The Independent state of Teroku is a small in-land nation. Its 70 000 km² land is home to 58 000 people. Completely surrounded by 3 global powers that many tens of times beyond its landmass with larger population to match, Teroku is the last among its cluster of small countries in the region that has yet to be claimed by a great power. Up until now, Teroku’s government has been skillful enough to handle its delicate relation with its neighbors to avoid being turned into a war zone.

Neighboring countries outrank Teroku whether that be wealth, variety and quality of products, technology, or education. Thus, it takes great pride in its high standard of living and sustainability. Even the poorest of its citizens can afford to be fed a meal a day, gain access to clean water, be cared by its medical system, and enjoy a life in the lowest crime-rate country in the continent. It has long been said that if one pursues the advancement of knowledge, they should not postpone their visit to the City of Science, capital of Belenor. If one seeks wealth for oneself, the trading centers of Yubal are vaults of opportunities. If one desires to test their worth in combat, the Kingdom of Orussa is always opened. When one has done proving themselves to the grand world, Teroku is the land that great people come to pass their remained life quietly.

Today, the land of Teroku has disappeared from the face of the world. Travelers and merchants stood shockingly in front of a massive abyss where Teroku used to be. It was as if a titan has scooped the entire land away or the nation has sunk into the underworld. The whereabout of those who lived in Teroku were never known.

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Midnight of the 2^nd day since the phenomenon.

House of Overseer, the central office of Teroku government.

Teroku is managed by a council of 6 chancellors. The chancellors are usually elected from powerful noble houses but it’s not rare for well-respected and scholarly non-noble individuals to hold the position. Today, these people at the highest authority were assembled to deal with the sudden “change” of their nation. The gathering has been announced since the morning of the first day but it took time for the announcement to be received by each chancellor.

Chancellor Erwin is the last to enter. He has been fixing his attire and cleaning his sweats while walking to the conference room. Trying as he is, Erwin couldn’t completely hide his shortness of breath and the now-forming tiny droplets of sweat on his forehead. Since Erwin has been on horseback for the entire day trying to reach the returning scouts from all corners of the state, it is understandable he is not in his most presentable condition.

“My apology for being late. I will be direct in this meeting. According to messengers across the country, we have lost our abilities to use magic as Chancellor Temona has informed yesterday. Nation-wide communication is currently being conducted manually by a cavalry detachment as temporary measure. Messenger birds donated and requested in the nation are very limited and they will be used for emergency communication only.”

 

The chancellors looked at each other worriedly.

“Messages from our border concluded that our country is surrounded by sea water. The only two speculations we can come up with are either the entire world sank except us.” Chancellor Erwin paused for a moment. “Or our nation has been transported to some unknown area.”

 

Neither of those remarks are more favorable than the other. If the former was true and the entire world sank into the oceans, the big question come after it will be whether that is an act of nature or an act of an intelligence. If it is an act of nature then why were we spared? Or perhaps, it was just a delay before the inevitable doom.

However, if it is an act of a being with intelligence then why? Is this being malevolent or benevolent? If the latter was true, then the nation was exposed to an alien world. Does this world have any inhabitant? How will these inhabitants react to us? If they hold malicious intents against us, can we safeguard our nation? Who or what transported us to this new world? For what purpose?

 

Seeing as everyone was deep in their thought, Mufusa, being the one with the most wrinkles on his face, decided the silence has been long enough.

“My fellow chancellors. As per our world’s standard, an army without magic amounts to nothing. Magic is also the core of our communication network. Without magic, we are basically blind and deaf. Furthermore, as Chancellor Erwin had reported, we are now an island nation but our sailors do not have experience in sea faring. Our navy can’t do more than coastal defense. Finally, I want to stress that our people would be as worried as any of us right now when they learn of the situation. Civil unrest is the least we need in this very moment. We need solution for these problems and we need it now.”

 

“Talking about gathering information, we could dispatch some skywalkers to explore the sea. It is unknown how far we are from another island or mainland but our skyhorn and swiftwing riders should be able to scout for a limited distance. It will reduce our air power but having no idea if there is any hostile forces or where and when they will arrive is even more dangerous.” Chancellor Weslor suggested.

 

Chancellor Yokka rubbed her forehead dejectedly.

“Regarding our communication, I advise we delegate half of our skywalkers as messengers to increase the information travel speed and temporarily put the rest out of commission.”

 

Everyone was stunned by her proposal.

“Before anyone raises their objection, skyhorn and swiftwing use magic to help them fly just as we use magic for most of our activities. There is no guarantee they can even fly but that would be the least of our worry. Skywalkers’ equipment including weapons are also magical artifacts. Non-magic weapons are not an option. Arrows and throwing weapons will never reach the target. Up in the sky, wind blows at more angles and stronger than we experience on the ground. Targets also come from many angles. It is a 3-dimension battle not 2-D as on the ground. What kind of training do we have to put our soldiers through so that they can stand and aim steadily on the beast back when they twist, turn, dive in the middle of the sky? Going back to the strong-wind condition I said, I used to ride skyhorn back in my younger days. The wind is too strong for arrows to fly far and even if they did their effective range is greatly diminished. Melee weapons are even worse. The only thing that I can pass as decent are those calvary lances but if we have to resort to melee combat, swiftwing’s beak and skyhorn’s horn are more than enough in term of reach and ease of usage. And if we decide to follow through with that, the best aerial combat doctrine would be assigning 1 rider to each beast and instruct them to make a sky dive into enemies but that is only possible against enemies from below. This leads to another problem. How do we know if skywalkers can still fly at the same altitude? This matter requires investigation on how the non-magic condition affects those beasts. Whatever angle we see, our skywalkers are in no position to oppose another air force.”

 

The atmosphere sank down for a second time. It was another lethal revelation for the chancellors. That was not the chancellors’ fault for not realizing. They were plagued with unending influx of news for two days. The magic dependent Teroku is now without magic. It is not easy to completely change what was conventional just few days ago.

“Chancellor Yokka. We will leave the matter of our skywalkers in your hands.”

 

“I will do my best.”

 

Chancellor Weslor tried to advance the discussion.

“I will move our topic to the navy. Not only do we need experienced seamen, we also need experienced seaship builders. At the present, there are 37 galleys of all sizes in active duty but they were built for inland rivers in our country. Their seaworthiness is… questionable. Fortune be with us, there are many retired foreign citizens in our country. There should be a few of them who are veteran shipbuilders, seamen. Even if they can’t provide the same level of services as when they were in their prime, their knowledge and experience are still beneficial to us. They can act as mentors and trainers for our builders, soldiers and logistic people. If there are any skywalker who used to operate on the sea, they could advise us on what doctrines their country used in marine combat. I will try to recruit them.”

 

“You may already know, Chancellor Weslor, but please be flexible with them. They may say their oath during the ceremony but deep down they are still people from another nation looking for retirement house. Some of them won’t cooperate with us and we have no need of any animosity at the moment.”

 

“I will take note, Chancellor Henson.”

 

“I and Chancellor Temona will keep an eye out for any public disturbance. External enemies are not as deadly as internal troublemakers.”

 

“To the last issue, our people. How should we address them?” Mufusa kneaded his hands.

 

“It is probably impossible to keep this hidden from the mass. Our concern lies with answering how and what we, the government, can do to assure the people of their safety and well-being.”

 

“Should we say the truth?” Weslor broke an awkward smile as his question was met with silence.

 

“So you want to tell the truth?” Henson asked.

 

“I… I just… yes.”

 

“That will be one vote.”

 

Weslor was unnerved as Henson turned his mere suggestion into serious voting matter. It would look like Henson was bullying the young chancellor but that’s just Henson’s way of teaching Weslor to mind his naive thought. However, in this case, Henson didn’t do it to mock Weslor. Henson knew he and other chancellors have been thinking about such possibility. It’s strange time for Teroku. Conventional methods may not yield satisfaction but unorthodox approach may work.

Henson waited but no one replied. To say the true, no one knew what the best course of action would be. They were all just waiting for someone to say something. Though they shared Weslor’s idea, no one dared to voice their opinion.

 

That would be one “support” and five “blank” or so Henson thought.

 

“If no one is going to say anything, I will take it that the House of Overseer agreed with chancellor Weslor’s recommendation. Managing our people’s spirit is difficult but I will approach them truthfully and do my best to rally their morale.” Mufusa announced his intention to the gloomy atmosphere.

 

Abruptly, hurried knocks sounded loudly at the conference door.

“Chancellors! Urgent report!”

 

“Enter.” Mufusa responded.

 

The exhausted messenger handed over the documents to chancellor Erwin before briefing.

“A new land has appeared in the south east of our country. The landmass is connected to Muriel village. Our border guards reported that inhabitants of that land want to speak with us. They said it is crucial matter related to both sides.”

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On early morning of the next day, Erwin along with Temona were dispatched by the House of Overseer to Muriel. Roughly 30 minutes ago while on the way, their carriage received additional info from the border guards informing them of a small fight occurred between one of the representatives of the strange land and Caroline. Luckily, they stopped before any damage can be made. Erwin sighed for the third times after reading the message. It is a habit he consciously suppressed in the presence of other people. Stress must have built up to the point that he broke out from his usual chancellor demeanor. Temona tried to comfort her mentally drained colleague.

“Caroline must have a good reason for that.”

“I hope so.”

 

Caroline is not a native of Teroku’s world, he is a summoned human. Around one year ago, a group of cultists summoned a powerful entity. A confused Caroline is the only living person found in the cultist’s hideout. It is unknown what the cultists wished for but their soul was taken indicating the contract was complete or so the investigators thought. There are, however, a small number of government officers raised the question on whether he is that powerful entity in disguised. Whether this is true or not, no magic has been able to tell.

Without any way to return Caroline to his original world, Teroku tried to welcome him to their world. For a year, he was traveler and freelancer across the nation, working to sustain himself while learning new thing on his way. Caroline earned the trust of those he interacted. Temona seems to know him in person the most because of his contribution to the completion of several constructions under her supervision.

 

The village of Muriel is finally in sight. A group of local officers were waiting for them. Upon exiting the carriage, Erwin urged them to give detailed report.

“The detachment we sent to escort the representatives said that after passing our check point for half an hour, Caroline blocked their way and challenged the leading madam. To defend herself, the madam raised her fist and forced Caroline back.”

 

Erwin and Temona’s eyes were bewildered. There exists a being who can overwhelm Caroline? That Caroline? Caroline was once asked to act as sparring partner for their army. Unlike the people of Teroku’s world, Caroline can’t use magic, he didn’t even know what is magic. His rather “average” body caused many to doubt if they should take him on seriously until Caroline threw them to submission as easily as putting small animals to their place. Magic or no magic, no one could withstand his strength. The army’s further experiments recorded Caroline broke through castle gate and fortification wall. He barehandedly twisted, tore and crushed enchanted weapons as if they were made of straw.

 

“The fight ended right after that and no one was hurt but to be safe we had him locked up. When asked why he had done it, he stayed silent but he did say that he would take all responsibility for his action.”

 

“I don’t believe he will try to jeopardize our talk with the representatives but just keep a close eye on him for now.” Erwin ordered.

 

“Yes, chancellor.”

 

“Where are our guests?”

 

“We have invited them to the village hall, chancellor.”

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The village hall is just a big house with one large room. Its main purpose is to house all the villagers when they need to discuss matters related to the entire village. Decoration in the hall is casual but adorable, they are probably made by children of many generations.

Two guests, a moustache man in his late thirty and a chimera, appeared to have been mesmerized by the lovely designs. They stood near the wall and discussed heartedly about these hand-made products. The chimera has the body of a male lion. A goat head is attached to his left while his tail is a long and slender black cobra. The lion sat on his hindlegs. His left forelimb pushed him sit upright while the gesture of his right forelimb mimicked that of human as he speaks.

The two seated guests are the middle-age woman and a dark elf boy. They seemed to enjoy the local tea and the comfort of the wooden chairs a lot. The dark elf would be seen as a 10-year-old child if human were to guess his age. A large slashing scar is spotted on his left arm. His left ear also missed a small churn at the tip making his left ear not as pointy as his right one.

 

Notice the entering hosts, the guests stopped their activities and lowered their heads. Teroku side took this as their guests’ way of greeting and returned their politeness. After everyone had settled down, Erwin begun.

“My name is Erwin Forestsman. This is lady Temona Wyrmsking. We are chancellors of the Independent State of Teroku. We would like to express our sincere apology for the early incident.”

 

“I am Feron. This young man here is the one in charge of security of the Land of Harmony, captain William Penson. Master Liseek’thy, Ollando and Xantos are popular scholars of the House of Wisdom. And this dark one is called Kivyan. We are representatives for the Land of Harmony. About the incident involved the warrior Caroline, I want to assure Teroku that we do not mind and hope that he is not punished for it.”

 

“Your words are so kind, madam Feron.”

 

“Chancellor Erwin. The Land of Harmony is not a sovereign state and I am here as a person who lived in the Land. Whatever happened to me is personal issue and not a state’s matter. Moreover, I feel intrigued by Caroline’s extraordinary capacity. It is the first time I met a human who can match my power without the use of magic.” Feron clarified.

 

“Thank you, madam Feron.”

 

“Putting that matter aside, as guests, we will explain our situation. The Land of Harmony is not indigenous to this world. Back in our world, this land is the furthest point of the Swallow peninsula. It is a neutral territory where people of every race and every nation can meet without being discriminated. The people of the Land of Harmony depend heavily on trading with the outside world to sustain and to provide services to visitors. The sudden teleportation has completely cut off the supply line from our old world. Among the magics that we can still use, we noticed that our teleportation spells are somehow malfunctioned. We believe whoever brought us here doesn’t want us to return.”

 

Temona and Erwin glanced at each other with wide-open eyes.

“Excuse me, madam Feron. You said that your people can still use magic?”

 

“Indeed, Chancellor Erwin. The latest instance that I use magic is when I defended against Caroline’s attack.”

 

Seeing the confusion in the chancellors’ eyes, Feron decided to lay bare her knowledge.

“I believe honesty and truthfulness to be the most important aspects in establishing a lasting relation. I will let you know what the Land of Harmony has confirmed. We know that Teroku is also not a native land of this world. The subtle components of your spirits and the dwelling magics of your nation are too different from what were in the sea beasts and the environment. We also know that you can no longer use your magic. What master Liseek’thy, master Ollando, master Xantos and captain William were discussing during our waiting is about the depleting magic of this hall.”

 

“Yesss. Pardon my hiss. We looked at the magic of the objects. This hall and its decorations were made by generations of people. Lingering feelings of adoration from these people created layers of protective magic upon this place even when these people no longer among the living.” Liseek’thy’s whistling voice added to the conversation.

 

“We were captivated by the feeling of happiness and fulfillment. Such brilliant! Such magnificent!” The goat head Xantos joined in.

 

“As my colleagues have said, this place is filled with magics but now those magics are barely working. The effect is fading and even with our insight we can only see fainted light of the beautiful past woven within. It matched with what we saw throughout this town.” The explanation went to Ollando.

 

“We have taken a look around the village when we entered. The formulas are there. Magics are probably being used daily here and we believe it is also true throughout your territory. Without magic, your daily routine must have been affected and you must have been looking for alternatives. The people of the Land are few but some are renowned experts. We would love to provide our service to Teroku in whatever professional field that we both can agree upon. In return, we ask that Teroku supply us with food. We do not want to pressure you but the stock in our land won’t hold out much longer. The sooner agreement is reached, the better for us.” Captain William laid his terms.

 

Their guests were straightforward but this matter requires in-depth discussion at the House of Overseer. They could not decide by themselves. Temona tried to gather more information.

“We understand your situation but we can not give you an immediate answer. If possible, I want to ask for some information more. It may help us decide the future action easier.”

 

“Please ask. We do not mind.”

 

“Concerning the magic, how can you still be able to use them while we could not?”

 

Feron traded look with Ollando.

“The laws of physics are how everything in our world react to each other. Magic is the phenomenon that violate the laws of physics. We speculated that when a world is created by a Creator, they designed the magic system to allow them to make minor change to the world without causing cascade effect.”

 

“Each world may or may not have a magic system. Some share the same system with other worlds. Some have more than one. A system where magic act as formula to create an effect while Mana or anything equivalent act as currency of the system.” Xantos clarified.

 

Li’seekthy coiled around Xantos’ horn taking his turn.

“We do not know exactly the nature of your original magic system but they appear to use a magic currency that does not exist in this world. Hence, you can not use your magic but thing that stored those currency like objects within this hall still emit magical effect until they ran out of their stored currency. Our world has 3 magic systems. One of them is disabled also owing to the absence of its currency but the other 2 still act normally.”

 

The rest of the day ended with the two parties exchanging their information.

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The next day, the chancellors were once again summoned to the House of Overseer. Bombardment of unbelievable news came wave after wave that barely anyone has the energy to be surprised anymore. Collected information can be divided as below.

• The Land of Harmony is a neutral territory. Not ruled by any distinct government.
• People of the Land can use magic even in this world.
• Their people comprise of many races.
• They offered professional service for supply.
• The land has around 800 people and 5000 km² in size.
• Their military strength is complicated to evaluate but total power may be above Teroku.

 

“Of course, most are their claims. Erwin and I have no mean to confirm.”

 

Mufusa held up the paper.

“There are several points I want to verify. Chancellor Yokka. I recalled our previous assessment said Caroline can siege our nation by himself when we were still able to use magic.”

 

“Indeed, Chancellor Mufusa, and from that time Caroline has improved quite a bit but he still lost.”

 

“And the other two beside this madam. According to the report can be treated as magic users at the same level as our world’s greatest or above?” Mufusa eyed at Temona.

 

“That’s my personal judgement but please allow me to justify. The ability to observe the nature of magic is something only the grandmasters can do according to our world’s standard. I know that applying this principle to these strangers is overgeneralized. However, it will be detrimental to our nation’s security to not consider the worst scenario.”

 

Teroku’s army in their prime wouldn’t be confident against one of those grandmasters, let alone 2 at this state. In fact, the great powers themselves considered warring with the grandmasters to be the same as falling off a cliff, causing them tremendous loss with no gain.

 

“Muriel village also belongs to the Ariella-Muriel-Santo area, one of our largest harvest lands. They are too close to our vital area. In short, they are stronger than us, we are not in the condition to fight, and our neck is within their arm length. We can’t bring the fight to them or defend against their invasion.” Henson added.

 

“That’s assuming they are stronger than us.”

 

“So you are saying that they are weaker than us. That’s why they want to move their men into our country as employed experts and destroy our country from the inside out?”

 

In real world where individual only has limited power, they may only act as spies or hidden agents but in a world where even people without magic can rival an army in strength such as Caroline, allowing just one person into your country is the same as opening your border for a mass destruction weapon to freely pick and choose.

 

“If they have ulterior motives. Yes, it is.”

 

“Then what would you propose?”

 

“We should not be hostile to them but we couldn’t eliminate the possibility of them having hidden agenda either. They only have 800 people. We can just feed them food then tell them we will consider employing them later.”

 

“I will assume you know that our productivity has gone down considerably due to the lack of magic.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“How do the rest of the House see this?”

 

“I have no comment.” Said Yokka.

 

“I-I think chancellor Mufusa’s idea may work.”

 

“I don’t believe they have another agenda but a little care wouldn’t hurt. At least for now.”

 

“Chancellors. I have one request.” Erwin raised his hand. “When the food wagons are dispatched to the Land, I wish to pay a visit to the Land along with a diplomatic officer to determine the situation personally.”

 

“That is unthinkable. Your position in the House of Overseer will put you in great danger for such a trip.” Yokka objected.

 

“Chancellor Erwin, that’s too risky.”

 

“I concur with Chancellor Yokka and Chancellor Henson. If you want to assess their claims, a diplomatic team should be enough.” Mufusa added.

 

“Indeed. If we just need information, a diplomatic team should be enough. But relation with this new territory is too important to rely solely on diplomatic officers. We need someone who has prior experience in dealing with them to accurately gather and evaluate the information of this trip. And I am among the two persons who have the most contact with them. I have my doubt that they will resolve to turn me into a negotiation card but in the event that it became reality, I would like to be considered as necessary casualty.”

 

“Are you completely serious with this, Erwin?” Henson made a difficult look.

 

After exhausting their options, the State of Teroku established a supply route to the Land of Harmony. Teroku, however, declined the Land’s proposal of having their people being employed as foreign workers in Teroku. In the mask of deepening their relation, Teroku requested to send a diplomatic team to the Land.