Dima opened the door, "Who's here?"
"I'm here," said a faint voice, it belonged to a short, cute brunette with blue eyes, the girl was dressed modestly, in a grey-green dress, on her shoulder hung a long braid, completing a rather attractive image. Dima looked at her with a glance, she looked so cute that the guy wanted to squeeze her cheeks to death.
The girl was obviously shy, her cheeks were flushed, and she did not dare to continue the conversation. Dima, having admired, decided to interrupt the awkward pause and said.
"My name is Dima, and what is your name? - Dima smiled casually, trying somehow to defuse the situation, the girl was obviously confused.
"My... my name is Lia, nice to meet you, I brought you dinner." Only now the guy noticed the tray in the girl's hands, and he felt a little ashamed for making the girl hold it for so long. The guy decided to correct his oversight and quickly intercepted the tray.
"Thank you, Lia." Dima said goodbye, Leah made a bow and left the corridor, Dima saw her off with a smile on his face, after all, for the last two days of his wanderings, Leah was the first girl that treated him well, and just the first girl in general.
Leah was out of sight, and the boy, driven by the rumbling of his stomach, closed the door and sat down at the table.
"I'm the hope of this world, and almost a messiah, but here it was very modest." There were several small plates on the tray, the first larger one was filled with rice, mixed with strange seaweed. The second plate was filled with a strange kind of finely chopped mushrooms, drizzled with a strange viscous marinade and emitting an even more peculiar odour. In the corner of the wooden tray there was a small dried fish and a thin flatbread folded like a napkin. As a cherry on this small 'cake' were sticks, yes, the same sticks used in Asia on Earth.
"Bon appetit." summed up Dima and pounced on the food.
...
Time passed quickly, Dima quickly finished his dinner and was happily resting on the bed, a knock at the door brought him out of his half-dream.
"Who is there?" From sleep asked the guy.
"Your mother, get ready, the abbot is waiting for you." Dima immediately recognised the cheeky tone of his old acquaintance - Min. The guy quickly put the cleaver in its rightful place and opened the door.
Min nodded silently and walked down the corridor, Dima followed him. It was already getting dark outside, and Dima hovered in front of the window for a second, catching a glimpse of the beautiful sunset.
"Stranger, are you coming or what?" Min said angrily.
"Look, are you so angry because you're being fed crap, or do you have a personal reason." Min stopped and looked at Dima with malicious rage-filled eyes.
"I don't know why, but the abbot needs you, but your insolence is getting on my nerves, and I'm not going to let it go, believe me."
"Well, that's your right, now let's go."
"Finally, at fucking last." Min said and quickened his pace, Dima trying to keep up. The monastery was gigantic, the men had been walking for five minutes, going up and down the rather long staircases many times, and like last time they passed dozens of long identical corridors.
They came to a narrow landing, there was only one way in and it was blocked by two massive men with halberds, when they saw the couple one of them spoke.
"The abbot is waiting, hurry up and get inside." He said loudly and pointed at Dima with his hand.
The young monk wanted to throw himself at the insolent man and beat his face into the stone floor until he realised his biggest mistake. Namely his impenetrably stupid insolence. But the young man could hardly restrain himself, and having cast a squeamish glance at his interlocutor, walked away.
Dima only shrugged his shoulders, and under the tired looks of the guards went inside. The boy was pleasantly surprised, the office of the abbot was not something incredible, no golden candelabras and ornaments, everything was made modestly, but with taste.
The floors of the room were covered with red carpets, and numerous pictures were on the wall. They ranged from landscapes to portraits. The room had large windows, next to which there was a desk, a couple of chairs and numerous cupboards.
Dima looked up, apparently the abbot hadn't noticed him, Hin was sitting at the desk with his eyes fixed on another piece of paper. Dima was a little shy, he didn't want to distract the abbot from his important work.
'I'll wait a bit, after all Hin is my lucky ticket, thanks to which I'm still smoking the earth and not lying in some ditch, and in general Hin is a good man... well, at least I think so'.
A couple of minutes passed, and Hin was still hard at work with the papers, the man doing his routine duties, and closing the 'debts' for those day and a half of his absence. The abbot stamped another petition and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples.
"This paper war is going to kill me, I must remember to increase the number of scribes," Hin noticed the man in his office, but he didn't let it show. On the whole he liked the guy more than not, not without flaws, of course, but Dima showed the very core of character that he would like to see in an envoy. 'Well, why am I in the clouds, it's not good to keep the guest waiting.'
"Dima, come in, sit down." The abbot looked up and said. Dima quickly came and sat down on a chair. The guy was a little nervous, now he would be explained the current situation, and it frightened him. And it made him even more nervous that fate in the person of Chorus had thrown him into the thick of things.
"I apologise, you can see for yourself that I'm up to my ears in paperwork... but let's put my problems aside and talk about you." The abbot smiled and continued.
"I can see from your eyes that you have a lot of questions, don't hesitate to ask, I'll tell you everything I know."
"Where am I?" Dima asked, he had a lot of questions, so he decided to start with something simpler.
"Now we are on the continent of Ruia, in the kingdom of Haro, as you know I am the abbot of the southern territories, I am in charge of the whole southern part of the kingdom from the religious point of view."
"Since we have touched upon geography, can you tell us about this world as a whole?"
"Of course, there are other states besides us on the Ruya continent, but the Ruyen Empire occupies most of the continent" it is the main power in the region, and we, as well as all other small kingdoms, are its vassals. South of our territories lies the kingdom of Mana, north-west of the kingdom of Shuya, and east of Somma. Further north on the border there are two more kingdoms of Kaya and Karol. - The monk paused as if remembering something and continued.
"They were once a single kingdom, Kayar, which fought for dominance with the Ruyen Empire, but in the end it fell to the Ruyen Empire, and most of their territory was taken over by the Ruyen, the unruly remnants of a failed and very ambitious kingdom in constant poverty and strife." Dima listened attentively and realised more and more clearly that it would be good for him to write it all down, but he was afraid that Hin would think him a moron, so he listened to the abbot's speeches without giving any sign.
On the southern edge of the continent there is a kingdom of snake-people. - At the last word Dima was slightly confused, - What do you mean snake-people?
"Literally... well how can I tell you, our world used to be inhabited by different races, those were the greatest times of our world, many dozens if not hundreds of races thrived in a world filled with magic, but at one point everything collapsed, we don't know why, just as a fact most of the races died out, and now there are four races left on the entire planet."
"Humans, snake-people, lizardmen, and centaurs." Seeing the slight shock and incomprehension in the eyes of his interlocutor Hin felt it necessary to clarify the details.
"Snake-people, as it is clear from the name half human and half snake... wait a minute." The abbot opened the drawer of the table and began to dig in it, having found what he was looking for the man took out a thick book and quickly flipped through it, put it in front of the messenger.
Dima ducked into the book, he didn't understand the local written language, 'It's obvious that Chorus didn't work out', the guy's attention was attracted by the portrait on the second page, a rather sketchy picture depicted an ordinary girl, only there was one nuance, where a person's legs began she had a solid tail, quite long, it didn't fit on the image and went beyond its limits. Dima did not pay attention to the strange eyes and not quite human proportions of the body.
The boy took a step back from the book and stared thoughtfully at Hin. He let the boy digest the information he had received, and he got up and went to the cupboard behind him and started to look for something there.
"Here, I think it will be more clear," Hin said and put a rather large map on the table, showing it to Dima. After the information about snake-men and other non-humans, the guy was ready for everything, even for a flat earth and three elephants standing on whales that drag the planet in the cosmic vacuum, but to his relief everything was much more prosaic. The guy bent down to take a closer look at the map, something squelched under his feet. Dima and Hin synchronously looked down, there was a big black puddle, presumably ink, or oil, after what Dima had heard he was ready for anything.
'And how did I not notice, I dropped the inkwell the morning before yesterday, it was inconvenient' - the monk shrugged unhappily, he was the local head and a serious man, and himself planted his guest with his feet in not all that. The man took his wand and clanked the small gong that stood on the table, the invigorating chime was immediately answered and the guard entered the room.
"What do you want abbot?" The big monk asked and stood at attention.
"Send a clerk to tidy up the place."
"It will be done," the monk replied briefly, like a textbook, and bowed and left, closing the door behind him
Their continent by its location and shape was like two drops of water similar to the familiar North America. In place of South America was a continent signed 'Ishawn, Ashin, Osho... fuck it, I don't know shit about this scribbling'.
The boy looked at the Abbot. "Are you ready to continue?"