Jay was at his limit.
His body no longer responded like before; his legs felt weak, almost like jelly, and every step was a battle against the weight of his own frame. His throat burned as if he'd swallowed fire, and his stomach had been empty for so long it didn't even growl anymore—it just hurt, deeply.
Still, he kept walking. One step. Then another. Unsteady, clumsy.
The world ahead began to ripple, as if made of hot water. The kingdom's walls were still there, far off in the distance, but with each passing second they seemed smaller, as if shrinking on purpose to mock him.
His eyelids weighed tons.
He stumbled. His knee hit the ground, kicking up a puff of dry dust. He placed his hands down, trying to rise, but his arms trembled.
In a low, barely audible voice, he murmured:
"Someone… someone help me…"
His vision shut like heavy curtains falling all at once. And the world faded into absolute black.
The darkness had no shape. No sound. No warmth.
It was a silent void that enveloped him completely.
But in the midst of that blackness, a faint light appeared… a gentle flutter.
The butterfly.
That same fragmented blue butterfly—the one that had touched him before bringing him to this world. Its wings were like shattered glass reflecting light; each flap emitted a delicate sound, a mix between the tinkling of crystal and an electronic distortion.
Jay tried to approach, but his feet didn't touch any ground. The butterfly floated, softly vibrating… and slowly began to drift away.
"Wait…" he whispered, though he knew it couldn't hear him.
It drifted farther. And farther. And as its light faded, the darkness swallowed everything again.
Until…
Deep within, a small orange dot emerged. A tiny flame, like that of a solitary candle.
Jay tried to move toward it, but before he could reach it, a voice interrupted him. A real voice. Clear. Close:
"Hey… hey, are you alive?"
Jay opened his eyes slowly. The sunlight blinded him for a moment, forcing him to squint.
His first sensation was the coolness of water in his mouth. Someone was giving him a drink.
"Easy, don't choke," said a male voice.
When his vision focused, he saw the smiling face of a man wearing a metal helmet and simple armor—basic medieval design.
The knight let out a soft laugh.
"Good thing we found you in time. A few more minutes lying there and you'd have ended up as forest beast food."
Jay lifted his head slightly, still dizzy, and looked around.
He was lying inside a wooden carriage, very simple: planks, large thick wheels, no luxury at all. Around him were six men—some burly, almost like veteran warriors, and others younger, maybe just a bit older than him.
Jay swallowed hard.
"W-where… where am I?"
One of the knights—the same one who gave him water—sat on the edge of the carriage.
"You're with an exploration unit from the Kingdom of Valdareth. We patrol the roads and bring supplies when needed."
Jay's eyes widened.
"You… speak my language…"
The knight tilted his head, confused.
Jay immediately thought: Is it some automatic skill? Or an evolutionary coincidence that made this language develop the same?
He had no way of knowing.
"Where are you headed?" Jay asked.
"Back to the kingdom, of course. We need to restock and deliver a report."
The knights looked him over, examining his modern clothes, tactical vest, pockets, synthetic fabric, cap…
One of them even whistled, surprised.
"And where'd you come from with that weird outfit?"
Jay knew he couldn't tell the truth. Or rather, he knew that if he did, they wouldn't believe him.
"I'm from… the American continent," he said vaguely. "Over there we have… well, wifi… motorcycles… stuff like that."
The knights glanced at each other, completely baffled.
"Wi… what? Mo… what?" one asked, eyebrows furrowed.
Jay sighed, scratching his neck.
"Nothing… just stuff from my continent."
The knight who had helped him laughed again, this time louder.
"So you're a foreigner. And from the looks of it… broke."
Jay shrugged, exhausted but honest.
"I guess dollars don't mean much here, huh?"
"Dol… what?" several asked at once.
Jay waved his hand.
"Forget it. My stuff."
The knight took a deep breath and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
"Well, if you've got no money, you'd better find work once we reach the kingdom."
Jay's eyes lit up with sudden excitement.
"Jobs? Like adventurers? With ranks A, B, C, D and all that?"
The knights looked at him as if he'd just spoken another language.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said the knight. "You can have all the adventures you want, if you don't mind risking your life. But that's on you."
Jay blinked.
"So… no adventurer guild?"
"There are guilds," the man replied. "But not for 'adventurers.' Merchant guilds, craftsmen, organized mercenaries… things like that."
Jay felt his soul drop to the floor.
Great… no daily quests, no ranks, no magic crystals with stats… none of that…
As the carriage slowly rolled down the path toward the kingdom's massive walls, Jay rested his head against the rough wood and sighed.
"No money… no job… feels like I'm thirteen again…" he murmured. "But now with the weight of an adult on my shoulders…"
He looked up at the clear sky.
I feel like things are about to get… really weird from now on.
And he was absolutely right.
The carriage kept moving along the main road until the packed earth gradually turned into a thick stone bridge. Jay had to squint—after so long under the forest's shadow, the outside light felt like a flashlight aimed directly at his face.
When they crossed the bridge, he saw it. The kingdom.
Enormous walls, tinted with a faint bluish gray, stood firm with a presence that demanded respect. They bore the marks of time—small cracks where the wind might've tried to sneak in one day—but still, they looked indestructible.
Jay felt a chill. Those walls were real. Not CGI, not an illustration, not an anime background. Real.
As the carriage approached the gate, Jay noticed something he'd overlooked before. The knights who had rescued him… were human.
No blue skin, no glowing eyes, no pointed ears. Just regular humans, with scruffy beards, the smell of sweat and metal, and a way of speaking that had nothing mystical or heroic about it.
It calmed him more than he expected. It gave him a familiar feeling, like something resembling home still existed between worlds.
When they finally entered the main street, flanked by wooden and stone houses, the knight who had rescued him tapped his shoulder.
"This is as far as I can take you," he said kindly. "I could charge you, but… you're a foreigner, right? This time, it's on me."
Jay nearly cried.
"Thank you… really, thank you," he replied with a clumsy bow that almost made him fall off the carriage.
The knight laughed heartily, and the carriage rolled away again, disappearing into the sounds of the market and the crowd.
Jay stood there, motionless, taking in everything around him.
It was… too perfect. Too cliché. Too classic fantasy.
Stone streets, stalls full of shiny fruits, houses with reddish tile roofs, torches lit even during the day, people carrying sacks, kids running around with wooden swords.
It all reminded him of the stories he used to read with his brother when they were little. Worlds where magic existed and logic didn't always have much to say.
But what truly left him speechless was the people.
There were humans, yes. But also—
Elves, with long elegant ears and porcelain-like skin. Stout dwarves with beards as wide as their torsos. Cat girls, with tails swaying to the rhythm of each step. Wolf folk—men and women with furry ears and short muzzles.
All living together as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The first image that crossed Jay's mind was wildly inappropriate: "What would a cat-eared maid look like…?"
He immediately slapped himself.
"Focus, idiot…"
And just then, his stomach growled like a tiger with gastritis.
Jay began walking aimlessly, dodging people, staring at signs written in symbols that looked like meaningless scribbles.
"Phonetically we speak the same, but writing… that's a whole different language…" he thought, frustrated.
As he walked, he almost touched the tail of an elderly wolf-cat woman just to see if it was real, but stopped himself in time. The last sensible neuron he had begged him not to do anything stupid.
He was starving. Badly.
And then he saw it: A small bread stall a few meters away.
Jay ran, dodging people, leaping over a sleeping dog and even a ball that fell from the sky for who knows what reason. He reached the stall with a speed he didn't know he had.
The vendor was a middle-aged woman… or so he thought at first. She was half wolf.
She had large, furry ears that moved with her breathing, light gray fur around her neck like a natural scarf, sleepy yellow eyes, and a hunched posture. Her hands were human, but with thick, rounded nails.
She looked like a mix between a sweet grandma and a wolf who could rip your arm off if you shoved her.
"How much… for the bread?" Jay asked in a voice like the walking dead.
The woman slowly turned her head toward a loaf, so slowly Jay wondered if she was actually moving or if it was his imagination.
With supernatural slowness, she said:
"...thooose… aaare… teeen… co-rooon…"
Jay blinked, incredulous. And said, almost begging:
"I don't have any money… could you give me one? I'll pay you later, I swear…"
The woman stopped being slow. With the speed of a professional rapper, she snapped:
"I'm not giving you anything. Move along—if you're not buying, you're in the way!"
Jay stood there, mouth agape.
"What the—?! She's lightning fast!"
The lady smiled like a sweet grandma while shooing him away with imaginary broom swipes.
Jay kept walking with an empty stomach, staggering like a zombie.
Then he reached into the back pockets of his pants. And something crinkled.
The sound of a wrapper. A completely familiar texture.
Jay's eyes widened like he'd had a divine revelation.
He pulled out what was in his pocket. Three energy bars. And in the other pocket—two more.
"No freaking way…" he whispered, on the verge of tears.
Desperate, he devoured three in one go, barely breathing, and tucked the other two away like they were gold bars.
The hunger was still there, but at least he wasn't seeing double anymore.
He decided to walk down the main street in search of another food shop, thinking:
"Maybe… just maybe… I can sell these bars as exotic goods… Who knows? Someone out there's gotta be hungry…"
And so, with two bars in his pocket and zero dignity, Jay continued his odyssey through Valdareth.