Open the Wonder

"After a month of travel, taking twice as long as we were expected to, we have finally arrived!"

Helena yelled loudly as they stood outside the edge of a particularly tall forest. This forest, as tall as some city buildings, its shadows tinted with a nightly blue, was apparently called the Hinterlands by the nearby humans and home by the elves.

"We certainly did have quite the set backs." Kaguya sighed, "Most of it wasn't our fault. I hope the elves understand."

"We did tell Zadkiel about all our adventures." Corissa fidgeted, "I hope he informed the elves as well."

"All we can do is wait." Roko sat down on a rock, "We can't enter the elven city without a guide so there's not much we can do anyways."

"Hope it doesn't take long." Helena yawned, "If only we had someone we could call other than Zadkiel."

"Anybody got anything to talk about?" Roland shrugged.

As his friends talked among themselves, Roko kept an eye on the woods. Their elf escorts could show up at any point so someone had to keep a lookout. There wasn't anything he could really add to their conversations anyway and there's always the risk of some dangerous animal just wandering out of the woods while they were busy and attacking them. Maybe a bear or a wolf or-

Roko's eyes suddenly focused on a pair of golden eyes that seemed to be looking at them from deep in the woods. No, not one pair, two pairs of eyes, their pupils a mystical gold color and seemingly floating in the middle of the shadows of the forest. No, if...Roko looked closer he could see the outlines of their figures. And Roko could swear he could see a pair of ears with them. Ears with an elongated tip.

Roko quickly stood up, his hand at the sword on his hip. Roko's party turned to look at him but the eyes he was watching soundlessly closed and melted back into the shadows, leaving without a trace of their presence remaining.

"Something up?" Helena called, "See the elves yet?"

"...No." Roko relaxed his hand on his sword, "Just a bear or something."

"I don't think they have bears in the Hinterland Forest." Kaguya thought aloud, "We're pretty far inland so I doubt a lot of normal species of animals are around."

"An owlbear then?" Momo suggested, "I've always wanted to fight an owlbear."

"Owlbears are a protected species here so we'll have to ask you to refrain from approaching them."

A gentle voice spoke out from within the forest, drawing everyone's attention to the appearance of two men dressed in natural looking beige and green gowns trimmed with yellow. The two smiled warmly, the tip of their elongated ears raised high.

"Welcome to our forest." One of the elves opened his arms welcomingly, "My name is Zelpher. This is my friend, Calx. We're here to guide you to our humble city."

"Good morning." Kaguya said as the princesses all bowed politely, "It's a pleasure to finally meet each other. I must thank you for suddenly accommodating us on such short notice."

"Well, it certainly was a surprise to hear that we'd have to prepare for a party of eight instead of one but we ended up having plenty of time after all those delays you kept reporting."

"Ahahahaha..." Kaguya laughed nervously, "My apologies."

"We can discuss the details of your trip later." Calx chuckled, "Come, let us introduce you to our queen."

"The elf queen huh?" Helena mused, "Wonder what she's like."

"Oh, she is the most beautiful woman in the city." Zelpher said as they all began to walk into the forest, "She's lived for almost a thousand years and has wisdom beyond compare."

"Oh really? We'd be honored to meet her."

As everyone settled into a comfortable flow of conversation, Roko kept to himself and thought back to the eyes he had seen. The golden eyes of these elves certainly seemed similar to the ones he had seen but their alabaster white skin would have stood out even in the shadows. Their brightly colored clothes would certainly be seen in the darkness too so unless there's some magic at play…

Roko decided to put the shadowy eyes out of his mind. There was no sense to confronting their hosts right now and first impressions are important. As strange as those eyes were, Roko wasn't genuinely sure they were malicious. From what he could tell, their guides didn't seem like they were related to the eyes so there was no reason to bring it up now. Not when they haven't even gotten acquainted with the culture yet. So Roko turned his attention back to the group and the forest ahead of him.

The Hinterland Forest was inexplicably dark. Multiple branches blocked out any natural sunlight from outside, yet there was a faint blue glow throughout the inside of the forest. This glow was plentiful enough that Roko could see as far as he normally could outside of the forest but with the plentiful shadows in between all the lights, it felt anything but safe. At least to Roko. From the conversations going on with Helena and Kaguya with their elven guides, the girls seemed to find the situation quite "mystical" and "charming." From the elves' explanation, it seems like this section of the forest was enchanted to specifically to throw off any interlopers that would try to enter their domain. Complex illusion magic that essentially created as space that would get any foolish enough to try to force their way in lost in the wood for the rest of their lives.

"Though that's only an exaggeration." Zelpher chuckled, "You'll be spit back out outside the forest eventually."

"Oh good." Helena said, "Do humans get lost in the woods often?

"Hmmm..." Calx mused, "Well, we don't really get reports of people entering our forest, much less getting lost. It's not a particular concern of ours. Humans are pretty good at getting themselves out of their own situations."

"Uh huh..." Kaguya said, unsure of how to take this information, "Perhaps we should've asked some of the nearby humans about the Hinterland Forest before we got here."

"Hinterland Forest?" Zelpher said, "That's only what the humans call our forest. We elves call it Arbrea."

"Arbrea." Helena nodded, "Is there a significance to that name?"

"It's inspired by the founder of our city, Lady Brea." Calx explained, "She chose to regrow this forest after a massive fire, tending to the trees and plants personally whist weaving powerful magic around them, starting from their seeds. It's her magic that protects our city from invaders and has allowed us to flourish so successfully."

"That's interesting." Kaguya smiled, "She did this all alone?"

"According to the scriptures, yes. She's considered the world's greatest druid."

"That's pretty impressive." Momo said, "Do we know what kind of magic she used?"

"We only have some small details. Most of it has been lost to time and reverse engineering the forest's magic is strictly prohibited."

"That makes sense."

"Ah, that's enough of that." Zelpher said, "We're almost to the city."

Sure enough, an emerald green hue had begun to take over the nightly blues and even bright yellow sunlight leaked out from the branches of the trees. Sounds of water, rustling leaves, could now be heard, finally breaking the eerie silence that Roko only now noticed permeated their blue excursion. And off in the distance, not too far off was a city in white surrounded in bright green foliage lit by warm sunlight. Buildings built with natural looking beige tiles that seemed to glow in the sunlight stood along side the trunks of giant trees that seem to have been carved into fancy natural homes. Two different styles of living coming together to meld with the harmony of nature.

"Welcome." Calx said proudly, "To Granreveria."

Entering the elven city of Granreveria, Roko found a settlement that on the surface looked barely above a normal rural village with unpaved roads, greenery and flowers growing around their homes with little supervision. But the architecture was more modern than any village, with a wild mixture of different types of structures. Multi level buildings, built out of smooth stone that brought Roko back to the smooth aesthetics that people claimed was the future all the way back in his original world, sat next to the homes carved inside a tree that they had seen in the distance. These two different aesthetics were all brought together with a collective natural color scheme. Simple beiges blended in with the browns and greens of the tree with spots of primary colors tastefully utilized in banners and trimmings as to not disrupt the bigger color schemes.

These colors bled into the clothes of the many elves dressed in robes and clothes of the primary beige, browns and greens with other colors making up a small part of the outfits. Every part of Granreveria was united in this tribute to nature. Except for that castle in the far back. The queen's castle was made of pure white stone, with roofs and towers that rose up into thin spikes. The castle itself was probably not more than two or three stories tall but these spikes rose nearly twice that height, scraping the very tops of the foliage above them. The closer that Roko came to this castle the more dizzying it became to see the very top of this elven castle.

"Pretty." Helena said as the girls gawked at everything, "I've never seen a place like this!"

"It's like a wonderland!"

"Truly a marvel."

"Thank you for your kind words." Calx smiled as he lead the group down the main road.

Roko followed silently, quietly watching the group look over the city. Looking over the city was fine but Roko's attention had soon turned to observing the people, the elves, who were all just as curiously watching them. But it was happening again. Two parties regarding each other with amusement. But this time, Roko was doing his best to ignore what he was hearing.

"Are those the humans?"

"Those girls look so pretty. Are they princesses?"

"They have some scary looking knights."

"But those girls are really pretty...especially that one girl..."

"Look, do you see that one? Aren't her breasts obscene?"

"Seriously, is she a cow? What's with that curvy body? Is she showing off?"

"Are all human women like that? What's the queen thinking, letting a whore like that into our city?"

Most of the harsher remarks seem to be coming from female elves though Roko was doing his best to ignore what some of the male elves were saying. It wasn't anything he hadn't already heard out of Roland's mouth but that didn't make him feel much better. Roko knew there wasn't a way he could punish all of them nor was he particularly inclined. But the real question was why the other girls didn't seem to notice.

"Hey Roko."

Roko looked up as Helena glanced towards him with a curious look.

"What's wrong? Feeling a bit sick from all the mana around here?"

"No, I..." Roko sighed, "I'm just trying to ignore it."

"Ignore what?"

"Do you not hear what the elves are saying?"

"What the elves are saying?" Helena looked around, confused, "What do you mean?"

"They're being rude to Corissa."

"They are?! Wait wait wait." Helena said loudly as everyone stopped in front of the castle to look at Roko, "You can understand them?!"

"Yeah?" now it was Roko who was confused, "Do you not hear them?"

The girls all turned to look at each other in surprised before they turned back to him.

"Roko." Helena said, "They're speaking Elven."

"They're what?!" Roko cried, "What do you mean they're speaking Elven?! I can hear them just fine."

"Hold on." Kaguya cut in, "Roko, can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, you didn't say anything weird or put on an accent or anything."

The girls all looked at each other again, spooked.

"Roko, I was speaking in Kojinori."

Roko was stunned as the girls glanced at each other with intrigue.

"What does this mean?" Corissa asked.

"It seems like Roko can understand any languages." Kaguya explained, "Or rather, he understands all languages as one language."

"Huh." Helena said, "But can he can speak Elven? There's not much of a point to understanding if you can't communicate."

"There's a chance that he can." Kaguya nodded, "If I'm understanding this correctly, we might not actually even be speaking the same language as he is, he's just interpreting it as one he does understand."

"Okay, so what now?" Roko frowned, "Do you want me to go and give some elves hell for what they said to test out if I can speak elven?"

"Sure." Helena smirked.

"Sounds like it's worth a try." Kaguya nodded.

"I mean, if they're being rude, you should say something right?" Momo shrugged.

"I don't think it's a good idea." Corissa said.

"Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't cause trouble on the first day that we're here." Roko sighed.

"Yeah I guess so."

"Now that you mention it, that's probably for the best."

"That's Roko for you. Always reasonable."

Corissa just looked at the other girls, exasperated.

"Ahem." Zelpher coughed awkwardly, "If anything our people are saying are bothering you, I do apologize. We don't see humans around all that often, especially in our city so you're quite the novelty. I'll try to calm the residents down."

"And do what, go around telling everyone to be careful with that they say? Release a public decree to be more mindful? It's fine. They were using their own language to try and communicate privately. It's not their fault that someone turned out to be able to hear them, not even the person in question himself expected to overhear them. Let's just call it a misdemeanor on both our parts and just forget it. Either way, the only one who has the right to be mad is Corissa."

Everyone turned to look at Corissa who looked a bit pained at the news but also depressingly used to it, "What kind of things were they saying?"

"...Let's call them a lot of backhanded complements." Roko replied.

"...I see." Corissa said with a painful smile, "I don't know what they were saying but I can imagine. It's fine, I...I'm used to it."

"Aw sweetie..." Helena said as she hugged the discomforted Corissa.

"You have our thanks." Zelpher bowed, "And our apologies. Most elves here know at least a bit of human language so it is no less disheartening to hear these kind of things said in our native tongue. Rest assured, I'll make a point of it with the queen in private later."

"But first, we better introduce ourselves then." Roko said, "Let's continue."

Zelpher and Calx guided the group into the castle. Being closer to the castle now, Roko could see that the castle was built with both white and beige stone, the two blending together at a distance but the white, while only slightly off from the beige hues, still created a nice subtle break that helped outline the entire structure. And as soon as they reached the throne room, they could see a beam of sunlight, shining down like a spotlight on the throne in the back. Placed atop two large stages, the group looked up at the elven queen, a stern looking, voluptuous elf with long blond hair and emerald green eyes that looked down at them almost disapprovingly.

"Behold!" Zelpher cried, "The elven queen of the capital city of Granreveria. Her wisdom and knowledge known far and wide. Her majesty, Queen Rivera!"

"Welcome." Rivera said in no way that felt welcoming, "Guests from afar."

"Our humblest greetings, Queen Rivera."Kaguya said as everyone bowed politely, "It's an honor to meet you."

"Let us cut the chatter." Rivera said coldly, "The only reason you are here is because I owed Zadkiel a favor. The only reason why more than one of you are here is because she exploited a loophole in our agreement. Now you arrive over a month later than expected."

"Erm...our apologies." Kaguya gulped.

"I hear your journey was quite arduous so I don't hold you responsible per say, But do recognize that we've had to prepare lodgings in advance that was left unused for much longer than we anticipated."

"Y-Yes ma'am..."

"Which one of you was the original student that had agreed to come abroad? The one named Roko?"

"That's me, ma'am." Roko stood up a bit anxious but trying to face the queen as bravely as he could.

"You're here to come learn magic, I understand?"

"That's the gist of it, yes."

"Hmph. Well, you'll find our elven practices are quite different from your human ones. I hope you're prepared to learn with an open mind."

"Human practices haven't exactly been working for me so I look forward to seeing your people's way of magic."

"Good. As for the rest of your group, I understand that you're all princesses but know that you will not be treated with any special privileges should you commit any misdemeanors. Understood?"

Roko's group all made a verbal agreement that seemed to satisfy the queen's mood.

"Zelpher and Calx will show you to your lodgings. We will meet again in the next morning to discuss what exactly you all will be doing during your stay. Until then, get yourselves situated. You are dismissed."