[Narrator]
The hallway is wide and offers space for at least five people to walk together. The hallway is made with modesty and harmony in mind.
The floor is a simple mix of white and gray stones placed in a symmetrical pattern while the walls and the roofing are mostly left to their own devices.
The wall is made of wood. Planks of dark wood with intricate carvings. One might think but the carvings are the natural patterning of the wood. After being processed with a special film of water and dust resistant liquid the wall is preserved in its 'fresh' state. The walls themselves are beautiful and fit the modest and natural style the courtyards are fashioned by.
This natural beauty is only further enhanced by the wild nature that slowly conquered the walls.
All types of plants extend their leaves and branches onto the walls, roofing and the garden towards the left. Normally these plants should be removed but this is not the case.
Somehow the plants are not growing uncontrollably but rather form beautiful structures of leaves and wood.
Solely the hallways floor is spared from the plant's invasion.
The beautiful thing about this natural beauty is that every single pattern is unique. The plants work their way up the walls and roofing and form what can only be called art from chaos.
On one particular hallway, one of the High One's guards is escorting a young girl along its path.
Along the way, they meet several other people. All of them are female and offer a bow to the woman and the girl.
They have all been informed that a young girl has arrived in the town and is currently in their courtyard. They were advised by Mina, the most trusted subordinate of the High One, to be as courteous as possible to the young girl and call her either Young Lady of Miss.
When they asked for the reason she only said that she herself is unclear but even their master is very courteous and respectful around her. As well as protective.
While many became even more curious after hearing her, no one wanted to take chances with the little girl. They did not fear any big repercussions but it could not hurt to be careful. Furthermore, who would want to scare or hurt a little girl?
After meeting the little girl they were smitten by her appearance.
Her get-up with the pink shirt, the red pants, and her faint pink socks is just adorable.
Her skin color, which is a very light brown, would normally seem a bit off with such 'weak' individual colors but her cute face and her green jacket somehow empower the colors and form a perfect balance between this color-mess.
Her curious gaze that scours the surroundings and fixes itself on the plants and flowers lining the garden and walls makes her seem like a very active and excited girl.
Contrary to her personal preference of being calm and collected she unintentionally shows her true interest.
Of course, they all notice how she tries to keep her excitement down.
Well, let's say it only serves to intensify their desire to grab and cuddle her.
The person herself is rather frustrated by her lack of composure. She knows that she is simply a girl. Her species doesn't remove her basic growth, both mental and physical. It simply develops differently.
Inquiring with her A.I, she demands an answer as to why she is so easily influenced.
*Answer*
The host is currently in a state of development that is universal for all young Protoss.
Normally this stage would appear after at least two months of familiarising themselves with the inheritance and their surroundings.
At that point, the Hive will initiate an influx of emotions that will slowly grow until it went through ten years of growth based on human children.
The emotional growth of human children is used as human children undergo one of the most significant personal developments among many races. Several, theoretically, better races are unsuited for a Protoss and as such human children were chosen.
This process is used to introduce the young Protoss to the existence of emotions and their influence on living beings. As the host might have noticed, your interaction with Idan as well as Emma and her group has kickstarted your emotional development.
This itself would not be a problem but the injury caused by the emergence of the Black Reaper has unlocked a special scenario in the Hive's database.
As a form of security, the whole process of emotional development has been started and reduced to a time frame of three weeks in which the host's emotional development will be introduced.
This development will have several effects on the host:
Short temper
Outbursts of sadness, anger, rage, hatred, grief, guilt and other emotions
Lust and love will also be experienced albeit on a smaller scale
Physical effects will be the following:
increased pulse and heartbeat at irregular intervals
muscle aching
loss of hair as well as skin elasticity
The physical effects caused by emotional development are mostly stress-related and will disappear over time.
Lasting after-effects are unlikely but can appear.
The system advises the host to allow the A.I to manipulate the host's hormonal and neurotransmitter regulation.
The system will develop a planned course for the development of emotional balance over the course of approximately three weeks. These three weeks the host would be advised to practice interaction with humans or other races while under the influence of hormones.
The host will experience how emotions will influence the host's responses and answers as well as the reception of input, both verbal and physical.
*
Sighing to herself she ahs to admit that this is something she has to go through. She did think about simply cutting off her emotions but that would have a negative impact in the long run.
She will have to go through this. At least she knows who she can ask for advice.
Madelyn in her years as a human child and adult will have accumulated a vast amount of experience.
The only thing that truly bothers her is that the prospect of going to a school seems very logical, given the fact that interaction with other people is necessary for a 'healthy' emotional growth.
Even if she goes to school it has to be of higher education.
An elementary school would kill her. For sure.
What she saw in the memories of her ancestor from earth was more than simply discouraging.
It was down right scary. When she thought of the acts of bullying and social cliques she was sure in her assessment that human children can be horrible creatures. She would be more comfortable with the rational environment of sem-adults.
While they aren't always rational and can be horrible they have more restrictions.
Children do not know better, for them different means mostly weird and weird is scary.
For adults there are social norms and laws. Harassment is something that will get you in trouble and as such it is something most adults want to avoid.
Children do not have these restrictions. Adults will look at them and say,
"Well they are young they do not know better. Let them grow up and they will learn from their mistakes."
Anyway. Her opinion is fixed. She will attend something similar to highschool or university or nothing. Thankfully Madelyn offered her to put her into a school for higher education.
It may not be perfect but she'll endure whatever happens.
Isn't she too pessimistic?
Nah, she'll know what is best for her.
Back in the hallway the different servants and guards were all smitten by her behaviour but our protagonist is confused by the lack of men. Up to now she has not seen any man aside from Lar'ge, Daniel and Jack.
"Hey, excuse me."
She decided to ask her escort about this. Maybe there are very few men? Discrimination?
"Yes, young Miss? How may I help?"
Turning around and asking for her concern, the escort offers a brilliant smile. A genuine one. As a guard and escort she ahs learned to present herself ina certain way but for once it is not a bother to smile during her job. The little Miss was to cute and earnest. She did not have to force a smile.
"Why are there no men around here? Till now I have not seen a single man in this courtyard or in the hospital."
"That is easy to explain. The jobs in the hospital are caretaker, nurse, doctors, botanist and a few others. Normally some jobs could be filled by men but this is a hospital. Men are not really interested in working here.
Taking care of the sick and the elderly is something that is for 'the weak females'.
Telling men to take care of the sick or elderly is taken as an insult.
Here in Rias, we don't really have this problem as we live in relative harmony and our general education system serves to abolish such stereotypes but in other parts of the kingdom men are above women. Taking care of the house and grooming the children, cooking and such tasks are the responsibility of women.
We try to integrate men into such jobs to further a sense of equality and we have achieved quite a bit of success but it is restricted to Rias. By now we have more male cooks and caretakers. More elderly care nurses as well as cleaner.
It will take a while but some men are happy with other jobs. In the previous society they had no choice in this regard. You could not really tell your father that you want to be a nurse.
As to your question about why you have not seen any men around here, it is because men are not allowed here. This is something the High One made clear.
At the start of this town's development she opened the doors to everyone.
Men and women alike were taken in and trained to be nurses and doctors as well as botanists.
What she either overlooked or underestimated was the deeply engraved superiority complex of men.
During the training quite a few women were better than men and when they got promoted earlier than men it was an insult to them.
The protested that 'weak and feeble' women were not suited for a strenuous task like a doctor.
They had no problem with women becoming nurses but when it came to jobs of authority such as a doctor or healer they started to complain.
Now that I think about it, it was quite funny when all these men went to complain to Miss Madelyn.
They told a woman that all these women were too weak and stupid to head such important jobs.
You can imagine her attitude after listening to them. After she admonished them for their discrimination and told them to 'get the hell out of her courtyard' she thought it would settle down.
That they would accept that women were just as capable as men.
Sadly she was wrong. After a week some men started to build a group. They sabotaged the women's work and then blamed them for the mistakes they 'committed'. They harassed and even threatened the other women until they left the hospital.
The group was headed by some younger nobles who wanted to takeover the hospital as they wanted to profit from it.
They were very covert but at one point they went too far.
One of the head nurses refused to leave despite all their threats and stood strong. She wanted to report them so she gathered information about all the perpetrators of the blackmailing, harassment and sabotage they committed.
When these nobles found out about her actions they hired thugs to beat her up and make sure she cannot speak about anything.
Thankfully the High One chanced upon their assault and captured them. Together with the nurses story as well as the High One's 'thorough questioning' of the thugs she had enough evidence to take care off all the perpetrators.
In the process of uprooting their group and punishing them she grew more and more mortified by how deep the whole thing ran. When she then found lists of ex-nurses that resigned and then left the town she was shocked. They did not leave they were captured and sold to the Margrave as slaves.
You can imagine that she was not very happy about it. Furious would be an understatement.
She went and eradicated every single person who had his hands in the whole affair.
In the end, almost 80% of all the males in the hospital knew of the matter as they were all invited to join the whole thing.
Not one of them decided to report the matter to the High One. When she found out she fired and punished every single one of them.
The leftover men were investigated and demoted to caretakers. They had to work their way back up.
It may seem a bit unfair but the High One was very furious at that point.
Some of them quit and the others finished their education.
The ones who finished their education are still working here. At first, they worked in a separate part of the hospital but now they have been integrated into the hospital.
Since a few years back men are once again allowed to work in the hospital but until now men are forbidden from entering this part of the hospital.
The whole affair seems to have reminded her of some events from her past."
Silence settled onto both of them.
The whole story sounded rather over the top but considering how the city seems to be now it must have undergone a massive reform. From Nomiki's and Madelyn's depiction of the city, she knew that it was mostly harmonious and peaceful.
There was no real discrimination but considering the story she just heard this change must have happened in the span of a few years at most.
"The story is very depressing but it serves as a reminder for all that our current community is truly blessed. Aside from that, we are on a steady course and by now the only problem are visitors from other parts of the kingdom.
Ironically the 'savage demons' and 'primitive elves' are much more advanced in this aspect.
Discrimination towards a gender, profession or another form of community is punishable by law.
Ah! We have arrived.
Young Miss, if you wish to find out more about the town and the reforms the High One and the council has made just ask me. I will make sure to answer to my fullest capabilities."
Giving a small bow the Young Miss offered her thanks,
"Thank you very much for your time and thank you for guiding me here.
Will you wait until I am finished or do you have other duties to attend to?"
(How cute!!!)
"Ahem! No Young Miss. Sadly I have other duties to attend to. In an hour at most Miss Mina will arrive to take you somewhere. I do not know where but you have around an hour with your friend before she arrives."
"Then thank you very much for your time."
"It was my pleasure, Young Miss."
Turning around and leaving in the direction of where they came from the escort walks around a curve in the hallway and disappears behind the plant-ladden wall.
Similarly turning around our protagonist faces the door to Idan's room.
Taking a deep breath and hoping for Idan to be fine and to have at most light injuries left, she raises her hand to the door and turns the doorknob. With a click the door opens and she presses her hand against the hard wood of the door. Using a tiny bit of strength the door swings open and presents the inside view to the wide-open eyes of our protagonist.
"...really?"