The Beginning Of A New Life

1

Shortly, after getting shot twice Tatsuya opens his eyes and sees that he is alone in a room surrounded by white walls with a table at the centre.

"I don't think this is the afterlife.... this is just too weird! I thought I died after getting shot!"

"Oh please! Just shut your mouth for one second and relax for a bit..."

"Where is this voice coming from?!.... This sound.... it sounds like.... AN OLD GUY!"

"HEY! WHO THE HECK ARE YOU CALLING OLD?!... Boy, you better not be getting full of yourself just because I gave you extra knowledge!"

Tatsuya blinks his eyes and suddenly finds himself sitting in front of the table in a cross sit position on the floor. He hears the sound of a door being opened and closed, but when he tries to move around he becomes unable to.

He hears a person closing in. The person comes with two glasses of tea and some snacks. He keeps one of the glasses in front of Tatsuya along with the snacks and sits down in front of him.

Tatsuya regains his ability to move around and lifts his head to see a grown man who looked like he was in his sixties sitting in front of him and drinking tea.

His skin looked like that of an old man's with a few wrinkles. His hair looked as if its colour had been washed away from it.

"So Tatsuya-kun... I shall be frank with thee..."

Tatsuya thinks to himself-

"Who is this old man and why is he talking in such a weird manner? That's gross..."

After he thinks of this statement there is silence in that white room. The man keeps his glass on the table and shouts-

"WHY THE HECK ARE YOU CALLING ME OLD?" He then says after calming down-

"And here I thought I sounded cool... Kids these days..."

"So, if you are able to read my thoughts that means that you are some psychic right?"

"You buffoon. How did you even get to the fact that I'm a psychic? I am your creator or to be exact the creator of Earth. I am-"

Just before he completes saying what he had to say Tatsuya interrupts him and says-

"I hope you don't say stuff like 'I AM GOD' or so. Few psychics who had such abilities were doing stuff like that!"

The person in front picks up his glass in anger and starts drinking from it and after he finishes drinking he replies with anger-

"Be grateful that you might be given a second chance at life after dying in such a stupid manner!"

"Stupid, you say! How the heck am I supposed to know that there were assassin's out there hunting for me!!?"

They continue to fight while eating and drinking and after a while they calm down and Tatsuya strikes a conversation-

"Fine, given this room... let's say you are God. Now what do you want with me and why didn't I go to the afterlife?"

"I was planning to get to that. Since you didn't know, I created you all equally and your life should have been normal..."

"Wait... if we were all created equally then why were some of us called geniuses?"

The God looks away and says in a very low voice-

"You see... the day you 'geniuses' were created... well, I was really tired. While creating tens of thousands of your kind at some point I got bored and started to think 'It's such a pain, maybe I'll sleep a little and then come back.'"

Tatsuya looks at him in disgust after he reaches till this point.

"Then after I slept...."

"You actually slept?!"

"Moving on... I didn't feel like creating humans and thought let's play some RPG and got hooked to it. On my screen a message appeared when I was clearing a dungeon and was battling a boss, 'Do you want to use the auto- create option?' and as I was immersed in the game I didn't read the message and clicked on 'yes'"

Tatsuya looks down on the God in disgust and anger as the God starts to sweat a lot. Tatsuya says-

"So basically, you're saying that because of the auto create we geniuses were born and it's not your fault?!"

The God replies-

"Wow, you got it right! I'm impressed that such a smart human was created by because of that!"

"Hey! You Good-for-nothing God... In the end, it was your fault that I went through that hell?! How dare you neglect your duties and have fun while people like me suffered!!"

"You better watch your language boy....! I'm your creator which gives me the right to erase your very existence from the world..." says the God in a very serious tone.

Tatsuya sees that he was not joking around and leaves a sigh-

"Alright! Alright! Let's move on to the main topic as to why am I still here and not in the afterlife... shall we?"

The God starts to smile and says-

"About time you realized.... So I do hope that you haven't forgotten that you called me scum just before you died... have you?"

This time because of the pressure Tatsuya starts to sweat a lot and replies in a shaky voice-

"N-no.... H-how could I?"

"Well, I forgive you cause it was partly my fault. Now the main topic.... as an apology I will accept your request.... I will give you another chance at life!"

"Wait....are you sure you can do that? Isn't it prohibited to give the same human 2 lives and stuff?"

"Well, in normal cases.... yes. But your case is not normal now is it? Or... if you don't want an extra life you can go straight to the afterlife, I would not have any problem whatsoever."

Tatsuya question the God once again-

"But won't it be odd... A person who died suddenly came back to life!"

"Who said anything about sending you to the same Earth? I have to send you to a different place, of course!"

"Different place? Where ar-"

"Alright then! Enough talk. Try to live a life different from your previous one."

Suddenly, a hole emerges from under Tatsuya and he falls in it. Then the God says while laughing-

"Interesting fellow! It's been ages since I had someone like him to talk with... I'll watch him for some time and see if anything entertaining happens!"

2

While continuously falling down the dark hole, he closes his eyes and then opens them again. He finds himself falling from the high sky. While he falls, he sees few birds which look very unusual to him. He looks all around him and tries to find a way to land.

As the distance between the ground and him reduces he gets a clear view of the place. A green field, with flowers and a tree. The flowers grew in such a way that from the skies it looked like a circle around the tree.

Before hitting the ground, his course changes and he flies straight into the tree.

Few branches of the tree break and then he falls from the tree into the flower bed.

"Ow! Ow! That hurt like hell.... Wait, surviving from such a height was not even possible... just what was that guy thinking..."

He holds the back of his head with his palm and looks around.

"First of all.... where am I.... Which country is this, Netherlands?"

He puts his hands down and looks at the beautiful flowers. He then says-

"How long has it been since I saw flowers so beautiful, let alone the shade of a tree and all this green.....? The city really separates you from nature!"

He looks above his head on the branches of the tree and sees little birds chirping. The scenery and the atmosphere was so calming that he sat there for some time for relaxing himself after all those events.

"Alright! I guess it's time to go. Enough relaxing!"

He gets up on his feet and says-

"Now let's see where did that so called 'God' drop me"

To his left at a distance he sees a forest with huge and thick trees and to his right he sees a Kingdom which was looked very similar to the one in the games he used to play. He immediately realized that this was not his Earth after looking at a huge dragon that made a roar and flew in the sky at a distance in the forest.

After sighing he says-

"Dammit, if you were going to send me to such a place then you should have just said so..." and he sighs again.

3

After walking for a while he reaches the gate through which he could enter that kingdom. When he approaches the gate he is stopped by two guards wearing full plate silver armours.

They block his way with two long and sharp spears and one of them says-

"HALT! I've never seen you nor have I seen anyone wearing such thin armour. What is your name? Where are you from?"

"Oh right! My name is Tatsuya Ryo and I am from country called Japan!"

Both of the guards look at each looking confused and the second guard asks him-

"Japan? Does such a country even exist? Stop lying to us and tell us truthfully where you are from!"

"N-no you've got it all wrong. I'm not lying it's the truth. I really am from Japan."

The guards interrogated him because Tatsuya was wearing a hooded jacket and track pants and a pair of sneakers.

"Okay, fine.... do you have money for the toll?"

"Yeah, of course I do! So how much is it?"

One of the guards looks at the other and says in a happy voice-

"This guy is normal after all! Looks like we were worried over nothing!"

The other guard tells him,

"It will be a hundred del" and he puts one of his arms forward.

Tatsuya looks at the guards and laughs. He then asks them-

"Sir, May I know what the currency of this kingdom is?"

The guard on the left replies-

"It's del! Wait... don't tell me that you didn't know that..."

"No, of course not... It's just that I left my wallet at home..." and he starts to laugh in an awkward manner.

"Well then.... we can't permit you to enter 'The Kingdom of Xaria'. So go back to your home or something..."

Not having a choice Tatsuya puts his hands inside his pocket and walks away from the gate.

He goes back to the flower bed and decides to wait there. While he waits there he decides to sit under the shade of the tree and relax. He checks his pocket to see if he had his phone or anything, but he didn't have anything with him.

He tries to think of a way to get inside the kingdom but doesn't get any ideas.

"Now what...maybe something might happen, so I guess I'll wait here...."says Tatsuya and yawns.

He then looks up on the tree and notices that there were apples growing on the tree. After watching the red juicy apples from under the tree he gets a craving for them. He gets up and says-

"Well... there's no use waiting! Might as well get something to eat."

He tries to climb the tree but each time he does he falls on the ground.

"Why is climbing the tree so hard.... If that is the difficulty of this world, then what is the point of sending me here!?"

He finally gives up and starts to sulk while resting under the tree. Suddenly an apple falls in the ground just besides him. He looks at the apple and says-

"... Why did I even have to put so much effort, if it was gonna fall anyways."

He picks up the apple after sighing and starts to eat it. After taking a bite he says-

"Delicious! Were apples ever so sweet?"

After eating the apple he hears a child crying. As the sound was very faint, he could not make out if it was the chirping or the crying.

He looks around and sees no one. Then he hears it again, so he leans to the side and sees a little girl crying behind the tree. He asks her-

"Why are you crying? Did you get separated from your parents?"

She puts down her hands and while making a very cute face while crying she says-

"I-I don't remember how-how I got here." And continues crying.

"Okay! Do you remember what your parents looked like?"

"I-I'm sor-sorry! I- I don't remember anything!"

The girl was really cute. She wore a white dress which had blue coloured frills. She had a red ribbon on her head and her hair looked like silk and was pure white in colour.

"Can you tell me your name, please?"

"Kei.... M-my name is Kei"

"Alright, Kei are you hungry?"

"Yes..."

"Promise me you won't cry, then I will give you something to eat... okay?"

"O-okay..."

Tatsuya says so and he goes away from the tree. After going a bit far from the tree he sprints towards the tree and using that momentum he climbs up the tree.

He picks two-three apples and jumps down. He goes to Kei and offers her the apples. She looks really happy after seeing the hand-picked apples. She takes one of them with both of her small hands and starts to munch on the apple.

He sits next to her and starts eating an apple as well. He says-

"You can come with me if you want to... until you find your parents? I won't force you or anything..."

"Really! Is it alright if I came with you...?"

"My name is Tatsuya Ryo. You can call me Ryo!"

"Okay, Ryo nii!"

He hugs her and says while feeling very happy-

"You're so adorable! I'll take good care of you until we find your parents."

She gives him a big smile while eating the apple.

After eating, they get up and Tatsuya picks her up with both his hands and makes her sit on his shoulders. He walks a bit from the tree and asks her-

"You aren't scared, right?"

"No... I am not..."

"You're quite courageous for a little kid! I'll give you that!"

While they walk towards the gate Tatsuya thinks up a plan to enter the city. He says-

"Kei, I have a favour to ask of you. Do you think you can do it?"

"I'll try...!"

He explains to her what she had to do and they decide to go through the gate by any means if this plan failed.

4

They reach the gates and go to the guards. When Tatsuya approaches the guards a second time he thinks to himself-

"Judging from their previous replies and actions, I have come to the conclusion that they're idiots. So the chances of this plan succeeding are close to ninety percent.... Let's give it a shot then, shall we?!"

The guards look at him and sigh while saying-

"Kid, did you bring your wallet this time?"

Tatsuya grins and then makes a normal face and says-

"Yeah! I did..." and acts as if he is searching for his wallet in his wallet.

He puts down little Kei and continues his act. The guards look at Kei and ask her-

"Hey there! What is your name?"

Kei makes a face which looks as if she is going to cry and says-

"You people are scary. I don't like scary people."

"No! No. This is not our face. It's a Helmet." After saying that the guards take of their helmet.

Tatsuya looks at them when they were removing their helmet and says-

"There's my chance!���

There were many pouches of coins behind them on a table. He rushes to the table as fast as he could, grabs a pouch of coins and come back to his original position. He sweats while saying-

"Here you go! Hundred del."

"Why are you sweating so much, Kid?"

"Well, it's kinda hot today and walking in this heat along with my daughter is tiring, you know?" and he wipes off the sweat.

The guard don't suspect a thing and put back their helmets after taking the money from his hand. Before he enters the city they say-

"Have a good day, Kid!"

"Yeah, sure will!"

After he picks up Kei and puts her on his shoulders he passes the guard and makes a very huge grin.

"Mission Accomplished! Good job Kei, I'm proud of you. For now let's find a place where we can stay" Kei smiles as he says this.

5

After walking in the town for some time and looking around for quite some while Tatsuya thinks to himself-

"Now that I think about it, shouldn't there be skills just like a game world, or could it be something else?"

He puts down Kei and starts to look around-

"If this is a town it obviously means that there will be inns."

And he continues to look around along with Kei. While walking they had come across a couple of shops but didn't find any inns.

Tatsuya looks around to see if there are any inns and while he does so and asks people, a shop catches Kei's attention. She goes walking towards the shop and looks at the different shapes and colours of the candy and her eyes start to sparkle out of happiness.

The owner was an old man sitting with a hat on his head. He gets up and looks down in front of his shop to spot Kei standing there as she was drooling over. She suddenly realizes that Tatsuya was not near her anymore.

She looks around a bit and then looks above to see a scary old man's face and she starts to cry. The old man gives her a small candy and asks her while smiling-

"Did you get separated from your mom and dad?"

She nods her head while shedding few tears and eating the candy.

"Parents these days, don't make sue if their kid is with them or not. Talk about reckless. You can wait here if you want till your parents come." He smiles a bit more than before and while holding a big candy which had different colours he says-

"Look here, there's more from where that came from."

Her face becomes sparkly once again and she goes near the old man as he offers her the big candy.

Tatsuya still inquiring about the location of the inn walks around the whole town and reaches the gate through which he entered the town. There were many towns in the Kingdom so he decided to ask in one town and not all.

He hadn't realized yet that Kei was not beside him anymore. One of the guards look at him and asks him-

"Kid, where is your daughter?"

"What do you mean where; she's right-"He turns his head to his right and sees that she really wasn't next to him.

He panics and starts to mumble to himself-

"What should I do- that wasn't even my kid- oh man this really sucks- what if she got kidnapped- maybe if I ask around-"

"Kid! I forgot to remind you that these days kids have suddenly disappeared... I hope you keep your daughter safe!"

He looks at the guard and the guard smiles and starts to talk with the guard next to him.

"Alright! This is not the time to be waiting around. Let's think where she could be...Hmm....was it near those houses....or wait was it when I put her down?! Yep I'm positive it was then. Now if I'm sure It was somewhere around the market block. I hope I'm right about this"

He rushes to the market block and sees everywhere but he doesn't find her. He even passes by the candy shop but since she was small and the table was big he didn't see her.

He becomes tired and starts to breathe heavily. He decides to take another look when he notices a dark alley on his left. Thinking that, she entered there he enters the alley. A man holds his shoulder and says-

"Boy, where do you think you're going? That's the black market. Kids like you shouldn't go in there."

"All the more reason for me to go in there. Now let go of my arm I've gotta find someone."

The old man smiles and says-

"Oho! Someone's bold enough to get in here. Follow me, boy. I'll show you the way to find the one you're looking for!"

"Wait, what? Aren't you just a normal person how would you-"

"Never trust a stranger must be what your parents taught you, but if you believe me I'll show you where the one you're looking for is. Well, it's up to you though!" and he leaves Tatsuya's arm and walks into the alley.

6

As the strange man walks down the alley his clothes start to change along with his appearance. Tatsuya ends up following him thinking that it could give him some hint as to where Kei could be.

A black cloak appears out of thin air and wraps itself around the strange man. The man's hair starts to grey until it became completely grey and his face starts to look a bit older that before.

"Looks like that transformation potion wore off... Tch, that guy tricked me saying it would last for a week."

"Transformation potion?"

"Ah, don't mind all that. Let's take a turn here."

They take a left while walking and enters the shop which was right at the turn.

The shop looked spooky and had a chilly atmosphere. There were many huge shelves which had books and weapons. Also there were some shelves kept separately in a corner on which staffs and wands were kept.

After walking toward the counter he noticed a strange glass box with the words written 'Sincerely Do Not Touch' and at the bottom it was written 'Contains a very dangerous spell'

The strange man sits in his chair behind the counter and asks him-

"Interesting isn't it?"

"What is?"

"That box. I wasn't the one to put it in there. You could say that it's an artefact. Some of my acquaintances found it in a dungeon, buried. Also if you want you can touch the box. Let me warn you though, that thing is like a magic compatibility meter. If you are compatible and it glows then you can keep it. Also I'll give you money since it has been lying around like this for eight years."

"We can talk about all that later. First things first, show me where Kei is if you were not lying and fast!"

"Stop making an old man work to the bone, I did say I would help you. But I want something in exchange."

"What is it?"

"I've been sensing something odd in you which matches quite a bit with the book in the container. I want you to see your compatibility with the book within."

"Alright! I'll do it. So tell me where she is?"

"Okay! Here goes nothing"

He picks up a piece of paper and places his hand over it. He asks him to describe what she looks like and he says everything about her appearance.

"Found it! She is with a man called Albert at a candy stall in the market block."

"Thanks a bunch old man... I'll be back in a bit."

He makes a run for the door and finds himself to be immobilized.

"Oho, you can't escape me. At least not in a hundred years."

"Alright! I'll do it! But it should be fast!"

"Of course it will be. All you have to do is place one of your hands on top of the glass box and say the words 'Open, Unlock, Find'

"Ugh! Looks like I will have to do it."

"Also a heads up. If you are not compatible with it can blow off one of your limbs randomly. That's all."

Tatsuya gains the ability to move around and stares into the strange man's face for a while and says loudly,

"HUH!!!! IF THAT WERE THE CASE I WOULDN'T HAVE ASKED FOR YOUR HELP. YOU STINKING OLD GEEZER"

"Hahaha! Boy, your jokes amuse me quite a lot. Now get to work! I don't have all day you know!"

Tatsuya gives up and goes to the box placed in the corner. When he slowly places his hand over the box starts to emit a white light and the book within starts to float within the box.

The box starts to float as well and it starts to open itself. First, the sides of the box detach themselves from the box and fall down. Then the bottom and the top and finally the front and the back.

Tatsuya tries moves his hand away from the book which floats towards his hand but his hand wouldn't move an inch. He grabs the book with this hand and while holding on to it he looks at the strange man and sarcastically laughs at him. The strange man coughs up a lot of blood-

"Old man! Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about this. This happens whenever I'm shocked"

"Oh, so you are shocked.... So can I leave now?"

"Yeah! Sure why not?"

He walks towards the strange man and says-

"Old man.... Give me my money!"

"Whatever could you be talking about?" says the strange man while sweating.

"Okay! Here you go. Thousand del" and gives him three large pouches of money.

"Wait. That's all I get. But the toll was hundred del."

"Those damned knights tricked you boy. It is only 10 del for the toll."

"Don't worry. Anyways I knew they might be tricking me so I did the same by paying them their own money."

"Boy, you're quite smart aren't you? Now get out of here before someone sees you."

Tatsuya rushes to the door along with the book and asks the strange man-

"By the way what is your name old man? I'm Tatsuya Ryo."

"I am Edel. Plain old Edel. One more thing... don't mention my name to anyone until we meet again."

After he finishes hearing what this strange man Edel said he leaves the shop in a hurry. As the door closes, Edel grins and says to himself-

"Looks like this era will bring forth some new changes..."

7

In a hurry, Tatsuya dashes through the dark alleys and reaches the market block. He looks up above and sees that the Sun had started to set. The skies started to darken and he thought to himself-

"I better hurry or else I might be too late!"

He starts to walk briskly while looking around and when he sees the candy shop he says-

"Here...? I hope he wasn't lying."

He walks over to the candy shop and asks the old man sitting on the wooden chair-

"Umm... excuse me; did you see a little girl with white coloured hair around here?"

"No... I haven't seen such a girl"

Right after he says this Kei pops out from under the table and says-

"Ryo nii!"

"There you are! Do you know how worried I was?"

"I'm sorry..." says Kei while look towards his feet.

Tatsuya kneels down and says-

"It's alright now. If you're safe then that's more than enough."

He turns towards the old shopkeeper immediately and asks him with anger-

"Oye! What is the meaning of this? Why is Kei here if you said you didn't see her? ANSWER ME!"

"I guess you found me out... Well, I didn't want to give away this girl to a stranger now."

"Ok. You've made your point. So, now we'll be taking our leave. Thank you."

"Don't mind it. I have a daughter as well. As a father, protecting a child comes before anything else... Take care, Kid."

They start walking while holding hands and Kei turns her head around and waves her hand while smiling. The old man does the same. The Sun sets and night falls upon the town.

Tatsuya walks around the town along with Kei and sees that the shops which weren't open during the day opened at night and most of them were inns. After seeing the inns the thought hit Tatsuya in the head-

"If there were so many inns then why didn't a single person tell me where the inns were....? Even in this world people don't trust me..."

"Ryo nii! What's wrong?"

"It's nothing Kei. Nothing at all. For now, let's find a place to stay for the night."

"Yeah! Let's do that."

They walk toward an inn called 'Silver moon INN'. Tatsuya opens the door and sees many people drinking and eating. Laughing and enjoying themselves. He walks up to the counter and the lady says-

"Welcome sir! How may I help you?"

"We would like to have a room for one night."

"One night will be twenty del. How many beds would you like to have in your room?"

"Two beds."

"Alright sir! Go upstairs and take the third room to the left."

He pays the lady hundred del and goes upstairs. They open the door and both of them go and sit on the beds. He keeps two of his money pouches in the wardrobe and carries one with him. When he removes his jacket the book falls from his pocket onto the ground. He picks up the book and keeps it in the wardrobe while saying-

"The book can wait. Let's get something to eat shall we Kei?"

"Ok! Let's go!"

Tatsuya locks the door and the both of them head downstairs to eat.