When Noah came out of his room and found himself trudging along the streets, many things immediately caught his attention as he tried to make sense of all the things he was seeing and feeling.
The first thing he noticed was that he was breathing normally, as he usually would. There were next to no abnormalities in his breathing, which went on to show that, at the very least, the people of Oz needed oxygen to survive like humans. The gravity did not seem to be that much different from his home planet Earth but it was hard to say if his assumptions were accurate. Given how his body had become far stronger than when he had been on Earth, it was hard to distinguish if it was due to his body that he got this feeling or if the gravity was similar.
Outside the natural physical laws of nature, a particular aspect of Oz that caught his eye – far more than the others – would be the style of the city; at least he felt that it was a city given its infrastructure. The style of construction used by a civilization could speak droves about itself. Oz, for all the power it displayed with its advanced civilization, revealed an infrastructure that was more medieval than anything else.
This gave Noah a strange sense of contradiction and confusion, as the interior of the housing he had been assigned to had not been one that you normally have witnessed in a medieval house. It almost felt like he was looking and even experiencing two different worlds at once. The houses had a rustic, nearly ancient feel to them. The presence of high-rise buildings was zero… no matter how much further Noah stretched his vision, he could not spot any. Again, it brought a sense of contradiction to his mind, as the presence of high-rise buildings would have been a common feature had he been on Earth.
Am I perhaps in the equivalent of a small village?
In the end though, the strangest and most disturbing aspect of this entire city.
“Whoever chose the color scheme of this city is really crazy.”
“I know, right?”
He had muttered in a subtle tone, but it had been loud enough for it to be heard by a close bystander, it seemed. After all, Dorothy, who had beamed right next to him, seemed to have heard everything he said and had thoughts of her own about this matter.
“This was the color chosen by my predecessor, and even though I am the current Queen of Oz, changing this tradition is more than a bit problematic.”
She chuckled as they looked at the city with an almost helpless yet exceedingly loving gaze. Indeed, the city was predominantly emerald green. From the walls of the medieval-themed houses to their very roof… nearly everything was green. The only exception seemed to be the windows, as well as the yellowish-golden road that ran below their feet.
He could also guess that the interior of the houses should not be completely green.
Dorothy said, “Well, if I have to be honest. This color is still acceptable. You should see the Winkie continent. Everything there is yellow and it’s such a painful sight. I asked the new ruler of that place to change the color scheme, but the people once again were outraged and almost started an uprising.”
She sighed as she massaged her temple before approaching Noah, “So, how are you feeling?”
“I feel… fine. More or less, I guess. Though I sort of feel lost at the moment. Either way, you seem to love your planet very much.”
Though the words of Dorothy were filled with complaints, the love and mirth in her voice were unmistakable.
“That I do. I have fought and bled for this place, the fact that the inhabitants might be slightly quirky does not change my love for my home.”
A beautiful smile bloomed as she talked about her dear home. In the next moment, she took his arm in hers before saying, “Would you be a gentleman and walk with me?”
Noah’s eyebrow rose ever so slightly at the sudden intimacy. Ultimately, though, he said nothing and started walking along the yellowish-golden path with their arms interlaced. He was no saint and Dorothy was certainly a beautiful woman. Now that he was not in the body of a literal toddler, if she came at him with those intentions, he wouldn’t reject her.
Dorothy smiled at his reaction and raised her foot before tapping twice on the yellow road. Immediately, the road seemed to have vibrated for a split instance before things started moving on their own.
“A moving walkway?” Noah whistled to himself, intrigued. The yellowish-golden road seemed to stretch along every part of the city. If all of this was a moving walkway, then this fact alone was already enough to put Earth's civil engineering to utter shame.
I guess I should say… as expected of an advanced civilization.
Like this, the two simply let the road guide them while Dorothy started her speech. The first thing she did was explain to Noah what had happened after he fell asleep. When they reached Oz and no one came out of his room, Dorothy went ahead and opened it, only to be met by a giant cocoon.
“Imagine my surprise when I saw that inside your room. I wanted to take you to my castle or my tower, but my advisors refused, stating that having you in such an important place was too risky, and I had to accept their reasoning. After all, for all we knew you could have transformed into some sort of monster. So we put you in Emerald City and moved most of the citizens to the outward vicinity of the town. Then we replaced the inhabitants with soldiers on standby who would immediately put you to sleep or kill you should you wake up and start rampaging.”
She spoke about killing him in such a nonchalant way that Noah couldn’t help but become speechless, “Were you ever told that too much honesty is poisonous.”
“I believe someone who considers honesty as poison is not worth befriending.” She had the same polite smile on her face, but her eyes were definitely not smiling.
“You seem to be a very dangerous woman.”
She gave an elegant laugh while covering her mouth with the back of her hand, “I will take that as a compliment. Either way, do not worry about your safety. I had no doubt about your survival, which was why I accepted those measures in the first place.”
She continued indifferently, “Oz is the largest and only inhabitable planet in our system. The others could be terraformed, but it would be a waste of time and resources as our population is pretty low all things considered, and we already gain more than enough from the multiple systems under our control.”
“I thought Oz was a pacifist civilization.” Noah snickered.
“Oh, we are now. But during the era of my predecessor, the wicked witches had been active and destroyed or enslaved many weaker civilizations. Oz was once one of the civilizations closest to becoming a Type-III after the empire. How utterly foolish.”
She shook her head with a sigh, “The Wizard of Oz had forgotten that the Pendragon family would never let a new Type-III civilization appear in this galaxy and if not for the civil war I caused after taking over the throne, we might just have been completely eradicated.”
The planet of Oz was composed of five main continents, each of the surrounding four was ruled by a witch while the Emerald City itself was, quite literally, the magic tower of the Wizard of Oz himself.
Fighting against them had been a nightmare for her as a witch in their seat of power could only summon energy equivalent to one-fifth of the entire planet while the Wizard of Oz had the equivalent of an entire planet as his energy source. Only after beating and sealing the two wicked witches while obtaining the support of the two benevolent witches was Dorothy able to barely win.
Even then, it took years for the planet's energy to reach an acceptable level in the aftermath since they nearly destroyed it during their clash.
As if that catastrophe wasn’t enough, Dorothy was not given any time to rest as she immediately started fighting Ozma, the legitimate heiress of Oz. She also started surrendering a few of their colonies to the Pendragon Empire or the Federation. This allowed Oz to reach the ideal power level in her opinion.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
High enough that attacking them would bring more loss than gain but not so high that they were an immediate threat to their galactic empire.
“Seems like being a Queen is not an easy job.” Noah whistled as he listened through all of her hardships.
“It isn’t. Sometimes I regret stepping up and taking the throne. But since I already did what I had to, it’s my responsibility to ensure our survival.”
Her voice was calm but hidden behind her calmness and nonchalance was a determination firmer than the strongest steel. Her determination was something Noah could appreciate as this was one of the feelings that helped him fight again and again when facing the all-powerful parasites.
“Then. Don’t you think the burden would be lighter if you gave it to someone else?”
Dorothy shook her head, “If not me then who?”
Absolute pride and absolute confidence in her skill and power brimmed from this very short yet powerful statement. This was a belief that stemmed from the realization that you were the best and that no one could do the job as well as you.
“The more I speak with you, the more I like you.” Her way of thinking, her grace as a Queen, and her candid and forthright personality were all things that Noah appreciated. Her pride was also very similar to his own. The only difference was that at the moment, she could back her pride with facts and absolute strength while he could only back his pride by relying on the past.
Impressive.
“My… What a surprise. I guess I am simply that charming”
The two of them shared a small chuckle but Noah was forced to stop as a large shadow blocked the sun and covered the two of them before flying past them and landing in front of the Emerald Castle a few hundred meters away.
Noah initially thought that this was some kind of spaceship but when he finally looked at the cause of the shadow, his mouth opened wide,
Eve, am I dreaming, or is that a motherfucking dragon I am looking at?
— ....
Not even Eve could give a straight answer at this moment, as the Queen was just as flabbergasted as he was.
Seeing his reaction, Dorothy grinned and left his side as she twirled and opened her arms wide,
“Once again, Noah… Welcome to Oz! The wonderful land where everything is possible! I hope your stay on this planet will be joyous.”
The dragon behind her roared to the sky and unleashed a torrent of flames, while winged monkeys held trumpets and played a song full of joy. A large flag consisting of 4 triangular colors, purple, yellow, red and blue with a green emerald star stamped in the middle floated under the wind and a holographic banner with the words…
WELCOME TO OZ!
… Was floating with the wind. Even a pegasus and a unicorn appeared at some point, while more winged monkeys started throwing flowers in the wind.
Under all this was a proud Dorothy standing with her hand at her sides, her feet apart, and her cheeks puffed up with joy and pride as if she was a child that was bragging and asking if this wasn’t fucking awesome.
Noah had to admit, as bewildering as the situation was, this was indeed a welcoming done in absolute style.
***
Following Dorothy’s rather impressive welcome, Noah found himself in a small banquet full of festivity organized just for him.
Noah had to say, the people of Oz seemed to be quite the interesting bunch. Through his interactions with these strange yet interesting individuals, he learned a few more things about Oz. Such as the names of the four continents on the planet and even the fact that the current ruler of the Winkie continent, that Dorothy had previously mentioned, was none other than Ozma— the previous heiress and daughter of The Wizard of Oz.
From there, Dorothy introduced him to the Tin Woodman or Tin Man as some called him. Noah had once watched one of the remakes that showcased Dorothy’s tale when he was still on earth. Naturally, many of the characters in the books also made an appearance in the movie. Tin Man was one of them, however, the Tin Man he had seen there was nothing like the one he was now seeing in person.
Rather than being some robust and muscular man, what stood in front of him was more akin to an English gentleman. A robot gentleman yes, but his inorganic origins did nothing to demean the class and style he naturally showcased. He even had a traditional monocle fitted on his inorganic eye.
Tin Man aside, he was also introduced once again to the Cowardly Lion. A bipedal humanoid, muscular man with a flaming mane dancing vibrantly without any signs of wind— a marvel of a sight. Giggling ever so slightly, Dorothy informed him that the flaming manes that danced with such a wild and vibrant rhythm were harmless and, in fact, just a facade of Cowardly Lion. Fire wasn’t even his main source of power in the first place, it was shadows. He was the greatest assassin of Oz.
This was a misdirection, a subtle deceit to catch enemies off guard, and also a way to create more shadows for him to move in between. An extremely smart move, considering his powers and identity as an assassin. Cowardly he might be, in name and in nature, but stupid he was not.
Noah found himself having quite a bit of fun as he chatted with the Cowardly Lion. The man had a certain form of vanity that made Noah laugh as he felt he could see traces of himself in the talking lion.
They say people hated those who were similar to them, but Noah found people with pride to always be endearing and an interesting company to have by one’s side.
The last member of Dorothy’s legendary crew he met was none other than the Scarecrow, who wished for a brain. It was quite funny how, in this case, the Scarecrow was some sort of super AI that took care of the entirety of Oz’s cybersecurity measures on his own.
His avatar was a robotic crow that Noah had noticed disseminated smaller crows everywhere, and they acted as a monitoring camera.
Saying his greetings to a robot crow had been a rather interesting experience but Noah had not missed the fact that the Scarecrow was a little wary of him, different from the rest of the members of the crew. His behavior caused Noah to wonder what he should be the most impressed with— the fact that the crow was wary of him, or the fact that an AI could feel emotions.
Though thinking about it clearly, Tin Man should also fall in the category of a sentient AI. The thought intrigued Noah and when he asked Dorothy about it, she just answered with a casual shrug of her shoulders.
“Sentient AI are not that rare, but they are generally isolated in Geppetto’s workshop. This is the result of careful negotiation after the AI war, which resulted in many casualties throughout the Sea of Stars.”
She proceeded to explain that not all AI were the same, which was quite obvious all things considered as that was the primary aspect of a sentient being. Those like Tin Man were bound to a single piece of hardware at a time and could only switch bodies by switching their memory box in between different bodies. They were functionally immortal in a certain sense, as they could simply switch bodies forever and ever as long as their memory box could remain intact.
The most dangerous ones though, were unbound AI such as Scarecrow. They were more akin to a Virus than anything else and caused damage on planetary or even galactic scales if they were left to their own devices.
Sentient AI had been mostly banned by the Imperial Family and the Federation but as a Sovereign civilization, Dorothy had no reason to comply with their every order and whim. This resulted in Oz being forbidden from directly connect to the server of the galaxy but this was a small price to pay as this also meant few people dared to connect to them.
This was a calculated policy, not simply created because she liked her friends but also because this semi-isolationism was able to quell the blood thirst and desire for war of the Empire as they had sharpened their blades to destroy Oz at one point in time.
“Are you really sure you should share national-level secrets like this with me?” Noah asked.
“If I want you to trust me, I should share some of my secrets with you, right?” Dorothy showed no hesitation.
She giggled and pushed a finger against her lips, which caused Noah to smile himself. Her way of directly telling him she was trying to garner sympathy was quite… interesting, to say the least.
On one corner of the banquet, Noah spotted a sprawled Morgiana who seemed to have lost a drinking contest against a flying monkey. The monkey was literally laughing and screaming at Morgiana who could only hold down her head in shame and perpetual agony of a tumultuous headache.
Things became even more surreal when he saw a donkey, wearing a pair of glasses, discussing the matter of agriculture and economy with a dragon, while on the other side, a zebra and a small crab were having a heated argument about the distribution of land and water on the entire planet. He could even see the Cowardly Lion wooing a woman with the head of a tigress. This woman was called the Hungry Tiger— information that he had picked up from Dorothy.
The woman seemed quite indifferent to his advances,. Noah wasn’t an expert in identifying the facial expressions of a tigress so that was as much as he could make out of the whole fiasco.
Many times, Noah looked down at his drink and sniffed it with a hint of suspicion, wondering if he was drinking some kind of hallucinogen or not. In the end, however, he simply had to accept that this was the reality… as spooky and extraordinary as it may be.
Dorothy explained that because of the distribution of Dark Matter in Oz, many animals were able to gain sentience through adaptation over countless centuries and millennia. Those who did were considered citizens of Oz and had all the rights that other citizens wielded, while those who did not were simply treated as normal animals.
Obviously, killing an Animal was considered murder while killing an animal for food was normal.
This distinction gave more headache to Noah than the drink ever could have, he was then captured by two flying monkeys who were high on their victory and decided to challenge him like they did with Morgiana.
This was a mistake they would regret for all of their animalistic lives, as Noah proceeded to show them what it truly meant to be a bottomless hole, proceeding to drink more than twenty barrels of alcohol in one go in the drinking competition.
On this day, Noah laughed more than he did in what could have possibly been hundreds of years, if not more.
He did not have to look for food. He did not have to eat frozen meat, nor did he have to sleep with one eye open or look at a monotone ice tundra or a desert.
The problems of the world could wait for tomorrow. Today— he was just going to have fun to his heart’s content.