“Name?” The usher in a fancy smancy green suit asked.

“Otto Ire”

“Age?”

“16”

“So what's your superpower? You are required to have one according to the rules, We don’t want to waste our time dealing with unnecessary death of those who had no chance.”

My name is Otto Ire. Today is the day I go to sign up for a once in a lifetime opportunity! The king of the country is old and dying and soon Princess Renner will become the ruling monarch of Elysis. I can finally live the easy life of fame and fortune I deserve! The only thing is though…

“I don't know what my power is, BUT i do know I have one. It says so right here on myName?” The usher in a fancy smancy green suit asked.

“Otto Ire”

“Age?”

“16”

“So what's your superpower? You are required to have one according to the rules, We don’t want to waste our time dealing with unnecessary death of those who had no chance.”

My name is Otto Ire. Today is the day I go to sign up for a once in a lifetime opportunity! The king of the country is old and dying and soon Princess Renner will become the ruling monarch of Elysis. I can finally live the easy life of fame and fortune I deserve! The only thing is though…

“I don't know what my power is, BUT i do know I have one. It says so right here on my doctor’s note.” As I reach into my back pocket, the man puts his hand up to stop me.

“Sir, please don’t waste your or my time. If you haven't noticed the line behind you, there are actual contestants like The Mage Army General Brutus EarthWood.” The usher said in a condescending tone making sure I see his smug smile. He continued, “Now what was it? Otto. I can say with one hundred percent confidence that you don't even have a smidgen of chance. I mean, take a good look at yourself. You ain’t got what it takes like the people behind you.” He leans on the counter and points behind me. While most of the people looked normal, there were a few exceptions.

The lady behind me was wearing a silky, burning red kimono with foxes illustrated around it. She calmly smiled at me and waved at me. There was a man in a full knight costume accompanied with the sword and shield to match, another person looks like a full on kobold with scales and a dragon head. The last guy was several times larger than everyone else. He's basically what you would call a giant. It was truly bizarre seeing all these strange types calmly standing in line as if this was completely normal. That was until I realized they were all staring at me with disgust.

“That kid needs to hurry up and move.”

“Why is this redhead powerless wasting our time?”

The mumblings and whispers suddenly filled the room. As everyone in the room scowled at me, my face turned red and I could feel the pressure of the theater forcing me out. How the hell is my face even red? I'm black! And yet...

I'm just going to leave. There was no real chance of me winning anyway. I don't even know what my power is yet, nonetheless how to even use it. There are people in this with decades of experience. Compared to them, I'm nothing but a bug in their way home to their golden palace.

As I begin to turn away and walk towards the door someone grabs my arm. Why is the geisha lady stopping me? Does she want to laugh in my face or give a snarky comment before I go? My face is completely hot and sweating gives her a concerned look. The geisha lady does nothing but smile at me again. Her powdered face and red lips make it more pronounced than before.

“Sorry ma'am about the INTRUSION, now can you give me your name?” The now supremely polite usher says.

“Mr. Drewfair?” Geisha lady says in a calm yet menacing tone. Her voice immediately makes the usher’s smile drop and becomes immediately terrified.

“You're well aware that you just rejected a perfectly potential candidate for the competition, right?” She finished.

Once the usher regains his composure, puts his hand on the back of his head, scratches it and says “Ma-mama I mean ma’am, I think that you s-should consider that he doesn't even have any abilities. He doesn't even look all that strong!”

All while this was happening I got a better look at her. She looked young, probably even around my age. Her bright scarlet hair was carefully put together into a bun with some stick like things sticking out of it. They looked alot like drumsticks.

“My, my. What will we do about that?” She puts up her heart to her chest while making a pouting face. “It's quite sad isn't it? Wasting all of Mr. MusicHouse’s time dealing with the loss of his poor usher over something so small as a single boy who's already an exception. Quite pitiful if you ask me. Just because one may not look the part, does not mean you should underestimate the power they have within. You should know that from experience, right Mr. Drewfair?” She then delivers such a sharp, menacing glare to the usher that he falls to the ground and starts to sweat. She at first had a dramatic tone but now… it seems as if it’s diabolical, manipulative even.

“I-i can't do that to Mr. MusicHouse. M-my life would be over before I know it.” “Well then, I’m glad we’ve finally reached to an agreement. Now could you please hand over the ticket to the young man? I believe you’ve wasted enough time here.” She's so terrifying that I almost pissed myself when she turned to me and smiled again. I don't know why she decided to emphasize the words young man or why she was even helping me in the first place, but I was just happy that I got in while getting to wipe off that shit eating grin from that usher. Does she like me? Does she think i'm cute or something?

All my life I never had anybody think of me like that. All I was known for was being that weird kid who always was cleaning the street or making the kids cry when I had to clean off their street chalk artwork. The older kids and the ones my age constantly made life hell. Throwing trash cans on the ground for me to pick up or just straight pushing me down and running. I always tried to make it up to the kids at least by buying them sweets from the corner store later with what little I had to spare from that job.

Alice and Devon were always the only ones who talked to me afterwards instead of just taking it and leaving. Alice always made the best art out of the kids, and even made me a portrait out of me for my birthday. Devon was her big brother and always did his best to protect her from her “friends” He always wanted to talk about the new episode of whatever action show he was watching at the time. Even though I never really understood what he was going on about, I appreciated his kindness and that he cared to talk to me. I miss them so much, considering I left my home city of MustafaMorro to the capital. Nothing much was going on for me, but those two kids continue to give me a little hope that I can do this. This whole world seems so terrifying. I nearly used all my money on paying the charter. Apparently prices went up because of an increase of bandits in the area.

“You can go ahead of me, I'll catch up.” Snapping out of my daze I tried to take the ticket from the usher but his hands were shaking and sweating so hard he dropped it. Picking it up I realized that the entire room was dead silent and it felt like every soul in the room was staring me down with red eyes. Every step I took towards the auditorium door squeaked so loudly it was deafening compared to the utter silent peanut gallery watching me. To stop this I have to walk even slower to the door. The door was about 20 feet from the ushers table. I can do this. This is easy, it's literally walking. The first thing someone learns before even talking. I take the first step across the floor, “CREEEEAAAKKK!!!”

It didn't help.

Every step after that was louder and longer than the last. Seriously when was the last time they did maintentice on these floors? They look a thousand years old! And why did nobody else make any squeaking noises? Is that my ability? To make any wooden floor squeak? I move even faster across and all that happens if “Squeak, Squeak , Squeak '' Over and over again getting so loud to the point MY ears might bleed. Finally I reach the door and open it “SQUEAAAAAAAAAAAK!” It's the loudest sound i've ever heard in my life. MY ears hurt so bad from the high pitch squeal of the door MY hands instinctively cover my ears and quickly run out through the door, before the door slams shut I heard a slight chuckle.

Please kill me, this is a fate worse than death. To make it worse it seems like everyone from the other room connecting to this main hall also knew what happened.As I walked down the long

corridor, I heard disgusted groans and mutterings through the halls.

“That's him. The boy.” I heard one say.

“that's the kid who had to get help from some sympathetic lady to get in.”

“Why the hell are they allowing just anybody with powers in?”

“They should just block out those desperate nothing to lose peasants and make it a nobles game only.”

At the end of the hall is the Great Tree of Arcadian City. It's a enormous tree that was so tall if you'd think after climbing it you'd to touch the stars. if you looked closely enough and squint your eyes you could just barely see the ornament at the top, a shining golden emblem of the royale family, lightly touching the ceiling. It's so astounding i might fall over from its presence.

I sit down on the small brick “wall” circling the tree. AGH this sucks, none of this fit any of my plans that I spent weeks thinking up! I thought of ridiculous things like what if I lost my papers or money or if I got lost! But why was this the thing that had to happen to me! What did I do to deserve this! I'm alone and hated by the city. I feel like the ball being repeatedly kicked around by the kids back home. I sigh, there's no point going back as well, it's either somehow keep going in this, become a slave to the church, die in the military, or keep being stuck in this poverty hellhole for the rest of my life. There's no choice, I have to keep going, I have to win.

While thinking of plans my eye caught a small brown bag casually sitting on the tree. Going over and picking it up and looking inside there were a bunch of weird coins. They were about the size of the nail of my thumb, and had a dark blue rim with some sort of weird gem in the middle. It doesn't look like I can use them as a kaleidoscope either. Well I'm sure it has some use in the future, maybe it's money in a different country. I could just hightail it out of this country and go to the Kingdom of Dornia. So I quickly stuffed it in my right pocket and decided to enter the theater.