Varinius’ POV
I stare down at the map before me and realise how large this world truly is. In my last life, my entire life was spent on a small island, then in the slave camp. Even in this life, I haven’t gone more than a couple of kilometres from home. Looking at this map which scales hundreds of kilometres to a centimetre, I finally realise how little I’ve seen.
On a large mountain range, is a small red dot. That’s us. The mountain range is called the Untamed Mountains because the humans have had little luck in exploring them. Most expeditions end up vanishing.
The mountain range separates the Adronian Empire which covers the majority of the continent, and the Kingdom of Odalric and the Hunfrid Kingdom in the Northwest. Our village is located at the top of the mountain range, right next to the north coast.
The Untamed Mountains only have a couple of passes and routes which the humans can use for travel or trade but it’s unfeasible to get an army through them as they are at least 400km long. There are also outposts and fortress cities at the ends.
The option of sea travel was explored and promptly discarded back in the Giant-slayer era. The seas are filled with constantly shifting currents and unexpected gale-force winds. If that wasn’t enough, there are reefs that mercilessly shred hulls to pieces in the shallows, and unknown sea monsters that prowl the depths.
The one time a country tried sending their army by sea, not one in ten of the ships made it back to shore a day later. They couldn’t even make it half-way to their destination and the country was conquered soon after. Their army was decimated and their economy unstable after spending most of their money on shipbuilding.
(AN: I was going to describe it all but figured I may as well just draw a basic map. So many less words. Also, disregard the north arrow. Thatr was a mistake I forgot to get rid of. North is vertical. Sorry 'bout that.)
The Untamed mountains halted the Adronicus Empire’s conquering spree and after forming non-aggression treaties, Odalric’s relationship with them is quite good. The Hunfrid and Odalric on the other hand, are on much worse terms. The Hunfrid kingdom is a frigid and barren place with very little arable land, but an abundance of mineral wealth.
The Odalric kingdom on the other hand, is the opposite with it being rich in arable land but not much mineral wealth. One would thing they could just trade for what they want but until recently, the Hunfrid were divided in a tribal society and while some were happy to trade, others simply raided for what they wanted. This caused them to have a terrible relationship with each other and while the predominant religion is the Dark Church, which encourages inclusion, people’s prejudices aren’t that easy to sway.
The Hunfiridian pale skin and blonde hair with blue eyes makes it makes it even easier to discriminate. In Odalric, the standard features are light brown skin and brown hair, with brown eyes. The Adronicus Empire’s populace is mainly dark brown or black skinned with dark hair and black eyes.
Regardless, the Hunfridian features are spat upon by the majority of Odalricians. This makes life difficult for the half-Odalric, half-Hunfrid. In the Hunfrid Kingdom, they are often enslaved, whereas in Odalric, where slavery is harshly punished, they often cannot get work in safe jobs and are often forced to take drastic measures to put food on the table.
I personally don’t give a damn about the colour of a human’s skin, they’re all human and all of them hunted us Giants. Turns out that the Humans who have a Giant pseudo-bloodline, I refuse to acknowledge it as an actual giant bloodline, all have gold eyes. As such, gold eyes are equated with nobility.
Once again, I don’t blame the current generations for their ancestors’ actions, but I don’t trust them to not do it again, should they find our home.
Another thing of note is that in the Adronian Empire, the predominant religion is the Church of Light, which only makes me more wary of them. The asshole they worship did say he was going to ‘break’ me after all. Got to keep my guard up. There are surprisngly few conflicts between the Church of Light in the Empire, and the Dark Church in the Kingdom of Odalric despite the extreme differences in ideology. I’ll need to keep an eye on that.
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I relax in the bough of a giant tree, enjoying the breeze as I practice my aura control. I have been reached a point where I can’t quite get any better, but with my ridiculous aura pool, which is still noticeably increasing by the day, I need to keep practicing to maintain my control.
I extend a string-like tendril from my finger and let it float down to an enormous stag grazing far below. I connect to it and after its initial panic, it calms when I let it feel my peaceful intent. What follows is a fascinating conversation with the creature.
Animals think very differently from us. They don’t think of consequences or the future. They don’t think on questions of morality. They just… live. It’s a simple life they live, but they don’t even consider alternatives. They also think solely in images and scents, without a structured spoken language to communicate.
I disconnect the thread soon after as I feel my blood resonate and see my mother approaching. The stag quickly and nimbly runs off into the woods.
“You’re out further than usual Varinius.”
“Yes. A tribeswoman found my last training spot.”
“Ah. Who was it?”
“How should I know? They all look the same to me.”
“Hahaha. Yes, you don’t seem to care about any of the tribesmen or women. But you may be young now, but one day you will need to find a partner. You need to keep that in mind.”
“Come on mother, I’m only four years old. And besides, I don’t need anyone but you.”
She grinned wickedly before saying, “Careful, you might give me the wrong idea.”
“I don’t see a problem with that. After all, I will outlive any other woman than you. It only makes sense to me. Besides, I love you.”
This got a blush out of her and made her freeze up a bit, not sure how to answer. Instead she starts walking back to the tribe, knowing I’ll follow. For all her apparent age (she let slip that her parents were killed by the Giant-slayers), she is inexperienced with love. And she does love me. Not as a man yet, I’m only four. That would be weird. But as family, which she hasn’t had for almost 20,000 years, she is still getting used to it. Four years is but a blind of an eye to a Giant. Even I could feel time flowed differently for me from my last life, even in these four short years.
Of course, I’m only saying all this now to set a foundation for the future because, as I said. I will outlive anyone else and I genuinely find her attractive in terms of personality and physically. I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.
I then spin another aura thread out to mother and convey my love for her. I find it far more genuine than simply saying so. When I receive a just as powerful feeling back, my face practically splits, that’s how wide my smile is.
I will protect her with my all. I will never let that asshole win.
