Bria looked at me reassuringly, which gave me the impression that she could read my mind. As if proving my point, she straightened herself and patted my head. “Don’t worry Kaito. You were summoned by the Lord and were supposed to be our champion. You definitely have some sort of dormant skill or some hidden talent. Right, Shiki?”

Shiki seemed to have been caught off-guard. He was quite startled, given the way he literally jolted. He turned his helmet towards Bria and reluctantly agreed, “Huh?! Ah, yes, of course, my liege.”

Hearing that didn’t help me feel better. My shoulders slumped. One more time, I racked my brain hoping to find some sort of enlightenment. But no matter how hard I tried, nothing came to my mind. “Uhmm… So, how can I train if I don’t exactly have anything?”

Bria leaned over and flashed a mischievous smile. “Well then, Kaito, we’ll just have to drill everything into your head and body.”

I stared at her, confusion and fear starting to meld inside my mind. “What do you mean?”

“Simply speaking, I’ll be teaching you everything I can, which includes magic. On the other hand, Shiki will beat you to shape. Hehe.” Bria smirked, and an ominous feeling came over me.

***

That night, Bria went into my room. That was my first night in this world. At least, the first that I knew of. Being alone with a woman, someone as seductive as Bria at that, made me gulp. After all, that was my first time being in that kind of situation. Even though Bria hadn’t given a single hint of active seduction, my mind couldn’t help wandering to that direction at that certain situation.

“Are you ready, Kaito,” she asked while slowly walking towards me.

I gulped audibly. “Uhmm… yes?”

Bria flashed that mischievous smile again. She started to chant. Her eyes turned blue and a rectangular aura hung in the air. “Then, let’s start the lessons.”

I sighed. Whether it was due to relief or disappointment, I’d rather keep that to myself.

“What exactly are you going to teach me?”

“Oh, a proactive student. I like that.” A stick appeared out of thin air and dropped on Bria’s hand. “We’ll first start with this world, our world. Thinking about it, it’s quite surprising that you haven’t asked a single thing about this world. Do you perhaps know about this world already?” She looked at me, curiosity reflected on her eyes.

That took me by surprise. How can I even think of asking questions about this world when I’m not even sure it exists?! Until now, it barely sinked in that I am summoned or whatsoever. I am not even sure if this is just some stupid dream!

But now that she mentioned it, questions flooded my mind.

I shook my head. “No, I know nothing.”

“Oh.” Disappointment became apparent on her face. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll just have to drill everything to you, then. Let’s start!”

There was that smile again.

Bria taught me a bit of this world’s history, geography, and anthropology. But I never was good at studying. If I was, my parents wouldn’t have to pull strings, and I wouldn’t lose friends.

Given that, I couldn’t understand most of what Bria was very enthusiastically teaching, but I couldn’t stop her either. Her mouth seemed to have its own engines. The information entered one ear and exited the other. However, that didn’t mean nothing was retained.

I learned a few things from Bria’s lecture. First, the name of this world was Wadia. She told me that the world was run by some major forces: the Humans, Elves, Demi-humans, and us, Demons and Monsters. Either classified under these races or working for them were a slew of other races. Bria enumerated them too fast. I couldn’t remember them all.

Each major force ruled its own territory. The Demi-humans were the masters of the north. The Humans thrived in the east, and the Elves in the west. Finally, the Demons and Monsters controlled the dark and barren south. Even though a major force controlled a territory, a few races were still found in other territories.

A few years back, Wadia was a peaceful world. Although there were the usual killings and scuffles among different races, there were no big enough threats to destroy the balance. That didn’t mean, however, that each race was friendly towards each other. It was just that there was no power strong enough to tip the power balance towards one specific side. That power came a few decades back.

According to Bria, the Humans somehow got their hands on some weird ancient spell -- Hero Summoning. The spell required huge resources and mana, but it promised the Humans great power. Only the ones facilitating the spell knew the particular details as to how the spell worked, but its function was evident. The spell managed to break through the planes of this world and created a stream connecting it to another plane. Using that stream, a soul was picked and brought to this world. Each and every soul that was forcefully dragged was stronger than most individuals in this plane.

Although a single individual wasn’t strong enough to tip the power balance, the Humans repeatedly used the spell every other year. They called the summoned souls ‘Heroes’ and used them to pressure the Elves and the Demi-humans. These two races were attacked, threatened, and were given a choice: perish or join the Humans to eradicate the connotated evil in this world -- Demons and Monsters. The Humans went as far as dangling the Hero Summoning in front of the Elves and the Demi-humans to convince them to jump boat.

Not really having any other choice, the other two races pledged allegiance to the Humans and also summoned their own heroes. Then, they started to invade the south. Since Hero Summoning required light magic, the direct opposite of Demons and Monsters’ dark magic, Lureschka was forced to figure out another method, which resulted in me.

Just like that, Bria continued to lecture me on hours end. She didn’t stop even though I was obviously out of it after that part, and that was still during the first hour.

After what felt like an eternity, the door opened. Shiki came in. Bria abruptly stopped and peered over, while I, without any ounce of strength left, could barely mentally attend to the door.

“Bria, your time has long ended,” Shiki said in his usual ghastly voice.

“Ehhh. No, it hasn’t!” Bria squealed.

Even after who knows how long, she apparently still wasn’t satisfied. That thought alone sent shivers down my spine. Thankfully, Shiki didn’t back down. “Bria, it’s time for my liege to learn the path of the sword.”

That’s right. It’s time for a bre-- What?! What path of the sword?! Don’t tell me I’d go train with Shiki right after Bria’s mental torture? At this point, I didn’t even have the strength to speak.

Bria’s shoulders slumped. She sighed, admitting defeat, and reached towards a portal she casted. When her hand reemerged, she was holding a vial filled with red liquid. She opened it and forced me to drink it. I almost choked, but managed to gulp the contents. I could immediately feel some energy filling my body. That was when I noticed that I was heavily fatigued.

My eyes widened. Even though I didn’t fight or received any injuries, Bria’s lectures somehow gave me damage. Fortunately, my health was quickly recovering and eventually came back to normal.

Despite receiving no physical injury, my body still felt heavy and tired.

Bria looked at me and reached towards her portal again. This time, she got a vial with yellow liquid. “That’s fatigue. Drink this and you should be okay,” Bria explained, dejected. Dragging her feet, she left the room.

“My liege, please follow me to the courtyard.” After saying that, Shiki also went outside.

I unenthusiastically drank the yellow liquid and quickly followed Shiki.

From that small room, one would expect to reach the ‘courtyard’ after walking a few meters. But they couldn’t be more wrong. After going outside, there was a corridor with a T at the end. Shiki was about to turn left, so I quickly followed. But after making the left, there was another T at the end, and Shiki was once again about to turn. A turn came after another turn. Worse, each hallway was identical to the last. There were no furniture nor any distinguished features. It was only a gray hallway with a single light in the middle.

Initially, I was walking. However, I almost lost Shiki and had no idea where I was, so I quickened my pace. The walk turned to jog, which eventually turned into a full sprint. After an hour of chasing and hundreds of turns, we finally reached outside.

The outside was beautiful, to say the least. Looking at where we came from, a small rustic wooden cabin greeted me. It was a one-storey hut that could’ve fitted 20 people at most. Where did the humongous hallway come from?

A plain, grassed twenty meter land surrounded the cabin. Beyond that was a thick forest. However, I didn’t have the mental capacity nor the energy to admire that. My body collapsed on the ground as soon as my feet hit the grass.

“Great job keeping up to me, my liege.” Shiki watched as I belched from exhaustion.

I couldn’t even muster any energy to sit. Even though my eyes were widely opened, my vision could only see black. Despite the emptiness of the voice, a window hung in the air. I took a closer look at it. It was my character window, but something was weird about it. My agility was now 4 but beside it was a green +1 in a close and open parenthesis. Did my agility increase from that?

Shiki broke me out of my daze. “That’s a nice warm up. Now, let’s start the training, my liege.”