"I think so." Dima nodded confidently, showing that he understood everything, a skill he had learnt well during his first year of university. Hin shifted his gaze to the map, and continued his tour of the world.
"Below us there is a continent Ishon, it is almost completely inhabited by lizardmen, and anticipating your question I will explain, Lizardmens are an ancient race, perhaps they are the first who appeared in this world, but we have no exact information, and yes they have nothing in common with humans, except walking on two legs and the presence of reason... although not all of them walk on two legs, and the presence of some of their representatives of the mind, seems very doubtful." Hin stopped speaking and shifted his gaze to Dima, the man realised that his ambiguous words only confused the guy more, he continued.
The political map of Ishon is very complicated and we have very little information about their territorial structure. The lizardmen clans are very secretive and most of them have a policy of isolationism, which in their understanding means killing everyone you meet, the rest have very limited contact with outsiders.
"But not only lizardmens inhabit the Ishon continent, there are numerous expeditions of humans settled on the eastern coast," Hin supported his story by pointing to the map. Namely on a thin strip almost completely covering the entire coastline.
"And who is that?" Dima asked, pointing to a small enclave with the strange name of Kara, which was nestled at the bottom of the continent.
"And these are the fugitives."
"Fugitives?" Dima asked, as if he had misunderstood something.
"Yes, in this republic settled all sorts of people and not only people, mostly: murderers, thieves, various dissenters and revolutionaries, and simply adventurers eager for enrichment."
"And we have finally finished with Ishon continent," Hin took a thick book in his hands again and handed it to Dima. The guy looked at the picture and was slightly dumbfounded, the schematic image depicted an lizardmen and a human, and the guy's surprise was due to the cardinal difference in size.
The lizardmen was at least one and a half times taller, and as much wider, 'maybe the picture depicts a very short man, or the artist is crooked and blind, but even so it's just nonsense. Dima didn't know much about biology, but even he became very interested in how such a giant could move on two legs without breaking its bones.
"Are they all like this?" The boy asked, pointing at the scaly giant.
"No, to be honest, we don't know how many species there are in Ishon,' the monk looked at each other and moved closer to Dima.
"I'll tell you a secret, they can be five metres high." The abbot made a completely serious face, which made Dima feel uncomfortable.
'I really, really, really hope this world has firearms, otherwise I have little idea how to deal with at least one such monster.'
The duo was interrupted by a quiet knock on the door, after which the door opened slightly and a small girl sauntered into the room.
'Leah.' - Thought the guy, the girl made a deep bow and humbly approached the men, Hin pointed at the stain near the table, and Leah silently approached the ink puddle and armed with a rag brought with her and a bucket of water began to scrub it.
Dima was ready to burn with shame, all the same education of the twenty-first century strongly said that something in this situation is definitely wrong, but Dima did not dare to do something.
'If I interfere I can ruin the relationship with Hin, and considering that I don't know a damn thing about the traditions and ways of this world, any wrong move of mine can make it worse first of all for her'.
The boy kept his eyes on the girl, even by the standards of the twenty-first century she was very beautiful and very sweet. Hin in turn kept his eyes on the guy, and with a smirk ran the stream of thoughts in his head.
Leah did it quickly enough, and when she finished she bowed silently and left. Dima saw the girl off with a glance.
"Shall we continue?" he asked, but Hin suggested otherwise.
"Her name is Lia, a servant and a healer's apprentice - a good girl, interested?" The abbot emphasised the last word with a nasty intonation. From what he heard the guy was a little twisted, and after realising what the monk said he was enveloped in rage, 'She is a human being, and you treat her like a cattle, that bitch'. Dima thought, nervously clenching his fists.
"What do you mean?" The guy decided not to make a big deal out of it, and asked what exactly Hin meant, maybe he had problems with understanding the local dialect, or Hin was just an arsehole.
"You must be very tired these days, and if you want she can visit you tonight."
"Not interested." Dima said firmly and clearly, his facial expression clearly suggesting that it was not worth pursuing the subject any further.
'I'm definitely not wrong about him,' Hin thought to himself, and continued with a smile.
There are more continents across the Great Ocean to the west: Migard, a huge continent inhabited by people who look a lot like you.
Hin flipped through the book handed it to Dima, 'Typical Europeans.' Dima thought to himself, the picture depicted white people with rifles, in a uniform somewhat similar to the 19th century military uniforms of his home world. 'Well, at least they're somewhere.' The lad said to himself with some relief, cherishing the hope of his future availability of firearms.
"The western part of the continent, divided between numerous monarchies and republics. But the main part of the continent is poorly explored, it is said that the vast territories conceal untold riches, but studying them is simply impossible."
"Why?" Dima asked.
"Nobody knows, but we have only one fact, countless groups of scouts and adventurers simply disappeared without a trace. The Wasteland occupies the entire central part of the continent, on the eastern edge of the continent in the endless prairies dwell clans of centaurs."
"So far so clear, is there much more?"
"No, there are two other continents, Bahar and Price. Bahar is inhabited by numerous tribes of underdeveloped savages, and is being actively colonised by the Migard, using extremely harsh methods. With Price is more complicated, in fact, we do not know much about it, there live people on it all, well, or someone very similar to them. There are hurricanes and typhoons raging around the continent, and it's incredibly difficult to get close to the continent."
"So where did the information come from?" Dima asked with a certain degree of scepticism, without raising his eyes from the map.
"I said difficult, not impossible, for all the periods described there are five cases of successful penetration of this mysterious continent, and the locals 'very cordially' met the envoys."
On the whole, the world in its geography was quite similar to his own, only if India and Greenland were removed from the earth, and the rest of the islands were scattered randomly over the surface of the planet. The continent itself was shaped like a bagel and if it existed on earth, it would be located between North America and Europe.
"And there is nothing here?" Dima pointed to the place where Australia should be on earth, but in this world a huge area was completely occupied by the ocean.
"I don't know, I don't have any information about it." After a couple more quick glances at the map Dima put the paper aside.
"And now it's time, to talk about more pressing things, namely you and the situation in the kingdom as a whole. 'Perhaps I should have started there,' Dima thought to himself.
"Our kingdom is divided into 12 provinces, each of which is ruled by a designated clan, there are also two separate autonomies in one of which you are now in, they are ruled by abbots."
"One I'm looking at right now." Dima said, 'He's a pretty big shot, especially considering his influence as a religious leader over half the kingdom.
"Now let's take a quick walk through the clans."
"Do we have to do this today?" Dima asked, looking at the window, the sun was about to disappear behind the horizon, and the guy's head was starting to hurt from the flow of information.
"I think not, we can postpone the explanation until tomorrow." Hin himself wanted to finish this conversation, and his head was buzzing as much as his ward's.
...
Hin relaxed in the armchair, smoking a pipe in general today he could call quite productive, Dima pleased him more and more, with each time of their communication, the guy showed himself as a healthy and mature personality, which is not alien to such concepts as honour, courage, and kindness.
'Ehhhhh, and these qualities are sometimes so necessary, especially when it comes to the management of the whole country, of course, many will disagree with me, but that's their problem.'
"By the way, I almost forgot," the abbot got up from his chair, quickly walking past numerous carved cabinets, he stopped in front of one of them. The man pulled out one of the unremarkable books, a couple of moments later there was a strange creak, it grew and soon the mechanisms hidden in the wall moved. The cabinet rumbled and moved aside, revealing a cache that hid one of the most valuable treasures of the southern monastery, and of the entire kingdom.
Hin looked at the blue ball made of cloudy glass. The man took it in his hands, the ball began to shimmer with a faint light, Hin returned to his comfortable seat and continued smoking his pipe, waiting.
He waited for a long time, but the man didn't give up hope. Having already refilled his pipe for the third round, he spat at the ceiling, and pondered.
"I wonder what that monkey is doing now... I think, as always, finishing the last horse in the ditch, or something worse."
The orb interrupted the monk's ruminations on the gastronomic values of the parnocopulas, the crystal sphere glowed with a steady cold light.
"I was hoping you were dead." A nervous male voice was heard, the sound came from right out of the sphere and was slightly distorted, but quite intelligible.
"You won't, you've found a fatter horse for dinner this time." said Hin with indescribable mirth in his voice.
"And I really hope that you interrupted my meal for a reason," the voice from the ball softened a little.
"The messenger, found and already at my place, we start the plan immediately."
"What is it?" The voice, distorted by interference, asked intrigued.
"Better than I expected," Hin proudly reported, as if he was taking credit for Dima's appearance.
"If you liked him, we're all definitely fucked," but I'm waiting for the details.
"Of course." Hin replied, he had a very long conversation ahead of him.