MILITARY - ROMANCE - ISEKAI - KINGDOM BUILDING
The thousand-year-old Imperium is crumbling, and war looms on the horizon, bringing with it both brutalities and splendor. Caught in the midst of this chaos is Lansius, an office grunt and veteran MMO player who has been transformed into a medieval peasant. With no wealth, status, or magical abilities, and armed only with his basic knowledge of the art of war, can he endure and thrive in this realistic medieval fantasy realm? Follow Lansius as he moves from one occupation to another, striving to survive during these turbulent times.
What to expect:
- Male Lead
- Slowburn character growth to greatness
- No linear progression, filled with unforeseen events
- Military, Army building, Strategy, Dynasty building, Slice of life, Ruling Class
Book I is Stubbed. It's a 2 years old project, it's time to publish.
I can only leave a few chapters as previews. Thank you, and sorry for Stubbing.
Book I - Horizon of War
Preorder for Ebook in Amazon
Preorder is available for Paperback and Audible
Chapter 1 Preview
Orbis Alius
Water drizzled from the metal cans that Lansius carried with the help of a wooden pole. As he passed, the soil around the green vegetable patches grew darker. A strong earthy scent rose as the ground received more moisture.
Despite having done this dozens of times, he couldn’t help but think that he could’ve done it faster if he had sneakers or boots. Alas, all he got was a sad-looking medieval leather shoe with hardened soles.
"Lans, are your legs getting wobbly already?" Marc teased from the well.
Lansius chuckled and returned to the well for a refill, but suddenly lunged his wooden pole at Marc.
"Hah!" Marc parried with his pitchfork and launched a counter sweep.
Lansius blocked it, and the two engaged in a friendly spar, with Marc easily blocking and dodging Lansius' slow swings, taunting him all the while.
After a few more attempts, Lansius finally threw his arms up. "No more… hard to breathe."
Marc didn't even break a sweat; Lansius' attacks only managed to mess up his disheveled short brown hair. Having been trained to wield a polearm, a simple pitchfork posed no challenge for him. "Seems like the master soldier wannabe has poor stamina," he taunted with a smirk.
"Quiet, you," Lansius chuckled breathlessly.
Marc picked up the wooden pole, refilled the metal cans, and continued to water their family plot. Slowly but surely, he covered all their spring vegetables. Their livelihood depended on it.
Unlike the previous year, Lansius could now help with the work. However, he could only do so much before becoming sluggish and exhausted. Nonetheless, he found satisfaction in knowing that he wasn't a freeloader anymore.
"Marc, is there - no other work?" he asked in broken language as they cleaned up.
Marc grinned. "Easier work for you, bro?"
Lansius could only nod. He had yet to master the language well enough to argue.
"Still won't do the wool shop?"
Oof, anything but that...
Lansius shook his head.
Marc snickered. "You can't cook, can't do carpentry, and can't write. So either the wool shop or the tannery."
The thought of working in the tannery made Lansius' stomach churn. Tanneries used urine and manure to treat leather, and even blood, brains, and other animal waste in their process.
"Well, at least you're a freeman," Marc said to cheer him up.
"Freeman?" Lansius learned a new word and sort of guessed its meaning.
"Yeah, unlike us, you can go wherever you want and find work elsewhere."
Lansius furrowed his brows. "You - not free?"
"Well, we could be if we paid our debts. The land, the house, and the tools are provided by the Lord. But we needed money to fix things, buy clothes, or build new fences," Marc explained.
Lansius grew worried. This was the first time he'd heard about this problem.
"No worries. It's only a small sum," Marc reassured him. "But at this rate..."
Lansius followed Marc's gaze and understood the situation. They were planting on not even a quarter of the allotted land. Moreover, the yield was small, and vegetables held little value.
"Oi, don't give me that look," Marc said. "It's true that we're in debt, but we're not planning to move, so it's fine."
"You like it here?" Lansius asked, looking at the vast green meadows.
"Yep, father brought us here when we were little. It's far from the capital, but much safer from war," Marc said, recalling a fond memory of his late father.
The wind blew softly, causing their loose, off-white tunics to flutter, offering a soothing sensation. As spring neared its end, the breeze carried a distinctive fragrance and a touch of aridity.
"Marc! Lans!" a little girl called from outside the field.
"Tanya, why are you here?" Marc, the girl's brother, asked.
Tanya grinned from ear to ear and announced, "Mother bought meat from the market."
"Whoops, gotta go." Marc quickly gathered his tools and sprinted home.
"Aiyo," Lansius protested. He lacked the stamina to chase after Marc, so he took his time cleaning up. His stomach growled at the thought of the missed opportunity. Meat was a rare treat. When Mother Arryn bought some, it was usually just bones for broth, with very little actual meat.
By the time Lansius finished, the sun had turned completely orange, sitting low on the horizon. As he walked home, he spotted Tanya waiting behind the wooden fence. Her golden hair shone brightly against the backdrop of the sunset. She was the only blonde in the village, as the rest, including her brother and mother, had brown hair.
"Tanya, why didn't you go with Marc?" he asked, trying to recall his vocabulary.
"I'd rather walk home with you," she replied with a grin, revealing her missing tooth.
Lansius couldn't help but chuckle. He genuinely enjoyed Tanya's company. Of the three people he knew in this world, she was the closest to him, the one who had kept him sane during the lowest point of his life.
"Hey, let's talk about something. Hmm, have you got your memory back?" she suddenly asked.
"Eh, umm... no, I remember some things, but not much."
"Aww, I really want to hear what your home and village look like." Like other kids, Tanya was curious about the world outside Bellandia.
"Maybe after I learn to speak more."
"You're doing well. Last year, you only talked with hand signals," she said, smiling sweetly.
Unable to resist her charm any longer, Lansius stopped, knelt down, and gestured for her to climb onto his back for a piggyback ride.
"Yay!" She hopped on and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"Uff, you - heavier," he muttered.
Tanya laughed, pressing her knees as if riding a horse. In reality, she was underweight like many other children in the village.
Lansius obeyed and started jogging. He adored the little girl.
When Lansius found himself in this unknown place the previous year, he was severely ill and nearly died. No one rushed him to a hospital or administered first aid. Not knowing the language or his location, he could only assume he had had an accident in a rural part of the world.
After recovering, he realized something unbelievable had occurred. No matter where he looked, there were no light bulbs in Bellandia—no wall clocks or even tissues. The place that resembled the medieval era was indeed from the Middle Ages.
Even worse, his entire past identity had become hazy. He could recall movie plots and books, even The Art of War he had been studying for some reason, and knew he had graduated and worked. But not a single personal name came to mind. No family faces, no memory of his hometown, or even his own name.
The only name that remained was a nickname he had used in realistic-themed online games: Lansius. He had used that name to lead countless players in online battles and felt comfortable being called by it, but he never expected to use the name in reality.
For someone raised in the modern age, the prospect of living in a medieval era seemed bleak, filled with wars, plagues, and backbreaking labor. Lansius became depressed, barely eating, and suffering from a series of fevers. There was little hope for him if not for Tanya.
The little girl cared for him and kept him engaged with her curiosity. Gradually, her words became familiar, and he began to open up, trusting her to keep him moving forward.
***
The season changed, and summer arrived in Bellandia. Even in the heartland of the Arvena highland, the sun blazed hot, though tempered by the cool mountain breeze. Farmers who had cultivated their land sought shelter in their homes during this time of the year, tending to tasks such as fixing tools and mending clothes.
The land surrounding the village ripened with yellowing crops, just a season away from harvest. Unlike crop farmers, vegetable farmers operated on shorter timetables, planting and replanting multiple times throughout the year. Consequently, Mother Arryn's family continued working during this unforgiving season.
Lansius also lent a hand on the farm today, but after two hours of hard work, he was soaked in sweat and had to stop. He leaned against the cool stone well, groaning as his body ached in the shade of its roof.
So hot... damn it... just unbelievable.
"Ha, told you," Marc exclaimed from beneath his large straw hat.
"Leave him alone and help me with this," Mother Arryn called out.
With a resigned sigh, Marc returned to work under the relentless heat of the sun.
This is so pathetic... at this rate, I'll be depending on them forever.
Lansius observed Marc and Arryn. Despite the heat, they diligently tended to the cabbage and turnip plots, weeding and replanting as needed.
This was Lansius' second year, so he thought he had what it takes to help them. However, the summer sun was nothing like the mildness of spring. The humidity, intensity, and heat easily overwhelmed him. He had tried several times, but always ended up with a nosebleed or a fever.
I need a different job. Something other than manual labor if I want to stand on my own.
"You're probably better off accompanying Tanya in the wool shop?" Arryn suggested, cleaning the hem of her brown working gown from dirt as they finished for the day.
"Maybe..." Lansius answered indifferently while tidying up the tools. His palms ached, but he wanted to help.
Lansius' stubbornness led Arryn to believe he was being too hard on himself, while Marc thought that, despite being unfit for farming, Lansius was too proud to accept a woman's job.
The wool shop, true to its name, was a place where wool was dyed and spun into yarn. Although Lansius didn't mind this kind of work, the pay was meager, and the shop primarily served as a gathering place for village housewives to chat and gossip while working. As an introvert, it would be his worst nightmare.
Arryn and Marc allowed Lansius to make his own decision. Despite their struggles, they didn't rely on his help. Though he was the same height as Marc, Lansius had softer arms and more delicate hands. He ate sparingly and was picky, especially about boiled water for drinking, but mostly took care of himself. While there were areas where he needed help, they weren't too serious.
As the sun began to set, the three fetched Tanya from the wool shop and headed home.
That night, Lansius felt a fever coming on and needed ointment for his blistered hand. Tanya applied a thin layer of salve on his injured palms and distracted him from his worries by sharing stories she'd heard at the shop.
While Lansius felt inadequate, the other family members were grateful for his efforts. He was learning the language and showing his willingness to help. Moreover, Marc was old enough to answer the Lord of Arvena's call, and small farmers like them were required to fulfill military services instead of paying taxes. When selected, men from the village would follow the Lord into battle for up to four months each year. In those times, Arryn would work alone. Lansius' presence provided Marc some peace of mind.
However, Lansius couldn't see it that way. His inability to work like the other men disheartened him. Even without a complete memory, he knew his old life was paradise in comparison. He felt that medieval farming was nothing less than cruel, and the term "backbreaking" seemed like an overstatement until he experienced it firsthand. That night, like many other nights when beset by illness, he vowed to escape the farming life.
***
The wet season arrived, and drizzle fell almost every day. Winter was still a month away, but the chill in the air was enough to penetrate one's bones.
“Gah,” Lansius panted as they endured the cold, light rain.
“A bit more, keep it up,” Marc encouraged him.
The two were carrying firewood for the village chief. Marc carried a stack of wood on each shoulder, while Lansius managed only one.
“I-is there no other job?” Lansius asked. His shoulder ached and his hips burned.
“Heh, you’re still asking about that?” Marc teased.
Lansius exhaled deeply.
Easy for him to say. I don’t want muscle-head's jobs.
Unfortunately, most jobs were manual labor. While there were some other trades, they were typically passed down from father to son and too small-scale to require additional help.
“Move it fast, lads. It’s getting wet,” urged the old man in dry, thick clothes as soon as he saw them approaching. In contrast, the two youngsters wore only two layers of coarse garments.
The two quickened their pace and hurriedly entered an old but sturdy-looking wooden shed. The place belonged to the village chief, who was wealthy enough to have a separate shed for storing firewood.
Both carefully dropped their stacks of wood on the floor and panted heavily. They had jogged to avoid getting wet but still ended up drenched.
“Took you too long,” the chief complained as he fretted about the firewood getting wet. Nothing surprising there - he was known to be rude, senile, and cheap. Marc only took the job because the chief’s wife always shared some food.
But before they could claim their reward...
“Hey, where are you two going? Stack them first, neatly,” he ordered.
Marc and Lansius groaned but turned around and stacked the firewood as requested. Unlike the small branches they used in their home, the ones they stacked were thick logs that were properly dried. These logs were smokeless and burned longer.
When the two were done, the chief scratched his head, seemingly puzzled.
“What’s the matter?” Lansius asked while rubbing his hands for warmth.
“Tsk- it’s nothing. I just forgot to count them before stacking. Now it’s hard to count.”
“The logs? Why, it’s thirty-six,” Lansius answered flatly.
The chief immediately looked at Lansius with doubt. Even Marc, who was busy cleaning his clothes from wood chips, watched with suspicion.
Hold on, why give me the look?
“I-it’s only six and six…” Lansius explained while searching his vocabulary for the exact word for multiply. He couldn’t find it and started to realize what went wrong.
"You can multiply without using a table?" Marc asked in disbelief.
"Y-yes," Lansius replied, realizing that in this era, people relied on multiplication tables for calculations. The use of numerals similar to Roman numerals made calculation even more challenging.
They can't multiply..? But of course! They have no formal education... This might be my way out. To think it's math and not something groundbreaking like making gunpowder or antibiotics.
Marc looked ecstatic, but the chief wasn't convinced. Even he, along with most merchants and several farmers, knew how to calculate without using a table. So he challenged, "Try to calculate how many legs three horses have. You can use—"
“Twelve,” Lansius blurted out without trying.
His answer startled the old man. “Eleven plus seven?”
“Eighteen.”
The old man continued to furrow his brows. “How about, if five goat each give birth to three baby goat, how many total baby goat are there?"
“Fifteen baby goat,” Lansius answered with a grin.
The chief was furiously engaged in finger-counting. In this method, each finger represented up to four units, corresponding to its three joints and the fingertip. He used his thumb as a pointer to keep track. With this technique, using all eight fingers, he could easily calculate up to 32 units—sufficient to count the days of a month.
When he arrived at the same result, he became slightly frustrated. He had always prided himself on being the cleverest one in the village, but this was his limit. Now, after witnessing Lansius calculate without needing a table or fingers, he was taken aback.
"Young man, have you regained your memory? Are you perhaps an apprentice to a merchant?" The old man's tone was less rude than usual.
Lansius shivered, not from the cold, but from the realization that this could be his ticket out.
***
STOP! Before you comment that the math problem is impossibly easy and cheapens the story: This is a historical facts. The beauty of modern education is that schoolchildren can master mental multiplication, but in the medieval era, this method was not known by many and certainly not by a village chieftain. More source and other information is in the spoiler.
1. Historically, while there are highly educated people who could to advanced mathematics (philosophers, great teacher of their time), but they didn’t represent the general populace. Keep in mind that education is reserved for nobility, not the common people. For transaction, etc merchants used multiplication tables, such as this surviving piece.
A multiplication table decorated with fish and animals in colours and gold (British Library, Harley MS 549, f. 14r, detail)
2. We also know that the educated class are taught to calculate using their fingers, not mental multiplication.
Mathematical diagrams dating from the 11th century (BnF, Latin 10251, f. 41r)
3. The literary rate in ancient and medieval era is around 5 to 15%. In fact, up to 19th century the world literary rate is still abysmal.
From a historical perspective, literacy levels for the world population have risen drastically in the last couple of centuries. While only 12% of the people in the world could read and write in 1820,
https://ourworldindata.org/literacy
4. Additionally, about the numbers itself.
One thing we know from perusal of ancient and rare extracts was that, in fact, mathematical logic was not really common....The common scholar cannot possibly understand why multiplication was hard for the peasants who tried to learn it around the time of Alciun, but the reason is a calculation looked like this: XX-IX/V
Roman numerals were crazy hard to work with. https://www.quora.com/Did-common-people-in-the-Middle-Ages-know-how-to-multiply/answer/Nelson-McKeeby?ch=10&oid=275406627&share=cbe54dc9&target_type=answer
5. There's also this bit which I found interesting.
Samuel Pepys (who lived centuries later) was counted as a great mathematician in his day, because he mastered long division. Today every school child above about the age of 12 have mastered this. But back then it was a rare skill. At about the same, Newton and Leibnitz were simultaneously inventing calculus for the very first time.
... some mathematicians could handle long multiplication. And even reasonably intelligent folk could tell that if you gave 4 people 5 groats each then that came to 20 groats. But most of the common folk would have been illiterate and probably only partially numerate.
Tanya grinned from ear to ear
Stop, I'll get war flashbacks
Deus lo Vult.
Was reading some works about(ancient-not modern) sheep herders they had to count 100's of sheep to make sure they didnt lose track of any. especially lambs
indeed you're right. this is a plot point in a later chapter. military scouts are usually taken from herder because they can count fast. but villagers stop having that ability as they grew sedentary. also, herder doesn't use multiplication but gets used to calculating fast, big numbers, and in an orderly fashion
@Hanne Fascinating!!!
I love historic novels, and this one seem great, especially because of the attention to historical facts from the get go, the last good "historical" novel I had read was Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece, and although it is one of those where the MC advance relatively fast technologically as his advancement are mostly political and not exaggerated, it's a great story, a little sad it takes a good amount of time to get an update, so I am waiting to get a lot of chapters to read again.
scribble hub is finally blessed with another good author
you're too kind, hopefully the story is as good as you expected
Hello
Just to ask some things to decide if i will start this novel
Will mc learn magic later
Is he reincarnated or transmigrated
Will he have a love interest
Will this story have explicit sexual content
Is mc a whimp against girls
Will there be multiple love interest or single
Will mc start his own kingdom
looks like he'll be on our minus list bruh 😂. I am out
no to magic, no to transmi, yes love interest, yes explicit, no to whimp, can't answer, yes he start something
however, I'm not sure the story is a fit. this is strictly historical story.
This story looks cool, I like these themes
Metal buckets are not suitable for the Middle Ages, even if it is fantasy. Metal will go for anything, but definitely not for buckets. Weapons, armor, siege engines, shipbuilding, construction, plows, warehouses, pots and pans, that's where the metal will go and in that order. But no one would be so crazy as to make buckets, much less canisters, for carrying water with limited supplies of metal, the extraction of which literally takes lives.
In a sense, the presence of metal buckets for carrying water is synonymous with a deeply progressing industrial revolution. Since only during this period the world began to mine so much metal that people had to look for where to spend it.
yes, historically it should be clay pots or leather bags. however, as you can see in the early chapters, they use iron coins as the lowest denomination. meaning iron is in abundance. thus, nails and iron objects are more accessible, or less expensive than medieval-earth. If even iron is cheap, then other objects such as pewter logically are cheaper.
This is something to differentiate the real world and this fantasy world. I'm not writing time travel fantasy, but portal fantasy. thank you.
Disagree with point 3. Depending overall on location and time period, literacy rates varied widely. Also one was not considered literate unless they could read and write government and/or religious documents. It was not uncommon for one to only be able to read. Or could read and write in native language. Most of Britons history, important documents were in French or Latin and not English, for example. Finally today we only consider one literate if they known over 5-10k words. A medeval peasant could usually recognize 100 to 500 words. Although they might not be able to write or even pronounce them.
That makes the 5-15% literacy rates ment that percentage of the population that could fully read and write at least 2 if not 3 languages. Native, Latin and Greek being common in ancient times and either French, German, or Italian with Latin and Native in more recent times.
If we apply that same standard to today, we still are at around 5% literacy rate as most people can't write Latin or Greek. Or perhaps 15% as most are unable to read the legalese many government documents are written in. Joking aside literacy is a difficult topic to assign a single number to over a broad time or area. As even today if one can't spell correctly but still understand the words would be considered illiterate. While correct spelling and punctuation is a very recent, late 19th century, formal education thing.
ah, just like how Justinian is an Emperor but he cannot read legal documents, because his formal old latin isn't that great. make sense
@Hanne just a fun fact, by the 16th century Koreans literacy was abnormally high. The reason for this was because of King Sejong the Great, who invented Hangul, one of the easiest writing systems in the world. Also a unique person in that he heavily endorsed education and scientific progress, rare for people in the 15th century.
Sadly it fell down harshly due to Japanese occupation in the 20th century.
After a long time I finally found a good novel
don't get your hopes too high, it's a bumpy ride
Have a question I know I'm late but I think a modern person would know the basics of making compost or fertilizer in school Right
Like he could go to a Craftsman and just say what if we do that it says I make Craftsman think and something would happen
it's a misconception that the medieval era doesn't use "fertilizer", they know that animal waste, and food waste, also burning the field, improve the soil. problem with medieval agriculture is the seed, modern fertilizer, and the machine equipment.
@Hanne You forgot crop rotation. 3 field (meadow, grain, beans) and 4 field after opening potatoes.
@ZeleniyKrokodil lol explaining crop rotation in chapter 1 is a sure way to make my work too nerdy for most.
@Hanne I meant this comment, not the chapter.