The burly Paladin suddenly stopped struggling to get at me and guffawed. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You hear that? The stupid boy wants to duel me” He pushed the restraining hands aside and pointed right at me. “Fine! I accept! I’ll gut you just like I did to your street rats! Maybe that will teach you to respect your superiors.” The Archmage frowned deeply. I guessed he wasn’t a fan of Palusi’s plan to kill me in order to get me to be more pliant. Well, nobody ever confused Paladins with PhD’s… The Prince, after a moment of deliberation, finally spoke. “Paladin Palusi. Bring Ser Rummy to me alive, or you shall never be a Paladin again for the rest of your life.” That took some of the excitement out of the Paladin’s eyes. “Your Grace. I… I hear and obey.” “Should I win, I want the remains of my scouts, along with the wolf.” I calmly declared the stakes. Archmage Schuma weakly smiled in response. “Ser Rummy, is that truly all you want in exchange for risking your life and limb against one of
A/N: Hello! And welcome to my novel. This prologue is set after the end of the main story, and is not essential to the plot. I included it because it would give a lot of context and characterization I felt an isekai/transmigration novel normally wouldn't have in the beginning of a story. It's recommended to read, but if you don't want spoilers, please skip it and go straight to Chapter 1. My personal writing philosophy has been: if my novel solely relied on shock and surprise to entertain my readers, then I did a piss-poor job of writing it. So even knowing how it all ends, I hope you'll enjoy the heck outta the journey!***Today is too beautiful of a day for a funeral. Not a single speck of white cloud taints the lake-blue sky. The gentle warmth of the sun is accompanied by the occasional breeze from the Fae Mountains. In the background, the mighty flow of the Acheron River roars relentlessly. Dad loved this type of weather. Whenever a day like this rolled around, he'd always drop
I opened my eyes after closing them for what seemed like an eternity. It appeared that I’m laying on my back on top of a wooden cart. My head throbbed in pain. My eyes slowly adjusted to the radiant sunlight under the blue cloudless sky. For somebody who only goes outdoors to reenact WWII battles because the sky in the 21st century was often covered in smog, this was truly a rare and beautiful sight. I died. I know I died. I was shot twice in the chest and thrown out of the window in my office. So where am I?Was this the Afterlife? If so, it smelled like… spiced rum?I got up and looked around. I was laying on top of a pile of busted rum barrels, soaked in said rum. Oh, that might explain the mother of all headaches that I was experiencing. Did I land on this cart? If so, where did I come from? I looked 15 meters ahead of me and saw a crowd of people standing next to a stage in a bustling city square pointing and laughing at me. Hmm, that was odd. I looked down at myself, and then
“Back off, kid. This is none of your fucking business.” A man in black t-shirt and jeans with slicked-back hair warned me menacingly. “Never said it was. I was just wondering if I can help you guys resolve this understanding like a good samaritan.” I replied in a faux-cheerful tone. “I don’t need none of that either. This is a private conversation between me and this girl. Now scram!” He pulled out a switchblade from his back pocket to emphasize his point. This greaser-wannabe was clearly a pervert trying to kidnap this petite blonde girl about my age. Now, I wished I could judo flip this scumbag into the trash can, but fun fact: not every Asian-American knows how to fight. Fortunately, I didn’t need to play the martial arts hero. Behind him, I saw a group of 5 teenagers rushing here, probably for her. So all I’ve gotta do is stall.“Great! In that case, maybe you can help me since you seem to know your way around here. Do you know where Fajardo Middle School is? It’s my first day
Wow, couldn’t believe it’d been half a year already since I transmigrated. As I suspected, I had a much better knack for ranged combat than I do melee. I’d also become a much more capable outdoorsman. And thanks to my “superpower” of >, I had fully committed to memory the “Poisoned- Do NOT eat” list and the “OK to eat” list. And I’d improved so much while staying under the radar- I didn’t make friends (Roshan is an exception), I didn’t try to stand out, and I didn't make trouble. Things were scary at first, but I finally felt like I had my legs under me. I had a much deeper understanding of my new home world after chatting with Roshan and cross-checking these facts with other sources. For example, I surmised that the Holy Artorian Empire had an agrarian-based economy, with an emerging artisan and service industry in cities. Its unit of currency is the crown. One copper coin is worth 1 crown. One silver coin is worth 100 crowns. One gold coin is worth 10000 crowns. Ty
AN: Spoiler-free map of the Wilds [https://imgur.com/ptX1v4t]***“You okay?” I offered my hand to Roshan, who is on the ground at the moment with a few cuts and bruises.“Yeah, friend Rummy. I’ll be fine.” Roshan cheerfully replied.“I don’t know how you can still be cheerful after those Yellow Shirt assholes roughed you up.” I said with an irritated tone. “It’s been 3 fucking moons. What kind of moron gang recruits people by constantly harassing them? Forget saving the Empire- I wouldn’t trust these guys to save a drowning fish!”3 months ago, the Yellow Shirts approached me as Roshan predicted. These pretentious pricks called themselves the “Imperial Restoration Society”. Sadly for them, I’m not the naive fool I was in my first life. So I asked how they plan on restoring the Empire- a simple question they should have a rehearsed answer for. Yet, they stammered for like a minute and told me it’s not for a peasant like me to know their grand plans.Yikes. I wasn’t planning to hitch
“You… you’re not seriously considering going after it? Are you?” One of the deadweights asked, completely forgetting his decorum in front of his commanding officer.“Of course we are! We have to track it and evacuate any settlements this monster approaches! Have you forgotten your duties as a Ranger?!?” For the first time in this 2-week patrol, Vinnick showed a displeased scowl. “Ser! No I have not! I… I was merely pointing out that it is better to rush back to the castle for reinforcement!” The deadweight replied in defense, with a slightly higher pitch.“There are dozens of settlers in the Northwestern Settlement and the Logging Camp, and they are doomed if we don’t warn them in time. Do I look like a coward pretending to be a Ranger to you, Mitt?” Vinnick stared down the deadweight with the intensity of a midday sun. “No ser!” The deadweight’s pitch went an octave higher. “I was thinking maybe we should send the trainees back as messengers to the Legate. They’d be useless in a fi
Time really flies when you’re not fighting a Champion mana-beast to the death. Luckily, almost 3 years passed without any other life-threatening happening to me as I completed my first tour of duty in the Legion. Despite being in a different Cohort, Roshan and I kept in touch. He was clearly being bullied by the Yellow Shirt asshats (who also had the connections to avoid serving in the Ranger Cohort). But he insisted that things were fine and that life is peachy for him. Well, I couldn’t help him beyond teaching him how to at least land a right cross. I may not consider myself to be this guy’s BFF, but he did help me fill in massive knowledge gaps about this world (and basic reading comprehension). So the least I could do was to repay favor with favor. After all, I am NOT those people. I am Rummy of Carnwennan. I would NEVER be an ungrateful parasite who took things for granted. Well, I hoped things would get better for him in the future...Anyways, that epic fight (it wasn’t epic a