(First Draft of) Chapter 2 – His day is marching on!

This is, like the previous post, the first draft for another chapter of the Fall of the Slave Harem that I had written four months ago. The chapter isn't even fully complete - I had decided to spend time for a while to develop the story before writing John Brown Isekai again.

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The great plains of not-Kansas had slowly given way to hilly forests near the town, populating these were around five-hundred or so odd people.

The people coming out of the town had garments that looked like a Renaissance Fair ran by people who had only a vague idea on how pre-modern people dressed. The town’s fashion was largely anachronistic with modern metal zippers, random pieces of various clothing items vaguely resembling cheongsams, hanboks and kimonos, the occasional French maid outfit, disorganized bits of metal plate and other armor of questionable function.

In the middle of this cacophony of fashion was 19th century radical abolitionist John Brown, with a fashionable coat made of tanned leather. He was a cultured man, oft seen with a plain yet sharp two-piece suit, yet he had no chance to prepare for a trip to whole another world.

Still wearing the suit that he had been hanged with was, admittedly, a bit too macabre for Brown’s liking. He made his mind to get himself to a tailor whenever the opportunity arose.

Jon, in great contrast to the gentlemanly old John Brown, was just wearing a simple dark grey hoodie. It somehow didn’t look out of place in this supposedly high-fantasy medieval setting.

The town lacked walls, the only thing welcoming the Browns was a tall, mildly welcoming wooden gate with a sign stating “Welcome to Azdavay, the Town of New Beginnings, Romantic and Mountainous! Established in 945, disestablished in 946, reestablished in 948, prophesized by a trusted oracle to be unestablished soon in 949.”

The sign was written in many different scripts and languages, most of them none of the Browns could understand, except for a broken English translation at the bottom.

“Good that we’re seeing the town now, before it gets ‘unestablished’.” commented Jon upon witnessing the sign. “Wonder what’ll happen to them.”

Brown was slightly curious too, not enough to ponder about it longer than a sentence or two. “Fake oracles and prophets are aplenty; nothing indicates this town will be ‘unestablished’ any time soon.”

“Come on old man, this is another world! Oracles are probably legit in these lands.” replied Jon. Besides, fighting against some prophecy is exactly the kind of thing a newcomer can do that’ll make them stand out! Maybe I’ll stay here a while, get my character development going.

Brown wanted to argue no further, so the conversation came at a close. The Browns passed through the gate, and into the small town. The trend of signage being multilingual continued, there were various shops advertising their services.

One particular sign caught the attention of Jon. ‘Edventurer’s Gild’, huh. It was misspelt, but Jon knew that this was what he was looking for.

No second chapter was complete without the hero stepping into the Adventurer’s Guild. Jon intended to continue honored isekai tradition, so he made his way to the doors of the guild.

Reading the name, Brown thought that this ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ was some sort of fraternal order, akin to the Freemasons or the Good Templars. He followed Jon, thinking that he could get some information from its respectable members.

What Brown found inside was not the lodge of some respectable order, but a whole basketcase. The small lodge was filled with unwashed ‘adventurers’ and several people serving services of food and drink to said adventurers. The place reeked of alcohol and other pungent smells that needn’t be mentioned in narration.

Brown was confused as to what kind of order this so-called ‘guild’ was supposed to be about. He saw none of the solemnity or the fraternity he had expected from a place with such a name.

Jon ignored the environment, chalking it up to ‘ruggedness’. He made his way to a prominent counter in the middle of the room, dropping the monster cores he had looted earlier on top of it.

“So, how much for these?”

The woman at the counter stared at the troublesome customer. “Sir, you are supposed to wait in line.”

Behind him was a long line made of a dozen people.

“Get out of the way, jackass!”

“Your mother never teach you any manners?”

“Right, right.” Jon admitted defeat and retreated to the back of the line.

While Jon was busy being schooled, Brown was occupying himself with observing the inhabitants of the lodge. He took note of their weaponry, overheard a few snippets of conversation, and concluded that this place most likely not a lodge of respectful fraternity but a society of less-than-respectful bounty hunters.

“Hey, girl, mind showing me what those peaks can do?”

And, in front of his very own eyes, something suitably less-that-respectful was now unfolding. A man, with hair tied to the top and wearing white robes, who was sitting on one of the tables was making lame advances towards a woman serving food who was clearly not interested.

“Young man, you’re clearly bothering the lady.” interjected Brown. He was unable to continue watching as infidelity towards temperance occurred.

Suddenly the eyes of everyone on the table were on Brown.

“Oh, the old man messed up!”

“Is your class a [Social Justice Warrior], old man?”

“He’s just complimenting her, come on!”

Such comments came towards his way, before the unsavory man stood up and walked towards Brown with murderous intent.

“What’s your name, you arrogant fool?”

Brown decided to go with a trusty pseudonym he had used before. “Isaac Smith.”

“Isaac Smith, huh? Then you’re clearly just a newly transmigrated frog who thinks he’s good enough for swan meat!” The man assumed an arrogant smile. “I’ll help you see Mt. Tai, old man. I’m Xiao of the illustrious Dong Sect, whose master is also my father! I’d watch my moves if I were you.”

Brown didn’t flinch one bit in front of the arrogant young master. “I’d be most careful if I was you, young man, for there is a power way beyond that master of yours. Cease your incessant lust immediately lest you draw the ire of the Lord.”

The audience was shocked at what they saw as the arrogance and foolishness of Brown, standing against someone of higher level and status.

“I shall visit your lord when I’m done with you!” shouted the young master as he began moving his arms around in a circle. The middle of this circle suddenly began to glow. “I activate the secret Dong technique, passed through from big Dongs to smaller Dongs, a technique that shakes the opponent to their foundation and causes eight of their meridians to stop functioning, [Seven Cranes Craving Dong…]”

Brown was slightly discombobulated by the lights show; he decided to take decisive action before those lights would end up harming him. He used his special technique, [Punch in the Goddamn Face], interrupting the elaborate martial arts technique young Dong was about to unleash. He wasn’t expecting the old man to dare touch him, falling to the floor right on his bum.

“Hey, you cowardly bastard! Don’t you know it is disrespectful to punch someone while they’re stating the name of their attack?!”

“Don’t you know it’s disrespectful to harass ladies, young man?”

Young Dong used his high Athletics skill to quickly get up. He vomited some blood in anger, which is apparently a thing some cultivators do. The small Dong made sure to keep his distance from Brown. “You’ve done it now! You shall now see the ultimate forbidden technique that has been passed to me from a secret pocket dimension I unlocked when I picked up a pebble that other day. This’ll cause your foundation to crumble like my grandma’s bones! [Heaven Defying Ultra-Mega-Omega-Super-Extraordinary Jade S-]”

This time the Dong was beaten by a woman, the same one who he had been making untoward advances, who approached him from behind and smashed a plate into his head. She had a higher Strength level compared to Brown; this plate-attack knocked the young master back onto the cold, hard ground.

“Ow, ow ow! You- You’ll pay for this, Isaac Smith!” The young master decided to spare himself further humiliation, and retreated fastly from the premises. His retinue, who had sat at the table while this fight was going on, followed suit in retreat.

The guild was used to scuffles like this happening occasionally; they quickly forgot about the fight and went back to minding their own business.

Around the same time Jon had finished his business as well. He returned to Brown, unaware of the fight that had just broken out.

“Good news, old man!” exclaimed Jon, holding two silver coins in his hand. “Apparently one of those monster cores I looted was a rare variant, so now I- we’ve got some real dosh!” He gave one of the coins to Brown.

“Thank you, young man. I’m surprised that you are this knowledgeable about the workings of a place that you’ve never visited.” said Brown upon accepting the coin. “Are you sure you’re from Kansas?”

Jon smirked in response. “Well, you know, I read about this kind of scenario back at home.” This was just years of his webnovel training coming to fruition. “Anyways, I’m also a member of this guild now.” He showed a card with his personal info on it.

“I’ve now got a quest to attend to, mind helping me?”

Brown decided that following the genre-aware Jon would be a reasonable idea, despite Brown not knowing what a ‘quest’ was supposed to be. “Sure, young man.”

“Great, your ability to punch slimes should come in handy. Before going on the quest though, the receptionist lady told me that there was a place I could acquire more allies for cheap. Plus, we need to stock up on gear and whatnot at the shops.”

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The Browns spent half an hour shopping in the streets of Azdavay. The pair were amazed at the quantity of the items at display despite the town having no more than a thousand residents. Brown observed that this variety in goods was probably due to the town serving as an in-between point for travelers looking to stop and rest.

Brown decided to spend his newly acquired silver on a knife and a knapsack in which he could hide away the knife in. He had heard, in his stay at the guild, that the lands outside of civilization were fraught with danger; he wanted something other than his fists to help him survive.

Jon decided to save up in terms of money, only following Brown’s example by buying himself a knife for protection.

At the end of their little shopping trip, Jon came to a building nearby to the Adventurer’s Guild. This was the place that he had been recommended. It was a well-maintained building, though one noticeable feature was its lack of windows.

“Alright old man, you seem to have an eye for combat. Maybe you can help me pick a new ally for us.” Jon entered the building.

Yet, Brown paused in entering when he noticed what this place was. The building had a sign hanging next to it, on it was written thus:

“Demi-Humans for Sale and Rental; Finest in All the Land or Your Money Back, Guaranteed!”

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And that was all I wrote for the chapter back then. I originally wanted to go with more of a GameLit / LitRPG setting compared to the John Brown Isekai, before quickly realizing that I actually hate writing LitRPGs. I found it quite hard to plot things when I had to constantly think about levels and whatnot, so I abandoned these two chapters to think about the John Brown Isekai in another context.

I hope you've enjoyed this small peak into the process behind making the John Brown Isekai, and hope that you'll enjoy reading the real thing when it releases in two months!