Yorutei

1

It was the next day after we first arrived in this world, and I still couldn’t believe I made it here.

Small puffs of my breath appeared in front of my mouth as the crisp morning air chilled every part of my body. Having armor meant I was dressed for the weather, but according to the fake memories the arbiter so kindly embedded in my mind, I wasn’t from around these parts, so my body wasn’t used to the climate.

Quite the detail you came up with, Miss Golden Eyes, I sure hope it was meant for something! What did come in handy though was our sense of familiarity to the situation. Our mercenary group was used to travelling to distant places, apparently, so despite how foreign the setting was, we somewhat felt at ease.

On top of having the spoken language translated to us in English, there was a common shared language in the continent of Yves. I had a merchant tell me I had a funny southern accent, but so long as the locals understood us, we managed to get around.

And sure, we may have realized too late that the Guild was on another part of town, so we had to scramble finding an inn before the night-time curfew kicked in, but we managed to get one last minute. Embarrassing mishaps with the town guardsmen notwithstanding.

I walked up to the edge of a small hill cresting over the land which gave me a good view of Yorutei. It was beautiful to see at night, but seeing it with the bright morning sun made me realize just how alien it looked. There were rooftiles that were reminiscent of East Asia, but that was surface level compared to the sheer amount of otherworldly detail this world had to offer.

For one, the buildings themselves, which I learned were mostly houses, where stacked up on top of each other. It was almost similar to what would be apartment buildings back on earth, except the houses looked distinct from one another with different wall textures, lantern fixtures, and window shapes. Some even had different orientations. The engineering student in me was both elated and horrified. I really, really hoped the builders of this world knew what they were doing.

Second was the fauna. I looked at the tree closest to me and marveled at its twisted trunk. It was like a drill or giant knotted vines that grew out of the land and sprouted leaves and blue flowers. These things were abundant throughout Yorutei from what I’ve seen, not to mention the red grass that grew in patches between cobbled stones.

Third, and probably most important of all, were the people. My previous one had a gorgeous elf, but this one had humans with animal ears and tails. Yeah, that. The funny part, and this really showed how successful the arbiter was in integrating us to this world with fake memories, was the fact that we thought it was normal when we first saw them. Of course, humans with cat-ears were normal. A long, fluffy tail? That wasn’t a dog, that was a big, macho guardsman who really took great care of his fur. It wasn’t until we came across the lovely old innkeeper, who looked like my neighbor funny enough, that I realized, hey, she looked like a normal human being. What were the odds?

Fourth, well, the fourth one I needed to get a clear view to really tell, but in the distance, far to the north of Yorutei, stretching from both ends of the horizon was endless shadow. Like there was a really big wall somewhere north and it cast a dark shadow beneath it. Except there was no wall. There was a blue sky, and then there was shadow. The Everdark.

“I see you’re up early,” a familiar voice spoke from behind me.

Jennifer slowly strolled next to me, her braided blonde hair undone to a regular ponytail, swaying in the wind. She looked at me and… blushed. Quite profusely, I might add.

“About last night…” I started.

“Forget it happened,” she quickly said. “It’s not like anything actually happened. Did the innkeeper provide you with another bed?”

“She just moved Allen and me to a different room.”

“Good.”

What happened last night? Nothing. And I like Ilyana very much.

I looked behind me and saw that the inn had more of its patrons leave for the day. It was probably the most normal looking building in the town, being multi-story by itself, but its lanterns were rather abundant.

“Is Allen still not up?” I asked.

“You tell me,” Jennifer said. “I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Nope.”

“Me neither.”

Okay, I got like two hours. Which, now that I racked my brains for fake memory information, made me ‘remember’ that there were twenty-four hours and eight minutes to a full day cycle in this world. Not too different from earth but it might be important for our time limit.

I looked up at the sky and saw numbers ticking at the edge of my vision when I focused hard enough, similar to my time at the Great Bridge. The numbers were largely nonsensical at a glance, but seriously thinking about it gave it meaning. I still didn’t know how that worked, but it felt creepy. We have roughly two months to complete this mission.

Jennifer and I bounced off information with each other, learning what we ‘remember’ about this world, and how we should go about our day. We didn’t really gleam anything else that we didn’t remember the night before, but Jennifer showed me a clock contraption she apparently owned, almost similar to a pocket watch, which was incredibly useful. And we decided to later buy similar ones for Allen and myself. Somehow, we both knew it would cost a lot of money, so finding the guild and getting work was still our top priority.

Eventually, Allen popped his head from the inn’s main door, teary eyed that I didn’t wake him up. Lucky for him though, he actually got some sleep, so learning that we didn’t only made him embarrassed.

The seven of us champions of fate got somewhat cordial talking to each other online, but Allen was awkward both off and on. He always spoke when asked, but he rarely started any conversations himself. At the very least he was always present whenever we gathered to talk.

I was really glad Allen joined us for this mission when he didn’t need to, but we gotta do something to make him warm up to us.

“I suppose the first thing we should do today is get breakfast,” Jennifer said. “I’m starving.”

Hear, hear.

2

The streets of west Yorutei was bustling with people from all walks of life. They mostly wore kimono-like clothes, but the cold weather meant they often wore coats on top of them.

It was practically noon when we finally decided to explore the town. Breakfast was fine, it was deciding what we would eat that was difficult. The innkeeper gave us options, but in the end, we stuck with what looked similar to earth, which would be meat skewers. One could never go wrong with meat skewers.

Thinking I just made myself hungry again, I smelled fresh bread from across the street. We weren’t in a marketplace, but there was bread being baked somewhere.

Jennifer ran up to me after speaking with a guardsman in light blue armor and a bucket hat that accommodated their wolf-like ears. “Wrong direction again,” she said. “This town is winding to a fault. What does your engineer powers think?”

“My what now?” I asked.

Jennifer took my arm and walked with me as if to whisper. “We’re chosen by fate because of something only we can do, right? Have you figured out your reason yet?”

“No,” I said. She was probably whispering so Allen didn’t feel excluded, but having a private conversation might have that same effect. “And I’m not a city planner. What about your supermodel powers?”

“That always comes in handy,” she said, followed by an awkward chuckle.

Oh, I believed it. Except Jennifer’s delivery just then contained zero confidence.

“Maybe you can charm the guardsman to simply walk us to the guild then,” I said jokingly. “Are we still in the residential district?”

“We are, but—”

We came upon a curved bridge that crossed over a man-made river. My engineering powers told me this world had some kind of concrete to work with and that, along with thousands of pebbles and stones, were used to navigate the water that crossed over the town. It almost looked like a European-style canal or a moat.

“Beautiful,” Jennifer said, pulling me towards the side of the bridge. Realizing she was still clinging to my arm, she let go, then held onto the railings. “The water is so clear! And it has tons of blue flowers floating on it.”

It really was pretty. I wondered though, if the river connected to the Everdark.

Yorutei was large for what was considered a town. From what I ‘remembered’ about this place, it was the only human settlement in this region of the world, a lone bastion for travelers before reaching the cursed forest that divided the map. It was a bit surprising it grew as big as it did despite the dangers lurking nearby. Or perhaps it was because of that danger that it expanded. Higher walls, taller houses, more magic lanterns and guardsmen to protect its people. I may not be a city planner but the lore nerd in me was genuinely curious.

Thinking about it realistically though, unlike in videogames where one could circle around town in less than five minutes, we could probably spend all day walking and only scratch the surface of one of Yorutei’s districts.

The one saving grace we have was the fact that our bodies didn’t exhaust very easily from physical strain. We figured it wasn’t because of magic or because we were champions of fate necessarily, but simply because we had pre-determined backstories in this world. We may not adhere to them, and we look identical to how we appeared on earth, but the calluses on my feet and the muscles all over my body suggested it was used to working out. The arbiter probably did that to match whatever story she came up with to integrate us into this world. I did not have time to check during my first mission, but I settled pretty well in that world too. And it only made sense she’d give us this much needed boost considering the urgency of our time limits.

So far, Yorutei had been pleasant. The views were exotic, the people were lively, and the atmosphere was chill. But that was probably because we were in the nice part of town. That slowly became obvious by the time we crossed the bridge and found a crowd of people gathered in a street leading to a wide plaza.

“Damned fools!”

“Shadows take you!”

“You’re going to be the death of us!”

As the crowd grew more and more erratic, me, Jennifer and Allen naturally huddled close to each other.

We stopped at the side of the road to see what the commotion was about and saw a small parade of Yorutei guardsmen in fancier armor. They wore metal plates of blue-and-white, brown fur coats, and helmets with a flower-shaped crest at the back. Between the guards were five men in ragged kimonos and trousers, chained together at the arms, bruised and limping.

At first, I thought we were witnessing some kind of medieval slavery, but my fake memory told me that wasn’t a thing in this region of the world. Thankfully. Instead, what we saw were criminals caught by the guardsmen to be brought before Yorutei’s mayor for her judgment. At least that’s what the crowd was shouting.

“Serves them right,” muttered a bystander next to me, an old woman with regular human features in a dark-blue kimono. “That’s what they get for stealing magic off of public lanterns.”

“I hear the guardsmen say the lunatics planned to make their way south just to sell the stones,” said another, a younger woman with cat-like ears and a similarly blue kimono.

“Idiots through and through,” replied the first, shaking her head.

“Do magic stones not sell well in the south?” I asked.

The two women suddenly looked surprised to see me standing next to them. I smiled awkwardly and hoped my obsidian armor was enough to show I wasn’t from around these parts.

“Magic stones are far more common in Teshim,” answered the younger one. “Most of the stuff this town gets actually come from there.”

“Fashioning them in lanterns is what we do better, dear,” the older one chimed in. “Where are you and your companions from, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh, uh—”

Shit. I never ‘remembered’ the name of where I was originally from in this world. I had vague visions of it, but… I looked at Jennifer. She was quick to shake her head with a panicked expression.

The two locals frowned at us, maybe even found us suspicious.

Suddenly, seeing the guardsmen pass by made me feel nervous.

But that’s when Allen stepped forward with his head down and a hand over his nape. “We… um… we travelled from distant Keslahir,” he said. “We… just arrived at Yorutei last night…”

“Oh, my!” cried the older woman. “That must’ve been quite the journey!” She turned to her friend. “That’s all the way to the opposite side of the continent! As far south as one could go!”

Was that right? Interesting. Cheers to the arbiter. Making us as foreign as our earthly selves really helped explain how dumb we were.

“We actually came here for work,” Jennifer said. “We’re with the guild.”

“That makes sense,” the old woman said with a nod.

“We’re having a hard time finding it actually,” I interjected. “We were looking for a way to the southern district when we came across this… err, parade.”

“Ah,” the old woman said, spitting at the road. Gross. “A shame you had to see this. We sometimes get these fools who’s eager to leave town for warmer climates, trying to make a name for themselves. Typical story, I’m afraid.”

“But those ones are much worse,” the younger woman added.

Looking at the parade, the guardsmen were practically dragging the criminals behind them, uncaring of their pleas.

“Why is that?” Jennifer asked. “They’re just thieves, right?”

The old woman eyed the bracers around Jennifer’s arms and grumbled. “Just thieves. Well, I’m sure magic stones are cheap for you southerners, but they’re precious around these parts. Particularly the ones on lanterns made for protecting the town.”

I’ve seen plenty of those last night, but I think this old woman was talking about something far more important.

“If the town’s barrier fails, then what else would protect us from the Everdark?” the old woman continued. A few other bystanders heard what she said and whatever look of sympathy they had for the criminals disappeared in an instant. “These are the same thieves messing with the lanterns at the red gate. I’m honestly surprised the guardsmen took this long to catch them. A stunt like that and the thieves are lucky if all they lost were their hands.”

3

It was around sundown by the time we reached the southern district of Yorutei. Seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of lanterns come to life in vibrant colors was nothing short of magical. Some even floated on their own above roads and streets with the symbol of light and wind.

Unlike my previous world, magic in this one seemed reliant on stones imbued with power. The symbols were there to harness them, but the science on how they worked was lost on me. Jennifer was given ample knowledge on the topic, but when I asked her to explain, she simply gave me a look of utter despair. “It’d take more than two months for me to teach you the basics,” she said. “And honestly, I don’t even know if I could put them in words. It’s like my mind knows how it works, but the Jennifer born from earth struggles to comprehend the process.”

Fair enough. It was the same when I had the gift of wind back at the Great Bridge. I simply knew how to use it.

As I pondered that thought, I concentrated on the power rumbling inside me. The magic was infused in my armor and gave it its obsidian color. I’ve yet to ‘remember’ how to use it properly, but I knew it was a separate power from gemstones—something far more ancient.

After passing various taverns, food stalls, trinket shops, and a shady street filled with women in provocative clothing, we finally reached the place we’d been looking for since we arrived. It was a building at the center of where the road split, about five stories tall, with rooftiles on every floor that made it look almost like a pagoda. Unlike a pagoda however, it was only thin and rounded at the front, growing wider as it expanded further back. From a bird’s eye view, it probably resembled a triangle. Above the main door were five lanterns containing a symbol each. Put together it read: ‘Protectorate Guild’.

“Finally,” I said. “We wasted an entire day just to find this place.”

“I wouldn’t call it a waste,” Jennifer said as she stood next to me. “We got a good lay of the land and learned a lot of things from the locals.”

Very true.

In all honesty, the adventurous side of me that enjoy playing the occasional RPG reveled at the experience. But I think the three of us could agree that we’ve burned enough calories for an entire month just by exploring. The thought of going back to the inn later tonight was already killing me.

“I’m getting kind of hungry too,” Allen said.

“Same,” I said. “After we speak with the guild, we should—”

Suddenly, the front door of the Protectorate Guild burst open and a group of people in leather jerkin and padded armor came out, hauling a massive piece of… meat? I frowned at the thing before Jennifer pulled me out of the way.

A wagon pulled by a horse with tall ears stopped in front of the guild. Two of the men loaded the meat into the cart, while another spoke with the driver.

“You guys got this?” A woman asked. She had shockingly pink hair, cat-like ears, and wore a sleeveless red kimono similar to Jennifer’s but without the metal bracers. Her face was heart-shaped, and she wore yellow lipstick while chewing on what looked like a stick.

“Leave it to us, Meifan,” one of the men said. The other two hopped on the wagon and sat next to the driver. “Dak and I will hand this thing over for the reward. We’ll also drop Kunmi by the infirmary.”

“That’s sweet of you!” the woman said. “I shouldn’t have to ask you this, but you left the fiend’s carcass at the edge of the Everdark, right?”

“Dak made sure we didn’t forget,” the man replied. He massaged his right shoulder as if recalling the event. “Lost a spear to make sure we leave it pinned in place, but its there.”

“Good. The guild can pay—”

“Don’t worry about it, Meifan. Guild funds are already stretched as is with the festival and all. Besides, I was about to replace the thing anyway.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” the man turned to see the ‘meat’ properly secured in the cart by his companion. “Better get going before it gets late. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”

As the guild members left with the wagon, I couldn’t help but notice that the chunk of meat looked like a massive piece of animal leg, light grey in color with rippled muscles and talons for claws. It was hard for me to picture what the rest looked like, but if it stood on fours, then it was probably at least two meters tall.

“Left the carcass at the Everdark, huh…” I muttered under my breath. Before I could mull it over, Jennifer was already chatting with the pink woman. She turned towards me and Allen and waved us over.

4

The inside of the guild was bright and spacious, lit by a number of magic stones directly attached on the ceiling, almost acting like lighting fixtures commonly found in office buildings back on earth. It made the guild feel more ‘modern’ in that regard, but everything else fell in line with the rest of Yorutei. Wooden floors, concrete walls decorated by paintings and scrolls, windows with lanterns hanging by them. There was a reception area at the very back of the first floor, and lots of tables and chairs with what I assumed were guild members lounging by them.

Yorutei was very diverse when it came to physical features or color, so it was difficult for me to discern if the people I saw in the guild were locals or not. But there were a good number of men and women that simply screamed ‘foreign’ based on their clothing. I saw a couple of men with spiked armor and tattoos, a woman with a stereotypical witch hat and cloak, a man covered in what seemed like bandages and chains.

I wondered if these people saw us the same way. Jennifer was the only one who adapted the local attire, which she apparently bought the moment we stepped foot in Shusui, another funny detail from our friend the arbiter.

“It must’ve been a long trip,” Meifan, the pink woman, said to us while serving tea. She invited us to the second floor of the guild and told us to sit around their conference table. “This is usually where we discuss requests from people, but it’s already late, so I think we’ll be fine.”

“Thanks for the tea,” I said, right before I took a sip. It was surprisingly sweet and reminded me a little bit of red bean.

“T-This is delicious!” Allen exclaimed.

“It’s perfect for the cold,” Jennifer followed. “We appreciate the hospitality.”

“You’re all quite welcome,” Meifan said as she sat at the head of the table. She put the stick she’d been chewing on her own tea, and I noticed it change color. “I like my tea with extra spice,” she said with a wink. “But let’s start from the beginning. My name is Meifan-Hal Yeni. I work as head supervisor of this branch of the Protectorate Guild, but you’d often see me take care of reception most days.”

We introduced our names, and in that exact moment, a flash of memory came to me. It was a large room with polished floors and an open balcony that overlooked a seaside vista. Me and Jennifer stood before a panel of men and women in multi-colored robes telling us to travel north and transfer to this specific branch.

I blinked, almost surprised at myself. I’ve had flashes of information before, but that was particularly vivid.

“We want to register ourselves at this guild so we can find work,” I heard Jennifer say. “It’s also our first time here, so it’d help if we can get more information about the area.”

Meifan nodded along as she sipped her tea. “I’ve heard about two guild members from headquarters, so I wasn’t expecting three of you to arrive. Would you mind if I checked your guild badges?”

The three of us already talked about this before, so we each procured a circular medallion emblazoned with the guild’s symbol in the middle—a European-styled crown surrounded by the sun. Around it were inscriptions detailing the name of the Protectorate Guild, our own name, the guild branch that assigned the badges, and the calendar date that we joined. Mine said two-two-one and six-three but I wasn’t entirely sure how to correlate that with the current year.

“Ah, quite the group of people from across the continent,” Meifan said, looking genuinely surprised. “We were made aware a month ago that a Dark Knight and a Sun Singer were to transfer to our branch, but I’m afraid we haven’t gotten anything about a third member.”

“Um!” Allen suddenly stood up. “I… It was a last minute decision. Ryota and Jennifer are friends of mine and… I wanted to help them!”

“I see,” Meifan said as she handed us our badges back. “It’s quite alright, Allen Fitzgerald, we—”

“A-Allen’s fine!” he said, then slowly sat back down.

Meifan laughed softly. “Allen. If you’re joining with Ryota and Jennifer here, then you probably know that our guild is heavily understaffed. Other branches underestimate how big Yorutei had gotten in the past few years, and more fiends are venturing out of the Everdark as of late.”

“I see…” Allen whispered.

“That means we could use all the help we can get.”

“Oh! That’s good! I-I mean not about the fiends, but that I’m welcome here… Not to say I’d make a big difference, but—”

“I’m sure a Warrior of your stature would be a great help.”

Allen blushed awkwardly, causing Meifan to chuckle.

I wasn’t sure if us being hired help was always the story the arbiter meant for us to have, or if she adapted it to a real issue with the Yorutei branch. My money’s on the latter. Heck, this was probably why fate decided to send us here at this particular time.

That fake memory though… it was hard to get it out of my mind.

As for why we needed to steal from the Yunha and make a fuss about it? Who knows. But the long time limit might mean we’re supposed to actually help here for the time being.

“That monster leg we saw outside…” Jennifer said, turning to look out the window as if she could see it. “Was that…”

Meifan blinked in surprise. “Ah, your first time seeing an Everdark fiend, eh?”

“I’m afraid this is our first time not just in Yorutei but anywhere north,” Jennifer said.

Meifan nodded, then started chewing on her stick again as if considering her words. “Everdark fiends are the largest threat in the north,” she said after a while. “It extends longer than the borders of Shusui, but we’re the only country that constantly deal with them. Primarily because Yorutei is the only settlement close to it.”

“Is it because of Yunha?” I asked.

“Correct,” Meifan replied, pointing her stick at me. “Yorutei was originally co-founded by natives of the Everdark, but that’s a history lesson for another day. What’s important is our proximity to the cursed forest means we’re constantly wary of the beasts that lurk inside. They’re unlike any monster you’d encounter prowling in the wilds. They’re big, they’re ruthless, but more than that they’re intelligent creatures. They behave in ways no other animal do.”

What did that mean?

I asked.

“As far as humans understand, Everdark fiends leave their forest simply to kill. The forest is abundant with food for the beasts, believe it or not, but still they leave their nests to toy with humans or other wild animals. This makes them highly unpredictable.”

The three of us looked rightfully spooked.

“And yet humans live inside the Everdark,” I said. “Doesn’t sound like a fun time.”

Meifan shrugged. “If you can believe what historical records say, human settlement inside the Everdark predates the curse or the fiends. Some argue there’s treasure in there. Others say the curse itself is a valuable source of magic we might one day harness. Whatever it is, humans have always been fascinated with the Everdark.”

“And t-that’s… what we’re sent here to fight…” Allen said.

Meifan laughed softly. “Oh, it’s not as bad as you might think. We may be understaffed, but we still have veteran warriors and mercenaries in this guild. And the guardsmen of Yorutei can handle the fiends just fine too. As for the villagers of Yunha, well, let’s just say they have their own ways to keep themselves safe.”

“With that said, this upcoming festival is very important for the Protectorate Guild. I won’t bore you with the details tonight, but it’s got most of our members busy. It’s one more reason why we requested help from other branches, and now we have you three. Not the large number I was expecting, but it’s one more than Keslahir promised.”

“So, we’d be dealing with regular guild work too?” Jennifer asked.

“That’s the plan,” Meifan said. “It’s probably a lot simpler than you expected, but how about it? You guys think you’re up for it?”

“I like simple,” I said. “As long as we get paid and have most of our needs taken care of while we’re here, I think we’re good. Right, guys?”

Jennifer and Allen both echoed their agreement. Having simpler duties probably meant we get more time to scope out the place and gather as much information as we need for our mission.

“Excellent,” Meifan said as she stood up. “The guildmaster won’t be back for a while, but I can still approve your paperwork for the time being. I can also introduce you to some of our members. Maybe they can give you a quick rundown of the city and the types of work we get here.”

“That sounds great,” Jennifer said.

“And who knows,” Meifan continued, “you might not even get the chance to encounter one of the fiends.”

Oh, I highly doubted that. Taking on a job involving Everdark fiends might be crucial for our mission, so it was in our best interest to learn as much about them and the village as we could.

I shivered at the idea of facing the monsters, but at the same time… a part of me—the part that’s been given a fake backstory as a mercenary who can fight—is thrilled at the thought of facing them.