John found himself in a place full of grass, with the wind blowing as gently as an angel’s calming whisper, and the sky clear as the waters of purity. Sunshine came upon him that touched his skin ever so gently, the warmth enough to feel the sun’s loving light and powerful might. It’s not at the break of morning, which was a plus, and the weather looks like it won’t be getting rowdy any time soon.

“So…”

But the scenery would have been better, if it weren’t for the person in front of him, sipping a cup of tea in his comfy and luxurious chair. John would know that blindingly white attire from anywhere, as well as that shit-eating grin that constantly mocks his entire person. His sense of fashion that came from a fantasy novel about nobles wasn’t making himself look better. A tailcoat, really?

“How was the past few years?” Asked Seto.

It has been five years since John’s arrival in Alterea, a long time but flew by in a flash. In those five years John did nothing but train under Stan, and do other minor things that are too unimportant to talk about. His previous years had been uneventful except for the occasional errands Stan gave him. Those mostly involved fighting monsters way over his league, or go on a fetch quest that makes him want to throw the item at Stan’s face. Other than that, there wasn’t much that he can remember that is exciting or at least vivdly memorable. Therefore, it was only natural that John’s reply is something expected.

“Pretty fine, actually.”

Seto raised an eyebrow, incredulous at John’s reply.

“You say that, but you are actually waiting to explode.”

Thanks to Seto’s almighty omnipotence, he can see the John’s pent up anger is already starting to burst out from his throat. He didn’t have to use his power though, since it was already evident from the way John twists his face in an attempt to hold himself together. Expecting some kind of retort, he was taken aback from John’s unusual sudden calm exhale. He apparently succeeded and making his anger disappear without it spitting all over Seto, but what it left was something Seto expected.

“I can’t even…” John lazily said, slouching on the couch in front of Seto. “...I can’t even take a rest. Each day, train and then go do something absurd like climb up a tree then jump unto the next.”

John can’t even begin to describe the misery he has been put to because of Stan. Unfortunately, he knows that Stan is just making use of his full potential to make him something greater than he has ever been before. It’s because of that he can’t exactly loathe the twig, even though he wants to really punch him in his wrinkly old face. Despite the hellish training he has to endure, he can’t deny that he has been getting steadily stronger with each subsequent days. Like many say, “No pain, no gain”.

“Well, at least you are still alive.” Seto remarks, taking another sip from his tea.

“You are starting to sound like Stan.” John replied.

“Oh well, I’m not here to discuss your pains and sufferings.”

Seto suddenly shot up, and stood with fancy as he threw the now empty tea cup away from him and unto the grassy ground. Columns and walls suddenly rose up from the ground as it shook, enclosing the both of them in the process. Then a roof slid above their heads and turn the whole area into a place of darkness. John heard a clap, before everything was in sight again as lights filled the room.

“Welcome to Temporary Discussion Room No. 420!”

The room was painted with white, with sky blue secondaries all around. In the middle was a table and a lonely chair. Seto prompted John to sit down as he prepares his slideshow projected by a projector hanging from the roof.

“What’s this all about?” asked John as he sat down.

“That’s what I’d like to know too.” admitted Seto “Frankly, I forgot cause I prepared this ages ago, but I’ll remember once I start this show.”

A button materialized on his hand and upon holding it, pressed the button to start. The wall the projector projected on then showed a picture of Seto doing a selfie with a burning village behind him. There seems to be another person with him, all clad in modern and black clothing as he frantically called out on Seto to look at the village due to how he points at burning scenery behind them.

“Huh, I still don’t remember. Unto the next slide then.”

The first picture disturbed John and made him uncomfortable, knowing that Seto probably didn’t mind the destruction behind them when he took that. That picture alone dictates how much of a non-caring god he is, and possibly could’ve been the reason for the scene in the picture. He just hopes that he won't end up like the burning village in the future.

The next picture was more wholesome and less stress-inducing. It’s Seto with the other guy again, baking a cake. It’s clearly shown that Seto is the superior one with how clean and calm he is whisking the flour, while the other guy’s counter is a mess and his whisking is almost comically horrible. At this point, John is not sure if Seto has seriously forgotten what he wanted to say, or he’s just messing with him with the photos.

“I still don’t remember. What slideshow is this even?”

A series of photos then flashed in the projector: one was where Seto sat on a throne, one was him sitting atop a pile of dead bodies, another was him getting clobbered by the black-clothed guy, another was him falling comically from the sky, and many more. John had mixed feelings after the slideshow ended, considering that many of the pictures shown warrants so many feelings to be felt. In the end, he concluded that the pictures were random. There were absolutely no correlation between them, except for the fact that Seto is always in all of the pictures.

“Oh! That was my best moments slideshow!”

Well, John sat corrected. Seto then materialized a phone, scrolling through it.

“My bad. No wonder I wasn’t remembering anything.”

For a god, he’s unusually forgetful. Seto finally found the slideshow he was looking for then showed it to John through the projector. He finally remembered what he was supposed to discuss after seeing “For John’s Case” on the wall, snapping his fingers after doing so.

“Oh right! Yeah, I was supposed to answer most of your any ongoing questions.”

The button was again pressed, and the slideshow shifted to a blank, dark picture. A chair then poofed out from a puff of smoke on the other side of the table John’s staying in. Seto sat down, leaning against his chair and his feet up on the table. With his usual mocking grin, he gave John a prompt to start asking away.

“I know you have a questions kiddo, so I’ll do my best to answer any of your questions.”

“Really?” John asked

“Ye.” Seto said with a snap of his fingers.

“Okay.” John then leaned on the table, donning his serious face. “So what was that thing you wanted me to do? You know, that thing when I was first thrown into Alterea.”

“Right, I can’t answer that.” Seto rejected with a dismissive gesture.

“Wha?” John raised his hands in a confused and agitated manner. “I thought you said you would answer any of my questions!”

Seto put his feet down and pointed at John, grinning mischievously.

“I said ‘I’d do my best to answer’ and not ‘I’ll give the right answer’. See the difference?”

John leaned back and grunted in defeat. There was no point in arguing over it, so he just moved on to the next question.

“How can you snap with those gloves on?”

A bit of a pointless question, but he’s not going to let that get in the way of his curiosity. Seto arched his eyebrow upon looking at his glove clad hand, then snapped his fingers to once again make that snapping sound.

“It’s just a cloth glove. Of course I can snap it.”

He then snapped in succession to prove his point.

“Well, it is a bit muffled, but it’s still snapping.”

As Seto continued playing with his snaps, John moved on with his next question.

“Alright, this one’s serious. Will I ever get back to my world again?”

Seto immediately stopped and looked at John like he just said the most unbelievably ridiculous thing ever. Not that he can blame Seto for acting that way. He himself have forgotten that there was another world he needs to go back to, only resurfacing when he was once again faced by the god who started it all. Seto sighed, but kept his grin afterwards while showing another picture in a press of a button.

The picture showed a hand pointing at John. Pretty straightforward.

“That depends on you.” Seto answered. “See, you have a way of going back.”

The slideshow shifted to another picture, which shows an amulet with a single circular white crystal embedded on it. Engravings run along the golden frame as it hangs from a series of miniscule gold chains. It was pretty to look at, at least for John, and gives a sense of divinity and power from how sacred it looks. John already knows where this is going just by looking at it.

“This is one of my divine artifacts, the ‘Amulet of A Poor Man’s Wish’.” Seto explains, pointing at the amulet in the picture. “Just like its name would suggest, it grants the user one wish granted by yours truly.”

Seto ended his explanation by a courteous bow.

“How do I get it?” John asked, intrigued.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t right now.” Seto admitted. “It’s stuck in a buried ruins somewhere in Alterea, and I don’t know where that is.”

John let out a grunt of frustration, slamming his fist on the table. Seto has been just smiling, and still will.

“You’re supposed to know this kind of stuff! You’re a god!” John argued.

“I’m not omniscient, John. I know a lot of things, but knowing where my divine artifact is seated is not one of them.”

“And you don’t even use your omnipotence to find it?”

“Hey, we play it fair and square here. I gave you the advantage of ‘where’s the way out’, but I won’t hand over the ‘how to get out’.”

John let himself plop down on the table head first, feeling utterly hopeless despite the light of hope in his reach. It seemed like there was no point in Seto telling him when he can’t even get it anyway due to some bad RNG. Seto only grinned at his despair, letting himself lean back on his chair.

“Can you give me any details of your other divine artifacts?” John asked lazily as he raised his head.

“The only things I can tell you is that there is 4, including the amulet, and that they grant something more or less as powerful as the amulet.”

“Useless info.”

John then fell back to a state of despair as his face firmly placed itself on the table. He isn’t gaining much from questioning Seto, and he doubts that he’ll gain anything more than vague hints. The whole meeting made John want to go back and just sleep as this has really taken a toll on his mind. Despite Seto promising to give out his best answers, he never thought his “best” was not in line with his own definition of “best”.

“Cheer up bud! It’s not like you won’t have a choice.”

John gave Seto an incredulous and suspicious look.

“Look, I get it.” Seto says, shrugging “I did force you to be transported here, probably meddled with some of your affairs, and even defied the law of the mortals for you. But that’s where me being a dick ends.”

The projection shifted to another picture, showing a lot of arrows of varying sizes pointing at different directions in a disorganized manner, not holding any common theme to them at all.

“From here on out, your life will be dictated by how you shape it.”

Then it changed again, showing a picture of a decorated golden wheel, with a calligraphy text on top saying “Wheel of Fortune”.

“It’s just a matter of time. Who knows? Maybe you’ll decide to stay someday.”

“I won’t do that.”

Seto snickered at his remark, shrugging. John arched his eyebrow at Seto, which was returned back with a sneer. His face made John can’t help it but think how manipulative Seto has been. It’s not obvious from the beginning, but him openly admitting it just made it clear as day. It shouldn’t have been a surprise considering what happened five years ago, but there’s just something bothering him from this interaction with the god. A gut feeling, he might say, that this isn’t just a simple errand of “doing what I want you to do”. He can of course always put “entertainment” as the reason why he’s here in the first place, but it seems very unlikely that it is the case now that he had more time observing the god.

First of all, Seto’s giving him a hint of a way out. Sure, even if he doesn’t get the amulet, he will still die either way and the god’s entertainment will end once one ending comes or another. However, the crucial part was the timing of the hint. It’s too early to for the endgame goal to show itself, when he’s still too weak to actually journey to god knows where the amulet is. This could also mean Seto is already bored of him thus the reveal of the amulet, but his meeting with Seto is saying otherwise. If he was indeed bored of him, then this meeting would've never happened. Let alone be watched.

Then there’s him outright refusing to tell him what he’s supposed to do. Seto already knows that John’s answer will be entertainment judging from his observation, but he still didn’t admit that what he’s supposed to do was entertain him. Therefore, what he’s supposed to do is not entertainment in any way. Seto can always try to manipulate John’s fate, fortunately in a more benevolent way according to his words earlier, and it will always guarantee to lead to an entertaining situation. At least, for the almighty god. So there is no need for him to do that. Thus, he's once again in the dark on what he should do. There's no other ideas or hints that could lead to another answer. At least now John has an alternative if ever Seto decides to be a dick again, change the end goal and be cryptic about it once he found out what he's actually supposed to do.

“You’re thinking too much about it.” Seto suddenly remarked, snapping his fingers.

The room then disappeared in a puff of smoke, showing once again the grassy plains they were once in earlier. The sky is once again seen over their heads, and the chill breeze of the wind is again felt by their skin.

“I hope so.” John wished

Seto stood up and stretched his entire body, joints loudly cracking and body bending in inhuman ways. John could not help but flinch at the way he does this, but it’s not like he hasn’t seen anything much more disturbing like this, so he wasn’t as disturbed as much. He's just surprised, is all.

“Well, I guess that’s the entire time I have for you. You don’t have anything else to ask anyway, so this is a good stop.”

John stood up with the table and chairs disappearing in a puff of smoke immediately after. He sighed and stretched, but not in a way that would need the help of an exorcist. Both of them stopped at the same time, earning a chuckle from Seto. John’s unamused expression just fueled his laughter. Snapping his fingers, John once again started to light up as he soon will be put back in the body he doesn’t own.

“Oh, before I forget.”

John gave Seto a look as he started to fade.

“I’m a hypocrite.”

And just like that, vision turned to black.

Aren woke up on his bed as the sunlight rays pierced his eyes. This, of course, gave Aren momentary pain before he looked away from the light, trying to cover his delicate eyes from the dreaded sunshine. He took a while to recollect his thoughts after his meeting with Seto, trying to remember every bit of detail he could remember. Although this was the second time they talked, it felt like it wasn't any different from the first. In a sense that although the earlier meeting was obviously somewhat important, it still retained the kind of casual atmosphere the first meeting had. Well, half of the first meeting anyway. Still, it doesn't change the fact that he hates the god. Getting those thoughts out of the way, he remained in bed for a while to allow his mind to fully wake.

He then sat upright, stood up, and walked before the mirror he got four years ago. He combed his brown hair with his hands to try and make himself look presentable for the purpose of his own vanity. His amber eyes trace the contours of his face, which he is actually proud of. He wasn’t the handsome type back at home, and he is still is presently, but at least this body has it better. He gave his body a long observational look, before curving his lips in a smirk. Those training from Stan gave him some gains which Aren is highly grateful for. He reminded himself to thank Stan later.

Despite being 10 years old, he looks 13. Aren doesn’t really understand the biology of humans in this world, but at most he understood that aging here is faster than on the previous world. That, or the years are shorter here. He can’t really tell, since the calendar in the Montrea household does not even have the same format as the calendar back at the other world. Not that it matters anyway since today is just like any other day. Train until the twig decides to stop. That’s just how it’s been for five years, and it won’t be stopping soon.

Preparing himself for the day, he wore his usual dirty white shirt and brown trousers with a number of pockets on them. The pockets may be something with him and pockets or just a fashion statement, but Aren can’t deny their usefulness when it comes to some of Stan’s errands. Because of this, he has indeed developed a thing for storages of any kind, not in a sexual way but it can come close to that. Thankfully, he isn’t one to obsess over such trivial things.

After sharing a usual breakfast with Norman and Martha, he completed his attire with the leather gloves and boots gifted to him by his father three years prior. He took his leather sling bag hanging on a hook in their living room, before clutching the door handle. He took in a deep breath, exhaled, then opened it to greet the new day.

“I wonder how many of my bones will break today.” He asks himself, as he exits his house in his usual indifferent mood.