"I-I'm sorry, that's just an old rumor told to the kids by their grandparents" – the elder seemed to sweat cold.

The elder hurriedly bowed his head as much as possible as an apology for disappointing Freya, while the rest of his companions did the same. As for the reckless boy, a hand on his neck forced him to bow as well.

In response, Freya showed an expression of disgust and then took his seat in silence. The elder felt that he had lost a few years of his life as he glanced irritably at the young man.

"I understand. I must therefore assume that there are no elves in this area?" –with the enthusiasm shown by the boy on the subject, the apology offered by the elder and the other villagers, Raven came to a quick conclusion. That did not seem like an apology for the non-existence of elves, but because there were no elves in the nearby forest. With that in mind, Raven asked a subtle question to dispel the slightest doubt.

"No, it has been centuries since the last time an army of the Elf Kingdom crossed these lands."

Before the old man's words prompted Freya to show her enthusiasm again, Raven took her hand under the old wooden table for telling her to save her happiness for later. This action on the part of  her beloved older brother made Freya show another kind of happiness.

Freya's enthusiasm for the elves was understandable from the point of view of an inhabitant of Alexander's world. According to the history of the game, the elves, along with the other semi-human races, had become extinct centuries ago as a result of the constant wars.

For Raven, the existence elves and other creatures in this world was not only a clear indication that this was not Alexander's world, it also made it clear that this world was one where fantasy seemed to reign.

"Leaving aside the subject of the elves, could you tell us what gods are worshipped in these lands?" –Raven took the conversation to the climax to dispel any doubt, religion. If there was one subject on which mankind had written since time immemorial, it was about their gods. A name, the name of a god could tell Raven a lot.

"Of course. As a village of farmers, we worship Tiaris the mother earth goddess. As for the rest of the kingdom, it is not very different, all are followers of some of the family gods, Celestis the heavenly father, Virtus the artisan, Aquaris the navigator and Belis the warrior".

All those gods did not exist in Alexander, much less in the real world. Nor did Raven remember hearing about them in any other video game or in any fantasy book.

This confirmed that the dream, or the strange reality in which Raven found himself, are developed in an unknown world.

"Finally, will you have a map of the region that you could give us?" –a map was an indisputable element when it was in an unknown place, if Raven could put his hands on one, he could better detail his future actions.

The old man's face paled in the face of such a request. He seemed to lose his breath and, with as little clumsiness as possible, offered an answer.

"I-I'm really sorry… an object as valuable as a map is beyond the possibilities of simple villagers like us" –sadly, the vast majority of people in Rita had not seen a single map in their lives. It was such a valuable object that even the nobles considered it a luxury.

Despite such a response, Raven gained valuable information about this world. The fact that something like a map was considered an object of great value made clear not only the technological development of this world, but also the practically non-existent level of education.

The villagers of Rita knew how to add and subtract because it was knowledge that could be considered life or death. If any does not know how to handle money in a world like this, could easily end up starving for something as simple as a bad sum.

"I understand, it really doesn't matter, the information they have given us has been very helpful. I'm sorry for the inconvenience we've caused you, we'll be on our way again tomorrow at dawn."

Despite his kind words, both Raven's gaze and his voice did not change at all, his gaze was cold and his voice did not project any kind of feeling. Faced with such behavior, the elder and the others felt a chill running down their backs.

"It hasn't been any trouble, we're really happy to have been of help."

The old elder tempted to let out a slight sigh of relief, but the situation did not allow it. Raven's overwhelming presence was enough to prevent him from relaxing in any way.

(Probably not even a king possesses such an overwhelming presence) –thought the elder as he tried to politely say goodbye to Raven and Freya.

Having obtained as much information as possible, Raven left the room with intentions of returning to his camp.

"Raven-san! Raven-san!" –once outside the village and shortly before entering the camp, a young villager rushed to Raven.

In response to that young man's action, both Freya and the escorts took a defensive position around Raven.

"And you are?"

"My name is Erick, son of Dorlan."

It was the same boy who had been present at the meeting with the elder. Remembering him for his exaltation over the elf issue, Raven waved his hand to the escorts to relax their defensive postures

"So, Erick, son of Dorlan, do you need anything from me?"

"I... I wondered... Raven-san, do you plan to attack the city of Kard?"

Erick's face seemed full of anguish and nervousness, no doubt a product of the fear he felt when he asked that question and to whom he asked it.

The truth was that, at the previous meeting, Raven had hoped to have to invent some stories about the possible questions the villagers might ask. Surprisingly, the degree of intimidation caused by their presence on them had been such that they had simply chosen to keep their doubts to themselves. So, Raven could not imagine how much courage Erick had had to muster to do something that neither the old man nor the rest of the villagers had dared to do.

"Ah?! What reason could Nii-sama have to tell someone like you about his plans? Besides, why do you address Nii-sama so disrespectfully?" –Freya, who was the only one who had not obeyed Raven's order and held her position, intervened visibly irritated. It was evident that she was upset, not only by the issues in which she had already accused Erick, but also by the way he had made her look childish with the elf issue.

"I-I'm so sorry, it's just that my father and brother, along with other men from the village, were taken to the town of Kard to serve as soldiers."

At Freya's harsh words, Erick bent down to carry his body to the limit between falling head-on. The fear was more than evident in him.

"If so, what would you do?" –curious about the answer of someone who had used all his courage only to ask a question, Raven ignored Freya's intervention. This was a very usual aspect in him, to set aside anything when curiosity overflowed him.

"Then... I would ask Raven-sama to allow me to join his army, surely there wouldn't be much I could help with, but I'm sure I would convince my father and the rest of Rita's men to surrender!”

Unlike Raven who was intrigued by how far Erick was willing to go to protect his family, Freya as well as the escorts showed an expression on their faces of total repudiation at Erick´s words.

"You can rest assured then, Erick, son of Dorlan, for now I have no interest in Kard" –faced with the severe expressions of Freya and his escorts, Raven hastened to give an answer to Erick and then quickly resume his journey to camp.

Intuitively Raven felt that by allowing the situation to continue, Erick could have truly ended up with his face on the ground for very different reasons than leaning too far.

"Surrender he said? What a great offense to the supreme god of battle, that kind of dross is no different than a wild animal!"

Just a few steps away from Erick, Freya uttered those words with repudiation, and which seemed to be backed up by the escorts.

"I understand your discomfort Freya, but these people follow the teachings of other gods" –even if they seemed weak and would not pose any kind of danger, Raven did not envision any kind of benefit in the face of a conflict with the villagers either. Moreover, it seemed simply absurd to him that the trigger of a conflict could be something as stupid as religious differences.

"Their gods must be really weak or utterly despicable if they allow such cowardly behavior in their followers" –the impression was given that no matter what kind of argument Raven used, it seemed simply impossible to lighten even a little Freya's intolerance.

Undoubtedly, Raven had made the best decision by moving quickly away from Erick. Even so, thanks to this he had learned something extremely important that was probably the same for all NPCs, namely that "surrender" was not an option, was practically a sacrilege, a taboo.

The possible reason behind this unreasonable aversion to surrender, probably has in CO.

In the game, faced with an imminent defeat, players had only two options, to fight to the end or to run away. The last option causes a series of penalties that made it virtually impossible to recover in the short term.

Most likely the lack of surrender as an option had somehow ended up being interpreted by the NPCs as an unforgivable sin against the supreme god of battle, according to the history of the game, the supreme creator of the world of Alexander.

"So, Raven-sama, isn't this world Alexander?"

In the middle of the camp, in the huge officers' tent, Raven had expressed his conclusion both to his two beautiful generals and to his eight captains.

"No, their cities and the names of their gods, as well as their... customs, are totally different from... ours" –in his response to Nike, Raven had hesitated barely perceptibly on two issues.

First, with regard to 'customs', it was a simple way of putting into words the great mental difference that seemed to exist between the villagers and the NPCs, the former being simply 'survivors' who were only interested in living one more day, while the latter were rigid soldiers with a mentality that mixed the ideology of the European Knight and the Japanese Samurai.

Second, Raven had problems with how to identify himself. In the end, he seemed to solitarily belong to a third group, a group that possessed the knowledge of a third world.

"If that's so, how do we end up here and what do we do, Raven-sama?" –a beautiful woman with brown hair and a cold look asked the question that was on everyone's mind. It was Morgana Karl, another of Raven's army 'captains'.

"That's quite obvious Captain Karl, no matter where we are, you as Alexander's children and us as children of the supreme god of battle, we only know one thing to do, conquer!" –anticipating Raven that she was still looking for an answer, Freya offered an energetic answer that only Raven seemed not to expect.

"You are right Freya-sama. No matter if this is a different world, our obligation as Alexander's sons remains the same, to conquer every inch of the earth under our feet and give it to Raven-sama!”

"Conquest!"

In unison, with the exception of a surprised Raven, the rest of those present responded energetically to Morgana Karl's words.

‘Conquest’ in Conquest Online was the energetic battle cry of the NPCs prior to battle. Anyone playing CO for the first time wouldn't look for greater meaning in these singular battle cry and simply associate it with the name of the game.

However, for those like Raven who had taken the trouble to read the game's encyclopedia, the cry; 'conquest' had a much deeper meaning.

According to the world historical background of CO, for the inhabitants of Alexander's world, conquest was a divine obligation, a mandate, a divine law, and the only way to their supreme god.

Raven must have done his best not to show a malicious smile. He was sincerely amazed that the NPCs were so faithful to the CO background, and simply couldn't help wondering if the emotion he felt about it was the product of his astonishment as the one who had developed the basic A.I. of the game, or as someone who had spent many more hours in the game than in the real world.

(Conquer? somehow sounds so familiar) –for a moment doubts about his own situation left Raven's mind. Whether it was the nature of his present body, or the enormous challenge he had accepted when playing CO that now seemed to become real, Raven simply didn't know the answer. Just... just the excitement of imagining himself in such a situation was simply indescribable.

With the NPCs adopting a stance that would amaze any CO fan, the camp was allowed to relax a bit for dinner.

Raven, accompanied by Freya and Nike, tasted a good stew of meat inside the majestic officers' tent when surprisingly a series of chants were heard outside.

That event interrupted Raven's thoughts, which were focused on his doubts about his present body.

We will never be defeated
Our father is the indomitable
Our god is the invincible
We are Alexander's children
Those who honor the father with war
Those who worship the god with conquest
Conquest! Conquest! Conquest!
Our weapons sing
Conquest! Conquest! Conquest!
Our souls cry out
We will never be defeated
We are Alexander's children

Although the words in the songs were something new, the rhythms were well known to Raven. It was one of the CO songs which served as an epic music during battles.

"It seems the troops are in a very good mood, Raven-sama"

That pulled a smile from Raven's face, for someone who had found refuge in a game like CO, his current situation far from causing him concern, began to turn into something similar to a dream come true.