Leonardo did not know if it was the blood in his head, the pain in his leg, or the tiredness he was feeling while trying to keep himself in a certain balance without his body going from one side to the other making him seasick, but he was really starting to think he was going to die pretty soon.

Well, theoretically he couldn't complain too much, given the state of things, but if he could have chosen how to bid the world goodbye, it would have been decidedly different from a slow and painful death hung by the foot like a piñata ready to be slaughtered at any moment by some tramp armed with a stick, or by ravenous dogs.

It hadn't been very clever of him to end up in a trap, but how could he have known that in that forest where he had never been, in that particular place between one tree and another, in that historical period, there would have been such traps!

Maybe he could have asked for help.

He doubted that anyone who would have set such a trap was a friendly person. But maybe they would have given him a quicker death.

The blood in his head was starting to really bother him.

"Hey! Is anybody there? I would like to die quickly, thanks!" he shouted at the nothingness, perhaps not loud enough to attract attention at great distances, but he was in an awkward position.

I challenge you to use the diaphragm hanging upside down from one leg.

And Leonardo knew how to use the diaphragm well!

Three years of choir, people!

Since his cry for help was answered only by a few birds that had soared in flight, Leonardo tried to find a better way out.

For starters, he recapped how he ended up in that situation.

The day had started like any other.

He had woken up late after putting off the alarm three times, had washed and dressed in a hurry, had cooked pancakes for his mother and sister with the dough he had made the night before, and had taken a steaming one filled with Nutella while preparing for the day at the university.

From there, things got a bit confusing, since when he moved by vehicle, with headphones in his ears, Leo tended to do things automatically.

So... he took the subway, then a bus, and he got up halfway to let an old lady sit. Lady who got pissed to death because "she was not old" but, let me say it, lady, you don't look so young, and anyway Leo was just trying to be nice.

Then... then nothing, Leo got off the bus mentally insulting the not-old lady, and...

Oh... right!

Mental insults probably brought him bad karma, because after looking left and right before crossing... okay, after not looking left and right before crossing, because he was distracted, and had just noticed his best friend across the street... well, he crossed the street without checking a thing, and had been hit by a truck.

...probably.

Actually, Leonardo wasn't really sure.

He remembered the shock of seeing the truck come in front of him, jelly knees, and the honking of the horn. Maybe even someone's scream.

Then he felt the earth fail under his feet, literally.

And he had fallen on a green lawn, among the trees and leaves.

And without even having the time to understand exactly what the heck had happened, he ended up in a trap while looking around trying to understand where he was.

...At this point it would have been better to die with a quick blow in an accident.

Sure, it was cliché, but at least it was fast.

One clean blow, death, and the end of the story.

This situation was unnecessary suffering.

Hung like a salami and too out of physical practice to try and free himself with the strength of his weak body.

If he'd managed to survive he would have to go to his old high school gym teacher and admit in shame that yes, okay, he was right, an abdominal workout was life-saving.

Unfortunately, Leo did not believe he would be able to get out of that situation, so the humiliation could wait.

...wait like him, because he was waiting at the moment.

And sure, it was a pleasure that death was taking so long to come, but Leo hated waiting for anything.

"Ohhh! Guys who set the trap here? Can you come and finish the job, please? Waiting unnerves me!" he tried to scream again, hoping that someone else would notice. He was likely going to pass out soon, so it was best to try one more time.

Dang it, being killed by a truck was a hundred times better!

Unless... maybe he had actually been hit by a truck, and ended up in a parallel universe? Like in the isekai manhwas that Giada always read? Those in which the young and workaholic Korean, Chinese, or Japanese woman, usually orphan, and with crazy intellectual abilities was hit by truck-kun or fell into river-sama and ended up in an alternative universe, often of a romantic and medieval fantasy book, and attracted the attention of half of the male population of the aforementioned universe but ended up marrying the handsome and cold prince?

...Nah! The blood in his head was driving him crazy.

Because it was impossible that truck-senpai had bestowed upon him such power.

First of all, Leonardo was a man, and usually these fortunes happened to women.

Secondly, Leonardo was very homosexual, so even if he ended up in those universes where on the contrary it was the man who isekaied and the women were half naked and ready to fall at his feet, it would have had no effect on him.

Thirdly, he was Italian, he was super ordinary, and he had a family he loved, so the heck he wanted to end up in another universe! Especially a medieval or Renaissance universe where if they discovered that he was homosexual they would have burned him at the stake or sentenced him to Spanish inquisition's tortures such as the saw, or Judas' cradle, or the rat torture or...

"Actually, it's better to die here than to be tortured, so let me hang and if you don't mind too much, would you call an animal to tear me to pieces immediately?" Leo was talking nonsense now, aware that no one was close enough to listen to him, but, luckily, or unlucky, just at that moment he heard the sound of trampled leaves, and shifting trees.

"Oh, don't bother anymore, a wild animal is already coming to me" he chuckled to himself, now red as a tomato from the blood in his head and heedless of anything that was going to happen in a few minutes.

He soon realized, however, that it was not a wild animal that was reaching him.

And he understood this thanks to extraordinary deductive skills worthy of any Isekaied heroine.

That is, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a series of figures in what appeared to be heavy armor, and heard several voices whispering to each other from a distance.

Considering that Isekaied heroines were usually idiots when it came to understanding the male population's feelings towards them, the metaphor was indeed spot on.

"Oi! You! Will you please help me?" Leonardo tried to move around enough to look at the figures face to face, since they were momentarily behind his back, but he only managed to start twirling around, and ended up with them behind his back again.

"You, identify yourself!" One of the figures, the tallest and most massive one, took a sword and pointed it at Leonardo's back.

"Wo! How rude. Did I stop a particularly intense live action role-playing? Sorry, but could you free me first? I've been here for a century and I don't feel anything anymore" Leonardo would have liked to turn around to look the guy in the eye... or in the slit of the helmet he was wearing, but it was better not to make rash movements with a sword which, although probably fake, could still hurt him.

"First identify yourself! We cannot trust a stranger, you could be a spy!" the man insisted, decidedly.

Those who were still behind him began to confabulate among themselves, expressing agreement.

Okay, it sure was a particularly intense LARP. Maybe they had taken him for a player put there on purpose by some opposing team.

Better to clear up the misunderstanding before hitting the front page for a tragic accident during a roleplay that would surely have inflamed all those who were opposed to the simple expression of a particular passion.

"Look, you misunderstood, I..." Leo began to explain, trying to turn around.

But he clearly felt something on his back break, and the little that still answered of his body hurt a lot, so he stopped, and turned pale.

Oh no!

...It couldn't be true, could it?

Either those guys were so fanatic that they used real swords, or was it really...

What a troublesome situation.

"What's going on here? Who was screaming?" before the mad swordsman could continue to torture him, and before Leo could try to think up anything to get himself out of there, a new voice, commanding and cold, reached the scene of the probable future crime.

He seemed a tad reasonable, so before the mad swordsman could give his version, Leo thought about speaking first.

In hindsight, maybe he shouldn't have shot his mouth off without even knowing where he was, but he was desperate, tired, in pain, surely hurt, and too close to death for his liking.

"It was me! I'm trapped, can you please free me?" he asked, politely but impatient. He could not see who had spoken, since he was behind him too, like the other, and he could not really turn his head to check who he was, but Leo hoped it was a nice person, kind and understanding. And... not an important person he had to speak formally to.

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK SO INFORMALLY TO HIS MAJESTY THE CROWN PRINCE?!" thundered the mad swordsman, pressing the sword harder on Leo's back, making him withdraw slightly, as much as he was allowed to, having been hung upside down for at least ten minutes.

...okay, that wasn't Leo's lucky day.