Small town Tissling

Tissling was a small village, which was very remote from the nearest city.

The inhabitants of the village were friendly and welcomed Nero warmly, which surprised Nero at first since the inhabitants of such remote villages are usually hostile to strangers.

At least that's how it was in his world, but here people were nice and accommodating, and almost not a bit suspicious.

Of course, they didn't tell him all their secrets and show Nero their possessions, but on the whole, they were quite nice.

It wasn't until Nero went to the local library and read some folk stories that he understood why they were like that.

As it turned out, there were not just one dominant species on this planet, but three and they were permanently at war.

There were the humans, the elves, and the reils. All three species were roughly equal in power, talent, and intelligence, and therefore constantly competed for world supremacy.

Because of this situation, the humans could not afford to be divided among themselves, as any disputes would seal their defeat.

There was no racial segregation and no one was judged by gender or skin color, which quite surprised Nero, who was used to something quite different from his world.

Therefore, the villagers were nice and accommodating, despite the fact that he had light skin and dark clothes, which absolutely did not fit the local culture. The people in this area were all muscular and had dark skin. Their hair was mostly black with some variations to brown.

His black eyes were no more inconspicuous either, as there was not a single person in this village who did not have brown, blue, or green eyes. The religion of the people was also consistent. They believed that there were several gods, each with a different jurisdiction. But the most important god is the god of salvation, he was simply called "Savior".

What surprised Nero even more than the fact that people were so well-disposed towards him was the fact that there were mages in the village. There were a little more than 200 people living in the small village, and of them, there were almost 20 mages.

They were not strong, but they radiated a distinct aura. The first time Nero saw a strange mage, he was almost about to kill him, but it didn't seem strange to the magician that Nero also possessed an aura.

Nero knew that he had perceived his aura because the magician even jokingly asked him about it,

"Don't have the best talent either, do you?"

"Excuse me?" asked Nero back to him.

"Well, your magical disposition. Don't worry, all of us in this village are the same, and can only perform very weak spells. Otherwise, we'd already be in the king's army, slaughtering the stupid long-eared elves." The mage laughed out loud as if he had heard the best joke in a long time.

Nero, on the other hand, had no idea what he was talking about, and just laughed lightly along as the mage went on.

As he later found out, this mage was not nearly the only mage, but 18 others were wandering around the village. The mayor was the most powerful of them, but even he was not Nero's match.

Nero got to know him very early. When he first came to the village, he understandably attracted a lot of attention and was looked at by many curious eyes.

"Who are you? Why haven't I seen you before and why is your skin so white? Are you a ghost?"

A young boy, probably 6 years old, appeared in front of Nero and asked him countless questions at once. Nero was about to respond when another person interfered,

"Tomas, don't be so cheeky!" A young man, a little younger than Nero, came to the boy and took him in his arms.

"Sorry, he's still young and curious. My name is Jacob. What can I call you?" he then asked.

Nero smiled at him, "My name is Nero...Nero Nihil. " Nero quickly came up with a very creative last name, using the Latin word for "nothing".

"Are you from Branin? Your name sounds like it."

'It's not only the little boy who is curious. ' Nero thought annoyed, but he left his slight smile and answered kindly,

"Correct, from a small village nearby called Gril. It actually resembles this one pretty well."

Nero hoped that Branin was a city because if not and the people became suspicious, he would have to kill everyone there. This would certainly cause him problems later, so he hoped not to have to do it yet.

But the man only nodded and made an, Ahhhh, noise.

"Where can I find the nearest inn?" he then asked the young one, "I want to stay in this beautiful village for some time and relax."

The young man thought for a moment, then pointed down a small street,

"Just follow this road, and then pass the Church of the Savior. After that, you can't miss it."

At that point, of course, Nero did not know what the "Savior" was, but he did not make a face but pretended to understand everything.

"All right, thank you very much." with these words Nero said goodbye and walked along the path. Soon he came to the church and looked at it briefly. It resembled the churches from his world, it was big and had two big towers with round tops.

He turned away and continued walking. Only a short time later he arrived at the building, which he recognized as an inn. Without further ado, he entered and looked around.

As expected, there was not much different from the inns in his world. It was quite small, but this was not a big surprise since it is located in a village in the middle of nowhere.

There were 5 tables in the room and two of them were occupied, with probable locals. All eyes immediately turned to him, and it became quiet in the room. Nero walked up to the bar and approached the bar owner,

"Good afternoon, kind sir. I would like a room for 7 nights."

The bar host was a bald muscular man who looked quite menacing. Nevertheless, Nero smiled nicely, and the bar host smiled back at him,

"Very gladly, my lord. This makes three night talers and two sun talers."

Nero nodded and handed the money to the innkeeper. Nero was no fool and had thought out his plan before he even arrived in the village. When he realized that he had nothing of the local currency to pay. He immediately turned on his heel and broke into the farmer's house and stole any kind of coins.

It was not difficult to distinguish between night and sun coins, since night coins were dark, and sun coins were yellowish gold, so it was pretty obvious.

The farmer had a total of over 200 of the yellow coins and a little less than 30 of the night thalers.

He would probably notice the missing coins, but he would not assume it was Nero, since he had watched him leave, and why would he steal only 5 night talers and 10 sun talers when he could have taken them all?

"Thank you very much." said the innkeeper, "Anything else? Something to eat or drink?"

"No thanks, I'm already running out of money. I might get some later."

"All right," the innkeeper handed him a key, "up the stairs and the first door on the right."

"Thank you very much," with that Nero said goodbye and went up the stairs.

When he arrived at the right door, he unlocked it with the key and entered.

The room was nothing special. It was a narrow room with barely enough space for Nero himself.

There was a single bed in it, which already took up almost the entire space, giving room only for a small wardrobe. The fabric of the bed was unknown to Nero, but it was quite comfortable and soft, and the blanket was large and thick.

Just as Nero had pulled the door shut behind him and was about to lock it, there was a knock at the door.

With a furrowed brow, Nero turned and opened the door. A man was standing outside and Nero immediately noticed that it was a mage. He sensed a slight aura from him, which indicated that he was not particularly strong, but was still a Mage, who is regularly using his magic.

Immediately, Nero prepared to kill him with his magic and leave as quickly as possible when the man smiled at him,

"Good afternoon Mr. Nihil, my name is Ridrigri and I am the mayor's advisor. I am here, to inform you that the mayor wants to meet you."

"What's it about?"

"Oh, it's just routine. Don't worry they're in no danger as long as you haven't done anything forbidden." the man said jokingly and then went out again,

"Follow me, please."

"Of course, I am right behind you," said Nero as kindly as possible, and followed the man.