Slow...
Very slow...
'I will miss automobiles and aeroplanes'
I sat down on the carriage which was filled with rusty metals and some spick-and-span swords. No doubt they were newly made, having nothing to do but stare into the beautiful skies, I wondered if he was good at blacksmithing? He's probably not, because if he is he wouldn't be saying he can't feed a little kid. I mean most of these novels paint blacksmithing as the hot cake of every fantasy world. He must be trashy at it I guess. My gaze averted into the sky as the scream of a particular bird couldn't help but catch my attention.
~Haaaaaaa~
~Haaaaaaaaaaa~
The bird was screaming like a lady, you know when ladies do that thing when they scream with their head voices. Truly weird. The plants and leaves on the trees are green, except for some brown leaves but that's not weird. However, I look forward to more weird things to come.
Happiness swirled within my belly. For once, for once in my entire life I got lucky and I was truly thankful for it.
... ... ...
The journey was indeed a long one. I stretched so broadly with a loud yawn as the old man woke me up, I've never slept so freely in a long while. Violently, my feet stomped the ground beneath and my eyes glared around in accordance. Truly magnificent, the buildings around, the inhabitants themselves, the attires and mechanism they had all around, for example, the carriage of the goods I rode on. It looked like it was almost worn out but I've never seen one before, so it is magnificent.
The old man carried the bag of swords and said, "Follow me."
Together we walked forward, to the gate of the castle that stood tall, a few meters into the city.
Except for the sense of reality, there was nothing particularly different, I'm used to medieval movies so the whole atmosphere felt nice, I loved it. The soldiers patrolling around the castle didn't even glance at me whereas I couldn't stop looking at every one of them and admiring their armours with my sparkling gaze.
The old man stopped and bowed in front of a man that stood elegantly, wearing a black suit with the cape wrapped over the shoulder to the waist and a belt worn over it, the cape itself was dangling on one side of his body and the suit looked great. Everything looked great on him.
"You will receive your payment in some hours, I humbly ask you to wait." A British accent to his tone but I was sure what I am hearing wasn't English. It was then it clicked to me that I hadn't been speaking English too, since coming here and I haven't been hearing it.
An auto-translation, I like that.
"Thank you, sir." The old man bowed gently and turned away, tightly closing his eyes and averting his gaze from mine. Not that I cared.
"Come little one... You have a great ordeal ahead of you." The man said, inviting me in with his hand.
Those words sent different guesses into my head. 'Ordeal?!'
Yes, I wanted to get out of his life but no! I wasn't planning on dying as soon as I got transmigrated. I followed him but the weakness in my movement gave voice to my fear, the man didn't need to ask.
"Don't worry, even though you will be tested, it is for a good cause. The Duke has only one daughter who is his heiress, it's a common tradition of the Binneniel Empire; a Duke is chosen per time to send a son to the empire whenever it's the Prince's coming of age ceremony, so the son serves the Prince as a loyal subject and a shield. The youngest Prince coming of age ceremony is in a month and his grace has been selected."
"He doesn't have a son, don't the Emperor know that?" Those words were released impulsively, I was getting agitated, why? because the story looks like I'm about to be sold into slavery.
The man paused and looked back at me,
"The tradition is a benefit to both parties, while on the outside it looks like the serving the Prince as his shield, on the inside it to secure a certain amount of political strength for the duchy... not that you will understand."
"So it's more like each duchy is trying to secure a strong influence under the command of his father while in the pretence of serving the Prince, isn't that deceit. Aren't subjects supposed to be loyal?"
His eyes widened, his eyes fuxking widened, I should name my story a transmigrator's guide to surprising nobles and making a name for himself.
'This kid, his thoughts are childish and innocent but to be able to apprehend at such level...' "Little one, what's your age."
"Twenty-seven."
"Twenty-seven?"
"Twenty-seven divided by two minus zero point five."
'Mathematics?! How is a peasant able to understand the language of sages?!' His expression questioned my every move.
"Thirteen, I'm sorry, I often get lost in my mind."
"Little one, where did you learn to speak that language?" He asked.
'They probably don't know about mathematics...'
"A strange man taught me, but he only taught me this one thing I know."
"So you met a man that taught you the mathematics language...?"
"Yes!" I replied to him with a smile on my face, now let's not dwell on mathematics, I'm very bad at it. He cleared his throat and we resumed our walk.
I prepared more chapters of a transmigator's guide to surprising nobles and making a name for himself as we walked into an intersection that led to an even wider open space filled with different people.
I gulped, no matter how grown one is, it is a culture that you take your time to breathe when faced with a great ordeal, lest you get scared and lost your breath.