If the Farmer’s Guild had a ranking system, Heron was bound for last place.

  He had played PvP video games before—in his first life during his school years. While the other players were slaughtering one another and raiding bases, he would find a corner of the map and build his camp and farm. He often found his camp raided with a sign that said very unkind things, but he just kept calm and carried on.

  Needless to say, Heron was very bad at PvP or anything competitive for that matter. So he opted to play relaxing farming games that allowed one to romance NPC villagers who would grow fond of the player by presenting a freshly laid egg or a basic parsnip.

  He really hoped that the Farmer’s Guild was more like his farming simulator game than the PvP Colosseum style where people would raid other bases to get ahead. He had enough of people—or rather, dragons—ruining his potato fields.

  The fresh air from the streets of the kingdom smacked Heron in the face while the cafe’s front door bell rang as he followed Serafina outside with Lucifer slumped over his shoulder like a decorative fur-piece. While they had had a late lunch at the cafe, the outdoors were cooled from the afternoon heat as the ‘invisible’ sun of the planetary system had shifted to create the beginnings of a golden-colored evening.

  The bustling in the streets had quieted with fewer pedestrians browsing stalls and stands that hovered in every other corridor of the street marketplace. Businesses were still open but fewer visitors came and went, with more customers leaving than coming. With the looming onset of evening, it appeared that the majority of folks were headed towards home to wind down for the day.

  Glancing around, Heron noticed a delicately designed clock tower that stood extravagantly in the deeper parts of the kingdom, closer to the castle in the distance that watched over the city. Instead of twelve hours dedicated to the clocks that he was familiar with, there were twenty-four numbers—presumably hours—except they were sectioned off into four parts of a pie; each section containing six hours.

  Was it even a clock? It would be too much of a coincidence for this world to be running on a twenty-four hour day system—

  How peculiar. I believe it would be appropriate for me to say what a coincidence that your ‘another world’ runs on the same time-scale as our planet does. Serafina mused in his mind.

  Still observing the clock, Heron squinted at the numbers before answering. “My original world had a twenty-four hour day cycle due to how long it would take for a full day to pass. Maybe our worlds are more similar than I expected.” A pause. “What’s up with the weird pie split? Four sections of six hours?”

  It is a visual design to be an indication for civilians to be aware of when to work, when to play, and when to rest.

  That made sense, the system was similar to his previous life. Twelve hours to work, six hours to play, and six hours to rest—

  Oh deary me, of course not, Sir Heron. Serafina appeared taken back, its golden eyes blinking rapidly as it sat on its haunches. That would demoralize the kingdom and our king would likely have to answer to his people.

  Heron stared at Serafina and the black dragon stared right back. Incomprehensible—he was used to working overtime where he had even stayed overnight at the small, shady company that he worked for. Work life balance? Never heard of ‘er.

  There are four sections of six hours because in order for the kingdom to function, workers must alternate between when they work. If all workers were to work at the same time, then by the time they needed to access other businesses, those businesses would be closed for the day, no?

  Huh, that actually made a lot of sense.

  Serafina snorted, seemingly amused. Shift A starts at the brink of dawn, followed by Shift B, then C, then D. After working for six hours, the remaining eighteen hours of the day is to be used for one’s leisure. Businesses and people thrive which lead to a high approval rate of the king.

  Heron didn’t have much to say to Serafina’s private DMs—aka Dragon Monologue—but he was still grateful for the information. It was going to take him a second to get used to this model considering he was much more familiar with work till death do us part. But with such an idealistic system, there had to be a catch. Right?

  Before he could ask Serafina his question, the bell chimed behind him. Whipping around carefully so Lucifer didn’t get flung off from his shoulder, he made eye contact with Alice who closed the cafe door behind her, then quickly looked away.

  “Let’s go. We’ve got less than thirty minutes to meet with the guildmaster at the Farmer’s Guild.” Alice said coolly as she strode past Heron, leaving the group to follow her down the street.

  It wasn’t a very long walk but Heron hoped he wouldn’t forget his way. He’d probably have to find his way back from the Farmer’s Guild to the Knight’s Station to report for his community service at some point.

  It’d been an overwhelming day where he: was dragon-napped from his tiny planet, infiltrated a kingdom as an otherworlder, registered as a provisional citizen, was arrested, pleaded innocent, and had tater tots for lunch. The tater tots were pretty normal but everything else? Brand new experiences in a brand new world.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  At least this was as exciting as things were going to get, besides rescuing Melvin and Charcoco from Planet-C5 the second that Lucifer could turn back into a dragon.

  Yeah, yeah I’m on it. Lucifer grumbled in his mind.

  But why not now? Heron had been asking all day but kept getting interrupted—

  “We’re here.” Alice announced, turning to face them as she stood before a tall building that looked like a ski lodge that said, ‘The Farmer’s Guild’ on a large, hanging wooden sign by the front door.

  Sighing, Heron turned his head to give Lucifer a look who only shrugged in return and then avoided his gaze. What, was he going to have to groom the rabbit again before it could turn back into a dragon and fly them out of this planet? As Alice entered the lodge and Serafina held the door open for them with its paw, Heron reluctantly followed in with his little, white rabbit sitting on his shoulder.

  “WELCOME!!!”

  Heron flinched at the booming voice as their party of four entered the building. A fireplace crackled nearby, and he caught a whiff of the scent of burning wood wafting in the air as he glanced around his surroundings. Just like the outside, the inside also looked like a ski lodge—the design was cozy with decorative planters that lined the edge of the floor and lanterns that hung on the walls.

  “What brings you here to the Farmer’s Guild on this fine day?”

  Peeking around Alice—which wasn’t that hard since she wasn’t very tall—he found his gaze locked onto the burliest man he had ever seen. Broad shouldered, a wide chest, the thickest ginger beard, and a scruffy wool hat while wearing chocolate-colored overalls paired with a red flannel underneath, the man stood over the front counters with his gigantic hands on his hips as he beamed at Heron and his group.

  “Hello, you must be the guildmaster.” Alice said calmly, taking a step forward as she approached the front counter.

  “That’s right. Name’s Charles.” The guildmaster grinned as he crossed his beefy arms.

  “I’m Alice of the Third Order,” Alice nodded before continuing. “I’m here on behalf of a provisional citizen who’s looking to join the Farmer’s Guild.”

  Heron waved an awkward hello which earned him a raised brow from ‘Charles’.

  “That a rabbit on his shoulder?”

  Oh right, Lucifer was basically half a scarf at this point.

  I’ll have you know that I’m his master. Lucifier’s voice in his mind was proud as it puffed its chest boastfully.

  “A rabbit that’s a familiar, huh?” Charles stroked his beard, clearly amused. “That’s a new one, especially one that can chatter using magical essence. I’ll be damned, ya learn something new every day.”

  “He’s actually a drag—“

  SLAM.

  One moment Heron had been standing straight, the next he had felt a paw on his back which had shoved him forward—making him lose his balance. He fell, face flat, as Lucifer hopped off his shoulder and immediately curled into a white, trembling ball of fluff by his side.

  Quiet you two. Serafina hissed in Heron’s mind. Do. Not. Let. Anyone. Know that Lord Lucifer is a dragon. There will be hell to pay if that is common knowledge.

  What? Why?

  Both of you are already anomalies. Alice and I are following protocol the best we can without jeopardizing her position and reputation.

  “Y’all alright?” Charles scratched the back of his head before turning his attention back to Alice. “The man that toppled over, he applying to be a farmer with us?”

  “That is correct,” Alice said. “The City Hall is processing his paperwork, but he was approved to apply for the license.”

  Heron sat up, picked up a shivering Lucifer before placing the rabbit on the other shoulder, then brushed himself off as he stood up.

  Charles eyed him from head to toe before nodding at Alice. “I’ll see what I can do for him. He lookin’ like the wind will knock him over.”

  Rubbing the back of his head, Heron let out a nervous chuckle. “I’ll be in your care, guildmaster.”

  “Please, just call me Charles.” The man laughed heartily before waving Heron over. “Got some paperwork for ya to fill out. After that, I’ll get ya set up with us.”

  As Heron began to fill out the papers that Charles had slid over to him while Lucifer remained slumped over his shoulder like a rag-doll, the guildmaster continued his prattling.

  “Provisional citizen, eh? Where ya from?” Before Heron could answer, Charles pressed on. “Wise of ya to join us instead of one of the other guilds; we could use another hand during these troubling times. Food hasn’t been a scarcity, but if things continue like they have been, we’ll need to really hunker down and up the production rate.”

  “All the guilds have been getting heavily taxed due to the kingdom gearing up for war. I tell ya, war ain’t a pretty thing, and these youngins’ haven’t even seen the worst of it. All these spunkin’ knights talking about glory and honor when war just spills needless blood over meaningless power and status.”

  From the corner of his eye as he finished his paperwork, Heron caught Alice’s expression which was a mix of fury and distaste. It was pretty bold of Charles to be speaking so haughtily about his personal opinion of war and knights in front of someone who probably swore fealty to her king. He just hoped that Alice wasn’t as chop loving as her beloved liege.

  “Alrighty there, lad.” Charles scanned the paperwork before nodding at Heron. “I’ll be assigning ya to Sector Nine. They be lackin’ an eighth Farmer in that shared lodge. You’ll get a set of instructions from I in the morning and I’ll have James show ya around tomorrow.”

  “Oh wow, uh, thank you.” Heron responded, standing up straight and adjusting the quiet Lucifer on his shoulder. Everything was happening so quickly, and while there was a lack of clarity in how his life was going to be, at least he felt certain that he could breathe easy again given that he had signed up to be a Farmer and not some Adventurer or a role that would require the spotlight.

  “Here, take this.” Charles slid over a small, rectangular stone that looked like a sapphire-opal. As Heron took it, Charles gestured at the item. “Teleportation crystal. Magical essence routed between the Farmer’s Guild and Sector Nine’s lodge. You’ll be needing it to travel between the lodge that is located in the outskirts of the city and here which is the inner city.”

  Heron nodded as he glanced down at the crystal-like stone in his hand. “How do I use it?”

  “You’ll need to command it. Since it’s already routed, it can only take you between these two locations. Just say, ‘Return On, Sector Nine’ or ‘Return On, Farmer’s Guild’—“

  “Return On, Sector Nine?” Heron asked, cocking his head to one side as he glanced from the crystal to Charles.

  “Wait, cancel, cancel!”

  Too late. A blue, glowing radius surrounded Heron and Lucifer as it zapped them away.