“I’m back, Your Highness! The doctor… is…”

“Ughhhh.” I raised my body from the bed and spun my head slowly.

“Sorry for waking you up, Your Highness.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” I yawned and stretched my arms and legs as far as my bones could. “So where is the doctor you said you would bring?”

“Well…” Harry scratched the back of his neck. “The doctor of the village is kind of away right now, I mean we can maybe try for the branch of the church in this village, but that would be wrong...”

Why? Ah, you know what I don’t care, I’m not on drugs. At least not now, or anymore. After speaking to myself, staring blankly at Harry like some idiot, I responded. “Yeah, yeah, now go and get another carriage so we can leave as soon as possible.”

“Well… about that…”

“What? Don’t tell me they don’t even have a single carriage in this village or even just horses, I can ride a fucking horse!” I paused for a second and thought to myself. Actually, I can’t. Then I continued. “What is this a ghost village? What?! Did everyone di-” I paused again.

After staring at the beauty of hell’s entrance, I jumped back down the walls and walked back to the inn. When I arrived at the village, I saw every single citizen immediately hiding as soon as they saw me, but when I was heading into the scene of an explosion and when I was heading back, there was no one. Even the inn.

It took an embarrassingly long time till I realized that the reason there were no people was because they were all “-dead.”

“Huh? What are you saying, Your Highness?” Harry asked, tilting his head.

“Were you about to say that there was no one at the stables either?”

“Oh, yes.” His head pulled back and his eyes widened.

“Well, we can just go steal their horses, can’t we.”

“What? That’s illegal, Your Highness.”

“Everyone’s dead already. If no one sees, we never did anything.” I smiled and jumped out of my bed.

“What? Well, I’m glad you're back to normal, Your Highness, though a little scarier than usual, but why do you keep saying that everyone is dead?”

“Did you not hear an explosion earlier?”

“An explosion?” Harry’s eyes wandered to the sides. “I did hear one, but I was at the stables looking for the stableman.”

“Well, see, everyone died. That explosion killed everyone, did you see any human coming back from the stables?”

“Yes, though, I did only see the innkeeper below.”

“The innkeeper?” My stomach immediately grumbled, hitting me with a hollow stomach eating me from the inside. “Ughhh, okay, if the innkeeper is there, let’s eat first, and uh, I wanna go and investigate this incident.”

Harry and I walked out of the room and went downstairs. Just as Harry had said, the innkeeper was alive, standing behind the front desk. “Can we get early dinner please?” Harry said in the middle of the flight of stairs.

The innkeeper nodded and he disappeared before I could even reach the ground floor. Seriously, are they in such a hurry to hide from me? You could have nodded twice. That’s what they do in front of royalty right? Separate bows of respect?

From the medieval era to the modern one, with the many advances in technology and many different aspects, wooden chairs and tables have never really changed, well also the school system. Other than the rough texture of the wood, lacking polish and inhabiting possible insects, there wasn’t much of a difference.

I lived for almost 40 years, but I still don’t really know anything about having a conversation. It was awkward to sit there, as Harry stared at me constantly, without batting an eye, but that was me, incarnate of awkwardness. That was definitely why my writing career never prospered. An author who doesn’t even read books and hasn’t had a single friend for over a decade would never succeed.

After a few minutes of awkward waiting, our food finally arrived. It was medieval time, so I didn’t really have much of an expectation, but it was not something I expected.

Bread, chopped potatoes, beans, an unknown paste, sausage, and a cup of water? This was a meal? I mean it is, but still, you know what, my parents ate rice with just oil and salt, it’s cause I’m Asian and there isn’t any rice, that’s just it. I have no right to complain.

The meal was unexpectedly worse than I thought. Despite being in a different body, my taste palettes had unfortunately stayed the same.

I stood up with my face upside down and snailed my way outside the inn. “Where are you going, Your Highness.”

“To… investigate… hopefully it cheers me up.” My stomach grumbled once more. Wait a second; I know only one person in the village.

Harry jumped out of his seat immediately, following me as I turned to the right of the inn… and turned back, bumping our heads.

“Ow! Fucking hell!”

“Sorry, Your Highness!” Harry bowed, slamming my stomach. “Shit!” I groveled back, bent while hugging my stomach

“Sorry, Your Highness!” Harry ran, reaching his hands down to me.

I’m glad this knight has no helmet, or I would have died two times, but that strength, what the fuck!

“Are you okay, Your Highness?”

I slowly raised my head to face Harry’s eyes. A disappointed sigh left my mouth. Holding the pain in, I scaled the inn’s wall. “Go,” I said.

“Sorry, Your Highness.”

“You’ve said that, three fucking times, shut up.” I walked around Harry and walked back to the inn, seeing no one once again. “Harry, gut up from there and come here.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I shook my head at his response. “Can you stop saying your highness in every sentence?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“That is treason, Your Highness.”

“Hmmm…” I squinted my eyes, cyphering through my memories for every sentence he had ever spoken. “I remember you talking without saying… Your Highness.” Scoffing afterward, striking with a smirk.

“That must have been an urgent situation. Please kill me, Your Highness!” Harry instantly dropped, kneeling with his head touching the ground.

“Ah, whatever, stand up. Let’s not waste time, you go and get the innkeeper and make him sit in front of me.”

“What? Your Highness?” Harry looked up into the air confused. He looked back into the inn as I sat on a chair smiling at him. “Yes, Your Highness.” He bowed, even if it banged his head to the ground.

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“Hello, innkeeper. I wouldn’t wanna waste time, so I’ll just call you that. Don’t speak, unless I ask you a question. Are we good?”

The innkeeper was much younger than you would expect someone who would own an inn. I was a writer in my previous life who had a really bad memory, worse than an 80-year-old, not like I’m a masochist, but I’m very honest, even to myself.

Writing many fantasy novels, I know full well that the mortality rate of this time was quite high. Being here now makes me more mad at my younger self. The man in front of me didn’t even look past the age of 20, he wore simple clothing a long sleeve shirt and pants.

“Yes, your highness.” He said wearing a sorrowful expression.

“I quite don’t feel your respect. Are we good?” I repeated.

“Yes, Your Highness.” His body shook from head to toe.

“Now, tell me, is there anything, any- what’s the word… ah, folklore in your village?”

“Folklore? I’ve never heard of it before, Your Highness.”

“Oh… well, just any story that has lingering death in it.”

“Ummm… are you talking about monsters, Your Highness?”

“Yes, precisely.”

“Well… there is a monster in the forest, Your Highness.”

“A monster, is that right?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Well then, what type of monster is it?”

“It’s a forest beast, Your Highness.”

Piqued by what he said, I leaned forward on the table, making only an inch away from each other’s eyes. “What does it look like?” My eyes widened.

“I… don’t know, Your Highness.” He replied.

I immediately sighed, sitting back on my chair. Then I scoffed saying, “So, it’s fake?”

“What, no, Your Highness.”

“Then how can you be sure of something you’ve never seen before?”

“Because…” The innkeeper looked left and right, looking for his answer like an idiot. At that moment, I already knew this investigation was a disaster. If a monster was able to do that to so many people, that is the only real definition of dead men tell no tales.

People may have a chance to see such a sight, but as usual, humans would always make stuff up, accusing made-up monsters. Blaming something imaginary because they lack the ability to think otherwise.

“... that monster always kills more than half the village every year, Your Highness.”

“Yeah, yeah, and why would I believe that? You don’t even know what it looks like.”

The innkeeper looked left and right again, he was clearly lost. “Because the monster has the ability to manipulate people outside the village, killing them.”

My head immediately jumped up. I kicked my chair away and held the innkeeper's shoulders, “You just answered all my doubts, good job, okay! Harry! We’re going to look for this monster!”

“What? But, Your Highness, it’s too dangerous!”

“This is an order! Get up from your seat, and let’s go!”

“Wait, it’s nighttime… turn around!” My hand raised to the sky, pointing back to the stairs. I gritted my teeth, inching eminent death. Marching to the stairs, with no hesitation, I buried myself in bed, sleeping away my first day into this world like it was just another Tuesday.

A lot had happened, but the adrenaline just wouldn’t let me alone, I wouldn’t stop here. I repeated in my head till I fell asleep. It was just one day but I had the most fun in my entire life going around mindlessly seeing “death” to it’s literal definition.

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When the sun struck my closed eyes, opening the lamps in my mind, I jumped out of bed instantly. “Harry! Let’s go!”

“Huh?” He rubbed his eyes. I looked at him, naked to his pants, with his armor tightly arranged on the floor along with his clothes.

My eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. I turned away as fast as I could, while my jaw was left in time. “Fuck! Wear your shit and let’s go.” I shook my head and forced myself to forget the scene I just saw. Never having friends, such an experience never really happened to me.

“Stay safe, Your Highness.” The innkeeper bowed as we left. The first time he was actually there when I went down.

The forest, home to many different animals. I walked through the village once more, in the same direction where the gate of hell was placed. As soon as the wooden wall blocked my path, I ordered Harry to cut it down.

“Huh? I can’t do that, Your Highness.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Ah, okay fine, let’s just climb up.”

It was the second time, it wasn’t that hard. While I was climbing, Harry had his arms open, ready to catch me if I fell. My eyes were burning looking at Harry, I’m a man, not a fucking princess. When I made it to the top, Harry jumped once and scaled the walls over, landing his feet on the ground drenched in blood.

“Don’t jump down Your Highness!” Harry’s face was swollen. He wailed not to come down, but I paid his plead with air and jumped down either way.

“Are you okay, Your Highness?”

“Yes, let’s just go.”

At the end of the red-colored scenery, was the forest behind the village, stretching further than the eye could see. I walked around the pond of blood, staring at it as I walked by. I entered the forest.

I looked forward. Walked with grace on my feat, excitement in my heart, and a shining glow in my eyes. Oh, bringer of death. Beast of the forest. Opener of the gate of hell. I wonder how beautiful you are.