The guard house was one of the most surprising buildings so far.

Unbelievably, it was three stories tall with a belfry-like tower attached to it, flying a green flag with the symbol of a shark holding a shield.

I’ve seen two story buildings in town, like with the inns and a few other larger ones, but this was the only three story structure I’ve seen and I didn’t think it’d see something like this in what I thought was a mediaeval era village.

Once again, I had to question if we were in the industrial era or not.

Perhaps an expansion was going to happen soon and they were gearing this village to become a town? That didn’t seem too far-fetched, I suppose.

This part of the village was a lot more densely populated as well, though it probably helped that it was probably noon.

Even with the fairly wide streets, I still rubbed shoulders with a few people. It was a bit hard to not stare at the non-human humanoids all around me.

A cat wearing a tunic and standing like a human and just as tall stared at me as I walked past. A tall lizard person gave me the side eye as he sat on a bench carving something. Someone who looked like a werewolf bared her teeth at me with a wink… seeing it just felt like a strange dream…

Opening the front door and stepping into the guard house, I was met by a cat?

I need to reiterate, a cat. This was not an anthropomorphic cat like the ‘crazy cat lady’ innkeeper.

The interior of this building was nothing remarkable. It was exactly what you’d expect of a mundane office in a fantasy story. Wooden floors, walls, a front desk with chairs, and a simple cabinet for documents as well as stairs leading up and down.

The cat was sitting in front of a book a pen next to him, a few notes to a side and a very thin book to the other side, slightly behind him.

“Good noon, We’re Garnet. What can we do for ye?” the actual cat spoke out loud, sitting at what was probably the front desk. I don’t know why this cat talking is so much harder to accept than an anthropomorphic cat.

It’s probably because I’ve seen too many furries back home. There’s even a website that paul showed me for furry events around Frankfurt alone.

“Hello, My name is Armin Fischer, it’s nice to meet you.” It still felt weird how I wasn’t allergic to cats. “I need to make a report… a kobold named Milvarr has died in an abandoned temple nearby, and I’ve found the corpse of an adventurer and brought his possessions for his next of kin.” I explained, placing the staff and the adventurer tag on the table in front of the cat, before searching for the little bag.

“A-alright,” the cat stuttered for a moment, before looking up at me properly. “Are the bodies recoverable?” he spoke, or at least I believe it was a male voice. It’s a cat, I could be wrong. “Milvarr’s is. The other is inside, and it’s rather dangerous there.”

“Oromar Witechere…” the cat muttered reading the tag, he probably didn’t remember that name, it has been months since he died, at least, given that he was just a skeleton. “Ah, Dolomer’s Wand Guild! They’re the local guild over in the town, the only C rank guild in Vetus memoria.”

Vetus memoria… I assumed that was the name of this island. In latin, it translated to ancient memory. I could ask Solly or Kanako later, but I didn’t expect to see latin of all things in this new world. I guess I can expect Welsh too, since it’s a mythic language.

I didn’t know what ‘C rank’ meant for a guild, but I assumed it was a big deal if there was only one?

“I see,” I replied, pulling out the leather map that the merman gave me and putting it on the table, pointing at the rough spot where the temple was. “There’s a temple here, hidden behind a cave, and I buried Milvarr’s body outside that cave last night.”

“A temple over there…” the cat tapped the leather map, tilting his head to the side. “C-could you give me more details on the situation, sir?” he asked, and it felt like he was getting a bit nervous… I suppose there are cops who never get used to dealing with people dying, be it in this world or earth.

While I told Solly everything, I decided that I could try explaining things again here, if it would help make things clearer for them and have them bring back Milvarr sooner.

And so I sat down in a chair and started explaining everything that happened to them again.

In this version of the story, I avoided mentioning necromancers and being in another person’s body and kept it to a kidnapping or teleportation magic gone awry, saying I wasn’t sure which. Putting a little bit of amnesia in there, because it’s a classic.

…

[POV - Garnet]

Today was supposed to be a right normal day.

Boring, even.

And t’was. We was sat at me desk, doing paperwork, as we do.

Then the logbook poofed open and a message from Solly showed up.

She even used all 25 words!

“Estranged traveller reporting death in unknown ruins, returning a deceased's personal items. White hair human with staff. Treat him with extreme care. Absolutely NO tricks.”

Now imagine that? That on never sends a message less there’s an emergency. Only works once a day after all.

But why’d this matter so much? Got me all tizzied up and all, we’re a good ol cat and we’re right curious!

So she says no tricks, but using illusion magic to make a fake guard to talk fer me is fine, right? We managed to pull off that we was an immortal pirate once with this magic, got me to walk right off a pirate ship with a bunch of loot in me old job, hoho.

And then he walks right in, and we hit im with the good old “Good noon, We’re Garnet. What can we do for ye?”

Now this white hair humey just stare right at me. Not even glancing at the illusion guard, just looking me dead in the eye.

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

Now that’s absolutely terrifying.

This gotta be a right scary mage to completely ignore me magic. Then he lay a big staff in front of me and just ripped me magic barrier apart in a second.

We thought we were gonna die a quick an hopeless death right there.

At that point, we decided to shut up and just do what Solly said to do.

…

[POV - Armin Fischer]

Talking with Garnet went a lot smoother than I thought.

I expected more questions or pushback, but he only asked me about the details and told me to drop off Oromar’s items with him. He said that there’d likely be a reward, but they needed to contact the guild first and that I should stop by tomorrow, anytime after noon.

Having dealt with that, I left the guard house.

At that point, I took a moment to step aside from the fairly busy street and think.

A lot had happened in the past day. But when I closed my eyes to organise my thoughts, all I could see was Milvarr’s corpse, her detached head just staring up at me with a judging expression… I felt my shoulder hit a wall, and I realised I had gone weak in the knees.

It was strange. I’m a doctor, a surgeon. I’ve seen all manner of viscera and studied cadavers. I served in the Bundeswehr for several years, I saw people I called friends die. I had patients die before my very eyes… and then the earthquake… everything felt so hopeless, so many casualties and deaths, people lost loved ones and I- I… I felt a sharp pain in my head and an ache in my heart, like a dagger was being twisted, but I didn’t know why. It was still a muddled and fuzzy mess…

I’ve been such a failure when it really counted.

I’ve never botched a surgery, but I’ve felt so helpless so many times… a better surgeon could have succeeded in saving more lives, preventing more people from becoming cripples… a better soldier wouldn’t have frozen up and got shot, they’d be able to still save lives on the field… a smarter person wouldn’t have caused Milvarr’s death.

No, I’m smart enough to have not killed her. I don’t have that excuse, I just didn’t treat everything seriously enough, I didn’t think about the ramifications of taking a puzzle and expecting it to work just fine after removing a piece.

It just felt so suffocating.

“Hey buddy, are you doing alright?” I vaguely heard someone call out, then came a slap to my back, snapping me back to reality.

For a second, I thought I saw a human hand, but when I blinked again, I noticed scales on that hand. Straightening up a little, I could see a regular what I thought was a regular human next to me… but he had scales on his skin reminiscent to a snake.

Was he a snake-kin? Or was it a skin condition?

To describe him in two words, I saw a ‘drunk cowboy’.

Brown hair tied back in a ponytail, dark gray cowboy hat, dark gray leather vest, and grieves over a greyish shirt and black pants. A black bandana tied around his neck… he was very much out of a western flick, just a bit more armoured-looking.

“You look like you need a drink, pal. Here, have a sip of mine.” he cheerily said, holding up a reddish brown bottle with a cork and giving it a shake to show it was full.

“No, it’s okay… I don’t drink.” I took a deep breath and steadied myself, getting a good whiff of how drunk this cowboy was.

“Eh, fair enough, more for me then!” He readily accepted that answer, popping the cork and taking a swig from it with a loose smile. I wasn’t very good with dealing with alcoholics, Anneliese and my mother were both like that and I could never fight their enthusiasm as natural born happy drunks.

“Sure… thanks for checking on me.” I just replied. It was hard to be too suspicious of a carefree drunk. “I’m Armin, and you are?” I asked, figuring knowing more people couldn’t hurt.

“Oh, I’m the lone slinger *hick* of the west… no wait, east. And I’m long slinging my way around right now. You *hick* can call me the ‘One who slings’. ” he replied, pulling out a broken slingshot and waving it around.

“What?” I didn’t know how to reply for a second. “Oh, not one for titles, eh? *hick* Fair fair… fine then, call me Vildost. It’s what my friends call me, and I’ll *hick* give you an exception. An exception, alright! Cause you’re not a friend, you’re a buddy. You better respect the buddy system!”

Jesus, he’s just like Anne. “Well, I never said I was against titles, mr ‘One who slings’, but how much slinging do you do with that broken sling?” I couldn’t help but play along.

“Broken? Broken!?” he exclaimed, holding up the sling, “Well, I’ll have you know I used this sling to beat three wolves to submission barely a week ago! It’s in peak condition- oh damn, it’s broken! *hick* ” This man was a joy. “Well looks like ol ‘One who slings’ Vildost’s gone and retired. Anyway, nice to meet you buddy!”

“Do you go up to every random person you meet like this?” I asked. He was still a bit suspicious, even if he looked harmless. “Of course! I’d never *hick* turn down the chance to meet a new buddy! What about you? Do you *hick* what’s the word… that, do you double over in a random street often? You need to see a doctor?” he replied, actually sounding a bit worried despite how drunk he was. I was worried he’d topple over with how wobbly he was at that last part.

“Ha… well I am a doctor, so that’s not an issue. I just… a lot’s happened in the past day.” I chuckled. I had to laugh or I felt like I might just cry.

“Ah dang, that’s not good. If you ever *hick* need to lay a load off, your ol buddy Vildost’s always willing to listen?” he offered, and honestly… I wanted someone I could talk to. But not now, not him, not like this.

I needed someone I could trust more, someone who knew more, someone I didn’t have to worry about having to lie to…

“No, I’m good, thanks.” I replied. “I got a busy day ahead, I just needed to rest for a moment. Thanks, I appreciate the concern.” I added.

“Kay, if that’s how you feel. *hick* Then good ol Vildost here’s gonna ride off into the sunset and make himself scarce… ah, wait the sun’s up there *hick*. I need a horse that can fly, that’d make slinging so much easier.” Mumbling that, he half sauntered half staggered off, taking another swig of whatever was in that bottle.

And our encounter came to an end.

There were already so many interesting characters that I’ve come across… in a way I felt blessed that I was still alive. I felt like I didn’t appreciate that enough, but there were too many worries on my plate to celebrate.

I decided to make one stop before heading to where I promised to meet Kanako.

I needed a weapon.

Yes, I had Millar’s sword, but I wasn’t trained in using it. It would take months, at the least, to be able to use this with any competence. Even then, I’d stand no chance against anyone with years of training with a sword.

If I looked at all of my military training, I could use several types of firearms, of which there were presumably none in this world, or none that I could afford.

I could use crossbows, but those are somewhat expensive too?

For melee, I was trained to use bayonets and knives.

They’re multi-purpose tools with far more uses than just killing enemies. Most modern day bayonets can act as wire cutters, hammers, screwdrivers, bottle and can openers etc.

I could use throwing knives too, though that was more a ‘party trick’ I picked up from Paul. If you have a knife, throwing it isn’t a bright idea, especially in a world with bullets.

But it was a viable option here in a world with no guys… Milvarr used knives made of magic so she wouldn’t have to deal with the extra weight of carrying them around. That was smart.

Aside from that, I could also use an axe or a shovel as a weapon if need be.

Honestly, a short spear might be the best weapon, given my training.

While they range greatly in quality and price, even a simple spear of a half decent quality would be better than a sword I don’t know how to use.

With that thought in mind, I set out to buy a short spear and a dagger or a knife, then meet Kanako.

The constant thought of what I had to do next helped push aside all those gnawing thoughts and murky feelings that threatened to consume me.