Where to now?
The nearest nation from the citadel, according to Rike, is Alaran.
Though that didn't really say much.
Chauk is a microstate, meaning that it was pretty small.
Wandering from one end to another wouldn't even take.... well, let's look at it in more detail.
I took a map out of my bag and gave it a close inspection.
The map's center was Kathe's capital, Eliza, very close to the north-west of Chauk.
Chauk was essentially squeezed between six nations in what seemed like a tidy circle. To pull that one off, Rike must have put in some extra hours of hard work.
The average person walks at a pace about one point four meters per second. Three-thousand-six-hundred seconds in an hour makes five-thousand-forty meters per hour.
Five kilometers per hour, roughly.
From the direct middle of the country, the citadel, Rike said it's about twenty-five kilometers to the closest border, which almost made no difference because almost every border was about that distance away.
Double that to cover the diameter of the whole country, about fifty kilometers, then I would have about ten, maybe a bit less, hours to cover it once.
The theoretically most average person could walk through Chauk twice in a day, if they didn't stop for a pause.
But these braniac calculations were only for humans, the average one at that, not the average dwarf or elf or orc, or anything similar.
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I didn't have the data to work what it would have been like for other races, counting in average speed, stride length, wind resistance because of height and the like. Stamina too, there may have been a few races which couldn't physically walk for longer amounts of time.
If someone had more than two legs, they may also have an advantage. I'm ninety percent sure that centaurs could cover that distance much quicker than any two-legged creature.
So, off to the east was it was, to Alaran, my next destination, to meet Her Imperial Majesty, Aini.
It's been bugging me since Rike mentioned her. Haven't I met her already?
But where? I'm sure she wasn't the queen at that time cause I would have remembered that, or maybe I'm misremembering or just confusing two people?
Lots has been happening, so remembering a single person would be difficult.
There was also the pain in my head, which now made a few of my memories sort of fuzzy.
Maybe the name Aini is pretty common in this world?
Oh well, even if I could remember her, she won't recognize me, for sure.
I'm an elf, per the agreement I had with Rike, and they're not often seen outside.
And what was I gonna say, anyway?
"Hey, remember me? Some random guy you met somewhere before."
If I couldn't remember her, what are the chances that she would remember me?
The only person who would clearly remember me, no matter how I looked, was Faye, because she was the reason I changed form so often.
I told her to do everything in her power to stop the changes and since then; she wasn't with me again. She must be busy working hard on my request.
Maybe she finally cares about me?
Actually, no, I don't think she does, or ever will.
Some day I'll have to ask her what her problem is.
I don't mind being how I am now.
I wonder how other people would react changing form, except for shape shifters. It's clear how they would.
Although it comes naturally to them, it would be interesting to see how they would react if their ability was restricted to just changing at random instead of being clear with intent on what you want to be.
The fact that I am not unattractive is the best part; having a handsome face is something that often could come in handy.
I saw something when I raised my gaze to the sky to clear my head.
I was still unsure of what it was, even after squinting my eyes.
It was small and very far away, but rapidly it was coming closer, and it was heading directly toward me.
I wonder what would happen if I let it hit me...
Oh, hell no.
"HIT THE DECK!”
I dodged the object that shot down from the sky by jumping to the side.