Chapter 5 - Learning about The Continent

Alex speaks out of shock, "I can understand your words".

"I am glad you are able to understand my words. So, can you please tell me why you came to my establishment?", The woman asks.

"What do you mean? It's an inn, I came to spend the night. I needed sleep. I should be the one asking questions. Who are these girls? Who are you and what do you want? If it's your establishment. You sure are not taking care of your customers.", He expressed his words whilst being confused by the whole ordeal.

She was holding the white card which Alex had received from the guard at the city gate. She slammed the card on the table. She crossed her hands. She looks at Alex as if he is an idiot. She speaks in a gentle tone, "How can you not know what this place is? It's a brothel... And we serve great food."

He says in a lower tone agreeing with the woman, "The food was great."

She claps her hand twice. The girls sleeping on the bed wake up and leave. He gives out a forced smile at those women who didn't show any emotions to him. He waited for the woman to speak again. The woman resumed, "Yesterday, you came to our establishment and paid 15 silver coins. We provided clothes and food. But when we came to provide you with our topmost girls. You were asleep. Those two girls had pleasured each other and went to sleep beside you. You didn't wake up despite all that. I had to wake up early and come see you."

Alex spoke, stuttering, "They...did what?"

"They waited for you to wake up. But you were in pretty deep sleep. So they were bored. I watched, it looked like a very funny situation. You missed out on some great action."

"It certainly is a great establishment. But I am hungry, can we get some food?."

"You can go freshen up. Someone will get us breakfast."

"Us?"

"I am already here. Do you want me to not have breakfast?"

"No. Have your breakfast, I will wash my face."

He comes out of the bathroom and the food is already on the dining table. She is already eating. The breakfast has too many dishes. There was too much stuff to eat. She says, "Eat whatever you want."

He digs into the food. After a few minutes she says, "Enjoying the food. Now can you please answer a few of my questions, Mr. Alexander."

He says, "What do you want to know? Just to let you know I won't be paying for those girls. I was asleep the whole time."

The woman says, "I came early in the morning to ask you a question about your journey through the woods. I heard about you from a gate guard. Did you fight the guardians of the woods? Were there any other beasts?"

He chomps on his food and says, "What do you mean by beasts? There were no such things. It was a quiet place. I came with an old man, he gave me a ride through the woods."

She speaks after a pause, "Oh that old crook. For him to be nice to someone, this is rare."

He says, "Do you want anything more? I am done with my food. I need a few things from you. Can you get me some normal clothes and a map of the city? I want to visit the library and a few more places."

The Woman says, "I have a lot of questions. But let's do that later tonight. I'll send someone to your room. He will take care of your needs."

He says, "Thank you!"

She picks up his pouch and takes some money out of it. She speaks in a justified way, "It's for the girls."

He exclaims, "But I didn't get to do 'ANYTHING'!"

She leaves him begging for his money. Soon a staff member comes through the door with some clothes and leaves without speaking. Alex wanted to ask about the map but didn't get a chance. He wore his new outfit and it fitted to his body perfectly. He wondered how they knew his perfect size. But he didn't bother with it and left the room in a hurry. He needed to find some answers about this world.

He goes to the desk which is down the stairs. He asks the desk guy, "I didn't receive a map of the city. The owner said she will provide me with it."

The desk guy brings out the map from below the desk and proceeds to speak, "Not everyone can have this map. This map is only used by nobility. Commoners and foreigners are not allowed to have it. The Madame has asked me to inform you to keep the map safe."

Alex guesses probably because of military reasons and safety of the city. Probably that's why not everyone can have it. He says thank you for the map and takes it from the desk. He leaves the inn which was still full in the morning, people having breakfast. He remembered then that it was a brothel with delicious food.

He steps into the city's streets. To find the secrets of the city. He wants to get done with whatever missions he would get. He wanted to think about his next move with his new life.

He is five foot 11 inches long. The brothel owner gave him flashy attire. He had the body of a nineteen year old. His face was pretty clean with short wavy shiny black hair. He looked a lot like a part of the nobility. So him walking into the city now was garnering a lot of attention.

He walks to where he had seen the castle from before. He reaches the open area after a while. He opens the map which is very detailed. It has a lot of legends on it. He sees something moving on the map. He dismisses it as it is still now. He thinks he must be imagining. He finds the open area he's at. He finds that the library is only a few hundred metres from here. He walks to the library trying to avoid people's gaze. He thinks of buying some normal clothes afterwards. He reaches the library. The guard asks for identity. He shows the white card he had received at the entrance. He gains the entry. He wanted to go to the temple first, but he couldn't find the temple of The Goddess with the symbol she had provided. So he went to the library instead to find more information.

The white card that was created by the gate guard was a temporary identity. It was issued with just the name and it's validity written in it. The card was valid for 6 months.

The library seems like a small tall building from the outside but on the inside it is a huge wall of books. All you could see is walls covered with books and pillars supporting the building. There were hundreds of people in the library. He walked toward the geography floor and he could see there are few people sitting on the common table. The library is divided into sections by floors. There is also a common area where you can go with multiple books and read. It is made in this way, so people can discuss the subject on the same floor with similar people of similar interests.

He gets a few books with information about the continent, the country and the kingdoms. There are not many books in the geography section. This means there are many places to explore and wander around in this world. Alex got to work on those books skimmed through the important information he needs right now.

He finds out that this is a world with a history of war among five countries of this continent. It is a large continent with two human kingdoms. Alex felt that he had come to a fantasy world after learning there exist Elves and Dwarfs and on top of all that 'Magic'. There are beasts in the world. Two kingdoms belonged to Elves and Dwarfs. There is one more kingdom ruled by humans but people here have excluded that country from being any part of civilization. It's called The Wild Kingdom. The people live in the wild with the beasts. They are considered an oddity by everyone. They are hated because they control beasts, and many people die from beast attacks around the continent. That's the reason they've been shunned by the community.

The country Alex is in is the largest human country. This country is the leading force of this continent. The most powerful country. They've never lost their land to any neighbouring country. This country is named as Kingdom of Dracus. It is named after the first king who united the lands to form a small country. Eighty percent of the country's land was attained because of King Dracus. The kingdom has managed to not lose a single land in all these years. They've managed to get more over the years.

The Elven kingdom has the second biggest kingdom and The Wild Kingdom follows them. The dwarven kingdom being the fourth largest. But they have great mechanical advancement to their lands which have prevented invaders countless times.

The smallest kingdom of the continent is the neighbouring country of Kingdom of Dracus. This kingdom has lost most of its lands to the Kingdom of Dracus. The smallest kingdom was made by uniting small nations who didn't agree with the Kingdom of Dracus. This kingdom has only four hundred years of history. They've managed to set a foothold against the Kingdom of Dracus. In recent years they've made deals with the Kingdom of Dracus to bring back peace among the people. They still have huge hate for The Kingdom of Dracus.

All the countries' information is very limited. Most of the information is stolen or attained during war. With limited information, there isn't much to learn.

They have found a new continent but the trade is very limited. The coastal regions of The Kingdom of Dracus have made contact with people from across the sea. They've maintained a friendly relationship with little trading. This is one of the many reasons for the recent peace between the civilised countries. If a war is declared from a different continent, they plan to unite. The Kingdom of Dracus has claimed that the relationship is friendly to the people. There is no chance of a war. In a few years they plan to extend the trading and the relationship between the two continents. It takes months to travel across the ocean to the other continent.

Alex has learned enough information on the continent. He continued reading more about the capital and the descendants of the royal family. He read about the rules and law that citizens abide by. He read about the beasts that people are so afraid of. He read about religions and gods that each country follows and believes in. But he couldn't find the mention of the Goddess he had met after his death.

After enough reading, he realised that he had spent the whole day at the library. He still has many questions but there were no answers to them yet. He went out of the library to go back to the inn.

He wanders around on the way to the inn. He tried some snacks from the local vendors' stalls in the market. Now that the communication is easy, he talked with a lot of vendors and figured out the money system of the country. He also could read, which made him adjusted well to his surroundings. It is better than how it was yesterday. He knew the side-view of the bearded man was 'King Dracus III'. He reached the inn and could read the sign which clearly read as 'Brothel'. Under Brothel there is a small board attached with two chains, it read as 'We Serve the Best Food'.

He enters the establishment and sees the crowd is still as loud as it was yesterday. He felt the mornings are better with people just enjoying breakfast quietly. As he walked towards the stairs to go to his room, he felt a sensation around his hand. He thinks if this is someone who has come to kill him, he will die in a second. He feels powerless, he realises the weakness of being a normal human in this world filled with the unknown. He turns to see the person who has approached him. He sees the owner of this establishment.

The woman whispers in Alex's ear, "Did I scare you?"

He replies while calming his own nerves, "No. I was just..., Am I so special that the owner receives me personally from the entrance?"

"I've just taken an interest in you. To me it feels that you have answers to the world that no one else can provide me with."

"Okay. Let's go to the room.", Alex says while looking all round.

Everyone has eyes on Alex. They were staring. It's because The Madame had her hand around some guy. People's envy and hatred could be seen. The woman says, "Don't worry, They all love me. They won't act discourteous."

They walked up the stairs. The quietness stayed until They were out of sight. The usual loudness resumed as soon as they entered the room.

He says, "You seem famous and I don't even know your name."

"They call me 'The Madame', It sticks with my work."

"What did they call you before?"

"I was known as Liz before I became The Madame of this establishment."

"That's a pretty name. Let's sit and have a talk. I guess you have a lot of questions for me and I have a lot to ask you as well. I still don't understand why you are so interested in me."

She talks in a serious tone, "It's because of your eyes. Everyone's eyes speak for their soul. Your eyes seem stuck between life and death. Your soul is pitch dark with no light. It's filled with pain, rage, anger and bloodlust. If unleashed, it could bring catastrophe to the whole world."

"What do you mean? My eyes are just brown.", He says laughingly brushing off the topic.

"You're the first person to ever baffle me. It's impossible for a soul like this to exist. You have the darkest soul. It blocks me from seeing more. I can't tell your true nature. That's why I wanted to know your objective in coming here. I wanted to know who you are? Where have you come from? What is your purpose?"

"You're making a big deal out of nothing. And I see no reasons to indulge in your curiosity. As time goes on, you will know more."

She keeps quiet. She knows he is not opening up. She takes a step back and leaves the room. He is not able to ask questions he has.

He is relieved and thinks that he needs to come with a proper backstory for his life here. For that he needs to learn more about the world and contact The Goddess. As he is thinking. A voice popped in his head, "Why haven't you visited me yet?, you stupid buffoon."

It's The Goddess, he couldn't believe he was hearing her right in his head. He responds quickly, "I couldn't find your temple!"

She says, "Just visit any temple near you. I can't talk much like this. It drains on me."

He says, "Okay, I'll visit tomorrow."