.
“Oh you jest. I don’t operate from within there, the lowly plebians work for me. I mean, I just had to open up my franchise within the Stargazers bridge. After all, it’s a landmark of this empire. Thousands of people traverse all over the land to come here. What is a better place to do business than this?”
“That’s right. So what brings you here today Mr Smith?” I asked.
“Why of course to see their Royal Highnesses return from their various journeys. They are the pinnacle of the Kingdom. We are a bit early though which is why you don’t see as many people as usual.” He said, stroking his tash.
“How many people usually come?”
“Oh Mr Avante. It’s practically flooded when the time’s closer.”
“Avante, time please,” I said in my head.
“9:42AM sir.”
Me and Jackell stood at the front, near the palace steps, but still leaving a large open circled distance around it and just as he had said, the white marble floors had been flooded with hundreds of people. I guess this in a sense, was the marking of history in this country where a new Emperor would be selected so it definitely made sense and due to my extremely early arrival, I had gotten front row seats.
To be honest, all I saw were nobles beside me because all the commoners and regular people had quite literally been kicked and battered to the back. So it did seem like normal people had interest in this too, not just the rich.
“Avante, time please,” I asked again within my mind.
“12:31PM sir.”
This was good. I could scope out the palace, see all the royals and maybe learn a bit more about the monarchy while I was at it. Then with all the information, I could figure out a way to grant myself an audience with the woman named Nora Van Vollaria. I didn’t know if I could learn anything from here in all honesty, but at least I could understand the society and how they functioned more. With every move I did, there was always something to be learned.
“Here they come,” Jackal said.
I looked beyond the crowds, slightly behind me and I saw two carriages of different colour but similar design, rolling toward the stairs. Like a red carpet performance, each carriage certainly showed off their extravagance with one being green and the other in black.
That’s the same carriage as yesterday.
It seemed that Nora was in the black one and possibly another royal was in the green. Arriving at the front of the stairs, the noise all around me grew louder in conversation. It wasn’t like a ceremony or anything, people were just talking. I watched the door of the black carriage open up but it wasn’t a woman that stepped out. It was a man.
Long blue hair tied back, a stern face with sharp eyes and features. He wore a white robe with gold lining all over it, showing the prestige. I was sure that he was a personal guard of some sort, and not an average one. The man stood by the doorside and waited for the princess to exit and so she did in beautiful fashion.
Her sharp gaze remained unchanged and her expression, still unreadable. My attention shortly shifted over to the carriage in green, and following the same order, a man stepped out before whomever was inside. He looked like what a knight of a fantasy Kingdom should have looked like, with the same white robe as the man from before. This one had slicked back, wavy golden hair that shined in the light. A sharp jawline and handsome face like me. Coming out after him, with arrogant strides showing off her legs, a green dress followed her flow. Emerald green, with flamboyant ribbons curled on her back like wings. Gold jewelry chained around her brown hair and a green ‘crown’ of some sort sat atop.
“Princess Sylvia looks as beautiful as ever,” the man said next to me. The man stole my attention for a brief second but I quickly returned back to the sight as I looked all over for a certain someone.
Angel. The man with the scythe.
It seemed he wasn’t here.
Sylvia had a smug look on her face as she stared into the masses while fanning herself.
Must be a nice feeling huh.
The two sisters conversed with their personal knights, slowly walking away to go up the stairs.
It was a lovely day, a sunny day, a normal day.
Nora still had an unchanged expression as she elegantly walked while giving a subtle wave to the crowd. She didn’t even look our way, she kept her attention on the Knight. Sylvia on the other hand, left without any gesture, still with an egotistical smile writhing on her face.
It was a good day. It seemed I wouldn’t get much out of this charade, other than knowing who each of the royal family was.
“I need to go get some food-”
The whistle was so faint, I barely caught it. Like a scissor effortlessly cutting through a paper, I saw a gush of wind separate the air. Blood gushed out of Nora’s chest, painting the white floor as she fell to the ground instantly. The blue haired knight rushed to catch her in his arms as he screamed.
“Rhyno!” He roared with intensity that made me feel the base of his voice in my guts, “Assassin nearby!”
The golden haired knight, named Rhyno, jumped into shield Sylvia standing a quarter way up the stairs as I tried to look over to Nora, shielded by the blue haired knight. Screams erupted from the nobles as they began to disperse erratically, pushing and kicking one another. Jackell beside me was long gone and it seemed like I was the only one that remained standing.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I began to run toward wherever seemed safe, trying to take cover instead of staying out in the open. I turned my head back over my shoulder to see the crime scene. I couldn’t tell whether she was dead or not, but upon the impact, it was safe to say she died.
Now I’m in the middle of a fucking historical moment alright. What’s next, world war one?
It was like as soon as I came to this world, everything had started moving. Until I noticed something peculiar. I looked at the direction of the blood splatter. Left.
The blood was splattered toward the left direction, and calculating the angles in my head, I figured out where the assassin was most likely posted.
East, approximately five stories high. But how could they have killed her-?
A brain shattering thought brought me to a ridiculous conclusion. I looked upon the tall building at the edge of the circular floor, looking into the window where the shot possibly came from.
Fuck.
“There’s no way someone has a sniper in this world.”