Suta POV

"Greetings, fellows from the divine shores. Your humble servant, Sir Mynx Alot, welcomes those of royal blood to our lands."

The Lion ceremonially bowed, reenacting an almost perfect copy of one a butler might perform. Feeling incredibly uneasy just by staring at a talking lion, Suta instantly took hold of Demoria and pulled her behind him. Surprisingly, much to his dismay, he felt a stern force acting against him.

"D-Demoria, what are you doing?" He voiced in a hushed whisper whilst feeling her bony arm wriggling free from his hold.

"Suta, look! It's a talking kitty! And it's behaving like a human, hehehe. Isn't it cute?" She sang sweetly, taking no notice of a single word he said.

'A talking what? Has she gone completely mad?'

"Listen Demoria, we need to be careful. We don't know where we are or what these things can do. And by the way, h-have you never heard of a lion before?" Suta muttered out of disbelief

"A what? What's a 'lie-own'? Is that some kind of skill, Suta? Oh! Should we ask the talking kitty where we are? Hey mister, where is this place, and why are you speaking so strangely?" She asked the lion.

Suta couldn't believe just how nonchalant she was behaving.

'Does she have no sense of danger whatsoever?' He thought harrowingly to himself. The lion slowly raised its large head, making Suta slightly flinch in response, unable to look past what was called the king of beasts standing right in front of him he swallowed harshly whilst trying to make sure he wasn't standing too close to it, just in case it snapped.

'Demoria can use magic, I on the other hand are very much disarmed.'

Albeit dressed in a very weird attire, it was no doubt very much still a lion. And no matter which way he tried to see it, lions were dangerous and stronger than he was.

"Hm? I do not follow. Were the descendants of our most gracious sovereign not briefed on the promise made approximately 457 years ago?" It sang horribly into Suta's ears.

"A promise between us inhabitants of the land...Candy, and her majesty, the omnipotent one, Queen Lunara of the most benevolent Golden Dawn."

That name sent a wave of memories flooding through Suta's brain.

'Queen Lunara? The first Goddess of this world? And the one who the Church of Dawn worships? Wh-why is her name coming up here?'

"Candy? What's candy?" Demoria asked, stupefied. "Is that what this place is called, Mr. Kitty?" Her confidence and guile were both growing dangerously casual, and Suta was holding back the innate response to scold Demoria for her casualness in front of the unknown.

Surprisingly, the talking lion didn't mind it. Suta even noticed a glimmer within its large, animated eyes.

"Ah-yes-yes-of course you don't remember! After 400 years of waiting, even I have forgotten a lot of that treaty we brokered. Ahem! Well, I guess we should start with the war between the Goodwill Folk and the Deceptors! Long-long ago, in an age where my kin were driven to the brink of extinction..." Unlike Demoria, Suta wasn't too excited about the entire situation, and the more he studied things, the less he was confident about somehow this all being one terrible mistake.

'If this is down to the work of the fishbowl head, then there's something he wants me to do here.'

He felt a pang of worry settling in his stomach. He could vaguely just about remember that oath he vowed while he was at death's door.

'Damn it! Isn't this too extreme? I'm not even an Arcanist yet, so what could he expect me to do in this state?' Amidst his daydreams, his attention filtered in and out during the talkative lion's story.

Luckily, Demoria was incredibly enamored with the creature, which made it so that Suta's drifting thoughts were not picked up on.

"...and once the battle was won! The magnificent Queen liberated us from the shackles of those awful Deceptors! Using her profound law of Dawn, she banished those fiends to the depths of the cold shadows. Arah! And we, the Goodwill Folk, have sworn to uphold this kingdom until the fateful day the nameless throne shall bear a ruler upon it once again."

'The nameless throne?' Suta's brow furrowed a little deeper after he heard that.

He had developed a knack for sensing the beginning of headaches, a lot of which tended to begin with the announcement of ominous things such as the very story the lion was telling. Which was the main reason he purposely didn't want to hear too much about this obscure lore.

For now, his smartest play was to watch, keep quiet, and listen.

"Follow me, it'll bring me no greater pleasure to welcome ye of royal blood, to the magnificent castle! It stands on the highest hill on Salt & Pepper Aisle. Let us make our way there; it's not too far of a walk."

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"Oh yes-yes! Lead the way, thy faithful steward, hehehe. Hey Suta, the kitty thinks he's a human." Demoria whispered to him rather loudly for someone standing so close.

But perhaps the talking lion held no real care for her subtle rudeness, feigning a strange ignorance as it chose to twirl its strange cane and hum a delicate song.

'I do hope he doesn't eventually snap,' Suta thought cautiously, paying extra attention to those huge, sharpened paws it casually waved around without a single care in the world.

Watching the Lion slowly ebbing its way ahead, Suta took this moment to lean closer toward his companion.

"Listen to me, we need to be extremely careful here. There's no telling what awaits us in such a strange place. And I don't even think we should be too trusting towards that lion," he said slowly and quietly to Demoria.

"His name is Sir Mynx Alot, Suta, don't be so rude." Demoria corrected him with a slight scowl

Suta rolled his eyes in response, before exhaling a deep sigh.

"But you do have a point; this is not a dream, which begs the question...how did we manage to find ourselves here in the first place?" Demoria remarked, taking another look at their strange surroundings.

Suta couldn't say anything if this was down to the fishbowl head. Then if this was his problem, how could he begin to tell Demoria about Starfall? the mana storm? and his subsequent transmigration into another world?

***

Despite Suta's reservations, he dutifully followed the bizarrely talking lion through this quite breathtaking and ever-changing, enchanting forest.

The lion's presence seemed to spur the arrival of more whimsical creatures popping their heads out from the comforts of hidden blue bushes, or rolling away from beneath an undergrowth of giant-sized mushrooms almost the size of a grown child.

The most frightening-looking of the things he met were, without a doubt, the oversized caterpillars. Suta couldn't refrain from grimacing as he watched the horrifying-shaped insects slithering down the discolored grey trees, thick as anacondas. Slow and hideous looking up close, with countless tiny eyes covering their backs.

They didn't walk too long before Suta found the surrounding forest shedding away its mysterious splendor, in place for an immeasurable spread of vast, colorful land. He felt his body tense up and his feet came to a steady halt.

And within that moment, a dark reality dawned upon Suta.

'This...isn't Granny's gulp farm anymore.'

Similar to a field of endless golden wheat, a land covered in cyan grass covered the ground layered as far as wide as he could see. The hills were a stark violet tint, and the violet, orange and washed green colored sky only added to the incredible disparity of this place compared to his world.

Far off into the distance, Suta's gaze trembled a little, far away out beyond the bizarre rolling hills, he could see a tussle of silver clouds partially shielding away a strikingly bright blue castle with pink tiled roofing. Suta couldn't believe what he was witnessing right now; even the high-spirited Demoria looked visibly shaken by it.

The duo could only exchange knowing looks of uncertainty. Something quite incredible had taken place, and somehow they had both been transported into another world.

For Demoria, this once-in-a-lifetime scenario was perhaps just the side story she needed before entering a world completely alien to her, one which required her to leave behind her small family all of a sudden, and forced to mature and hone herself on a continent far away.

But in Suta's case, he couldn't hide the growing panic coursing through his bones. This was just like when he transmigrated into a new world. Everything was unexpected, strange, and sudden.

"Welcome! Welcome! To the lovely world of Candyyy!" The lion's vociferous voice roared with delight.

He gently knocked his elegant cane against the ground a few times, igniting the emerald stone affixed to the top of it to glow with a feverish light.

Suta unconsciously took a step away from him, holding Demoria's wrist in the process. Although he didn't consider himself an expert in the slightest with the Arcane and mystic powers, Suta felt an oppressive force emanating from that emerald jewel, a feeling that told him he couldn't ignore nor confront whatever power was currently being stirred in the air. The lion pirouetted on his heels before holding out the glowing cane across a space in the air.

Again, Suta was completely gobsmacked to see a strange green bubble enlarging before his very distrusting gaze. A milky cloud started to fill the bubble, and not before long a swash of gold and other colors appeared inside it too.

Finally, the bubble burst, and for the second time, Suta was left completely stunned to see what looked like an incredibly elegant, white-painted carriage enlarging into his clear view. The elegant vehicle was covered in embroidery, royal gold, and a dazzling cyan sequence.

'H-h-how did he just do...'

Before he could finish his thoughts, Demoria pried herself free from his grip and was currently jumping around the lion in unrestrained excitement.

'She's really enjoying all of this, isn't she? But more interestingly enough, that lion...was that Arcane Magic it just used?'

Suta studied the possibilities of how it did that, and he could only arrive logically at that being the answer.

'Granny once mentioned to me that one of the components of casting was using materials, things such as magic stones, jewelry, or even stranger items that have been tainted with negative energies. She said all such things can allow an Arcanist to draw power and use it.'

"Suta! Why are you dawdling around? Look, the kitty wants us to ride in the fancy carriage with him, hehehe. Let's go-let's go!" Demoria's high-pitched voice quickly brought him back to reality. She was incredibly loud, this annoyed him, but he couldn't mask the subtle joys he was getting seeing her so free.

He carried a lot of apprehension about all of this, but looking around himself...

'What other choices do we have right now?' he thought depressingly, he smoothed the bridge of his nose before he brushed his worries aside and climbed into the lavish white carriage behind Demoria.