When we reached the village, the locals noticed me and swarmed in from every direction.
"Oi, a human!"
"First one I've ever seen!"
"Where'd you come from?"
"What are you here for?"
Voices came at me from all sides. Kobolds, small green goblin-like creatures, something that looked like a winged cat — villagers of every shape imaginable, pressing in close with absolutely no sense of personal space.
I had become a spectacle.
I understood the questions. I just had no idea which one to answer first. And honestly, I wasn't sure I could explain where I'd come from even if I tried.
After a while, Teok threw me a lifeline.
"All right, all right — he's exhausted, leave him alone for now."
The dispersal was appreciated. Though I'm fairly sure Teok had been watching the whole scene with quiet amusement up until that point. I'm almost certain he was enjoying himself.
---
The village was a small settlement nestled inside the forest.
A stream divided the land into three sections, with houses scattered across each one. Stone buildings and wooden ones stood side by side, giving the whole place a simple, unassuming feel.
Teok's house sat slightly west of the village center, with a small shed attached to one side. When we reached the front door, he didn't hesitate — just waved me straight inside.
The interior was sparse. A table and chairs, a shelf, a plain bed. Even by the standards of a fantasy-world medieval cottage, it was on the minimal end of things. But somehow that fit the impression Teok gave. The kind of person who's satisfied as long as he has what he needs.
When we'd arrived at the village, the gathering crowd had pressed an almost embarrassing amount of food into our hands. I hadn't expected that kind of generosity toward a stranger. The least I could do was cook dinner.
I used what they'd given us — grey berries I'd never seen before, purple-leafed herbs, something resembling cabbage — and threw it all into a pot to simmer. The appearance was, honestly, a little alarming. But whatever these ingredients were, they knew what they were doing: a surprisingly appetizing smell filled the room before long.
By the time Teok had ladled the soup into bowls, the world outside had gone completely dark.
"Itadakimasu."
I lifted the spoon and took a sip.
My eyes went wide.
The appearance had suggested something vaguely ominous. The flavor was the opposite — startlingly clean and clear. The closest thing I could compare it to would be a top-grade consommé with a bright citrus-like acidity added in, but even that didn't quite capture it. A sharpness I'd never tasted before. The vegetables had a satisfying crunch; there was something else in there with a texture that seemed to melt on the tongue. Every bite released another layer of complex spice through the nose. I couldn't stop eating.
"This is incredible… This is genuinely incredible…"
"Glad it suits you."
I'd walked for hours, then been interrogated by an entire village. By the time I sat down, I was running on fumes. A warm bowl of soup in that condition carries a weight that goes beyond flavor. The ingredients were foreign, the taste was unlike anything I knew, and yet I couldn't stop. Maybe there's truth to the idea that hunger is the best seasoning.
"Right then," Teok said, settling back. "Now that we can actually talk — where do we start?"
We sat across from each other at the table. I realized I still knew almost nothing about this world. When the villagers had surrounded me on arrival, I'd seen Kobolds like Teok, small green Goblins, someone with the build of what might be an Orc, a creature that seemed to be a winged cat — all different species, all in the same village. That felt like the right place to begin.
"You mentioned demikind earlier. Can you tell me about demikind and humankind?"
Teok nodded.
"Sure. I'm no expert, but I'll tell you what I know."
"Demikind first — that's me, and everyone else in this village. Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs — we all look completely different, but we get lumped together under the same name. Oh, and the village elder is a Lamia, by the way."
A Lamia. Upper body human, lower body serpent, if I remembered correctly. I wondered if she was — no. She might look nothing like what I was picturing. Better not to get ahead of myself.
"As for humankind — that's people like you. I've never heard of them being divided into further categories. This village has never had a human visitor before, which is why everyone was so worked up."
Teok's voice carried the particular quality of someone suppressing a laugh at a memory.
"That was rough."
"They'll get used to you soon enough."
In most of the fantasy stories I knew, humans and demihumans were enemies. But Teok and the villagers didn't feel like enemies. If anything, they felt like neighbors.
"Are demikind and humankind on good terms?"
"Hm? Yeah, there were wars way back when, but these days things are fine. There's even formal relations between the countries. Humans just don't tend to come out this far."
So that was why I hadn't been attacked. Just treated like an exhibit.
"Peaceful, then?"
"At least between Dyukou — the demi nation — and the human nation next door, Rainwillis. Can't speak for everything, but the old racial conflicts are pretty much done with, I'd say."
Nations. Was there a king somewhere?
"Nations run by kings?"
"Humankind uses 'king,' yeah. Demikind use 'Demon Lord.' This country's on its fourth — His Majesty Galze."
*Demon Lord.* In games, that was the final boss. But from everything Teok had described, the role seemed to be closer to a regular monarch. That was probably the safest way to think about it — otherwise my brain would just keep short-circuiting.
"Where does the Demon Lord live?"
"Capital city, Baraoum. On horseback it'd take over a week from here."
Horseback. So there are horses here too. I don't know why that was reassuring, but it was.
"Anyway — that's probably enough on countries for now. Back to the races."
Right, we'd gone off on a tangent.
"Besides demikind and humankind, there are two others. First, the fey — Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings. None of them live in this village, but some are close by. You'll see them coming through from the towns sometimes, or mixed in with demikind and humans in the cities."
Dwarves. Elves. Familiar names, at least.
Teok paused here and took a breath.
"And the last one…" His tone shifted slightly. "Dragons."
"I've never seen one myself, but from what I've heard and what the old stories say — Dragons are in a different category entirely."
"Different how?"
"A single Dragon could level this entire village without breaking a sweat. Back when demikind and humans were still at war, Dragons would sometimes just… appear and attack. Both sides got hit badly — our nations, the human nations, everyone. Even the strongest fighters from among the demikind, all of them together, couldn't stop a single Dragon."
That was a different league of threat entirely. *The whole village, leveled.* The scale of that didn't sit comfortably in my head.
"From the way you're describing it, they haven't been causing trouble recently?"
"Not in at least a few hundred years, from what I know. There's supposed to be a Dragon nation somewhere, but I'd have no interest in going anywhere near it. Honestly, I'd rather never meet one."
Teok gave a full-body shudder. For someone as easygoing as him to react that strongly — that was saying something.
He stood up.
"That's about the size of it. I'm going to sleep."
"What should I do?"
"You're welcome to sleep on the floor in here, but if you'd rather have some space to yourself, the shed next door is yours. Nothing much stored in it right now, so there's room enough to sleep, and it shouldn't get too cold."
In a place I knew nothing about, having somewhere to sit alone with my thoughts sounded like exactly what I needed.
"Then I'll take the shed, if that's all right."
Teok nodded and handed over a linen sheet and a candle. "Here."
"Thank you. For everything."
"We all need help sometimes. Get some rest."
I left Teok's house and walked to the shed next door. When I lit the candle, the inside of the small room filled with a soft orange glow.
I ran through the day in my head, start to finish.
Died. Met someone who might have been a goddess. Got a club. Got dropped into another world. Met a Kobold. Arrived at a village.
…That's a lot.
Fatigue, a faint sense of something that wasn't quite satisfaction, and a quiet anxiety about what came next — all of it mixed together — and I closed my eyes.
The first day in another world ended like that.