Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 12: Road to the End of the World

Daniel knows nothing about treatises being broken or alliances being shaken. He knows nothing about the various powers in the kingdom and the struggles for more power. He's lounging in his prison carriage as the long journey carries him towards a fortress at the edge of the civilized world, according to the denizens of this world. The guards have been fairly respectful to him, since they were told enough to know that he's not a hardened monster, he's just an unlucky fish out of water. They even told him that they had to take a detour because they heard from one of the villages they passed through that one of the allied kingdoms on their route, Bromlund is being embargoed by the Empire for laundering money and double-selling arms and armor and trading on credit. While transporting Daniel isn't a commercial endeavor and SHOULD be irrelevant to the embargo searches and seizures, Daniel is a 'summoned hero'; an asset in a certain sense. The fewer people who actually analyze who he is, the better.

Fortunately for Daniel, he has no magical power, so as long as he plays dumb, if he is captured, he'll be utterly useless to any other territory.

Going around the embargoed kingdom means an extra week and a half of travel, but the guards are taking caution seriously. Rikuto was specific that Daniel needs to make it to the fortress alive and well.

Fortunately, Daniel has a small window with metal bars over it to observe the world he's in. It's more colorful than Earth. The trees have a lot of bright colors, similar to Japanese sakura cherry trees. The trees themselves have varying colored leaves, not just blossoms in bloom. Daniel hasn't figured out the seasons of this world, yet, but it does seem to be fairly stable most of the year, compared to most of Earth, which generally had broad swings across the seasons. But, he's pretty sure it's not fall. If anything, it's closer to spring, since it has felt warmer the last few weeks.

In addition to colorful foliage, there is a broad swath of varying races in this world, truly making it fantastical compared to Earth. Many of them share traits with humans, indicating potential shared ancestors, but as expected in a fantasy world, there are animalistic humans with varying parts that appear similar to non-human creatures, such as the bovine people like the ones Daniel mentioned in the castle's town. There are the cute androgynous feline race; the gatonines. They are petite, with cat pupils, cat ears, claws, and tails, and though they don't have very many behaviors associated with terrestrial cats, they do purr when they're in a good mood, which is a surprisingly comforting sound. There are canine peoples, whose features lean more canine than human, where the gatonines lean more human than feline. There are a race of lobster-like crab people that are among the most alien, sharing size with large humans, but virtually nothing else. They are amphibious, but are employed most often in naval and marina work.

There are industrial territories that have a lot more of the other races, who have unique talents and abilities a lot of the times, and Daniel awes at the constructions they pass by; towering monoliths of buildings made of stone -made possible by magic, no doubt-. There is a crystal statue of a pantheon, as far as he can tell, with varying gods or goddesses, or some other important cultural figures. Like the peoples considered 'allied races', the pantheon is varying in sizes and races.

They pull off of the road after leaving a town ringing with the sounds of forging weapons. They make a simple camp, since they're trying to keep a low profile. They let Daniel out to relieve himself, and they don't even bother to handcuff him. He has no drive to escape, though he does survey their surroundings. The smell of smoke is still heavy on Daniel's clothes, as well as the guards' armor, and they wash their hands and faces in the stream they're parked near.

Daniel asks as they clean up and prepare camp, "You guys have any idea what I can expect at Fort Twilight?"

The guards share some glances, and then the sergeant replies, "Not really. It's a valley barrier. The mountains do most of the work at holding the demons back. A handful of fortresses are manned on the border. You'll probably see skirmishes, but the funnel of the valley seems to be sapping the advantage of numbers. The main garrison is further east from Twilight, where they can respond to any invasions at other points."