Entryway to Alfheim

"Hey, what's with this place?! Why does it seem so advanced in terms of technology?!"

"What do you mean? I thought you wanted to come here in order to have better opportunities you couldn't have in your village. Shouldn't you at least know something about Alfheim?"

Kaeda shot back at Luan's cluelessness with a question that was fairly rational in terms of potency. Suspicion grew a little bit more on Luan for Kaeda. If he came here looking for a better life, he should know what life here would be like, so 'why isn't the obvious stuff known to him?' was what filled her thought, to which he stated,

"Stories of Alfheim from passerby's made the city seem very advanced, but looking at it this closely, it exceeded all of my expectations! Either way, I really want to explore Alfheim, let's get in!"

"You know, you might not even be allowed in. Since you're not an elf, the guards will most likely keep you out of the city unless you have good reason to be there, which for them, means being summoned by the king of Alfheim. The odds of you getting in are super low, so pick a god and pray."

The reality of the situation got more and more apparent the closer Luan got to Alfheim. The odds, according to 2 people who actually lived there, of him getting in were incredibly low. The closer he got to the city, the more it felt like he wouldn't be allowed in and would be forced to continue exploring the rainforest. However, with negative thoughts overflowing inside of him, someone came to try and put him at ease.

"It'll be alright, Kaeda and I will try super, duper hard to let you in, so don't worry about it. If you can't make it in, then I want to at least help you out a bit, so wait outside the city, and Kaeda and I will bring you some new supplies. I pinky promise we'll help you out either way!"

It was Aerith. Constantly emitting a bubbly, positive aura throughout the whole trip here, although to Luan, even if he found her kind of cute and appreciated her intentions to cheer him up, he just kind of saw her as an eternal airhead that probably couldn't do much on her own who had to rely on Kaeda a lot. He based these thoughts on her from the fact that she would always say that 'her and Kaeda' would do something instead of just her. Either way, he did appreciate her being around as it made the mood better.

"Thanks, good job as well on noticing that I was getting a bit more nervous. I thought I was hiding that really well but I guess not, huh?"

"I think you were hiding it well, it's just that I have a knack for this kind of thing, you know? It makes me pretty proud to have this ability!"

She stated that last bit with pride in her voice and her chest sticking out, as though showing off that she's special the same way a 10-year-old would, which made it feel a lot better to Luan personally since if she would've acted snobbish when saying that, his positive opinion of her would've crumbled. After their small conversation, Kaeda finally stated,

"We're here. Let's see if you'll be allowed in."

Standing in front of the gate to the city, many lines of elves were present with organized sections for them to follow. Each line lead to a guard, where he would confirm their identities using multiple forms of identification, such as merchant's cards, showing proof that you are a merchant and are allowed to sell products to people, carriage licenses, allowing someone to be a coachman for a carriage, with many more being used as well, allowing access for them to enter the city. When standing in line, Kaeda and Aerith both pulled out a blank card that looked somewhat aged in terms of coloring, both of which looked a little damaged, but only a scuff here and there. Upon seeing it, Luan asked,

"What's that? Why doesn't it have anything on it?"

"It's an adventurer card. To us adventurers, it's basically our lifeline for a lot of things, as well as it having the ability to confirm our identities and whether we completed our quests or not. It also allows us to learn skills and shows us what our status and level is."

The one to answer his question was Kaeda, more likely than not giving him a lot of information about it so that he wouldn't ask questions about it that she'd have to answer. However, something so obvious to her made Luan incredibly excited.

"Wait for real!? Wh- I don-, no way, really! Tha- holy-, oh my god!"

"What? What's the big issue? Why are you so excited?"

"You can level up and gain skills?! Sure I know special things like that are a thing, like magic, but it didn't fully dawn on me that skills are an actual thing! And leveling up exists, that's huge! That's super exciting and the fact that I can see my status about my ability, that's incredible! I can finally see my ability in the real world!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What's wrong? Is something I said strange? I'm just excited as all hell!"

"Well, it's the way you phrased everything. You didn't know about statuses or levels or anything like that since you didn't know what adventurer cards are, but when I mentioned those things, you got excited and acted like those things didn't even exist until now. Plus, at the end, you said you can finally see what your ability is in the 'real world'. Of course, it could be because you are that excited about everything that you said 'real world', but based on your previous phrasing of everything, it didn't sound like you said that based on excitement and as though you based it off of your own knowledge of their being multiple worlds, however, I don't wish to press you on since it makes no sense to me, so I'll let you go on that one. The last thing that interests me is what you said about 'special things' and magic, but I'll get to that later, so let's focus on your first statement for now. What was up with that?"

- Fuck! How do I get out of this?! There is basically no way out! I can't explain that I'm from another world because not only is that ridiculous, even if they were to believe me, the commotion caused by that would disrupt everyone around here, making the current problem disappear, sure, but create a huge problem that can never be fixed. Umm, what can I do?! Wait! I'm a genius! A genius with a plan that could cause problems, but probably won't.

Digging around his sweater's pocket, Luan grabbed a rectangular device with a glass screen, his phone. This was the gambit he chose to bet on.

"This is why."

Handing his phone over to them after having turned it on for them, they seemed intrigued about it, meaning that his plan could still work. Even if they have technology in this village that exceeded his initial expectations, it doesn't mean that phones were a thing that existed, at least in the way that he had it. Swiping over to an app, he showed them his downloaded light novels filled with stories about reincarnation, skills, and leveling up.

"This is where my reaction came from. Stories like these always intrigued me, the whole reincarnation and what not. The excitement that built up from the fact that I could be like this had me incredibly thrilled. It's also where my concept of other worlds and magic and what not came from, thus why I said the other things that I had said. I hope this is enough of an answer for you."

"Woah this is really neat, so much information in such a small format, saving so much space! Isn't this super cool Kaeda?!"

"Yes, it's neat, but I have some questio-."

"Next!"

Taking his phone back and putting it back in his pocket, he gestured to Kaeda and Aerith to start going to the guard. The guard had finally called their name after they waited in line for a while. With this, they all advanced in the line with Kaeda being unsatisfied with the results and clearly had more questions to ask, however, that wasn't the main issue right now. The next issue arose that Luan had forgotten about momentarily, the fact that he might not be allowed into Alfheim. He was silent the whole way to the guard, trying his best to hide his nervousness for the guard and his panic towards the situation with Kaeda. But first thing's first.

"Do you have any proof of identification?"

With that, Kaeda and Aerith lifted their blank cards and handed them to the guard, who proceeded to scan them. Of course, to Luan, the cards remained blank, but that isn't what the guard, or any adventurer, sees. They see everything they realistically can about the person in front of them. When the guard finished reading it, he started laughing and saying,

"Oh, it's you 2 rejects! I can't believe you actually made it back alive after leaving! I mean, with only the 2 of you, you're both practically worthless!" Starting to calm down and catch his breath, he continued, "Well, either way, I can confirm that you are allowed in the city, so you can get going now."

The duo seemed annoyed at his remarks and, even though they tried to hide it, they were clearly agitated and had trouble looking him in the eyes. After having calmed down enough, even though she had lost her cheery attitude and bubbly aura, Aerith tried talking to the guard about Luan,

"Hey, can you let our friend in? He wants to enter Alfheim."

"Huh? You want me to allow someone from another race into Alfheim? What are you, idiots! Ain't no way I'm letting him in here!"

After the remark he made calling them idiots, Aerith lost her composure again and continued to look agitated.

- Well, I guess I'll have to do the talking since neither of them seem like they could do it at the moment.

"Hey, could you just let me in? What's the worst I could do? Here let's make a deal, you let me into Alfheim, and if it's such a big issue that a member of another race is inside Alfheim and I get caught, you could blame it on some other guard that you hate. With that solution, we could both get what we want, sort of."

"Look kid, are you trying to tell me how to do my jo-"

After looking at Luan directly, the guard turned a shade of white that couldn't even be properly described. His massive figure that once seemed so imposing suddenly shrank and his menacing aura no longer existed. He was horrified, as though looking at something he could never hope to understand and something that will stay with him forever. Around Luan, a woman could be seen, holding herself around him while floating, half of her face was beautiful with long, silky purple hair as she was wearing a black dress with a flower-like design and a pure white fluffy scarf, however, the other half of her head was rotted away with her once silky hair becoming ragged with downcast amber eyes directed at the guard, as though looking at something that will always be beneath her. The woman the guard saw had an insane aura that would make demon lords cower, which is what caused the guard's fear, with the only thing said being 'let him through or you die.'. With this, the guard quickly got on his knees, saying with tears in his eyes,

"Alright! You can go through, just please don't kill me! I'm sorry for my attitude and what I've been saying, please forgive me, I beg of you!"

With those words, everyone around them was confused as to what Luan had done, including Luan himself. Knowing this was causing a huge commotion, which could be problematic, he chose to finish the situation as quickly as possible.

"I forgive you, so please get off your knees and let us through the gate! You're causing a bit of a scene."

"Yes of course, please go through! My apologies sir!"

The guard quickly got off his knees and hastily got out of their way, granting them access to Alfheim. The three of them quickly rushed inside with Kaeda and Aerith having a very slight smirk after having seen the sorry state the guard was in. But that wasn't primarily what was on their minds. They were thinking about the situation that just occurred. Upon entering Alfheim and seeing the city clearer, the first thing he heard came from Kaeda who simply asked,

"What just happened?"