In the end, we did not manage to reach the next town by nightfall and were forced to make camp in the woods. Rebecca had made the choice before I had even realised there was a choice to make, scanning the area for dry branches and picking them up without a comment or explanation. Shortly before nightfall, she had made a fire. We slept half the night each, keeping guard in case someone was following or tracking us, but luckily, nothing happened.

  On the evening of the second day after the Squire died, we reached Seleman, more village than town, encircled by a small palisade of sharpened logs and two men in leather armor with a halberd each, standing at the entrance guarding it. One of them had horns and cow ears hanging from under his leather cap.

  I couldn't help but wonder if the armor was made from pig leather or, if not, there was some sort of cannibalism problem with a cow person wearing leather. That made me wonder how Rebecca felt about dogs.

  It was at that point that I noticed that I hadn't seen a regular dog or cat, for that matter, since I had come to this world. It could just have been bad luck, right? Chances were there were dogs and cats, and I simply had not met them yet. That was the most likely explanation.

  I noticed the horned guard looked at me funny, but Rebecca waved him off: “He′s like that since I married him, always deep in his thoughts. He′s not noticing that he′s staring.” That startled me fully out of my thoughts. “So-sorry, didn't mean to stare.”

  “He′s got a bit of an accent.”, the other guard said, running his hand through a beard.

  That was certainly a first since I had come here. “You noticed?”, I asked. “I practised so long to not have one anymore.” Him recongizing me having an accent implied that there was someone who spoke my native language in this world as well.”

  “It's barely there if that helps.” Rebecca looked between him and me as if trying to figure out what accent I had.

  “It does.”, I said, shifting from one foot onto the other.

  “Another thing.”, Rebecca interrupted, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere. “We′re looking for a Leporid named Simon. A merchant? Came here with an Equida named Emily?”

  The two guards thought for a bit. “Passed by here a day ago. They were rushing like they were being chased by tax collectors. They didn't stop for long, just enough to stock up on food and water.”

  Rebecca sighed, and her ears drooped. ”And here I was hoping we′d manage to catch up to them.”

  “Are you friends?”, the guard asked.

  “They hired us.”, I said. “We held back an attacker and told them to flee. So we′re now trying to catch up to them again.

  The guards looked at each other. “There should be a place at the Inn.”, the bullhorned guard said. “We got some dwarves in this week, but I doubt that's a problem.” Rebecca′s hair stood on end. “Surely you′re not suggesting-”

  “Do you wanna catch up to them?”, the guard asked, and Rebecca sighed again. “We do.”

  As we were let into the village, Rebecca was tense. “Hey.”, I said, looking at her. “Everything ok?” the woman took a deep breath.

  “Do you have a problem with dwarves?”, I asked, but she shook her head. “No, dwarves are fine, never had any of them treat me wrong or something. On purpose at least.”

  “What do you mean by that?”, I asked, feeling myself tense up.

  “I′ve travelled with one before.”, she said. “On their roaring monsters of steel and the stink of waking up after having had too much the night before. Just thinking back makes me want to throw up.”

  “But are they fast?”, I asked as we walked to the inn.

  “I don't think anybody below a C-Rank can keep up with their speed on regular ground. And on what they call proper ground… they might catch up to the slower S-Ranks.

  When we entered the tavern, nobody paid us any mind. Demihumans and humans alike sat in this tavern, drinking together, trying their best not to be too obvious when staring at the dwarves, dressed in rugged leather clothes and metal helmets, in the middle of the tavern, who were enraptured in a conversation.

  One of the dwarves, helmet decorated with silver engravings, sipped on his beer before saying to his friend:

  “Ich glaub nicht, dass wir uns zu sehr hetzen müssen./I don't think we need to hurry that much.”

  “Mag sein, ich hab trotzdem keine Lust das Fest zu verpassen./Maybe, but I'm not in the mood to miss the festival.”

  “Letztes mal haste uns gehetzt bis wir zu früh da waren und dann hattest du keine lust auf das fest zu warten und wir sind wieder abgehaut./Last time you kept rushing till we came too early. And then you couldn't be bothered to wait, and we left.”

  Rebecca looked at the two. “We gotta wait till they decide to switch back to the common tongue. They consider it impolite to have to switch languages to talk to you, and we need something from them.” I felt a grin come to my face.

  “I see. Thats a problem.”, I said and stepped forward to the two. Rebecca grabbed my shoulder and was about to pull me back before I said:

  “Meine Herren, dürfte ich kurz st?ren?/Gentlemen, would you mind if I quickly interrupt you?”

  Rebecca′s eyes widened, and so did the dwarf's eyes. The second one, the one with no patience apparently, dropped his mug over his pants and began cursing in words I will not repeat here.

  “You speak dwarvish?

  “Du sprichst zwergisch?”, the dwarf asked, the same question as Rebecca, separated by languages. “Und dann auch noch akzentfrei/And accent free at that.”

  I simply nod at Rebecca before continuing with the dwarf.

  “Jap. Tue ich. K?nnten ich und meine Frau uns setzen? Wir haben eine kleine bitte./Yep. I do. Could me and my wife sit with you? We have a small request.”

  We exchanged pleasantries for a little while. Their names were Drumm and Thost, and they were brothers. Both of them insisted on being the older brother in charge of their expedition. I managed to ask them to speak in the common tongue so Rebecca could follow the conversation as well, which earned me a thankful look from her.

  “So you′re asking for us to take you along the road, that's all?”, Drumm asked. “Yeah, that's the gist of it.”, I said. “And I'd be willing to pay-” Drumm waved off. “My brother and I carry almost more money than we can carry, why dont you tell us why you wanna catch up with that other group?”

  Rebecca relayed the story of how we were Simon's guards and all that. I wasn't quite able to follow her as I felt myself doze off more and more. The lack of sleep was catching up with me, and soon I was slumped against Rebecca, barely able to keep my eyes open.

  -

  I didn't know how much time passed when I found myself awake on a pile of hay, Rebecca just inches away, still snoring. I looked at her, framed by moonlight and couldn't help but think of how much seeing her like this reminded me of that night I had seen her for the first time, pinning me to the wall. I found myself wondering how she felt about me now.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “You′re a slight bit useful to her.”, a voice in my head said. “But that's all you wanted back home, right? All you dared to want.”

  I sat up, sighing. When had I last heard that inner voice? Back home? I got up. The moon was high, but if I kept lying here, I wouldn't be able to get to sleep while thinking like that, and that wouldn't stop for a while.

  “Desperate for anybody to accept you, to keep you around.”, the voice gleefully poked at the sore spots of my soul. “Youd have followed a pretty face till the end of the world as long as it lowered itself enough to treat you as a human being, right? Hell, even that pretty face part was negotiable for you.”

  I stepped out of the stables, the cold air hitting me in the face before washing over my body like a shower of needles.

  “Could′ve just stayed at the mansion, that little maid looked like she was into whoever this body belonged to, why′d you have to ruin a good thing for yourself?”

  I began running through the streets, between the buildings, anything to get the thoughts out of my head.

  “But I get it, cowards like yo-”, I plunged my head into a rainbarrel, the cold water took my breath away and drove me into shivers, but it also cleared my head.

  I pulled my face out of the barrel and sat down, letting the ice-cold water run down my body, sending shivers through me as I focused on every single detail rather than where my mind had wandered before. I could get sick for all I cared so long as the voice kept away.

  So [New World Mental Block] couldn't do shit against thoughts and memories I dragged from my past life. I should have guessed, given the name, but it was frustrating. I ran my fingers through my hair—no point thinking of it, quite the opposite, actually, anything but thinking of that.

  When Rebecca woke up, she gave a chipper: “Good morning.”, and stretched, every joint in her back cracking. She smacked her lips together in satisfaction as she plucked hay out of her hair. “I think I missed sleeping in hay.”, she said with a chuckle. “Haven't slept this well in weeks.” I yawned, and her gaze fell on me.

  “You look horrible.”, Rebecca said. ”Did you have a nightmare?”

  I got up. It hadn't taken long after the plunge in cold water that my self-destructive thoughts returned. I had spent the rest of the night sitting in the hay, unable to find enough peace of mind to sleep. “Kinda.”, I lied.

  “Do you wanna talk about it?”, Rebecca asked. She crawled closer to me, and it took everything in me not to look at her.

  “It's fine.”, I lied and forced a more cheerful expression onto my face. “Now, I'm curious what type of horrible transport those dwarves have.”

  I could hear the put-put-put of the vehicle before I could smell it and smell the scent of fermented pineapple, maybe slightly like old rum that I presumed to be the vehicle's exhaust. Standing before the dwarves, I couldn't help but stare for a few moments.

  “Wow.”, I whispered as I stepped closer.

  “No worry, it does-”, the Drumm set up to say before I stroked my fingers against the metal bodywork. “-esent…. bite?”

  Before me stood an open american military styled jeep, reminding me of those I had seen in movies. Drumm seemed to be taken aback by my lack of confusion.

  “Haste so einen schonmal gesehen?/Ever seen one of these before?”, he asked.

  “Not in person.”, I responded. “Pictures, yes.”

  “Pictures?”, Drumm asked. “Didn't know they made pictures.”

  I froze for about half a second before continuing: “Oh, you know, someone sees it and makes a sketch, and it just goes from there.”

  Drumm nodded, but internally, I found myself cursing at myself. I was too eager; I had to think about how strange this would be to most people.

  “How does it work?”, I asked instead.

  The dwarf explained how a Rolander six generations ago, wearing strange clothes and brandishing a weapon that could kill by pointing it, had arrived in the dwarven lands. Said Rolander had built the vehicle and a few more of these weapons, which he traded with the dwarvish people in exchange for land and a title. He went into more detail about how the individual parts were built, how much travel and trade were required to produce even one and how it ran on hard alcohol the dwarves brewed specifically for this purpose.

  “What if you run out?”, I asked. “Can humans make alcohol strong enough to power it?”

  Drumm′s chest swelled in pride. “No, they can not. We have built huge refineries for alcohol. It's too pure for anything the humans would need it for, and the elves are too good for other people′s technology.”

  He waddled over to the back of the jeep and lifted a hatch, in which an engraving was presented.

  “A spell circle?”, I asked.

  “Yeah.”, the dwarf said. “It's connected to a tank back in the homelands. When I press a charged moonstone against this, it fills up the tank, and we pay for how much we used up when we get back home.”

  “Fascinating.”, I said. “How does it work?”

  Drumm shrugged. “You gotta ask Thost, I don't have a clue.”

  “Are they for sale?”

  Rebecca interrupted before Drumm could answer. “Absolutely not.”, she said.

  “Why not?”, I asked. “Wouldn't a vehicle like that be useful to have?”

  “I really don't wanna get into one of these any more than I have to.”, she said.

  “Have you been in one before?”, Thost asked as he took a seat on the passenger seat.

  “Once, when I left my homeland with some of my siblings, a dwarf named Yorak took us into the country. He had one of these things. I got so incredibly sick. I told myself never again.”

  “That was years ago.”

  I gently took her hand, leading her away out of earshot of the dwarves.

  “I′ve been in cars, I′ve driven machines like this. I promise you it's gonna be fine.”, I laid a hand on her shoulder. and she hesitated before nodding. “Ok.”, she whispered.

  Soon after, Rebecca and I were seated on the back of the jeep, Rebecca clinging to me like a lifeline, her fingers digging into my arm in fear. She focused on a small spot on the ground inside the vehicle, at least until I stopped her. “If you can't look, close your eyes.”, I whispered. “Your brain will get confused if you move, but you don't see things move. That's what got you so sick. In response, Rebecca buried her face in my shoulder.

  “You two holding up?”, Thost asked into the back. “I don't wanna have to clean this thing out after you two leave.” “No, it's fine,”, I said. The ride was bumpy and unpleasant, but Id lie if I said I didn't like the feeling of being clung to for safety.

  “Your brother said I should ask you about the refill circle?”, I asked, and Thost′s eyes lit up.

  “You′re interested? Not too common among my brethren. Part of the reason it pays well to be a Ritualist among dwarves.”

  “Well, I am interested.”, I said.

  Thost began explaining the Ritual to me, sketching notes as to how the Ritual had to look. After a while, a message popped up in my Grace.

  You have been taught the [Liquid Equilibrium] Ritual by Thost the dwarf.

  I talked to him for a bit longer about Rituals, Moonstones and my experiences with Rituals so far.

  It didn't take more than a few hours before we reached a bigger town. “First settlement outside the Vide territory.”, Drumm said.

  I had mixed feelings about this piece of information, but only time could tell if it would be good or bad.

  Thost stretched his arms: “Roamiken, City of Commerce.

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  Stats:

  Power: 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness: 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  Effects:

  Night Vision Lvl. 1

  Overlapping Protection Lvl. 1

  Poisonous Blood Lvl. 1

  Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1

  Skills:

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 2

  [Emperors Gaze] Lvl. 2

  [New World Mental Block] Lvl. N/A

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Determine Value]

  [Liquid Equilibrium]

  [Rite of True Death] (Taught Incorrectly)

  [Simple Transportation Magic]