's been pointed out to me by my readers that Hajime speaking in Japanese on Aarde takes away the immersion. After reviewing it again, I 't help but agree. I'll be taking out Hajime's Japanese words throughout the series whenever he's on Aarde (except for isekai), but keep some of it when he's oh. Thanks.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Chosen Ones

  An awkward silence passed between them while the three people eyed each other.

  The naked, snted-eyed man looked older thaher of his captors. He was a head shorter than Atn’s seventh prince. Slim, but not physically fit like Bram was, with skin a shade darker than Bram’s bronze plexion. Scruffy dark hair framed a round face whose sharp features remihe prince of the native-born people of the Hilltop Kingdom of Yamadai, the northernmost kingdom of the Imperium.

  Bram had many questions for their guest, though it wasn’t the prince who broke the awkward sileween them.

  “Y-Yōkai!” the snted-eyed man pointed a quivering fi Rowan who sat cross-legged in the air. “Yōkai!”

  Bram didn’t know this alien word, but the fear apparent in their guest’s face gave him an inkling of its meaning.

  “Be at ease, friend,” he urged.

  The prince pced himself betweeed-eyed man and the trickster he seemed shtened of as if he could see something other than the maiden she appeared to be.

  Bram raised his palms forward, which he hoped was a universal symbol of peace. “We’re not your enemies.”

  “Yō—”

  fusion flitted across the snted-eyed man’s face.

  “—B-Bishōnen?!”

  There was a slight redness in his tan-skinned cheeks, and he calmed down for just a moment. But once he saw Rowan looking at him from behind Bram’s shoulder, he was back to his hysterics.

  “Y-Yōkai!”

  “Enough,” Rowan hissed.

  The wind howled, and then she was suddenly standing before him as if jured by the very air. Her invasion of his personal space triggered him further. Only, before he could peel away, Rowan’s hand shot out, her fig onto the snted-eyed man’s brow.

  “‘Tis time for us to speak like civilized folk,” she insisted.

  “Rowan,” Bram stepped forward, “wait—”

  Too te.

  A spark of crimson fshed around Rowan’s fio spread out onto the snted-eyed man’s brow like lightning rag across his flesh. He screamed, his eyes rolling inward, and then he crumpled to the floor.

  “What have you done?” Bram asked as he uncsped his cloak and pced it over the unsan’s naked body.

  “I gave him the Gift of Tongues,” Rowan answered.

  One of Bram’s eyebrows twitched upward. “He’ll be able to uand us?”

  “As if he’d been speaking ‘Gaul’ his whole life,” she replied.

  “So, you just give someone an entment…” Bram’s face turned ptive. “Is this something you weave into the summoning ritual from the beginning?”

  “‘Tis possible,” Rowan answered after a while, “with the help of the Loom…assuming it be impnted into an otherworlder’s soul at the moment of their arrival.”

  “We should try it with the otherworlder,” Bram insisted. As an afterthought, he asked, “Should I prepare my lute for when he wakes up?”

  “I doubt it could hurt… Only,” she warily eyed the unsan, “he’s ly the calm sort. Who knows what madness a song could indu him.”

  In his head, Bram recalled a vision he’d once had of the other world, one of the few he’d had of their music. It had been a dark vision of a quartet of bards with wild, wiry hair and faces painted white. Their vestments were steel aher with spikes jutting out of their shoulders. They looked like the sun temple's art depis of demons from the seven hells, and their song, which was loud and raucous and full of curses, seemed like a tale about a ‘Great Evil’, or the summoning of oheir audience was no different; adorned like their bards and just as raucous. They often bashed their heads and chests against each other as if they were under demonic possession while they listeo that wild tune, which, to a young Bram, had been the sound of a demon's shrieks.

  “Right,” he ceded.

  A young Bram had sidered this a nightmare so overwhelming he’d woken from it with his back coated i.

  “But there’s nothing wrong with a little madness,” he argued.

  While the older Bram recalled this strange dream with fondness. Ihese wild bards had been his inspiration for the Gentleman Caller; his musid his disguise.

  “You’re right,” Rowan fshed Bram an impish smile, “there’s nothing wrong with a little madness.”

  Seds ticked by while they waited for him to wake, but the snted-eyed man remained unmoving. His chest rose and fell iitervals, so at least they knew he was still alive even though he was atose on the ground.

  Bram sighed. “There’s been too much waiting in this stage of the uaking.”

  “Now you sound like a prince,” Rowan giggled. Then, in a softer tone, she added, “Patie takes time for the seeds we pnt to bloom.”

  It wasn’t long after these words spilled from her lips wheed-eyed man sat up suddenly. He was wide-eyed and screaming. Only, this time, both his captors could uand his words.

  “M-Monster!”

  He ed Bram’s cloak around himself as if its fabric could protect his naked flesh from his captazes.

  “I believe he’s referring to you,” Bram guessed.

  “He’s quite rude,” Rowan replied.

  More fusion flitted across the snted-eyed man’s face.

  Bram couldn’t help sympathizing with him. After all, the two beings who’d abducted him from his world were now speaking in a nguage he could uand.

  Nervously, the snted-eyed man gnced up. “Beauty and…the beast…?”

  “I don’t believe I’m the beast in this sario,” Bram said fidently.

  Though in his mind, the prince couldn’t uand how anyone could look upon his colborator and think of her as anything but lovely. Rowan’s wiles had ented everyohey’ve met siheir first meeting…Bram included.

  Rowan’s smile twitched. “Everyone’s entitled to their own preferences, I suppose…”

  The snted-eyed man seemed to uand what she meant and vehemently shook his head.

  “I-I don’t swing that way,” he protested. “I just…”

  Both captors raised an eyebrow, prompting the snted-eyed man to expin further.

  “In my culture, a woman with a perfect face like yours”—his gaze drifted nervously toward Rowan—“is never human. You are either an ination of a goddess or…”

  “A beast veiled in man’s perception of beauty?” Bram supplied.

  Rowan elbowed him on the shoulder.

  The snted-eyed man blushed but said nothing else.

  “You’re right…I’m not human,” Rowan revealed. “Though there’s o be frightened of me unless you’re a god of Aarde or one of their fanatical followers.”

  The snted-eyed man frowned. “A-Aarde…?”

  “‘Tis a world that is twisted, broken at the whim of those who lord over it.” Rowan’s voice was filled with nation. “It needs…corre. ‘Tis why we’ve summoned you here.”

  Bram frowned.

  As a prince of the Atn Imperium, he had teically lived a life of opulence. Indeed, if it wasn’t for his ck of talent with sorcery, Bram wouldn’t know the meaning of struggle and strife. But perhaps because of his body’s ill-fated dition and the misfortunes of the past few days, the prince couldn’t disagree with Rowan’s assessment of a broken world. On a lesser scale, the Imperium had a society that needed alteration.

  “Ee~~eh, you summoned me?”

  The snted-eyed man’s voice drew Bram out of his musings.

  Rowan nodded. “We need your talents, Hajime.”

  Hajime’s eyes widened slightly at hearing his name on her lips. “You know me?”

  “Of course.” Rowan’s face turned ptive. “Hajime Hideo Miyamoto, lead game designer for a prestigious gaming studio, uded by your peers and patrons as a pioneer in…”

  Bram noticed the soft glow of her crimson irises. They were a telltale sign of magic at work. He assumed this meant Rowan was reading Hajime’s mind or something equally invasive but in so subtle a mahat the otherworlder didn’t notice.

  “…virtual reality role-pying games,” she finished.

  “Amazing,” Hajime whispered.

  “As I’ve said, we require your expertise.” Rowan offered Hajime a slender hand. “Will you help us ge the world?”

  Bram watched the fusion wash away from Hajime’s expression, although the otherworlder’s fingers shook slightly when he accepted Rowan’s hand.

  Once Hajime was ba his feet, introdus were given, with the otherworlder seemingly amazed by the people he was meeting for the first time. He even bowed his head once he learned Bram was a royal.

  “There’s no need for that,” Bram insisted.

  “O-Okay, but I don’t know how I help… I only know how to make games…I’m not a hero,” Hajime admitted.

  “Though we do need heroes,” Bram ceded, “the task we have for you is more vital…”

  A long versation ensued where they expiheir great uaking to this otherworlder. By the end, the trio were seated in a circle by a er of the chamber where the sunstone’s light fred brightest. A fsk of hot elderberry tea with three wooden cups, and ptes of cheese, dried jerky, and fruit y betweehese were among the equipment Bram had packed for their climb, whicluded the loose shirt and trousers he’d given Hajime.

  “More tea?” Bram asked.

  He noticed that the otherworlder was thhly enjoying the sweet taste of elderberry.

  Hajime respectfully offered his cup forward. “Yes.”

  Bram poured him tea while asking, “Do you have any questions?”

  “Thank you.” With his cup filled, Hajime took it back. “Ao crify, I’m not trapped on…Aarde?”

  Rowan shook her head. “So long as your body remains inta your world, your soul will return to it.”

  “And you’ll be able to go home to…Japan,” Bram reiterated. “This is the empire you’re from?”

  Hajime nodded. “But it’s not like yours.”

  “How so?” Bram asked.

  “We have an emperor,” Hajime took a sip of his tea, “but elected officials govern our try.”

  “Elected officials,” Bram repeated, his brow furrowing. “Your emperor shares power with…oners?”

  “The emperor is a symbol of Japan. He does not govern. That’s the job of our ministers,” Hajime replied. Then added, “I live in New York, which is part of America, a try without eically.”

  “Fasating,” Bram whispered.

  There seemed to be many differences betweewo worlds apart from the dire of their teology.

  “And there’s truly no magi…Earth?” Rowan asked.

  “Magic is fantasy,” Hajime replied.

  He gazed at the summoning circle that had plucked his soul from his world, with his eyes drifting over to the monstrous corpse lying a few feet away.

  “All this is fantasy to me…” Hajime pressed a finger on the cheek of the meat suit his soul wore. “Things we read about in books and manga…”

  “Or wat…ema?” Bram supplied.

  “Yes.”

  “If magic wasn’t used to build yss towers,” one of Rowan’s eyebrows tilted upward, “then what method did your people employ to bee an advanced society?”

  “Um,” Hajime scratched the stubble on his newly made , “we have sd with sce, we develop teology.”

  Hajime expined how his people studied the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. Up to this, sce seemed very much like sorcery. But where sce tested theories against the evidehrough experimentation and then ceived new knowledge and maery from their discoveries, sorcery used the magical energies prevailing in Aarde’s nature to bypass the evidend create a magical solution that would satisfy the caster’s will. At least that’s how Bram remembered it when he’d first been taught about the sorcerous arts.

  Rowan echoed this belief when she began expining sorcery to Hajime.

  “The sorcery of Aarde is older thahe beginning of man’s civilization.” She drew her hands together as if in prayer. “‘Tis the practice of harnessing the magical energy inside of us and all around us to express our desire to reshape reality.”

  As her hands separated, she drew a circle with her fingers, and the air of the chamber had bee so deh magical energy born from the ret summoning that a shape formed of red sparks appeared floatiween her and Hajime. It was a rge spiral of rotational symmetry.

  “So cool…” Hajime whispered.

  “We use sorcery to cast spells”—Rowan moved her hands in a clockwise motion to create a sed spiral emanating from the same ter as the first spiral but positioned below and to the right of it—“that ma objects, harness elemental power, alter our bodily stitutions, or build ungodly wonders.”

  Rowan moved her hands in a terclockwise dire, creating a third spiral that began from the same oer as the other two, but positioned on the opposite side of the sed spiral.

  The prince reized the i the trickster had formed in the air. It was a triskelion, a powerful symbol of sorcery that sighe profound cept of life, death, ah.

  “There are, of course, some forms of sorcery that ot be weaved into being without a design to draw inspiration from.” Rowan’s gaze drifted toward Bram. “Sorcery born exclusively to those rare beings whose fates flow in opposition to the will of the world.”

  Realizing her iion, Bram cut his palm with the chipped edge of his sword’s broken bde so that a line of blood would leak out of the wound.

  “For the blood is the life,” he whispered.

  He pressed his bloody palm to the heart of the triskelion. As a result, the floating symbol began to shake violently, with sparks flying off it.

  “This is how we make magic”—Roped her palm against the floating triskeliht on the opposite side of where Bram’s hand touched it, causing even more sparks to fly off the glowing symbol—“to ge the world!”

  Those same fiery sparks spread out toward Hajime, enveloping him in their warm embrace while being absorbed into his skin.

  “W-What is—”

  ‘Ping!’

  Then they all saw the ghostly blue windopeared before the otherworlder.

  Wele, Hajime.Hajime’s eyes widened with surprise. “Ee~~eh?!”

  You have been io take part in the great uaking. Will you join?A smaller windoeared on top of the first.

  [YES] [NO]At that moment, all nervousness vanished from Hajime’s expression.

  [YES]GRATULATIONS! You are the first [Traveler] to join the Loom of Ill Fates!“This is impossible…”

  Please wait while the system measures your current capabilities.While Hajime’s jaw dropped from seeing his status window ing to life, Bram leaned in to whisper into Rowan’s ear. “How did you do it?”

  “I established a e between the Loom and Hajime’s soul using the information in your blood and a triskelion’s symbolic power to bee a bridge between the earthly aial realms,” Rowan expined.

  Bram had heard of this rare form of magic before. To represent a caster’s desired oute through the creation of a telesmatic force. This was the sorcerous art of Sigilry.

  “Just so I uand what’s happened here — you transted a triskelion’s meaning of e with the infie a magical e between Hajime and the system, weaving its sorcery into the fabric of his soul,” he deduced.

  “There is great power in symbols, My Prinever fet this,” Rowaured.

  “I won’t,” Bram grinned, adding, “and you’re bloody brilliant.”

  ‘Ping!’

  A new notification appeared in front of Bram.

  ALERT! The Loom has expanded by one user. Acquiring more users for the system will help to grow the capabilities of [Administrator Lv.1] and may lead you to a breakthrough.Finally, an expnation of how he could grow his job’s talents.

  “We may o simplify the process of bestowing the Loom onto others,” Bram thought aloud.

  Meeting every siherworlder they summon and then gifting them the Loom through this ceremony seemed ineffit to him.

  “We bihe gifting of the Loom with the summoning ritual and the signing of the tract.” Rowan’s face turned ptive. “Though this will require adding a triskelion and transference ceremony into the formu of my summoning circle.”

  “Is there a disadvao this?”

  “There’s a delicate ban formuting magic circles. Too many ditions may create undesired variables during the process of summoning.”

  “Too many cooks spoil the broth then.”

  “You need not worry. With a bit of experimentation, I’ll manage.”

  “It’s like being in a game,” Hajime announced.

  The otherworlder was grinning from ear to ear as his gaze drifted away from his status s to home in on Bram and Rowan.

  “Like I’m a chosen one!”

  His cheeks fred immediately afterward as if he was embarrassed by what he said out loud.

  “You are a chosen one.” Seeing Hajime’s excitement, Bram couldn’t help but feel hopeful. “Do you think other Earthers will be ied in reat uaking too?”

  “Many dream of something like this happening… We call it being isekai’d — to bee protagonists in another world!” Hajime expined.

  “And that’s what we want your people to be!” Bram couldn’t help but be ied by Hajime’s passion. “Still, to protect your people’s minds from the harsh realities of another world, they must view their time on Aarde as if it weren’t real.”

  “You want to trick them into thinking they’re pying a game,” Hajime repeated Bram’s earlier pitch.

  “It would be a far more enjoyable experieharuth.” Bram offered Hajime his hand. “We would like your help in making this happen.”

  “I…” Hajime’s gaze drifted to the floating blue window between him and Bram. “Yes. I will help.”

  He shook Bram’s hand, and the bargaiween them was sealed.

  As if as an afterthought, Bram added, “Given the circumstances, I should warn you, reat uaking has a bit of a deadline.”

  “Rushed deadlines is a way of life in the gaming industry,” Hajime grihough, after a sed of thinking, he couldn’t help asking, “But how long do we have?”

  Bram’s brow creased. “Less than nine months…on the eve of the Mid-Winter Solstice.”

  “Then, Bram-sama, Rowan-sama, we’re going to need help,” Hajime insisted.

  “We agree,” Rowan answered. “You wouldn’t happen to know anyone, would you?”

  “If we’re building the greatest game ever built…” In his mind, Hajime recalled a few familiar faces. “…I know who to call.”

  GD_Cruz