"Anyone who moves out of line will be severely punished. Don't even try to resist,we will not hesitate in killing you. "
This wasn't how I imagined my first Maya realm to go, being dragged in chains, getting whipped, while being taken to be sold as a slave to god-knows-what pervert.
I had imagined it going more like, being a great and powerful hero, hunting down evil villains.
"You look bad, brother Li. Are you sure you're fine?"
"Hmm, brother Shi, I'm fine. I was just a little worried about what place we will be sold to."
"Don't worry, brother. I'm sure as long as we try our best to regain our freedom, we will surely be able to see our Qing village again."
This guy was Shi Le, a close friend of my character, Li Wei. We both came from the same hometown and had been enlisted in the army.
"I just hope I get my freedom soon, I don't want to miss my daughter's entire childhood. You should also think about getting married once you return, brother Li."
This guy was too stupidly optimistic. We were in a situation where our lives weren't guaranteed, and he wanted to be free in a few years.
"I don't know if it will be so easy, so many slaves spend their whole lives not regaining their freedom. Barely any have ever gotten free in their first few years."
"Yeah but we've got to have hope, isn't it better to move forward with hope than to mope in despair. We don't know the future, so isn't it better to face it with our full being?"
Hearing his words, I remembered my own situation, how stupid was I, despairing over a single thing not going according to my liking.
"You're right, brother. It's better to walk ahead no matter how tough the journey is, who has ever achieved anything by fearing the journey ahead?"
Indeed, so what if I was currently a slave when I had wanted to become a grand hero?
In this world, who has gotten everything they ever wished for, who has not faced unexpected challenges or setbacks?
Shi has a wife and a daughter to return home to, don't I myself have such people in my life? My family is also waiting for me to come back home.
So what if my future ahead looks dark, can't the future be changed?
In this world, the past is already done, and the future is uncertain, so what is there to despair about?
This is not the time to mope around, it's time to make future plans. Undoubtedly, my main plan depends on where I'm sent to.
A Noble's mansion would be way harder to escape than a local rich family's.
It was also possible to escape during the journey, but I quickly ruled that option out. I had no knowledge of this world's ecology. It would be extremely difficult to survive.
"Haha, I just hope I get a kind master."
"Hmm, I'd rather get a cruel one."
"Why's that, brother Li? Wouldn't everyone want a kind master rather than a cruel one? The kind master will treat you way better than a cruel one."
" Because I'll have no regrets when I slit his throat."
Well not that I wouldn't slit the throat of a kind one, it'd just leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth.
Hearing my words, Shi Le let out a laugh like what I had said sounded extremely funny to him.
"Haha, that makes sense too, you truly have a unique view."
In any case, all I could do right now is make plans for any situation I could find myself in.
Now, it just depends on what place I go to.
•••
"Our country is finished!"
"Father, stop panicking. What will everyone do if you start panicking?"
Romasa, who had been transported into the place of a princess of a small country was having a hard time.
The reason for that was their neighbor, a huge empire, had recently begun making plans to invade them.
"The first thing we need to do is to disprove the accusations thrown at us."
"But those accusations are complete bullshit. How do we even disprove them?"
Indeed, their enemy country had spread out lies that we were torturing a certain minority in our country, using that as an excuse to invade our territory.
"We have no other choice, we have to use all our options now."
For the next few months, Romasa spent them fortifying her country's defenses, sending diplomats to try to sort out the situation and even buying off some influential people.
They had even tried to invoke anti-war sentiments in the citizens of the empire, but that had quickly failed.
"Even with so many preparations, it still looks useless in front of the empire's grand army. An ant can't defeat an elephant no matter how well prepared it is."
However, the main motive of increasing the country's military strength wasn't to actually fight off the empire's army, which would be too optimistic.
The main motive was to make the country strong enough that invading it would be a headache.
"I can only hope that we can make peace without a war. It's truly in this situation that I can understand the meaning of my Atri's words, to fight is to have already lost."
•••
"I had been expecting something more like a Noble's house or a castle. This was certainly not what I had expected."
I had been put in a weird building with a few dozen of my fellow prisoners.
It had already been a few days since we were put here, but honestly, our living conditions weren't terrible. We each were given a bed to sleep on, and the food wasn't half bad.
It seems the treatment of prisoners here was way better than the one in my original world, no wonder the commander surrendered so easily.
"You cheated didn't you, you bastard!"
"I don't know what you are talking about, I've been playing completely fair."
The mood of my fellow prisoners was getting worse with each passing day. They were actually fighting over games now, well it's to be expected they will play games to pass the time, it's just that I didn't have time to play games, I had to think and make plans for situations I could find myself in.
In any case, the prisoners were certainly becoming were cranky and anxious.That was to be expected, it had been a week since they put us in this cell without any explanation.
"You both, stop fighting. Are you idiots? fighting in such a situation. We should be united right now."
"You are right, brother Shi. I was too rash, please forgive me."
"Me too, I got angry too quickly. I should have been more calm."
Shi Le had also been sold here, along with us were 48 other prisoners. He had adopted a leader position during this time, he solved quarrels and stopped fights between the prisoners.
"No matter, however be more careful in the future. We can't be careless in this situation. Who knows what they have planned for us, giving us such great treatment? They clearly are plotting something."
"Eh, are you saying this isn't the standard treatment for prisoners?"
"What are you saying, brother Li, how can this be standard treatment. Even normal civilians don't live in this type of luxury that we are getting right now. There's no way they are just giving us this."
I guess this was abnormal treatment for prisoners in any world.
This poses the new question of what they are planning to do with us. It was important to make guesses and prepare countermeasures and plans for it.
My best guess, after a few hours of thinking was that they were planning to feed us to some fierce beast or sacrifice us in a weird and eerie ritual.
•••
"Ladies and gentlemen, now comes the moment you all have been waiting for. Here are our prisoners from the white cliff war."
As we were finally allowed to eave our cell after two weeks, we were given some weapons and led out to a ground where a guy announced our entry. The audience let out huge cheers as we entered the ground.
"What the hell are they even doing?"
I was seriously lost as to why they were cheering on us. We were prisoners, not some celebrities.
I have heard that Maya realms have different customs from the real world, but this is still too weird.
Who cheers for prisoners, prisoners who were killing their countrymen a few weeks ago nonetheless.
"Now, here comes the harbinger of death, the walking calamity, the darkness of the night. The beast who killed 20 of our soldiers before wets able to subdue it, here comes Fenrir, the strongest Night wolf."
As the guy announced, the gate in front of us opened, and a huge wolf, whose height was twice that of a man, came out.
"Are we really supposed to fight this humongous beast!"
As we just comprehended the gravity of the situation in which we had just been thrown, the wolf suddenly pounced on a prisoner that was closest to him.
In a few seconds, a guy whom I had spent the last few weeks with was ruthlessly killed and eaten. At that moment I finally understood.
'They were cheering for our deaths, our slaughter. This is an execution!'
"Run, AAA.."
Most of the prisoners started running like madmen at this sight. I also joined them and ran away from the wolf.
The wolf after having fully eaten the guy it killed earlier, started to pick off the other prisoners and killed and ate them one by one.
In a few moments, five more prisoners died. It was then that I gained back some of my rationality, as if I had just woken from a bad dream.
I realized this couldn't go on, we would just be sitting ducks like this, waiting for the wolf to get to us.
"Everyone, stop running, we have to fight and kill this monster."
If it were just a bunch of normal people, they might not have been able to get over their fear and stop running, but luckily for me, all these guys were soldiers and experienced warriors who had experienced the cruelty of war.
They all seemed to realize what I was thinking and looked at each other, wondering if they were truly going to fight this monster.
In that instant, a few people realized this was their only choice and got into a fighting stance.
"Brother Li, what do you plan to do?"
Shi Le also decided to fight that monster.
"Brother Shi, it may be strong but it's just a beast in the end. We can easily kill it with a good strategy."
"Your words make sense. Let me handle this."
He then shouted loudly as he could.
"Brothers, are the men of Green Cloud Valley this cowardly that a mere beast can force them to run for their lives. That just the threat of death scares them, leaving them quaking in their boots.
Nay, come, let us show this beast and the people who gathered here expecting to see our deaths the bravery and valour that we men are renowned in the world for!"
Hearing his words, the soldiers managed to drum up some bravery.
"No way, this beast shall die by my hands for its crimes."
"I will skin this damn monster alive and drink its blood."
Some of the warriors at this point tried to attack the beast. Some of them managed to hit it but failed to do any meaningful damage. Most of them missed. The wolf was surprisingly fast, it also had great reflexes.
"Just blindly fighting the wolf will not get us any results, we need to fight it smartly."
" You are right, brother Li, I will go distract the beast. You attack it."
"Hmm, wait what?"
Before I could comprehend what he had said, Shi Le went ahead and provoked the wolf.
"Quickly brother, launch your attack. I can't distract it for much longer."
I quickly launched an attack with my sword at the unguarded part of the Wolf's neck.
*Clang*
I wasn't expecting to decapitate it in one strike or anything but I had at least hoped for a good injury.
However, that monster only got a few cuts and minor wounds.
If I had trained more in combat I might have been able to heavily injure that monster, I can't believe I am saying this but
"Romasa really was right huh?"