Chapter 2

When Centum regained consciousness, he kept his eyes closed and listened to his surroundings. He was able to hear someone busy shuffling around in another room, but from apparently only one person was nearby.

This is the second time that I survived such a situation… Most likely someone found me and carried me to the village. I was close after all.

After listening for a while longer and judging the situation as not threatening, he opened his eyes and sat up. He was sitting in a bed made of straw with cloth covering it. The room he was in was crude and only a single window allowed the sun to brighten the room.

To get a better picture of the situation, he got up and moved closer to the window to inspect the status of the other houses. According to the state the houses around this one were in, this village had to be one with not much contact to other settlements.

Difficult starting conditions. It’s possible I have to travel for a few weeks to even find out where on the continent I am. Possibly-

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the door open to his room and a small gasp following it.

Turning around, Centum saw a girl of about his age carrying a basket with a few new bandages. Apparently she was the one who had treated him while he was unconscious.

… What do I do? Is it required to thank that person in such moments?

“It’s good that you are awake! But please stay in bed for a little longer since you lost much blood!”

Before he could even say anything, she put the basket on the floor and reprimanded him in an energetic voice.

“… Understood.”

He followed her advice and laid back down, but he still had several questions to be answered, so he could leave as fast as possible.

“Where is this place? How far away is it from the Rovaerus Kingdom? Do you have horses here?”

Flustered by the sudden questions, the girl seemingly didn’t know where to start with and he had to wait for a few seconds before she was able to answer.

“Well… this is the Holy Kingdom of Regia and no, we don’t have horses, since they are quite expensive. On the other hand, where is the Rovaerus Kingdom? Are you from there? I have never heard of that kingdom before.”

Thinking that he might get more information if he kept the conversation going, Centum didn’t mind telling about himself.

“It is my country of origin and apparently quite far away, considering that you don’t even know of it. Anyway, where is the next town? Do you have a map?”

The girl raised an eyebrow when she heard is need of a map. Was it such an outrageous thing to ask?

“The nearest town would be Pasford, about 2 weeks of travel away, but… I doubt that even there you would be able to get a map good enough for orientation, except you don’t mind a crude map with no details.”

No good maps, huh? That make it more difficult than it already is. In the first place, I don’t have money, so reaching the town is mandatory before thinking further.

Right as he was planning on how to get there, the girl’s face brightened, as if she just remembered something.

“Right, merchants will come through this village next week. Maybe you are lucky and they have maps that they don’t need anymore. Though it probably won’t show your kingdom, although I had wanted to ask them about that emblem of yours. Thinking of which, how the hell did you even end up here? I was quite surprised when I suddenly saw you collapsed four days ago.”

“Some weird kind of teleportation magic. I don’t know exactly what happened.”

At the word magic, the girl’s eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement.

“You are a mage? Can you teach me?”

Centum shook his head closed his eyes.

“I’m not a mage, just a soldier. I still need some rest though, you are right.”

“Ah!”

It seems the girl just remembered that he was still her patient and hurriedly checked his bandages, before leaving him again.

Holy Kingdom of Regia, huh? If I recall correctly, it was somewhere on the western side of the continent, while the Rovaerus Kingdom is in the east. I still need a map.

According to the girl, merchants with maps would come here in a week, maybe he would even be able to join them until Pasford. With his fighting skills, he could earn money as a wandering mercenary or a guard and get a map at the town.

Until now he had focused on survival, but now that his life wasn’t in immediate danger, he was able to ponder about his teleportation to this place.

I am fairly certain that I activated the magic… but how?

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

That would be another goal for the journey to Pasford, finding out how he had activated that magic and what it was in the first place. For now, he could still wait for the merchants and regain his lost strength. The girl had also mentioned that she found him four days ago, so that meant they had to have a reasonably strong healer, as his wounds wouldn’t have healed in that short time due to his enhancements mostly being gone.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t thanked her or even asked her for her name. On the other hand that mattered little to him anyway.

*

Aylin quickly left the room, as she was reminded that the stranger still was a person recuperating from his wounds. With an embarrassed face, she exited the house and hurried to the mayor to inform him about the man’s origin and ask him about it at the same time.

The man who opened after she knocked was a middle-aged, brown haired man with a thick brown beard and grey streaks in his hair. Though he wasn’t especially tall and was just slightly taller than herself, Aylin felt that he still had an aura around him that made one respect him.

“Sir Dean, the stranger has awakened!”

The mayor nodded and stepped aside to let her enter. She complied and took a seat at the table that was situated in the middle of the room. While telling the mayor about her talk with the patient, he stroked his beard and listened intently.

“Rovaerus Kingdom… According to him it must be some important kingdom that many know about. So it is only reasonable to assume that he ended at basically the other side of the continent, or at least far away.”

Aylin nodded.

“Yeah, but we should ask the merchants for more information. Kelrin also had doubts about him, but we have no way of knowing why or how exactly he ended up here and who he is.”

“Since that is the case, we should simply ask him to leave once he regains his strength. It’s probably what he wants as well.”

Aylin was a little shocked when she heard the mayor’s cold statement, but didn’t speak up as she could see some sense in it and not just simple fear or uncertainty.

On her way back, she noticed that Granny must have come back from a patient at the edge of the village, since there was smoke coming out of the chimney of her house.

When she entered, the smell of mushroom stew greeted her and put a smile on her face.

“Granny, did you already talk to him? He woke up earlier and even started to walk around.”

Granny looked at her with a serious face and nodded.

“Indeed, I have. Though you better be careful with this person, he isn’t normal.”

“Not normal? How?”

Granny sighed and shook her head.

“I can’t quite explain it, but I feel that he’s dangerous. Call it intuition if you want, but when I looked into his eyes, I felt a shiver run down my spine. Let me tell you again, be cautious, Aylin.”

Aylin frowned when she heard that, as she got reminded of Kelrin’s doubts. First him, then the mayor and now even Granny, they all felt something was wrong. So why didn’t she? Was she still too inexperienced?

Well, for now he still is a patient and nothing else, so let’s think about it later.

“Got it, I’ll be careful, but he might know magic! Although he denied it, he still teleported here!”

Granny sighed again and looked at her a little less serious.

“Child, if you want to learn magic so badly to even pester a stranger and patient about it, I will teach you at least a little for now.”

Aylin blanked out for a second.

“Wait, really? Like, actual magic? Granny are you alright?”

Granny chuckled and left the pot with the stew to get a book from her room.

“Yeah, actual magic. Though I didn’t want to teach you and still don’t, if that is really what you want, I will help you. But be warned, magic isn’t as great a power as you think it to be. It is useful and indeed powerful, but at the same time many people envy you if you are able to successfully use it. You will make enemies with it.”

All playfulness from the previous moment had now disappeared from her voice.

“I only know healing magic and even that forced me to retreat here, away from most people.”

Aylin didn’t dare to talk, as Granny basically never told anyone about her past or where she came from. She simply decided to live in the village some day and became known as the healer of the village, while living a quiet life.

With a gloomy voice, she continued.

“You have a high aptitude for magic. That’s why I don’t want to teach you. It will be dangerous if you should ever decide to leave the village, which you will. I know you. Now, do you want to learn magic? Or do you want to continue living your normal life?”

Aylin shuddered involuntarily and took a deep breath to calm down her rapid heartbeat.

“I want to learn magic, please teach me.”

Granny looked at her with a warm gaze.

“Fine, start to read this book. Once you are done with the first chapter, come to me. But now, give the stranger some stew.”

With a smile, the old woman put down the book and filled a bowl with stew.

*

Centum was silent, as he listened to the conversation between the old woman that talked to him earlier and the girl, Aylin, as the old woman had called her. Apparently the woman was the one who healed him and not the girl, as he had assumed.

Healing magic seems useful. Since I succeded with that teleportation magic somehow, maybe healing can be a success too?

In any case, it wouldn’t hurt him to listen in to some of the lessons the girl was receiving. However, first of all, he had to find himself a new weapon and armor. Thinking that the merchants would come soon, he couldn’t help but wonder about his luck.

The next day, Centum was deemed recovered and was able to walk around freely again. Despite that, he still was allowed to stay in the guest room of the old woman’s house. While taking a stroll through the village, he noticed that the majority of people looked at him warily.

Must be because I apparently seem dangerous.

Since the people didn’t want anything to do with him, Centum left the village and built himself a makeshift wooden sword with a sturdy branch and a knife he borrowed from the girl, Aylin. Once he was done sharpening and forming it, he wrapped some cloth around the hilt and fastened it with two small nails that he drove into the branch with a rock.

With the new sword, he was able to continue his daily training even though only partly. After about an hour of going through the different sword maneuvers, he noticed a few spectators, namely three boys from the village.

Centum stopped in the middle of a swing and turned towards them. Noticing they had been noticed, the children flinched when they saw his glare and ran away.

That was an unfortunate event. My reputation should be even lower soon. I need to leave here soon.

In order to not be driven out of the village, he helped the people with some construction work or hunting, but the villagers seemingly got even more scared of him, when they saw how he killed a boar with nothing but a pebble thrown through its head.

In the evenings, he listened in on the old woman’s lessons for Aylin and started to understand its concept, however even though he understood a little, he knew he had barely scratched the surface of possibilities.

Even if he got discovered and the villagers became hostile, he would still be able to massacre them. No training, crude techniques, no footwork at all. Convinced of his victory probability, Centum trained controlling the magic at his usual spot outside the village, but he never was able to heal more than a simple scratch from a branch.

It was the sixth day after he woke up and he was trying out healing magic as usual when he heard the sound of footsteps and an old voice.

“So you have listened in after all.”

Centum stopped his actions in an instant and went through the possible outcomes in his head. The next moment, he gripped his sword tighter.