April 3rd
“So it seems that the little coward hid herself behind these walls! No matter. We’ll just have to tear down these walls!” Zherga shouted as she stood in front of the castle walls. Beside her were fifty High Taraxians and two hundred Low Taraxians. The soldiers were of mixed gender, both male and female. They wore no armor, with the High Taraxians preferring leotards while the Low Taraxians only wore loincloths. The former had massive war axes while the latter only had spears. Even from the walls where we stood, I could see that the former were over twice the height of the latter.
I looked at Gruma and said, “I can easily just shoot them all down. That’s the issue of being from the future. The technology displayed here is too primitive. That and the fact that no one decided to bring any ranged weaponry.”
“Ranged weapons are cowardly! True warriors fight hand-to-hand! What shocks me is how you prefer to fight with those guns! Those are Quentin and Scarlett’s weapons, not yours!” Gruma shouted back, slightly unnerving me. It was yet another reminder that for as human as she looked, she was more alien than Scarlett.
The warriors charged towards the walls. It was clear that their number wouldn’t be enough to defeat us. I felt pity rather than anger. They were so certain that they would succeed, but they fell short by a mile. I prepared to fire my guns, only to be interrupted by the sound of thunderous hooves. I turned to the source to see something I never thought I would’ve seen in my life.
Charging in was a group of centaurs. As in, they had a human upper half and a horse lower half. The fact that the scientist did the experiment on humans disgusted me. They obviously weren’t of Taraxian origin, so they had to be from Earth. But back to the charge, they had lances out as they charged. Several opponents were skewered as they ran through. One was downed by being overwhelmed, but the other nine managed to run off. In all, fifty Low Taraxians and ten High Taraxians were killed.
Once the centaurs were gone, a new threat was sounded by the sound of screeching overhead. The sound was deafening, sending everyone except me to their knees. I, fortunately, had auditory managers to keep my ears safe from damage. I looked up to see the large bat-like creatures dropping bombs from above. When those hit the ground, they exploded, killing many and maiming many more. At that point, the army broke apart. The remaining twenty High Taraxians attempted to chip away at the castle walls while the remaining fifty Low Taraxians fled the battlefield.
“Your men flee the field of battle! A shameful display!” I shouted as I could see Zherga fuming. She pointed to Gruma and then to herself.
The lovely Taraxian jumped to the ground and brandished two hand-axes instead of the laser poleaxe. Gruma swung the axes in the air for a while before shouting, “Are you trying to duel me, sister?”
Zherga smirked as she ran up to the walls and tossed her spear into the ground. “Yes, runt!” she shouted back before walking close enough to see how she towered over her sister. She was even taller than me, which was impressive.
Gruma dropped her hand-axes and raised her fists. She looked up at her sister and asked, “What are the terms, your Lowness?”
Zherga tossed her spear aside and raised her fists. “Hand-to-hand combat. We will fight to the death! You’ll meet the ancestors once I’m done!”
I tried to rush them, but the Qarri man held me back. He shook his head and said, “Do not interrupt. It’s a sacred Taraxian ritual. To cheat or intervene is worse than blasphemy. If you do, you’ll wish for your soul to be eternally tormented.”
I glared back at him and replied, “You and I know better. There are no gods, spirits, or afterlife. When we die, all consciousness ceases as our bodies decay in the ground.”
He chuckled as he placed a hand on my shoulder. “I wouldn’t say that in front of them. They take their beliefs seriously.”
I could only roll my eyes. People were so delusional. They believed what they wanted to believe. It made them vulnerable to disgusting businessmen that sold them false hope in return for money. It was disgusting. If I wanted to sell lies, I would at least make it believable.
The two sisters stood several paces across from each other and braced for the battle. Without needing to announce the beginning of the duel, they charged towards each other. They grabbed each other and started wrestling. While Zherga was bigger, Gruma was strong. They were at a standstill. Neither was making much progress.
As I watched on, I noticed that Gruma would look down at the ground. The dirt was sandy, but I didn’t think much of it. However, she must’ve since she quickly grabbed some before tossing it into Zherga’s eyes. The latter screamed as she tried to rub the dirt out. This gave Gruma the opportunity to pull another dirty move. She jabbed her sister’s eyes, one of them hard enough to puncture it. Zherga attempted to pull the same maneuver back but being temporarily blinded in one eye and permanently in the other meant that her attack missed.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I smiled as I saw what she did. It was brutal, but pragmatic. For someone who was supposedly dumb, she pulled a clever rule. Or at least a dishonorable one for a justified reason.
“Dishonorable! You’ll be damned to the seven hells!” Zherga screamed as she finally cleared her functional eye. She snarled at her sister before charging her. Gruma decided to dive towards her sister as she got close. With this maneuver, the smaller sister tackled the bigger one, though not without getting a nasty bruise.
Gruma raised her fists and slammed them down on her sister’s throat with as much force as she could muster. I could hear a sickening crack before strained breathing filled my ears. Gruma tried to jump away, but Zherga caught her and slammed her head into Gruma’s sternum. Another crack sounded as the smaller Taraxian sister fell back on her back. Her breathing was strained, but she could survive. Zherga, on the other hand, was clearly suffocating. Each breath was getting more strained as her throat collapsed.
After a few minutes of painfully watching their breathing, Zherga fell unconscious. Her breathing slowly stopped. Her chest stopped moving, informing me that she died. Gruma, on the other hand, kept a consistent breath. Since the duel was over, the Qarri ran over to Gruma and started stabilizing her condition.
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April 5th
I lowered Gruma onto a throne as she panted. It was painful for her to sit up, but it was time for her to greet her kingdom. The cast over her torso probably looked alien to her fellow Taraxians, but I was expecting it. Besides, they were staring at me more than her.
“Zherga the Usurper has been killed in a duel against Queen Gruma the Brilliant!” I announced as I pointed to her. It wasn’t hard to convince them since Zherga’s corpse was on display for everyone to see.
Several of the High Taraxians walked up to the throne and knelt down before it. “Your Highness, we’re glad you returned,” the lead one, a male wearing a robe instead of a leotard said. “Zherga taxed us excessively to bloat up her army and raid our neighbors. The riches went directly to her instead of compensating us.”
Gruma sat still since it hurt for her to turn. She pointed at the High Taraxians and said, “You are nobility. As nobility, you had the power to oppose her at any time, yet you didn’t. Why is that?”
“We were scared!” a female High Taraxian screamed as she lowered her head to the ground. “Zherga would’ve killed us if we dared to voice our opposition.”
“That would be true if you weren’t lying,” a deep male voice said as it approached from behind the throne. The source was Mr. Black, who now decided to have himself referred to as Fraselius. He held out a scroll and explained, “It seems that all of you signed your approval. Not only that, but you also embezzled much of the gold that was sent to the treasury. If it was embezzled as much, there wouldn’t been less raiding. And don’t say you care about the Low Taraxians! They starved by the hundreds as you sat in your opulent palaces!”
One of the male High Taraxians tried to grab Fraselius. In response, the cat-man did a backflip and threw several knives into the attacker’s chest. The attacker fell on the ground before the cat-man explained, “I may look like a cat, but it doesn’t give you the right to attack me. If any of you plot against the queen, I’ll cut you down.”
Gruma nodded at him before looking at the treacherous nobles. “It has been decided,” she said with a stern tone. “For your treachery against the throne, you’ll be executed immediately.” At the words, several Low Taraxian guards entered and arrested the nobles. Despite their protests, they were dragged out.
A few minutes later, the sound of axes impacting necks was heard. It was impressive how quickly they were beheaded. Not that I felt sorry for them. They were rich, corrupt, and treacherous nobles. They deserved what they were getting.
Dr. Octavia leaned over a chamber pot. I could hear her vomiting, which I knew was from her personality. Once she was done, she looked to us and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here. I detest violence, especially during peacetime.” She looked at Gruma and asked, “Your Majesty, do I have permission to leave the court and travel the world as a healer? I’m thinking about teaching the people of this world medicine so all the senseless deaths will come to an end.”
The Taraxian queen nodded. “You may leave.” With a nod back, Dr. Octavia left the palace.
We got through the court business for the day, which was mostly fixing up what Zherga and her cronies messed up. Once that was over, we placed Gruma in her new bedroom. She smiled at me before falling asleep, leaving only me and Fraselius awake.
I looked at him and asked, “Do you know how to fix ships?”
He nodded and said, “Mostly. I can probably restore it to working order, but it’ll still be rough. So as long as it doesn’t have to be perfect, I’ll do it.”
I scratched my chin and replied, “Good. Because I’m sending you to find Quentin and Scarlett to help repair their ship. I know they do not want to live here, so we need to find our spaceship’s wreck and make it spaceworthy again.”
Fraselius saluted. “Yes, sir.” With that, he ran out of the palace.
My life was set now. While it wasn’t as exciting as being a bounty hunter, I knew it was now stable. Gruma was the queen of her people, but she couldn’t do the job alone. With treacherous nobles and councilors, it’ll take some competent and loyal help to overcome the challenges. With any hope, by the time she dies, I hope to have created a powerful state on Besmen that can serve as the first civilization. I may not have the luxuries I had in space, but my impact here would be for the good.
I looked at my lovely girlfriend and smiled. An amazonian alien princess was certainly a plus. She was definitely more beautiful than the mutt we brought aboard. Which wasn’t saying much but Gruma was definitely drop-dead gorgeous. Quentin thought he got the best outcome possible, or at least second-best outcome, but I disagree. I got a gorgeous alien girlfriend like the ones seen on the Telly and a chance to have an adventure every day. In contrast, he was heading back to the boring and mundane planet to be with an animal pretending to be a woman. It wasn’t really that bad, but it was funny to make things sound worse than they were.
I would have to thank them, though. They got me out of a bad spot in my life and showed me a better path. Without them, I could be dead. So there’s a thanks to my fellow humans, even if one doesn’t look like one.
I prepared my gatling gun arm and looked out the window. I could foresee several wars in our future. And with my power, I’d make sure Gruma’s victorious.