Eulogy for a Wayward Soul

(Requiem of Souls, Volume 1)

Published by Biako

Copyright © 2020 Biako

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Please do not partake or participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only the authorized edition.

Cover art by Hicham Aziz

Copyright © 2020 Biako

Acknowledgments

This work was made thanks to all those who aspire to live in a world where magic is real. You, like the one reading this, are one of the people most deserving of thanks. Thank you for supporting me in my starting career, and I hope you enjoy the story.

I would also like to thank Devil Advocate, Winter Rose, and the Community of Rise of The Undead Legion for supporting this project. Another thanks is due to Samuel.K.Bragdon, a mentor and a friend. Thank you for showing me the way.

Requiem of Souls

Prologue

No Eulogy for You

The child hurried toward me, a wide grin on his face. His patched clothing was worn through in several places and in his small hands was a covered bowl, the contents of which he was taking great care not to spill.

The child’s eagerness amused me, one would think he was going to be rewarded with some priceless treasure for a bowl of soup. But all I had to give him was a story.

Soon the child was looking on impatiently as I savored the contents of the bowl, his eyes begging me to hurry. Children love good stories, luckily for the waif in front of me, I had a very good tale to tell.

When the soup was finished, I wiped my mouth and began.

Be still, child, and listen well. I will tell you the story of my adventure and of those I encountered on my way. The tale of how everything began and also how it all ended.

It started back when everything was ‘normal.’ At the time I was a nobody, a naive youth, ignorant of almost everything, especially the truth of this reality that we live in.

What’s that, you don’t like how this story starts, child? You were expecting something like, ‘The world ended without warning...’

A good story needs a proper buildup, especially a story like this one. Just be patient, Little One. I swear to you, By My Name, this is a story worth listening to.

Where was I? Ah yes…

Back then, my classmates and I were still on Earth, an altogether different world from the one we are living in now. We were students at Orisaka High School in Tokyo, the capital city of a small but important island nation called Japan.

It was just another ordinary, uneventful day, the time going by much too slowly for my taste. Our academy was a preparatory school for the future leaders of the country. I was the only student in the school who didn’t come from a wealthy, influential family. I would have been happier attending a regular school. But my father had spent a lot of favors to get me into Orisaka and I didn’t want to disappoint him. And so, I endured daily humiliation and endless scorn from the spoiled, entitled brats that were my classmates.

I was an average teenage guy in almost every way. Average height, average looks, average grades. I had dark eyes, unremarkable features and my black hair rebuffed any attempt at order that brush or comb tried to bring to it. I definitely wasn’t an athlete, I considered exercise a waste of time. You may think it was laziness, but I just didn't see the point in physical exertion of any kind.

I had one friend in the entire school and his name was Haru Miyamoto. He was assigned the seat next to mine on our first day in class together. Haru was a decent human being, but he was ugly as a mole-rat and fat as a pig. His long greasy hair hung down like a curtain to hide the outbreak of acne across his face. He wore glasses with round, Coke bottle-thick lenses and laughed like a hyena on Ritalin.

What, you think I’m unkind, or even cruel to describe him so? It is simply the truth. I am not a good, nor a kind person, and I never claimed to be.

Now hush and listen to the story, it all started that fateful day...

That morning Haru and I were, as usual, sitting at the back of the room and chatting while we waited for the next class to start. My desk was near a window that looked out on the school courtyard, like a view of freedom from a prison cell.

"Daiki," Haru brayed at me in his nasally voice, "Did you read the story?"

I had promised Haru I would read a web novel he recommended over the weekend. It was about some guy trying to become "Everlasting" or something like that. I would have read it, but my father wanted me to go fishing with him. My old man worked all the time, so I couldn’t refuse his attempt to spend some father-son ‘bonding’ time together.

"Sorry Haru, I didn’t get the chance," I admitted.

"Come on man, you have to read it. It’s amazing, you’ll love it!" He was so excited he was nearly bouncing out of his chair.

That was when a voice from the front of the classroom shouted, "Hey look, Fatty is doing a mating dance for Loser!"

Damn, I hate that jerk.

The jerk in question was Yuji Sakamoto. A bully who delighted in humiliating and insulting Haru and I at every opportunity. Since we had almost every class with him, those opportunities came far too often. He was an additional constant thorn in my daily incarceration at hell-school.

Yuji was the stereotype of the good-looking, popular student athlete. His family was rich and influential. So rich and influential that any unpleasant, normally unacceptable behavior on his part was ignored by the faculty.

Worse for me, his father was the boss of the boss of my father's boss. So I played the meek victim for my father's sake. If I ever picked a fight with the guy, all it would get me was the principal’s office and expulsion, which would break my father’s heart. That’s why I always just ignored Yuji’s insults.

But this time the bully seemed a little more determined than usual to ruin my day. He swaggered towards us while, I kid you not, punching a fist into his other hand, like some caricature-villain about to lay down the smack.

And that was when the blinding light flashed. Then nothingness.

* * *

I couldn’t see or hear anything. I was just a floating point of awareness, bodiless, in a dark, endless emptiness. Time had no significance in that dark void. It felt like an eternity that might only have been a single moment.

Suddenly, a bright light enveloped me, and the next instant my awareness was back in my body, which was now standing… somewhere else.

* * *

"The summoning ceremony was successful! The heroes have arrived!"

Finally, I could see again after the flares of light. An old man in long, red silk robes and a golden mantle stood in front of us. On his head was a hat like the pope wore, a mitre, also of red silk, and decorated with gold and silver filigree.

I looked around, Haru was next to me looking bewildered, Yuji was there too, and the rest of our classmates were scattered around us. We’d just been in our classroom… now we were standing in a big church-type room with a guy dressed like a priest talking about ceremonies and heroes.

Before I could put two and two together, Haru started jumping up and down.

"We’ve been transported to another world!"

Oh, that’s just fantastic.