A bright flash of light.

A bright flash of light obscured Walter’s sight for a split second before his surroundings suddenly changed.

Gone was the flaming office, as well as the Devil.

Instead, he now stood atop what appeared to be an unpaved dirt road that didn’t curve or bend but instead stretched on both ends for miles on end.

Lush green trees lined up against both sides of the road while the skies above was a clear blue, the sun completely unobstructed from spreading its rays across the lands. Beyond the initial layer of trees laid an endless forest, with dense shrubbery and vegetation obscuring whatever was beyond.

It would seem that he was indeed resurrected.

The only question was–

“Where the hell did that bitch resurrect me?”

As he spoke to himself, he once again surveyed the surroundings, looking for any signs of civilisation or a noticeable landmark.

But to his disappointment, he found nothing. Nothing relevant anyway. It was only this dirt road that displayed the existence of civilisation. His only possible course of action was obvious.

With his choice made, he brushed at his suit lapels and went to fix his tie as he prepared for a long walk. As he did so however, he noticed something odd about his outfit.

“Hmm?.. What the?”

He found that his dark green tie was replaced by a dark green, 16th century cravat. Thus no longer making it necessary for him to fix his ‘tie.’ Not only that, but his black pinstripe suit was replaced by a black 16th century coat that had white outlines on its trims.

“Medieva— No… Renaissance era clothing?”

He voiced out his findings as he examined his outfit, quickly concluding which era this fashion of clothing belonged to.

“And from the looks of it, it’s the clothing befitting of a member of the wealthy aristocracy…”

After confirming his newfound outfit, he checked under the longsleeve of his right arm to find that even his hidden pistol was replaced by a hidden crossbow.

“Even the gun was changed? How intriguing… Wait… Does that mean?”

Walter felt his heart drop as a realisation flashed through his mind. He hurriedly fiddled with all the pockets he could find on his outfit and instantly felt relieved when he felt a flat cylindrical object in his coat’s inner pocket.

Just as he was about to take out the object, a quick shadow covered him before moving past him and moving down the road at a rapid pace. When he looked at the sky above, he saw the shrinking silhouette of what seemed to be an emerald-green dragon that contrasted against the blue of the sky.

But to his slight surprise, the only response that came out of his mouth was a nonchalant and tired voice.

“Of fucking course…”

Perhaps it was because his whole experience in hell had somewhat desensitised him to the ‘fantastical’ aspects of this world, making the sight of dragon seem not that surprising to him. But even if he had no idea what the true intent of that emerald dragon was, it still served a purpose for Walter.

It confirmed to him that not only was this a world of the renaissance era, but it would seem that this world had some ‘magical elements’ to it as well. The full extent of its magical elements, he was currently unaware of.

But that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t learn eventually.

In that moment, he made his resolve clear to himself.

Did she really think that she could just cheat him out of his second life in such an unpleasant manner?

Or did she secretly have a grander scheme hidden behind the works?

Either way he soon placed these currently unimportant thoughts aside as he muttered to himself.

“Whatever her original intentions may have been, I will still need to find civilisation.”

Before he fixed his appearance one last time and walked down the dirt road. Since he didn’t know where he was, it didn’t really matter which direction of the road he went. Both should still eventually lead him to civilisation, it’s just that one had the chance of bringing him to civilization faster than the other.

The only real threat was the ever present possibility of death but then again, what is life without risk?

And with that in mind, he would walk for about half an hour before his footsteps slowly grinded to a halt as he noticed another silhouette in the distance. This time, it appeared to be some sort of caravan on the dirt road that was drawing closer to him.

At first, a smile drew onto his face as he realised that perhaps he will come across civilisation faster than he originally thought.

Even just tagging along with this caravan until leaving them upon reaching the first ‘proper’ settlement that wasn’t a village or small outpost would suit Walter’s needs.

However, that smile quickly faded away.

He took note of the very distinct possibility that the men of the caravan would kill him on the spot before looting his corpse. After all, ‘morality’ is a fickle thing in the face of human greed.

As a person who only just resurrected after an encounter with the Devil and with no ‘second chances’ left, Walter definitely would not allow himself to experience the pain of death once again so quickly. Of course, there was a quick solution that would greatly decrease the chances of the caravan group opting to kill him.

And that was to make himself less suspicious and more importantly, less of a threat.

It was just that the method of actually doing so was rather… messy to say the least.

But he had no choice, although it was highly unlikely that the caravan had spotted him from the distance yet, they would soon if he didn’t act immediately. He quickly threw himself at the nearby dense shrubbery before rolling on the dirt surface below.

His once clean aristocrat outfit was quickly ruined by mud and debris. But such was necessary if he wanted his impromptu plan to succeed.

After rolling on the floor for a short while, he stood back up and took a deep breath as he fiddled with his right ankle.

“If there was a pistol clip here in my original world, then there should be a— ahah! Yes there is.”

He couldn’t help quietly exclaiming his joy as he felt the bolt quiver strapped onto his right ankle. Soon after, he took another deep breath as he drew out one of the miniature crossbow bolts.

He stared at the bolt laying on the open palm of his hand for a few seconds before he said a single sentence to himself.

“Damn… This is gonna hurt but… it should save my life…”

Before he tightly gripped the bolt in his hand, bit his lips as hard as he could and then plunged the sharp end of the bolt into the back of his right thigh.

A piercing pain instantly surged within his thigh as he let go of the bolt and staggered forward. He would have shouted in pain if he hadn’t bit his lips in preparation beforehand.

With everything now ‘prepared,’ he forced himself to walk back onto the dirt road and make his way towards the caravan.

He didn’t know why, but he actually found that he was able to walk completely fine even with the bolt stuck within his thigh so he also had to fake a limp in order to make him appear more ‘convincing.’

After a few long moments, the caravan’s escort appeared to have noticed him, with a pair of two horse-mounted men riding ahead of the caravan to approach him.

Both of them donned a plain padded gambeson jacket that was brown in colour with a metal sallet helmet that had no visor and left their faces exposed. There was also a small emblem of a shield with antler horns pinned onto their gambeson.

They also had leather scabbards which held their short swords strapped to their pants via sword belts. As one would expect from soldiers of this era, the two riders were male. Both of them had similar body builds, with the only difference being the clear gap in age between the two.

The one who rode slightly ahead of the other seemed to be nearing his forties, with a short grizzled beard and a pair of deadpan eyes which Walter could only describe as having ‘seen some shit.’

The other seemed to be a lot more youthful, not even reaching his twenties yet but was clearly fit enough to participate in this line of work. The fact that he was clean shaven only exaggerated his ‘young’ appearance.

It was the older one who addressed Walter.

“Halt! Who goes there!”

“You can rest easy men. I don’t mean you any harm.”

Walter raised his hands to show his intentions as he communicated with the two riders.

“I simply wish for a ride.”

As he expected, the riders remained cautious of him, both of them tightly gripping onto the hilts of their swords while the bearded one questioned him.

“Who are you? And state your business.”

“I am Walter Faust of the illustrious Faust family… My business was one of our trade caravans that I was supposed to supervise before we got raided.”

With a calm voice, Walter ‘introduced’ himself to the riders. Although he didn’t even have a single clue about this world, he still had a general idea about what the culture and society of this era should be. However, he was indeed absolutely certain of one thing.

He didn’t know how but it would seem that the world itself was doing everything in its power so that he would ‘naturally’ be part of it. Not only were his clothes changed in order to suit this world, but it would seem that the world itself was translating languages for him.

When he said ‘You can rest easy men,’ he spoke in German.

He said ‘I don’t mean you any harm’ in Italian.

And he said ‘I simply wish for a ride’ in Japanese.

Each and every time; they not only understood what he said but they replied to him in English, his first language.

With that in mind, Walter could now conclude that this ‘transmigrating resurrection’ was significantly more complicated than he originally thought. But he can ponder on these thoughts later, he had to focus on his current priorities.

“As you can see… I am the only survivor and I no longer have my caravan nor any of my vassals… but I still do have my family name.”

He paused for as short moment to let what he said sink in before he placed particular emphasis on his next words.

“I can assure you that my family will compensate you generously for assisting in my safe return home.”

When the two heard what he had to say, they both exchanged a quick glance at each other before the older one spoke up again. This time however, he addressed the other rider.

“Tomas. Return to the caravan and inform them about our new ‘friend’ here. Also tell Karmen that she may have a possible patient on her hands.”

“Wait what? Are you sure about this?”

As the younger rider, ‘Tomas’ responded, he paused to give a quick glance at Walter before whispering at his partner. Soon enough, the two engrossed themselves in a private, inaudible conversation. Nevertheless, he still felt relieved that they were discussing what to do with him instead of outright killing him on the spot.

Although he would still need to find a way to pay these men, that was a problem that future Walter could deal with. After a short moment, Tomas conceded to his superiors wishes, returning back to the caravan which had yet to reach their destination due to its slower speed.

On the other hand, the bearded rider continued to silently gaze at Walter with watchful eyes before he spoke up.

“Alright ‘Walter.’ Just wait for the caravan to catch up. We will collectively decide what to do with you then.”

Walter replied to the horseman’s words with a smile.

“That sounds like a good deal to me.”