The disgusting clouds float above me,
Gray like a slate of rock,
Silent like a bird of prey,
Beautiful like a firefly of night.

Soaking wet I imagine myself,
From the sky that is yet to rain,
With expectations like the Mammon of hell,
With an appetite like the lord of flies,

The rain that is yet to touch.
The warmth that is yet to escape,
A single thought escapes my mind,

‘If this life is an adventure,
Then I would rather die a NEET’

***

The rays of the colossal sun floating high above everyone else paced forward, unstopping and unhindered, piercing through the white clouds spread throughout the vast unending sky, and finally landed on ‘something’, thereby reflecting and revealing the figure of a horse-drawn carriage that was slowly but steadily passing through the narrow mountainous trail of the deep ‘Karrow Valley’, otherwise known as the ‘Valley of Death’.

According to some local beliefs, around 1500 years ago a small kingdom by the name of Dersana used to exist here.

It was a peaceful little kingdom with enough resources for its citizens to get by themselves, but then one day the 'God of Death' arrived at this place and asked for food.

The citizens of this place were gentle and hospitable people, because of the location of Dersana it was almost impossible for anyone to get inside the kingdom that's why whenever someone did come from outside, he was treated as if he was a god.

The kind citizens of Dersana who used to sit on the ground gave a straw mat to the 'God of Death' to sit on, and the citizens who could only manage 2 meals a day gave their best food, barley, and milk to the God.

But the god didn't understand their emotions, he thought that those people were making a fool out of him.

This thoroughly offended the arrogant god, he, who was the ruler of death was being treated by a bunch of humans like this? He, who possessed unbelievable strength and unmatchable might was degraded to such vulgar treatment!? The mere thought of his colleagues laughing at him after being treated so poorly angered him beyond comprehension.

The angered god, failing to control his rage said, "You dared to treat me so poorly!? Me? The God of Death? I curse all of you to the fate where you will never die!!! No matter how much time passes, you will never die!!!"

The citizens of the kingdom, confused by the curse didn't know what to do. Wouldn't not being unable to die meant they were pretty much immortal? Was the good angry or happy with them? The people were confused but after a day everything went to normal,

But after a week the biggest tragedy in the history of Galandora continent happened,

Just a week after, the kingdom of Dersana was attacked by a horde of mercenaries and the royal family was overthrown. The leader of those mercenaries wanted to prove the God of Death wrong so he ended up slaughtering every single person, be it children, women, elderly, or even animals, anything apart from the mercenaries that had any life was annihilated.

Rotting corpses, broken houses, and bloody streets, that's what ended up becoming of the kingdom of Dersana.

The mercenary, happy with his achievement of defeating the God of Death believed that he had conquered death and thus, he proclaimed himself as the 'King of Death' and host a banquet,

The lights were lit, the once gloomy kingdom that was loaded with corpses had now become a place of gathering for mercenaries from all over the world, and the one who massacred the kingdom's citizens had now became their king, The King of Death.

But on the day of the banquet, just as the mercenaries were about to indulge themselves in the delicious feast, a sudden chill run down their spines that made even their thick skin crawl.

The mercenaries, even though vulgar and savage, had enough battle experiences to detect the presence of their adversary. So they all got ready and pulled out their weapons,

It was then that a voice, as cold as ice sounded in their ears,

"Mama I want an egg!"

The voice seemed like it belonged to a child but at the same time it was as if it didn't belong to a human at all,

"Dad, please don't hit me, kyaahhh!!!"

This time what sounded was a girl's scream,

"Dear~, I am sorry, I won't be able to buy you a dress this month"

The tired voice of a man sounded in the ear this time,

"D-do it already! My husband will kill me if he learns about the two of us, ahn~"

The moan of a woman probably cheating on her husband greeted the mercenaries this time.

The leader, not being able to take any of this anymore, got up from his seat and,

"*Slash*!"

Cut down a man's head, the man used to be a close aide of his but now the only thing that remained of him was a severed head with a shocked expression on his face and a headless body that lay twitching over.

The crowd got sober, the leader stepped forward showing his brave self dripping with self-confidence that he must have garnered over the numerous battles and countless life-death situations, and stood in front of the massive crowd that looked at him with eyes full of reverence, hate, and envy,

Striking a commanding pose he stood at the center of the stage and started speaking,

"If there are any ghosts in here, then I'll make sure to kill them..."

But before he could ever complete his sentence he was interrupted by a bunch of other voices, all of them devoid of any emotion, like a void sucking everything inside it,

"Mama, I'm hungry"

"Honey ~, is the dinner ready yet?"

"Hey sis, did you cook something?"

"I want food!"

"Bring me the lunch, you useless woman!!!"

"What!? Give me something better to eat!"

"I am hungry!"

"Mama milk~"

"Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger, Food, hunger...............................!!!!!!!!!"

The loud voices filled the surroundings, some of the mercenaries even forgot to breathe. The leader's courage was nowhere to be seen as he hid himself in a corner away from everyone else, an ominous aura filled the Kingdom Dwelling in the Abyss,

It was then,

"Oh stooooop! I'll give it to you guys, the food you want!"

A woman's voice reverberated throughout the kingdom, a voice filled with love, fondness, and hatred,

And then,

"Owaaaaghhhhh!!!! *Bang*!!!"

A mercenary's scream caught everyone's attention before he finally exploded into pieces of flesh, organs, blood, and guts, all of them scattered through the kingdom's palace grounds.

There was a complete, deadly silence which was then finally broken by an otherworldly voice,

"Here's your food ~ ^_^"

***

Since then, the Valley of Death has been considered as an extremely dangerous zone, completely unfit for living.

It is said that even now the souls of those who had perished that day roam throughout the valley and try to lure the travellers passing by towards the abyss where they are eventually turned into specters like the citizens of Dersana and the mercenaries.

I don't know whether all of this talk about ghosts or specters is genuine or not but, no matter what happens I am never going to enter this place. I have never been an adventurous type of person so unless and until a day comes when I have no choice but to come here, and I hope that day never comes, but until that day comes I won't ever try to get even closer to this creepy valley.

Well, coming back to the topic,

The valley was extremely dangerous and fraught with dangers like monsters, bandits, and worst of all, the risky terrain. But even then the carriage continued to move on as if this much was nothing, as if I was the only one who was making a big deal out of this.

To be honest, even I was confused as to how something like a carriage could even move in a dangerous place such as this. Throughout the entire journey, I don’t recall how many times the carriage almost ended up falling into the abyss.

But despite all this, despite the shadow of death hovering above the carriage, despite the terrified heart of a small child who doesn’t want to die, the environment inside the carriage couldn’t be any more different.

“Hahahaha, and then, and then my younger brother got slapped by his crush… hahahaha…”

The one who was just laughing and making fun of her little brother for getting slapped by his crush (what a painful thing to happen) was a beautiful woman with black hair, pale skin, and deep blue eyes, she was my mother, Kristen Griffith, a crazy person with a few loose screws.

“O-oh haha-ha, t-that’s good honey, w-watch out!!! Hahaha-ha t-that was a bad joke. You know we could h-have fell into the ab-abyss, h-hey take left, take left!!!! Whew...”

The one who was stuttering and laughing just now, the pathetic joke of a human who can't even step up to save his own life was a man with dirty blond hair and amethyst eyes, he was my father, Patrick Griffith, a wuss who couldn’t speak up against his crazy wife.

“Ha… haha… hahaha!!!! Huhuhuhihihihi!!!”

And the one who was laughing just now like a maniac was a child with pitch black hair, amethyst eyes, pale skin,

It looked like he had gone mental because of his mother,

Yep, he was laughing like crazy with his eyes wide open and lost and his breath rugged, the child definitely seemed to have gone mad, I wonder how many electric shocks in the head would he need to get back to normal, or would he even be able to get back to normal at all.

The child really was pitiful to have been born into a family of weirdos.

I was the child.

And dammit!!!!! What the hell kind of life am I living!? Has my life transformed into some kind of adventure sport or something? How am I going to live a glorious life if I end up dying in this gloomy and extremely terrifying place!? What if I become a specter or something if I die here!? Will my poor soul venture here for all eternity!?

Argh…! How the hell did I even end up here!?

Well, now that I think about it, it was all my fault! Why the hell did I have to try so hard in that stupid exam!!!?

Yesterday the three of us left that small town named Alenram where I had spent the first 4 years of my second life to go to the city of Santa Magnum, the capital of Magnolia.

The reason why we left that pathetic town was because that corrupted bigoted excuse of a headmaster of that trashy school threatened my father that he will report me, a 4-year-old kid, to the government as a ‘potentially dangerous element’ if my father forces him any further to take me in as a student and thus I would be sent to a concentration camp of some kind where I will be treated and persecuted as some kind of a criminal.

That’s why, in order to give me the best education possible, plus to prevent me from getting caught up in anything messy like that (mainly because of the 2nd reason), my parents decided to shift permanently to the capital city where my father, through some contacts of his managed to get a decent job.

My parents also decided that they will try to get me admitted to the Presidency Institute of Eminence (PIE), the most prestigious educational institution in the country where only the most brilliant students are trained, or at least that’s what is written on their brochure, but in reality, even at an institute like PIE, 80% of the seats have been already reserved for the Benighted Classes (BC) in short the commoners, and the chances of someone like me getting admission in that school is almost 0. But I don’t know how or why, my parents were completely convinced that I would be able to get admission there somehow.

I don’t know how I will face them if I end up failing the exam. I'm scared.

So just yesterday after packing our bags the three of us left the city,

My mother, I don’t know why but for some reason, expected a sad and tearful farewell from our neighbors and the other people she had gotten familiar with over the time but contrary to her thoughts or maybe expectations if I daresay, let alone saying any sad and tearful goodbyes, most of the people didn’t even come out of their houses. It was as if everyone was ignoring us.

I don’t get why these people were even acting this way, there was no reason for them to have ignored us, but I guess that’s fine, I was at least spared from all that fake sappy drama.

But it’s not like no one came out of their house though, that kid Brutus, the one who tried to bully me but got bullied instead, did come out of his house. I spotted him just after I boarded the carriage and told my mom and dad about him but just as my mother was about to call him, when we saw Brutus suddenly writing something on the grey wall of our house,

"Krr..."

"Krr..."

The sound of a stone scratching against a wall sounded in my ears and then after a while when Brutus got away from the wall I got to see the words he wrote there, they were:-

‘Death to the noble pigs!’

...

Wow… this guy who literally looked like a pig himself was calling someone like me a pig, what has become of this world I wonder, tsk tsk tsk.

Ignoring him and my mother who looked to be shocked out of her mind, my father drove the carriage away and Brutus's figure kept shrinking from my vision until it finally disappeared. I hope I never see him again, although I really wanted to pull out his pants, smear his face with cow dung, and make him run throughout the town naked once again, but whatever.

I still can’t believe that I would be born in such a bizarre world with such stupid laws, the useless government in power just wants to exterminate the nobles out of some grudge that they have been carrying for generations.

Ugh… now that I think about it, their actions don’t really feel that evil to me considering what my ancestors must have done to them in the past, but I still believe that children shouldn’t be blamed for their ancestors’ crimes.

To be honest, the government’s acts couldn’t be described as anything less than idiotic. Creating a divide between its own citizens just so that they could please the ones in the majority is the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my life.

If I were to be completely honest, I am a bit afraid of all these laws of this new world.

‘What would I do if the commoners decide to frame me for something that I didn’t even do? Would the government even listen to the pleas of someone like me? What would I do if someday the commoners decide to wipe out all the nobles?’

I was constantly haunted by thoughts such as these in my sleep, for a few days I wasn’t even able to sleep properly because whenever I tried to do it I ended up dreaming some bizarre dream about getting executed for being a noble by birth.

It was a hellish experience for me, I wasn’t this much depressed even when my crush who also happened to be a good friend of mine told me about her boyfriend. (Damnit! Why did I remember that now!?)

But even so, as ignorant and clueless as I am about this world, even I know full well that I won’t get any help or protection from this useless government that’s been ruling over me ever since I arrived in this world.

Expecting equality and justice from a government that creates a divide amongst its populace from the moment they are born is nothing short of suicidal. I have to become stronger, yes stronger; that's the only way I could ever live a happy and satisfying life.

Coming back to the present scenario,

After travelling for more than a day, the three of us finally reached the Karrow valley (we were now almost half way through it), and after crossing it we would reach the outpost town of Lamaria which is just a journey of around 3-4 hours away from the capital city.

I thought that our journey from here on out would be easy and fast but never in my wildest dreams had I ever expected the Karrow valley to be so dangerous. Just looking outside the carriage almost made me faint from fear but I somehow held myself.

And then somehow after surviving the deadly valley for around 3 hours, we finally found ourselves getting out of it.

I looked at my mother, her face looked sad. Was she really enjoying that!? What kind of crazy person is she?

I peeled my eyes off her and looked at my father, his entire face and clothes were drenched from sweat despite being in a hilly region where the temperature was very considerably low (around 10-12 degree Celsius... probably?). He had a big, almost relieved smile on his face.

It was then that our eyes met,

He looked at me and gave me a small nod,

I did the same and closed my eyes.

Just the look in his eyes was enough to tell me how much trouble he had to go through in order to impress my mother,

My mother, ignorant of this brief exchange between the two of us just said in a sad voice,

“Haa~ I wish I could’ve enjoyed the terrain some more. It’s been a long time since I last went on an adventure. Hey Patrick… how about we go back on that trail…”

I had a feeling that she was about to say something disastrous so before she could ever finish her lines, two voices that almost sounded like screams interrupted her,

“Nooooo!!!”

“Nooooo!!!”

It was me and my father.

I guess men do become true comrades in the times of hardship.

My mother, not satisfied with our 'unadventurous attitudes', was about to say something else to make up our mind, well now that I think about it maybe she was just going to threaten us, well whatever, the thing is before she could say anything else, a sleazy voice came from just before us,

“Woah~, would you look at that? A black-haired hottie, a cute black-haired brat, and a dashing young man. It seems like we won’t have to work for a few months, don’t you think so, boys?”

I looked at the source of the voice, it belonged to a man who stood before us with a lascivious expression on his scarred face and holding a shining saber in his rough-looking hands.