Chapter 3

"…and those biceps. God! I could hardly keep my eyes off of them," a voice whispered nearby, and Luke was pulled out of the clutches of the dreamless sleep that had clamped its jaws shut around him.

The slumber had been so deep that he couldn't recall where, or even who he was for a few moments after he awoke. The conversation he was hearing continued, and as it roused him further, everything came crashing back.

As the image of that gigantic roach arose and took center place in his mind's eye, he had to fight hard to control the shudder that wanted to go through him. Twice so far, staying silent after coming awake had allowed him to gather information that'd turned out to be crucial for his escape, so with supreme effort, he calmed himself down.

He knew that he'd moved slightly, but it would only have been caught by someone intently studying him. Judging by the salacious comments of the women who were gossiping nearby, though, he could guess that that wasn't the case.

"He was the dashing, grimy miner with boulders for shoulders and I was the swooning virgin maiden. Oh, I'd never tried it in my life, but he was right! Role-playing is really something else! It was so good that I think I'll be asking every man who comes home after yesterday night to play out one of my many fantasies!"

The one speaking seemed to have lost herself in the memories she was reliving, as a gasp followed right after.

"Did I say that out loud? I tell you, that lout has my mind twisted into knots!" She said, giggling, and another woman joined in.

They started walking away, their laughter receding in the distance while Luke cursed silently as he hadn't managed to get anything useful. Now that the urgent need to eavesdrop was past, he studied the sensations from his body and a horrifying realisation suddenly struck him: this wasn't him.

The final hope that he had woken up in some hospital bed somewhere near his mansion left him. He prided himself on having expert control over each and every one of his muscles. Right now, everything he was feeling said that this body wasn't that much different from his. It was also at the peak of fitness, but everything else was all wrong. It wasn't nearly as strong or as fast as he had been, so his reactions and his effectiveness in combat or assassination were going to be affected.

Before he could think of anything else, a terrifying thought came to him and he plunged his hands into his pants.

He relaxed a minute later and opened his eyes, a small smile coming on his face.

'Ah, at least the captain hasn't changed much.'

Right now, he would take every consolation he could get, and as soon as he thought that, his smile widened.

"Ew. I pity whoever you're thinking of. You're disgusting," said a voice dripping with venom, and as he looked to the side, he found the source.

It was a chubby woman wearing a full-sleeved blue gown he had seen in pictures in history books. With a corset underneath, it fit her body tightly, flaring out below her waist. A red ribbon had been tied into a knot and pinned on her right breast, and one also kept her black hair together in a bun.

From her voice, he could tell that this wasn't Miss. Virgin maiden. He opened his mouth to retort, but the words died in his throat when he realised that there was no pain coming from his body, at all.

"You healed me? How long has it been? Have I been in a coma?" He demanded, the words spilling out of his mouth so quickly that the woman didn't even understand him for a few seconds.

When he repeated himself slowly, she looked at him as if he was mad.

"A coma? What are you talking about? It was just a simple stomach puncture. The two of us stabilized you, and Dr. Andrew worked his magic. Should we send you to the psych ward? If we do, I'll also make a report about how you jerked off right after waking up…"

The answer made him blink, and it wasn't because he was trying to figure out how he could explain his pervy behavior to a psychiatrist. In his world, any wound like that would have needed weeks, if not months to fully recover from. Here, he just felt a little weak, and he could tell that even that would pass if he just got some rest and food.

'Truly…this is a magical place.'

He replayed that moment when the guy who had saved him had attacked that overgrown bug. He was fascinated, to say the least, but he was also quite bewildered. What the hell was going on? How was he here? And how was all of that stuff possible?

An uncontrollable shiver went through him when he recalled the voice that had heralded the beginning of all this craziness. He couldn't explain it; it was as if his every instinct was screaming at him to run even though all he was doing was recalling how eerie and strange it had sounded.

'Rule or die', it had said, and it'd also told him that he had been chosen. Chosen for what? Chosen by whom?

He wanted to find the answers to all of these questions. As someone who had spent most of his life on shaky terrain that could give out at any moment under him, he had gained the habit of always wanting to find out everything about a certain situation no matter how much money or time it might cost him. Information could both save or destroy lives. If it could be called wealth, like they said, then he was bankrupt.

A small part of him was still fighting, saying that this was all some sort of hallucination. He'd been called adaptable by many, but this was just too far out of the realm of what anyone expected to experience.

He needed to make a decision. Whenever he was trying to figure out something, he always removed himself from his shoes and placed someone else in them. He would imagine them doing things while he critiqued them, and the secret behind his success was that he never allowed himself to do anything that would make him mock the person in his shoes.

Looking from outside, he could see someone in his position making the blunder of thinking that they had gone crazy, or that this was all some sort of a dream. They acted without thinking of the consequences, and soon, they lay dead on the streets, wishing that they had taken things seriously from the start.

He wasn't going to make that mistake, but he also wasn't ready to plunge headfirst into believing that something so otherworldly was happening to him. Recognising that it might not go away, he made a concession: he would ask a single question, and if the answer was what he expected, then he would let go of all inhibitions and accept that he had really been abducted from his world and placed here, in somebody's body.

The certainty in the chubby woman's face was growing stronger by the second. There was no one else around, though, so he took the risk.

"Is this Crodale city?" He asked, and the derisive snort she gave in response was all the answer he needed.

It was the name that voice had indicated as his target. There was no mistake: this was really happening.

The moment he truly accepted that, a sense of calm and peace filled him. The turmoil in his thoughts and demeanor disappeared, and he knew exactly what he had to say to stop the nurse, or whoever she was from reporting him to the mental ward.

"I was right. You're mad. I'll go get-"

"I was just asking if I'd been taken to a different city for treatment, because I've never seen someone as beautiful as you in all my days here."

He put on his most charming smile, but he had no idea how effective it would be as he hadn't looked at himself, yet.

She stared at him with a deadpan face for a moment, then with snort, she shook her head. "Never mind. You're not mad, you're just a bonafide pervert. Beautiful. Pfft!"

She turned and started walking away, muttering to herself. The reaction had made Luke freeze, wondering whether he'd drawn the short straw in the department of his looks. He let go of the thought with a shrug, though, as he knew that it wasn't really the face that decided a man's appeal, unless it was the type that made women want to run and puke.

The result hadn't been what he expected, but he'd succeeded. He wasn't going to be examined mentally by anyone, and that was perfect as he was sure that he would definitely be branded as insane if that happened.

After all, he had no memory of this world, or of living in this body. His resolute will that'd been forged by all the times he'd hit rock-bottom but still risen back to the top had helped him come to terms with this new, abrupt turn in his life, but what was he to do now?

First and foremost, he needed to find out more about this world, and about who he was. Looking around, he found that he was in a small room with wooden walls, floor, and ceiling. There was no window. A mirror and a washstand with a crude tap were present to the side, and he heaved a sigh of relief on seeing that this was an era where there was running water.

He'd always hated the idea of chamber pots, so it was great that he wouldn't have to use them, now. He was on a feather mattress, with feather pillows. The bed was made from metal, having an industrial look to it.

Just as he was about to get up and go face the truth about how he looked, the door which had been closed when the chubby woman left opened and a different person entered.

Her crimson hair was striking, and it made him remember that she was the one he'd seen before passing out. Although she'd applied the blush to her cheeks with a heavy hand, she was quite lovely, with a cute little button of a nose and dimples in her cheeks which deepened when she smiled at him.

Her slender figure moved toward him at lightning speed. Before he could react, she'd placed a callused hand to his forehead and was checking his temperature, now.

She stepped back a moment later with a small smile. "Nurse Aldora is always quick to judge. She called you a mad pervert, so I came to check if you were experiencing any aftereffects of the healing. Sometimes, people contract fevers that make them act strangely. Nurse Aldora is also not very ardent in her studies, so she must have forgotten this."

She giggled, placing a hand over her mouth in an adorable manner, looking for all the world like a demure lady with the most innocent disposition.

The world would be quite foolish if it believed that, though, because she was Miss. Virgin Maiden.

Her voice was unmistakable. Luke's blood started to heat up. He'd always had a thing for women who were all prim and proper in society but were fierce tigresses in bed, but he controlled himself.

'Information first. Fun next,' he thought, but part of him whined, demanding to know why he shouldn't have both.

An idea struck him. It was quite probable that it would paint him as a fool, but it also possible that it might let him find out about everything he needed to know.

"I heard you before. Say…I love role-playing, too. Will you close the door? Perhaps…you can take a well-deserved break. You look like you work very hard, and I've heard that all work and no play makes pretty woman get wrinkles early," he purred, and saw the heat climbing up her neck and into her porcelain face.

'A compliment mixed with a very reasonable suggestion, along with the temptation of a fetish. What a perfect combination! So eavesdropping is going to pay off, after all…'

She looked torn between her rational and animal side, but the scale tilted in the latter's favor when he got up, exposing his not-inconsiderably ripped body. She sighed, her eyes lingering on his shoulders while she fanned herself with a hand, and then, she rushed to the door and closed the latch.

"What are we role-playing as? I'll be the virgin nurse…what'll you be?" She asked breathlessly, undoing the knots of her gown.

"I'll be the patient with memory loss. I don't know who or where I am, but I'm captivated by my sexy nurse. I can't stop asking questions while she strips off her clothes, one by one. Questions like…what year is it? Who is our ruler? How does magic work? What are those massive bugs I was fighting?"

She froze, and Luke wondered whether he'd overdone it. True, he hadn't been able to close the tap on the bottomless well of questions that had found the opportunity to be asked, so it looked like it was time for desperate measures.

He stretched his shoulders and walked forward, but she still didn't move. He couldn't read the emotions in her eyes. When he stood right in front of her and raised his hands to help her, though, she sucked in a sudden breath…and slapped him.

She looked slim, but she was packing enough strength to knock out a bouncer. Luke fell to the floor. His cheek burned, and he was even a little dizzy.

"Pervert! Aldora was right! Who would ever fantasize about sleeping with a memory loss patient? You're sick! Ugh!" She exclaimed, and although he tried to move out of the way, her kick caught him right in the middle of his stomach.

Luke groaned, clutching his midsection. What the fuck did she eat? She was easily as strong as he'd been in his former life. Making a disgusted sound, she left, slamming the door on the way.

While he moaned painfully and thanked his lucky stars that she hadn't decided to kick him in the nuts, a voice sounded in his ears, making his eyes widen while goosebumps rose all over his body.

"Is this a good time to introduce myself, sir? I've been watching and waiting, but I didn't know when to speak! People tend to hate it if I interject when they're…um…busy. Once, a man even thrust his manhood in the wrong place as I startled him, and his companion returned the favor! Oh, he scolded me for weeks. If you wish, I can answer those questions."