After the dinner, to summarize my experience it was simply a heated fight on whoever gets control, the king looks at me with a face stating that, ‘betray us and you die’, Then I respond with a defiant face, ‘I don’t care, not my problem if you hate me’.

As we finished our little dinner, we were given time to walk around the walled capital and were also given quite a sum of money consisting of 150 gold coins, the currency is called ‘Lios’. The king said that we were allowed to go wherever we want but our main plan was that we were supposed to go as a group to talk about our future plans and buy our equipment, but I disagreed with the group and went a different route, just to take a stroll on the streets of the capital.

As I was quite curious about not only the city but this world I came to. Though, personally I don’t know why us humans from earth had to be sent to this world, I wanted to die, but I was given a chance by death to live again.

If death himself gave me a chance to live again, doesn’t that mean he doesn’t accept my death?

I mean, to be honest, he was the God of not only death, but also Darkness and the Underworld, they were basically my new home once I die, doesn’t that literally mean I’m not welcome there? Well, not like I care, though this world still carries some aspect of earth like:

Corruption, the working-class are slaves, everybody is hungry for power, money is more important than the lives of others, and more. But in this case there is something that’s added here, that was suppose to be banned a long time ago, and that is:

“Slavery.”

I have been walking in this part of the city for quite sometime and the more I look at my surroundings there are humans with dog and cat ears, they even have tails for some unknown reasons. Their bodies are human but it also has some animal-like features.

Since I’ve started my walk here, I’ve grown quite suspicious here, businessmen that I’ve been passing has multiple of these half-humans, it is obviously forced labor yet why aren’t they at least fighting back? I guess they don’t have rights, they’re slaves.

There was even a part in this road where I saw a half-human getting harassed by bystanders and even her ‘Owner’, but what could I do, I mean I am a guest for the royal family and my standing is basically high, but I can’t meddle in this kingdom’s affair.

The half-humans wore ragged and dirtied clothing, just enough to cover their torso and private parts, they were also basically beaten almost to death if they didn’t work, they receive far more severe and brutal punishments than the slaves in our world, at least we feed them, kind off I wasn't a slave owner how could I know? and maybe we beat them but we have a certain extent.

I continued my walk, passing half-humans and humans of this world, the humans of this world are the same as those on earth, they don’t care what happens to their surroundings, they're greedy and power hungry, they don’t care what happens to others as long as it benefits them

As I continued my stroll in the streets a half-human suddenly stumbled in front of me, blocking my way, it had green hair, it also had a small ball of fur at her butt, I presume, and bunny-like ears at her hair.

“Oy! What’re you doing over there! Goddamn demis, I paid for you, don’t let me think I threw my money down the drain!”

Slavery and this type of occurrence seems to happen daily in the streets of this city, she is literally blocking my way, yet I’m not reacting to this, normally the normal citizen would step on her head or something or throw her to the owner and complain about why the half-human is in front of me.

As I saw her mildly 40s and quite obese owner finally coming to pick her up, he noticed me and sincerely apologized for his ‘slave’s mistake and will punish her accordingly’. Pretext to neither kill her or sold her off.

I nodded back at him and continued my walk, I didn’t seem to have any reaction towards that half-human, she wasn’t entirely human so I couldn’t care less, she is also both treated as a mere tool and malnourished to the point of death, It was the first time I encountered that but I couldn't do anything.

Anyhow, I’ve been walking for quite sometime and my officer’s uniform is quite hogging a lot of attention on the city’s populace it’d be best if I change my shirt for now, but normally I can’t change in commoner’s clothing, because I’m basically a guest of honor towards the king, it’d be best to show him some respect and the nobility also.

My plan was now to find something that can be of use for me in the city, this is a walled-city that is also the capital of a medieval kingdom. So normally inside this city is where large organizations that will be legal and different in the modern day will appear or stationed in.

Maybe organized and legal assassinations maybe also legally building a private army or hiring a large group of mercenaries and an informant or spying organization. This world has their rules and Earth has their own rules, but still. I then finally change the topic of my thoughts and planned to meet with the others.

I better go check on the others, I think they are in the main street, because I heard most of the social-class gathers there.

I was about to turn around before hearing bells rang, they rang loud and clear, it was coming from the walls and I might’ve guessed that it even reached the castle. I was confused, it wasn’t church bells or something of the same type, it was too loud… like a warning bell.

At first, I was dull towards the ringing bells, but then an announcement was heard throughout the entire city, it’s voice filled the streets, echoing through the dirty and stone streets of the walled city.

“Attention, Citizens of Sienna, our mages have detected an abnormal amount of dark mana near the eastern wall of Sienna, we would request for all citizens and workers that are currently in the Eastern section to evacuate.”

It stated, and by how it sounded, it was neither an alarm or a warning sign and this ‘Dark mana’ what the hell does those words even mean? It sounds like something that I watched in a fantasy movie when I was in earth.

“This is a direct order from the king, al-l-l knights and guards at the central and western walls will converge to the east.”

The warning stuttered?

Don’t tell me that signal stuttered, by how it sounded it was about to say the same thing but due to a certain frequency change, a word repeated and stuttered, I was part of the military, that only means they jammed the radio or signal that it came through and change the orders. For a normal civilian or politician, it is barely noticeable, but for radio operators and military officers that had been communicating through radios this is very noticeable.

If my experiences serves me right, as all the guards move to the eastern walls, the western and central walls will be mildly defended… meaning they’re going to attack at the eastern section.

This world is in a different Era, they don’t know anything about radio jamming and radio frequency and the walls also expand for miles away afterall this is a capital, so it must be well defended, if the enemies are monsters and demons this will be a slaughter house.

…especially since there are walls here, there would be no escape…

I needed to hurry, I needed to divert the guards and knights, I need a force powerful enough to hold the eastern wall, but I don’t know any information regarding the monsters, all I could guess is that they are a diverse race of monsters.

As I ran to the central street of the city, to try and at least catch or persuade guards to follow me to the eastern wall, if possible, I also need to encounter the others, Simon, Justin or Addelyne. We’re heroes and our powers are more powerful than the average human here, I can use that to my advantage, but I need an army.

I was calm even though I was overthinking, I just recently came to this world and now I’ll experience war again, this time more bloody and more gruesome than before. That was when I remembered what I thought earlier, Mercenaries.

If I guess right, since the walls are miles long, it would take hours for their attack to commence, since they need the eastern walls to be very weak and currently all of the soldiers that are stationed there are packing and moving to the eastern walls, it would take quite some time.

I have time to hire a number of mercenaries!

I tried searching for buildings that were shady enough for mercenaries to hide in, amidst the massive clump of citizens, I was able to notice a certain alley that two men seemed to have guarded, I had two guesses, neither a strip club or the mercenary organization I’m hoping for.

in the midst of the evacuating crowd that I passed, I walked to the two armed men and asked them:

“is this a mercenary organization?”

Both looked at me suspiciously.

“I need an army and one that doesn’t flee.” I added.

He then looked behind me, as if he hid something from the people behind me, or maybe he was looking behind if there were any guards.

“How much are you willing to pay?”

“Quality is important…”

I replied to their question, he then nodded and opened a small wooden door behind him, it was painted like stone so it was a good concealment plan, from afar it is well hidden and concealed.

We both entered, leaving the other guard to guard the door from the outside, as we walked down some stairs, he asked me what I needed and what I needed them for.

“We have a good hired army down here, they came from different parts of the world, from the north to the south, and from the west to the east, they are complex and war-hardened veteran and professionals.”

He praised the mercenaries that were down the stairs.

“I can offer 100 gold Lios, what can that get me.”

As he heard my offer, he looked back at me in shock and then asked.

“You can have 100 of our best men, from the northern and eastern continents, war-hardened due to civil wars and rebellions, some of them are women and some are children but they can kick ass and kill like an animal.”

He then stated, because of their experience and professionality in this type of warfare, they only work for the highest bidder and one of them cost up to 1 gold Lios.

“Oh, by the way, you have to pay the registration, 15 Gold Lios, out of all the Mercenary organizations, ours is the most secretive and professional in terms of large-scale warfare, we also have only 3 branches continent-wide”

He complimented their organization, but to think this is actually legal, in our world this type of organizations are banned, so most of them are criminal syndicates that can even wage an entire war.

But if the men that I’m getting are charging theirselves for 1 gold Lios, doesn’t that mean they’re the best of the best, quality is important for warfare, and quantity is a large factor for winning, but it all comes down to the decisions of the leader.

As we reach a certain extent at the basement, we reached a tavern-like room, outside, their muffled yells and cheers of celebration were heard even from outside of the room, both of us soon entered the room, and he announced.

“Oy! You got yourselves a commander, he’s paying 1 gold Lios for 1 mercenary.”

He announced, it shocked the group that were once cheering and shouting, drinking and eating, to nothing more than a room filled with statues, that was until:

“Excuse me, but, what kind of work are you giving us? 1 gold Lios, isn’t that a bit overkill for rebellions, if it’s a war maybe I’ll even give you a discount.”

Somebody arrogantly stated amidst the crowd of mercenaries, the guard that escorted me here soon tried calling him out, only to make myself guess wrong, it wasn’t a ‘him’ but a ‘her’

“Old man, I won't let my men die in a boring rebellion, we came here to fight in large-scale types of warfare, pitched battles, naval landings, sieges, I thought that was what you offered us.”

She said to the man that escorted me, as she stood atop one of the tables revealing herself, she had long red hair that was in a roped braided hairstyle, perfect for close combat.

“Young man, your paying quite a large sum, what do you even want me and my men to do? We are a band of veterans and professionals, we won’t accept if it’s a simple rebellion.”

This arrogant girl…

“We’ll be going to the western wall.”

I straightforwardly said to her, to which she responded back.

“Ho, but isn’t the most logical decision is to go to the eastern wall to help the soldiers?”

She lectured me, as if she had been fighting for a long time, even though I was just an officer for a few years it was like a decade of war, they fought using blades and arrows, I fought using guns and bullets, they fought in the grassy fields and rich plains, I fought in hell.

“Ever heard of deception?”

I countered her lecture, to which she gave a smirk back at me.

“I see, fine then, if there isn’t anything good at the eastern wall we will charge you double, but if something happens we will gladly fight for free, Ain’t that right Boys!”

She raied her hand in a fist and looked behind her to which her group replied with doing the exact same thing, they raised their fist in the air and did a battle cry or yell.

“Now then, Sir, why don’t we start our walk? I’ll give you all of my men, consisting of 200 war-hardened veterans, I’m Anja, nice to meet you.”

***

“Commander, at least most of the western guards are moved to the eastern wall we only have a limited amount of guards here.”

“Don’t worry, newbie, it’s all right, it’s better to leave this wall, we need to protect the citizens and his highness, if one of the walls break it’s game over.”

Two guards, a commander and a recruit conversed, to which they saw the 200-armed men and women walking towards their wall, with Theo and Anja at the front.

The guard was confused as he didn’t receive an order from command yet there was a group of 200 men heading towards them. The commander immediately walked towards Theo who he thought was a noble because he was wearing his officer’s uniform, which was similar to that of a noble’s attire and interrogated him, why are there soldiers here?

Theo replied:

“Don’t worry, we’ll be waiting here, if you need help, we’re just right here.”

The guard confused at his reply, but still complied since he was quite short in hands and accepted his aid for free.

Theo, Anja and her men soon waited for almost an entire day, what Anja said was true, not a single of her men complained about the long wait, they were truly a professional force.

We waited in the middle of the night and as the sun finally set, a wave of portals appeared at the eastern wall, the portals sized varied but most were small and most of them were near the wall, so it was basically a portal on the wall, they just walk through the portal and all hell will break loose on the walls, but it wasn’t what I expected, it was too few, to attack a capital they need at least more portals to transport men without bogging down or getting held up.

“Well, what’dya know all the fun stuff are happening in the east there, Sir Theo?”

Somethings smells fishy, they’ve been fighting for too long but the enemy forces are too few, they can’t peirce the walls, there are still men…

“They’re exhausting our men by limiting their attacks, because of this reserve personnel will have to be moved to the eastern wall, leaving the western wall vulnerable!”

I murmured, except for the last part since I finally got a conclusion.

[You did a good guess, human, but it’s too late now…]

I heard a sudden voice near my ear, like a whisper, a whisper from a devil.

That was when I looked back at me to only see a red moon, but if I was right there were only two moons, a violet and blue one, why is there a red moon?

“A blood moon… this can’t be possible!?”

Anja was also shocked and yelled, she soon signaled her men and all of them immediately stationed their selves at the walls, holding their axes and spears in their hands, prepared for combat.

“This is supposed to only be a 10-year occurrence, the last one was just 4 years ago, how can there be another!”

She reported, she then looked at me with a serious expression.

“Can you fight and command? You’re a noble so you must’ve have at least a plan?”

No, no I don’t…

But I can’t tell her that, I just need to do it on the spot, it’s better to fight as it is happening rather than planning for something that won’t surely happen.

I just nodded in response and she soon gave me hand axe tied on her waist and as I took it from her hand, the bright white light of the moon turned to blood red as I looked up at the sky, I only saw nothing but a large red and violet portal that was spinning in a clockwise manner, it was all alone but it’s sized was a problem, with just its size it can transport thousands in short amounts of time.

“A… Portal…”