Opening my eyes, I was met with a peculiar sight.

There was an archaic looking ceiling above my head. Time had done quite a number on it. The wood that acted as the support was badly damaged, splinters running through the surface like an intricate tattoo, while the stone that acted as the foundation had several splits and breaks to them. Located right at the center of the ceiling was a gigantic hole. The hole was not entirely uniform, and appeared as if someone had deliberately fired a giant cannon into the air.

Peering into the hole, I could see just a little bit of the floor above.

“Where is this place?”

The last thing I remembered was the empty room. No, it wasn’t exactly an empty room, but more like a void. It was an ever-expanding world composed purely of a dark and dreary nothingness. I don’t know how much time I spent in there. Frankly, most of my memories of that place are blurry, as if the whole experience was nothing more than a weird fever dream… but I do remember that before I was inside that world, I was living in a city.

My memories turn hazier and hazier the further back I try to recall, but one thing was for certain; within that modern-day metropolis, filled with towering skyscrapers, roaring cars, and faceless people, I died.

“Still, even if I died, why am I here? Is this place the afterlife?”

From a modern city filled with life’s conveniences, to an empty world devoid of light, life, and everything imaginable, it felt like I had just traversed a long and tumultuous journey. Yet, strangely enough, I was also under the impression that only a brief moment had passed, as if the only thing separating the two realities was a mere flip of a page.

Now my circumstances placed me inside a stone room with a hole in the ceiling… I didn’t quite understand the logical progression of this story.

Just as nonsensical thoughts filled my head, I heard a faint rustling coming from nearby. Turning my head to the side, for the first time, I noticed that I was not the only one within this room.

There was a girl staring down at me from across the room.

She was rather cute, if not a bit too young, and a bit too ragged.

The girl looked to be about seven years of age. Her youthful face, and pale white complexion, which looked as fragile as tissue paper, was overshadowed by the blank look in her eyes. There was a sort of dim darkness hidden beneath her irises that appeared almost too compelling to ignore. It was a weird impression, and the girl in general gave of a weird impression, so weird in fact that I couldn’t help but notice, despite how difficult it was to describe exactly what was so weird about her.

She wore a tattered, black cloak. It had numerous holes and rips on it, and just like the girl, the cloak appeared as if it hadn’t been properly washed in over a year.

The last thing that really drew my attention was the girl’s hair.

She had a rather strange hair color. It was dull grey, similar to an elderly person’s hair, yet somehow different. It was more of an opaque shade of grey, reminiscent of a cloudy overcast or a grave marker.

On top of her head was a pair of strangely protruding black bumps. From a distance, not much of the black bumps could be seen. The majority of it was hidden by her hair, but the tips that did jut out, appeared thick and pointed.

If I didn’t know any better, then I would have immediately assumed that they were horns. Maybe they were horns.

A strange silence pervaded the air as the girl continued to silently stare at me. Her blank, listless expression perfectly matched the dim light reflected in her eyes.

“Um, little girl?” Spurred by the heavy silence, I opened my mouth to speak, but hesitated the moment my voice materialized in the air. The words that I spoke, they weren’t English, nor were they any language that I recognized. So, why was it that I could understand them? Why was I speaking a language that I did not recognize?

My voice nudged the girl out from her stupor, as she reflexively blinked. A faint flicker of light flashed through her eyes, while her shoulders tensed. She drew a sharp, audible gasp.

The girl’s intent eyes glared down at me for a few seconds, before she suddenly balled her small hands into a fist, and jumped into the air. A small smile, which appeared both natural and unnatural on her listless face, blossomed. Her cloak danced with the movements of her body, revealing a set of dirt stained clothes underneath.

I was caught off guard by her sudden burst of excitement, but amidst my confusion, I managed to ask, “Who are you?”

My words once again brought her back to reality. The girl turned back towards me, and stared at my face for a second, before she pointed a finger towards herself.

“Mereli.” The girl responded. Her voice was soft, and soothing, like the faint ring of a windchime, or the gentle crash of a calm river.

“Mereli?” I unconsciously repeated. “Is that your name?”

She nodded. “I’m Mereli.” As if she just remembered something, she suddenly widened her eyes, and fixed her posture. She awkwardly bowed, lowering her head, and raising the hem of her cloak in the process.

“… I am Mereli Greyhart. H-how do you do?” Her actions, although appeared well practiced, in execution, they came out sloppy, and awkward. Thankfully, the girl’s natural charm and her carefully maintained expression more than made up for all her short comings.

After her introduction, she breathed out a sigh, before flashing a self-satisfied smile.

“Okay, okay, so it’s Mereli, huh…” I nodded my head repeatedly in mock understanding. Mereli? Was that a weird name? Was it normal? I couldn’t really tell.

“Then, Mereli, where am I?”

She titled her head, and made a face as if to express her current confusion. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand my question, but more like she was wondering why I was asking such an obvious question with such an obvious answer. Really, such a lively expression.

“This is the castle.” She responded lightly.

“A castle…”

This ruined place was a castle? Was I in some sort of ruin? Maybe a historical sight? All around me, while I could see some vestiges of what was once probably a castle, like the stone walls and wooden rafters, this place was far too damaged, too neglected, and too destitute to match with the stereotypical image of a noble abode that I kept in my head.

Was Mereli one of those homeless orphans that lived in abandoned buildings? Even on Earth, there were a few people like that. Speaking of which, was this place still on Earth?

While I was lost in thought, Mereli timidly approached. Her footsteps were hesitant, yet that hesitation seemingly decreased with each step she took. As she moved, for the first time, I noticed something swaying closely behind her. It was thin, black and elongated. There was an inverted heart shaped tip at the end of it.

It was a tail. An actual tail.

Soon, she was directly next to me. I was so preoccupied with the tail, that by the time I realized, it was already too late. There were no more than a few inches separating the two of us from each other.

Even though she looked short, right now, she was towering well above me. Her head stared down from above, a dark shadow casted over her face. The tail that stuck out from underneath her cloak occasionally flitted through my vision.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, but I was still on the ground, lying supine on my back.

I found it a bit awkward to stare up at a young girl like this, so I eventually sat up. My sudden action caused her to jump back in surprise, but Mereli’s composure quickly returned as she brought her face closer to mine.

The distance between us had shortened once more. This time, her knees were bent, and her back was arched over and leaning towards my direction. Her face was matching eye level with my own. A pair of light blue irises stared piercingly into my eyes.

“Um… Little girl, no, Mereli, aren’t you a bit too close?” I hesitantly spoke as I drew my head back.

She ignored my words, as she continued to fixedly stare at my face. She hesitantly reached out a hand towards my head, and just as I worried whether to avoid or not, I felt a sharp tug on my scalp.

“Ouch!” I reflexively cried out.

She yanked at my hair, not strong enough to pull it out from the roots, but plenty strong to cause me pain. After a few short, but painfully long seconds, she finally let go. Her face blossomed into an even brighter smile.

“We’re the same…” She spoke with a smile, as she twirled a finger around her own hair.

“The same?” I briefly wondered what she meant, as I caressed the spot that she had almost completely pulled out.

Do we have the same hair color or something? But that shouldn’t be possible, after all, my hair was originally black…

“No, no, no, before that, Mereli, did you like… um, maybe summon me here… or something?” I eventually asked with uncertainty. Connecting all the dots in my current situation, a summoning was the conclusion that I finally reached. I mean, doesn’t it happen all the time in books and movies? An ordinary guy from Earth, summoned and brought to another world in order to save the people from a great evil.

Isn’t this situation completely moving towards that sort of development? It definitely is, right? I, I’m actually a super cool hero, right? Right?

“Summon?” She tilted her head in confusion. “What’s that?”

“Ah, um no, never mind. If you don’t know, that’s fine.” I shook my head, and stifled my rising embarrassment (and deflating enthusiasm) with a sigh. Instead, I asked a different question. “Mereli, do you happen to know how I got here?”

I straightforwardly asked.

“Made you.” She answered with a happy laugh.

“What? Made me? What exactly does that mean?”

She paused for a moment, as if ruminating over how to best respond, before she said, “I made a friend.”

“A, a friend?”

“You.” She pointed directly at me.

“Me?” Even more questions filled my head. “I don’t, I don’t really understand.” I flashed what I thought was my most kid friendly smile. With this sort of smile, I could probably work at a kindergarten. “Can you explain it to me properly, Mereli?”

Without hesitation, she nodded her head, before she silently ran over towards a particular spot in the room, and picked up a book that was lying on the ground. She raised the book up to my eyes, before flipping to a certain page. Seeing the triumphant smile on Mereli’s face, I hesitantly turned my attention over to the opened book.

A few seconds later, a weird expression contorted my face. I squinted my eyes in half shock, and half disbelief, as I hoarsely mumbled to myself. “A homunculus…”

“Am I actually a homunculus?”