Chapter 1: Revealing Secrets (Part 1: The Strange Book)

The blue sky was brilliant with the noon sun, and chirping birds happily sang their melody on his shoulders. As the tree's shadow shielded him from the sun's glare, the cool breeze softly brushed against his face, fetching into his nose the appetizing aroma of his breakfast.

"Uh, I'm starving to death!" Sam said as saliva responded to the smell, pouring some out of his mouth.

His stomach was empty, seeking food to fuel up his body with energy, but Sam was susceptible to harassment, closing up his appetite. Like always, everyone at school unpleasantly bullied Sam as sounds of gossip forcefully entered his ears.

"Hey, it's that weirdo whom the birds don't get scared or fly away from," A female student said. "I heard he talks to dirty stray dogs and cats as he also plays with them!"

That student stunned the others, while disgustedly looking at him like a piece of dirty garbage.

"U-uh, for real?! We should keep our distance from that weirdo... what was his name again?!" another student gasped, shocked.

"I think his name is Sam Steiner. An animal weirdo with full marks, a strange thing, right?!"

Despite being utterly peaceful, those all-talk students never stopped bullying Sam. Honestly speaking, Sam had been a prime subject for bullies, being alone all the time and having no friends made him quite susceptible to harassment. He even did never retaliate, moreover, as he hold back his rage only.

Thinking of, them saying he played with dirty stray animals even though he was a perfect student with full marks was just a mere excuse, at first, reasoning all their out-of-jealousy doings. After all, Sam got what others didn't, like high marks and the ability to seemingly communicate with adorable animals in some way. At some point, Sam became just a perfect target for them to throw out their accumulated stress and frustrations at.

The harassment had become a daily occurrence, but it still bothered him just as much as it did every other day. However, Sam clenched his hands and kept his resentment inside.

'I hate school, and I hate being in Europe,' Sam thought, longing to home country, and soon, ignoring all the talk and starting to gobble up mouthful bites from his breakfast.

Delighted, Sam enjoyed every delicious bite going into his mouth, filling it up while refusing to give some to the birds as they kept pitifully staring at him, yet Sam coldly ignored them.

As soon as the birds suddenly flew away towards the vast sky, Sam felt vaguely uneasy right before feeling something cold pouring into his back, freezing his whole body and startling him. Thus, he reflexively jerked and threw his breakfast on the ground before a burst of uncontrollable laughter stormed into his ears.

"I can't resist myself from playing you up, you garbage of the school," a student said, insanely laughing.

To recognize whose laughter it was, Sam's head furiously twisted itself to where the laughter was coming from, only to see three male students from his class with bigger and stronger physiques than Sam's. It seemed it wasn't the whole group as there were only three.

One of them, whose name was Zac, having slightly straight-long brown hair, and seeming to be the one in control, was throwing away a bottle of water containing some remaining ice pieces.

Sam's volcanic anger was close to pouring out of its crater as he started preparing to retaliate, glaring at them with his dark-brown eyes flashed with anger as they were still barking like happy dogs.

Yet unsurprisingly, Sam didn't do anything besides subduing his almost bursting rage and keeping it inside its den as soon as he had remembered his mother, whose name was Elina, concernedly asking him to be in peace and empty of disputes or fights. So, Sam lifted himself off of the ground, brushed the dust off his pitch-black curly-margined hair as well as his uniform, and walked himself away as if nothing had happened.

After a few minutes, the sound of the alarm rang and spread across the school, announcing the end of the break and calling the students to get back into their classes. So, to comply, even without changing his clothes, Sam headed back to the class with the back of his uniform embarrassingly wet, not having spare clothes to change.

Once he entered the class plodding along with his head held down from the embarrassment, Zac noticed him and started worryingly to grin at him, making him feel iffy and his head quickly turn itself away before he approached his seat and sat down worried.

'…What was that grin for?!' Sam wondered, fidgeting on the ground. 'I feel bad about that.'

Unfortunately, Sam couldn't figure out how exactly they were scheming to put him in a shameful state. To be honest, he never could predict them, not even once. So, he just kept fidgeting and biting on his pen during class, thinking deeply about that, until the teacher called out his name, "Sam!"

"Y-yes, teacher," Sam replied, standing up confused.

"Read from-" the teacher couldn't complete as loud waves of laughter rose and filled the class, sending a surge of shiver down Sam's body.

Thinking of it, as soon as Sam stood up, they suddenly started to laugh, thus he had expected they were laughing at him, making his head rotate to the back and his eyes witness how miserable his situation was.

He then immediately shifted his eyes towards Zac's group, which had grinned at him once he had stepped into the class, to see them laughing in pleasure. Unbeknownst to Sam, they had put an already chewed gum on his chair to stick onto him as soon as he sat. However, Sam bitterly found out way too late.

"Heheh~, he's shitting gum," a student mocked. "You're the first to do that."

"Heheh~, that's so laughable," another student commented. "I can't stop laughing."

The teacher strongly struck with his hand on the desk in order to silence them but all to no avail.

Sam's anger kept increasing as they kept laughing; the more they laughed, the weaker his grasp on his emotions became. The stress and anger of being under harassment for years, that he had locked up inside of him, started to loosen until they broke out and slipped from his grasp at once.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Sam shouted furiously as he struck the desk with all his strength, silencing all the laughing students.

Sam's shout vanquished their loud waves of laughter as soon as it had stormed into their ears, stunning them with the unexpected reaction coming from Sam, and turning their heads towards him to make sure it really was him. Shocked, they kept staring at Sam for some time with disbelief, and so did the teacher.

Sam kept on as he shouted, "I have got enough of your non-ending crap! I can't bear this anymore!"

Even more, all the students, without exceptions, dropped jaws at the first harsh reaction of their boxing bag and stress basket that had kept silent so far. Some of them woke up and started to feel regretful, while others were still dazed.

"I…" Sam paused for a moment as he remembered his mother and felt regretful. "S-sorry teacher, could I just go to the toilets?"

"S-sure," the teacher agreed, still shocked.

To flee from this awkward situation, Sam took his stuff and walked out hastily, rushing to the nearest boys' toilet. When he entered the toilet, he locked it up and placed his head on the door.

"S-sorry, mom," Sam said with a teary face. "Despite the humiliation being more than I could bear, I couldn't keep my promise."

As soon as he said those words, cascades of tears started to fall down his eyes, regretting not keeping the promise, and unknowingly getting rid of some remained stress.

For some time, Sam had kept crying in the toilet until he calmed down quite a bit as his hands went to his eyes, wiping the remaining tears off. He then thought of Elina his mother, not wanting her to see him in such a state and make her worry. That was why he decided not to go home yet. Instead, he thought it was better to go to the library and read a book till the signs of him crying were flown off of his face. 

So, specifically, he went to the fiction section of the library, looking for an interesting fantasy book to dive into as he always loved fantasy stories and novels because they flew him into their fictional worlds and took him out of this gloomy reality. Yet accidentally, Sam dropped some books to the floor as soon as he tried to pull out one.

Shockingly, one of the dropped books stole his full attention, making him stare at it in disbelief.

'…Is this just a coincidence?!' Sam thought, surprised, unable to believe such a coincidence.

Since his birth, Sam had got a strange birthmark, inherited from Elina, of course. It took the shape of a triangular symbol. This triangle seemed like was divided into another six triangles or so it looked as if it took the shape of a pyramid of some sort but in two dimensions. Unlike his mother, his birthmark was situated on the right side of his chest, for Elina on her outer-side of her right arm. In a way, it felt like it indicated something.

'What if it wasn't just a fantasy book having coincidentally the same symbol as my birthmark?' Sam wondered, curious. 'Is it possible that it has my birthmark's origins?!'

That sounded as though someone was joking around as it didn't make any sense. Nevertheless, after moments of silence, he said, "well, I won't lose anything whether or not I read the book, so I'll just take it anyway."

Lastly, Sam decided to take the book after he took the other dropped books back to their places. He then hurriedly opened the book as soon as he took a seat, unable to wait for any further to read it.

The title of the book was [Wonders of Parallel Realms], written under it [Volume 1], inferentially meaning there were other volumes of this book.

Like any other fantasy book, it talked about another world where magic and magicians, monsters, semi-humans, and even dragons existed. That world was called 'Monestopia'.

"Based on the title," Sam muttered to himself, "if this volume talks about the world Monestopia, what about the other volumes?"

Curiously, Sam thought the other volumes might talk about other worlds rather than only Monestopia, given the title, yet he still was unable to believe anything.

Including monsters and humans, [Wonders of Parallel Realms] also explained some sort of rankings and levels as well as some types of power and magic for its inhabitants that lived in Monestopia. Being variable, these rankings measured how strong and dangerous they were, while the types of power expressed what kind of magic they were able to use.

Regarding the ranks, they ascendingly were alphabetical 'D, C, B, A, S, and SS' whereas the lowest rank was 'D' while the highest was 'SS'. Each rank had three levels, which were Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. Sometimes, they were expressed as 'I, II, and III' respectively. Basically, the three levels were branches for each rank.

For instance, one at Beginner D Rank 'ID' would be weaker than the one with Intermediate D Rank 'IID', while the Advanced D Rank 'IIID' was deemed to be the strongest amongst the D Rank individuals. As for the ranks themselves, the Advanced SS Rank 'IIISS' was considered at the top while the Beginner D Rank 'ID' was at the bottom, according to strength.

Accordingly, these ranks and levels were applied to magicians, fighters, monsters, and other creatures, or that was what the book told.

Talking then about magic, the types of power included three major types, being elemental powers, compound powers, and special powers.

Elemental power was magic that was formed by just a single of four powers of nature in which the powers of nature were fire, water, earth, and wind.

While compound power was magic that was formed by two or more combined powers of nature, like the magic of lava that was formed by earth and fire combination, the magic of fog that was formed by water and fire combination, and the magic of wood that was formed by earth and water combination.

As for special power, it was magic that didn't include any of the powers of nature, such as the magic of healing, the magic of forming and repairing, the magic of manipulating temperature, and the magic of seducing.

Regarding the story itself, in brief, it talked about a dragon being the MC that got the ability to control two special powers; light and darkness. Using them, the dragon could save Monestopia and its people regardless of their kinds from falling under the mercy of an external invasion that came from another world... and so on. It was just like any typical fantasy novel.

Without any bit of realism, the contents of [Wonders of Parallel Realms] were far unbelievable. It was just another fantasy book, yet still, Sam's curiosity was killing him.

"This book is full of nothing but bullshit, "Sam said, disappointed. "A fantasy book is a fantasy book, that will never change. Still, I'll borrow the book for a couple of days to continue reading it at home. Despite the non-sense details, the story still is quite interesting."

Looking at the watch, Sam flinched when he found out it was already late, close to sunset time, and panicked, "Oh shit, my mom will scold me for being late!"

Sam hastily left the library with the worry of being scolded clear on his face, yet he forgot to check if there was still any sign of crying, but luckily, there wasn't any.

*****

On his way home, Sam came across some guys wearing the same school uniform as his, which gave him a headache, thinking it was unavoidable. Fortunately, he noticed them focused on something on the ground, taking the chance to evade them.

But a distressing howling of a pained dog crossed Sam's ears, stopping him still in his place panicked, doubting his sense of hearing.

Hearing it again, Sam flinched, causing his legs to involuntarily rush hotfoot to them to see with his own eyes what was happening. Once he got closer enough, he could now recognize them well.

They were the very same bully-addicted students, including Zac, who had caused Sam all the trouble today, putting him in those shameful situations, and depressingly making him feel wretched.

Recalling all that, Sam felt pretty much upset, yet when he saw the state of the dog, at that moment, his anger rose to cross its usual limits, making him feel like it would explode and destroy everything.

Meanwhile, Sam's intention to avoid them had entirely flown away, taking his all focus the will to rescue that terrified dog before he subconsciously dashed up to them shouting: "Stop, you damn bastards!"

In response to his shout, they twisted their heads to spot and recognize whose shout it was. Knowing it was Sam, Zac and his friends glared at him with an angry, frowning expression.

Their eyes were showing how greatly they got angry at Sam, sending a surge of shiver down his spine. Was it due to what had happened in the class or because he interfered with them just right now? Sam thought.

'Whatever it was, I'll never let them harm this dog anymore,' Sam thought, determined.

"…You," Zac shouted, mad. "Since when can you raise your voice, especially at us?!"

"You are seeking your end!" a student snarled.

"At school and now," another one said, "you're boldly getting more stupid and helpless to go against us."

"..." the last student, whose name was Zain, having spiky black hair, kept silent. He wasn't with Zac when they had bullied Sam earlier today. He now looked quite hesitant as if he disliked their doings, still he kept on doing them.

Soon enough, they jumped at Sam intending to beat him up blue and black, causing him to shudder, yet he did never back away, courageously running at them to retaliate.

But whom he was bluffing? He didn't manage to throw a successful blow and was unable to make even a small scratch, digging his grave with his own hands, Sam thought.

Without letting such a golden opportunity get away, they kept punching and kicking Sam until he was black and blue, gasping for air. He was completely unable to fight back, letting huge despair conquer his heart. Still, persistently, his anger never did shrink.

"Y-you," Sam shouted, furiously. "You'll pay back for everything you have done."

As soon as Sam shouted, unbelievably, his body emitted a faint aura that lasted for milliseconds with blazing eyes, stupefying him. Of course, the students didn't notice that, making Sam believe that he was just imagining.

In no time, the wind unexpectedly fetched and entered into Sam's ears the sound of a barking dog coming from behind him. Then they heard barking coming from behind the students. In a few seconds, they stopped beating Sam as the barkings of dogs gradually kept increasing and coming from all directions, immersing them in a fit of tension and putting them, including Sam, dumbfoundedly in awe.

'…Is that aura that I felt responsible for what's happening?' Sam wondered in disbelief.

Well, that aura wasn't just his imagination. It arose for real, agitating all those dogs. Of course, Sam didn't believe such an explanation... not completely, just in his mind.

Contrary to that, there was some doubt about it being true inside his heart. This opposition in Sam's thoughts occurred due to the internal conflict between his instincts and his logic, giving him a headache. So, he decided to let it for the future to determine which one was true.

Although they all heard a lot of brakings, only a few stray dogs, nine or so, emerged from the distance running towards them at high speed. Perhaps most of the barking dogs were domestic, unable to attend the party.

Immediately when the dogs approached, they leaped at Zac's group except for Sam. The students, that habitually bullied Sam while grinning in pleasure, were now trembling and sweating in fear. Although they had done a lot of miserable and shameful things to Sam, yet he pitied them.

In comparison to how many times they had humiliated Sam, the stray dogs attacked them, violently biting their clothes and dragging them all over the floor, letting them experience just one miserable situation in which they were terrified too much.

Not bearing to see somebody in such a state, Sam interfered by stopping the dogs by whistling to calm them. Sam noticed Zac's gang staring at him with teary eyes. Their hair got untidy, while their clothes got a bit torn, yet Sam ignored and tidied up his clothes and hair, to then turn away and continue on his way home as though nothing had occurred, worrying about Elina's reaction to the bruises.

*****

"I'm home," Sam greeted as he entered home, forgetting to close the door while his face was covered with his black scarf, hoping Elina wouldn't find out about the bruises.

"Where've you been to be late like this?!" Elina asked, greeting him back from the kitchen with a scolding.

"I was in the library reading a book," Sam answered.

"…"

To slip from Elina's sight, Sam was trying to sneak up to his room before her seeing him. But surprisingly, she approached him in a blink of an eye without replying to his answer, startling him and causing him to unintentionally lose his grip on the scarf, revealing his colored face.

"I... I felt something was wrong when I heard your voice," she said after a short silence, worried about Sam. "What happened?"

With eyes filled with concern, she looked at Sam with a stunned expression on her face, not believing her eyes. To be honest, it was her first time to see her peaceful son with bruises, or that was what she thought. But in fact, it was rather Sam's first time to be found out while having any sign of him being beaten up. Sam was bewildered, not knowing what to say, so he then just improvised.

"Don't worry, mom. It was just a small fight to prove myself," He said out the first thing coming onto his tongue.

Silently, her hand slowly went to her face, covering her wide open mouth, and staring at Sam in amazement. The silently stunned expression of her threw at him a mass of tension, causing him to rain buckets of sweat all over his body while wondering: 'why would she put that expression as soon as I uttered that?'

Right after, her charming honey-brown eyes started to tear as her index finger rose and extended to wipe the tears. As a wave of wind blew through the open door, her shiny long black hair flapped, lifting her fringe to clarify her brilliant beautiful face which was brightly grinning at him. As a fact of the matter, her beauty was rather unparalleled.

"You've grown up, Sam," she drawled, proudly. "Now, you impose your presence."

Hearing that threw into Sam a shockwave, making him kneel depressed. 'Aah, all that wailing and crying for breaking the promise was all for nothing? On top of that, she's proud!'

Of course, if he had known she would be proud of him for proving himself, he would have opposed all that damn bully from the beginning. Alas, he had been keeping and protecting a useless promise that caused all that suffer to scatter in vain.

"What's wrong with you?" She chuckled, vigorously. "Did you expect me to get scared? I'm not that stereotypical of a mother, you know."

Well, hearing that struck him with a worse feeling, so he raised his head and looked at her with teary eyes as if he was on the threshold of crying, yet immediately, she shifted her eyes away and started scratching her cheek with her index finger.

"Well... in fact, I got scared a little tiny bit," she smiled nervously, followed by, widely grinning right after, "but I'm really glad about knowing you trying to prove yourself."

She gave him a warming parenthood-filled smile, taking him completely off-guard and erasing all the stress that his heart bore.

After a few seconds, Sam threw the door shut and then entered with Elina before his stomach growled, making him change direction towards the kitchen, submitting to it. He then remembered the book [Wonders of Parallel Realms] before he sat and started to gulp down some bananas.

Due to having a feeling that the book might contain something interesting, Sam curiously wanted to scan it thoroughly and look into its contents minutely.

"Mom, I found a book called [Wonders of Parallel Realms] having the same symbol as our birthmarks," Sam told her.

"What a joke," She ridiculed, not believing. "Don't have a better one?"

"I'm dead serious here," Sam confirmed, frowning. "The book talks about a world called Monestopia."

Right after pronouncing 'Monestopia', Elina jerked and almost threw the plate in her grasp on the ground and forcefully smiled, "W-what fantasy novels do you read? You should stop reading them. T-they affect you."

"…"

Sam silently stared at her in wonder, why would she get so flustered when he told her about the book?

Sam kept thinking for some time, but due to the terrible fatigue that his body was suffering, he decided to ignore it, postponing asking her for another time. Therefore, he headed straight to his room to rest his poor body and indulge himself in reading the book.

As you know, his house wasn't luxurious nor fancy or anything like that. On the contrary, it was boringly so average, as it consisted of two floors and had a small garden.

Sam's room was on the second floor. However, it was relatively small, with built-in pine units incorporating wardrobes, shelving, and cupboards, his neat bed occupying the majority of the room, and the desk taking the corner, above it, shelves fully loaded with organized books.

The moment he stepped into his room, its atmosphere stimulated in his body the desire to lie down and relax, and his feeling of fatigue doubled as well. Nevertheless, Sam clamped down on himself and proceeded to read the book, keeping on that until his feeling of sleep defeated him, letting his body gradually descend on the book, and his eyes surrendered and shut.

*****

An annoying sound kept digging into Sam's ears, disturbing him while he still diving inside his deepest sleep as if it was meanly trying to drag him out. His eyebrows started to twitch, and his eyes started to shake. Unable to tolerate the noise, his eyes fluttered open and his mind rushed back, gaining back his consciousness.

'Ah…I fell asleep,' Sam thought, furrowed brows as he shifted his eyes towards the alarm. 'This alarm... I think I should break it.'

The alarm was the same annoying sound Sam kept hearing while asleep. It was ringing out like a rooster crowing in the morning, telling him it was time for going to school.

Therefore, he started to prepare himself by washing his face as well as his teeth, then brushing his hair before wearing the school uniform. In no time, Sam proceeded to go on his way to school right after waving goodbye with his hand to his mother, Elina.

On this day, Sam had yet to know that his life was about to wholly change once coming back home after school.

*******