New Land

-----Fabian's POV

Rina: "Ready?"

Fabian: "Mm."

To be honest, I was tempted to just stay inside the room with Rina, as our hug from earlier really put me in the mood to just relax with her. But my curiosity of what other parts of the castle is like did outweigh that desire, so I guess we can relax later.

Rina: "Uhm, but before that. I do need to have a certain- image?"

Fabian: "Mm, that's correct."

Rina: "Okay good."

It's amazing how far she's come with the language now as we now only have a few problems here and there, but nothing major that we'd have a bad misunderstanding like last time.

Rina: "So, please don't get upset."

Fabian: "Got it."

I'm aware that I'm a hostage at the end of the day, so it'd be bad for Rina if we were seen happily together like how we usually are during our study sessions. Pfft. But to think my first date would be something like this... Would this even be considered a date?

Regardless, Rina opened the door to the room as she waited for me by the doorway, almost as if she wants to be there with me as I experience my new found freedom. I take a couple steps forward before both Rina and I pass through the door, and for the first time in god knows how long, I'm finally seeing what it looks like outside this room. The first thing I see is a short path before seeing stairs going down before going back up to the same level as us to another room on the other side. The stairs also split off at an intersection, going down to the left that reach to a lower floor, and to the right is an opening of sorts. This is the first time I'm seeing the inside of the castle, but I can already guess that the room I'm in is probably not the king's chambers as it seems like it could be somewhere to the right instead.

Fabian: "S-so, where do we go?"

Rina: "I figured you could choose."

She gave a smile at me which I thought was a bit surprising considering what she said just earlier, but I guess there's not really any other monsters around us so it should be fine. But me choosing? That's quite a difficult question to-

Rina: "Ah, but maybe not downstairs? I don't want to risk anything."

Fabian: "Oh? Is there a lot of people down there?"

Rina: "Well, yes, but I was thinking more about you. I'm scared your ankles might not be strong enough to go down and up the stairs..."

I feel my face immediately begin to burn up as I avert my gaze from Rina. I didn't expect her to say something like that! But it makes me unbelievably happy knowing that she cares about me enough to worry about something like that.

Rina: "Pfft. Did I say something weird?"

Fabian: "N-not at all."

Rina: "Good, then which is it? Straight ahead, or right?"

Fabian: "Straight..."

Rina: "Perfect."

She looks almost proud of herself for getting a rouse out of me, but I won't complain. This little adventure has already proven to be quite wonderful already because of her. I won't dampen her mood with stupid things and just accept her and her care.

We walk forward, but I notice Rina is intentionally walking slow in order to match my pace which I honestly wouldn't of noticed before if I wasn't already conscious of how caring she is. We soon came to the short set of stairs that led down before branching off to the left. I notice Rina looking down the stairs to the left before she quickly extending her hand to me. Is she asking me to take it?

Rina: "Don't worry. No one is downstairs at the moment."

Fabian: "O-okay."

I take her hand gently as she slowly leads me down the 5 steps. I wouldn't think it would be too bad, but it's honestly a bit worse than when I showed off my small jumps the other day. Maybe it's because of me putting all my weight onto one foot with each step. However, I can feel Rina trying to take a good portion of my weight with each step I take as we managed to walk down the steps with no problems.

Rina: "Good. Now to go up these ones... You ready?"

She took another moment to look down the stairs to our left to check once more if there's anyone down there. It sort of makes this "date" of ours feel like quite a sneaky one, like we're up to no good. But I suppose I shouldn't waste anymore time.

Fabian: "Mm."

It was surprisingly easier to walk up the stairs as I barely put any of my weight on Rina as we quickly walked up the 5 steps, now facing the door to the other room.

Rina: "You okay?"

Fabian: "Yeah. It wasn't too bad."

Rina: "Good. I was a little worried with how fast you were going."

Fabian: "Thank you."

I take her hand this time, which caused Rina to panic a little, but we're now out of sight from downstairs so she quickly calmed down. But it was nice to get that little payback for what she said earlier which did get a chuckle out of me.

Rina: "Mmmm."

Fabian: "Haha. Come on."

We held hands up until we got to the door. Rina was about to open the door, but paused for a moment before turning to face me. She gave a serious look as if now's not the time to be fooling around as I quickly brush the smile off my face and instead put on the same serious face like Rina. And without a word, she opens the door. The first thing I notice is the smell coming from the room as I immediately guessed that we're probably close to some kind of kitchen. Rina walked a bit ahead of me as we soon turned a corner. But upon turning the corner, four dark elves could be seen inside, gathered around a table. One of them quickly took notice of us, causing the other three to turn their gazes over to us.

Dark Elf1: "Rina!~ 山乇ㄥ匚ㄖ爪乇 乃卂匚Ҝ"

Rina: "卄乇ㄥㄥㄖ 乇ᐯ乇尺ㄚㄖ几乇."

They of course spoke in their own language, but I'm surprised that I understood what that elf was saying despite my small knowledge of their language.

Dark Elf2: "山卄ㄖ'丂 ㄒ卄卂ㄒ 山丨ㄒ卄 ㄚㄖㄩ?"

Dark Elf3: "丨丂 ㄒ卄卂ㄒ ㄒ卄乇 爪卂ㄒ尺丨卂尺匚卄'丂 卩乇ㄒ?"

Rina: "ㄚ乇丂"

And there goes my understanding. I picked up on the word "matriarch" so I guess maybe their asking about me? It was then that one of the dark elves stood up before slowly approaching us. She looked arguably the most intimidating out of the bunch, even standing taller than me as I end up looking slightly up at her, meanwhile Rina is roughly my height, maybe a tad bit smaller. The dark elf locked eyes with me, causing my body to tense up before I quickly avert my eyes as I figure it might be seen as some kind of challenge to her, I'm not sure.

Dark Elf: "Thanks for saving my daughter."

But the words to leave her mouth were surprisingly in my language, and maybe even more surprising was the fact that this elf is actually Rina's mother? She doesn't look that old, if anything she looks like she could be Rina's sister. But I guess elves do age differently.

Fabian: "I..."

Rina: "Mom. You're scaring him."

Rina's Mom: "I am? Sorry. My apologies."

So she wasn't aware of how intimidating she was? Her face is on the scarier side, but I guess that's not something someone can control. I quickly try and steady myself, breathing a sigh of relief in hopes to alleviate some stress.

Rina's Mom: "My name is Alenia. I'm Rina's mother."

Fabian: "N-nice to meet you. My name's Fabian."

I somehow manage to introduce myself properly while looking her in the eyes. The smile she gives me does make her seem far less intimidating as I soon quickly calm down.

Rina: "Mom has been the main person that has been teaching me your language."

Fabian: "Wait, really?"

Alenia: "And it's amazing how much you learnt. Took me much longer to learn myself."

Rina: "That's because you had no one to teach you back then. So I'm glad to have a great teacher like you."

Alenia: "Aww~"

She pulls Rina into a hug before parting a few moments later. Thanks to seeing Alenia acting like this, I've completely relaxed now, knowing that I'm not in any danger from being here.

Alenia: "Did you two want to join us?"

Rina: "Sure!"

She accepted almost immediately, but she then halted before turning to face me with a somewhat concerned face, as if she's asking me if this is alright. Just from her accepting so quickly makes me feel like this is okay. Her mom seems nice, so maybe the others are also the same. I give a small nod as Rina smiles once more.... God, she's too cute right now.