Готовый перевод История Королевы Эльфов / The story of the Elf Queen: 0. Пролог

Prologue

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At exactly nine in the morning, the alarm clock on his phone went off, and the melody of his once-favorite song rang out in the bedroom. Sleepily opening his eyes, Cyril stretched and reached out his hand, interrupting the melody with a finger on the screen. Wah. It was true what they said: if you want to hate a song or melody, set it as an alarm clock. Stretching once more, the young man climbed out of bed and headed toward the kitchen to make breakfast. His mom wasn't home, she was leaving for work much earlier. His father had not lived with them since Cyril was about eight years old, after that his mother had accused him of cheating, and his parents had divorced. Having put a pot on the stove to boil eggs, the young man sat at the table and stared at his phone.

What a huge, just gigantic, from his point of view, the advantage of studying at university compared to school was the fact that he didn't have first classes two days a week. And he could sleep a little longer. And on Wednesdays, he didn't have his first two classes, which was great. But then there were four in a row, but that's another story. After scrolling through the news feeds and YouTube subscriptions, and finding nothing particularly interesting, Cyril started to eat breakfast, luckily the eggs had time to boil.

It took Cyril twenty-five to thirty minutes to eat, wash his face, brush his teeth, get dressed, and get ready for university. And this day was no exception. Exactly at half past ten, having closed the apartment door behind him, Cyril went to the stairwell of his native apartment building. He put wireless headphones on his head, connected them to his phone, and opened YouTube, waiting for the elevator to arrive. And the wait was long. The elevator was going up to the fifteenth floor with, as it seemed, all possible stops. It was morning, not evening, everyone should be going downstairs. Finally, the doors opened, and Cyril stepped inside, still watching the shorts of one of the channels devoted to board games from the DND universe. Cyril himself was not a fan of this board game, but he was more or less familiar with the universe, thanks to a couple of computer games. And in general, the fantasy genre was very much loved and respected. When the elevator reached the first floor, he stepped outside, taking a step forward without looking away from the almost-finished video.

But instead of finding himself on the first-floor stairwell, Cyril stepped, as it turned out, into the void. He didn't have time to be frightened, nor did he realize what had happened. An absurd panic thought flashed in his head that he had fallen down the elevator shaft, but it was immediately blown away when Cyril's whole body landed on something hard and flat. The impact blew the air out of his chest, his headphones flew off his head, and his cell phone flew out of his hands. Fuck! Writhing in pain, Cyril tried to get to his feet. But he froze on all fours, his eyes wide open and his mouth open.

There was no entryway to his home. There was no elevator familiar to every inscription on the wall. Instead, there was a boundless space, filled with myriads of stars, galaxies, and nebulae, just like in the Hubble telescope pictures Cyril had seen on the Internet. In the middle of this boundless splendor hovered a relatively small round platform, by the look of it made of something light-colored stone, similar to marble. And in the center of this platform froze Cyril on his knees, goggling his eyes and opening his mouth. From the impossibility of what he saw, his brain literally froze, unable to realize what was happening.

"Greetings, Cyril!"

A female child's voice from behind made the stunned student turn around sharply. He was stunned even more, and his eyes widened even more. Behind him, a huge throne was floating in the air at the edge of the platform. It was made of the same material as the platform, similar in appearance to marble, but darker. It looked like a place worthy of someone of the level of God-Emperor of Mankind. A huge backrest, five meters high. Armrests are at least a meter wide. And all this on a pedestal of semicircular steps, another six meters high. The cherry on the cake was that the veins of the dark marble from which the throne and the pedestal were made were streaked with waves of light. It was like blood flowing through the arteries, driven by an invisible heart.

And on this throne sat a teenage girl thirteen or fourteen years old. She wore a snow-white garment that looked like a variation of the ancient Roman toga as imagined by the animators of the Land of the Rising Sun. On her feet were sandals that seemed to be made of pure gold. Or maybe really made of noble metal? The tiara on the girl's head, adorned with gems glittering in the starlight, was clearly gold. Her long, perfectly straight hair was also golden. A young, absolutely childlike face with absolutely unchildlike azure eyes and long pointed ears looked at the kneeling student attentively. And Cyril looked at her.

It went on like that for a second. Then a second. And then a third. The first to break the long pause was the “girl”. She smiled faintly and said in a satisfied voice:

"I see that you are amazed by my indescribable beauty, Cyril. I can understand you, not many mortals have been granted the honor of seeing my supernatural splendor with their own eyes. Allow me to introduce myself."

As she leaned in and proudly squared her narrow childish shoulders, the girl said in a solemn tone:

"Before you are Aurial the Magnificent, the Supreme Guardian of the Balance of Worlds, who stands guard over the Balance of Forces."

There was absolute silence again on the small platform in the middle of the space void. Cyril, who never moved or even closed his mouth, continued to stare silently at the teenage girl sitting on the throne. She interpreted his silence in her way. She smiled a little wider and continued in an even more satisfied voice:

"I can see that the realization of what a great honor you have received has struck you to the core. I am sure you are now wondering how you earned this honor."

Cyril barely managed to squeeze out a sound, but nodded, still keeping his eyes on the teenage girl, who seemed even smaller than she was against the background of the huge throne. She continued her speech, looking at him from above, like a strict but attentive and caring teacher looking at a first-grader who had just arrived at school.

"You have been chosen by me, Cyril, for a great purpose. I saw great potential in you. Such a thing is very rare. But you simply could not manifest it in your home world, which confined you like a cage. As the Supreme Guardian of the Balance of Worlds, I can't just let it die. Therefore, I will send you to another world where the Great Balance of Power is broken. This world needs you! It needs a hero who can restore the balance! Where you can achieve things you never dreamed possible in your home world!"

"Aagh..."

Cyril couldn't squeeze out anything but an inarticulate “aagh”, still kneeling on his knees. The student's brain, despite the tremendous tension of all thought processes, could not realize what his eyes were seeing and ears were hearing. His consciousness was simply unable to accept what was around him. And the words of the girl sitting on the throne caused a violent dissonance with her appearance, aggravating the situation. But once again Aurial interpreted things in her own way:

"Unfortunately, that's all I can tell you! As the Supreme Guardian of the Balance of Worlds, I cannot interfere directly. You'll have to figure it out for yourself! All I can do, apart from allowing you to fulfill your potential, known to you as “The System”, is to let you choose one gift from my treasury. It contains the masterpieces of the greatest masters from all the worlds under my care. Choose any one of them!"

At the same moment, hundreds, if not thousands of pictures appeared in the air in front of Cyril, who was still on his knees, as if on a computer screen. They depicted a variety of objects: weapons, clothing, armor, jewelry, incomprehensible tools, dishes, furniture, and even prostheses of both individual body parts and entire sets, like several pairs of wings and sets of tentacles, from natural to mechanized. Each picture was accompanied by a detailed description, beginning with a name written in bright purple letters. From all this incredible variety, Cyril's eyes scattered in all directions. It would take more than one day just to familiarize himself with all this wealth. Day! It's not even a month....

As if eavesdropping on his thoughts, the long-eared teenage girl watching him from the top of her huge throne said:

"Or, I can give you one gift of higher quality, but its choice will be entirely at the mercy of Fortune herself. Not even I can argue with her will, so it could be literally anything from my special stockpile. A blade capable of severing a young dragon's head with a single swing. A shield that will deflect the blows of magic or enchanted steel. A cloak that will shield you from the gaze of the living and the undead. A staff that will amplify your magic like a glass lens collects and amplifies sunlight. But you can't argue with that choice, and you have to follow it all the way to the end. So, what do you say, Cyril?"

The poor student, with his brain completely frozen from what he had seen and heard, looked for several seconds at the pictures and descriptions of all sorts of objects floating in the air in front of him. To choose or to rely on chance? Choose or rely? To rely on or to choose? Choose or rely? Ahhhh, let it be!

"Let's have a random one!" Cyril blurted out unexpectedly to himself.

Another smile touched the lips of the eared teenage girl watching him, and she said solemnly:

"So be it!"

In the next instant, all the pictures with descriptions disappeared. In their place, only one appeared. It was a ball of translucent glass, with a thick fog swirling inside. The ball was bound by three intersecting golden rings that divided it into eight equal parts. The same golden chain was attached to these rings. The name of the artifact was not written in purple letters like the previous ones, but in dark scarlet letters, and read: “Memory Gatherer.” As soon as Cyril read it the artifact appeared on his neck making him shudder involuntarily. The weight of the small glass ball was unexpectedly decent. Taking it in his hand, Cyril scrutinized it for a second, trying to understand what he had gotten. But he was given no time for that.

Smiling radiantly, the eared teenage girl clapped her hands and said cheerfully:

"So you've made your choice! And that means it's time for you to hit the road, Cyril! A new world is waiting for you!"

The student, who had broken away from contemplating the artifact he had received, looked up sharply at Aurial but had no time to say or do anything. The platform, the throne with the teenage girl, and the abyss of space surrounding them disappeared. Only this blinding white light remained....
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Внимание! Этот перевод, возможно, ещё не готов.
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Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/86674/577591

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP