The Throne of a Thousand Swords

After the morning shift, Josiah was finishing his lunch in the cafeteria at the back of his job, during staff break. There was a fuzz over Rebecca getting engaged soon. Everybody was delighted and energetic. Josiah was leaning both arms on the table, in a tired fashion. Unlike all of his coworkers, he didn't seem very excited for the news himself."Congratulations, Rebecca!" "Wow, you're getting engaged, congratulations!"He kept hearing those kinds of comments from the other coworkers.'Another one is getting married, already?' Josiah thought to himself. 'And Rebecca too of all people... She was the only one who would ever talk to me outside the job matters... It's not like I was hoping for anything, but still... Seeing her getting engaged all of a sudden like this...'Josiah took the last sip of the bitter and now cold coffee of the cafeteria and hammered the empty cup on the table. Then he started getting up.'Well... To be fair we talked to each other once or twice...'Josiah felt

Mirild was carrying Josiah in her arms, covered with a blanket. She had verbally expressed her worry about people in the castle hearing the baby making noises, so Josiah was all quiet."Great. It looks like he is calm, even with all the fight happening outside." Beata, the midwife, observed."It's almost like he understands what we are trying to do here." Mirild pointed out.Thomas; Mirild's faithful servant was now in the room together with her and the midwife. His job was helping the mother carry all the needed things. Mirild wanted to pack up a big box filled with trinkets she said were essential for 'fighting', whatever the hell she meant by that. In Josiah's view, she didn't look at all like the fighter type. Josiah just assumed she was making stuff up since Thomas was going to be the one carrying it all anyway."Got everything there? Let's do this now." Mirild said."Shouldn't Beata perform a last check outside just to be sure, madam? Emperor Eneris may order someone to hold us d

Josiah always thought he would be kept in the dark regarding his consciousness of that new life, as his mind was still stuck in the Josiah of the modern era, however having lived for a sufficient number of hours, things were starting to come back to his head.They were mostly phrases… Excerpts of conversations he overheard. Perhaps they were sentences said by those around him when he was still inside his mother's belly?Emperor Eneris and Mirild used to be close to each other. Four months ago she was supposed to be the consort, the one who would bring the birth to the new emperor of Bucoa."How is he doing?""He is moving. He does it all the time. He won't stop moving. He is going to be a very energetic little emperor.""You bet he is.""Do you think he is really going to be a 'he'?""The doctors said that. There is no mistake. You are going to give birth to the next supreme leader."Josiah remembered his mom's voice and the other one was familiar as well. The whole conversation came v

Josiah was nervous.He was carrying the knife in his hands, but the hands were shaking.'There is no need to fear, I should just stick to what I practiced.' Josiah told to himself.In that world finding wild creatures like that blue wolf from earlier was pretty common, they were so many it wasn't uncommon for normal citizens having to deal with them themselves. The creature in front of Josiah was a wobbly mass of sticky fluid. It didn't have an exact face, but there was a part of it considered the front, which it was known the creature used for sensing the world around it, and the other part was the back, which was the weak spot.The wobbly mass moved around very slowly, making it very easier to outrun it if one ever wanted to, but didn't exactly make the things easier if one was actually willing to get rid of it. Even knowing it was not the fastest thing on earth, with a knife and a body of that size of his, Josiah had to be careful not to get hit when he was approaching to strike th

"Listen… I am going to tell you all about the role of the blood on the level system…" Thomas said as Josiah was holding his promised sword given by his mother."…Young master, I believe you must have noticed how the hilts of the blades are very heavy on the design. Do you see this symbol on the very center of the hilt of yours?""Yes. It resembles the one mom was holding…" "You remember!?""Huh… Vaguely, yeah." 'Oops. I almost let it out…' Josiah thought to himself."If you look closely this is a number that is engraved, it's stylized but it is the number '1'.""You're right!"Of course, it was not the sticky figure of the number 1 of the language oh the world Josiah was accustomed to, it was the number 1 engraved on the calligraphy of Bucoa's written language, which he strived to learn in the first four years of his new life."This means this blade is currently at level one."Josiah made a skeptical face. 'Is this really an RPG then?' He muttered to himself."But the power of the bla