John found himself leaning on a tree in a forest, overlooking a nearby babbling brook. He was wearing a blue cape over a set of gold-and-silver plate mail with cartoonishly large pauldrons, no helt, and a gigantic hamr by his side.
"Okay, so so sort of fantasy world... but seriously, who can even lift sothing like- oh... I guess it is lighter than it looks." He said, picking up the hamr. Despite its head being larger than his own, the hamr felt about the sa weight as a normal sledgehamr, albeit with a six-foot-long handle.
"So... where is my starting information?" He asked, but didn't get anything.
Great, so I am a guy wearing heavy armour, in a forest. Good start. Is this going to be like-
"Prince John! The scouts have returned with the report on the Orc encampnt." Another person shouted, interrupting his thoughts. He turned away from contemplating his situation to the person who was shouting.
A man stood before him, wearing a blue cape and a full suit of grey plate mail, his face barely visible behind the T-shaped opening in his helt. He had a sword on his hip and a shield on his arm. His right arm. That tickled sothing in John's mind, but he didn't have a chance to process it before what the man called him sank in.
Prince John? Am I royalty? This might not be such a bad world for . I'd better not leave this guy waiting.
"Very good! Lead to them."
"Yes, my liege! Follow !" The man said, then turned around, making for a path through the forest John hadn't noticed before. John took a quick look over his body before following the man. The sword of truth was on one hip, the quiver on the other. The bow was wrapped in a leather bag, its strap over his shoulder. He wasn't positive, but he thought he had his leather outfit on underneath the armour. Things accounted for, he followed the man down the path.
It didn't take them long, the pair of them making it to a small bonfire where three other n in blue cloaks and grey armour sat on logs beside it. Two other n also sat with them, wearing long blue cloaks, and had what looked like muskets leaning beside them. Both were older and on the short side, both with full white beards and moustaches, and wearing plain sets of brown leather armour beneath their cloaks.
It is just a guess, but I’d bet they are the scouts? C'mon, guys, give so information here!
"My liege! These are the scouts whom brought the report." The first footman said.
"Good. Thank you. I am John... Prince John, though we can dispense with that right now. What are your nas?" John asked the two white-haired n.
"Uhhh... Bimi, Sire. And this here is Benji." Said the man on the left. He looked a bit older than the other, but with both having stark white hair, it was hard to be sure.
"Bimi. What do you have to report?"
"Sire. There are signs of an orc encampnt on the otherside of the next ridge. While we couldn't see the camp directly, an orc warband was gathering on the road that led to the village of Strahnbrad. There were ten grunts and a couple of mounted raiders. We had to withdraw before those wolves caught our scent and tracked us down." Bimi said, his tone gruff.
A dozen enemy troops are about to attack a village? Okay, so that is the priority, not attacking the camp then.
"Okay then, thank you for the report. Now, what is the fastest way to get to the village? We have people to defend." He asked the soldiers.
"Sire, we will just continue south along this path. Lord Uther's camp is about a twenty-minute walk from here, then it will take a couple of hours to make it to the village, as long as we don't have any delays." The first armoured guy said again.
Is he my second in command? Alec, where is my information!
"Okay, lead on. Bimi, Benji, see if you can get a better look at the orc camp. Report to... Lord Uther, with your findings." John said, then turned to the other n. "Grab your gear, we depart at once!"
"Yes, my liege!" They all shouted, scrambling to pack up the tiny camp.
John just shook his head a little. These guys seed really eager to please him. The fire was out and the five of them had departed the camp a few minutes later.
From his seat up in the Multiverse, Alec grinned at John's thoughts. "Get used to this feeling, John. You are well on your way to getting the sa treatnt in HOTD, whether you want it or not."
As John followed the soldiers down the path, a trickle of information about this world finally ca in; Alec was apparently happy with the results of his prank. John was indeed a prince.
Prince John (Arthas) nethil, Crown Prince of Lordaeron and Knight of the Silver Hand, was the son of King Terenas nethil II and heir to the throne. He was trained as a paladin by Uther the Lightbringer and was inducted into the Order of the Silver Hand. Arthas also had a romantic relationship with the kind sorceress Jaina Proudmoore.
He didn't have many mories of any of that, but it would have to be enough for now.
So I am a paladin, and I already have a girlfriend... kind of? I guess they broke up since this body thought it wasn't ready, and that she was still studying magic... this is going to be weird. Not that that matters currently, I need to et this Uther guy, the man who trained , then go save that village.
John also found he had another healing spell now. Compared to his normal spells, it was about as effective as his normal heal, but it didn’t require a chant. He just willed it to happen, and the target receives the healing. The downside was how abhorrently expensive it was for each cast. Even with his 100% buffed mana in this world, he could only cast it nine tis at most before he ran out of mana. To put that in perspective, he could cast his normal heal spell 120 tis with the amount of mana he had in his pool right now.
The soldiers with him didn't seem to talk much, all four of them keeping an eye out for orcs, bandits, and other unsavoury things that plagued the roads here. His mories didn't give him any indication that this body even knew their nas before either.
Fuck it, lets just pull the band-aid off.
"So, n, I seem to have had a lapse of mory. What are your nas again?" He asked, not awkwardly at all.
"Eh." Said the first guy. "It is short for Ehrrowyn, but I usually just go by Eh, Sire."
"Bee," Said the next guy, "It is Beethrian, but my parents had a sense of humour and nad all my brothers variations of that na, so I shortened it."
"Cee" the next guy spoke up. "Cedrick, but Cee works for , Sire."
John spoke before the next guy could. "And you're Dee?"
"How did you know?" Dee said, sounding amazed. "Ya hear that boys? The young master already knew my na! I'll be sure to tell my children about this day!"
John rubbed his temples. It was going to be a long day.
Now that they had introduced themselves, the footn chatted a little more freely around him; apparently, asking their nas was enough to break the ice. They were all in their mid to late twenties and had been serving the kingdom proudly since they were sixteen. Eh was the oldest of the bunch at twenty-nine and, in fact, was in command of the guards protecting him.
They all had families at ho, Cee's wife was pregnant with their third child right now, and Bee's wife just had her fifth. It was rough that they had to leave the Capitol to go on this expedition right now, but they assured him that their wives were all strong won and wouldn't suffer much in their absence.
"It isn't like much really changes for them. Either I am working from dawn to dusk every day, coming ho only to sleep, or I am out on campaign. She takes all the pay before I even see it to run the household. Ahh, but when I do get a day off, it is sweet; her cooking is amazing. You should co by and try it- err, I an. I dunno what I ant, Sire. Please pay it no mind." Eh, said, realizing too late that he just invited the crown prince of his country to co and eat dinner with him and his wife.
"When we get back, I will take you up on that. I think we will all deserve a few days off." John joked. Then he rembered that thing.
Okay, DEN Status, Notes, Note One - When we return, remind Eh that his wife is making dinner for us. This isn't quite what I had in mind for this ability, but whatever works.
"Oh... no need, Sire. I wouldn't want to insult you with our peasant food." Eh said, stumbling with his words.
"You think I would be insulted by peasant food? My good man, you will find I have a fairly humble palette. Besides, I am afraid it is too late, Eh. You have already said she is an amazing cook, so now I need to try it!" John said, then smiled at the man. "Then you can tell your grandchildren that the king dined at your table when he was still a prince, and that your wife's cooking was literally fit for a king."
The other three footn laughed at that, while Eh himself seed embarrassed and very concerned.
"What about you, Milord? We heard you were going to marry Jaina Proudmoore, but then the whole thing was called off." Dee asked him.
"That is a great question. Let's just go with the ti wasn't right. We both had our dreams, and settling down was not part of them." He replied, trying to piece together the real reason they broke up from the fragnts of mories DEN sent him.
They continued to chat amicably until they arrived at Lord Uther's camp, the footn generally being respectful but seemingly happy that John was being this sociable. They separated once they were inside the small camp's periter, letting John continue to the centre of the camp, where his ntor was watching him approach.
The older paladin was about a head shorter than John, with a head full of ginger hair beginning to go grey. He was also wearing gold and silver armour and carrying a big hamr.
"Welco, Prince John. The n and I are honoured by your presence." The man said, his voice deep and full of reverence.
"Good Afternoon, Lord Uther. Thank you for the welco, it is good to see you too." John replied, trying to match the other man's respectful tone. "I am afraid I cannot stay long to catch up; the orcs are about to raid the village of Strahnbrad, and my n and I are heading to reinforce them."
John passed on the information Bimi and Benji had gathered to Uther, including that the scouts were to report to him if they discovered anything else.
"Good lad. I see you are growing nicely into your role of crown prince. You are doing your father proud. Now, I need to move against that orc encampnt. Can you handle Strahnbrad's defence on your own?"
"Well, I wouldn't say no to more n; a dozen orcs are heading in that direction. If you don't have any spares, then I will make do with what I have; you don't need to worry about us." John said. He was not sure exactly how strong orcs were, but even if this hamr wasn't effective, the sword on his hip could easily split steel doors in two. He wasn't overly worried about their chances.
They’re just bigger versions of goblins, right? I killed plenty of those in The Great Cleric.
"Alright, Lad. et at the orc camp once you've saved the village." Uther said, hoisting his hamr to his shoulder. "Be careful, John."
"You as well, Lord Uther," John replied.
With that, John and his n made their way towards the village, while Uther and his n went off in the direction of the orc camp.
John's thoughts were on how this world was different than the other worlds he had entered, different in that he was actually a known person here. He really didn't know how he was supposed to act, or what this body was like before he took it over. He didn't even know what he currently looked like right now, though the hair on his upper lip told him his beard was as grey as usual.
Yet he called a lad? Just how old am I in this world?
He didn't know, nor did he have any way to check. All he knew was he had a village to go and save.
User Comments
0 comments from readers