Chapter 2-Mix Up

Anjou woke up to a hard clacking sound. She blinked her eyes open and saw a man sitting at a desk behind a computer. It was one of those old blocky computers that school computer labs seemed to still have despite the better and cheaper options. The man at the desk was bald and wore circular glasses. He was dressed in a brown polo shirt with all three buttons buttoned up. The office itself was nothing more than a plain cubicle with those cloth carpet looking walls. Anjou herself was sitting upright in an uncomfortable plastic chair. She was about to say something when the man looked up at her and smiled.

“Ah, you’re awake. That’s good, now we can get started. Let’s get the obvious out of the way. You're dead.”

Anjou blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Hard to believe I know, but it’s true. You are dead.”

Even though the man had said it again, the words didn’t really register with Anjou. “What do you mean I’m dead?” She thought back to the boxing match, but the memories were a little fuzzy. “I think I blacked out, but that doesn’t mean I died.”

The man shook his head. “No, you died. The fact that you’re sitting in front of me proves that.”

“And who are you?”

“Names Caron.” He pointed to a name plaque that sat on the desk. It read, “Caron. Prayer Liaison and Life Reassigner.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Caron waved his hand. “We’ll get to that in a minute. But first I gotta say, I saw the last few hours of your life and that was a hell of a way to go out. That championship match was insane.”

“Uh, thank you?” Anjou said awkwardly.

“Man, you had that rabbit girl on the ropes for most of the match. And it would’ve been an outright victory if we hadn’t been assigned to take you.”

“Rabbit girl?”

The man waved his hand again. “You know, what was her name? Anjou. The red rabbit girl?”

“You mean the Crimson Hare,” Anjou said flatly.

“Yeah, that’s right, her.”

Anjou crossed her arms. “You mean me?”

“Huh?”

“You’re talking about me. I’m Anjou.”

Caron laughed. “Oh that’s a good one. I get it, you’re pissed about being dead so you're trying to play a joke on me.” Once the laughter died down, he took off his glasses and wiped the tears from his eyes. “I needed that laugh. This job can be pretty boring at times.” After he put his glasses back on, Caron looked down at Anjou’s hands which were currently clenched into fists. “What?”

“I’m Anjou,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Alright, jokes over, we need to get on with business.” For a solid moment, the two stared at each other. Anjou put as much glare into hers as she could muster. And it was a lot. It was a skill one developed when staring down opponents at pre-match weigh-ins. After a full minute, Caron’s face took on a panicked look. “Um, give me a moment.”

He went back to his computer and began furiously typing. After only a few seconds he whispered to himself. “Uh oh.” He looked at Anjou and then back to his computer screen. “So you’re not Trixie Starr.” Caron didn’t say it as a question, it was more of a realization.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Do I look like that wannabe princess?”

“Uh, no?”

Anjou got up and slammed her hands onto the desk. “Is this some sort of sick joke? Who put you up to this? Was it Trixie? Was it David? Did someone spike my drink when I wasn’t looking so I would lose that match? Answer me.” She slammed her hands down again.

Despite his panicked look earlier, Caron did not seem to be intimidated by Anjou’s display. “Listen, anger is a natural way to process this new information, but…”

Anjou didn’t wait for him to finish. She threw an uppercut right at his jaw, but it didn’t connect. Instead it went right through him like a ghost. The momentum made her lose balance and throw her body onto the desk knocking the keyboard and plaque onto the floor.

Before she could recover, Anjou was forcefully pulled from the desk and put back into the chair. Now standing over her was a muscular man wearing a red polo shirt, sunglasses and a baseball cap with a devil horns decal on the front. He kept his hand firmly placed on Anjou’s shoulder.

“Yeah, see,” Caron said, picking up the keyboard and plaque, “we’ve had too many instances of reassigners getting attacked, so we work remotely now and you only see our projection. The devil behind you however, is 100% real. Now, I have no idea what happened with this little mix up, so if you give me some time, I have to make a few inquiries. Gelor here will make sure you don’t go running off.” Caron then disappeared.

—

In the time it took Caron to return, Anjou had a chance to get her emotions under control. A feat which did take quite a bit of time. When she finally did calm down, the first thing she did was look up at the man called Gelor.

“So…am I really dead?”

The man grunted in a way that Anjou took as an affirmation.

“Is this…hell?”

“Hardly,” Caron said, popping back into the room. He placed his arms on the desk in a steeple shape and rested his chin on his arms. “Gelor, you can release her. I don’t think there’ll be another issue. Right?”

Anjou crossed her arms. “No.”

Caron smiled and the devil released the pressure from Anjou’s shoulder. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave.

“Now, on to the bad news. You were taken prematurely, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. Needless to say there was a mix up.”

“How prematurely?” Anjou asked.

Caron hit a key on his keyboard and glanced at the computer. “About 72 years.”

Anjou clenched her fist again and almost jumped up to take another swing, but a low growl from Gelor made her think twice.

“The good news is,” Caron continued, “is that you will be able to take Trixie’s place in the reassignment. Well sort of.” Before Anjou could ask what any of that meant, he held up his hand. “Where you are right now is the offices of the Life and Death Reassignment Service. In short, we take people from one world, or dimension, or realm, however you really want to think about it, and we put them another world to fulfill a purpose. Trixie was going to be given the opportunity to be the bodyguard for a prince as he fought a war. But with the mix up, plans have changed.”

“Am I going to be this new bodyguard?” Anjou asked.

“No. Unfortunately, we are going to have to cancel the prayer for that prince and he will basically be on his own. No, your purpose will be to become a bodyguard for a young princess in a different world. But there are a few caveats which we’ll get too. Any questions so far?”

“Oh, I have a few.”

Caron chuckled. “I’m sure you do, and I guarantee I wouldn’t be allowed to answer most of them. So let’s just continue. Now, have you ever played a video game?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Good, that’ll make this next part easier. In this world we are sending you, certain people are given the gift of magical abilities. Abilities that they can only increase through a similar interface to a video game. I can’t give you the exact details on how it works, or why that world has that kind of setup because that’s not my department. But, I’m sure you’ll get it. Now, if you give me one moment.” Caron went back to his computer and began typing away. “Yep, I thought so. So if Trixie had been brought here like it was originally planned, she would’ve been deposited close to the prince so she could easily fulfill her purpose. As for you, well we are unable to, since it's such short notice.”

Anjou sighed. “So, what?”

“Well, we’ll get you as close as we can, but it will be up to you to find the city and become her bodyguard. My information here says that once you end up in the world, you will have three days to enter the competition. And well that’s all it says here.”

“And what happens if I don’t make it?”

“Nothing good,” Caron whispered.

At that Gelor made a series of grunts that sounded like deep laughter, which made Anjou shudder.

“But I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m sure you’ll do fine. You’re a resourceful woman.” Caron pushed himself away from his desk and stood up. “And with that I believe you're all set to go.”

“That’s it?” Anjou asked.

“That’s it.”

Before she could ask another question a long, loud yawn forced itself from Anjou’s throat and things began to fade away like she was drifting off to sleep.

“Oh and before you go,” Caron said, his voice distant. “While you won’t remember our meeting, you will remember your mission. Oh and you're going to be a different race. Sorry, comes with the transition. Good luck and have fun.” And with that everything went to black once more.