My arms rested on the cold throne. I looked around, not at all impressed by what I saw. It did not compare to the throne room at the royal capital Marlan.

  The gates to the throne room opened and a soldier walked inn. "Greeting to your majesty, king Bartolomeu Boreas. May the Wandering God be with you."

  The soldier gave the salute: a courtesy the otherworlders brought with them. I quite preferred the kingdom's traditional courtesy, but the otherworlder refused to do so. No matter. Small changes in culture was a small price to pay in order to have powerful individuals such as otherworlders under my command. "Speak."

  "As you requested, your majesty, a shard from the first World-Rune has been torn of and is headed this way as we speak. "

  I nodded to myself, pleased from the good news. "What of the provisions I asked for? Duke Richardon's city is lacking, especially the castle he gave me, so I need to do some renovations."

  The soldier stared at the floor. "The conflict with the Delinquents and the System Manipulator has proven to be taxing. Your request might have been lost in transit."

  "Lost in transit?" I raised an eyebrow. There was no way my request was 'lost in transit'. I had headed Rachel's suggestion to move the capital to the north, away from the conflict zones, but she was acting like she was ruling the kingdom; I am the king!

  After dismissing the soldier, I looked out the nearest window, and there I could see a World-Rune heading this way. Flying above the Vermillion forest that acted as a natural border to the Duchy of Rossi. I may not have the same luxury, but my ambition never fails me. With a World-Rune I could easily give classes to people and allow them to move past their levelling cap. I could build a new army. Who else was going to keep those pesky demons at bay than him? He looked to his side as his advisor entered the room. "What do you think of requesting the sword saint to act as my bodyguard in the North? It isn't like the otherworlders have any need for her help."

  - King Bartolomeu Bolero, 23th king of Bolero

  "Tom," Trash hummed. "What are you spacing out for?"

  Tom opened his eyes to find himself standing in the middle of the path. Odd. He felt like there was something that just happened. And why did his entire face hurt so much? Did he fall?

  His heart was racing, and why was he feeling so … angry?

  It had to be about Hiro. Not only did this stupid world not give him OP powers, but he was insufferably weaker than his rival.

  Going back to his room he was all alone, so he decided to just go to sleep. Hopefully a good night's rest would calm him down.

  He went to the bathroom and looking into the bucket of water. There was a sink, but mirrors were too expensive and only for the nobles. Looking into the water he noticed something. Brushing through his hair he found the discrepancy. "Why is there a red hairstrand? Hey Trash, what does getting red hair mean in this world?"

  He could hear Trash humm from the main room. "I haven't interacted too much with otherworlders, or at least I don't remember that I did. If I have to guess, it's just stress."

  "Stress?" Tom grumbled. "Even though he wanted to go on an EPIC ADVENTURE and be an extraordinary individual, his body would always betray him. Why couldn't he be better at keeping his emotions under controll?

  Isolating the hairstrand he pulled it off his scalp, and watched it slowly disintegrate into nothing. He was pretty sure hair wasn't supposed to do that, but at this point he didn't care anymore. Had to be spirits manifesting from stress or something something.

  Fart, he needed some good news for once. But without a proper way to understand his class his progression was stumped. He closed his eyes to look at his measly excuse for an aura, expecting it to be just the same, but too his surprise he noticed a single transluscent ring around it.

  Tom opened his eyes, then closed it again. The ring was still there.

  "I formed one of the rings!" He had no idea how he did it, but it was there.

  Trash hummed. "How? You barely did anything other than fuelling your inferiority complex."

  "I don't have an inferiority complex," Tom corrected. "And it has to be connected with my understanding of spirits. The lowest one, literal manifestation of reality, are easy enough to understand."

  That night he went to bed exited and proud of himself for once. Tomorrow he would ditch the commoners and his adventure would finally take its destined course.

  ***

  Tom didn’t have anything fancy to wear so he decided to come to the ball wearing his uniform, and his aura sword to show off. He split up with Hiro and Mark who went to the bonfire and walked to the front of the nearby female barracks to wait for Sierra. To his surprise, she was already outside better dressed than Tom. She was wearing a black dress, in the midst of an argument with three other girls.

  "You are an embarrassment to us commoners," soldier-girl-one said. The two other background characters nodded in agreement.

  "What is wrong with what I am doing? If I have the opportunity, why can’t I go?" Sierra said, defensively.

  "You stuck up with that noble Tomassio to get a ticket to the Midsummer Ball. This isn’t a random day to loiter around, it is Soldiers Day. It is not the fact that you can go that is wrong, but the fact that you choose to go and ignore solidarity with your fellow commoner." Soldier-girl-one said.

  "She’s right you know," soldier-girl-two said. "People like you don't care about the common people. You’re just a puppet."

  Sierra winched. "I … am nothing like that."

  That was the moment Tom decided to intervene. He came closer and coughed. Surprisingly he recognized one of the girls. "You are that one background character who got mad at Zev."

  She glared at him. "Who the farting space are you calling a background character!"

  Sierra quickly got in between them. "Letis. Please."

  "And now you are protecting that rude excuse for a human." She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. This is a waste of time. Let's go girls."

  The three girls left, the last one choosing to bump into Sierra almost making her fall.

  "Are you okay?" Tom asked.

  "Why didn’t you beat them up?" Trash hummed.

  Sierra shook her head. "Forget it. Let's go." She started walking without waiting for him.

  Tom picked up the pace so he could walk besides her. "Mark was sad about me not going to the bonfire. Must be especially difficult for you with how well connected you are."

  "Yes," she agreed. "In order to gather information I joined the feedback elective and gained some … friends. But my mission must always come first."

  He scratched his head. "Are you sure?"

  She didn't say anything, so they walked in silence past the Commander's Building, through Makeshift Town and up a hill until they reached the noble's barracks. It was much grander than Tom had imagined. Rather than a dorm it looked like several mansions with exquisite gardens put together.

  At the front was a huge gate with intimidating guards. That was when Tom realized that Leonard hadn’t given them a physical invitation.

  The guard looked at them and seemed to be about to reject them when Leonard came running. "Lord Tomassio — and the trophy commoner, you’re here." He stared at his clothes. "You decided to wear your uniform. And bring along your aura sword?"

  "Gotta show people I am committed to defending the kingdom during this looming war," Tom explained.

  Leonard simply shrugged in response. "Yeah, the war. Anyways, please follow me." He ushered them into the compound.

  Inside the gates, he could see the true majesty of the nobles barracks. Roman-like architecture with engraving on the sides filled with mirrors. The mirror seemed to be less reflective, fulfilling its purpose as an ornate decoration. Although, they were still blinding. Not very practical if you asked Tom.

  Leonard waved Sierra towards a building with two massive doors people were walking in through. "You go there."

  Sierra did as he said and walked to the ballroom. Tom gave her a nod as good luck before fixing his attention on Leonard. "So, could you give me a private tour first?"

  Leonard nodded. "Certainly."

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The nobles' barrack was amazing. Each of the nobles had a suite with their chosen servants to accompany them. Every room had its own exquisitely ordained mirror. The walls were lines with strange artifacts: demons horns, glass sculptures, and—.

  "Is that a bazooka?"

  Leonard looked at what Tom was pointing at. "That? Oh no. It is not an invention by those wretched otherworlders, but a marvelous inventions by one of us nobles: the bazookie."

  "…Bazookie?"

  "Indeed. However, we are not allowed to use it, therefore we train ourselves. That reminds me, look at our training grounds. Not as large as the commoners, but much more efficient."

  The training grounds consisted of several box dungeons lined up outside in the garden. Tom guessed that most of them chose weaker creatures to fight to fuel their ego, but his ego did need some fueling. "So you can just use a box dungeon whenever you please?" He asked Leonard.

  "Indeed. Only the most advanced training equipment is suited for us nobles. Unfortunately, although I don’t dispute your skills, we cannot use one right now. We have people from the Sifu tribe to activate them, but they aren’t here today."

  "Sifu tribe? Like, slaves?"

  Leonard shook his head. "Oh no, slavery was banned ever since the Hero began his tyranny. Although, a person of your status of course doesn’t need to follow such rules," he added. "It was a requirement by the Inventor that some people of the Sifu tribe be hired and treated well. Only specific individuals from the Colony can activate these devices."

  Did that mean Mark was from the Colony? He had heard about the Colony in passing, a region neighboring the kingdom to the east. He didn't know more then that though.

  "What about mandatory classes? How are the instructors like?"

  Leonard smirked. "My lord, of course nobles aren’t constrained to such. The instructors can be reached at specific times, but mostly leave us alone. This is not the royal academy, just a temporary outing to scare those vile demons and please the church."

  "Nothing? That’s awesome, but if you have no obligations what do you do?"

  Leonard shrugged. "Art, poetry, debate club, the indoor colosseum. Whatever we wish to keep ourselves entertained. Although, I must admit that it has become a bore. Due to the decree, one from each noble house must be enlisted as a soldier. We cannot go back to our estates in the capital, and the Commander is determined to constrain our actions." He curiously eyed Tom. "Follow me."

  Tom followed him to a balcony that had an amazing view over the camp, although the walls and the Commanders Building blocked a better view of the Void. From here he could see the entire commoners' barracks as well as one huge bonfire.

  Leonard pointed at the bonfire. "That disrespectful behavior needs to be stopped."

  The bonfire? Even though Tom didn’t want anything to do with the commoner's barracks anymore, he couldn’t deny that the bonfire mattered a lot to them. "That’s not necessary. We can just ignore them."

  "You … have changed Tomassio. If you indeed are the same Tomassio."

  Wait, did Leonard know the previous owner of this body? Well, he had been exposed.

  Fart, no. He couldn’t give up here. This was his ticket to a better isekai life. "I am the same Tomassio though. Do you think someone would dare impersonate the son of a Duke? The Commander, who is my fiancé, would obviously have said something if that was the case."

  In response, Leonard turned around. "That is true. You haven’t been seen a lot in public recently since the Duke, your father, sent you on a mission. Nothing came back from you so everyone figured you had died somewhere, although we were too afraid to state it. But here you are," Leonard said nodding at Tom.

  "Yeah," Tom nervously responded. "I cannot say anything about my mission since it’s super secret — obviously, but I can say that I injured my head. That is probably why I am different from the last time you saw me."

  "Perhaps. That does explain your weird sudden support for the commoners. But I think you are misunderstanding something. My father the Marquise has just recently been able to return to a more … advantageous position which we held before, and before that, I wasn’t able to socialize all too often. Getting to the position as the representative of the nobles took a lot of work, but I didn’t get the opportunity to meet with you during any noble gatherings. I doubt anyone even remembers your face since you've been gone for so long. No offense intended. But I did meet you when I was a child."

  "As a child?" Oh boy.

  Leonard nodded. "It was 13 years ago. When I was eight and you were twelve years of age. Due to my family being looked down on for losing our title as a Duke's family, I spent a lot of time with commoners. I would presume I was like you, having a foolishly positive view of commoners. I even befriended one." He sighed. "I was a fool, and you were the one that opened my eyes."

  "Erm, how did I do that? It has been so long, you see."

  Leonard smiled. "Of course. No worries, I perfectly remember it. I had gotten the stupid idea of showing my commoner friend the mansion I lived in. That was the day your father and you visited my family's estate." He sighed. "You beat that filthy commoner to a pulp, and my father found out and punished me. My father … there’s no need to go into the details. All that mattered is that I learned my lesson that day, and I have become the most avid supporter of the supreme right of nobles."

  Great. The guy was traumatized, and it was all kinda his fault. "So, why are you telling me this?"

  "Straight to the point I see. All I want is for you to tell the Commander to … loosen up a little," Leonard said. "Do that, and you may read any book you wish in our collection."

  "I still don't get it."

  "Let me clarify," a voice behind him spoke.

  Tom turned to see the head instructor of the nobles.

  "What we wish is for the commoners to be sent home. Don’t you think protecting the kingdom should be left to the more qualified nobles?" Instructor Constantine said.

  "I don't … aren't we stronger in numbers?"

  "We are stronger in terms of classes, which the nobles have the mightiest of." Leonard retorted.

  A butler ran up to Leonards side and whispered something in his ear.

  "It seems I am needed elsewere." He nodded at Tom. "Lord Rossi, please do not forget this humble request of mine. If you show your allegiance to your people, then we will have no qualms with having you join our barracks." He looked at Constantine. "Oh, weren't you curious about the otherworlder? Head instructor, if you would."

  Constantine nodded and Leonard left them, leaving Tom to nervously look at Constantine. The instructor was giving him bad vibes. He gestured for Tom to follow so he did. They walked down a stairwell to get to the basement level of the compound until they arrived at two massive doors.

  "The otherworlder is behind here," Constantine said, and instructed the guards to open the doors.

  Tom was confused at first why they kept the otherworlder in the basement; there was no way Alice would allow the nobles to keep a private dungeon, but when the doors open the truth revealed itself. In the middle of the room was a massive crystal with a naked man, around his age, entombed within.

  He walked closer to look at it. "What the space?"

  "What the space indeed. Quite the mysterious sight at first. I was told the crystal looks like a miniature version of the World-Rune."

  "But … why? Is that otherworlder dead?"

  Constantine shrugged. "Who knows? From prior record it is understood that this otherworlder was imprisoned in this crystal for a reason. The kingdom has no reason free another otherworlder into this world, and if they give the crystal to the Hero he will kill him anyway, so why not leave it alone as a reminder of the past?"

  "Quite a unique reminder. Beats that statue in town. But do you know who this person is?" Tom was curious about what this fellow otherworlder had experienced to lead him to this place.

  "As far as I know, he was called The Second Hope. Or, some would say: the second hero."

  Tom's eyes widened. "A second hero?"

  "I do not know of all the details, but after the Hero betrayed mankind, the church attempted to summon a new hero to save them from the first. Then, for some reason, they decided to take a step back and imprison the otherworlder to avoid another catastrophe."

  Tom looked at Constantine. "Do you think a new hero appearing is possible?"

  Constantine smiled. "Are you testing me?"

  "What? No, I didn't—."

  "No need to loose your composure. Heroism is dead, so there is no use waiting for another hero." His eyes moved to the otherworlder incased in the crystal. "It is impossible for us to free this living catastrophe from his shackles."

  ***

  Tom returned to the ballroom confused. The first otherworlder other than himself that he had seen was imprisoned for eternity. He wasn't sure of how to process that information, so he moved his focus onto the cast at hand: convincing Alice to suspend the commoners from military duty. That sounded like a risky idea. She didn't have power over military conscription, that was for the king to decide, but he could ask Alice to give the nobles a more vital role. But wouldn’t that be a violation of her trust? He sighed. All he wanted was to read some books in order to find an OP cheat, not to get an ethical dilemma on his hands.

  Tom awkwardly excused himself from any noble trying to strike up a conversation. He tried his best to blend in with the background, but being the only one wearing his uniform made him stick out like a sore thumb. He found Sierra standing at the side of the room.

  "Nice place," she commented. "Found your books?"

  Tom shook his head. "Leonard wants me to convince Alice to cancel Soldiers Day first."

  "Predictable. Well, your problem." She held out her hand. "Why don’t we dance?"

  Tom gulped. "Why? I don’t know how to dance."

  She sighed. "I need to make sure people have seen me in order to go unnoticed."

  Tom took her hand and walked with her out to the ballroom. He awkwardly held her hands, and let her take the lead. The dances people did were very similar to waltzes but way more flamboyant. Looking at the other nobles, they weren’t technically dancing. They moved around and struck fancy poses every second. But Sierra, she knew how to dance.

  With careful footwork, she led him across the dance floor, even spun herself around, moving her arms as if she were conducting an orchestra.

  "You are surprisingly good at dancing. I thought a demon wouldn’t know human dances."

  She raised an eyebrow. "Dances aren’t exclusive to humans." She took his hand and led him to the centre of the ballroom. "Also, demons love to dance. Be it singing, dancing, or painting. Demons are masters of the arts."

  Tom blinked. "That’s different. Demons are normally depicted as murderous and prideful people."

  She smirked. "I guess I debunked another human stereotype then. Human, by technicality of course." Spinning around she moved away from him and bowed. "This is my cue to leave. I only have a few minutes on me. There is no telling what kind of technology guards their valuables. Enjoy the party."

  Then she left him, walking up the stairs, past the guards, like she was invisible.

  Tom waited for a while awkwardly pretending he was busy and dodging other nobles before walking over to where Alice stood. He copied the bow he saw the other noblemen make when they initiated a conversation with a lady. Alice nodded to the others she was talking to, dismissing them.

  "That is the wrong courtesy the son of a duke would make, but I venture the others would simply see it as flirting."

  Tom scratched his head. "Oh really? I guess that’s fine. Actually, there’s something I need to tell you."

  Alice looked curiously at him. She signaled for him to walk up to a wall. When they got there, Tom stammered. Why was he so nervous just because of side characters? To have the perfect isekai he needed to make sacrifices, staying with the weaklings wouldn’t help him.

  She looked at him. "What is it you wish to tell me?"

  "Haven't ever thought that the soldiers in this camp aren't as … How do I say this—."

  "Don't worry. I understand. The culture we have developed must seem much different then you would have expected, and that is by design. If people see this as only a temporary — hopefully fun — inconvenience in their lives, they they would stay away from supporting an invasion."

  He looked at her. "And the king just let you?"

  She shook her head. "The people in this camp are most of the fresher recruits. Our most experienced soldiers died when confronting the Hero, and the valuable information they held about progressing their respective classes has been lost. People in the kingdom are much weaker then they used too. Although, there are some experienced soldiers still to this day, but they have not been deployed to the camp. Together with Duke Richardson, they were deployed to quell unrest in the Colony."

  So most of the experienced soldiers weren't here? Then this camp wasn't really so much of a deal after all. "Then I have a suggestion—."

  "Commander!" A soldier ran up to Alice. "There have been some sightings near the forest. I am afraid demons are approaching human territory."

  Alice nodded at the soldier. "On my way." She turned to Tom. "I apologize, our conversation will have to wait. It wasn't something too serious was it?"

  Tom shook his head. "Don’t worry about it."

  She nodded and left the ballroom in a hurry. Tom had successfully dodged that conversation.

  Why had he been so stressed about it? The commoners would be happy if they were allowed to return home. Taking a wineglass from one of the servers tray, he decided to try and calm his nerves.

  Trash hummed.

  Tom was about to tell him to shut up when he noticed it. The wineglass he was holding felt familiar. It had the same sensation as the embodied poison spirit.