"Hmm…"
I hummed slightly as my mind ran a mile per hour, thinking of a way out of the hole I unknowingly dug myself into. It did not take long and a general idea of what I should do slowly started to form in my brain.
All right… I could work with this.
But first, I had to wait for the right time and chance to execute my plan.
Just like that, I was back to resting in my seat. All of this thinking and planning was killing me mentally. Paired with my weakened body, I fiercely needed a rest before I did anything.
I relaxed under the warmth provided by the thick blankets and melted in place. My eyes steadily closed as I welcomed the dreamland, once again.
*** *** ***
When I woke up again, it was to the sounds of talking and closing of a door. I opened my left eye to observe that it was my mother at the now-closed entrance and she held a stack of paper in her hand. Sarah turned toward me and noticed me slowly opening my eyes.
"Oh, Frey…you are awake again. Although you really should be taking a long rest," My mother grimaced as she addressed me.
I shrugged. It was not my fault I was a light sleeper both in this life and my previous one. Unless I was in a deep sleep, I could be awakened by the slightest of sounds.
"But well, since you are awake… I might as well give you this," She continued as she offered me the stacks of papers in her hand. My hands had a little more strength in them compared to before, and without much difficulty, I took the sheets of paper.
Now that I held them in my hands, I noticed that they were not a stack of papers like I thought earlier. They were two folded papers of rough texture.
"These are the maps you have requested."
My mother explained further and I understood.
Giving her a small nod and a soft thank, I refocused my attention on the important folded papers in my hand. I started with the smaller one as it was thinner than the other one; in their folded states.
Slowly, I spread it out and was greeted with the sight of a detailed and well-drawn map. The label at the top of the map made me realize that this was the map of the Storgaard Empire. It was a curve-shaped continental empire with coasts and islands - big and small - surrounding it from all sides. There were lines drawn on the map, dividing the Storgaard Empire into four parts. Namely, they were - the Crownlands, the Ridge, the Golden Maw, and the Bitter Expanse. As I had mentioned before, it was a well-made map.
However, it was not the most important part. No.
That would be the fact that I was very familiar with the shape of the map and its geographical characteristics. Very, very familiar.
The entire Storgaard Empire was what it would be when my previous world had a united Scandinavia Empire. Well, there were several distinct differences, but the general outline was all the same.
The Golden Maw was Denmark with a little land into the western tip of Sweden, and the Ridge was essentially just Norway. And now, here came the differences.
The Crownlands started from where the Golden Maw ended and continued well past the western half of Sweden. Then, the Bitter Expanse picked up from there and occupied the upper half of Finland, and continued until it reached what was the White Sea in my previous world, meaning that it also included some parts of Russia.
{Author's Notes: You can find the map in this comment.}
All in all, if I were to describe the Storgaard with knowledge of my previous world, it occupied all regions of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the upper half of Finland, and finally, some of Russia's White Sea coasts.
Of course, all the provinces, regions, and even the seas were called by different names. But this was essentially the geography of the earth.
Now, I needed to confirm my suspicions. I put the first map down and opened the second one.
As I had expected, it was the map of both the Storgaard Empire and its neighboring regions. Of course, in this much larger depiction of geography, the map had fewer details; describing only the names of the nations and their borders.
From my observation, I finally took note of the land we were currently in. The lower half of Finland and all Russian regions between it and the White Sea were designated as the Boreal Borderland; the name of the disputed region.
On the other side was the Grand Zhardom of Uvarov, which occupied most of the northwestern regions of Russia. The Boreal Border land made it so that the two nations did not share a land border between them, aside from their mutual ownership of the White Sea, which was oddly named the same in this world too.
{Author's Notes: You can find the map in this comment.}
Again, my suspicions were confirmed. Aside from the Storgaard Empire, the geographical representations of the lands surrounding it were also just like the map of Earth. There were many different nations occupying different borders of Western and Eastern Europe on this map, but I paid them no mind as they were not that important to me at this time.
{Author's Notes: Yeah, I'm not revealing the world map this early. I will show different nations as they become relevant to the story.}
However, I had to suppress a twitch in my lips as I noticed the nations of elves were located in the place of most of France's lands. This could not be an incident.
Whatever created this world… must have a great sense of humor.
Nevertheless, my curiosity had been sated and I had learned what I wanted. For the moment, I put down the maps as my mind formulated more plans.
The region we were currently in, the Boreal Borderland, was a harsh and difficult place. It would be a problematic land for us to settle down.
But this was also the ideal land for our family to stay in, to avoid the pursuit of the emperor's men. The Storgaard Empire simply could not invade the Boreal Borderland without provoking its rival, the Grand Zhardom of Uvarov.
Now, I considered traveling to other nations on the map, and immediately let go of the idea. There was no way the neighboring countries of Storgaard would allow our family to step foot on their land with three hundred knights, and I was also not willing to let go of such a military force so that I could offer up my family to the whims and mercy of foreign rulers.
Now, if I wanted to both escape the wrath of the Storgaard Empire and retain the military might - no matter how small it might be - under my family's command, the Boreal Borderland was the only way to go.
With the conclusion reached and the decision made, I no longer needed the maps for the moment. The geography of this world was one I was intimately familiar with, and just memorizing new borders was not that much of difficult thing to do. I could now easily recall the general borders of the Storgaard Empire, the Boreal Borderland, and the Grand Zhardom of Uvarov at any time.
One plan succeeded and now was the time to work on the second.
I returned my gaze toward my mother who still sat in the opposite end of the carriage. She was softly humming a tone while combing the hair of my little sister.
It was time.
"Mother," I softly called for Sarah as she snapped her head in my direction, immediately.
"I now have a better understanding of our situation, more or less," I continued. "We are in a very difficult situation, with our family on the run. As such, I figured I must come clean to you and my little sister. For… the secret, I am about to tell you, has the potential to turn the situation around for us… or at the very least, a little more bearable."
I spoke the words at a calculated pace, to emphasize the seriousness of what I was about to say.
To her credit, although my mother seemed a little startled at my sudden words, she recovered quickly and changed her body language to indicate that I had her undivided attention right now.
"First of all, it has not been even a day since I have woken up from my lifelong coma. And I suppose you might notice the irregularities in my behavior. How I quickly adapt to the situation at hand, how I can look at these…" I gestured toward the maps on my side. "… maps easily, and finally, how I can easily communicate with you and Vivian."
"By all accounts, you might notice that I have been in a coma for all my life," I continued with a small smile, trying to lighten the atmosphere a bit. "… and a person such as I, who has been in that kind of situation, should not be able to do anything I did today."
I finished, looking at my mother as her frown deepened slightly. I could not guess what she was thinking as she looked into my eyes.
"Now that you mention it… yes. Your behaviors since you have been awake are not of someone who just recovered from a coma, however magical the coma might have been."
Oh? I was in a magical coma and not a regular one? Come to think of it, I never asked why I was coma in the first place. Still… since this world was a world of sword and magic, it should not come as a surprise that even my coma was regarded as a magical one.
I mean, I knew this body was in a coma because of what the shady organization did, but the way the group did this might have come off to the natives of this world as a magical coma.
I shelved these thoughts away and would come back to them later. Mother was talking again.
"But… I suppose you will tell me why you are capable of doing what you did, right? If not, there is no reason why you are telling me this."
I nodded. Now, this was the time to tell half-truths and half-lies, to make the story seem more believable.
"That is the plan," I sighed… trying to put my meager acting to good use. "Now, I do not know how to start this… explanation. So, I will just say it like it is."
Mother was giving me her utmost attention now.
"I can speak the language fluently, although I have never been lucid enough to learn it or hold a conversation with another person. I can read a map, although I should not even know what a map is. And finally, I can quickly adapt to a situation, when I wake up in a carriage amidst those who are essentially strangers to me."
Sarah looked like she wanted to protest at my last words, but I cut her off.
"Now, I know you are my mother… my family, and so is Vivian. But my comatose condition should have allowed that I am familiar with your faces… at most."
I paused for a second, as I needed a rest after speaking for too long. It seemed like my throat had not recovered completely.
"I can do all of this… because, when I was in a coma… I was chosen by a powerful being who gifted me with a powerful ability."
That was my cover for having the [Beast Lord System], and I was not even lying as the [System] was indeed given to me by a powerful multiversal organization. I was just not telling them about the rest of the stuff they did to allow my transmigration.
"And according to them, they would not have some dumb mortals to receive their gift. Thus, I was given a general common sense and the ability to speak and read the language. After that, they said I was on my own."
There… I said it.
It was an unbelievable story that was only acceptable in a world of magic like this one. Let's see how things would go from here.
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