Chapter 2: A group of people in a foreign land

Some hours pass and Lud receives a message from Brutus and Lych. Brutus said that there seems to be an elven village far south-west from where Elysium is and Lych said that there was therianthrope village an hour walk from where Elysium is.

First Lud said "Didn't I say not to go too far from base Brutus?" To which Brutus said "Sorry boss. Some of my boys seemed to get too excited to fly in foreign skies. I'll scold them later for going too far." Lud said "It's alright. Don't go too harsh on them though, I've read that you have a reputation for being called "demon of the skies" from one of your settings."

Brutus says "I don't know about "settings" but I heard that nickname too. In any case, what do you want to do with the elven village?" Lud answers "Leave it be and return to Elysium to draw a map from the data you've collected around the area. Be sure to mark the location of the elven village." Brutus says "On it boss."

Then Lud got to Lych's case and said "What can you tell from your surveillance Lych?" Lych answered "I just got to the place itself and it seems a relatively peaceful place. I don't sense any notable threats around the area with my "detection" ability, but I can distinguish a few people dressed as guards. They… wait, is that…"

Lud asks "What is it Lych?" Lych answers "Shit. My lord, we might run into trouble soon." Lud asks "What do you mean trouble?" Then Lych says "I see the Nuke walking to the village without a care in her mind."

Lud says "The Nuke? Who are you… Sarah! Why are you calling her The Nuke? Which setting did Lenlylelu fiddle with this time?" Lych says with a confused voice "My lord?"

Then Lud said to Lych "Wait a moment." Then Lud calls Sarah and asks "What are you doing my dear Sarah?" To which she answers "I see a village and I want to see if there are any strong opponents around."

Lud says "I forbid you to make yourself known." Sarah says in an annoyed tone "Eeeh?! Why though? I want to have some fun." Lud says "Lych can't sense any powerful people in the village, so you won't find any formidable opponents in there. Should you be able to sense powerful people though?"

Sarah says "I know that there isn't anyone strong there, but since this is an unknown area with an unknown village, perhaps there is someone interesting hiding there. Like, someone with interesting battle tricks. You know what I'm getting at, right?"

Lud says "I know that you seek interesting opponents, but your current job is to survey the area and not initiate contact with foreign forces." Sarah says "Did you say that?" Lud then tries to say something, but realizes that while he did say that the surveillance team shouldn't engage any people, he didn't specify anything that would forbid Sarah from having a look."

Then Marchosias contacts Lud and says "I heard about the situation about lycanthrope village from Mister Lych. If it will ease your sire, I can make the first contact with the village together with Miss Sarah?"

Lud ponderst for a moment, and then says "I permit this action. But remember, do not act hostile and make sure Sarah doesn't do so either." Then Marchosias said "Understood" and went to the location and talked to Sarah about the situation remotely.

Marco gets near the entrance of the village together with Sarah and the guard looking out calls them "Hey! Who are you and what is your business here?! Marco says "My name is Marchosias, this person next to me is named Sarah and we are from the kingdom of Elysium and we are currently surveying the area."

The guard says "Elysium? I never heard of such a kingdom in Lutah. Where are you really from?"

Marco is about to answer, but Sarah then says "You haven't heard of Elysium? My my, what a pitiful existence you are to not know it. It is of course the most powerful kingdom that I have given my blessing to. You should feel ashamed."

The guard gets a little pissed off by this, but still remains calm and says "Look, I haven't heard of any kingdom by that name and that is that. Either there exists a small bumpkin place you call a kingdom of Elysium or you are just a nutso. Which do you prefer?"

Sarah gets a little agitated by this and says "Why you… Do you want to be turned to…" But Marco puts her hands on Sarah's mouth and says to the guard "I'm sorry mister, but we aren't familiar with the word "Lutah". Would you kindly explain it to us?"

The guard says "Where have you lived to not know what Lutah is? It is the name of the very world we live in. It is a name recognised even in the lower realm, nevermind the creatures of the abyss."

Then Marco says "Elysium has been kind of isolated from the world for quite some time, so please excuse our lack of knowledge." Sarah says to that "What do you mean isolated? We have been…" but Marco continues "Anyways. May we enter this village? We would like to know more about the area in general."

The guard says "Sure. Heck, we already let one strange fella in just a few moments ago as puzzled about the area as you two are. Just make sure not to cause trouble, okay?" Marco says "Thanks" and walks to the village together with Sarah.

Then, before Marco and Sarah get too far from the guard, they ask him "Do you know someone who might be willing to tell us about the area?" The guard says "Go to the chief's house. That's where the strange fella decided to go. It's the biggest house around here, so you can't miss it." Marco thanks the guard and then proceeds to look for the house, asking questions along the way from passersby.

Eventually they find the chief's house and knock on the door. A woman opens the door and says "My my. Another new face so soon." Then a familiar voice to Marco and Sarah comes from the living room, saying "They are with me. I just happened to be the first one to arrive. Do let them in if it's not too much of a bother."

The woman says "Follow me" and guides the two to the living room where the back of a familiar figure is chatting with the village chief. His name is Li Last and he has a white long hair that shimmers in blue and red and similar coloured eastern clothes. He has two white horns coming from the top back of his head and a tail that appears to be made from some sort of crystals that can't be seen from where Marco and Sarah are standing. His eyes are shimmering lightly like reddish and bluish diamonds, sometimes showing purple and pink color from the combination. He also has pointy ears and an ear ornament on his right ear.

Li then waves the back of his hand to show that they can come in and says "Now let me introduce these two to you Mr. Flint. They are Ms. Marchosias and Ms. Livendig. Of which the latter probably likes that you call her Sarah. Ms. Marchosias is the therianthrope and Ms. Livendig is the demon."

Flint then says "It is a pleasure to see new faces in Gendarville. We don't get new visitors here often since we live in a relatively remote area. Most business we do is with the Lecta and Lostwood towns near the forest we live in. Oh, since you are new to the area, Lecta belongs to the beast folk kingdom of Rucksta and the town of Lostwood belongs to the elven kingdom of Hearth. I already said this to Mr. Last, but the forest we live in is the forest of Lostwood."

Then Li says "Since you said that these beast folk, which I take are what we call lycanthropes, and elves have their own kingdoms, I assume that you also have countries for other races as well?"

Flint says "Yes. There is the dark elf queendom Rusteror, dwarf kingdom Goldrock, demon kingdoms Lastias, Restias and queendom Vortias, draconian queendom Rythcoth, angel queendom Lux and merman empire of Hydra. There is also the holy city of Labes"

Li then says "I see. Now then, out of curiosity, is there a race called humans and do they have a country they call their own?" Flint says "Humans? You mean that disappointment of a race in the lower realm? Yeah we have one, but here in the middle realm, they don't deserve to have a country."

Marco gets agitated a bit and clenches her fist, but Li says "Ms. Marchosias" which stops Marco from doing anything rash.

Then Li asks "Just to make sure we are talking about the same species, are they a race that doesn't have tails, horns or scales?" Flint says "Exactly. Those lower lifeforms don't have anything special on them except their numbers in the lower realm. Every race that is in the middle realm is significantly better at everything when compared to those humans. You know, it is funny that you ask if they have a country of their own here, while fair, they have their own system in the lower realm and have their own laws, but here in the middle realm, they don't even have any rights. If you kill one on the street and leave it there, guards can make you pay a fine for littering."

Now even Sarah gets a bit agitated and Li notices this. He says "I think this is all we needed for today. We will now take our leave. Come you two." Flint asks "Why are you leaving so suddenly? We were just about to have a meal that we can share with visitors." Li says while smiling "I'm sorry, but our lord would probably want to hear our findings of the area as soon as possible. Thank you for your generosity though Mr. Flint. Now then you two. Chop chop."

Li pushes Marco and Sarah to get them out of there before they do something that would make things difficult.

While they are walking out of the village, Sarah asks angrily "Why are you letting them off like that? You know that…" But Li says "I know, I know. But we can't cause a scene here. Let's talk about things outside the village."

When they are far enough from the village, Lych comes to check in and asks "Did you figure out anything?" But before Li could speak, Sarah shouts "Listen to this, why don't you! They think humans are something that is lower than trash! They aren't even protected by laws in this realm!"

Lych gets a scary look on his face and raises his gun while saying "Haha, that's funny. Now let's show them who's the boss. Nuke, you know what to do." Sarah says "You talking to me? I'm on it." and starts preparing for a massive attack.

Li shouts "STOP! STOP! Don't act too hastily! Sure, our lord might be based on a human, but he is, in fact, a homunculus. And our late lord Roland was a high elf, so if you are worried about those two, you have no need to worry." Sarah stops preparing the attack.

Then Marco says "But weren't it you who said that the real ones are basically humans? If so, I cannot forgive those words that they said about our creators." Li says "I know what I said, but massacre is not a viable option for us who know nothing of the power dynamic of this world."

Sarah then says "So you think we are in another world?" To which Li answers "I'm quite positive. They call this world Lutah and they speak of lower and middle realms. While our world had a higher plane of existence, we didn't have those kinds of realms. I also feel a different kind of constitution between the beast folk of this world and lycanthropes from ours. But the most prominent proof that I have is that I can't feel the Turris Sepulcrorum or any mytherell whatsoever."

Marco then says "We need to inform Faust about this." Then Li says "I think so too, so I leave the rest to you guys." Li starts to leave, but Marco grabs his sleeve and says "Where do you think you're going? I know Faust has given you freedom to work as you see fit, but you ought to at least finish what you started."

Li then says "My my Ms. Marchosias. I was going to drop it off that you call our lord by his first name at first, but it seems like you need a reminder of who has more authority." Then Li puts his hand on his ear and says "My lord, it is me. Have you gotten close enough with Ms. Marchosias by any chance?"

Marco gets flustered and tries to stop what Li is doing. Li dodges her attempts and continues to speak "Yes, yes. I'm with her now conducting surveillance of the area and she appears to just call you by your first name casually. Do you have any clues for why this is?"

Marco tries to stop Li repeatedly but Li casually dodges all of her attacks. Marco even pulls out her sword and tries to attack Li with that, but that also fails.

Li continues "I also suspected that some sort of update had to have happened. Our pattern of behavior is much smoother than it was before and our survey shows signs of us being in a completely different world."

At this point, Marco just tries to attack Li more out of pride than anything even as the conversation between Li and Lud had deviated from what embarrassed her before. The wind caused by each of the swings cuts some of the trees cleanly and several trees are cut during her attempts.

Li says "If you want any sort of proof, then I can say that I can't feel Turris Sepulcrorum anywhere. That part is probably only limited to Odysseium or GFOO and I can't return to Turris Sepulcrorum either, so I concluded that it is another world."

Marco's attacks are now blocked by Li's extended tail, which makes a shockwave around the forest and the remaining trees around the area start falling over from the shockwaves. Li just calmly says "We also have an apparent issue on our hands and that is something that we must address before we take further action. …" Marco continues to attack, but Li keeps blocking them with his tail. "If what the chief of the village is anything to go by, then humans, at least in this realm, are heavily ostracized. Humans seem to prevail in the so-called lower realm, but here, humans aren't protected by laws."

There was silence on the other end for a while. Meanwhile, Marco kept attacking Li with little success. Then Li said "I have a proposition for you. Why don't we make me the figurehead as usual and keep the fact that you are our king a secret?"

Suddenly Marco's attacks strengthened for some reason while Li waited for response. Then Li said "But that would… I understand. As you wish, my lord." Then Li stopped pressing his ear with his hand and counterattacked Marco, who then proceeded to fly through several trees.

Lych asked "What did sire say?" To which Li answered "He said that we should… create friendly relations while keeping the image that our king is in fact a human."

Sarah says "You look disappointed Li. Were you that excited to act as a king again?" And Li says "No, that's not what I was thinking. It's just… Why make such a rash decision to have something that is considered a weakness in this world out in the open? We don't even know about the power level of the people around this world, so I consider lowering the weight of our voice in negotiations on purpose something foolish."

Sarah says "What are you so worried over? We can clearly feel that there is no threat in the nearby area. I can easily blast that village to smithereens." To which Li states "We don't know if our understanding of power is the same as in this world. They could be more powerful than us, but we just can't notice it with our perception. And in case this village is in fact as weak as it seems, we don't know about the rest of the world. If we destroy the village and declare our king as human, we are just asking for trouble. And if those who oppose us turn out more powerful than us, then we would be eating dust soon after."

Sarah groans and says "Gash! You are so boring! Let's just ask how strong the guard thinks he is, ask about the more powerful people around the world in terms of combat and then let Lych have a go at him."

Lych is surprised by this and says "Why are you making me fight?" To which Sarah says "To test if our perception is right or wrong. Out of four of us commanders, you are the weakest in terms of close quarters combat. If you can kick that guard's ass and he says that he is an actual unit when compared to the normal soldiers, that means that we stand high on the food chain."

Marco finally stops attacking Li and says "Why don't we just make one of our common soldiers go at it with the guard?" To which Sarah has a disappointed look on her face as she says "Look… Why do you have to make things boring? Sure, we can do that, but… Oh! Do you think it would be suited for Elysium's image to have an actual chance of losing?"

Then Marco perks up and grabs Lych's shoulder and says to him "Let's go comrade. Don't you dare bring shame upon our kingdom."

Lych resigns to his fate and starts to walk towards the village. When he got close, he noticed that a couple of more guards were now out as well. One of the guards shouted "Young lady over there, are you unharmed?!" Puzzled for the moment, not because they called him young lady, but because they asked if he was unharmed, Lych realizes that they must have gathered more guards at the front gate since there was something strong enough to topple trees over some moments ago in the forest.

Lych says with a smile "Oh, I'm fine thank you. If you are worried about the ruckus in the forest a moment ago, it was just my friends having a debacle. Well, to be more precise, one said something that embarrassed the other, so the other tried to stop the first one saying embarrassing things by force. Somewhere along the way, the embarrassed one took out a sword and she ended up accidentally cutting some trees while swinging."

The guards look at each other and one of them says "All the trees around here are magically imbued, so cutting one requires specialized magic tools to make a cut. Even these houses here are mostly made with wood that was imported from elsewhere. So I kind of doubt that there are people who can just cut these trees as an accident."

Lych says "Well, I don't know what else to tell you. Anyway, the reason why I came here is to test my strength with one of your best guys. And now that you all have gathered here, bring me your best guy to have at it with me."

The guards look even more confused now, then a female voice is heard saying "You ought to stop joking around while there is a genuine threat roaming around the forest. Come inside so you don't get hurt." Out comes a beautiful silver haired wolf type beast person. Comes to Lych and grabs his hand to escort him to the village. Lych just blurts out "Now I'm convinced. You guys are actually just weak."

The woman stops on her track and says "What did you say?" Lych realizes what he said, but now that he said it, he decides to continue along the same lines. He says "While I don't have any skill that detects hostiles in the area near me, I can certainly tell you that I don't feel any threats anywhere with my instincts. So if you all are scared of what is in the forest, that means that you guys are just weaklings."

The woman tries to punch Lych, but he dodges it effortlessly. Lych commented "I can tell that you certainly have a temper." The woman says "You dare insult one of the Ten sword-saints of Rucksta?"

Lych says sarcastically "Ten sword-saints of Rucksta? Never heard of them. Are they like… big deal or something? Cause I have a feeling that you are far too weak."

The woman then takes her sword out and says "I was going to let you in for your own protection, but now I feel like I need to show you a lesson." Then she says to the guards "Make sure to keep an eye out for whatever is inside the forest. In the meanwhile, I'll show this lady how to dance."

Lych whistles as if he is impressed and then summons his musket. To the woman, the musket looks like some sort of fancy stick, so she says "You are seriously going to fight me with a stick?" To which Lych gets an annoyed look and says "This ain't no ordinary stick you bitch. This is a work of art that I don't even need to use its full potential on you. Since I'm still somewhat courteous, I want to know your name before I beat your sorry ass."

Then the woman mutters "And you say I have a temper" and then says "Anyways, my fine name is Michaela La Lutto Lien and I'm the seventh of the Ten sword-saints of Rucksta and my sword serves his highness Jeremaja Von Lerailu Tuck Rucksta the III. And yours is?"

Lych says in quick succession as he has said this many times to many different people in the past.

"Name: Lych Rit"

"Gender: male"

"Title: Commander of the fifth battalion of Elysium"

"Age: 282"

"Blood type: O+"

"Height: 163 cm"

"Birthday: 4th of frostfall"

"Penis size: 5 cm"

"Virgin and single."

Michaela is stunned by this and tries to process what Lych just said. While she is doing that, Lych says "Now, start!" and charges at Michaela with amazing speed. So fast in fact that Michaela can't even process the fact that she is being attacked. As a result, Lych's swing sends Michaela flying towards the wooden gate, which then proceeds to break in the process. The guards are astonished.

Then Lych rests his gun casually on his shoulder in a casual manner, waiting for counterattack. From the rubble, Michaela rises and says "You cheat. You started while I was distracted."

Lych just smirks "It's not my problem that the member of the so called ten sword-saints of Rucksta gets distracted after the opponent gives their personal info. Now then, your turn." Lych taunts Michaela with his hand in the manner of "Come and get me".

First Michaela gets an annoyed look on her face, but then she calms down and readies her attack. She says "Remember, you asked for this." She calls the name of the attack "Mourning slash" and launches an attack that causes the dust from the ground to spread to a cloud as she hits Lych in a piercing strike. After the smoke clears, Lych is still standing and Michaela is confused as to how he is still standing.

Lych says "You see miss, my speciality is to keep distance from my opponents and make a precise attack from a distance. That means that I'm a long range unit. And what will long range units do when they are attacked? They focus their points on speed and luck so they can dodge whatever is coming to them. What I did just now is that I moved, very slightly, to the left and made your sword follow the length of my weapon so that your attack will miss."

Michaela says "Impossible. How can your wooden stick handle the strike of my sword?" Lych smiles and says "Simple, it is a higher grade weapon compared to yours. I must say, Illi really did a good job making this thing. It can shoot hundreds of bullets in a couple seconds if I just use a little of my magic. Shame that I didn't get to see the finalization of the legendary weapon called AK-47. Allas, that doesn't say anything to you, so I might as well end this little duel of ours."

Michaela says mockingly "What can you do? You didn't manage to make me lose with your first attack that you oh so heavily relied on. What can a ranged unit do in this kind of situation? Based on your wooden stick, you must be a speed type mage. Too bad though, I won't let you finish your chant to…"

Lych points his gun at Michaela and an ear deafening sound can be heard across the forest. The birds fly away as they are frightened by the sound that reached even the two towns near Lostwood.

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