Arc I – Beautiful World
Chapter 3 – Welcome to Reality
Day 4 Since the SummoningAlan sat on the cold dungeon floor with his arms crossed over his chest; his bag had been taken.
There was nothing around but stone walls, a small window through which the moon shone, and cold and dampness.
His body was shivering slightly.
‘Fucking unbelievable.
Just great.
I’m in a medieval dungeon.
A fucking amazing experience.’
He rubbed his shoulders against the cold, wincing slightly.
‘So this is how criminals felt when they ended up in dungeons.
Authentic.’
He stood up and began pacing around the dungeon, swinging his arms so he wouldn’t freeze.
‘Alright, you’re screwed, Alan.
Think about what to do.
Run?
Where?
Even if I escape, I’ll quickly die in some alleyway at the hands of a mugger or just from starvation.
Not an option.
Beg for forgiveness?’
He froze for a second, and then kept moving.
‘Yeah, she can go to hell, no apologies.
She’s the one who doesn’t understand my situation, and blames it all on the will of some ‘Svyatol’.
Then again…
I’m a fine one too, I should have just kept my mouth shut.
It’s the fucking Middle Ages where you usually get burned for heresy!
Well…
if you didn’t mess up too bad, they forced you to publicly repent…
but then again, I blurted out such nonsense that a stake is definitely shining for me here.
Do they even burn people here at all?
Or do they have other methods of execution?’
He shook his head.
‘Thinking about the wrong thing.
I need to figure out how not to get impaled on a stake.’
He ran his hands down his face.
‘Oh my god…
what has my life turned into?
Moron, moron!
Who forced you to open your mouth!
You literally told yourself there are no human rights here, and successfully ignored your own conclusion!
My habits will definitely be the death of me.’
He jumped up to look out the window, couldn’t reach it, and then continued pacing.
‘Alright, okay.
I’m still alive right now.
Why?
Two reasons.
First: they are either prepping a stake for me, second: or they have no intention of executing me.
Hmm…
this Kamelia, she obviously isn’t a bitch, she clearly has a ton of problems just like me.
Think…
for a ruler, especially in such a crappy situation, authority is the most important thing.’
He froze.
‘Fuck…
well, of course!
There were witnesses in the dining hall, and Kamelia couldn’t just swallow that; she had to show strength.
That’s how this world works…
basically just like my world too.
Show strength so no one is tempted to go against you.
Alright, okay…
I’m at fault here too, didn’t think it through.
But she is too!
Instead of just saying ‘sorry, I apologize,’ or at least something along those lines, she shifted the responsibility onto this guy in the clouds!
That way I would have at least understood that she gets what’s going on, instead of deceiving herself.’
Alan started jumping in place.
‘Or maybe…
it is the Middle Ages.
Everything is simple here.
Faith is literally everything here; it’s not just hanging an icon in your car and being like “that’s it, I’m a believer,” but rather…
is there a harvest?
God blessed us, thank you.
Did relatives die?
Punished for their sins, it was meant to be.
Obviously.
Kamelia believes what she is saying…
or is trying to believe it.’
He began shaking his arms.
‘Aaaah, it’s too much!
This new world is too much!’
Alan froze again.
‘A new world…
another world…
an otherworldly realm…
I am in another world…’
His eyes widened.
‘This is another world.
It’s not a dream.
I…
there’s no more university.
No friends.
No normal life.
No more…’
He sharply slapped himself in the face.
‘Stop!
Don’t think about it!
Otherwise you’ll go crazy!’
He dropped into a plank position and started doing push-ups.
‘Don’t think.
Better think about…
right.
I’ve always lacked the time to think about the Templars’ treasure!
I’ve studied it a lot, and now it’s time to think it over.
Let’s start with…
let’s start with the arrests of the Templars in 1307!’
He kept doing push-ups, thinking about the legend and building theories.
Kamelia sat on a small throne with a stone face; opposite her, the captain of the guard held out Alan’s hip bag.
“This is his travel bag, my lady.
Shall I look at what is inside, or do you wish to?”
Kamelia took it.
“I will look myself.” She took the bag in her hands and saw the zipper.
The girl tried to open the bag by pulling it apart, but it did not work.
She frowned, then her gaze caught on the slider itself; she tugged it toward herself, inward, then to the side, and the zipper began to open.
Kamelia’s eyes widened slightly; the captain of the guard watched without taking his eyes off it.
She reached inside and pulled out a charger.
“…
what is this?”
The captain of the guard reached out his hand.
“Permit me, my lady?”
Kamelia nodded and handed him the charger.
The captain took hold of the wire and began swinging it, holding the block upwards.
“It looks like a…
small chain mace…
only it is unlikely you could kill anyone with it.”
Kamelia reached further into the bag and pulled out the phone; her eyebrow rose high, and she touched the screen once.
“It looks like…
glass, only small.” The girl poked the screen twice with her finger, and the phone lit up.
Kamelia flinched, almost dropping the cell phone, and the captain grabbed his sword.
“Careful!
It could be dangerous!”
Kamelia pulled the phone away from her face and peered at the screen.
There was a wallpaper with a photo of Alan himself, standing with his hands in his pockets, and next to him were some black-haired guy and a brunette.
Kamelia opened her mouth.
“Is this a…
portrait?
A glowing one?
So small?”
The captain stepped closer.
“And a very…
very good one, not at all like…”
The phone screen went dark.
Kamelia shook her head and set the phone on the floor, then her hand reached into the bag again, and there she felt something smooth, hard, and small, and pulled it from the bag.
A pepper spray canister.
The captain frowned again.
“And what is this?
It is so…
bright…
and it seems something is written there.”
Kamelia narrowed her eyes, slowly running her finger over the smooth surface of the canister.
Then she reached the top and touched it.
“Hmm…
when you hold it here, it presses inward slightly.” She pressed harder.
Instantly, a massive amount of orange smoke burst out in her direction, an entire cloud.
Kamelia shrieked.
“AAAH!
MY EYES!” She immediately dropped the canister and jumped back from the throne, nearly falling over, furiously rubbing her eyes.
“IT BURNS!”
The captain, whom the cloud had also reached, began coughing like an asthmatic, clutching his eyes.
“MY LADY!
ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”
Kamelia started sneezing and coughing, her eyes tearing up like a stream.
“NO!
IT BURNS!
MY EYES ARE MELTING!”
The captain coughed once more.
“THIS IS A CURSE OF BLINDNESS!
DARK MAGIC!”
Hearing the screams, a young guard ran into the small throne room and froze in shock.
His lady was standing half-bent over, rubbing her eyes like someone having a seizure.
The captain of the guard was stomping his foot on the floor, shouting something inarticulate.
He opened his mouth.
“What…
what happened here?”
The captain waved his hand wildly.
“Dindro, is that you?!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Quickly drag that hero here!
Only he might know how to lift this curse!”
The guard didn’t even nod; he instantly dashed toward the dungeon.
Alan, meanwhile, had already switched to Mike Tyson mode, practicing his punches, though his movements were already very sluggish, when suddenly Dindro came running and frantically began unlocking the grate.
Alan looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
“What’s up with you?”
Dindro yanked the door open.
“Over there!
A curse of blindness!
Quickly, to the small hall!” He grabbed Alan by the arm and dragged him along, but Alan immediately shook his hand off.
“Calm down!
What happened?!”
The guard pointed a trembling finger toward the exit.
“Over there!
My lady and the captain!
They are screaming and clutching their eyes!
They said to fetch you!”
Alan froze for a second.
‘A curse of blindness…
clutching their eyes…
did they touch my pepper spray or something?!
What a bunch of morons.’
“Alright, let’s go.”
Two minutes later, they arrived at the small hall.
Alan crossed the threshold and froze with his eyes wide open.
Kamelia was still furiously rubbing her eyes; she was no longer screaming, just desperately trying to do something.
The captain was simply standing there, holding his eyes and occasionally sneezing, his body trembling.
“I brought him!” Dindro shouted.
“Alan, may Guktos take you!
Lift this curse of blindness from us!” Kamelia shouted.
Alan sighed.
“Relax.
It’ll pass on its own in about half an hour.”
Kamelia froze.
“…on its own?
But this is…
what even is this?!”
Alan crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’ll tell you later.
Just stop rubbing your eyes and blink more often, it’ll pass on its own after a while.”
Kamelia nodded, as did the captain next to her.
Alan looked at them with a squint.
‘Well…
I could tell them to wash it out with cold water so it passes faster, but…
nah, this is your reward for my trial membership to a medieval gym.’
About twenty minutes passed.
Alan was sitting on the steps, propping his head up.
The captain and Kamelia still had red eyes, but they had stopped convulsing.
The captain exhaled and stood over Alan, his face unreadable.
“What.
Was.
That?”
He looked up, swallowed hard, but his face remained stony.
“Your own fault.
You shouldn’t touch things from another world.”
Kamelia walked over and stood next to the captain.
“Lorgi, leave us.”
The captain frowned, but then nodded and stepped out, the door closing behind him.
Silence.
Kamelia sat down on the throne and began massaging the bridge of her nose.
“Oh, Svyatol…
why are you so much trouble, Alan?”
Alan sighed and stood up, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“It is what it is.
I want to say something.
I figured out why you threw me in the dungeon.
You couldn’t show weakness in front of the advisors, I get it.”
Kamelia froze, then slowly shifted her red eyes to him.
“Are you…
truly not angry?”
Alan snorted.
“Of course I’m angry, but I understand why you did it, and…” he pointed at his bag, which was lying there with his things scattered around it.
The phone, the charger, a few dollars, a half-liter bottle of Fanta, and an energy drink can.
Kamelia looked in that direction.
“Ah, that…
we were examining what was inside your travel bag.
You know…
you carry very strange and dangerous things.”
Alan squatted down and began putting everything back into the bag.
“Pfft…
it’s a standard student kit from my world.
It’s wild to me too that you drag a sword around with you everywhere.”
Kamelia blinked.
“Naturally I carry it.
I am a countess, here…”
“It’s customary here,” Alan finished.
“I know.” He stood up with the repacked bag.
“Be so kind as to not touch my things anymore.” He looked her in the eyes.
“This is all I have left.”
Kamelia held his gaze, her face remaining unreadable, and she simply nodded.
“Very well.
I will not.”
Alan took his phone and unlocked it with his fingerprint.
‘Alright, no signal at all, which is totally logical.
The clock…
the clock is completely freaking out!’
The time on the dial was changing like crazy.
15:54, 18:14, 22:23, 02:41.
Then he opened the compass app; the needle was spinning madly.
‘What does this even mean?
Probably…
the phone just completely doesn’t understand where it is, just like me.
It’s now a useless piece of hardware with 11% battery left.
It might still come in handy.’
He powered down the phone completely and shoved it back into the bag.
Kamelia was sitting on the throne, just staring at the floor.
“So, am I pardoned?” Alan asked.
The girl flinched imperceptibly, and then looked at him.
“There go your stupid words again.”
Alan snorted.
“I’m saying, am I finally released from the dungeon?”
“Ah…
yes.
Released.
You promised to help me, did you not?”
Alan shrugged.
“Yeah, I promised.
And if I don’t get sent off to those cozy stone walls again, I’ll be able to do it even better.” He raised a finger.
“Oh, right, you’ve got a map of this county, I hope?”
Kamelia stood up.
“Of course I do.
It is kept in that cabinet.” She nodded toward a corner of the small hall with a large wooden cabinet and walked over to it.
Alan shoved his hands into his pockets.
‘Alright…
what did she say before?
Famine, diseases, poverty, marriage…
diseases…
diseases need to be neutralized first.
Wait…
this is the Middle Ages, which means the concept of hygiene is non-existent here!’
“Kamelia,” Alan said sharply, a bit louder than necessary.
The girl turned around, stopping her rummaging in the cabinet.
“What?”
“You said an epidemic started.
What are the symptoms?”
Kamelia blinked.
“A what?”
Alan sighed.
‘Idiot.’
“You said a sickness had started.
What kind is it?
What are its signs?”
Kamelia scratched her chin.
“This sickness attacks the kingdom roughly once a year.
After it strikes, people are very frequently drawn to the latrines, and they turn gray and are constantly thirsty.”
Alan froze.
‘Dysentery.
Well, of course.
Couldn’t go without this classic.’
“And it is all because of those damned miasmas from Arumelia,” Kamelia continued, clenching her fists.
“There are swamps there where the lizardmen live, and the winds carry miasmas into our kingdom all year round.
It is like this every year.”
Alan opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.
‘No.
If I say it’s about microbes, I’ll definitely get thrown into the dungeon.’
He coughed.
“Can you show on the map where exactly the epi…
the sickness is raging?”
The countess nodded and finally pulled out the map, then spread it out on a small table by the wall.
“Right about here.” She pointed to the southeastern part near the border with the Duchy of Tontopi, where six villages stood right by a river.
“It began about a week ago, half of the villages have already…
already died out.
This year, the sickness is even more ferocious.”
Alan stared into space, and then took a deep breath.
“Listen.
I know I might make some strange decisions right now, but I…
I’m begging you to trust me.
Just do everything I say, and we can stop it from spreading further.
I know what to do.”
She frowned.
“And what if you fail?”
Alan turned a little pale, his breathing quickening.
‘Come on.
Do or die.’
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then opened them.
“Then you can execute me.”
‘Moron.’