“This is far enough.” Said Jin, stopping before looking around. They were in a clearing deep within the forest with a river flowing nearby.

He looked around and he could see that the trees twisted and turned in a strange way and not one of them was anything he’d ever seen before. Reinforcing the fact that this was in fact a strange new world, different from Earth.

“Haa-...Haaaa...haaa-...”

The hooded man took some time to catch his breath before looking at Jin with an odd gaze. “Uhmm… benefactor--”

“Jin.” interrupted Jin. “Call me Jin.”

The hooded man nodded then looked back at Jin with an anxious gaze.

“Right. Sir Jin, uhmm… why did you help us?”

Jin became silent. He’d initially wanted to hear more of conversation between this man and the elves, but he also prepared if things went south. He couldn’t just stand there and watch another human being getting killed for no reason at all. It was common sense.

But thinking about it now, maybe he could get something out of this ordeal he found himself in.

“Uhmm..”

Jin looked at the other hooded individual, the woman. He’d forgotten she was there because she’d been silent for a while now. It was then that Jin had realized his silence must’ve made them uneasy. He cleared his throat before saying,

“Sorry, I was just lost in thought. Anyway,” Jin thought some more, what was the first thing he’d wanted to ask them.

Would they even answer him? Jin hoped so. After all, he just saved them from getting blown to bits so they should be grateful right? Even Jin wouldn’t lie to someone who’d save him if he was about to lose his life….but that’s assuming if he didn’t want to die in the first place.

Oh well, it never hurt to ask did it? And the first thing that Jin thought about asking was,

“What is this place?”

The hooded man and girl looked to one another, before the man responded, somewhat unsure. “The forest of Lemar, sir Jin.”

“No. No. Sorry, let me rephrase that. What’s this entire place called, what’s the planet’s name?”

The hooded man stared oddly at Jin. “S-sorry sir Jin but, what’s this thing called ‘planet’? ”

[Seriously? They don’t even know what a planet is?] said Alex, his screen popping-up in the side of Jin’s screen.

[Well, they’re wearing clothing that resembles clothing from the dark ages. Maybe they haven’t discovered planets yet? ] said Crow, his face popping-up besides Alex’

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Jin ignored the two and continued asking. “Don’t worry, it’s just another term we use to refer to the world.”

“Ohh, the world. I see, in that case--” The hooded man went quiet, it was strange to him that someone wouldn’t know what the name of the world was. But since he didn’t see any demerits in saying something that almost everyone knew, he continued. “Aurelia. It’s Aurelia.”

Jin felt a boom in his heart, butterflies in his stomach. They really were in fact in another world.

[ Shhiiiieeeeeetttt….] - Alex

Crow was silent.

As Jin was taking his time to process everything in his head, the concerned voice of the hooded man brought him back to reality.

“Sir Jin I’m sorry to ask, but… what exactly are you?”

What should he say? He could say tell them honestly or he could say something entirely different. If he’d say he was human, they probably wouldn’t believe unless he showed himself underneath the suit. But even then, maybe it was better to hide the fact that he was human since it seemed like there was more to being ‘human’ than simply being an asshole to the entire world.

Jin was lost in thought. He then looked to the left of his screen where he could see the faces of his two comrade while they were actually cloaked.

[ Stop lookin at me like that. You’re the captain, think of something.] Said Alex, clearly displaying the fact that he didn’t like to think about complicated things.

[You could simply say we’re the race called ‘aliens’ and continue to interrogate-... err I mean ask them some questions.] Said Crow.

A fine suggestion.

“I’m called an ‘alien’ ” said Jin. “Oh, and I wanted to know why the elves would just kill you over some stolen fruits.”

The hooded man clenched his fist. Clearly there was something about the question that frustrated him.

“It’s natural for elves and beastmen to be like that to us humans… after all, we don’t have magic like the elves and we don’t have the strength of the beastmen. To them, we’re merely ants that they step on everyday. Us humans-... are just, really, really weak.” Said Jin bitterly.

The hooded girl clenched the hem of her cloak as well.

Seeing the two somehow shocked Jin. ‘Humanity is weak??’ such a thought never occurred to Jin ever since he was born. And that was because of the sole fact that humanity had advanced so much, that everything was under their control. Everything except the frontiers of space.

Humanity was the apex predator back on Earth. But here they were weak??

Jin had no choice but to swallow that fact. He’d already seen them beg for their lives and they didn’t even fight back. What other choice did Jin have other than to believe them?

It was clear that humanity here might lack the technologies they possessed on Earth.

“I see..” Said Jin but as soon as he was about to ask another question he noticed the hooded man’s lips move.

“Sorry to distract you sir Jin but we need to go, it’ll be night soon.” Said the man with a bit of urgency in his voice as he looked up at the sky.

Jin looked to the time in his screen and it was still 3:00 pm, that’d be far from night time. Though this was a new world entirely different from earth so the time of earth may not hold true to the residence of this world as well, looking at the sky it was clear it was still in the middle of the afternoon.

“Is something wrong? Isn’t it far from night time though?”

“T-that’s true...” Said the man visibly shaken, “but as I’ve said, we humans are weak. We don’t have the magic of the elves and the physical abilities of the beastmen so we might not reach home before dark out.”

Seeing the man’s reaction, it was clear he was afraid of the night. Making Jin wonder,

“Why? What happens at night?”

The man, and his daughter too, both looked at Jin with widened eyes. The man spoke.

“Don’t you know about the demons?”