Arc I – Beautiful World
Chapter 10 – The Stranger
Day 22 Since the Summoning
Alan looked up at her, very slowly.
His eyes were completely empty.
His face expressed nothing.
“Got it.
Let’s just get this over with quickly then.
I can’t do this anymore.” He started to stand up.
Kamelia abruptly jumped up.
“Wait!
…
Will you let me finish speaking or not?”
Alan didn’t sit back down.
“Surprise me.”
The girl sighed and sat back down.
“In short…” she licked her lips.
“Everything is exactly as you said.
There were many instances when the peasants broke your ‘quarantine’.
They took water from the river, did not boil it, ate from the same dishes.” She folded her hands in front of her.
“The guards could not keep track of everyone.
But everyone noticed one interesting thing…
where the rules are followed more strictly, the sickness has not appeared again.
And that is only in two villages.” She raised a finger.
“Furthermore, the sickness did not spread beyond those six villages, and the peasants within them have slowly begun to recover.” She exhaled.
“That is the situation.”
Alan just stood there and watched.
“What does that mean for me?”
Kamelia closed her eyes.
“You kept your word.
Execution no longer awaits you.
You…
you truly stopped the sickness.”
Alan blinked.
“What?”
Kamelia raised an eyebrow.
“Well…
what you heard.
You will live, and continue to help the county…
I hope,” she said almost inaudibly.
Alan just stared at her for about two minutes, then smiled.
Crookedly.
Traces of dried blood were visible on his teeth.
“Hah…
hahah…
hahahaha….
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Kamelia half-rose.
“What…
what is the matter with you?”
Alan clutched his head, laughing like a madman.
“HAHAHA!
I SPENT THESE ENTIRE TWO WEEKS GNAWING MY FINGERS AND LIPS OFF, THINKING MY HEAD WAS GONNA GET CHOPPED OFF, AND IT TURNS OUT NO!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!” He sat down at the table with a crash.
“OH MY GOD!
I ALREADY TRIED TO MAKE MYSELF A NOOSE SEVERAL TIMES, BUT I DIDN’T HAVE THE GUTS, AND HERE I AM, FUCKING SPARED!”
He started choking on his own laughter.
“I WAS RIGHT!
I TOLD YOU I WAS RIGHT!
HAHAHA!”
Kamelia ran up to him, her hands trembling slightly.
“Yes…
you were right!
Just calm down!
You are…” she cut herself off, then dropped her shoulders and simply sat back in her seat, waiting for his hysteria to end.
Alan laughed for almost five minutes, after which he dropped his head onto the table, squeezing out the last breaths of laughter.
Ten seconds later, quiet snoring was heard.
Kamelia slowly stood up and walked over to him, then leaned down slightly, examining his face.
She ran a hand through her hair.
“What I have driven this lad to…” Kamelia whispered to herself, then straightened up, and walked out past the guards.
Day 23 Since the Summoning
Alan opened his eyes; sunlight was beating down on them.
He slowly got up from the bed, holding his head with one hand.
‘My head is splitting…’
Alan suddenly looked at his hand.
His fingers were bandaged in white cloth, and a slightly cooled bowl of porridge was already sitting on the table.
Alan stared for a second, then pounced on it and started eating, without bread, without salt, without sauces.
‘Finally…
I couldn’t swallow a bite these past two weeks…
food…’
He ate another spoonful of porridge, almost biting off the utensil.
‘Okay…
I’m alive…
I’m alive…
I solved these damn epidemic problems!
I lived another day!
But…
I guess this is hardly all…
one problem out of a thousand.
Doesn’t matter.
The main thing is…
that I proved I’m valuable and stand by my words, even if…
it was messy and sloppy, I proved it…
there’s more trust in me now.
I will survive another day.’
He froze.
‘And…
what next?’
Alan shook his head and went back to finishing the porridge.
‘Doesn’t matter.
“Next” can wait for later.
I just need to survive at least my first month in this world…
damn!
I need to eat slower, or my stomach won’t thank me.’
He started to eat more slowly, and after he finished, he got up from the bed.
‘Alright…
I’ll go for a walk at least.’
He opened the door to his room; a guard was standing next to it, by the wall in the corridor.
“Hero, Her Grace asked you to come to the small throne room after you awoke.”
Alan walked down the corridor and opened the door.
Inside was the kitchen, where servants were washing the floors and preparing lunch.
Everyone abruptly turned to Alan.
Alan blinked.
‘Fuck.
Wrong door.
It’s one floor up.’
He closed the kitchen door and went up the stairs, after which he opened the door to the small throne room without knocking.
Kamelia was already sitting inside with a quill and papers; she then lifted her head.
“Good morning.”
Alan simply nodded and sat across from her.
“So, what is it?”
The countess set aside the quill and folded her hands in front of her.
“In short, as we discussed yesterday, you handled the sickness; over the past two days, judging by the news from the villages, this ‘dysinritia’ of yours is almost gone.”
“Dysentery,” Alan corrected.
“And what next?”
Kamelia closed her eyes.
“And next, Alan…
next is worse.
Pirates, famine, an almost empty treasury.
The most massive problems of my domain and my vassals.
Take your pick.”
Alan leaned back in his chair a little.
‘Pirates, famine, an empty treasury…
alright, let’s take this in order.
The epidemic problems are solved, not permanently, but for a while.
Three more left just to keep this county from dying out.
So…
the sickness that was mowing down the peasants is solved.
Next…
pirates obviously have to be saved for last.
Solve the famine or the empty treasury first?’
Kamelia simply sat, looking out the window, saying nothing.
‘Hmm…
famine, definitely.
Without full stomachs, there’ll be neither money nor soldiers to beat the crap out of the pirates.
Yeah, tackle the famine first.
But…
then again, I have no idea why there’s a famine in the first place, what’s the cause?’
Alan leaned closer.
“Why did the famine start?”
Kamelia turned away from the window.
“This problem has been ongoing for years.
About ten years ago, as I recall, everything was fine.
But lately…
the land has seemingly begun to die.
The harvests are smaller and smaller, and some fields have been abandoned entirely.”
“Do you use the two-field system?” Alan asked.
Kamelia blinked.
“The what?”
Alan closed his eyes.
‘I should have gotten used to this by now.’
“I’m saying, do you let one of the fields…
rest, plant on the other, and alternate them like that?”
Kamelia nodded.
“Of course.”
Alan leaned back in his chair.
“And…
do you plant across three fields?”
The countess shook her head.
“No…
why, is that better?”
Alan scratched his chin.
‘They don’t use three-field crop rotation…
in my world, they only figured this system out in the 9th century, and it was a real breakthrough…
people started eating better, dying less, Europe’s population almost doubled in 400 years.
And plus…
one peasant could feed way more people, and many were able to leave the fields for other trades…
oh my god, if I introduce this system here…
But that takes time, first I need to figure out exactly how I’m supposed to feed the peasants here and now.’
Alan placed his hands on the table.
“I think I can help with the famine.”
Kamelia sat up straighter, her eyes gleaming slightly.
“Truly?
…
When are you ready to begin?
What else do you need?
What must you know?”
Alan sighed.
“I need to know a whole lot, but let’s make it…
tomorrow?
I want to rest some more today, seriously.”
Kamelia caught herself.
“Ah..
yes…
of course, no problem.”
Alan nodded and stood up.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but stayed silent, lowering her head.
Alan returned to his room and immediately flopped onto the bed, then almost instantly began to snore quietly.
?
Days Since the Summoning
Alan got up from the bed; outside the window, everything was dark blue and shrouded in fog.
Alan blinked.
‘Is it morning already?
Alright…
gotta get to work on the fields.’
He opened the door, and instantly froze.
There was no corridor.
Before him lay an endless green plain with perfectly trimmed grass.
In the sky was a blue fog, through which thousands of stars gleamed.
Alan blinked.
Blinked again.
Then began to rub his eyes.
‘Am I dreaming or what?’
He turned around; the door was already gone.
‘What the fuck is going on?’
His breathing quickened, but Alan walked forward right across the endless plain, turning his head from side to side.
Alan had been wandering for an hour, or two, or three years.
Who knew.
“Greetings, Alan Gothwald,” a young male voice was heard from behind him.
Alan quickly spun around, almost falling to the ground.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!!”
A young man stood before him.
Young, roughly the same height as Alan, with somewhat short white hair that was slightly messy.
A simple brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves, wide brown trousers, brown sandals.
He stood with his hands folded behind his back.
Eyes.
His eyes were completely white, not glowing, just white.
He raised a hand.
“Easy, Alan, I will explain everything to you now.”
Alan was breathing heavily, holding his hands up in front of him.
“Who the hell are you?!”
The young man closed his eyes and smiled slightly.
“Well, well, well…
a completely justified reaction.” He opened his white eyes and folded his hands behind his back.
“You can call me simply The Stranger, and…
I have a conversation to have with you, Alan Gothwald.”
Alan blinked; The Stranger was already sitting in an armchair at a table, and on the table itself was a bottle of wine and two glasses.
He silently pointed to the chair across from him.
Alan hesitated for another second, then slowly sat down.
The Stranger opened the bottle of wine and began pouring it for Alan.
“You have very many questions.
Who am I?
Where are you?
What happened?
Why is all this happening?
Entirely reasonable questions.”
He poured Alan’s glass half full and then began pouring wine into his own glass.
“But you are no less interesting than I am.
Actually, that is the reason why I came to you in your dream.”
The Stranger corked the bottle and set it on the table.
“You will not taste it anyway.” He shrugged, smiling slightly.
“This is a dream, after all.” His hand took the glass and he took a small sip.
Alan narrowed his eyes.
“Can we just get to the point?”
The Stranger took a sip.
“Mm..” he smacked his lips.
“Yes.
Here is the situation, Alan.
I have not seen anything like this in all the time the hero summoning ritual has existed.
Every single one of them received strong magic and an additional reserve of mana.” He pointed a finger at Alan.
“But you…
you appeared with entirely ordinary capabilities.
There have been a few such cases before, but…” The Stranger shrugged.
“But those heroes were quickly discarded.
And when you were summoned into this world, without strong magic…” his hand picked up the glass again.
“I expected a very typical outcome…
but no.
Not only did you manage to survive, you also managed to stop a local epidemic.” He set the glass aside and slowly began to clap his hands.
“Bravo.
I am amazed.”
Alan clenched his fists.
“You wouldn’t happen to want an autograph, would you?”
The Stranger froze for a second.
“An auto…
haha…
alright, I agree, I strayed far from the point into admiration.” He picked up his glass again.
“Then let us be frank.
I find you very interesting, Alan.
I have grown tired of watching Heroes simply degrade as individuals under the weight of magic, and then suddenly…
a Hero without magic, but with incredible brains.
This is very interesting.
I am capable of many things, but I am incredibly happy about the fact that I cannot see the future, and I do not know how all of this will end.” He stood up, holding the glass in his hands, and smiling slightly.
“But…
this world is quite cruel, and even if you devise a flawless plan, you could simply…
die from some foolishness, and the show will end.” He took a step closer.
“That would be incredibly unfortunate, so…
I have a small gift for you.”
Silence.
Alan looked at The Stranger.
“Well…
what kind of gift?”
He shrugged.
“It is already there.
When you wake up.
Right now it will simply help you on occasion, but in the future…
it will shape history.” He leaned toward Alan, looking with his white eyes straight into his.
“I will be watching.
Always watching.
Sometimes even visiting.
Our conversations will be very interesting.
Good luck, Alan Gothwald, I am sincerely rooting for you.”
Alan abruptly sprang up from the bed, breathing heavily; his entire back was drenched in sweat.
It was dark in the room.
He quickly opened the door.
There was just a corridor out there.
Alan slowly exhaled and quietly closed the door, and then sat on the bed and began scratching his head.
‘What the fuck was that?’
He froze.
The familiar pain in his fingers was absent.
Alan sharply looked at his hands, and began quickly unbandaging his fingers.
They were perfectly intact.
Alan froze, then ran to the mirror in the room.
His face was completely normal,
healthy, his lips were healed, leaving only the bags under his eyes.
He slowly took a step back from the mirror.
‘What the hell?’
Hey guys!
This is the final chapter of the first arc, and there’s plenty more to come.
Think of this as an introductory arc, so I’d love to know what you think of the story so far!
I’d really appreciate any feedback, and if you’re enjoying it, please consider leaving a rating or even a review!