"REM"
"Good name," Ben said, offering his hand to Merlin.
"Thanks," Merlin reaches for Ben's hand.
"You should leave now. You can't be seen here, or else I'll be in trouble."
"I know." Merlin walks away but then pauses and comes back to question Ben. "Should I recruit now?"
"Yes," Ben muttered while patting the metallic ball. "But the limit is only three. You can't recruit much more unless they finally awaken the abilities. Recruiting anyone you see is just the same as sacrificing your pawns to battle," Ben stated.
"I understand, see you in class—" Merlin understands, and then a sudden thought comes across his mind.
Exam!
Merlin rushes forward, straight ahead, to the classroom; as soon as he arrives, he sees his classmates already starting the first subject exam. The teacher greets him with a polite smile, but his face shows disappointment.
"Aren't you going to come in and sit?" the teacher says with an open hand, pointing to the chair where Merlin is seated.
"Sorry, ma'am, I was really busy, I promise," Merlin responds while slowly sitting in his chair.
He scans the room; everyone looks at him with disappointment.
Then suddenly Cedric leans on the right side of his chair and asks, "Why are you late? Where did you go—" Suddenly, he is interrupted by the teacher.
"Cedric, is there any problem?" the teacher asks.
"No, ma'am. I'll keep quiet."
The teacher walks up slowly to Merlin and hands out the science test with numbers one to fifty, covering all lessons from introduction to matter, chemistry, space, and energy.
"I didn't review at all; I accept defeat," Merlin thinks. "Defeat?" Merlin thinks again, but he shakes his head, trying to remove that negative thought.
"No! I can't just fail. I didn't study at all, but if I ace this exam, then I must be a GENUIS!" Merlin thinks to himself.
Merlin starts answering the questions on the test paper. He shades the circles very carefully, understanding every question given.
Even though he didn't study, he lives by the principles of... "I may be dumb, but I'm no cheater."
After the continuous pain of answering every question and testing his comprehension, he manages to finish before the time runs out.
"15 minutes remaining," the teacher announces, clapping her hands. "Pass the papers in front of you."
The teacher grabs the test papers and sits back in her chair.
After about fifty minutes of checking every test paper, the teacher finally stands in front of the classroom with a stack of marked test papers.
One by one, the teacher distributes the test papers to each student who owns them; the teacher gives Merlin's test paper first, but he takes it and flips it over before he even sees his score.
"What's your score?" Cedric asks, leaning to the right.
"I didn't see it yet. How about you?" Merlin questions.
"I got forty-five out of fifty," Cedric says.
"That's a really good score," Merlin says as he slowly tries to flip his test paper.
"I'm a genius!" Merlin...
"Really?" Cedric asks, with genuine empathy that his study group helped Merlin, but his mind constantly thinks Merlin is in shock.
And a little bit of glazing over himself, if you ask me.
"I got five!" Merlin exclaims; his sudden reveal of his score makes his classmates laugh at him.
"Shut up!" Cedric says to everyone. "I know all your scores; don't lie to me."
Then, the classroom falls silent.
It seems that everyone is not as smart as Cedric. Merlin thinks to himself.
"Are you okay?" Cedric asks, tapping Merlin's left shoulder. As Merlin hears that, he slowly looks at Cedric with a forced smile.
"I'm fine."
Two minutes pass.
"I really suggest that you study; it's not hard, it's like feeding your brain some food," Cedric says.
"So, my brain is empty?" Merlin questions.
"I didn't say anything about that; you're the one who said that."
While Merlin and Cedric are walking in the park of their prestigious high school, they see Lancelot sitting on the long, wooden bench in a chair with his arms crossed.
"He likes to do that arm crossing. Does he think he's cool with that?" Cedric says.
"Let him be; we can be anyone who we want to be," Merlin says.
"Oh really? Then I'd like to be Spider—" Cedric says, but he is cut off.
"You cannot say that," Merlin says.
"Why?"
"Because due to international copyright law, we can't."
"LOL."
Merlin and Cedric walk towards Lancelot and ask what he is doing.
Lancelot looks straightforwardly at Merlin. "I'd like to have a private talk with you," Lancelot says.
"Sure," Merlin says. "I'll be right back," he continues, looking back at Cedric while walking forward.
Merlin and Lancelot walk straight off the first-floor hallway and go down to the basement.
"Wait, you know this place?" Merlin asks.
"Everyone knows this place; it's a basement!" Lancelot snaps.
"Oh."
Merlin and Lancelot go deeper into the basement, and he sees something touching a specific part of the wall, and on the left side, the door slides open.
They enter the room. Lancelot pauses.
"I heard you. I heard you talking to Ben about going to a different world," Lancelot says as he slowly confronts Merlin.
"How did you know? No... how did you hear us? Did you follow me?" Merlin says, his heartbeat racing, his emotions starting to rise.
"Yes. Want the whole story?" Lancelot says.
Merlin, who is still angry, slowly calms down and tries his best to bottle up his emotions. After that, he nods.
"I was at the canteen, really far behind you. Maybe my guess was correct; I'm at the eighth section of the table, sitting on the right side near the wall of the canteen."
"I saw you eating. And then, when I looked closely... I saw you were spectating someone. Ben. You followed him. And I followed you. We're the same. Driven by the same thing. Curiosity. So you shouldn't be angry—" Lancelot explains, and he is cut off by Merlin.
"We're not. You may be right. Both are driven by curiosity. The difference is the consequence. Ben talked me into it; he was never angry. He already anticipated me, while I don't," Merlin counters.
"Why are you angry anyway? It's really just a small deal. A small problem at most. I simply followed you," Lancelot says.
"You don't understand!" Merlin snaps, throwing his bag at Lancelot's face.
Lancelot stands still, brushing his shoulders as if there is something.
"I don't really care about you and your problems. I need to get inside the capsule. I want to go home," Lancelot says.
"That's not how it works," Merlin says, his breathing heavy. "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't take you home," he continues.
"How can you be so sure?" Lancelot asks. "Ben only stated that this capsule transfers you to a different world and not from the original one."
"Because it's unlikely. Unlikely to happen. This capsule is supposedly created here; Ben is also not like us," Merlin sighs. "In simple terms. He is an NPC."
"There is no hate in trying," Lancelot says.
"I thought you were better than this; I expected you to be much more clever and strategic, but I guess I was wrong. You're arrogant, just like the other, dragging anyone into conflicts just to save themselves."
"Me? Arrogant?" Merlin says, while continuing to tap his chest. "I have a good family, Merlin, or should I say Sento? I want to go home. My family needs me," he continues, rubbing his eyes.
"You're lying," Merlin says.
Lancelot glares at Merlin, then suddenly lunges forward and grabs Merlin's neck.
"You got it right. It's two lies and one truth. I don't have a good family. I don't have a family who really needs me. But the truth is... I was about to claim the promotion my dad gave me. I was about to be FUCKIN RICH! THE MONEY WAS ABOUT TO BE MINE! BUT SUDDENLY, THIS STUPID TRANSMIGRATION DESTROYED EVERYTHING!" Lancelot continues, his emotions rising, Merlin suffered as he was about to die. Then the room lit up...
And a loud bang can be heard across the entire room of the Capsule Project.
Lancelot fell to his knees,s and there he saw his one leg pierce, becoming a hole.
Merlin touches his neck multiple times, his breath heavy, hands shaking, and then look at the person who save him.
Ben.
"Thankyou," Merlin said.
"No worries. Can you still walk? I mean, I can. Also,before you go, don't tell anything about this. You got it?" Ben said.
Merlin stood up, walking like a drunk person.
"I got it."
As Merlin reaches the basement level, Ben continues.
"I admired your pure dedication to open the door,"" Ben stated.
"How did you?"Lancelot was shocked.
"I have a CCTV."
'CCTV is from modern days,'' Lancelot pondered.
"You aren't from here,are you?" Lancelot asked.
"What do you mean?, I'm born here. Maybe your asking this question is how I basically obtained an item that is from your modern and original world. Simple. I had a friend once who was very similar to you and the two above, but he disappeared. I didn't manage to say good—" Ben was cut off.
"I don't care about your story. Get me out of here,"Lancelot chided. "Or else."
"Sorry, no can do. It's our policy to not help anyone who tried to attack one of our clients," Ben said.
"Clients? Who even are you!?" Lancelot questioned, his eyebrows getting close to each other.
"I'm just one of the servants of the Wishmaker."