After a generously long amount of time consisting of only failure, I give up on sleeping and go out for a stroll like the commander said. It hasn't been too long since I first went into the barracks, anyways. It's still light out.
Wandering through the fort and asking a few questions from some passersby gave me a general idea of everything. The fort is shaped much like the letter "U" in design. It hooks around that courtyard where I sparred with Stephen. The center of the building contains the rooms of executives, utilities and storerooms. The 2 wings contain almost nothing but housing for foot soldiers such as myself. On the outside of the west wing contains the stables, and on the east a forge. I didn't get to meet the blacksmith, as he was nowhere to be found when I managed my way to the forge.
As a whole, I haven't been given too many weird looks here, despite my T-shirt and shorts. I suppose the military recruits many people from all over, and they're just used to strange clothing by now. I wonder how large this country is, now that I come to think about it. If it's a small country that has vigorous belief in their own religion, I can see a whole North Korea thing panning out here.
By the size of this fort, which is on the front lines it would appear, I have to assume that the military scale here is quite small. That, or there are many camps and forts strewn across the front and we'll charge using width, not concentration. Ah, or perhaps the main army is marching this way now. I'm not really sure, but I suppose someone'll give the new recruits a briefing about this.
It's now nighttime, and I manage my way back to my room, and this time arrive to find it about 50 percent booked. The room's overwhelmingly powerful volume level nearly blows me off my feet.
Fuck, well I suppose it's for the best that I find my good ol' bed partner.
I gaze over in the direction of my bed and eye a person sitting down on my bunk chatting with some of our neighbors. I suppose he hasn't heard the news about me sleeping there yet. Understandable.
On a side note, I still haven't seen a single girl in the entire place. I swear to God, if I don't see a girl soon I'm going to die from 'manliness'. Too much is just too much, man.
The obnoxious attitude isn't the worst feeling, though. At least the overall morale seems to be quite high. That, or they're all drunk. It would feel really awkward if the whole room was just eerily quiet and gloomy because of stress.
I walk over to my bed and sit down next to my partner and wait for him to end his conversation with these other 3 guys. Eventually, he stops talking to them and turns towards me with a somewhat puzzled look.
"Yes? What can I do for you?"
"Oh, don't mind me. The thing is, I sleep on this bed now. I'm a new recruit and the manager directed me to this bunk."
This fellow just starts laughing out loud, somewhat obnoxiously.
"Haha, oh that's rich. You see, pal, no one actually listens to that creeper. Just stay here and join in on the conversation for a bit, and when it's lights out, just crawl into an empty bed like everyone else, okay?"
Oh, I see. That kinda makes sense. Seeing how the volunteer manager has no real power, not a single person would really listen to him. The 'pick your own spot' mentality would naturally develop over time as more people indulge in the freedom of choice.
"Oh, I apologize, as I was naturally unaware of the rules I look kinda stupid now."
A good, clean apology to somewhat increase the results of his first impressions of me.
"Oh, no, it's no problem. So, what's your name rookie?"
"Yes, my name is Rigel. Nice to meet you all, and I look forward toward working with you all."
The other 3 men are paying us a bit of attention, so I turn the group and declare my name. They seem satisfied with the best introduction I can currently muster.
I do have a bit of fear that my wordplay isn't satisfactory to ever be the head of a country. I grew up in a pretty average sized town, and never strove to be anyone great. As a result, my education wasn't quite satisfactory. Compared to the plebeians around me, sure I was above average. But I've had a few run-ins with true talent and brains. I don't hold a candle to people with true genius, which could bite me in the ass in due time. I'll have to abuse my other world knowledge and sheer wisdom from living long if I want to compete with prodigies.
The 4 guys I met tonight talk with me for a bit about my circumstances and I tell them the same story I've told everyone else. They seem rather intrigued and want to pry a bit farther, but obviously, my alibi doesn't allow me to mention anything else.
The man I mistakenly identified as my bed buddy's name is Jake. The other 3's names I did hear, but I've already forgotten them. I'm not too torn up about it, though. I probably won't be talking to them much, if at all, in the future.
By the time it was nights out, I already found an unoccupied residence. I'm now laying down on the top bunk of that bed, thinking to myself.
The fact that I have the option to sleep on the top bunk is fun, as I've never had the opportunity. It's not really that interesting, but the feeling of being suspended in the air is quite unique in its own right. I certainly don't dislike it, that's for sure.
However, I can't fall asleep no matter what I do. I'm not particularly uncomfortable or anything, and I don't really feel anxious whatsoever. Yet, I've still been laying here for the past few hours, alone with my thoughts. Most of those thoughts were just fantasies about the future that magic contains for me. Perhaps that's what I'm so excited about?
I'm becoming increasingly worried that the reason for this curse isn't because of a rational reason, and is instead a result of my time being frozen. That would be an interesting yet worrisome turn of events, as I do not mind being immune to poisons and such, but not allowing my own body to release endorphins wouldn't be right. I'm also worried about my increasing mental fatigue. This is too much to take in, especially if I have no way of truly resting my brain. I may have to study whatever the practice of zen has become in this world. If not, I actually might have a severe mental breakdown in the future.
Another thing that I've thought of is how to stop someone immortal such as myself. I'm guessing that simply chaining me in a tub and filling said tub up with molten metal would surely contain me. In fact, getting locked away is the sole way to stop me, so I'll have to be wary of that.
I've also been worried about is what I'll do if this whole thing wasn't made something as grandiose as changing the common sense of magic here, but merely an extremely large scale battle royale, or something similar. Basically, what if I wasn't the only immortal sent here with a goal? If each one was sent to an individual country to conquer, then we'd all inevitably turn on each other, resulting in a world war. At that time, it would truly be a huge pain to basically throw away all advantages I'd previously held since they'd all have the same ones as me. Maybe I'm being too skeptical, but being careless could result in an early demise. Being too boisterous with my powers could result in an amazing amount of attention, which would, in turn, lead all 'demigods'- as I'll call 'us'- hunting me down early. I myself will probably do the same, and from now on I'll keep my ears out on the international side of things to see if I can pick up on other demigods.
The last point of interest tonight would be my sheer curiosity of this kingdom I've found myself in. Empyrea, hmm. Sounds a bit like empire now that it's circulated through my head so many times. Well, what I'm mainly curious about is this religion that they've been based around. Empyreanism, a full-fledged religion with a pope and his cardinals. The thing that's been itching my mind the past few hours is whether or not there actually is a god here. Hell, I don't even know if this religion is mono or polytheistic. If there is a god for me to communicate with, it might be worth my while to join up with the main camp. After all, I still don't believe 'God' is really a god. His demeanor is too childish. If someone that irresponsible was actually a god, we'd probably start a goddamn crusade. Unless that is, people always just figured that God is a child. Fuck that'd be a pain to explain that no, our all-knowing creator isn't 12.
To be fair, I'm not even religious anymore. I used to attend church every Sunday, but nowadays it's really just a pointless drag. It's just that I don't really see any point in worshiping a god anymore. If you look back in history, the real main reason religion was invented was to control the masses, plain and simple. That fact is further proven by the sheer amount of religions that exist throughout the world. It's far more likely that humans simply wanted a reasoning for everything, so they made one up. Obviously, a bunch of people had the same idea, so it's gotta be a decent one at least.
But, in this world there truly is a currently a seemingly inexplicable power called magic. Said power obviously follows basically no laws from my previous world, so I'm outta my league here. One day I'll need to learn the truth of magic and why it even exists, but for now my goal is far simpler. Achieve as much power as possible in this country. Simple enough, without much restraint. Soon, I'll change that. Once I learn enough I'll find a specific goal for myself whether it be power granted to me by the government, raw cash and market influence, or simply the brute force to take a country.
Ugh, I'm really not tired but it's gotta be really late by now. If I can't wake up early for breakfast then I might be hazed. Permanently.
I stubbornly refuse to move about in bed out of fright of awakening my new neighbors whilst continuing to maunder about in my thoughts.