After Laska had declared her intent to stuff Nirou full of all the knowledge he needed to not feel left out of conversations anymore, she briefly left the table and head to another room at the back of the first floor. She returned holding a single sheet of paper, a vial of ink, and a brush. As she sat down she reassured Sahla, who had come downstairs and seemed nervous that Laska had gone into the back room.

"The General won't miss a single sheet of paper and a bit of ink." she insisted. "And don't worry about me entering his study either, he said to make ourselves at home, so I have."

Laska sets the piece of paper down on the table and dips the brush into the ink. She starts by drawing a square in the middle of the paper. Well it was technically more accurate to call it a rectangle, since the horizontal lines were longer, but Nirou figured it was just to better fit the dimensions of the paper. Point is, the center of the paper was squared off.

"Our continent can be roughly divided into five segments." Laska begins her lesson. "The center obviously demarcated by straight lines like this, but it's a convenient shorthand that people use. Beyond this central region, there are four regions each associated with one of the cardinal directions. The continent has four major powers, and they mainly exercise their power over the region in which they originate. We'll start with our current location."

From the bottom of the rectangle, Laska runs the brush downward and gradually to the right. She runs the brush back up a couple of times to indicate a few bits of landmass protruding from the mostly uniform coastline, then towards the bottom of the paper ends with a large curved peninsula. On the way back up, she draws a more rounded coastline sticking out before reversing it and making a decent sized gulf. The gulf makes up the rest of the coastline up to the point where it hits the other bottom corner of the square. Laska then quickly dots some islands down at the bottom of the map near the peninsula, but puts little effort into their shape. She likely just wants to indicate their existence.

"This is roughly the shape of Anjdrahm, the Southern Kingdom." Laska explains. "Yes, this entire area is Anjdrahm. The General's efforts in the past few decades have seen the region completely unified. There's no stressing how impressive this feat truly is, even considering that the South is the smallest region. Subjugated nations like Sakkar are now merely administrative regions within Anjdrahm. Anjdrahm is also in a highly defensible location. Its border with the central region is almost entirely desert and steep mountains, and the only two land routes to reach it are fairly narrow, one in the Northwest and one in the Northeast. They're basically at the very corners of this square. Even then, almost all of Anjdrahm is covered in thick jungle. A theoretical naval invasion would still have to fight through leagues of it to reach most population centers."

"For instance, here is Rajandra, the city we're in right now." Laska makes a dot in the center of Southern region of the map. "This city is said to have never been attacked by foreign powers in the thousands of years its been inhabited, they can't even field an army all the way here. It's changed hands a few times between local powers, but that's it."

Moving on, Laska begins to draw starting from the top left corner of the square now. This time she draws very deliberately, surely very well acquainted with the shape of the coastline. She makes a series of rounded coasts sticking out into the ocean, with a few bays here and there. As she reaches the end and turns back to the right, she draws a large peninsula connected to the mainland by a fairly narrow isthmus. After forming a gulf between the right side of the peninsula and the mainland she draws a second peninsula, this one a very odd shape. Sort of two-pronged, with the left segment reaching out father and the right segment curving back toward the mainland. The rest of the coast after that is made with a relatively gentle curve, aside from some minor divots. As she connects her drawn line to the bottom left corner of the square, she fills a small section of that corner completely with ink. She finishes up by drawing a fairly large island off the coast of the mainland to the Northwest.

"This is the Western Empire, Dragunasia." Laska goes back to explaining. "This part I filled with ink is my home of Voldbend, in the Southeastern-most corner of the region. Dragunasia is said to be the most powerful of the four great powers, but they also face the fiercest local opposition."

Laska draws lines cutting off the peninsulae from the mainland, then sets one of her fingers each on both them and the island in the Northwest.

"These three nations to this day resist the encroachment of Dragunasia." she explains. "They are the Island Republic of Kelth, the Kingdom of Sevell on the Western peninsula, and the Republic of Heskod on the Eastern peninsula. Both Sevell and Heskod are well protected by mountains making invasion difficult, while Kelth can defend itself with naval power alone. Of course each one of them by themselves would still never stand a chance against a mighty power such as Dragunasia, which is why they have long since formed the Triangle Alliance. All three nations are major trading powers, bolstering each other's economies. But the main feature of this alliance is their commitment to retaliate as one against Dragunasia the moment the Empire aggresses on any one of them. The Empire can't fight a war on three difficult fronts at the same time."

"Besides those three nations, most of Dragunasia's fighting is done against another one of the four major powers." Laska moves on to the top of the square. She draws a large bay from the top left corner, the coastline bordering which leads into a peninsula that's shaped like multiple oblong ovals smashed together. She curves back around for the top, which is not really done with much care at all. Eventually she gets over to the right side of the map and draws a second peninsula sticking out above the edge of the square there as well, but the shape is not defined at all. Nirou could tell she was reaching areas she was less familliar with. But she did eventually curve the coastline back down to connect it to the top right corner of the square.

"This is the Northern Kingdom, Mosadet." she explains, marking a big line across most of the area and pointing to it. "While they claim the largest territory out of the major powers, most of this is all sparsely populated forest and tundra. They have supposedly united their entire region, but the tribes and such living to the East wouldn't acknowledge that claim. The majority of their actual citizens live in the Western segment here. Mosadet also has a somewhat unique succession system. While the King rules the majority of the land, the Western peninsula is divided into two princedoms. In the Western half is Vesk, and in the Eastern half is Suargo. The two potential heirs to Mosadet are given control over the princedoms, and seek glory in order to claim the right to the crown. The main way they do this is by raiding Dragunasia's coasts. They're often called the Pirate Princes for this reason. With them in the picture, you can see why Dragunasia would often have its hands full."

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With that, Laska moves on to the last section. Starting from the top right corner of the square, she sort of just makes a big blobby shape with a few parts sticking out. She then draws a smattering of islands off the coast. She clearly doesn't know this area well at all.

"Last of the four major powers is the Eastern Empire of Zandong." she goes on. "I have to be honest and say that I can't tell you very much about them. They are supposedly quite powerful, though the General was able to fight them back when they tried to invade many years ago. Since then, I haven't heard much. Some of these islands belong to them, but some are also said to be the territory of another nation, the Island Kingdom of Yamazu. I'm told they're quite isolatonist, and I doubt there's much information I could find on them even if I tried."

Nirou could sense Laska's frustration at not having any knowledge on the topic.

"Anyway, in the center you can find a few minor powers." she continues. "The Holy Land of Godshearth, the Desert Kingdom of Gyspent, as well as a number of warring steppe domains that are constantly shifting. The Himol Plateau is also said to have a few people living on it, but I can't imagine more than a handful of nomads could survive that harsh environment. All of this together makes up our continent, Huresta."

Nirou takes a good look over the whole map. It's not complete by any means, but it's a great start. At least now he'd have an overview of things that he could supplement as they went on. Though one of his questions still went unanswered.

"What about the Beastmen?" he asked. "You mentioned them, with the General having to fight them off. They were from the Southern Continent, right? So what do you know about them, or of the world beyond this map?"

"Right, the Beastmen..." Laska looked irritated. Not at Nirou for asking the question, but at herself for not being able to give the answer she'd like. "Huresta is also known as the Eastern Continent, or the Land of Men. Though no men live that have been to either, a Northern Continent and a Southern Continent are confirmed to exist. In the case of the Northern Continent, it's just a huge frozen wasteland at the top of the world. There's nothing there for anyone. The Southern Continent is known to be from where the Beastmen hail. You could take a ship down close enough to catch a glimpse of the place, but I wouldn't recommend it. The Beastmen are ruthlessly hostile to humans. They will attack any that they see, and can't be reasoned with. More accurately, they can't even be communicated with. Neither of us seems to even have the means to speak each other's language. Yet despite not knowing anything about us, they have sent a wave of warriors from the South every few years since time immemorial to kill as many humans as they could. They don't even take prisoners or valuables, they seek nothing but death. It's one of the world's great mysteries."

The answer was even darker than Nirou was expecting. If they were able to cross the ocean, then they made boats or something, right? Then they had to be intelligent. Could there really be an intelligent species that acted that way for so long? You'd think someone eventually would make the effort to communicate somehow. But all he could do was theorize. If that's the current knowledge of things, then there's nothing else to say.

"There is also a legend of a fourth continent." Laska goes on. "A long time ago, there were tales of an explorer who went West across the ocean and found a Land of Fae, with fairies and elves and dwarves. Most regard it all as a myth, but the journey across that sea is particularly rough, and no one cares to try and verify the stories. In any case, it's not going to be something you really ever have to worry yourself about."

Things went quiet for a bit after that, as Nirou thought over all the information he'd received. There wasn't really anything that came immediately to mind as to how he could apply general knowledge from his old world in a helpful way, but he figured that he'd know an opportunity when he came across one. It should all work out.

"It seems like you've hit a lull over there." Tajau called from the kitchen. "If you don't mind, could you all watch Hurua for me? I have to run some errands. I wanted to have fish tonight, so I need to pick some things up. We can have lunch when I get back."

"Tajau, wait." Sahla gets up suddenly as she makes the demand. She looks very nervous for some reason. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if-"

The girl is interrupted by a pat on the head from her sister-in-law. "You've got to stop worrying so much, Sahla. In fact I'm the one getting concerned, you never leave the house anymore. It's okay if you need to take things at your own pace, but you can't just let yourself stay a shut-in forever. How about next time we go shopping together, like we used to?"

Sahla fidgets nervously. "I-I don't know if I..."

"Just think about it, okay?" With a wave, Tarau headed out of the house. Sahla took up baby duties, playing with her niece.

Laska could see Nirou being out of the loop once again, and whispered under her breath so that only he could hear. She had gotten used to communicating this way surprisingly quickly.

"She's been like that since she lost her mother some years ago in an accident." she said quietly. "She's been too paranoid to even leave the house. I've tried to support her as a friend, but there's only so much I can do."

Nirou could kind of sympathize. Though it was for a different reason, he had also spent some time as a shut-in. But the miracle that pulled him out of it wasn't likely to happen to her. He watched the girl bob the baby up and down on her knee and wondered if it was even his place to try and do anything at all. She still had most of her family, and she seemed content. She might just get over it.

"So Laska, you're gonna sleep in my room, right?" Sahla asked, breaking Nirou's train of thought. Any hope of getting it back was then shattered by the response.

"I'm afraid not Sahla, I'll be sleeping in the guest room with Nirou." she stated bluntly. Both Sahla and Nirou were taken back by the boldness of the statement. "I'm the one who dragged him to this world against his will, so he's my responsibility. Until the moment he returns home or the time he tells me that he's content with his life here, I'll remain with him at all times. I've made that vow to myself, and I intend to hold myself to it."

Nirou was equal parts embarrassed and confused. Why would that mean they had to sleep in the same room? What a weird thing to be insistent about. Then the responsibility line brought up a thought. Was Laska treating him like a pet that she had to take care of? Was he really that pathetic?

Laska ignored the two's reactions and joined Sahla in playing with the baby, leaving Nirou at the table to un-fluster himself. He spent the next long while just staring at the map and trying to compose himself. He was never going to make a better impression on Laska if he couldn't at least keep his composure. So he made that his current goal.