Chương 2: M

It felt as if a small, annoying monkey was pounding on Jean's skull and not leaving him even a moment's respite as he slowly came to. As he grimaced and opened his eyes, an unfamiliar but handsome face came into view.

An odd voice asked him, "You're awake?"

Jean only groaned in response, not wanting to reply despite the astounding number of questions he had: where was he, why was he here, what happened on that field, and so on.

"Yeah, you're awake." The voice was deep but not solemn or serious, as if this was a normal occurrence. Something about it was off, though. It echoed itself, almost as if somebody was speaking once and then another person was repeating what was said immediately after.

Jean's only response was a long, drawn-out moan.

"A dramatic little man, aren't you?" he said as a thick, meaty hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him. "Come on, get up, or wake up, at least... Come on... Look at me. Look at me," he patiently repeated himself before Jean gradually opened both eyes to look at him.

"There you go, much better. Now, tell me, do you know where you are? Who are you? Where did you come from?" This odd man's voice still had the peculiar echo to it, which worsened Jean's headache.

Eventually, Jean tried to get out his first word, "Mmmn—eh" a coughing fit erupted as soon as he tried to speak, stopping him.

"Alright, get it out, you'll be fine."

Slowly, Jean's fit subsided, and he managed to say, "I—I don't know." His voice sounded whiny and confused, which fit his present state aptly. "I don't know anything. I just... I just..." He began to sob for no apparent reason, slightly annoying the strange man because it was taking so long to get any information, but he didn't let it show on his face.

The man had learned long ago that the first rule of comforting somebody is that blaming them for anything or making them feel worse by showing annoyance would only prolong the ordeal. So, he patiently let Jean get it all out. He put his hand on his back and rubbed it back and forth while he waited for him to recover.

"You'll be ok. It'll all be ok." After 20 minutes of silence from the man, Jean's sobs gave way to sniffles. "Here, take this for your nose." He proffered a rag, which Jean took and blew his nose into and dried his tears with. "You better now?"

Softly, Jean said in a half-whisper, "Ummm... Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Can you look at me?"

Jean's face turned to the man's rectangular visage and sniffed again before clearing his throat of mucus. He was sitting on a wooden stool beside Jean's bed, though the stool seemed like it would snap any moment beneath his massive muscular frame. He must have been at least 6 feet 6 inches (~198 cm) tall and weighed at least 230 to 250 pounds (104 to 113 kg).

"I'm M. Do you know your name, at least?"

"Umm... Jean?"

"Why does that sound like a question," he said in a somewhat jovial tone, trying to lift Jean's spirits.

In the same half-whisper, Jean replied, "I don't know."

"Well, that's ok. Do you know where it came from? I've never heard a name like that before." M tried to make small talk while searching for information.

"...France."

"France? I've never heard of France. Is that a province in Vespucc somewhere?"

"Vespucc? I don't know what that is. I've never heard of it. Sounds Italian."

"You don't know what Vespucc is, and I don't know what Italy is. It seems like we have entirely different names in our heads. Where are you from, personally? Why were you fighting? I found you next to Vespuccian armor. Why were you fighting for them if you weren't born there?"

"I wasn't fighting. I was... I saw... I don't know what I saw or what I was doing, but... well, I was running. I... I remember my foot hurt. No, my whole body hurt. Everything hurt. But..." Jean moved his foot under the smooth covers but didn't feel the pain from any of his prior injuries. "I'm fine, now. What happened? I couldn't see anything while I was running from the bright lights and... and whatever was behind me. Where am I? Why am I here?"

"You're in my house. I found you a while ago near a creek," M lied. "You were... You were in pretty bad shape," he grimaced, "and you've been here since then. I didn't think you were going to make it at first, but you surprised me," he lied again. He hated lying but compromised when he had to. "You're still here and mostly healthy. A battle took place the same night, and you were wearing Vespuccian armor, so I assumed you were one of their soldiers."

"Oh, I don't know about the healthy part. My head is f*cking pounding. I have a hell of a headache, and I'm super dehydrated. Do you have any water or Benadryl or something?" His voice was still scratchy from lack of use and dryness.

M reached to the nightstand and picked up a glass of water that wasn't there before before offering it to Jean. Jean hadn't noticed that the glass seemed to appear out of nothing, but he just assumed that he hadn't seen it before M picked it up.

"Here." Jean drained the glass in one go. It was slightly sweet and tasted faintly like agave or honey but wasn't thick. It was like normal water aside from the taste. "Better?"

"Mmn. Much, thank you."

Despite not knowing what Benadryl was, M said, "Now, that wasn't Benadryl, but it was medicine that should help with your headache. It should go away in a few minutes."

"Thank you. That was honestly delicious." Jean sighed as he could feel the pounding reduce. "Man, that's fast-acting. Is it an antihistamine of some kind? What's the dosage? It might be a problem if it's too high."

"I don't know what an antihistamine is, but that's just a mid- to low-strength medicine for headaches. Where do you come from that your medicine is so underdeveloped? France?"

"No, I'm from Poland right now, but... Are you trying to tell me that that's an over the counter headache drug? Not some kind of surgical-grade anesthetic, or at least a prescription medication?"

"No, you can make it just with what you can find out here. You need a bit of magic to activate some of the ingredients in the right way, but I have stronger medicines if you need it." Jean assumed that magic meant a chemical process, so he disregarded that part.

"No, no, I'm fine," Jean replied, wary of side effects, "but... where am I? I can't... I don't..."

"You want to know about geography?"

"Yes, yes, please."

"'K, sit tight for a second." M left to find a map before swiftly returning with a massive paper map of the surrounding area and presenting it to Jean. "Here," he said as he moved his stool to the side of the bed so that he could hold the map while Jean looked over his shoulder. "Can you read?"

"I can read seven languages and speak ten, but I can't even recognize that alphabet. Where did this language come from? Where are we?"

"Well, we're on the coast here right now," M said as he pointed to a point on a western coast where two nations' borders met before pointing elsewhere. "Over here, to our east or south east is Vespucc, which is where I thought you came from. It's a long-standing empire that has an extremely rich history and has had power for centuries. Up here, though," he said as he pointed north, "is the Royal Hegemony. They're a new nation but extremely powerful. Do you recognize either of those two names?"

Jean simply decided to shelve the matter and find out where he was later. "No, I don't." He sighed. "I'll... I'll just find out where this is later."

"Alright. Now, I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to have to leave you be for a bit because there are some chores I need to take care of for the day before I try and help you orient yourself better. Is there anything you need before I leave you be?"

Jean was starving but didn't want to ask for more because of his timid nature, so he simply declined.

"Alright, just holler if you need anything. My wife or one of my kids might come in instead, but just try and communicate that you need me, and they should come get me. Ok?"

"Yeah, thank you."

M left the room and closed the nice wooden door, leaving Jean alone in a confused mess. He was going to resolve to simply sleep further and hope answers might come later but couldn't because he was interrupted by a bright light appearing in front of his face the moment M left.