After learning from the two farmers, that both the crystal necklace as well as my clothes I was given upon my arrival identified me as ‘champion’, I’ve ditched the clothes the first chance I got and started wearing the necklace, which I still needed to understand the people of this world under my new clothes. From there on out, life got significantly better. At least people no longer treated me ‘differently’ then all the other people. I mean, being a champion, chosen to do battle against the king of demons does have its perks, but being the center of attention wherever you go is difficult. Especially, since apparently many of my predecessors did not leave a very favorable impression upon the people of the land. And I’m not even just talking about the ones summoned from another world like myself, but pretty much all of them. And when you think about it, it really makes sense. I mean, if you need to send out someone to fight (and probably die a meaningless death), you don’t send your most loved or respected members of society. No, you send the obnoxious ones, those whom nobody really likes and those who none will miss. At least not for very long. I can even imagine, that this custom could well be used to scare children into obedience. I can almost see a father sternly telling their uppity child, ‘Be good now, or you’ll be the champion once you come of age.’ Well, we had the boogie man coming for the naughty children, they have the never-ending war against the forces of darkness. Huh...I wonder what’d parents all over the world would do, if the war ever did end? But then again, there will always be some monster or threat to rally against. Regardless of the world, humans seem to need an enemy in order to work together.

The following weeks, I spent on the road, occasionally meeting other travelers. Some walked in the same direction as I was and we shared a part of the way, often camping together under the starry sky during the mild summer nights, which were, fortunately, mostly dry. And when they were not, there was always some small forest, cave or even open house to shield us from the worst. I took great interest in what these people had to say, while taking care to not reveal too much about myself in the process. And whenever someone asked, where I was going, I would say, that I was headed towards the capital, looking for work, which was enough for most of them. One time, I traveled with a hunter and buttered him up into teaching me a few bits of his trade. Fortunately I’ve always been a quick learner, meaning that after the three days we spent traveling together, I had a basic understanding about how to build traps and how to handle a bow. That my current body seems to have a rather decent muscle memory for the handling of all kinds of weapons certainly helped as well. I remember once trying my hand at shooting with a rifle and a bow in my other life. With the rifle I hit the dead center of the target...next to the one I was aiming at. As for the bow, I was lucky when I hit the target at all. I probably could have learned to aim and shoot better if I had kept at it, but seeing how ‘wielding a weapon’ was fortunately never a necessity in my old life, I opted for more peaceful and productive pastimes.

One time, I came across a young mother. And by ‘young’ I mean ‘she looked like 15’. Apparently the guy who knocked her up was from a well respected family, who ‘never would do something as insensible’ and the ‘love’ he had sworn to the girl prior to bedding her didn’t last for a day after she told him that she was pregnant and that he was the father.
For the record, I only asked her ‘What happened’, because she looked like gobbled up, chewed thoroughly and then spit out again. Once she had started talking, there was downright no stopping there. For a moment or two I considered giving that guy a piece of my mind, but decided against it. While everything within me screamed ‘wrong’ at the whole affair, it was still not my business. Hence, all I ended up doing, was accompany her to the next town, sharing my food with her and her child. I never learned what happened to her after that, but I hope that she still found her happiness...though chances are, that the illegitimate child did not make it. I’m only putting this small fragment down here to illustrate, just how ‘wrong’ this world really is.

After about a month of traveling, a sizable castle located on a small mountain overlooking a large city, which was, in turn, protected by a ring wall of at least 10 meters height, adorned with multiple towers easily rising 20 meters above the ground and yet another wall farther in.
I had at long last reached the capital city of Eregrund.

At that time, as I recall, my hopes of this being just a dream diminished even more. The reason for that was the sheer number of details flooding in on me and I simply could not imagine, that my brain could fabricate something this sophisticated ‘on the fly’. That all of this could ‘not be real’. I watched archers on guard peer into the distance, while guardsmen with pikes patrolled the city walls. There was a bustling market just beyond the city gates, with countless people running back and forth, each going about their very own business. Nothing seemed coordinated, there was no pattern to be discerned, everything seemed completely authentic, starting with the mainly bland color scheme of the people’s clothes ranging to the obnoxious smell of a thousand different sources, all assaulting my nostrils at the same time.
Ah yeah, I should probably mention at this point, that I’m not very good with crowds. That one time when I was at the train station in Munich (my world, obviously), I felt so lost and overwhelmed, I was close to getting a panic attack and really glad when I was back out of there. And that was only the train station. And now I was faced with a bustling city, when all I had ever known was small towns and villages.

Nevertheless, I knew that I had to get in there to find a way back home. After all, it was some rural magician who got me here. How difficult could it be for an actually capable magician, which I just had to assume were studying their craft here in the capital, to send me back?

So, clinging to this hope, I inserted myself into the queue at the main gate, where the guards were diligently checking the papers of everyone trying to enter the city, lest unsavory individual would try to sneak in. For great prosperity also always attracts unwanted attention.
I did not worry about ‘not getting in’ though at the time.
After all, I am a champion chosen to do battle against the king of demons.
Surely, they would not turn me away, especially after I came all the way from an entirely different world.
Right?