New beginnings

PH1RE' P.O.V

I sat across from her in an ornate chair, it was quite comfortable, at least compared to the carriage I had spent hours seated on. My bottom desperately needed the therapy.

"State your name" I was suddenly called by the woman in front of me.

"Loid Herrett" I quickly responded.

The headmistress was an Elf with silver hair tied into a bun. It was strange seeing an Elf but I had to assume they existed all things considered.

Her green eyes were sharp, and they seemed to pierce through me as she assessed me.

"Do you truly have no memories" she asked me again.

It probably would've easy to interpret her tone as apprehension but her voice was naturally soothing so it prevented that.

"Yes, I can't remember anything"

"Well, don't worry. Claire!"

"Yes mam!" responded the brown haired nun beside me.

"You'll be in charge of getting him up to speed. We can't have him be clueless about the world around him"

"Yes mam!" she responded giving her a quick bow.

"Take him to his dorm room, then give him the grand tour tomorrow"

"Yes mam!" she said walking to the door as i followed.

"Welcome to Sanct. Cyra, Loid"

'Cyra? why does that sound familiar'

"Come along Loid" beckoned Claire.

I ignored it and followed her, we walked around the orphanage with most of the people staring at me. Eventually, we made it to a seperate building and she lead us to a door which had the number 127 written on it. 

"This is your room, your belongings have been brought here so don't worry. Although, I'd advice looking through them. Maybe something will click" she suggested while inserting a key into the door to open it.

"Well, I'll see you first thing in the morning" she said dropping the keys n my hands.

"Thank you, sister" I said to her, she bowed and then left.

I walked into the room and closed the door behind me, the first thing I noticed were the windows which seemed to be wooden blinds.

Looking to my right I saw a bed and beside the bed was a small wooden nightstand, its surface home to a lamp which was currently turned off. I claim it to be a lamp but it really was a weird contraption and walking closer to it, a crystal appeared to be imbeded in the metal casing.

On the nightstand sat a book, its cover adorned with a picture of a ship sailing through a storm, I picked it up and inspected it before dropping it.

I sat on the bed for a second before I caught sight of the box beside it.

Picking it up, I opened it, and it appeared to be filled with clothes.

They looked like they would fit me perfectly. Among the clothes, I found a small pouch filled with coins, a comb, several books and a journal. I flipped through the journal, but the pages were blank. It seemed to be a fresh start, both literally and figuratively.

Looking through the pages a tiny, faded photograph slipped out. It showed a young couple holding onto a small boy of around 3 years of age. They seemed to be having a difficult time getting him to stay still for the picture.

I sighed, partly in the realization that I couldn't take my mind off this depressing situation by pondering how they are able to take pictures in this time period. Although that's was still at the back of my mind.

But also due to the fact that this family might have died thinking their son survived, only for an impostor to take over his body. It sounds stupid feeling sorry for people you've never even met, but I guess I can't help it.

I climbed onto the bed deciding to leave this over thinking for another time, thankfully I seemed to be quite tired as I drifted off to sleep quite easily.

—————————————————

My first morning here, Sister Claire, the nun who greeted me, showed me around. Instead of the expected dormitories and humble classrooms, I found training grounds, combat arenas, and rooms filled with advanced study materials.

"Why do you have a combat arena?" I asked wondering why orphans needed to learn how to fight.

"We believe in preparing our children for all aspects of life, Loid," she replied with a smile. "Knowledge is important, but so is the ability to defend oneself and understand the world around us."

"Do you have any religious lessons?" I asked during one of our walks through the corridors.

"We respect the gods and teach their stories, but we believe in letting everyone find their own path to understanding them," Sister Claire said. "It's more important that you learn to think for yourself."

I was impressed. This place wasn't just a shelter; a religion not trying to force itself on other people.

"I notice you said gods?" I decided to inquire. Hopefully I could finally get some lore on this world.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, there are 11" she answered as we walked into a dining hall.

That exact number got my attention but I decided to ignore it, but then I remembered what the headmistress said yesterday.

It was still quite early so there weren't many children but what got my attention was the colored glass windows which had depictions of 11 figures. As I saw the figures my heartbeat rose in intensity.

Trying to hide my shaky voice I decided to ask, "Could you please tell me the names of those 11 gods" and slowly but surely my worst fears seemed to be realized.

"Damnit!"

I was now sitting on a table in a classroom with other people my age, the voice of the Sister in front of us was completely drown out by my own inner turmoil.

After breakfast Sister Claire left me with instructions for the rest of the day, but despite how hungry I was my mind was more or less focused on the fact that I was currently screwed beyond measure.

Okay, I just have to calm down. I knew that I was in a dangerous world but RtR is down right lethal depending on which era it is.

'Seriously, how did I end up in RtR'

Raize the realms was a game set in a post apocalyptic world, gameplay wise it was top notch but story wise it was lackluster, to noobs that is.

At least that's what the people who pieced together the mess called lore dropped in the game by the devs would tell you. In fact, a popular saying in the Raize community was, "Noobs wouldn't understand".

Raize was the only game I played in my previous life and when you play something so much to the point it's unhealthy you tend to end up falling down the rabbit hole no matter how hard you try.

In this case, the rabbit hole In question was lore, the lore of Raize. It's a very elaborate number of events and I'm unsure how much is made up or actually real, but if I'm actually in RtR I need to figure out what Era it is.

Unfortunately, I'm not lucky enough for it to be brought up by chance.

At that moment they seemed to be leaving the classroom, I decided to follow.

They have classes 7 days while the remaining 4 days of the week are given to rest, at least according to Claire.

And yes, you heard me right. 11 days make a week in RtR, I can remember how annoying it was for lot of people.

Anyway, there's combat classes for the rest of the day before classes are called off so I can head somewhere to find a book on what era it is.

Combat class seemed to be mostly autonomous, with the nuns leaving the children to their own devices and allowing them to form groups where they sparred against one another.

I tried to wait for the time to pass but suddenly I was approached.

"Hey! You're the new kid right?" said the person.

"Yes?" I answered as I looked towards the voice. It appeared to be a girl my age. She had reddish brown hair and yellow eyes and had a expression that I could probably mistake for boredom.

"I'm Maya.....And you are?" she asked.

"Loid" I answered.

"Well, Loid. I've been asked to teach you the basics, just so you don't get too messed up today"

"Huh! What's that mean" I wondered.

"You'll understand eventually. So, have you ever fought anyone before"

"Nope, I'm nine"

"So, you're a brat. Duly noted"

"Huh!" I said in a tone that probably came with a tick mark on my head.

"Anyway, I'm going to walk you through all the basics. Try and keep up"

For the next few hours Maya taught me a couple of stances. I've honestly got no clue what I'm doing and no muscle memory seemed to be kicking on so neither does Loid.

She doesn't seem to be getting annoyed at my incompetence so that's a good thing.

At some point however we seemed to have gotten surrounded by a crowd.

"Yo! Times up Maya" said a boy with black hair and brown eyes as he walked up to us.

"Time for the initiation" he continued

"Excuse me what?"

"Have fun" said Maya as she left into the crowd.

"The names Aiden, you" said the black haired boy with a smile that felt unsettling to me.

"Loid" I answered.

"Well, Loid. As per being the new kid you're gonna have to go through a series of initiations. All the kids do it so you don't have to worry" he said with that same smile.

"I don't like where this is going. What do I have to do" I sighed.

At that instant, the crowd surrounded us.

"We're going to have a little sparring match. I have to land 10 hits to win, but if you can land one hit, you win," Aiden said.

"No thanks."

"Huh?" he responded, looking puzzled.

"I'm going to get my ass beat with those ten hits. Make it first to hit wins, or I walk."

"Well, I guess first to one hit is fine. If you're okay with no handicap," he said, scratching his head.

'Like he expects me to hit him anyway.'

"Well, if you're ready then—" he couldn't finish as I had already thrown a punch to his face at full force, causing him to stagger back.

"Ready. Do I win?" I said with the most annoying smile I could muster. This caused a string of laughter to erupt from the other kids.

"Ouch! No fair," he complained.

"You challenged me to a fight, not a duel. In what scenario did you want me to be fair?" I retorted.

"There's no way that counts," he said, turning to Maya.

"It counts," she answered.

"But he hit me out of nowhere," he complained.

"But he still hit you, right?"

He was about to say something else but quickly shut up.

"It's always when it's my turn to show off," he grumbled.

"I'm still here. Do I pass or what?" I asked waving.

"No. We knew Aiden would find some way to lose. It's not the first time it's happened. There wouldn't be a crowd otherwise."

"Every time," complained Aiden again.

"Anyway, you have to do something else."

"Which is?"

—————————————————

And that's how I ended up in the kitchen after dinner, trying to steal a jar of cookies. Apparently, it would usually be a choice between this or the fight, but since they were sure Aiden would lose, they didn't bother with the choice.

I moved across the kitchen as silently as I could to avoid alerting the nuns, crouching to hide behind the counters. I opened several cabinets looking for a jar with no luck but eventually found one. Unfortunately, as I tried to make my getaway, I was caught cookie-handed by Sister Claire.

I paused for a few seconds as she simply looked at me before deciding to talk.

"Um! It's not what it looks like."

'Why were those the first words that came to mind?'

"Did you say something, Claire?" asked one of the other sisters.

"Um! No, I didn't," she responded, gesturing for me to leave from behind her.

I didn't need to be told twice as I bolted out of there, mouthing a quick thank you, to which she gave a thumbs-up.

Making my way out of the kitchen, I ran towards my room. As I entered, I raised the jar in the air, which got collective shouts of praise and applause from the inhabitants.

Those inhabitants just so happened to be the rest of the kids, and how they fit into this room was completely beyond me. Anyway, after the short celebration, it didn't take long until the jar got yeeted from my hand.

"Well done, new kid," said Maya as she threw it to Aiden.

"Looks like you're not new anymore, though, Loid," she said as everyone seemed to swarm me at that exact moment.

That night I got to know everyone's names and who they all were. I also mentioned my "amnesia," which made a lot of people give devious smirks. Apparently, I'm in for a lot of pranks.

That night was... fun, to say the least. Unfortunately, cleaning cookie crumbs after everyone left wasn't, and I forgot to ask what era it is. Damnit!