Chapter 23: Return

Jerry awoke at night to a growling in his stomach from the lack of food he’s been getting. Jerry had remembered that the backpack had rations inside of them, so he hopped down from the tree and made a soft thud as he hit the ground.

He slowly approached the camp, towards the camp, he looked around for his backpack to find it near the now extinguished fire camp. Jerry used his blink skill to get to the bag and looked around the bag for his rations. He found one quickly and blinked away from the campsite and went back to the same tree that he was in before. He cracked the ration open and quickly ate it. It wasn’t very filling, but it should last him the night.

Jerry tossed his tin off into the distance before crossing his arms and legs with a tired yawn before his consciousness faded for the night.

“My Lord, wake up” A voice brought Jerry’s consciousness back into him as Jerry opened his eyes to find a woman with blond hair and eyes with dog ears.

The woman backed away as Jerry awoke and stretched his arms out with a yawn.

“I’m up. Anything you’d like?” Jerry said with a sleepy voice.

“We’re going to resume out journey, My Lord. Please prepare for the ride” She said.

“What’s your name?”

“Kamme”

“Got it. Well, Kamme, how’d you find me?”

“I traced your smell from your bag to here”

“You can track people?”

“As long as they leave some sort of trail, yes”

“That’s nice to know” Jerry said before he dropped down to the ground.

Jerry approached the camp to find the rest of the commanders including Falk and Alice rummaging through his backpack.

“Then I had to strip down to my bare skin and get scanned! It must be some sort of magic that captured my body as he then came back with armor that fitted me too well” Kasune said.

“What else happened?” A commander said.

“He soon left me alone with the armor and went back to the camp. I think he peeped on me while I changed into my new armor”

“This thing can do all that? But it’s so small!”

Jerry ignored them and approached them to take away his backpack. As he approached, Kasune along with everyone else backed up from his backpack and looked awkwardly at each other as Jerry packed his stuff up.

“We all ready?” Jerry asked.

“Yes, My Lord” Juliet said.

“Good, let’s move out”

Jerry then went to his horse and slung the backpack on it’s back and mounted it. Alice soon mounted the horse before the rest of the party mounted their horses as well and rode forward.

The next few days continued with nothing eventful happening. Alice got her own stew rations from then on and Jerry kept sleeping in trees, being woken up by Kamme.

They soon arrived at the Empire’s outskirts when Jerry turned around to face the commanders.

“You 10 will hide your Demonic ears or what ever and keep your mouth shut, give a good smile, a don’t draw attention” Jerry said.

“Yes, My Lord” The Demon Commanders said.

“Falk, just go along with what I say. Alice, just don’t draw attention”

“Yes, Sir”

“Got it”

As they approached the gate, there were two guards that stood out front with spears in one hand. As they spotted Jerry’s party, they nodded at each other before one of them went towards the party who slowed down. They both soon met and the party was at a halt.

“Who’re you?” The guard asked.

Jerry slid off his helmet before facing the guard.

“What? Don’t remember me?” Jerry said with a devilish grin.

“Tch. Come in” The guard said as he walked away and signaled the other guard. The gates soon started to raise and Jerry put his helmet back on and the party started to enter the Empire.

Jerry’s party entered the Empire and Alice looked around the buildings with a smile on her face.

Jerry decided to roll straight into the Royal Palace so the party can put their horses down and explore the town afterwords while Jerry could finish some things up with the Empire and be free. He had been thinking about what he should do but the first thing he decided on was that he would use a different alias for when he split off from Larmen’s party.

As Jerry approached the Royal Palace’s gates, there were Royal Guards that upon spotting Jerry’s party let them in.

“Good day” Jerry said as he passed the Royal Guard.

“Good Day, Jerry” The Royal Guard said.

It was weird since Jerry never really exposed his identity behind the mask but shrugged it off as he continued towards the Royal Palace.

As he passed the garden, he found Larmen’s party playing around the grass. Emile, Elizabeth, along with everyone else were chasing Larmen around who wore a suit.

Jerry looked behind him to face Alice.

“Hey, there’s your sister. Go say hi. I’ll take the rest from here” Jerry said.

“Where?” Alice asked as she looked around.

“In the garden. The one with the red hair” Jerry said as he pointed to Elizabeth.

“Oh my god, that really is her!” Alice said as she quickly dismounted the horse and ran towards her sister.

“Elizabeth!” Alice screamed as she ran.

“Alice? Is that you?”

Jerry then looked forward and continued to ride towards the Royal Palace with the rest of the party.

“Jerry? Is that you?” A familiar voice that Jerry hadn’t heard in a while sounded.

“Klein?”

“My god, it is you! It’s been a while since you last sent anything. Who are these people?”

Jerry looked behind him to look at the commanders, thinking of something to say. The commanders just smiled and waved at Jerry.

“They’re umm. Friends I met on my travels” Jerry said as he smiled at Klein.

“What about the rest of the men? Where have they gone?”

“Most of them died on the attack mounted on the Demon Lord. The rest scattered and ran”

“Such a shame. Anything I can do for you?”

“Yea. Can you take the ladies horses somewhere and show them around town?”

“Of course”

“Jerry, take this if you’re going ahead” Kasune said as she took out the Demon Lord’s helmet.

“Thanks” Jerry said as Kasune came towards Jerry to hand off the helmet.

“Stay safe” Kasune said as she handed Jerry the helmet.

Klein then went to the commanders and Jerry continued to ride towards the Royal Palace alone now with Falk by his side. Falk looked at Jerry who stared blankly through his helmet forward.

“Hey Falk” Jerry said.

“Yes, Jerry?”

“Do you want to leave here?”

“Not in particular”

“I see”

Jerry went silent after that as they arrived at the Royal Palace. As they dismounted their horses, there were Royal Guards stood at attention at the door to the Royal Palace. Jerry took his backpack off the horse and put it on before facing the guards.

“Gentlemen” Jerry said.

The Royal Guards nodded at each other as one of them took the horses away and the other led the two of them into the Royal Palace. As they approached the Throne Room, Jerry wanted to just leave right then and there, just drop the helmet and go. But he wanted to rub it in their faces. Tell them to ‘Fuck themselves’.

“Stay here” The Royal Guard said as he entered the Throne Room.

Jerry placed his backpack down and leaned against a wall.

“You okay?” Falk asked.

“Hmm? Yea. I’m fine” Jerry said with a sigh. Jerry decided to take a cigarette out and light it up in the hallway. As he took a puff, a calm, soothing feeling fell over him.

‘I’m fine’

The Royal Guard then came out of the Throne Room and faced Jerry.

“The King will see you now” The Royal Guard said as he went down where they both came from.

Jerry sighed and took one last big puff before tossing the cigarette out and entering the Throne Room.

“Jerry, so nice to see you again. Where have you been?”

Jerry brought the helmet in front of him from where held the Demon Lord’s helmet in his left hand before tossing it towards the King.

“It’s done. Now, my reward”

The King sat there silently before he stood.

“As much as you earned it, I cannot allow you to marry Emile”

“Huh? No, I just want cash”

“Really? That’s what you did this for?”

“Well, it’s the best thing you can give me”

“Not a life in a villa, relaxing, with women at your disposal?”

“Fuck no! That’s not my style”

“Then what is your style? I assure you, I can find you what you want”

“Look, I just want my cash and I’ll fuck off”

The King looked at Jerry. Jerry couldn’t make out the King’s face as the large stained glass behind the King blinded Jerry and blackened the King’s face. There was silence for a while before the King broke the silence.

“We don’t have the cash to pay you” The King said.

“Then what did you intend to pay me with? Straws?”

“We had hoped that you would take the offer with the villa. But it is apparent that you don’t wish to take our deal”

“Fine, I’ll take the helmet back. I’ll also take a chunk of land the Demon Lord stole”

The King quickly looked startled and nervous. That could be apparent from the dark silhouette that Jerry could see.

“W-Wait, maybe we can reach an agreement! You can take the helmet, but we need the land back!”

“I’d like some metals”

“What kind?”

“Good ones. Don’t scam me. I’ll know”

“If that is what you request, that can be arranged”

“Can afford precious metal but not pay me? How strange.”

“We bought a lot of metal from neighboring countries. That’s why we’re broke”

The King sat back down on his throne with his hands on his forehead.

“Are you willing to st-”

“For the night? Sure. Forever? No.” Jerry said as he went over to pick the helmet back up.

“M-Maybe we can re-”

“No. I’ve decided that awhile ago when you left me for dead”

The King stayed silent.

“Anything else? No? I’ll be taking my leave now”

Jerry then left the Throne Room, leaving Falk alone in there. He went back to his old room that was assigned to him a while ago when he first came to this world. As he entered, he set his stuff down. He took his helmet off and took out the fabricator. He wanted a new helmet that would allow him to live a new alias but keep the same functionality and use of the old one.

As he turned on the Fabricator, he scrolled through the menus, looking for something.

He eventually found something interesting that he could use

Convert Optical HUD Helmet into KlakTak Optical Helmet Visor (Compatible with KlakTak Headset)

Luckily, the fabricator included pictures. It was significantly different than the helmet he has now. It was significantly more open. The helmet only covered Jerry’s head but left the face and neck exposed. It said it allowed the use of the headsets that amplified hearing. The helmet also had straps and the visor was able to be lowered and raised but was thinner and covered more than the original. The visor worked the same as the original helmet, providing a HUD and protected and concealed Jerry’s face with a dark tint.

Although it was more exposed, it was exactly what Jerry needed. Jerry wanted a helmet that was very hard to describe since most information is given through mouth and this world didn’t know much of hat Jerry knew. Because of his face, Jerry would have to keep his face hidden. To do this, he’d make a mask of some sort. He might just rip some cloth and cover his face or something. Either way, it would keep his face hidden for a while.

As he selected it, it asked for the helmet which Jerry gladly tossed in before tossing in the Demon Lord’s helmet in.

New material detected. Analyzing…

Completed.

Overall Tier 1 Rating 9.3/10

Jerry had no idea what it meant but it was easy to understand that it was good.

Replacing Old Material

The Fabricator started to make noises while it started doing something with it. Jerry looked around the room, looking for something to act as his mask. Jerry looked everywhere for something for a mask. He looked at the bed, drawers, the fabricator but found nothing. He decided that he might just forever operate in the shadow or just wait till his face is lost to time. Then an idea hit him like a baseball bat. He’d just give himself peasant clothing and dirty up his face. This way, he would just look like another face in the crowd.

It was an excellent idea, Jerry thought. Problem was, how was he gonna get his hands on peasant clothing? Jerry was deep in thought before he decided to test the headset.

Jerry scavenged around his backpack and eventually found the Headset under all the other stuff. He put the headset on and found an immediate difference. The Fabricator was more silent than before. He decided to do a test by walking around. He took his headset off and set it on the desk and started out slow before pacing his speed up. Initially, his footsteps were drowned out by the Fabricator but as he picked the pace up, it was barely heard. He then put the headset on before doing the test again. His initial reaction was amazement when he started to walk around. The footsteps were heard immediately as he took his first steps. He then started to sprint and that was even louder.

The difference was night and day and as he was sprinting in circles around his rooms, the Fabricator stopped making noises and out came the helmet.

It looked really nice. The helmet was all black and was fairly thick. It exposed the ears and the face visor had a button lock on the side where it would release the visor when it was in it’s locked state that was the visor down. He put the helmet on as it fit snugly on his head before putting the straps on. The helmet reminded Jerry of a Ops Core helmets that he used when he was a mercenary back when he was back home.

Welcome, Jerry Harren.

Initializing

The visor then cleared up soon and showed a heartbeat monitor on the top right and Jerry’s BPM under it.

Jerry took the helmet off and set it on the desk before retiring to bed.

Jerry took his phone out and found that it was 8 PM. He set an alarm to wake him at 12AM, took his shoes off, and slept. Leaving his fatigues, vest, and headset on.