《The Hidden Pages of Thera》 Chapter 1: Cold Voyage The skies of Eldenford are cerullian blue, its clouds white, and its sun shines bright and warm. Its people walked on each step with pride and dignity as their nation bolstered its citizens into great heights. It is a true globbal spanning empire, with its flag holstered on every continent that the known world knows. The name is known both with regards and fear all throughout its thousand year long history. "Where you stand now, once a soldier of Eldenford stood and fought." Among the many exploits the empire has in its peacfull years has been shadowed by a three hundread year long conflict with the Urbekan Collective. Thier swords and bows are held and thrown into the ground as millions put themselves into the fire to ensure the security of the known world. The Eldenford Empire and its Council has brought prosperity, freedom, and hope to all of its citizens and given security to the people of Thera. It has stood for a thousand years and shall stand for a thousand more. -Introduction to Eldenford History, Exploits, and contributions to society. By Earnest Ford ============================================== The grain fields strech as far as Anne''s eye can see. She saw her friends dance in the open plot below as the workers work for the incoming harvest. Her mother hummed a humble melody of the bounty of the countryside as she groomed her hair. The bread will be colored white today, and it would surely taste good. Anne thought as her heavy eyelids drifted her off to sleep. Bright mellow and the sounds of the rythmic harvesting of wheat are the only company that the ears of Marke can only have. As the season for harvest marched on in an ever faster pace, his fellows knew that the coming winter would not give mercy to them. He stopped working for a second and breathed heavily as exhaustion took him. In his eyes, this could be a long autumn ahead. The people celebrated a successful harvest, as the last stockpile of edible wheat has been stored in the central warehouse. The late evening and the early night are occupied by cheers and the clang of mugs as the community come together to see and taste the grains of their labor. The village celebrated, yet oblivious as a band of carriages past thorugh thier humble hamlet. ============================================== An Eldenford soldier is posted on the Voorke bridge, a passage that connects the provinces of Celestine and Voltik. His eyes were tired, and the urge to look for something new, yet his job and a low position in the military, forced him in this bridge. He is not alone. Two dozen of the Voltik Armed Company is stationed here to protect the trade that flows between the two regions and to the greater Eldenford as a whole. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He whished for an escape, something to turn his life around, away from the machinations of the army. He thought maybe he would become an adventurer and haul back unknown treasures from the dungeons and become a legendary figure in world history. But he knows his own physical and mental limits. He knows that his personal life does not contribute to anything that might make him a successful adventurer. So he stays away from all the troubles of the day and stands there, doing his job. He looks at the leader of another caravan passing through the bridge. He looks through the cold and dead eyes of the driver before going past him. He thought to himself, maybe he isn''t just alone fighting in this lonely world. ============================================== The work of Andel is never a heavily recognized job. Filling taxes, accounting, and a lot of paperwork are his battleground and enemies every day. But the high pay and the silence of it all makes it a perfect job for him. He loves silence, and he wants to be away from the hustle and the ''exploits'' of adventuring. Andel has been granted a unique offer from the Itelica Guild, which he accepted and now doing his job under the light of the lantern and the night inside a distincly crafted carriage. The guild offered him a handsome pay in exchange for a long two month journey from Atlas to Drechen, passing through Celestine and Voltik. While in travel, he does the accounting and managing of the general expenses of Irvin Caravan Company. Ensuring that the caravan travel budget is balanced and not overspent. He knows numbers but never cared for the words. The journey will pay good, and he is still away from all the things he hates, so he agreed and is now in a campsite in the city of Archa, the capital of the province of Drechen. Along the travels, he saw many great things. He saw the beautiful voltik range to the golden fields of celestine. He saw many people, many culters, and the cities of Eldenford. It''s a bonus for him, but the battle against paper still rages on inside his carriage. He never questioned what goods they are traveling with, but the spending of perishable goods is big enough that makes him concerned about the internal bugeting of the caravan as a whole. Are they stealing company funds and selling the perishable goods to Drechen to earn a buck? Do the records lie, and maybe they are buying and selling illegal contraband like health booster or the red mist? Do they simply try to find an excuse to live the two month journey in luxury? Andel knew it was not part of his paycheck to ask what was going on to the record. So he worked with the numbers and will give the truthful report once they return to Atlas. He stretched his arms and slouched himself in his chair as the caravan goes begins the return trip to Atlas. This is a profitable two months, Andel remarked to himself as the exhaustion of the day places him to sleep ============================================== The journey was cold and cramped, and his fellows were striken with sickness and hunger. Eyes do not tell lies, but the mind hides the bitter truth of reality. He looked at another of his comrades, a sick young man with him on this dark voyage. His comrade doesn''t have a name with him. All of them in here do not have a name to call themselves. Three loaves of bread are given to them in the morning, and three more are given to them in the evening. He is hungry, and he has given his share to his sicken company. He may die soon, but if his starvation could prevent that death, he may take it and move on to life. His fellows are not a unified bunch. All of them have different backgrounds, specialities, and race. Some have a name they keep for themselves, like Cassandra and Troy, both Beastkins from the south. Cassandra and Troy and himself talked in the long journey ahead. He heard stories of their homeland and how they came to be inside with him. "Where do you live?" Cassandra aked him. He never knew, he doesn''t remember. "Do you have a name?" Troy asked, a flurry of thoughts are flung across his mind, do I have a mind, do I know my home, then suddenly everything hits him all at one. "J. Call me J," he said to them, "Hello J, nice to meet you." Cassandra said as she placed her warm hand against mine. The only warm thing he felt in this cold voyage. Chapter 2: His name is J. His morning began with a sigh and a loud thump on the ground. Or that is what he remembered from his last faithful morning. In the past four months since that day, he is now in a slave caravan on route to a place where nobody knows. No ceremony, no witness of birth, no royalty, no divinity, and no kingdom to rule. That is the truth J witnessed when arriving on this planet. From the beginning to the day he spent on this caravan, his life has been nothing but bad luck after another bad luck. When he woke up in a canopy of a tree in the middle of nowhere, he already knew that he lived in a another world. J was ecstatic to start another life in an unknown world, but this reality is more brutal than the past. He tried many things on his first day on this planet. Does he have magic of some kind? Does he have some sort of magic weapon that he has on hand? Is there a status tab that might give him his skills? Is there a woman in danger who needs saving? No, for the first day, he only came up with the worst answer given to a person. J knew that thirst is his first and last enemy, so the first week, he created a stable shelter made from fallen trees and drank water from a nearby stream. Food is sourced from the small forages he does on occasion, and he avoids getting unnecessary injuries or cuts that might lead him with a deadly infection. The second week spent preparing to trek to find civilization. The third week spent on actaully moving to find said civilization, and on the fifth day, he found smoke, which led him to his first taste of society. The first civilization he met was a beastkin village in the heart of the forest. Instead of a warm welcome and a hearty meal, spears and rope are the only things J had encountered inside. The following month, his body is auctioned and sold to work in the fields in an Eldenford frontier colony in the middle of nowhere. J''s unique background as a human is not uncommon, it seems, but he also learned the curse of being a human. He learned that a human being only goal is to live and die as a slave and will never be given recognition as a sentient species by Olympia. ========== pg.5 ========== Holy Olympia is a place unlike any place on this planet. It is a place of due importance for every single living and non-living thing in this reality. Olympia is the site where the mortals meet their holy creators, as it is the only site where holy mana and neutral mana exist in perpertual harmony. The gods give its most devine followers heavenly duties and give the leaders of Terra divine laws that they must follow if they want them and their people to enter the divine realm. Its functions exist naturally as a holy site. A place where people of all religions congregate and worship their creators. Major religions like Holy Terra, Alysian Orthodox, Aresnism, and many more establish their main buildings of worship, and their cultures and beliefs all include Olympia one way or another. Stolen story; please report. The place has also served an important purpose as a hub of politics. The embassies of the nations of the known world all gather here in the place of neutrality. Many friends, foes, and allied nations are gathered due to the significant importance of Olympia as a strategic place in contacting the gods of the divine realm. ============= History of Important Places By. Alex Feindhal ============= "Escape is a choice, but an unforgiving one." J wieghed his options heavily. He knows if he escaped, he must always be on the run as he could not be accepted into society. But living as a slave is of a constant paranoia, and a life that has a coin flip chance of worsening with no going back up. J never thought of this becoming his life. He once had a life completely different than before. A place with a stable office job, a cafe to wind down and relax to, a computer to play games to, and a complete addiction to all sorts of warfare of the napoleon era. Anime figures, Manga, favorite anime, a place of home with all the ramen and redbull he could ever need. He never would have believed if a person said that all of it would become a luxury to have. All of his likes, dislikes, hobbies, social life, work, nationality, and even languagee will be not useful and become his mental coping mechanism to shield him from the brutal new reality that he is now living in. "Those isekai tropes are lying," J said as he thought for a better way to escape than just run away and become a hobbit for the rest of his life. He wished he would cope better and have some sort of a wish fulfillment moment where he would have some sort of world defying power to save the day, but alas, none came to save his day. Beyond the facade of fantacy of elves and beastkin, humans are placed in the last place and become prey for the others to hunt and play around. The "Be a predator or become a prey," mindset is the bitter truth of this world, and those who actively ignore the message will die from their own idiocracy. He wants to avoid this cruel reality. He wanted to become smart. He desired to live and breathe the way he did in his past life. He wants his luxury to come back and apologize to him. He wants all the things those isekai portagonists have. But their is no shining knight, or some kind of a divine being to calm him down, so he sat and slumped into the side of the carriage. He looked up the dark canopy above him and looked at Cassandra and Troy playing a simple hand game in the front of the carrage like children on a field trip. J contemplated on his current and future actions, knowing the importance of thinking ahead as different as living tomorrow or meat on the streets. Deciding an option that might benefit everybody in the caravan and may possibly save them from becoming living meat machines, he began to draw his plans and prepare for his escape. But now is not an option. He must settle in and stomach a few more weeks as a slave in an unknown world.