I didn't open my eyes.

  The first thing I felt was my back; for the first time in my life, it felt truly pampered. I was lying on a mattress so soft it felt as if I were drifting among the clouds. A thick blanket, perfectly weighted and cozy, covered me, offering the kind of comfort only those with money to burn get to enjoy.

  The scent was the next thing to hit - the smell of luxury. It was a blend of beeswax candles, ancient sandalwood, and a lingering hint of resin from high-end furniture. It was a pleasant aroma, yet distant, as if to remind me that I didn't belong here.

  Outside the window, birds chirped in a clear, rhythmic melody, untainted by the noise of car horns or engines. The atmosphere was strangely peaceful.

  I processed the situation in an instant and concluded that my life wasn't in immediate jeopardy.

  "Hasn't he woken up yet?".

  Then there were the voices.

  A few female voices sounded nearby, speaking to each other in a foreign tongue. The syllables were melodic, carrying a strange beauty and charm. It was a language I certainly had never known before.

  Except, I understood everything!

  I understood every bit of it - every comma, every emphasis, and every subtle nuance of guilt.

  I never thought of myself as a linguistic genius, but I felt confident that one could naturally master a language if they heard it repeatedly for half a year.

  The problem was, it hadn't even been haft-minutes since I regained consciousness.

  So, either I had been upgraded from an ordinary person to the greatest genius in the galaxy, or I was hallucinating after a blow to the head. But I was fairly sure it was closely related to the reason I was brought here.

  I kept my eyes closed, maintained a steady breathing rhythm, and continued to listen.

  "Your Highness, he did suffered a severe concussion, but his pulse is now stable and his breathing is steady" another voice replied, sounding respectful.

  "This makes no sense. How did a complete stranger get caught up in the spell... Shouldn't the summons only call the one fated to be the Representative? How could this have happened..." the first voice - the one called 'Your Highness' - said, sounding even more guilt-stricken.

  "The mana flow must have surged, making the gate too large. Perhaps he's just an unlucky man who was dragged along because he happened to be standing inside the barrier".

  "The unlucky man who tried to escape the magic circle and slammed his head into the barrier so hard he knocked himself out, you mean that?"

  And that was the brief summary of what had dragged me here.

  I had been on my way to the university. The road in the early morning was quiet, with only a high school kid ahead of me. Suddenly, the asphalt beneath my feet erupted into a massive, blinding circle of light, inscribed with swirling characters that anyone with a bit of knowledge of web novels would recognize as an omen of being 'transported'.

  Without a second's hesitation, I turned on my heel and bolted away as if a debt collector were chasing me with a knife.

  I was only two strides away from escaping the range of that cursed circle.

  But the universe, as usual, showed no interest in my input.

  Thud!. A transparent wall, harder than concrete, abruptly appeared right in front of my nose. Because I was running at full speed, my precious head slammed into it with enough force that I imagined it could have dented a truck.

  The sound of my skull and the air exploding became one. The pain lasted only an instant before my entire world collapsed into a deep black hole.

  "The King will be furious if he finds out a strange man is staying in his sister's manor".

  Oh boy....

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  I processed the information: Representative, magic circle, even a King. Based on the cheap novels my younger sister used to make me read to her in the hospital, I knew I had just hit the "Isekai" jackpot. But I was the 'plus-one' accessory, not the main character.

  Furthermore, the girl asking about the situation was a big deal - the King’s sister. And I was in her manor, a place where men were not welcome.

  What a pain. Seriously. Dragged into this nonsense for no reason. Technical project reports and final exams were one thing, but I had things to do today that I couldn't miss.

  "The Representative, um, Aure...".

  "Aurelius Zandrax von Silverlight, Your Highness"

  What on earth?

  Back where I came from, no parent would be cruel enough to put a name like that on a birth certificate.

  "Right. Sir Aurelius said he doesn't know this young man, so matters of his identity will have to wait until he wakes".

  That was my cue.

  I stirred, made a sound that said waking-up-after-a-collision, and opened my eyes.

  The ceiling was covered in shimmering gold-plated Baroque-style reliefs. They caught the last of the evening light through the window and threw it back in fragments. Beautiful. The urge to pick up a brush surfaced briefly, then sank.

  "You're awake!" the Princess, if I have to guess, cried out.

  She stood near the foot of the bed, close enough that she'd clearly been watching. Long chestnut hair reaching her waist, a face that wore relief openly, a white and pink silk dress with a wide hoop skirt and layers of delicate lace at the chest and sleeves. Talking to her was a woman in a dark blue hooded cloak. There is also a seemingly maid hovered near the window.

  I slowly sat up, clutching my head with a dazed expression.

  "What happened..." The words came out in the foreign language, cleanly and without effort, which was its own small shock. I looked at my hands for a moment. "Where am I?"

  Naturally, the three of them immediately moved to calm me down with words of reassurance, a glass of water appearing from somewhere. I let it run its course.

  A moment later.

  "I am deeply sorry for the sudden intrusion" I said, my voice hoarse. "I have caused an unnecessary commotion for all of you".

  My apology seemed to make the whole room pause for a beat.

  "Ah... it's alright" the Princess spoke first, her voice catching slightly. "We are the ones who should apologize to you. You were dragged into this completely against your will".

  She meant it. Not the reflexive apology of someone performing courtesy. She was genuinely sorry, knowing the harm was real and no amount of politeness will undo it.

  I kept my dazed expression.

  "I am Seraphine von Valerius, Archduchess of the Kingdom of Aldoria, sister to the King, and Special Diplomatic Overseer. This manor is my residence".

  She gestured toward the girl in the blue cloak. "This is Mage Elowen". The mage slightly bow, her eyes still observing me.

  "And..." the Princess hesitated slightly, "there is another person from your world, Sir Aurelius Zandrax von Silverlight. He woke up a few hours before you and is currently at the palace meeting my brother".

  I took a quiet moment to appreciate the full weight of that name a second time. Genuine admiration for whoever had the composure to introduce themselves with it.

  "Your Highness, I am..."

  I paused.

  The high school kid from the magic circle would probably introduce himself with something that sounded like a fantasy novel's dedication page. The people here had no way of verifying names from my world regardless. There was no reason to use my real name and several reasons not to.

  And it would save me the explanation.

  "Please call me Vane Crispin" I said without missing a beat.

  She nodded, and then she explained.

  The Kingdom of Aldoria, the unified continent of Auren. An ancient summoning ritual used when a problem arose that couldn't be handled from within. A chosen Representative, fated and blessed and destined - the whole architecture. The language I now spoke was a gift the summoning extended to everyone it touched.

  Aurelius had been summoned as the Representative, the one who would act on behalf of mortals during something called the Lunar Eclipse peace ritual, with the blessing of the Pillars. As for me, I was the first accidental passenger in the history of the ritual. She was sorry. She said it again. She meant it again.

  Well, it was a pretty basic setup, just like the web novels my sister was obsessed with.

  In other words, it's all a meaningless mess to me.

  I needed to get to the most important point.

  I looked toward the window. The sky outside was deep orange now, the light long and low across the trees in the garden below. Someone had kept those grounds carefully.

  "Please excuse my rudeness, Your Highness" I asked frankly "But if I have no role here, may I ask to be send back to my world right now?".

  "Back... now?" Princess Seraphine repeated, her voice sounding complicated.

  "Yes" I turned back, maintaining a polite expression. "I understand you have important matters, and I am just an accident. I don't want to be a further bother".

  "About that... Mr. Crispin" the Princess hesitated, her hands interlaced over her white and pink silk dress. "The summoning ritual can only be opened when the stars and the flow of magic reach a specific intersection".

  Mage Elowen spoke for the first time since the introduction, her voice measured and carrying a weight of genuine shame beneath it. "Exactly two years and nine months from now. Forcing a portal open before that convergence would tear your soul apart before you could see the sky of your old world. I am... deeply sorry. As the mage responsible for the summoning, I want to fulfill your wish. I simply cannot do so safely until then."

  Two years and nine months.

  That meant I couldn't do what I needed to do today, nor next year, nor the year after that.

  "I see"

  For a moment, I felt all emotion fade away.

  This feeling wasn't unfamiliar to me.

  To be honest, at this point, I didn't have to try very hard.

  My face then quickly shifted to disappointment, with sagging shoulders and the vacant stare. I should looked like a man watching a door close for the last time.

  I said nothing and just waited.