An Imperial City

"Are we there yet?" This was the third time Gerde had asked the question, and around the fifteenth time it had been asked this morning. Admittedly I may have asked once or twice myself, in my defense though, I am only eighteen in my dwarven body.

"We'll get there when we get there. Now stop asking! All of you! If any of you asks again, I'll double my fee!" Allan snapped in a very annoyed tone.

We were taking the back roads and hidden paths from the unnamed smuggling town where the elves had dumped us, to the border city of Kiszentmik, where adventurers and able bodied humans were being conscripted to the Imperial Army to fight against a goblin invasion that was threatening the dwarven southern mountains. It was also the gathering place of the local nobility to assemble before they moved as a body to the assembly point in Treven.

The reason we were taking the backroads was because Allan, our half elf guide, didn't want to risk being caught by the local guard with whom he had a history due to his local smuggling operations where he moved information and goods between the Empire and Issanore. He also didn't want to take a chance on being conscripted himself, apparently he had a lot of paying customers waiting to be smuggled out of the empire to avoid the draft.

"So what's a human town like, Bekhi?" Delimira asked in curiosity. She was the daughter of the Issanorian Chancellor who had escaped from the island to avoid being used as a pawn for her father's political power struggles, also to continue as my apprentice as a weaponsmith. Her long blond hair and piercing blue eyes were outlined by a conical steel helmet that was similar to the ancient Greek in style, but without the nose guard. She also had well fitting armor, and runed weapons that I had crafted for her to fight in magic duels with.

"A human town is nothing like you've ever seen. Although they vary by nation, so I know as much about Imperial cities as you do." Bekhi answered with a shrug and a detached smile. She was rather happy to be back on the continent again. The stone and dirt that made up the island of Issanore had been absolutely saturated with magic, and had just felt off to our dwarven senses. For a human, it was like walking on wet sand on the seashore, with every step you're dealing with unsure footing and expecting every second for the tide to come in and soak your socks.

Bekhi was wearing centaur made steel armor that I had added a few magical runes to strengthen it, along with weapons that I had made and amped up using magic runes. I was wearing similar garb, and for the first time in a while, I felt like a proper dwarf again.

"Human towns smell funny, and people look at me weird." Gerde commented as she skipped along. As a beastkin, with wolf ears on the top of her head, we hadn't been able to make a helmet for her, but she was wearing light leather armor that didn't hinder her movement. She also had a large round shield and several weapons, all of them had magic runes and were very powerful.

"They smell funny?" Jenise asked with a tilted head. She was another elf from Issanore, however, unlike Delimira, she wasn't a runaway from home. Her father had been killed during the political power plays of the Issanorian Council, and he had given Bekhi and me guardianship over her. She had dark brown hair, and soft brown eyes that always looked hesitant and unsure of herself. She was wearing similar weapons and armor as Delimira, but looked less confident in them than her elven counterpart.

"Yeah, human towns smell funny. In the winter it smells like salty food and no sweet rolls, and in summer, they smell like fishy food and too many sweet rolls." Gerde's explanation made no sense, unless you considered that she had never spent a full year in a human city. We had wintered in a landlocked city in Tochka, where the winters are harsh and cold, and passed through a trade port city in Vermogen in the summer, where fish was the main course for a lot of meals.

I explained as much to the confused Jenise, and she nodded in comprehension. "What was your impression of human towns, Kvalinn? Are they anything like the cities back home?"

"No. The humans have their own way of building and city planning. So comparing the cities here and those back in Issanore will just get you lost in a back alley." I thought back to the majestic cities of the elves. They were full of spires, parks, monuments, museums, and all sorts of other grand structures that were all made from pure white stone. Even the smallest of the elven houses was the equivalent to a several hundred thousand dollar mansion back on Earth.

"What's a back alley?" Delimira asked.

"Someplace you should attempt to avoid going." I said. I was tempted to make a joke that going down one might lead to dressing like a bat and fighting crime, but since all my superhero bedtime stories had bombed with Gerde, that joke would probably fail.

As I was about to compare the cities here and the ones in Issanore, Allan interrupted me with an exasperated sigh of relief. "Finally, we're here. The gates are just ahead. Go straight and you can't miss them. And if you do miss them, then it's not my problem." With that, Allan turned on his heel and started quickly walking away from the direction he had just pointed.

Cutting our way through the underbrush, we emerged from the treeline to see a large and well fortified stone wall. There were large stone towers at frequent intervals, and the surface of the wall was peppered liberally with arrow ports.

"Look, papa! The gate! There are lots of humans over there." Gerde pointed out the line of people waiting to get in the gate, and was about to dash forward with an excited smile when I caught her by the shoulder.

"Wait just a minute, Gerde. We don't know what the city is like yet, so put on your cloak and raise the hood." I took Gerde's dark green cloak out of her pack, and had her put it on. Over a thousand years ago, the empire had enslaved the beastkin race to the point where any who didn't escape had died out centuries ago. Since then, more demi-human friendly emperors had updated the laws, but I wasn't about to take any chances in an unknown city.

"Aww, but I don't wanna wear the cloak." Gerde whined. "It makes everything all muffled."

"It's just until we get to the Adventurer's Guild, Gerde." I looked over at the two elves. "You two should also wear cloaks, your elven armor is too conspicuous. In fact, let's all wear them."

A few minutes later, we were all wearing dark green traveling cloaks with the hoods up. We probably looked very suspicious, but I didn't want to go into possibly hostile territory unarmed.

The line of people looked to be mostly merchants, coming to sell their wares. Or stopping halfway on their journey to Alginall, which was just a little further to the west. The merchants just ahead of us in the line eyed us warily, but didn't do anything beyond that.

"Papers or identification." The gate guard gruffly requested when it was our turn to go through. Bekhi, Gerde, and I, all showed our Adventurer's Guild cards, which were used as international passports in all participating nations. As for Delimira and Jenise, they got a hand stamp that would only allow them to go directly to the guild to get registered. If they tried to go anywhere else, then any passing guards could imprison them without question for future interrogation and possible execution if they were deemed to be spies.

For those in the line behind us who didn't have papers from one guild or another, they were subjected to rigorous questioning, and a thorough search of their goods. The city of Kiszentmik was a border city against Alginall, a province that had successfully rebelled against the empire and had set up their own country, so the city authorities were forced to always be on guard against spies and saboteurs.

Once inside the gates, I paused to look around. Kiszentmik looked like an average medieval European city, with wooden and clay structures dominating the landscape. In the center of the city was a large and imposing stone fort, and surrounding the walls of the internal fort were buildings of stone and brick that must have belonged to the upper crust.

"See, I told you human towns smell funny." Gerde said with a cute 'I told you so' attitude.

"It does smell… unique." Jenise said with a crinkled nose.

"You mean it smells worse than a horse barn." Delimira said bluntly. "I didn't expect the smell to be this bad, and the flow of magic here is abysmal! How do humans get by with this little magic in the air?"

The smell was definitely lousy. It was worse than NYC during the summer, and Kiszentmik had the benefit of no one smoking cigarettes, but that was only because the equivalent of tobacco in this world was an expensive imported good. Since the culture of the empire was similar to the dark ages back on Earth, everyone used chamber pots, and those pots were then just dumped on the street for rain to wash away. Although there were one or two ancient sewer pits around the city from the time of the first empire that spanned the continent thousands of years ago.

As for the flow of magic that Delimira complained of, I couldn't comment. The elves as a race were made with the ability to detect magic in people and objects, but dwarves didn't have that same ability. But based on her description, I guessed that I'd have difficulty making magic runes here, since the practice was basically forcing the magic in the air into a weapon.

"Hey, you! You in the hoods! Stop in the name of the emperor!" A gruff but querulous voice yelled out from a small eatery. Since there was no one else on the street wearing hoods, we stopped to see what was up.

An overweight man wearing what looked like a military uniform from the middle ages burst out of the eatery, almost tripping on his own boots in the process. "Put the meal on my tab. I'll pay for it when I get back from the campaign." He called back inside before turning to us, completely ignoring the shopkeeper's angry yells about wanting the money now.

Marching up to us with overzealous and exaggerated movement, he glared down at us with a self righteous air. "Take off your hoods. Don't you know it's disrespectful to remain covered in front of an officer of his Imperial Majesty's Army?"

His military uniform was just a steel breastplate and mail, with a doublet bearing the Imperial Bear crest on it. So it wasn't as intimidating as the Zaihanian knights, the scheming Tochkan nobility, or even the haughty elves of Issanore.

Having dealt with his type numerous times back in Issanore, although the elves were much more subtle about their superiority complex, I knew acceding to this blowhard's demands would mean trouble. I motioned for everyone to keep their hoods on, and stepped forward.

"Really? Where's this officer you mentioned? I'll be sure to take off my hood when I see him." Bekhi suppressed a snort of laughter from behind me. The officer turned beet red, and rudely knocked back my hood.

"I see, you are a demi-human, and a dwarf at that. Well, mister dwarf. I demand you hand over any weapons of dwarven make that you have for the war effort." The officer then stuck out his hand, as if I was just going to meekly hand over my weapons.

"You said you need weapons for the war effort? Good. My party and I were just on our way to the Adventurer's Guild where we can enlist our services for the campaign to defeat the goblin horde."

"Phh." The officer scoffed. "Like the efforts of a few demi-humans would make any difference. Besides, it's the Empire who's pulling your beards from the fire. Now hand over your weapons. They will be used much more profitably in my hands. And will put several gold in my pocket" The officer muttered that last sentence to himself, and flexed his fingers in a gimme motion, and waited with open palm and belittling sneers.

"You want our weapons? Then you'll have to take 'em from us!" Bekhi took out her single bladed ax, while Delimira and Gerde followed her example and took out their swords. All of them were personally attached to their weapons, and none of them were about to hand them over to some loud popinjay.

The officer balked at the sight of all the shiny metal weapons pointed in his direction, also, the aura of anger that Bekhi was emanating was quite powerful, and had cowed many an imperious elf student back in Issanore.

"You d-d-d-dare raise your weapons against an officer of the Imperial Army?!" The officer tremulously shouted as he nervously backed off. "T-this won't be the last you hear of Lt. Witold Hamburger!" He then turned and ran off like a scared rabbit.

"Mhmm. Hamburger." Gerde said dreamily. I had made the Americanized version of the dish for her once or twice, and the only thing she liked more than hamburgers were sweet rolls.

"Com'n, let's get to the guild." Bekhi said as she put her ax away. "Idiots like that usually come back with numbers to make up for their missing brains."

"Or he has higher officers or nobility supporting him." Delimira calmly said as she sheathed her sword. "But considering how often he mentioned the army, it's likely that he has comrades of similar rank and disposition in the Imperial Army."

"Either way, we need to go. Now." I got Gerde to put away her sword, and then got directions to the guild from a passer by. He had witnessed the altercation, and gave us directions that led through back alleys.

It turned out that Lt. Hamburger had a reputation around the city. Racking up enormous tabs at all the bars and eateries, harassing pretty women, and degrading any demi-humans that lived in the city. If anyone tried to speak up against him to his superior officer, then he and his posse of fellow reprobate officers, would harass and destroy anything of value to the complainer until they withdrew the complaint.

As we walked through the dark back streets, Jenise hesitantly walked up beside me. "Um, Kvalinn. Are all humans like that?"

"A lot of them are." I sighed as I remembered my previous life as a human. "But humans are a mixed bag. Some have the honor of a dwarf, while others can lie like an elf, and they can change with the fluidity of a mermaid. Overall, they're a tough race to pin down."

"Humans are just like any other race." Bekhi commented with a shrug. "You don't trust anyone until you've crossed blades with them. Then you'll get a good feel for their mettle."

"Good humans smell like cookies, while bad humans smell like burnt bacon." Gerde said with a nod like she was sharing an obvious secret.

"Also," Delimira added, "my tutor taught me that humans with evil intent have a darker shade of magic about them. But I'm not sure how true that is. It's from a book handed down from the pacification of the continent thousands of years ago."

I wondered to myself if that fact had any truth to it. If so, then maybe I could experiment with a magical lie detector once I had a lab set up.

"Mama! Papa! Bad humans ahead!" Gerde called out a warning. We were in a seedy looking back alley so it was probably just thieves trying to make an easy score.

Bekhi grinned as she got her hammer ready. "However, some humans, like these, you can just whack 'em without worrying about it."

Out of crevices that I would've thought too narrow to allow people to pass through, at least a dozen nefarious looking men surrounded us. "Yer money or yer life." One of them said in crude Imperial as he took out an even cruder iron dagger.

"Is that it?" Bekhi asked as she stretched her arms, unconcerned by the hostile glares of the bandits. "After a year of dealing with elven weaklings, I was looking forward to something more challenging."

"What're you talkin about?" The knife wielding bandit asked. "There's a dozen of us, and only five of you. So hand over yer wallets if you want to leave our territory alive, shorty."

"Well that was an unoriginal insult." I grumbled to myself. We had been called that dozens, if not hundreds, of times by the elves. "Alright everyone, we don't have time to waste cleaning blood off our weapons, so just use hammers or the flat of your blades. Bekhi, you take smart mouth in front with Gerde, and I'll watch your back with the others."

"Right. Com'n, Gerde. For the ancestors!" Bekhi bowled through the clumped up bandits with her usual grin, sending them flying with her hammer. Any that she missed, Gerde knocked out with her hammer while yelling a much cuter, "For sweet rolls!"

"Um, Kvalinn. Are you sure about this?" Jenise asked nervously. Her hand was shaking slightly as she held her sword. I realized that this was her first time in a real fight, facing up against real opponents.

I patted Jenise on the shoulder reassuringly. "Relax, Jenise. Just remember your training with Bekhi. Also, if she finishes the men in front and sees you hesitating, then she'll likely go harder in your training tonight."

"Eep!" That seemed to steele her resolve, and she tightened her grip on her sword. "For the gods!" She yelled as her battle cry, before laying into the bandits with the flat of her blade.

Delimira had no similar hesitation in her attacks and needed no encouragement from me. Silently, and with a dismissive sneer that must have been taught to everyone in her house, she smacked the bandits one by one over the head and knocked them out cold. Not a single one of the clumsy knife thrusts got near her, as she elegantly dodged out of the way with dance like precision.

I joined in the fight once Jenise and Delimira were engaged in their fights, but the two bandits I got barely gave any resistance. I just had to whack them across the knees with my hammer, and then bonk their heads with my gauntlet clad fist to knock them out. It was very unsatisfying. But then again, these bandits were likely made up of men that the army conscription board judged worthless, the dregs of the barrel that weren't even worth cannon fodder to the Imperial Army.

Less than five minutes later, the bandits were laid out in a bloody heap. They were all still alive, barely, but they were all probably badly concussed and had hopefully learned a lesson to never call someone 'shorty' ever again.

"That was easy." Bekhi wryly commented.

"Anyone hurt?" I asked, while hoping that comment wasn't a death flag. It was an easy fight, but even in the easiest fight there's a possibility of injury. Once everyone gave the all clear, we resumed walking through the alley.

Unfortunately, the ruckus had attracted the attention of the guards, and we found a familiar face waiting for us outside the alley.

"There they are!" Lt. Hamburger petulantly shouted. "Tie them up and seize their weapons and valuables! They're demi-humans, and a menace to society!"

There seemed to be ten men following the lieutenants orders with more on the way. However, unlike the bandits we had just beat up, these men were well armed and armored. Wearing steel plate breastplates and helmets, and wielding long halberds that would be a pain to fight against.

We could doubtless fight these ten men and win, but it would take long enough that more soldiers would arrive, and if they saw us fighting their comrades then they would join in. And so on and so on until we ended up fighting the entire army. My weapons and runes might be powerful, but they weren't invincible.

Bekhi seemed to come to the same conclusion as me, and glared at the gesticulating lieutenant before throwing back her cloak and getting out a throwing hammer. "I vote we take out the wind bag before surrendering."

"Agreed." Delimira said as she mimicked Bekhi's action and readied a spell. The rest of us soon followed suit. Our steel helms gleamed in the early afternoon light, and Lt. Hamburger grimaced, but still stared greedily, at our sharp weapons that were all pointed in his direction.

"Kvalinn? Bekhi? Is that you?" A familiar voice broke through the tense atmosphere just as Bekhi was about to throw her hammer and Delimira was about to launch a fireball spell at the petulant lieutenant. "Stand down. These dwarves, and others, are friends of mine."

"These demi-humans are enemies of the Empire!" Lt. Hamburger screeched. "Who are you to defy the orders of an Imperial officer!?"

"I'm Sir Richard of Wittenfeld. Landed knight of the Empire." He got his bow out and knocked an arrow. Five people wearing matching cloaks behind him did the same. "So if you still want to hurt my friends, I suggest you check with your superior officer before you make an enemy of Viscount Detlev on the eve of war."

The face of the lieutenant went red as he furiously tried to think of some way to still take our weapons. But he knew he was out gunned, and stormed off towards the central fort. Doubtless to make a false report to his superiors. But there wasn't anything I could do about that, for now, we still needed to get to the Adventurer's Guild to register Delimira and Jenise.

"Ah, I really hate pulling rank on people." Richard put his bow and arrow away, and cracked his back nonchalantly before smiling at us. "Kvalinn. Bekhi. Long time no see. And is that Gerde? By the emperor has she grown!"

It took me a few seconds, but eventually I remembered where I had seen that knight before. He used to just be Richard, an adventurer who had traveled with us through Tochka and on the Vermogen run. His red hair was just a bit longer now, with a few gray hairs, but it was neatly trimmed, and his clothes were much finer than the rough adventurer's garb that he had worn during our adventures.

Gerde sniffed Richard apprehensively, and then smiled brightly. "Uncle Richard!" She then tackled him in a linebacker hug.

"Oof! I forgot how strong you were. Hopefully my kid doesn't get this strong. It's good to see you too, Gerde." Richard scratched behind Gerde's ears until her tail started wagging and she loosening her grip.

"Richard, it's good to see you again." Bekhi nodded with a grin at our old comrade.

"Agreed, so it's Sir Richard now?" I asked, unsure if I should bow. Richard grimaced a little at my comment.

"Only when I'm working, which technically I guess I am right now. I'm in charge of a little village and I'm leading these guys, and girl, on behalf of my boss, Viscount Detlev, to the war. Anyway, what was that guy's deal? Did Kvalinn blow something of his up?"

I quickly explained the situation, that the officer was attempting to confiscate our weapons 'for the war effort' but was likely trying to steal them. And that we just needed to get to the Adventurer's guild to sign up for the upcoming war. Richard rubbed the stubble on his chin with a cheerful grin.

"Well, I might have a solution for both our issues. As you can see, we're all archers here and we need some trusty front liners to take the brunt of whatever fight we get into. Both on the road and in the war. As a knight, I can hire your party into my forces, the downside is that I'm dead broke right now due to outfitting these guys. So I can't do more than let you use my name to keep you safe from that blowhard and the Imperial Army."

"That'll be fine." I said. "We still have a lot of our savings from the Vermogen run and it'll be good to travel with an old friend."

"Great! Let's go to the guild and get this show on the road. By the way, Kvalinn. Who are the newbies you've got with you? Can't say I've ever seen that armor set before."

As we walked down the road, I introduced the two elves in our party and told him a bit about what we had been up to ever since parting ways in Vermogen. Then, while we waited for Delimira and Jenise to get registered with the guild, he told us of his own achievements.

According to him, he had taken a ship from Vermogen straight back to the Throndian Empire. After paying off a few debts that had kept him working as an adventurer for decades, he still had more than enough leftover to buy a title and a few hundred acres. Evidently he had made some serious cash from taking on the Vermogen run and betting on Gerde's survival. Now he was working as the landlord for the village that was composed of less than a few dozen inhabitants and had a pregnant wife waiting back at home for him.

"Congrats, Richard!" Bekhi patted him on the back. "If we're ever in the neighborhood, I'll be sure to give your kid some lessons, and I'm sure Kvalinn will make them some weapons. Right, Kvalinn?"

"Definitely. I've gotten a lot better since last we met, and with the knowledge I've gained in Issanore I can make powerful, but child friendly, weapons."

Richard shook his head with raised eyebrows. "I still can't believe that you, two dwarves, got to see the island of Issanore. Not to mention bringing back two elven girls. Not even humans get to go there, none that ever come back anyway. Are the elves as good with magic as the legends say?"

"Better." I grumbled. "The oldest of them have magic that can crater mountains and destroy cities, or be precise enough to immolate a single man amongst an army. But fortunately for the continent, they're too busy with politicking to concentrate on matters of war."

I left off the fact that their current chancellor was busy concentrating his power with the goal of eventually resuming hostilities with the continent. It would probably be decades until that happened, and Richard would either be dead or retired by then.

"Well how about those elves?" Richard asked. "They look equipped for front line combat, but should we think of them like mages?"

"I trained them myself-" Bekhi said before Richard smiled in relief.

"So front line killing machines. Perfect. My men and I should be able to fire at will without having to worry about anything breaking through to us. That is, if you leave anything alive for us to shoot."

"Um, Kvalinn. I think we're registered." Jenise walked up clutching her guild card with Delimira behind her.

"Alright, let's get the quest issued. Kvalinn, you probably have some paperwork to fill out to get your party in the guild books." Richard and I both stood up and went to different counters as if we were at the DMV.

To take a quest without everyone having to sign individually, I needed to form an official party with the guild. I had always been bad at making party names in video games, so I consulted with the other members of my group. Gerde's suggestion of "Sweet Rolls" was automatically rejected, Bekhi's suggestions all consisted of weapon names that were already taken by other party's, Delimira and Jenise tried suggesting using the names of various gods, but since the gods in this world weren't exactly the hands off type I turned them down, I didn't want to attract attention of the celestial variety. Out of options, I suggested that we call ourselves the Yankees, or on paper we would be The Yankee Party, a nod to my previous life. I told them it was an ancient word that means brave in a lost language, and that seemed to satisfy them.

"Paper work's all done, Kvalinn." Richard called out to me from his counter. "I just need to fill in the party name, what'cha got for me?"

"We're the Yankee Party." I said.

"Yankees!" Gerde chirped out. Seemingly liking the way the word sounded.

"Yankees? Eh, at least it's not some unpronounceable dwarven word. Alright, I'm officially putting in the quest specifically for the Yankees, now you just need to accept it."

A few minutes later the paperwork was all filed with the guild. Richard hadn't been kidding about hiring us for peanuts. The job officially was to guard Richard and his men until reaching the southern mountains, then to fight alongside them during the battles, and finally to escort the men back to the capital, where the men would be discharged and we would be paid… fifty coppers. That was enough to buy dinner at a mid range tavern, or ten loaves of stale bread. So going by US money it was roughly worth $50.

"Seriously, Richard?" Bekhi asked with a raised eyebrow. "Please tell me that's just your opening offer."

He just raised his hands in a shrug. "Like I said, I'm dead broke. If we all survive the campaign though, I'll pay you more depending on how much my boss gets from the Emperor."

"And how much will that be?" Bekhi asked.

"Depends on how well we fight. If the emperor gets good reports on us, then he'll give us gold, if we all die, then we get nothing. Besides, for right now I'm just putting your name on the books to make sure that officer and the Imperial Army can't touch you or take your stuff."

"I guess we better survive then." Bekhi grumbled. "But if you stiff us after the battle, then I'm gonna find you and-"

"Beat me with your hammer? Have Kvalinn blow up my town with one of his runes?"

Stymied in her threats, Bekhi thought for a moment before maliciously grinning. "I'll come to your town and teach your future kid how to fight like me."

"I'll pay you gold when I get paid! Just don't turn my kid into a berserker like you did to Gerde! I want my kid to be an archer, like me."

Chuckling at Richard's reaction, we shook hands, and with that, we were officially working under the banner of Sir Richard of Wittenfeld. It wasn't a moment too soon.

"There they are, Captain Denton!" Lt. Hamburger burst through the guild door. "Those are the dangerous demi-humans who breached his majesty's laws, and drew their weapons on members of the Imperial Army. I demand justice for my men!"

A tall man wearing a much more expensive uniform stepped forward with a tired and annoyed look on his face. "Demi-humans, you have committed grave crimes against the empire. Surrender at once so that you may face his majesty's justice."

"Hold it!" Richard stepped in between us and the annoyed officer, while attempting to project an air of nobility. "These demi-humans are the Yankee Adventuring Party, and they're serving under my banner. They're not going anywhere until the Emperor says the fight is over."

"You're Sir Richard, correct?" Capt. Denton said coldly. "Lt. Hamburger said you drew your weapons on him and his men when they were just attempting to enforce his majesty's peace. Rest assured that we will be lodging a complaint regarding your behavior with Viscount Detlev."

"You do that." Richard said in a sarcastic tone. "He'll process your complaint just as soon as possible once he gets back from fighting against the goblins. Maybe he'll use your complaint as ammo just to see how effective it is."

With several muttered swears and threats, the officers turned around and left. I let out a sigh of relief that we wouldn't have to surrender to the corrupt army officers. Just this once, I was grateful for the feudal system.

From what I found out later, the Imperial Army was separate from the forces called upon by the various nobility to fight in wars. The Imperial Army was only in charge of manning border forts, keeping the roads safe, maintaining order in large cities and guarding tax payments as they traversed the roads. Only when there was a local rebellion were they called to fight, although during the empires numerous rebellions of various size and success, they had only successfully quelled peasant rebellions.

When the Empire went to war with other nations, the imperial army was only logistically involved. The real fighting was done by men at arms who were summoned by the nobility from their peasants and armed guards. And to supply the armies with cannon fodder in war, condemned criminals, adventurers, mercenaries, and innocent citizens were forcibly conscripted. However, most adventurer's and mercenaries signed on under one noble or another, and very few were actually forcibly conscripted.

"Well, that was fun." Richard let out a sigh of relief, as he let his noble demeanor relax into his usual adventurer stance. "Alright, now that that's over with. I just need to report to my boss to let him know we're here and find out where the rest of his men have set up camp."

We followed Richard through the town until we reached the fort at the center of town. After he presented his credentials at the gate, we were all escorted by a messenger to an extremely large camp that had been set up a few miles away. Apparently Kiszentmik was the gathering point for all the local noble forces, and they would be setting out as a group in a few days' time for the rallying point in Treven.

"Lord Detlev." Richard stopped in front of an older well dressed man, and saluted him by beating his right fist against his left breast and holding his arm straight out, similar to the ancient Roman salute. "I have come by your command and have brought the best fighters my lands have to offer, also some adventurers I was able to hire."

"Sir Richard, welcome." Viscount Deltlev returned the salute, and eyed both his archers and our party. "I assume the archers are your men, and the heavily armed demi-humans are the adventurers?"

"Yes, sir. The adventurers are old friends of mine and can be trusted to hold the line against anything from goblins to dragons. And I mean that literally. As for my men, they are all expert archers."

"Excellent." Viscount Detlev turned to a page. "Giles, show Sir Richard to his spot among our men, then make sure that the camp victualler is aware of the numbers he is bringing to the fight." He then returned to his work, while the page led us through the innumerable tents to a spot marked by the Viscounts banners.

A few hours later, after eating the lousy camp food and drinking the meager portion of beer allotted. We relaxed around the fire and reminisced about old times.

"Ah, that's right. I haven't introduced you guys yet." Richard said as one of his men passed him something. "Fellas, this is Kvalinn, Bekhi, Gerde, Jenise, and Delimira. The first three I met back in my adventuring days, the elves are their apprentices, in a way." Each of us said hi before he started introducing his men.

"Over here we've got Chris Wanderfoot, best archer and hunter in Wittenfeld." Richard pointed out a halfling who was slowly and methodically maintaining his arrows. "Over there we've got Rob, Mark, and Lewis. Part of the younger generation who could be spared from farm work back home." The three older teenage humans waved as their names were called out. "Last but not least, we have a girl who we have no idea what she's saying but we're pretty sure her name is Miyata."

The girl named Miyata was staring out into the stars absentmindedly until she heard her name mentioned, then she bounced up and started chattering machine gun style in a language I never thought I'd hear in this world. Japanese. She had short black hair, and dark brown eyes that were almost black, as well as a distinctly Asian look that stood in stark contrast to everyone else's decidedly European vibe. From what I could tell, she appeared to be high school aged, but I wasn't quite sure.

All of Richard's men were wearing dark brown coaks that could serve as blankets, as well as leather jerkins and sturdy boots. Each of them also had a bow, and a decent number of arrows in their quivers.

Miyata bounced around to inspect each of us, but seemed to be especially interested in Gerdes' ears and tail. Touching them all over, and so rapidly that Gerde had no time to react, she just stared out in open mouthed surprise. Richard shrugged apologetically at her antics.

"Sorry about that. She's always talking and moving that fast, even though we have no clue what she's sayin and she never gets an answer. Can any of you understand her?"

I recognized a few words, basically Miyata just kept saying cute over and over while rubbing her face against Gerde's tail as she struggled to get away. Back in my previous life, I had been a big anime nerd, and had even tried taking Japanese lessons. However, I hadn't heard the language in over eighteen years, so I didn't remember enough to make conversation with her.

"Sorry, but I can't understand her either, but I think I have an elven translation device that should be able to allow her to communicate with us." I dug around in my pack until I found it. The magical device was designed to translate from Imperial to Issanorian, but during my time among the elves, I had learned how to alter such magical devices.

After a few minutes of tinkering, and rewriting the magic lines to translate from Imperial to Japanese, and vice versa, I handed the device to Miyata, and mimed for her to put it on. It was shaped like a rather bulky bluetooth phone device, so she quickly figured out how to put it on.

"-I'm not sure why you're having me put on a bluetooth when my phone died weeks ago but maybe it's some sort of cultural thing. Well, when in Rome. Huh? Why is everyone staring at me? Do I have something on my face? Aah! Is the ear thing a bomb!? Should I take it out? What should I do?"

"Calm down-" I said before Miyata interrupted me with an excited teenage shriek.

"EEEK! I can understand you! Can you understand me? Can. You. Speak. Japanese?"

"No, I can't." I cut in through the chatter with a decisive hand wave. "But the device on your ear is translating for you. As long as you're wearing it, and it has enough magic, it should translate anything you say."

My words set her off on a fresh bout of talk that was so fast that not even the magical device could keep up, and her words got mistranslated into incomprehensible gibberish. Although that might have been due to my jury-rigging going awry.

Eventually, after telling her to slow down too many times to count, we got the full story from her. According to her, she had been on a high school field trip in Japan, when all of a sudden, a magic circle opened beneath her group's feet and dumped her into a lake, all alone, outside Richard's house.

"I see." Richard said with an understanding look in his eyes, like a weird riddle had just been explained. "I thought she was just some lost kid from some land I hadn't been to yet."

"But why in the ancestors name would you take someone who can't speak Imperial into a war?" Bekhi asked in exasperation. "How were you planning on issuing orders to someone who can't understand what you're saying?"

"I don't know." Richard said defensively. "But you see how she acts. I couldn't just leave her back home with Mary. She'd drive my wife nuts with her behavior and might even cause a miscarriage with her foolishness. So I figured it'd be better for me to take her with me and just leave her with the supply wagons when it came time to fight."

"There's a war going on?" Miyata asked while leaning in way too close to Bekhi, her eyes sparkling in the firelight. "Does that mean I'm the summoned hero? Destined to save the world? This is amazing! I'm gonna be the hero! But wait, since I'm a girl destined to save the world, shouldn't there be a bunch of hot boys as my companions, like in the animes?"

"Summoned hero, yes. Destined to save the world, I doubt it." I bluntly commented. "Can you even fight?"

Miyata grinned as she whipped out her bow, completely unphased by my sarcasm. "I can use this like Robin Hood! Plus, when I was summoned, some god named Hela, or something like that, said I got her blessing or whatever."

According to ancient myth and legend, when an otherworldly hero was summoned, one of the gods took upon themselves to give that hero a blessing. Depending on the god, the hero would either get a huge power boost in battle, or get a special talent that was completely useless outside of very specific circumstances. Hela was the goddess of the hunt, so Miyata probably got several extra perk points in bow usage, and possibly other hunting weapons.

"Well, no matter if you can fight or not, I'll need to report that a summoned hero somehow ended up in my backyard to the Emperor when we reach the gathering point in Treven." Richard got up with a groan about his backside. "I better go report it to my boss too, he might want you to travel with him instead of with us."

"Alright, we'll start teaching Miyata the language." Bekhi glanced over at Miyata, who had gone back to fluffing Gerde's tail and telling her how cute she was. "That device takes a lot of magic to run, and Delimira and Jenise don't have enough to keep it going all the time."

For the rest of the evening, we took turns teaching Miyata Imperial. It was both surprisingly easy and incredibly difficult. Easy because Miyata had learned a bit of English, the language Imperial was based off of, and she was surprisingly intelligent, but it was still an uphill battle because she had the attention span of a goldfish and the energy levels of a toddler on a sugar high. Spending just ten minutes of teaching her took more effort than running a mile race.

"You're up, Delimira." I panted as I flopped down by the fire. "She wants to learn magic, and is on the verge of blowing herself up trying to cast a fireball. Teach her the facts of life about magic before she attracts some celestial attention."

Magic in this world was basically using the energy that the gods released when they died. It was somehow still part of them though, so if you attempted to cast magic without specialized equipment, such as runes, wizard staffs, or elven jewelry with spell lines written on it, then the power of the gods could overwhelm the unlucky spellcaster. If things went partially bad, then you would just have your arm burnt off, get encased in ice, be sliced to ribbons, or something equally bad. If things went horribly wrong though, you, and anyone around you, would die extremely painfully and have your souls collected by the gods. What they did with the souls was unknown, since no one had the courage to ask. But it probably wasn't pleasant.

Delimira knew this as well as I did, since she had spent many years with her expensive tutors learning magic. "Fine, but you owe me extra weapon smithing lessons later, Kvalinn." She got up with a groan and began half restraining, half teaching Miyata the language and basic magic facts. Including the very obvious one, do not try it until you have a good supervising teacher and even better equipment.

As I watched Delimira try to stop Miyata from casting a fireball spell like you would see in an anime, I realized that our long and arduous journey to the Tharkuldohr mountains had just become a lot more difficult, but also a lot more entertaining.