Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 11: A Second Summons

Daniel watches as the young second Princess sleeps. He doesn't stare at her, so much as the wall nearby. He's remaining present in case her damaged lungs begin the process of secondary drowning; fluids draining and causing her to suffocate long after she actually drowned underwater. It's been a couple of days, and she's clearly doing much better, but he wants to ensure she's fully cleared from the potential of suddenly suffocating on her own bodily fluids before he leaves her, since he's the only one with any knowledge, apparently, on resuscitating drowning victims. Technically, she should be safe already. He's been watching over her for three days now, and he was able to resuscitate her after two separate instances of secondary drowning within the first 36 hours after she fell in the river. Now, he's just being extra safe. There's no hospital to send her to, at least not one that understands what he's talking about. Healing magic is great for flesh wounds, but bones are trickier. They still have to ensure they're aligned properly, and healing magic is excruciatingly painful while recovering bone. For a severed limb, it's worth it. For fractured ribs that are pretty much back in place already, it's not so worth it. Princess Erimaya, the second princess, will heal with rest and comfort. Her ribs are fractured from CPR, which was a known quantity. They aren't out of place, other than fractured, because Daniel ensured to perform the procedure carefully, even in the heat of the moment. He was a little surprised and disappointed that Rikuto didn't know CPR, but Daniel was specifically trained because of his various fields of work; the military, because it was the military, his maintenance job because he worked on electrical work, and even scuba diving, because it's helpful if a buddy drowns.

But, Daniel has to remind himself that Rikuto is actually only a college student, and it's Daniel himself who is old and experienced, relatively speaking. Even Erimaya, who is roughly 14 Earth years by the sheer hours she's lived, appears around 12 Earth years, in equivalent days. The 29 hour days in this world took Daniel some getting used to, and it seems that the humans of the world have adapted to age relative to their own world's days. As such, though only 10 by her own world's standards, Daniel estimates that her apparent age of mid-12 based on days is more accurate than upper 14 based on hours. His hypothesis is that the humans of this world -and thus, the other races- have adapted to age based on a 19 hour day and 10 hour sleep cycle. Humans are neither the shortest nor longest lived races in this world. Goblins are considered the shortest, at an average longevity of 20 years, and dragons are suspected to be the longest, with an unknown value, followed only by demonic elves at over 5,000 years.

Daniel got a bonus ten years of youth with his thirty two years of wisdom. At a glance, he appears to be around twenty two years old, but he's actually thirty two, or, actually, thirty three years old. He wasn't keeping track very well at first, but he's definitely sure his thirty third birthday passed by, with a possible thirty fourth having passed him by, if he were still counting in Earth years. He's not sure if he's aging on the scale of this world or Earth, but for now, he's under the assumption he's still on Earth's scale, and he does his best to keep track of the days, rather than the years, which are 450 days long in this world. By Earth standards, he has an average of 75 years, which will be around 61 years in this world. He'll have to do his best to maintain his health regardless of his age, or die in a blaze of glory, if he wants to live forever.

Of course, Daniel is a humble tinkerer. He's not a knight, a warrior, or any other kind of noble soldier. He repairs and assembles equipment.

And, he's a particularly low-class assembler and repairer of equipment. He knows OF concepts of nobility, royalty, and the like, but at best, he can simply respect authority and titles. He's not born and bred of high society and etiquette. When he sees someone in danger, and if he manages to summon the courage to help, he helps. He doesn't consider the societal implications.

And as such, he finds himself before King Regent Rikuto once more on the fourth morning after the incident.

"Daniel..."