5 Another World?

Oi, oi, oi, oi, oi! Where am I? I asked myself while surrounded by cat people. They all looked European and spoke some sort of Germanic language that I could somewhat understand. Wait, why can I understand what they are saying?

"Iris? That's the name you choose?"

"Yes."

The doctor looked between the woman and the man as they spoke a bit more. I examined them for a bit, they seemed to wear a sort of noble clothes that I could sure as hell point out in my medieval textbook. The man had black gloves and a knife on his belt of gold linen. The woman was sweating on the bed like she just gave birth... wait she did give birth! To me! I tried to talk but all that came was a crying noise. Ah, I didn't realize it. I'm crying.

God, I sound annoying. A garbled word came out of my mouth. "Aughlarb." The woman laughed before taking me in her arms. Oh my God. This has got to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. A few moments later, I was laid into a wooden crib of sorts. The fabric of the sheets was scratchy on my skin and felt immensely uncomfortable. The next few hours were quite boring as I tried to force my gibberish into actual feasible language. I was only able to make out a few English words with great difficulty and they sounded like blather. I soon overheard a conversation.

"The child seems to be trying to communicate?"

"Is this your first time handling a child? All children drivel on like that. It started a bit early for her though, perhaps signs of a genius?"

"You know? That 'drivel' you are referencing sounds quite similar to the Nordish?"

Nordish? What was that supposed to mean? Norwegian? A slightly crowded group of maids decided to hang some sort of book in front of me. They wanted me to read?

"No response. What did I say? There's no way she'd know a language from a Nordward country, she was only just born!"

"Let me fantasize! It was only a small poke at fun."

I turned back to the pages of the book. Eh? This 『Nordish』 language... is strangely... similar to English? Perhaps I got sent back in time? No, they have cat ears... it has to be another world. Though, how would they know our language?

"Look! Look! She's reading!ー"

"What are you fools doing! Stop bothering the poor infant!"

Another maid, just a tad shorter than the rest, marched up to my place of resting. Perhaps the head maid? The maid brought her finger to my mouth and began making a hushing sound.

"It's alright my child... it's alright..."

She turned up to the other group of maids and shooed them off. Ugh, I never thought I would be treated like this, ever! What a misfortune.

❈

Two years. Two years have passed since the day I was reincarnated as a newborn girl named Iris. Of course, I've learned much more about this world since then. The map of it looked nothing close to any maps of the ancient world I saw in my history book, this confirms the fact that this is a completely different world. They also seem to map the left and right to grow colder. The East and West are known as Eri and Wen in this world, and Eri and Wen seem to replace the North and South. The North and South are named the Nord and the Surd. This seems to be an age of imperialism, there are only a few main nations. There even seem to be superpowers in this classical age world. We lay in the Ryuusian Imperium, smack dab in the middle of the map.

We appear to be about the size of France or Germany. We are nearly purely beastmen and we speak the 『Gaelish』 language. Surrounding us is the Gaelyn Reich, an empire consisting of elves and humans, and one of the two superpowers. The Gaelyn Reich speaks 『Gaelish』 just like our nation. The Gaelyn Reich is split into two, the Greater Reich and the Lesser Reich. The Lesser Reich borders us to the Eri and the Greater Reich borders us to the Wen, only split by a large rushing river. Actually, our whole nation seems to be surrounded by rivers, the only part of our nation that touches land is a large strip to the Eri that touches the Lesser Reich. Interestingly enough, we used to rule the Lesser Reich as part of our Imperium, but during the Gaelyn Wars of Expansion a few centuries ago, they used the river system to ambush our military force. We retreated to this land that we are in now, a lush green land that contrasts with the surrounding territories. We currently have a rapidly depleting force of around 20,000 men.

Surdward of the Gaelyn Reich is the Nordian Unification. The language they speak is 『Nordian』 and is not to be confused with 『Nordish』 which is actually the language of the nations up Nord. The Nordian Unification is a mix of elvish people and human people. It is a close ally of the Gaelyn Reich and is a mixture of many tribes and clans which wished for peace. Right below our Imperium is the four nations that form the Trade Coalition. Ain, Urd, Nir, and Auf. They are usually dark elves or beastmen and they speak 『Derven』. They trade with anyone they like and together are powerful enough to ward of superpowers. Wen of them is the Dervs. Purely, dwarves, they are split into two nations. The nation of Greater Derv is a technological powerhouse and a great trade ally. Then, there is Eri-Derv. A puppet nation established by the Surd Imperium just below during the Surdish Wars of Expansion.

The Surd Imperium is the other superpower which is a mix of dwarves and humans and is so large it is split into four territories. The Eri Territories, the Nord Territories, and the Wen Territories. The Wen territories inhabit what was previously part of the Derven Unification. The Nord Territories lay where Nir and Auf once had territory in, the only thing that stopped the Surdish from continuing Nordward was the formation of the Trade Coalition. The Eri Territories are where Ork Tribes used to be, the Surds quickly invaded the territory. Of course, there is the mainland, which is really an island far down Surd. The Surd Imperium is a rival of the Gaelyn Reich and the Eri Territories often clash with the Lesser Reich.

Finally, the most Nordward nation is the Desert Empire. A land too devoid of nature for the Gaelyn Reich to invade. They usually speak Nordian or Gaelish and are usually too lazy to participate in normal politics. What intrigues me is far up Nord-Eriward they predict a large landmass. Any attempts to travel to it leads to destruction. Proof of it is that the only ship that returned on fire with no survivors and a large burning rod shot right through the ship. Similarly, there is a visible landmass just Surd-Wenward but it is so cold no one dares to travel near it.

What interests me most is languages.

『Nordian』

Sounds strangely similar to Dutch and Deutsch and is definitely a Germanic type of language. It is very similar to Gaelish.

『Gaelish』

Very similar to Deutsch and is of course a Germanic language. It is really similar to Nordian.

『Nordish』

Nordish sounds and is written like English in our world. It sounds like the extinct language of Frisian at closest.

『Derven』

Derven sounds like a romance language, most similar to it is French. That is where the similarity ends since the language is written in characters.

『Surdish』

Surdish is a Slavic language and you cannot convince me otherwise. It looks a lot like Russian or something of the sort. Don't ask me about that though, I can't read Russian well.

I finished writing my notes on the page. I could barely read my notes, it was legible enough though. A maid picked me up and squished my cheek. Ugh. I still can't get used to that. Of course, I deployed my special attack. I began crying.

"Aww... sorry about that. It's time for your mealtime. Huh? What's this?"

The maid picked up my notepad. "You really like the Nordish don't you? You are even trying to imitate their language! You have a long way to go." She examined the pages before dropping them to the side. No! My hard work! Wrinkled!

As you can see from my situation, we have maids. Lots and lots of maids. Just like back on Earth. It's felt like an eternity since then, huh? I stopped asking myself how my friends were doing a few months ago. I rarely compare things to back on Earth now. This is my new world now, I just have to deal with it.

I was sat down at a large table. Oh. My. God. That slush looks divine. I reached for the bowl of slush as my father walked in. He laughed at the image he saw. "You are incredibly cute." He brushed aside my hair and began spoon-feeding me the slush. Normal maids would be horrified by the sight but this was just the normal behavior of this man. He was the Duke of Ryuusia and my father. Alongside me, there are two other daughters and one brother. I am the second youngest of them. Sofia was the oldest of us at seven years old. My brother, Aleid, came right after and is five years old. The youngest of us all is Emilia and she was born only a month ago. Gladly, my mother is deciding to not have any more children.

Though we are the Duchy of Ryuusia, we aren't very rich by normal terms. Ryuusia is a very contested land and due to the countless skirmishes we've fought with the Gaelyn Reich, our army is smaller than ever. Even so, this family feels like a real family. We don't boast our wealth or power, we just seem like any run-of-the-mill family and we enjoy each other's company. Other than us children though, we despise each other down to the bone.

I mean, seriously. Down to the very atom.

❈

"Got your soldier toy!" Aleid stuck his tongue out at Sofia. "Give it ba～ack! That took forever to make! Meanie!" "Aleid, you're a moron." I pointed at Aleid and insulted him. "Give it back to Sofia!" "You're only five!" Aleid pushed against my forehead. "Ironic! I'm five and I seem to be more mature than you." I retorted with a smirk and a giggle left Sofia's mouth. "Mah-toor?" Emilia imitated me. Aleid clicked his tongue and tossed the toy back to Sofia. "You're seven years old, act like you're seven." I scolded Aleid. He pouted and his tail shrunk down.

Damn, it's been five years in this world and I still am not used to seeing beast people. Surprisingly, I got used to my new tail and ears quite quickly. And there goes my question about wondering what happened to human ears if you became a beast person, the beast ears nearly cover the area where the human ears are! A total replacement. We also bear sharp and retractable nails. Most efficiently used at threatening your older brother who hates using his nails. He cowered as I sharpened my nails, using my malicious expression as an addition to my threat. "Iris! No threatening your brother!" My mother rushed over to pick me up, visible sweat on her forehead. "Sorry, mom," I said, obviously not meaning it. She picked up the clue and switched her gaze to Aleid. "What did you do?"

"He stole my toy!" Sofia scowled at him. "Sofia, you're ten years old now. You shouldn't be caring much about toys. The Ryuu family's son is learning to wield a sword and he's only nine!"

"Yeah! But he is a boy! And he is part of the Royal family! That's their job, to protect us!" She huffed but her wagging tail betrayed her. Mother smirked. "Ah, I see you too, want to learn the ways of the sword." "Mom! Don't say it like that!"

My eyes widened. A sword. I loved weapons. Muskets, rifles, city leveling bombs, and swords! I tugged on my mom's coat. She turned to me and gave a slight smile. "You're only five, I know you are very smart but at least wait a couple of years." "NO! I want to do it now!" I cried out.

Wait, I don't remember being this childish.

She sighed and gave in. "Fine, we'll get both you and Sofia and instructor, but only if you both do well on your studies, all right?"

My face shone in happiness. "Thanks, mom!"

...

My face was bruised and I was sitting on the dirt ground, head spinning.

Yeah, sword training isn't really that fun.