Chapter Text
When Will opened his eyes that morning, it wasn’t to the ceiling of the inn that he’d expected. Instead, it was to a bright blue sky, boxed in by two walls of an unfamiliar alleyway.
He sat up, disoriented, and glanced around himself. Beside him laid a sleeping Strohl, resting on his side on the gray stone covering the ground, looking so comfortable that it was as if he’d meant to fall asleep right there.
…He didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he could sense that something was different.
He reached over to jostle Strohl awake, who blearily peeled his own eyes open and mumbled something incomprehensible. He was probably grumpy about being woken up like this, but—
“Strohl. Do you remember... falling asleep last night?”
Strohl blinked, nodding slowly, then jolted upright when he seemed to realize the oddness of their situation, too. “I do, and… I’d definitely fallen asleep in the inn’s beds, not out on the streets…”
Will nodded. “Yeah. So this is weird, right? I’m not crazy?”
“Yeah, it’s definitely odd…” Strohl pushed himself to his feet, and Will followed suit. “Why in the world have we woken up sprawled in an alley like this?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t even think that we’re… in Euchronia anymore,” Will said, looking around. “Everything looks and sounds strange here. It just doesn’t feel right.”
Strohl frowned. “Yes, you’re right, but if we’re not in Euchronia… how could we have been teleported away in our sleep like that? And for what reason? We would have noticed someone breaking into our room, or something of the sort…”
It was a mystery, for sure, and Will couldn’t offer any helpful theories, so he just shook his head.
“Since we don’t have any ideas… let’s take a look around and see what we can find out,” Will suggested, and Strohl followed on his heels as he left the alleyway.
As the open street came into view, they both froze in their tracks at what they saw. Because this was really nothing like they’d ever seen before — the buildings were styled in a completely foreign way, and the street was overtaken by odd-looking vehicles and people wearing odd clothing.
“What is this place…?” Strohl muttered. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
…It was just as Will had suspected. They really couldn’t be in Euchronia anymore.
After a moment of thought, he reached into the bag at his hip and pulled out his book. “Strohl… I showed you a bit of this book before, didn’t I?”
Strohl nodded, tearing his eyes away from the scenery to peer down at the book. “You did. But why mention that now?”
“Because,” Will replied, flipping through the pages, “I think we might’ve been thrown into the world of this book. That utopia.”
Strohl stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded, then laughed. “I would say you’ve gone crazy, but after seeing all of this… I have no choice but to believe you. I’m not sure if there’s any other explanation.”
Will nodded. “It’s pretty similar. At least, judging from the visual descriptions given in here. And if you look around… For example, there’s a lot of technology here that doesn’t look like it’s powered by magla, and a lot of lights that don’t look like they use flames. They just work on their own, which is a characteristic of the innovations of this book’s utopia.”
“Hmm… I see. Such as those colored light fixtures up there?”
“That’s right,” Will agreed, and had just stepped out onto the bustling streets before being startled by a thunderous voice calling out to them.
“Will! Strohl!” A blur of red hair approached, then skidded to a halt in front of them. “What luck that I have found you! I thought I might have been dropped into this strange metropolis all by my lonesome!”
“Hulkenberg?” Strohl exclaimed. “Why are you here, as well? …Damn, how many of us do you think have been transported here?”
“’Tis unclear, but I have seen no one familiar thus far besides you two,” Hulkenberg offered.
Will nodded slowly. “The situation is even weirder now that we know you’re here, too, Hulkenberg. If it’d been just Strohl and I, then it might have been explainable as a small but powerful area-of-effect spell, but your room in the inn was pretty far from ours, wasn’t it?”
“Right you are,” Hulkenberg replied, crossing her arms. “Maybe ’twas quite the sizable area of effect.”
“In that case, the entire residence of the inn would likely have been caught up in the spell,” Strohl pointed out. “Well, I suppose we can confirm our theory if we meet anyone else we recognize here.”
As though Strohl had predicted it, Will happened to spot a familiar figure across the street just then. A very familiar figure. One that sent a chill down his spine, and set his nerves on edge.
“Look, you two,” Will muttered urgently. “Over there… that’s Louis, isn’t it?”
The other two whipped their heads around to look where Will was pointing, and their faces morphed into the exact same expression of shock. It was almost amusing.
“Right you are,” Hulkenberg murmured incredulously. “I would recognize that horrendous mop of hair anywhere. But why would he be here, as well? It makes no sense, lest he was also having a stay at the inn at the time the spell was cast…”
Strohl stared on for a moment, slack-jawed, then turned back to Will and Hulkenberg seriously. “…Do you both understand? This is a perfect chance for us.”
“Chance?” Hulkenberg repeated. “What sort of chance might you be referring to?”
“A chance to kill him,” Strohl said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “He’s standing right there, defenseless. If we go right up to him and rend him through—“
“Wait, wait,” Will put a hand on Strohl’s shoulder to calm him. “You’re right that this is a good opportunity, since he probably can’t be affected by the royal immunity here. But we don’t know that he’s really ‘defenseless’ — he could be preparing for a counterattack right now, for all we know. Not to mention that, if this really is the world from this book… killing is outlawed. And you’ll be heavily punished if you’re caught.”
Strohl frowned. “But if we can evade the military for long enough to find ourselves a way back to Euchronia, why would that matter? We have plenty of experience running away and hiding ourselves.”
“Consider this, as well, Strohl,” Hulkenberg interjected. “Not one of us happens to be in possession of a weapon at the moment. ‘Twould be an impossible feat to kill him bare-handed as we are.”
As she pointed out the empty space where Strohl’s sword sheath usually occupied on his back, he had no choice but to sigh. “…Damn it. Foiled already, are we?”
From across the street, Louis’s eyes wandered in their direction, catching onto Will’s gaze for a split second — just long enough for Will’s heart to speed up — before he turned away and blended into the crowd as it moved along the street.
“He saw us,” Will remarked, drawing the attention of the other two.
“He did?” Hulkenberg scanned the other side of the road, and when she couldn’t see him, exclaimed, “Even if he mustn’t be killed, we cannot lose sight of him! I shall strike the knave down right—!“
She dashed out into the street before Will could stop her, but was forced to a halt just before she would’ve gotten hit by a vehicle. She reeled backwards, grumbling at the continuous stream of vehicles making their way past. “…Spirited little machines, aren't they. How am I to make it across without being struck by one of their lot?”
“I remember this from a passage in the book,” Will offered. “It mentions waiting for the ‘pedestrian signal’ to allow you to walk across a busy street. I think it’s referring to that little light up there.”
“The light shaped like the silhouette of a person?” Hulkenberg squinted to the other side of the road where the signal was, shaking her head in disapproval. “Argh… far too inefficient, this all is. Had there not been so many obstacles in my way, I would already have that Louis pinned to the ground as we loiter here, chatting!”
Will sighed. “Weren’t we just talking about not using violence here? We should keep an eye on him, I agree, but we can’t just act how we feel like here. It really would get us thrown into prison.”
“There are so many bloody rules,” Strohl muttered. “You talk about acting properly, Will, but we don’t know the rules as you do, and I’m sure even you only have a basic understanding of this world’s customs. We’re bound to slip up. It’s just… much too sudden to comprehend everything that’s happening here, and to expect that we won’t get ourselves into any sort of trouble by acting according to instinct…”
“Indeed,” Hulkenberg agreed. “Such a strange, foreign land… I’ve not the first clue of what to do, besides continue with what we have been doing. And that would be stopping Louis.”
Will nodded. Of course, he was feeling kind of lost as well, but he was at least familiar with the general workings of this world, after reading the book so many times over. He could guide them, if he needed to.
“And, Will… can we really be certain that this is the world of your book?” Strohl asked. “It seems unlikely that something like this could just… happen. That we could find ourselves all of a sudden sucked into the world of a book. That, in itself, is something you would only see happen in a book, no?”
“I… can’t be sure of it,” Will admitted. “But it’s so similar, and have you ever heard of any place in Euchronia that’s like this one? It’s way too much of a coincidence to be anything but the world I know of.”
Hulkenberg leaned against the wall behind her. “Be that as it may… Whatever the reality of our situation might be, I believe we have several more urgent issues we should address at once. One.” She held up a finger. “We appear to be stranded in a foreign land, our only knowledge of its customs being from a single book. And a work of fiction, no less. But this is our current reality, and thus we should attempt to familiarize ourselves with it rather than continuing to comment on its oddity.
“Two. Our target, Louis, whom we have vowed to corner and kill, appears to have disguised himself amongst the crowd and run off. We know not what he plans to do here, whether it be to wreak some sort of havoc or take the opportunity to disappear from us permanently, but in any case, we cannot stop him from doing either of those things now that we have lost sight of him. That is quite the problem, so we should begin searching for him as soon as we have our wits about us.
“And three.” She held up the last finger solemnly. “We are standing squarely in the public eye, unarmed and wearing naught more than our nightclothes.”
Strohl blinked, looking down at himself. “…Right. This is not only a rather humiliating situation, but a dangerous one, as well. We’re nearly defenseless as we are right now.”
“But… I think that third point is the least of our concerns right now,” Will remarked. “We definitely look like outsiders, so we’ll get some stares for sure, but nobody’s going to attack us here, in this world. It’s a peaceful place.”
“I trust your judgement more than most anyone else’s,” Strohl said, “but even so, I can’t help but be wary. I’m not sure I have much money on me, but I say we at least buy a few basic weapons with which to defend ourselves, just in case.”
Will shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s possible. I don’t think they really even sell weapons here.”
“…Truly? Damn it.”
“’Tis a shame,” Hulkenberg agreed. “I shall feel quite exposed without a halberd to protect myself with.”
Will nodded in commiseration, then glanced around himself. “We should probably get going, though. It seems like we’re attracting a lot of attention just from standing here.”
“Where to, though?” Strohl asked. “What do we do from here? Shouldn’t our top priority be to kill Louis, then to get right back to our own world?”
“It should be,” Will agreed. “But do you have any ideas about how to get back?” After the expected silence, he continued, “Right now, we’re all at a loss. Louis is gone, and we don’t have any leads about how we’re supposed to go back. So I think our best option for now is to relax a little and start creating an actual plan.”
His two companions nodded in reluctant agreement.
“So, on that note,” Hulkenberg noted, “I am feeling a bit famished, so our first destination might be a tavern. What say the two of you?”
“It’s best to keep our strength up, so I don’t have any complaints,” Strohl offered. “Shall we, then, Will?”
Admittedly, it was hard to find any taverns. Most eating establishments weren’t actually labeled as what they were, instead boasting strange names like “Raspberry Leaf Boutique” and forcing you to take a wild guess on what the shop was actually meant for. Or, maybe, there was some nuanced way of determining that information by the styles of buildings or business names that the people of this world understood implicitly, and they didn’t.
Either way, it took them all way too many pokes into different buildings before they could find a promising-looking restaurant, but they made it eventually. The friendly staff promptly seated them at a table before handing them each a glossy menu.
“Oh… the cuisine at this establishment looks divine,” Hulkenberg muttered, eyes scanning the pages with rapt interest.
“It does look really good,” Will agreed. He looked over the menu, trying to decode the oddly named dishes like “Viking Stew”, but eventually gave up and just picked one based on which picture looked the best.
A young waitress approached them after a few minutes, and chirped, “Oh, wow! Are the three of you cosplayers? You look great!”
“Cos…players?” Hulkenberg echoed. Will was also confused by the unfamiliar word, and just shrugged helplessly.
The waitress froze for a moment, then just giggled. “Staying in character, I see! Love to see it! Now, can I get some drinks going for you all?”
Strohl frowned, whispering over to Will, “Where are the drinks going?”
…It seemed like Will was going to become the interpreter for this world’s speech habits. “She’s asking you if you want to order a drink.”
After some difficulty, they’d all placed their orders with the waitress, and she scurried off to the kitchen. Once they’d been left alone, they continued their discussion.
“So, about Louis.” Strohl crossed his arms as he spoke. “What are we to do about him? He’s definitely here, unless all of our eyes happened to deceive us at once.”
“There is a chance, if we are to consider just how impossible our current situation seems. It might all be naught more than an illusion,” Hulkenberg added.
“Right,” Strohl agreed. “But, to be safe, let’s assume that he is here, and that this is reality. In that case, the major question is: how do we plan to kill him?”
Will shushed him gently, reminding him that they were in public. “And no, that’s not the major question. The major question is how we’re going to get back to Euchronia, isn’t it?”
“I disagree. Louis should absolutely take precedence,” Hulkenberg argued. “After the enemy has been vanquished, that is when we can determine our escape. If we linger for too long without taking action, we might very well miss our opportunity to cut him down, and he could be lost to us forever.”
“But like I’ve already said, we can’t count on the fact that we can evade law enforcement here,” Will reminded them. “Not for any length of time, at least. And if we get caught and imprisoned in this world, who knows if we can ever find a way back? That’s my concern.”
Strohl sighed. “That is… secondary to taking Louis out, though, is it not? If we don’t make it back, then at least Euchronia can be saved from his kind when he is dead.”
“…No, Will is correct,” Hulkenberg cut in. “I am aware that your motivation is revenge for the past rather than a plea for the future, but as for Will and I, we wish to carry this out so that we might see the prince alive and well once more. In our own world. Thus, we cannot stay here.”
“And you have a reason to go back, too, don’t you, Strohl?” Will noted. “Don’t you want to help those refugees rebuild their lives? You can’t do that if we stay stuck here.”
“Right… of course,” Strohl muttered.
Will nodded. “Right. So we really can’t take any unnecessary risks, or we might totally ruin our chances. We need to have a good plan — a definite way out, so that we can carry out the assassination directly before making our escape.”
The sound of someone meekly clearing their throat drew all of their attentions away, and the waitress stood beside their table holding several plates of decadent-looking food. “You are… very in-touch with your characters, aren’t you? Talking about assassinations, and other worlds,, it’s all quite convincing… Oh, gosh, I’m sorry for eavesdropping!”
Oh. She thought they were just playing characters. Well, that was good, actually, rather than having her catch onto their plot.
“I have… a roast duck with cranberry glaze?” The waitress quickly changed gears and held up a plate of whole roasted bird.
“‘Twould be for me.”
The waitress finished setting the plates down on the table, seeming a little flustered for some reason, then made her way off to attend to other customers. Will turned back to the others.
“Um… we should be more careful discussing these things in public, I think.”
Strohl sighed. “Agreed. From what you’ve said, it seems as though assassinations would be frowned upon in this world.”
“Yeah,” Will agreed. “So let’s just eat for now, and save the planning for when we have some privacy.”
They finished their food, then the waitress returned to collect their payment. This was similar to how restaurants operated in Euchronia, and gave them all a small sense of comfort.
But they ran into an issue when Will handed over his coin pouch for payment.
“Um… I’m so sorry.” The waitress handed the pouch back sheepishly after peeking inside. “I don’t know what kind of currency this is, so I don’t think we can take this here.”
Will blinked. “Oh…” He hadn’t even thought about that. Of course the currency would be different here — it’s a completely different world, after all.
“What shall we do? All we have with us are Reeves,” Strohl said.
“If you don’t have the money to pay upfront, we can send you a bill,” the waitress offered. “Otherwise, if one of you wants to stay behind while someone else retrieves some more suitable money real quick…”
“I volunteer to hold down the fort,” Hulkenberg offered.
Strohl turned to him as well. “Will, are you all right with going to exchange some money?”
Will had no choice, so he agreed.
The waitress smiled. “All right. I’m so sorry for the trouble, you three. Please try not to be too long so we don’t hold up other customers, okay?”
Will collected the Reeves offered to him by Hulkenberg and Strohl, and left the building after being given his mission. He stood for a moment outside, a little dumbfounded, before taking a breath to clear his head.
The first order of business should be a pawn shop. He doubted anyone in this world would be familiar with Reeves, so surely going somewhere that exchanged currencies wouldn’t be very helpful. He hoped that, even in this world, gold would fetch some value.
For all of the Reeves they’d had in their possession, Will received several hundreds of thousands of “yen” — the currency of this world — from the broker in exchange. Of course, he had no idea how far this much money would get them, but it felt like a pretty good amount in his hands.
Strangely, this currency seemed to mix coins and small sheets of printed paper. It was yet another thing about this world that was so different. He started to realize that Strohl and Hulkenberg were right — Will hadn’t noticed it as strongly at first, since he already knew this setting by heart, but once they started entering into the nuanced parts of it, like customs and rules and the exact workings of certain things, even he found himself surprised by it all.
He understood now that they were all much worse than tourists. They were obviously unused to not only this city, but this entire world as well. They must really stick out among the locals. Even among the foreigners.
But he pushed those thoughts aside, because of course, there was always the opportunity to learn. They would assimilate as much as they needed to during the short time they were here — Will was used to having to adapt — and then leave this place behind with a clean exit. As long as they made it through without causing too much trouble, they would survive.
They would find a way out, Will was sure of it. They only had to survive here for a bit longer.