When I came to, I was in a perfectly black room. It was lit up through… some sort of light source, though I couldn’t see a light bulb or anything of the sort. The light just sort of came out of the air in the room, revealing that the walls, ceiling, and floor were all perfectly black. A door, previously nonexistent, opened up in the wall, and in walked none other than… Raz Amun, whom I probably should have continued to refer to as “Suspicious Dealer”. Wow, was that a fitting pen name for this man.

Still fairly confused, I asked what was probably an extremely obvious question. “Um, where on earth are we?” It was far from the only question on my mind, but it seemed the most pressing.

“Well, my friend, we are currently inside your mind. Fascinating place, isn’t it? I had to do some tweaking to it, in order to get you properly prepared for your upcoming role.” He said cheerfully. Too cheerfully. What the heck? What was he saying?

“...My mind? My mind is a black box? Wait, if this is my mind, how on earth are you in here?” I blustered.

“How on earth indeed? Well, my friend, the answer to your second question is that this isn’t Earth. This is Terra. You should be quite grateful, my friend. I scoured sixteen dimensions for the perfect opportunity for you! It took some doing, and a bit of tinkering with your mind, but you’ll be able to manage Lake Quillfort Academy, a school of magic that my good friend Temsello is attempting to start up.” He responded. Wait, magic? Actually, no, that isn’t all that surprising at the moment, given that we were apparently in my head, and that he had apparently messed with my brain.

“The thing about Temsello,” he continued “Is that while he may be an incredibly powerful Archmage… he is absolutely rubbish when it comes to managing things. This isn’t his first venture. He once attempted to start up a Guild for adventurers, but he ran it into the ground. He tried to found a country based on Democracy, but it fell into chaos within weeks. I’ve managed to convince him that if he wants this school to succeed, he needs help with the actual running of it… and most everything else, as well. (I also advised him to start this academy far from the locations of his prior failures. And to change his name.) But in any case, you seem to have the talents he lacks, so I was extremely glad to learn that you also sought this opportunity!” He beamed at me.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times. “Well.” I managed. “This sounds… unbelievable.” I had just discovered another incredible talent of mine… understatements.

“Ah, I knew you would think this was too good to be true. But I assure you, my friend, everything is just as I have said! Magic is real, though it’s quite a shame your home world has so little of it! Almost too little for me to pull you out of it, though I managed! Not quite as cleanly as I would have liked, but in the circumstances, it worked well enough!” He laughed after saying this.

I frowned. “What? Not as cleanly…? Did something happen to me when you… pulled me out of Earth?” I asked, beginning to panic. Correction, beginning to panic more.

“Oh nothing worth mentioning! I’ll just have to find you a new body on Terra, that’s all. I already have quite the vessel in mind, too! You did say you were a programmer, right? You should find the body I’ve prepared you quite amusing! Oh, look at the time.” After dropping that bombshell, he suddenly glanced down at a watch on his wrist. While I spluttered, trying to say… something rude, probably, he strode back towards the hole in the wall that had formed with his coming into… my brain, I guess, and before leaving, he gave one last parting shot. “I need to finish setting things up with Temsello now, wait here a moment, I’ll be introducing you to him quite soon!” With this, he jumped out the hole, which promptly vanished.

“Wai-Wait! Come back! What happened to my body!?” I shouted, frantic. But it was too late. He was already gone.

---

Arianne POV:

Ugh… Temsello was truly hopeless at these sorts of things. When I had heard that a powerful Archmage had, in an audience with the king, stated his desire to start up an academy where young nobles of the kingdom could learn magic, in addition to fronting an incredible sum of money to purchase the Quillfort Lake estate, I had been ecstatic. Such a place would be an invaluable addition to the kingdom, and as the only magician among the king’s daughters, I quickly presented myself as a potential teacher at the academy. My father had quickly made my position as a teacher one of the conditions of the academy, and Temsello had cheerfully agreed. With the estate bought and Temsello’s grand vision described, he and I had retreated to an office in the castle to hammer out more of the details…

I had quickly learned that Temsello was good at one thing… declaring an incredibly ambitious endeavour… without any substance at all.

“Are you telling me you don’t have any sorts of actual plans for this?” I asked, incredulous.

“Well,” He laughed, nervously, “I figure that we’ll deal with such things as they come!” He stated. I could see sweat on his forehead. He was thinking hard, but I didn’t have much confidence that he would suddenly spout brilliance now. We had just finished a half-hour long discussion which seemed to point to something: Temsello was good at giving speeches with no actual content.

“How in the world are you one of the most powerful wizards of the age…?” I growled out. Seriously, how? How does someone as lack witted as this gain such power? I was mentally preparing myself to go back down and tell my father that as grand an idea as a magic academy was, Temsello would not be up to the task.

Suddenly, the room distorted towards a point next to Temsello. A man with blonde hair and… disconcerting eyes, appeared in the chair next to him.

“Ah, Raz! Have you managed to find someone that can help me with Quillfort Academy?” Temsello said in desperation. Oh, good. At least he apparently recognized that he was hopeless at this. But what was happening here?

“Indeed I have, my friend! Oh, but who’s this?” Declared the mysterious… Raz, was it? Arianne was wary of people with exceptionally powerful magics… and someone that could use dimensional magics, such as this man was, had to be more powerful than anyone she had ever heard of before, Temsello included.

“Ah, this is Arianne Reyl, she’s a daughter of the king of this country, and a Second Class Mage.” He said hurriedly. Arianne could tell that he wanted to get to the topic of the manager that Raz had found immediately. To be fair, she wanted to know who this… horrifyingly powerful mage would have chosen to manage the academy as well. It wasn’t a demon, was it? That would be terrible, in multiple ways.

“Allow me to introduce him to you. Raz reached into his pocket, and pulled out… a box? A small black rectangle made of a mysterious shiny material. There were mysterious points on it that glowed in several colors, mainly green and red.

“...This is… him?” Temsello asked, and by the sound of it, he was just as confused as she was. Was this a demon of some sort? Possessing a magical artifact perhaps?

“This is Adam Geoffrey. Adam, say hello to your new compatriots!” Raz said, his strange grin never leaving his face.

The box began to hum and whir for a moment, and then… it spoke.

“Hello, World.”