"Even a spark, when misplaced, may start a new world burning."
— The Wanderer's Primer for Starborn Paths
*Richard POV*
It started with a typo.
"I'm a translator by trade" is what I'd like to say, but really it's a side-hustle that puts little on my table. Can't really complain though - low effort work for low pay in my eyes. That's not bashing on translators by the way; I just rehash and reword the same storyline again and again, and this time I was rewriting chapter 47 of Ninefold Thunder God Ascends the Plum Blossom Sect. Occasionally I throw in a new line or two, hoping no one notices, and usually the readers don't. Typical xianxia readers.
Anyway, I'm rambling and I do apologise for that. I think too fast. That doesn't mean I'm clever, but I'm just (hopefully) average, but faster. Where was I? Right. I used to translate these low-quality cultivation novels from English into German for my audience, but obviously going three layers of translation deep can mess up with things every now and then. I guess that's not a typo, but, rather, more of a general mistake.
The "spell" was just a weird chunk of pseudo-Chinese mashed into the middle of the page - typical machine translator didn't even bother fixing that up, so it was up to me to fix things. Usually I'd just ignore it and skip a sentence, since those brainless readers wouldn't have realised regardless, but for some reason I decided to actually put in a little bit of effort. What can I say, I'm not a completely lazy bastard.
Reading the phrase out to myself, I patted myself on the back for a good day's work.
Then the lights died. My laptop sparked, exploded, and I heard a voice behind me:
"That power does not belong in this world... Than-"
Every syllable exploded through my ears, and I could have sworn my ears and nose started bleeding. The shock was too much for me; my body involuntarily turned around to see a figure before me. My eyes burnt. I tried to close them, unable to move away, but they had disintegrated before I was able to do so. The pain was unbearable, indescribably so. Before I could scream, the world vanished
The pain was gone, as though it had never been there in the first place. Slowly, my vision began to recover, and I could hear the sound of children crying and playing. Strange. None of my neighbours had children, and it was far too late for them to even be awake.
The blurry world in front of me slowly got sharper and sharper, until I saw a gaggle of children in a classroom. They must have been giant children, since they were basically at my eye level. Was I high? No - I couldn't afford drugs anyway. Did I have an aneurysm? Perhaps, but why then did everything feel so real?
Still dazed, I noticed a figure approaching in front of me. My eyes started to itch, and I began holding back tears.
"Come on. No one's going to sit alone whilst I'm here," said the boy. His shirt had a label: "Theo". Either that was a brand I'd never heard of, or his name. "I'm Theo. What's your name?" Well that settles it.
A flood of information hit my brain all at once. I was Richard Pepys, son of Johanna and Gertherd Pepys. My mother was a florist and baker, and my father a city guard. This world had Qi and cultivation. I was four years old and had been sent off to daycare to socialise with children my age. Hold the phone... did I just say Qi and cultivation? Wait, this whole thing made no sense, but why was I accepting it so naturally? Regardless, I'd have to sort out my thoughts later on, or maybe I'll wake up from this dream before having to do so. Right now, there was someone trying to talk to me, and it'd be rude to leave him hanging.
"Hi, I'm Richard..." stumbles out of my mouth. I don't know if it was the nerves, or the tears in my eyes, or what else, but I was at a loss for words. I carried on just staring at him. He looked well-groomed, probably a rich kid of sorts, and I saw nothing but innocence in his eyes. He was somewhat snotty too, panting as well, but that's just kids being kids isn't it.
Before I knew it, I was dragged off by him towards the huddle of children.
*Theo POV*
The first time I ever met Richard, he was sitting alone in the corner of our classroom. All the other brats were chasing each other, dancing around, and throwing rocks, me included. He just sat there, watching us, looking as though he didn't belong. As though he didn't belong in the group; as though he didn't belong in this world.
I didn't want to leave him there. We were all laughing, yet he looked so sad.
"Come on," I said, pulling him to join us. "No one's going to sit alone whilst I'm here."
He must have come from a bad home or something, because he looked so surprised that I could even see him. His eyes widened and he sort of froze on the verge of tears. I felt so bad for him. No idea why, but I liked him straight away.
There was something off about Richard. When he looked at me, it felt like he wasn't looking at a classmate or a friend. There was something... different about that gaze. Like he was staring at my soul itself. It made me feel quite uneasy, but, at the same time, it made me all the more curious.
I pulled him out of that lonely corner of the classroom and towards the centre with my other friends. He didn't really talk much, so I spoke for him.
"Guys, this is Richard. I guess he's a new member of our class. Should we show him how to play Cultivators and Monsters?"
I really wanted him to join us and take part. Seeing him all alone really made me feel bad - even worse than when mother and father go on their trips without me and I'm stuck with Uncle Phil. He makes me run around and swing swords, saying I'm just like my aunt. He smiles when he says that, but there's a sadness in his eyes which he cannot hide. Those sad eyes. I always notice sad eyes, but there was a deeper sadness in Richard's eyes when I asked him about home. He must have scary parents or something.
Thankfully, there are no parents around here. There's only Teacher here, who says we can do what we want so long as we don't get hurt. Well, I want to make Richard smile and get rid of those eyes. His parents aren't here, so he shouldn't be crying.
*Richard POV*
"So to play Cultivators and Monsters, you first pick which one you want to be. If you pick monster, you have to chase the cultivat-"
Words came in through one ear and left immediately afterwards out the other. I can't entertain children. How are kids even meant to act? I can't bring myself to act like that. I'm not a snotty-nosed, clammy-handed kid for god's sake. Whatever, I decided to join in to pass the time.
Cultivators and Monsters, despite its grand name, was literally just a game of tag, except the roles reversed five minutes in once the cultivators had broken through their realms and were strong enough to chase the monsters. Honestly, I needed the cardio from that. Really, I needed anything to keep my mind off things for a while.
I knew I was a child. I had so many memories of being a child, but I also had twenty years of adult memories inside me. I guess it's fine to let out your inner child every now and then, but going this far may be a bit overkill in my opinion. Everything felt so real: I'd get tired from running, I could feel the floor when I fell, and I was far too aware to be dreaming.
***
It was soon home time, and I was greeted by my mother, who spared no haste in grabbing me into her arms. She asked me how my first day of daycare was, and I mumbled something or another to her. I could definitely feel the deep affection she had for me, but it felt so undeserved. I'm not her child. She shouldn't be so happy around me.
Once home, it was time to sleep. I had my own small room, so thankfully I had some privacy to myself. I lay there in my wooden, surprisingly comfortable bed of straw, and started at the ceiling. My parents wished me goodnight, turned off the lamp, and continued on with their day. Finally, I was left alone with my thoughts.
Shit.
There's no way I was reborn in a shitty ass Xianxia world.
Fuck.
What even was that thing? That voice... that pain. Why am I a child? Who am I? Why are they all speaking some weirdly archaic German-sounding language, and why do I understand it all?
And there's no Internet and no technology here. How am I meant to doom scroll in bed?
For fuck's sake.