"Bile yer heid!"

A desperate scream filled the sky. The young man who had said those words took a few steps back, aware that he had risked a lot. The sword he held awkwardly in his right hand had bounced off his target and nearly poked his eye out. The blunt blade made an odd arc, first coming close to the eye, then hitting his right knee.

The boy let go of the blade and began to jump on one foot, holding the bruised knee in his hands.

"Lucius, be careful not to lose! Your opponent seems dangerous!"

The screams of Lord Karkaster's soldiers were halfway between benevolent and amused, seeing him bounce back and forth in front of his fearsome enemy, a harmless dummy of straw and wood.

None of the soldiers could be angry with Lucius for his clumsiness, but they could not help but notice the boy's poor attitude in handling a weapon.

"Yer maw cares o' the dummy."

After looking at the other Earthlings, more than a hundred, who were training in the barracks’ courtyard, Lucius decided that he had done more than enough for the day. He shifted the wooden sword over his shoulder so he wouldn't have to drag it along—those crazies trained with swords that weighed a couple of pounds.

Given his passion for weapons, Lucius knew that swords were generally lighter than they looked, unless they were huge medieval two-handed broadswords, more cool than practical.

"Lucius, are you all right?"

Kasper, one of the military officers, seemed to have taken a liking to Lucius even more than the others.

"Ka', this pumpin' sword, why didnae ye make it wit lead? So if I'd jumped overboard wit it, I would drown as well."

Cynical humour was new and refreshing for the Vanedenis, who dealt with death every day.

Kasper laughed heartily as his nerves, tensed from meeting the other officers, relaxed. He could not always understand Lucius when he spoke. He seemed to know a very peculiar kind of dialect. From what he understood, the Earthlings spoke the language of the Vanedenis only for a miracle done by the Harbingers, but something in their magic didn't seem to have been able to bring all his words into their world.

"Let's go have a drink at the Lame Adventurer. Come on!"

"Lame yer maw," Lucius muttered, following the officer at his wheel towards the barracks bathrooms.

Something as strange as it was incredible: the barracks had men's and women's bathrooms. Apparently, the Vanedenis had a very diverse militia in terms of sex. Unfortunately, Lucius, on the first day, had had a little mishap.

"Skelped me just because I was impressed that there were all these women. Right, Ka', ye could make it a wee less feminist this society, eh", were his words after being knocked down several times by the highest military officer present in Brig, Nalith, a woman.

"Lucius, I have to use the bathroom for a moment. In the meantime, go wash, because you smell like a wet gnoll. Wait, how do you Earthlings say when you go to the bathroom?"

Lucius cleared his throat: "Go and tak' a jobby."

"Well, well. I'm going to take a jobby, then. See you outside."

Lucius headed for the bathrooms with a fox-like grin and a glimmer of light in his eyes.

From what Kasper had told him, the so-called "showers" of their world also existed here. There were Cantamen, which Lucius might have described as Enchantment, enchanted mechanisms, able to convey water, filter it and clean it like a purification mechanism in the sewers. Right, they also had sewers, it seemed; even if only in the larger cities.

Approaching the showers, Lucius felt grateful for having been sent to what was probably one of the most peculiar cities on the whole continent. Lord Karkaster of Marigolds, who ran the city, was one of the few high-ranking nobles whose wrath the enemy truly feared. They had explained to him that in the south of Kome, few people surpassed the authority of Lord Karkaster, the [Lord Botanist].

Lucius approached one of the enormous plants with as many vacuoles as tall as a person and overloaded with filtered and clean water: a hydrophilic plant, a species capable of retrieving water from anywhere, cleaning it and making it drinkable. In desert areas, a couple of those could have created an oasis. Here, in Brig, they generated all the drinking and running water in the city. Obviously, they were helped by the Enchantments scattered throughout the system that connected the various plants and water cisterns.

After all, Brig had the best [Gardeners] and [Botanists] on the continent.

Lucius still had to get used to it, as a slight pressure on the giant vacuole was enough to release a large amount of water. And was there a way to close it too?

Of course.

The problem was just...

"AH!"

"DONE!"

"AH!"

It was enough to scream directly at the vacuole to stimulate it to close.

Now, in the women's restrooms, perhaps it would have been an interesting scene: dozens of sweaty and tired women panting in front of vacuoles releasing water... But, here, with men large and muscular enough to put to shame the bathrooms of a gym full of professional bodybuilders...

"Bunch o' faggots."

It seemed that it was enough to clap hands close enough to the vacuole to achieve the same effect in most cases. And, in reality, this was what happened in the women's bathroom in the barracks, as in the rest of the common areas. Unfortunately, given the large amount of testosterone going around in the male one, the spectacle remained dismal.

One of the Earthlings soon arrived at the vacuole next to Lucius's, while the latter was still trying to open his without being drowned by the plant.

"Will. Ye. Open? Awa’ an bile yer heid", cursed Lucius several times, in some ways lost in this new world.

Some people had adapted quickly, and he couldn't help but envy them. An Earthling above all, Verena, seemed to have already gained several levels, contrary to him.

In fact, Lucius had yet to earn his first level.

"Verena was looking for you, Lucius," said Pippin.

What glaikit name, Pippin. Ye Irish or faggot? This was the subtle difference in Lucius's mind between those who came from his beautiful country, Scotland, and those who did not. Anyway, speak o’ the Devil!

"Pippin, canna ye explain to me how this green bugger opens up?"

The other Earthling, originally from Dublin, laughed. Lucius was a real bumpkin, even by his standards. However, since he was Irish and Lucius Scottish - which automatically made them blood brothers, unless one of them was from Belfast - he decided to help him. But, really, it was not easy to open those buds without a bit of practice, and Lucius seemed to have the delicacy of, as he had described himself the day before, a rusty shredder in a slaughterhouse of mad cows.

"Here. Then stroke lightly, without too much force, and it opens up enough to take a nice shower. But it’s up to you if you prefer to scream or clap."

Pippin ran a hand through his wet hair before closing his vacuole.

"Brig is truly an incredible city. They may not have our technology, but they certainly have been able to adapt all the magic of their world to have a comfortable life."

Lucius began to ignore him as soon as the water arrived. It was strange how all people seemed to develop a certain sympathy for him so quickly. Part of it had to be that he looked pretty harmless and a part that he didn't really mind people.

He had always done jobs where he had been in contact with people, in one way or another. He was always kind and friendly and had a good word and a smile for everyone. In addition, his accent aroused an instant surge of sympathy in anyone who had anything to do with him. For some reason, the Scottish dialect always made him look good in the simple and informal conviviality. There was no better way to break the ice than an "aye, right", referring to whatever his interlocutor was saying.

However, as he scrubbed with porous plant residues, more refined and eco-friendly versions of sponges, he couldn't help but think about how some of the Earthlings were taking the whole situation a little too much as a picnic.

Lucius would have liked to have fun like them, but he couldn't help but take the whole war thing seriously. And since he wouldn't be instrumental on the battlefield, he'd at least tried to find out about the geography of the place where he'd ended up.

He had heard from Kasper that, in the southern part of the continent of Kome, there were many small villages and a few cities as large as Brig.

At that moment, every settlement, from the largest to the smallest, had been surrounded by a mysterious barrier called Curtain. It prevented communication between towns and villages; anyone who tried to cross it died instantly. As a result, each of the cities would have to deal alone against the Ahalis, enemies who were described as fearsome.

Lucius and the other Earthlings had had enormous luck ending up in Brig. If there was anyone who could withstand the attack of many Ahalis at once, it was Brig. Still, Lucius was not thinking about the battle. Instead, he thought about what would happen next. The survivors of the enemies would gather soon after the battle in an attempt to eliminate any possible threat.

Not that it would have been easy to take them down, but only Lucius and a few other people seemed worried about that occurrence.

The fact that the Vanedenis were pure bonkers like no one ever comforted him a little bit. Not even in this world did it seem, at least according to them, that there had ever been warriors who were purer bonkers than them.

They had indiscriminately attacked a world alliance and the equivalent of the Nazis. And they had won. Vanedenis, pure dead brilliant.

It seemed that more than one people on this planet had attempted to dominate the world. Had I not had the Champions League to watch, maybe I would have done a wee thought about that too.

Yet, the Vanedenis had been the only ones - the only ones! - to be able to impose customs duties on all international trade and a famous tax. Not even the Sirens could avoid it, and they were one of the peoples with more power over the global economy, at the moment, the only people able to trade on an intercontinental scale. After all, despite skills and classes, it was not easy to create large merchant routes.

In any case, Lucius, looking at the soldiers around him, did not doubt that their ancestors had been mad enough to make the whole world an enemy. They are a bit like the Roman Empire under Augustus, wit the kindness of Caesar in Gaul.

It had been six days since their arrival in this new world, and getting used to it was far from easy. However, with no possibility of returning to Earth, Lucius tried not to overthink the situation around him.

The people who had arrived on Kome seemed to be divided into two categories: on the one hand, there were the men and women who had had a rather miserable life and who wanted to change it. On the other, as in the case of Lucius, some had left behind them more than they could find in a world of magic. Although, since he arrived, Lucius often thought of his son and wondered who was looking after him now.

He didn't know how they had been transported to that dimension, or planet, or whatever it was. He wasn't sure if an actual teleportation system had been used, as some of the Earthlings seemed to have been taken from different years: some were from the 21st century, others from the ‘60s.

Could they be some kind of clones?

He had asked some expert on magic in the military corps, and it didn't seem like clones had ever existed in that world.

Could they have taken each person from a different moment in history, a moment from which their presence would in no way affect the world they left behind?

Lucius had thought more than once about what could have happened and what his son's fate might be now that the Harbingers had separated them. He still had his grandparents, at least. He wouldn’t be left completely alone.

And who knows, maybe Lucius’ disappearance would attract his mother’s attention, even if she was now following a career path much more ambitious than Lucius’ own.

Whereas some Earthlings had already embraced their new life, Lucius was just resigned to it. At least for now.

He had always known he was a normal person, and had never had big hopes or dreams for himself. Having a family was enough for him to be satisfied. However, in a world like this, those simple aspirations no longer seemed capable of supporting him. How was he going to meet his son again if he didn't raise the bar of his expectations?

After drying himself and getting dressed, Lucius came out of the bathrooms only to find Verena staring at him with an icy look, a look so penetrating that it could make him uncomfortable too, at times, despite his seraphic calm.

“What?”

"Lucius, new class or levels?"

"Christ, Ver, calm down. Nothing, no class or levels, yet."

Lucius looked around, but Kasper and the other soldiers kept away from her.

Verena had been a lawyer in her past life, and if there was one thing she had to learn, it was improving and optimising her time to be the best of the best. In Switzerland, few people would not have chosen her as a corporate lawyer. She spoke five languages, had a license to practice in several countries, including some American states. However, the feature that set her apart from most lawyers was her systematic approach to the study of the law. She had thoroughly studied the principles of deliberate practice. Whether these applied to soldiers, lawyers or basketball players, it didn't matter.

She had an intensity that was difficult for anyone she faced. Army officers had found themselves in more trouble with her than with Lord Karkaster. One day, Verena had started yelling at a [Captain] because he wasn't practicing with all his strength.

When the [Captain] yelled at her in response, Verena vanished, only to reappear ten minutes later with the [General]. The poor man had been whipped. The Vanedenis, however affable and friendly, certainly did not have a culture based on calm.

It needs to be clarified: not only had the [Captain] been whipped, but all the soldiers had also had to watch the show, while Nalith reminded everyone that the military ranks mattered little if you were unwilling to be an example. Therefore, the [Captain], who had practically pardoned his own laziness, had been whipped, downgraded to private and was also promised that if he did not train twice as hard as everyone else, he would be executed.

There hadn't been a single hint of remorse or a drop of compassion for the man in Verena's eyes. Lucius still remembered her words, when he had asked her if it hadn't been just a bit exaggerated.

"We all risk losing our lives. If someone wants to give up, we might as well put him aside."

Not that Lucius didn't understand that philosophy of life. On Earth it might have been a bit extreme, but here? Here, they were literally risking their lives and, although Brig was one of the best organized towns in Kome, it would face an equally large Ahali settlement.

The scary thing about that woman was not so much her talent - after all, the first day she didn't seem more gifted than the others with the sword - but the fact that from the first day she had been practicing until she fell to the ground. Literally. And, day after day, she kept doing it.

"The body does stop until the mind does."

It was one of those things you might read in some Japanese comics, but Verena seemed to have brought them to reality.

Lucius took a sip of beer.

Pure dead brilliant, the Vanedenis also make beer, and a good one too.

"True, you have tae pester me now too? Stop goin' full Mazinga. Come on, let's play cards."

Verena fixed her gaze on him, trying to evoke feelings of guilt. The only thing he was able to conjure was a what a bonny lassie, Mazinga 'ere in Lucius's head. The slightly lost look he gave her made her feel better, after confusing him with remorse.

"Ver, you know Poker?"

"Not much."

"I found some cards similar to ours, I'll teach you in a moment. Generally it would take four people to play, but we can do it in two. The last time Kasper tried to drop a lead, I just dropped my balls."

Verena was Swiss, but really Swiss. She was one of those people who give the reputation of very precise and efficient people to the nation in the middle of the Alps. Like a Swiss watch.

Since she had arrived, however, she had been more like a violin string, stretched beyond belief. She was terrified of having to face the Ahalis without having done everything possible to train.

In his extraordinary rudeness and vulgarity, Lucius gave her a calm that she had lost since her arrival in Brig.

Seated at the table, they chatted about this and that, without going into a deep conversation.

"Hey, can you make the hydrophiles work?"

Verena looked confused for a moment by the question.

"What do you mean, Lucius?"

"I say, those green buggers, eh, do they ever drench you so much you risk drowning just because you skelped 'em a wee too much?"

For some reason, the image of Lucius who couldn't even take a shower without cursing made her laugh heartily as she won another hand. It seemed that Lucius wasn't very good at cards either.

He was so nice and cute, though, that Verena couldn't help but almost feel like she had to watch over him. She'd seen him train hard during his six-day stay in the new world, but he didn't seem to have any talent.

"What are you laughing at, bile yer heid. Ye ken to play poker too, even if yer Swiss, aye, incredible. How about Gin Rummy?"

"How do you play?"

"Ye don't even know how to play Gin Rummy. Aye, right, I'll explain. Christ, yer strange."

Winning was natural for Verena. Despite this, the woman did not understand how Lucius could be so poor in a game that he had proposed, but she assumed that, being the cards a matter of simple mathematics, it did not take long to beat him.

This was arguably the second card game Verena had played in nearly ten years. The first was the only time she had set foot in a casino, in Monte Carlo, where they had almost left her in her underwear. She had been gambling over three months' salary at the poker table, losing hand after hand. She had convinced herself that she wasn't able to play cards, but maybe that wasn't entirely true.

Slowly, she began to relax. Her muscles were finally starting to relax as she talked to Lucius and won one game after another, amidst the Scot's colorful curses.

During the day, she followed a special training program made by none other than the [General] of the entire city. Why? Well, she had proven she was capable of earning five levels and two classes in one day. Therefore, they had decided to train her with both sword and magic.

What a great thing, magic. The fact that it existed was even more excitement for Verena than the fact that she was physically back in her 21-year-old body. Apparently, all Earthlings, regardless of their age, had been brought back to the most prosperous period of their lives. Twenty-one years. A period of growth but also of important decisions.

And if in her past life she had fought battles in court, this time she would have to literally get her hands dirty.

"Do you have any idea why you haven't acquired any classes yet?"

Lucius was losing yet another game of Gin Rummy and it seemed to disturb him much more than Verena's question, or at least that was what he was showing.

"Dunno. Maybe because I don't care?"

"Aren't you worried, Lucius?"

"Again, Ver, ye think I am not worried that in a month we risk becoming chicken spits? Come on. Canna believe ye ask these questions."

"But you will have at least an idea of what class you want, at least an intuition."

Lucius threw his last cards to the table, noting that by now he had lost, mathematically speaking. However, Verena didn't seem willing to shuffle the deck before getting some answers.

"Look, Ver, I try, but I don't think classes are given only for trying. Rather, it seems to me that they are an - how to say - expression o' who ye are. And I'm sure I'm not a soldier. Beautiful the whole barracks eh, do not get me wrong, I know the guys are alright, but I just don't see me playing gladiator. Maybe I'll be the bartender. I'll mix some cocktails after you have skelped each other, what ye say? What ye like, Blue Angel or Cuba Libre? "

"Not a bad idea, but then I don't think you should go to the front lines to fight monsters that are much stronger than us. Lord Karkaster said that physically we will always be at a disadvantage and they also have Levels and artifacts on their side. "

"We got our wullies though, fiuuum, vooom, voooom, like lightsabers, eh."

"Come on, Lucius."

"Eh oh, we'll see. Soon we'll see, eh. And I really have a project, nothing special, eh. Don't look at me like that, 'cause I won't tell you anything, not even if you look at me like a baby doe, ye right scunner."

The colorful and absurd, as well as nonsensical, expression was successful in completely distracting Verena, making her laugh, almost sobbing, and persuading her to let it go.

At the end of the evening, she left, ready to sleep. Lucius, on the other hand, went to Kasper, ready to retrieve him before returning with him to the barracks, where they both slept. Some Earthlings were guests of families, others, like Lucius, had decided to stay inside the barracks even during the night.

"Lucius, I hadn't seen you lose at cards yet, you know?"

Kasper was impressed that Verena, who didn't even seem to know how to play properly, had won against him. His curly-haired friend seemed to be practically invincible at cards, usually.

Verena had also made a couple of mistakes and broken the rules. But Lucius hadn't said anything to her.

"Because you are a bugger, Ka', you owe me a lot of money, och, ye ken," said the Scot, kicking him on the heels. "Let's get tae bed, and if we get skelped in the morning for being late, I'll give ye a second helping."

…

"My Lord," Verena dropped to one knee, looking down at the ground.

"Verena, please get up. Our customs are different from those you might find on other less refined continents. You don't need to kneel."

Lord Karkaster was a man in his forties. According to the [Captains] with whom Verena was able to speak, he was one of the strongest Vanedenis left alive, although his exact level was not yet known. However, it was still not enough to rival the Ahalis. Once upon a time the Vanedenis had owned tens, if not hundreds, of people above level sixty. Unfortunately, the night attack by the Ahalis had been able to kill even people who could have turned the tide of the war on their own. That infamous night, remembered with hatred, continued to haunt them.

"I was told by Nalith that you were seeking an audience with me to discuss the whereabouts of some of your comrades."

They were in the hall where Lord Karkaster used to receive his citizens, seated on a stool slightly higher than the floor. Except for a few guards, no one else was present. The Lord did not like sharing his political affairs with anyone other than his butler. His wife, shrewd and charming as she was, occasionally troubled him enough to want her as far away from public affairs as possible.

"Yes. I wanted to tell you my simple consideration."

"You're welcome, Verena."

The man waved his hand. The fact that the woman was so polite was certainly not a bad thing. Indeed, Lord Karkaster was almost beginning to hope that sooner or later all his citizens could become like this.

"There are some men who are training more for duty than for willingness. I think it would be better to take these people and reassign them to more appropriate positions. In battle they would be nothing more than a dead weight, in every sense of the term."

Lord Karkaster, stoic and gentle as he might seem, knew everything that went on under his comand. He had already received more than one report on Verena and, incidentally, on a certain Lucius.

This Lucius had also manifested himself as a topic of conversation for his daughters at the dinner table; this Lucius had answered calmly in front of his grave speech on the first day of their arrival. It seemed that the young man had not only been able to make Nalith lose his temper and earning a lesson of the kind that even Lord Karkaster had received in the past from the stern general, but that he had also caught the eye of Alhena, his second daughter.

At a time when the nobility was in danger of extinction, the relationships between families no longer mattered, so he had no intention of forcing his daughters into some marriage that was not to their liking.

Not that it had ever been their practice to force daughters into marriage. Unlike those Teikos degenerates, women among the Vanedenis chose whom to marry. For heaven's sake, it was not a choice born of a progressive society, but rather a series of civil wars that had started because a too presumptuous Lord or Lady had tried to force the hand of their daughters. And, unfortunately, theirs was not a society that tolerated internal conflicts well without tremendous escalations.

"Verena, I certainly can't force someone to do something they don't want to do. All the people who have decided to enter the barracks have done so of their own accord. Several of your companions have chosen another path and work either in the fields or at some craftsman who was kind enough to take them as guests and apprentices. Are you sure that your request extends to more than one person, and that perhaps it would not be better for both of you to be more direct?"

Verena felt a drop of sweat run down her back. She had never wanted to hide her intentions during the conversation, but she didn't want to simply suggest to the Lord that the problem was one person, a favorite. She had thought that, if a single man were subject of the conversation, it would be difficult to attract a noble's attention.

"Two of my daughters have decided to sponsor any project that this specific human gets to grips with. One of them agreed against her will, but still gave her word. Verena, you are without a doubt the most talented of the Earthlings and I have no hesitation in responding to your request for an audience, considering the enormous sacrifices you are going through to be battle-ready, but I believe you are worrying about the last person who would require such care."

The Swiss suddenly felt offended, so much that she ignored much of the speech Lord Karkaster had made to her.

"And who should I worry about, then? Lucius risks getting killed because he's a bit... unsur - silly. I don't think he deserves to be stabbed without even the possibility of ..."

Lord Karkaster stopped listening to the string of complaints, frowning. He had just told the woman, out of his teeth, that this Lucius seemed a much more interesting person than she had thought. Why, then, was she acting as if he said he wanted to throw him into the lions' den? God, how he would have liked to see live one of those shows that more than three hundred years earlier had been held inside the arena in the capital. At one point, his ancestors were said to have captured more than one dragon for one of the most epic battles ever seen within the huge arena.The Lord raised a hand and used part of his aura to put pressure on the woman. .

"I think you misunderstood me. The young man you speak of told my daughter that he had a couple of very interesting ideas and she not only agreed to pay for them, with my money, but extorted the promise to a collaboration with his older sister as well. Your friend just said he needs some time to better understand how to implement these ideas, that's all.”

Before the woman stopped listening to him again, Lord Karkaster decided to get up from the chair and, accompanied by Xefer, his butler, left the audience hall, while Verena was almost dragged away by the guards.

…

Lord Karkaster sat down at the head of the table. His wife and daughters fell silent immediately. Selenith and Alhena, who had always been very difficult to manage, also looked at their father with a grave expression. "The recruits have confirmed that there are three cities around Brig in the perimeter clear of the Curtain. We will face our numbers three times and, again according to our scouts, among the enemies there are at least two individuals of the same level as mine."

Selenith squeezed the edge of the tablecloth as her features slowly became more beast-like. Alhena, for her part, seemed furious, but in a different way; her posture seemed soft but not relaxed, like a snake ready to bite.

"Melith, how much poison will we have?" Lord Karkaster asked, filling his cup with water.

It was the custom among the Vanedenis to avoid alcoholic beverages as much as possible. Unlike normal soldiers who celebrated without restraint to the point of killing themselves, the Vanedenis preferred to attack the soldiers who celebrated. More than one battle had been lost because the Vanedenis appeared to be missing, only to actually reappear in small groups of three or four inside the camp amidst huge groups of drunken soldiers.

"Enough to poison their water supplies right now."

Lord Karkaster's wife was a [Poison Lady], a mixture expert who could kill even the strongest of warriors. She was a few levels below her husband, but she was not suited to hand-to-hand combat. Her specialty was simply the creation of compounds capable of killing with maximum efficiency. All the soldiers would fight with blades soaked in their Lady's poisons for this fight.

"We can't, unfortunately. The Harbingers said no one should attack the other for a month."

Lord Karkaster raised a hand behind him and Xefer placed a scroll of parchment on his hand, in a smooth, trained movement. They all remained silent as Lord Karkaster watched the progress of his soldiers and the humans. The Vanedenis weren't in the habit of wasting time or slacking off, but even their soldiers were subjected to training regimes so harsh that everyone would be scared. Only the Earthlings who still did not know how to hold a weapon had been spared.

"Have all of Verena's suggestions been implemented?" Lord Karkaster asked, as he watched in amazement how most of the soldiers had already risen at least a level or two.

"The exercise routines created by the young lady were scrutinized by [General] Nalith and approved four days ago. The soldiers seem to have found them exhausting and frightening. However, they are already able to perform better than they were before, and have increased their fighting capacity by at least a third. At this rate, our entire army will have at least four or five more levels by the time the battle comes. All tips have been implemented to correct sword techniques and also in the footwork. Verena's opinion is that given the soldiers' already excellent form, there could be even better results."

It was all pretty simple, but just as amazing. Verena had spent half a day with the general, who had reported to Lord Karkaster all the details that Xefer was now repeating, more for the sake of the ladies at the table than his lord. It seemed that some of these Earthlings had more than one ace up their sleeve. Together with the developed physical training regimen and the weights, they would have had less physical disadvantage facing the cursed Ahalis.

"Father, did you have an audience with the Earthling?"

Alhena seemed oddly interested in certain military matters, despite the fact that she dealt with a paramilitary corps. Lord Karkaster had half an idea why his daughter was so intrigued, and he couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes. She was worried about the future of the other Earthlings. Some of them are training but they don't seem particularly suited to military art."

"Some, father?"

Sometimes having such clever daughters was more of a curse than anything else.

"Xefer, be kind."

Lord Karkaster handed the scrolls to the butler, after taking stock of the situation. Certainly it seemed that the Harbingers had confronted them with a terrible situation. Given the small number of Earthlings who had arrived, he had initially assumed that each of them was worth a thousand men ... Instead, they were rather useless, with a few exceptions. As soon as he started listening to the conversation between the women, he asked himself if he was concentrating on the wrong Earthling. It seemed that Verena wasn't the real centre of it all.

"Sister, you promised ~"

Alhena was probably the most hateful of Lord Karkaster's daughters and not by nature, but by deliberate intention. Selenith, on the other hand, was a hard and rigid person, but hated to take back her word, even if she had given it to her goddamn sister.

"I don't understand why we have to invest all this money when we don't even know what we're investing it in."

"Intuition. We are investing in intuition."

"And why don't we invest in Verena, then? Even Nalith had nothing but words of praise for her."

"Selenith, your teacher may be happy with Verena and, don't get me wrong, we all are. However, the change Verena brought will have a much smaller effect than you are persuaded. If we were still millions and millions and everyone had trained her way, then maybe we would have won the war, but at the moment we can't just rely on people, we need something more, someone more."

"Alhena, explain yourself."

Although he was generally very patient with his daughters, the Lord was not in the mood for riddles that day.

"There is something in Lucius, father ... When we read about Lakaner, we always find written that he was a person who had never had a particular quality. He enjoyed growing plants in the King's garden and feeding both the royal family and the nobles. Yet, everyone swears they have always seen something hidden just below the surface of the [Royal Gardener]. If Lakaner has been able to topple one of the most dangerous tyrannies in the world it's because there were people who invested money, trust and resources in him."

Conversations of this caliber were not undertaken lightly, not at the table of someone who had a hero in the family tree. Lakaner of Marigolds, the [Gardener] who had swum with thousands of other [Druids], [Soldiers] and [Gardeners] to the capital of the Sirens, who had severed the head of Nerea I, a threat almost comparable to that of the Hydras.

"Alhena."

"Father, do not underestimate the help that has been sent to us by the Harbingers. You are not naive. Therefore, do not act as one. Verena will surely be one of the most talented fighters you have seen, but here we are talking about what we fail to see."

In the silence that soon ensued, they heard crystal clear laughter coming from one of the adjacent rooms.

...

"Glieser! Stop it!"

Helitha lay on the floor with bits of food soiling her dress, under the terrified eyes of the servants. Glieser, her older brother, bent over her, continued to tickle her, as he made his requests with a neutral expression:

"Will you eat the meat?"

"No! I don't like meat! I've already eaten all the vegetables!"

"Lord Glieser, perhaps it would be better..."

The butler assigned to him by his father tried to dissuade him.

"Shut up. If my sister doesn't understand the importance of eating anything other than green leaves, we'll stay here all night."

Helitha and Glieser, as per tradition, were not yet admitted to the table of the "grown-ups". They were nine and nineteen, respectively, and had not yet reached the fateful threshold of twenty-one. At that age they could finally have taken their places with the rest of their family. However, Glieser was very worried about leaving his sister alone and had repeatedly wondered if he should continue to eat with her or ask their father to admit her with him to the table where the real decisions were made. Dinners and lunches were a good excuse to stay with the family, but also to receive advice from the most powerful people around a Lord, his loved ones. All nobles in a house had a role, whether it was institutional or not yet formalized. Glieser was a [Marigold Knight], a rather peculiar class, considering that his entire family focused more on plants than on weapons. It was a legacy that was hard to forget, theirs, which came from one of the individuals with one of the Highest Levels their people ever achieved, but not all of them were made to be in the garden or in the fields all day. His younger sister, unlike everyone else, seemed more prone to growing food than to offensive acts like those of the rest of the family.

“Well?”

"Okay, okay, ahhhhhh!"

Helitha had to surrender once again. While the servants, including her personal maid, had great difficulty in getting her to follow common sense, Glieser knew how to talk with his sister. She was stubborn, but not like the two older ones. She did not want to eat the animals because she did not want them to be killed to feed other people. According to her, a diet of plants and vegetables would have been more than enough for any man. As they dined, Helitha pestered him with questions as usual.

“What did you do today?”

"Have you trained?"

"How long have you been training?"

"Have you played with horses?"

"Can I come and play with the horses?"

Glieser answered every question with a calm that left everyone amazed. There was no way the little sister could really make him lose his temper, apparently. No one could imagine the young gentleman of the family, the future Lord, losing patience as the two older sisters would have done. And while the relationship between Helitha and Glieser was very close and neither of them would gladly give up the company of the other, in the adjoining room Selenith and Alhena continued to brawl. The only man in the new generation of the family had never gotten along with the two older sisters. Selenith, according to Glieser, was more like a barbarian than a lady; the fact that she had found such a rustic class as that of [Druid] only confirmed the fact that the woman would never be elegant or refined. On the contrary, Alhena was both elegant and refined, but in the same way as a snake, devious and full of subterfuges. Hands down, the most political person in the whole family. Not even their mother, who specialized in poisons, could stand up to her daughter's poisonousness. The rather frugal meal they were having quickly ended and Glieser, for once, had to give up telling stories to his sister.

"Tomorrow, I promise."

Helitha had two huge tears in her eyes and her sullen, annoyed expression was so cute that Glieser felt his heart break. However, after accompanying her to their rooms - it was traditional for children under twenty-one, the age of maturity, to all sleep in the same room - he bade her goodnight and walked towards the room where his father was waiting for him.

...

Lord Karkaster was not a very difficult person to deal with. He rarely acted unreasonably, but he was very traditional in his relationship with his children. He was better suited to be Lord than Father, as Melith had said more than once. Glieser sighed and twisted his neck first one way then the other to ease the tension. He took a couple of deep breaths before becoming another person. Now he was no longer Helitha's older brother, but the Knight who had humiliated enemies with ten levels more than him, arrogant warriors who had tried to insult him and his values. Although he wasn't wearing armor, he had the usual padding on his back, thick enough to block a few sword strokes. He knocked and waited.

“Come in.”

Xefer wasn't in the room, oddly enough. His father spent much more time with the butler than with his wife. Unfortunately, his assignments were overwhelming him. Even though everyone looked to Lord Karkaster with hope, knowing that he would be able to protect them, the truth was that by now his father too was but a shadow of the people who had been able to subdue every people on the planet. What can a people who has never given up, but who just need time to rise again, do in a situation like that?

"Father."

Glieser dropped to one knee and bowed his head down.

"Get up, please."

Lord Karkaster seemed to have his eyes glued to scrolls, reports just arrived. In one hand a drink which, apparently, even the Earthlings knew well. His father had given him some exotic name that not even Glieser could remember, so the boy had taken to calling him the same way their curious guests referred to him: coffee. His father was around level 40, although no one knew exactly. In the southern part of the continent, there were not many enemies of a higher level than his. And not because their enemies were less capable, but because the real monsters were all in the northern part of the continent. The only real reason why the Vanedenis had not yet died out was because their enemies had had enough of this war by now; they probably didn't even want to put them in a tight corner. An animal on the verge of death is the most dangerous of all. Therefore, they were slowly consuming them without doing anything but launching a few sporadic attacks, while they had resources, artifacts and levels. The more time passed, the more likely it was that the Ahalis would win the war.

"We have to call the whole south into one army, father."

"Those who survive, you mean."

Lord Karkaster did not seem in the least disturbed by his son's words, as if they had not even reached his ears. This certainly did not please Glieser.

"Father, I'm not kidding!"

"I know. But who do you think would want to unify the whole south? The next large-scale conflict could easily annihilate us."

"We are not cowards!"

Glieser's words had now almost turned to screams, outraged by his father's calm.

"We are not, but we don't even have a person capable of leading an entire army. Compared to the Lords who fought in the first war, I am not even capable of making life annoying for the Ahalis. Even if we were to level up during this conflict, do you think they would leave us enough room to grow and become a threat again?"

"And what are we, father, beasts to the slaughter?"

"Caged beasts, perhaps. We are waiting for an opportunity. Look at these humans and tell me, why do you think they are here?"

Glieser remained silent, contemplating his father's words.

"There is no one left among us who can lead the war of reconquest, no one who can build something we can all cling to. Your sister, Alhena, has decided to invest all of her and Selenith's resources in one of them."

"Father, Verena's ideas are great, but I don't think they will be enough to win the war."

Glieser was partly offended in pride, as were other citizens of Brig, by the arrival of aid. Still, his father seemed more pragmatic than ever. If they had received such resources, would it not have been wiser to exploit them to their own advantage? The Vanedeni people were a proud people and proud of their history, like no other on the face of the world. There were no people who had done what they had done, but now, bent and defeated, they could only make the smartest move and include people from another dimension in their ranks. They hadn't received very accurate information from the Harbingers, other than the fact that this was going to be their second and last chance to win the war. Even if their ramshackle army overthrew the south by some miracle, what would become of the north? Even if all two hundred Earthlings were like Verena, at most they would regain the levels of their ancestors. And a thousand Verenas would be needed, not one. The techniques she brought were very reminiscent of the lost training regimes, the same regimes that had spawned hundreds of people above level sixty, lords able to rival dragons, and the royal family that had given birth to more heroes than the rest of the population.

"Not Verena."

Glieser needed a few moments to process the information.

"Who, then?"

"One of them seems to have caught the attention of your sisters - and Verena's. He doesn't have a level or a class yet, but he seems to have something the others don't. His name is Lucius."

Lord Karkaster spoke those words in a solemn tone. He was determined to entrust his son with the task of managing Lucius, of providing him with all the resources he would need. They were all desperate enough to believe that, who knows, maybe this man would perform some miracle. Whatever the case was, the vain people were tough people, but they had never been the type to neglect someone's talent or prevent it from blossoming. When you have an intuition about someone, you follow it, nothing else to say.

"Lucius? The one who was publicly humiliated by General Nalith for making a comment on the high number of women in the army?"

Lord Karkaster put down the parchment and looked his son in the eye for the first time since he had entered.

"Son, you too know our ancient proverb." There is no crazier Vanedeni than a hero.

…

"Are you telling me that you haven't visited this jewel in six days? Bile yer head."

"Some of us have to level up."

Verena hadn't relaxed since she had arrived. The sense of urgency for the battle they would face within a month continued to haunt her and she couldn't help but think that even if she lost a minute of training, she would risk condemning herself and others to death. In her past life she had always been in the lead, always ready to win. She didn't want this to be the first battle she lost.

"But do you know that this bunch of crazies grows I don't know how many varieties of woods? They have some so hard that you make a sword oot of it. The most incredible thing about this world is that they don't know how to build siege machines. They say that either you are a goblin, or you don't know how to build shit. Goblins their maws. But I say, 'em dunderheids, why don't you build a ballista or two? A trebuchet, a catapult. No, they have enemies three times bigger than them and what do they do? Charge 'em. Hell mend ye."

Lucius seemed lost in a general complaint and Verena didn't feel like interrupting him. She was tired, very tired. She'd barely slept the night before as she tried to study basic spells without getting blood out of her ears - literally, that was what happened when you studied too much in this world. Finding out hadn't been pleasant at all.

"Masters of strategy? Masters of bile yer heid. They have a pumpin' forest in this city and they say no, no, let's go and fight in the open field. Eh, but the enemies are like monkeys, they climb on trees. Give 'em a forest, it's an advantage. Shut up, you are a herd of plant-loving buggers and you worry about monkeys. Christ, what a bunch of dunderheids."

"Lucius, are you drunk?"

"I'm mad wit it", replied the man, still not used to local liquors, made for people with higher levels and a high tolerance for alcohol. In her past life, Verena would hardly have found herself sharing a night walk with a person like Lucius. Maybe that was why she deeply appreciated being transported to this new world. In another life she would have been frightened at the sight of a drunk in the middle of the street, a man babbling about nonsense.

Yet, in this one she could only be happy that there was someone to bring her some fun, and not just to give her orders, make money or discuss causes.

"Do you see that?"

Lucius stopped, suddenly more serious.

"Who?"

Verena put her hand to the sword she was already used to carrying at her side.

"The fucking tree, Ver, ye lost yer head? Do you see it? Look at these fucking branches. They look like Tarzan's lianas. And instead they're more resistant than carbon fibre. Let's take this, this iron tree to make springs, give me a structure that does not crack at the first blow, I’ll make ye twenty onagers, so that before these fucking monkeys win the war, their maw must be pretty buggered too. I don't need a bullet. We throw bombs that shoot nails up their ass."

She had noticed that Lucius's speech under the influence of alcohol had become more rustic than usual. She did not understand what an onager was, nor what problem plagued the mothers of their enemies. Probably, it was just her new friend who was delirious. Characters like him, she had only seen them in movies. Maybe in some comedy of love where the poor man turns out to be actually a prince charming, rich, and noble.

"Jesus, just lik' that. We put everyone inside th' trees. These pumpin' Vanedenis are worried about the fucking charge, ‘cause the enemies are fast. We make the plants grow, we mount ballistae and onagers in the grooves, we put some oil - and besides, where do they get all this fucking oil, I almost break my head because they don't know where to put it - we throw it all on the trees, a little messy, I know. And on the ground, we will put some wee poisoned caltrops. We put plants that grab even yer wullie and then..."

The Scot seemed to have just embarked on a journey to another dimension, mumbling a whole series of things half of which made no sense and half were untranslatable. Caltrops? What were they? And what could they have done against an enemy as agile and mobile as theirs?

Verena looked at him, listening to him, amused, more and more relaxed. She doubted that Lucius could turn out to be a noble in disguise, with who knows what skills up his sleeve. That was fine. She had stopped expecting people to be like her and had learned that she should have accepted them for who they were. She wouldn't stop pushing him to be the best version of himself, considering he was certainly not stupid and certainly had potential, but she wouldn't ruin his life - or her own - to do so. In the meantime, Lucius began vomiting profusely on a tree he had gone to test for flexibility. She wisely decided that this was the best time to wish him a good night and get away quickly before having to drag him to the barracks. Sitting next to the pool of vomit, Lucius was catatonic. She hoped that he would easily find his way again and that he hadn't lost all common sense. Unfortunately, several hours of study of magic still awaited her before she could take the luxury of sleeping. She would sleep when there was no one left risking their life. The fact that Lucius didn't even say hello by raising a hand was a signal for her that it was really the right time to go.

However, the reason why Lucius was so little intent on watching Verena's rear end was what he had just heard in her head.

[Class acquired: Freemason!]

[Freemason Level 1!]

[Freemason Level 2!]

[Skill - Basic Crafting obtained]

[Skills - Basic Engineering obtained]

[Skill - Memory Blueprint obtained]

[Class acquired: Strategist!]

[Strategist Level 1!]

[Strategist Level 2!]

[Strategist Level 3!]

[Skill - Dangersense obtained]

[Skill - Defensive Architecture obtained]

[Skill - Remote Trigger obtained]