Hearing the old man's words, Zeke froze for a moment. After a moment, he quickly understood his situation. He and 4 others are dragged in this world due to a 'ritual' made by a resident of this world. However, the ritual itself didn't have the capability to do the deed but it instead evoked a deity of this world to do it. In fact, Zeke knew the misunderstanding all stemmed from his line of thought. He assumed that the people who made the 'ritual' are powerful enough to do this deed, but after mulling over it, it would indeed be absurd if people can just snatch souls from others easily. Zeke wanted to know more, so he steeled himself and asked the 'deity'
'I see. I'm sorry for assuming your identity as a mortal. If possible, can I inquire how the residents of this world do the rituals?'
[Humhum, interesting. No offense taken, brat. I am actually surprised you asked about that. The other four didn't bother about it and only asked about magic.]
'Of course, I am also interested in that. But before that, I wanted to know how exactly they did it. Although I still can't believe about magic, it seems to be the only explanation for all of this. I'm curious though, how does this all work?'
[HAHAHA, What a curious little brat you are, I like your attitude. You're level-headed and it seems you don't feel any nervousness even when knowing you're facing a deity. Humhum, you're indeed a good crop. Very well, I'll entertain your questions. To conduct a ritual like this, a lot of preparation is needed. First, an equal transaction. We deities can't just snatch souls without paying tribute to your world's gods. There is a saying from your world, 'An eye for an eye'. In this case, a soul for a soul. I don't mind telling you this, but your summoners are actually from the Human Continent. They sacrificed four souls and an enormous amount of mana just to activate the array. This array is something akin to teleportation magic, except the scale is out of the mortal's limits, thus requiring our help. There are also some treasures that are included, but it's unrelated to the actual spell. It's a tribute to me, the deity they requested help with. These treasures aren't particularly important to us, but it shows how the mortals pay respects to us.]
Hearing the deity's explanation, Zeke's mind was quickly absorbing what he heard. It seems that the explanation only gave birth to many more questions in his head. Human Continent? Mana? Array? Teleportation Magic?
Zeke seems to forget that the deity in front of him is capable of reading his thoughts right now.
[That's all you need to know for know, brat. About magic, all I can tell you is that it exists in this world. Just because it didn't in your world doesn't mean all worlds don't have it too. Think outside the box brat.] The deity then chuckled.
Even though the deity's words seem like an insult to Zeke, he seems to not have any plans arguing about it. On the contrary, he silently cursed himself for basing his opinions on his world. 'It seems this world goes outside the logic of my own world'
'Interesting. I gained a lot from this talk. I more or less understand the situation as well as this new world now. I've always felt like something's missing even when I do things that are exciting to other people. Hopefully, this new world doesn't disappoint me.'
Instead of feeling sad, Zeke felt excited with a hint of joy. His parents died when he was only 5, and since then he's been living with his family's neighbor. Of course, the neighbor only accepted him because he promised to do any chores that the neighbor's family gave him, just like a maid. While staying in their house, besides doing chores, Zeke usually reads educational books, making him knowledgable to the point of genius at a young age of 14. He also didn't know any of his parent's relatives, so he didn't feel anything towards them. He didn't have any lingering attachments to his world. This is considered to be Zeke's new start in the world. He's thrilled to have a new and exciting life alongside his summoners in the 'Human Continent' he heard. Not even a minute have passed when the Deity poured cold water on his dreams.
[Brat, are you thinking of a comfortable life with those humans? Hah, you jest. Also, I don't plan on transferring you to them. They only asked for four souls, anyway.] The deity grinned.