On his way back from the palace Aidan finally managed to get himself some wine. He bought it from a nice plumpish young lady who was offering spices, oils, and wines at her little street store. What caught Aidan's attention about her store in particular was the way she advertised her wine: "So strong it will knock you out for days!"

"That is exactly what I need," Aidan thought to himself, as he greedily bought several bottles.

Unfortunately, just like it often happened in his own world, the advertisement turned out to be a complete lie. After finishing a whole bottle, Aidan was just a little bit buzzed and nowhere near passing out. Might have had something to do with Adnan Minn's superior body constitution, of course. But Aidan was still thinking about filing a complaint with that deceitful woman.

Nobody had brought him any pillows or blankets as of yet, so he was sitting on a hard metal bed, contemplating his life choices and wishing his ass was just a little bit less bony.

"General," he suddenly heard Corus call and knock on the door.

"Come in," said Aidan lazily. He really hoped that the guy came just socialize and not to send him yet to another errand.

Corus entered the room with a tray and without a word handed it to Aidan. As always, he looked particularly gloomy.

"Food! Right!" Aidan exclaimed cheerfully. He just remembered that people normally didn't subsist on wine alone.

However as he examined the contents of the tray, he immediately felt cheated.

"What is this?"

"It's your porridge, General," Corus responded, as if nothing was out of ordinary.

"This "porridge" looks awfully like murky water with three rice grains in it," Aidan didn't even bother hiding his disgust. Even when he was very broke, he would still manage to eat something better than this. And wasn't he now supposed to be a rich General?!

"That is the way you like it, General. According to your asceticism practices, food should not be a source of pleasure but only a source of nourishment," said Corus.

This sounded like an evil taunt.

Aidan let out an annoyed sigh. Not only did he doubt that three rice grains were particularly nourishing, he was also officially done with this asceticism bullshit.

"Remember, I told you I was taking a bit of a break from these... practices?" he flashed an innocent smile at Corus. "Is there maybe something else I could get? Like a piece of meat? Or, if that is too much, then at least a potato?"

Corus looked confused and suddenly also uncomfortable.

"We don't have anything like this in the kitchen..."

"Then what do you have?" Aidan couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What do you guys eat?"

"The same as you, General. Everybody in this household follows the same doctrine. We only have a bit of rice, water, and lettuce."

So not only was Adnan Minn starving himself, he was also starving his slave and his disabled servants. But, of course, this couldn't surprise Aidan anymore. He knew quite clearly that the original owner of this body was a piece of shit.

"All right," Aidan took a deep breath and put the sad tray of "food" aside. "We are going out to eat, my dear friend."

Corus looked at him quizzically but didn't dare to disobey.

They left General Minn's manor and headed towards the lively city streets. Aidan was sure they were going to find at least some place where they would get some good old meat and potatoes. This was a medieval city after all!

Sure enough, soon they saw a cozy little tavern with a mouth-watering sign of a roasted pig on its door.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Aidan pointed to the sign and ran towards it like he was being chased by an angry gaggle of geese. Corus followed him without a word.

The pig they got looked almost exactly as the one on the sign. Aidan noted to himself that sometimes advertisements could indeed be trusted. The place also served wine which put Aidan into an even better mood – for the first time since he had come to this world, he felt like not throwing himself off a cliff. He knew this feeling wouldn't last but he was damned, if he was not going to enjoy it till the very last rib of this delicious pork.

"Corus, my friend, my pal, my buddy," Aidan looked at the quiet man in front of him who was barely eating, "talk to me! Tell me, what's on your mind."

"What does General want to talk about?" Corus asked without any expression.

Man, if Aidan managed somehow to teach him poker, they'd both be rich!

"Let's talk about you, buddy," said Aidan, taking another sip of the aromatic wine in front of him. "You told me that your parents weren't slaves, so where are they now?"

"I don't know, General. I was too young when they sold me to a traveling slaver," Corus shrugged.

"Your parents...what?"

"They sold me when I was about five years of age. It's pretty normal – I know, they couldn't afford to keep me any longer," said Corus thoughtfully.

And here Aidan had thought that his childhood was crappy. At least his parents never sold him into slavery. Then again, they might have, if somebody offered a good enough price...

"Why couldn't they afford to not give you away?" Aidan asked, keeping his tone light. He knew that he was prying and possibly digging up some painful memories, yet he needed to make some sense of this world. Besides, this guy's misery made his own pale in comparison, which felt nice.

"Because of my weak constitution I couldn't work properly. They had no other choice."

"You were five!"

"Yes, this was the time when I should have started to work on the fields. But I couldn't pull my own weight," said Corus without a trace of sadness in his warm brown eyes.

So, child labor was a thing too. This world was truly on another level of foulness. Maybe Aidan had judged General Minn too harshly. It wasn't his fault that he was such a horrible person – material conditions do determine consciousness after all.

"So, what happened after you were sold?" Aidan asked.

"I changed a couple of owners," Corus responded. "Luckily neither of them sold me to the savages or I wouldn't be here right now."

"Why is that?"

"Not a single slave has returned from the savage lands, nor has any slave ever been sold back to the Empire. We're not quite sure what they do to us there... but there is a reason why we call them savages."

"And this reason is...?" Aidan was getting more curious by the minute. He had ordered a whole another bottle of wine just for Corus, hoping that alcohol would make the guy more willing to open up.

"How bad has been your memory affected by your head wound, General?" Corus asked suddenly.

"It's bad, my friend. Very bad indeed. You're the only who can help me," Aidan shook his head and sighed, hoping he didn't exaggerate his sadness too much. Gotta stay believable.

Unexpectedly, Corus showed concern on his face. Maybe he wasn't as dead inside as Aidan had suspected.

"The reason is obviously the evil magic that they possess," he said finally.

"Right, right," Aidan did remember his encounter with the "Fear of Death" spell. Not that it actually worked but it seemed that everybody believed that savages had some kind of mojo. Even the Emperor-in-Waiting.

"Maybe they use our bodies to refine their magic... Or maybe they try their spells on us," Corus looked thoughtful for a while. "Whatever it is, it's nothing good, General."

"I understand," Aidan nodded. He was also pretty sure that the savages were sketchy. "What I don't quite get, is what makes the slave bodies so different. Are you just weaker and smaller in stature or is there something else there?"

"Does the General want to examine my body again?" Corus asked, his voice now void of emotions.

Again?

"What do you mean "again"?" Aidan asked out loud.

"I thought you've seen everything, General. If you have forgotten, we can, of course...," said Corus quietly.

Oh no. Aidan didn't like where this was going.

"Don't tell me, we.... I didn't...," he couldn't even say his conjecture out loud. He just really hoped that Adnan Minn wasn't a creepy rapist, taking advantage of his subordinates. Wasn't being a murderer and a torturer enough?

Corus suddenly blushed.

"No!" he exclaimed. "What I meant is that on the day you acquired me, you did a whole examination trying to figure out the differences between my body and a normal body, General."

Aidan sighed, relieved.

"And what conclusions did I come to?" he asked, taking another big sip of wine. The wine here, though nice, was not strong enough in the least.

"You obviously didn't share them with me, General," Corus responded.

Did Aidan hear a tiny bit of sarcasm there? Or he might have just imagined it...

"All right, enough with the heavy topics for today," Aidan said with a smile. "Let us drink to the beginning of our great friendship!"

Corus raised his eyebrows but still took a sip.

"Aha! You drank! So you do consider me your friend!" Aidan laughed.

Corus didn't say anything to that and just shook his head.

When they got up to leave Aidan suddenly realized that he was much more drunk than he had perceived before. He could barely stand up straight, let alone walk.

Corus, being attentive, immediately gave him his hand for support. Aidan avoided it - drunk as he was, he wanted to prevent a full blown panic attack.

"Thank you, buddy. I'll walk by myself, it's fine. I usually sober up very quickly – just need to breathe some fresh air," he said and stumbled out of the tavern.

It was already dawn when they finally reached General Minn's residence – all because Aidan was constantly stumbling, falling and getting distracted by interesting merchandise displayed in the streets. People gave them weird looks, and Aidan was sure that soon there will be a rumor going around about a shitfaced general who crawled on the ground like a dog. He didn't really care about it. Maybe it was for the best – he will finally shake off the image of a crazy ascetic!

At the gates they were greeted by a nervous servant. This guy didn't have a leg.

That made sense – one servant without an arm, one without a tongue, one without a leg... If Aidan's logic was correct, there must be a servant without an eye walking around somewhere.

He was quietly cackling at his own thoughts, when the servant spoke up:

"I'm sorry, General, for bothering you so early but an urgent summon from the Regent has arrived."

"Another one? I went to the palace yesterday already! What do they want from me now?" Aidan pouted.

"General, you have to report to the imperial palace in one hour – the Regent has requested that you accompany the Emperor-in-Waiting on his trip to the spiritual healing grounds. I would have informed you sooner, but we couldn't find you...," said the servant apologetically.

However annoyed Aidan was, the servant was definitely not at fault, so he just nodded at him and made his way to the pond behind the residence. If he wanted to be presentable in an hour, he had to take drastic measures.

This errand was for sure something that blue-eyed schemer came up with to annoy him. Spiritual healing, my ass! Was he going to some kind of medieval version of a yoga retreat for rich white ladies?

What an utter and complete joke!

Despite being extremely grumpy and also sleepy, Aidan managed to put himself in order just in time. He had some experience of cleaning up right before work after a long bender, so this was nothing new.

Corus, being a good helper, had already prepared a horse for Aidan and was patiently waiting for him at the gate.

That guy was so good and so tragic at the same time...

"Once I come back, we'll go proper drinking, buddy! Count on it!" he said to Corus, as he spurred the horse and left the residence.