I woke up early in the morning, the sun was just starting to rise and it was very cold, like most nights sleeping outside.

Still, I managed to resist it, I didn’t catch a cold in this world, which was something I enjoyed very much, there probably weren’t many medieval remedies for a blocked nose, and considering this world sits somewhere around that time, I’m sure any remedies that do exist are brutal and probably give you worse problems.

Maybe sickness just didn’t exist here.

Meh, time to check out this village, I’ve got better stuff to do than ponder about the biology of this world.

I stood up and looked at the settlement, it was a village alright.

I walked over to it and noticed a lake off to the side, my emotions got the better of me, I screamed with joy as I sprinted over, finally taking my first bath in who knows how long.

I dove in and started scrubbing my face with my crimson hands, I was white, very pale, I don’t know how it came to this, but my face and arms were just completely crimson, I looked down at my reflection and I was just completely caked in dirt and blood, when I rubbed my hands together in the water it made a small cloud before dissipating completely. I had no sponge so my hands and nails had to do, over the course of about 20 minutes I managed to rinse myself off of everything completely, my clothes were a bit stained even after soaking and being wiped for most of those minutes, but I just had to deal with it.

Now I went to the village, I had to get the food for the rebels and get back quickly, the group might think I’d gone missing.

I got out of the lake and ran over to the village, I patted myself all over for the card Garrick gave me and almost thought I’d have to dive back into the water to get it, but it was just in a weird position in my pocket.

Alright, now to go to this village.

I walked up to one of the houses and knocked on the door.

“I’m with the empire, open up immediately.”

I heard scurried, yet faint voices in the background, something about running away.

A woman in her 80s opened the door, she was wearing a blue robe with very baggy sleeves and some very ornate patterns.

“Hello, sir. What do you need of us?” She asked politely.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I flashed my card to her. “I need to get some food from your farm to feed the people in the forges.”

“Ah, I see, she said.”

“Fuck you, empire scum, we’ve had it with you. You always try to take our people, force them into work or just kill them, no, I will not allow it, fuck you.”

“Oh, that means we’re exactly on the same page, we’re rebels just trying to get food.”

“Why do you have a Knight’s card? Why don’t you make your own? Your tricks won’t work on me jackass!”

“I heard some younger folk scurrying away, the empire wouldn’t have use for someone old like you, but they could use some younger and fitter folk, otherwise I would be capturing them and forcing them to work. No, I want you to support us against these people.”

“How do I know you’re not stringing me along, empire scum!”

“I can’t really prove it to you, I just need you to trust me, ok?”

“I won’t, piss off.”

I walked away and saw 2 boys wearing the same robes running off along the horizon, coincidentally, it was the direction of the speakeasy, so maybe I would see them soon.

Time to move on to the next house, if they were that vocal about their hatred of the empire, maybe I could open with that.

I walked over and knocked on the door, waiting for another person to answer. This time it was some older man, I came clean that I was part of some rebel group and I needed support in the form of food, his two sons came over and looked me up and down, trying to intimidate me, but I wasn’t being disingenuous, so I don’t think I had anything to worry about.

“Well, if you are rebels, you ain’t gonna force us, you don’t wanna be like them. But you say you do really need this food, I say your guys do something for us. If we get protection from Empire thugs, we’ll consider it.”

“Consider them off your backs already,” I said, flashing them Garrick’s card. “He’s our boss, he can distract everyone with bureaucratic bullshit and hopefully get whoever wants to come over here to quit looking”

“Well, young man, I didn’t know you had much firepower behind you, that’s a knight? Well, I’ll be damned. I’ll send my sons over there to meet him, pleasure working with you.”

“You’re just gonna trust-” I stopped my words right there, I wasn’t up to anything malicious, if he trusted his boys with the group, then so be it.

“And how about the food?”

“Ah, I’ll get that done soon, I’ll ask the neighbors for help too, we have enough food for quite a long time.”

I don’t know how quickly food decomposed in this world, but judging from this statement, it took a while, otherwise, they wouldn’t have large stockpiles. I didn’t see massive rolling hills full of whatever crop they grew. Or maybe it just grew really fast, this was a fantasy world with cool loot box items.

I looked at these two sons of his, they were certainly higher level than me, in fact, I think they could compare to some of the tougher men I saw in the speakeasy like Garrick and Kashubian.

“Y’all right?”

They didn’t talk, they just nodded in unison and kept following behind me.

“Alright then, it’s gonna be a long walk.”