Lost

The sun was setting as they almost reached the nearby town of Kier, they knights were happy that they could finally take off their heavy armor and take a rest but the only thing on Reinhardt's mind was that riding a horse personally wasn't as comfortable as shown in shows and movies.

 'Who said horse riding is elegant, this shit hurts like a bitch' he thought due to the constant friction between his thighs and the horse.

They entered the town with ease as they had ridden from there in the morning and given the air of nobility around Celine and Emily the guards wouldn't dare to stop them.

 They stopped a little distance away from the entrance and dismounted from their horses in which Reinhardt almost failed and fell, but managed to save his dignity at the last moment.

Celine looked weirdly at Reinhardt who walked towards them with a weird stride. "Why are you walking like that?"

Reinhardt gave a chuckle as he waved his hand, "Just stretching my legs." Celine didn't ask further and motioned towards a knight who brought a pouch with him. Celine threw the pouch at Reinhardt who caught it with a confused expression. "Uh, what's this?"

Celine looked at him with the same cold eyes and replied, "Emily told me that she could have died if you hadn't saved her, so as a thanks here are some gold coins."

"Oh thanks." Reinhardt looked at Emily how gave him a smile. 'Now that I think about it, I never saw Emily in the game, maybe she died in the original story but now that I saved her...…ah dammit I changed the storyline on the first fucking day, what the hell!' he returned the smile but it seemed forced.

"There is no need for thanks, you saved my friend and for that you were rewarded. Also, since you don't remember who you are, my knight will create an identity from the local authorities and will give you the papers for it so…you have a name that we can go with?"

Reinhardt spent a moment in thought. 'Chimichanga can only be used in games so…'

"Reinhardt ….I will go with Reinhardt until I remember my real name."

Celine nodded and motioned towards a knight who went away to complete the task, "Good, well this is goodbye…. Reinhardt. My knight will bring you your papers to you soon."

Celine turned around went her way as her knights followed her. The pedestrians to the side were watching her in awe as if an angel were walking among them.

Emily didn't follow and soke to Reinhardt with a smile, "You know what you did back there was quite heroic, again thank you for saving me."

Reinhard gave a nervous chuckle, "heh well anyone in that position would help, besides I got all the thanks I needed." Reinhardt raised the pouch and gave it a shake as it made a clinking noise. Emily laughed. "Not everyone, well goodbye….Reinhardt." she said as she turned around and walked towards where Celine left.

Reinhardt watched her go and then heaved a heavy sigh, "Great, now I am all alone trapped in a shitty game world with nothing-" he stopped to open the pouch and counted the coins, "Nothing but 30 gold coins…..things can't get any worse."

Right as he said that the clouds that had started gathering above thundered as light rain started pouring, "Fuck me" Reinhardt said with a deadpan face.

He looked around and saw a typical fantasy-ish town. It seemed to be doing well considering it had a stone wall to protect it and the people seemed well fed and happy.

 Also it was the first time he saw people that were not human per se. A guy with a human body and a bear's head, a woman with horns. 'Is that a fucking human sized cockroach blegh!" well he could safely say he was out of the list of people he would talk to. Unfortunately, they were actually one of the races in the game.

Everyone noticing the rain were running back to their abodes lest they get wet and the stall owners were also packing up. Reinhardt went to a stall owner in the midst of packing, asking about an inn to which he was pointed to, apparently it was a good inn but people often avoided it. He wondered why that was.

After a small walk he reached the mentioned inn, he went forward and opened the door. As soon as he opened it, he stood still because at the reception a little distance away from the door, was a humungous old man who was staring menacingly towards the entrance's general direction.

A cold sweat trickled down Reinhardt's forehead. 'Damn he looks like a yakuza from all the scars on his face." He mustered up some courage and said in a meek voice, "Um excuse me?"

The old man didn't answer as he continued to glare at his general direction with a seemingly even greater intensity. Reinhardt mustered up some courage as he went a little forward and on his forehead the trickle of sweat now turning into a fountain, "Hello, I was hoping to get a room ….would that be a problem."

Reinhardt went further a little still and when he reached the old man, he could hear what he was sure was snoring.

He immediately banged on the desk of the reception with his fists, "Wake up you old geezer!"

The old man woke up a start, "huh oh a customer, sorry lad I didn't see you coming in" The old man said with a hearty laugh.

Reinhardt said with a furious expression, "of course you didn't, you were dozing off while sitting there and staringly menacingly at the door." Reinhardt wondered if the old man had scared of a few customers in his sleep given his murderous stare.

The old man moved his hand along his beard and said, "Oh that, well I was having my beauty sleep hahaha can't led old age tarnish my beauty you know."

"Bullshit you look like a gorilla no amount of beauty sleep is going to fix that." Reinhardt replied at which a nerve popped up on the old man's bald head. "Look here brat, are you here to insult me or rent a room."

Reinhardt shrugged, "The alternative sounds nice but I'll have a room for the night and can I get some food?"

The old man narrowed his eyes at Reinhardt's alternative, "Yes come down in an hour, dinner will be served in the hall." The old man handed him a key with a number on it, "The names Jerome, your room is on the first floor, here is the key, also keep in mind that no magical experiments and satanic rituals are allowed in the room or you will be forced to pay a fine and lock your room before going out or we won't be responsible for any lost goods, you understand lad?"

Reinhardt raised an eyebrow at the no satanic rituals bit but didn't ask any further question. "Understood" he took the key made his payment and went upstairs. Jerome looked at the kid and sighed, "kids these days, so disrespectful. Hmm I wonder why am I getting so few customers nowadays…..oh well."

.............

Meanwhile in a mansion belonging to the Restize family in Kier, Celine was sitting with Emily while they drank some tea. The servants in the mansion were busy packing the ice princess luggage for their departure the following day to the duke's castle while the knights were having a well-deserved rest, leaving guard duty to simple soldiers under the family.

Both of them were sitting peacefully in silence as they drank their tea. Emily broke the silence since she could see Celine was in thought.

"What's the matter Celine, still thinking about the boy we found?" Emily asked with mirth.

"Yes I am, something still seems odd about him. I can't point it out but there is something." Celine said with scrunched brows.

"Or maybe you are being too paranoid….again." Emily shrugged to which Celine only sighed in return.

"Maybe but I have a hunch, and my hunches are never wrong." Silence once again returned, the sound of burning wood from the fire place the only thing resounding in the hall.

Meanwhile in his room at the inn Reinhardt in front of a mirror looking at himself with a queer expression.

"Red eyes….huh neat" Reinhardt original brown colored eyes were now deep scarlet color and all things considered they didn't look bad and probably had something to do with him entering this world. Otherwise he looked the same, just above average looks.

The only thing he was worried about was whether he would be confused with vampires since being one was a big no no in most fantasy worlds he didn't want people with stakes coming after him. It reminded him of the red eyes vampires usually had in various novels and video games. He suddenly had an epiphany whether he would be mistaken as a vampire because of his eyes.

In the game the vampires always wore full face masks not even showing their eyes, especially the ones that had to operate in daylight, they were fully covered from head to toe. Even the non-combatants were never show without the full covering so he didn't know if they had red eyes or not.

He thought about his predicament for a while and immediately facepalmed. 'I am an idiot, everyone has already seen my eyes when they met me and Celine would have already done something about me being a vampire if I was one...also I don't particularly feel that thirsty for blood.'

Although the vampires didn't play a very major role, there were quests which could be a huge help to him, he decided he needed to write such information down somewhere lest he forgets important information again.

He went downstairs and a saw a bunch of people in the hall talking cheerfully and some would give a boisterous laugh as they ate their food and drank what Reinhardt could guess was an alcoholic beverage although he wasn't sure. He went and sat down on a chair and just choose to observe the people after giving his order to a waitress.

One of the few things that still confused him was how everyone here spoke English, well it was convenient for him but he thought a fantasy world would have a different language with the written form being a variant of English as well.

 He didn't react at first when he talked to Celine and Emily since he was still in shock but now it felt weird, still it was a good thing there wasn't a language barrier or he would have been royally screwed.

It also was too soon to think such since such a large world wouldn't have a single language. Even in the game different languages were depicted.

Observing the people, he could see that most were travelers. He could guess the profession of a few like merchants, mercs, adventurers but a few were too shady to give a good guess.

 He still couldn't get his head a round the different races such as dwarves, elves, beast folk and some he couldn't name since he didn't see them in the game. 'Well it wouldn't be wise to limit my perspective of this world just from the game. Who knows what kind of changes there are compared to reality.'

A waitress with cat ears and a tail came give Reinhardt his food and a drink which he didn't order. "Uh excuse me is this drink alcoholic, you see I don't drink."

The waitress held her hand to her face and gave a laugh that made shivers go down his spine, "fufufu of course not it just grape juice, we don't serve alcoholic beverages here since people tend to get a little out of hand. The taverns offer that service and they are also more capable to control the chaos that follows most of the time."

Ignoring that laugh Reinhardt thought about the waitress' comment. 'A bunch of hot-blooded adventurers and a lot of booze, yeah I can't see that ending well.'

"Anything else I can help you with?" The waitress asked with a cute smile but Reinhardt could only see deviousness.

"Uh no, thanks." The waitress nodded and went on her way.

Reinhardt listened to the conversations around his tables to get more info. 'New demon king, elven rebellion, death fog on the eastern sea, chaotic corruption from the lost age coming back, which brothel has the best wench….hmm The last one doesn't seem that important...for now'

Most of the things he was hearing about connected to the lore from the game and some were from dlcs meaning his information would hold for now but again nothing was absolute. Also, the broth along with the tender pieces of chicken was fucking delicious. He couldn't wait to try the fish.

Right, he was getting sidetracked. A common problem one he should rectify unless he wanted to end up in knee deep in shit. First order of business was getting a source of income, the gold although enough probably for some time, it would eventually end one day and depending on how long he would stay here until he found his way back home, he would need money.

Being in a fantasy world might be fun and all for most but he knew about the calamities that would this world would face and he wasn't so confident about surviving most of them and neither did he have any skills unless running away and hiding were counted. He had a comfortable life back at home and he was already feeling a little bit down realizing he was in another world far from home.

As he was wallowing in his thoughts one of the shady men Reinhardt had noticed came and sat across him. He gave a crooked smile and said in an ominous tone, "Hey there kid, you seem a little bit down, you know I have a few things that can make you right as rain, what do you say?"

The man wiggled his brows to affirm his question but before Reinhardt could say anything a large hand fell on the stranger's shoulder and applied force on it. Reinhardt could swear he heard the man's bones creaking.

"Not him, he is just a kid. Now what did I tell your boss about bringing his business to my establishment. I hope he remembers." Old man Jerome said as he continued applying pressure on the guy's shoulder. Sweat trickled down the man face as he didn't dare to move.

"I -I am su-sure he remembers." The stranger said fumbling with his words.

Old man Jerome exhaled a long breath, "Good. Now scram." The stranger got up and bolted towards the exit as if he had seen a ghost. The old man looked at the exit and then at Reinhardt, "Remember kid, I don't know why you are alone and I am not going to ask, but keep in mind some people, even in this peaceful town, don't have other people's best interest at heart. It would wise for you understand the difference or else your end wouldn't be pretty, trust me, I speak from experience."

Reinhardt just nodded as the old man went away and then went back to his thoughts until his eyes opened wide at the realization. 'Holy shit he was trying to sell me drugs.' Finishing his fish, he decided to go to sleep since he was feeling pretty tired considered he had an eight hour gaming session, fell from hundreds of feet, survived a pokemon attack and met a drug dealer. 'yep enough bullshit for one day.'

He got up and made his way towards his room.

.........….

Meanwhile in an underground dungeon several feet below the ground lay butchered and mutilated bodies of soldiers with expressions of dread permanently frozen on their faces.

 A lone figure stood among them bathed in their blood with thick chains wrapped around his body which seemed to be in shambles failing in their purpose to chain him. In front of him was another soldier seemingly of a higher rank who was kneeling in front of him clutching his stomach which seemed to be a futile attempt to stop blood spilling from the wound.

The captain looked up at the lone figure with animosity and a shred of fear, "You monster, you are insane, others will come, they will stop you no matter what. This world doesn't belong to anyone."

The lone figure spoke in a raspy voice, "Then they will die too. And you are wrong about one thing…"

Before the captain could get an answer in a blur of motion the figure moved his hand and obliterated the man's head. "This world already belongs to me." Silence ensuing once more in the chamber as the man disappeared from the dungeon in a speed not visible to the human eye.