Malistia|Tom's Farm|24.03.1178|
It was 5 a.m.
Tom and Naomi had long since fallen asleep.
Only one person remained awake on the farm—Yuki Sato.
Exactly five hours had passed since Yuki had landed in this foreign world. Yet he had already achieved his first goal: finding civilization.
He had woken up naked and fully healed from all his previous injuries, lying somewhere on a snowy plain in the Delkan Mountains.
Once he became aware of his situation, he formulated a plan—well, more like a list of objectives he needed to fulfill as quickly as possible.
The first step had been to find civilization. Although it had nearly cost him his life, he now found himself in a warm house with enough time to focus on the second important objective:
Acquiring knowledge about this world.
Simply asking a stranger how this world worked and admitting he was from another one, Yuki concluded, would have been the dumbest thing he could do.
No, he had to uncover the knowledge of this world on his own. A huge advantage was that the official language seemed very close to English.
For Yuki, who spoke the language fluently, this was a definite trump card.
Once Tom—who, for some reason, had been extremely tense and slightly trembling before realizing Yuki was a boy—healed him, Yuki already suspected that he would send the girl, Naomi, who had saved him, downstairs.
The fact that he had told the girl earlier that she had to take care of the Karabols implied he had some authority over her, whether emotionally or professionally speaking.
Unfortunately, the term Karabol was unfamiliar to Yuki. Neither in any fantasy novel nor in the thousands of other fictional works he had consumed had he ever heard or read that word.
However, considering the fence he had seen when Naomi brought him to the house, the conclusion that it might be some kind of animal didn't seem far-fetched.
And yet, Yuki knew he couldn't rely on blind assumptions or intuition alone.
As mentioned, he had to gather information himself.
The fact that both Tom and Naomi had spoken very little to him—even though communication was one of the most basic and essential principles when rescuing someone—showed that this place was not a mountain rescue station... obviously.
And yet Tom possessed the right medicine to get him back on his feet within seconds.
What did that imply?
That Tom was a masterful healer and medicine man—or that the medicine in this world, where Yuki now found himself, was so advanced that healing wounds quickly was considered normal.
From all these thoughts and observations, and by reading various books scattered around the living room, Yuki came to the following conclusions about this world:
1. It is called Eldoria by its inhabitants.
2. There seem to be various creatures in this world—for example, the huge snake Yuki saw earlier, and the lizards that almost killed him. But there appear to be main races distinguished by their intelligence and capacity for civilization. These are called Eldorima.
3. These eight Eldorima (apparently, there were nine once) consist of the races: Elves, Humans, Sirens, Demi-humans, Dracos, Angels, Tapamoles, and Pipucar.
4. Scattered throughout Eldoria are various nations that clearly recognize one another, speak the same language, but have different forms of government.
5. Yuki is currently in the Elven Kingdom of Malistia. This country is ruled by the Vi Malistia family, which has governed it since the beginning of recorded history.
6. Nearly 30 years ago, Malistia experienced a violent civil war. The Vi Malistia family attempted increased industrialization and technological advancement. Due to corruption and a mysterious incident still unexplained to this day—known as the "Devil's Night"—the attempt backfired. After a harsh and brutal civil war, Malistia returned to its old traditional and spiritual ways, which caused division within the country.
7. The fact that he was in Malistia, the "land of the elves," but had yet to encounter a single elf—having instead met a demi-human and a human—shows that the term refers only to the majority population being elves, not that only elves inhabit the country.
8. While the human country, Ilyar, is seen as an industrial and innovative nation, very little is known about the Aeth-Lands, the homeland of the demi-humans.
9. As is typical for an isekai situation like Yuki's, there appears to be magic in this world. However, Yuki wasn't quite sure how to conceptualize it yet.
Within just a few hours, Yuki had already built up a rough foundational knowledge. Still, he knew that meant little. He needed to gain well-rounded knowledge about this world as quickly as possible—and for that, he needed to get to a specific place:
The city library, which Yuki learned about through the Devil's Night documents, held a wealth of information for him.
The catch? It's in the capital city of Malistia—which, creatively enough, is also called Malistia.
To reach this library, Yuki had to focus on the resources he had.
And since he had practically nothing, he had to fully rely on Tom and Naomi.
The bad thing is, though Tom seemed very nice and caring toward him, there was a subtle tension in his way of speaking, as if he were afraid of Yuki or something.
And Naomi—well, she seemed pretty much annoyed by him.
His right eyelid twitched gently as the thought of their conversation crossed his mind.
>> The more I think of it the more I'd have preferred to bite my own tongue back then when saying those pseudo-smart things. <<
Yuki's actual intent to use his rather... sloppy chain of abductions, which he had quickly formed after noticing her reaction to his flirting attempt, to elicit a reaction from her had failed because of one single factor... Yuki himself.
He gripped the long strands of his hair so tightly that it almost hurt, yet snickered nevertheless.
>> As if anyone would ever actually show any emotion at this information dump. What the hell is wrong with me? <<
But it didn't matter anymore.
That meant Yuki had to do two things:
First, gain Tom's trust, as he was the one with authority.
Second, stabilize Naomi in some way. If she were to complain about him to Tom or anything similar, it could be over for Yuki immediately. He must somehow earn Tom's trust and ensure Naomi stayed quiet about him.
A soft sigh escaped his lips as he leaned back on the couch.
>> Wonderful, << he thought to himself, a smile crossing his lips.
>> I must admit, you have me there... But I won't freak out again. Not yet. I will explore this new world that you offer me so 'generously'. <<
With that, Yuki got up, eventually settling down on the couch. As soon as his bare feet touched the makeshift blanket Tom had given him, a sense of relaxation washed over him.
The exhaustion from his earlier experiences immediately washed over him, and he fell into a knockout-like sleep.