Novels2Search
1 Up
Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It took another ten minutes for the three newcomers to arrive. Alex had spent most of the time doing his best not to think about how long it would be until he ended up like the three on the floor. Even though he’d tried to convince himself it wasn’t worth thinking about because his fate was assigned to the whims of others, that was easier said than done. His helplessness, however, was reinforced when he heard the whisper of a childlike voice directly behind his left ear. That shouldn’t have been possible, Alex was only a few feet from the wall, and hadn’t seen anything go behind him. Turning he saw nothing, but when he faced Anise again there was a bright-eyed, gray skinned, girl only an inch away. He couldn’t help it, he screamed.

“Well, who’s ya friend Annie?”

Her voice was a singsong and just as childlike as she appeared, though she couldn’t beat the pitch of Alex at that moment. Scrambling back against the wall he was horrified until he realized what, or more accurately who, he was looking at. Rather than an abrupt spot, the scream slowly faded as the young girl began to laugh.

“Aww, a touchy one aren’tcha. What happened Annie you’re so strong you had to go for the weakest guy you could find. Oh!” She jumped and clapped her hands as if a stroke of genius just hit. “Are you into CBT, or maybe pegging? I always knew you were the dominant type, but I didn’t think it’d be to this degree. You could always switch teams from time to time if you-”

“Shut up Dora! I need you to run a check on me for validity, so we can get going.” Anise’s tone was level as if she was used to this, Alex however had no such composure. He laughed. It started as a chuckle, then a giggle, and suddenly tears were falling, but Alex couldn’t stop as he held his stomach. He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed to release some tension. “Your name is–“ he gasped for air. “Your name is actually Dora. Holy Shit! Amy would have loved this.” That thought sobered him up a bit.

‘I wonder what they’re up to now. I doubt any of them were dumb enough to pick an insane trial. Fuck I might never see them again.’ With a light sigh, Alex allowed the thoughts to fade as he heard Anise chuckle.

“Her name’s actually Doreen, but I call her Dora, sometimes I can’t decide which one’s worse.”

“Doreen’s as not horrible,” Alex chuckled. Raising his voice an octave he virtually shouted, “Hola, Dora! Yo soy Alex.” He’d forced off his comprehend skill, so none of them would get the joke, but Dora could tell it was at her expense and that was all Alex needed.

“Listen here you little shit–” It was likely meant to be a threat, but her voice was just so nonthreatening he couldn’t take it and once again bent over in laughter.

“I didn’t think you had it in you Alex. To so brazenly make fun of someone nearing D grade.”

Alex would not have been embarrassed to admit he started to do his Abc’s in his head. When he reached “D” his smile faltered. Upon reaching “E” he remembered that was the lowest rank of all the monsters in the entire tutorial. His smile died completely when he remembered he was F rank. But after a moment of consideration, he couldn’t find the energy to care. Worst case Anise should protect him, she seemed strong enough.

“All that power, and you’re still teaching Spanish to five-year-old kids.” Alex gave her a look of pity. “You should have made better life choices.”

“It’s a fucking family name.” Dora basically squeaked, and now everyone was laughing.

“I don’t know what Spanish is, but it’s nice to see someone besides Anise fucking with Doreen for once. The name’s Marty Martinez but everyone calls me MM good to meet ya Alex.” The voice was deep and this time it wasn’t a deception as the man put out a massive hand. Alex looked up, and up, until he finally met the man’s eyes. Marty was on one knee so he could reach Alex in his sitting position, but he was still massive. The man had to be over eight feet with arms as large as Alex’s head, but his handshake was gentle.

“Nice to make your acquaintance M&M.”

“And that,” Marty continued, unbothered by Alex’s modification, “is Kevin.”

The person leaned against the wall; half consumed by shadows. They looked at Alex and gave a brief nod.

“Well aren’t you a mysterious one. I know a Kevin as well, he’s a bit more of a talker, but to each their own. Since we’re all doing introductions…” Alex stood, resting with his hands at his sides. “My name’s Alexander Hunter but my friends call me Xander, I’m 21, my sizes are 183, 81, and 32. Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu.” He did a full waist bow to complete the act and came up to a smile from M&M, a shake of her head from Anise, and a lip bite from Dora that made him varying levels of uncomfortable.

“You’re weird as shit Alex, but it’s refreshing. Alright, Dora scan, we need to get this cleaned and get out of here.”

The little girl huffed before stomping over to where Anise stood. They did something, and Alex’s was almost sure he saw Doreen’s eyes flash in the darkness. It took less than a minute before she spoke, confirming that everything was fine.

“Alright let’s go.”

A wave of nerves shot through the young man at Anise’s call, but he’d already made up his mind, all that was left was to follow through. With a sigh he followed; the attemptedly sultry, “Bye Xander,” Dora said making the muscles in his back tighten, and his legs move faster.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

As the pair turned out of the alley Alex let out another sigh. It had only been about thirty minutes since he’d walked into that alley back on earth, but it felt like a lifetime ago. He still had a million questions for Anise, but he decided it’d be better to observe his surroundings first. The city, which he just realized he didn’t know the name of, leaned heavily toward the average medieval town. Many of the nearby buildings were made out of wood and quarried stone though as they moved further into town the quality in building supplies rose. The streets were paved with cobblestone and streetlamps were spaced evenly on walls close to buildings. They were much dimmer than what Alex was used to, which explained why the alley had been so dark.

They continued for another five minutes, and Alex did his best to take it all in. There weren’t many people out and about though most that were, wore clothes not too different from himself. Men and women in sneakers, jeans, and jackets lined the street and Alex found comfort in being able to blend in. There were exceptions with the few guards, as well as what looked like random people, sporting armor and weapons of all kinds, but no one seemed to pay them any attention. Most of the shops were closed, and as their walk continued Alex began to get bored with the monotony. Opening his mouth to speak, he didn’t get so much as a sound out before Anise put her hand up.

“Not yet. When we’re inside.”

Not knowing why, but understand it wasn’t the time he continued to observe their rather mundane surroundings. His mind began to wander at the normality of the place which sent him back to the revolver and magic the small man had used. That made him think of the bodies, and the screams, oh the screams. Quickly Alex decided he’d thought enough for the moment. He wanted to scan the rest of his notifications but didn’t want to risk being distracted if someone attacked. Almost spiraling down a bad path again, Alex began to think about his friends, not about them now but about their memories. When he’d first met Travis in preschool, Japanese lessons with Amy, the double date with him, Haley, Kevin, and his boyfriend.

“This’s it,” Anise said, and Alex realized he hadn’t even noticed they’d stopped. His brain had just been running on autopilot the last few minutes so the house in front of him came with a bit of a shock.

“This is your place?” Alex asked and received a nod of agreement in return. “Part of your contract?” Another nod. “I… see?” He now had a slightly better idea why she’d taken this job, especially after they walked through the metal gates and opened the door to the sounds of multiple children laughing.

Anise’s house made him think of a brownstone from back on Earth. There were four floors and, the space had over ten bedrooms. If he’d just walked in off the street, Alex would have thought it belonged to some type of nobility. Instead of staff, people Anise introduced as her aunts and uncles seemed to take care of the house, while children ran among them, laughing and playing. It took nearly ten minutes, and many promised future meals or conversations for the pair to get through the house to Anise’s office.

She had held a thin smile her entire way through the house, but as she collapsed into the chair behind the desk, she looked exhausted. Her platinum blonde hair, once in a neat ponytail fell to her sides as she removed the hair tie and loosened her breastplate. For a moment the caveman inside Alex’s brain thought she was stripping, but he was both disappointed and relieved to see the clothes underneath. 'Now is not the time!' He internally chastised. Moving on to her gauntlets, then pauldron, greaves and so on, Alex just looked in fascination as she took it all off to store in her inventory. When she was done, she wore something akin to a spandex bodysuit and Alex only realized he was staring when Anise cleared her throat.

“You know if you’d started off staring like you are now, instead of hitting me in the face, tonight might have been a lot more fun. Then again, we might both be dead so who’s to know but the King.” Alex mulled over the odd turn of phrase for a moment, but his mind moved on as Anise continued.

“So, you were asking me something about the bounty?” He continued to look at her, uncomprehending so she made one finger figure with each hand, and motioned one dashing ahead of the other. The memory came to mind and Alex was glad to speak the question rather than watch her act out what happened next.

“Oh yea. I was wondering if there was any way other than money for you to pay me?” She frowned, but an uncomfortable few seconds of light blue eyes boring into him later, sighed and answered.

“Yes.” She looked as if she didn’t want to say more but continued anyway. “As long as it’s something that could be priced within 4000 gold and does not include harming another citizen for no valid reason, I will have to do it.”

“And I can just ask you for anything?” She nodded; her face emotionless. “That seems pretty fucked up.” Remembering her earlier outburst Alex quickly added. “That’s not on you, I’ve met your family I can see some of why you’re doing this, if anything it’s on the–” Alex’s words cut off as Anise caught his lips between two fingers. He blubbered nonsense for a second before staring at her face, then her hands. Putting a finger to her lips she waited for Alex to nod before putting both hands back on the table.

“Ok so not talking about that.” Alex mimed putting a crown on his head and Anise nodded. Deciding questioning that was something for a later time, Alex went back to the original topic. “So, what do you think you can reasonably do for me favor wise that won’t completely inconvenience you. It doesn’t have to meet the full price, or be anywhere close, I just need some help getting my feet under me and I hope you can do that. If you can't, it’s completely fine we can just absolve the debt.”

Anise smiled, and it looked genuine. “Seriously, you’d walk away with nothing.”

“It’d beat having you as an enemy by miles.”

Her smile faded. “Alex, I already told you I can’t hurt you, now or in the future. A decision made under duress doesn’t count. I need you to be sincere.”

Despite her words Alex wasn’t so sure about that. She spoke of this challenge as if it was some sacred doctrine but if he’d learned anything in his pre-law classes it was that everything had loopholes. Even if the clause stating that she couldn’t harm him was ironclad, that didn’t mean she couldn't get someone else too. Directly or indirectly, if someone wanted to get around the rules, nine times out of ten they could, and Alex preferred to play it safe. As for the help around town, if she agreed, it’d be great. He wasn’t sure he could trust her, but he didn't really have any other options at the moment.

“I am not in duress my Overlady, I just prefer friends not enemies.” And that was 100% true. Anise put out a hand to shake and Alex mirrored the movement.

“I can help, won’t be the best in the city or anything, but I can open a few doors. First, however, I’m gonna to need you to tell me your story.”