Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-35898511-20200202034949/@comment-44464716-20200203142353

As I'm brought to the mamono realm, I simply lament my failure. I fought to protect my village from the monsters. I was just a rookie; barely even a squire. But, because I lost and wasn't captured by the Mamono army, the village blamed me for the city's predicament, and sent me as part of the first batch of "volunteers". As cruel as it was, I hardly blame them. My knight was captured by those monsters, and I wasn't. I couldn't even save him, let alone my village. I was a failure of a squire; I deserved this...

As the queen gives her speech, I notice the back door is wide open and the guards are distracted. I turn to the man next to me. I had overheard him talking on the wagon ride about his fiancée: his childhood sweetheart he was taken from when his name was drawn by the town lottery. They had planned to get married before the lottery, but the town passed a law preventing it to keep men from getting out of the situation. He didn't deserve to be here. I point out the open door to him. He hesitates.

"What if a guard notices me?" I assure him that they won't, as I'll create a distraction. I then turn to the queen and declare:

"I volunteer to go first!" All eyes turn to me as I walk towards the queen. As I stand in front of her, I do a simple, formal bow as an instinct I picked up from my training as a squire. The queen just giggles.

"There's no need for that here," She insists. She then turns me to face the crowd. I scan the group of men; he's not among them. I can't help but smile a little in relief. ''Good. At least someone could be saved...'' I raise my head for the first time since the battle for my village.

"So, young man" she tells me, "Which option do you pick?"

I shrug. "In my homeland, I was a warrior-in-training. I would be of little use as a farmer or a carpenter. But I don't want to have someone choose a job for me. Seeing as I'm going to be here for the foreseeable future, I guess... I may as well choose matrimony."

"Excellent choice." She responds before turning to one of her guards. "Take him to the selection room."

I am gently led to a small room with a curtain wall on one side, a chair, and a table with a book.

"That book contains a list of all our mamono that are still single, and all the important information about them." she tells me. "Read it thoroughly, consider your options carefully, and write them down on the note-paper. When you are done, we'll summon the mamono you selected and pull back the curtain so you can meet them. You will then select one of them yourself."

I look through each page. I'm not picky, but not very many of them seemed appealing. A lot of them seemed rather... vicious, while others sounded extremely simpleminded. Eventually, I find one that sounds appealing, and I write down their names.

"I'm done." I tell the guard as I hand her the list.

"Alright. Just wait one moment."

I could've sworn that it took no time at all before the curtain was pulled back; revealing a truly beautiful creature: a Dhampir.

"Only one?" She asks me; apparently she didn't read the list. "In that case, you either pick her or end up with option 2 instead of option 3."

I walk up to the dhampir and I try to talk to her, but it's surprisingly difficult; I was never the best at talking to women back in my home village, and she's far more beautiful than any of them.

"Um... Hi." I tell her.

"...Hi," she says with a smile and a bit of sass. "If you don't want to do this, I understand. I personally would rather find a man the more romantic way; not by marrying an abducted human."

"In that case," I say a bit awkwardly, "What if we hold off on the wedding for a bit, date, and... see how things go?"

"...I think I would like that," She answers.

I make my choice: her. Definitely her. We date for a bit, fall in love, and we're married after just a few weeks. Eventually, she grows tired of this mamono city, and we move to a human town that hasn't been conquered.