My Second Life is a Quest!?

[World Reader]

[ ] Defense

[ ] Sure enough, they put Alex to work. Eventually it was decided that he's best put to use as a baker, and so Alex has been learning the best he can to bake simple breads with non-modern equipment.

Changed Vote:
[X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

[X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

[X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

 

[SilverSlyr]

[X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

[X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

[X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

 

[Vulcan92]

[X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

[X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

[X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

 

[gac]

[X] Yes, he learns Human.

 

[Sky63689]

[X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

[X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

[X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

 

[Insertcatchyusername]

[X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

[X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

[X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

 

[Yuki no Yue]

Adhoc vote count started by Yuki no Yue on Oct 25, 2026 at 7:29 PM, finished with 6 posts and 6 votes.

• ---

  5 people have voted

  [X] Nothing, you're still recovering from the back to back of Cold and Shadow. Let it go a little while longer before Observing a new concept.

  • World Reader
  • SilverSlyr
  • Vulcan92
  • Sky63689
  • Insertcatchyusername

  5 people have voted

  [X] Baking, possibly getting a job at the local bakery. Try to recreate simple sweet treats from your time, they would probably be massively popular from the taste if not the exotic nature.

  • World Reader
  • SilverSlyr
  • Vulcan92
  • Sky63689
  • Insertcatchyusername

  5 people have voted

  [X] Try to find someone your (apparently physical) age. The hunter and his mom are nice, but maybe an actual friend would do you some good?

  • World Reader
  • SilverSlyr
  • Vulcan92
  • Sky63689
  • Insertcatchyusername

  1 people have voted

  [X] Yes, he learns Human.

  • gac

So, update will be tomorrow. Still, I'm trying to attract more readers. Anyway... Small thing: if anyone wants, they can create a character that will be inserted in the story, as long as the character fit the situation. Completely voluntary.

 

[Yuki no Yue]

Time: Secondday, First month, 298 AC, Early Morning
Place: Torrhen's Square
Situation: Improving...?

The food last night had been stew. With some small, hardy vegetables - root vegetables, mostly - and some tough meat. Hardly a banquet, but it was food, and I was hungry, so it was fine for me. Oh, and some hard bread. Then, I got handed an old quilt, a sack to use as a pillow, and given a place to sleep near the fire. That was that.

Well, to be fair, it was more than what I had yesterday, so... Eh.

In the morning, the cold surprised me. Well, not because I was cold - in fact, I was actually feeling a bit hot - but because I could tell how cold it was. Enough to turn breath to mist, and to have completely covered the house with snow. It was hard to open the shutter of the window, even.

"It's impressive." "Aye. But also deadly. If you were still in that hut, you would be frozen solid." Emmon's voice made me stiffen in surprise, before I turned towards him. He was already dressed and walking towards the door, one piece of bread in his hand. "I'm off. Ma' will be the one to decide if you can stay or not." And then, without saying anything else, he walked out, Buddy going with him.

Pretty striaght forward. Better start to ingratiate myself to the woman, then.

My gaze went to the hearth, but I had no idea how to start a fire without some kind of tools. Still, if there were enough embers remaining.... There was a poker near it, and, after a couple of moments to dig inside it, I found two or three embers still hot, faintly glowing in the ashes.

"Lucky." I passed my hand over the coals, removing the [Cold] from them. Or, well, stopping them to lose heat? I didn't know how to say it: it was a feeling that I had stopped the coals from getting colder, and that was that.

Then, I removed the ashes that had accumulated during the night, pouring them into a bucket that already had some in it, only to grab a few of the small sticks held in a basket at the side of the heath, and dropped them over the embers, before placing two bigger logs to the side, bracketing the whole thing. Hoping that I was doing it properly, at least. Still, the sticks caught fire soon after, so I could add the bigger branches to them.

After that... Looking around, I noticed how Emmon's mother was standing there, arms crossed, looking at me. Somehow, I felt myself redden in embarassment, only for her to come closer, and look at what I had done. "Well... It's not the best way to make a fire, but it's something." "Uh... wha-thanks?"

She rolled her eyes, and adjusted the logs to do... something. I didn't know. Then, she hung a kettle over an iron hook - it reminded me of the Snow White cartoon, where she cooked the dwarf's dinner - and started boiling some herbs. Their version of tea, I guessed: it had a sharp scent of mint, somehow cold even if it was cut by something hearthier, like black tea.

Then, she took some bacon and eggs from a cupboard, before grabbing a heavy cast iron pan. "Sit down, lad. I'm not that heartless to let you go without a breakfast." I obeyed: she gave the feeling that you didn't want to go against her.

"So. Do you really have no family around, or are you running from someone?" Ma' Yara - that was her name - asked, dropping a cube of... I think it was lard? Definitely not butter. Some sort of fat on the hot pan, letting it render down into an oily film, before dumping the bacon and the eggs on it.

I gulped, but shook my head. "No. I'm really alone. And I know how it sounds, but I'm not a noble running from a marriage that I disliked, or away from a crime, or... anything like that. I'm just alone." The flames were dancing in the hearth, the smell of tea was growing, and the food in the pan was starting to fill the room with the smell of cooked food, that my stomach grumbled with hunger.

"So you say." She didn't look convinced. Still, she dropped the argument, pivoting to something more practical. "Emmon said that you can read and write. That true?"

I blinked, before nodding. "I can read, write, do simple math..." I hated geometry when I was in school. "I do have some small experience in baking, and I can clean things. Well, simple things. Beyond that, I don't have a lot of... experience."

"And what's your age, lad?" Her question felt pointed, but I answered all the same.

"Four and ten." She looked at me again, her expression skeptical, before gesturing at me to grab the bowls to eat breakfast. I thanked her and stared eating slowly, before she put down a small container of honey and a mug of tea. I nodded to her in thanks, before starting to eat. The food was good, filling and hearty. And also, I was hungry, so...

"If you can really do all that, there's a baker that need help. He can test you." Yara spoke, calmly, sipping at her tea. "And he's not as soft as my Emmon." Emmon was considered soft? "So, better be ready to back up what you said with facts."

Silence. I felt the food in my stomach feel suddenly heavier. "Still, if you aren't lying, he's going to pay you fairly for the work he has you doing. We're not like those Southerners." I blinked at that: it was a change of tone that I didn't expect.

I did manage to eat my breakfast without too much worry, though, so... Yay?

---

"Oh, Yara! You're early today!" The baker was a tall man - which seemed to be the norm - with fair skin, large shoulders, a somewhat chubby look to him, if it wasn't for the way I could see his clothes bunch at the shoulders, arms, and forearms: this guy was eating well, sure, but also had muscles. Lots of muscles.

Well... without modern conveniences, it would make sense: baking involved a lot of work: kneading, rolling, stretching the dough... especially in the quantity needed for a bakery.

"Hello Donnis. How's your son?" She was speaking in a more...conciliatory tone? No, more familiar. I just stood there, a step or two behind her, looking around the place: it had a lot of bread, but not much more. Which made sense. Still, I would have expected cookies, or something like that. But no.

...Did cookies even exist in Westeros?

"Same old, Yara. Now that he managed to enter the guards of House Tallhart, he's almost always there. That idiot lad of mine." Donnis' voice was gruff - didn't really have another way to say it - and I think I could detect a small amount of hurt in it. Then, he turned towards me, and I stiffened. "And who's that?"

Rude.

"Alex. Emmon found him in the abandoned hunter's hut yesterday morning. Was sleeping there." Yara answered, while examining the bread that the man had passed her. "He says that he has no one, swear that he's not a noble, and tells me that he can read, write, and do calculations." Donnis' expression was clearly filled with disbelief, before he snorted at the end.

"And he say that he's not a noble?" His tone was disbelieving, with an undertond of harshness that... frankly, it made me bristle. So, I took a step forward. "I'm not a noble."

Both turned towards me. "I'm not a noble! Why would I be in the middle of a forest, sleeping in an abandoned hut, if I was a noble?" I crossed my arms. "And if I was a noble, why would I go around telling people that I can read and write and do math? That would be absurd." Really.

The two stood in silence for a moment, looking at me, before Yara sighed. "Well, that's true. And you don't look like an idiot."

...I wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

"Anyway, Donnis, since your son is off to play guard, you needed a helper in the bakery, yes?" "Yeah, why... him?" Donnis asked, looking at me. "He looks like he should be in a brothel." That was the second time that someone had said that. I still wasn't sure that it was the compliment that Emmon had said that it was.

"Give him a try." Yara shrugged, packing the bread away. "If he's not good enough, you don't lose anything. And if he is, you get the helper you needed." Impeccable logic, really. Still, Donnis didn't look particularly convinced.

In the end, however, Yara managed to have her way, forcing Donnis to take me on for the day, before walking out. "That woman..." The baker shook his head, before looking at me. I looked back. "Well, whatever. Let's see if you're as good as you say you are." And then I was suddenly being dragged deeper inside the bakery, in the back. The place was covered in sacks of flour, pails of water, a collection of jars of what I think it was yeast or sourdough starter, and various containers with something inside. If I had to guess, salt and sugar... oh, right. Sugar was probably too expensive. Honey, maybe?
And there was a big oven in the back, from where the heat of a fire came.

"Here." And he pushed me on a chair. The table in front of it was covered in scrap of papers, and there was a big book near it, bound in leather. "These are the amounts of coins that I got in the last tenday. You're going to add everything up. Then, I'll check to see if it's correct." I looked at Donnis, then down at the amount of paper on the table. Then back at the man.

"Can I have a piece of paper and something to write with?" Honestly, the whole thing was simpler than I thought. It was just going to be long. Donnis' eyebrows lifted a bit, but he gave me another piece of paper and a charcoal pencil.

"Here. I'll be back in a couple hours. Try to finish everything by then." I blinked, surprised: a couple of hours for all of this? I mean, the table was covered, but it wasn't that much. Still, i didn't say anything and started working.

On each piece there was the date, and the amount, so I split the various... eh, let's call them receipts. The various receipts by date, then I started adding things up. The coinage tripped me up for a moment, but then something clicked, and I just... Well, I knew how many Copper pennies were in a Silver stag, and how many Silver stags were in a Gold dragon. It was an absurd number, but it was there. After that, it was just adding everything together.

I was done in less than... actually, I had no idea. Still, I was done. So, I looked at the door to the shop part of the bakery, and went to check if Donnis was free. There were no people at the moment, so I just knocked before exiting the room.

"What?" He turned towards me, already crossing his arms and scowling. "You're going to tell me that you can't-" "I'm done." I interrupted him before he could start a tirade. "With the calculations, I mean. I've finished."

Donnis blinked, surprised, before his eyes narrowed in suspicion. And he strode inside, muttering something too low for me to hear, taking great steps towards the table, before sitting down - heavily - and starting to check my calculations. He was... kinda slow.

So, I just stood there, unsure on what to do, while he kept going. Slowly. So slowly.

Then... "Well..." His voice was... not embarassed, but clearly calmer. "Seems that you were telling the truth. Your math is correct." Well, good to know. "I'm in need of an assistant. Pay will be a Stag per day of work. Your job will be to take care of the ledger each morning, tallying the expenses and purchases of the previous day."

I accepted without saying anything else: it's not like I had any other option. And that was that, for it.

Sorry if this chapter is a bit boring. We're still in the 'setting' stage of the quest. Anyway, next update will have the meeting with the 'friend' you wanted for him. So, you have to vote XD
[] Name
[] Age (14 to 18 years old)
[] Lifestyle (Apprentice, noble brat, guard, anything that would fit)
[] How they meet.

 

[World Reader]

What fun! We're working for a big hunky baker daddy~

Now, who to have him be friends with…

[X] Friend: Adopted by A Medieval Jock
-[X] Farrow
-[X] 15
-[X] An up and coming guard with dreams of buying a horse to become an honorable cavalrymen, effectively a Northern knight that follows the Old Gods instead of the Seven. He's good enough with a sword you think. You don't have a lot of reference to work off of though.
-[X] Some brats thought they can shake you down for a stag or two since they know you work. Farrow saved them from your great and terrible wrath! …Yes, you needed help to stand, but the point stands that they didn't get any of your money.

 

[SilverSlyr]

[X] Adopted by a Medieval Jock

I like this plan, making friends with a guard in training. Plus I'm a sucker for a white knight situation

 

[Samandriel sanctus]

[X] Adopted by a Medieval Jock
I know a romantic partner is a secondary element, but it's always nice to have a "himbo" who complements a serious character.
And if he's good with a sword, even better—a companion who, depending on how things develop, could eventually be equipped with enchanted armor or a magic sword; though, of course, that's still a long way off.

 

[KenNM]

[X] Friend: Adopted by A Medieval Jock

 

[sinofsloth:)]

[X] Friend: Adopted by A Medieval Jock

 

[ICantRember]

[X] Friend: Adopted by A Medieval Jock

 

[Azazel]

[X] Friend: Adopted by A Medieval Jock