The following morning, I woke up to the sounds of a commotion outside my window. At first, it was a distant hum, but soon it grew louder—shouting, yelling, like someone was in serious trouble. Groggy, I climbed out of bed and crossed the room to the window.
Below, in the courtyard, a group of soldiers and maids were gathered around a man. He was from one of the other families we had seen last night. He thrashed wildly as two guards wrestled him to the ground, their armor clanking as they restrained him.
"What the hell?" I muttered to myself, pressing my face against the window for a better view.
A cold chill ran down my spine. The man looked terrified. Had he lost it? Or was something happening that I didn't understand yet? My heart pounded, and I stepped back from the window, shaking off the growing unease. Focus. There was no point in getting wrapped up in it right now. We had enough to deal with.
I flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. My mind raced with questions about the day ahead. The trials. The abilities. My family. What if we didn't have any powers? What if we did would we get jobs or noble titles like they said? What did any of it mean?.
I whispered under my breath, almost sarcastically, "Skills. Status. Stats." It was ridiculous, but after everything that had happened, I figured why not try? Nothing happened, and I was about to laugh at my own foolishness when—blink—something appeared in front of me.
It wasn't anything physical, but it was there—a transparent brownish screen with white letters, hovering in the air. My heart raced as I tried to process what I was seeing. It was like a video game, showing rows and rows of text, numbers, and... what I assumed to be the abilities they had spoken about.
"Okay… this is definitely new."
I reached out to touch it, but it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. I blinked, my mind racing. Was this part of what they'd talked about? Instinctively, I thought of the screen again, and this time it reappeared, hovering silently in front of me.
My eyes quickly scanned the endless list of skills, fearing it would disappear again. Health points, mana, and stamina—everything was like a game. My head was spinning. It was overwhelming, and yet… there was one thing that stood out.
At the top of the screen was a name. Aerithan. Not my real name, but a name I knew well. It was the name I had always used online, in games, as an alias. Why was it here?
I swiped through the list, my mind reeling. How was this possible? I wasn't in a game. This wasn't some virtual world. This was real. Wasn't it?
A sharp knock at the door jolted me out of my thoughts.
"Who is it?" I called out, hastily making the screen disappear.
"It's Dina," came the quiet reply. "I've brought you some clothes."
I rubbed my eyes and glanced down. I was still in my pajamas. "Right. Uh, thanks."
She opened the door and handed me a neatly folded set of clothes. "You were a bit loud. I didn't want to disturb you, but…"
I flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry. I didn't realize."
Dina smiled gently. "It's alright. I'll leave you to get ready. The trials are about to begin."
"With that, she left, and I was alone once more. I quickly changed into the clothes she had brought—simple but comfortable, and far nicer than anything I owned back home. Once dressed, I summoned the status screen again, scanning the endless list of skills. My eyes locked onto one in particular: Concealment. It sounded useful—something that could hide whatever strange powers I had. After all, everything was too strange to be normal.
Without hesitation, I activated it.
The moment I did, I felt a slight shift, like something clicking into place. If I was going to survive whatever was coming, I had to hide this. No one could know about Aerithan, or the strange abilities tied to that name.
Just as I finished, another knock came at the door—this time, my mom.
"Raphael, are you ready?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
I took a deep breath and followed her out of the room. My family had already gathered in the hall, each of them dressed in the same plain but elegant clothes. My dad gave me a reassuring nod, though his eyes betrayed his concern.
We were escorted by Dina and a few other maids down the grand staircase to what looked like a dining hall. But instead of breakfast, there was a large drawing board at the front of the room. A woman stood beside it, dressed in a long yellow gown that looked both elegant and imposing. Her posture was stiff, her expression stern.
"I am Baroness Claudia Krios," she announced as we entered. "I was ordered to give you a brief introduction to this world and the basic knowledge you'll need to survive."
My youngest cousin immediately raised her hand, her voice timid but insistent. "Can we go back to our world?"
Baroness Krios's expression didn't change. "No. The summoning cannot be reversed. Even if it could, it only happens once every one hundred years, and only for a few minutes. You would have to wait a century for even the smallest chance—and even then, you would have to achieve something that nobody has ever managed to do."
A heavy silence settled over the room. My cousin's shoulders slumped, and her face became one filled with sorrow, defeated. The Baroness continued, her voice colder now.
"This world is called Muria. It is divided into nine nations, six of which are the Great Powers and the only ones worth remembering. You are currently in Lostia, one of those six. The other nations include Kurgaz, a kingdom ruled by dragonkind, and the Republic of Aizare, currently locked in a bitter war with the Kingdom of Zalier. Then there is Korag Lora, a mountainous nation inhabited by dwarves, and at the center of the world lies the remnants of the Old Empire."
Her words drifted over me until she began discussing the foundation of Lostia."Lostia was established after the death of Emperor Aerithan, which led to the collapse of the empir—."
I couldn't contain my disbelief at what I had just heard and shouted, "Emperor Aerithan?" interrupting her in the process.
Baroness Krios raised an eyebrow, clearly irritated, but decided to explain further nonetheless. "Emperor Aerithan was a tyrant who ruled over the world several hundred years ago. He rose from a small ducal family in what's now known as Aetherion, the capital of the former Empire, and after taking over his family's lands, he declared war on nearly every neighboring nation without care. After ten years of relentless conquest, he controlled nearly the entire world, save for the regions of the Fallen Lands. He was also immortal, thanks to his immense magical power, and ruled with an iron fist. Two hundred years ago, his closest advisors rebelled and overthrew him. The first King of Lostia was one of the brave ones who defied the tyrant and helped free this world."
I nodded slowly, trying to keep my face neutral. But inside, my heart was pounding. This wasn't possible. I wasn't Aerithan. I couldn't be. Could I? I quickly began thinking of games that could match what I had just heard, but nothing came to mind. I started to realize this wasn't a world from a game, but after everything, I couldn't discard the possibility so easily.
The rest of Baroness Krios's lesson blurred in my mind, her words fading into background noise. I was lost in thought, grappling with the impossible information I had stumbled upon.
By the time the lesson finally ended, I felt like I was drowning in my own thoughts. My family was chattering anxiously around me, but I couldn't focus on any of it. Instead, I excused myself and retreated to my room.
Once I was alone, I summoned the status screen again. After a few tries and before being called by my mother, I realized that the mere thought of opening it was enough to do it. And once I did, there it was. Aerithan. The name stared back at me, as if mocking me with its impossible existence. How? Why? None of this made sense.
With trembling hands, I scrolled through the endless list of abilities tied to that name. They weren't just ordinary skills—these sounded like world-ending powers. Exterminatus. Armageddon. Annihilation. Each one sounded like it could wipe out entire nations.
My stomach churned with fear, and in an instinctive reaction, I closed it. This wasn't normal. This was terrifying.
I had to hide this. No one could know. If they found out… I didn't even want to think about what would happen.
Then I heard a knock on the door that caught me by surprise, so I tried my best to compose myself and went to answer it. A maid stood there, telling me that I had to go to the entrance for the first trial. I left my room and followed her, anxiously going over everything that had happened and thinking about this trial they had spoken so much about.