Chapter One: Prologue
Ulysses gasped and opened his eyes, looking down at his chest to feel for the bullet wound he'd just received. After patting himself down, he let out a sigh of relief; It wasn't there.
He looked down to see he was still wearing his Imperial Austrian uniform and that it was all in one piece, his two Flintlock Pistols and his Saber were all still holstered on his person. He also took note that he was sitting on a fine wooden chair. Before he had much time to observe his surroundings, a voice shook him from his thoughts.
"Ulysses Michael Civettius, welcome to the afterlife; Unfortunately, you've died. It wasn't for long, but your life is now over."
Ulysses looked over a white and black checkered floor to see a beautiful woman sitting upon a pure white chair. In actuality, to just call her a beauty would be an insult; Her appearance and the very aura she radiated screamed perfection, Ulysses had never seen a girl quite like her.
She had silky, smooth, blue hair and seemed to only be a few years younger than himself.
She had a long, light purple, sash-like shawl worn over her clothes that seemed to add to her angelic countenance.
She blinked her light-blue eyes and stared at Ulysses as he began to realize how he ended up in this situation.
He was in the middle of a small skirmish, it wasn't anything major, just a short conflict caused when the Austrian Forces under his command came across Napoleanic French Soldiers. They fired at each other a few times until, just as he was going to send out an order to pull back, Ulysses felt something impact his chest, sending him sprawling off of his horse towards the ground.
The pain was unbearable as he felt his world fading to black, then… nothing… The pain stopped and he was here.
"Pardon, but may I ask something of you?"
"Please, go ahead." She nodded in response.
"I died in a simple skirmish… did my men at least make it away or did they, too, die in a useless conflict?" Ulysses gently stroked his facial hair. He had an Imperial Beard consisting of mutton chops that connected to a mustache over the mouth, leaving the chin bare.
His well-groomed, black, shoulder length hair hung over his right eye when he quickly brushed it back.
"Oh, Your men? Yeah, they're alive! Most of them, anyways!" She smiled.
Ulysses leaned back and sighed, that's good; At least he wouldn't go down as a horrible commander.
"Your death was quite sad." She leaned on the chair, placing her elbow on the right armrest, holding her head up with her fist.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you hardly gave orders before you were shot; Maybe if you reacted sooner, you would've survived." She shrugged.
"I was still gauging the enemy." Ulysses deadpanned. "Giving orders without knowing your opposition is tantamount to suicide."
"Well, in this situation, thinking too much was suicide!" She giggled. "And only at… what? Nineteen years of age?"
"Twenty One." Ulysses clenched his fist. Despite her beauty, this girl was pretty insensitive.
"Even still, You must be quite sad dying at this age… And in only a minor fight! Surely, you honor your family for going out in a Heroic way; Behind your men… showing your status atop a horse." She said with sadistic sarcasm.
"Are you trying to invoke my anger?" Ulysses narrowed his eyes at her.
"Oh, nononono! I'm just commenting on your life!" She gave an innocent smirk. "How do you think your father feels, by the way? Hearing his son died before even reaching the city he was charged with?"
"Silence. I will hear no more of this." Ulysses leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and cupping his forehead with both hands, staring at the checkered floor.
The girl stood up and made her way behind Ulysses, leaning close to his ear she whispered.
"He was quite disappointed, I assure you. All that training spent on a dud of a son."
Ulysses glared at the girl, his eye twitching.
"Silence! My father was a righteous man! He would have never thought such things of me!" Ulysses growled.
The girl quickly backed away but then giggled and elegantly walked back to her chair.
"Well, that wasn't what I was expecting but I'm done playing with you now. This is our first time meeting, Mister Civettius. My name is Aqua; I'm a goddess, here to guide you to the afterlife. Now, putting aside how crappy your demise was, you'll have two options for how to continue."
Ulysses glared at her. He let out a sigh, figuring he should just finish this conversation quickly.
"The first option would be reincarnating and beginning a new life; With none of your previous memories, of course. The other option would be staying in a place that's sort of like heaven and living the life of a retirement home."
"Heaven, huh? Like angels, golden roads and pearly gates?"
"Not necessarily, Heaven isn't that great, to be honest. There's no need to eat since you don't have a body and you wouldn't have the ingredients you'd need to cook, either. I'm sorry if what I said disappoints you but there's nothing in heaven except for the people who've died before. On top of that, because you don't have a body…" She leaned forward and lowered her voice slightly. "You can't even do anything kinky." She leaned back. "All there is in heaven is just basking in the sun and talking with others… forever."
Ulysses sighed in dissatisfaction.
"You're a Goddess, right? Don't you have a say in how heaven is?" Ulysses reasoned.
"What?" Aqua shot him a look that told him he was stupid. "That's not how it works! There's… Y'know, rules!"
Ulysses scoffed… these options were terrible. He mulled it over for a minute. Either way just… sucks…
Looking at Ulysses' disappointed face, the goddess smiled.
"Hey, you wouldn't want to go to a place as boring as heaven, right? At the same time, reincarnating as a baby is the same as erasing your existence because your memories will be gone! So, I've got some great news for you!"
Ulysses raised an eyebrow.
"Do you like games?" She asked.
"I don't mind Chess."
Aqua sighed.
"Right… you were that spirit… That's not the kind of game I was talking about!" She waved off Ulysses' comment and began explaining a third option.
"In another world, in other words, not Earth, there's this guy known as the Demon King. With the attack of the Demon King's army, that world fell into crisis. You've heard of Magic and monsters, right?"
"In fantasy novels." Ulysses responded, skeptically.
"It's a lot like that! The people who died in this world were killed by the Demon King's army and were too afraid to be reincarnated there again. The issue is that the world will end if this continues since babies will cease to be born there. Hence, we'll solve that problem by sending the dead from other worlds over, right? That's how it is."
"That's a sloppy solution…" Ulysses mumbled.
Ignoring him, Aqua continued.
"And since we're sending people over, we should find people that've died young and still yearn to live and send them over with their original body and memories. It'll be meaningless if they were to die immediately after going over, so we'll grant a privilege to all of those going to that world, allowing them to take one thing they like. It may be a powerful ability, an exceptional talent or a god-level weapon. What do you think? It might be another world, but you can live once more! For the people of that world, someone will appear who can fight immediately; How about it? Isn't this great news?"
Ulysses gave a sideways nod, it was definitely a better option than the other two ideas but he was still skeptical about the idea of Magic and fantasy.
However, before that.
"What of the language? Will I be able to speak Austrian or will I be forced to learn another?"
"That shouldn't be an issue; With the gentle aid of the gods, knowledge of the language will be beamed directly into your brain the moment you head over to the other world. You'll even be able to read! As a side effect, your brain might be wiped blank if you're unlucky… Anyways, all that's left is to choose a powerful ability or weapon."
"Wait a moment!" Ulysses sat upright. "What was that about my brain being wiped?"
"Who said anything about that?"
"You did, Just now."
"No, I didn't."
Yes, you did."
Whatever respect Ulysses was supposed to show to this goddess was obviously missing from the way he'd been talking to her. She had a way of making herself seem like an equal rather than a diety.
Ignoring him, Aqua scattered a bunch of papers on the floor, each with different pictures and writing.
"Please choose, I may grant you one, and only one, power; It may be a powerful unique ability, or perhaps a legendary weapon. Come, it can be anything; You have the privilege to bring this one thing to the other world."
Ulysses glared at Aqua for a moment before slowly sighing. He got down on his knees to sift through the papers.
Among the papers were things like, 'Unnatural Strength,' 'Super Magic,' 'Holy Sword Arondight,' 'Runic Enhancements,' and all sorts of other crazy names.
Because of how many options there were, Ulysses would need time to look through them all; He was quite analytical in this way.
After a moment, Aqua finally spoke up.
"Hey, hurry up." She sighed. "It doesn't matter which one you choose and it's not like anyone's expecting much from a nobody such as yourself."
"A nobody doesn't have a lineage as storied as mine." Ulysses seethed.
At his remark, Aqua simply toyed with the ends of her hair and dismissively said "It doesn't matter, just hurry up and choose. There are still many dead souls waiting in line."
Aqua munched on some potato chips as she spoke, she wasn't without even looking at him.
Ulysses eye twitched as he shot her the most solid glare he'd ever given anyone.
'Attractive though she may be, her attitude was far from Heavenly. Mocking my ancestry, dismissing my death and even chiding my father? You want me to choose so quickly? I'll choose, alright.' he thought to himself.
A wide and grim smile spread across Ulysses face as he raised his hand to gesture towards Aqua.
"A Goddess wouldn't be a bad companion."
Aqua looked at him, taking a second to register what was just implied, and continued munching on her chips.
"Ah, okay, please stand there and don't move out of the magic circle…" She trailed off as realization hit her. "Wait, What'd you just say?"
Before Ulysses could respond, a voice rang out from above.
"I understand; Then I shall take over Miss Aqua's job from now on."
With a flash of white light, a winged woman appeared out of nowhere.
"Eh!?"
Aqua squealed in surprise as a blue magic circle appeared under her feet. Before Ulysses could take in her satisfying expressions, he looked down to see a circle under his feet as well.
"Wait! Huh? W-what's happening!?" Aqua Panicked. "Y-you can't be serious! No! No, Hold on! This is too weird! Isn't it cheating to bring a goddess along? This shouldn't count! Wait! Wait, okay?" Her eyes began to fill with tears as she tripped onto the floor, having jumped in surprise.
"Have a safe trip, Aqua." The angel landed and faced Aqua. "Please leave the rest to me; We'll send envoys to welcome you back right after the Demon King's defeat. Before you return, I'll handle all of your tasks."
"Wait! Wait! I-I have no combat ability to speak of! It's impossible for me to defeat the Demon King!"
The angel ignored Aqua and smiled gently at Ulysses.
"Ulysses Michael Civettius, you'll be heading to another world now and will become one of the hero candidates to defeat the Demon King; You'll receive a gift from the gods the moment you defeat him."
"A… Gift?" Ulysses raised an eyebrow.
The angel offered a warm smile.
"That's right, a gift befitting the savior of the world… You'll be granted a wish and it may be most anything you want."
Ulysses' eyes widened at that offer; That meant he could wish to return to Austria and possibly restore his family's honor.
"Wait! Giving that cool speech is my job!" Aqua wailed on the floor while the Angel took her seat.
Ulysses smirked at Aqua once more, it was… satisfying… in a way that Ulysses wasn't used to. He wasn't a Sadist, but this girl did just mock him.
Ulysses stepped towards Aqua and squatted next to her.
"Miss Aqua, it looks as though we'll have plenty of time to get over our differences now. I hope you'll put in your fair share during this trip; You are, after all, a Goddess."
"No! Going to another world with… with this guy!? No way!"
"Hero, may you be victorious among the many hero candidates and be the one to defeat the Demon King!" The angel paused for a moment. "Well then, I bid you farewell!"
"Wah! That's my line!" Aqua squealed one last time before a bright light surrounded her and Ulysses.