Looking at everything going on right now, my plans have taken a turn for the worse.

  The librarian heir is dead, and according to my tile relic—better to call it a map—he’s the second heir to fall. No other heirs have followed him yet.

  Whether the heir of the cooking complex is the perpetrator or just another victim of the beast that destroyed this place, I can’t say.

  Going to the cooking complex doesn’t seem like a good idea anymore. I don’t like my options, but the new crazy guy I just met might be the boon I need.

  Either way, the new plan is to head back to my place and grab my supplies. It’ll probably be a hassle to carry everything to the room, but enough for a few days should work.

  Walking as fast and attentively as I could back to the room with Houonas was easier than I thought.

  No enemies in sight—which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

  No chance to die, but no chance to get shards either.

  A couple of hours later, my legs burning like hell, I finally reached the entrance of the quarters, only to find a white…shortie staring at me.

  “So young and so slow!”

  At first, I thought it was a kid cosplaying as a wise mage. That thought was crushed as I noticed the long beard cascading down to its belly and the hair flowing like a mantle.

  The visible skin was white as snow, like the vampire’s.

  The beady eyes were a piercing blue, the pupils a shade darker.

  “It’s already bad having a human for an heir, but it’s worse if he’s slow and weak!”

  The gall of this shortie.

  “Nevertheless, let us go! Guide me to the dumber one who made you heir.”

  Poor Houonas, but the shortie is kind of right. I’d be better off as an heir to a chain of supermarkets, not some crazy palace.

  The old man moved faster than me—not on his short legs, but floating like a balloon. Cheater.

  Still, I ignored the old man. I didn’t spend much time with Houonas, but at least they didn’t react like that when bonding with me—like I’m some animal.

  It didn’t take long to reach my room.

  “So slow!” the shortie yelled again.

  “Stop fucking yelling all the time! You’re short, but that doesn’t make you any quieter!”

  Faster than I could believe for an old man, he flicked something at me. His speed and the strangeness of the situation spelled my doom.

  Soon, I felt an ache on my forehead as the object fell to the ground—a piece of chalk.

  “Respect your elders, young boy. No master of mine would have such poor manners!”

  “I’m a man, you fu—forget it.” What would winning an argument with a geezer even get me?

  Right, he’s old. I’ll try to picture him like my late grandpa. The guy won’t change.

  Reaching the room, everything seemed intact, with only one problem.

  “Why are you messing with my computer???”

  Houonas looked like a child caught doing mischief. “I-I-I was looking after thy belongings. I beg for thy pardon. Mine curiosity took precedence over all else in the silence of these hallowed halls.”

  The old geezer laughed warmly and cheerfully, like it was all a prank.

  I walked over and checked the computer. The connections between the accessories and the PC were correct—USB cables and even the display port were properly set up. The monitor flickered on the login screen.

  “I beg thy pardon. It seems the machine is broken.”

  Hmm, something smells fishy.

  “If you thought it was broken, why did you try to log in so many times? See here—it’ll restart if you get it wrong one more time.”

  “No, no, no! That was not mine intent. I wish not to destroy thine machine.”

  “It won’t destroy anything. Damn, why am I wasting time with this? I’ll create a new user for you. You can access my data from the external drives and the other partitions…”

  After wasting a couple of minutes, Houonas was good to go. They could try as much as they wanted, but they couldn’t edit anything on my SSDs.

  At least Houonas is smart. Just a few pointers were all they needed to learn the basic functions of the machine. I doubt the old geezer would be as easy—not just because he’s old, but because he’s an ass.

  “Interesting machine, boy. Of no use in a domain such as ours, but not without its merits.”

  “Tell that to the fucked-up library. I doubt the destroyed books would agree.”

  Snorting, the geezer took on a conspiratorial expression, visible even through all that hair. “Oh, boy, you don’t know a grain of mold about librarianship.”

  Now he’s really trying to pull my leg.

  “Alright, alright. Let me tell you what I learned…”

  It didn’t take long for me to explain the gist of events. The way I dealt with the vampire and the orange rat earned some applause, though the geezer got kinda angry when I called them vampires instead of Erythocetes.

  So, it was time for the old man to spill what he knew. Especially when I stopped talking and focused on him, Houonas doing the same.

  “What are you children looking at?”

  “Just tell us what you know about all this! Don’t you want to kill that eater guy?”

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  “Who’s yelling now?! Alright, I’ll tell you, brat!”

  “Thanks. I really need a cup of water.”

  Lifting his hand, the old man continued, “Let’s focus on the current situation, not your pesky needs! The ruler died—no one knows how, including how the Dominion’s Digit died. For your information, Dominion’s Digits are what me and Houonas will become if you become an heir.”

  I raised a finger to interrupt the old geezer. “Yes?”, replied said old geezer.

  “Why the weird name? Couldn’t you just use something like Dominion’s Finger?”

  “A good question. Actually, that was the plan of the humanoid rulers, though the bestial kinds and other species disagreed with the name. So, it became Dominion’s Digit. The mechanical ones liked that too, but for odd reasons.”

  “So, yes, the rulers also like to convene for politics and waste their time when they’re not at each other’s throats. Anything else catch your attention?”

  “No, thanks. You can go ahead.”

  “As I was saying, nobody knows how, but it happened. At the same time, a new synchronization is occurring—new worlds, stars, and cosmic bodies.”

  That doesn’t make sense. “What stars?! Wouldn’t that annihilate everyone?”

  “Actually, no. Dangerous celestial bodies are only annexed to domains where no one lives or where the inhabitants can survive and adapt to the changes. Most stars serve as part of a domain’s space periphery. The how, who, and why elude most of us, though there are theories…”

  At his expectant glance, I dismissed it. Let’s focus on surviving this first. Though these domains sound like some science shit show, alright.

  “...There’s some unrest in the governing systems of this planet, including some in the space periphery—more mining colonies. Nevertheless, no doubt new blood and old wolves will take the chance to seize more power.”

  Damn it, my curiosity might be the death of me one day. “But wouldn’t the ruler still lord over them? Why would they just fuck up their top brass for nothing? Imagine a crazy or stupid king at the helm.”

  Houonas answered this time. “That is far from certain. A ruler could lose their destined throne to their most influential and powerful subject.”

  The old geezer interrupted with a nod. “Quite right. Although you forget that it can only be done if the ruler dies without heirs. A domain synchronization will start soon after—not one guided by the will of the Monad. Any stronger domain can synchronize and obliterate ours.”

  That seems stupid. “Wouldn’t it be easy to just put someone like me as a puppet ruler? And what’s the Monad?”

  The old geezer applauded. “For the first time, you’ve said something smart, young one. You won’t make the powerful job any easier controlling you, ha!” This old fucker. “The succession requires more than half the heirs to be blood relatives of the ruler. The other heirs can be selected by us Dominion’s Digit candidates—only a few of us can become servants of a ruler.”

  He gestured to Houonas. “She was summoned so the succession could begin. She could select a chosen or have it automatically selected after three days.”

  He touched his chest—or beard. “As for me, I was chosen to serve the illustrious Garvant Sangecarious since he was a baby. My past master chose to forfeit the succession with his siblings, successfully ensuring there were no more heirs than the necessary nine. Sadly, he was forced to participate in this one.”

  “So, no. There need to be true heirs, or the domain’s security can vanish as soon as the ruler dies. As for your other question, the Monad is what I call the rules of this reality we live in—the governing force of existence. Some call it Tao, others call it whatever gods or faith they believe in. Some try to use science to explain it, without success. Monad is easier—no religious connotation, but not pure science either.”

  Interesting. So Houonas is a she, and the whole God thing—Tao sounds familiar. Weird.

  The Dominion’s Digit thing is more interesting for my predicament, though.

  “Why would you guys become Dominion’s Digits, though?”

  Again, the old geezer applauded. “Another good question. It seems you deserve a reward as an attentive student. My name is Darefei. I’d remind you that common courtesy dictates you tell me yours. But first, knowledge!”

  “First, our power isn’t restricted by the shards we consume. As your power grows, so does ours. New connections will open up to our existence—what you call constellations. The primal reason is that it speeds up our domain’s next synchronization.”

  Weird. “Name’s Henrique. Why would you want to speed up the synchronization? Wouldn’t more potential enemies show up? Like, I don’t know, beasts, vampires, wererats, and whatever?”

  The old geezer, Darefei, didn’t seem angry at me for calling the Erythocetes vampires. The shortie was grinning.

  “For what more?! Power and resources! By what you said, your planet is one of the last to be synchronized in this domain, but who said it would be the last? Sooner or later, the domains will be reduced in number enough that the Monad won’t protect you from synchronizing with a domain far stronger than yours!”

  That just keeps getting better and better. A fucking universal war. I pity the poor vampires that synchronized with my world. These guys are in for a surprise.

  The old geezer grunted. “I enjoy my lectures, but time is of the essence. The invaders are probably hired mercenaries for some of the powers in this domain—though I can’t decide which snake is behind it. Whatever the case, we need to kill Fion Sangecarious, and we need to get you powerful enough for that in the short time we have!”

  That’s a yell I agree with, you fucking geezer. Finish all this shit, find my parents, and maybe become a ruler. Not in this particular order it seems.

  Though becoming a ruler sounds like a hassle—at least from what I know about history books and my junk food entertainment.

  Few things are worse than being a puppet king, having your life micromanaged like a fucking pet.

  Maybe it’s different here, but I’m not holding my breath. That’s a problem for later.

  Also, find the villagers! I’m not forgetting that—it’s just that my plan has steps, and that’s a little further ahead.

  What else could I do in the future? Sleeping like a bear would be a good start.