The corridor was long but broad, it could possibly fit four to five people walking in parallel. Li Cheng once again caught the sight of bright gemstones, but this time they were placed in ornate holders, hanging on the walls instead of being embedded on the ceiling. They cast a golden honey light on the marble floor, which was smooth and reflective without a tiny speck of dust. Li Cheng could see his own clear, untainted reflection as if he was treading on large, spotless mirrors.

As they walked along the corridor, various wall paintings came across him from both sides. The term ‘painting’ might be too catch-all and inaccurate, as Li Cheng saw them as portraits rather than general paintings. They had a style strikingly similar to the baroque artworks that he once saw in museums, all of them depicted men and women in luxurious clothes and stylish ornaments, some wore even more extravagant pieces such as crowns and tiaras. They were mostly in groups of ten to twenty people, but his keen eyes as a pilot spotted one odd drawing with only a pair. The figures that were drawn were similar in many ways, one of them being their surreal, out-of-the-world level of beauty, but Li Cheng was curious at another recurring trait. They all had abnormally long and thin ears.

He recalled another work of art that had him come to the same conclusion, the bust that he came across at the end of the corridor with marble pillars. The sculpture also had abnormally long ears, and his look, even though partially obscured by the colorless sculpture, was not far off from some of the men he met through these portraits. They gave the same kind of air, elegant and all-mighty.

Words spewed out by the rude old man resurfaced in his mind, ‘human’, ‘elves’ and ‘beastman’.

Li Cheng was an avid novel reader, and fantasy words were his favorites. He knew the terms, and he knew well what they implied. Even though the military trained him to be realistic and stick to his senses, Li Cheng started to have his own doubts. Senses are the reception of stimuli from the environment. When the environment was drastically changed, most organisms would simply die off. Li Cheng was a human, a much more complex organism and not that feeble, but his rational mind took the hit as it was being slowly torn apart by uncertainty and doubt.

Where the hell am I, actually?

This question ravaged his mind, and it would not let him relax, not even as they hit the end of the corridor. Standing before him was a magnificent door, not from wood, not from bricks, but from pure jade and gold. The green jade sprouted vigorously from the gold canvas, creating the image of trees nurtured by the forest’s soil, growing tall and strong as they yearned for the sweet sunlight above. The medium was outrageously out-of-touch, but the finishing product was pleasant and meaningful.

Soon they stopped, right before the door. The maid girl muttered a short verse, low-pitched and linguistically unfamiliar. Li Cheng had seen this scene before. The door, humongous and immovable at first glance, unbolted on its own just after a short delay. She gave it one more touch, and as easy as one would turn a small knob, the lofty door was effortlessly pushed open.

Li Cheng’s eyes forced themselves shut. The corridor was well-lit, but the light coming from the other side of the door was simply blinding. His body reacted instinctively.

After much adjusting, he found himself standing before a red carpet walkway, covering from the very doorstep. There were two more men in armors on the other side, blocking the entrance. The maid girl stepped forward, leaned against one of the guards, and whispered into his ears. He nodded, putting down his halberd. His colleagues did the same. The path was clear. They both signaled through their visor-covered helmet for Li Cheng to go.

Li Cheng hesitated, but after going this far, he could only clench his teeth and press forward.

The red carpet under his feet was pleasant. The atmosphere, however, was not. It was solemn and crushing, his pace instinctively slowed down. As he trod, Li Cheng’s visual sensory was getting overloaded. Things, people, their numbers cramped up his senses. There were so many glittering things, countless of them carved on ornate decorations or stitched to items of clothing. The ceiling was as high as the sky, at the center was a chandelier bigger and more luminous than anything he would have ever seen. It was like the root of a hundred-year-old tree, its tentacles packed with gems and brightly lit stones spawning and slithering as it spanned one-third of the room’s topmost layer. As if it was not getting enough illumination, several candle-poles were placed near marble pillars, dotting the room with their distinctive designs, each different from the rest.

It was a bad idea to come here.

Li Cheng thought as he fidgeted nervously in his place, not daring to move another step. There were almost a hundred people here, all good-looking, dressed impeccably and their ears, not very peculiar to Li Cheng at this point anymore, a long, thin and pointy shape. There were only hushed whispers, but Li Cheng could feel their attention burning on him. The men crossed their arms and gave him unfriendly looks, while the ladies, half-opening the fan over their face, chattered among themselves in low-pitched voices.

Li Cheng kept his head low, staring at the red carpet in a near state of breakdown. He did not know why he did this, he just instinctively felt he had to. The atmosphere was crushing. Sweat accumulated on his forehead.

“Raise your head, child of human. No need to be so timid.”

A sweet, but imposing voice drifted to his ears. The language he was a total stranger to, but its meaning still got through him somehow, its tone noble and dignified. The weight on the room’s atmosphere was lifted. Small chatterings across the room also dropped instantly.

Li Cheng mustered his courage and looked up. He tried to find the source of the voice. It was coming from the end of the carpeted walkway. He traced its path, passing through some layers of curved stairs and ended at an impressive throne.

He was captivated, not by the chair, but by the person sitting on it.

Her ears were long and pointy. Her hair was an untainted silver color, flowing freely like a stream on top of a snowy mountain, embracing her doll-like face and her moist, cherry lips. Her skin a pearl-white color, partially hidden by her bright red ruffled coat dress with crisscrossing gold embroidery. The bodice was tight around her waist, highlighting the sensual shape of her body, nothing too big and nothing too small, everything was perfect. She held a scepter on her left and wore many ornaments in precious metals, bracelets, a necklace and rings, lavish but not overwhelming or flamboyant. Perhaps the only out-of-place thing Li Cheng could spot was the tiara she wore on top. It was too big for her head, and too extravagant compared to the rest of her attire. If he could add one more little thing, the throne was also a bit spacious for her. Clearly it was not designed for a petite woman.

Previously, he was speechless due to the pressure, now Li Cheng cannot utter a word as he was too focused on the beauty. The contrast between her youthful, flawless appearance and her imposing manner was such an eye-catcher. He could not take his attention off the girl, which created a rather funny image in the eyes of bystanders. The people around threw him, who was standing still dumbly contemptuous gazes.

He did not realize it yet, but the chestnut color in his memory faded away a little.

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶

‘Why is he looking at me like that?’

Sitting on my throne and watching the spectacle unfolded before my eyes, I could not help but be a little concerned.

The elvish nobles were clearly not being welcoming to our guest. They bantered around and mocked him openly. The topaz gem’s translation mechanism did not work if there was a third party, but then you could miss words, not atmosphere. High Elvish, English, Japanese, you do not need a brand of language to show hostility.

It’s your fault too, you know!? Stop standing there with such a dumb face!

I let out a long imaginary sigh. The nobles, they always drove me mad. Barely after we took him to the castle, some of them already applied for an audience. They got winds of what was happening.

Well, it’s not like I’m trying to hide anything, even if I want to. I bet some of the more higher-class nobles knew our situation well before me. Their intelligence network was just that good. They had connections all over our kingdom and far beyond that, in other nation’s territories. There was nothing that could conceal an event of this scale, other than going with the flow.

The nobles were mad, VERY mad. Their businesses were broken. Some vanished entirely as trade and supply from other kingdoms terminated. I really wanted to give them all a shrug for all their questions, but the reality was, I patiently sat through their endless blabberings as they whipped out reports of astronomical money loss and demanded an explanation.

It was not only the nobility, merchant guilds were not idle either. They came at roughly the same time and reported an overnight undersupply of many items, among which were essentials like grains and vegetables. They cannot, at least legally, raise prices too high on their own, so they all flocked to the palace in a mad dash to ask for a price adjustment, citing the skyrocketed import rates. They were not baffled by our whole country just teleporting more than the fact that their suppliers asked for a bit of extra money.

Arghhh, I want them all dead.

I massaged my imaginary temples. Complaints aside, there was also the issue with the man standing before me. I need information from him, or rather, confirmation. I could tell with confidence that I was back on Earth, but the devil is in the detail. His existence was something I did not intend to leak out any time soon, but the elvish nobles, with their spider web of information caught up to that, and they unanimously demanded to be present here. I could not refuse them outright. 

“Can you understand what I’m saying?”

I addressed him in High Elvish. The translation topaz was working just fine. I could speak Japanese or English, but that would be putting the cart before the horse, plus, the nobles always had their eyes on me. I could not afford any blunder on my part.

The pilot, obviously still laggy in response, finally noticed that it was me who was talking to him. He fumbled around in an awkward manner, his hands fidgety.

“No need to do anything extra, just answer me is enough. Where do you come from?”

He hesitated a bit, and then finally put up an answer.

“C..China, Your Majesty.”

He said while lowering his head.

Your Majesty?

I was dumbstruck.

Where and when did he learn that?

I let out a cough to cover my surprise, then continued to ask.

“Then, could you tell me what year it is?”

Obviously not expecting my question, he was silent, but his expression betrayed his surprise. Still, I heard a stuttering voice.

“The year is 2020, Y...your Majesty”

2020?

That’s just one year after I transmigrated, but I have stayed in this world for ten years.

Time dilation?

Only now did I notice, the Iph*ne model I got from him was not that different in technicality from the one I used.

I breathed a sigh of relief. That meant everyone back home was probably still there. I hoped they were all safe.

Ahh, where did he say he came from again?

It was, I think ... China?

I nearly jumped out of the throne.

He was from China!? Not Japan!?

The scene of the burning pile of rubble resurfaced in my mind. Did I, technically, shoot down a plane from the People’s Republic of China in my territory? THAT China? He … he was not from the army, was he?

I scoured his attire. It was a blue color suit with a golden aiguillette. It was a bit disheveled, but the two rows of triple buttons and various stitched insignias on the front gave me little room for doubt.

I felt like crying out an ocean. It was a mistake after all.

“I see that our guest is tired and not fit for conversation. Why don’t you return to your residences to rest and we will congregate again tomorrow?”

Hiding my shaking hand, I spoke in High Elvish to all the nobles. There was a disgruntled expression on many faces, but after exchanging glances with each other, they all slightly lowered their head and left.

senchou17

Thank you @kealan for supporting this story! Also, just FYI, all chapters will have at least 2000 words from now.