To Live Again, For the First Time!

Emilin first headed to the national museum after dropping off her bags at the hotel she was going to stay at.

After buying the entrance ticket, she started walking around first before she would decide if she wanted a tour guide or not. ​​

But before getting into the museum, there was some basic knowledge that needed to be known first.

The Malalakan Country was one of the 7 countries located in Continent M.

Its geographic location made it so that it boarded every single country in its continent, and it was placed second in terms of size in Continent M.

Malalakan's geographic location was no coincidence, it was as it is now, due to wars that had occurred centuries ago.

There was a total of 8 continents in this world.

Each continent had its own history.

Wars and revolutions led it to its currents state.

With every continent, there was another union. In the M continent, it was of course the MC Union just as the Hé Continent had the HC Union.

These unions were only formed after countless countries were destroyed and reformed in these same continents.

The history on this planet was rich and though most people believe that all lands were now at peace, the truth was that there was in fact still a lot of tension between the various countries and the various continents.

Wars between countries on different continents were now very, very scarce. This was because once war was declared the whole continental alliance would be called upon.

Still, it wouldn't be unusual for there to be dozens of spies from other countries placed in government positions in other countries to keep everyone in check.

The Hé Continent wasn't the smallest of the 8, yet it had the least number of countries. This just went to show that the size of each one was in no way small, and the history even more complex than most other continents.

The small number of countries directly correlated with the number of wars that had occurred there.

There was one point in their history where the Hé continent was made up of over a dozen smaller countries.

As for when they were united into the four countries that made up the Hé continent… that was a story for another time.

Back to the Malalakan Country in Continent M, it was wildly known as a neutral country throughout history, yet that didn't mean it didn't have its own role in the wars that occurred around it.

The Malalakan Country was used as a resource stop during times of crisis. During wars, other countries used the Malalakan country to smuggle guns and food.

At that time, they had individually made deals with all of the surrounding nations. Their neighbors didn't know that they had made similar deals with their enemies until centuries later, long after the MC Union was already formed.

They had their suspicions but seeing as their own people were in danger and that they would be at a disadvantage if they didn't cooperate with the Malalakan Country, they could only let it go.

This is what led the Malalakan Country to be one of the countries with the most preserved historical records.

They participated in every single war, knowing information from all sides, yet their records would never be destroyed because they were a 'neutral country'.

And now, centuries later, these records were kept in the national museum that Emilin was now visiting.

This country was still led by a monarch, and so it would be absurd to think that these records were the real ones. No one could be sure about what information was real except for the royal family.

And though there was a royal family, there were no other noble families.

All of that was already long abolished, but the people of the Malalakan Country still found it only natural that their rulers were of the royal family, it was already deeply integrated into their culture.

Or maybe they just couldn't care for another revolution with bloodshed as the royal family treated their people well

Emilin wouldn't trust everything written in the records, nor would she believe that they were the real ones, but they would be enough to get a rough idea about the history of the M continent.

Or at least, she would know what the royal family wanted the people to think.

As Emilin walked around, she realized that, though the museum looked pretty and everything… there wasn't much substance.

However, there was something she got out of this trip, the ancient language.

Emilin had long realized that the languages used in this world were vastly the same as those used in her previous one, or at least, the ones that she knew from her previous world.

While walking around, she had seen placards with the names of various wars that had occurred, and yet none of them rang the bell.

It was strange, though the nations were similar and the language too, the process that brought them to the stage that they were in now, were not the same.

As she walked, she took note of everything she found peculiar and started filling up her pages.

She walked as she wrote, which, in hindsight didn't seem like a good idea.

She bumped into a man who was on his phone, in a call.

Even after being bumped into, the man didn't stop talking. He paced around in circles as he spoke into the phone with his hand covering his mouth. He was speaking in Makin, the national language of the Malalakan Country.

Not much could be heard, but Emilin still caught something: [Mr. Blue… no we didn't get it yet… but there are no… I'll try my best.]

When he finally got off the call, he saw Emilin who was staring at him. Right when she was about to apologize for bumping into him, he beat her to it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry…" The man started to mumble some incoherent words, clearly still in a daze from the call he was on.

'He was probably being scolded by a superior,' Emilin thought.

"Oh wait, do you understand what I'm saying?" The man asked. He had still been speaking in Makin.

Emilin didn't look like she was from around, plus she was at the national museum, which was a tourist destination. There were of course also children that would come with their parents, but Emilin was clearly not one of those cases.

"Yes, I just wanted to say sorry for bumping into you, but you seemed busy, so I'll be leaving first," Emilin replied in fluent Makin.

"Oh, ok…" The man, who looked like a white-collar worker, was somewhat impressed by her fluent Makin, but just assumed that she might have lived in Malalakan and had parents from elsewhere.

Emilin moved on to another sector of the museum and kept reading the small placards. Normally, they would be written in both Makin and in the International Language, English.

But not in the calligraphy sector.

If tourists wanted to learn more about calligraphy in the national museum, they would have to get a tour guide.

Emilin walked in just as she had in all the other sectors, just to be met with the chuckling of another visitor.

A young woman that had come with her husband and her daughter.

She had noticed Emilin a while back because her husband was always glancing her way. Even though she wasn't old, she wasn't as young and beautiful as she had been before.

After giving birth to her daughter, who was now 7 years old, she had aged very quickly.

She was self-conscious because her husband was 4 years younger than her and she had just entered her 30s while he was still in his 20s.

When she saw her husband looking at this beautiful foreign young lady, her whole face scrunched up, but she was still holding her daughters' hand, and so she didn't say anything.

They were always walking a distance away and so it was obvious when her husband was glancing back which just worsened her mood.

Now that she saw Emilin coming to the calligraphy room, she felt like she was being followed by her, even though she knew that there was a specific path that was to be followed in the museum.

The calligraphy room was the only one that could be skipped as it was at the center of the building.

The lady thought that since the young girl was clearly a foreigner, she would skip this room since she had no tour guide following her.

"Look at that foreigner. She doesn't even know anything about our nation's masterpieces and she's here walking as if she owns the place. When you grow up, you can't become a pretentious little girl like her, Rose, do you hear me?" The lady said to her daughter.

"She's pretty" Rose replied.

"Ha. Pretty isn't everything! The pretty people are the ones who do the nastiest things!" The lady wasn't being quiet in any way and Emilin who had heard her clearly narrowed her eyes with a dangerous gleam that was quickly hidden away.

"But how can that be? Mom is so pretty and so nice too. How can the pretty sister be mean?" Rose let out a light-hearted laugh while pulling on her mother's arm.