After I talked to the princess, I left the shack in search of the mount she had told me about. What I found was not a mount, but what appeared to be a person. While the sight of a human was reassuring given the personalities I had met before this, I wasn't able to put my full trust into anything here except the one the beautiful princess had entrusted me with.

The man appeared to be middle aged, yet elegant. He stood tall and had his hands folded behind his back in a proud manner. Everything about this man screamed that he was at the very least, a high servant of royalty, and I had the feeling my only option was to trust him.

"Excuse me, sir"

The man turned my way when I said this, and stared at me.

"I'm looking for somebody named Bastion, on behalf of Princess Lilyana."

"So, it's true then"

The man looked sad as he spoke with an english accent, reminding me of an old butler of sorts.

"Please, I don't want to let her die in vain"

I was pleading. What else can I do? Coming to this world was a major shock to me, and then after everything that happened it ended in tragedy. I couldn't let her death mean nothing.

"Of course sir, please come here"

As I walked over to the man, another insane occurance I would have never believed yesterday fell before my eyes. The butler had transformed into a horse, and an unordinarily large horse at that.

Wait.

That's not a horse.

Upon the head of the majestic beast was a spiraling horn. The horse was black through and through, but the horn was a beautiful ivory color.

There is a mythical beast standing before me.

Cautiously, I walked towards him, and it seemed like the saddle had somehow already been mounted. Perhaps this is more magic at work, though it's still a mystery to me. I managed to pull myself up in one go, thankfully not embarrassing myself too much in front of this beautiful creature.

As soon as I got on the saddle, a new force I hadn't felt before pushed on me. It was as if there were some sort of magical seatbelt attached to this saddle.

I once owned a motorcycle, and there were a few times where I had been a bit risky and driven much faster than the posted speed limit. The wind in my face at that time was refreshing, it was dangerous, yet I felt free.

This was different. I had never felt this in my life, and I was more terrified than I had ever been. This was at least twice as fast as I had ever dared to go on my bike.

After about 15 minutes of moving at this speed, we started to slow down. Eventually, bastion came to a stop. After I dismounted and fell to the ground in a dizzy mess, he reverted back to his human form and bowed to me deeply.

"Greetings, Lord Klein. The dying wish of Princess Lilyana was that I look after you and assist with your safety. I apologize for the sudden speed while we were fleeing that place, but we had no choice if we wanted to escape with our lives."

I don't remember telling him my name.

But I understand what he's saying. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth, yet why do I feel this way? My emotions that have been building up since I arrived in this world are pushing at the gates.

This man is calm, he is patient, incredibly respectful. He doesn't deserve the wrath that my heart so desperately needs to distribute. The grievances of an aching, confused heart are more than I could dump on this beautiful creature.

"Master Klein, I'm a unicorn. I can read your heart like a book. Speak your mind so that I may assist in your troubles."

With that, I couldn't stop myself any longer. I wasn't saying it with the intention of taking my problems out on Bastion, but by telling me those words he opened a floodgate.

"WHY THE FUCK AM I HERE? WHY ARE THERE MONSTERS SUMMONING ME TO THIS STRANGE WORLD AND TRYING TO TAKE OVER MY MIND?"

My voice trailed lower and began to tremble.

"Why did they have to die for me? I'm not worth what they say I am."

What was received by my outburst was not anger, and not excuses. I was embraced by the butler with tears streaming down my eyes, such as a child is embraced by their father.

"It's not your fault."

I haven't cried like that for years, and to be reduced to that state in a single day surprised me immensely.

After what felt like an hour, I told him about exactly what happened in that room, and we set off to the kingdom of Sargonya.

We went much slower this time, it felt like the speed an actual horse would probably gallop, and it was a welcome change of pace. Though I'm no expert in horseback riding, it seemed that Bastion had no concern for my skill, and instead would simply take me where I want to go.

We arrived at a small town called varillio just as night was beginning to fall. It was obvious that Bastion was exhausted, though he refused to show it. I guess running at that insane pace took a lot of energy from him.

That being said, riding into the town was awkward. When you have a man in strange clothing riding a unicorn, people are bound to stare. People were curious, but they seemed to shy off a bit when we got close.

Once Bastion changed back to his original form, we decided to start talking around a bit to look for some quick work. As it turns out, Bastion has been Lilyana's personal servant since she was born. He was more of a father to her than the king, and he never received any sort of payment for taking care of her. After all, all his meals had been provided and he didn't need to worry about lodging.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

That being said, we were broke. Me being a traveler from another world without knowledge on the world's currency, and Bastion, a penniless unicorn.

We ended up setting up camp not far outside of town that night, it didn't look like it would rain and the summer made it fairly refreshing to be outside.

The following morning, we visited some of the local shops to find somebody looking for help. I couldn't help but have a strange feeling as they all turned us down one by one.

Maybe it was the demeanor of the residents in the town, or how it seemed that everybody was afraid to get to know us, but something was giving me a bad feeling.

In the end, I decided to do what any smart man would do.

Eavesdrop.

I mean I didn't eavesdrop personally, Bastion explained to me that this world has some sort of level system intertwined with it, so right now I'm actually level 1. I'm slightly stronger than the average person and definitely better trained, but outside of those aspects I'm just a regular guy right now.

Bastian isn't very high level, in order to raise your level you need to engage in combat and win, kind of like getting experience in a game. As a Unicorn, his forte is quick movement. Due to this and the fact that his previous master was so strong, he didn't have many opportunities to fight for himself. His level is about 10, but his speed, endurance and health will never change regardless of what level he achieves. Those were maxed the day he became an adult.

However, as a level 10, he's more nimble than I am and can easily sneak around to listen in on conversations. So we decided I would wait at our camp for news.

"Master Klein"

"Oh, hey you're back already! That was fast"

"Unfortunately, yes. I've learned news that I believe I cannot stand by and ignore"

What's happened? It's gotta be something serious if he's this worried about it.

"What's the news Bastion?"

"It seems the lord of this land has become a demon. Or he was possibly killed and had a demon put in his place as a doppelganger."

I understand why he's worried. I've met these demons and seen what they're capable of.

"It seems that this is a low level demon, and an especially cruel one"

"A low level demon has the townspeople so riled up?"

"I believe the misunderstanding you have in this aspect would be the lack of world knowledge you possess. A low level demon is different from a low level adventurer. I would venture to guess the demon is probably around level 20. It would be possible for an experienced team of adventurers to take it out with relative ease, but this is a small town on the border of a nation. Adventurers of that caliber rarely come out to an area like this, and the demon would likely grow in strength by the time they do."

"So, why are the people in town avoiding us like the plague?"

"I can't say, for now we need to be cautious in our movements."

After our conversation, Bastion went back to town to see if he could gather more information.

What's going on with the people around here? Is it mind control again? To keep them from giving away information?

Just as I was thinking that, I heard movement in the bush near me.

Crap.

That burst of strength at the castle was the result of the mind control, and is completely gone now. I don't even have a weapon right now, I was hoping to buy something when I managed to get some money. These circumstances definitely aren't looking good for me.

I've always kept myself in good shape, and been confident in a fight between myself and another human. What I'm worried about is the monsters of this world. Level 1? Level 10? What's the difference in strength between them?

The time I had to think was quickly stripped away as I realized what was approaching me. I instantly recognized it.

The monster before me was about 4 feet tall, and stood in armor that seemed rusty, with a sword appearing to be on it's last leg. Even so, a damaged sword wins out over no sword. The green skin and ugly face were obvious, but I also noticed that his muscles seemed to be fairly well defined.

This is a goblin.

It looked at me, as if it was eyeing up the situation. Despite the size and weight difference, I was at a disadvantage due to the sheer fact that I had no weapon. The light of the camp fire had the effect of making this threat more ominous.

Should I run? Or should I fight?

In games and stories, goblins rarely fight alone. I only see one, but could there be more hiding in the shadows?

Just as I was thinking this, the goblin charged me. He was fast. My options had been lowered to one, and I ended up jumping to the side and rolling towards the camp fire. I managed to escape a fatal swing of it's sword, but my left shoulder had been cut. Maybe it was the adrenaline running through me, but the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be for a wound this deep.

I had a bit of a plan in my mind, but there was no way to be certain if it would work. As soon as I stood up from my roll, I ran towards the fire and kicked it as hard as I could in the direction the goblin was facing. The smaller pieces of kindling blew in his face, and he let out a startled noise.

This was my chance. I rushed the goblin as fast as I could while he was distracted, and after a quick punch to the face I went after the sword.

The goblin was surprised. Maybe it had expected me to be weak prey, or maybe it thought I would fight fair. The look of terror in it's eyes made me feel pity, but this monster had attacked me. I had not picked a fight with it.

Slowly the wrist the goblin was using to hold the sword twisted back towards him. Though I was no expert, the knowledge I had of jujitsu came in handy with manipulating his joints. Despite the struggling monster, the sword slowly moved towards his neck, and eventually pierced.

I wonder if it would have begged for its life if it could talk. I feel that if I had begged for mine, this is the same fate I would have received.

Letting the lifeless corpse fall to the ground, I picked up the old sword and took the sheath for it from the goblin. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was better than nothing. Just then, I heard something else.

Goblins don't travel alone. Maybe this one was a scout that got cocky.

I was completely surrounded, there were six goblins in total. All of them had about the same type of gear the first had. To be honest, I was kind of hoping for a miracle here.

Each one of these had the strength slightly less than that of a human, but with weapons and numbers on their side my disadvantage was massive.

I really hate to use the same tactic twice, but it's pretty much what it had come to. When you're fighting against multiple people, the best way to lose is to get surrounded.

I kicked the remaining embers of the fire towards the two goblins directly in front of me. It seemed to daze them enough for me to make my escape directly through. Pushing off, I let my sword slice along the throat of one of the goblins as I ran. He crumbled to the ground as I ran past.

The remaining goblins were chasing me, and I was already tired from the previous fight. The tactic that I was planning to use was simple. The best way to fight multiple enemies with swords is to try and isolate them so they're forced to fight individually.

I hid behind a tree.

As soon as one of the goblins passed by, I lunged at him with my sword. It ended up being effective, and I pulled the bloody sword from the dead goblin.

The armor they were wearing wasn't something I could pierce, but there were plenty of openings and it was by no means plate armor. I'd say it was more like pieces of metal that protected some of their vital organs.

"Two down, four to go."

I whispered this to myself quietly as I continued to run, and just as I had taken out the last one I managed to kill two more.

Then it hit me.

I looked in my shoulder to see an arrow that wasn't there before, and a few seconds later another hit a tree close by me.

I can't fight that.

Was I going to die here?

Another arrow hit the back of my thigh while I ran, and I felt the pain coursing through me as I pushed myself to continue moving.

One of the goblins had a bow, I didn't notice because of how fast I fled. At this point, my mobility was completely gone. I was slowly limping away, trying to stay under the cover of trees so the arrows would miss their target.

""

The woman's voice came from my left, followed by a flash of light towards the goblin. My eyes went dark as the blood loss took effect.