Chapter 2: A Murderous First Day
This world sucks!
Castor sulked after coming to a depressing realization about the state of public libraries in this world.
They didn't exist!
They were all privately owned by upper class nobles and private institutions, neither of which Castor had any hopes of getting acquainted with. Leaving him without any way to get access to the books of this world, the only thing he had any interest in obtaining, unlike Subaru, who was in the midst of dreaming of grandeur.
Seriously, what's the point of me having the ability to read "everything and anything" if I'm not going to be given anything to read!? It's insulting!
"Hey, there's no need to be so down. We still found some useful information, didn't we?" Subaru patted him on the back reassuringly.
They learned a few things about their situation through talking with the locals.
They had been "summoned" to the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica, one of the world's four great nations, the others being the Sacred Vollachia Empire, the Karagi City-States, and the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko.
Subaru and Castor were in Lugunica's Royal Capital, located in a complex of Five Great Cities, centered around the Royal Capital to form the shape of a pentagon.
Furthermore, through meeting a man who sold "appas" on the capital's trading street, which were this world's version of apples, even though they didn't seem to be different in any way, shape, or form—Subaru had learned about Lugunica's currency.
Lugunica primarily used coins, and there were four tiers of them.
The lowest denomination was the copper coin, which had the figure of the Royal Castle etched onto its surface.
Then there was the silver coin, with the figure of someone called the "Sage".
After that came the gold coin with the image of the first "Sword Saint," whoever that was supposed to be…
And finally, there was the holy gold coin with a dragon inscribed on it.
Did either of them have any of these on hand?
No, which meant they were flat-out broke and needed to devise a plan to earn some cash if they wanted any hope of sleeping somewhere other than the streets tonight.
Living wasn't free back on Earth, and wouldn't be here either.
"We haven't learned anything useful; all we know is that we've been dropped into a completely foreign land with no sense of direction." Castor rested his cheek against his fist, currently sitting down in a narrow alleyway Subaru had scoped out for them to take a breather in.
"Don't be such a pessimist, maybe we could trade some of the stuff we have?" Subaru rummaged through his plastic bag, which carried a cup of instant ramen and some other bits of junk food he had picked up from a grocery store, moments before being transported to Lugunica.
"I've had about a few minutes to scope out this world's technology, and I can guarantee you they'd hang you for witchcraft if you showed them how instant ramen works." Castor scoffed, Lugunica's complete privatization of libraries was more than enough to earn his complete and utter disdain for the Kingdom.
Speaking of witchcraft, he had noticed something rather strange about himself ever since he awakened his Authority of Fascination. Something that occurred each time he activated Mark of the Scribe.
A dark, ominous miasma had been wafting around his body, one which nobody other than himself appeared to notice.
The fact that the ability said it could read "everything and anything" instead of just being able to read all languages was clearly purposeful.
And it wasn't just him; the miasma also surrounded Subaru. He hadn't noticed it either, but Castor had a feeling that Subaru would experience a headache just like he had a short while ago—and receive an ability similar to his.
Or maybe something totally different, Castor hadn't the faintest clue as to who or what had given him his power, so there wasn't much for him to go on.
"Surely they wouldn't do something that drastic…?" Subaru hesitated, quickly shaking the thought out of his head. "What about you? What did you bring?"
"You say that as if I were planning to get blipped away out of nowhere," Castor sighed, shifting through his pockets. "All I've got is my phone and wallet."
"That's right! Our phones!" Subaru flipped his open, "I've still got full battery! But there's no signal…"
"Of course there isn't; these monkeys have the technological capability of cavemen. Were you expecting a fully up and running network system to manifest out of thin air or something?"
"Sheesh, someone's moody today aren't we? Are you really that miffed about not having a library?"
"Miffed, doesn't even begin to describe my frustration."
A deep scowl crawled up Castor's face as he and Subaru fell silent, both of them trying to devise a plan of action for how they would proceed.
"Well well well, isn't this quite the sight?"
The two world-travelers looked up, watching in mild confusion as three silhouettes approached them from the alleyway's entrance.
"Hehe, they look like easy pickings to me!"
One of them was an extremely short, almost dwarf-like person with brown hair in the shape of a mushroom.
The other was a young man with an ashen complexion, even more so than Castor, black sanpaku eyes, and long, unkempt, grayish-blue hair with loose, pink strands at the end.
To finish the trio, a man with an awfully large figure, tanned skin, long braided purple hair, and a white cloth wrapped around his head appeared.
They were named Kan, Chin, and Ton, respectively.
"Finally! The time has come!" Subaru jumped up excitedly, a wide smile plastered across his face as he looked at Castor, expecting him to share his enthusiasm.
"What?" Castor deadpanned.
"We're going to have our first mob-level battle! This is the beginning of our rise to fame!"
He's still on about that…
Castor facepalmed, clearly not having the right mood or energy for his antics. "Give me your phone."
"My phone? What for?"
"It's a Nokia right?"
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anyth—!"
He snatched it right out of Subaru's hand, proceeding to roll his shoulders as he approached the trio of presumed criminals.
Right now, he was filled to the brim with frustration because of his lack of exposure to literature, which led him to choose the three goons in front of him as the subjects of his much-needed stress relief.
"Oh-hoh! You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're approaching me? Chin!" Chin grinned, chuckling to himself as Castor inched closer.
"I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer, and besides, we're broke. Which is why I'm turning this into a reverse-robbery," he clasped the flip-phone tighter, confident in the brand's ability to withstand impossible levels of force.
There was a saying that, in the right hands, a Nokia was no different from a pair of brass knuckles.
"Broke? You seem to have some rather interesting belongings on you, and neither of you look the gutter-rat type to me." Chin's focus honed in on the plastic bag beside Subaru, "Tell you what, you hand over your stuff, and we'll leave the two of you mostly alive."
"That's my line."
Chin's mood soured, quickly noticing that Castor showed no signs of relenting.
"Tch! Fine, have it your way then."
Whoosh!
Chin threw a right punch aimed directly at Castor's temple.
Mark of the Scribe immediately flared to life, allowing Castor to read Chin's movements and duck under his fist as if he had peered into the future and predicted his attack, despite having barely any martial arts experience whatsoever besides his frequent bouts with his local library's security guards trying to kick him out after closing hours.
Crack!
"GAAAAHH!"
He smashed the fliphone against Chin's cranium, knocking him to the ground as he whined in pain from the blunt force trauma, a singular trickle of blood starting to spill out from his scalp.
"See? Even our technology misused is enough to best these people." There wasn't so much as a scratch on the fliphone's exterior.
"Bastard!" Ton reeled his hammer-like arm back, preparing to bludgeon Castor with his massive fists.
Bam!
"My nose!"
"No chance!" But Subaru came through, hitting Ton with a surprisingly powerful bare-knuckle strike straight to the face, completely dislocating his nose as blood profusely began to spew out of Ton's nostrils. His back hitting the floor just like Chin.
"You pack quite the punch," Castor said in genuine astonishment, not expecting Subaru to be capable of toppling someone a head taller than him, and nearly twice his weight.
"Well, there's not much else for a shut-in like me to do so I make an effort to exercise daily," he sheepishly rubbed his upper lip. "Now then…"
They turned to the short mushroom-haired dwarf of the bunch, Kan, who looked at them with sheer yet understandable horror as he observed both his companions knocked over.
"Wait… Haha… Guys… We can talk this out can't we?" Kan asked while holding his hands up in a surrendering fashion, trembling in fear.
But for some reason, Castor felt that something was off about the way he was acting.
Wait a minute… I don't think he's looking at us? Where is he—! Shit!
"Dodge!" Castor pushed Subaru out of the way, his eyes lighting up in realization once he noticed what was wrong.
Swoosh!
A knife swished through the air in the direction of where Subaru was just standing, missing thanks to Castor's intervention.
Thanks to Mark of the Scribe, he could accurately read its trajectory and catch the weapon without cutting his skin against the blade before turning to Chin and noticing that the threat wasn't over yet.
He still had another knife in his hand, and judging by how his arm was positioned, he planned on throwing it at Castor's torso.
So, out of reflex, he acted.
Shick!
"Krrrrk!" Chin let out a hoarse, bloody gargle.
He clutched the blade that had been thrown straight through his throat, his legs shifting up and down momentarily as he felt his breath wavering from his pierced windpipe.
"H-Help…. Help me… Please…"
His squirming continued to get weaker and weaker, his arms attempting to reach for the sky in a desperate plea for help.
"Someone…."
Castor, Subaru, Kan, and Ton all watched in horror as their friend/enemy grew still.
Chin had perished.
"Holy shit! Shit! Shit! You killed him! You fucking killed Chin!" Kan pointed at Castor, his finger jittering uncontrollably.
"Chin…" Ton said mournfully, touching his fallen friend's body.
Subaru, on the other hand, was more concerned about his friend.
"Castor…"
The bookworm took a deep breath, "He didn't give me a choice."
Slowly, he turned around to face Kan. His eyelids dropped to the point where they were cutting the tops of his pupils in a haunting fashion.
"Drop all your money, take your friend, and leave."
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I'm incrementally adding Advance Chapters as I go, so right now there's 2 Advance Chapters available on my p@treon, which will be increased to 15 as I update this story.
You can support me there if you'd like to read ahead → p@treon/Accel14