“Your wartime defense sucks!” Hoque retorted. “You’re the literal general of all this conflict, and you’re still standing here, helping your favorite teacher find a stupid book! Face it- you have zero strategy for helping our nation, you’re just trying to wait it out and hope for the best! I was talking to Linterbarr and Keldis in a tavern one day- they used to be army and hunter commanders- and even they said that you don’t have a single clue as to what’s going on!” I was in a library with Hoque and professor Locc, trying to find an ancient tome for my professor titled ‘History of Hidden Power Figures Using Undefined Divination’ on the library’s online catalog. The library was a tall, spiral tower with books all around the sides and floating stairs that could automatically fly you to whichever floor of the tower you wanted. This was the fourth library we had visited with no luck on finding the tome, and Hoque, a former classmate of mine, just so happened to be there at the right time. As Hoque rambled on and on about my shortcomings and the flaws of our wartime strategies, I saw a gleaming orange jewel wrapped in parchment in his bag. I carefully picked it up and held it near the light, in which I could see that it was a small, simple topaz teardrop gem that had been carefully shined and taken care of. “Hey Hoque,” I asked. “What’s this?” Hoque stopped ranting for a second. “I bought it from a merchant a few years ago. I know it’s pretty cheap for a big rich city like this, but it’s been the only amulet I could afford.” I gave the gem back to him. “Well, in terms of quality and overall exquisiteness, would you think that this simple topaz amulet would be more complex than, say, a rare jewel-studded crown of an ancient emperor from the far-away land of Tarvanoly? Hoque gave me a funny look. “Uh, no. Definitely not. What does that have to do with anything?” I subtly smiled. “So why, then, do you insist on acting and describing them as the same? Complexity cannot be reduced to simplicity, nor can involved tactics of many be equated with the general idea of one.” Hoque’s face darkened, understanding my meaning. “Don’t test me, Silas. Many nations are at war with that one evil organization now. Even commoners like me can have the ability to understand what is going on and what is at stake.” From the top floor of the library tower, professor Locc glanced at me knowingly then called out “Guys, how about we take a trip to the secret balcony of the academy? I know you haven’t been there before, Hoque, but this will still be a new and refreshing experience for all of us.” In this dimension, education is a huge priority, especially in the city we live in. Because of that, the main building of the academy is one of the tallest and most magical structures around, with a campus nearly ten times the size of a regular college campus and having the most up-to-date and efficient technologies. There is no fee to attend the academy, so students that are under eighteen and more than eleven years of age from all around the world come here. The academy works like a university in the sense that it has dorms and that you mostly stay in the campus all day (unless you live nearby or have other jobs after classes). However, there are ten class periods in a day with only two off-periods that you can choose when to have, but nobody really minds since the academy is so great. The people here also don’t mind work and don’t prioritize entertainment either, which makes the academy basically a much more epic version of Hogwarts or any old university from your dimension.
The academy has modern means of transportation like everywhere else in this world, which can almost immediately teleport you to anywhere you want, but professor Locc likes to take the slow and scenic route to the top floor. We walked up stairs and passed by countless unique classrooms, gardens, libraries, lounges, arenas, and many crazy school rooms. At last, we reached the attic, which was the topmost room. The stairway to the attic was old and dusty, and the attic itself was not well maintained as it was used as a dirty storage room that held chests and boxes. A rusted trapdoor in a corner of the ceiling hung limply, and Locc pushed it open. The trapdoor creaked ominously, and a rolled-up ladder dropped down. We climbed up to the balcony which honestly looked quite clean and comfy due to Locc’s frequent visits there. A Bubinga wood fence surrounded the balcony, a few small red folding sat on the sides, and an old antique jukebox with red-and-white murals painted on it stood in the corner. A lone coffee table stood in the middle of the balcony. There were no chairs, so we all sat on the floor. Locc stared out into the sky, as if looking into another world far, far away. "Tell me, what do you see?" he asked. We looked out into the world below us, spread out like a colorful blanket. The beautiful city of Aperivous, with its magnificent structures of gold, silver, and bronze glittering in the last rays of the sun as it dipped below the horizon; the simple medieval-like village of Gridnova, with its red roofs that blended in with the wild exotic red and purple plants; the icy and large mountains that glowed a pale blue color in the cold, frigid Frivinad region; the high-tech cyber city of Shismoxe with its radiating purple and orange lights flashing in the far east corner, the dense and colorful Tanerbucle jungle known for its many wonderful animals and high, grassy mountains, and so many more places I had visited or even lived in this extraordinary world. In the middle of this entire blanket of colorful cities, towns, regions, forests, mountains, and villages, an ancient, high-tech urban yet nature-filled city representing all of the other places of this continent stood proudly in the middle of it all, its capital’s flag waving high in the sky. We were right in the middle of this blanket, in the capital known as Holius. "What do you see?" Locc asked again. "Our world," Hoque whispered softly. His aggressive demeanor had faded, and he was now staring fondly at the world he had lived in for his entire life. Locc pulled out a CD from his back pocket. “This is an old classical CD from the sixth dimension,” he said. “In this dimension, people are still in their industrial yet primitive stages. Most parts of that world are either overrun by urbanization or deteriorating from inadequate conditions. There is still so much suffering there, both physically and mentally. It is a world in which there are discriminations of race, color, religion, gender, age, disabilities, and so many more. The people there abuse freedom and normalize worldly suffering, yet they still are able to keep growing. They are still able to keep learning.” Locc jammed the CD into the jukebox and an old classical piece from that dimension, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 Adagio, started to play softly and peacefully. “Listen,” Locc whispered, “and realize that even these people can find true beauty despite their circumstances.” As a researcher of the sixth dimension, I could remember when my research team had found this CD in an old couple’s house. We had labeled the CD as "lovely music of the sixth dimension". At that time, the sixth dimension was looked down as an uncivilized and primitive world, while the fifth dimension, which was our home dimension, was looked up to as a thriving and perfect world. When we found this music, we were shocked to see that the people of this world could still be capable of beautiful things. I remember that my group had immediately sat down and listened to this on loop for an hour, dreaming and basking in the music. Even though the music was from the sixth dimension, it still felt like home to us. Now, on the balcony, as I looked at the world I had grown fond of and lived in for the past five-and-a-half years, I couldn't help but think about the first words I thought when I stepped foot into this magnificent dimension of opportunity, adventure, and exotic beauty: What an amazing, beautiful world to live in.
