As the members of MissAdventure and I continue on our way to the Adventurers' Guild I notice that Cynthia has been leading us through side roads more frequently. On one hand it's possible that this is the most efficient way to get there, but on the other I assume she is doing it out of consideration for me.
"This may sound like another strange question, but does everyone hate orcs, or were those guys back there just outliers?" I ask Cynthia.
"Hmmmm, not necessarily, it has more to do with history than anything else. Griz, can you explain it to him, cuz' its too much work for me." She replies, evoking a light sigh from Griz.
"Jeez, I'm not really sure where to start or end for a clear answer, but for the most part it started probably 250-ish years ago."
"250? What in the world happened to leave that much of an impression?"
"The third Paradise War."
"What's a Paradise War and why is its name so contradictory?"
As I ask that all three of them show expressions of supreme shock.
"It's one thing to not know adventurers well, and I could even understand if someone wasn't aware of the events of each paradise war, but to not know what they are?!" Cynthia interjects. "Where the heck have you been raised and who raised you? I should have known with a name like Robert."
"What does my name have to do with anything?" I reply to the shots just fired at me.
"I understand her confusion," K utters quietly.
"Uh, I'm sorry that I don't know? Im don't really have an excuse for it." I again try to defend my ignorance, after all it's not really my fault.
"I guess I have my work cut out for me, this may take a while." Griz says as he scratches his head. "I guess given that you don't even know what one is I should just assume you know none of the details."
Rightly so.
"For starters there are two continents, the Luminous Continent, and the Dismal Continent, at least that's what their names are here, the two continents call them by their own names. I'm not too sure what countries of the Dismal Continent refer to them as. We are in the country of Xandorus, one of the four countries that are considered part of the Luminous Continent."
Griz then pauses to see if I follow, to which I nod my head affirmatively.
"The Luminous Continent consists of Xandorus and Grandium which are ruled by humans, Aethyllis the elf country, and Orethund the dwarf country. The Luminous Continent and Dismal Continent are separated by an enormous mountain range called the Origin Mountains, the Luminous Continent lies to the east of the mountains, and the Dismal to the west. The Dismal continent also consist of four countries, Malaak the demon country, Kkevdorg the orc country, Mis-Aethyllis the dark-elf country, and the Sutaan Swamps inhabited by lizardmen."
Before Griz continues Cynthia chimes in once again, "By the way, originally Aethyllis and Mis-Aethyllis were one nation of elves and was just called the Aether Forest."
"I see."
"Yeah, the Aether Forest is the northernmost part of both continents and isn't split by the origin mountains, so the dividing between Aethyllis and Mis-Aethyllis is mostly a political border. Also at the southernmost edge of the continents is Aldeha, which is the short name for the Allied Demi-Human Haven, a neutral country run by and for demi-humans of all kinds."
"Oh, interesting."
"Yup, Aldeha is one of the two neutral countries, the other is Kumoriyuu, a massive island country south of the continents, land of the dragonkin."
I can't help but think that sounds highly dope, but also terrifying.
"With the exception of the split of Aethyllis and the forming of Aldeha, the continents and the rest of the countries have been this way for just under a thousand years. As such, the recognized year for both continents based on the lunar calendar is year 971. Over this time there have been small wars and disputes of course, however the Paradise Wars are significantly more important. Every 300 years or so, in a plateau nestled in the middle of the origin mountains, a peculiar fruit grows on an indestructible, dead tree, which has come to be known as the origin fruit. This fruit contains four seeds, and when a seed is planted the land around it flourishes in a diameter spanning thousands of kilometers. Grass grows greeners, trees grow taller, minerals become more abundant and pure, the waters become more pristine and the fruits become more succulent across the affected land. It is held as the single strongest and strangest existence in this world. Due to which, makes it invaluable, which is why the Paradise Wars started. Every time an origin fruit spawns, all non neutral countries head to war at the plateau in the origin mountains for the rights to the fruit, the winning side splits the fruit, and each country gets a seed to plant on their land. Although the alliances and sharing the fruit seeds didn't start until after the first war, which was a free for all. Clear so far?"
"Yeah, it's a lot to take in, but I think I have a good enough understanding."
To be honest, much like the other instances where I heard knowledge of the world it almost becomes as though it was things I have already known instantly. It must be due to my reincarnation, I can't say it's convenient to not have this information immediately, but the fact that I can instantly internalize what I am hearing makes up for it slightly.
"Good, that was the brief, or at least as brief as possible, rundown on Paradise Wars, now I'll attempt to explain what they have to do with the reputation of orcs."
"Please do."
"So like I said it's currently Year 971, the first Paradise War was in year 121, the second in 428, and the third was in 702. The first two Paradise Wars were won by the demon country Malaak, largely due to the Demon Lord at the time Abaddon. Oh, and not entirely relevant to the orcs, but a faction of dark-elves in Aether forest decided to side with Malaak because they thought Abaddon would win future Paradise Wars as well after the first. That faction garnered most of the dark-elves to their side, and it was then that they decided to split Aether forest into two, creating two separate nations and starting the concepts of alliances within continents."
"Ah, I see."
"Sorry, back to the orc relevant stuff, like I said the Malaak won the first two Paradise Wars for the Dismal side, with, as far as war is concerned, relatively normal damage to those involved. However, in the third, most recent, Paradise War the orc country of Kkevdorg, led by Vurgantu the Great Chieftain at the time, committed heinous acts in an attempt to weaken and distract the Luminous forces. Even though there are countries with a dominant or majority race, that does not mean there are no other races in those countries, prime example being you, an orc, here in Xandorus. It's really no different on the Dismal side, there are humans and elves and such scattered about throughout. The orcs under order of Vurgantu kidnapped, killed, and sometimes worse, humans unrelated to the Luminous forces and brought their bodies as shields to the Origin Mountains. Not only did they massacre civilian humans on the dismal continent, after the third war was won by the Grandium Republic for the Luminous side, some orc troops marched through the mountains following the Luminous forces, killing soldiers on Luminous soil despite the war technically being over."
"Oh my God, that's far worse than I imagined the reason to be, I don't even know what to say." I say with a genuine look of concern.
Hearing that made me wonder if it was really okay for me to be allowed on this continent, and the other part of me is fairly mad at the fact that 'God' gave me the body of an orc without saying a word.
"Yeah, it's uhhh, a pretty dark mark on the history of the Paradise Wars and the reputation of the orcs. It's fairly common knowledge, so it's more than likely the reason you've been getting most of the looks from people you have."
"Yeah, honestly although it had nothing to do with me personally, I can't really say their apprehension is entirely unfounded. I'm just hearing of it and I feel guilty about it regardless of the situation."
"No need for you to feel guilty, I understand why'd you say that, but even if others don't recognize it we can already tell you're not someone that would do something like that."
Dang, even though it's coming from Griz that was almost enough to make me blush, if I can even do that anymore.
"So then is it really okay for you guys to be so friendly with me, other people wont think badly of you? I'm not selfish enough to ask for your company if it means damaging your reputations."
"Not a problem." Cynthia turns around to assertively say.
"Why is that?"
"Easy, because it's all in the past."
"Uhm, despite how true that is, does that really make it alright."
"Look here." She says while pointing at me intensely. "First of all, like Griz said, we can tell you aren't like that, secondly to judge an entire race off of once event hundreds of years ago sounds pretty dumb to me. I don't know how it is for everyone else in this city, but race should not inherently make someone entitled to or restricted from anything, the actions of the individual I'm judging is what I use to judge their character, not some irrelevant thing their great ancestor may or may not have done. Not to mention orcs don't have the lifespan of us elves or demons, I highly doubt any orc that was alive over 250 years ago is still alive, so there's no reason to be wary of any of them in my book."
She begins to once again close the distance between us until she's practically touching me, "Lastly, you seem to forget that we are the ones that approached you, not the other way around. If we cared about something petty like our reputation being damaged by being seen with you we wouldn't have come to your table in the first place."
As she says this Griz lays his hand on my shoulder while smiling, and on both sides of me K and him offer a thumbs up. Cynthia then puts her arms up on the two of them as she offers a bright smile.
"Exactly as Cynthia said, so don't concern yourself with anything else, don't worry about the people who see you as an orc, but instead with the people who see you as Robert."
"W-wow, y'all are genuinely good people, I can't even begin to express how much I appreciate you guys already. I don't think I could have encountered a better group of people in this world."
"People?" Cynthia says with a pout.
"Friends." K mumbles to correct me.
"Im speechless, I really don't know what else to say."
"Are you really speechless if you're saying that you're speechless?" Cynthia says as a cheeky reply before laughing at her own bad joke.
"Yeah you're right, that's more K's thing." I reply, prompting K to take what was initially a thumbs up and turn it upside down. The unexpected pout from K leaves all of us laughing.
Cynthia backs away and as she turns says, "Alright, while that history lesson was going on we almost made it to the Adventurers' Guild, good work Griz."
"Yeah yeah, no problem, miss leader."
"Let's hurry up and get Robert registered so we can celebrate…"
She begins to chuckle to herself.
"What's so funny now?"
"Nothing." She tries to say despite still laughing, amidst her giggles she lets something slip, "Robert, Robert the orc." She bursts out laughing again.
"You're really not gonna let that go huh? My name is just that funny to you?" I say with fake irritation.
"I can't help it, I can't explain why it's so funny to me, it just is you know?"
"No, no I don't." I retort.
Once again everyone laughs together, although this time I feel like I'm the one being laughed at.