*All Wings of Fire property belong to Tui T. Sutherland, I only own my OCs.*

Author's notes: Again as last chapter, I managed to rewrite bits and pieces of this chapter as well. Somehow extending it from 5k words I believe, to currently 8k+ words. Only because I felt like I could've explained things better, I just hope I didn't mess up any bits of this chapter since I reread this chapter a couple of times and constantly kept adding and deleting bits here and there. But I finally managed to make this chapter good enough in my opinion to publish at the same time as last chapter, as we continue on with these characters and doing some much needed world building. Not to mention character building with these 2 protags, do expect some possibly large chapters exceeding 10k+ words if not much more.

I believe I mentioned in my first chapter that I had a chapter surpassing 10k+ words, I aim to hopefully make it more common in the upcoming chapters. Upcoming uploads might take a bit longer if I decide to just rewrite certain sections of the chapters, or just flat out rewrite the whole chapter, I don't know yet but I'll figure something out lmao.

As always, if you find any flaws or inconsistency's in my writing. PLEASE do not hesitate to criticize me and point them out to me, I'll happily listen to anything I receive.

I only ask you to do so politely.

Thank you, and apologies for my yapping.

Please enjoy this chapter.

Percival's POV:

Washing my hands in the river, cleaning myself after finding and eating dinner.

Walking back to my small camp, I admired my work.

I found a small cave hidden underneath a waterfall. The same waterfall I fell down after I was tossed into was a little over a month ago, the only way I was even able to keep track of time was thanks to my calendar app. Even after the banishment I received from the village, my phone was still in working order. With minimal cracks and slightly water damaged.

My phone was manufactured for specifically the highest of authorities in my Organization. Naturally being the head scientist, I was given one.

The reason for its brick-like design was due to the sheer versatility of the device. Capable of storing terabytes of information somewhere in its body, a massive battery that can last as long as 5 years should the user use it wisely, an all purpose pocket knife hidden in it, and a handy lighter. It even has a bullet inside of it, a singular bullet.

My pistol was also scratched and had a few visible dents. But it seemed to work just fine, I think.

Tempted to try it out, but ultimately decided against it. It's essentially my life line in this world, in a world that consists of a primitive society, a fully working gun could easily wipe out a dozen individuals.

Not like I was planning to genocide.

Though it was an option should it come down to it.

I walked just a bit further into the same cave, the waterfall roaring behind me as I tried to get a better view of my little camp I made.

My small cave consisted of a bed, which was basically a bunch of soft random shrubs. Just opposite if it was a used campfire, just sticks piled upon sticks with visible ash on the stone floor around and underneath it.

I managed to tie a string across the cave to hang my dirty clothing, which was only my dirty and ripped lab coat hanging from above.

Course, living in a luxury apartment and suddenly being forced into the wild was never an easy adaptation. The only thing really compelling me to survive in this world was the sheer possibilities that showed up being here.

The day I was thrown into the river, and eventually coming back to consciousness. At no point in my 47 years of living had I experienced anger that I felt at that moment.

Thrown around like a piece of luggage for merely trying to understand where I was, attempting to make peace.

Saving the damn world multiple times!

Of course, they didn't know that. No one needed to know, but knowing all of my deeds were only to improve the human race as a whole, sacrificing the life I could have had. Only to be treated like a common criminal was infuriating...

Weeks, I tried to survive. It was only thanks to my phone I was able to read information on what was safe to eat, and how to make a fire. Embarrassing I know, but it's not like I ever thought I'd be thrown into a world filled with cavemen and dragons.

With a huff, I sat down on my DIY bed and opened my notebook.

I flipped through my pages, to find what page I left off on the night prior. Quickly allowing my thoughts to consume me, I subconsciously began to organize them.

One discovery that stood out the most, and possibly the most mind boggling of all.

The dragons were intelligent, incredibly intelligent.

I only discovered this was the same day I finally broke out from my binds, in a fit of anger I ran into a random direction. Shouting like a madman and breaking whatever vegetation I can.

Don't know how long I did that for, but long enough to find a sight that left me in utter awe.

A Kingdom of Dragons.

Up high in the mountains, flew a multitude of them, and just beyond in the visible distance. I saw a gargantuan kingdom, a kingdom that puts anything humanity made to shame.

I couldn't believe it, I mean. Who could believe a kingdom of dragons exists? Let alone one I didn't already know of.

The Organization I worked for held an extensive knowledge about the world, every little city, ruin, or shady town was listed on our database. Surely we would have discovered a damn Kingdom of dragons casually minding their own business.

It only took me a couple of nights to finally realize my situation and accept it, it was the only possible explanation I could rationally think of.

I was in another world.

I for sure thought I was crazy when I even considered the idea of being in a complete alternate reality, a reality where Humans are no longer the top predator in the world. A reality where our fantasy about dragons are true, and which they hold the current title of apex predators of the planet.

That much was obvious.

But the fact I see no man made structures, like cities or pillars. Not even any Planes or helicopters flying about, my phone couldn't even pick up on a connection from a satellite, simple facts like these only made that theory more believable.

Call it delusional, or ridiculous. But I believe it to be the only rational line of thinking, especially considering this world wasn't incinerated by the gamma ray burst.

For nights, I've only had my phone as my saving grace. Holding vast amounts of various knowledge, most I know since I was the one I installed said important information. But when I first received it, it already had a "survivalist" folder. Basically in the worst case scenario if a high value figure happened to find themselves in a situation where they needed to survive in the wild, they had a phone capable of guiding them and at least prolonging their survival until help arrives.

Countless nights I spent, guessing, writing, making predictions of the state of the world. I knew absolutely nothing about the world I'm currently alive in. The only thing I knew is that Humans are no longer the intelligent beings that I know of. Humans seem to be in a "stone-age", at least that's what I'm getting just based on my first experience with said humans.

And that dragons were the main ones in control.

A small chuckle escaped me as I wrote my thoughts in my notebook.

'Dragons, who would've known'

Truth is, the thought that Dragons are the one in "control" or at least the most "intelligent" being on this planet.

Was shameful.

My colleagues, despite our differences. Would Have agreed that dragons capable of rivaling our intelligence was something only read in children's books.

But here I am, in said children's book.

'What a fucking joke!'

I almost snapped my pencil in anger, something like that would've been a pain in the ass to fix.

Humans here are nothing but a joke. Perhaps I'm being too critical based on one experience.

But I have no doubt that's how other villages or tribes are in this world, people who lack intelligence, people who lack power, people who lack the simplest form of hygiene.

'I will fix this, I have to'

I refuse to live in a world where these dragons are in control, for years I spent trying to better the world to protect humanity! That was my fucking job!

I won't allow this to continue, I just can't. The sheer thought of dragons being capable of wiping out humanity, and humanity being completely defenseless made me loathe them even more.

'They shouldn't hold that much power'

I will return balance, I will restore humanity to its former glory.

'...'

'Okay, maybe that's a bit too much…'

Course, I am not delusional.

Something like that would take time and cunning.

Fortunately, time is on my side. From what I'm aware, this planet doesn't seem to be suffering any world ending event.

Despite how intelligent these dragons are, capable of building kingdoms and seemingly making their own society.

They lack technology, they lack any modern form of it.

Wouldn't be surprised if they never even invented the lightbulb.

Which works in my favor, with my guidance. Humanity will reclaim its throne.

To be truthful, it was a little exciting.

As much as I already don't like these dragons, getting my hands on them would be vital and a new fun experience. That means experimenting, studying, interrogating, and other various forms of acquiring knowledge would have to come into play.

I flipped through my notebook.

I've written countless forms, countless ideas on how to set this plan in motion.

I've only settled on a way to start.

I plan to return to the village, the same village I was banished from.

Then proceed to kill their leader, and simply take the title.

Can't be that hard.

For one, I can promise many things. Better crop yield, buildings, weapons and so on. They lack technology to begin with, if I was to show them how to make an air conditioner, they'd think I'm some sort of god.

Right?

Killing their leader would also destroy any chance of them rebelling, instantaneously destroying any form of hope for them. Course, I tend to be their next "hope" so perhaps it'll allow me to fill in the gap more easily as their new leader and lead them to a new age, could that work?

'...'

'Ahhh!'

'...'

Trying to understand emotion was never my strong suit, so for all I know this plan I concocted could easily be the worst plan I've made.

Eh, it doesn't matter anyways.

Ruling with fear is an option.

Not a favorable one, but an option.

My pistol would be how I do that, and other creative forms of encouragement.

Simply pointing and shooting at their leader should be enough to scare them. I doubt they even have crossbows or any modern weaponry, they'd have no clue as to how I killed their warriors or leaders with a simple object.

Either way, their leader was gonna die.

As soon as I set a foundation in their village for myself, I can get to work.

Establish friendly relationships with nearby villages or tribes, gather resources, and improve our village. That means creating new and improved weapons. Unfortunately, we lack the technology to create any modern guns or weapons, so crossbows, cannons, harpoon guns etc. are gonna have to do. Something like modern weaponry I'd imagine would take at least a generation or 2 to actually accomplish. So I'll have to roll around with the idea of playing knights for the time being.

Next would be improving our structures, and establishing our own kingdom. Next would be gathering intelligence on other kingdoms, and the only kingdoms I know of are the dragon kingdoms.

That unfortunately means establishing friendly relations with them, by whatever means. I need to learn what they are capable of, what technology they possess, and finding out if our other fantasy creatures exist in this world. Like goblins, golems, fucking my little ponies or anything of the sort.

If I actually wanted a chance to take back what they stole from humanity, I need to play the long game.

I paused looking through my notes.

'Could someone else be in the same situation as I am?'

The fact that I'm here already gives me enough hope that perhaps someone else is out there.

I'll find them eventually, we'll find each other.

If not, it doesn't matter.

Finally closing my notebook, laying it on the cold stone floor next to my bed, I covered myself with a leaf blanket. And tried to sleep.

I'll need a lot of energy for tomorrow anyways, I plan to execute my plan soon.

Taking over the village, by any means.

I already have everything prepared, weapons, which is just a DIY stone knife and a cheap bow. Intel, I know the guards patrol routes and where their leader is possibly located, they're incredibly shabby, so sneaking in should be easy.

I never done any work like this before, I've only directed such work, never participated in it. But after these weeks I spent in the wilderness, my body was much more used to this hard labor.

Resting is all I need now.

-Time skip into next morning-

I let out a small belch after chugging a bit of water, just finished eating my breakfast. Which was a small rabbit.

It was around midday, after painstakingly trying to hunt a rabbit with my shoddy archer skills. I eventually landed my mark, somehow.

I had everything ready, now I needed to travel towards the village. Pocketing my handmade stone knife, gathering my notebook, spyglass, a few rations, and stuffing them into a small waist bag, checking to make sure its nice and tight as I wore it. And finally retrieving my gun and properly holstering it on my side.

My attire wasn't anything special, I still had dress pants, it's tattered and dirty, but it's the only pants I have. I also had my boots, despite being dirty and visibly worn. It still did and job and protected my feet from the elements.

I only had my black tank top, and on top I managed to make a half assed cloak. Which consisted of various leaves, sticks and string I managed to salvage from my lab coat in order to hold everything together. It reminded me of a ghillie suit, but not a suit, just a shitty cloak.

It was only meant to help conceal me, and provided a bit of protection from the elements outside.

Now ready, I walked out from under the waterfall. The chilling water no longer had any effect on me.

Though I frowned, as my clothes were now soaked.

'what was I thinking making a camp here...' I muttered, obviously annoyed with now having to travel miles in drenched clothing.

'Great start, dumbass'

I continued on.

-Small time skip-

It was the afternoon, I'd guess around 6pm.

But it was already dark, almost at least.

My clothes were now mostly dry, surprised I didn't freeze to death.

On my way here I also decided to review my Latin. Fortunately I basically got the language down pat, learning languages was never a huge obstacle for me.

I approached with my vantage point, which was just climbing a particularly tall tree.

I pulled out my spyglass, and I reviewed my surroundings.

The village was alive, various torches were lit inside and outside the houses. The chief's house, I think it's called. Is also well lit, this means that he's currently residing inside. I found another instance when I scouted here, all the torches inside were off. Usually meaning the chief was not inside, seems like luck could be on my side. Already knowing where the chief was located made this significantly easier.

Few villagers walked about outside, only a few warriors stood patrolling outside. And a few more on the outskirts of the forest, keeping any creatures at bay.

My gaze fell on a familiar household, the first house I ever visited in this world, the one with the boy, who's name I learned was Flea.

I aim to properly communicate with the child, hopefully be able to convince him to help me.

Now satisfied, I climbed down the tree and slowly approached the outskirts of the villages, using my cloak to conceal myself with the vegetation.

'A guard'

A guard was idly walking just on the edge of the forest, he had a chainmail chest plate along with leather shoulder plates. He also wore a leather hood with a cloth face mask.

I scanned the guard/warrior down, looking for any obvious way to take him down.

'The neck'

Hiding behind a bush, peeking out from on top. I decided the neck was the only way to cleanly kill this warrior, it being conveniently the only open spot I can slice him open with.

Clenching the stone knife in my left hand, crouching behind the bush.

I was shaking.

Sure, I may or may not have decided on the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people back in my world.

For the greater good course.

But being forced to actually participate in the killing is not something I'm used to.

Let alone in these circumstances.

'I have to go through with this'

After a bit of getting my resolve.

I began to move.

Slowly.

I approached the guard who was still idly walking along the outskirts.

However, the sound of rustling bushes soon attracted the guards attention.

This was expected.

This rustling of bushes was not actually me, it was simply a stone I tossed.

It worked, the simple stone toss attracted the attention of the warrior.

They quickly spun to look towards the direction of the sound. Raising his spear, keeping it pointed in the direction, ready to stab anything that leaps from it.

I was crawling on the forest floor, trying my best to avoid making any noise.

I was approaching from the warrior's left while the warrior's attention was to his right. That means that I have a small advantage over the warrior already, a surprise attack. But actually pulling one off would be difficult, I lacked any skill in these sort of things. So the only "skill" I have remotely to this would be the few video games I ever played.

My cloak was doing wonders, camouflaging myself as if I'm part of the forest floor.

I slightly got up on all fours, ready to pounce on my target with my knife at hand.

Then I stood one one knee, knife clenched tightly with my left hand.

The warrior turned to my direction.

This was unexpected.

I was entirely out from any visible cover, the only reason I managed to get this close without relying on any bushes or trees was thanks to this cloak, but now since I'm only a few feet away from the warrior. Standing on one knee, my entire front side was visible.

For a moment, the warrior and I stared at each other, both of us caught off guard by each other's presence.

Adrenaline surged, and I rushed in.

The warrior followed suit.

The warrior raised his spear and pointed it in my direction in a defensive stance as I rushed forward.

Sprinting from my crouched position, I ran towards the warrior, nearly tripping on some piece of root sticking from the ground. I quickly noticed the warrior about to stab my stomach as I closed in.

Fear soon took over my being.

A terrified squeak escaped me, as I barely managed to avoid being stabbed by the warrior, I managed to sidestep the attack.

The warrior let go of his right fist from his spear, ready to right hook me. I responded by lunging my stone knife towards his neck with my left hand.

The warriors eyes widened, as if he didn't see the knife I was holding earlier. He dropped his spear entirely and tried blocking with his left arm.

He was too slow, as I managed to stab into his neck.

His right hook landed on my face however, so as soon as I embedded my knife into his neck, I was knocked down by the sheer force of his right hook.

Blood quickly spewed everywhere as he removed the blade from his neck.

I was sent into a coughing fit into the ground, with his blood sprinkling above me.

He clasped both of his hand around his neck, to try to stop the bleeding. The only result was loud gurgles of blood coming from his mouth.

He soon toppled over, dead.

I was already out of breath, I stared wide-eyed at the corpse that now lay in front of me, just dead on an open field of grass around the village.

I chuckled, mostly out of relief.

I gathered myself, grabbed my bloody knife and scurried into the village, leaving the body for all to see.

I hid behind a wall of the cobble house, at this point I'm hyperventilating. Trying to steady my breathing.

Peeking over the edge of the cobble house, I managed to make out the body of the Warrior I just killed. I can only hope that the cover of darkness can mask the body, just long enough to fully execute my plan.

Finally, regaining my composure. I carefully walked to the other side of the cobble wall only to peer from it, to view the dirt path that lay in front of me.

Fortunately, the path was open. Houses were symmetrical, so the path was pretty straight forwards. Just further up the path, at the end. I can only assume it is the Chief's house, which was a lot more extravagant compared to the others.

The torches lit up the way.

However Just further down the path, almost at the end of it.

Was Flea's house.

As much as I wanted to go and do this without any assistance, I had to traverse the ways back in order to increase my chances of succeeding. I only needed Flea to distract the front warriors so I can sneak by, I can't imagine that being too hard.

Using the cover of darkness, I crouched walk just outside of the path that was illuminated by torches. Staying close to the cobble walls of the houses.

Don't know how long this went on for, but just after a few close calls I finally found myself in front of the house I was looking for.

Instead of simply waltzing through the front door, I decided to look for an open window to make my entrance.

With this now decided, I walked along the side of the house. The houses here were generally the same, basically the same exact blueprints of one another. So trying to locate windows wasn't too much of a hassle.

Just behind the house, was an open window.

The shutters were wide open, with only a curtain blocking the view.

I tried my luck, I peered under the curtain of the window.

And there you have it, in a small thatch bed. Laid a sleeping child, and just above the covers. His familiar face was visible, sleeping peacefully under his blanket.

I kinda had to hope he wouldn't overreact to a strange man in his room at night, I did have a way to bribe him should it come down to it.

Sneaking into the child's window at night was easy.

Scanning my surroundings, his bed, 4 pairs of sandals, a random jacket tossed on the floor, dirty laundry in a corner, and finally a mirror hung on the wall.

Approaching the sleeping child, I tapped on his shoulder.

He didn't wake up.

I tapped again.

Nothing.

I pinched his cheek.

Finally, he quickly swatted my hand and sat straight up, with wide eyes.

I raised both of my hands up as I slowly backed off, still In a crouching position.

He squinted in the dark while rubbing his right eye, obviously not being able to tell who the hell is inside his room.

I decided to speak up before he started screaming for his parents.

"It's me! Remember?" I started in a hushed tone.

"W-who?" He still looked half asleep.

"I was thrown out the door by your father" I replied bluntly, still not happy about the previous situation I'd admit.

"Oh…" he was falling asleep again, yawning.

Stuck with no other option, I flashed him my phone screen.

Immediately, he blocked his eyes with his arm. Before hesitatingly peaking over his arm, and into the bright light.

His eyes seemingly adjusted to the light, as he dropped his guard and he now stared wide eyed into my phone screen, as if in a trance.

*click*

"What-where'd it go?!"

"Zip it!"

Clicking the phone off, I finally lowered my hood to show my face.

"Do you remember me?"

He scratched his chin in thought.

"Why are you whispering?"

"So your parents don't find out a grown man is in their child's room" I was losing my patience.

"But they aren't here" He said this as if it was common knowledge.

"What?"

He yawned before answering.

"Their with our elder"

'Elder? Must be their leader'

"For?"

"Something adults do, they never tell me…"

This was new, and alarming. Anything unexpected could greatly affect my chances in pulling this off, finding a way to kill their elder, and hopefully convince this village to accept my leadership.

"Are all adults there?"

"I think so?"

"Hm"

'So if all the adults are there, that only means a bigger audience'

This could make things easier or worse, a bigger audience only means a chance to further spread my story and at least win a few over onto my side, but they all could very easily turn on me.

After a bit of thinking and Flea awkwardly staring at me as he remained cuddled up in his blanket, I finally asked the question.

"Can you help me?"

Took a moment for my question to register in Flea's head, but he responded.

"Help you?" He stretched his arms out and yawned as he continued.

"But it's like, the middle of the night"

"It's only late afternoon"

"So?"

Sigh

"Wanna see this again?" I held out my phone in front of him, and his eyes immediately shined with stars.

"Yes! What is that thing!? Why are their cats stuck inside of it!? Their so cute!-"

I pinched his lips shut with my finger.

"You help me, I'll let you see them again" letting go of his lips, he responded.

"REALLY!?-" I pinched his lips shut once more.

"Yes, now stop being so loud"

Letting go, he now shook off his blanket and sat up straight in a criss cross fashion.

"You got it!" he gave a thumbs up.

I stared at him blankly, then I finally decided to let him know how to help me.

"It's simple, I just need you to-"

"What's your name magic man?"

I paused.

"Ah right, I apologize for not properly introducing myself" I stood up, showing my full height. With my hood pulled back, and my cloak swishing freely with the subtle breeze.

Out of habit, I reached to adjust my bow tie. Only to realize I lacked one, and I didn't even have a dress shirt on.

I cleared my throat, while Flea stared at me expectantly.

"My name is Percival Julius Caine. You can simply call me Doctor Caine, I am the head scientist at Skia Society '' Naturally, one does not casually tell that they work at Skia Society, the organization I worked for previously. But I figured out little harm can be done in saying it here, especially in this world.

Flea only watched me with a curious expression, I almost thought I spoke the wrong language until he responded back to me after his abrupt silence.

"You speak in a funny way magic man" Flea remarked casually.

I furrowed my brow.

"I said you can call me Doctor Caine, Flea"

"What does Docter even mean? Is that a magic spell or something? Are you a wizard? That what my parents tell me-"

"Shut it!" I angrily interrupted flea, I was getting tired of getting nowhere. I was wasting precious time, who knows when the adults will come back.

He pulled his blankets up in fear, trying to hide underneath them.

"Sorry!-" His voice quivered.

'Damn myself!' After mentally cursing myself for a bit, I took a moment to calm myself down.

As soon as I felt more stable, I crouched back down again and spoke as softly as I could to Flea, in hopes of calming him down and getting him to work for me.

"If you help me with what I need, I promise to show you the magic of something called, technology"

He didn't budge.

"And I'm sorry"

he finally peaked his eye over the cover of his blanket.

"Please help me…" I spoke as gently as I could, and even added a bit of desperation into it.

He once again shook off his blanket.

"Then don't yell at me like that again!" he angrily shouted.

I held my head down, fully accepting the scolding I'm receiving from this child. Flea took a moment to calm himself down, and hesitantly asked.

"What is t-tekology?" Flea asked timidly, despite his apparent apprehension. It was obvious this was something he was deeply interested in, perhaps I could teach him...

I looked back up towards him, he had his head cocked to the side in curiosity.

I smirked.

"Magic!" I raised my hands to my side palm up, and decided to do jazz hands in order to emphasize this and hopefully further catch his interest.

It worked.

"Awesome!" He immediately jumped from his bed and quickly put on his sandals, he now wore his jacket he plucked off from the floor. Now ready to help change the world.

'Good start'

Gaining the trust of anyone was a win, despite my outburst. Flea seemed to be intent on helping me after what I promised him. He could be the defining difference to winning this village over.

Flea now stood proud.

"Doctorrrr…Caannn? right? My name is Flea!"

"I know," I replied bluntly.

I turned away, barely even giving a glance towards Flea. Vaulting over the open window, I landed both of my feet on the ground. I heard little footsteps behind me and a thump, meaning that Flea is following close behind.

I pulled my hood back up, concealing my head once more.

"Just follow me"

Didn't wait for Flea to answer, as I began to sneak towards the Elder's residence.

Fortunately, it seemed everyone was out of their homes for the time being. So I wasn't too worried about being spotted by villagers.

The torch's light remained strong down the path.

Despite them being this primitive, I had to give it to them. They know how to keep things organized and symmetrical.

Just down the path, the elder's residence was just ahead. The lynch gate illuminated by 2 tiki torches.

In front of the gate, stood 2 guards.

I only needed Flea to distract both of them, leading them away so I could sneak inside.

I motioned for Flea to stay behind me, and snuck behind a house, then peaked around the corner so we could view the 2 guards.

"Flea"

"Yes?"

"You see those guards?" I pointed at them with my thumb.

"Uhuh"

"Tell them there's a body in the forest, just outside the village. Lead them towards it"

"Su-what!?" The boy instantly tensed up.

"Shhh!" I hastily shut him down before he drew attention to us.

"You understand what I just told you? This is important" I looked down to my side, where the boy was looking straight at me. With wide teary eyes.

"Did you kill someone?-"

"Yes"

I stared intensely at Flea, hoping he'd succumb to my pressure and do as I say.

"Now go tell them, and lead them away"

Flea was wiping away his tears.

"Are you gonna kill someone else?" Flea was clearly distraught, even to my own surprise. I thought death was something common, you know? Didn't think someone would make a huge deal about it.

"If you do as I say, then no" I lied, soon he'll figure that out. But I can easily gain his trust again.

Flea stayed silent, looking down at his sandals.

I quickly started to regret my decision in bringing him here, he could easily sell me out right now if he wanted too.

I glanced at my gun.

Then looked back at Flea, who seemed unsure of what to do. As he rubbed his arm and wiped the sweat off of his forehead, I silently prayed for Flea to make the right decision.

I'm still not too fond of the idea of taking a life, but I will do whatever is needed.

After a moment.

Flea silently went off in the direction of the guards, and couldn't tell what they were saying. But it didn't matter, as they ran off in the direction of the warrior I killed.

Relief soon engulfed my entire being, a slight grin on my face as Flea made the right decision.

It almost felt too easy at this point, you would think they'd use more measures to guard the life of someone as important as their elder.

Whatever.

I scoffed, how could they leave the gate wide open? They should've at least kept one person here to guard while the other went to investigate.

'Idiots, all of them'

I casually walked towards the gate, and went through it without too much trouble.

There was a distinct path in front of me, made of gravel. Thorn bushes accompanied me behind the gate, each poking out from the sides. Forcing me to travel right on the path.

It was a short walk, as I quickly made it to the wooden stairway that led to a wooden door.

I walked cautiously up the stairs, doing my best to not make any unnecessary creaks to not alert anyone to my presence.

Phew.

I took a breath, everything went more or less according to plan. Sneaking in this village didn't prove to be the hardest thing I've ever done, thanks to the primitive nature of this world I didn't have to worry about things such as cameras, police guards, locks, passcodes etc.

Despite that, I was still awfully nervous. Especially at this point, I never found out what lies inside of the Elder's Residence. I just know it's wide enough to hold all the adults of this village, most likely for some sort of ritual or spiritual gathering, maybe a holiday?. Regardless, it was now or never.

I entered the building.

Immediately, the creaking sound of the door was the only noise emanating from the build. As everyone inside went dead silent.

From what I can tell, I simply walked into an oversized room, which held the entire village's population.

Everyone was covered in red fluid.

My heart dropped.

All drenched in blood.

'How insane are these people!?'

Everyone turned to look at me, there was a clear line in the middle. Allowing me to get a good view as to whom I assume to be the village elder.

The elder, such as everyone is. Is covered in blood, the entirety of the floor is coated in red. No guards were visible inside.

The villagers all craned their heads to look at me, all raising an eyebrow, murmuring amongst each other.

I had no plan beyond this point.

'This is my own fault!'

I thought it'd be easy, kill their leader and assert dominance over the helpless civilians.

Sounds simple enough.

Or so I foolishly thought.

Cursing my lack of experience in these sorts of matters, I decided to do the only thing I can do.

Improvise.

The elder, directly in front of me beyond the crowd. Seemed to study me intently, he was a bald tan man. Wrinkles on his face, no doubt due to advanced age.

He seemed to wear the same robes the day I was tossed out from this village. But with his hood down, I was allowed to view most of his image. However, it was mostly obscured due to the blood that was all over his body, even dripping from his eyebrows.

For a while, the only sound was the ominous dripping.

No one dared to move, or even question the elder as to why there is a stranger in their place of rituals. Thanks to this pause, I was able to choke out the words.

"I am a messenger!"

Everyone immediately looked towards the elder, awaiting to see his response.

"Hoo?" The elder from across the room finally spoke up.

Claiming myself to be a messenger would at the very least encourage them to hear what I have to say.

"For whom?" The elder replied, he had a sense of calm. Almost as if this was a common occurrence

I wanted to vomit.

"A world beyond!"

Murmuring soon took over the room, clearly people were instantly alarmed by this sudden claim.

Good, now they should be even more interested.

Suddenly, the door behind me sprang open and something slammed me towards the floor.

"ahg!-"

A foot pinned my back down, with a spear pointed straight to my neck.

"My Lord! This man snuck into our village and killed one of our warriors!"

The crowd instantly turned hostile at this, everyone from the crowd started to approach angrily, each shouting various profanities.

"I had good reason to you fool!-"

"Not another word!" I received a kick to my head.

With my face smushed against the floor, accidentally swallowing blood that was dripping from the villagers. I was quickly losing control of the situation.

"Wait cough just let me exp-cough-lain!" Choking on my words, more blood spilling into my mouth as everyone now stood over me angrily shouting. Their blood dripped on top of me.

"It's this bastard again! We should've lit him on fire!"

"It's the damn wizard again! He's gonna cast a curse on us! Spit"

"Fucking kill him already!"

"Don't trust a word he says!"

I needed to regain control.

Using my left hand, slowly pushing myself to reach for my handgun that was holstered on my waist. Fortunately no one seemed to notice, or were too angry to do so.

The guard before didn't even seem to be in control anymore, as I didn't even see them around me anymore. Mostly likely shoved away from the angry villagers.

Before you know it, I reached it and immediately rolled onto my back.

I fired.

Six loud pops filled the air.

"EVERYONE BACK AWAY"

6 bodies fell.

And just like that.

Everyone listened to me, as they should have from the beginning.

Everyone was clambering, hiding behind each other as they pressed against the walls of this room. I stood by the entrance, I didn't intend on anyone leaving until they heard what I came here to do.

"What did he?-" a woman was on the verge of tears, she tried to reach out to the man I shot dead.

Deserved.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I shouted at the woman, she immediately backed off and joined the frightened crowd.

That's better.

I aimed my handgun to my left, pointing it at anyone that seemed to be extra brave today.

I dare them to try.

"GET ON THE GROUND!"

No one moved, and instead looked at each other. Then turned their gazes to the Elder, their eyes brimming with hope of him being able to salvage this situation.

"Tch!"

I felt another demonstration was in order, I couldn't have them think their Elder can protect them.

They will learn that I'm the only man who can do so.

Another pop rang in the air, and a woman fell to the ground.

A few screams were heard but were quickly silenced as they finally heeded my words, and fell towards the ground.

"DOWN!"

Every adult in this village was cowering on the floor of this room, pressing themselves into it despite the blood that stained it. Many didn't even look up at me, they hid their faces in the floor floorboards with their hands behind their head.

Even the warriors/guard were cowering on the floor with them.

'Perfect'

Honestly, this went better than it really should've. I blame myself for how bad this turned out, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

My anger finally proved to be useful for something.

The only person not on the ground was the elder, who stood stoically at the other side of the room. Blood no longer drips from his body as it dried off.

I aimed my handgun towards him, spitting out blood from my mouth and sniffed the smell of iron in the air.

He didn't budge, but looked rather unimpressed instead.

The elder closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Is this the message the world beyond wanted to give us today?" He said with a smirk, somehow finding humor in this situation.

"That was only the warning, I'd suggest you listen closely if you'd like more lives to be spared"

The elder frowned, but remained silent.

I cleared my throat once more and scanned the room.

"My message is simple, I come from another world"

Everyone remained silent, so I continued.

"A world much more advanced compared to this one"

I turn towards the elderly.

"I have the knowledge to bless this village with abundant of luxuries, luxuries I doubt you'd ever achieve without me"

I turned to the fearful crowd of people lying on the floor.

"I promise abundant food, water, comfortable living space, knowledge on how to fight and conquer, weapons that are capable of destroying citi-I mean Kingdoms in a second!"

I paused my rambling, to gauge out any reactions only for someone to interrupt me.

A voice spoke out from behind me.

"Why would we ever want weapons capable of doing such things! We've lived here just fine until you showed up!" the elder practically snarled out.

"What's that?" I turned around

I stared at the elder, is he delusional?

"Why wouldn't we? Look at yourself!" I spread out my arms.

"We are nothing but scavengers compared to these beasts! These dragons that rule the world!"

I stomped towards the elder, blood splashing with every step until got up in his face.

"You realize that should the dragons want us dead, they'd do so in their sleep!" Elder stayed silent as I spat this out at him.

"These dragons hold too much power, even you must know that" Still refusing to back off.

"That is why we worship them you imbecile, as long as we do that. We can be rest assured that we'll be safe" the elder firmly replied.

'Worship?'

"You have to be joking…" I said genuine disbelief.

"You worship these beasts? While humanity holds the potential to overthrow them!"

'Is this what they were doing here? How is being drenched in blood worshipping dragons!?'

The elder remained silent, so I spun around towards the crowd.

"How are you people not at all bothered by this!? Being forced to worship these…Abominations Just so you can be able to live peacefully! Isn't this absurd? Doesn't this anger you all?!"

I paused due to being out of breath from my constant loud rambling, I scanned the crowd of people on the floor once more.

Slowly, villagers started to raise their heads to look at me, while others remained silently weeping.

"If you listen to me, anoint me as your village Elder-I'm sorry not Elder, but as your LORD, I promise nothing but the best for the future of this village!" I raised my voice further.

"We will become a city! We will become a formidable kingdom where no dragon would ever dare lay their claws on! Humanity will return to being the apex predators of this godforsaken planet!"

I was out of breath, I was proud of my improvised speech. I looked around and saw a few faces now looking directly at me. Each mixed with various emotions, Anger, sadness, grief, and of course suspicion.

Few however had a faint look of hope.

"Doctor Kay?..."

I heard a weak voice call out to me, I turned around to find a small frightened child doing his best to approach me.

It was Flea, I mean of course it was.

"Hm?" Temporarily putting aside my admittedly aggressive emotions, as Flea was shaken up understandably and I didn't want to discourage him from speaking his mind. A child shouldn't have witnessed this but it's just collateral damage at this point, Flea will be fine in the end.

"I-" Flea stammered, as tears flowed freely from his eyes.

I stood waiting patiently as I casually dangled my gun with my free hand with the other on my hip, subtly glancing at the crowd still cowering on the blood soaked floor to see if any dares to try and attack me.

"Can we not…Live peacefully with the dragons?" Flea asked shyly as his voice quivered.

I furrowed my brows at the child, in confusion.

Flea, despite his lack of situational awareness and ignorance of the true cruelty of this world.

Was brave, at least he was compared to the rest of these pathetic adults that remained cowering on the floor.

Maybe in another world we could...I'm sure many individuals of the previous world I came from would love to own a dragon as their pet. Hell, even I would love to have one as a pet.

But these aren't just any mindless dragons running on pure instinctual drive, with a simple glance at their kingdom you'd see their advanced way of thinking. How perfectly they managed to construct a palace to hold multitudes of dragons their size, how you'd see the occasional dragon merchant flying overhead with luggage on their backs. These dragons are sentient, capable of forming their own thoughts and opinions.

You won't be able to have these sorts of dragons as pets.

Slavery was an option, but not a preferable one.

The thought of dragons and humans living peacefully side by side as 2 different sentient beings, was disgusting. Earth only has enough space for one sentient race and I refuse to let a reality such as that one to happen.

I've been given an opportunity to change the way life is for all of humanity, but at a much greater scale compared to my previous occupation. At Least back then I'd have my coworkers to bounce off ideas, but I'm just on my own here.

Meaning I'm in full control.

It will stay that way.

'...'

After I finished my thoughts.

I turned towards him and crouched down to his height.

I stuck out my hand to place it on his shoulder.

"Flea get away from him!-" a woman shouted, safe to assume his mother. She shushed up as soon as I pointed my handgun at her.

With an annoyed sigh.

I returned my attention to Flea, and spoke.

"Only if the dragons choose to live in peace with us, then we will" I smiled to reassure him, he didn't smile however but shook his head in acknowledgment.

That was a lie of course, humanity will reign supreme in the end.

I got up and stood in the middle of the room, no longer paying attention to Flea.

"Anoint me as your village Lord So I can lead this village to glory!"

No one moved, but rather stayed silently staring at me.

'Ah right'

I almost forgot.

Pulled out my handgun, everyone immediately flinched.

Aimed towards the elder, who hadn't moved yet.

The Elder paled, realizing what I'm about to do. Sweat began to drip instead of blood, as fear quickly took over his character as he spoke.

"You fool, you'll only lead everyone towards death with your ridiculous ideas!"

The elder finally broke through his stoic masquerade.

I merely shrugged, why should I take this old man seriously?

"We want nothing but peace in this village, and we will continue to live peacefully here for many generations, we don't need you or whatever gifts you bring us!"

I laughed.

"How long do you really expect that to last? old man, I'm sure this village isn't too far away from being attacked by a dragon…slaughtering everyone here as you remain powerless to save their lives" I quipped back at him, at least in the hopes of helping him realize how flawed his way of thinking is before his imminent death...

"You're wrong! For years we've lived here without a single dragon incident-"

One last final pop rang in the air.

The elder immediately fell over.

He's dead, straight through the head.

I spat on him.

I didn't want to waste any more time listening to his delusions. Despite my short time in this world, I already know what needs to be done.

-4 Bullets Remaining-