Chapter 111: Cha.110 The Empire

"Stop right where you are and don’t move!"

Qasim turned his head to the side, where a group of humans were screaming at him. They wore white light armor that covered their bodies, with spears pointed directly at him and Yasmin.

"Identify yourselves and surrender now!" one of them, who was likely their captain, shouted.

Qasim wanted to take things slowly, so he whispered to Yasmin.

"They look like this city’s police... Let’s just show them that we are not a threat."

Qasim raised his head and dropped to one knee, waiting for Yasmin to do the same.

Instead, she immediately took action, covering both of them in a black cloud. But the guards instantly used their spears to shoot some sort of electric laser that stunned Yasmin.

Qasim then stepped in front of her and raised his voice while still trying to look harmless.

"Wait! We are just travelers and got here by accident!"

The guards took a step back from the boy’s answer. They looked at each other and immediately put on angry expressions, showing aggression toward him.

Then they paralyzed him too before covering both of them with a large white silk cloth.

...

In a white room, an unconscious boy sat tied to a chair. Then he was hit by another electric shock, waking him in the process.

His eyes shook for a moment, but once they adapted to the light, he managed to see the guard’s captain sitting in front of him, with another girl with glasses holding a book beside him.

Qasim tried to look around the room, but the captain’s cold voice called his attention back.

"Do you understand what we say?"

Qasim blinked.

*Fuck, they are interrogating me.*

He decided to answer every question truthfully.

"Yes, I can."

The girl started writing down his answer, then the captain continued.

"Who are you, which city were you hiding in, and how are you still alive?"

Qasim was surprised by the question, but he clarified.

"I am Qasim, human, and I know this is hard to believe, but I am not from here. I don’t know where I am. Me and my partner, we are just travelers—"

"Shut the fuck up!"

The captain slammed his boot against the ground and pointed at Qasim, vines visible from his head.

"Again with this bullshit you said earlier. There are no such lies like this!"

"This empire hasn’t had any travelers for God knows how long. You know what we have?"

He paused for a moment, then showed a lantern made of dark obsidian frame with brilliant white light inside, similar to the lighthouse Qasim had seen earlier.

"We have monsters. And if you say that you don’t belong here, that means you are just another monster yourself!"

The captain then opened the lantern in front of Qasim, blinding him for a moment.

But Qasim simply looked at the captain in confusion.

"Please, sir. I am not lying."

The captain’s eyes widened as he saw Qasim speaking normally.

*What did he expect?*

The boy thought as he saw the reaction on both of their faces.

The girl dropped her notebook and adjusted her glasses while whispering to the captain.

"Sir, the light doesn’t affect them... Maybe his story is true."

The captain turned to face the girl in anger.

"Do you really believe that this empire will have so-called travelers? That’s impossible!"

He then turned his face back toward Qasim, but this time his voice was filled with hesitation and a hint of sadness.

"There is no way for this to happen... This place is a fucking prison of an empire..."

"Sir... But if it’s true, that means we have hope..."

The captain stared at the ground for a moment before turning to the girl.

"Drop him in the prison with the other one. I shall message the commander."

The girl raised her hand in a salute before turning to Qasim.

Qasim gave her a small, nervous smile, but the girl simply took her spear and shocked him again, causing him to lose consciousness.

...

Once the boy woke up again, he found himself in a prison cell. He looked around and saw Yasmin with him.

"Yasmin!" he called.

Yasmin simply nodded at him and asked in her usual cold voice,

"How did it go? Did they scream at you for no reason and then hit you with that spear?"

Qasim scratched his head and told her what had happened, but in the middle of his explanation, to his surprise, he saw a shocked expression on her face.

"Is everything okay?" he asked her.

Yasmin simply stared at him for a moment before asking calmly,

"How can you... understand what they say?"

Qasim raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? They just speak with me—"

Then his eyes widened as the idea hit him.

They were in an unknown place, surrounded by unknown people.

So how had he managed to understand them without learning their language?

Qasim put a hand on his chin and tried to analyze the situation.

*Could it be because...*

He raised his head as he realized the possible reason, then turned to face Yasmin.

"You don’t know this because you weren’t awake yet, but that giant woman we first met..."

"I didn’t understand her at first, but then, slowly, her speech became clearer to me."

Yasmin narrowed her eyes as she started to see where this was going.

"So she just forced their language into your mind?"

"I guess so..."

After that, the two of them fell into an awkward silence.

"By the way, thank you for saving me back when..."

Qasim tried to break the silence and thank her for risking her life to save him from the monsters back at the forest, but he realized that this would remind her that it was his fault they were stuck in here.

He lowered his head and apologized in a weak voice.

"I am sorry."

Yasmin raised her head and answered in a calm, steady voice.

"I am not mad at you, Qasim. This thing I chose for myself, and I chose to save you. If anyone needs to be blamed, then it’s me for not being strong enough to get us out of that situation."

Qasim was about to say something, but a new person appeared in front of the cell.

It was the same girl from the interrogation. She looked at Qasim and spoke.

"New orders just came from the higher authority saying that you two must be under watch before we can fully trust you."

Yasmin looked at Qasim, waiting for a translation.

Qasim looked at the girl as she opened the cell and asked them to follow her. Then he turned to Yasmin and nodded.

"We are no longer prisoners. C’mon, let’s follow her."

...

"Tell your friend here not to make any move, or both of you will return to that cell."

The captain glanced at Yasmin as he warned Qasim about her, and Yasmin’s response came quickly.

"Tell him that I only stayed inside that cell to wait for you. Otherwise, I could have escaped easily."

Qasim blinked a couple of times and smiled at the captain.

*I’m not gonna say that.*

"She understands."

The captain gave Yasmin one final glance before leaning back in his seat.

"Good... Now let’s see."

He then took a couple of documents brought by the girl and slammed them onto the table.

"Since you keep saying you are not from here, then tell me where you are from."

Qasim fixed his posture before speaking.

"The Kingdom of Corwata."

The captain raised an eyebrow and asked,

"I don’t know that place. From what rift of the world is this Corwata?"

Qasim paused for a moment before turning to ask Yasmin.

"I see..."

Yasmin stopped to think for a bit before looking at Qasim.

"He won’t know where Corwata is even if you explain it."

Qasim asked in surprise why.

Yasmin then looked at the captain before answering.

"Rifts are a concept I heard once in my life from Team One’s leader when Valen asked her about her original world."

Qasim’s heart dropped as he analyzed what she had said.

"You don’t mean..."

Yasmin then looked at him with a straight face.

"Yes. This is probably the spiritual world."

Qasim’s mouth dropped open as he blinked a couple of times in surprise.

"You are testing my patience here! Answer me right now!"

The captain’s angry voice woke him from his shock, but the boy didn’t know how he could deliver this news to him.

He took a deep breath, then started speaking in a serious tone.

...

"So..."

The captain massaged his eyes before continuing.

"You are telling me that you two are from that backward world, and with something you call an artifact, you two were teleported in here..."

Qasim looked over at the captain, then at the girl beside him. Both of them had suspicious expressions, like they had just heard something that only existed in myths.

"I knew I shouldn’t waste my time with this stupid shit," the captain whispered in a tired voice.

"Sir, please don’t say that. Maybe it’s true... After all, we have been stuck here for a long time."

The girl adjusted her glasses then spoke in a low tone, as if she herself didn’t believe what she was saying.

"So what? Are you suggesting that the stupid humans in that physical world somehow managed to create something capable of teleporting them to this empire?"

The girl said nothing and simply stood there.

Qasim felt the change in the captain’s expression, so he slowly tried to convince him.

"I don’t know why this sounds impossible to you, but please believe me. It’s true. The artifact is real."

The captain simply waved his hand casually and asked,

"Sure, sure. Then who made it?"

Qasim scratched his head as he tried to remember the name that was written on a small piece of paper with the artifact.

"I think it was... Osly."

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room shifted as the captain’s eyes sharpened.

"Are you okay, sir?" the girl asked, puzzled by her captain’s reaction.

But he didn’t answer her. He simply paused to think, looking over at Qasim with a serious expression that made the boy feel like he was under pressure.

"Maybe..."

The captain whispered before turning to the girl.

"Search for any document about the people that weren’t present that day."

The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, but she nodded before leaving.

Then the captain turned back to face Qasim. He rested his head on both hands and started talking in a low, serious tone.

"I will assume that you are telling the truth for now..."

"This means you have to understand your current situation..."

Qasim nodded, as he would finally learn what was going on here.

The captain then sighed before continuing.

"This is the empire, Saljok Empire."

"One time, the greatest empire across all the spiritual world..."

His voice dropped as he continued with a sad expression.

"Now it’s falling into darkness and monsters..."

He then raised his head and looked at Qasim and Yasmin.

"Welcome to the cursed empire, where time is freezing, death has lost its meaning, and our biggest dream is escaping."