A Tale of Tales

Chapter 2: New Enemies

"Ugh. That pretty much sucked."

Far up on a hill, a small log cabin had been built. Inside was a simple but functional home; two beds, a table with two chairs, a stove, cabinets, a fireplace, and a washroom. Considering the house was mostly wood, but the washroom was a fully functional modern washroom, it looked out of place, but John hadn't been all that concerned with appearances.

"First, we fall out of the sky, which for some reason always happens when we enter a new dimension. Second, we land in Gwain Saga, an incredibly nice place to be, to the point where I would call it a vacation spot, but then piss off the queen, which basically makes us outlaws. Third, I used up most of my remaining [Memory] points building us a house because we can't live in the city anymore. Or..."

John sighed and fell back onto his bed. His chest had been taped up, and after taking a painkiller he'd made himself, he was capable of moving around relatively easily. That combined with Prota's healing magic meant he'd recover in a few days, but it was still annoying.

"I wonder if Gwain took my advice. Hopefully, I didn't mess with the timeline too much because that's always a pain in the ass."
"You only don't like it because it requires you to use your brain," Prota pointed out.

Her voice was still just as soft as ever, but now that the two of them were alone, Prota was more talkative than before. Her face, however, remained as neutral as ever.

"Why think if I don't need to?" John sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "Think hard. Me no like think. Me lazy."

Prota walked over from the stove and flicked John's forehead. "Hmph. If you thought, we wouldn't get in half the situations we do."
"But... but... effort," John sighed dramatically. Prota just shook her head and went back to the stove, stirring a pot of soup.

"I never had you watch Gwain Saga, right?" John said after a while.

Prota just shook her head.
"Good series," John mumbled. "It was really entertaining. Very nice cast of characters, all very kind, a lighthearted isekai, if you can even call it that."

Prota turned around and gave John a questioning look.

"What, the queen? Don't worry about it, she's not a bad person. There's... let's call it a bias against humans here. We're both technically humans, but she's referring to humans specifically from Earth. Not my Earth, don't worry," John said as Prota's eyes widened a bit in shock. "I don't think anyone from my Earth ever really shows up anywhere."

"In this dimension, as far as most people are concerned, there are two worlds: Earth and Teora. This is Teora; a world full of Teorans who can use magic. Humans from Earth that come here are insanely powerful. Their density is multiplied by a lot, so they become almost immune to physical damage, and can perform great feats of strength. They're also very heavy."

John held his hand out and the pistol appeared in his hand again. "Although, maybe they're not immune to some forms of physical damage..."

He sat up and looked at Prota. "They're also very weak to magic. That's pretty much all you need to know."

He rubbed his chin. "Two days. That's how long it'll take for my chest to heal up, right?"
Prota nodded, then immediately regretted it. There was a shine in John's normally empty eyes. A mischievous, devilish grin formed on his face.

"Please stop getting hurt," Prota sighed.

"Stop getting hurt? You might as well ask time to stop," John grinned.
"..."
"Ah. Right. In any event..."

"Let's go crash an [Event], shall we?"

~~~

"There they are. Not very sneaky, are they," John sighed, staring at Geo and the princess sneaking around the market. He had the timing down perfectly.

"Three, two, one..."

Right on queue, they bumped into Lanney, everyone's favourite bread girl,

"Princess?"

John mouthed the words as the original cast spoke.