Story and characters written and created by JustSomeNumbers

  Silas went forward with speed. As the crisp winter air went against his nostrils as he sprinted towards the distant cobblestone wall, all he could think was to smile at the prospect. Months of foraging within the wilderness, the unspeakably painful spasming from Richard dying to some sort of monster, all the cold frigid camping nights spent swatting away weird looking bugs, they were finally able to reach out and get some help. The fact he couldn’t say “how are you doing?”, the fact he couldn’t ask someone “How can I help?”. It eats through the back echelons of his mind. He felt he had to help someone. It hurt his mental state if he couldn’t help. He started to remember his sore and less tender memories if he didn’t. He couldn’t atone without helping others.

  The crunch of the snow beneath his feet as his muscles started to get sore was met with the visuals of his deep breaths visualizing in a misty cloud each time he exhaled. Silas slowly slowed his sprint as a dirt road started to slowly shift from a windy blur in the distance to a sharply distinct mark on the ground he could definitively follow. The strange clothing he was in started to slow his pacing, the cotton started to get wet with the sweat from his muscles being overworked in his excited run to civilization. Almost passing by a small sign he stopped for a second to read the unfamiliar language. Catching his breath as the frost covered wood shimmered through small cracks of light, he found it strange that he could understand the weird symbols- but didn’t question it further. Again, Silas was simply too excited at the prospect of other people. There was a road. There was a sign with writing on it. There were people!

  Liam stood up from his bent over hunch catching his breath, he jumped nearly two feet above the ground in joy. As he was in the air, light shone upon his figure as his smile seemed to make way for the clouds to light his joy.

  “YESSSS!!! I FOUND PEOPLEEEE!”

  As he came back to the frosty dirt surface, he stumbled back a bit as he got carried away in his celebrations. He re-gained his balance and held his hands close to his chest as he read the foreign language. The wooden sign was held up by what seemed to be a wooden dowel pressed deep into the ground. Liam could tell it was hammered into the ground from the splits in the top of the wood- the sign itself was seemingly fashioned to the dowel with a roughly refined thick rope. Reading the wording burned into the plank of wood which created a dark indent for the lettering, Silas anticipatingly started to jiggle with excitement.

  “Thelioron Outpost, 340 mets Nurt

  Western frontier, 3.4 kats Sult”

  Thinking to himself, Silas hugged himself tightly enough to feel his own body's curvature.

  Gaaah! FINALLY. Fricken fracken finally we found a road! We should go to this “Thelioron outpost”, we can ask them for some guidance or something! Or even better- some frick-facken FOOD!!!!

  Looking around to see if any other people would come by to make sure it wasn’t some sort of military thing or potential fire rangers hut. He really didn’t want to get into any trouble when he could be in another country. After waiting for a grand total of about five minutes, nobody was in sight. There wasn’t even a small animal or hare passing by. Growing impatient, he decided it wasn’t really worth it. Walking towards the ‘Thelioron outpost” Liam began to rationalize what would happen if he ran into any officers or military…soldiers? People? He wasn’t too familiar with the military… He reasoned that if an officer was at the outpost he could ask to be driven or carriage-ed/wagon-ed (depending on how advanced this isekai world was) to the nearest town. However if it was some sort of military outpost with some sort of army soldiers, it got… murky. Maybe they’d bring them to a town and he could explain what had happened? Either way- he made for the outpost.

  As he walked a few more meters towards the outpost- large cobblestone pillars held up a broad iron forged gate. Strange braziers holding some sort of orange crystalline material created fire large enough to be clearly noticeable. The architecture was lavish with shining marble accents within the main gate’s immediate vicinity. Large flags sporting some strange black diamond against a white and red background stood as central points for the eyes to be drawn too. Silas didn’t recognize it, nor did he really understand the lavish design for what seemed to be a rather small building. If this country could afford to have such architectural designs on outposts close to…what was it- the… “western frontier?”. That would imply that this building was some sort of significant one- or alternatively- there was just excess in budget for this type of design. Large organic patterns donned prominence in its marble inlaid accents. However much of the building was built out of cobblestone and…slate? Either way the large gate and flags made it clear this was some sort of official crossing. Two guards seemed to be standing at their post.

  As Silas approached slowly and out of breath, he realized that from afar the guards seemed about average height, however that was due to perspective. As he walked closer and closer into view, he started to feel shorter and shorter. These people were massive. He could easily bet money confidently that they could easily pass six feet tall, probably even seven. The armor they wore were glistened breastplates with small breaks between them allowing for semi-robust movement. Their arms covered in chainmail with gauntlets gleaming with small indentations of the flag behind them slowly fluttering from the shifting wind breeze. Moving closer, now reasonable about a hundred or so meters away, Silas noted that these people had horns. Black lengthy points on both sides of the top of their heads, similar to what he assumed many would call a “devil” where he came from. Silas was also able to tell that the plated pleats of the stomach attenuated a very…feminine figure. They weren’t six feet tall knights, like Liam was expecting to find- but rather extremely muscular women in what seemed to be medieval christened gear. Further intriguing was the horns they had were seemingly real. Silas knew this was some sort of another world- but as he watched the guards give him an incredibly confused look the horns atop their head, which were poking out from the top of their helmets, didn’t seem to loosen or give to any forces from wind or air resistance. If they were another race than humans… would that mean they would still be…nice? And did medieval fantasies have women as the prominent authoritative power? It wasn’t like Liam was particularly against it- but what would that mean culturally for him? How was he supposed to greet them? Liam went forth with a tried and true approach: simply saying “hello!”

  As Silas was approaching the guardswomen however, they gave off body language that was rather…unsettling to Liam. At first, when they noticed him coming in exhausted and ecstatic to see another living being, they seemed to cover their eyes from the sun to see what exactly they were looking at. The guard on the left turned to their partner and spoke a couple words, then they both seemed to laugh as the one on the right gently pushed the shoulder pauldron of the joking guard. However, as Silas was within about a hundred meters (the distance where they could generally tell some defining features of other people) their posture suddenly straightened and their hands were immediately put to their hilts. It was…Disconcerning to say the least. The guardswomen on the left seemed to be a bit dazed before turning into the building and disappearing into some room or office or something.

  Finally reaching close to about a couple meters from the remaining guard, Liam could tell that whatever was standing before him was not human. The guard had now drawn their sword and had a stern look on their face. Silas, now quite nervous- let out a meek breath to greet the strange being.

  “H-hello?”

  The guard, sporting her hand on a sword clearly sharp enough to do damage and standing about two to three feet taller than him, gave a clear and sharp response.

  “HALT.”

  Silas put his hands up immediately and shut his mouth immediately with a discouraged hurt look. He saw the guard visibly soften her gaze for some reason. Liam wasn’t fond of confrontation so he reflexively gave a submissive response to try and lower the tensions.

  “WAIT- I DON’T KNOW WHERE I AM- PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!”

  “Wh- what?”

  “I haven't seen anyone else in months and I’ve bee-”

  The guard cut Liam off before interjecting with a question and a strange look. Almost as if she was shocked at what was happening.

  “A-are you a hume? Why do you have a noblewoman's clothing?”

  Silas tilted his head and his hair gently flew out as wind pushed his snow white hair away. He was perplexed- he didn’t really understand what the question was- and he didn’t particularly know the answer to the second question either, as he had no idea how he got these clothes too. However, the guardswomen seemed to lower her sword to a less…aggressive stance as she got closer to him. Calmly walking up to Silas until she was towering over him, Silas felt a tingle go down his spine that gave him an icky feeling as he saw the guard look over his body. Attempting to avoid the incredibly awkward situation and his hands still in the air- he continued the conversation.

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  “U-uhm… I don’t uh- know what a ‘hume’ is- so uh… probably not?”

  Liam gave a meek smile with a nervous sweat slowly building up. The guardswoman sheathed her sword and lifted both her gauntlet protected hands to Silas’s head- feeling around his scalp with a confused and shocked expression. It made Liam incredibly weirded out and he flinched down a bit. As it was incredibly uncomfortable, Silas let out a response to the situation.

  “Uh… what… are you doing?”

  The guard seemingly ignored his question and when she was done doing whatever it was she was doing- she forced his hand over and examined the clothing Silas was wearing, this was a bit too far for some sort of friendly conversation.

  “H-hey! Stop that plea-”

  “SILENCE.”

  At this point Liam's generally warm expression turned into a concerned grimace. Two other guards seemed to come from behind the guardswoman who was a little too handsy for his comfort. The guard turned to the other two who had a shocked expression. The guard clenched her gauntlets around both his hands and forced Silas over in front of the other two like some sort of fishing catch- it felt like it nearly crushed his hands as he let out a whimper.

  “Felis look! Its a genuine hume! He has no horns!”

  The guard they were apparently talking to ‘Felis’ seemed to let out a gasped breath of air as her jaw dropped.

  “NO WAY.”

  Before Liam could voice his discomfort, as he was trying to squirm out from being nearly hoisted off the ground and having his hands crushed- the other guardswomen, who sounded more mature with a deeper voice seemed to take control of the situation.

  “FELIS. AURORA, KNOCK IT OFF. Pass it over, lemme take a look.”

  “Uh- sure thing. Here you take it, it’s pretty fuckin light haha-”

  Silas tried to talk, voicing his now extreme discomfort and feeling incredibly anxious.

  “H-HEY! Sto-p!”

  The guardswoman in response to this raised her hand and back-handed his mouth hard enough to hurt his jaw, which caused Liam to tear up almost immediately. Felis responded with an extremely concerning grin.

  “Daaaamn, which noble let this fragile thing out of it’s cage?”

  The other guard chimed in after she said this.

  “Is that really a fuckin hume? How’d it end up out here?”

  The guard who was now forcing Silas down to about waist height (which meant Silas had to bend down in an uncomfortable way) did about the same hair ruffling that the other one, Aurora(?), did. After her inspections she pushed Silas to the ground with enough force to shoot a bit of pain throughout his body. Before Liam could truly start to cry, he blinked and was back in his comfortable room of plushies. Rolling over to the bed and hugging Cuddles (the slime), Liam curled into a ball and began to softly sob at the feeling of being slapped so hard.

  Suddenly fueled with a bout of adrenaline and a feeling of deep bloodlust, Karla was now in control of the body. His eyes opened and immediately began to look over the three “people” that seemed to be baffled at the sudden change in body language.

  “The fuck, I think you broke it captain-”

  “Felis- girl- shut up-”

  …

  What was this? Three female individuals with some sort of…devils horns were seemingly looking down upon Karla. He noticed that they were taller than him and had some sort of insignia on each pauldron. Why did they wear this archaic armor? And what the fuck was happening? Looking at each of the three, Karla immediately analyzed each of their faces. Two of them were clearly looking over his body either for personal purposes or for any potential firearms. However, the one in the middle resembled the type he and his comrades tended to ‘earn’ after coming back from the front. He locked eyes with her as she flinched at his cold calculating stare. He recognized not her, whatever devil she was, but for what she was.

  The individual didn’t like this at all, all three of them were put off by the immediate shift in the atmosphere the strange human gave off, but she seemed to take this personally. Stepping back and yelling what Karla assumed was a direct order to him as he was looking at his surroundings, she angrily yelled:

  “What the fuck are you staring at you filthy hume.”

  Karla didn’t respond. The terrain around was different to the forest. A large fortress seemed to block a dirt road to wherever this place was, interestingly it resembled pre-war checkpoints. Were these…military police? With… swords? His gaze re-fixed unto the main authority he assumed was in charge. The one with experience. After connecting the small number of MP’s and the checkpoint together he clicked his teeth together and hardened his gaze into one of disgust and utter dis-regard as he responded to her previous question.

  “Tch. backline cowards.”

  All three of them immediately shot their gaze directly towards him. The one in charge seemed to clench their fist and subsequently kicked Him with enough force to send him flying to a nearby tree. This completely shocked Karla- this shouldn’t humanly be possible… what the fuck was this strength?

  KEek.

  Coughing up a bit of blood from a clearly cracked rib, he looked up to a furious woman angrily walking towards him. Understanding his position, Karla put his hands in the air and attempted to use his confirmed suspicion to his benefit. If these three were grouped near a backline checkpoint, they had to be MP’s. They had archaic gear- but had immense strength. The way they spoke to him reminded him of how his superior officers spoke to him. An air of arrogance and supremacy was mixed with every breath- he wanted to use his machinepistole, but alas he had confirmed he was un-armed as soon as he took charge of the body. He had to take advantage of the fact they understood what he meant by “backline cowards.” He mimicked a softer expression he saw other prisoners make in an attempt to influence the next words he’d say.

  “Those upper…commanders(?) must’ve been backline cowards to send.. Agh- such strong soldiers to the rear-”

  Apparently this worked, the MP seemed to get a bit flustered as the two behind dropped their jaws nearly to the ground. The trio sheathed their swords and the two behind the MP confronting Karla were interacting like lower enlisted given a piece of gossip. The officer however, was flustered. Karla understood that serving in any armed forces required the abandonment of certain…social pleasures, typically including public affection or physical and emotional connections. Using this lack of “attention” to his advantage should pivot any potential thoughts to more derogatory ones aimed at himself- rather than the important questions. They fell for it, which was to his surprise.

  “S-Shut your mouth hume. Why are you away from your master? The fuck are you at this border checkpoint for?”

  Clearly these fools weren’t MP’s- they had no OPSEC training once so ever. If he found his MP’s or even his security forces so easily gave up the purpose of an installation he’d have them court martialed immediately and sent to the infantry. So what on earth were they?

  “I don’t know.”

  “Sure as shit you ‘don’t know’- how’d a hume even survive out here?”

  She said the word hume like he called enemies of Rostova. He hated that- but needed to keep his composure to find a time to get a fix on the situation. Since the seduction methods were working, he might as well run a “stress test” on his new body to see how far he could push these strange…creatures.

  “Madam, If I knew you were out here I would have survived much worse. A sight for sore eyes that none other than myself has been blessed to see-”

  The…Soldiers, in the back were now absolutely hysterical- they were playing some sort of grab ass while their officer wasn’t watching. They were…definitely lower enlisted. But how could a woman be this…domineering? Weren’t they supposed to be demure? Rostovan culture had absolutely no tolerance for this heresy. Whatever the case, the officer was blushing and squatted down- though it didn’t really help the height difference much, she was now only about a couple inches taller than him. Which irked him to no end.

  “Hume- do you- do you actually know where the fuck you are?”

  “No. I don’t know how, but I was separated from…where I was and I ended up wandering for quite a long time. Would you mind helping me get to a settlement?”

  The officer laughed at him and gave an order to bring a carriage over.

  “Look humie, if you behave yourself like a good little hume, we’ll be lenient with your punishment and put in a good word for you when you get back to your master.”

  Karla shot daggers at this insulting insinuation and gave a quick retort

  “I have no master, if I did, do you think I’d be roaming around the woods like some scavenger?”

  “Uh huh… Why do you have noble-wear then hun? Some elven noble give you that fine clothing?”

  …

  Before Karla could reach for her carotid artery, which he was prepping to do- the woman forced her armored hand around his throat and picked him up. For whatever reason the women in this State were unreasonably strong. Did they have some sort of steroid stimulant for super-soldiers? Was his origin of existence in Rostova for naught? The officer, smiling-, threw him like a sack of rations into a caged cart on a wagon. Smirking with the grin those disgusting pigs had in his previous trial of life- she nodded to the driver and gave an order to where he was supposed to go.

  “Hey Yols, take it to the Speist’s. This hume says he doesn’t have an owner, so maybe our standings will get better if we give them a fucking hume of all things.”

  The driver, also clad in the same insignia and archaic armor- responded in a way Karla found interesting.

  “A FUCKIN HUME? FOR REAL?”

  “Fuck yeah- don’t do anything to it though. You know how freaky those nobles get with high quality goods, worth more prestige the less spoiled it is.”

  Karla did not enjoy the implications of this conversation. However the fact he didn’t have access to his firearms and was physically outmatched meant takedowns would prove…difficult. Looking around the cage, he reasoned the best move forward was to conserve energy for whatever mental or physical gymnastics that was certain to follow. This apparently put everyone that surrounded the cage to be put off.

  “Hume, why ain’t you screamin or something?”

  Karla, curious as to why they asked such a benign question, looked the officer dead in the eye and answered the question without any hints of emotional attachment to the situation as the cart slowly started to move towards a direction unknown to him.

  “It would be a pointless exercise my dear, best of luck to me huh?.”

  Smiling, Karla sat back and waved his captors off. Seems this was going to get interesting.