Sael peeked through the igloo of curtains that covered the wagon. Right in front of his eyes played a scene he had never witnessed before.
A sight so mesmerizing that anyone from his previous world would have mistaken it for heaven itself.
Long, pointy mountains stretched into the sky, piercing the pure white, toxin-free clouds. They were far narrower than the mountains he had seen in pictures. These peaks looked as if a giant had buried its palm deep into the earth, leaving only its fingers reaching toward the rising sun.
Through those mountain peaks, a great wall of pure white could be seen, coiling like a serpent.
At the center, the mountains formed a perfect ring, and within that ring lay a gate through the white wall, as if it rested in the giant's very palm.
'So… beautiful.'
The wagon rolled through the bumpy roads at a modest speed, until the gate neared and the forest became thinner and thinner.
The muddy road eventually turned into cobblestone, and the wagon's vibrations reduced significantly.
Soon, it reached the giant wall covering the landscape beyond, like a shiny armored guardian knight. It seemed to have been painted white very recently, but some creatures of this unknown world had already accepted it as their brand-new toilet.
The guard, stationed at the massive iron gate, stopped the wagon, but rather than intimidating them, he seemed friendly, even respectful actually, bowing to Shin's father.
'He must be a person with considerable power,' Sael thought, with newfound respect for the man.
They smiled at each other and spoke in a language Sael understood very little of. But he had come to know that this language was Oriha, a very common tongue in the eastern countries of the continent.
Passing the gate, Shin's father began telling them tales about the gate and its history, like most parents did. But the concept of parents was foreign to Sael. So, with his lacking understanding of the language, he listened extra carefully. After all, he had a fond interest in such stories.
Through their conversation, he gathered that the area or rather, the state was located two days' travel from the eastern ports, and thus had a mix of Oriha and Veythic in its speach.
That made mastering this new world's language even harder for Sael. But fortunately, this area had a constant supply of goods because of its proximity to the eastern ports.
They called this massive wall the "Great Walls of Rosemary."
'Sounds like a flower from my previous world.'
The wall, they said, protected the lands beyond the walls from the monsters that roamed outside. In direct translation to his previous world's language, the outside forest was called the "Forest of Distant Death."
'Quite a scary name.'
The wagon kept moving, and the comfortable cobblestone roads once again gave way to muddy, bumpy ones.
After all, good roads only connected important cities. And the family of four belonged to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Sael, fortunately or unfortunately, was going there as well.
It took them a couple more hours. They offered Sael food for the whole journey, so time passed quickly. Although, at one point, he remembered the stories of a sacrificial goat being fed well before slaughter.
But no such thing happened. In fact, the family even stopped by a store and bought the poor kid three pairs of clothes.
An hour passed since their stop, and then the little girl said something excitedly, showing Sael the entrance to their small town.
There was a gate and even a few guards there, but having already seen the grand wall, it felt unworthy and strangely unsafe.
Even the guards seemed weaker than those at the Great Walls. They had no uniform, and their armor looked like a hasty mix of mismatched pieces.
Sael even used those vanishing runes of his, and of course, these guards had zero stars over their heads.
'These people are handing their safety to these idiots.'
***
The wagon finally came to a pause in front of an old building that looked like an asylum from a horror movie.
The paint, if it once decorated it, had long vanished from its skin. Only black scars remained on its ancient, untouched walls. And an eerie silence lingered despite it being an orphanage for little kids.
An old lady, who had lived long enough life for the entire current generation of this town to forgotten her name, and a young lady with beautiful face and breasts like a mother of two stood in front of the entrance, welcoming Sael to his new home.
The old woman was the head of the orphanage, and the young one was responsible for taking care of all the children.
They tried to speak to him, but Shin's mother told them the entire story, or at least the story she believed in. And so, they didn't ask his name.
The lady guided him to his room after a hug from Shin's mother.
Sael observed her as they walked through the orphanage.
She carried herself with the grace of someone who had long mastered the art of being both comforting and captivating.
Her figure was full and warm, the kind that promised the embrace of a caring mother, yet held the soft curves and quiet allure of a woman well aware of her own beauty. Broad hips balanced a gently narrowing waist, and her bosom was full and proud, it spoke of the life and nurture she had once given.
A few faint lines marked the corners of her eyes, deepened by a lifetime of laughter and concern, yet they only added to her charm. There was a softness to her movements, like the sway of a willow in a warm breeze, but also a subtle confidence in the way she met Sael's gaze. It was steady, knowing, and just a touch too lingering to be purely innocent.
Admiring her beauty Sael regards as they reached their destination. The room, only if you could call it that. It was, in reality, a giant hall. Where beds were crammed into every possible space.
'Looks like this orphanage is not in a good condition after all.'
Sael couldn't help but sigh.
On the way here, he had even seen a garden where vegetables were planted and a six-legged creature with thick nipples, which seemed to be the source of milk in this world.
The lady showed him his bed and left with a pitiful look and a sweet motherly smile.
Now Sael was all alone. But unlike in the forest, he felt an emptiness inside him. The kind only relaxing silence could offer.
In the forest, even though he was alone, the ongoing chaos had helped him keep his composure.
But now that the fear of death was gone, and a feeling of safety and a sense of protection covered his mind, a strange, hollow, seedless void began to devour his tiny heart.
He just stood there, in front of his bed. Only a bag with two pairs of clothes and one pair he was wearing and this new body of his were all that belonged to him.
At that moment, his heart finally broke. Tears fell, uncountable, as he dropped onto the bed, finally crying after two days of hell.
'Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. My world is gone now. I am already dead. I don't know a thing about this strange world. What should I do? Where should I go? Damn it… it would be better if I had died…'
From the open door, the lady who had escorted him was hiding, slowly observing him. Looking at his miserable state, she finally spoke.
"Poor boy. Hang in there, it will all feel better in no time."
***
After some time of crying, he hastily wiped away the tears. It was no time to be pitiful. He had more important things to worry about. For instance, what were the vanishing runes?
He had been studying the thing throughout the journey and had observed many things.
For instance, the appearance of it was not uncontrollable but had something to do with a mental command or perhaps a desire.
At first, he thought the first time it appeared was when he felt disgust. But no. It was actually his desire for answers that made it appear. He wanted to knew what that disgusting food was. Or, in a different view, it was the presence of questions.
But it didn't appear during his rebirth or when he was carried by the creature.
After a long thought, Sael concluded that the reason was not the presence of questions. He was in need of questions when the blasphemer carried him around, but didn't actually question himself as he knew what it was. So was the case during his rebirth. He was in so much shock and pain that he might not have questioned anything but just accepted everything as it was.
Or so he thought.
'Maybe I am completely wrong to begin with.'
Whatever the cause might be, this time he had to do one important experiment. It was time to ask himself a very important question.
'Who am I?'
And just as in his theories, his eyes glowed in faint golden light and a series of unknown runes appeared in front of him, as if defying gravity while flowing in the air.
And again, he could read them. And the runes followed,
[Astral Star – One Star]
[Astra Domain – Not Awakened]
[Points – 999 999 999]
"Ahhhh....What?! 999 999 999 points?!. It's like a billion!"