“And as fellow conspirators…” Prink continues, but my mind goes blank. The loud jeers from the cloud, the guards surrounding us, partially directing their weapons on us, the confused looks on the faces of my travel companions. I take everything in. One of the guards approaches me with an outstretched arm, grabbing my arm and dragging me.

My memory flashes me the situation I spent so long in. Trapped in a lump of metal for god knows how long. They’re sending me back. Every inch of my body screams to run.

I immediately pull my arm towards myself. I can’t run through the crowds surrounding us, so I only see one way. I run towards the palace.

Some of Prink’s entourage moves in front of him to detect him, but I have no plans to attack them, only running is on my mind and I leap over them. I quickly debating jumping or climbing the fence surrounding the palace, but I get an idea. There is a certain item that could help me escape. I rush into the palace.

I try to remember where to go. I don’t remember the palace’s layout well. I recognize a face of a servant who came to me with food.

“Lead me to my room!” I scream at him. He turns pale and points in a direction. I hear people running after me, and while I would have loved to bring him with me, I just start running in the direction he pointed, up some stairs.

Suddenly, the corridor seems slightly familiar and I am fairly confident I pick the correct room. When Spetus was brought here, he did not bring only my sword, but also this piece of cloth. I hastily tie it around my neck.

As people have appeared in the opening to the room, I kick open the ornamented pieces of wood that serve as shutters for the hole in the wall that serve as a window and jump out, gliding.

There’s not that much height to gain, so I land on the street close to the plaza after a little while. I turn and see an absolute horde of people coming after me.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

With force plenty enough to break my legs, I kick off again. I go flying maybe 150 feet in the air.

As I gaze down I see various face is shock. I feel good. I feel safe now. While the cape speed is slower than my running speed, I am no longer surrounded. I can get out.

I manage to land on the wall surrounding the capital and while it hurts like hell to do it with my broken bones, I kick off with full force again and glide away.

I have a sudden ill feeling welling up in me. Shouldn’t I have tried to plead innocent? To give my side of the story? I suddenly feel regret. But the fear of being trapped again wells up in me. Guess that experience did more damage than I thought.

After some time and having gotten far away enough to leave the capital in the fog, I feel another instance of regret. How well can I run away with broken legs? What if they chase after me? As I panic, landing again I kick off with another show of force. The pain is so intense I feel tears welling up in my eyes. How long can I continue this for?

Four jumps later, I give in. It’s like my mind is consumed by the pain. Like I don’t even care if they lock me up now, only if the pain subsides. It hurts so much the sporadic idea from a few days earlier cross my mind again.

With strangely sure hands, I grab my own head and twist with full force.

It is morning. The pain is gone. I haven’t been seized. Relief wells up in my heart but I am unsure what to do now. If they think I killed the hero, what am I to do? Where in the world could the suspected murderer of a pope-like figure find amnesty? In the places of other religions?

Luckily, this world is sparsely populated compared to my old one. There are miles and miles of unsettled land, due to the specific dungeon needed to sustain a city, or even a village. Picking myself up, I just wander in a wander in a general direction. I don’t run.

I go through my bag while walking to pick Dixy up. I open her. What question should I ask? How to restore my name? How to avoid civilization? Many such ideas roam through my head.

In the end, whether it being me not thinking Dixy will provide an adequate answer, or just trying to escape from these thoughts, I turn to where we last left of. “These were the characters for metals, right?” I ask it.

“Yes, starting from the left, Iron, rubrite, azurite, flavite”

And so, even in the current situation, all that matters to me right now is learning to read while speaking with Dixy.