Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 7 (Patreon)

“Come on, we’re leaving,” Alvin said as he grabbed Ella by the wrist.

“Yes, you’re right! You still have your hunting cabin! Very few know about that. We can go there!” Ella said.

“Right. That was my plan exactly. Gather some food, supplies, and horses. I’ll probably need it in a bit. I have to do something extremely important,” Alvin said.

Heavens above, this was a pain in the ass. Alvin needed to contact Aldrich as quickly as possible. Alvin was no master swordsman, and though he’d played the part of a noble lord when all he had to do was layabout and relax all day, he wasn’t prepared to lead an army into battle against an invading force.

Especially when it seemed like Aldrich had already lost his army fighting against this same foe. No, screw this. This was Aldrich’s problem to deal with.

All Alvin needed was somewhere to sit down for a few minutes to go to sleep. Then he could swap places and let the real Baron of East Water handle this.

He debated going down to Aldrich’s room, but he couldn’t spare the time. So as soon as Ella was out of sight, he lay down against the railings and closed his eyes.

Come on. Come on! Relax, damn it!

He slowed his breathing as best he could and, one by one, loosened his tense muscles. The growing tension left his back, and he turned limp. He felt consciousness beginning to slip away. It wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t stayed up all night for the past three days, but he was fortunate enough to have been too much fun for sleep.

The real world slipped away, and his familiar dreamscape replaced it. He was washing dishes again, and his manager would walk in any moment. It only took him a moment to shake off the dream and remember what he was here for. He tossed the dishes aside.

“Alvin!” His manager shouted, but as usual, the train burst through the wall and ran him over before he could finish his sentence.

“All aboard!” The conductor said, batting her eyelashes at Alvin and shifting her skimpy top.

Alvin boarded in a hurry.

“Where are we headed today, Alvin?” she asked.

“Take me to Aldrich, and step on it. We need to get there fast.”

Alvin wasn’t sure if trains could fly, but he supposed it was possible. And that possibility is what allowed this train in his dreams to leave its rails behind, stretch out six giant pairs of wings, and take off into the air above his dreamscape.

Oddly, he noticed that the area just beyond the dishwasher room in his dream wasn’t the one he was familiar with. Usually, when sleeping, the dishwasher room led to the restaurant where he worked, and from there, it led to the small city he called home.

But this time, his room had swapped places with Aldrich’s bedroom, and everything beyond it was either the manor of the city of East Water. Modern appliances ended abruptly at the edge of Alvin’s room as though they were reaching the end of his mind.

They crossed the border into East Water, crashing through medieval buildings one after the other as they gained altitude. Soon, they were over the clouds and then over those as well. Aldrich’s whole world turned into a large ball that stretched out beneath him. Alvin wasn’t sure how close this dream was to reality. If he ever had the chance, he’d have to compare this vision with a map of the world.

Not that he intended to come back. The last thing Alvin wanted was to be in charge of a defending army doomed to lose, with enemies already at the gates. Aldrich would have to solve this one politically instead of militarily.

Alvin wasn’t sure of the details, but maybe Aldrich could swear fealty and marry his conqueror’s daughter or something. That was the only way Alvin saw out for him. But Alvin would be more than happy to come back and continue their deal once everything was taken care of.

Eventually, the dreamscape beneath Alvin shifted completely, and the world changed to become the one he was familiar with. Once Earth was in sight, the train turned downward and plunged forward with all haste, barreling straight towards the ground like a meteor.

“Hold on, this is going to be a rough landing!” the conductor said. Alvin reached up to the cable in the roof of the engine compartment to hold on, and he was glad he did.

The wings extending from the side of the car spread out to catch the wind, and the train slammed to a halt as it slowed down enough to glide down to earth with as much grace as Alvin could imagine a flying train having. Which is to say, not much.

Their landing cut deep grooves into the ground, and the train of boxcars exploded one after another until it was a pile of wreckage. The crash landing had destroyed three city blocks, and rubble lay everywhere around the city. There was fire and screaming echoing out from all directions. If this had been real life, there would be hundreds dead. Fortunately for Alvin, it was all just a dream.

“Now arriving on Earth!” the conductor said proudly.

Alvin nodded as he left the train compartment. He needed to find Aldrich quickly. But where was he?

He had a good guess. The place they arrived was one block away from where he worked. That was where Alvin found himself when he woke from most of his dreams, so that was probably where Aldrich would be as well.

His gut instincts proved true when he kicked down the door to the diner where he worked and found Aldrich’s study. He recognized it from visiting the real place back in East Water. It must have served the same role for Aldrich as the dishwasher served for Alvin.

The nobleman sat at his desk, flipping through pages with a distant glazed look in his eyes. He didn’t seem like he was really present.

“Aldrich!” Alvin demanded. “Aldrich!”

The nobleman didn’t respond. His eyes were glued on the page before him, and staring at them, Alvin realized there were pictures there. One was a flash of a supermarket. Another was a shot of the city skyline. Was this what Aldrich saw with his body?

It was too blurry to tell what he was up to, but if he watched the book long enough, he might figure that out. But Alvin didn’t have that kind of time.

“Wake up!” Alvin demanded. “Wake up, Aldrich! Your barony needs you!”

He grabbed the baron by his shoulders and started shaking him back and forth. The pages went dim and eventually turned completely blank as Aldrich closed the eyes of Alvin’s body.

Aldrich’s eyes snapped into focus, and he turned his gaze up to Alvin.

“What are you doing here?” Aldrich demanded. “How did you even get to me?”

“I have my ways,” Alvin said. He wasn’t going to mention the flying train that had wrecked three city blocks landing just outside the diner. “But hurry. You need to get back to your body. There’s an enemy army almost at East Water. They’re going to take over your manor and probably take you prisoner. You need to do some baron things to make them go away.”

“Oh, that,” Aldrich said. He locked his hands behind his head and leaned back. “I don’t think I can do that.”

“What? Didn’t you hear what I said? Your barony is about to be destroyed!”

“And I will save it eventually. Using the tools of your world. I just haven’t made enough progress yet. I’ve run into a few hiccups with the local guard, you see. It’s of no concern to you.”

“No concern? What did you do?” Now Alvin’s face flushed with anger. He’d thought Aldrich was going to be lying low just like he was. But now he was hearing that Aldrich had landed his body in some sort of legal trouble. Alvin had gone his entire life not being a criminal, and he certainly didn’t want to become one for a crime someone else committed using his body. “That’s it, the deal’s off. Get the hell out of my body.”

Aldrich didn’t move.

“I’m sorry, Alvin. But I can’t do that.”

Alvin glowered. His eyes turned to the book sitting on the table before Aldrich. This connected to his body’s eyes, which meant it probably connected to his real body. He reached down to grab it, but Aldrich clamped down with one hand over the book.

“Let go!” Alvin demanded.

“No.”

Alvin tried to tear the book from Aldrich’s grasp, but the nobleman’s grip was strong.

“I’m taking my body back,” Alvin growled.

“I still need it,” Aldrich replied.

Alvin wasn’t sure when the tugging turned to shoving, but Aldrich threw the first punch.

Alvin’s head snapped back, and he was knocked clear off his feet. His vision turned blurry, and the whole world went black for a moment.

“Go back to my body and deal with this as best you can,” Aldrich said. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to be here for a while.”

“Screw you!” Alvin lurched to his feet to grapple with Aldrich, but between the two, Aldrich was the feudal lord trained from a young age in the art of combat. Alvin was just a dishwasher.

One kick to the stomach knocked the wind out of Alvin, and Alvin’s crude attempt to punch back was knocked aside with the back of Aldrich’s hand. Alvin dove for Aldrich’s ankles to tear him off his feet, but Aldrich stepped out of the way and stomped on Alvin’s fingers.

Alvin heard the bones snap. It took a few seconds for the pain to reach his head, but when it did, it felt like he’d dipped his hand in liquid fire.

And then it was so.

The moment Alvin had the thought, his fist had been replaced by a ball of molten fire.

In the fighting and imagining, Alvin had forgotten that all of this was just a dream. Aldrich might be the better fighter in the real world, but this wasn’t the real world. Alvin could do whatever he pleased.

And so Alvin’s fist of fire wrapped around Aldrich’s leg, and the feudal lord screamed. He kicked at Alvin’s face, but Alvin imagined his skin as tough as steel.

And just as he imagined it, it happened. His skin hardened and turned gray. No matter how Aldrich flailed against it, Alvin was unharmed.

For some reason, the feudal lord didn’t seem to get that this was a dream world, at least to the extent that Alvin had. He could have teleported elsewhere or phased right through Alvin’s hand. Or maybe even turned to water and flowed through him. But he was just standing there and kicking him like some helpless human.

He could win this. He could beat Aldrich!

“Ingot! I need help!” Aldrich howled, leg still burning.

Alvin felt the air around him grow cold. He wasn’t sure what changed, but was sure something had. His still skin vanished abruptly, and the gray coloration left his body. Just as quickly as it washed over him, it vanished.

Then Aldrich’s next kick struck him in the face, and a stream of blood shot from Alvin’s nose. Worse, the metal lamp standing off to the side of Aldrich’s study had suddenly come to life. It toppled downward, straight for Alvin’s head and struck him square in the temple.

Then, completely inexplicably, the lamp rose back up into the air only to fall on him again.

Again and again, Alvin was struck, and with each blow, his ability to concentrate faded a little more. Much longer, and he wouldn’t be able to think at all.

He needed to go somewhere safe to rest, plan, and recover.

Faintly, he heard a voice calling to him in the distance.

“Lord Aldrich... Lord Aldrich, wake up!”

Alvin focused on that voice. He reached for it like a safety line, and like a safety line he started pulling himself along it closer to its source.

One tug, and he left Aldrich and the study behind. Two, and he was hovering over East Water again. A third tug, and he opened his eyes in the tower of Aldrich’s manor with a concerned Ella shaking him by the shoulders.

“My lord, the enemy is almost here! This is no time for sleeping. You need to flee with all haste!”

Alvin lurched to his feet. One glance told him he was still in Aldrich’s body. And worse, the army he’d sensed was even closer than it had been a few minutes ago.

Just how was he going to get out of this one?

Note:

I was hoping to get to this point in the story a few chapters earlier, but here we are! Alvin is officially isekai'd. It isn't as great as he was first led to believe though.

It looks like he's going to be on the run for a bit.

What do you guys think is going to happen? (I do have an actual plan for at least the next few chapters. Don't worry, I'm not sneakily crowdsourcing the plot XD)