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His Soul is Marching On to Another World; or, the John Brown Isekai

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Chapter XXXVII – Sheep in the midst of wolves.
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    • Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

    - Matthew 10:16​

    Like they had done so many a time before, the freemen of Mount Curry had gathered. Not to throw a party or anything of that sort, there wasn't enough of anything to throw even the lamest of parties. Cramped together in and outside the cave, some sitting on the looted couches while others preferred not to seat themselves as the silken cushions were unbearably comfortable for them. Small chitter and little chatter travelled around the room while the freemen concentrated around the area, forming a dangerously high concentration of volatile liberty which was ready to spontaneously combust and engulf every oppressor in its radius.

    The crowd itself had gathered into a donut-shaped circle, this donut definitely not being edible unless one was a cannibal. In the middle was no one, on the periphery was everyone discussing with each other about what they wanted to talk about. This wasn't exactly a planned style of discussion, far from anything you might see in professional debate and closer to something you might see on (insert contemporary social media site here to make fun of). One part of the donut got louder, another got quieter, a far-off piece was busy playing hopscotch… It was pure chaos distilled into a tasty donut shape.

    …Why am I thinking so much about donuts? Ayomide's train of thought was derailed by a craving for doughy circles covered in criminally copious amounts of sugar. She had first seen them in Jacob's maid café; Ayomide had of course never gotten a chance to taste one despite her attempts to break out at night and raid the kitchen. The revolutionary catgirl wizard made a mental note to try a donut if she ever got a chance to. Perhaps Hakim could bake something like that? Ayomide didn't know how sugar was produced, and whether it was even possible to produce it here in Mount Curry. Was sugar a plant product? A kind of rock, akin to salt? The product of an animal? She truly didn't know, and her ignorance infuriated her. Perhaps Brown knew where sugar came from; if he had sugar back in Awmereighka was another thing that was unclear to Ayomide.

    "Ye who art in this council, ladies and gentlemen," boomed out the voice of Brown. The freemen felt sort of awkward due to being referred to 'ladies and gentlemen' considering that they were considered the lowest rung of society. "If you have discussed your own matters enough, then with the Lord as our witness I'd like it if we could begin discussing our own matters."

    "Captain Brown." One certain Bilal came onto the scene after announcing his presence. He marched in the middle of the crowd-made donut to address everyone in the scene. "I don't think I need to report on how we're doing in the kilns."

    "Yes, it's impossible not to hear you all pray over pottery." replied Ayomide from the crowd, which prompted a few laughs except for Brown, Tubman and Vaiz who weren't pleased with the heathen's comment.

    "Ahem, just as our most esteemed Lady Orange reported." replied Bilal, who wasn't pleased either. "We've sorted the kilns out. However, as we found out during our work, we have something else that needs sorting out." He pointed towards his own body, which was naked except for his baggy pants that were barely holding together. This sort of attire was repeated among the freemen who weren't exactly able to follow the latest trends in fashion.

    "Clothes?" shouted one member of the audience, and Bilal nodded in response. "Of course, it's clothes! We can barely get by during the summer, with everyone of us being in the cold highlands, not to even think of the dreadful winter that'll eventually come."

    "Indeed, winter does tend to come after summer." stated Brown, whose statement was as obvious as cabbages being green. He had meant it as a sort of allegorical statement, about how they should not be feeling easy after their victorious escape, but this allegory ended up flying over everyone so highly that it might as well have ended up crashing into another planet.

    "…Y-yes, the seasons do tend to do that, captain." Bilal paused for a moment after having confirmed Brown, unsure of how to continue his speech after such a sentence.

    "If it is clothes that you look for," Ayomide came to the rescue of Bilal. "We've just conveniently acquired funds thanks to our generous patrons."

    Bilal's reply to this proposition was quick. "Then let's go to the nearest town. Surely, they'll be understanding when a bunch of darkskins go shopping for clothes. Nor will they be looking out for fugitives after a mine full of slaves took flight."

    "White folk to tend to have their eyes peeled wide open after they hear of fugitives." commented Tubman, standing among the audience, drawing from her experience as an operator in the Underground Railroad. "You don't want to be seen wandering by yourself."

    "The most important part is 'not be seen wandering by yourself', as I think General Tubman can attest." Brown had already been scheming a few things, and Bilal had brought the perfect opportunity for him to bring them up.

    "You're right, Captain Brown." Tubman could see where he was going. "A good ally, a good excuse and a good attitude can let you reach forbidden lands. Be wise as a serpent, and you can even walk as a sheep in the midst of wolves."

    Brown couldn't keep himself from seizing this opportunity to quote the Bible. "'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.'. That's an excellent quote from the Good Book, one that I believe is imperative to keep in mind."

    The old man, famous for being harmless as a dove, added Ayomide silently.

    "I'll be getting a team together to sort the clothes problem out, along with anything else you may need our funds to be used on." concluded Brown. "Get together a shopping list, a list of items to buy, and we'll figure something out." He had added the definition of a 'shopping list' just in case the locals hadn't developed the concept of one, not aware of the fact that shopping lists were about as old as history itself.

    With his complaint having been heard, Bilal blended back into the crowd. Next up was Tubman, who was the only otherworlder, other than Brown, that the freemen liked. "I've also noticed that something has been missing." The freemen waited for her to point toward something like Bilal, but she didn't point to anything. "This group and this place, I don't think we have a name for them."

    The freemen looked at each other, trying to remember if they had an official name for themselves. The discussion went on for a minute, before consensus was reached: No, the freemen in Mount Curry didn't have a name for themselves.

    "Is it that important, old lady?" Ayomide looked relaxed and quite unbothered. "I don't think having a name for our little organization is important."

    "There's no harm in choosing one." replied Bilal. "Hmm…" Nothing popped into his mind. Nobody really had any experiences with abolitionist groups, meaning that they also didn't have any idea on naming schemes.

    "How about… naming this place, uhm, Liberty Cave? Libertycave? Something like that." said Ayomide, giving the first thing to pop into her mind.

    "No, that honestly sounds lame. How about…" Discussion suddenly lit up amongst the crowd, sending waves of name suggestions around the donut. This question, which Tubman would think to be quite trivial, ate up the rest of the day even as the freemen separated from each other for the night.
    Want to see Ayomide eating a donut? It'll be a while until Brown and co. go and manufacture sugar, but the visual arts makes the impossible into the possible.


    (This lovely image was drawn by a good fellow named wyjif, and posted on the r/JohnBrownIsekai subreddit.)
     
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    • ...Is that a subforum just for this story, or is there an entire community out there devoted to writing John Brown Isekai stories? I'd noticed a couple of them on SV, but I wasn't sure if that was just an SV thing or not.
     
    MilitantBird said:
    ...Is that a subforum just for this story, or is there an entire community out there devoted to writing John Brown Isekai stories? I'd noticed a couple of them on SV, but I wasn't sure if that was just an SV thing or not.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's supposed to be a subforum for my story, but I wouldn't mind anyone posting about other John Brown isekais.
     
    Chapter XXXVIII – Folk in the midst of planning.
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    • 24rd of Summer, 5859
    Libertycave, Mount Curry    ​

    Trees. They're quite the common sight, unless you're in the Arctic. Or the desert. Or the tundra. Or in the middle of the ocean. Or in a city. Thinking about it, trees aren't a common sight at all for a lot of people. Thankfully, Gemeinplatz in its northern parts were chock full of trees that even the American pioneers couldn't even begin considering cutting it all down. For miles the ocean of green stretched, ready to be prime fuel in case some dolt decided to start a forest fire.

    Up far away from the forest, where the trees got coniferous and the lands treacherous, sat the men of the now-reformed League of Gileadites. Most of them hadn't actually known anything about Gilead until Brown told them the story of the brave Israelites, not on an exodus but the Exodus, who gathered to face their foe on the mountain – such a story was relatable to those who were currently stuck doing the same thing. Pharaoh or emperor, it mattered not when their enemy was the same enemy that has befallen man since the beginning of civilization: tyranny and barbarity. Some had even begun referring to the "emperor" as a "pharaoh" as an insult which, while probably not a crime punishable by death since not many in Gemeinplatz knew what a pharaoh was, would still bring quite the shock to the average citizen of the Gemeinplatz Empire to see the highest office in the land being so openly and wantonly insulted.

    However, there was someone who hadn't become a member of the League yet. Someone who had been asleep during the discussion.

    "Shinasi! Wake up, you sack of potatoes!" Ayomide came into the room, banging a pot and a pan to create noise that sounded like Satan's own brand of music.

    "Mmh… Argh…" The noises coming out of Shinasi were not ones that showed contentment with being waken up in such a vocal manner. He swore to beat up whoever was making all that noise into a pulp, before he opened his eyes and found that the one making such cacophony was Ayomide. "Eh? What's happening?"

    "Good morning." Ayomide finally dropped the pan and pot, and silence reigned over Libertycave once more.

    "Good… morning? What's the noise?" Shinasi looked around him, eyes still half-closed, to find that there didn't seem to be any trouble going on.

    "We're going on an expedition to Casamonu, and Brown needs your help." She pointed to a small group outside, a group that included Brown.

    "Huh? What's with the sudden expedition?" Shinasi was calmer now. Travelling somewhere else instead of standing at the same spot everyday seemed better to him. Plus, knowing that they were not in danger probably helped.

    "Yesterday, when you were asleep…" Ayomide quickly related the events of yesterday to Shinasi "…and Brown has gathered together a few people to go on a shopping spree. Come on, get up." She extended her hand towards Shinasi, whose body was still tucked under the bear fur.

    Shinasi extended his hand, not expecting much from a catgirl who was so short and stout. He was surprised when she managed to pull him to his feet in one pull. "How the…"

    Ayomide tilted her head. "Hm? Why're you surprised?"

    "I wasn't expecting you to be this strong." Shinasi let go of her hand as it felt a bit awkward.

    "I run around, carry logs, do magic…" Ayomide rolled up her sleeve to flex her muscles, which weren't much thanks to a lack of protein in Mount Curry. Her arm contained more flab than muscle. "I'm not like those lightskin ladies who look as if they're walking twigs."

    "I guess teapots are better than twi-" Shinasi shut himself up after having made an insensitive comment, and he closed his eyes while expecting retribution. He was surprised to hear a hearty chuckle from Ayomide.

    "Right? It'd be quite bad if I, let's say, snapped in half." Ayomide added a sarcastic shrug to her own comment. "Then what'd you do without an easy bounty to snatch?"

    "I don't know, it'd be quite the hard time for poor old me." replied Shinasi. He added a fake sigh of worry for comedic effect. Suddenly he heard Brown calling out for him, thought the old man was far too away for his voice to sound coherent.

    Ayomide looked towards the general direction of Brown. "Come on, let's not keep the old man waiting." She took a step towards Brown's direction while beckoning for Shinasi to come alongside her. "Otherwise, he'll be giving us a lengthy lecture on being punctual and whatnot."

    Shinasi found Ayomide's point to be quite poignant, so he followed her without further question. He passed by the camp, which had quite vibrant thanks to the addition of the mud huts. Now that people were not huddling around the cave doing their best not to freeze their posteriors, they were much more energetic and hopeful about their situation. A few fires, carefully kept weak as to not be too noticeable from afar, lit up while the people of Libertycave prepared their breakfast.

    Shinasi could hear his stomach growl; he had been unceremoniously dragged into a meeting without a chance to get anything. He was thinking of getting something himself when Ayomide suddenly paused. After a minute of talking to someone tending to a fire, she got a piece of shepherd reed bread. "Catch." The small piece gently flew towards Shinasi. He managed to nick it in time, though such a slow throw from such a small distance wasn't the hardest to catch in the first place.

    Shinasi blankly stared at the bread for a second, before he realized that it was meant for him. "Ah? Thank you." He quickly chewed down what small amount there was in his hand. It was enough to stop him feeling hungry at the least.

    With his hunger satiated, the duo then quickly marched on to meet the old man. He had made himself a makeshift war room from the remains of the mansion: a fine mahogany chair inlaid with gold and silver held up a map of the local area also looted from the mansion. There were no chairs around, for Brown found it impossible to sit around while planning and speaking. He also found it impossible to sit while praying, but that was beside the point at the present moment. The old man is awfully mobile for someone so, well, old, thought Ayomide upon seeing him make rounds around the table.

    "Young man! Where have you been?" Brown seemed to not be too angry, though thinking about it Shinasi realized that he hadn't seen Brown be genuinely angry before. He was oft disappointed, yes, but he wasn't wont to anger. "The sun has been up for a good hour or two now. One should wake up before the sun does."

    "Sorry old man." Having sufficiently excused himself, Shinasi intended to quickly drift to the main topic at hand. "So, did you need my help?" He took a look at the map on the table. "I can't read the map, or anything for that matter, if that's what you need help with."

    "You can't read?" Shinasi was surprised to see that the one protesting his statement of illiteracy was Ayomide. "I thought that adventurers were supposed to be literate. What, with all the quest-reading and whatnot you have to do."

    Shinasi was taken aback by Ayomide's disappointment. "Yeah, adventurers do tend to be literate." He felt like an uneducated oaf now, which was definitely not a feeling of the pleasant kind. "But all the reading work was done by my group's leader, Shakir, so I never got to learn all the letters."

    Brown suddenly interrupted Shinasi. "Ahem. If you'd let me speak, please." Now he looked to be slightly annoyed after having been ignored. "I didn't call you here for purposes of literacy. I have need of you in other departments, mainly navigation and information." He pointed at the map that still sat on the desk. "The map only contains the locations of places and their names. I can't exactly know what lies around those parts, and I assumed that you might have made your way towards Casamonu at some point in your life." He extended his gaze towards Ayomide. "Perhaps he might help me if he isn't preoccupied with you?" Ayomide met Brown's gaze, one of fatherly admonishment refined through having had twenty children.

    "I'd be happy to help." Shinasi stepped forward to ease the situation. "I was actually born in Casamonu, so I've travelled back to the city plenty of times to meet up with family." He took a quick look at the map, realizing the odd situation they were in. "Of course, I haven't had to travel there from the mountain before." The former adventurer then took a closer look, trying to orient himself with the place he was in. He couldn't read the labels, but what was a mountain and what wasn't a mountain was pretty obvious when looking at the map. After asking Brown to read aloud the names of a few local settlements, Shinasi managed to connect the locations he had visited before with the locations on the map. He then drew attention to a thick line that ran towards Curry, before shying away from the mountain itself and curving towards Casamonu. "This is the main road, the one that connects Casamonu and Zon'guldac. We should head for there if we want safe travel."

    Ayomide didn't look too pleased with the proposition. "Umm… You mean that there are a lot of people on the road?" She paused for a moment, hoping that someone would notice the obvious flaw in such an idea. Nobody seemed to, so she continued "I don't think having a bunch of fugitives travel on the main road is a safe idea. Unless…" her eyes shifted between Brown and Shinasi "…you two want to go alone? Can you really carry enough supplies for everyone here amongst the two of you?"

    Shinasi closed his eyes to think. Brown didn't, opting to reply instead. "Young lady, you don't need to travel as fugitives."

    This reply only served to confuse Ayomide more. "I don't think we can change our status, old man."

    Brown had another idea. "Well…" He smiled upon realizing a chance to insert a bit of impromptu Bible study "This is the part where we have to be wise as serpents, and slip in."
     
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    • Chapter XXXIX – Men in the midst of trees.
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    • 27th of Summer, 5859
    Outskirts of Mount Curry, Casamonu    ​

    Trees. They're quite the common sight, unless you're in Hell. Or Heaven. Or a metropolis. Or space. Or in a black hole. Thinking about it, trees aren't a common sight at all for a lot of people. Thankfully, Gemeinplatz in its northern parts were chock full of trees that mass deforestation would be impossible without an Industrial Revolution of sorts. For miles the ocean of green stretched and… Hey, haven't we done this sort of intro to a chapter before?

    In the midst of the countless trees lay a small party lead by one certain individual named John Brown, radical abolitionist, novice soap maker and non-conspicuous old man. "We've all memorized our lines, right?"

    "Yes, old man." Flanking old Brown was Ayomide, radical catgirl abolitionist, former maid café worker and present log drying expert. "I have those lines drilled so deep into me that I'm afraid I'll never be able to pluck them out."

    "I bet I'll be reciting these when I'm drunk." Flanking the flanking Ayomide was young Shinasi, former winesop / oenophile adventurer turned not-so-radical abolitionist human tank. "At least it'd be better than me letting the beans spill when my mouth gets loose."

    This odd trio was travelling in single file through a small desire path that cut a clear line through the forest from Mount Curry. Clearly this path hadn't been used much in recent times: errant stones and plants had worked tirelessly to make traversing the path harder than it should be. They all had to move in sync as any of them stopping made the person behind them stop completely, like what Brown decided to do at the moment Shinasi talked about being drunk. He stopped, looking at the young man directly. "Young man, we have no room in the budget for any drinks. You need not worry about spilling any beans without volition." Brown made sure to especially stress the part about volition. "Let's just say that I have some experience with those who spill beans with volition." A certain Hugh Forbes, Brown would definitely curse his name if cursing others wasn't a sin, came to his mind when uttering these words.

    Shinasi had to stop as Brown stopped, which made him felt a bit stressed out when he was stuck so close between an old man and a catgirl. "Of course, captain, I'm an adventurer of my word who follows the adventurer's code closely: don't kill steal, have loot sharing enabled, and make sure you don't accidentally use public chat instead of party chat."

    Brown looked at Shinasi as if the young man had spoken in Proto-Sino-Tibetan to him. "Have loot sharing enabled? May I ask what that exactly means?" He began walking once more, allowing Shinasi to walk and talk.

    Shinasi fell silent for a second, not out of fear but out of needing to think after such an odd question of language. "Huh…" It wasn't everyday that he had to explain adventurer lingo to a man who was completely otherworldly in understanding.

    Ayomide decided to butt in as well. "Oh, I'm very curious as well." She hadn't exactly understood much in the oddly worded adventurer's code either. Sure, Ayomide had heard adventurer lingo in the maid café before, but she was definitely unable to understood what they meant in any usable context.

    The young adventurer found more motivation to exposit now that he had an opportunity to impress his catgirl comrade with his big load of knowledge. "You see, these were terms brought over by the first otherworlders. Apparently, back on Örf, many otherworlders would engage in an activity known as an 'ememoharpiji'." He sounded surprisingly intellectual when expositing needless information.

    Brown did his best to spell out the ungodly word that Shinasi had uttered. "M-M-O-R-P-G?" He managed to land close enough with his Yankee understanding of phonology. "What might that mean?"

    Shinasi was quick in satiating Brown's curiosity. "It apparently meant something like 'massively multi-player on-line role-playing game' in a language spoken on Örf."

    "Massively multiplayer online roleplaying game?" Brown quickly translated this monster of a word into English so that he could break it down in a much easier way. "That in English would be… massively multi-player on-line roleplaying game." A spark lit up in Brown's old brain. "The abbreviation of that would be M.M.O.R.P.G., which sounds awfully similar to how that word is spelled in your language." Having completed his dive into linguistics, John Brown came to the obvious conclusion. "I think that those otherworlders and I might have spoken the same language."

    "You don't say!" The young adventurer clearly didn't seem to be too shocked by this revelation as Brown was. "Many otherworlders come from Awmereighka, so I wouldn't be surprised if the old otherworlders were Awmereighkan as well. That being said..." Shinasi's eyes seemed to gleam more with curiosity now. "I'm guessing you participated in ememoharpiji as well? I want to hear how it was from a genuine otherworlder!" Grand clans and guilds, massive dungeon raids, thousands of participants… Shinasi had always heard rumors about how massive an ememoharpiji was.

    Then came Brown to unceremoniously erase any and all glimmer of hope from poor Shinasi's eyes. "I actually have no idea what this so-called MMORPG is, young man." Having died exactly hundred and nineteen years before the release of the first multi-user dungeon (MUD), the aptly named MUD1, didn't leave much chance for Brown to learn what an MMO or an RPG was.

    "We don't call him an 'old man' for nothing." added Ayomide. "He seems to know nothing that the other otherworlders know by heart."

    "I suspect that is because the other Awmereighkans come from a completely different age compared to me." Brown was still intrigued by the prospect of a 21st century USA potentially existing at the same time as the 19th century USA that he was ungraciously expelled from. Both of them somehow existing at the same time was the most 'rational' way he had managed to resolve the question of how he and Jacob could meet from more than a century away. Even then, this answer was quite unsatisfactory to him, but how could a 19th century man even manage to begin thinking of such topics? The old man simply lacked the words needed to describe the unreal situation he was observing. "Oh, what hath God wrought…" muttered Brown upon such contemplation. The alien reality that he found himself had managed to defeat Brown a long time ago.

    Shinasi decided to let Brown be left existentially flabbergasted while he continued talking "As for what the terms I talked about mean, 'have loot sharing enabled' means that you should equally share your loot between your party members, and 'make sure you don't accidentally use public chat instead of party chat' means that private manners should remain private."

    "I think you forgot the one about 'kill stealing'." reminded Ayomide.

    "Right, that one is a bit harder to get for outsiders." Shinasi continued on to explain what might be the most important article of the adventurer's code "That means that you should leave the killing of an enemy to the person who has dealt the most damage to it so that they can get the XP that they deserve."

    "Ekspee?" Brown was honestly getting tired of all the weird abbreviations. "What might that mean, young man?"

    "It stands for 'experience points' in the Awmereighkan language if I remember correctly." The one to reply was Ayomide. "That Jacob always loved to brag about his experience points to customers. He and his former party members apparently engaged in an activity called 'grinding' to raise these points." She added a shrug. "For what reason I don't know."

    Shinasi was more than happy to exposit even more. "You see, these experience points drop from everything you hunt down. This XP is some sort of magic energy that improves your strength when you collect enough of it, and those who engaged in ememoharpiji would strive to collect as much as they could to 'level up' and reach new heights."

    "These 'points' are supposed to 'drop' from everything you slay?" asked Brown, who had done a fair bit of slime hunting in Gemeinplatz. "I've never seen anything unusual drop that I could call an 'experience point'."

    "Oh? I thought that otherworlders could see them." Now was Shinasi's turn to be surprised. "Apparently these XP points were visible on Örf, but no one in Gemeinplatz has visually seen them like the otherworlders describe." His mind went to a rumor he had heard on the playground as a child. "I even once heard that the otherworlders could even open up a 'window' to look up their 'stats' gained by leveling up."

    "I can open up windows, young man, but I talk about the ordinary windows that are tangible and make some sort of sense." Gamer lingo was most enigmatic to John Brown. He really wished that he could meet a 21st century otherworlder who'd explain all this nonsense to him.

    "Well, maybe it's just an old man thing." Ayomide simply brushed off all of Brown's existential crises thusly. "People's senses tend to dull as they get older."

    "Young lady, you need to learn how to respect your elders!" Brown would definitely need to set up a proper lecture, with an appropriate number of quotes from the Bible and ancient Greek classics, to teach her how old people didn't deserve to be dismissed just because they couldn't sense some 'experience points'.

    "Sorry old man." Contrary to Brown's observations, Ayomide wasn't trying to be disrespectful. She simply had lacked any sort of upbringing that had her interact with any elders, for old slaves tended to be discarded long before they reached their 60s like Brown did, and the rude old customers (who were also oft the most lecherous despite also being the ones who were oft most religious) in the maid café hadn't exactly inspired a healthy sense of 'respect for the elderly' within her.

    "Anyways," Shinasi deliberately entered the scene once more to dispel the lightly tense atmosphere "adventurers still hunt for XP, despite the experience points in Gemeinplatz being invisible or intangible."

    "Wait, you can't see or feel the XP?" Ayomide's eyebrow was raised up high with skepticism. "So, you believe in a force that you can't properly observe? How can you tell if experience points are real?" She made a simple comment that could be made about many beliefs in and outside of Gemeinplatz.

    Shinasi scratched his head. "I mean… I do feel stronger after defeating a foe, which means that I must be gaining experience points." Then he made an argument that was simply flawless in its nature. "Hey, all the otherworlders and adventurers can have been wrong about experience points, right? I'm just a newbie adventurer who hasn't felt the true strength of XP yet." Simply put, due to an absence of MMORPG-like mechanics in Gemeinplatz making XP actually real, 'experience points' had become something akin to a pagan belief practiced amongst adventurers. Before Brown could interrupt him with further questions, Shinasi suddenly stopped walking. "Oh, here's a place that we could grind for XP now." He pointed towards a small divergence in the path, which slowly got wider and cleaner as it approached it.

    "Hmm? Where would that lead us to, young man?" Brown was quite curious as to what 'grinding' might entail.

    "It's a dungeon, the Minor Curry Dungeon to be exact." His adventurer instincts made him take a few steps towards the place. "I've been here plenty of times with my old party. Wanna take a look?"
     
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    • CabbagePreacher said:
    Trees. They're quite the common sight, unless you're in Hell. Or Heaven. Or a metropolis. Or space. Or in a black hole. Thinking about it, trees aren't a common sight at all for a lot of people. Thankfully, Gemeinplatz in its northern parts were chock full of trees that mass deforestation would be impossible without an Industrial Revolution of sorts. For miles the ocean of green stretched and… Hey, haven't we done this sort of intro to a chapter before?
    Click to expand...
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    lol For a moment I thought I was reading the previous chapter again! Well played.

    CabbagePreacher said:
    Flanking the flanking Ayomide was young Shinasi, former winesop / oenophile adventurer turned not-so-radical abolitionist human tank.
    Click to expand...
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    Gasp! A moderate. The horror...

    CabbagePreacher said:
    "So, you believe in a force that you can't properly observe? How can you tell if experience points are real?" She made a simple comment that could be made about many beliefs in and outside of Gemeinplatz.
    Click to expand...
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    "Even if you don't believe in XP, XP believes in you!"

    Maybe John Brown has access to a System, but he doesn't know it yet?
     
    Chapter XL – Men in the midst of troubles.
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    • ​

    Dungeons. A stable in RPGs ever since the aptly named Dungeons & I-Don't-Want-the-Pinkertons-Coming-After-Me-So-I-Won't-Infringe-On-Copyright (which, funnily enough, the [in]famous Pinkertons were established 9 years before old John Brown got isekai'd; they'd later act as personal bodyguards for Abraham Lincoln and conduct acts of espionage against the Confederates). Places of endless loot, confusing map layouts, and grindy enemies that refuse to die which makes one feels like they're crawling in the hellish dungeon (hence why it is called a 'dungeon crawl', or so this humble author thinks).

    Of course, in a land like Gemeinplatz, dungeons are also aplenty. Scattered around convenient spots on the map, the humble adventurer may be found in their natural habitat loitering around these places. These shrines of loot beckon these adventurers, as if a mermaid singing a sweet song packed into the form of an underground structure, and many lose their lives (in terms of time wasted and actual lives lost, but mostly wasted time) in 'the grind' while looking for that one legendary drop that'll grant them salvation from the endless monotony of running the same dungeon over and over again.

    Thus Shinasi was here, having been called upon the Minor Curry Dungeon and her equally minor loot, in front of the entrance with the oddest party he had ever seen. Brown, Ayomide, Shinasi, it was quite the hodgepodge of names who were all united in curiosity. As for the entrance itself, contrary to the remarkable nature of the names present in front of it, it was quite unremarkable. It was a gate of stone, looking ancient while not having somehow crumbled into dust,

    One noticeable detail was that some of the stones of the dungeon had rusted, twisted bars of metal sticking out from them, with little indentations on them that looked like some sort of fashionable avant-garde pattern. Brown was quite interested in this odd metal, and he tried to break it off to no avail. The metal was quite strong, even in its rusted form. Brown turned to Shinasi for help "What is this? Do you have any idea, young man?"

    "It's what the fellows back at the Adventurer's Guild would call 'dungeonium'." Shinasi did his best to grab some for himself, but he too failed to break the metal out from the stone. "It's quite the tough thing, as you can see. Apparently, some smiths in the capital take these to forge blades from them, though I have no idea you'd even begin melting this down." He grabbed onto the metal with even more force, to show how tough it was as it budged not.

    While the men were busy, Ayomide had gotten quite curious after having seen the rusted metal. If she could heal people, could she 'heal' metal as well? It was quite the curious question, so she took hand of a bar. She paused to think of a spell name that might work. In the end Ayomide decided to go with a simple "[Derust]!", a new word that she had invented at this moment. To her surprise, the small area of the metal her hands touched shed its rust off and from under it a shiny gray metal became visible. The catgirl wizard quickly dusted off the shed rust from her hands, and proudly displayed her work to her party members.

    A metal being rid of its dust was a whole lot less miraculous than having his limb be regrown, so Brown wasn't too surprised by the magic act itself. "Interesting." Brown caressed the newly cleaned bit of the metal, feeling its cold touch. "This feels just like iron, or steel."

    "Steel?" Shinasi raised his brow. "Why would they put something as precious as steel in the walls?" To him, this sounded like putting gold in the walls: a ridiculous proposition.

    Brown didn't know either; he shook his head to signal his ignorance in the realm of such odd construction techniques. He had died a few decades before reinforced concrete, which includes sticking bars of steel into concrete to make structures more tensile, had become widespread in the United States thanks to the experiments of his abolitionist comrade (and former patron) Thaddeus Hyatt (his 1877 report was, not-so-laconically, titled 'An Account of Some Experiments with Portland-Cement-Concrete Combined with Iron as a Building Material, with Reference to Economy of Metal in Construction and for Security against Fire in the Making of Roofs, Floors, and Walking Surfaces', which is only a few words short of being as long as the average isekai title).

    After having exposited more than enough about the history of reinforced concrete, let us return back to the ordinary adventures of John Brown and the abolitionist catgirl wizard Ayomide.

    Being unable to do anything with the odd bits of dungeonium, the party was about to enter the dungeon when they heard foreign screams, one male other female, coming from inside.

    "Tasukete! Āa!"

    "Adohe shelmiy Boczhe, mönsöé!"

    Whatever they were screaming about, the people inside the dungeon didn't seem to be having fun judging from the volume and desperation of their shrieks. Brown immediately jumped into the dark depths of the dungeon, only to be stopped by the dark depths of the dungeon which he couldn't see.

    "Old man! Wait a sec!" Ayomide and Shinasi came running after him. First, there was darkness. "You do know that sunlight doesn't reach underground, right? What was the word… Right! [Luminate]!" Then Ayomide let there be light, in the form of a dimly glowing orb in her hand. The dull grey walls of the dungeon were barely visible in the dim light, but Ayomide couldn't bother lest she spend all her magic shining like a lighthouse.

    "We and I have no time for a comeback, young lady, let us proceed and find the source of the screams!" Brown began running again, at an impressive speed for his age. Having (probably innocent) people die wasn't exactly a thing that he liked. Running through the corridor they had to dodge a myriad of things: bones, slime, other discarded items… In such a minor dungeon, there weren't any enemies looking to murder them during their brisk jog. What would have been there had most likely been pulverized by the recent visit of a novice group, judging from all the unharvested slime that they had left behind. Following a couple more screams a bit deeper into the damp and dark dungeon, the group found their targets struggling with the familiar figure of a slime.

    "Kowai! Suraimu kowai!" The male voice belonged to a bloke who had huddled into the corner into a fetal position while crying and quaking in fear. From her familiarity with customers in the maid café, Ayomide was able to guess that the language spoken by him was that of the otherworldly land of Nehoun from Örf / Earth.

    Thankfully, for the guy crying in the corner, there seemed to be someone a bit braver than him. "Boczhe, adoh ezoc! Eizé zot?!" Instead of the desperate crying done by the other otherworlder, her cries were more ones of confusion and anger. She was furiously beating the slime with an overly thick book, one that had letters on its cover not recognizable to anyone in Brown's party. However, mostly thanks to the blue gambeson she wore, she didn't look too alien in Gemeinplatz. Her long and curly golden hair, which was actually just cheap wig covering her actual hair, bobbed up and down along with her tiny spectacles as she continuously leaned forward to beat the monster into a fine pulp. Due to slimes being slimy creatures, her method of bludgeoning the slime failed to damage it much, only serving to stutter the creature.


    ​

    The bespectacled woman was saved by Ayomide, who carefully sent a spear flying using wind magic to maneuver the spear to make sure that her spear wouldn't end up lodged in the larger target. "Pop" went the slime, and suddenly there was quiet for there were no more things to scream and shout about.

    The woman who had been beating the slime shook her boots in an attempt to fling the slime off of it while the man in the corner slowly got off after having sufficiently calmed down. He was a twenty-something, with a protagonistly face which needed no further description except that he had a shadow of facial hair plastered on his face: an unusual trait for isekai protagonists to have facial hair at all.

    Brown was intrigued by an entirely different thing, his 19th-century self was surprised to see that the Eastern man in front of him wore a Western suit and tie. He had only come face to face with Jacob, so he hadn't exactly gotten a chance to see any other otherworlders which might dispel his conceptions of "the Orient". Seeing that the man in front of him was too shook to start conversation, Brown had to break the ice. "Good sir, might I have your name? My name is Isaac Smith." Ayomide stared daggers at the new otherworlders, while Shinasi curiously watched the ones they had unexpectedly encountered.

    "Ee?!" The man in front of Brown paused when he heard the speech. "How- How can I understand you?" he replied, clearly surprised at his own ability to understand the language of Gemeinplatz. He quickly switched gears back to not be discourteous. "Thanks for your help, Mister Smith. I am Watanabe Haruto, glad to meet you." An awkward exchange commenced between them as Watanabe courteously bowed down while Brown extended his hand for a handshake. In the end Watanabe stopped bowing to shake Brown's hand.

    Suddenly, the slime-beating woman interjected. "…Wait, I can understand them too. How the-" She stopped herself from saying something utterly uncouth. She proceeded the put her hand above her heart and do a slight curtsy, though unlike Watanabe she had decided to extend her gratitude towards the one who threw the spear. "Thank you for your assistance, madame. I'd be Doctor Raban Rabanowicz Rabanow of Kiyelm, but you can just call me Doctor Rabanowicz…?" Her voice faded when she noticed something odd that sat on top of Ayomide.

    "Hm?" Watanabe's gaze shifted, after having realized he had thanked the wrong person. "Arere?!" Excitement was added to his voice when he noticed the same thing that Rabanowicz had noticed. "Cat ears!"

    "…And a tail. How utterly queer." Rabanowicz adjusted her spectacles, clearly being enamored by this new discovery.

    "Oh, for…" Ayomide groaned. She had to go through the same procedure with every otherworlder; she did wonder as to how they had all managed to not see a catgirl for all their life. "Yes, yes, I have ears and a tail. My name is Ayomide, no you cannot touch them. Can we skip this please?"

    "Sorry." Watanabe retreated to a safe distance while Rabanowicz kept peeking curiously towards Ayomide. "So, would ye happen to know where we currently are?"

    "The Minor Curry Dungeon." Shinasi was the only one who actually remembered the name of the dungeon. "In Gemeinplatz" he added to make sure that their otherworlder guests wouldn't be too confused.

    "Ge… Gema'inpuradzu?" Watanabe scanned the area around him just to be even more sure. "I guess we're not in Cabbagelandetia anymore. Should've understood from the sudden appearance of slimes and catgirls…" He suddenly cheered; his hands held right up to the sky. "Oh, finally I get to get out of that low fantasy snore-world into something that looks like proper high fantasy!"

    Brown, Ayomide and Shinasi looked at Rabanowicz, as if they expected an answer for her partner's odd words. "I know not what he speaks of." She adjusted her spectacles once more, its tiny frame kept constantly doing its best to fall of from her nose. "He is under a terrible affliction of the mind under which he thinks of himself as being part of something called an 'isékai'."

    Thus, the abolitionists had been introduced to an errant pair of otherworlders.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLI – Men in the midst of grey bricks.
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    • ​

    Lots of bricks. A whole lot more gray. Blue bits of battered slime. A little bit more gray. The essence of an insignificant, minor dungeon as the one that Brown and co had found themselves in could be described as such.

    "So, this is it, young man?" Brown looked around the aforementioned scene while their unexpected guests did their best to psychologically recover from being slimed so suddenly. "I must say, these 'dungeons' seem to be quite underwhelming."

    Shinasi himself was busy searching for any loot, but he too had reached a disappointing conclusion. "Normally there are a whole lot more encounters. Another party must have visited recently." He patted the familiar gray brick of the dungeon. "Plus, these minor dungeons are nothing too impressive. Believe me, I think you'd be impressed if you ever saw the dungeons near the Imperial capital." For now however, his party was stuck in a place that wouldn't look amiss on a dungeon crawler made for the Commodore 64.

    Ayomide's eyes shined with curiosity. "Oh? How'd those in the capital look like?"

    Shinasi erred and hummed for a while before his head dejectedly slanted down. "To be truthful," he was normally not above making fabrications about his exploits, being quite below it in fact, but Ayomide wasn't any old wench in the tavern "the Minor Curry Dungeon is the only dungeon I've been into. There is only the one at the peak of Mount Curry that's nearby."

    "Boo." Ayomide gave a playful slap to Shinasi's unguarded shoulder. "What a lousy adventurer you are."

    "I'm sure the young man is better off not entering even bigger dungeons." Still unable to clear the association between 'dungeon' and 'incarceration', Brown wasn't too comfortable with staying in the drab underground basement. "God forbid, I don't get why you'd willingly throw yourself in a dungeon."

    "Indeed, I believe that we are too slow for people breaking out of prison." One of their new acquaintances, Rabanowicz, looked ready to smash some skulls with her book. "I know not why we are here, but I do know that I have committed no crimes in the eyes of state or the One Above."

    Her partner-in-crime Watanabe did his best to make her lower her dangerous weapon of literature. "Doctor, we aren't breaking anyone out of anywhere. I'll give you the detailed explanation later, but we are mostly safe save for those slimes that just attacked us."

    "What the gentleman over there just said." Shinasi was surprised at how much he could agree with the otherworlder. "This is a place to battle monsters and loot some loot. I don't know why you two are here, but weird things always tend to happen with you otherworlders… Like the place you just got up from." A few of the bricks on the wall had shifted from where Watanabe had been crouching, the weight of his whole body causing the bricks to somewhat go inwards into another room. "I'm pretty sure I've never seen that here." Shinasi approached the newly formed dent in the wall for a closer look. He kicked and prodded the bricks for a while until they collapsed and revealed a dark corridor. "Ayomide, shed us some light please?"

    Ayomide pushed through the small crowd to [Luminate] the corridor. Her lamination revealed that this corridor was not formed of gray bricks like the rest of the dungeon, but another form of gray stone that continuously stretched on for seemingly no end. The only thing breaking it apart were the scant cracks on the wall which had the occasional drop of water escape between them. It wasn't the most inviting of all sights, to say the least. Looking at such a sight, reasonable people would nope out and not enter. People in works of fantasy, however, tend to go into any place as long as it's interesting enough and the plot demands it. "Old man," Shinasi stared at the secret passageway with lust: lust for loot "I think we just hit the jackpot."

    Brown looked at the dark corridor for a second before turning back. He wasn't a coward; he was just a rational human being who didn't run on fantasy logic. "We have a mission, remember? We can't go around being distracted by every divergence that comes our way."

    "Yes, I'd rather not get eaten by the boogeymen or whatnot that lie there." Just one peek at the unending darkness was enough for Ayomide to shiver.

    "While the prospect of a dungeon is exciting, I'd like it if we could be lead outside and to the closest human settlement." Watanabe closed the discussion with this final statement.

    "Aw, c'mon…" Shinasi was outvoted 4-to-1. The rules of democracy dictated that they should return back, and return back he'd do if he didn't suddenly hear the ground below him rumble. "Do- I'm not drunk, am I?! The ground is shaking!"

    "I'm as sober as the Lord made me and I can confirm that the ground is shaking!" Brown and the rest of the party scrambled to hold on to the walls while the tremor got closer and closer. Eventually the rumble turned into noises of metal scraping into each other, a hellish noise akin to nails on a blackboard. "Oh Lord, please grant us some of your endless mercy!"

    "Ah… Help us, oh help us… Adohe…" Desperate times called for desperate prayer from Rabanowicz. No matter how much she prayed though, she apparently didn't have enough levels in Prayer to stop what was coming at them smashing the last few bricks that had been left unsmashed. It barged into the room from the corridor, suddenly halting once it made it into the middle.

    "What hath God wrought?!"

    "This…" Watanabe had to pause so that he could find the appropriate group of words to explain the thing in front of them "This giant death robot apparently!" He had managed to perfectly convey what was in front of them: a giant metal cube running on threads with three arms attached to the right, left and front of the cube. The top of the cube had a shiny, enigmatic black sphere which seemed to be continuously rotating around. Its body had a few markings on the brink of erasure: some sort of red rectangle, the numbers '4' and '2' in Arabic numerals, and other text-like markings which had become illegible due to how faded and scratched they were. Its body was rusty and dusty in general, showing that whoever or whatever made this machine had forgotten about it a long while ago.

    "The giant death what-" The giant death robot in question used one of its many arms to slap Ayomide away, sending her away to a wall on the other side of the dungeon room. She crashed onto the wall before bouncing back onto the floor in an unrefined fashion. "The giant death bastard!"

    "Why is this in this crappy minor dungeon?!" Shinasi rushed forward to help the battered Ayomide get back on her feet. He put his shield between them and the robot. "Are you fine?"

    "I've been finer-" The aptly-nicknamed giant death robot once more rudely interrupted Ayomide's speech, this time with rapid gunfire. One if its arms supported a multi-barreled weapon which spun around while readying itself do deliver more-than-suppressive fire.

    Whirr-ra-tatatata…tatataclickclickclickclickclick!

    Thankfully its systems didn't seem to work too well for actually killing people. The giant death robot's gun was focused on the brightest thing in the room: Ayomide's lamination spell which floated way above her. All of its two-hundred bullets had made way for the ceiling, excavating a large hole through the bricks. Loose chunks of brick and rock rained down from the ceiling which hit the robot's unsuspecting victims right on their heads. Thankfully no big chunks had dropped down, otherwise there would have been a sudden rise in traumatic head injuries in the Minor Curry Dungeon area.

    "What do we do with this… thing?!" Brown got up from his crouched position. "Shinasi, do you know anything about this?"

    Shinasi quickly spat out a small piece of rubble that had sneakily made its way into his mouth. "Pweh- My instincts are telling me that we should leg it!" As if the giant death robot had heard Shinasi's intentions for escape, it quickly drove its threads towards the poor adventurer while making the ground rumble once more. He'd have become human meat paste if not for the timely intervention of Ayomide and a healthy dose of wind magic pushing him away.

    "This thing definitely seems faster than us!" Ayomide took out the steel knife, courtesy of the late Watanabe Generico, and pointed it towards the giant death robot as if she was David challenging Goliath. "I don't think our legs are gonna be carrying us as fast as we need them to."

    There was a temporary bout of silence. Brown, the old man, was in one corner without any magic or overpowered abilities and items to protect himself. Shinasi and Ayomide were in another corner, with the revolutionary catgirl on a limited supply of magic and Shinasi on a limited supply of skill. The errant otherworlders, Watanabe and Rabanowicz, were still busy trying to understand their situation. The giant death robot stared them down, trying to kill them for reasons that had been long forgotten. Its machinery whirred and stirred, echoes of an age long past.

    Then all hell broke loose.
    In this chapter of the John Brown Isekai:

    (Original meme posted by u/Snoo_72851 on r/JohnBrownIsekai)
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLII – Flesh in the midst of metal.
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    • ​

    The bricks of the dungeon crackled once more as the metal threads began rotating once more. Crack, crackle and a snap, the giant death robot marched on towards Ayomide and Shinasi once more.

    Shinasi had to quickly sidestep once more to avoid the crazed machine. "What does this thing have against us in particular?!" He wasn't too happy to have drawn the attention of the crazed metal beast.

    John Brown, currently busy with not being chased by a giant death robot, was able to get a clearer analysis. "When this thing was shooting," he pointed at the bullet holes on the roof "it was aiming too high, and all of the bullets were passing through the ball of light you've got over there." As if confirming his statement, the giant death robot took a swing towards the magic light again.

    Ayomide dodged the incoming arm by promptly ducking. She began taking a few steps back. "So I just need to get this thing off my tail?" She then 'threw' the ball of light to a deserted corner of the room, or to be more accurate, she made a motion as if she was throwing something and the ball of light slowly floated over to a corner. The giant death robot then followed the light as if it was a cat going after a ball of yarn. Just like a cat, the giant death robot continued taking swipes at the ball of light, the major difference being that a giant death robot's swings were somewhat deadlier than that of a small cat.

    The robot's futile attack continued while the group in the dungeon chatted at a somewhat more leisurely fashion. "I'd say that it'd be prudent for us to make our way out." Brown dusted off his coat, beard, and hands and got up, looking excited to get out of the dungeon. Watanabe and Rabanowicz had already made their way out of the room, presumably towards freedom. Only Shinasi seemed to be the one who was reluctant to leave. His eyes were fixated on the corridor which they hadn't explored, his adventurer instincts telling him to just barge in there and hope for the best.

    "I'd love to leave, but…" Ayomide's eyes were focused on the ball of light she was maintaining. "Magic gets weaker the further you get away from it. At one point the light would be completely gone and who knows what this beast will get up to after that point. It's pretty quick so I'm sure it can catch up to us."

    "Then we can do some kiting." Shinasi found that no one in the room seemed to have any understanding of what a 'kiting' was, so he had to explain further without the odd gamer lingo. "You'll be in the back with the ball of light while the monster follows you at a safe rage."

    "That may seem prudent to you, young man. We'd save ourselves; I assume that this thing is going to begin battling the sun once it's out." Brown was quite curious as to why the giant death robot focused so much on light, but he put those thoughts aside while continuing his theorycrafting. "What happens after the sun sets, however? It'd probably attack anyone carrying any source of light. Or brightly lit houses, those would be a target too."

    "You are right…" Shinasi looked at the metal beast still clawing away at the magic light. Unleashing such a thing didn't seem like a good idea. "How do we defeat it then?"

    "I don't know how you'll defeat it, but I'd like it if your brains could work faster!" Ayomide's mouth had formed into a small frown, her brows fere furrowed, and a small drop of sweat had begun making its way down her forehead. "I can't exactly keep this thing shining all day!"

    Brown began pacing around while thinking more frantically. Shinai stood still, he was more the type to tap his foot and cross his arms while thinking. The young adventurer intended to approach the robot to take a closer look. Despite his adventurous spirit however, he couldn't exactly bring himself to get closer to a few tons of giant death metal. Brown on the other hand gathered all the faith he had in the Lord and proceeded to charge at the robot with his saber (courtesy of the late Jacob's late patron). As expected the sword couldn't penetrate even through the rusted metal of the robot. All Brown managed to achieve in his attack was chipping a few pieces of rusty metal off as sparks flew from the meeting of metals. It seemed that faith in God couldn't melt steel beams no matter how much Brown tried. "It's no use, young lady." he said before giving one last whack of desperation to the giant death robot's body. "All I can do is remove the rust from this thing." After all sixty years of his life, the thing that had managed to finally defeat John Brown was a giant death robot.

    "I think you'll be helping this thing if you remove the dust from it!" replied Shinasi, who had gathered a bit of courage and began poking the giant death robot with his spear. Javelins may be useful against armor as a certain nation under invasion may attest to, unfortunately for Brown and co stuck in the dungeon, Shinasi's spear was a primitive model which was a whole lot less effective against armor. "Though, this thing is so rusty that I bet you could get in its innards just by smashing all the rust out."

    Brown didn't seem too pleased with Shinasi's sarcastic remark. "Too bad we didn't bring a pickaxe then!" Still, he switched to smashing the giant death robot with the hilt of his saber which was a whole more effective. Shinasi followed by pommeling the rusted body with the shaft of his spear. The pair looked like a bunch of angry cavemen or a pair of Luddites who had unexpectedly encountered technology. "Young lady, do you think you could hold on until we get this beast sufficiently ridden of rust?"

    Ayomide saw what her comrades-in-arms were attempting, and couldn't help but sigh. They weren't making much progress; sabers and spears weren't efficient mining tools. The light she was providing had begun to get dimmer and dimmer as the seconds passed on. "Don't think I can." Then Ayomide had a bright idea, or, an idea that was only metaphorically bright. "I think I can help you, but…"

    "But?" Shinasi's arms were beginning to get tired of constantly pommeling the giant death robot in futility. "We really need help here."

    "…the lights might go out for a bit." Ayomide sluggishly approached the robot. There wasn't much energy left in her after having been a living and breathing light source for so long. "Alright, I hope you aren't too afraid of the dark." She touched an especially rusty part of the robot, took a deep breath, and then chanted as loudly as she could: "[Derust]!" The magic light suddenly went off. The only thing anyone could hear was the sound of crackling and the giant death robot's motor.

    Things were fully silent for a minute, except for the robot swinging wildly, before Ayomide's light appeared as dim as moonlight during a crescent moon. She was on the ground, out of breath and barely conscious. Such intense derusting wasn't easy on one's body. "Go- Go for it before I pass out!" she cried out with the last of her energy. Her body wasn't moving at all, save for her eyes whizzing around to get a view of the scene.

    Brown was quick to find what damage had been done: a giant hole had been opened in the giant death robot's hull. Shinasi joined him in examining their patient, who was now busy with the dim light. "What are these? They don't look like the organs of any beast."

    "I believe that this is some sort of machinery, young man." Brown quickly leaned in to take a closer look. There were gears, wheels, shafts and a million other bits he couldn't name. "Stick your shaft into the hole. Let us see what we can break." He took initiative by doing his best to knock off some gears with his saber.

    Shinasi began using his spear like a lever to bend the thin shafts spinning inside the giant death robot. Soon there were gears and broken shafts jumping around the machinery making a hellish noise. Having its innards turned into steel soup, the giant death robot eventually made a few sputters before giving up on movement. After another few seconds its engine stopped as well. It's lifeless metal body became even more lifeless.

    "Phew. That's the beast dealt with." Shinasi took his shaft out of the hole and wiped his brow. The near-death experience with the giant death robot wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing to experience. "Ayomide, are you still alive down there?"

    Ayomide gave a weak thumbs up while still laying on the ground. "Could use some help with getting up." Shinasi quickly took ahold of Ayomide and got her up. She wasn't in a state to walk unassisted, or so it seemed, so she wrapped her arms around the young adventurer for support.

    "Thank the Lord for getting us out of this mess." Brown spent a minute or two praying fervently while the others got their footing once more. "Now, I assume you'd like to go outside now?"

    Shinasi's eyes were still locked onto the dark corridor. Now that Ayomide's light had dimmed, he noticed something interesting: the end of the corridor was shining a dim green. The giant death robot had only served to heighten his curiosity as to what it was protecting. "Captain, this giant death robot came from that room. There seems to be no more commotion coming from over there, I think there'd be no harm in us taking a loo- Puah!" His suggestion prompted Ayomide to tighten her arm coiled around Shinasi in anger.

    However, Brown had gotten intrigued too by this point. "I'd say that there's no harm in taking a look." With God on his side, he'd surely be fine. "Let us venture forth and see what this 'dungeon' may have in store for us."

    And so Brown and co marched on into the corridor. It wasn't as long as it initially seemed, and in a minute of walking they were in another dimly lit room. What was intriguing was what this light was emanating off of: a large green orb, with shiny green liquid floating inside it, in the middle of the room about the size of a ripe cabbage which was held by several coiling vines. The rest of the room was covered in these vines as well. These vines were pulsating and sometimes giving a dim shine themselves, a scene both mesmerizing and terrifying in equal measures. Compared to the cacophony of the giant death robot, the room was absolutely silent save for the breathing of its three visitors.

    Brown stood silent for a while, admiring and contemplating the scene. He then only had one thing to say: "Pray tell, what is this?"
    Hello, dear reader. While most of your experiences with my work come through the written side of my business, I dabble in illustration as well, and my dabbling has resulted in me collaborating together with a good fellow nicknamed Arzvet to make a little indie fangame. Parsee's Festival of Love and Jealousy is free to play for all ye who are (or aren't) reading, and you can download and play it from here if you are interested in getting more information.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLIII – Mortals in the midst of a mystery.
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    • ​

    The room was ever so silent, even after Brown's question as it received no answers. Vines still coiled, the green fluid inside the glass sphere pulsated and old Brown sat and pondered. Everything he had seen up to that point, even Ayomide's seemingly miraculous healing magic, had made a modicum of sense to him. This place? This place was a whole different thing compared to magical catgirls suddenly healing John Brown's arm. It just made no sense, with the giant death robots and the odd green liquid, it was as alien as little green men from Pluto or the modern incarnation of Mac-and-Cheese.

    While Brown was most busy with trying to sort out his befuddled state, Shinasi was making rounds around the room while searching for loot. He found the place to be alien too, but that was to be expected out of a dungeon. Such exotic rooms usually meant exotic loot, or so he had heard. Shinasi's luck with loot wasn't exactly great, evident from the debts he had racked up before escaping Azdavay. Thinking about it, he did hope he'd find something to sell in case he encountered one of his old 'friends'. Buying that big jug of rakija for his trick back in the copper mine had only been possible with a fair bit of pleading and debt-making, not to mention everything from the past… It just made Shinasi's head hurt, so he stopped thinking about it further. He always managed to make ends meet one way or another, so he thought it was futile to make his head ache for something he would manage anyways. Perhaps the old man wouldn't notice a few groschen missing from his bag of cash?

    Fortunately for our adventuring friend, it seemed that the Lord, or whoever was in charge of Gemeinplatz, had decided to grant His grace upon his sullen face. The center of the room only contained the large orb, but the corners of it had various bits of equipment… along with scattered bits of bone that Shinasi did his best to ignore. Like any good adventurer Shinasi carried a knapsack with him, and he stuffed a few small and valuable-looking items to treat himself after the fight with the giant death robot. Rings were the best, they were commonly enchanted with something-or-another that made them valuable if not for the ring itself, followed by other items of jewelry. The bits of bone on the ground didn't need them anyways, and respect for the dead wasn't an article of the adventurer's code. Shinasi even begun humming a little tune while he did his collecting, which would make any outside observer think he was some sort of psychopath for being so cheerful around the fleshless remains of his fellow adventurers.

    As for the catgirl in the room, she had been focusing on the green orb in the middle of the room. It looked quite mesmerizing, hues of dark and light green coming off of the liquid swimming inside it. Ayomide found herself slowly taking steps towards it out of sheer curiosity, inching ever so closer to the orb. She hesitated a bit, hovering her hand over the orb, before being unable to resist her urge to give it a gentle touch. The orb reacted to that gentle touch with a violent outburst of green light. Everyone in the room, except for Shinasi who was crouched towards the opposite direction of the orb while looting, found themselves temporarily blinded as if the fantastical equivalent of a flashbang had gone off.

    The light slowly subsided, Ayomide slowly opened her eyes, and slowly she noticed that the orb was no more. In its place was a shining green gem of a similar green color, lazily floating around and bobbing up and down. Ayomide hesitated once more before grabbing this odd gem. Thankfully no fantastic flashbangs went off this time; on the contrary, the room was quite dark now that there was no odd green orb to give light.

    "Who turned off the lights?" said Shinasi, turning back from his bout of looting. "I quite liked the… odd green orb."

    Brown rubbed his eyes, still unable to see properly from his eyes being so suddenly fried. He found Ayomide holding a green gem that seemed to have spontaneously appeared. "What is that, that thing in your hands, young lady?"

    Ayomide shrugged. "Do I look like I know what this is? I just touched the orb." She was already tired from all the previous magic she had done, but having light seemed really important to her. "[Luminate]." As expected, a ball of light came out; as unexpected, it came out of the gem and not her hands. It was also a whole lot brighter than it would usually be, too bright in fact. Ayomide had to focus a bit to lower the ball's brightness down. "What the?"

    "Oh, I think it's one of those things that the magic people use to buff their spells." Using gems and other precious materials was common amongst mages who could afford it, as Shinasi was currently attesting to. "Apparently stuff like that helps you conduct your magic better."

    "Right, right. I've seen those mages with their wooden sticks and orbs." Ayomide had forgotten to ever make herself a staff, with all the other work she had to do. "Though, I think that precious gems are usually found in mines, are they not?"

    All the loot in the room, the vines and the odd green orb, something finally clicked within Shinasi's mind. "Ah! I think I know what this room is?"

    "Is it a mine?" Ayomide hadn't exactly gotten the chance to observe many mines within her lifetime.

    "No, it's not something ordinary like a mine." Shinasi closed his knapsack full of loot before continuing. "This is… what was it called exactly… Right! A 'dungeon core'!" He pointed towards the place where the green orb used to be. "These places are the heart of a dungeon or something like that. I don't really know what they exactly do, to be honest. I've only heard rumors about such places, not went into one until now." He looked around the room one more time. "Though, isn't there supposed to be some big boss monster here… Oh." He regretted saying that as soon as the sentence was finished. Setting off flags was a big no-no in Gemeinplatz, and Shinasi was sure he had set the biggest and reddest flag of all. The adventurer readied his spear and shield, ready for a boss to dramatically make its grand entrance.

    "Big bad monster? I believe we already have slain one, and its corpse is standing right outside this room. Thank the Lord we finished the fight without major problems." Brown was pretty relaxed, so was Ayomide.

    "Yeah, we're fine. Nothing is going to happen." Ayomide laughed it away, happy that she wasn't going to be beaten by another giant death robot or something akin to it.

    "People, please…" Shinasi had only gotten more nervous. "You shouldn't tempt fate." His eyes were shifting around the room in anticipation of an attack.

    "Don't worry young man, our Heavenly Father is watching over us. Fate isn't a matter which can be tempted save for the intervention of the Lord above." Being perhaps the most fatalistic man in the universe, Brown was as calm as anyone could be.

    Sometimes, the 'intervention of the Lord above' includes giant death robots, added Ayomide. "Let's return then. I don't think there's much more in this dungeon." All the valuables had been conveniently taken by Shinasi. "Aren't you coming, Shinasi?"

    Shinasi looked around the room a few more times, before drawing a large sigh. "Okay, maybe the robot was the boss of this room." He put away his shield, took on a more relaxed posture, and intended to follow his party out.

    However, things do tend to go south the moment one stops being alert as dictated by the rules of drama and tension. Suddenly the vines behind them began moving on their own, coalescing around the empty space left behind by the green orb. The vines quickly coiled around themselves to take on a vaguely humanoid form, and black miasma began coalescing around the 'head'. After a while this black miasma became white and formed a plant-like shape resembling an onion with a tulip perched on top of it. This new monster looked very similar to the weaponnapper encountered by Brown and co earlier, though it was a whole lot taller and intimidating with three eyes bobbing up and down from its onion-shaped head. It quickly grabbed the leftover equipment, mostly rusted junk, from the room with its countless vines.

    "Okay, what sort of thing is this?!" shouted Shinasi upon witnessing this new monster form in front of his eyes. Their path to escape was quickly blocked by thick vines.

    Ayomide pointed her new gem towards the monster. "Nothing friendly, clearly." The monster slashed a sword towards them as if to confirm her statement. Ayomide dodged to the side while keeping the gem pointed towards the humanoid weaponnapper. Its eyes had caught the attention of the catgirl. After having had her eyes blasted with light, she wanted to take revenge from the dungeon and its inhabitants. Ayomide quickly invented a new name for the spell she had in mind, using the last of her energy to chant "Everyone, close your eyes! [Luminate Spear]!"

    The name of the attack sounded like it belonged to a badly-localized JRPG, but that was the norm for spell names in Gemeinplatz. Thankfully the quality of the spell name had no bearing on the spell itself, and the gem shot out a large beam of warm orange light directly towards the weaponnapper's three eyes. Unlike Brown and Shinasi who could understand human speech, the weaponnapper had not been able to shield its eyes in time for the attack. It thrashed around, completely blind, letting its blocking vines go in confusion.

    "Captain, what do we do?" Shinasi instinctively took a few steps back towards the exit with his shield pointing towards the weaponnapper.

    "You see, young man and young lady." Brown pointed his saber towards the monster. "Bravery and honor are important virtues for anyone to hold. Our Maker has sent us here to battle with various hardships in life, whether it be marital issues or giant monsters." Shinasi looked at the old man as if he was crazy. Was he really about to charge this thing down, with all of them being already tired from the fight with the giant death robot? "But, in life, there is also no shame in noticing the fact that there is a giant onion-tulip beast about to pulverize you. So, as I've thoroughly learned while fighting in Kansas," Brown took a few steps back "there is no dishonor in a tactical retreat!" Thus, old John Brown began running away along with everyone else. He was quite the sane man, and sanity dictated that one shouldn't fight a giant onion monster after having fought a giant death robot.

    Thankfully the corridor leading to the dungeon core was narrow enough that the weaponnapper couldn't follow them, save for a few vines doing their best to snatch someone up. Shinasi and Brown poked and prodded the vines while running, and Ayomide did her best to conserve all her remaining little energy to running. Eventually they were out once again into the great outdoors, where there was plenty of fresh air and none of giant death robots.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLIV – Visitors in the midst of a city.
  • Threadmarks


    • 27th of Summer, 5859
    Imperial Highway №04-765, Outskirts of the City of Casamonu

    ​


    John Brown was done with giant death robots, giant death onions, anything to do with large sizes. Unfortunately for old Brown, he was en route to a large city, the largest one in Casamonu and the namesake of the county in fact. Its presence could be felt even if the city was far away: the desire path was suddenly cut off by a paved road leading to the city. It was quite a wide one, made with stone bricks sourced from Mount Curry lined up as to allow up to two carriages to pass through simultaneously.

    There was a milestone next to the intersection of the desire path, declaring that this road was "Imperial Highway №04-765" in English and a few other languages that Brown nor anyone else in his party could read. The sides of this milestone contained the many names of the patrons of this highway, starting at the top with "the gracious Mayor Erkan of Kasatmonu, son of Erkan of Kasatmonu" two millenia ago, continuing after another millenium with "His Imperial Majesty Glory IV Earlyriser" and ending with "the ever-generous Sir Kim Seong-min of Hangvuk" a year ago. Brown could at least admire the civic spirit shown by a road having been kept alive for so long, though he'd appreciate it a bit more if this road was not maintained by slave labor.

    Ayomide appreciated the road a bit less. She, in a minor act of protest against the empire, turned over one of the loose bricks on the road and tossed it away into the woods. It was a joy to imagine some pompous nobleman's carriage being ruined by this missing stone, and joy was a thing that fugitives desperately lacked.

    Shinasi watched as the stone flew away deep into the woods. "I'd be careful with that." said the adventurer "This entire road is bona fide imperial property. What you did would get the same punishment as the one you'd get if you broke into his palace and chucked one of the vases out of the window."

    "Oh? Really?" This only served to goad Ayomide further. She spat spitefully in spite of Shinasi's warning, her spittle of spit landing on one of the stones. "And is this equivalent to spitting on his balding head?" She'd go further with defiling the road if not for John Brown angrily staring them down.

    Shinasi sighed. "I don't know why I warned you. It's not like they can hang you twice for being a fugitive and lese-majesty."

    "They can do that if I end up not dying like the old man." Shinasi and Ayomide couldn't help but laugh in the face of their grim situation. Humor was the only thing keeping them sane from the real threat of capture and death.

    "I do appreciate your enthusiasm in harming enemy infrastructure" said Brown, suddenly butting into the conversation "but we'll be doing that in an organized manner when the time comes, so please exercise patience" Brown had read about the Romans of old and how they had built extensive road networks that constituted the lifeline of the empire. Trade, armies, communication, all flow from roads and the Gemeinplatz Empire seemed to be aware of that fact evident by the magnificent road in front of old Brown. Seeing this road had already gotten his brain to work on plans to sabotage this road network for abolitionist gains. A couple of angry freemen who had extensive experience with pickaxes would be perfect for this job, not to mention arming a few of them to extort slave traders trying to use the road… The road of opportunity seemed to stretch as wide as the road in front of him, as if the Lord himself had paved this road network to grant these former slaves an opportunity. "Let us conduct our business in the city swiftly so that we may return to take care of other pressing issues in Libertycave." For now however, they were just sheep entering a den of wolves.

    "Aye aye captain." replied Shinasi, doing his best not to kick away a brick from the road. The dungeon had eaten into their time quite a bit, and they were around two away from Casamonu when the sun slowly began its gentle retreat. Shinasi had planned the trip to end in one day, so he hadn't told any of his party members to pack camping supplies. Thankfully, he had a contingency plan. "I think we're getting close."

    "Close?" Brown looked around him to make sure. "I don't see the city anywhere, young man."

    "I don't mean the city." He pointed to a structure just off the road. It was a monument of some sort, with a stone base and four rectangular pillars which had long been broken away. "We're an hour away from our resting point."

    "Resting point?" Ayomide didn't seem too comfortable with the idea. "I bet they don't even have proper accommodations for a darkskin."

    Shinasi smiled to reassure her. "Don't worry, I'm not talking about a roadside inn." Ayomide looked at him hoping for an answer, but she didn't receive one. "Be patient, you'll soon find out."

    Ayomide's patience was tasted for another whole hour as the party continued on the main road. The road was populated by the scant city guards on patrol and passersby as they got closer to Casamonu while the sun retreated even further. She was beginning to worry that they wouldn't reach this 'resting point' until Shinasi stopped his march and pointed to a small village off the side of the road. "Here we are."

    ​

    Like any other village in Northern Gemeinplatz, the houses of this village were built with wood, fueled with wood and supported with wood. Some villages further away from the city would also have palisades constructed with wood, but this one lacked any as patrols from Casamonu provided ample protection to villages near the highway. Still, the entrance of the village had a watchtower built just in case. The watchtower had a sign hanging from it revealing the name of the village to be "Yellowclover" with a crude image of a yellow clover next to the text. There were no yellow clovers, or any clovers, around the area which made one wonder how it had gotten the name in the first place. Instead of plants there were plenty of fields around the village, filled with lentils, wheat and potatoes which need no further description. The denizens of the village had all retreated into their houses by now after having done their daily work, which meant that the village itself looked quite abandoned at this hour.

    Shinasi lead his party to an inconspicuous house in the corner. It was small, almost falling apart and consisted of only one floor. He casually knocked on the door of the house, which was replied with sounds of someone rushing to open the door.


    "Coming!" the voice inside opened the door, revealing a girl quite younger than Shinasi. She was the perfect stereotype of a village girl in Gemeinplatz: a colorful headscarf adorned with felt cut to look like various flowers, a long linen dress embroidered with various geometrical shapes held by a silk sash that must have cost quite the fortune trailing down to the floor. Locks of hairs colored like chestnuts flowed down from her headscarf, almost blocking her eyes.

    She ignored the other visitors and focused on Shinasi. "Oh, brother!" They rushed to hug each other, Shinasi having to crouch to reach his sister.

    "How have you been faring, Shirin?"

    "Decently enough, we just returned from taking care of the fields. It's a bit hard without you around."

    "Eh, I'm sure a strong lady like you can take care of any field."

    A round of mostly pointless small talk occurred between the siblings before Shirin's attention was finally dragged back to the visitors standing outside the door.

    "Who are these people? An escort quest?" Her eyes bounced between Brown and Ayomide. Both of them looked out of place like a conga line of neon pink elephants on a space station. The village folk didn't frequently get to see an Awmereighkan and a catgirl stand side-to-side.

    "I guess you could call this an escort mission, yes." He stood aside to let Shirin see his comrades more clearly. "The old man is John Brown, and the catgirl is Ayomide. They'll be staying the night here."

    "They're guests then? Wait a sec." Shirin turned around and quickly entered a room to the back while shouting "Father! We have guests, and brother!"

    Shinasi entered his own house without hesitation while beckoning for his party to do the same. "Come in, make yourselves at home. This is my house after all." Brown and Ayomide followed him to the indoors, which was as plain as the outside of the house. The only thing decorating the room was a faint rug laid on the wooden floor and a low table standing in the middle of it. They sat on the rug while Shinasi stood up to follow his sister into the room, asking "Would you like some tea, captain and Ayomide?" before leaving. They both nodded, being as athirst as anyone could reasonably be after having walked for an entire day. Noises of copperware clanging together and rushed speech could be heard from the backroom, before Shirin returned with a boiling iron teapot (tea was so important as to indulge in buying an iron one) and four teacups on a tray. She set the table, pouring the tilia tea while nervously eyeing the strangers.

    The silence was broken by Shinasi barging into the room, shouting "Shinasi coming through!" while carrying an old man in his arms. He set the old man next to the wall, allowing him to lean towards the wall for support. He introduced this old man to his party as well "This is my father Shinasi." Confirming this statement was the fact that Shinasi Jr. looked like the spitting image of Shinasi Sr., the only difference being their age and garb. Compared to Shinasi's adventure-ready gambeson, Shinasi Sr.'s outfit consisted of a wool cap and shirt protected by a leather jacket.

    "Glad to meet you, good sir and…" Shinasi Sr. was unsure of how to refer to Ayomide, pausing while looking at the catgirl.

    "Lady." replied Ayomide, making her egality clear.

    "Excuse me, good lady. My son briefly introduced me to you while he was scrambling to get the tea ready." He shook hands with the Awmereighkan, saluting Ayomide afterwards by tipping his cap towards the catgirl. "Please excuse us for not being able to accommodate you as befitting a gentleman."

    Brown took a sip of the tea to clear his throat. It was quite plain, lacking sugar or milk. "I'm just a simple merchant making my way to Casamonu, Mister Shinasi. We should be the ones apologizing for making your household go through the trouble of accommodating guests on such a short notice." While talking, his attention was drawn to Shinasi Sr.'s legs. The senior Shinasi hadn't moved his legs at all since his son had set him on the floor.

    Shinasi Sr. seemed used to this type of attention, and he replied upon noticing Brown's gaze "Don't worry sir, I haven't been able to move them for a while now." He had to lean forwards to take hold of his own cup of tea. "Work-related accident from a long time ago, back when I was in Casamonu with my wife." He looked a bit far-away while reminiscing about his past. The old man seemed be the type who loves to talk about his life story to strangers without being prompted, though this was a common trait among older humans. "We were carrying a bunch of stuff off of a carriage, one that was stuffed to the brim. I try to tell the lord 'Oh dear sir, we should get a bunch more people to carry these', but does the idiot listen? Of course not, the entire thing came crashing down and crushed us to death." He didn't need to tell the rest of the story for one to understand what the result of this crushing was.

    Shirin yawned, and Shinasi was twiddling his thumbs while his dad was retelling the same story for the umpteenth time. Sure, hearing about how their mother died was tragic for the first few times, but the emotional impact of the story tended to fade with time especially when his father tended to tell the tale of his tragic backstory to each and every guest that happened to come by their humble abode. The entirety of Gemeinplatz had probably heard of the story of Shinasi Sr. by now, and it would be no surprise if a bard or two had composed songs about his tale by now.

    Having sufficiently retold his tale, Shinasi Sr. turned to his thumb-twiddling son. "I hope your journey was safe? All the merchants passing by have been telling us about how dangerous the roads are because of fugitives."

    It was surprising how quickly rumors of the 'roving bands of escaping slaves ambushing merchants' spread considering that the League of Gileadites had not engaged in any activities of that sort yet. Brown didn't find it too surprising however; he knew very well how rumors about escaped slaves tended to be exaggerated and fabricated by an anxious populace. He found this rising fear of a slave rebellion to be a healthy thing. Let them fear the oppressed rising up and overthrowing them, for their fears are not unfounded.

    Shinasi couldn't help but hesitate with lying to his own father. "Umm… There were no problems. The road was as clear as it usually is." He managed to keep his cool, doing his best not to seem suspicious.

    "Good, the patrols seem to be doing their job for once then." The room had eventually grown darker and darker while they were conversing as the sun finally disappeared from the sky. Crickets had come out to play, and their chirps could be heard. Lacking any form of cheap and convenient lighting, the rural folk of Gemeinplatz had no choice but to go to sleep at night. Shinasi Sr. tapped Shinasi Jr.'s shoulder to get his attention. "Son, get the bedding out for the guests. You don't plan on letting them sleep on the floor now, do you?"

    "Of course not." With the father's command, it was clear that it was time for the day to conclude. Everyone quickly sipped the remaining tea, and accommodations for Brown and Ayomide were set up on the entrance room. They were to rest on woolen futon-like bedding, which was much more comfortable compared to Libertycave's luxury straw accommodations.

    Thus the night would march on once more, eventually making way for day…
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLV – Walk before me faithfully and be blameless.
  • Threadmarks


    • 28th of Summer, 5859
    Yellowclover Village, Outskirts of the City of Casamonu    ​

    Having slept in caves, mud huts and the great outdoors, the simple wool bedding courtesy of Shinasi Sr. felt like the clouds of Heaven for everyone involved. Brown's back wasn't aching for the first time in three months, Ayomide didn't mutter a few curses while waking up and Shinasi… He hadn't managed to get sleep as he was too busy catching up with his family during the night. There wasn't much ado in a small village like this, most of the talk was either acquaintances getting married, dying from disease, or a new child being born. This standard fare provided a feeling of normality which had been lacking in Shinasi's life since he had joined an abolitionist group locked in the mountains. Of course, he didn't mention his new occupation to his family; Shinasi didn't want his father having a heart attack.

    Signaling the beginning of this new day was the cry of a rooster, a shriek cry from the neighbor's errant rooster who loved to cry before the sun even rose up. Brown, in his newly awaken state, thought that he should hire this rooster to help fix the sleep schedules of everyone in Libertycave. Brown slowly got up from his bed, which woke up the neighboring Ayomide as well. She reluctantly raised her head to see that the sun hadn't even properly shown its face. Regardless of her desire to go back to sleep, Brown had already woken up. The old man wouldn't let anyone not be "healthy, wealthy and wise" if he could help it, the problem being that his standards for earliness were far too strict for the people of Gemeinplatz.

    "Good morning, young lady. It is good to see that you have risen early."

    "Yeah, yeah..." Ayomide could barely see Brown with her half-closed eyes. "Yawn. Are we going already?" This bedding is too good to leave…

    "I hope you don't think of me as an idler." Brown graciously helped Ayomide by quickly lifting her sheet up. No option was left for Ayomide but to wake up now. The old man had won the battle for sleep once more, on two fronts. First, he had woken up Ayomide. Secondly, the commotion created by waking her up had caused Shinasi to wake up. He made his presence known by peeking through the door to the only other room in the house.

    "Old man…" Shinasi's hair was messy. Some may think that he had a case of bedhead, but his usual hairstyle looked indistinguishable from bedhead with spikes of hair extending in all four cardinal directions simultaneously. "…for the love of what you call hallow, the sun's barely up!"

    "The Devil does not sleep, young man." Brown had already worn his coat and knapsack. He was ready to march on. "Neither should we if we wish to keep up with his countless machinations."

    "Old man, I've seen a couple devils in the dungeons." Shinasi was getting ready to go out despite readying a comeback. "They do sleep." After getting his gear ready he splashed some water on to his face from a water basin. He shuddered as the water had gone cold during the night.

    "Jacob slept plenty as well. Neither was that living sack of rotting taters clever enough to make any machinations." Ayomide joined in washing her face, going further beyond by also cleaning grime off her hands with Brown-made slime soap. "I think you don't need to be concerned of devils."

    Brown didn't exactly want to mention the name of Satan any further, so he avoided evangelizing about this topic any further. The only bad thing about leaving early was that he was unable to say farewell to his hosts. He left a few bars of soap (that he had been carrying around in case of emergencies) on the table as a gift of gratitude.

    "Are you all ready to go?" Ayomide and Shinasi both nodded in response. "Then, may our Heavenly Father protect us, let us set off!"



    28th of Summer, 5859
    Casamonu, County of Casamonu    ​

    Casamonu. A grand and ancient city, established several millennia ago before the Empire of Gemeinplatz had ever been born. The city itself is surrounded by ruins of other Casamonus who have failed to survive the test of time not to mention the invisible ruins which have been buried under the earth long ago. No matter who has built or ruled it over the long years, one thing that has never changed about Casamonu is caravans filled with copper passing its gates to conduct business with craftsmen in the city. Such important gates require excellent protection, and excellent protection requires experienced guards.

    Unfortunately, experienced guards require money. Money that the county couldn't afford to spare for some men to stand around all day checking a gate.

    "So, what're you doing this weekend?" Billy (whose real name was Bilaleddin) was the quintessential guard recruit. A simple helmet, an even simpler sword, and the simplest wooden shield known to man were all that protected him. Like all his comrades he wore a bright yellow vest with the words "Casamonu Customs" written in several languages. All who joined the guard had to provide all this equipment themselves. The pay was mediocre but the job was easy enough that people did invest in equipment to join the gate guard.

    "This weekend? I take it that you haven't been here for long?" Bob (whose real name was Boron) was the quintessential guard veteran. A simple helmet, an even simpler sword, and the simplest wooden shield known to man were all that protected him just like his green comrade-in-arms standing next to him.

    "What do you mean?" As far as Billy knew they were supposed to have one day of vacation.

    "Don't you know the life expectancy of a guard here?"

    "No. How long is it?"

    "I'd reckon it to be about thirty seconds."

    Billy was shaken and stirred. "Thirty seconds? They didn't tell that to me when I signed up!" He looked at his measly armor and armaments. It was truly a sorry sight for poor Billy. He watched as the line waiting to go through the gate went forwards. Clad in full plate armor colored deep black, carrying an equally black zweihander, was an adventurer who terrified Billy. The black knight seemed to be the sort who'd cut him down then and there.

    "Papers please." The man in black obliged as he handed his papers over to Bob. A portly woman next to the black knight whose witch hat which seemed to reach for the heavens with its height did the same as well. Bob smiled at the black knight while handing the papers back. "Sorry for the delay honorable sir."

    Billy breathed a sigh of relief when the edgy knight left his sight. "Phew. I thought that my 30 seconds were up…"

    "Huh? You took my words seriously?" Bob's boisterous laugh echoed throughout the entirety of Casamonu. He patted the back of the recruit, trying to regain his breath. "I was just joking, boy. The job at the gate is the most secure job you can get as a guard in any city."

    "I-Is that so?"

    "Yes. There are no monsters near the city, you know. Some poor sods get assigned to the watchtowers in the outskirts where they get napped by the weaponnappers." Bob couldn't help but laugh again, there wasn't actually anything that funny about the situation but he was desperate for some fun having stood on the same spot for the last twenty years. "Count yourself lucky, boy. Most people that pass here are the respectable sort, like the Sir Black Knight you just saw enter."

    "Understood, sir."

    Bob had been simultaneously checking the papers of everyone while conversing. Thankfully there was no caravans passing by at that moment, which meant he didn't need to pause to check their goods. He was so good at his job that people would understand that they needed to hand papers the moment his gaze landed upon them. They'd also pay the appropriate toll without complaint, which was mostly thanks to Bob's bulky and intimidating build. Had there been LitRPG mechanics in Gemeinplatz, Bob would have definitely become a level 99 customs officer.

    Other than his ability to efficiently process papers, Bob had also gained another ability with his years of experience: the ability to efficiently sus people out. He claimed he could easily differentiate the ne'er-do-wells from the e'er-do-wells just from how they acted while approaching the gate. The veteran customs guard was always on guard, always vigilant while scanning every passerby.

    Bob was still keeping his guard when an unnoticeable party appeared before him. An armed young man with unkempt hair, a tall old gentleman with a magnificent beard and a stout catgirl with ginger hair. The old man exuded an aura confidence that Bob liked, the adventurer seemed to be just doing his job and the catgirl's eyes were travelling between them all in a nervous fashion. Confidence was good: criminals weren't exactly going to be at ease while showing forged documents. The only outlier was the slave, who Bob concluded must have newly fallen into her unfortunate situation considering she hadn't adapted. The second thing Bob liked was that the adventurer handed him his identification (a bronze badge containing personal information) without him having to ask.

    Bob quickly whizzed through the identification, one belonging to the Adventurer's Guild of Casamonu, as he had nothing to suspect about with the upstanding gentlemen who were standing in front of him. The guild would pay for the adventurer's toll, so he handed the badge without asking where his well-deserved toll was. Normally Bob would have to ask the old gentleman for identification as well, both for himself and what looked to be his slave, but he decided to not make the man pointlessly wait. He looked to be a good chap, a kind old man who had hired the young adventurer in front of him for protection… or so Bob made up a story for his guests as he tended to do.

    Bob waved his hand towards the gate. "You may pass, sir." He let the group pass, immediately forgetting about them when the next group needed to be checked. Having seen thousands of faces, they all tended to blend together after a while for a veteran customs guard like him.

    Like so Bob's and Billy's day marched on, without any trouble. They did their job perfectly, making sure that no one with malicious intent passed through the gates of Casamonu.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • CabbagePreacher said:
    "Papers please."
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    "Welcome to Arstotzka."

    CabbagePreacher said:
    Bob couldn't help but laugh again, there wasn't actually anything that funny about the situation but he was desperate for some fun having stood on the same spot for the last twenty years.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Depending on Bob's definition of "fun", he might be very lucky very soon.

    CabbagePreacher said:
    They did their job perfectly, making sure that no one with malicious intent passed through the gates of Casamonu.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well, they are not wrong... After all, how could "liberate all the slaves" be considered malicious?
     
    Chapter XLVI – March before me faithfully and be inconspicuous.
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    • ​

    "…that's why we went all the way around to the Southern gate?" Ayomide couldn't help but look upwards to the ceiling while passing through the gate. The stone gate and the two-stories-tall wall that surrounded it looked quite impressive to say the least. She could see more guards watch them through slits in the ceiling.

    ​

    "Yes, Bobby is famous for being lax. Anyone in the know makes sure to go through him." Shinasi looked back at Billy. "I was worried a bit when I saw his new assistant."

    Brown was walking alongside them, watching the walls in a similar fashion to Ayomide. He wasn't fascinated by the architecture however; old Brown was concerned with thinking about how he'd siege these down. A cannon could make short work of the walls. Brown thought of the copper mine in Mount Curry: with a bit of tin that copper could be turned into bronze and that bronze cast into a cannon. Then the issue came down to gunpowder, but the people of this world seemed to have already figured it out. It was likely that the natives of Gemeinplatz had already manufactured cannons as well. Perhaps Brown would need to be on the lookout for an engineer who knew how.

    ​

    His thoughts of smashing the chains of slavery with 64-pounds of solid iron vengeance were briefly interrupted when the city of Casamonu came into view. Compared to Azdavay it was a grand settlement, for the standards of Gemeinplatz anyways, housing more than ten thousand people inside its walls. For the first time Brown saw buildings that were taller than two floors, some adventurous architects having gone up to four floors.

    ​

    The crowds of people travelling between these building was equally grand as well, with Brown having to constantly say "Excuse me." while passing by passersby. The sun could barely manage to make its way amongst all the buildings. The tents and stalls of the countless shopkeepers were left in the cool shade which was a welcome change after having to travel all the way under the summer sun to Casamonu. All the colors that could be reasonably found on not-Earth were on display to tempt customers into parting ways with their precious money.

    Brown approached on of these shops to take a look at the textiles, only to be rudely interrupted by Shinasi tapping his shoulders. "What is it, young man?"

    "Old man, the customs guards would rob us blind if you tried to get these out of the city in their view." There was a building in sight that had a sign with a bundle of cloth and a thin bottle drawn on it. "See that building? That's the United Guild of Textile Manufacturers & Winemakers. They don't like it when you try to export their stuff without permission. I've had my fair share of problems with them." One didn't need to guess what Shinasi had difficulties exporting out of the city.

    Brown looked quite displeased. "Why didn't you tell me this sooner, young man?" The economy of Gemeinplatz seemed way too protectionist for a man who came from the United States of America.

    "Oh, don't you worry." Shinasi looked quite relaxed compared to Brown. "A good adventurer has his ways. Follow me." He led his party out of the crowded market square. Shinasi marched a fair way inside the city before he slipped inside a deserted backstreet which the sun had forsaken. Brown and co had to march in single file formation, the street being as small as a slave's quarters. Shinasi went down a small set of stairs going down from the road, where an inconspicuous door lay. He knocked on it a few times, leaning toward the door and shouting out "Oh the grand city of Ancoire, whine not! Your day hath come".

    The backstreet looked like it'd have no living souls in it, but to the surprise of Brown there was a reply that echoed from the other side of the door. "Shall we make amends for when the day comes?"

    "You needn't make any amends for thine sins hath already been forgiven by the One above."

    With Shinasi's enigmatic reply the door opened an equally enigmatic figure who immediately shut the door, leaving only a small slit for their voice to be heard. "Didn't I tell you not to bring friends?!"

    "Come on Ayda, they're going to be your clients." Shinasi tried to ply the door open with his spear to no avail. "Is this how you treat an old friend bringing you customers?"

    "Customers?" The door slipped open a tiny little bit. "You aren't tricking me, are you? Because the last time you came in with a bunch of 'customers', and all you did with them was party around and trash the place."

    "Young man, that is not okay."

    "You can berate me later, old man! Ahem, no, these are actual customers." Shinasi's spear suddenly slipped from his hand when the door suddenly opened. He'd have actually hit the woman behind the door if not for the woman grabbing hold of the spear with her bare hands.

    "Be careful." Ayda pushed the spear away, almost knocking down Shinasi in the process. "You should use a crowbar if you want to ply open doors. The penalty for murder is much greater than that of thievery, so try not to kill people." She was quite the tall woman, standing at equal height to John Brown. Her arms had enough muscle to repel a dozen spears if need be, making her stand out as an intimidating figure. The woman's pure black hair, in a spiky and messed up fashion all to similar to Shinasi's, flowed down to meet her pure black eyepatch, her only functioning eye scanning the old man and the catgirl. "Good. You were going to leave with a few broken bones if you came here to party with your friends again."

    John Brown (currently travelling under the pseudonym of Isaac Smith) and Ayomide briefly introduced themselves to the woman. She didn't care to introduce herself, only going inside into her shop. Shinasi followed her inside, so did the others after him. The room inside was a dimly lit one with only a small window to the outside letting light in. It was filled with boxes and barrels of various shapes and sizes, all of them having labels (illegible to everyone in the group) of some sort on them. The walls of the room were cluttered with empty bookshelves of unknown purpose. "All of you, turn around." Only Shinasi turned around with the first command. "Turn around I say!" The rest of the group followed with the second. They all heard shuffling sounds, before a sudden audible click.

    "Feel free to stop looking at the wall now." Upon her command Brown and Ayomide turned back, unable to contain their curiosity. To their surprise they found that a spot in the floor had opened up, one that lead downwards to an even danker basement. "Follow me." The only calm person in the group was Shinasi, who seemed to have done this a million times before, the others were looking around anxiously while they followed the woman into the dark basement. Another bout of shuffling began before an oil lamp attached to the ceiling lit up. There was no visible source for the fire except for a small blaze on the tip of Ayda's hands.

    The room was quite small as expected from the basement of such a cramped building. Half f it was occupied by a desk in the middle which had writing implements and tacks of papers on it full of text. The wooden walls had countless maps attached to it, all of them full of markings pointing to various locations. It was as shady as basements could get.

    Ayda put the oil lamp on the desk, slowly and carefully to make sure it doesn't go out. She sat on an armchair which stood out as the most expensive thing on the room. The woman made herself comfortable, leaning back and firmly planting her shoes on the desk.

    "So, what's your deal then?"
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLVII – Speak before her carefully and be inconspicuous.
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    • ​

    Brown wasn't a stranger to conducting shady business; the Beecher's Bibles didn't ship themselves. The laws of men, like tariffs, were below the laws of the Lord, like abolition. Judging from all the maps in the room, and what had prompted Shinasi to bring him here, Brown had a guess as to what this place might be. "Is this something like a smuggler's den?"

    "No, we're a charity taking care of stray kittens. We sometimes invite Shinasi to hold fundraiser parties." answered the woman. This obviously sarcastic remark, delivered in such a dry manner that sucked all the humor out of it, prompted yet another moment of awkward silence. The woman took her shoes off the table and leaned in to have a closer look at her clients. "Of course this is a smuggling den! Why are you people here if you don't even know that? Bloody hell…" She took hold of a quill and a clean sheet of paper to write on while adding on more complaints under her breath. "So, what do you need? We've got it all as long as you have the coin, especially booze. A new shipment just came in from Ancoire, and we're having a flash sale." Ayda had quickly calmed down and assumed the demeanor of a good businesswoman.

    Shinasi was about to inquire about the booze, but Brown quickly interrupted him before he could throw away their money. "We're looking not for luxury, but for basic items. Wool, cloth, any good textiles you might have."

    The woman began quickly jotted down some words on to her paper. "I see, been a while since we've had merchants coming around to visit us." she said, not bothering to look up from the paper. The purpose of Brown's request, or anything else didn't interest her at all, the only thing that interested Ayda was one thing. "She extended her hand forward, with an open palm. "How much are we talking about?" Her hands were met with a great weight, the weight belonging to a sizable sack of coins. "Oh?" Ayda quickly opened the sack, the light reflecting off of the coins lighting her face. The businesswoman counted all the coins in a brisk pace, every libra lightening up her face. She bit on a few of them, put some on a scale, and even threw the coins on the table to listen them jingle and confirm that they were real. "Mister Brown, I think I'm beginning to like you." Her respect for him had grown as large as the sack of money. She added a few numbers next to the items she had previously noted. "It'll take a day… or two to fulfill your request." She took out a small slip of paper, and wrote down a few things on it before handing it to Brown. "Do not lose this or let any filthy guards get their hands on this. I won't be getting in trouble if that happens, but you will." She extended her hand towards Brown, intending to seal the deal officially. "My agents will find you when the time is right. Do not leave Casamonu under any circumstances."

    Brown accepted Ayda's offer of shaking hands. Her grip was tight, and the old man could hear his bones protest during their brief shake. He definitely disapproved of her uncouth tongue, and her general unchristian behavior, but Brown held his tongue for now. "I pray that our relationship proves to be fruitful Miss Ayda."

    Ayda smiled, her one eye on the money which had been left on her counter. "I feel that it has been more than fruitful already." She opened the hatch back to the ground floor and put out the oil lamp. "Farewell now, it is better for us to not stay here for too long." She led them out the room, and graciously opened the door out herself only to find another guest outside. "Oh?" It was someone wearing full plate armor, conspicuously painted full black. "Mister Kim, what a pleasure it is to see you once more."

    "My name is not that! You're to call me Sir Schwarz von Limburg-Liechtenstein when I'm armored." He tried to pass the door, but was blocked by Brown and co. Both parties shuffled around for a few seconds before they were able to find a suitable arrangement and pass by each other.

    Shinasi looked back at the building with jealousy. "That guy must be rich with all that armor." He'd have loved to be armored like an armadillo, alas, all he had was a shield which was the bare minimum for a tank.

    "Eh, all you have to do is push him into a river. Or a swamp. Or use light magic right in his helmet so he goes blind, falls, and is unable to get up…" Ayomide listed a few more ways to brutally kill of an armored tank, which it didn't please Shinasi to have so much vitriol thrown towards his class. "Heavier the armor, quicker the fall I'd say."

    Brown was leading them to back to the square, where he planned to fight accommodations for the night before planning anything further. "Hmm… I believe that could make quite the good analogy." Brown loved a good analogy, especially if it was biblical. He marched onwards, his mind occupied with allegories and aphorisms.



    28th of Summer, 5859
    Libertycave, Mount Curry    ​

    The Devil doesn't sleep, neither does Harriet Tubman in her quest to avert his machinations.

    Brown going on a quest didn't mean that the entirety of Libertycave had stopped working, on the contrary they were working harder than before thanks to their improved quality of life. Everyone had a mud hut for themselves, the ransomed tools certainly helped and Baha's copperworkers invented novel solutions for anything that was missing. Like their newly made copper bowls, affectionately nicknamed the "Mark 1 bowl" or "M1", which doubled as helmets when turned upside down. Or the new "spoonforknife", which was a spoon, fork and a knife all-in-one utensil which eliminated the need to forge separate cutlery. It was a stubby little device, with a bowl (like a spoon), tines on aforementioned bowl (like a fork) and a sharp edge on the sides (like a knife). What'd be made impossible by byzantine system of guild-imposed regulations or the whip of an overseer had become possible under the free and fresh air of Mount Curry.

    All that progress would be for naught however, if they weren't marching on in a forward fashion in their quest for abolition. Compared to the more fire-and-brimstone Brown, Tubman was more the type to be more cautious and take things slowly. Not out of any lack of zealousness, she had more than enough of that and she approved of Brown's actions, but more out of a desire to not be shot dead by the U.S. Marines while leading people to safety. A dead Tubman was a sleeping Tubman, and who's to keep the Devil in check then?

    Kyauta entered Tubman's "office", currently a small hut right outside the cave of Libertycave. "Miss Tubman, our team just returned from the farms to the north. Most of those seem to be populated by the peasantry." Unlike what one might expect from an office, there was no paper or ink to be found, only a copy of the map Brown had found in the Algernon estate. Tubman was illiterate, so was the rest of her men, not that she needed letters to do her job. What was she going to do, send a strongly worded letter to the Emperor and ask him kindly to stop enslaving her people?

    "Nothing interesting." She crossed off some of the locations to the north on the map with a piece of charcoal. "Those slavers seem to be mostly working sugar beets and tobacco." It made sense for the slaves to be working cash crops. Less cash (or no cash) paid to workers meant more cash for the boss, the only caveat being that this meant there'd be abolitionists in the local area dying to meet you. What's worse was, no matter how hot they were, hot singles in your local area couldn't burn down your house; abolitionists in your local area could and would.

    "Then, should we go about like we did in Azdavay?" Kyauta seemed more than ready for action. Her knife was always strapped to her belt, and she never took off the gambeson. The Lord liked those who were vigilant, or so she had heard from Tubman.

    "No, no. It's not time yet for another full-on uprising Miss Kyauta. Let our oppressors think that they're safe." She rose up from her chair, her old bones creaking under the pressure. She took her staff, one that was mainly used as a cane and an oratory tool. "I hear the voice of the Lord last night, in all His endless glory."

    "What'd that be, Miss Tubman?" Kyauta approached closer to the old abolitionist to hear her more clearly. Her visions hadn't failed them back in Azdavay, or when Tubman first found Kyauta, so her trust was utmost.

    "He told me that we should not grow compliant, that our achievements are great but we are growing too proud." She looked out from the hut, to the small village that had been formed. Everything looked fine, for now. "That we were but a small flock, a flock remaining still while wolves circle in around us. Idleness, sloth, it is a great sin, and the Lord won't have it!" She slammed the ground with her cane fiercely. It was surprising how much life the old woman had in her. "The Lord told me, that we must make His flock larger and our grazing grounds wider!"

    "Erm…" Kyauta wasn't sure what to think. She honestly hoped that God, in His infinite wisdom, would be less cryptic especially to someone who didn't know a lot about shepherds. She had been the personal bodyguard of a noble way back home before she was captured and sold into slavery, and her life had involved combat even after that. Pastoral life was as much of a stranger to Kyauta as freedom was.

    Tubman seemed raring to go; it was as if she had suddenly gotten thirty years younger. Her staff shook the earth with her every step, signaling to the world that Harriet Tubman was arriving in all her glory. "Come, let us go. We must do the work that our Lord has given us."
     
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    • CabbagePreacher said:
    "Mister Kim, what a pleasure it is to see you once more."

    "My name is not that! You're to call me Sir Schwarz von Limburg-Liechtenstein when I'm armored."
    Click to expand...
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    Hmm, I know there can be more than one person with the same name even in a fantasy world but...

    Could this Kim be that Kim from before?
    CabbagePreacher said:
    Kim Seong-Min was taking a walk in the bustling streets of Casamonu along with his little sister, Kim Do-Yun (and his secretary, Mr. Nirmal). Flanking him were five bodyguards, all armed with the M1 Garand and an equally deadly sense of fashion.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Edit - By the way, I nominated this story for Best Original in this year's User Choice Awards. Just saying! If someone else wants to give it a try... You can nominate up to five stories in the same category.
     
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    Chapter XLVIII – Be frisked here carefully and act innocent.
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    • 28-29th of Summer, 5859
    Adventurer's Guild of Casamonu, Casamonu     (where else would it be?)​

    Up on the second floor of the adventurer's guild building, Brown and co. had lodged themselves firmly in the cheapest straw bedding imaginable to man. The "Adventurer's Guild" wasn't an all-encompassing international institution like it is in other otherworlds, instead being independent organizations regulating (or throttling) business like any other guild. This meant that quality varied greatly between Adventurer Guild to Adventurer Guild, and one even had to pay for multiple membership fees at once if they thought about working in different cities like Shinasi had done for Azdavay and Casamonu. One could only wonder what Adam Smith would end up writing if he was isekai'd into Gemeinplatz.

    Straw, as one might be able to guess, was not the most comfortable of all beddings. It makes you scratch, it makes you itch, and you have to be careful not to wake up with a piece of straw making its way deep into your precious nose. Every move you make makes the countless pieces crunch and rustle, making for unbearable noise when you have twenty people lined up in the same cramped room. Not to mention the smell of twenty unwashed adventurers… Even worse, this was accommodation for freemen. Most adventurers fortunate enough to own a slave of course didn't want to pay for the slave's bedding, and the straw in the guild's stables was free to rest on for members. The stables added a lovely layer of "horse dung" on top of things which definitely didn't help improve the experience for most.

    Thankfully, for Ayomide, her being a slave was just for disguising purposes. Brown had been met with a few protesting voices when he had brought a darkskin to the "first-class" section of the guild, but they died down when Shinasi made some excuse about "Sir Smith" needing to attend an important meeting soon and not wanting his slave to smell alongside him. Still, Ayomide could swear a couple of the adventurers deliberately disposed of their unneeded trash items right next to her. Gritting her teeth, she exercised patience and sufficed by dreaming about beating a bunch of them to a bloody pulp while taking no prisoners; actually taking no shit and beating everyone who threw an insult your way was a luxury reserved those who were privileged enough to not be lynched for it.

    The night marched on and then off, all visitors in the guest room having a fun time turning and tumbling around the straw. No matter how much he tried, Brown couldn't find a position which wouldn't result in his back aching as if the Devil had come to personally torture him. Him waking up was as torturous as well, before the sun had barely risen the guild's guest room had surprise visitors who woke everyone up. A trio of people ran up to the stairs, causing quite a ruckus before entering the room itself. "This way, the adventurers rest here." They were led by a nervous guild receptionist with a clipboard on his hand. He was flanked by two guards with the distinct bright yellow of the count's customs officers.

    Before any of the adventurers could wake up and react, the receptionist began reading names from his clipboard. "Dikla the Tall of Azdavay, Ermen of Gödel, Miray of Karash…" She pointed at the owners of these names as they were read. The guards approached anyone pointed towards, quickly shaking them down while clearly searching for something. "…Parvin the Shrewd of Subash, Shinasi of Azdavay son of Shinasi of Azdavay…" Shinasi's pockets were quickly patted down as well, the guards finding nothing but spare change. After all the adventurers were counted for, ignoring the non-adventurer guests like Brown and Ayomide, the guards conducted a shakedown of the room by searching for whatever in the haystacks. Clearly dissatisfied by not finding anything, they left the room as eagerly as they had entered it. Some of the adventurer's reluctantly stood up from their beds, while some tried to go back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

    "…Alright, what was that?" asked Shinasi while quickly pocketing his spare change which had been dropped onto the floor. Most annoyingly, two small coins from his pocket seemed to have gone missing in the hay. Seeing that he received no answers from the audience, Shinasi targeted someone amongst the audience who seemed sort of familiar. "Dikla? You're… my eldest cousin's second husband's younger brother, if I remember correctly." The brain of an average villager was usually filled to the brim with very distant relatives they saw everyday but barely cared about except for when they needed a favor. "Could you mind enlightening me?"

    "Ah! We do know each other, don't we! I sort of thought you were familiar, what a coincidence!" Dikla added a couple words which were cliché in a meeting between people who were barely related to each other. He searched the floorboards of the room, taking out a loose plank and lifting it up. Lo and behold, he had a very familiar sort of small paper. "I think you know what it is, I'm sure you couldn't afford your famous winesoppery without some help." He cooled himself down by flapping the paper like a fan. "Of course, I do something more productive by running a side hustle instead."

    "Yes, I think every adventurer worth their salts knows what's up with that. I was wishing to be enlightened on the sudden visit by the yellow-vests." I guess he just wanted to brag about his side hustle… Shinasi remembered why he didn't like talking with far off relatives. He was essentially a stranger to his eldest cousin's second husband's younger brother, yet there was also a certain level of intimacy expected from talking with a blood relative which made conversation feel forced and awkward.

    "Oh, the yellow-vests?" Dikla furrowed his brows at the thought of those pesky guards trying to stop his grind. "Someone must have croaked to them. Like, bloody hell, it's supposed to be an open secret between adventurers, not a secret open to everyone!" The man looked even more annoyed at the thought. "Can't a guy just do some small-time trading on his way to adventure, running fabric between cities without a bunch of 'stand-up' gits trying to ruin his job?!" He would have loved to kvetch further if not for a sleepy adventurer in the room shouting at him to shut up. Dikla had to lower his voice much to his own annoyance. "Just be careful out there. You never know when the yellow-vests come knocking."

    "We'll be careful." Shinasi jumped back into the hay, he still had some sleep to do. He turned to the old man while on the "bed". "Old man, make sure to hide the paper somewhere safe."

    "Don't worry young man, an old man of action like me has his tricks." Brown inserted his hand to his magnificent beard, soon taking out the small slip which had been rolled up to fit. "I don't think anyone is going to inspect an old man's beard." He put the slip back in, and laid his head on the hay once more. Even John Brown wasn't going to wake up this early, God forbid.



    29th of Summer, 5859
    A tobacco plantation     (name as-of-yet unknown), Outskirts of Casamonu​

    The morning sun was slowly rising over Casamonu, slowly bringing light to its flatlands. The rolling green hills with Mount Curry looking over them in the distance, the green grass swaying under the wind and the cool breeze… It was quite the comfortable environment, the perfect one for a picnic, or a scouting mission.

    Kyauta was sat on a hill overlooking a nearby plantation. The novice abolitionist was scanning the area through her hands which she had bent to a shape resembling binoculars. She could see fields of green tobacco plants along with newly harvested leaves being dried under the sun. "Miss Tubman." she said, noticing what they had been looking for. "The overseers are coming out to play. You reckon we'll…"

    "Have time to skedaddle?" Tubman rose up from her seated position. Her old legs had been tired during her round of overlooking. "They should have come out a few hours ago if they didn't want to give us time to skedaddle. We'll have time to reach Gilead and cook a nice dinner while they're still having sweet dreams." She took a look towards the plantation herself. "What'd you think's the best food for the new arrivals? I think that Mister Hakim would love to bake some cake with the new batch of pearl ash he cooked up." Tubman picked up her axe she had left lodged in the ground, an axe brought along just in case of abolitionist emergencies. "Let's go. We'll go in tonight."

    "To-Tonight?!" Kyauta stopped looking at the plantation to look at Tubman. "Don't we need to… I don't know, prepare?" She didn't know what exactly they needed to prepare, but Kyauta had reservations about risking her life once more.

    Tubman was already making her way towards a spot she intended to camp on. "Every day that we prepare means more suffering for our brothers and sisters." She swung her axe around as if it was a whip. "You see? With the Lord above watching and guiding us, we should be more than ready."
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter XLIX – Walk before them faithfully and be hidden.
  • Threadmarks


    • 29th of Summer, 5859
    Adventurer's Guild of Casamonu, Casamonu    ​

    "Mmh… Is it morning or not?" Morning had come, and the sun wasn't shining on anyone's faces. Not out of any weather-related or supernatural reasons, but out of the fact that the adventurer's guild in Casamonu had bricked up its windows. Glass was expensive, and a "window tax" had been implemented pretty recently by the count making having needless windows a bother for businesses. The upper classes would just pay the count off to continue having their precious windows, while the rural nobility was unaffected by the petty taxation concerns of the pesky city folk. Ayomide knew none of that, all she could do was try her best to understand how much she had slept by gauging how sleepy she felt at the moment.

    Shinasi slowly rose up as well. He had woken up upon hearing Ayomide. "Who knows when they've removed the windows? Only one way to find out." He got up on his own two feet and waited for Ayomide to do the same. "It seems the old man has already bailed."

    "Oh? Oh." Ayomide looked around her to find that, indeed, there was no other radical abolitionists in her local area. "I did find it weird that no one woke me up. He's probably gone out to take a walk or something."

    "You're probably right." Shinasi checked his pockets, finding a very dry piece of hardtack courtesy of Hakim. "Let's just eat something downstairs. Maybe we'll find him there."

    The pair went down the stairs, entering the wide hall of the Adventurer's Guild of Casamonu. Unlike the disappointing guest room upstairs, the big city had a decent enough dining hall and reception area. The tables had been newly cleaned, a job that took a long time thanks to adventurers drinking away every night and leaving a mess behind them. There were windows on the ground floor, which meant that the precious morning sun could actually be seen newly rising up. The dining part was mostly abandoned this early in the morning, except for…

    "…that's why me like America, you know? You buy tank and ride legally; it is okay to do!" The black knight from gushing about the United States in broken English to a certain someone.

    "…how do you 'ride a tank' young man? Tanks are meant to contain liquid, not passengers as far as I am aware." John Brown was the target of this gushing, and it seemed that he wasn't really managing it well.

    "I was wondering how you could drive a tank as well." said a woman wearing a very tall witch's hat, so tall that one couldn't forget it even if they saw it once.

    "A tank…" The black knight went silent for a second. One couldn't see whether he was thinking or not thanks to the helmet covering his face. "It's like a golem on wheels. You ride it and go to battle."

    "Ah, I see." The witch nodded, clearly satisfied by the answer.

    "A golem… on wheels? Wouldn't a golem have legs to move around?" All Brown vaguely knew of golems were that they were beings from Jewish folklore, humanoid creatures made out of mud or clay who followed orders without question. He was confused as to how or why someone would ride such a thing to battle.

    "No, some of them don't have legs. Most don't actually, golems with legs are hard to balance." replied the witch. "Wheels are much common in the ancient golems I've seen. Fierce things those are, you can barely pierce through their steel armor. Thankfully they're also really dumb."

    "Dumb hunks of steel on wheels…" Brown had a eureka moment, remembering their surprise encounter in the supposedly 'minor' dungeon. "Do those steel ones appear in minor dungeons?"

    "Of course not! There wouldn't be anyone left alive in the guild if that was the case." replied the witch. "If an old man like you sees one, the best thing you can do is run away and call us for help."

    The dark knight patted his precious zweihander which he had leaned against the wall. "Yes, we can take care of them. For a price, of course." He was smiling at the end, though no one could see from the giant hunk of steel covering his head.

    "Yes, this tin can can open all other tin cans, can't he?" She gently nknocked on the knight's helmet, which caused him to feel as if his head was being pecked by a dozen woodpeckers.

    "Tangerina! Didn't I tell you not to do that?!" The black knight's gaze moved towards an anachronously designed clock on the wall. "Come on, it's time we go." He got up, and extended his hands towards John Brown while speaking in English. "I am glad meeting American who isn't loser."

    Brown was taken aback by how direct the man sounded, but he shook his hands out of formality nonetheless. "Have a nice day." He intended to go back to staring out the window, contemplating the nature of God and existence and whatnot, until he noticed his party members watching him from afar. "Oh, good morning young lady and young man. I see you two are early."

    "Good morning old man, I see you've found a new conversation partner." replied Shinasi, taking a seat in front of Brown. He took out his hardtack and began eating it for breakfast.

    "No, they found me." He began taking a look out the window, unable to resist Casamonu's otherworldly sights. "The gentleman in black armor suddenly asked if I was American. I said yes, and he suddenly started gushing about it." Brown looked bored and tired from the conversation he had. Not understanding half of anything that was said made it hard to derive any entertainment. "I do wonder how the 21st century is…" He wasn't sure whether things had gone better or worse as far as what he knew from the rumors.

    "We're in the 59th century, old man. I think you're wondering about the wrong time." He took a bite out of his hardtack, joining Brown in navel-gazing. "I do wonder how I'm going to be by the time the 60th century arrives."

    "You're gonna be the old man by then." replied Ayomide. Truth be told, she hadn't gotten enough time to think of the future, not to mention not having had a future to think of to begin with. Would she, or, would they be still alive by then? Unlike Brown, she was young, young enough to have a timespan of a couple decades to think about in terms of a future.

    They all sat silently, unsure of what to do next. There wasn't much for them to engage in while waiting for the okay signal to come from the smugglers. Brown tapped his fingers on the desk, Shinasi whistled a tune, and Ayomide stomped her foot…

    "Ayomide!" shouted Shinasi suddenly.

    "Wha?!" The catgirl jumped back from the sudden noise; Brown was too deep into religious contemplation to notice the noise. She looked around her, not seeing anything urgent that warranted Shinasi's sudden exclamation. "What's the sudden shout for?!"

    Shinasi's stopped, having lost a bit of courage after Ayomide's reaction. Still, he had just slaid a golem, and the young adventurer was filled with enough courage to continue after a pause. "Wo-Would you like to go out and eat something together while we wait?!"

    "Yes! Why are you shouting?!"

    "Why are we shouting?!" Shinasi coughed after having strained his vocal cords so much. They had both gotten a bit nervous to say the least, and Brown was looking at them with confused eyes after having missed the first part of their conversation / shouting match.



    29th of Summer, 5859
    Rogers' Plantation, Outskirts of Casamonu    ​

    Night had fallen upon Gemeinplatz once more, and the grueling work of harvesting and processing tobacco was done for the day. Most slaves sleeping in the slave quarters loved the night as it forced their masters to give them a break; no sane person could expect work during nighttime barring expensive lighting options. This was true for the slaves living in the plantation of one Sir Rogers, who were on the only true break from work they got for the entire day. Yesterday was work, today was even more work, and tomorrow would be a whole lot more work until they inevitably perished.

    One slave amongst the countless was slowly dragging his feet back to the quarters, intending to be the last one to go in. The quarters indoors were cramped and stunk like how one would expect a cramped room filled with twenty people to stink. He'd go back as slowly as possible to take in the fresh air before an overseer would rush him along.

    Fresh and free air, there was plenty of it to be had outside the plantation. It wouldn't actually be that hard to escape outside the plantation, especially at nighttime. He thought of doing it countless times, but just escaping outside didn't mean you were free. There was a hostile world out there, most escapees would be found and sent back in a week or two if they were lucky, and the punishments for fugitives were the type to be not spoken of openly. Reaching Zon'guldac was a dream held by everyone, but only the naïve tried to realize their dream only to end up dead in a wild ditch or hunted down by adventurers. He again thought of bashing a careless overseer, the only one in his sight, and making a run for it. Thought was the only thing one could give to such a thing. He turned back, making his way back to the slave quarters as to not be punished.

    "Hey brother, got a light?" He turned around at the sudden female voice behind him. It was a woman clad fully in black, and the overseer from before was nowhere to be seen.

    "N-No…" He paused, unsure whether to comply with this stranger. "But the kitchen should help you if you're looking for light." There was no harm in helping the woman whatever she was doing.

    "Good. Go back to your quarters and inform your brothers and sisters to be ready. You probably won't need this, but…" She took out a small spear from under her cloak and handed it to him "Hold off any unexpected visitors."

    "Huh, wha-" The woman quickly leaped back into the shadows before he could question anything. "There she goes…"

    He was grateful for having paused to take a whiff of fresh air.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter L – Escape from there quickly and be free.
  • Threadmarks


    • 29th of Summer, 5859
    Casamonu, Casamonu (Casamonu)    ​

    It was approaching night, and Shinasi had one huge wrench stuck into the works of his plan to go on a dinner date with Ayomide:

    "No sir, we don't allow darkskins here."

    "No slaves."

    "Get yourself and your dirty, stinky dark whore out of here!"

    Reactions were mixed to say the least, but most places didn't deign themselves to accept Ayomide. Not taking in potential customers was bad for business, sure, but taking in a catgirl? That'd probably drive away a whole lot more customers, and nobody wants to drive away customers. Shinasi and Ayomide circled around Casamonu once more, but they got the same response.

    "I should've just stayed in the guild and not made us go through all that trouble…" grumbled Shinasi, finding himself a clean-enough spot next to the pavement. Walking around so much had tired them, especially when they hadn't gotten to eat anything. "I'm so sorry."

    Ayomide sat on a spot next to him, watching the pedestrians pass by. Most of them took a look at her of course, catgirls weren't that common, but that gaze of curiosity quickly turned to disgust when onlookers realized the dark shade of her skin. There were also the occasional gazes of lust, those felt even worse to be subject to. She couldn't comfortably rest here. Ayomide quickly got back up. "Let's just go back to the old man." The young adventurer followed after her, beginning their way back to the adventurer's guild building. He looked around him, seeing the passing crowd. The catgirl would most likely by dead if they didn't think she was with him; harming private property was no go. The only thing keeping her alive was the threat of being fined by the state, which wasn't the most pleasant of thoughts.

    Brown was a naïve idiot, Ayomide thought, for considering the people of Gemeinplatz worthy of some sort of salvation. People in this city, people in all of Gemeinplatz, they were part of a crime worthy of summary execution according to her. That guy over there who just spat in front of her, the other one who had almost grabbed her behind, the lady just now who deliberately almost tripped her… All of them, damn all of them to an early grave! Ayomide had delved so deep into her thoughts that she hadn't processed the fact that she and Shinasi had stopped in front of a stall.

    "Here you go." said Shinasi, handing over a freshly baked loaf of bread filled with molten cheese. "It isn't the sort of fine dining I'd normally treat a fine lady to, but we'll have to make do."

    Ayomide stared at the piece of bread in her hand, then back at Shinasi. "Do you normally get to treat any ladies?"

    "Oh, erm…" Shinasi took a bite out of his own loaf, chewing slow as he can to buy some time. Eventually he had to give an answer "I had a childhood friend from the village who I attempted to court when I was much younger, she… She rejected me by coating me in a bucketful of cow dung." He took another bite to drown out the memory. "Then there was my adventuring companion, Shakira, who flat out rejected me with the flat side of her giant sword." He took one more bite. "And there was Ayda, who called me a 'shield-bearing shrimp… Ahem." Shinasi paused after having recounted his vibrant love life. He needed to urgently redirect the conversation somewhere else. "Come on, it's good, eat up."

    Ayomide objected not to taking a bite, she was pretty hungry after all. She spoke while still chewing her food, an action shunned by polite society. "Mm… Consider yourself lucky to be rejected all those times, 'cause you got me in the end."

    "Wait, wait!" Shinasi coughed a few times, almost having choked on his food. "That implies you aren't rejecting me."

    Ayomide couldn't help but laugh in response to the man's statement. "What, you think I was here just to get free food? That was one of the reasons to be honest, I'll never say no to free food. It's not the primary reason however, I'd have taken a walk with you free food or not. I'm… happy to have spent the time with you, even if this time was just emptily wandering the streets."

    Shinasi looked around him, seeing that they had managed to walk into a more deserted area of the city. Good, no one to judge me if I do it right now. He opened his arms, frozen in place like a scarecrow planted on a field.

    "Uhm…" Ayomide looked at Shinasi's ridiculous posture, wondering what the man was trying to do. "Err… Are you expecting something?"

    Shinasi nodded, but this didn't help Ayomide understand anything at all. He finally gave in, gathering his courage to break the silence. "I- I kind of hoped to embrace you, but I kind of lost the courage halfway through…" His arm was beginning to shake, both out of nervousness and out of being tired from his scarecrow posture. "…this is basically the furthest I've ever gotten…" …with someone who I didn't have to pay the nunnery for, he finished silently.

    "Oh? I thought you were going insane or something." She opened her own arms as well, slowly approaching him. "Just beware that I've never done this before."

    I'm pretty sure no one needs any experience to hug someo- "Puah! Ah, Ayo- Ayomideaargh! Be a bit gentler! Please!" He flailed around for his life before Ayomide released him. "Phew, I'm alive…"

    "Huh? Aren't you supposed to embrace people tightly?"

    "Tightly, yes, but not enough to kill them! Like this." Shinasi wrapped his arms around Ayomide gently.

    "Ooh, I get it now! I always wondered how people could stay calm when being embraced." Ayomide wrapped her arms in response, causing Shinasi to preemptively wince in pain. Thankfully, her embrace was a whole lot gentler this time.

    This pair deemed to be unholy by the Temple and society at large stayed a while in this warm embrace, out of view and out of mind.



    30th of Summer, 5859
    Rogers' Plantation, Outskirts of Casamonu    ​

    The night had gone and the sunlight had come out once more to reveal what had been hidden the night before in the plantation. What was hidden wasn't all to pleasant to some people however.

    "Sir, we just managed to put it out."

    The charred remains of a shack, still smoldering in its grave. Blackened remains of wood, earth, and corpses mixed together into one gruesome mix. Buckets of water rested near this pile, once having been filled by the water used to put out the fire. All in all, a sight that's none too pleasant to experience for most people, especially when you're the owner of the shack and the people who burnt down. "Do you know what happened?"

    The overseer could only shake his head and shrug in response to Sir Rogers' question. "We don't know, sir. The shack seems to have caught fire in the middle of the night, and all the slaves seemed to have burnt under it. We heard their screams all night."

    "Shacks don't usually do that, do they?" Mister Rogers seemed calm, but he was near breaking down on the inside. He was screwed like a screwdriver screwing a screw. "Tell Sir Kim that none of our deliveries will be coming through this month." A plantation without slaves was a plantation without anyone working, and the loss of a slave also meant the loss of a very valuable financial asset. People weren't very cheap to buy, nor were they quick to be trained in the ways of processing tobacco. This was basically the end for Rogers financially, even if he had yet to internalize it. He was too worried to notice that a few of his overseers had gone missing as well.

    A few kilometers away from Rogers and his plantation were the supposedly dead slaves making their escape through the mountains, led by Harriet Tubman herself aided by Kyauta. The line of slaves following behind her had one question, "Madame, do you think they'll find us?"

    Harriet Tubman had one answer, "'course not. They think you're buried under the shack right now."

    "But won't they notice that the bodies are lightskins?"

    "The Lord makes us all equal in death, especially so if death involves being burned. Those folk should be looking like nothing but charcoal." Tubman raised her voice to let the rest of the crowd hear her "From now on you're all dead men according to the rest of the world. Do not think of returning to the plantation, I've seen some cowards attempt that before." She then raised her axe to show it prominently "You won't make it far if you attempt to go back, I assure you. Got that? I won't be having mercy on anyone who runs back." The fugitives were all silent, mostly due to being face-to-face with a woman carrying a large axe, but their slightly terrified faces made it clear that they understood. Some were worried that they may be being led to a place worse than the plantation, considering that the idea of a slave haven in the mountains sounded too good to be true. For all they knew, Harriet was just stealing them away to be worked in the copper mines.

    The caravan of fugitives made their long-winded way up the mountain, the air getting colder and hopes dropping as they went higher up. Not much hope had been left by the time Harriet Tubman stopped on a nondescript plateau. "Here we are, welcome to Gilead." She led the confused crowd, who were unable to see anything other than an empty plateau, until paradise arrived.

    "Paradise" was a bunch of mud huts strewn around up on a cliff, but paradise it was for paradise is wherever one is free. Harriet lowered her axe at last, turning to address the crowd. "Brothers and sisters, you are now free. To stay here, to go somewhere else, or to fight. But you are free."

    The crowd cheered, and celebrated their long-lost freedom for the first time in their lives.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter LI – He that is without sin among you.
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    • 30th of Summer, 5859
    Adventurer's Guild of Casamonu, Casamonu    ​

    Brown was emptily staring out the window of the adventurer's guild once more. The morning sun irritated his eyes, and he could barely see the small trickle of people going about their business. He was being idle and idleness irritated him more than the sun directly shining upon his face. Outside of the theological implications of not working, Brown was bored due to not having much to do in the city other than wait. He had planned for things to be simple, back in the US things would have been as simple as finding a willing seller and striking a deal with them. But no, the Lord had decided to tax and test him through tariffs and medieval economic BS, and what a test of patience it was! Ayomide and Shinasi had began fraternizing with each other rather than the old man, leaving him even lonelier. He wasn't much surprised to see the young'uns prefer each other rather than an old man, but still. Other than Harriet Tubman, the old man had no conversation partners who could understand him in any reasonable capacity.

    "Sigh… O' Lord, please spare some of your grace and help us…" His staring-out-the-window session was briefly cut short by an inconspicuous figure stopping right outside the window. A normal-looking man, with ordinary white tunic and brown trousers with no discernable features. This man was standing right in front of where Brown was staring out of the window from, blocking the old man's sight. This foreign man leaned on the window, turning his back to Brown and the rest as if he had no interest in them while clasping his hands towards the back. To an outside this seemed to be the case, and Brown intended to shift around his seat to gain a view outside again. His shifting was interrupted when this ordinary man took out a small piece of paper, and clasped his hands to his back again with the paper stuck between the window and himself. It was positioned so that Brown's body blocked the paper from being seen by anyone indoors, the paper reading (in English) "ARE YOU I.S.? KNOCK IF YES".

    I.S.? Was old J.B. an I.S.? The answer was yes, Isaac Smith was the name he had gone with when introducing himself to the folks here. He knocked on the window, and the man took out another paper, "FOLLOW". One thing that Brown had learned was that, if there was one thing that the shady people of this world loved, it was communicating with paper. Perhaps there was some deep cultural reason behind it or, perhaps, Brown was too quick to judge shady people by the small group of shady folks he had experienced and not all of them used paper. It'd be unchristian of him to be generalizing people like that, so Brown decided to wait it out before he labelled every shady person in Gemeinplatz as a paper-user.

    No matter what Brown thought of shady people, the shady people needed him to follow them, and his definitely non-shady comrades-in-arms needed to follow him in following them. His eyes followed a path towards Ayomide and Shinasi, who were busy following a long convo between themselves following their after-following up follow-up. "Young man and lady, the time has come."

    "The time has come…?" replied Shinasi, before remembering why they were here in the first place. "Right, right, right." He got up, Ayomide following him in unseating herself. The young man knew of how the so-called Smuggler's Guild operated with their overly dramatic calls to follow one of their agents and whatnot. He'd have liked it better if they gave a time and place to meet like any courteous person would, not aware of the fact that even organized crime is called by that name because it's ran by an organization and not because organized crime is organized enough to work on a schedule. Some organized criminals were organized enough, sure, but these organized criminals were quite unorganized as was apparent. Perhaps they could use the help of an isekai'd mafia boss, though prospects of isekai'd mafia bosses were currently way outside what John Brown or anyone in his local area was thinking at the moment.

    The trio made their way out the door of the adventurer's guild, finding themselves becoming passersby among a large crowd of passersby. "It's that person." whispered Brown to Ayomide and Shinasi, pointing to the man who had become even more inconspicuous as he blended into the masses. Both of them actually didn't get who Brown meant, so they had to suffice by following the old man following the shady man. They continued blending with the crowd for a while, not making any detours from the main road. Perhaps a hundred people passed by without awareness of the abolitionists among them. It felt quite nerve-wracking to be the abolitionists hiding in the crowd. Shinasi and Ayomide did their best to maintain a poker face as to not end up being executed, which'd be a less-than-agreeable event for them. Dying wasn't a nice thing. Neither was living too nice for them, but death was a luxury reserved for radical abolitionists who were radically misplaced by rhetorical-or-real alien space bats.

    Eventually, as Shinasi expected, they diverged somewhere along the main road to the ever-present backstreets of the city. A turn to the right, another to the left, a hop forwards and a great leap backwards, all of that combined into a confusing mess of directions. Brown had done his best to keep track of where they were going, but he was eventually lost in the midst of this alien urban sprawl. Ayomide could swear they were walking in circles, and Shinasi was barely managing to keep his mental map correctly tracking their convoluted route. He had actually faltered somewhere along the way, meaning that his carefully constructed mental map was quite useless unbeknownst to him. The smugglers were clever enough to know that it was a good idea to not have any nosy customers poking into their locations. It'd be quite the trouble if, let's day, Shinasi was to talk to his eldest cousin's second husband's younger brother about having gone to [REDACTED] Street on [REDACTED] Avenue while drunk.

    Backstreets turned into backerstreets and those became backeststreets as they ventured further and further into the veins of Casamonu. The buildings became so cramped that the sun no longer shone down, an indication of the less-than-light business which is conducted round these parts. Brown kept his hands close to his pockets to avoid being picked by the occasional child eyeing his material possessions. This dark part of town was also dark in another manner, being the only place where one might see free people with skin darker than pasty white. Unaccepted into any proper jobs, these freemen would either perish or enter into a life of crime to live. Most chose the latter willingly; the rest would have to "choose" the former unwillingly. Perhaps being a bit too optimistic, Brown thought that maybe they could be recruited in the future, though he had also seen how reluctant urbanites were in giving up their lives in the city to throw away their lives outside the city. He couldn't blame them at this point, Brown wouldn't follow some stranger to his death either. Most sane people obviously wouldn't.

    Empty thoughts of throwing away lives for strangers aside, Brown and co. had reached an end which was seemingly as dead as Watanabe Generico. They all took a pause while the not-so-inconspicuous man stopped to make a series of very confusing moves. He stomped on the ground, several times in several different places, then pushed a few loose bricks in and out of the wall. Then he pulled in a hidden rope in the wall, stomped the ground a few more times, knocked on a nearby door and tapped the wooden window frame of another nearby building. Finally, after all of these seemingly meaningless moves, a door belonging to a house he hadn't even approached opened. No one could tell which of these moves was actually instrumental in opening the door and which were meant to misguide onlookers. The man entered the newly opened door, Brown and co. followed him in. Further following in after Brown and co. were a group of lightly armed men who had been following them discretely to make sure nobody would try to hurt the guide.

    As expected, the room wasn't the most pleasant the enter. It was dank, cramped and dark, a combination of words which don't go well when experienced together. Inside there were a couple more people, all sitting on stacks of various textiles. They all got up when their expected guests arrived, each taking a large load for themselves. Without any words being exchanged, these porters followed the really-not-inconspicuous man into yet another hidden trapdoor, this one hidden under a badly damaged rug. Down from the trapdoor was a cramped tunnel where everyone had to march single-file to fit. There was no light, so the porters went off of their training while Brown and co. had to follow them. This tunnel had various paths leading to God-knows-where, and one would probably get lost if they hadn't been trained to navigate it. Stuffy, claustrophobic and full of unwashed men, the tunnel was quite the unpleasant experience to be had, one that was reminiscent of the slave quarters for Ayomide (the only significiant difference being the gender of the unwashed people).

    Like all tunnels, this tunnel had light at the end of it too… eventually. After solid hellish hour of transporting goods, they all saw a small point where sunlight barely reached the tunnel. The guide pushed a bunch of leaves and twigs aside to reveal that they had finally reached the surface. Brown and co. practically jumped out of the tunnel, breathing in the fresh summer air. They had been dropped into the middle of an opening in the forest, where an empty cart awaited them. Marching in line, the porters dropped the textiles into the cart one by one before they stopped to touch the grass and take a break.

    "Go straight from here." said the guide, speaking for the first time "See those markings on top of those trees? Follow them and you should come straight out to the main road." Brown looked up to see that, as the guide said, there were big dots carved on top of the trees of the forest, all presumably leading outwards. They'd be only be properly visible from one side, which meant that following these markers from outside-to-inside would be very difficult if wanted to track back to the tunnel (which was also hidden behind a small group of bushes). Not to mention that one probably couldn't navigate the tunnels without the guide, quite the problem for any customs guards wanting to clamp down on smugglers. "Goodbye, and we hope to conduct business with you again soon." With this last comment, the guide gathered up the porters and entered the tunnel again.

    Brown and co. were alone once more, only the birds and the bees chirping and buzzing to accompany them. The leaves gently rustled as the wind blew by, the air was quite cool thanks to this grove being isolated, and there were armed men coming out of the woods.

    "Wait, who are you?!" exclaimed Ayomide upon seeing their unexpected visitors. Brown and Shinasi got ready as well, as ready as they could be with their reduced combat gear. Shinasi carried his spear, Brown had his sword and Ayomide could only reasonably bring out a concealed knife.

    "The boss wouldn't allow us to get the catgirl." replied a big chap, carrying around a club that was as large as himself. "We're taking over this biz for ourselves. Please come along with us, miss. We wouldn't want to damage any cargo." He had ten more comrades with him, all looking equally ready to capture a valuable catgirl for themselves.

    Things had gone too well, and it seemed that the Lord had intervened by sending them another challenge as was required for tension to be generated in the story.
     
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