God said, "Let there be light," and there was light… God then said, "Let there be Beggar's Chicken," so here I am!
—Zadred said
Fate—such a strange pair of words. It always manages, at the most unexpected moment, to give you a blow in the most incomprehensible way. If it doesn't kill you, then when you wake up, you'll absolutely see another world. Of course, if it knocks you stupid, that's another matter entirely. And if it kills you… well, you can only blame your bad luck.
Zadred had been struck hard by such a blow, because when he opened his eyes, what he saw wasn't the familiar medics, but a person in armor, both hands gripping a massive sword planted in the ground before them, shouting loudly… from the voice, it seemed to be a woman.
"A woman…" Zadred's lips curved into a faint smile, then his eyes widened. "Huh? Where did this woman come from?"
Before he could get a clear look at her, a cloud of green gas drifted over. The nauseating stench rushed into Zadred's nose, and his years of military training instantly told him—this smell was poisonous! But what use was that knowledge now? Aside from his brain still reacting, his body no longer belonged to him. He couldn't feel anything physically… and so, fate knocked him unconscious once more.
When he opened his eyes again, this time he found he wasn't lying in a hospital bed, but in a dirt pit. Standing at the edge was a woman with short white hair, wearing tattered armor. Her large eyes were lifeless, and she was cupping dirt in her hands, sprinkling it over Zadred's body again and again.
Through the woman before him, the night sky was breathtakingly beautiful, the stars dazzlingly bright, the moon huge in the heavens… "What a giant baked pancake…" Zadred thought to himself in awe, then suddenly felt something was off. That moon was way too big!
Before he could think further, a large handful of dirt slammed onto his face. His mind instantly cleared—this strange woman was trying to bury him alive! He forced his mouth open and shouted, "Stop!"
Another handful of dirt fell precisely into his mouth. His breath was cut off, and with one failed inhale, Zadred blacked out again.
The third time he woke, he saw a window and sunlight… Though the chairs and tables his eyes fell upon looked strange and unfamiliar compared to his memories, the pain in his body told him he was alive and being treated… perhaps in some farmer's house.
"Were the scenes I saw before just hallucinations?" Zadred wondered, finding it ridiculous. Why would he have such bizarre illusions?
The door creaked open, and someone entered, walking up to his bed. Because of the sunlight, Zadred couldn't see their face clearly. He tried to lift his arm to shield his eyes and get a better look, but the pain in his arm made even that simple movement impossible.
The visitor slipped their left arm behind his back and helped him sit up. The blinding light no longer hit him directly, and squinting, Zadred finally saw the person—his mind went into chaos. It was the same white-haired woman he'd seen before losing consciousness!
The woman brought a bowl of dark medicine to his lips and said something, but Zadred didn't understand a single word. He just stared at her blankly, completely unsure of what was happening.
"Rosha…" the woman repeated two syllables. Zadred caught the sound this time.
"Rosha? Rosha? That's not my name… could it be someone else's? A person's name?"
Suddenly, a flood of memories and information that didn't belong to him surged into his mind. A splitting pain tore through his skull, as if his brain were an old computer struggling to reboot. The result of that reboot was Zadred passing out for the third time…
In the process, broken fragments of memory were slowly being sorted and restored into a coherent picture. His consciousness still active, Zadred didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Just a moment ago, he'd been on a mission in the rainforests of the southeastern Huaxia peninsula, stepping on a "Spider" landmine before being attacked by drones. The instant the mine exploded, he was sure he was dead… The next thing he knew, a white-haired woman was standing before him, holding a greatsword in both hands…
And now, there was another set of memories in his head—those of an ordinary soldier named Rosha. And these memories filled Zadred with nothing but contempt for fate.
Rosha was born in the slums of Kulsara, a small southern city in the Noxian Empire. Orphaned at six, he survived in the slums by stealing, cheating, and swindling. At fifteen, when Noxian troops came to conscript, he joined the army just to have something to eat, becoming a Noxian soldier.
After a year of military training, his outstanding performance earned him a place in the Bloodthirsty Elite Squad, led by the legendary female swordswoman Riven, handling escort and assassination missions.
Riven's story was the most often told in the army after Rosha joined. Born on a farm at the foot of Trevale Mountain in Noxus, she too lost her parents young, though she was far better off than Rosha—at least she never went hungry. When the Empire came recruiting, she enlisted, and her natural talent as a warrior, combined with relentless training, quickly made her famous. Due to her exceptional skills and unwavering loyalty to the Empire, the then-ruler of Noxus, Boram Darkwill, personally awarded her a Blackstone Runeblade, enchanted by the master LeBlanc herself. From that day, the legendary female swordswoman wielding the enchanted blade was born, and she became captain of the Bloodthirsty Elite Squad.
Three months ago, Rosha's squad was tasked with escorting the Amistian Legion through a war zone to the province of Navori in Ionia.
They were escorting a cart filled with amphorae when, passing through a canyon, they were ambushed by Ionian forces. Torrential rain triggered landslides on both sides of the gorge, trapping them between the enemy and nature's wrath.
Despair set in. Riven sent for help from Amistian, but the answer came in the form of a rain of flaming arrows from their own side… The amphorae exploded, releasing torrents of chemical fire that consumed the entire battlefield. Whether Noxian soldier or Ionian warrior, all could only scream helplessly as life was stripped away in unimaginable agony.
The last thing Rosha remembered was the soul-deep pain of being engulfed by those demonic flames.
"You've got to be kidding…" Zadred's brain felt like a lump of paste. What kind of absurd plot was this? A real transmigration? And wasn't a transmigrator supposed to have some kind of golden cheat? Why did he come here only to end up half-dead, with no prestigious background, just a street thug turned cannon fodder? Not killed by the enemy, but nearly buried alive by his own captain after being roasted by friendly chemical bombs? What kind of twisted joke was this? Zadred cursed in his heart, "Damn you, rotten heavens!"
The fourth time he woke, Zadred saw the woman called Riven sitting by the window, staring motionlessly at the moon outside like a statue.
He opened his parched mouth and called out, "Captain! Some water, please…"
She froze, turning to look at him, seemingly not understanding what he'd said.
Zadred realized he'd spoken in Chinese. Of course she wouldn't understand. But with Rosha's memories, Noxian was no obstacle. "Captain, I need water…" he said in her tongue.
Riven nodded, poured a bowl of clear water from a jug on the table, and helped him sit up to drink.
After draining the bowl, the dryness in his throat eased, and only then did Zadred notice his entire body was wrapped in charred flesh, like a mummy. This really was a Beggar's Chicken, wasn't it? No wonder Riven thought he was dead—burned to charcoal, death would've been the normal outcome.
As if sensing his doubts, Riven laid him down again and said softly, "Your whole body was burned to a crisp. It's a miracle you're alive."
Seeing the pain on her face as she spoke, Zadred understood why she looked that way. "Am I the only one who survived?" he asked.
Riven shook her head, her dry eyes unable to shed a tear, and said hoarsely, "They're all dead…"
Zadred didn't know what to say. Suddenly, the strong woman lifted her head and slammed both hands onto the table, smashing it to pieces. She dropped to her knees, pounding the floor with her fists, shouting again and again, "Amistian… Amistian… Amistian…" Even when her hands were torn and bleeding, she didn't stop.
That year, Riven was nineteen—betrayed, stripped of her faith and convictions, wandering aimlessly across Ionian lands with a scorched comrade in tow.
That year, Zadred was twenty-eight… No. He wasn't Zadred anymore. He was Rosha, seventeen years old, a cannon fodder sacrificed in war, an unlucky transmigrator who had come to another world—a world called Valoran. At this moment, he was being dragged across unfamiliar lands by a white-haired woman, the two of them like a pair of lost, wandering spirits…
//Check out my Patreon for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[www.p@tre0n.com/Razeil0810](http://www.p@tre0n.com/Razeil0810)