Our New World - Chapter 2 Part 18

If you spot weird words used by Maya and Sefi. It was because they were using local Soiporan idioms not localized at all into English.

Infodump the chapter, hence Anagnorisis.

Also, the narration jumped between several people.

Also, if you find something that seems strange please tell me.

Lastly, I late to posting this due to me addicted into reading webnovel RAWs...

Author:

Yukkuri Oniisan

A bit of warning from the author: WARNING! HORRIBLE GRAMMAR IMMINENT!

Chapter 3: The Heaven Lords in the New World

Part 18: Anagnorisis

662^nd YEHS, Dark-Half 5th Month, 18th day, late night

In the grandiose bedroom inside the Neuschwanensee Castle, Mayana sat in front of a large ornamented dresser’s mirror, while her hair was being groomed by Sefira. The other girls were in the Siebte Duchess’ room for some reason, so they were alone. Mayana was wearing a pink floral patterned silk chemise borrowed from Florea under the similarly floral patterned silk nightgown. At first, Florea was a bit confused about the reason Mayana wants to borrow her nightwear, but since she was a rather accommodating person, she gave Mayana several of her surplus nightwear when Maya visited her room later. She didn’t know that Maya was borrowing it due to she didn’t have any confidence on the attire she brought with her. After all, compared to her extant nightwear that was reek with peasantness, Florea’s was more like what nobles owned.

In the post-ceremony feast, for some reason, Archduke Yusis invited her to his room and put a paper and a rectangular card into her hand. The paper depicted the map to his room, while the card, according to Florea, a permit to be shown to the patrolling guards. Maya couldn’t grasp his motive or whether or not he already had suspected her plots. Even so, it was a good opportunity. If she could secure Riorra’s place as Neuschwanensee permanent territory, then it will guarantee the future of the people living in the former barony. No more need to be get involved anymore in the futile Soiporan petty states’ endless conflicts. This was the least she can fulfill her duty as the daughter of the former Baron. Her noblesse oblige.

She had investigated much information about the Archduke from Florea, thought it wasn’t that smooth due to language barrier between them. Basically, the Archduke was a really powerful person in Neuschwanensee, though the Duchesses (Herzoginnen) held power too. For some reason, Florea had difficulty in explaining his background when Mayana asked, due to the many unknown terminologis used by her that Maya didn’t understand, like “Pelejaa(Player)”, “Avatara”, “Ha-Arets(Holy Land)” or “Germio(Guild)”. But basically according to what Florea had said, the Archduke was a capricious, calculative, callous, and cunning person, someone not to approach carelessly. This was a completely opposite from Maya’s impression on him.

Even so, from her conversation with Florea, she could sense from Florea’s way of speaking that even when Florea was really frightened at him, she also held a great respect and awe at the same time for the Archduke. At any rate, even if the Archduke was the incarnation of Evil himself, her resolve for her plot won’t waver.

She had cleaned every corner and nook of her body – she was rather surprised by the size of the bath and the hot water from the plumbing –,  put many pleasantly scented perfumes and oils, applied powder to her face, smoothed her lips with rouge wax, tidied her brow with ash liner, everything she could do to enhance her physical appearance. Since she didn’t know the Archduke preference, she tried to imitate the appearance of the Duchesses’ especially of the Erste Duchess Melbiena. Hence why she asked Sefira to help her to comb her hair as straight as possible and made it flow smoothly.

“Miss, may I ask something?” (Sefi)

Sefi, who was silently combing her until then, suddenly spoke.

“Yes, Sefi. What is it?” (Maya)

“About your actions after the ceremony…… Is it somehow related to what the Archduke had said to you?” (Sefi)

“……” (Maya)

Maya looked at Sefi’s reflection on the mirror. An unease expression adorned her face.

“What, made you think so?” (Maya)

Sefi stopped moving the comb.

“Miss, you were shocked when the Archduke whispered something to you back in the ceremony feast…… When we return to the room, you washed yourself, put perfumes and oils, applied cosmetics on your face, wore nice clothes…… Then you say that you might need to visit the Archduke’s room tonight…… And your eyes. It’s as if you will go to a battle…… It’s too obvious, anyone could see it if they just think about it.” (Sefi)

“Isn’t it?” (Maya)

Maya made a wry smile that caused Sefi to let out a sigh.

“Miss…… Does the Archduke forcing you to do this?” (Sefi)

“No. Perhaps not.” (Maya)

“Then. May I ask why and what?” (Sefi)

“……” (Maya)

“Miss. Can you tell me the truth? Hadn’t we promised when we leave the old castle that we will always tell truth to each other and hold no lies between us?” (Sefi)

Sefi approached Maya and hugged her head from behind. For Maya, Sefi was an irreplaceable existence. Someone whom she considered as her other self, an existence that was the closest to her. When she lost her whole family, only Sefi remained beside her. It pained her to keep a secret from Sefi, but what will Sefi do if she knew about her plan?

“Fine…… Sefi. Please listen.” (Maya)

Maya narrated her plan of seducing or at least gaining affection from the Archduke. If she succeeded, then she could use it as a leverage to further guarantee Riorra’s new position in Neuschwanensee so it won’t end just as yet another land to be exploited or discarded as a throwaway piece in a political scheme, even if the current Neuschwanensee treatment for Riorra was already quite satisfying. After all, in the end, Riorra was just a poor remote land without much to give. When the nectar is exhausted, the flower would be disposed of.

This was her greatest fear. Without Neuschwanensee’ protection, Riorra would be easily sucked into the whirlpool of conflict that was Soipora. She was honestly tired seeing people around her suffer from destitute, hunger, oppression and tyranny. No more. She was sick seeing her family members killed, seeing their homes burned, seeing her friends taken away by force. No more. If by her plan, she could grant her family, friends and the other villagers, a better tomorrow, then so be it.

“This is…… Have you lost your mind?” (Sefi)

Sefi was exasperated by Maya’s crazy single-minded aim. She understood how Maya cherished her “compromise principle”: to ignore any storm, don’t grow too tall, so you could endure the tempest without any needless worries for broken branches.

After the tragedy that afflicted her family, she had spent the last 6 years adapting and incorporating herself into the lifestyle of peasants and resigned to pass the rest of her life as just another random village girl. She had given up on revenge or seizing back the Barony throne. It was as if, she had buried her whole past away and create a wall around her heart.

But ever since yesterday, she suddenly became more forthcoming. She actively participated in the discussion, where before, she would just keep her silence. She personally asked to lead the representative when meeting with the people from Neuschwanensee. She easily accepted the noble title from Neuschwanensee, something that she would reluctant to do in the past. It was as if Maya before yesterday and Maya after yesterday were two different people. Sefi didn’t ask or confront Maya about this, out of respect and trust for Maya. But this… This was something else.

“No. I’m not. I think my mind is much clearer these days than ever. I had thought many things, but this is the fastest way to reach my objective.” (Maya)

“But why? Is there any need to be that hurried? This is… You are…This plan is madness…” (Sefi)

“No. Seeing how uncle killed cold-bloodedly is more maddening for me. Seeing how our sisters will be sold into slavery is more maddening for me… Seeing you being hurt is more maddening for me…… The Fates and Holy Spirit smiled upon us last time. But if they had cast their grace away at that time, we might lose uncle forever, we might be separated from the others…… I might…… I might have lost you…… I never want to see that scene again. No matter what. If such future doesn’t exist. I will be the one who creates it.” (Maya)

Maya’s voice trembled. It was obvious that she was holding back her tears. Yet, her fist clenched with firm resolution. Sefi strengthened her hug and gently patted Maya’s head.

“But Miss, everyone might be happy…… But, what about you? What about your happiness? Do you think the others will accept such future where only myself happy while you are not? I myself will not.” (Sefi)

“Sefi…… Why wouldn’t I be unhappy? Seeing everyone smiles is enough to paint the fields of Heavens for me. Also, I don’t think Archduke Yusis to be a bad kind of person.” (Maya)

“Even if he had seven Duchesses beside him?” (Sefi)

“But each of the Duchesses was laughing happily. At the least, he treated them well. Perhaps, even me……? One can only wonder. So Sefi, it’s not like it’s carved upon the cliff that I will be unhappy.” (Maya)

“That might be true……” (Sefi)

Sefi closed her eyes as if she was thinking about something. Then, when she opened her eyes again, it was filled with a strong resolution.

“Miss, do you know, in the olden times, there was a Soiporan practice. When a nobleman took a noble lady as his wife, then he too would take the noble lady’s personal maidservant as his concubine, as the maidservant is one set with her mistress.” (Sefi)

“Yes, I know. However, that practice had been abolished 134 years ago in the reign of the Emperor Hal’yama of Rajul Empire when he annexed Soipora as his perso… nal… demes…… Sefi! You couldn’t possibly!” (Maya)

Maya words trailed off as she realized something. Suddenly she released herself from Sefi’s hug, stood up and turned back to look at Sefi who put a smile for her.

“Miss, on that fiery day, I had vowed to whole Spirits Hosts in the Heaven, that I will always be with you no matter what happens. Even if the entire world turns into your enemy, I will be your only ally. Through fire, through ice, beyond time. So, Miss……” (Sefi)

Sefi held Maya’s hand. With any hesitation in her tone, she declared.

“I will accompany you, Miss.” (Sefi)

“But…… Why?” (Maya)

“I am sorry Miss, but I will not take a no.” (Sefi)

“You are not my maidservant anymore Sefi……” (Maya)

“Then I will accompany you as your older sister. Older sister should watch over her younger sister, so she won’t make any crazy plan again.” (Sefi)

Maya seemed to be conflicted over this, but knowing Sefi, she wouldn’t budge from this.

“………… Even so, are you really alright with this?” (Maya)

“I throw that question back to you, Miss.” (Sefi)

 “But, you know what this means right…… Perhaps… You will need to…… you know… Night service…” (Maya)

“And has this thought deter you from carrying your plan?” (Sefi)

 “……But, really Sefi, are you really find with this all? You may regret it……” (Maya)

“However, as I had said: through fire, through ice, beyond time. I won’t have any regret. I will walk the same road that you take. If I can’t, then I will regret it for the rest of my life. If you don’t have the resolve to involve me in, then you should cancel your plan Miss.” (Sefi)

“This might not end happily……” (Maya)

“I am happy for your thoughts of me, Miss. But I am already happy to be at your side, Miss. Then again, perhaps the Archduke is a truly nice person. If not, then, at the very least, you are not alone in that position.” (Sefi)

Sefi really didn’t give any leeway to Maya’s argument. Maya felt complicated with this, but she didn’t have any intention to rescind her plan.

“………… I couldn’t win this argument, right?” (Maya)

“I have been following you for more than 10 years, not for nothing, Miss.” (Sefi)

“Alright… Fine…… So be it. Welcome, Sefi.” (Maya)

“Yes, Miss. Thank you.” (Sefi)

Sefi made a bowing gesture to Maya, which then prompted Maya to hug her. Maya made a sigh, what to do with this loyal sister of her.

“Now…… We need to do something about you.” (Maya)

“Ah, that’s right. I need to dress myself.” (Sefi)

“Luckily, Florea loaned several of her clothes, so there is a spare for you.” (Maya)

Unlike Maya who had prettied herself to the max, Sefi was in the plainest plain. If Sefi will be going with her, then she need to be on par with her. Fortunately she also took the same bath with Maya.

Just when Sefi was taking her clothes off to wear the nightgown borrowed from Florea, she remembered something really important.

“Which reminds me, Miss do you know about the bed arts?” (Sefi)

“Of course I do…… Well… He is going to put… His sword into…… my scabbard…… Repeatedly? What are you making me to say?” (Maya)

“And then, what you should do?” (Sefi)

“Should I lie quietly? No? Then kisses? Hold hands or something?” (Maya)

“……” (Sefi)

“What? Something wrong?” (Maya)

“I know you are a scholarly person, but it surprises me that you had a lack of knowledge in this field.” (Sefi)

“…… Couldn’t be helped, right? It’s not like there was any male around our age was left in the village for us to mingle with……” (Maya)

“It looks like there is a short lesson is due.” (Sefi)

Sefi sighed at his clueless Miss… Well, Maya was hardly participating in any well-side raunchy village wives nighttime complaint session like she does, so Sefi didn’t blame her. The bee and flower lesson continued for some time.

By the way, Sefi didn’t have any real experience too, for crying out loud.

✿❀✿❀✿❀

Day 16 of arrival. 02-09-0002. 22.08

Meanwhile, without knowing the sweet clandestine affair waiting for him, Yuuto was finished with his share of works today: creating a prototype radio transmitter for a radio-based portable communication device. Naturally, there was no such thing as portable communication device inside the original RAHO game lore. Perhaps, the writers thought that it won’t suit RAHO enlightenment-age sword and magic theme. Any mention of long range communication was clearly of using magic, which none of Neuschwanensee NPCs or the players able to replicate.

Although at first Yuuto thought to recreate electronic radio and its electronic component like diodes, transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. from scratch, which theoretically feasible through his Smith, Artificier, and Alchemy cheat skills, there was already a magitech equivalent that he could readily use: the magic lamp, which was ubiquitously used inside the castle.

The principle behind magic lamp was basically, using mana from a mana source (usually a mana stone) through the magic circuit to excite the atoms of special gems (sapphire or garnet) which then released the resulting energy as a visible light wave of a certain frequency. Yuuto’s preloaded Alchemist knowledge identified this arrangement as Lukkad.

To create a white light, the magic lamp will either put several layers of phosphor coating or combined several Lukkads of different light wave frequency. This magitech device were relatively simple to reproduce, even by the limited Neuschwanensee industrial capacity using local knowledge base, workshops, and materials.

So rather than introducing the alien for native electronics and the needs to create the prerequisite electronic technology from scratch, which might take a long time to modify the workshops, creating machines, training staffs, etc.; Yuuto decided to just adapt the existing technological base. If this failed, then he would go to mundane electronics route.

Now, a visible light is an electromagnetic wave of 400–700 nanometers wavelength. So basically, if he tinkered it a bit, by creating oscillating electrical field inside the gems crystals instead of exciting them, then, in theory, he could modify the Lukkad to produce electronic wavelength longer than the light wave as a radio wave. This new configuration would be called as Radiokad, since Yuuto honestly too lazy to think new name.

Of course, the difference between light waves and radio waves was of several magnitudes as radio waves had wavelength longer than meters. This was beyond the capabilities and knowledge base of Neuschwanensee local engineers and scholars to tackle, so Yuuto just task them to develop communication system based on the existing interacting mana linkage device like the one used in the remote control devices for the Luftzeug Airship project and Wagen Autonomous Carriage project. Meanwhile, he ask Stella and her underlings to look into the possibility of a pure mana communication system like the current 【Chat】 and 【Message】 function.

By approaching from three directions, it might give a result much earlier and in the case all three approaches succeeded, then Neuschwanensee would have three different communication systems, which would be a nice addition in itself.

After manipulating the type and size of the magic circuit materials and quartz gems, Yuuto had succeeded in increasing the length of the wave produced by the modified quartz-based Radiokad transmitter… Or so he thinks. He can’t actually detect any EM waves and the only radio receiver he had was a crude crystal radio receiver, which was still rather untested.

Perhaps Stella or Kiyomi could help him in this matter. After all, Stella was a Plasma magic user and Kiyomi is a Star magic user, so they could create EM signals for the test or even help him test his new transmitter. Yuuto decided that he would show the devices to them tomorrow. Even if he succeeded in creating the transmitter, then he still needs to work on signal modulator, amplifier, and transducer. The way for a working radio-based portable communication device was still very long.

When he noticed the time, he realized that his newly ennobled Marchioness was very late. She properly got the message, right? Yuuto wondered. Perhaps, she couldn’t read the map? Or did she get lost in this huge castle? Yuuto sighed, perhaps he was the one who should he visit her chamber instead?

At any rate, there were still several questions that bugged Yuuto about her.

First, although Yuuto already knew the outline of her background story, a hiding former-noble daughter fleeing from her family’s enemy, the reason for  the conflict itself was still unknown to him. Noble clan feud…… Is it like what happened in Genpei War? He would like to hear more from her. It wasn’t that important, but he was curious and like this kind of stories.

Second, the speed of her learning Loransian, the common language used by Neuschwanensee NPC, was unnatural. Unless she possessed a cheat skill like Kiyomi, he couldn’t see how she manage to do this. Even the best that Mitteherz’s foreign staff able to achieve was a crude pidgin and this was after 4 days of linguistic data collection and research. Meanwhile, she was able to achieve basic conversational level just by observing Florea speaking non-stop for 2 hours. There must be something behind it. Also, the fact that the local Tinirese language could be considered as a daughter subset language of Thalassian language also intrigued him. Thalassian was a Human/Remna civilization from RAHO. Did this means this world had any connection to RAHO in some way? Did Loransian exists somewhere in this world?

Third, her motive. Kiyomi had warned him multiple time ever since the first meeting with her (actually second meeting, but Yuuto didn’t consider getting stabbed in the stomach as a proper meeting), “Be careful around that girl, Dear Husband. She is targeting you”. He didn’t know how Kiyomi could possibly know this. Either she got a hell of woman’s intuition or uncanny perception. Well, she might be just jealous, that made him want to remark, “How cute.”

To alleviate her worries, Yuuto had dispatched his trusty agent Florea to gather some information, hence why he asked Florea to nice long chat with Maya in the feast. From the debriefing session with Florea, it seems that Maya was rather curious about his and Neuschwanensee background.

Yuuto didn’t think this as something out of the norm, since he believed that her side too was curious about his side. There was no any sign of hostility for him could be seen on her. According to Florea at least. So, he would try to grasp the truth behind her cloak.

Since Maya could lie or hide an information from him, Kiyomi had successfully ‘secured’ Maya’s handmaids – Zirana, Launama, and Chirina – in Saki’s room under the pretext of Saki want to play with them. Well, Saki honestly approached them on the spot since they looked to have the same age as he. Saki was just that sociable, her communication skill was really high. And so, Yuuto and Kiyomi just made good use of this chance. They were playing monopoly in Saki’s room right now.

Kiyomi would reconfirm information gained from Maya with them. If it was needed, they could also be used to coerce Maya to speak out the truth, if Maya lies too much. Even in the case Maya was really hostile to him… Yuuto already proved that he was stab-proof. Thanks to his stabbing experiment with Florea.

Fourth, although this was something not directly caused by her, he wants to confirm the secret behind the unforeseen text box that appeared in the middle of the ceremony. The ceremony itself was just a formality, a show enacted to cement Maya’s position amongst her peers and the Neuschwanensee’s influential people. Since it might awe the Tinerese delegation, he also put a showy performance with pretense magics. The magic circle and seals didn’t do anything other than giving forth light and breeze. After all, it was just modified light beacon magic. It wasn’t like he was bestowing any Blessing to her. However, in the middle of the ceremony, an information window appeared:

【GUILD ANNOUNCEMENT】

【NPC 『Mayana tih Surukii peh Riorra』 has joined the Guild: 『Neuschwanensee』】

【NPC 『Mayana tih Surukii peh Riorra』 obtained the title『Markgräfin der Heitersheim』】

【NPC 『Mayana tih Surukii peh Riorra』 has been renamed to 『Mayana von Suruki-Riorra zu Heitersheim』】

【NPC 『Mayana tih Surukii peh Riorra』 assigned as the administrator for 『Markgraftum Heitersheim』】

Even if she was considered by the system as new NPC, Yuuto still couldn’t see through her status, unlike with regular Neuschwanensee’s NPCs, and it was still a mystery whether or not he could influence her like he had done to Neuschwanensee’s NPCs. When he told the others about this, they were rather surprised. If the locals were treated as NPCs by the game system, then perhaps this world had a closer relationship with RAHO than they had thought before. By the way, 『Markgraftum Heitersheim』 wasn’t listed in the 【Core Management】 menu.

Fifth, Yuuto want to mine information from her. Rather than asking her in a formal meeting, he preferred to obtain the information in an informal manner, so it won’t be as if he was interrogating her, hence why he was doing this alone, so to not put Maya on guard. You don’t intimidate someone you want to be friends with.

For the first question session, Yuuto decided to focus only on geography and cosmology topic.

Although Neuschwanensee had extensively mapped the surrounding 200 kilometers area, mainly by aerial mapping with Luftzeug Ein, they haven’t detect any sea yet, so this place might be smack-dab in the middle of a continent, perhaps this world Neuwelt might not even have ocean. Perhaps Maya could help him elucidate the shape of the continent, whether there are global oceans, how many continents exists, etc.

Then, about nations, the culture and the state of latest technology. Preliminary observation and linguistic analysis suggested that Abendrotsland and Mittagsland belonged to a different political entity. If possible, it would greatly help if he knew which country is the superpower, whether the political balance was unipolar, bipolar, tripolar, or multipolar, the local opinions of Neuschwanensee, the reason why no official contact from other countries even after 5 days passed, do Hero summoning exists, and which country or countries that had attacked Neuschwanensee four times so he can have a nice talk with them. For this reason he had secured some flags and emblems of the previous invader from Mitteherz to be identified by Maya.

Then the question about the basic cosmology of this world, based on the preliminary astronomy measurement conducted by the scholar in these five days since the Gate opened and the Purple Fog cleared up, Neuwelt was clearly spherical (oblateness inferred, he still hadn’t sent anyone to pole and equator to proof this), rotated once per 24 hours in its axis (amazingly exact Earth’s 24 hours as used by RAHO), had an inclination of 17 degrees based on the angle between the ecliptic and the celestial equator, so it was clear that this was not a flat world.

Based on a preliminary trigonometric calculation based on the dip angle (Al-Biruni), sun’s shadow angle (Erasthotenes), and star’s inclination angle (Posidonius), the diameter of Neuwelt was determined to be roughly 12,650 km give or take 1,000 km, accurate measurement would need to wait until more data been collected. About the same size as Earth. The surface gravity was also almost the same, more or less.

It looks like Neuewelt orbited a G spectral class star Grossesonne that was similar to Sun as it primary, with a companion star Kleinesonne, a similarly G spectral class star, in what seems to be a binary system. It was definitely not circumbinary since each suns had different sunrise and sunset period. The distance to the primary star and secondary star was still unknown due to insufficient data. But Yuuto thought it would be more or less the same with Earth. Goldilocks orbit and all.

The study about the nearby stars had just begun by studying the parallax, so the astronomers couldn’t say anything yet about it. But it seems that both stars were members of a rather normal spiral galaxy.

Neuewelt seems to be either orbited by a smaller planet/moon “Rotermond” or in a double planet configuration. This was just a preliminary calculation using early star parallax data, Rotermond was about 6900 kilometer give or take 200 kilometers orbiting about 680,000 kilometers away, give or take 20,000 kilometers. At its size, twice the size of Earth’s moon and a bit larger than Mars, Rotermond could already be considered as a planet in itself, hence Neuewelt and Rotermond might be actually a double planet.

Looking from the Castle’s observatory’s telescope, Rotermond seemed to have an ocean composed of liquid water covering about 55% of its surface in asymmetric configuration, a proper nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, weather and cloud systems, and reddish to purplish tinted mass of land, that gave a pale red look when looked with bare eyes. As Rotermond seems not to be tidally locked to Neuewelt so it rotated slowly with a predicted 96 hours rotation period. At times, it looked pale blue instead when its ocean-dominated side faced Neuewelt. The Rotermond orbital period seemed to be about 60 days plus several hours, but since only 5 days had passed since the gate opened, this was just preliminary guessing.

Rotermond surface and celestial dome mapping were still ongoing.

About other planets, the astronomers only had positively identified 3 planets. 2 located at inner orbit and 1 at outer orbit, which made Neuewelt as the tentative magic number 3.

The closest planet to the sun seems to be an epistellar gas giant planet from its spectroscopic signature and mana probing, that orbiting relatively closely to Grossesonne. The stripped atmosphere from the thermal driven hydrodynamic escape due to its proximity to the star made it had a quite high albedo and cause it to looks like a very bright Morning or Evening Star close to the Grossesonne, much brighter than Venus on Earth.

The second closest planet seemed to be a rocky planet with an atmosphere composed chiefly from nitrogen without any sign of oxygen, so it might be just a barren lifeless world.

The fourth planet seemed to be a gas giant based on its spectroscopic signature and mana probing. Telescope observation showed that it had a ring system and perhaps at least two major satellites. Ongoing observation to determine each planet size, orbital period and any physical or magical attributes were ongoing.

Tentatively, Yuuto named the planets as: Nahewelt, Kargewelt, and Fernwelt respectively. It was unknown whether there would be other planets. But since it was a binary star system then depending on how close the companion star is, the number of the planet might be not that many.

The native should have detailed observation data and perhaps Maya knew something about them. Also, he should check the native creation mythology, since in a world of sword and magic, although the star system look mundane enough to be something out of a science fiction, perhaps the universe was shaped differently, perhaps the star was fixed in a dome, perhaps the gods do reside in the planets, perhaps there were deep space horror, etc. Also, there might be a clue hidden inside the local mythology.

Yuuto looked at the list of questions that he wanted to ask written on his notebook. The question had been translated by Kiyomi into Tinerese language and Yuuto had learned some basic Tinerese phrase from Kiyomi to aid him in questioning Maya. After all, when holding a complicated discussion, it would be best if it was answered in the language the respondent knew best, to reduce mistakes in transmitting the information. Mistranslation could be dangerous, like the “responsibility” incident.

Then there was a knock at the door. It seems that Maya came at last. Yuuto quickly opening the door and was astounded – though he does a good job in keeping his usual poker face – at the sight that he found beyond the door. There were two beautiful girls wearing a rather thin floral patterned silk nightgown that hardly cover the also thin floral patterned silk chemise that didn’t actually hiding their body. Or rather, Yuuto felt that he had already seen that floral patterned silk chemise before.

I need to have a talk with Florea later, was what Yuuto thought as his mind took many screenshots.

✿❀✿❀✿❀

With Sefi in tow, Maya headed to the Archduke’s room. Although she was stopped by guards en route, they let her continue when she showed the card she obtained from the Archduke. The guards even lead them towards the Archduke’s room.

Compared to the gaudy corridor of the Southern building, the floor where Archduke’s room was located in the Eastern Building looked less decorated, albeit not to the point that it was simple and plain. The door to his room was also much more normal compared to the room prepared for her. The guards then took their leave after they arrived in front of the door. Maya could see how the guards made this peculiar smile, so perhaps this was something that often occurred? (Actually, the guards were just snickering since they remembered how often they found Florea cowering before Yuuto’s room door)

After asking Sefi whether or not she was ready, Maya calmed her breath down, and knock at the door. Her heart was beating fast from nervousness. Sefi grasped Maya’s hand to calm her and Maya replied with a nod.

Before long, the door opened.

The Archduke was wearing a rather simple plain clothes, very different from his regal outfit at the ceremony. White buttonless long sleeved shirt, blue waist coat, and a black trouser. Rather than imposing, this appearance gave a refreshing and relaxing impression. But his smileless expression was harsh as usual.

His eyes scanned Maya and then at Sefi. Without making any reaction on his face, he just said, “Come inside” in Palisan and gestured them to go enter the room. Maya was wondering if her impression wasn’t that good. This might jeopardize her plan. The question of why the Archduke could suddenly speak Palisan escaped her mind.

The Archduke’s room was more modest and smaller than she had thought. There was only minimal furniture inside. A bed, a glass bookshelf, a wood dresser, a table and a chair. The furniture didn’t have fancy ornaments unlike the furniture in her room, just normal plain smoothed wooden one. In the wall, there were swords and other weapons and shields rested on wall mounted pedestals. There were two doors, one was closed while the other was opened where she could see what looks like a workshop of some kind. Multiple unknown devices and papers scattered around the table and the floor or crammed into the wall and shelves. Rather than a noble room, this room was more like a commoner craftsman’s room.

“Have a seat”, was what the Archduke said while pointing at the bed before he entered the side room to get something. Maya nodded to Sefi who nodded back. Then they took off the nightgown they wore and placed it beside the bed. When the Archduke returned with a tray with three cups of hot tea, he stopped on the side-room entrance for a few second without showing any expression on his face. He was just looked at Maya and Sefi with unreadable eyes.

Then, he placed the tray on the table and casually offered the cup of tea to Maya and Sefi who thanked him as they received the cup before he sat down in the chair, took a book from the table, and write something on it. He placed the book down and then have a sip of the tea in his cup as if nothing has happened. Maya was wondering if something had unpleased him.

“Thank you for coming to my room, Marchioness Mayana and uh……” (Yuuto)

“My name is Sefira tih Remisii. I am Miss Mayana’s personal maidservant.” (Sefi)

“Right. The reason why I called you to my room. I have questions that I hope you will answer. I wish to know your side better since we will be seeing each other often in the future.” (Yuuto)

“Yes, I will answer as best as I can.” (Maya)

“Thank you.” (Yuuto)

The Archduke smiled and sip on his tea before he looked sideways at the book on the table. Awkward silence ensues. Then the corner of his mouth curved and spoke out in a rather toneless voice.

“Before that. Are you really trying to seduce me, right now?” (Yuuto)

The Archduke asked while putting the cup to his lips and looked at Maya and Sefi. Maya gulped down and could felt her back wet from cold sweat. But she gathered the courage she had and jumped into the hot molten lava.

“Does this please you?” (Maya)

“I see.” (Yuuto)

Maya made the best smile that she could. Even so, the Archduke spoke no more. The pang of silence was painful. He reacted as if her reply was inconsequential and just when he was about to pick the book on the table. The room door slammed open.

The one who stood there was none other than the Erste Duchess.

“As if I let you, you thieving cats.” (Kiyomi)

✿❀✿❀✿❀

Actually, Kiyomi had opposed Yuuto’s plan. Rather than asking Maya alone in his room, Yuuto could actually do this tomorrow morning in an open room or balcony. But Yuuto argued that his schedule was packed full tomorrow with field-tests and Maya needed to participate in the formal negotiation with Mitteherz and his staff tomorrow about the annexation fine details. The only empty schedule he had was either tonight or tomorrow night, and Maya’s delegation was scheduled to return on the day after tomorrow. After that, Yuuto would be busy with the Northern Expansion. So, Kiyomi reluctantly agreed.

At first, Kiyomi wanted to accompany Yuuto in asking Maya, but it seemed that Maya was quite wary of her for some reason, so Kiyomi’s presence might be uncomfortable for her. Kiyomi conceded in this too. However, since Yuuto couldn’t understand Tinerese language, Kiyomi would still be needed as a translator.

Kiyomi would leave her summon, the light fuzzball 『Nurtama』 masqueraded as lamp fixture. Since Kiyomi and her summoned spirits shared their sense, she would still be able to see and hear the events inside the room, while she physically resided in Saki’s room. The questions that Yuuto wanted to ask had been translated beforehand and Kiyomi would translate Maya’s answer near real time using 【Phonecall】 function. When Yuuto wanted to ask something outside the prepared questions, then he would write the question in the book and then Kiyomi would translate it for him.

However, if Kiyomi could be honest, she really dislikes that Maya girl.

Kiyomi’s Authority 『Love』 like all Authority granted her with three skills: 『Amor Vincit Omnia』 a passive skill that grants her bonus in any communication-based skill, 『Ars Amatoria』an active skill to increase or decrease enemy Hostility , and lastly, 『Filum Rubrum』 an active skill to detect enemy’s Hostility and their target which was shown as numbered red strings. This was important since 『Summoner』 was very weak to any attack, she needs to skillfully manipulate enemy’s Hostility between the vanguard or her summons. One of the reasons why she could act as a raid coordinator was also thanks to this Hostility detection skill.

This was something that she found out when she visited Tinerese Village yesterday, but if she used 『Filum Rubrum』 in the presence of the villagers, in the addition of the usual hostility detection, she also could sense if they were ‘targeting’ someone, either of love or of hate (her skill couldn’t differentiate between them). Strangely this doesn’t work with Neuschwanensee’s NPCs, only the villagers.

Now, when she activated this skill when the Tinerese delegation came to visit them to see if anyone held any hostility, Maya was repeatedly going ‘red’ for Yuuto. In the post-ceremonial feast, Kiyomi also saw that Maya repeatedly going ‘red’ for Yuuto. She was definitely ‘targeting’ Yuuto for some reason. What was she planning, Kiyomi didn’t really know, but her women intuition warned her that Maya is a bad news.

Just like she thought, not only Maya arrived very late into the night, she and her maidservant really had a nefarious scheme for Yuuto. This shameless vixen(kitsune)! Inviting her to Yuuto’s room is really a bad idea! Just look at her, coming to a man’s room in thin nightwear. Just what is this vixen planning? This vixen had stolen her idea!

At first, Kiyomi just thought that this was just Tinerese custom or something, so she asked Chirina and Launama about this. But from their response, it seems that their nightwear was usually something close to a long thick cotton gown, not thin silk chemise. Then, this vixen dared to take off her gown, she felt as if something snapped inside of her.

So when Yuuto wrote: ‘I want to ask them why they dressed so thinly’, Kiyomi then told him to speak: “Are you really trying to seduce me, right now?” in Tinerese.

When she heard the vixen’s answer…

“Ça me saoûle!”

Kiyomi suddenly yelled and stood up, surprised the others in Saki’s room, and then pressed the 『Instant Movement』 button.

L'enfer se déchaîne…… pour Yuuto, c'est-à-dire. *cue trumpet and violin crescendo*

✿❀✿❀✿❀

Yuuto was a bit surprised when Kiyomi suddenly came to his room. He was actually waiting for Kiyomi to translate Maya’s answer as he completely didn’t understand what her answer was. But since Kiyomi still didn’t answer back, Yuuto was about to write it in the book, Kiyomi appeared.

Her hands was on her hips and her face was clearly displeased albeit still smiling charmingly. From Yuuto’s extensive knowledge of Shuraba battlefield (courtesy of his High School), this was clearly a sign that she was in bad mood.

When Maya saw Kiyomi, she put an expression as if she was a child just get found out by her mother sticking her hand in the cookie jar. But this was only for temporary, as on the next moment, she put an expression of a mountain climber ready to tackle Kangchenjunga.

Kiyomi had said something in Tinirese language when she slammed the door open, which of course Yuuto don’t understand. While still walking in a graceful manner, Kiyomi approached Yuuto. Then without saying anything, she took a fancy chair out from her inventory and put it beside Yuuto. Then she took Yuuto’s left arm and clung to it, pressing it dangerously close to her body. Inside his mind, a huge battle was raging on between instinct and reason…

As always, Yuuto put his poker face as he sipped the tea, trying to understand the current situation. The ‘wife’ entered the room where two scantily clad women sitting on his bed, would be something out of a comedy manga, but since Kiyomi already knew the situation from the start, Yuuto was wondering what made she came when they already agreed that Yuuto would conduct the questioning session himself… Oh well. Yuuto’s victorious instinct faction leader told him in his inner-mind post-victory press conference to not pursue it too deep.

When Maya saw this scene, she sent an eye signal to Sefi and then both of them wore their gown once again. Although the Erste Duchess appearance was surprising, this was hardly outside her expectation. She must not put a guilty face as nothing had happened so far, much to her dismay. Even the Archduke behaved like nothing had gone wrong. Hence, she also must not be worried of this. Her plan hadn’t been completely failed either. This was just a mere setback. In fact, if Maya could get the Erste Duchess good side and approval, then her plan would progress more smoothly. But Maya was wondering what she means by thieving cat? Is it referring to the Archduke?

“Good evening, Lady Mel. It’s my pleasure to be able to meet with you tonight.” (Maya)

“Oh my, Marchioness Mayana. Good evening to you too. I hope I don’t interrupt anything?” (Kiyomi)

“Of course not, Lady Mel. I believe the Archduke was about to ask me something.” (Maya)

“I see. Then let me help in translating the answer. I think my Dear Husband’s skill in speaking your language is still not good enough. I hope you don’t mind my presence in the room.” (Kiyomi)

“On the contrary, Lady Mel. I am delighted and honored by your presence. I hope we could be friendly with each other.” (Maya)

“Certainly, Marchioness Mayana. It will be my pleasure.” (Kiyomi)

Although he didn’t understand what they were saying, their tone was friendly with each other. Even so, Yuuto could see electric sparkles in the air. Ugh… The room atmosphere seems heavy.

“You may begin the questioning Dear Husband.” (Kiyomi)

“…I see. Now then,” (Yuuto)

Yuuto began his first question item: Mayana’s further nobility background and the reason for the conflict that cause her to lose her family.

So basically when Rajul Empire’s Emperor suddenly died on the battlefield 45 years ago, it triggered a succession crisis as his surviving sons and their backing generals started a civil war. The reason behind the civil war was because most of the generals and nobles that support the First Crown Prince died on the campaign, so the Second Prince’s faction who was backed by the affluent commoners and new nobility gained political traction and seized the capital first, while the First Crown was still away.

When the First Crown Prince’s faction backed by the old nobility reorganized their army and retook the Capital, the Second Prince and his supporter fled to the Southern Provinces to rebuild his forces, and after a series of indecisive battles declared the Southern Provinces as a new Kingdom. Since then, the old Rajul Empire and the new Rajul Kingdom had battled with each other without any clear winner even until now.

With the Central Plains provinces in turmoil, the lords of the Western Provinces decided that they didn’t want to get involved in the war and so they invited the Syensa Thearchy to occupy the land to deter the Princes from entering the land and forcing them to pick a side. The Eastern Provinces, Soipora, also decided to do the same, however without any strong backers, the Princes’ Armies easily divided the Eastern Provinces into Imperialist and Royalist land.

After the war in the Central Plains intensified and the Empire and Kingdom control over the Eastern Provinces waned, some local Lords, tired with the war, declared their that their Covenant with the Central Plains rulers voided. In short time of span, numerous states appeared, with some allied to each other. Then, border conflicts happened as opportunistic Lords tried to expand their realm even to the Central Plains where both the Empire and Kingdom too exhausted to prevent it. Eventually, it resulted in the appearances of new several centralized states in the Eastern Province.

One of them was the Sarai Kingdom, established by a Fanist Dynasty cadet branch family 33 years ago (629 YEHS). Maya’s clan, the Riorra Clan was an old noble family, which although originated from the small Barony of Riorra, had expanded into numerous holdings throughout northern Soipora near Great Falgara Forest through marriage and inheritance during the last 100 years. It was said that the Riorra Clan was descended from the survivors of the royalty of the former Falgara Kingdom. Her clan was one of the main supporters of the founder King Furussu and his successor King Feressu, expanding the Sarai Kingdom into a regional power in Soipora.

However, King Feressu died early 14 years ago (648 YEHS), leaving the young 10-year king Firissu in the throne. Acting as his regent was Duke Sakorom, the older brother of the young king’s mother. Duke Sakorom regency was highly unpopular amongst the nobles and the Riorra Clan was the leader of the nobles opposition against Duke Sakorom. Then when King Firissu reached the age where he could assume the throne 6 years ago (656 YEHS), he suddenly died, passing the throne to his much younger brother Prince Farissu. Once again, Duke Sakorom assume regency for the young king.

The other nobles suspected a foul play, protested heavily and demanded the investigation for the death of King Firissu. That’s when the Duke’s troop suddenly attacked, accusing them as rebels. Maya’s father and her brothers with their retainers joined with her Clan and their allies in countering the Duke forces. They lost. The opposing nobles were either killed in the battle or executed afterward. When the survivor of her Clan tried to appeal to the neutral noble Clans and the young king, Duke Sakorom announced that her Clan, the Riorra was responsible for the death of both the King Feressu and Firissu with false witnesses and pieces of evidence.

Her whole Clan was charged with high treason and sentenced to death in masse, eradicated as the punishment and to be example  for the other noble Clans to see. Riorra Clan territories were seized by the Duke, making him the most powerful noble in the Sarai Kingdom. There were no nobles who could oppose him anymore.

It was obvious to anyone who actually killed the Kings, but no one dare to said it out loud since it can be said that Duke Sakorom was the de facto ruler of the whole Sarai Kingdom. It seemed that King Farissu would soon come to age and many predicted that perhaps he would be assassinated before long. Since there was no more heir, who will replace him was still anybody guess.

To appease his supporters with riches, to buy the opposition, and to finance Sarai’s expansionist wars, Duke Sakorom exploited the territories he seized from Riorra Clan’s to skin and bones. Nigh-high taxes, whole village slavery, arbitrary seizing the whole village granary, collective execution and punishment… Duke Sakorom were ruthless to ensure the peasants don’t have any energy to even think about rebelling. So there were embers of rebellion scattered across the Kingdom, ready to become an unstoppable conflagration.

So, it was not a mere simple noble clan feud, like what Yuuto had previously thought…… Rather, it seems that Neuschwanensee had inadvertently involved itself in a civil war in the making against a whole country, albeit a medium-sized one. Now Yuuto could understand why Maya and their side were happily offering themselves to be annexed by a foreign power. With an internal enemy that strong, they could only hope for an external power to back them.

War… Seems to be unavoidable, but perhaps he could do something about this.

Yuuto then began his second question item: How can she learned Loransian language that fast.

“Is Loransian the name of the language used in Neuschwanensee?” (Maya)

“Yes. Although, our citizen also could speak in other tongues.” (Yuuto)

Maya was a former noble, and as a former noble, she had received a basic education. After all, an ideal noble wife should be able helping her husband in managing the territories, so Maya had been taught religion, history, economy, politic, medicine, and languages by her tutors. She was extremely excelled in the last field, that made her tutors  and her father gifted her any books about languages that they could find in their travel. Most of the books had lost when she fled the castle, but she continued her studies under Kanoro even when she settled in the village. Hence why Maya was familiar with phonology, morphology, and syntax analysis.

Even so, at first, she was greatly impeded by the alienness of Loransian syntax which didn’t correspond with any languages that she knew. It was clear to her that the Loransian verb and noun had separate cases and tenses like Lenkusnasan, but it used mostly suffixes and not prefixes, which made Maya had to guess about it from start. Hence her rather caseless and tenseless Loransian way of speaking.

Then a breakthrough came to her.

“Miss Florea had really helped me in deciphering your language, Loransian. She tried hard to communicate with me, when she noticed our prayers. At that times, my…… sister, Sefira was heavily wounded, and Miss Florea helped Sefira and treated her with magic.” (Maya)

“I am eternally grateful for the help at that time, Archduke Yusis.” (Sefi)

Then when they were en route, Chiri and Launa who were worried about Sefi condition prayed for her health. That’s when Maya noticed that Florea reacted to the health prayer as if she understood the words.

The prayers were using a set of words that wasn’t composed in Palisan, the Common Tongue.

This was the first time Yuuto and Kiyomi heard about the local language. Conveniently, the language updated its description into “Palisan Language” on Kiyomi’s information window. They learned that Palisan was the lingua franca used by many countries of this continent, though each region developed their distinct dialects.

The language used in the prayer is called as Chensan. The Holy Language. Most prayers and the Holy Scriptures of the Spirits Faith, which was the major religion of the continent, were written in this language, preserved through the ages by the priests.

Maya recited the prayer for Yuuto:

‘Praise thou beest, the Holy Moth'r of the Spirits, keepeth'r of mankinde. We in abyde asketh thou to hark our eadmode prayeth'rs and gefille our causeth. Yeven thy benefetes to us, prithee doth not f'rsake us in this p'ril . ’

She might call it as Holy Language, but in Yuuto’s ear, all he heard was a very formal register of Thalassian language peppered with some Argenaurik words in it. Thalassian had a sister language Moreian, which words were heavily borrowed by Loransian. Hence, why there were several words that sound the same though it might have different meaning in each languages. To put it into modern languages comparison: Thalassian and Moreian was akin to Middle Spanish and Middle French, both were Romance Languages descended from Latin, while Loransian was akin to Middle English, a Germanic language which had borrowed many French words (~29% of English words are derived from French, ~26% are from Germanic Anglo-Saxon root), while Palisan was a far future version of Modern Spanish.

It seemed that Florea reacted on the words used by the prayer, which was superficially similar to the Moreian loan words in Loransian. Although, Florea know nothing of Thalassian, at the very least she recognized the cognate words. Then all Maya needed to do was to recite the verb, noun, or adjective that she needed in Chensan/Thalassian, which Florea then inflected later, in response to ‘correct’ Maya’s word. As naïve as Florea usually is, she quickly understood what Maya’s intend to do and switched her choice of words. This continue until Maya had a basic grasp on Loransian grammar.

Of course, not every words in Chemsan would have a cognate in Loransian, and even if they were cognate it could have a different meaning, like the “responsibility” incident. Sefuzme (Chensan/Thalassian) and its derived nouns Sefu’e (Palisan) have the meaning of “controlling/ruling over someone’s life/fate”, while its cognate in Loransian, Sefsimaasa, had the meaning “being responsible for someone’s life/action/future”. The reason Kiyomi sounds rustic to Maya’s ear was since she spoke in pure Thalassian dialect using archaic-sounding words convention compared to modern to Maya’s ear Palisan.

When Yuuto asked her.

“Can I speak it? I am not a priest, but I can speak to a certain degree.” (Maya)

“Then, can you understand my words?” (Yuuto)

“Yes. I can.” (Maya)

Although this didn’t mean that they had surpassed language barrier – after all, except for Kiyomi, no Neuschwanensee NPCs could speak Palisan fluently and very few NPCs could speak Thalassian – at the very least, they had found a communication channel that was independent of Kiyomi. After all, she couldn’t possibly participate in every discussion with the locals in the future, especially for the sensitive topics that he wished for her to not know. Furthermore, she was not omnipresent and Yuuto prefers that she and the other girls were close by his side so that he could be assured of their safety. So he couldn’t send her for unsupervised diplomatic mission. This was his first priority, after all.

It seems that Chensan had occupied a spot similar to Medieval Latin, being used for religious prayers, ceremonies and literature, while standardized Palisan was used as lingua franca in diplomacy, law, administration and nonreligious publications, though there were also substantial amount of words in Chensan borrowed into Palisan (creating a doublet from the same root word, imagine Modern Italian borrowing words from Classical Latin) especially for scientific, technical and government jargons.

When Yuuto asked about book publications, it seemed that printing press was known in this world and books for mass consumption wasn’t a foreign concept. Yuuto wanted to explore more of this, but he decided to pursue it later.

To summarize, educated people would know Chensan to some degree as it was the language used in their religious studies. Hence, Yuuto and the other girls shouldn’t have any difficulty in holding a conversation with most of the educated people in Thalassian/Chensan. By the way, amongst the member of the Tinirese delegation, only Maya, Sefi, Zira, Kanoro and Gerida could understand Chensan.

About the writing system. There were several different script system to write the language in Midzu continent. But since the widespread usage of Parfu script that accompanied Palisan, some of the neighboring languages also adopted Parfu out of convenience. Yuuto asked Maya to teach Mitteherz staff about it, in exchange she wanted to learn RAHO Common alphabet. Fair enough.

Due this newfound fact, for the rest of the conversation, Yuuto would speak in Chensan/Thalassian, which would be translated to Palisan if Maya didn’t understand the question. Then Maya answers in Palisan would be translated by Kiyomi into Thalassian, so Maya could correct her if the translation was incorrect.

Now for the third question: Maya’s motive in approaching Yuuto and Neuschwanensee.

But before he asked this, Kiyomi stopped him, saying that this was not needed anymore, since she had understood the truth. Since this question actually originated from Kiyomi, Yuuto didn’t argue further as he was more interested in the fourth question.

The fourth question, the significance of the information window. Though, the window informed that Maya and her delegation “joined” Neuschwanensee as NPC. They didn’t appear on the NPC roster and in his minimap, they were still labeled as yellow ‘neutral’, not blue ‘allies’.

When Yuuto asked if Maya felt something was different from the usual, she answered that her heart feel lighter and her mood brighter when she was in close proximity to Yuuto. She found that his presence reassuring and comforting, also she had been thinking a lot about him. Whether or not this was a psychological side-effect of her new title or something related to NPC’s programming, wasn’t that clear to Yuuto. Perhaps, he should run an experiment about the relationship of distance and psychological effect appearance in Maya? Somehow he felt as if Kiyomi’s glare to Maya intensified as she translated Maya’s words… Wonder what it is.

Either way, he need to test it. Yuuto suddenly stood up and put his right hand on top Maya’s head.

Yuuto and the girls had extensively tested this before. If the players touch something and thinking about “inspecting” or “manipulate” it, then an information window would appear, that give different level of information based on the players skills.

For example, Saki would only get a result:

【A rock. Good for throwing.】

Stella would be:

【Arkosite Rock. Low Mana Potential.】

【Witch: Enchanted purified sand can be used to enhance mana output of First Circle Runes】

While, Yuuto would get a result :

【Arkosite Rock. Detrital Sedimentation Type.】

 【Composition: 65% Quartz. 34% Feldspar. 12% Mica. Rest: Calcites, Iron Oxides, Silicates.】

【Smith: Fine Arkose Sand can be used for glassmaking.】

【Alchemy: Catalyst for Corporization of Noble Acids】

Just from the same rock.

If it was like in the case of his experiments with Florea, when he created Nisani, and when he gave the new Gate Knight members their Blessing, then a 【NPC Management】 window should appear if he touched their head.

However, the window didn’t appear. Perhaps, his hand’s position was wrong? Yuuto shifted his right hand on Maya’s head to the right, left, front, or back (gently), with no avail, while he completely didn’t notice how Maya was very flustered by this.

Yuuto then shifted his hungry (for answers) eyes at Sefi who was wide-eyed looking at the sight in front of her. Without any hesitation, he put his left hand on Sefi’s head, to confirm the lack of the window appearance in Maya. Even when he moved his left and right hand around Sefi’s head, no window appeared. Yuuto continued to move his hand around their head (gently of course), still no window appeared.

Perhaps he need to yell “NPC Management” loudly? Perhaps he should touch different parts of the body? Perhaps he need to put some mana into them first?

He shifted his sight on both Maya and Sefi, thinking about where the place to touch to trigger the appearance of the window or where to put his mana. If head where the brain, the seat of control and intellect, located didn’t work, then would the chest where the heart, the center of the psyche and the essential nature, is located be the correct answer? Or perhaps the other mana nodes? Like the dantian under the navel?

When, he finally came out from his deep mind voyage, he realized that somehow Kiyomi was hugging him from behind as if to restrain him and how both of his hand was patting the head of two nightgown-clad girls. Ah…Yup, it will be going to happen… Yuuto looked at the door, bracing for the inevitable.

“Hey, Husband-san, do you know where your wife-chan is? Mona-chan needs her help to explain the three dices ro-……” (Stella)

Stella entered the room while yelling out casually in Japanese. Then, she froze in place when she realized the situation in the room. A young man was placing his hand on the head of two very flustered girls, while his wife was hugging him from behind as if to restrain him.  Just what kind of soap opera scene just happened in the room, Stella wondered.

“This is an interesting scene?” (Stella)

“This isn’t like what you think…” (Yuuto)

“Yeah…… Right…… Anyway, Mel please answer Mona’s call. And Yusis, Knife End.” (Stella)

Stella thrust her hand forward as if to motion stabbing something while putting a jeering grin.

“Well…… Thank goodness, I had become stab-proof…” (Yuuto)

“Whatever, hands off them… Just how long do you intend to touch them? Perv.” (Stella)

Stella pulled Yusis hand back from Maya and Sefi. Just then, *bing* a window appeared on both of Maya and Sefi.

【NPC Management Window】

【Name : Mayana von Suruki-Riorra zu Heitersheim 】【ID:◙◘╬Ɀꜟ√】

【Age : 17】【Gender : Female】【Race : Remna】【DSL : 0】

【Title : Markgräfin der Heitersheim, Administrator of Markgraftum Heitersheim】

【Affiliation: Erzherzogtum Union der Neuschwanensee】

《Character Status》

《Customize Appearance》

《Customize Job and Skills》

《Add Blessings》

【NPC Management Window】

【Name : Sefira tih Remisii】【ID:∫∂‡ỻᵺᴟ】

【Age : 19】【Gender : Female】【Race : Remna】【DSL : 0】

【Title : None】

【Affiliation: Erzherzogtum Union der Neuschwanensee】

《Character Status》

《Customize Appearance》

《Customize Job and Skills》

《Add Blessings》

So, Yuuto just needs to release his hand from them. Just how this thing works, anyway. Anyway, Yuuto ignored the surrounding and start pressing the button. Although, to the rest of the girls, it was as if he was pushing empty air. For Kiyomi and Stella, this was something rather unexpected. So the locals do have information windows. Meanwhile, Maya and Sefi didn’t understand what is going on. Why the Archduke pointing at empty air, why the Duchesses seemed surprised. Did those finger movements had a special meaning in Neuschwanensee culture? Maya regretted that she didn’t check Neuschwanensee’s bedroom custom first with Florea. She realized that, just like what Sefi had said, she was too naive in this field. She decided to ask Florea about Neuschwanensee specia; bedroom customs.

When Yuuto check their 《Character Status》, it only result in bunch of mojibake:

【¿à›Þ3ý” 🚋 à ‑¾øÿ ø­âÏ]] 🎴ÿ jZøOXŠçJÓ|]】

【‡3ZE÷²🔫 ÛL˜¼p«4@#🔪ØÕú¹🏧 _œÿ ðæü☮ Tƒã×Á?】

【Š^2»👹 ñ·ìÍâë{mKá🏇 ¯ö•à¼⚜ ñ】【€u6–yeó<{ü¸d🎁y~dŽ<¥Ž<`ÊÝ】

The garbled data continue for several pages, perhaps detailing Maya and Sefi’s job and skills, resistances, and other stats. Whoever transferred the system to this world definitely forget to change their encoding system. 《Customize Appearance》 and 《Customize Job and Skills》 could be accessed, but both Maya and Sefi was listed as having zero CP, JP and SP. This was strange since RAHO only got a single unit that is used when modifying NPC called Grace Points. There were options to buy CP, JP or SP, but it spew Error Codes mojibake with a vengeance.

The only option left was 《Add Blessings》.

【Add Blessings ERROR: Target don’t have any DSL】

【Add DSL to NPC?】

《Yes》《No》

⚠️⚠️⚠️【Warning: This cannot be canceled.】⚠️⚠️⚠️

Hmm… Should he? Perhaps he should ask Maya and Sefi themselves before doing anything. The Warning box existed for some reason. He shouldn’t be rash. Also, why this option didn’t exist for Florea or the Knights? Is it because native Neuschwanensee already possesses DSL from default? This only creates more unanswerable mystery. The Rabbit Hole was going deeper and deeper.

Then, realizing the gaze of four pairs of eyes on him, he remembered the previous situation he was in. At any rate, he just played it cool and put a calm poker face as he returned to his seat.

At this point of time, Kiyomi answered Saki’s call, while Stella somehow had obtained a chair (most likely pulled from Inventory) and sat beside Yuuto while crossing her arms as if she was watching over him. Maya and Sefi still had their mind greatly turbinated but it only last for a few moment. When Kiyomi finished with the call, she looked at Maya and made a very long sigh for some reason, before she clung once more to Yuuto. Stella was “yare-yare” and shook her head with weary expression.

With this, finally, Yuuto could move to the next session.

The fifth questions: Can Maya describe the world around Neuschwanensee.

So basically, Neuschwanensee or known as Chemkla for the natives was located in a very large continent called Midzu. It was located in the northwestern region of Zekir, the land of seven rivers where Zekrion, the Seven Kingdoms Alliance reside. Grosswest River or Great Refira River in local tongue was the official border between Zekrion and Soipora, the Eastern Principalities, which composed from numerous petty states. Tinerese were located at the Northeastern most of Sarai Kingdom, the northernmost state in Soipora.

“Then, what country owns the forest in the north?” (Yuuto)

“No country really owns it, since it’s a monster territory. 370 years ago, the former Falgara Kingdom occupy the mountain valleys, but a strange Forests suddenly appeared from nowhere, monsters appeared from the forest, and overran the Kingdom. The forests keep grwoing and growing until it turned the whole valley into a great forest. Until today, Monsters and Wild Beasts still infested that forest. At times, the monsters from the forest came out and attacked villages, so there aren’t many villages near the forest edge. Not many people dare to enter the forests, since the Fruelobo might devour any trespasser that enter too deep.” (Maya)

“Fruelobo?” (Yuuto)

“The Thalassian gloss will be Fruhelobno(Grimwolves), Dear Husband.” (Kiyomi)

“I see… Cam you describe what they look like?” (Yuuto)

“Fruelobo is a very large four-legged beast that has many green like vines and leaves patterns on their skin, their roar is very loud that could be heard from many cladars. They hunt in packs and very strong. Not only that, they are also very smart. It would need a huge team of warriors and soldiers to even kill one of them.” (Maya)

“Hmm… Wait a moment.” (Yuuto)

Yuuto went to the bookshelves and took out RAHO Monster Bestiary. Funny, how in game Help functions turned into books. He opened the page “Roareaves Wolf”, and showed Maya the picture.

“Does they looks like this?”

“Yes, I think. There hasn’t any attack to Tinerese yet, so I never saw them directly, but I believe they might look like this. I suppose you may confirm it with the other Chiefs. That picture is so lifelike that I think they could easily identify it.”

So basically, the Dusterenwald Forest or Great Falgara Forest was for all intent and purpose, a Terra Nullius, since the Fruelobo or Grimwolves were too much for the native to handle. This explains why the Gate Knights kept encountering ruined or abandoned settlements like Urlaubshaven inside the forest. The abnormal forest growth might be related to Shahtashena’s leaked mana.

According to Maya, both Zekrion and Soiporan countries had sent several expeditions into the Forest to reclaim the land back from the monster during the last 370 years, but they were repulsed with great loss. They still do regular incursion into the forest, but it was only to control the number of wolves straying too close to forest edge and bandits who risk themselves and created bases inside the forest.

“The last great expedition where the Academies and the Society participated 60 years ago, finally reached the center of the anomaly near the Old Capital of Rufalga, The Evil Forest where Tree Glows Blue. However, they were slaughtered and only a handful of survivors able to tell a story of a Evil Forest where the tree walks, blood sucking vines, beast walking like man, and the roars that was maddening to the minds of men. Since then, the entire Great Falgara Forest was deemed by the Society as Red Area, where entry was heavily not recommended. The only people who dare to enter since then were mostly bandits or treasure hunters.”

Eh? Were the wolves that strong? But Yuuto and co were just curb-stomping them earlier today, even Saki could one-punch a wolf. He got so many dead wolves and other monsters carcass that he had enough materials to be transmuted into airship flying carrier framework and still have enough leftover to be transmuted to replace the mana stones that would be wasted at tomorrow’s field test. He was wondering how Maya would react if she knew about this, and from Kiyomi and Stella’s expression, it seems that they had the same thoughts. But, let’s play Mitokoumon for the time being.

Now that he thought about it, the bandits were very weak. Let’s take a bit of detour in the talk.

“Were the bandits that strong that they able to build bases inside the forest? How about the bandits that captured you?” (Yuuto)

Well, it seems some bandits group were originally professional mercenaries or deserting soldiers with occasional villagers fleeing their hard life from defeated nobles or countries in Soipora. Compared to normal untrained villagers, the former mercenaries were much stronger, not only in tactics but also in abilities. Although they were also attacked by the wolves, they would usually moved their hideouts when they detected the wolves, or they baited the wolves away with captives.

Now about the bandits that attacked Tinirese. Maya thought that they were not a local band, since bandits usually avoid the forests near Riorra due to it being the usual Grimwolves hunting ground.

Perhaps they came from further west or south, fleeing the increasingly harsh anti-banditry actions taken by local Lords. Considering their rather large size, they might be amalgamation of remnants of several bandits band. If Maya needed to judge them, the bandits were highly organized and very familiar in village raiding and combat tactics, so they could be ex-mercenaries or ex-soldiers. As evidenced from their success, the bandit band were quite strong.

Maya presumed that due to the absence of soldiers in Riorra, they went bold and thought that they could fully raze the village without impunity. Maya didn’t know the reason behind the lack of the soldiers since Duke Sakorom usually stationed quite a lot of his soldiers in Riorra to prevent rebellion. For the last several days, most the soldiers left the barony, leaving only small garrisons in the southern parts, as the bulk of the army marched towards the capital. Something must have happened in the Capital, but Maya didn’t know what, since no news arrived in a sleepy region like Riorra. This was the reason why Maya thought that this was the best time for Riorra to secede away. Nature abhors power vacuum, after all.

Yuuto nodded, so the bandits that he thought as the clichéd weak-game-tutorial enemies were actually considered as relatively strong for local standard. He had heard from Mitteherz about the low enemies DSL, but it seems that the Neuwelt natives were indeed very weak.

Then the Academies and the Society.

The Academies was basically a generic term to refer to the organization that was formed by several Magic Academies. The actual name was Grand Academy Association, but no one practically ever refer them as that. Only people that graduate and was a member of the Academies could legally be called as “Mage”.

Meanwhile, the Society of Addresses and Encounters, was a loose umbrella organization of explorers, treasure hunters, monster hunters, bounty hunters, map makers, mercenaries, adventurers, scholars, bodyguards, craftsmen, and many others. It began as an organization that observe the Red Areas in Fohel, 400 years ago, then slowly the organization expanded, incorporated multiple occupational groups, and finally became some kind of continent-spanning employment agency and information service. In other words, this world version of Adventurer Guild.

Back to the topic. Yuuto already knew that the western lands (Abendrotsland) from Neuschwanensee were the Sarai Kingdom and Great Falgara Forest. Now about the other directions.

The southern (Mittagsland) and the eastern lands (Morgendrotsland) surrounding Neuschwanensee were the territories of Dinember Kingdom, a member of Seven Kingdom Alliance. They were not considered as a really strong country, but the lands were fertile and they were the furthest trade terminus of Great Refira River and the Great Central Tradeway, so it was a quite prosperous country. By the way, the city near Neuschwanensee Eastern Gems Gate was known the Free Merchant City of Arisa.

The northern land (Mitternachland) also belonged to the Dinember Kingdom but it was not inhabited since the location was too close to another Red Area in the Central Desert, the Dens of Sank-Jarsinki (Farming Insects in Loransian gloss). The Farming Insects were giant insects that stood at waist-high. They had built numerous underground nest in the region and highly aggressive. From the dens, thousand insects would scour the surrounding area for animals and trees. The monster scholars thought that the insects didn’t really consume the animals or trees, but they used it as medium to grow giant mushrooms inside their nests, a farming, hence their name. There were scholars that hypothesized that the Central Desert appeared because the insects had strip the land clean from vegetation for their mushroom farms.

Since they were dangerous and the dens were close to trade routes, there had been numerous armed expeditions taken to eradicate the insects, but they failed. The insects weren’t actually that strong, but their numbers were numbered in millions and when enraged, they would call stronger insect from the nest that had carapace so strong that no arrow or spear could pierce it and strong mandibles and scythe-hands that could split any metals.

Fortunately, since the Farming Insects and the Grimwolves often battled each other when the Insects ventured into Great Falgara Forest for trees, its and the wolves territory didn’t expand further since their contact 300 years ago.

When Yuuto heard about this, he made a wry smile. The reason for this was because he planned to completely annihilate the insects starting from tomorrow. Those insects were RAHO monster called Entolisk. It was as if a monster designer crossed a lizard with a beetle and Entolisk was it bastard descendant. Entolisk were covered in strong segmented exoskeleton in reptilian configuration, walked using three pair of legs sideways like a lizard, with the front legs terminated sharp ‘fingers’ that could be used to manipulate things, their wings were rudimentary but some caste could fly, and they had strong sharp mandibles that they used to chomp down trees to wood shavings. Entolisk was a eusocial organism divided into several castes: The Tree Worker, the Nest Digger, the Nest Guard, the Warrior, the Scout, the Egg Caretaker, the Royal Guard, the Princess, the Kings and finally the God-Empress. The difference of appearance and DSL between the caste was huge. Common Tree Worker might be less than DSL 10, but the Royal Guards could be as high as DSL 60 while the God-Empress was about DSL 90. They were enemies common in weekly server-wide siege events and accordingly, Yuuto and the girls had plenty experience in exterminating them.

Two days after the gate opened, the scout and cartographer units from the Beagle Expedition VII working in Mitternachland was attacked by foraging party of Entolisk. Although they were able to repulse them, it wasn’t without casualties. Luckily, as long as the majority of the bodies still intact, death held no power before Ichiko.

There were a RAHO sayings amongst the player If you see one Entolisk then there will be one million others hiding. They would surely become the obstacle of Neuschwanensee’s Northern Expansion.

Yuuto and Mitteherz had already decided to expand the farmlands westward and northward since the west forest and the north grassland lack any settlements. Surely it would cause less conflict than if he expanded into eastward or southward where numerous native settlements exist. So, although he lacked the power of other players, Yuuto felt confident with the proper equipment and tactics, Neuschwanensee could eradicate the insects, or if not, to control their number. Hence the field test tomorrow.

Back to the topic, about the general shape of the continent. Yuuto gave Maya a paper and a pen. Maya was a bit surprised that the pen could write even without any inkwell. But anyway, she drew a crude continental shape in the paper.

The Midzu continent seems to be huge continent. Maya said that its coasts were very fertile with many rivers. There were several great mountains circled around the continent, almost enclosing the desert and grasslands located in its center. The northern coast was covered with a huge swath of forests and jungles, while its southern tips were covered by frozen soil and ice fields.

The Midzu continent was surrounded by great oceans with their own archipelagos. The Bielen(Coldwind) Ocean and the Bislen(Frozen) Archipelago in the south was cold with ice islands appeared and disappeared. The land was rough and unforgiving, strong monsters ruled the islands and the sea which was avoided by any ships passing the area (if any) and giant icewall covered the entire South Pole. Coldwind Ocean was also the closest sea to Neuschwanensee, since it was where Great Refira River ended. Incidentally, Midzu was located in southern hemisphere, though its northern side straddle the equator.

“South Pole? So your people know that the world is round?” (Yuuto)

“Isn’t it common knowledge? Although there are some tribe and uneducated people believe that the world is flat, it is obvious to any learned man that the world is round. For example, philosopher Lesaris 900 years ago showed that stars in…” (Maya)

“Ah, it’s enough Marchioness Mayana. I only want to know how far the knowledge that your people have. But please tell me the details at a later date, since it picked my curiosity.” (Yuuto)

“I see. As you will, Your Highness. I will consider this as a promise. Also, if it acceptable for you, may you call me simply as Maya, Your Highness. Would this be a problem?” (Maya)

Kiyomi didn’t translate this part. She just looked into Yuuto, clung harder and spoke in Japanese curtly.

“She agree. She want you to call her only with her name.” (Kiyomi)

Yuuto could feel that Kiyomi was rather displeased. She was definitely pouting. So he patted her head with his free hand to calm her. This made Yuuto remembered how his step-sister Yukari was pouting every time they went out to eat together with his ex-false-girlfriend in family restaurant, back in high school days. The clinging was the same, too. So cute. Let’s treat Kiyomi with some ice-cream later.

“I see. Then Miss Maya, please continue explaining about the ocean.” (Yuuto)

Maya observed that it seems the Archduke was a type of person who prefer intellectual discussion than physical contact. Although, the head patting he had done to her and Sefi was something unexpected, seeing how he gently patted Erste Duchess’ head, this might be something than he done to show his affections. Maya smiled. It seems that she had obtained the Archduke attention.

Meanwhile, Stella was observing from the sides, her face was cramped from holding back her smile. Kiyomi’s jealousy was too obvious and we got someone playing dense here. Perhaps she should call Chie here. Some women just want to watch the world burn.

“The other oceans was the Sorola(Sunrise) Ocean in the east. The Sorashda(Sunhome) Archipelago and Aipa the Craddle Continent were located in this place. The people in this region have culture that is completely different from Midzu Continent.

In the west lies the Sorain(Sunwell) Ocean. There were only the mostly unexplored Hasjio(Seaend) Archipelago lies here. Though it was theoretically possible to sail from Seaend Archipelago to Aipa Continent. The Great Reef prevented the ships to travel from the north and the Field of Icesand from the south.

In the north lies the Bieviltia(Stormwind) Ocean, there were Ripetuar(Landbridge) Archipelago that connected Midzu with the Wisreck the Wasteland Continent. We don’t know many thing about them since it was the domains of Pacrux.” (Maya)

“Pacrux? The gloss is Pacri Ruxis – Demonic or Evil Invader……?” (Kiyomi)

“Invader? Do they do something to earn this name?” (Yuuto)

“Umm…… more than 500 years ago, Pacrux and their Great Fleet came from Wisreck continent. Millions of them. They subdued the nations in the north coast and enslaved the populace. Then they invade south, conquering territories one after another, bringing what was called Crimson Disaster until they were stopped by a coalition force of Prena nations. The Pacrux were pushed back to the north coast of Barseba. The coalition forces failed in expelling them from the continent, and until now they still resided in Barseba and surrounding region. Ever since then, the Prena didn’t really interact with them.” (Maya)

Yuuto could understand why they were called as Demon Invader. But it was an exonym, not necessarily what the Pacrux race called themselves.

“’Prena’?” (Yuuto)

“Umm…… Remna is people like Your Highness, Sefira and I.” (Maya)

“It’s not ‘Remna’?” (Yuuto)

Prena? In Loransian gloss, it would mean a person, not necessarily need to be a human. Why didn’t they call themselves as Remna? Wasn’t the default word in every language for human race in RAHO? If Palisan was descended from Thalassian, the word to refer to their own races shouldn’t have changed.

“Eh? Umm… No… Remna is… umm… the servant beings of the Gods…” (Maya)

“So, it’s like ‘Angels’?” (Yuuto)

“Yes, though the Remna are not necessarily a heavenly messenger.” (Maya)

Strange, it seems that the words had radical semantic drift, gaining meaning similar to Angel. Even if they said that they weren’t Remna, Maya and Sefi’s race was clearly listed as Remna not Prena.

“In my eyes, Miss Maya and Miss Sefira looks Remna(Angel) enough.” (Yuuto)

“Th-thank you.” (Maya)

“Your words are too much.” (Sefi)

Maya blushed at this cheesy pick-up words, while Sefi felt how embarrassing this words when it was directed to her. Even so, the one who spoke this, didn’t realized what he had done. Even Yuuto denied it, he was talented as an airhead gigolo ladykiller.

“Then, what Pacrux looks like?” (Yuuto)

When Yuuto asked this enthusiastically, Maya seemed a bit uncomfortable as she looked at Kiyomi and Stella repeatedly. Yuuto could guess what the cause of it.

“It’s alright. You may say it.” (Yuuto)

“They looked like Prena but have two horns in the side of their head. Just like Lady Mel and Lady Stella.” (Maya)

Kiyomi and Stella looked at each other and then at Maya. To have their in-game races to be called as Demonic/Evil Invader was rather surprising for them. There might be a history behind it. But it could be asked at another time.

“Then what about the race of Vierte and Siebte Duchesses? Ears at top of the head.” (Yuuto)

“They are…… Marshyel…….” (Maya)

“Marshyel…… The gloss will be Marsha Sihel. Upright Beast.” (Kiyomi)

“……” (Maya)

“Then what the words Alfar and Theria means for you?” (Yuuto)

“…… Alfar is the Sky Spirits and Theria the Nature Spirit.”

Yuuto creased his eyebrow. It was strange for the meaning of the word deviated so far. Now that he thought about it, he never encounter any native Alfar and Theria before, only Remna. Was the races in this world divided and they didn’t get along with each other?

“Then… What do you think about the Pacrux and the Marshyel. Do the Prena hate them?” (Yuuto)

Maya felt the question was as if the Archduke didn’t include himself as a Prena, but perhaps this was due language barrier, he was using an archaic language after all. It seems that the Archduke didn’t discriminate from races and he seems rather displeased by how the other races were called. It was fortunate that she and the Riorra people didn’t really discriminate against Pacrux or Marshyel as Neuschwanensee seems to be a country that was composed of the three races without any apparent discrimination. Just imagining the political fallout that would happen if a Riorra discriminate against Neuschwanensee citizen was enough to cause a headache.

“In the West, both races aren’t seen in a good light. But for the East, it has been 500 years since Pacrux first came and also this region is far from the fight with the Pacrux, so we don’t really have any grudge with them. Also, the Temple taught that the Pacrux had fell from the Spirit’s grace, my people were Holy Shrine followers, so we don’t really actively hate them either…… While, for Marshyel, they lived across the Desert and sometimes they would come south from their forest to trade, so we don’t really despise them or something…… In the West…… They are considered as slave race… To be honest, I personally think that they are more like foreigners from faraway country.”

Yuuto nodded, it would troubled him if there was any discrimination. He already had enough things to worry, racial tension was something that unneeded.

“Do you know what Pacrux and Marshyel use to refer to themselves?” (Yuuto)

“I am sorry, Your Highness, I don’t know.” (Maya)

“Thanks. But from now on please refer them as……” (Yuuto)

Yuuto pondering about the political correct words to use. Using the old words Alfar and Theria was not an option since it already had a meaning in Palisan as spirit entities name. Truthfully, Yuuto wasn’t a really creative person.

“Elfae for Pacrux and Werekin for Theria. Please socialize this term with your fellow citizen.” (Yuuto)

Elf + Fae and Were (man) + Kin (family).

This was more neutral than native term. He didn’t forget to send a message to Mitteherz to socialize this to his staff. Perhaps they would need it when dealing with the natives.

Since while they at it and Maya had mentioned it, Yuuto decided to ask about the religion.

Basically, most Prena in Midzu practiced what was called Ruxisda which means Spirits Faith. The basic tenet of this Faith was that there were spiritual entities called Holy Spirits which permeate the world, maintaining its continuity, and watched over the cycle of rebirth and death of the world. The Holy Spirits was ruled by the Holy Mother, a Goddess who gave birth to the Holy Spirits and determine their task. Other than Holy Mother there were other Gods, but they didn’t interfere much in the world, though they would help if they were asked. Basically, a monolatrism.

Currently, there were several major branches of Ruxisda, usually referred to their preferred place of worship.

The first is what is called as the Temple faction would be similar to the classic Christian Church with a central authority, albeit rather than a Pope, the highest religious head was a Priestly Council composed of 8 Archpriest of equal rank. The Temple put Holy Mother as the highest figure above everything and placed the other Gods under her. This faction was popular in the West.

The second was the Holy Shrine faction, there was no single central authority, each region had their traditional center of worship (Holy Shrines, hence their name) where the Archpriest was looked up by the others, similar to Patriarchy systems in Early Christianity. Due to this nature, there was no single unified doctrine similar to modern Protestantism, each Holy Shrines had their own interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. But if the doctrine was considered as too heretical then, in theory, an Archpriest could call for a Convention where the doctrine will be debated. Though the Holy Shrines put Holy Mother as its focus, the Holy Mother was just one of the many Spirit Hosts, each God and Goddess hosted their own Spirit version. This faction was popular in the East.

Other than these two, there were kathenotheist or even polytheist regional forms of Ruxisda where they worship Nature Spirits or ancestral worship or household gods while still holding Holy Spirits and Holy Mother as their central figure. This form of faith was mainly practiced in Lenkusna and the isolated region in the Central Plains of Ram.

An interesting fact was that though the Ruxisda also had similar figure of the Creator Goddess of All Creation, she wasn’t their central faith figure.

 Other than Ruxisda, there was also what was called Feseisda (Goddess Faith) that the people in Darashi practiced. They worshiped a single Goddess. Based on Maya’s explanation, it wasn’t clear if the Goddess was the same as Creator Goddess. The nomads and people in Great Central Tradeway practiced Guisda (Illumination Faith) who worshiped the Light and its worldly manifestation, especially the Luminaries. However, since Maya was not a believer of either faiths, she couldn’t provide any explanation other than what she learned from hearsays.

For the other Prena people, she only had limited information. It seems that the Sea Peoples worshiped some kind of sea deity, Aipa worshiped the Three Star Lords, but she knew no more than that. She also couldn’t describe the religion that the Elfae and Werekin practiced other than the Elfae worship a set of Deities and the Werekin worship the natures.

It seems that the faiths of Neuewelt had differed greatly from what is practiced in Neuschwanensee and described in RAHO’s lore. Since it wasn’t named in the game (since Creator Goddess worship is universal in the game) Yuuto decided to call RAHO original faith as Gaiusda (Creator Faith) to differentiate them from Neuwelt native religions.

Yuuto didn’t know whether this was intentional from the game designer parts, the faith was rather simple:

Primordials from outside reality see the void, ‘oh it’s not good’, so they build Creator Goddess from their own body parts and seal the void away. They task the Creator Goddess to fill the reality with new creations and then the Primordials left the reality. After countless infinities, the Creator Goddess finally finished creating All Creation. To help her manage the multitude worlds,  she created Greater Deities out of her Divine Shards and tasked them to administrate each world in Her Name and according to Her Will. The Greater Deities then created Lesser Deities from their Shard’s power to help them govern their assigned worlds, and so on until the lowly unsapient Spirits. The worlds were full of life but no sapient creatures exists.

Then three of Greater Deities pleaded to the Creator Goddess, so that they may able to create mortal creatures of their image and likeness. So the Creator Goddess gave them a special Divine Shard and Three Races were created out of it. Logos the Truth Pursuer created the ever brilliant Remna, Asthetos the Perfection Seeker created ever elegant Alfar, Ethos the Virtue Searcher created ever just Theria. Each of these Race Patron Deities each was worshiped by their respective races.

So, almost everyone in RAHO universe in-game worships at least three Deities: the Creator Goddess, their Race Patron Deity, and their world administrator Greater Deity.

Why the faith of this world was so different from RAHO original’s? Yuuto suspected because it was the current faith was based on the original deity of this reality. If the deity really ‘real’, then one of the deities of the native faith might be involved in Neuschwanensee and Yuuto and the girls’ arrival in this world. As usual, you can’t talk transported to another world without mentioning any sort of deity.

Back to the talk about the surrounding geography. How many people lived on this continent? Maya couldn’t really give a definite answer. But a book she read before gave a figure of 500 million Prena, not including the Alfae and Theria. Half of the Prena lived in the Central Plain of Ram, a quarter in the city states alongside Khas and Fohel. If we assumed that the Elfae and Werekin had similar population density, then this continent might have a population surpasses 600 million… Perhaps, if the population of other continents were added, Yuuto wouldn’t be surprised if this world population surpassed 1 billion.

Half a billion itself was a huge number. Even the entire population of Earth during the Middle Ages were said to not crossed 600 million. Before the advent of Green Revolution, modern medicine, and global transportation network, supporting a population that large should be really hard.

For example, the food. Isn’t to support a large population, a robust agriculture was needed? Looking at Tinerese and the settlements in Mittagsland, the level of the agriculture seemed hadn’t surpassed industrial age, but perhaps the presence of magic might have a powerful influence in this. Or perhaps, they had non-Earth crops that gave a much higher harvest output. After all, the crops that Tinerese planted seems to be not an Earth plant. Or perhaps, the people in this world had lower calories requirement. Not to mention the other factors.

When he asked what about Soipora, Maya explained that the Soipora region in the past had 12 million people, mostly concentrated in the southern coasts. The former Riorra Barony had a population about 16,000, while the Sarai Kingdom itself had about 2 million people. There were less people in the north since the hilly region had less farm fields. The neighbor region, Zekrion had about 45 million, with the next door Dinember Kingdom had about 9 million. It seems that area surrounding Neuschwanensee was more populated than he thought before.

According to Maya, a settlement that have population more than 10,000 was already considered as cities, but in the Khas and Fohel region, the city states could grow so big that they had more than a million people living there. The Khas and Fohel were also the place with the most advance technology and magic that they usually don’t share with foreigners. Due to this technology monopoly and the long distance between the region, it usually took years or decades before something invented in Khas or Fohel appeared in Soipora and Zekrion. More so, since Ram was in a civil war. Hence, why eastern areas like Soipora and Zekrion was considered as backward place. Although, technical device was hard to be transmitted, ideas of the device transmitted more easily, so it wasn’t like the eastern region couldn’t reproduce what the west achieved. Maya, said the last part with pride.

To gauge this world technology level, Yuuto asked whether Maya was familiar with the concept below:

Electricity or any concept of transmitted power or even lighting: Never heard about it. Although gas lamp was popular in Fohel and Khas.

Steam Engine or similar machines: Never heard about it. Although, large city usually have a water boiler for public baths.

Gunpowder or any weapon concept using expanding gas from reactive chemical reaction: Never heard about it. Although, they said that some Fohel nations used weapon that use pressured air.

Mechanical Clock: Existed, but rather expensive. Water clocks were cheaper.

Long Range Communication Device: Existed, but magic-based, Maya don’t really know much about this. Usually used by country ruler or trader corporation.

Steel: Existed, though it was expensive in eastern region and mostly imported from the western region.

Mass Production or similar concept: There exists “factory cities” where the citizens specialized in one field of craft that produced similar products in large number. Ferinio city in Riorra/Heitersheim was an example of a factory city. In this case, woodworking. A huge factory with machines like in the Industrial age was unknown to Maya. Maya was very interested in this concept though.

When Yuuto asked what surprised Maya the most in Neuschwanensee, she answered: the Magic Lamp. She had never read anything about a magic tools that could produce a light that bright and last that long.

So, this world was clearly behind Earth in technology. Yuuto couldn’t pin point the correct Earth era to be used as a basis of this world, but this world was clearly could be said as post-Renaissance.

Continued with their talks, if Maya needs to answer which country was the strongest in the world, she considered four or perhaps five nations.

The first was the Most Serene Republic of Kansa located in Fohel, its great trade fleet scoured the Four Oceans and it was undoubtedly the ruler of the seas. They also were the leader of technology innovation in Midzu and monopolize

The second was the Syensa Thearchy in Khas, the location of the Central Grand Temple of Ruxisda Faith. Considering itself as the successor state of the old Holy Empire of Midzu, they played part in many internal politics of Midzu nations. Even if the nation itself weren’t that big, their huge political clout and prestige could make them easily moves other countries.

The third was the Pacrux, or rather, Elfae’s Ruka Commonwealth located on Barseba. As the main nation of Elfae race in Midzu, Ruka Commonwealth was the leading power of Elfae Race against their Prena neighbors. They held many ancient artifacts of unbelievable power and possessed arcane knowledge that they jealously guard.

The fourth would be the Aipa Empire, but Maya honestly didn’t know about this Empire. But an Empire that ruled a whole continent should be strong nevertheless.

The fifth would be Chemkla or Neuschwanensee, the burier of conquerors, the enigmatic isolationist nameless state.

Yuuto was rather surprised when he heard this. When he asked how Neuschwanensee gained such notoriety, Maya narrated how during these 600 years and perhaps longer, it had been assaulted six times (excluding the 6th Invasion or Grand Siege) by massive army enough to bury a normal city, but no one was able to breach its walls.

More than 600 years? But didn’t Neuschwanensee has only been transported to this reality 2 years ago? Did it replaced an existing place? Was there some time-space anomaly weirdness happened here?

Yuuto then immediately get to the point:

“To be honest, Miss Maya, during this 2 years we were attacked four times by unknown assailants and I am hoping you can help me in this matter.” (Yuuto)

Maya was surprised, who in the right mind attacked Chemkla? What happened with the Exclusion Zone, Dinember Kingdom?

“I will try to help to the best of my ability, Your Highness.” (Maya)

“Thank you. Truthfully, one of the reasons we ventured outside was to investigate the assailant.” (Yuuto)

Maya wanted to thank and also curse the assailant, the thank because Neuschwanensee ended up saving her, Tinirese and entire Barony of Riorra, the curse because they had inadvertently awoken and unleashed Neuschwanensee into the unsuspecting world.

“Based on the news that I know. After the Grand Failure 45 years ago, there were no further invasion attack against Chemkla, especially after Dinember Kingdom established the Exclusion Zone.” (Maya)

If Maya said that the last invasion attempt was 45 years ago, while Mitteherz reported that they were attacked on the day Yuuto and the girls arrived 15 days ago, then there were a really serious time discrepancy going on here.

“Miss Maya, we have several artifacts from the previous invasions. May I ask for your help in identifying them? Now that we come to the outside, we want to return this to each respective countries.” (Yuuto)

“It will be my pleasure, Your Highness.” (Maya)

Yuuto took the banners, shields with emblems and other items with emblems that the Gate Knights had retrieved after the invasions.

“This is…… I believe this is the emblem of the Holy Emperor Axelrad. If I am not wrong, he attempted to subjugate Chemkla at the end of his conquering expedition, 666 years ago. Holy Empire of Midzu was no more. But the Syensa Thearchy might be interested in it.” (Maya)

But from Mitteherz report, the first attack since they were transferred into the Purple Fog-colored world happened about 97 days after the transfer.

“I don’t recognize most of the emblems in the shield. But I think this flag belonged to the United Army. The invasion attempt happened about 540 years ago? I must comment that the flag had been preserved very well. Since the United Army was an assembly of nations, I don’t think there will be a single recipient for this.”  (Maya)

The second invasion happened 243 days after the transfer.

“I don’t recognize the emblems and flags. But since it depicted wyvern and the white Hirma(horse),  then perhaps these belong to the Dostro Empire and the White Horse Tribe Horde. 300 and 250 years ago? I guess. I don’t really familiar with them, but I believe Master Kanoro might know more.” (Maya)

The third invasion happened 622 days after the transfer. Or rather, this was actually two separate invasions according to local chronology? But from Mitteherz explanation this happened almost at the same time.

“This is…… The symbol of Rajul Empire. The country that attacked 45 years ago. They conducted 3-month long siege with more than a million soldiers, the largest army ever gathered in the Continent, but they still failed. Rajul Empire as you had heard before, is still in the middle of the Civil War, so I don’t think we can return these until then.” (Maya)

Yuuto was rather interested with one million army. It’s not like the small Neuschwanensee was a Stalingrad that warrant a million army.

Anyway, the last invasion happened 956 days after the transfer and ended 3 days later at the day when Yuuto and the girls arrived.

Yuuto’s mind was currently engaged in ruminating this new information. The flow of the years according Maya and the days according to Mitteherz didn’t correspond to each other, this was perhaps was because he was just sucks in mental mathematics or it was related to whatever cause the Purple Fog or the difference in the Reality Vector Latency mentioned in the logs when he opened the Gems Gate.

Then, a grim realization came to his mind. What if the flow of time inside that Purple Fog world also didn’t correspond to Earth’s flow of time. Perhaps, several years or decade might even had passed in the real world.

It seems that Stella had recognized this as she put a horrified expression on her face. He might need to have a private talk to Stella later. After all, this was just still a unproven conjecture.

Then he looked at Chie who sat beside Kiyomi with a serious expression…… Wait, since when she sat there? Also, why? Like usual, Chie’s calm expression was hard to read. Did she realize it… Or not?

“Miss Maya, why they attacked us?” (Chie)

“…… The Golden Wall and the Gems Gate……” (Maya)

“She said, the golden wall and the gems gate.” (Kiyomi)

“Ah… I see. How troublesome.” (Chie)

Chie crossed her arms and nodded at Kiyomi’s translated Maya’s short reply. Yuuto put his palm on his head… Of course, they were coming…… The gaudy wall and the gate were an obviously an invitation for thieves. Or rather, since when Chie understand that she need to speak in Thalassian to ask Maya.

Back to the topic again. Just like what Maya had mentioned, Neuschwanensee was considered as a strong power by its neighbor. Furthermore, since Neuschwanensee had been isolating itself for as long as anyone remember, no one really knew what would Neuschwanensee do. So Neuschwanensee was unpredictable and might be dangerous, considering how it easily crushed anyone who invade it.

‘Ah, so we are the neighborhood’s bad boy.’ Yuuto thought. This could became either a boon or a curse in diplomacy.

“Hey Maya, do this world have Summoning Magic?” (Stella)

“Summoning? Yes. I think some Archmages could summon spirits.” (Maya)

“Not. That…… I mean a magic to summon a Hero or people from another world.” (Stella)

“Another world? Hmm…… I am sorry Dritte Duchess, but I am afraid this is the first time I ever hear such kind of summoning magic.” (Maya)

“I see.” (Stella)

Stella was quite disheartened by this answer. Unlike Kiyomi and Chie who lacked proper another-world-summoning genre exposure, Stella was a veteran web novel readers. So this answer hit her had like a 179,000 kg aluminum hitting 450 million kg of concrete and steel at 264 m/s. If this was manga, then a gloom screen tone would be

Maya was wondering why Dritte Duchess was that dejected.

“Summoning…? Another world…? Ah, perhaps the story of Three Spirits?” (Sefi)

Sefi seemed to remember something.

“Can you elaborate?” (Yuuto)

“This was a story I heard when I still a child. I must apologize since I don’t remember the whole story. But from what, I had remembered, the story goes like this: Far-far-far in the past, the people was beset by a great evil. The people cry for help, so the Holy Mother summoned the three spirits: a Remna, a Alfar and a Theria from the above world, down to the great mountain, in order to aid the people. Together with many brave hero they saved the world.” (Sefi)

“‼!”

Stella was rather surprised by Maya’s answer when Kiyomi translated it. She opened her eyes wide

“The mountain!” (Stella)

“I see. Can you tell us where the great mountain is located?” (Yuuto)

“Huh? Umm… I don’t know...” (Sefi)

“Aw_{www &%$%#%%}……” (Stella)

“This is the first time I ever hear this kind of story. If we talk about Holy Mountain then there are several candidates, but if it related to Holy Mother then Holy Mount Sabasis in Khas will be the prime suspect.” (Maya)

“Yes!” (Stella)

Stella raised both of her fist to the air and stood up. She made a very wide smile and looked at Yuuto. He smiled and then they did a high five and bro clasp (though Stella is a dudette). At last, they had a definite clue: A mountain where Remna, Alfar and Theria appeared. If this wasn’t a clue then what else. Though they still didn’t know where exactly Mount Sabasis was located or whether or not this mountain was the correct one, at least they got an objective. Main Quest get!

Kiyomi and Chie looked at Stella and Yuuto with a puzzled expression. Then, the good mood Yuuto patted them both as he smiled in satisfaction. Naturally, his hands were moving on its own until his reasoning brake kicked in.

Then, Chie suddenly addressed Maya.

“Mona contacted me, she says that Chiri and Launa are already sleepy, so right now they are heading back to their room. How about you, Miss Maya?” (Chie)

Asked by the Vierte Duchess, Maya looked toward the Archduke as if asking for permission.

 “Hmm. Yes, without we realized, it has been far into the night. Let leave our discussion to be continued on another day. You may retire to your room.” (Yuuto)

“…… Then we will take our leave. Please excuse us, Your Highness, Lady Mel, Lady Stella, Lady Sia. Come, Sefi.” (Maya)

Maya and Sefi exited the room, but before they moved away, Maya made an elegant curtsy before she finally disappeared from Yuuto’s sight. Kiyomi looked at their departure with “how unpleasant(不愉快です)” unspoken when she remembered how Maya and even now Sefi were going ‘red’ as soon as Yuuto mentioned “another day”. Although this didn’t surfaced at her countenance and didn’t affect her ever-present charming smile, her eyes couldn’t lie.

Yuuto was actually still wanted to discuss the cosmology and history of this world. But, the discussion had been going far too long than what he had predicted before. Tomorrow is an important day, good sleep is paramount, so the rest of the discussion would be left for another day. Perhaps he should ask Maya to stay in the castle for several more days since there were too many things to learn of. There is no such thing as too much information.

There were still many mysteries left unanswered while they keep finding new ones. So many questions, so little answers. However, the clue shed a small light of hope on this dark unknown land. This kindled the fire of their spirit that was wavering from the uncertainties of the future. Hope. That was all that they needed. After all, the lack of hope could discourage any man. In all things, it was better for the girls to have something to hope than something to despair, this was what Yuuto sincerely believed.

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

Intromessa la Lucce della Luna

It was an open balcony at the eastern side of a certain castle. It faced the garden that was illuminated by the red tinted moonlight of alien sky.

Cue the entrance of a young man with purple eyes and a metallic blue haired young lady with nautilus-like horns. The young man guided the young lady to a certain table set in the center of the balcony, under the pergola covered of vines of blue and white blossoms. On top of the table was a bucket of chilled sweet delight. A strange mixture of finely whipped milk, nut, and layers of fine sorbet of soda and various fruit juice. Prepared by yours truly with Alchemical cheats and shortcuts, all to satisfy the sweet tooth of a certain young lady.

When she had took her seat. The man walked to the railings of the balcony and took out an acoustic guitar., he could play the guitar since the males of his family did the same.

Usually, it would be the young lady that will be singing, but tonight was a special one.

The young man made a little bow to the young lady and, although he was not a Bard, his fingers began to nimbly pluck the strings in succession emulating a mandolin, linking chords after chords, picking the tones to be shaped into a lovely serenade.

Cue the curious onlooker, a certain pink-haired young lady with dragon-like horns, who was observing the situation from a balcony above, opened her eyes wide at the sight of the young man could playing that piece. She was familiar with the tone yet the name of it escaped her tongue.

However, a certain night black haired cat-eared girl, who was looking at the balcony from one of the window in the corridors, recognize it as a famous barcarolle piece from Napoli (not Venezia like many thought), Santa Lucia.

The blue-haired maiden looked very entertained by the young man’s play, though it was just an average one, not good, but not bad either. When the chords end, she clapped her hand greatly, but the show was far from over.

The young man began to play a series of chords again, this time while circling around the blue-haired maiden. While the sound of the strings resounded at the surrounding, the young man began to sing,

“Quanno fa notte

e ’o sole se ne scenne,

me vene quasi

’na malincunia;

sotta ’a fenesta

toia restarria

quanno fa notte

e ’o sole se ne scenne.”

The blue-haired made, the pink-haired lady and the black-haired girl were rather surprised by the young man’s singing. He was singing better than they had thought.

When the lyrics reach the refrain, he stopped walking and kneeled before the maiden, hand still strumming the background music.

“Ma n’atu sole

cchiù bello, oi ne’,

’o sole mio

sta nfronte a te!

’o sole, ’o sole mio

sta nfronte a te,

sta nfronte a te!”

The man play an exit chord and then when it over, he stood before her and patted her head.

The blue-haired maiden was very satisfied. No, satisfied was a word too weak. She was in bliss. All of her unpleasant feeling had been taken away.

If she is happy, for him it was a good thing.

However, no one realized. That this young man, had did this same tactic for three different females in his life before.

☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽

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EXTRA UNNECESSARY FOOTNOTES BELOW

·         As you can expect. Yuuto is a cutecon, cute is justice. This will bite him back someday.

·         Weekly server-wide events: The GMs would choose a random field map. Then the enemies would be replaced by Entolisk. Then the players would eradicated them to gain their farming field back. In case, no players care about eradicating them, then the Entolisk would infect other field map. In what is called: Insecarmageddon. Most strong guilds had disregarded an Entolisk investing a low newbie field map for several weeks that the infection grew uncontrollable to numerous field map. The problem was so great, that it took most player base to clear it. Since then, the GMs change the drop tables to attract high level players, by making Entolisk drops essential for end-game equipment enhancement.

·         Full Midzu Continent Map. What kind of projection used to create this map? Don’t know… It’s an impossible 2D map projection that is conformal, equidistant and equal area. Every point in the map had the same distance. The Tissot Indicatrix wil be all nice same shape same area circle. This video summed it up nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIID5FDi2JQ

I couldn’t draw the latitude and longitude since it would be greatly distorted (can’t get the math right to draw the circle right), so I only put the Equator as reference line. Tried to create a 3D globe texture for Celestia. Stopped trying when I can’t get the pole region right (I keep screwing up in stretching the map for the pole for the equirectangular projection while trying to keep the continent in shape). I sucks in image editing……

It depicted ~30°N to ~70°S and if we consider Neuschwanensee as 0°, ~70°W to ~40°E. Below 70°S was a giant Ice Wall.

Any similarity to real earth map are intentional

·         Yuuto surprisingly knew many canzone napoletana, flamenco and songs. His father taught him how to play it. He didn’t sang the Santa Lucia because he couldn’t remember the lyric other than there are Santa Lucia repeated twice.