The feeling of pain was felt everywhere.
'Damn… what the hell just happened?'
Ciel slowly woke up from a deep slumber.
'Was that all just a dream?'
His vision was still blurry, as if he had been crying his eyes out for an extended period of time.
He was gradually regaining his vision, but
something felt wrong.
The room he was in, the clothes he was wearing, everything felt unfamiliar to him. The scent and touch of the air felt incredibly profound.
'Where am I? Is this really Prisma?'
There were many questions plaguing his mind, but he was calm enough to think rationally. He had always been calm in troublesome situations.
Ciel soon regained enough of his vision to look around. Even though his vision was blurry, he knew this was not the abandoned house, or anywhere he had been before.
Ciel was in a small room, with a dusty bed in the corner, and a thin wooden door leading somewhere outside in the opposite corner.
There was a chair and desk with a basket of dried fruits and stale looking bread, an old wardrobe, presumably where his belongings were meant to be kept, if he would even have belongings here to begin with.
The walls were made up of brick while the roof was thatch. There was a small window with opened wooden stutters, having a warm morning sunlight passing through it.
The room was sturdy and well built, with enough space for someone to live.
Ciel looked out the window and confirmed his suspicions. He had absolutely no idea where he was. Outside the window was a narrow street, with dozens of brick cottages similar to the one he was in.
He also noticed that he felt physically stronger somehow.
'I need to understand my situation.' He thought
He was currently wearing a dark blue T-shirt with a black coat and black pants
Ciel looked around the room, inspecting the basket of dried fruits and stale bread along with the old wardrobe.
The dried fruits were similar to those on Prisma and the bread was just as stale as it looked.
Inside the wardrobe were two sets of clothes similar to the ones he was currently wearing, along with a few copper coins he had never seen before.
Ciel took the copper coins, put them in his pocket and carefully left his small brick room and entered a narrow corridor.
There was the number 2 written with chalk on a slate that was hanging on the outside of the wooden door. That probably meant he had 2 more days available here.
He seemed to be in some sort of inn.
There were a few more doors around him, all having a slate with a different number.
'I don't remember renting a room or doing anything similar. Did I lose my memories? Or is this another world?'
'I need to gather information before doing anything.' Ciel thought
He was still in shock, but didn't know what to do. He needed to understand his situation before doing anything rash.
Ciel walked out of the corridor and saw a middle-aged man at the manager's counter.
He walked up to the counter. Before he could say anything, the manager said:
"Hey, you don't look familiar? Since when have you been staying here?"
"Since yesterday, I was in a rush so you might not have seen my face." Ciel lied
He had no idea when he came here. And since the manager didn't know who he was, it was unlikely that he had lost his memory.
The manager didn't question the answer.
"What's for breakfast?" Ciel asked
"We don't do breakfast here. Don't you remember what you paid for? 3 Copper a night, no food services." the manager snorted
'I have 12 Copper right now. Seems like the money here is similar in value to that of Prisma's.' Ciel thought
"I did tell you I was in a rush. Anyway, where exactly are we right now? I was slightly out of it yesterday." Ciel asked asked with a joking face
"We're in the outskirts of one of the three great kingdoms, the Kingdom of Floren, in a village called Arrow, inside of the Marigold Inn." The manager replied sarcastically
Of course, Ciel was not being sarcastic.
'So this really isn't Prisma. He couldn't make up all of that on the spot. Still, I can't confirm it yet.' He thought
Ciel replied with a fake laugh and left the inn.
Soon after entering the narrow streets, he saw a small marketplace selling some familiar goods.
They were the dried fruits and stale bread he had back at his room. There was also a bunch of fish and seafood in the stalls, but there seemed to be no regular farm animal meat around.
'Seems like seafood is the easiest meat to acquire over here. There must be a large waterbody nearby.' Ciel deduced
He walked out of the narrow streets and went into a clearing, without any roofs blocking the sky, thinking about what to do next.
At that moment, he noticed that beyond the short village walls was a huge forest with some of the trees reaching over 50 metres in height.
He also realized there were massive walls that could be seen beyond the forest in the Northwest.
They seemingly formed a circular shape, spreading as far as the eye could see. They were at least 250 metres tall, giving off an oppressive feeling, like the walls were a part of a greater entity.
'That's probably where the great Floren kingdom is located.' He thought
The walls seemed impenetrable and were made of an unknown dark gray stone. There were no designs or decorations, just smooth stone.
'Okay… I really don't think this is Prisma. Nothing around here is even slightly familiar, and I'm certain that there are no walls like that on Prisma.'
'Is this really another world? If so, why am I here? What happened to Prisma? What happened earlier today… What happened at that time… was it the end of Prisma?'
Ciel's mind turned chaotic. He felt so many different emotions at once.
'I don't even know how long it's been since then. I'm going crazy… maybe this is all just a dream… no. It's a nightmare. What happened that day was a real nightmare that descended straight from hell.'
Ciel may not have liked the culture of Prisma, but it was still a shock. He wouldn't have mindlessly killed all those innocent people.
'Since this is really not Prisma… What should I do? I doubt the people here will be any better…'
'There's nothing for me to even do here. If whatever happened to Prisma repeats itself in this world, what would be the point of even trying to live here?'
'Cally isn't even here... I have no purpose in this world... '
Ciel was still in disbelief. His entire life just crumbled before his eyes. He didn't know what to do anymore, or if he should just give up.
'No… I can't give up now. I need answers.'
'I need to find out about what happened to Prisma. Whatever happened to Prisma was not a natural event.'
'I'll destroy whoever caused the death of Cally and created that disaster a thousand times over.'
'If I gave up, Cally's sacrifice would be in vain. I'll make sure I complete my goals this time, even if I die a thousand times.'
'I'll start by exploring this world and see if I can find any answers here.'
'If I can't go back to Prisma, and it was actually destroyed, I need to figure out how to live in this world — or if it's even worth living here.'
'The people here definitely won't be any better than on Prisma. I need to be careful of the people I interact with.'
After figuring out an objective, Ciel wandered around the area, trying to gather more information, until he stumbled upon a library.
'I guess I can see if there's any useful information in there.'
He entered the library and looked around for anything interesting.
He quickly skimmed through a few books on the history of this world, and anything related.
He gained a bit of knowledge about the world he was in
Firstly, he was on a planet called Lumos. It was way larger than Prisma in size, even though it was mostly unexplored, and had a very long history.
Secondly, it was the year 9,226 here on Lumos, and the beginning of the era of steam.
Thirdly, he learnt about the three great kingdoms like the Floren kingdom, the Star kingdom and the Tide kingdom.
Most importantly the Floren kingdom, where he currently was.
It was a large kingdom, around 150 Kilometres in diameter. The kingdom was also divided in a quadrant.
In the center of the kingdom, on a large hill about 100 metres from the ground, was the Avadonn Palace that belonged to the royal family.
There was a massive river which flowed straight through the kingdom, called the Pearl River.
It was 1 kilometre wide, with a depth of over 200 metres. It split the kingdom in two halves, which was further split into two, becoming a quadrant.
The river was the source of food and water for everyone in the vicinity of the kingdom.
The last thing he learnt about the kingdom were the massive walls he saw earlier.
They were called the Great Enforcer, and circled the entire kingdom. Their purpose was to keep Forsakened — the monsters of this world — from entering the kingdom.
Lastly, he found out about the huge forest around him. It was called the Emerald Forest.
It was located to the Southern and Western edges of the kingdom. It was so vast that there wasn't any information on what was beyond the forest.
'Forsakened… what type of monsters are they for the kingdom to need such a great wall to protect itself…' Ciel thought to himself
It was getting late, and he was feeling a bit hungry, so he went to leave the library.
Just as he was about to leave the library, he noticed a peculiar book.
The title of the book read: "Soul Sorcerers"
'Soul Sorcerers… is there some type of magic in this world?'
Ciel immediately forgot what he was doing and started reading the book.