“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

For the past few weeks, this sound was all Janus knew. Standing in front of a wooden pole wrapped in leather, Janus swung his sword. He swung his sword downward on top of the pole, swung his sword from the left and right aiming for the center of the pole, and concluded it by swinging his sword at an angle downward toward the bottom of the pole. From morning till dusk, he single-mindedly repeated this routine until his body became covered in sweat and he collapsed from fatigue.

Every day, all the muscles in his body screamed with pain, begging him to stop, but he kept on swinging his sword, plowing through the pain.

Eventually, the sound of Janus’ swinging his sword became a functional alarm for the small town that he found himself in. The townsfolks woke up in the morning upon the first swing of that sword and retired to the nearby tavern when the sound stopped. Occasionally, some children and their parents from the town would drop by to watch during one of their usual outings but, after quickly growing bored of the sight, they returned home.

At first, many of the townsfolks tried to get Janus to stop out of concern for his health and safety but, with a smile, he sent them all away. Gradually, the numbers of people that tried to convince him decreased until all the town could do was, at the very minimum, provided him with three meals a day.

For his part, Janus was grateful for the treatment that he received from the townspeople, and he felt a pang in his heart each time he had to reject their concerns for him, but; he had no choice.

After being caught in the ensuing devastation caused by Rose and Iris, Janus found himself barely alive, lying on the edge of a forest outside of a small town. His clothes tattered and his body full of scars, he was found by a few woodsmen that were logging nearby who, despite their suspicions regarding his conditions, still decided to rescue him by carrying him into town.

Once there, Janus was handed over to a small family living on the outskirt of town that volunteered to nurse him back to health. The family he stayed with was by no mean wealthy, even by the standards of the small town, but they still took care of him as best they could, dressing up his wounds and provided him with food to replenish his strength. Each morning, the father of the family would leave to go logging in the nearby forest while the mother and her only daughter stayed home and took care of the house.

At first, Janus found it difficult to communicate with the family as the language they spoke was unlike any other languages he heard before, despite his mastery of nearly all the global languages. However, perhaps due to being confined to a bed during his recovery as well as being regarded as a playmate by the only daughter of the family, Janus was able to pick up some basic words that he could use to communicate after a few days.

Approximately two weeks later, Janus had recovered to the point that he could move about and began to help the family with their daily works, as thank for taking care of him. He started by helping the mother to clean the house, cook, and whenever possible, play with the young daughter in the backyard. When more of his strength returned, Janus would accompany the father to his workplace on the edge of the forest to fell some trees and carried the lumbers either to the market for sale, or home for daily needs.

From time to time, whenever the family had time to spare, they would take Janus into town to go shopping and sightseeing. Through these daily activities, Janus gradually became more fluent in the local language which allowed him to communicate more clearly. He learned that the little girl was named Illia and was around the same age as his sister. Her mother was called Rosa and her father, Isaac.

Every night, the family would invite him to join them for dinner. Initially, the topics of their conversation were mundane, everyday stories about their daily lives, as if Rosa and Isaac were hesitating to ask about what they truly wanted to know. However, their curiosity eventually won out.

One night, after Illia was put to bed, Isaac and Rosa sat Janus down in their kitchen room table and asked him about who he is as well as his plans for the future. Without holding anything back, Janus told them everything they wanted to know. He told them who he is and everything he saw, up until the moment he ended up on the outer edge of the forest.

To Janus’ astonishment, Isaac and Rosa's reactions to his stories were the furthest from what he originally expected. They told him they had never heard of the Silverlake family. More surprisingly, they asked him what he meant when he said “car” or “cell phone”, as if the very concepts of those words were foreign to them. It was then that the various fragments within Janus’ mind began to piece themselves together.

Ever since he was able to go into town, a sense of unease was beginning to tickle the back of his mind. Though the town itself was peaceful, it was, for lack of a better word, rustic. Buildings were made of logs stacked on top of one another. The roads were unpaved and large-scale public utilities and services were practically nonexistent, save for the bare minimum necessary to settle disputes between merchants and collect taxes. Even the house in which he lived together with Illia and her family, foods were cooked on an open fire and candlelight lit the house at night.

At first, Janus attributed everything he saw to this town being isolated from the larger world, making its population more rural, a common occurrence. However, upon seeing Rosa and Isaac’s reaction, a new hypothesis was formed in his mind, one he did not consider. To confirm his hypothesis, he asked Isaac questions about this town and the surrounding area.

Isaac explained that the town itself was called Ivalos and belonged to the Istat barony. They were at the very western edge of the barony itself, living practically on the frontier of civilization. He told Janus that most of the people living here were here to search for new opportunities. As for Isaac and his family, they simply wanted to live away from the city. He and his wife were what people called former “adventurers”, and they settled here after Illia’s birth.

Shocked by what he suspected but still did not want to believe was possible, Janus thanked Isaac and Rosa and retired to his room for the night.

That night, Janus lay awake in his bed, thinking about the new information that he received. After essentially accepting his demise in the aftermath of the conflict between Iris and Rose, Janus was surprised to find himself alive, heavily injured but still, alive. As a result, he thought everything that he experienced up until that point was just a hallucination, something brought about by his heavily injured state. He convinced himself that he was kidnapped from his home and left for dead until these people stumbled upon him.

Up until that night, Janus was convinced that, as soon as he was able, he could leave this place and find his way home. Only now did he realized that the world he was currently in was no longer the world he knew.

The name Ivalos and Istat were familiar to him. They were names from stories he used to read as a child, the book from which they came resting on the shelf in his room. The more he thought about it, the more familiar this environment became to him. He knew this place, not because he visited it before, but because he remembered it from one of his favorite stories.

The forest to the East of this town was called the Misty Grove and to the South of the town was Dragon’s Peak. This town was truly the frontier, and soon, once spring arrives in full bloom, it would become a battleground.

Misty Grove was called such because of a thick mist that covered the forest interior, blocking all visibility. However, once per year, roughly around spring for a period of one month, the mist would lift, allowing people to explore the interior. Such rare opportunities gather all sorts of people, from high-ranking knights to beginner adventurers.

Whenever people gather for resources, conflicts would inevitably follow. Janus understood this not only because this was the world he came from, but it was also the course of events that unfolded in that story. The conflict would eventually end once a hero rose up put an end to the fighting, but that only occurred after enough blood was shed.

Trying to cool his head, Janus got up from his bed and took a drink of water from the jug left at his bed side. Opening the door, he left his room and went outside.

Janus walked to the edge of the fence that surrounded the house, his eyes looking in the direction of the forest, the darkness obscuring his sight. Once the fighting begins, it would be impossible to escape so he had to do it now if he wanted to flee. However, given the location of this house, he had no doubt that it would be caught up in the fighting, and he worried about the safety of Illia and her family. He could not leave them behind, but he doubted whether they would believe him and evacuate before spring arrives.

“Having fun?” A voice rang in the direction of the forest as Janus considered his options.

“Who’s there,” he shouted.

“I can’t believe you don’t recognize my voice anymore. It hasn’t been that long,” the voice said as a figure emerged from the darkness into the moonlight.

Keeping his eyes trained in the direction of the voice, Janus could make out the shape of Iris, clad in her white armor, as she approached the house from the forest.

“Iris!” he shouted.

“Hey, glad to see you’re doing well,” Iris said as she waved at him.

Strolling over to where Janus was, she stood in front of him, one-hand on her hip as she smiled.

“Adjusted?” she asked him.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“Come now, someone as smart as you surely should’ve put two and two together by now,” she told him. “I find it hard to believe you truly haven’t figured it out.”

“Can I take that to mean you know what’s going on?” He asked her.

“I do." Iris confirmed. "However, it doesn’t mean I will tell you what you truly want to know. Feel free to ask anything beside that though."

Realizing that she understood what was going through his head, Janus gave up on his original intentions and instead decided to focus on the tasks at hand.

“Can you protect us?” He asked her.

“Nope. Sorry but there are, let’s just say, ‘restrictions’, as to what I can and cannot do,” she answered. “Can’t really use my strength willy-nilly. It attracts too much attention from certain people.”

“What about that time with Rose?”

“She’s one of the exceptions. Can’t really deal with her unless I go all out.”

“So…what can you do?”

“Absolutely…nothing. Pretty much only here to chat with you and enjoy the view.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope. My hands are tied here. What’s that old saying that you have Janus? ‘If you want something done, you have to do it yourself’?”

“What do you mean?”

Smiling, Iris reached out her hand into a portal that appeared beside her and pulled out a steel sword. After tapping on it a few times, she swung her sword and cut away a piece of the fence; then shaped it into wooden sword of similar size and shape.

“Catch,” she said to Janus as she tossed the wooden sword to him.

Puzzled, Janus caught the sword in his hand and asked, “what do you want me to do with this?”

“Practice.” She told him. “Gotta starts somewhere.”

Turning to look at a large open spot in the front yard, Iris waved her hand and wooden training dummy emerged from the ground.

“Practice.” She repeated.

“You want me to learn how to fight?”

“ Yup.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” he shouted.

Iris muttered as she put her hand on top of Janus’ head.

In that brief instant, Janus could feel a series of images flashed through his mind, searing itself into the deepest part of his brain as an excruciating migraine forced him to fall to his knees.

“What…was that?” He moaned in pain.

“You asked so I answered.” Iris shrugged. “I transferred to you all the knowledge you need about how to use a sword. Now you just need to get your body to memorize it.”

“How much time do I have?” he asked her, desperately trying to endure the pain.

“I’d say around 2 months.”

“You expect me to learn all this in 2 months?” he asked, glaring up at her.

“Heavens no,” Iris refuted him. “I expect you to barely be able to defend yourself. 2 months should be enough.”

“What are you after Iris?” Janus groaned as he used the wooden sword as a crutch to lift himself back up.

“That’s not something you should be asking me,” she said smiling. “At least, the current you don’t have the qualifications to do so.”

Still smiling, Iris stabbed the metal sword she was holding into the ground n front of her.

“I’ll leave this for you,” she told Janus. “Take it out when you’re ready.”

Then, Iris turned around and began to walk away. Suddenly, a small breeze started to blow, brushing against Iris’ face, sending a small chill up her spines.

“You should enjoy your homecoming a little bit more,” she said as she grimaced before disappearing under the moonlight, fading into the night.

The next morning, Janus woke up from his sleep and immediately went to the training dummy to practice. He swung his sword, replicating the movements that were imprinted into his mind.

“There was no time”, he told himself as he single-mindedly practiced day-and-night into exhaustion. He needed to get stronger and quickly. After two months, regardless of his skills, he needed to be ready.

Watching Janus swung his sword day after day, Isaac and Rosa became worried for his health, believing that he might had gone crazy. However, after realizing that they could not stop him, decided to let Janus continued as he saw fit. Illia, on the other hand, would watch him from her swing in the garden every day, bringing him food when it was ready, and then returning to her swing. She did not understand why he was doing what he did, but, after playing with Janus for so long, she knew that he had a reason to do it.

Hidden in the mist behind within shadows of the trees, Iris sat on a large branch as she continued to observe Janus.

“It’s time to take that first step Janus,” she muttered. “Do your best to survive.”

Looking up at the sky, a glint of madness clouded her clear blue eyes.

“You’re watching…aren’t you?” she asked. “May your wish come true.”