Culmination

After the two girls left, Ren stood there for a second. He sighed and sat down on the floor. He needed some time to process all the sudden turn of events completely. He leaned his back gently against the wall, lowering his head.

The moment he turned the knob, it flashed before his eyes. Adrenaline rushed through his veins. What exactly happened after that? He scowled slightly, lowering his brow, forming wrinkles of deep thought, but he couldn’t remember. It felt like he had only blinked and appeared here.

A cool breeze ruffled his hair, and that’s when he took notice of his surroundings. He was in a verandah next to a garden. He could smell fragrance from nearby flowers, and the sound of rustling leaves filled the silence of the moment. He smiled, letting the beauty of nature settle all his thoughts.

He closed his eyes in the ecstasy of the moment; he thought about his life, barely passing, no friends, always ignored. At home and school, he was the invisible one. Trying to explain something always left him with bruises; that’s why he preferred silence.

A hazy image of his parents came to his mind. He frowned.

I am sure they don’t even care, not like I ever mattered. Laughing slightly, even though they loved brother that much, they still denied taking in his dead body, haaaah… so they must be celebrating that I am finally gone.

He clenched his fists. Brother, I can't even remember him. I wonder if I died too. My life was just- He loosened his hands and barely opened his eyes.

He always dreamed of getting a redo on life; he wanted to be more expressive. That made him interested in isekai stories; this is a dream come true. Maybe like an isekai protagonist, I was summoned here to defeat some threat and save this world.

He heard footsteps crunching the grass near him. The sound kept getting louder. He got alert and on his feet. He looked around with caution, and that’s when he perceived the white walls of the verandah. Opposite to him was a door; this seems different from the one I saw earlier. He paused and looked at it again. What if it’s the same from the other end? He paused, his mind went blank… But where was I? He jolted back to the moment at hand.

“Hey, you…..you new?”

He heard yet another girl’s voice. He turned around and saw a girl in a tracksuit with a few drops of sweat on her forehead. She smiled at him, walking up to him.

“I am Riley. Welcome to Star Awesome. What is your name?”

She offered her hand for a handshake. Maybe this world has women only. He hesitantly took her hand, shaking gently, and he noticed she had a good grip.

“I am Ren. I was already welcomed by Phi-Phi… U-um, I can’t pronounce her name.” Ren shifted his gaze to the left, somewhat embarrassed.

Riley chuckled, “She is Philomena; yeah, I know her name is hard to remember.”

Ren looked at her with a deadpan look. “I CAN’T PRONOUNCE…My memory is exactly perfect.”

That was a clear lie. Riley slightly laughed. She looked at him and then around the empty verandah.

“Why are you still here… Philomena must have explained everything to you.”

“No, she half-assed her job and vanished.”

“Hmm… I see, Amanda did call her for some assistance.” She took a pause, then said, “Should I give you a tour?”

Ren looked around. He did need someone to explain matters to him, so I need to discover my powers and save this land from whatever threat.

She looked at him, confused and awaiting his response.

“Yes, please.”

She went to that door in the verandah; his heart skipped a beat. He might be able to remember more if he went past it. She grabbed the knob and gestured for him to come. He walked up to her. As she opened the door, he could feel his breath getting heavier.

“This is Star Awesome… It’s a place where you will live from now on.”

She raised her hand, pointing in the direction of an enormous lounge-like area. What a loss of suspense. They took a step into it. Ren walked a few steps ahead, while Riley closed the door behind them. He quickly turned to see if this door was similar to that one. No.

Riley looked at Ren, keeping a smile. She began talking, "Now listen up, Ren, this world or dimension is called the fantasy realm. You can think of it as a continent".

She thoughtfully paused, raising her hand, and she touched her chin with her index finger. "Though it's not that small, this is for explanation only".

Ren thought for a moment, registering her words into his mind. "Okay".

She continued, "You could say 'Star Area' is one of the three countries this fantasy realm has. We are in the Star Area."

Ren added, "So I am in Star Area."

"Yes. Star Area is a kingdom with many sub-kingdoms. You are in the sub-kingdom called the capital kingdom, where the royal family of the entire Star Area lives."

She took another pause, allowing Ren to process everything. "Conveniently, it's called the capital kingdom. In this capital kingdom, there is a place, or more accurately, a building called Star Awesome."

Ren beamed, "And I was welcomed here by two beautiful girls."

Riley chuckled softly, "Thanks, and the residents of Star Awesome are mostly referred to as the Star Awesome members. We are all appreciated and celebrated as warriors because we have taken part in many wars, fighting alongside the army.

This is awesome, and I will be living here from now on. I wonder why that is so.

He was about to ask when Riley looked at him smugly, "Now repeat what I taught~?

Ren began narrating, "So I am now a member of Star Awesome? ... And Star Awesome is a place or a building in the capital kingdom of the Star Aea, which is one of the three parts of the Fantasy Realm."

She made a satisfying face and went to the wall with the door leading to the verandah, which had many frames with group photographs. One thing about the pictures was that each frame had more people than the previous one. In the pictures, the number of people increased when moving from left to right. But what if the pictures move from right to left, and something happened to the missing people?

“Riley, can you tell me who all of these people are?”

Riley walked up to the frames. “These are the Star Awesome members.”

“Did the number of people keep increasing, or is it decreasing? That is, if I am truly unlucky?”

Riley looked at him with a serious look and patted his shoulder.

“You are truly unlucky… We kept on decreasing in number, to the point that I am not even in the photograph with the least number of people.”

She said that as she pointed at the picture of five people. Ren noticed Philomena in it, and even the white-haired one. Riley pointed at the picture with the most people.

“This is the most recent,” indicating that the members kept increasing.

Most of the people were teenagers, except for two adults. To Ren’s disappointment and contrary to his earlier assumption, this place was more abundant in boys than in girls. Ren noticed that there was a black-haired man in almost four pictures but absent in the rest.

“Riley, this man seems to have gained invisibility in other pictures.”

Riley looked at him. “He left, Star Awesome.”

“Why?”

“He made a friend in this world, so I guess he wanted to spend some time with his friend… He had been gone for years; that’s why he is missing in the rest.”

“Years?” he looked at the pictures again. “How could these pictures be taken years apart?” He looked back at her as her reflection in one of the pictures shone. “You look the same?”

“Only me?”

He recalled Philomena, who was still the same as well. From their heights to their hair lengths, they remained the same. Riley chuckled softly

“We love playing this game on newbies…. We all are non-agers; we cannot grow older than the age we came here with.” She raised her hand and looked at her nails. “Even our nails are the same length”.

“Came here?”

“Wait, don’t tell me you were still thinking you were the only one who came to this world.”

Bummer.