John and Sylvia enjoyed a quick breakfast served by her butler, an elderly gentleman whom she introduced as Charles, whom he didn't remember seeing the st time he was here. He was fairly short, completely bald, and had the bushiest moustache he had ever seen on a human. John wanted to call him a walrus and ask him how he could even eat with that thing. It was seriously impressive.

  Instead, John just thanked him for the food and dug into the soup. It was delicious, though that feeling of disgust remained every time he bit into a piece of ham. Sylvia asked Charles something, and the man nodded and left the room, leaving the two of them alone. They chatted a little about the food, but for the most part, they were focused on the meal. Apparently, she hadn't had much of an appetite since he arrived.

  Once his hunger was sated, he sat back in his chair and looked over at her. "How long have I been out?"

  "It has been nearly three weeks since Lord Uther brought you here." She replied, finished with her meal as well.

  "Three weeks? I've been out for three weeks? No wonder I felt so stiff." He said, rolling his shoulders. "Thank you again for watching over me for all that time. I appreciate it."

  "Well, I was happy to do it, but it really wasn't my choice." She said, a nervous expression growing on her face. "You see..."

  She recounted the day that they brought him to the mansion, his head wrapped up but still wearing that bck armour. When they started stripping him, it all disappeared into his belt buckle. That's when Uther began to examine everything he was carrying, testing it for malign magics. He was especially curious about the bow and sword, the former he decred a holy weapon of the highest order, but the tter he could not make sense of. It had powers he could not assess; its magic was fundamentally different from those he was aware of.

  Afterwards, he had a couple of elven priests from his main forces come and look John over, to see if there was anything they could do for his face. They said the elven nation might have a powerful relic that could fix his injury, though, prince or not, they were doubtful they would be willing to use something like that on a mere human.

  They were about to transport him to the capital to recover when John began to speak in his sleep. He talked about demons, about zombies, about gods pying games with him. He called out the names of several people, talked about fighting a battle on a ship in a pce called space, and about how his students were all devils at a human school. It was all rather disjointed, but Uther decided that a change of pns was in order. He made Sylvia and Eh swear not to reveal what he had said to anyone, then sent a message to the Archmage of the Kirin'Tor, the most powerful mage in Daran.

  "So you remained here until Archmage Antonidas and Jaina Proudmoore arrived and assessed your condition. I wasn't privy to that discussion, but I believe they intend to take you to Daran so the Kirin Tor can examine you further. Also, at the behest of Lord Uther and Lady Proudmoore, the Archmage will leverage his political capital to request that the elves try to heal your injuries. You know, that man loves you like a son, and Jaina... she cried over you for hours. I think, no, I know that she is still in love with you." Sylvia finished her recounting of his time here.

  John rubbed his temples, feeling another headache coming on. At this point, the familiar pain was like an old friend to him, letting him know that this was way too much information for him to process all at once. There were a few gaps in what she told him, like how he was actually wounded, but that didn't really matter right now.

  So I've outed myself in this world too... albeit while unconscious. Though what does that mean? I have a few of this guy's memories, but I am not him. Uther and this Jaina woman are operating on the old retionship they had with my body, not with who I actually am. Coming clean will probably ruin any support I will get from them, but not telling them feels... dirty.

  "So why am I still here if they were going to take me to Daran instead of home?" He asked before the silence went on for too long. His fragmented memories didn't reveal much about that pce other than that Jaina studied magic there.

  "Uther received orders from the capital to go investigate a mysterious pgue in the northern vilges, so he and Jaina left a week ago to locate the source of the problem and cleanse whatever it is. The Archmage teleported off to Quel'Thas to begin negotiations for your healing. He wanted to take some of your things with him, but he could tell they were magically connected to you, so he left them in case removing them from your vicinity caused more harm than good. Uther left your men behind to watch over you and defend the vilges in this region in case the orcs returned."

  He nodded. Prince or not, with his condition seemingly stable, it made sense that life went on while he was unconscious. Still, that begs the question of what he should do now. Now that he had a belly full of food, he felt surprisingly good. He would have to ask Eh if Uther left any instructions for him if he woke up. As for rambling in his sleep, he could just py that off for now as bad dreams and feign ignorance. Though if this world had any mind readers like Chris and Tanya, that could pull the rug out from underneath him fairly quickly.

  That pgue is worrying, though. I am going out on a limb here, but with how these stories have worked out so far, that seems like foreshadowing to me. I wonder, should I consider travelling there to support them? From what I can tell, my healing magic is different from what this world has to offer. I might be able to cure whatever pgue it is before it has a chance to spread. I need more information first before I make a decision.

  Not getting anywhere with that line of thinking, he decided to change the subject instead. "How are you feeling? You look exhausted."

  "Oh... ah... I am fine. Just between rebuilding the vilge and making sure my people are fed has been a little taxing. Most of our grain stores were destroyed in the fires, so we had to start sending merchants to the north to purchase enough food to st until the next harvest. Much of Lordaeron will suffer for the next few months since we usually export food to the west this time of year." She said sadly.

  "Well, let me know if you need any help. I have it on good authority that I am a prince, and could probably pull a few strings to help your reconstruction go more smoothly." He said. He didn't really know what he could do, but with his father being the king, he was sure they could throw money and people at the problem until it was solved.

  "No, it’s fine. The crown has already sent aid for the reconstruction, and with your men guarding us, it’s freeing up our militia to pnt the fields instead of patrolling for orcs. We even broke ground on several new fields with the new manpower the crown sent. Providing nothing else happens, we should actually have even more grain than normal in a couple of months." She said, a smile forming on her face.

  Sounds like things are in hand now. Hopefully, she isn’t just putting on a brave face for me. That said, this could be a good opportunity for me.

  "You know, I would like to learn more about how you run your town. If I am to be king someday, I really should know what my people need to live prosperously. Living in a castle and being on a battlefield haven't exactly provided me with a great understanding of what my people's everyday lives are like. I really want to know what challenges and hardships they endure in their day-to-day lives to help make my kingdom run. That isn't an order or anything; if it is too much of an inconvenience, it is okay to say no." John asked, thinking he had an opportunity to learn from this woman who had been in charge of this region for the st decade.

  "Really? You... I mean, of course, John, I would be happy to show you around. Let me get dressed properly, then when your Captain returns, he can arrange an escort." She said, then eborated when she saw that he looked confused at her statement. "Lord Uther's orders. If you awoke, you were not allowed to leave the mansion without an escort, nor were you allowed to go farther than the outlying hamlets until he returned."

  "That makes sense. I would have been surprised if he hadn't left some orders regarding me. Anything else?" John said, sighing a little inside. From what he could gather from his memories, the person he was repcing was somewhere in his mid-twenties, but due to his position, he was rarely allowed to be alone for long.

  "Oh, just one thing. If you woke up, he said to tell you to 'put your damn ptes back on,' else, injury or not, he was going to treat you like he did when you were twelve and stole that apple pie from the kitchens. He didn't eborate on what that was, but he did have a wicked grin on his face." She replied.

  John searched his memories, but apparently, that one didn't make the cut of what was given to him. Though he could guess at what happened, the image of being put over that man's p for a spanking sent a shiver down his spine. He would fight him if it came down to it to prevent that from happening, but discretion might be the better part of valour here.

  "Right. I guess I will have to figure out how to put those on my new armour." He said. He had no idea how he would, but he would figure something out.

  Just then, a man walked into the room wearing full pte mail. It was simir to the footman's armour, but looked heavier and had a pair of golden wings mounted to the sides of the helmet. Before John could say anything, the man spoke.

  "Milord! You're awake! Thank the heavens." A familiar voice said.

  "Eh? Is that you under that helmet?" John asked, standing up to greet his Captain.

  "Yes, Milord. Lord Uther had the Steeltoe brothers forge me a set of Captain's armour when you were unconscious. Never mind that, how are you feeling? You had lost a lot of blood, even the elven priest was unsure when you would awaken again."

  "I feel great. Now, have a seat and fill me in on what happened during the battle and what you and your men have been up to while I was out. Oh, and tell me what you know about this pgue to the north that Lord Uther is investigating. I should probably know what is going on in the realm." John said, sitting back down.

  The ball of Substance X was starting to kick in, invigorating his body and making his headache disappear. He might be disfigured now, but he had been old for a long time, with a hunched back and needing a cane to walk. At worst, not being handsome anymore was just a minor inconvenience to him.

  Eh stood still for a moment, just staring at him like he had two heads, then sat down and began to fill him in on everything he had missed in the st three weeks. John just nodded along, taking everything in that he could. If he was going to be stuck here until Uther returned, he might as well take the opportunity to train as much as he could in something that wasn’t combat.

  He wasn't returning to DEN yet. If the elves had magic that could grow him a new eye, they might also have magic to resurrect people. He needed to find out for sure, and right now his best bet seemed to be in Daran whenever he travelled there with Uther.

  He would also get to meet this Jaina person then, and he really had to think about how he wanted to handle her and her apparent love for him. Other than a few fragmented memories of a beautiful young woman, he had little knowledge of their retionship and had no real feelings for her.

  He really wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.