Chapter four:

An idyllic journey towards a dark horizon

There exists a small nation… no, maybe it’d be more apt to refer to them as a disjointed collection of various barbarous tribes embroiled in a perpetual civil war. In any case, west of the Holy Pallasian Empire existed the barbarian lands known as the ‘Hygiean Rock Ranges’, it was a series of jagged, rocky mountains with very little resources and even fewer liveable space. It was a wonder why the tribes who dwelled there bothered to fight over this worthless piece of land other than for religious or tribal reasons. In fact, their territories were so devoid of relevance that the empire – with their superior military, technology, strategies, and magic development – disregarded them entirely. The game never mentioned anything about them either; it was only after I came to this world and studied its geography I learnt about the existence of Hygiea.

It was such a harsh place to live that the barbarians often organized annual raids into the empire’s territory to pillage the villages on the frontier. Of course, our glorious holy nation never responded to these blatant acts of terrorism on the innocent civilians because most of the ruling government factions and nobles were only interested in themselves. Military defence just meant shoring up their own territories and points of interests, and government responsibility and obligation never extended past major population centres. Despite their neglect, they still had the nerves to demand taxes every season without fail.

There was no doubt the barbarians attacked simply because they couldn’t afford not to – their lands were a series of a barren wastelands and death valleys. They were a pitiable bunch who were dealt a bad hand for simply being born where they were, but if I had to say I still wanted the empire to clear out the barbarians for the sake of the people. Instead, the responsibility of regional defence went to the local militia and soldiers who were cast out from the capital. No reinforcements would ever be sent, nor a single gold be spare.

In any case, it was all just a massive headache. It only made things further complicated when I learnt the baron who had been overseeing the conflict management in this region was actually part of the Abyssal cult. Yes, the people trying to destroy this empire was ironically the only ones actively defending it. This is where I have to criticize our dear princess a little. In the game, ‘Eurielle Avon Goldenlight’, our second princess, was a justice-aligned character whose deepest desire was to weed out the corrupted aristocracy and save the empire from itself, and to her credit it was a noble and admirable goal. Unfortunately, it would be rendered meaningless if the reason for her wish – the people – weren’t protected either. As long as she couldn’t understand this she wasn’t much better than the rest of her powerless royal family.

“Tch,” it was annoying just thinking about it. I had to take a deep breath and calm myself down before I exploded.

Getting back to my own mission, it would take about a week via carriage to get from my family’s territory to the west frontier. The worst part of it all was the method of transportation; these carriages were so horrendously uncomfortable that I would’ve vastly preferred taking an old Honda Civic over this any day.

Before leaving the estate I pulled some strings to make my journey more agreeable. Firstly, I had the carriage driver replaced with an outsider with no connections to the Blackbridge family, and secondly, I made sure there were no other escorting guards who could possibly run interference. It was always prudent for me to remember that anyone connected to the Blackbridge family was a rat for my father. Certainly, it would be dangerous for the son of an Earl to be travelling great distances without any guards, but I was technically a hero from another world – a game world, but a ‘hero’ nonetheless.

Once we got far enough from the prying eyes of the Blackbridge estate, I took out a small lunch box neatly wrapped up in a pretty pink cloth. There was an accompanying note from Claudia:

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‘Dearest young master, I hope you enjoy this delicious handmade lunch prepared by your most favourite and loveable maid. On your return I hope to hear how much you love me and how you can’t wait to marry me.

- Claudia

P.S. Please don’t lose the container as it was an important keepsake left behind by my late mother.’

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This girl was all manner of cute, but quite scary. “She really never fails to do her best, huh?” I couldn’t help but smirk thinking about how she put so much effort into making my lunch. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be the one eating it… well, maybe just one. As soon as I made sure we were clear of the estate I handed over the lunchbox to the young boy who had been sitting opposite me in the carriage. He was leaning against the corner in a foetal position and looking quite dead – like a rare, captured animal being carted off to the circus. I spent so much time trying to earn his trust yesterday, but if mental wounds could heal that easily there wouldn’t be any problems in this world.

At first he didn’t react much, but eventually the delectable scent of Claudia’s handmade lunch got to him and he turned up his glance just enough to let me know his interests were piqued. With that I could confirm there was still some life left in him. “You’re hungry, right?” I asked but there was no answer. He only continued to stare blankly at me as he did yesterday. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I told you before you can take your time in opening up.” I slowly unwrapped the pink cloth from the lunchbox and opened it up to see several neat rows of sandwiches. Honestly, I could almost feel my mouth water, but I’d feel massively guilty eating this in front of a starving child. I took out one of the sandwiches, a familiar tuna mayonnaise, and drew it closer to the boy’s face.

He looked up at me with a befuddled look. “…” luckily, I had gained at least some level of trust for feeding him before, and this time it took much less time for him to accept it. He reached out with his two small hands and received the pristinely cut triangular sandwich, but it took some time for him to take the first bite. Considering how he had lived until now I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had never even seen a sandwich before.

“Is it hard to eat?” Since it was prepared for me I felt less guilty in taking one of the sandwiches to show the boy how to eat it and that it wasn’t anything dangerous. “It’s just as good as it smells,” I told him as I took a bite out of Claudia’s sandwich. Despite what I said about marriage yesterday, I could feel she would make a great wife. “It was prepared by a kind-hearted girl named ‘Claudia’, and she’s quite skilled with her hands, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy the taste too.” There were signs of drool forming at the edge of the boy’s lips.

“…” He switched between looking at me and the sandwich, carefully studying us both. Eventually, the boy couldn’t win against his hunger and took a small bite out of the edge of the sandwich. I noticed it only now but his mouth was really small even for a child of his age, it was almost like that of a girl’s. Slowly, bit by bit he dug into the sandwich and savoured its flavour as though he had never eaten anything this delicious in his life. His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree on fire; the first bite of actual food was the most magical in anyone’s life. The soup I gave him yesterday was probably nothing compared to Claudia’s handmade food.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“…” it took a minute but he returned a positive nod.

One by one, he continued to devour the sandwiches in the lunchbox. He was eating them so fast I was getting a little worried of choking, and my fears came to light as he began to cough. I quickly passed him the canteen and he guzzled down the fruit juice in it. At first he looked puzzled as to why water tasted strangely sweet, but it didn’t look like he disliked it.

“It’s apple juice mixed in with a bit of mango.” Well, I doubt he even received proper education to know what kind of fruits those are. The boy was naturally taciturn, but I also suspect he was never given the chance to learn about the world so it only compounded his problem. The poor kid.

“You can take your time eating. There’s plenty more and I won’t take anything from you,” I told him as I handed over the entire lunchbox.

“…” he remained reticent but took still took the opportunity to continue his meal inside this rickety carriage.

“This isn’t bad once in a while,” I commented to myself as I viewed the world rushing by us from the window. A gentle breeze brushed past my face when I lowered the window a bit, but it wasn’t anything unpleasant. I liked my old life too, the bustling of busy life and the city that never slept, but I also really enjoyed the rustic nature of a world with minimal technological advancement.

Watching the boy eat, it brought back memories of my past life when I used to dine with my family. There was my mother who diligently prepared the food on time every day, my father who would leisurely sit at the sofa reading up on the news, my younger brother who’d lazily come down from his room as soon as the food was done. Those were days long gone and the family I have now were… I shook my head.

“How was it? Did you like it?” I asked the boy.

“…” he gave me a small nod.

“That’s good. I’m sure you’ll get the chance to meet Claudia in the future, so be sure to give her your thanks.”

“…?” it wasn’t a surprise why the boy was confused about what I just said. He knew where he was being taken and why; my job was to deliver him to some abyssal cult member living on the frontier, and from his perspective I was just his warden on his journey to get there. However, I had made up my mind yesterday to not sacrifice the boy’s life or my own moral principles no matter how much I enjoyed watching the game’s story play out in real time. The only reason why I was even going to the west territory was to learn more about the abyssal cult and see if there was a chance I could satisfy both my goals. If everything went well I could easily fool my father into believing I accomplished his mission while secretly undermining the cult by giving this boy his freedom and future.

Having said that, there was a popular saying in my old world: ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’. It meant no one was sure about what could happen in the future and it was generally better to plan for contingencies. In which case, I would prioritize the boy’s life over my own convenience. If everything went south… well, it wouldn’t be all that bad to escape to some foreign country with the boy and live out the rest of my life in peace either.

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“Still unsure?” I leaned in closer to the boy. “Listen. Although I did accept a mission from my father to hand you over to whoever is waiting for you, I promise that no matter what happens I’ll keep you say. Even if that means I have to fight the entirety of the empire.” Fighting the empire… now that would be a curious development.

“…”

“Hmm,” the boy seemed more confused than anything. “Tell you what, I’ll even make a pinkie promise,” I said as I extended my pinkie. Obviously, there was no culture around making promises by typing one’s pinkie together, but this was my way of symbolically promising on the memories of my old life which I treasured more than anything. “You just have to tie our pinkies together and that makes it an oath.”

“…?” he hesitated for a second but extended out his small finger to meet mine.

I hooked our fingers together and made the promise, “You’ll be safe. I’ll keep you safe against the world.”

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It suddenly dawned on me, but when one thinks about a long journey through the countryside with very little escorts in a medieval fantasy setting, there’s always those kinds of bandit assault events. However, it’s been quite peaceful and uneventful for the past several days of our excursion that I was feeling a little restless. I suppose it was a good thing we weren’t being attack, but it was like leaving Chekkov’s gun unfired; here was an unguarded carriage bearing the insignia of the house of Blackbridge, with the son of the family riding out in the open just fresh for the taking. Yet, nothing.

Maybe I was just jinxing myself by thinking about it.

As the sun was about to set we decided to set up camp for the night. Our driver was tending to the horses while I was preparing a bit of food at the campfire we made earlier. Since it wasn’t possible to bring much food on these kinds of trips the best I could store was some dried meats and vegetables along with some soup to make it all go down. After dinner, feeling full, the boy succumbed to the drowsiness of a long day on the road and fell asleep on my lap by the fireside. “I wonder if the lap of a man is even comfortable?” I questioned while gently caressing the boy’s hair. Compared to how rough and coarse it had been before, it was now silky and smooth since I’ve been taking care of his hygienic needs through magic and soap.

When I was with this child I always wonder if this is what it might feel like to have a kid of my own. While I wasn’t exactly young, I died pretty early in my life so I never had the opportunity to set up my own family and live the kind of life I desired. In fact, I don’t exactly remember how I died back then and only suddenly found myself in a baby’s body, which turned out to be the character Charon Blackbridge from the game I really enjoyed.

If my hazy memory serves correct, I was around thirty two or so. I had managed to pay off my student debt through military service and after a few tours I was on my way to find proper work elsewhere. Aside from that, things were a bit of a blur and there are large gaps between my former childhood and adulthood. Names of friends, close families, or lovers never came to me no matter how much I recounted. It was strange I could so vividly remember the names of fictional entities from a video game, but that might have more to do with this world rather than a quirk of my memory. By that I mean, maybe it was reinforcing my knowledge of this world while slowly eroding what I knew from the previous one. It was all just conjecture on my part though.

Ah! If there’s one thing I remember quite clearly, it was my habit of clearing my search history and formatting my drives ever few months. Luckily, no one would ever find anything from my computer that could incriminate me after my death… not that I had anything to hide. Still, a man’s preferences should be kept to himself, right?

“God dammit,” I sighed. “I really did jinx myself.” Once the sun set beyond the horizon I started to feel hushed movements coming from around us. With my [Watchers] closely flying around to survey the area I knew there were several hostile entities trying silently circle us into a trap. From what I could see through the eyes of my birds, their clothes and weapon was reminiscent of what would normally be described as ‘bandits’. They weren’t the western barbarians since we weren’t close enough to their lands, so it had to be outlaws from the empire.

I really didn’t want to move from my position and wake up the sleeping boy, and neither did I want to make too much noise. First, I set up a barrier around the campfire. [Ward of Protection], it was a convenient spell from the game which allowed me to intercept any ‘First Attack’ projectiles while increasing the physical and magical defence of my party members by 70%. [Grace of the Goddess], was an interesting spell which cast an area wide effect which weakened every enemy classified as ‘evil’. This effect made them more vulnerable to damage from holy and mental attacks.

Next, I summoned another one of my Watchers and casted a certain magic onto it and sent it out to greet the greedy highwaymen.

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[Bandits’ Perspective]

For ‘Torian the Unkind’, it was as though a pot of gold just fell onto his laps. Once, they were former famers who were evicted from their homes due to the barbarian invasion, now, they found steady work as highwaymen who robbed every carriage they came across. While it did prick their conscience a bit, after doing it for a few years they had gotten used to the job, and really it was the fault of all these naïve fools who dared cross their territory without proper precaution. If anything, Torian was doing them a favour by teaching them the harshness of the world… though they’d be unable to retain that lesson since they’d be killed afterwards. He did contemplate on letting them go, but if they did there was no doubt soldiers would be called and it would make a mess of the whole operation.

Life was pretty good all things considered. Actually, it was better than when he was a farmer. There were no shortages of idiots who traverse these roads, and he had a sizable savings of which he and his boys would spend at the brothels every night. He wondered why he ever wanted to live an honest life when it was so much easier doing it this way. ‘Morons’, he thought to himself when he looked at the people who broke their backs while never amounting to anything more than peasants on the frontier.

“Boss!” one of his underlings rushed into the base camp they had set up for themselves in the mountains. This twit was ‘One-eyed Matty’, a scrawny man who had lost one of his eyes in a prior raiding incident. He came in all excited and disgusting, but whenever he had that lust-filled glint in his eyes Torian knew what was up. “There’s a noble!”

“A noble?”

“Aye, a noble! One without guards too!”

Upon hearing this, the rest of his crew who had been lazing around in the campsite perked up their ears. Nobles were their best customers. Not only did they carry around a large amount of gold, but they could also be taken for ransom to make even more money. If that wasn’t enough, Torian always hated these stuck-up bastards who always believed they were superior to all others, so bringing these pricks down a peg was a very cathartic experience.

“You hear that boys?!” he shouted to rally up his crew. “Fresh meat’s on the table!”

The campsite roared fiercely with jolly laughs and maddening giggles.

There were about twelve men on his side. From the reports of the guys who went to scout ahead there were only three people who had set up a small resting area out in the open. Two adults and one child; he couldn’t have hoped for anything better. That said, there was a little bit of a tricky problem with most nobles, and that was the fact they all knew how to use magic to a competent degree. Of course, since most of them lived up in lavished and protected castles they probably never even saw proper combat, so this inexperience was something which could be exploited.

“How’s it look, Matty?” Torian asked.

“Looks good boss. They’re fully prepared to go to sleep like that. Out in the open no less. God dammed idiots I say.”

“Good, good. Have the crew surround them. We’ll attack them from all sides and not even give them a chance to retaliate. The noble probably knows how to use a bit of magic so tell the boys to be a little careful, else we’ll have another incident like yours.” Torian joked.

“Tch, would it kill you to shut up about that, boss?”

“Whatever, just have the boys…”

Before he could finish relaying his orders something caught the corner of his eyes. It was a small black bird ominously staring at him through its maddening red eyes. There was something very foreboding about the creature; from how it remained completely still, to the way it just stared, there was something amiss. To his surprise, it opened its mouth and spoke to him. “Have the boys do what?”

“Ey? What the?” it was the first time he ever saw something like this. “A talking bird?”

“What’s that, boss?” his subordinate looked confused more than anything. Torian felt his stomach churning as if he was anticipating something horrible to happen. He had been at this job for longer than any of his boys so he had developed an intrinsic sense for danger, and strangely enough alarms were raring in his head.

“I don’t know? Wait, I’ve heard of them parrots who can talk. Is it like that?”

“No, no,” the bird replied as if it understood what they were saying. It spoke in a manner resembling those of the nobles from the capital – very educated and condescending. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lump me together with mindless animals. I’m a much more sophisticated being.”

Torian and the rest of his crew didn’t know what to make of all this. Unable to comprehend it, one of this boys shot an arrow straight through its head. Straight through its head it went, right past it as though it never hit anything and continued to fly past. The bird appeared completely unharmed. “What in blazes?” the archer gasped.

“That was mighty rude of you,” the bird replied. Suddenly, it started to grow larger. Larger and larger, until it was the size of a house, and all the details he had missed before in the darkness were in plain sight. This was no bird. There were no feathers, it was just an amalgamation of shadows. The monster split open its head like a massive maw and revealed a set of sharp, serrated teeth which seemed like it could tear a man’s body apart.

“Whoa?!” one screamed.

“Oh shit! Run!” another shouted.

“I’m out!” Frightened by the bird’s true appearance, most of Torian’s crew ran away after wetting themselves.

The bird lunged its unnatural body through the trees and darkness. It was ungodly quick. There was no chance for One-eyed Matty to retaliate as it swooped in and gorged his body between the horrendous rows of jagged teeth. In one fell bite, the monstrous bird ripped his friend’s body and tore it asunder like a dog ravaging a chew toy. Blood, guts, and viscera splattered everywhere and bits and pieces of meat flew into Torian’s face.

“Wha…” he fell arse first onto the floor and immediately urinated on the spot. All the colour drained from his face as he tried to crawl back while choking on his own tears. “No! No! Get away from me!” he cried as the monster slowly waddled towards him.

“Where… are… you… going…?! Come… back… I’m… not… done…!” the beast spoke in jagged sentence.

The last thing Torian saw before everything went dark were bloodstained teeth riddled with chunks of meat that was his former friend. After this night, Torian the Unkind would never be heard of in this region ever again.

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[Charon’s Perspective]

Of course, none of that actually happened. It was just an illusion. Illusion magic was one of the hidden secret techniques the player could obtain by running through the third Demon God’s hidden dungeon, but it wasn’t strictly necessary to completing the main story quest. Each of the evil gods had a specialty, and the third god’s was [Vision of Malice], which entrapped a person’s mind and showed them horrifying images.

I suppose it was a convenient skill for dodging battle against mooks and mobs, but not generally something to be used in a serious fight. There were limitations with the skill; people who had strong enough will could break free, those with protection from the other demon gods like the cultists were resistant to it, and those who were born with divine constitution like the hero was also naturally immune. Basically, the only beings I could use it against were lower levelled soldiers of the empire, some low ranking cultists, low level monsters, and the like. It was like using the item ‘repel’ from that one game about capturing monsters in balls.

I scanned the area one more time to make sure there wasn’t any bandits left. It seemed all of them were knocked unconscious and were going to be trapped inside their nightmares for a few more days. Hopefully, this event would give them a wake-up call not to cause problems to other people from now on. I could turn them into local law enforcement, but that wasn’t my job, and there were likely to be patrols from the nearby settlements so there shouldn’t be any problems.

“Mm…?” the boy woke up a little, perhaps he had sensed some disturbance. I guess it wasn’t a surprise for him to have sharp senses after having to live on the edge for so long.

“Did you have a bad dream?” I asked trying to fool the boy into thinking nothing was wrong. “It’s still late at night, why don’t you get a bit more sleep?” I told him while gently patting his hair. “I’ll be here with you, so don’t worry and go to sleep.”