Chapter 1: In another world

The light of dawn fell upon a highly packed city, coating the rustic medieval houses in the golden glow of the new day while the residents of the land started to stir from their slumbers, awakening to the tedious chores that came with the sunrise.

Soon the empty cobbled streets were filled with the low energy footsteps of the crowd as stalls selling various goods started to prop up around the locale, while forced smiles greeted one another.

Amongst this hustle and bustle, the figure of an emaciated boy could be seen curled up like a newborn baby, his body plastered to the freezing stones that lined the cramped alleyway that he was forced to make his home, his eyelids soon began to flutter open when the golden light of day made its way into his territory and embraced his shivering figure with the warmth that came with it.

"Urgh, I thought I had shut the curtains," The boy groaned with one eye open that hatefully stared at the invasive light. At the same time, his arms subconsciously reached out for the duvet that had always accompanied him on his way to dreamland to combat the chilling cold that was seeping into his aching bones.

"Huh, where's my duvet? Did I kick it off the bed?" The boy absentmindedly questioned his mind, still having not adapted to the sudden change in environment. And that was when he felt the biggest shock in his life as his mind finally snapped out of the drunken stupor that comes with the unfortunate awakening from a dream his weary eyes took in the sight, not of his normally well-lit room but instead the grimy stones of the alleyway and the repugnant stench of human excrement and sweat.

"What the fuck? Am I still dreaming?" The boy dazedly mumbled a sense of deep-set dread filling his gut, his vision hyper fixated upon the darkened walls of the alley that seemed to hug his skin and reverberate his voice, yet instead of hearing the expected voice of a teenager nearing the end of puberty, he was met with the shrill, hoarse tone of a child.

"What's going on?" The boy panicked, his mind already disillusioned with the possibility of this being nothing more than a dream. After all, everything was too realistic. The chilling frost of the new day, the emptiness in his stomach that called out for nourishment and the coarseness of his sandpaper-like trachea were all things that were impossible to emulate in a dream.

It was then that his eyes saw it. Reflected in the unpolished painted black walls was the figure not of a lanky teenager but a small, emaciated seven-year-old child with long dirty brown hair that looked as if it was smeared with a multitude of shit and deep chocolate eyes that had long since given up on life were now filled with undisguised fear. The figure wore a horrified look on his average-looking childish face caked in what the boy could only hope to be dirt. Adorning his body was a roughly cut piece of cloth that hung limply over his shoulder like a toga. The fabric was dyed a dirty brown similar to the child's hair sporting no semblance to its formerly pure white colour. Although he didn't comment on it, the body he currently resided in seemed to be a mirror copy of what the teen looked like when he was seven, minus the long hair and putrid smell.

Shaken, the boy raised his jittery arms in an attempt to confirm if what he was looking at was real or just an illusion, only to have the sense of repressed dread from earlier resurface when he caught sight of his pale, sickly white childish hands caked in what he could only assume to be either faecal matter or dirt.

"What's going on?'" The boy stammered subconsciously, retreating away from the cramped alley and out into the open air of the streets.

"Out of the way," A gruff voice sounded from behind the panicked child that was promptly followed by an impact that sent the emaciated figure spiralling down onto the hard floor underneath. Yet the boy paid no heed to his assault. His mind was already too preoccupied with the overwhelming sense of fear that came with his current predicament.

'Calm down, Arthur, calm down. I'm sure this all has to be a dream,' The boy named Arthur chided in an attempt to escape the reality that came with his situation. However, he knew this attempt to calm himself down would ultimately be useless as he had already deconfirmed the fact that his current reality was nothing more than a figment of his imagination moments after waking up here. 'Yeah, it has to be a dream; I'm sure that if I go back to sleep, I'll wake back up in the comfort of my home,' Arthur delusionally mumbled, forcefully closing his eyes to the world around him.

"What are you doing, you freak? I told you to get out of my way" The gruff voice once again sounded from behind Arthur, who had already unknowingly drawn a crowd to himself. Soon the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard marching towards the figure of the skinny child who remained oblivious to his surroundings.

'This is all a dream, this is all a dream,' Arthur recited these words in his head like a mantra remaining ignorant to the ever-increasing sound of footsteps that drew nearer and nearer to his position on the road.

"MOVE!" The voice suddenly yelled, startling Arthur out from his mutterings while his eyes honed in on his aggressor. The voice belonged to a man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties with short, professionally cut ginger hair and a stocky build that rippled with power. He wore a dark green short-sleeved shirt and what appeared to be a set of jeans, clothing that one would never expect considering the current setting of the world.

"Sorry," Arthur hushedly mumbled, clearly intimidated by the built man that was venomously staring at the child. He attempted to back away from the situation and return to the alleyway where he had initially appeared from, yet in the midst of his retreat, he was suddenly blocked by what seemed to be a wall that had sprung out of nowhere.

"Ouch," Arthur grumbled, rubbing his head from the abrupt collision. At the same time, he sent an indignant glare at what he assumed to be a brick wall only to have his world flip once again and colour drain from his already pale face when his eyes locked with the ginger man from before who smugly looked at the poor child with a vicious smile.

"I want an apology!" The man demanded, momentarily stunning the still disoriented Arthur. After all, everything that's happened to him has just been so sudden and confusing. One moment he was in his bed having the best sleep of his life, and the next, he was in the body of some random kid who looked like a mirror replica of a younger him. 'Haven't I already apologised, though?' Arthur bitterly questioned though he held back on voicing his distaste, having already caught on to the man's character that stood before him.

'He probably has a superiority complex, and he's using me as an outlet to vent his frustration,' Arthur commented, locking eyes again with the ginger who simply sent him an indignant glare. "I'm sorry for running into you, mister. I wasn't looking where I was going," Arthur spoke, getting onto his knees and exposing his dirt-caked head of hair to the man whose chest puffed up with pride. At the same time, the other passer-bys released a short bout of laughter upon witnessing the peasants misfortune. 'I need to wake up. This situation is humiliating' Arthur demanded his brain to fire up its synapses to wake up his sleeping body to no avail as his mind was already wide awake.

"As you should, you peasant," The man snottily growled, his sinuses having already clogged up from the unbearable stench that profusely poured out of Arthur's body. "Now be gone from my sight before I have to take your life as recompense," The man haughty declared, shocking Arthur with his brash threat.

'Wait, he's seriously going to threaten to kill me just because I bumped into him,' Arthur inwardly screamed, his breaths becoming more and more rapid upon hearing the echoes of jovial laughter that seemed to applaud the ginger man's declaration. 'What the fuck is wrong with this dream? Why is everyone so prone to violence? Do they not realise that I'm a kid!' Arthur continued his breathing, unconsciously falling into a state of hyperventilation as the prior sense of dread and hopelessness once again slid its way into the boy's mind.

"Did you not hear me? I told you to move!" The man yelled upon seeing the figure of the hyperventilating peasant while the onlookers' laughter echoed louder and louder in Arthur's mind. 'This world can't be real. It has to be a dream. This can't be real. It has to be a dream!' Arthur chanted, still refusing to accept his sudden predicament only to have his delusions crumble almost as quickly as they appeared as the ginger man seemed to follow through with his promise by reaching down and grabbing Arthur via his long dirty hair and effortlessly hoisting him up like a poached rabbit for the world to see.

"Ahh," Arthur yelled in pain. His body began to uncontrollably struggle against the man's grasp to no avail while one thought resonated through his mind plunging him into a state of utmost helplessness.

'This isn't a dream,' Arthur stated, his eyes hollow and his mind shut off to the world around him. 'This really isn't a dream. This pain is too realistic, and I don't feel like I've ever seen someone with a similar face to this man for my brain to create the image of this ginger-haired pompous asshole. That means I've either been brought to the past or another world,' Arthur monologued only to have his train of thought broken by a sudden impact that collided with his skinny torso sending him spirally through the street with a strength that no human should feasibly possess.

*Bam, bam* Arthur's figure limply ragdolled against the polished cobbles of the city centre skipping like a stone, his body having easily been flung a distance of more than ten meters away from the ginger assailant who looked at his victim with the same look of pride he wore upon receiving the peasant's apology before his momentum finally decided to come to a stop in the middle of a crowded footpath which had to clear the way for the small boy. "Cough, Cough *Gasp*Any air that may have remained in Arthur's lungs prior to his hyperventilation was now effortlessly forced out while Arthur could feel the warmth of blood slowly spreading throughout his solar plexus. 'Another world, it's another world, there's no fucking way someone would be able to fling a kid that far on earth. Does that mean I died! Am I dead!' Arthur quickly commented before his senses were overrun with the delayed pain of the attack.

"*Gasp* *Gasp* Ahhh, Cough *Gasp*" Arthur gasped, struggling to fill his lungs with the air that scratched at his now inflamed sandpaper-like trachea. 'I need to get away from here,' Arthur resolutely thought through the pain while he shakily made his way back to his feet that quaked under the weight of his malnourished body.

Arthur's eyes soon scanned through his surroundings like a hawk looking for a way to escape from his current predicament until they eventually fell upon a small gap in between two houses that looked to be just thin enough for him to pass through. 'Move body move,' Arthur demanded, looking at his faltering legs that still trembled in fear of the ginger man who hadn't so much as taken another step towards the boy and was already basking in the praises of his peers, all of whom either gave him a pat on the back for dealing with the street rat or gave him some compliments relating to his strength. 'Fucking MOVE!' Arthur inwardly screamed, pounding his skinny fists against his frozen legs that seemed to thaw under the weight of his determination allowing for movement once again.

*Step, step, step* Arthur stumbled his way out of the crowd and successfully made his way into the cramped alleyway though this was only possible thanks to the fact that the ginger still seemed to have some humanity and decided not to pursue the street rat known as Arthur.

'Ok, Arthur, recount the facts. You woke up in an unknown world in the body of a peasant boy that looks like a carbon copy of a younger you and then proceeded to get your ass beat by some middle-class worker,' Arthur recounted the events that had just transpired in an attempt to straighten out his line of thinking. 'You know that this isn't a dream and that you've really been brought to some medieval world, so that leaves one question….why? Why have I been brought here, and what am I meant to do,' Arthur stated, his mind falling into a sense of deep contemplation. At the same time, he attempted to absentmindedly nurse his own wounds by dropping the toga down from his shoulder to his stomach, where he assumed the bleeding was taking place before tightly wrapping it up in hopes of stopping the blood flow.

'Normally, in a situation like this, the transmigrator would be given the memories of their body, but that doesn't seem to have happened to me,' Arthur continued recounting his memories of the transmigrator novels he had read on earth and diving into his memories only to draw blanks. 'Then next would be a….' Arthur continued his speculation only to have his thoughts cut off by a blue panel that had appeared in the centre of his field of view. 'A system,' The boy smirked, a sense of happiness filling his body that had only known dread since his arrival in this unknown world.