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

63rd of Summer, 5859

Yellowclover, Casamonu (League of Gileadites)

Today the sun shone on a new Yellowclover. Of course, one could argue that all matter was ever-moving and therefore ever-changing, which meant that a new sun was always rising over a completely new world, but that kind of shallow philosophical rambling was far from anyone’s mind. That sort of rambling would have to be left for whenever Gemeinplatz was liberated and there was time for standing around idly and debating metaphysics.

For now, it was the time to rise and shine, and rise and shine Shinasi did in his house. He had certainly missed his humble abode. Compared to the mud huts of Libertycave the house wasn’t much of an improvement in terms of construction, but it had the advantage of having his memories in its walls. The lords could have their palaces, the merchants their apartments, but Shinasi would rather keep his shack to retire to whenever his adventuring days would be over. Perhaps he’d need to expand the building a bit to house more people… he was daydreaming about such a possibility while looking at Ayomide who was still knocked unconscious on the other corner. Maybe he wouldn’t need to expand the building considering how compact she was. Maybe I should get out of bed instead of sitting on my behind.

Shinasi slipped out of the bedsheets and didn’t get his clothes on as he had fallen asleep with all his fighting gear already on him. His sides hurt from his belt biting into him all night. His body just fell sore all around from having marched all day yesterday, and there was another day of marching tomorrow. The young man turned his head to Ayomide again. It was fine. He was just going to have to march one more day. One day out of who-knows how many in the future, but it was going to be fine. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe. He finally stood up after having had enough internal struggle for the day, and he noticed that the house was empty except for Ayomide.

Thinking that the others must have gone out, Shinasi stepped outside to see a feast happening outside his door. All the soldiers had gathered around in a scattered donut-shape to receive food from a couple of cauldrons set outdoors. Those serving them were familiar to Shinasi: they were his fellow villagers who had gotten to work on feeding those who had saved them. It wasn’t too cheerful of a scene, mostly from the fact that these villagers had also just lost their friends and family. Still, they themselves having stayed alive seemed to have staved away potential gloom for the immediate moment. The scene was made unusual by the villagers and soldiers, lightskin and darkskin, sitting together in the field as equals. Curious children had surrounded the soldiers, so had even more curious adults, and the soldiers with curly hair had to chase away those trying to play with their hair without permission.

Looking through the crowd, Shinasi found Brown dining along with Shinasi Sr. Both the old men had laid themselves on the grass. They were talking about the “those old days” as those with advanced age tend to do.

“…and you know, one of my sons, he tried to slip out to play during Sabbath.”

“What is ‘Sabbath’, Mister Brown?”

“On Sunday you see… I’ll tell you all about it later. Young man, good morning.” Brown waved to Shinasi looking at them from a short distance. “Your father’s quite the curious fellow. He hasn’t left me alone ever since he woke up.”

“I’m sure he hasn’t, captain.” replied Shinasi Jr.

“I hadn’t expected you to be… well, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to be with anything… anything like this.” Shinasi Sr. found himself lacking the vocabulary to explain John Brown’s antics. The average peasant’s political literacy hadn’t seen much improvement ever since they saw the tax collector for the first time in their lives. “Ah… Anyways, I’m glad that you’ve found something to work towards in your life. Better for you to fight to save villages than for you to drift off into weird adventures and spend your time in the bawdy-”

Shinasi Jr. interrupted Shinasi Sr. by conspicuously clearing his throat. “Father, I think Mister Brown has heard enough details for today.”

“I care not much for his background as long as he’s standing before me as a noble man today.” added Brown. “His… multiplicitous deeds with the fairer sex are to be judged later by the Lord.” The way he squinted his eyes at Shinasi made him sure what Brown thought that judgement was going to be like.

“Yes, let’s not talk about that today. I… Well, there was something I wanted to discuss with my father before all this happened.” Now that Brown had explained the whole League thing to his father, Shinasi Jr. could skip the explanations and get right to the point.

“Oh? What’d that be, son?”

“Well…” Shinasi Jr.’s eyes shifted to Brown. I guess there’s no harm in telling him. “I wanted to ask your permission- your… erm…” Shinasi felt his momentum dropping. Was this even the right time? But then I may never have the chance to ask this again… I at least want to get this done before the siege. “…I wanted to ask your permission to get engaged to a woman I’ve been courting.”

“…” Shinasi Sr. was dumbstruck for a moment which proved to be way more than brief. He opened his mouth, closed it back, raised his hand, put it down, stammered a few syllables, and then he finally managed to say something intelligible “What?”

“Her name’s Ayomide, the woman you probably saw sleeping this morning, in our house.”

“…what?”

“I initially joined Captain Brown because I wanted to know who she was after she had saved me.”

“…what?”

“And, and, we have already… uhm… well, I can’t exactly ask her parents for permission, but I’m pretty sure she’d be willing.”

“…excuse me son, I need to… you, you’ve managed to court a woman?”

“Yes?”

Brown interjected “I can personally attest, on my honor as a man and a Christian, that these two are quite close together.”

“I… I never thought this’d happen! When are the grandkids coming?”

“…it’s a bit early for that father.”

A bit later in the 63rd of Summer, 5859

Yellowclover, Casamonu (League of Gileadites)

Despite the great reception, the League of Gileadites had other things to do that day. So, without letting them laze off, Brown mustered the men once more. Things were looking Casamonuwards again. Unlike their departure from Azdavay, their departure from Yellowclover was a whole lot more eventful. Vaiz had to take his time to receive each and every blessing from the villagers, which took a good ten minutes. Some villagers had come along to join the soldiers in moving their supplies, and some had made generous donations to the League. After having made sufficient preparations, the League moved out with a promise to come back after sieging down Casamonu and capturing Sir Korvus II.

Shinasi was at the tail-end of the caravan as he was the one most busy with receiving farewells. Next to him was an ordinary cart being pulled by one of Ayomide’s officers. It contained Ayomide warmed in a blanket. She was still deep asleep, and she’d remain so for a while. All Shinasi had to do was survive until she woke up and he could deliver the news from his father. He shuddered. Hopefully he hadn’t just set a so-called “flag” by thinking about such things. Now, getting afraid of flags was only going to make it worse…

“Bah! I need a drink.” exclaimed Shinasi, prompting everyone to look at him as if he was a deranged lunatic. Unfortunately, he had to stay sober on the march, otherwise he had a real chance of getting trampled on by a marching column if he stumbled and fell down.

“You need a drink? We’re on the march!” This voice shocked Shinasi so much that he almost stumbled while mostly sober. It was Ayomide, who had risen up from her bed in the cart. “Good morning, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“How are you awake already? I mean, I’m glad, but-”

“Could you show your gratitude by getting me out of this cart?”

“Ah, yeah.” Shinasi leaned down to embrace Ayomide and lift her up from under her shoulders. Despite her short stature she was quite heavy. He’d have stayed like this for a bit longer if not for the fact that they were on the march, so Shinasi eventually set Ayomide down on the ground.

“So, I don’t know how I’m up.” Ayomide stretched her body after having laid motionless for more than an entire day. “I heard you scream about needing a drink, which made me want to shout at you to not drink on the march. That’s all I remember before I opened my eyes and shouted at you.”

“As long as you’re up… and I’m not going to drink anything on the march, don’t you worry. Well, maybe a bit…” He thought of the sips he had stolen this morning from the communion wine.

“I’ll go report to the old man now. Don’t get anything while I’m away.” With that, Ayomide speeded off to inform John Brown of her miraculous recovery.

Shinasi had extended his hands forward to try and catch Ayomide, but she sped of way too quickly. He retracted his hand and put it into the fashionable pockets of his gambeson. There was time yet for him.

With an awakened Ayomide, the League of Gileadites continued marching on…