"Young man? It is time to get up." A gentle yet irritated voice called to me from above. I stiffened at the voice, majorly disrupted at the sound. It had been many years since I had been woken up, and I surely was never called "young man". My eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the light around me. Upon opening my eyes, I glanced at the woman to the left of me. She was in a typical maid outfit you would see in movies or anime. Her brown hair was in a tight bun on the back of her head and there was a white frilly headband that decorated her head and kept baby hairs out of the way. She wasn't the only one before me either. There were two other maids behind her in the same attire, all of them with their heads bowed at almost a 90-degree angle. At the sight, I used my left arm to slowly sit up, trying to take in the sight around me but barely able to keep myself from gaping at the absurdly large room.
The door to the room was to my left directly behind the maids. Seemingly standing 8 feet in height were two doors that had gold painted décor spiraling across them. The doors were opened to reveal two people in light leather armor with swords attached to their hips standing on either side of my door. However, the absurdity did not stop there. Continuing around the room, I realized how grand it was. The wall in front of me seemed like yards away, with two floor-to-ceiling windows on the ends of the wall and a couch and a large flower painting in the middle. Above the painting was a clock, but it wasn't a modern one. It glittered and floated above the painting, a bright purple that shimmer that read 05:30:52. I was knocked out for a full day?
To my right was a massive bookcase that spanned the wall and was overfilling with old books. Directly in front of the bookcase was a brown desk littered with papers, books, and scrolls in a messy scatter. Finally, the wall I was on had a massive bed, which seemed to combine two king-sized beds into one. The bed frame and posts were dark oak, which connected to the top to hold some black curtains that would block out the world around you while you slept. However, probably because the maids were trying to get me up, the curtains were pulled back from the bedpost and the windows, bringing in tons of natural light that, if it weren't for my shock at the room, would have definitely woke me up. The bedspread itself was a purple color and made of silky, one that made me want to stay in bed all day. The cat seemed to enjoy it, as it was lazily sleeping down by my feet, curled up in a ball. Its white body contrasting against the dark sheets as it stretched out its paws in a lazy manner.
"Where am I?" I asked, shifting on the bed, feeling extremely strange that I was feeling this well-rested for the first time in many, many years.
"You are in Archmage Romand's room in the Ekalen Palace, young man. He brought you here after you passed out yesterday on the street. He ordered to wake you and to have you dressed and ready by 7 am. Then, we are to take you to his study room. The earlier the better, he asked." I frowned at the statement, turning to look all around me again in disbelief. While I had known for the past seven years that I was in an alternative world; sitting in this luxurious room with maids really reminded me that I wasn't in New York anymore. This room was only a dream for those back on Earth.
"What am I getting ready for?" I questioned furrowing my brows. It seemed too strange to just follow these people's orders for no reason, especially considering the strange man put me to sleep all because of this stupid cat. I may be a child in this body, but I certainly was well beyond 7 years old.
No one moved, obviously implying that I wasn't going to get an answer. "What would happen if I didn't go?" I asked, sliding out from under the covers, moving to stretch my arms above my head. This evoked a response as the head maid shot up quickly, a look of shock on her face before quickly moving to stare back down at the ground as if I would punish her for doing so.
"I -I'm sorry, young sir?" she sputtered. I didn't fail to notice her change in addressing me, but it really didn't matter. I just wanted to get out of this troublesome situation.
"What would happen if I left? He just wants the cat he can have it." I told her. The cat beside me let out a low growl, protesting the idea as it too moved to stand and stretch. However, despite what it was being made out to be like, I didn't actually believe that this cat understood what we were talking about. I mean, come on, how could this cat understand human language? And even if it did understand, it wasn't any of my business what it wanted. All I wanted was to have an easy life, and this path didn't seem to be the one that would take me down that road.
"I-if you leave, sir. He would most likely have the heads of everyone around here, and then he would track you down and do this all again." She spoke with a slight tremor in her voice. I frowned, were people really scared of the archmage?
"So, he'd still come after me, huh?" I muttered the maid's eyes widened for some reason, but she didn't say anything about my words. I definitely didn't want to go through the whole thing again. So, ultimately, my best course of action was to just go and see him. I sighed at the thought and ran a hand through my dirty hair. "Fine, I'll go see him." The maid let out a small sigh of relief, and stood up, racing towards a door on her right that I hadn't noticed before.
"We will prepare the bath for you right away sir and–"
"No, thank you," I stopped her. She froze, her mouth opening in shock and glancing down at my look. I knew that I looked and smelled like a sewer rat, but if I got clean now then tried to head back to my same spots I usually slept in, I would stick out more than I did before. There was no point in doing something that would make it worse for my survival situation. "I'll meet him like this. I don't really care how I look and don't want him to think I owe him any favors. If he has something, he wants to say about it, he can say it to my face. Don't worry, I'll try not to get you in trouble." The maids didn't really seem convinced at my words, but I didn't really give them much of a choice in the matter. I wasn't going to bathe, and it was true that I was going to try to tell the archmage that it wasn't their fault, but who knew if I would be able to stop him from killing them if they were already this nervous. There wasn't even any guarantee that I would not die in the process. So, what was really the point in getting dressed up if it was going to be my funeral anyway?
The maids, not having much of a choice in the matter, all bowed and gestured for me to go towards the door. I was without shoes, wearing ragged pants, a dark stained white t-shirt, and a black cloak I took off some kid a few months ago who was playing around with it. My hair was a greasy and an uncleaned mess, probably littered with knots due to the fact that it was long, and I didn't have any means to take care of it. I'm sure my face and body were covered in mud stains from sleeping outside all the time as well. However, I didn't have the slightest care in my appearance, even as I walked down the magnificent white and gold-lined hallways of what may be the castle. I passed by intricate paintings, guards standing at almost every intersection, and endless small tables filled with expensive-looking vases. It was quite obvious how much I stood out in this place, especially considering this red-eyed white cat was following after me, practically matching my steps.
After a long and treacherous journey through this maze of halls, we made our way before two brown doors in an outside corridor. There wasn't anyone standing guard, but there didn't seem a need to have one with magical symbols carved into the surface. I didn't understand what they meant, but I did know that it most likely was a protection symbol.
The maids turned to look at each other nervously before the head one knocked lightly on the door and cleared her throat. "Archmage Romand? We have brought the boy." There was silence for quite a while before the doors swung open. Peering inside, I didn't see anyone near the doors, most likely meaning that they were opened due to some force of magic. However, I didn't give it much thought as my gaze then moved around the room in childlike wonder. Despite knowing that there were mages in this world, and people worked with magic, seeing something that you would only see in movies or read about in books was still shocking to me.
The room was like a stereotypical mages' room. It was enormous in size; bigger than the massive bedroom I had just left. For starters, there were two floors to the room, with a ladder on the second floor to reach the ceiling. On the wall with the door, there were countless upon countless sheets of paper and diagrams all seeming scribbled nonsense that would probably only make sense to the one writing them. There were numerous white tables set up in the room, all with different bottles, gadgets, herbs, and more, that a typical mage would have. A desk sat in the back that contained bottles filled with some sort of substance. The first floor of the room had cabinets lining the walls, filled with different things such as medicines, species, herbs, and other concoctions that I had no idea about. There was a second floor, that stood tall and was lined with numerous books for this persons' perusal. However, despite how grand and great this place seemed to be; it didn't cover up the fact that it was a mess.
There were spilled mixtures covering tabletops, books that were flung off the shelves on the first and second floor. Numerous journals and papers were flung all over the place. Uneaten food and drinks lined the floor with gadgets and more all shattered or disassembled. This place looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months, maybe even years. It was a disgusting freakshow of a place.
And the culprit behind the pigsty had his back turned towards us, tinkering with some potion on the table directly in front of us. When he seemed satisfied with it, he turned around and immediately met us with a frown on his face, his cat ears flicking in discomfort. The maids tensed up beside me, and I shifted my weight to my right leg, my arms crossing in almost an arrogant matter. I didn't quite understand why everyone was so upset.
"Why is he not cleaned?" he asked, his tone filled with deadly poison. The maids all knelt in an obedient manner, their foreheads touching the ground in submission.
"We are very sorry, Archmage. He didn't wish–"
"I didn't want to. They said to but it wasn't like they could force me." I cut off the maid. She flinched in return, but none of the maids stood up from their position.
"And why is that?" the Archmage asked, his gaze cutting holes throughout my body. I shrugged, unbothered by the look.
"Why would I need to get cleaned up if I was just going back out on the streets anyway?" His eyes narrowed in discontent and anger, possibly upset with my attitude much like everyone else around me.
"I hate dirty things." He muttered and it was then that I noticed his gaze had turned to one of disgust. I frowned, not because he called me dirty, but there seemed to be a contradiction to his statement.
"Then why is your place such a mess?" I scoffed. A glass shattered over to my left, startling the maids down on the floor. The cat, who had stayed silent all this time let out a low growl, capturing the attention of the archmage. His fluffy ears on top of his head twitched at the sound, looking down at the cat beside me. His green cat eyes narrowed significantly as if he were communicating with the cat beside me. It was a long and silent moment as I waited for whatever was going to happen next. The archmage, finally seemingly done with his conversation, let out a large sigh. He closed his eyes tightly and his right hand came up to run through his hair, briefly stopping to scratch behind his right ear.
"Leave us," he commanded. I almost turned to leave, when the head maid stood up quickly and gave me a shocked look, wondering what I was doing. It was then that I realized he meant that everyone except me and the cat leave. I just thought he wanted to chat with the cat. However, I decided not to bring up this question, already knowing he seemed to be quite upset and I didn't really want to stay here much longer.
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Thank you all for reading! Sorry for the late update! Let me know how you like the story in the comments or tell me if there is anything I should fix! Have a wonderful day!