John found himself leaning on a tree in a forest, overlooking a nearby babbling brook. He was wearing a blue cape over a set of gold-and-silver pte mail with cartoonishly rge pauldrons, no helmet, and a gigantic hammer by his side.

  "Okay, so some sort of fantasy world... but seriously, who can even lift something like- oh... I guess it is lighter than it looks." He said, picking up the hammer. Despite its head being rger than his own, the hammer felt about the same weight as a normal sledgehammer, albeit with a six-foot-long handle.

  "So... where is my starting information?" He asked, but didn't get anything.

  Great, so I am a guy wearing heavy armour, in a forest. Good start. Is this going to be like-

  "Prince John! The scouts have returned with the report on the Orc encampment." Another person shouted, interrupting his thoughts. He turned away from contempting his situation to the person who was shouting.

  A man stood before him, wearing a blue cape and a full suit of grey pte mail, his face barely visible behind the T-shaped opening in his helmet. He had a sword on his hip and a shield on his arm. His right arm. That tickled something in John's mind, but he didn't have a chance to process it before what the man called him sank in.

  Prince John? Am I royalty? This might not be such a bad world for me. I'd better not leave this guy waiting.

  "Very good! Lead me to them."

  "Yes, my liege! Follow me!" The man said, then turned around, making for a path through the forest John hadn't noticed before. John took a quick look over his body before following the man. The sword of truth was on one hip, the quiver on the other. The bow was wrapped in a leather bag, its strap over his shoulder. He wasn't positive, but he thought he had his leather outfit on underneath the armour. Things accounted for, he followed the man down the path.

  It didn't take them long, the pair of them making it to a small bonfire where three other men in blue cloaks and grey armour sat on logs beside it. Two other men also sat with them, wearing long blue cloaks, and had what looked like muskets leaning beside them. Both were older and on the short side, both with full white beards and moustaches, and wearing pin sets of brown leather armour beneath their cloaks.

  It is just a guess, but I’d bet they are the scouts? C'mon, guys, give me some information here!

  "My liege! These are the scouts whom brought the report." The first footman said.

  "Good. Thank you. I am John... Prince John, though we can dispense with that right now. What are your names?" John asked the two white-haired men.

  "Uhhh... Bimi, Sire. And this here is Benji." Said the man on the left. He looked a bit older than the other, but with both having stark white hair, it was hard to be sure.

  "Bimi. What do you have to report?"

  "Sire. There are signs of an orc encampment on the otherside of the next ridge. While we couldn't see the camp directly, an orc warband was gathering on the road that led to the vilge of Strahnbrad. There were ten grunts and a couple of mounted raiders. We had to withdraw before those wolves caught our scent and tracked us down." Bimi said, his tone gruff.

  A dozen enemy troops are about to attack a vilge? Okay, so that is the priority, not attacking the camp then.

  "Okay then, thank you for the report. Now, what is the fastest way to get to the vilge? We have people to defend." He asked the soldiers.

  "Sire, we will just continue south along this path. Lord Uther's camp is about a twenty-minute walk from here, then it will take a couple of hours to make it to the vilge, as long as we don't have any deys." The first armoured guy said again.

  Is he my second in command? Alec, where is my information!

  "Okay, lead on. Bimi, Benji, see if you can get a better look at the orc camp. Report to... Lord Uther, with your findings." John said, then turned to the other men. "Grab your gear, we depart at once!"

  "Yes, my liege!" They all shouted, scrambling to pack up the tiny camp.

  John just shook his head a little. These guys seemed really eager to please him. The fire was out and the five of them had departed the camp a few minutes ter.

  From his seat up in the Multiverse, Alec grinned at John's thoughts. "Get used to this feeling, John. You are well on your way to getting the same treatment in HOTD, whether you want it or not."

  As John followed the soldiers down the path, a trickle of information about this world finally came in; Alec was apparently happy with the results of his prank. John was indeed a prince.

  Prince John (Arthas) Menethil, Crown Prince of Lordaeron and Knight of the Silver Hand, was the son of King Terenas Menethil II and heir to the throne. He was trained as a padin by Uther the Lightbringer and was inducted into the Order of the Silver Hand. Arthas also had a romantic retionship with the kind sorceress Jaina Proudmoore.

  He didn't have many memories of any of that, but it would have to be enough for now.

  So I am a padin, and I already have a girlfriend... kind of? I guess they broke up since this body thought it wasn't ready, and that she was still studying magic... this is going to be weird. Not that that matters currently, I need to meet this Uther guy, the man who trained me, then go save that vilge.

  John also found he had another healing spell now. Compared to his normal spells, it was about as effective as his normal heal, but it didn’t require a chant. He just willed it to happen, and the target receives the healing. The downside was how abhorrently expensive it was for each cast. Even with his 100% buffed mana in this world, he could only cast it nine times at most before he ran out of mana. To put that in perspective, he could cast his normal heal spell 120 times with the amount of mana he had in his pool right now.

  The soldiers with him didn't seem to talk much, all four of them keeping an eye out for orcs, bandits, and other unsavoury things that pgued the roads here. His memories didn't give him any indication that this body even knew their names before either.

  Fuck it, lets just pull the band-aid off.

  "So, men, I seem to have had a pse of memory. What are your names again?" He asked, not awkwardly at all.

  "Eh." Said the first guy. "It is short for Ehrrowyn, but I usually just go by Eh, Sire."

  "Bee," Said the next guy, "It is Beethrian, but my parents had a sense of humour and named all my brothers variations of that name, so I shortened it."

  "Cee" the next guy spoke up. "Cedrick, but Cee works for me, Sire."

  John spoke before the next guy could. "And you're Dee?"

  "How did you know?" Dee said, sounding amazed. "Ya hear that boys? The young master already knew my name! I'll be sure to tell my children about this day!"

  John rubbed his temples. It was going to be a long day.

  Now that they had introduced themselves, the footmen chatted a little more freely around him; apparently, asking their names was enough to break the ice. They were all in their mid to te twenties and had been serving the kingdom proudly since they were sixteen. Eh was the oldest of the bunch at twenty-nine and, in fact, was in command of the guards protecting him.

  They all had families at home, Cee's wife was pregnant with their third child right now, and Bee's wife just had her fifth. It was rough that they had to leave the Capitol to go on this expedition right now, but they assured him that their wives were all strong women and wouldn't suffer much in their absence.

  "It isn't like much really changes for them. Either I am working from dawn to dusk every day, coming home only to sleep, or I am out on campaign. She takes all the pay before I even see it to run the household. Ahh, but when I do get a day off, it is sweet; her cooking is amazing. You should come by and try it- err, I mean. I dunno what I meant, Sire. Please pay it no mind." Eh, said, realizing too te that he just invited the crown prince of his country to come and eat dinner with him and his wife.

  "When we get back, I will take you up on that. I think we will all deserve a few days off." John joked. Then he remembered that thing.

  Okay, DEN Status, Notes, Note One - When we return, remind Eh that his wife is making dinner for us. This isn't quite what I had in mind for this ability, but whatever works.

  "Oh... no need, Sire. I wouldn't want to insult you with our peasant food." Eh said, stumbling with his words.

  "You think I would be insulted by peasant food? My good man, you will find I have a fairly humble palette. Besides, I am afraid it is too te, Eh. You have already said she is an amazing cook, so now I need to try it!" John said, then smiled at the man. "Then you can tell your grandchildren that the king dined at your table when he was still a prince, and that your wife's cooking was literally fit for a king."

  The other three footmen ughed at that, while Eh himself seemed embarrassed and very concerned.

  "What about you, Milord? We heard you were going to marry Jaina Proudmoore, but then the whole thing was called off." Dee asked him.

  "That is a great question. Let's just go with the time wasn't right. We both had our dreams, and settling down was not part of them." He replied, trying to piece together the real reason they broke up from the fragments of memories DEN sent him.

  They continued to chat amicably until they arrived at Lord Uther's camp, the footmen generally being respectful but seemingly happy that John was being this sociable. They separated once they were inside the small camp's perimeter, letting John continue to the centre of the camp, where his mentor was watching him approach.

  The older padin was about a head shorter than John, with a head full of ginger hair beginning to go grey. He was also wearing gold and silver armour and carrying a big hammer.

  "Welcome, Prince John. The men and I are honoured by your presence." The man said, his voice deep and full of reverence.

  "Good Afternoon, Lord Uther. Thank you for the welcome, it is good to see you too." John replied, trying to match the other man's respectful tone. "I am afraid I cannot stay long to catch up; the orcs are about to raid the vilge of Strahnbrad, and my men and I are heading to reinforce them."

  John passed on the information Bimi and Benji had gathered to Uther, including that the scouts were to report to him if they discovered anything else.

  "Good d. I see you are growing nicely into your role of crown prince. You are doing your father proud. Now, I need to move against that orc encampment. Can you handle Strahnbrad's defence on your own?"

  "Well, I wouldn't say no to more men; a dozen orcs are heading in that direction. If you don't have any spares, then I will make do with what I have; you don't need to worry about us." John said. He was not sure exactly how strong orcs were, but even if this hammer wasn't effective, the sword on his hip could easily split steel doors in two. He wasn't overly worried about their chances.

  They’re just bigger versions of goblins, right? I killed plenty of those in The Great Cleric.

  "Alright, Lad. Meet me at the orc camp once you've saved the vilge." Uther said, hoisting his hammer to his shoulder. "Be careful, John."

  "You as well, Lord Uther," John replied.

  With that, John and his men made their way towards the vilge, while Uther and his men went off in the direction of the orc camp.

  John's thoughts were on how this world was different than the other worlds he had entered, different in that he was actually a known person here. He really didn't know how he was supposed to act, or what this body was like before he took it over. He didn't even know what he currently looked like right now, though the hair on his upper lip told him his beard was as grey as usual.

  Yet he called me a d? Just how old am I in this world?

  He didn't know, nor did he have any way to check. All he knew was he had a vilge to go and save.