I can’t remember the last time I heard of Samantha. Not since my parents discouraged any contact with her.

  Jared gave Eliam an awkward smile. “So it seems it really is you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “What? What the hell are you talking about? I just met you!” Eliam hissed.

  Nemina sharpened her gaze at Jared, prepared for anything despite her not having a full understanding of what was going on.

  “Woah, calm down there,” Jared said, waving his hands. “I didn’t mean it in any weird way. Just that she talks about you a lot… and someone else. Max, right?”

  Eliam paused. “You keep talking like you know my sister.”

  “Uh, that’s because I do. She’s shown me pictures of you and Max from before she left you guys…. She talks about leaving a lot. I think she regrets it…” Jared said.

  “She… showed you? What is your relationship with my sister?” Eliam asked.

  “I’m her husband,” Jared said nonchalantly.

  Eliam gaped at him. “Husband? What?”

  Jared chuckled. “I guess it makes sense you’re surprised. Samantha had wanted to contact you, but I guess she had no luck with your parents… I remember she went to your house once and came back crying.

  My sister came back, and my parents denied her entry. How could they do that? They knew how much I missed her back then. To what extent did they go to make it seem like Samantha had completely abandoned Max and me?

  “I see… That is surprising… Is she here?” Eliam asked.

  Jared shook his head. “No, it’s just me… but now that I’ve found you, I know for sure we can exchange information. Samanatha would love to see you.”

  Eliam nodded. “That would be nice.”

  Could this be a trap somehow? If it is then I am already pretty screwed as this guy has so much information one me. Somehow, I don’t think it is, though.

  “Uh, so is this guy bad or good?” Nemina asked.

  Eliam glanced at her. “Good for now.”

  Jared chuckled nervously. “I’m not planning anything. Everything I said has been completely genuine.”

  “That’s what people who are scheming say,” Nemina growled.

  “We can talk more about this later,” Eliam said. “Let’s get to that guild for now. I would like to learn more about this world.”

  Jared nodded and took them to the guild. The building was much nicer than many of the others, especially considering the state of the city. Unlike many of the other buildings, which were made of wood, this one was entirely composed of bricks. Instead of the usual red color, they held a darker tone.

  “Here we are!” Jared said. “It’s here that you can register yourself as a hero!”

  Eliam nodded and walked inside. Nemina hesitated, but eventually followed them.

  As soon as he entered, Eliam could immediately get a good idea of the atmosphere. There were a plethora of people, many of them laughing and cheering aloud. There was a significant amount of alcohol being passed around and conversations to go with it.

  They walked right up to the counter where the attendant was standing idly.

  “Hah, many of the people here have already gone through the training in their first loop, so the attendants here get bored. We typically don’t get any new people, so I’m sure they will be ecstatic to help you out,” Jared said.

  Sure enough, as soon as Eliam neared, the attendant popped up from their slump and smiled at him. “A new hero?”

  Eliam nodded. “Yeah, I guess you can call me that. Are you able to give me some information about your world?”

  The attendant nodded. “Of course! My name is Apredia, a twist of the old game Apredilio… My parents were fanatics… But that’s not important! Please, follow me to one of the instruction rooms. There is much to discuss.”

  Apredia immediately stormed off toward the back of the guild, leaving Eliam in the dust. He was getting the impression that Apredia was a very energetic person. He quickly moved to follow, and Nemina did as well with a groan. Jared stayed behind and smiled.

  “I’ll catch up with you in a bit. We can get dinner then!” he said.

  Eliam nodded and sped walk toward Apredia.

  ***

  “So, how much do you know?” Apredia asked.

  “Very little,” Eliam said.

  Apredia nodded. “Okay, then let me start from the beginning. In the age of Asterion, the kingdom of Denovere was founded…”

  “That isn’t necessary, just explain what we need to know about what’s happening now,” Nemina hissed.

  Apredia groaned. “You heroes are no fun! You never wanna know about the history of our world, just why you’re here. Fine!”

  Nemina rolled her eyes while Eliam sighed.

  “It started when he leaders of Denovere decided to summon various different heroes as a last resort against Quarlak,” Apredia said. “However, the summoning went wrong.”

  “Well, no shit,” Nemina muttered.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  After glaring at Nemina, Apredia continued, “At first, everything seemed like it went well. A few heroes were summoned, and the fight against Quarlak started. However, after a week, they lost miserably. Quarlak came much sooner than expected and with dozens of Nircozonians.”

  “What a shocker,” Nemina added.

  “Will you stop interrupting me?” Apredia shouted.

  Nemina groaned and sat back, seemingly finally preparing to listen to the lecture.

  Apredia continued, “The heroes woke up back on Earth and were relieved at first. However, that relief quickly peeled away when they went to sleep and awoke back to the exact same situation. These heroes were known as the origin heroes, and apparently, only one of them is still alive. The hero’s name was Oliver, and he was the highest leveled hero, sitting at level 72.”

  The highest level person is 72? I would have expected it to be higher. There must be a reason that nobody has been able to level faster than that.

  “The heroes soon went to the government on Earth to figure out what was wrong with their dreams. Apparently, they had never seen those movies where that's shown to clearly be a horrible idea,” Apredia explained.

  “If everything resets every week, then how do you already know all of this?” Eliam asked.

  “Because I like learning about it! Of course, I don’t remember every week, but I was told I was the best person for the job since I’m so enthusiastic!” Apredia stated.

  “I wonder why,” Nemina said.

  Apredia ignored her and continued, “The Earth government eventually figured out how to bring other people into the world. Apparently, there were dimensional ties and some other stuff that I don’t really understand. One major bonus of this was the energy these dimensions had, which was immense and mysterious.”

  Of course the government would be interested in this. Anything with the word energy and the potential for monetary gain is bound to capture their attention.

  “Sometimes, attaching these ties to someone would kill them, and sometimes, it would completely heal their body. Afterward, the government started to bring in a plethora of people; however, they ensured everyone they brought in was a dedicated government agent,” Apredia explained.

  Does it also heal people? Thinking back on it, I don’t really remember how I got brought into this world. Just that I got in an accident, and then I appeared here. Although there was something strange about that old man. Jericho, wasn’t it?

  “Unfortunately, one of these dedicated agents wasn’t so dedicated and ended up bringing in some of his family members to save their lives. The technology for the device that allowed people to do this got leaked, and soon, random people would show up in Lemineria from time to time,” Apredia said.

  Finally, she finished with, “The reason why the loop exists is still a mystery. There are speculations that defeating Quarlak and saving Lemineria will stop it, but nobody has been able to confirm that for obvious reasons.”

  “Are we done?” Nemina asked.

  Apredia glared at her and said, “Yes, that is all for now. Do you have any questions?”

  Eliam shook his head and stood up. “Thank you for your time.”

  Apredia nodded at him with a smile and led him back out into the guild. She went behind the counter, and a look of boredom once again plagued her face.

  “She was delightful,” Nemina said. “Although I did learn quite a bit. That explains a lot. Perhaps, you aren’t as crazy as I thought…”

  Suddenly, she froze and looked at him strangely. She looked as if she was about to ask something when Jared walked back up to Eliam.

  “Got the gist of it? Good, now let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving!” he said.

  Eliam nodded and followed Jared to another part of the guild. He took note of how Nemina looked like she wanted to say something. He would ask her about it later.

  They sat down at a table, and a waiter soon took notice of them. Eliam didn’t know what to order, and it looked like Nemina didn’t either. Thankfully, Jared took care of that for them.

  “Three orders of the special, please,” Jared said.

  The waiter nodded and walked back toward the kitchen. Jared turned back to Eliam and squinted before gaining a look of realization.

  “Ah, before I forget,” he said as he dug into his pocket for something.

  Moments later, he pulled out a small piece of paper with a number on it. It was a phone number.

  “This is my Earth number. Be sure to give me a call, I’m sure Samantha would love to hear from you,” he said.

  Eliam nodded as he accepted the paper. “Thank you.”

  This meant more to Eliam than Jared could have imagined. To finally be reunited with his sister. It was nice.

  It didn’t take much longer for their food to come out. It was good, but not as good as some of the stuff he had eaten on Earth. Maybe he was just used to his home cuisine.

  “So, Eliam, where are ya going to be staying tonight? There’s a really nice place for the heroes, since we’re pretty special and all,” Jared said.

  “Oh? Can Nemina come?” Eliam asked.

  “Oh, uh, probably not,” Jared said with a wince. “They’re pretty strict on that sort of thing.”

  “It’s alright, you can…” Nemina started.

  “Absolutely, not. We’ll find an inn somewhere,” Eliam said.

  Jared nodded, “Makes sense.”

  Nemina blushed as she looked away and said, “Moron.”

  “I guess I’ll meet you later tomorrow,” Jared said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Eliam said.

  “Oh, real quick,” Jared said as he handed Eliam a small bag. “Here’s some money for the inn. I’m assuming you probably don’t have any since you came from the asscrack of nowhere.”

  Eliam gratefully accepted the bag. He hadn’t even thought of money since most of his time spent here was in places that didn’t use it. Afterward, he bid Jared goodbye and went their separate ways.

  It wasn’t too difficult to find an inn to stay at. There was one right near the guild, so Eliam took the liberty of going there. He paid with one of the gold pieces in the bag. The innkeeper gasped at the coin and quickly shook their head.

  “We don’t have enough change for that,” he said.

  Eliam shrugged and gave it to the innkeeper anyway. “We’ll be here for the rest of the week, so keep it.”

  “Sir, it’s still way too much. I cannot…” the innkeeper started.

  Eliam waved his hand. “Keep it.”

  The innkeeper eventually nodded and showed them to their room. Afterward, he handed Eliam the key and left him and Nemina to their own business.

  “Do you know how much money you just gave that man?” Nemina asked.

  Eliam shrugged. “It’s all going to reset in less than a week, so it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for making the man so excited.”

  “That single coin is worth 100 Denoverian Silvers. One silver is worth 100 Denoverian bronzes. The average room would have probably cost a few silvers,” Nemina explained.

  Eliam shrugged, “It’s not that big of a deal.”

  Nemina paused. “Well, it’s a big fucking deal for me!”

  Eliam froze, finally taking a moment to look at her. There were tears rolling down her face. She was crying.

  “All of this is such a fucking mess and there’s so much I don’t get and most of all, I don’t know how to feel about you! Why are you so fucking kind to me? What did we do together in the past?” Nemina shouted. “What don’t I remember?”

  Eliam wanted to say something, but when his mouth moved, his voice didn’t come out.

  “I feel like I know you! It feels like you know me! Like we’ve gone through so much together, and I just happened to forget about it… It hurts.” Nemina choked.

  “Nemina…” Eliam said.

  “And then sometimes, you look at me with this sad look in your eyes… like something happened to me…Like I’m frail and weak and…” she paused.

  “It’s not like that,” Eliam muttered.

  Nemina shook her head. “I need some time alone.”

  She turned and walked out of the inn room, leaving Eliam alone to suffer with the consequences of his actions.