Danke and Wis stepped off of the country road. Deciding that it might not be the wisest decision to continue travelling along the path that the soldiers from before had been travelling on. They switched to another road and then met another set of soldiers. Almost soldiers.
"Seriously? Since when did soldiers pop out from every ro-..." grumbled Danke as the came upon this new group.
"There's a war going on, master." said Wis.
"Oh, right... Sh*t."
Danke forced a calm and genteel expression. Wis did nothing of the sort, simply wearing the blank expression she tended to wear. The two groups finally met and...nothing happened.
"Evening, sir." said a soldier wearing a crested helmet. A man who seemed to be the leader of the men following behind him.
"Uh, yeah...Evening, guys. Here's hoping you give those guys hell and get back safe to your loved ones." said Danke
The helmet wearing leader laughed. A few of the marching troops chuckled as if Danke's awkward words were the product of a great wit.
"We'll try, sir. We'll try. Careful. Heard tell that some of the damned soldiers of Est have been patrolling this road as well." said the helmeted man.
"Will do." said Danke. Smiling and nodding.
With the pleasantries finished the soldiers continued on their way and so did Danke and Wis.
The reason for the difference in Danke's treatment of the soldiers was because they were just men. They hadn't attacked him so he didn't attack them. Even if Danke was no longer human that didn't mean he'd suddenly become some remorseless monster. Thus he generally wouldn't go killing sentients unprovoked.
The reason for the difference in the soldier's treatment of Danke was similarly nothing profound. These soldiers just happened to be better trained, and on their home soil, and thus more disciplined. Also, unlike before, Danke was no longer a "monster". Danke's mimicry and shapeshifting abilities had been folded into his ideation.
Thus Danke was able to change the data that made up his body to alter his appearance.
The current Danke was six foot seven a little more than half his original height. His original purple-brown skin was now a light brown. Like weak tea or caramel flan. His overall form was human, with the face left unchanged.
His hair was still silver-green, but that was fine. Worlds preferred it if one left a tell to one's supernatural nature. If you didn't, they'd tighten the dimensional restriction.
For this exact reason, Danke had left his eyes as swirling pools of black and pink. Just as they'd been in his true form. The black hinting at his fractal nature. The pink hinting at the power that dwelt within his soul.
Beyond his body, Danke had also put on the appropriate attire. The knowledge pulled from the soldiers he'd eaten's head had mostly been filled with the fashion worn buy Estians, but luckily there were a few soldiers who'd come from outside the empire or had been somewhat travelled.
Now, Danke and Wis were dressed in the finery of the midlands. The "midlands" wasn't a term used for any specific kingdom. What it was used to refer to was the large pool of smaller nations that sat neutrally, in between Ouest and Est, trying to avoid offending either.
Danke had provided clothes for both himself and Wis. Creating them using his ideation. Danke wore dark black pants, a dark gray tunic, and long cloak vest that was colored a dark green. Wis wore a dark green cloak, a dark gray blouse cut long in a fashion similar to a dress, and light green breeches.
Their clothes weren't those worn by nobles. Either in style or quality. However they were definitely upscale. Matching the style of the midlanders' affluent merchant class.
Danke choose that specifically because he knew from his first life that dressing as nobles and dressing too poorly would cause trouble. Nobles sniffed at other nobles like dogs sniffing at passing dogs and mailmen. Meanwhile dressing poorly would have everyone either overlooking them, pitying them, or trying to put them in their place.
Danke figured that costuming himself and Wis as being part of the continent's upper-middle class would be enough to avoid trouble from those on high, while getting a modicum of basic respect from everyone else.
Looking at the soldiers response it seemed his guess had been right. Dressing well had indeed changed how they were treated for the better.
The only downside to dressing rich as they had, instead of dressing humbler was that they were more likely to be targeted by bandits and raiders.
Being targeted by bandits was no worry for Danke. Danke was a former denizen of a dark world and a current child of the unwinding world of madness and dreams. It goes without saying that Danke was no paragon of mercy nor was he some all-loving Saint.
If Bandits, or anyone else, attacked either Wis or himself, Danke would kill them according to appropriateness and convenience. So long as it didn't go against his compunction against meaningless killing, Danke was quite willing to make anyone who stood in his way disappear.
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After leaving the troop of friendly soldiers behind, Danke and Wis continued their journey down the country road.
Eventually they came across a town. Danke's first instinct was to ask Wis what town it was, but then he realized that he already knew. The unwinding world, Abwickeln was fed by three sources, the cosmos itself, the collective unconsciousness of the lesser worlds, and the akashic plane which held all truth and the metadata for all knowable things.
As a fractal, Danke was attuned to at least two of those sources at any time. His mind was constantly drinking from the deep wells of the Lapine's collective unconscious and Lapine's node of the akashic plane.
It was a little harder for Danke to access the akashic plane than it was for him to access its collective unconsciousness but both sources of information worked to keep him informed of pretty much everything so long as he paid attention and worked at staying aware of the things he should know.
Thus Danke found himself instantly aware that he was in the town of Cochon. A town belonging to the kingdom of Ouest. One of the so-called "frontier" settlements that had sat near the forest when it still existed. A mid-sized town with over ten thousand people living in it. A town whose specialty was it pork pies and sausages.
Wis looked over at Danke reading his slightly punch drunk expression and guessing what had happened.
"Well, master… Since 'you' seem to already know exactly where we are, I guess suppose its my turn to ask you what we're supposed to be doing here." said Wis. Her expression playful yet subdued.
Danke considered shaking his head no and simply telling Wis that her job was still her job, but then Danke thought better of it and simply nodded.
"Fair enough… Since we're probably going to be on this world for a while let's set to the task of building ourselves a persona."
"Hm, an interesting thought. And how were you thinking of going about that, master?" said Wis. Her playful expression replaced by a thoughtful one.
"Oh, you know… the usual ways. Find a solid way of accumulating income. Build up some revenue and build up our reputations while we're at it. That sort of thing." said Danke.
"See? It seems master is quite capable of coming up with his own plans when he wants to." said Wis. Smiling again. Elbowing Danke playfully and speaking in a teasing tone.