His Soul is Marching On to Another World; or, the John Brown Isekai

Even later on the 63rd of Summer, 5859

The walls of Casamonu, Casamonu

Sir Korvus II was anxious. Not because he was standing on walls which had only been newly rebuilt… okay, if he had to admit, standing on hastily rebuilt walls made him anxious as well. “Let’s hope that these walls are good enough for you, Mister Dong.”

“The Heavens will decide whether our fate shall crumble along with these walls or not.” replied Master Long Dong. His eyes were half-closed and staring far into the distance while his long white robe fluttered in a most cool fashion along with his great beard. One looking at him from the outside would think that he was staring far into the future with his wise eyes. In reality, his eyes were just sore due to the sunlight directly hitting his eyes. The wind magic he cast to make his robes flutter only served to irritate his eyes further.

Korvus scoffed. “I’m sure that a horde of savages cannot bring down walls built by civilization. What are they going to do, hurl pebbles at the walls with their hands?”

Master Dong picked up a pebble left over from yesterday’s repairs. He threw it up far towards the sky. “Perhaps.” After a long minute, the pebble flew back down to his hand. “The Demon King is sure to be overpowered by himself. We’ll be on watch for any cheat skills he surely has.”

“…and you’re thinking that whatever ragtag walls we have here can stop a demon king?” Korvus looked at the man right next to him. He suddenly felt that he had made a mistake by staying here, but there wasn’t much he could do to escape the grip of an otherworlder cultivator.

Dong nodded. “We’re here to melt his army down before things snowball out of control. I foresee that there will be no stopping him if we aren’t to stop him now. Fortunately, I also foresee that we will stop him today.”

Yes, Dong had seen it, but he hadn’t understood it back then. The vision he had seen during his meditation had required reinterpretation with the intel he had gathered. The capital would burn, that much was true, but not from the armies of the Demon King. A new order would rise and the empire would fall, that was also true, but it would be a new order built from the ashes with the guiding hand of an old architect from another world. This Demon King was just a catalyst, a moving force to give the architect the push he needed to enact this new order. “There is good in every evil, and evil in every good. We shall see much good from this evil.”

“If you say so…” Korvus really wanted to get away from the weirdos in the borderlands. He planned on taking all the money he got and locking himself away in a mansion in Hauptstadt with a load of jade beauties by his side. Maybe he’d buy a merchant ship or two to make passive income at the side so that his inheritance wouldn’t dry out, and that’s all the work he could bother to do. “I-”

“Ssh!” Dong put his hand over Korvus’ mouth. Shushing a nobleman like that would have normally given him the death penalty, but Korvus was also beyond caring at that moment. Dong completely closed his eyes, focusing on the presence just beyond the horizon. He could feel him. “John…”

“John who?”

“John these…” Master Long Dong had to stop himself from making a very immature joke at that moment. Such a low-quality joke would have ruined his LARP. “John, the Demon King.”

“A Demon King named John?” Korvus scanned Dong’s face to see if he was joking. Dong looked all too serious however. “Really? Would a Demon King have such a lame name?” Korvus kept looking at Dong with disbelief.

“I’m not the one who named him John! Raise your complaints about his name to him, not me.” Dong went quiet again to focus. There were many presences beyond the horizon. It must have been a decently-sized army, at least for Gemeinplatz standards. The cultivator opened his eyes again as his head began aching. He really needed to invent painkillers for such times. “They have an army coming here.”

“They do?” Korvus looked at the horizon. Everything seemed clear to him.

“Yes, get your men ready!” shouted Dong. He hated the “dimwit normies” as he called them. “Qiánjìn!”

Even later, but not much later, on the 63rd of Summer, 5859

Somewhere near the walls of Casamonu, Casamonu

“Here we are, ladies and gentlemen.” Brown rode his horse atop to a scenic hill overlooking Casamonu’s walls. The captains followed behind him with the soldiers not far behind. “Take a second to admire the scenery, this wonderful scene of Creation.” Brown did actually pause for a second. It was yet another hot summer day, the currently dry grass staying idle from a lack of wind. “Alright, I believe we have had enough of a break. Do your best to stay alive: we’ll have much more time to admire the scenery if you do so. Now, make camp!”

On the orders of the commander-in-chief, the captains broke into their companies and made their way towards the flat land below them. A squad lead by Tubman stationed themselves on the hill to stay on the lookout while the rest intended to be hard-at-work digging ditches surrounding the walls and putting their sleeping bags down. The sky was darkening, and the men of the League didn’t intend to attempt an assault after having marched for so long. Most of the soldiers were concerned with getting a good night’s sleep under the watch of their poor comrades on patrol duty. The real fun would begin tomorrow when the big guns would come out to play.

The training of the League paid off as the men worked quickly, quietly, and efficiently from a distance just far away enough that crossbow shots wouldn’t reach them from the walls. The garrison of Casamonu did have firearms, and a few stray shots did make their way to their camp, but the defenders stopped their shots as they got ready to conserve their ammunition in case of a breach. Slowly and surely, the men of the League surrounded the city wall with their encampment. A proper siege required that nothing went in or out, and all the soldiers patrolling around the city would do their best to make sure of that. Even if they failed to breach the walls, the garrison would ideally surrender after running out of food, water or the will to stand idle on some wall for days on end. Even more ideally, that time would come soon.

“Young lady, our job is done for today. We, especially you, should get some rest for tomorrow.” Just as Brown was about to separate from his captains and lay down after a long day of setting up camp, he heard quite the commotion coming from nearby. A few crackles, a few shouts and suddenly-

“John!”

There was an odd man in robes speeding towards him at inhuman speeds.