"Blueberry!"
Waylen jolted awake.
He felt like he'd been sleeping for a long while, and not to mention that his mind was still foggy.
"…Toast with strawberry jam and a cup of apple juice would be so perfect right now… I should go get some."
He mumbled to himself.
In that moment, he stood up, but it only took a second for him to lose his balance again and drop back to the seat.
He then noticed where he was.
It wasn't some bedroom. It was a foreign place. There was some ugly-looking seat under him and across him.
The seat had some strange patterns like those in old bus seats, but this wasn't a bus, as far as he could tell.
"…Where am I?"
He wondered and looked around.
There was a door that was closed. It had a tiny window. He was inside some kind of compartment.
"It looks like I am in a train, but how did I get here?"
Waylen scratched the back of his head, and he then turned to the window. It was closed with a curtain.
'Where is this train going?'
He nonchalantly pulled open the curtains, but his eyes soon widened in surprise at what he saw outside.
His jaw dropped. If he were in some silly animated movie, his jaw would've dropped all the way to the floor.
Clouds were rolling by the window. Yes, clouds. The sky seemed scarily close to the train.
'…I am in the sky?!'
Waylen jumped to his feet and looked down from the window, and they were so high up that he couldn't see the ground!
'Trains can't fly!'
He thought in a panic.
In that moment, he saw his reflection stare back at him.
A young face. Probably sixteen years old. Decent-looking bloke.
Tall for someone of his age. Eyes were gray. But his hair had quite an exotic color of pink, strangely enough.
'I've dyed my hair? Wait, who is this person? I don't recognize him, but wait a moment… Who am I even?'
Waylen touched his head.
He realized that his mind was so empty. He thought that it was just him waking up just now, but now he realized that he couldn't remember anything.
Except one thing.
His name—Waylen.
That was literally the only thing that he could remember, and everything else was a complete mystery.
'Why am I here? Who am I? Where am I? What happened to me?'
There were so many things going inside his mind that he felt quite overwhelmed.
'I need to gather my thoughts…'
Waylen sat back down and took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, and then he opened his eyes again.
'Alright. I am in a flying train. My name is Waylen… and that's it. How is that the only thing that I remember?
'Did I get injured?'
Waylen touched the back of his head in case there was some wound that might have caused his amnesia, but no.
He seemed completely fine.
Then.
He tried remembering something that should be common knowledge, such as the world map, but nothing came to his mind.
There was nothing he remembered about this world. Yet, he was able to recall some of the basic information.
Such as this thing he was riding was indeed a train. That he was sitting on a seat. And that those fluffy-looking things outside were clouds.
'It is as if this were my first day in this world.'
Waylen thought with a troubled look.
Shhhh-click~
The compartment door opened.
"Argh, tight fit!"
Ned exclaimed as he squeezed through the door, a fat backpack bumping against the frame, but eventually he made it through.
"Whew!"
He let out a sigh of relief.
Then, he noticed Waylen, sitting with a disorganized look on his face, as if he had a thousand things going on inside his mind.
"Backpack goes there…"
Ned stuffed the heavy-looking backpack next to the seat, and then he sat right next to it and offered his hand to Waylen.
"I am Bellham Ned. Nice to meet you!"
"…Waylen."
He shook the hand.
Then, he noticed that Ned was squinting his eyes, and Waylen thought, 'Do I look suspicious? Maybe I am not supposed to be here?'
"What an interesting pink hair you have!"
Ned said with a smile.
He, on the other hand, had wavy blond hair, which looked far more natural than his strange pink hair.
"Thanks… Bellham, was it?"
Waylen asked.
"No need to be so formal. We're going to be classmates, after all. Just call me Ned!"
He said with a smile.
"Ah… I was just confused because you called yourself Bellham Ned. I thought Bellham was your first name or something."
Waylen scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
It looked like he said something odd as Ned looked really confused, and once again, he squinted his eyes.
"What do you mean? I think everyone introduces themselves with their family name first. It's the family name first and then the person's name.
"Where are you from? You're not from around here?"
Ned asked.
'…How did I not know that? Shouldn't that be very common knowledge then? So in my case, if I introduced myself, I would first say my family name and then Waylen.
'But I don't remember my family name somehow!'
Waylen panicked.
Shhhh-click~ the door of the train compartment again opened, and this time around, a cute girl walked in.
She had bob-cut chocolate-brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes that seemed to brighten the room.
"It's you?!"
Ned exclaimed.
"…Ned, hmph."
Annie whipped her hair around, and she came without any luggage, so she just sat right next to Waylen.
Since there wasn't any space next to Ned.
"Why did you bring that stupidly heavy-looking backpack here? You take away so much space. You should've just taken it to the luggage car!"
Annie shouted.
"You are always so bossy… I bring my backpack where I want!"
Ned shouted back.
"…You two know each other?"
Waylen asked.
"We're from the same village, and we've been in the same class since kindergarten. I thought I was finally free from her, but I guess not!"
Ned crossed his arms and pouted.
"Ignore this child. My name is Grendale Annie. It's very nice to meet you!"
With a bright smile, Annie introduced herself, and Waylen just replied with his name and greeted her back.
'Should I ask them where we are going? I think that would be way too strange. They might think I am really suspicious if I don't even know where we are going.'
Waylen thought.
He felt really frustrated that he couldn't remember anything, and he even thought about just smashing his head into a wall until he remembered something!
Again, Ned started squinting his eyes as he looked between Annie and Waylen.
"…Why aren't you wearing your glasses, Ned? You're squinting your eyes. If you can't even see us from this close range, how are you going to see anything in the classes?!"
Annie scolded him as if she were his wife or something.
"You are always so bossy…"
Ned mumbled, and he then retrieved his thick-looking glasses from his pocket and put them on—which completely changed his vibe.
Before, he looked quite handsome, but with his glasses on, he looked like a total nerd.
'This is why he kept squinting his eyes. It was because he couldn't see anything.'
Waylen thought with an understanding.
He thought that Ned was now a completely different-looking person, and he seemed very embarrassed to wear those glasses.
It was new school. New people. New classmates. So he wanted to make a different kind of impression on everybody.
He hated these glasses because they made him look nerdy.
"Are the two of you excited for the first day of school? I have been waiting for this day ever since I discovered magic!"
Annie said excitedly.
'…Magic?'
Waylen looked confused.
"We must make everyone back in our home village proud. We were the only ones that had magic cells in our body, so for the pride of our village, we must graduate!"
Ned said excitedly.
"What about you, Waylen?"
Annie asked with a smile.
"Yeah… Very excited."
Waylen forced a smile.
'What the hell? Magic? There is magic? Wait, I know what the word "magic" means, but somehow I didn't know that it is possible to use it for real.
'That's so strange…'
Waylen thought.
"You're nervous, Waylen? I get that. I couldn't sleep at all last night because I knew today we would hop on this Magic Express and head to the Sorcerian High!"
Ned said with a smile.
"After we arrive at Sorcerian High, we're going to be taken to the Magic Library, where we will finally get our grimoires and our magic.
"I hope I get some strong magic. There are a lot of useless kinds of magic out there, but I want to be a powerful sorcerer!"
Annie puffed her chest and said.
"…Unfortunately, we are commoners, so getting powerful magic is unlikely…"
Ned replied with a heavy sigh.
"Don't be such a dooming nerd, Ned. I've read about some commoners that rose to the highest ranks of the Justice Army after receiving powerful magic.
"Do not lose hope!"
Annie shouted.
"Y-Yeah, you're right!"
Ned nodded.
Meanwhile, Waylen was just listening, and he took notice of everything that they said, and slowly, he was getting deeper understanding of this strange world.