Well this is a surprise birthday gift story for the Sharnorasian emperor and one of his old stories rewritten with new ideas so enjoy. Some may not like that I am not using his real name even in the first chapter but it's distinctive and he prefers his fantasy name for his characters and I respect that.

If you are from my other stories and have no idea what this anime series is goes as such.

Final notes: Xapferey as he prefers to be known HAS an eidetic memory, and he both praises and curses it, as it is a double-edged sword. (Namely for the fact that his memory is so powerful he is snacking on something to compensate for the energy drain). He is also a grandmaster of arms and 10th dan black belt in karate at the time this story occurs (and in reality). Secondly the intro follows the comics The Grey Witch and not the OVA show, this changes where Deedlit and Woodchuck are to begin with.

First few paragraphs do not give Xapferey's name, as he'll introduce himself by his preferred name afterwards.

Updated note – I've had 3 guest reviewers waste my time now when it comes to this story. If you don't have a profile make one. I'm not going to reply to some random person making a comment good or ill on the off chance you might see it. Secondly if you're going to insult my story, please do so with a profile and be constructive about it. Otherwise I will roll my eyes and delete it and give you the same time of day I would to a fly, I will simply remove it from my existence and forget about it. Thirdly, my time is limited, pleas don't be a troll, close the window if you don't like the story, please this world needs more people being decent to each other.

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Light and Darkness, the final battle of the gods climaxed in a clash between Marfa, goddess of creation and Kardis, goddess of destruction. At the climax of their final battle, the land was split and a new continent was formed; with her final breath, Kardis cursed the land, and Marfa struck the land herself, splitting the land twice, forming Lodoss the accursed island and the cursed island of Marmo just south of Lodoss proper.

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'Thoughts'

6 months before the events of Record of Lodoss War

Chapter 1: The beginnings

A man stood in his home, an iPhone jammed under his ear as he changed the light bulbs in his home. "Yes, yes I'm bringing the damn thing Mike, just you be ready for me to pick you up when we go to the firing range. You bringing your shotgun and Glock?"

"Yep."

"You know, if I've said this once, I've said it a thousand times, your mother should have named you Curt." An inaudible thrum of power built up in the room as Mike and his friend spoke over the phone.

"Haha." Michael said sarcastically.

"Seriously though…" There was a loud zap and crackle of static before the line went dead, the energy had reached threshold and blasted the man into unconsciousness. As he fell backwards, he passed through a newly formed portal to destinations unknown.

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In the wilderness south of the lands of Allania, the air shivered before an audible thump was heard as the unconscious body of a man was dropped on the ground. An hour later the man woke up with a splitting headache as he looked around.

"WHAT THE HELL?" He yelled, only to groan and grab his splitting head. "Who? What? How? Gmpghm." He let out a wordless groan of confused frustration. "Ughh relax, relax, relax… Ok that's not going to happen right now." The man took several deep breaths and about five minutes to meditate and try to get a grip on his emotions. Once the man had calmed down enough to be able to think coherently he looked around again before spotting his backpack. He went to it and began sorting through the contents for anything useful.

'Gun intact, pistol intact, ammo intact, big box of ammo for both, check… no food… no water, empty 1 liter pop bottle with lid, well some good news at least.' He thought to himself as he looked for a river to dunk his head in. 'First order of business, deal with headache then find out where I am and how I got here.'

The man picked himself up until he found a river and splashed water on his face; being a little wary of the idea of pollution in the water he filled the bottle, though not wanting to risk dehydration in an unknown area. But considering he went from the inside of his home to an open landscape in a few moments, that and his phone reported it had no signal now when he looked at it.

The man sighed again walked down the side of the river and came to a road. The road was a poor quality dirt road, with lots of pockmarks and small pits; either this road was traveled frequently or a large party had passed by some time ago. Continuing up the poor quality road, the man found a partially broken box off to the side.

He searched the box and he found a small pouch and a cloak. The man tipped the pouch's clinking contents into his hand and found a small handful of silver and gold coins. Now turning to the cloak, the style and stitching matched that of medieval styles seen in his History of Middle Ages textbooks. The cloak was brown, rough-spun, almost meeting the quality of a well off peasant. The man shrugged and wrapped himself in the cloak, eyeing the forming rainclouds ruefully.

The man continued walking for over an hour until he came to a guarded bridge. The guards were dressed in medieval equipment. Both dressed in decent mail, each with a short sword at their hip and each wielding a halberd and both were watching him approach.

'If this is a hallucination, which is unlikely considering my family has no history of such psychotic issues, it's a very elegant one,' He thought.

Another factor that was considered was that hallucinations were never this complete; more likely to be auditory than visual or olfactory, and even less likely to include all three at once. Not without severe cognitive damage, anyway. The second explanation was that he had somehow crossed dimensions to a more fantasy-based world, which was just as, if not more unlikely a scenario.

The man sighed and walked up to the bridge and stood facing the gates hoping they would let him pass and give some information that he could use.

"Halt, identify yourself." One of the guards spoke. The man shrugged, when in Rome…

"Greetings good sirs, I am a lost traveler and due to an accident lost much of my equipment. I was hoping to find lodgings for the night and to replace my lost gear."

"Very well, there is a toll to pass though here traveler." The guard said with an expectant look.

"How much?"

"Five copper pieces." The man sighed and rolled his eyes mentally as he paid the guard; while paying, the man decided he would have to have a name in this world and what better than his preferred fantasy name: Xapferey.

The guard nodded before waving Xapferey through the gate. "Would you mind telling me where I am? I'm quite quite lost." Xapferey said with a disarming grin.

"This is the village of Allanis, in southern Allania," the guard offered "Though be warned we treat theft and other crimes very harshly here." Xapferey nodded politely to the guard while the other stared at him suspiciously and watched Xapferey walk down the path into the town.

Xapferey quickly found a decent inn that he could stay at during the night. Tomorrow he would have to get money, most likely by selling his mother's bracelet that he kept on him for sentimental purposes after the death of his parents. After paying for a hearty stew and a room for the night, Xapferey thought on his situation.

'Ok, I'm in the Record of Lodoss War world, provided this is not a hallucination. Wait, hallucinations can be visual and auditory, but to have smell hallucinations I would have had to have a seizure and I would have felt that. Ergo this is real, however unlikely, well hopefully there is a god smiling on me right now. So, first order of business: Sleep, have to sell the bracelet, I'll hate myself for it but it's worthwhile because I need money and have none aside from the 9 silver remaining which will not last long. Next order of business, get a sword, decent quality and some armor as well. Afterwards, meditate and see if I can use magic, it might be possible after passing through whatever brought me here.'

The next day, Xapf bought himself some breakfast and went to the bustling market; he found an interested buyer who would trade him a series of items and 800 gold coins. The items included a set of thick black and silver armor; obviously well-made, it covered his chest and back, as well as parts of his arms and legs. It even had a padded vest for underneath and a matching helmet.

The longsword was a beautiful, with an elegant pommel and cross-guard done in gold and black. The cross-guard curved both upwards to help catch blades and downwards to form a barrier to protect against blows to his hands. The blade however was 4 feet in length and the hilt could be held comfortably with either one or both hands.

The merchant included a heavy duty traveling sack with regular adventuring gear such as a winter blanket, spare clothes, a couple hundred feet of rope, light and heavy traveling cloak, a map of Lodoss and a grappling hook; Xapferey refused the offered bow, considering his G11 a far more reliable ranged weapon. Though said weapon was currently disassembled in his modern backpack.

Xapferey purchased a horse and decided to ride north, to see which version of Lodoss he was in, either the OVA, or the Chronicles, a thought came to mind which made him smile; he might even meet Deedlit before she met Parn.

Xapferey stopped at an inn on the way to the capitol city of Allania to overlook his gear and the bag. Opening the bag, Xapferey found a letter pinned to the inner lip.

Hello Xapferey.

If you're reading this then you can consider yourself lucky considering I heard your request and decided to leave you a few presents. Within this bag of holding is portable equipment for making more ammo, a few magic items: (Ring of force shield, Protective ring of the third circle, cloak of resistance third circle) and something to awaken some magical powers if you don't have them already. Consider the clothes I put within an additional bonus, now go get her tiger. You know who I mean.

X.A.S – High Lord of those of Intelligence Born.

P.S I know you know who I am, but don't spoil it for others.

P.P.S Circles refer to the + level in case you're unaware

Xapferey stared in shock at the letter before he laughed in surprise. 'I guess there really is a god looking out for me,' he thought in amusement before he scrounged for the items and changed. Afterwards, Xapferey slept and rode onwards the next day. He kept riding until he reached the capitol city Allan. Once in Allania it was easy to find a nice inn to stay at, the celebrations for the heir had not begun yet. Xapferey was sure he was early to the story, by how much though he did not know. He stabled his horse and walked through the city, admiring the architecture having not indulged his love of medieval cities and history in a long time.

An hour later sounds of a scuffle caught Xapferey's attention; he passed into a back alley where he found a very familiar blond High Elf he knew to be Deedlit being harassed by a small group of thugs. She had already divested herself of two of the thugs, so Xapferey ran to assist her. Xapferey ignored the taunts exchanged as he blindsided one of the thugs only to get clouted by the elf.

"Calm down, I'm on your side here." He said as he smacked another thug down, then snap-kicked one that was about to blind-side the elf. 'Yeesh that smarts.' Xapf thought to himself. The two quickly eliminated the last of the thugs attacking Deedlit and they turned to face each other.

"I guess I should thank you." She said, as Xapferey looked her over. Deedlit was wearing the more elegant leather boots and bracers from Chronicles of the Heroic Knight timeline, rather that her expected baggy leather wrapped boots and bracers. Her leather armor actually protected her torso rather than her upper chest in the anime, and she was armed with her rapier.

"Not at all milady, I'm happy to be of help." Deedlit looked over Xapferey herself, covertly admiring the high quality gear, clothes and man himself though the G11 over his shoulder gained a curious and confused look, as it did not look like any weapon she had seen.

"I'm Deedlit, and you are?"

"Xapferey, pleasure to make your acquaintance Deedlit." Xapferey said brushing his lips on her knuckles.

"Ooh a gentleman, let me treat you to dinner as thanks, so you don't get the impression that I have no manners."

"That sounds wonderful Deedlit." The two went to a nearby tavern and ordered an excellent meal consisting of a side of beef with some vegtables, nice wine, and a bowl of peas, which they ate as they talked.

"So tell me, where are you from?"

" Far away lands, you'd probably never heard of them."

"Oh? Try me."

"Lands are called Canada." Deedlit shook her head, obviously not recognizing the name.

"Sounds like you are far from your home, I have never heard of such a land on Lodoss."

"Due to a strange series of events, I ended up lost, tossed about and recently found my way here to Allan."

"I am sorry to hear that." Deedlit said before she continued, "you seem like a skilled fighter, aren't you?"

"I don't like to brag, but I believe I can hold my own." Xapferey said modestly.

"And what are your goals Xapferey?" Deedlit asked politely.

"I'm not sure if my friend who was with me at the time made it to Lodoss or not; and I feel the odds of finding him would be better if I stayed in an area he's more likely to pass through then slog across all of Lodoss."

"Sounds sensible." Deedlit agreed. The two finished their meal when Xapferey spoke.

"Deedlit would it possible for us to meet tomorrow?" Deedlit smiled at his somewhat hesitant question.

"Sure, perhaps a day in the markets?"

"Sounds great." Xapferey said with a smile as they parted for the night.

End Chapter 1. Well here's hoping everyone will be in character neither I or the emperor have written stories in this fandom for me about 15 almost 16 years and about 13 years for the Sharnorasian Emperor. Parn and the others will not be showing up for awhile.