I sat alone in my room my training bow sitting in front of me. “It’s time I’m honest with myself,” I told myself this but that didn’t mean it was still so easy to let the words out. “Not yet…Not yet.” I still couldn’t let the fact of the matter out. I put the bow away and rolled around for the whole night, not getting more than a blink of sleep.

I heard my alarm go off beside me and turned over with a loud thud as my fist punched the off button. It was time for the first class of the day, World History.

+++

I found a seat in the back of the room and put my head down for a few seconds of shut-eye before class started. Little did I expect that when I heard the professor start lecturing that I would myself immediately getting actual sleep.

“Hey, man come on!” I heard a childish voice behind me as a gust of wind pushed against me. Without notice, my body ducked and my arm reacted by swinging backward and slashing against the boy’s chest.

“Sky, this isn’t right.” Now seeing the boy, I didn’t want to admit that this scene was real. My body didn’t feel my own as I could only watch the scene unfold. Quickly as it appeared it was gone, placed by myself sitting around in my old room. Again, I blinked and was out on the archery range before coming to this world. I wasn’t horrible, but this looked to be during my younger years. These were snapshots of my life, but it all burst into flames as a black shadow burst through. All light was cut out as it began thrashing into me. I couldn’t feel the pain, but I believed it to be there.

“Ziph wake up!”

“What?”

“You need to wake up!”

“No, I don’t!”

“Ziph, what is the answer!”

Then the world swelled, and light returned as I found myself awake back in the classroom, the professor standing in front of me. He was obviously pissed, “What is the answer to the question on the board?” Looking passed him the written question was, “In 1998 which world conqueror was born?”

I stiffened a laugh as I knew this question wasn’t meant to be answered. “Aster Yumi, he himself denounced the title of World Conqueror, instead opting for the title, ‘Bored King’.”

“That was only rumored, there was no evidence to support that claim.” He retorted, I seemingly forgot that Aster’s autobiography wasn’t found yet. His rest place being found was a small-time event but it was confirmed in his autobiography that Aster was a mage, the world’s first mage.

“But there are written statements from those who advised him that Aster was sociopathic. The most notable is from Wyatt, ‘He [Aster] is mentally unstable. He is bored, he is without morals. He sees this world and its inhabitants as bugs.’ He then proceeded to run a blade through his best friend’s chest.”

“It is believed that the power was too much for him and he lost his mind. This doesn’t support the claim but instead reinforcing that he desired the title of ‘World Conqueror’.”

There was no point in arguing further as I conceded the round to the professor. The professor didn’t talk on the topic long as it someone next to no one knew about.

“Aster grew up with a love for chess and was on top of being a generational warrior was also a genius. He is most known for his riddles, some of which have been left unsolved. I’ll present his most famous.”

“16, 06, 68, 88, ?, 98” “What is put in the place of the ‘?’?” Seeing this taunting riddle again I was annoyed, a friend of mine sent this to me back in high school and I was annoyed when I heard the answer. It’s so simple but it stumped me for over an hour before I gave in. To make myself feel better I made it so no one under rank 500 got it right.

[Author has noticed the flaw of the scene; would Author like to henceforth enact a revision?]

I agreed and looked around the frozen room to see who should know the answer. Then I saw her, ‘Destiny’ I forgot she was placed in this class. The classes were split by ranks of 100s, and she was ranked 601. Thought it would later be announced that she got a near perfect score on the entrance exam. Her rank would then shoot up and for a period be part of the supporting cast. It was a simple oversight but now I wrote it so that she did know the answer.

With save pressed time flowed and her hand shot up.

[Author has chosen the perfect character to find the answer. Grade A+, reward now available.]

“Destiny,”

“L8, the series is the numbers 86-91 written upside down.” The proudness in her voice was evident as a knowing smirk spread across her face.

“Exactly, nicely done.” He went into further crap about how the series was created but none of it mattered.

“Here is one of his unsolved riddles.” ‘This is embarrassing. I don’t remember actually ever including the unsolved riddles. Was too scared a reader would solve it.’

“I look down and do not speak, but a man dies. I sit up on my throne and don’t move but people praise me. I take no action, but people speak of my myths. Who am I? Now before you shout out the term King, you are wrong. Do not give me such a title.”

I wanted to say what the answer was, but there is a different man who is bound to solve it. Even if I spoke the answer to this crowd of students none of them would believe me. They were so conceited in their way of life they couldn’t acknowledge views that could be against them.

The professor looked down at his watch, “You are all dismissed.” The first class was done, only 3 more to go.

Seeing no one left in the room, I walked up to the board and wrote a single word, “God.” On my way out, I bumped into Anax, who squinted and looked to remember me.

“675, right?”

“1, right?” I returned his humorous greeting. He looked over to the board and saw the riddle left on the board.

“You guys got that question too?” I asked as he took in the answer I wrote up on the board. His face contorted in shock, but he quickly corrected it.

“Yea, but who wrote that on the board?”

“I don’t know, I slept through the whole class.” “I also need to get going.”

“Yea no problem. Try to find out for me.”

“Will do.” I took a few steps away and turn back to see him still staring at that single word. I couldn’t help but smile at his infatuation with it. Maybe it was me trying to force myself into the story’s progression or maybe it was simply me looking for some interesting. “It does make sense though. The Gods here are useless.” I didn’t wait for his answer as I rushed across campus to my next class.