Strixes

Alaric II

The maid gave me a pair of blue jeans, a white tee shirt, and some tennis shoes. When I tried to ask her what was going on, she promised Mireille or Yayoi would explain everything. I should just wait patiently for them to arrive. In the meantime, she let me get dressed, which was nice. She turned on the room's holoscreen with her linker, the device around her wrist. It was a multipurpose tool, phone, GPS, banking, and everything else you could want all in one.

Mine had apparently been destroyed in the ambush, so they were in the process of getting me a new one. Which was no easy feat, since they were government issued, normally handed out by the Ministry of the Interior when a kid started schools. Replacements could be issued for a fee. They had to go through less reputable channels. Which the maid assured them wouldn't be a problem from them.

She did tell me that, officially, I was born on August 13th, 2696. Today's date was January 1st, 2713. Had I been isekaied to the future? A little less than seven hundred years into the future, if I wasn't royally screwing up basic math.

The maid had to leave, but she did put on an educational show. When I asked how I could change it, she told me a linker needed to be connected to the system, and since I didn't have one, I should call one of the servants whenever I wanted the channel changed. That seemed a little bit off to me. Why would I both someone else just to change what I was watching, but the maid assured me that no one would mind?

It didn't matter if they minded or not. I would mind. I wasn't going to go out of my way to make a nuisance of myself. What I was going to do was sit here until Mireille or Yayoi got back to me... Then what? Tell them I wasn't Alaric Lightwood? That I had been isekaied to another world? That sounded crazy. Insane. It was probably best to lie if I wanted to avoid a padded room. Or where ever they put crazy people here.

So I decided that I would sit back and distract myself, while I thought of what kind of cover I would use when Mireille and or Yayoi got there. I looked back at the sky one more time and balked. How had I missed that first time? There was a HUGE planetary body, hovering above us. I didn't know if it was another planet or if we were a lot closer to the moon, but hanging in the blue sky like it belonged there. Down below us was a vast ocean of crystal blue water, sparkling in the sunlight.

The scene looked like something out of a futuristic Sci-Fi painting, or the promotional art of a video game. I think one of the Mass Effect games had artwork that looked like this. I could imagine I was one of some far-off, distant world. The sky did prove one thing though: I wasn't on Earth

I laid down in that comfortable bed and paid attention to that show. It was informative like the maid promised. I learned that I hadn't been isekaied to another world, but the future after all. Like the huge planetary body in the sky already confirmed, I wasn't on Earth.

We lived on a planet called Artemis, named after the Artemis Group that brought the first colonists here. In another ironic turn, this planet was descended from the Thirteenth Flotilla, the same one I would have been one, had I managed to avoid dying.

I learned that Artemis had four continents, and they were uncreatively called Artemis, with a cardinal direction in front of them. So North Artemis, South Artemis, East Artemis, and West Artemis. Whoever named them should be fired. I tried to imagine a continent being called West Earth, but that sounded stupid.

There were three nations on the planet. East Artemis was claimed by the Union of Soviet Socialist States, or in layman's terms, the Soviet Union. It was named after the state that existed on Earth, with States instead of Republics. The Socialist State of Russia, the Socialist State of China, and the Socialist State of Venezuela were the three member states. Even its member nation states were named for one on Earth, it was a little uncreative, but who was I to judge?

South Artemis was claimed by the Federation of Lumios, made up of the member states of Mahan, which was founded by South Korean colonists. And Austrasia, a German colony originally.

Then there was West Artemis, where I lived. It was claimed by the Republic of Aquroya, the country that I lived in. The original colonists were from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Quebec, and Japan. There were ten provinces, four of them English-speaking, three French-speaking, and three Japanese speakings. Two autonomous cities acted as defacto provincial governments: Neptune and Pluto. I didn't know if they were named for the planets or the Roman gods.

No country laid claim to North Artemis. It was treated like Antarctica on Earth, only there were no settlements at all on it.

I had just gotten to the part about the Leviathan when it happened. When the Thirteenth Flotilla first began to colonize Artemis, they discovered this garden world didn't have any native animal or fish life. Only native plants and insects. We had brought fish, cattle, and native plants from Earth that were introduced very carefully, there was no advanced life. Other than the Leviathan. It was solely responsible for the creation of Sword and-

A loud scream pierced the air. I jumped up from my bed, the scream was so close. I rushed to the door, and in the hallway was a man beaten twelve different colors of black and red. Two giant guys, both the sizes of bodybuilders were pulling the guy along. They had him by the neck and there was a trail of blood following him.

Two different maids appeared, following the three men, and I closed my door as far as it would allow me to keep watching. One of the maids looked at my door, but she didn't seem to notice it was cracked open.

"You're awake," a feminine voice said from behind me. I spun around. The first thing I noticed about her was that she was Asian. She was wearing the same school uniform that had been hanging on my wall, only the pants were replaced with a black skirt. She appeared to be the same age as my body.

She hadn't been there before. She was hot and I was sure I wouldn't have missed her. "Damien... No, it's Alaric now, isn't it? I had better get used to calling you that. Mireille said that was your birth name. Is that true?"

"Yes." It was the name I was born to.

Who was this girl and how had she gotten in here? More than that, why didn't I hear her? She just appeared out of nowhere, like a ghost.

Quicker than it took to blink, she was standing in front of her. In the space of a millisecond, she had become a blur, then she appeared right in my face. I tried to back up, but I was pressed into the door. "Damien, what's wrong?"

"I'm Alaric," I said without thinking. I grabbed the door handle.

"Alaric. Of course. Alaric, what's wrong?"

I swung the door open and bolted down the hallway. Maybe I had been reincarnated into a fantasy universe after all, because last time I checked, ghosts didn't exist.

... Okay, maybe they did. Were space ghosts a thing?

I turned the corner and the Asian girl was waiting for me. "Alaric, please, tell me what's wrong."

I turned left and ran down the staircase. It lead to a room that could only be called a great room, due to its size, but the door was wide open. I looked back once to see the Asian girl at the top of the stairs, staring in shock at me. Hopefully, ghosts had to stay in the place they haunted.

Like the house door, the gate of the compound was also open and I ran by a few of the maids and other workers to my freedom. The freedom of a tropical jungle straight out of Hawaii.

It was only once I was out of the compound that I realized that I was at an incline. Not wanting to go down, I ran up. It didn't take me long to reach the top and I froze in place. A crystal clear blue ocean sparkled in the sunlight, stretching as far out as the eye could see. From my vantage point, it looked like I was at the top of a mountain, overlooking the coast.

The tropical forest came to an end at the top of the mountain, the way down on the opposite side were concrete stairs built into a smooth black wall. At the bottom of the stairs was a huge port, full of boats ranging from small fishing vessels to huge yachts.

I couldn't see anything but the sea beyond the port. The port didn't seem to end, it extended past the curve of the island. Island. Yeah, that was the right word for it. Island. This was an island. I was trapped on a haunted island.

When I turned around, my breath caught in my throat. The sight that greeted me was breathtaking. I wasn't at the top of a mountain, but at the top of a crater or a valley. From the top down to the center was a dense tropical forest that reminded me of a jungle. As a desert kid, the greenery was foreign. Strange. Alien. And so beautiful.

At the center of the crater was a city. It looked a lot like Tokyo, from the glistening glass skyscrapers to how picked it was together. Even the elevated roads. But it didn't just look like Tokyo. Buildings made out of concrete and shiny new metal had been constructed to resemble... Paris. I had only spent a week in the City of Lights, but it had been beautiful. It left its mark and the closer we drove to the city, the more I could see Paris in this place. The streets appeared to be a little wider, but there looked like Parisian streets.

Lush green, orange, and red leaves mixed in with the pink leaves of Sakura trees. An artificial river crisscrossed through the city, carrying pink pedals and people atop it. This city, whatever it was, looked like a fusion of Tokyo and Paris. The result was the most beautiful city I had ever seen in my life.

"Alaric?"

I turned around and there she was, my ghost girl. Her arms were crossed, but there was real worry spelled out across her face. "Who are you?"

"I'm Nanase. Your knight."

"My knight? Listen, I don't know who you are. I don't even know where I am."

"We're in the Autonomous City of Neptune. Well, technically we're above it right now, but the whole island falls under its jurisdiction. Alaric-" she reached out to touch me, but I jerked my arm away.

"Alaric, what's wrong?"

"I just told you I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Nanase, your knight."

"That doesn't mean anything to me," I said, inching back away from her. I saw how fast she could move firsthand, was there any point in trying to run?

"Alaric-" she was cut off. Nanase sighed and brought her hand up, touching the air in front of her like she was cliking on something. "Mireille, what is it?"

Mireille? There was that name again.

"Yayoi and I have captured the target. We're bringing him in. We have some bad news. Don't let Damien out of his room," a feminine voice said. She spoke with a French accent. It was so quiet I could barely make it out. The sound was coming out of the linker.

"It's too late for that. He's already awake and outside."

There was a pause. "Bring him back to the compound. Don't let him go!" she commanded.

Nanase's eyes flickered at me. "... That's a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"It's necessary. If we let him go, we might lose him."

Nanase's expression changed. "Alright. Understood. I'll take care of it."

"Make sure to keep him under lock and key until we get back."

She meant taking care of me. They meant to kidnap me.

"I can't- if he-"

"I know. If we're right, he won't. Just do it!"

Nanase looked over at me and smiled. "You heard that, didn't you? Sorry, I forgot to change the settings so only I could hear. My bad."

Deciding to take my chances with the docks below, I turned to hurl myself down the stairs. Before I could even take a step, Nanase was on my back, her hands around my neck.

***

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