The approaching soldiers rode 3 wide and went back pretty far. I guessed there might have been 25 of them or more. They split along the sides of the wide, packed dirt road and continued in single columns at a trot down both sides of the caravan. They adeptly avoided bodies while both looking at the trees and the dead. The soldiers were speaking softly to each other, their horses and armor only adding to the prevailing cacophony. The noise was loud enough that I couldn’t help my eyes from darting around while I calmly kept my hands out to the side, palms up, seeming as innocent as I could.

Riding up to me, the lead three soldiers (knights?) stopped within a few meters. ‘Damn, those are some big-ass horses.’ I thought.

“Boy! What happened here?” The leader demanded in a clear and deep voice. He sounded exactly like an annoyed cop that showed up at the aftermath of a bar fight. Apparently, this scene didn’t shock him as much as it shocked me; and I thought the emotionally muted haze I had going on was bad.

‘Ouch! What the hell was that?!?’ My head spiked in pain, making me wince. As quickly as the migraine came, it left. ‘Probably a language download or something’ I deduced through my extensive knowledge of this trope.

I looked down and put on the most sincere grimace I could manage. “This caravan was attacked while I was sleeping in one of the carts. I managed to hide from the looting while I heard them killing everyone. I don’t know who did this. The noise was horrible. Screaming, crying, and shouting. It was fucking horrible. The moment I thought I was safe, I came out and switched shirts with one of the poor people killed. I was planning to pretend to be dead if they came back. Luckily you all showed up. Thank you for being here!” I tried to look relieved and still solemn. ‘Nailed it!’

The troops had made a perimeter up and down the road. There were definitely more of them than I thought, at least 50 of them. Most of them were in chain mail and those metal conical helmets. ‘Were those thick shirts called hauberks?’ I wondered. Looking around, about half of them had dismounted and started gathering the dead while searching the area. There were a few in fancier armor that were doing some sort of investigation on the arrows and tracks. It all seemed very professional and not at all what I’d assume a simple dark ages investigation would look like.

The leader opened the front of his helm by pushing it into the top of his helmet, as though THAT was totally normal. ‘OK, that was freaking cool. I have no idea how that works.’ I thought.

His chin was sharp, defined like can opener, and had a close shaved beard. As he was on a horse, I had no idea how tall he was. Regardless, he looked intimidating as hell. I wondered if he would look as imposing if I weren’t forced to look up at him.

I caught the look in his piercing gray eyes. The answer was yes. ‘I wouldn’t match stares with that guy if I were behind a door and looking at him through a peephole while holding a bat.’ Realizing that somehow the three horses have turned a little to block off my escape routes and they were all staring at me (even the freaking horses), I involuntarily shrunk a little.

“Blackwood! How much of what he just said was a load of horse shit?” The leader said as he stared at me blankly.

Like a bolt of lightning, I realized my mistake. ‘This is a world with magic and skills and whatnot. They probably have lie detector magic, and intuition skills, and other things I haven’t even heard of.’ I realized I might be in some serious trouble.

“Sir, everything he said was a lie. But it was weird. My skill felt no deception. A child can lie better than him. It’s like he purposefully wanted us to know, without a doubt, that he was full of shit. I don’t get it.” The man on the right said in a slightly younger voice, while still hidden behind his full helm.

The man in charge just cocked his head slightly to the side and said, “Well boy? What do you have to say for yourself?”

I was so caught off guard by being called out so efficiently that I just stuttered for a few seconds.

In a tight, but slightly louder voice, the leader demanded “Young man, you WILL answer any and all questions I put to you. Otherwise, I WILL take my wasted time out of your hide. Are there any Gurs in these woods?”

Confused, I stuttered “G-Gurs? I don’t know what those are. But I’m pretty sure based on all the wounds to these people, and the arrows, that this was a raid of some sort. They didn’t seem to mess with any of the bodies other than killing and robbing them. But that’s really all I know.”

“Truth” said Blackwood. For the first time the three exchanged glances, freeing me from the icy stare of the leader. Silence stretched as they seemed to communicate without saying anything. My eyes kept bouncing back and forth between them as I rubbed my sweaty hands on my pants. ‘What is that weird feeling in the air? It’s like I can hear talking from far away outside a window.’

“You don’t know who the Islangurs are?” the leader said to me with a pensive furrow to his brow.

“Um… No sir. Or my lord?” I really need to shut up. I can feel myself sounding like an idiot. Why can’t I have just said that I don’t know anything and just got here. The internet always said to answer questions simply and ONLY answer what you were asked.

The man in charge didn’t seem to blink. “I am Captain Angelton. Do you know where you are? And what is your name son?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

A name, I need a name. Magic might have some true name bullshit or something. Every book I’ve ever read went with some variation of gamer tag, so that’s easy. “I’m Nero. Nero…. Um…. Walker?” I could FEEL them confirming that I’m an idiot. I already knew that they could tell if I was lying. What the hell was the point of that.

“Alright Nero, where do come from? How did you join the merchant train? And once again, do you know where you are?” the leader asked, this time with a full on smile. He didn’t even bother to ask Blackwood if I was lying.

Before I was able to reply, Blackwood interrupted. “He’s telling the truth sir. His name really is Nero Walker. I sensed no lie, even though it’s obvious he just made it up.”

Stunned, I just looked at him with my mouth open. ‘OK, I guess that’s my name now. Wait! Stat sheet!’ I mentally opened my status page to see if my name shows up.

Name

Nero Walker

Level

1

Race

Human

Growth

26%

Tier

1

Condition

91%

Age

14

Center

100%

Body

0

Mind

0

Soul

0

Confluence

10

Opening in my mind, I realized that it wasn’t a hologram or in my vision at all. The interface was purely in my mind, and I had no issue with it being open aside from my attention being pulled to it. The moment I realized my “growth” had gone up, I thought ‘How the hell did I gain experience points?’

I sensed a list waiting in my mind. I opened it to see all my itemized gains. Line after line of small increases in skills like Analysis, Identification, Tracking, Composure, Meditation, Focus, Essence Sense (what the hell is that), and even Lying. Mouth agape I just stared forward with what must have been the most bewildered expression of my life. One skill stood out in bright gold.

Skill Gained – Local Common

“The world has a voice, and all shall share it. From now on, you will KNOW why someone is trying to kill you.”

“Boy, did you just awaken?” said the leader with his amused, and confident smile with his hands now resting gently on the pommel of his horse.

‘What the fuck is going on, this is NOT a leveling system I signed up for.’ I was under the impression when I went through the soul-door thing that I would transmigrate into a baby and grow up in a nice family, or an orphan or something. ‘I’m supposed to have a protagonist journey damn it. Where is my six months of living on my own in the forest while I learn to hunt and master my skills to become some kind of chosen one!’

“Um… yes. I think I awakened.” I replied with a sour look filled with repressed rage.

“You don’t understand anything that’s going on, do you?” the Captain asked with what was now an even wider smile. His two men have seemed to have raised their helms and were all clearly having a great laugh at my expense. They sat there with their smiles as wide as can be, and were not in any way wary anymore.

My temper was starting to slip and I could feel the embarrassment turning my face red, which just made it worse. I was failing miserably at my new life, and it brought back all the emotional trauma of the old one. In an instant, I KNEW what I was feeling and more importantly WHY. Like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, my emotions cooled.

‘What the fuck do I care what these assholes think? Of course I’m confused. I’m not going to make the same mistakes I did before. I’ll do better, every second I’ll learn more. Eventually these (admittedly cool) douche-bags will look up at me. This world is my chance to become more than I was. I will seize my future in my hands and wrestle fate itself if I have to.’ I swore to myself.

It was like all the self-help, cringe, weeb culture that I had absorbed in my youth crystallized into one internal rant. Apparently, in this world, self realizations can actually happen.

“No Sir. I have no idea what’s going on. I have no memories of joining this caravan. I just woke up a little before you all showed up and I was surrounded by wolves. I hid in that carriage ‘till they left, then looked around for a bit. Then you all showed up. That’s it.” I declared, while hoping that he had no more questions.

The Captain rubbed his chin and asked “But do you have any idea where you come from?”

“I just woke up here. I don’t even feel like this body is mine. When I awakened I saw that I was 14, that’s about all I know.” I replied while spreading my arms helplessly. ‘Not any lies, technically.’

Captain Angelton turned to Blackwood and asked “Well?”

“Yup. Even the part about it being “all he knows”. The poor kid has no idea what’s going on. He is filled with confusion, but damn does he have a strong center. His psychic field is all over the place.” Blackwood chuckled.

The Captain nodded to himself as if he had made a decision, then he straightened up in his saddle. Putting on an aura of command, he said “Alright. Sergeant Blackwood, go see if Sergeant Williamson has found anything of use, and see if we have tracks. If so, send out Johnson and his squad to shadow them and find out where they lead, and see what’s out there.”

He then turned to the silent man on my left “Borson, get the men moving. I want the dead collected with whatever goods that are left. Put them in whatever wagons are still functional and send 10 men to return with extra horses and tack and hitch them. Anything left over, I want off this road and cleaned up.” He paused and looked over to Nero “Also have them bring an extra mount for the boy. I don’t want to be here in an hour.”

Both men replied with a crisp “Yes sir” and turned their mounts to their duties. As they headed off, the Captain dismounted and walked his horse to the wagon I was standing near. He loosely tied it up and gave it a few pats then walked over to me.

He was a big man, must be over 7ft. Wait, I’m a kid. How tall am I? Maybe he was over 6 ft. Either way, He walked over in his full armor, wide enough to be confused for a tank. As I looked up at him, I thought about how great he would have done in the WWE, or as an actor for some streaming platform.

“Let’s have a talk son” He said and put a large hand on my shoulder. I looked up and gulped.