When I remembered how Milvarr died, I couldn’t help but feel fear thinking of how strong that shadowy creature was, that ‘Guardian of Faith’ as Solly called it. But more than that, I felt an absolute hatred for myself, for how USELESS I was.

No. Useless was too high a praise.

I was less than useless, I actively made things worse by pulling out that damn key!

If I hadn’t had my head in the clouds, I might have been able to do… something, ANYTHING!

But no, all I could do was just watch the life drain out of her headless body.

“Hah…” But that was the past. I had to be better from here on. If something like that happened again, I needed to make sure I would never let my guard down again.

After dealing with my burning emotions, I turned to the guard again. I felt like I had told her enough, and I could always answer more questions if she didn’t trust me. “I hope you don’t mind answering a few odd questions from me?” I asked.

And I swore I saw her flinch a bit. A bug bite maybe? Either that or… it was really difficult to read it, but her poker face faltered for a moment… and I think I saw fear?

Was she scared of something? Did I tip my hand too much? Does she think I know too much? Is she scared of the priest? I could see someone with a position like a priest having power over a guard… or was it… no, I didn’t know enough to extrapolate further.

“Not at all! *ahem*, I mean, ask away.” she quickly replied, pushing that half railed train of thought away. Let’s test the waters then.

“I don’t understand the currency of this country… What is the value of these coins?” I asked, pulling out the 1 silver, 1 bronze, 6 copper coins.

She narrowed her eyes slightly and nodded as I asked that question, leaving me confused if she found that suspicious or if that confirmed some theory she might have had.

“We call the currency we use in most of the surface world ‘marks’. ” she started explaining, so it wasn’t a country-specific currency, but a common currency for the entire ‘surface world’!? That was barely accomplishable even on earth with all our technological advancements! Was it based on the actual value of the coins? But how’s that standardised everywhere?

“The lowest form of currency is a copper coin, worth a single mark.

A big copper coin is 10 marks.

A bronze coin is 30 marks.

A silver coin is 10 big copper coins, or 100 marks.

A gold coin is 10 silver coins, or 1,000 marks.

A platinum coin is 10 gold coins, or 10,000 marks.” she explained.

So I had… 136 marks. Was that a lot, or not much? “How much would a common person spend in a day?” I asked. “Around 15 marks, I reckon, if you live like an average commoner.”

So I had 9 days worth of expenses? That was a decent start… ah, I lost about 64 marks then, a whole 4 days of expenses!?

Whatever, at least I’m alive.

“Thanks for answering that.” I thanked her, letting out a small groan at the money I lost. I contemplated what to ask next… and there were three things that came to mind.

Identifying the skeleton I found in the temple, finding anything I could about the last owner of this body, and finding out who the priest and monk were.

“Do you recognise who these belong to?” I asked, pulling out the tag and the small empty bag, before holding them out with the staff.

She hesitantly took the items and looked at them, furrowing her brows as she looked at the tag, then looking at the other items with some visible confusion. As she turned to get a better look at them in the light, her eyes suddenly widened, ever so slightly, before turning back to me.

“These belong to an adventurer… the bag and staff are both magical items,” she started talking, staring at the tag. Huh, I didn’t even know they were magic. Could that small bag be… one of the most iconic fantasy convenience items!? “So that’s a bag of holding then?” I couldn’t help but ask, and she regarded me with a small nod. That would be so nice… if it worked when it was close to me.

Well, I’ll return it to his family, or sell it if I can’t. I wonder if anything else is inside?

“It’s empty, though. That’s strange.” she muttered. What? Who would steal the contents of a bag of holding, but not the actual bag itself!? This doesn’t make any sense.

“I don’t know what exactly the staff is, but it’s a mage’s staff. If this Oromoar was a mage… I know a mage adventurer passed by the village several months ago. You should report this to the guard house… o-or I could report it myself when we get there. But it would be helpful if you were the one reporting it because you have details I don’t.” She stuttered a bit, and I couldn’t help but feel that she was afraid. And I had this nagging suspicion that she was afraid of me… but I didn’t know why.

She seemed strong, and I had zero doubt she could beat me ten out of ten times… was she scared of something else? Maybe the guard was strict with the rules and she was afraid of breaking them? That was possible.

“I understand, I’ll report this myself.” I replied, taking back the items. They were useless in my hands, but they had a different weight to them now that I knew they were magical items. “And, do you know who the last owner of this body was?” I then asked. I knew she had seen him before, I needed to know everything she did.

“I do, yeah.” she replied, a bit slower than normal, as if she was double checking to see if I was lying. “His name was Millar. I don’t remember if he had a last name. He said he came here from the merchant nation Lariatne. He came to the village a bit more than a week ago with that kobold, Milvarr. I don’t remember if she had a last name either.”

“I see…” Millar. At least I had a name for the gravestone now. The last thing I needed to know… “The priest and monk who were with him and Milvarr… what happened to them?”

She pursed her lips at that. “I don’t know the whole story, but the priest showed up alone a few days ago. She said that the monk betrayed everyone and you and Milvarr died in traps.”

Huh, interesting. Millar died in a trap, but Milvarr was alive. This priest didn’t check on the bodies then… and the monk just… disappeared?

“What happened to the monk?” I asked. “I dunno.” came the honest reply. “I assume he’s dead, but I dunno.”

So I have to be careful of the priest, and the monk might still be around.

“What’s the priest’s name and what does she look like? Same for the monk.” I questioned, I needed this information. “The priest’s name is Soliaras. They’re a visiting priest of Permission, the god of law. They’re a white haired woman in heavy armour, it would be hard to not recognise her” she then paused, thinking for a bit.

“I dunno much about the monk, other than they were probably a human man… somewhere around your height?” she said, before shrugging.

“I see, thank you.” I had countless more questions, but it could wait for now.

I just wanted to get to the village and feel civilized. I had a layer of grime on me that I couldn’t get rid of so far, and I just needed a moment of peace to think… and food. I wasn’t hungry, despite everything, but I needed to eat when I could.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I fell silent and just let Solly lead me to the village.

…

The late morning sun beat down on us and annoying insects that looked like rounder mosquitoes constantly tried to pester me as we trudged through the rapidly thinning jungle, walking on a fairly well trodden path.

Solly said nothing as she led me forward, and I didn’t want to stand around and talk much more either.

Eventually, we pushed aside our last annoying hanging leaves, before entering a large clearing.

It seemed to stretch on for ages, all the way to distant mountains. Well, not so distant, they might have been two days away?

And spotting this vast plain were several brown, green, blue and red houses, with a road leading from the path we were on all the way to a fairly large and dense cluster of buildings, maybe half an hour away. Many patches of the land were broken into brown squares of farmland, but I didn’t see much in the way of crops from where I was.

By my very rough estimate, there were probably a hundred buildings at least? Villages range from 50 people to 1,000… so assuming this world followed a similar system, this must have counted as an average village with a few hundred people. There were even two churches that I could see.

While there were plenty of people out and about, it felt rather quiet because of just how wide the plains were, and the absence of any cars or machinery… It was rather peaceful.

“Welcome to Noffan.” Solly spread her arms out, gesturing to the village sprawled out before me. “What do you think of it? Looks pretty good for the middle of nowhere, eh?”

“It seems like a nice place.” I replied, admiring the welcome with my sore eyes.

I had so much to do from here. I had to arrange Milvarr’s rites and look for Millar’s and Oromar Witechere’s next of kin to give them their respective items and the news of their death… I had to make sure that the priest didn’t find me either. If she was responsible for killing Millar and trapping Milvarr, I didn’t want to deal with her.

Long term, I had two main goals; I had to earn enough money to survive and travel, and I had to learn how I could return home.

“Do you know where I can find an inn? And the guard house… hm… I don’t think I can report Millar’s death when I’m walking around in his body… ” I asked, realising the biggest hurdle with dealing with Millar’s next of kin, the fact that I was in his corpse.

It felt a bit disgusting to say, but it was my body now.

“It’s true, that’s a difficult one… I’ll figure out how to report that myself. Don’t mind it for now.” she quickly replied, nodding.

“There’re two inns. One’s near the center, and one’s near the edge of the village… I’d say you should try the one in the center, it’s a nice place called the ‘Coral Respite’. But it might be full. The other inn’s called ‘Cat place’, it’s ran by a crazy cat lady. The guard house’s that tall building with the tower and flag.”

For this village to have two inns and one of them full, it must have been on a decently busy route… but then I remember that we were on an island. What?

“Do you normally get a lot of travellers here? We’re on an island, aren’t we?” I asked, I had to know this. But Solly just shrugged and laughed. “Taxes.” she said, waving off my question. “You’ll get it if you talk to people… I need to continue my patrol now if you don’t need anything else.”

I didn’t want to take more time than I needed, and I didn’t have many more questions that I had to ask her specifically right now.

“I appreciate your time, I’ll look for you if I need anything.” I replied, smiling in appreciation.

I learnt a lot from her, and I was lucky to have met her of all people.

She regarded me for a moment, before nodding, then she turned around and walked away.

Notably, she didn’t walk towards the village, but off into the jungle again.

That left me alone again, at the edge of this vast clearing, half an hour from the actual village.

But, I still felt like someone was watching me.

It was an unnerving feeling, and something I hadn’t felt in years.

The feeling soon passed, or maybe I just got used to it.

Either way, I simply started walking. I finally had some safety and I needed to make the most of it.

…

Following the road, I finally reached the village, and seeing it up close really made me feel like I had found civilization again… I guess I was weaker than I thought, if a single day could feel like a week long ordeal.

Like plenty of villages, it was built centered around the main road, with dozens upon dozens of buildings and a few side roads leading to more buildings. To reach the village I had to cross farmlands, and they seemed to be between seasons as there were farmers sowing a new batch of crops.

Villagers were walking about and doing their business, and I saw quite a mix of species.

There were humans, lizard-people, humanoids with green and gray skin of several sizes. Ah, and there are a few animal-people. Paul would kill to see one of them in person.

It really felt like I stepped into a fantasy game… though I could do without the combat or death.

As I walked down the road I got quite a few stares from the locals. It probably wasn’t every day that someone just waltzes into town injured.

I ignored them and took in every detail I could make out about the village.

It was quite large, and easily had 300 or 400 people, the houses were fairly well made, and the people seemed to have decent clothing, which meant that it was connected to the bigger settlement in the north and it was probably a well off place over there.

I passed by a few stores, hardware, a food place, a herbalist (that could be quite useful if I could find something non-magical or sell my healing potion), and the main inn I was told about.

‘Coral Respite’ was a gaudy building with the wood painted bright colours and coral shapes carved into said wood. I didn’t understand how this was the good one, I feared for what the other place would look like.

Thinking that, I stepped inside, and was immediately greeted by three cats staring me down. What?

“Oh ello dearie, how can I elp you?” an old human lady asked, suddenly appearing behind the counter. Did I get confused? Surely this was the crazy cat lady, wasn’t it? She even had three cats in her arms.

“Ah, hello there. Do you have any rooms open?” I asked, eying the cats. They were pretty cute, but I’ve always been horribly allergic to them… but I wasn’t having a reaction this time, I was fine.

However, that only made the dissonance between this body and my old one stand out more and disturbed me. One awful feeling I got around cats was replaced with another… how wonderful.

“Oh, nae, the room’s are all booked dearie.” she apologized, placing a cat on the counter while rubbing the beliefs of the other two in her arms. Well, that couldn’t be helped.

“I see, thanks then.” I quickly thanked her and left.

There was still so much I needed time to deal with emotionally, so many questions that I couldn’t tell what I really cared about anymore…

Ignoring those welling emotions, I made my way to the other inn I was told about, not bothering with the stares of the locals as I moved. And I eventually found myself in front of a large building that seemed to blend in with the rest quite well.

A wooden structure that looked like it was made of wood and didn’t have any special shapes or colours, with a simple board in the front that said ‘Cat place’.

Feeling a lot more relieved at how this place looked I just assumed Solly got the names mixed up earlier, then opened the door to walk in.

“Hold it right there Richard! You think you can just walk in like that and hide those evil thoughts!?” A woman’s voice called out. At first I thought it was a domestic incident… but then I noticed that it was directed at me, coming from an anthropomorphic cat lady holding a backscratcher like a sword.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, it’s no use trying to hide it. Who sent you!? The embassy? The wizards of Trador? Give it up already, I know your little game… you’re here to take my memories, aren’t you!?” she threatened me, waving around the backscratcher… Why did I have to deal with this when all I wanted to do was get a room, curl up into a ball, and just be an emotional wreck?

“Listen, I just want a room. Is there one available?” I asked, sighing.

She eyed me down for a few seconds, before slowly sidestepping behind the front desk.

“We have openings… consider yourself lucky, whoever you are. 10 marks for the night, we don’t serve food here, especially to Richards who work for that Trador arse!”

I didn’t have the energy to play around with whatever this game was… it was likely because of a mental illness, but that isn’t my speciality. Otherwise, since this is a fantasy world, everything she’s saying could just be true. There’s no easy way to tell… *sigh*

“Here, which room’s mine?” I just gave her the money and waited as she pulled out a key and slid it at me. “The back left one over there. No funny moves, I’ve got my sword of silence right here… lets see you chant a spell without a head!”

I guess that is one way to silence someone…

I took my key, went over to my room and just collapsed as soon as I got through the door.

Jesus.

I will say this, the room was very well kept, and very bland. I prefer that to the other inn.

Letting out a deep breath, I just wanted to clean up and sleep for a day… ah, but I had to eat first.

As I thought about this, I stood up and saw… myself?

There was a mirror, and I was looking right into it, and what I saw was… me.

I finally saw myself and it looked like a version of me that was a decade younger, but my hair was pure white and my eyes weren’t both green anymore. One of them was blue…

What the hell? This was incredibly uncanny, it must have been some kind of sick joke.