My semi-secret identity would give me a divine mandate for representing God’s Will. If I found something I didn’t like in the Church I would be able to change it with minimum internal interference. Such indirect solutions would maintain the so called dignity of a god.

Again, was there anything left to do? I would get henchmen for the party down there..

I guess it was time to get going.

I was quite nervous and angsty.

I rechecked straps on my light armor.

Opening the map of Ythall I have almost picked location inside the city, but stayed my hand in time. It would be weird to appear in the middle of people just like that.

I haven’t spoken to another human in quite a while. Some way from town there was a sizable forest. A rock-paved tract cut it into two unequal halves.

I searched the map for hostiles. I don’t want to get ganked by a horned rabbit or two-horned one. Most definitely not the tri-horned one. No gangster rabbits on my first day. Let’s keep it nice and slow.

I found the area of the road with no one in sight range.

I teleported there.

Silent seas of green surrounded me. I breathed in the smell of the pines and sated my eyes with the sights. It was refreshing after white and sterile Heavens. I have swallowed my spit and sound returned to me. Beautiful birdsong resounded. My ears must have been blocked due to pressure difference.

God Me, I might have turned into a hikikomori or a good for nothing NEET. Is being a god considered a proper job?

I got out a walking stick from inventory with some ridiculous stats and started marching forward.

Then I had to change the direction as I had picked it wrongly.

Give me a huzzah for minimap!

No one?

I guess diary’s audience is quite tough one these days.

A small volume trader on a single horse cart passed me by without a word. The human was female and the horse – I did not know its gender.

The only greeting I received was a plume of dust.

Should I smite her? Should I?

Nah, I’m a good god!

Then another merchant walking alongside pack horse also overtook me.

- Hi there, fellow traveler! – I spoke.

After a single glance I was ignored again.

On a side note this tradesperson was also female.

I was quite pissed now.

Is every Thropian a rude oaf? Is every Thropian a female? Isn’t merchantry dominated by males usually?

After a while, in the future, I would find out that the local custom was not to ever stop for an armed traveler. Unless your desire is to get mugged and quite possibly raped.

At the current time though I glowed red with rage.

Maybe it was due to the fact that even after becoming a god I was still being treated like a roadside shit by strangers.

I kicked a loose rock off the road. It went sideways smashing into a tree. The damage was astonishing.

It seem like I have overcheated while upgrading my body.

I would have to get used to my new mortal shell.

I continued to trod along the tract until finally the trees started to get more and more sparse. I saw the first glimpses of huge city walls in the distance.

Ythall.

Remaining part of the journey was uneventful. There were no monsters nor bandit ambushes.

I went up to the gatehouse guarded by four guards.

Unfortunately no one was being inspected at the gate currently. I did not know what the local procedures entailed.

I decided on acting like a clueless villager. I quickly checked the name of a nearby village and approached the guardhouse adjacent to the gate.

- Hullo! I would like to payeth a visit to your citeh. Heard there were procydures?

The refreshingly male guards looked at me like I was a village idiot. That was precisely my aim!

They continued looking flabbergasted and for a while were quite speechless.

I grinned with a smug full of satisfaction.

Then they started talking among themselves and it was now me, that turned speechless. I could not understand a single word.

Language.

I forgot to learn any of the surface languages.

I contacted my Throne and ordered it to give the same language skill locals had.

Fortunately the translation magic embedded into the Hero Summoning System was already developed to rapidly inject the language into the user.

When they spoke again in my general direction I was able to understand them perfectly.

- What language are talking in? Do you know Velian?

- We should go get captain, boss. He knows Inubarashi and some profanities in Ylnar.

- Excuse me, gentlemen! I understand Velian quite well. Forgive my earlier mishap. I wasn’t aware this was territory of the fair Kingdom of Velia. See, I found myself teleported to an unfamiliar place after stepping on a trap in a dungeon.

I was astonished in my prowess to cook up such a story in short time. I had almost no ability to tell (convincing) lies before. It helped that there was some truth to it. I was sumo-napped over a month ago after all. There was no dungeon involved.

- Huh, that’s a relief.

- That’s quite bad, Hugh. The poor lad got himself stranded far from home. Don’t be uncouth!

Abandoning clueless villager persona was the right choice as the pair of front guards would fill in the blanks in my backstory. Their imagination must be fueled by the constant boredom of their repetitive job.

- Lad do you have any money on you for the gate fee and lodgings?

- You could try temporary enslavement contract if you lost your stuff.

Now instead of buying a slave, they were suggesting for me to become one? What irony! That is definitely not how the isekais adventure should go by!

- Our guard could use someone experienced like you. Ever since the queen arrived with her biyearly visit we are ever so understaffed.

My god, me, they are a walking plot exposition devices! No thanks, no. I will not get involved in any royalty business. Period. Nobles are too troublesome. Royals are troublesome squared.

- Thanks, but I have my purse with a few coins. I had lost my documents though. Is that a problem in Velia?

- No, not at all – said the one called Hugh.

- Are you a spy? – said the boss guard almost at the same time.

- God, no! Why would you think I was a spy?

- Sorry it stands in the procedure. Had to ask.

- Well. I am not a spy. You should also realize that if I were a spy I would not be foolish to admit it when asked. You might want to change that procedure.

- Aren’t spies bound by their honor?

I was truly astonished by their gullibility. Maybe Thropians were truly honorable? Probably not.

- I do not know about that. Don’t spies like lie all their life or something?

- Traveler, what boss meant is just formality. For those without issued document there is still the Orb of Justice. It will cost extra each time so I suggest getting documents issued soon.

- How much, good guard, would that cost me?

- Gate fee is medium bronze for non-merchants, checkup with Orb costs another five small bronze and document issuing is three large bronze at the gate. In total three large and ten small or 85 monies.

That totally did not add up. So much for learning how each nominal was worth. 5*SB+MB+3*LB=85 somethings. No, the medium was worth 5 small ones. Yay. 10SB+3LB=85 monies. Whatever the monie is.

- You don’t look like having any merchandise on you anyway.

- Ok, I seem to have that much. Can you exchange from silver pieces? I have only a handful of bronze.

I asked for exchange because I wanted to learn the exchange rates. I already knew that bronzes were messed up. There was no x10 jump between those coin tiers.

- Alright let’s go inside the house. Hugh, stay at the gate.

- Yes, sir!

He fixed up his halberd and saluted clumsily.

We stepped into the building.

Naked-brick walls and small closed window slits suggested it was defensive structure, even if only a temporary refuge. Upon a stone table in a corner surrounded from three sides by those walls sat The Artifact. AR revealed its name to be “Status Checker (Crimes & Bounties)”. The so called “Orb of Justice” was clearly an incorrect pet name. Moreover calling it an orb..

It was a cubic piece with somewhat rounded edges – probably due to overuse through centuries.

I could feel a very faint Divinity leaking from it.

Boss guard asked me to put hands on the artifact. As I followed those instructions an impoverished status board was displayed on the wall. It spelled the name I have picked up – Lynx – as well as columns for crimes and bounties. They would further be separated into social groups whom were offended by the crime or from whom the bounty was issued. High crimes and sins committed that would not fit under any country’s jurisdiction would fall under Heavens. Very rarely Heavens would issue a bounty.

All of this was what I learned afterwards as currently I had both columns completely empty of information. This made the guard suspicious of me. Apparently adventurers with clean records were rare. Even killing a bandit would be recorded, though local authorities would usually “pardon” such acts and even pay out hefty bounties.

I explained myself, that, while I have certainly defended myself on the roads a few times, I have never taken a fellow human life. After giving me a long scrutinizing look he wrote me an identification and stamped it with seal of Ythall’s City Guard.

I paid the three mentioned fees reluctantly.

Ain’t it nice (for royalty) to tax me 3 times just for entering a city I could teleport to for free? Though from now on I would only have to pay the gate fee alone. That is until full year will have passed and my identification had to be renewed.

By the way older guard took small silver coin from my hand, which I had both few small and middle ones. Deception level maximum. He used some kind of abacus to calculate the change. It took him long time until I was finally returned with 6 large bronze and 3 medium ones. 1 SS – 85 monies = 6*LB+3*MB or 6*LB+15*SB..

I input the last two equations into AR note. There was still not enough equations to determine anything.

Afterwards we reunited in front of the gate with mister Hugh, the guard and I took the opportunity to bombard them with a flurry of questions. Some I asked just for the heck of it, like directions to a good inn or blacksmith. I inquired on the stuff I had already known – like the city name or the presence of any local dungeons. The other things like local adventuring jobs etc. were more interesting. It wasn’t like I couldn’t figure them later out on my own though.

Mini-map and Throne Search Engine were just that overpowered as a cheats.

I had to keep pretenses. The guards were already suspicious of me! Even a social potato like me would be able to feel that.

Adventuring in Valia was regulated and government-sanctioned industry. Jobs could only be requested or taken from the Guild. I guess this is golden standard for all isekais. Adventurer guilds are a staple of isekais after all.

I walked slowly through the gate. It seemed to not as busy as I had expected.

I queried Throne for the local time. It was about the middle of blue hour. That was the ‘exact’ answer it gave. I kid you not. I should have expected that. Clocks are probably expensive for Valians. I queried again the converted time and added both notations to a newly requested calendar function of AR user interface.

Both the Velian calendar and day division were frankly ridiculous. I won’t bother to learn them unless absolutely necessary! There were 8 portions of the day, each lasting about 180 minutes. Day was close enough to 24 Earth-hours. That was enough to know for me. There were probably shorter time intervals than Thrope-hour.

I recall from history books there hourglasses, candles and prayers being used to measure time in Earth’s middle ages. I guess I would convert units as it goes.

The funny thing with the calendar.. it appears it was still the latter half of the night back on Earth. The very day I was abduct.. isekaied. I made a mental note to look at the Earth’s time in the future. It was either dragging forth very slowly or was stopped completely. Time difference between worlds was a common trope of ancient fairytales.

Now, locally, Velia was enjoying what I could identify as a middle of the day.

The villagers with their produce must still be selling it, while traveling merchants must have already left. That’s probably why the streets are so empty. I do not think it was also the main gate. The road basically lead to a forest for a long time. No one other than the traders would trod upon it.

Few passersby I have encountered were very fantasy and middle-agery, even the young’uns. I saw an elf, a pair of fat midgets and a skinny midget!

They even have midgets!

What?

What is that skinny one doing to fat one? Is that public molestation? No, she is stealing his purse!

I was shocked.

After a while I have managed to stutter:

- Hey, you! Stop that!

The fat midget pair reacted to that. The thief also did trying to get away.

The torn purse spilled its contents on the ground. There were golden and silver coins.

A wealthy merchant perhaps? His attire suggested a more violent job type.

He quickly caught up with her despite her initial head-start advantage.

The gate guards heard the commotion. After watching the scene, they got up to questioning the witnesses.

- Folks, this is a mere formality. Has anyone witnessed anything? Other than the parties directly involved?

- I have – I said – That lass tried to steal his coin purse.

- Alright. Hugh, count the coins.

- Umm, boss?

- Yes? – he said with a tired voice.

- I can’t count that many.

- God Almighty!

He exhaled than turned to me.

- Could you count the coins?

- Alright, but I don’t know the local exchange rates between such high nominals like silver and gold.

At this point I hoped it would not be too weird for a foreigner to not know that. Even if my purse had some Velian currency..

- Just counting them would do, please.

So I did gather them. There were 17 small and 8 large silver plus 4 small gold coins. When I presented the results, in exchange the older guard shared with me the exchange rates.

10 kesh, which was another name for small silvers was equal to 1 large silver. Small gold (a gulden) was equal to 100 keshes. 100 SS = 10 LS = 1 SG for short.

That extra names and this whole monetary system was weird.

At least silvers and small gold were multiples of 10.

I was quite glad I asked about that nonchalantly. At least no one will cheat me a silver change.

I was getting closer to know the complete monetary system. Than it struck me. I should put all the equations to the Throne for solving. There was still to many unknowns, but I could add more to those later.

Unfortunately the Throne was quite cranky today.

Instead of calculating, which was simply mathematically impossible, due to reasons above, it simply spat out all the exchange rates up to whitegold coinage.

Well..

 

I have added the last column myself. It was empty. Throne did not bother to fill it up for me.

- That gives 497 keshes.

- That was fast! – exclaimed Hugh.

I felt like I have one-upped Affection score of Hugh. Never going down that route, though.

Also it wasn’t fast! Not really. I spend whole minute thinking about unrelated stuff, you know?!

- God I hate this job – said the boss guard.

I hear you, mate. All the hate, I can relate. Yo. It’s tough being a god these days, ya know?

He approached the thief and took her left arm from under the fat armored midget.

- Under the Kingdom Law, by the hand of Ythall Guardmen, I convict you for the crime of high robbery. The convict attempted at stealing goods that equated above one gulden or hundred keshes. The punishment for such crime is decreed as a loss of hand. Convict is allowed to choose, which hand will be cut off. You may request for hot iron for the wound, Which hand do you prefer to lose?

His monologue was totally devoid of emotion.

- I am sorry! Please forgive me. I did not intend to steal that much. Have mercy, I beg you..

- Master Dwarf, do you intend to show mercy?

- I do not.

- Beg you!

- Brat, had I 3 keshes more or were a noble you might have lost more than a hand. Try to live more honestly and that stump will remind you of that.

That was pretty hardcore. I understood why the guard hated his job. It was not some fantasy midget, but a kid.

This was a moral dissonance for me. Should I intervene? Who am I to judge their laws? I mean I know I am their God.. from such perspective.. hang in there kid. The more you atone for your sins during life, the less time in hell your soul will spend.

It was painful to look at her crying when reluctant guard cut off her hand with his halberd.

She jerked before the blade fell. In result the cut was not clean.

Boss guard cursed and cut again.

There was a lot of blood pouring from the wound.

Guards offered her hot iron, but she scrambled to her feet and run away screaming.

Out of the Throne spell library I casted a healing spell. I did not know how effective it would be at such a distance. The poor girl did not stop nor were there any magical fireworks. My divinity and mana took a small decrease. The AR screen of the girl was showing she was no longer loosing Health Points (HP).

The crowd slowly dispersed.

Boss told Hugh to take care of the severed hand.

The only thing remaining on the street was a puddle of blood and me standing there, still gawking.

I realized I might attract unwanted attention to myself by standing there and left.

I queried for the hand the guard took. It was being thrown into fire. Just in case I meet that thief again I have teleported it back to the storage before it burned. I marked the thief on mini-map.