Walking with their new found companions, Yamato had many thoughts running through his head. He didn't think that they'd believe his story that easily. Even though he was a rather convincing person, it normally wasn't that simple.
Maybe they know something we don't, he thought. After all, the person who introduced himself as Ken Kento moved abnormally fast. Was this some kind of magic that Yuki mentioned earlier? Posibly. If so, it would also be plausible to assume that they know more about it. Yuki's knowledge seemed to be rather basic. It couldn't hurt to get to know about it more. That gave him a thought, what if they could tell how much mana they have? Yuki mentioned it earlier. If they would know about his mana, which he assumed was low to non-existant, or would make more sense for them to believe the story from earlier. Without any magic, it's hard to see as Yamato and Yuki as the people who were responsible for the destruction of an entire village. But that was just a theory. He would have to ask them about that later, if he gets an opportunity to do so. But maybe they really were just that simple minded, and believed him easily.
As they went deeper into the forest, away from the villiage, he thought about initiating an conversation with one of the two. However, Ken appeared to be still suspecious, so it would be difficult to comunicate with him. He seemed oddly hostile towards them, while Satomi appeared to be a more trusting person. Maybe even naive. It also appeared like she is some sort of authority figure. As Ken seemed to listen to her earlier, when the four of them first met. So getting the favor of Satomi would prove more helpful now and in the future. So he started speaking, still with a friendly and calm tone.
"Satomi? Where exactly are you bringing us?"
"To the capital."
"...the capital?"
He had to talk carefully now, as it would be a problem to get her suspecious now.
'The capital.. does that mean that this forest is the terretory of some nation? If so.. it would be bad to not know much about it. It would come off as weird if we didn't know what nation we are in.. but if I ask about it I obviously show that I don't know. Maybe I should get her talk about the nation.. she might mention the name or other useful information.'
"Are you important people of some sorts in the capital?"
"You could call us that. I'm afraid I can't further discuss that topic with you. All you need to know is that we are protecting the citizens of the Great Naru Empire."
That was fairly easy for him to find out. That actually gave him plenty of information to analyze.
'So their nation is called the Great Naru Empire.. as an empire, they'll have a major political power and therefore most likely have a strong economy.. but maybe they are currently stuggling or at war? No.. then they wouldn't treat outsiders like us so courteous.. they would suspect us as spies or similar.. which means, according to their behaviour, their nation should not be on bad terms with any near by nations.. as any unknown traveler would be suspected as someone with origin of those surounding enemy states. Knowing all that.. it shouldn't matter where we come from, which is why they haven't specificly asked yet. So looking at all that.. it seems reasonable to assume that they don't have any serious problems of instability in their empire. Such places capitals are probably luxurious.. but maybe have problems of criminal undergrounds.. they seem to be in some relationship to the gouvernement, as she called them protectors of the citizens.. so they would probably know about problems the nation has that normal people maybe have no idea about. So if I wanna represent myself as a normal person, I don't have to know about the nations detailed state. I should be able to call it a good and secure nation without her getting suspecious of me not knowing anything about it.'
So he put on a curious facade, talking about the nation as if he went there once.
"Ah, if you protect the citizens, we can trust your care then. The Great Naru Empire has a strong gouvernement, after all. I'm sure all it's law enforcers are just as strong."
"Thank you for your trust and understanding. We'll reach the gates of the capital soon. Do you have any form of identification?"
Now they had a problem. It was a miracle that this wasn't a topic sooner. But Yuki seemed to have an idea, as she starts to participate in the conversation with a slightly sobbing tone.
"Unfortunately, as you see.. we lost all our baggage.. Which is why we don't have anything but our clothes at the moment."
Satomi looked at her for a moment, before sighing.
"So that's why you are in the need of supplies.. I see. Don't worry, we'll get you through the borders."
"Thank you.. so much..."
Yuki's sad persona was very convincing. It's not at all weird for Satomi, who seemed to be a very sympathetic person, fall for it. But Ken didn't seem to like that she trusted them so easily. He tried to argue but was shushed silenced by Satomi before he even got the chance to speak up.
The rest of the way seemed to went by rather quickly, even though there weren't alot of conversations happening. Not any at all, actually. It wasn't long, before they stood infront of a big stone framed gate. They were still in the woods, which suprised Yamato. As he expected the city to be outside of the forest. But it seemed like that wasn't the case. Satomi walked towards the gate, as Ken walked along with her. Leaving Yamato and Yuki by themself. They talked to a guard positioned by the gate. But Yamato was using this opportunity to talk with Yuki while they where alone.
"What do you think?"
"Hm... They are elves. But I never heard of this so called Great Naru Empire before. It appears as though it's population is almost only elves."
"How do you know that?"
"I can sense the mana behind that gate, Master. About 97% of the people there are elves."
"Interesting.. I'll keep that in mind. Do you know how many people are there in total?"
"It should be around 500.000 people. It is the capital of an empire after all. So there is also a large portion of military force included in that number. The city seems to be build in the form of an hexagon. It is completly surounded by forest, but inside the city are almost no trees at all."
"I see.."
Satomi walked back to Yamato and Yuki as they seemed to have settled everything. Ken seemed to walk into another direction. So Satomi informed them about the situation.
"Since you don't have any passports or identification, you can only enter and move freely in the city, after we inspected your abilities and information through magic stone. Will that be alright with you?"
"...that's perfectly fine."
Yamato said. It really was like a video game then, like Yuki said. He was curious as to what this inspection would show.
They were brought into a sort of waiting room, where there was a crystal ball on a stone podium. In the room where various other people, all being elves. Satomi then walked over to the crystal and explained.
"It's simple. You need to put your hand on the crystal and then you'll see all your information appear on it. It will be graded into numbers from 0-.. well the maximum amount is actually unknown. Probably dosn't have one. The avrage is 50 though. Any questions?"
"No."
Yuki was first to do so. She was excited about what would stand there. If she got special abilities, maybe Yamato would praise her, she thought.
"Alright.. so, like that?"
As her palm touched the crystal, it started glowing slightly. She moved her hand away to see what was on the crystal.
[Name: Hikari Yuki]
[Age: ???]
[Special abilities: Currently not available]
[Mana: Currently not available]
[Strength: 24]
[ Speed: 33]
[Durability: 500]
[Stamina: Infinite]
[Intelligence: 1000]
As the stats appeared on the crystal, Satomi looked shocked at the results, while Yamato looked interested, but expressionless. Satomi didn't really know what to do here.
"...I-infinite stamina...? 1000 intelligence? ...500 durability? And why are some information not available...Aren't you like, really strong.. and smart.. maybe it's broken.."
That wasn't exactly keeping a low profile.. Yamato had to think of something to make her not freak out here.
"Ah. I forgot to tell.. she's been cursed. Those aren't her actual stats. It's because of that, that she can't view her actual stats and only gets shown random numbers."
"O-oh.. Ah.. I see.. that.. makes sense. I thought for a moment.. anyway.. that is unfortunate. But I suppose we can skip that part for her then.."
"Thank you for understanding"
"Well... We should continue with you then."
"Ah, yes of course."
Close, but good enough. It sounded convinient as a lie, lucky for them that Ken wasn't here. He would've been more suspecious. But it didn't matter anymore. Now Yamato put his hand on the crystal. It started glowing again, and as he looked at the stats..
[Name: Tasumaki Yamato]
[Age: 17]
[Special abilities: Currently not available]
[Mana: 0]
[Strength: 99]
[ Speed: 101]
[Durability: 87]
[Stamina: 120]
[Intelligence: ‽‽‽]
"You have... Pretty high stats.. but 0 mana? and you're 17? But compared to just now I'm just happy the results aren't too abnormal.. but why is your Intelligence not showing up?"
"Ah.. that must be because Yuki's was so high, and with the complications earlier the crystal might still be a little confused."
"I guess.. I never had anything like that before. There's a first for everything, huh..."
"I suppose there is."
She really was naive. But she was probably just confused, and took any explanation she can get.
"Well.. here you go then. Since your old ones got lost, you'll need these identifications."
She handed them two small, glowing stones, which had their stats and information written on them.
"You are now free to move in the city. I also organized a accommodation for the two of you together with food and water for today. But that's about all I can do for you now. The accommodation is at a big building near the northern city walls. You can't miss it. They already were informed about your names. So just introduce yourselfs."
"It's more than enough, thank you so much."
"Well, I have other things to attend to. Maybe we'll meet again some day. Good bye."
She gave then a little wink before turning around.
"Ah, yes. Good bye"
"Bye~."
After she left Yamato and Yuki got into an alley that looked safe for them to talk.
"What an troublesome expirience that was, Young Master..."
"Yes, but it was exactly what we needed. Ee have an identification, a Bit knowledge over this world. Even a place to stay with a water and food supply."
"T-that's right!"
Yuki got excited for some reason..
"Anyway, we should go and look around the city to find out where this place for us to stay is."
They walked around the city, and after a bit of searching found a big building that fits the description they got. It looked.. unique.. to say the least.. however it seemed that Satomi got the wrong idea of the relationship Yamato and Yuki had. Well not exactly wrong.. but not what they tried to represent to the outside. Because the place Satomi got them to stay in, was a love hotel, a luxurious one at that. Yamato looked at the building, expressionless as ever. He also didn't need to fake smile now, since Satomi was gone now.
"...great."
"Isn't it, though?! We are going to share a bed~!"
As expected, Yuki didn't mind. The opposite, of course.. But it's not like something was going to happen. So whatever, Yamato thought.