I wake up sweating. The same death gaze and promise as yesterday leave my mind as I try to forget the nightmare. I focus and remember that I slept in the commune room with the kids.

Last evening was magical, well except for the embarrassment of hearing how “fierce” Clementine could be. It’s so pleasant to tell a story to children, the very act of creating joy. And I didn’t remember that kids were so smart. Even with heavy modification of the book universe to have fewer technologies, they had just no problem to understand. I end up the story when Harry receives the Nimbus 2000. The kids certainly didn’t want to stop and I should not have teased them about what could happen next. That was a very bad decision for my sleep time.

There are three rooms in the house, one room for Clementine, one room for Choco and a big one for the kitchen, Citron, Cinnamon, Ginger and me. Each night the kids take out their mattresses and form a big bed in the middle.

I wait a bit that the first ray of the sun appears in meditation. Of course, I want to gain this legendary skill, but also meditation is the recommended action for people who just escape a murder forest and lost everything that matters to them.

Everybody wakes up and we start to eat breakfast. I eat some sort of potato in a delicious green cream. This makes me think of Asiatic breakfast so at some point I ask.

“Sorry if the question is strange but it’s very important. Do you know rice and soya sauce?”

Clementine answers me, clearly thinking “I never heard of this sweet or salty sauce, same with rice”

“How can you know about the sauce if you never taste it?” I say perplex.

“Well, the gluttonous language allows us to understand the taste behind any words. At the same time, we can discover the true name of anything that we smell. So, at the moment you said the name I learned the taste of soya sauce.”

Waw, this means that I was truly destined to end up in this village. And this confirms that they name their baby after their smell. The breakfast end, I am eager to discover the town.

----

I am in the middle of the village; it has been maybe ten minutes seems we go out and I have the impression of being in a Paradis. It’s not a medieval fantasy village of stinky mud and poverty. To make a comparison it’s a mix between a hippie camp, a giant kindergarten, and a modern art gallery.

When I exited the house the first thing that I heard was screaming kids, then I saw them. And there is a lot of kids, hundreds of kids, running, playing, crying everywhere. The second thing that shocks me is the art. The village is not small, there are maybe a hundred houses but each house is in stone, sculpted with frescoes of monsters, peoples, or landscapes. Some are really simple with a pattern like fish scales or waves. Some are a masterpiece that catches my attention, and others are … not my taste. However, there are too many sculptures and frescoes to see.

One important point is that there is no road or path. Between the house, there is grass, plants, and a few trees, each one of them is heavy with fruits and colorful vegetables. It’s like they build their house inside a permaculture garden.

The last point is peoples, they are all young, beautiful, and magical. As we walk a lot of them greats me with a smile, I try to smile back but it’s hard to not stare too much. No one is human excepted me, some differences are subtle, some not so much, but everybody is a mix between a classic humanoid and an animal or something.

I need to confess, I am a bit jealous, having horn and wings is a dream. No one is “perfect”, there is one kid with a mouth covering integrally his head, his smile is a bit destabilizing. Some villagers have a bit too many pairs of eyes for my taste.

The adults are doing maybe two things outside. A good portion of them is gathering fruits, cutting floras, planting, or doing magic. Yes magic! I don’t understand what they are doing but they create a green glow absorbed by the plants.

The other half of the population is playing games. Who says Paradise could not be a gambling den? In front of a lot of houses, a table is occupied by cards, dies, or other game pieces. People are laughing, shouting or very concentrated on their hands. It’s a loud and happy place.

I don’t even know what I could add to make it more perfect.

Without realizing we arrive in front of a house, Choco is knocking on the front door. A beautiful pregnant woman opens us. She is a lizard girl, shorter than me, with orange eyes and shiny golden scales. She bends down to smell me. By instinct I do the same, Oro, she smells of gold, refinement, and sun.

“Good morning Choco, Litchi. You are the newly arrived, you are so beautiful, your pink skin color is so unique and so cute…”

I don’t have the time to answer that she takes me inside the house and continue to talk. She is verbally assaulting me. She guides me inside to her tailoring workshop. She is way too excited and my brain is stuck computing what did I saw until now.

“I hear you arrived yesterday missing an arm! I always say that the Banquet is the most dangerous period in the forest. Tierra of course does not agree with me and says that it’s the least dangerous period. You don’t know him yet but you will see he is not the roundest fruit in the tree. One time he…”

I try to look for Choco for help but Oro is too perceptive.

“Oh, you two will stay to eat with me. I invite you; I insist. Choco can you start cooking us something for lunch. Tierra brings me his special Guarus yesterday.”

“Of course, Oro, I will let you too together. Enjoy your moment Litchi”. He winks at me and leaves the room way too fast. That’s a betrayal.

“Litchi do you listen? You prefer a blue one or green?”

This is worse than going to the...

----

A few hours pass and I end up with three beautiful dresses of soft fibers and a sturdy working outfit with matching boots. It’s literally magical to see her cutting and assembling the clothes. My favorite is the sky-blue dress with white clouds pattern. Oro was at first a bit too speedy but I quickly understand the tricks to talk to her, just interrupting. The second secret is that she loves gossiping and take seriously to instruct me on the life of the village. Speaking to her became rapidly refreshing as we talk about small betrayal and friendly quarrel. What a peaceful village.

We join with Choco to help to prepare the lunch and continue our conversation at the table. He is not that interested in the gossiping and the talk is mainly made by the Oro and me.

I learn a few interesting things. People in the village do not need to work. Some have a hobby like the Oro’s tailoring but the majority of the villager pass the time playing games and creating art. The food grows completely by itself. Some farmers use magic to boost the speed or enhance the taste of some fruit but except this, there is nothing to do. The houses can be raised magically and no monsters can crosses the river. Creating cloth is not even necessary because of the absolutely perfect weather and the gifts, at level 50 it’s usual to receive a working cloth. The best is that knowing how to use repairing and cleaning magic is one of the requirements to be acknowledged as an adult.

They really live in easy mode.

At some point, Choco reminds me that we need to see Bardane the Healer. We leave Oro’s house, I again thank her for the clothes and hug her goodbye. I just gain a friend. She also promises me that we will see each other at tonight's village storytelling.

----

At the very center of the village in front of the well is the healer house. The only difference between this house and the others is the total absence of sculpture. It’s painted in shades of blue without fresco nor relief.

As we approach, I notice the unique relief on the well and the statue in front, bizarrely they look half broken. Choco clearly does not want to go to the well, as he is making a detour around it. This makes me even more curious and I approach it.

The well relief is a series of faces, distorted, crying, and screaming. The artist expresses the true suffering on each of them. Some are dramatic, way too distorted, and resembling The Scream of Edvard Munch. Some visages are realistic, so realist that they seem to be the reproduction of true suffering people. The strangest is that some of the fresco is destroyed. A few faces were completely removed. There is also a lot of fissures and cracks but some faces look new. Very odd in a village where literally every adult can use repair magic. Maybe the destruction is intentional, part of the art. In front of the well stand up another half-destroyed art Brut sculpture, but it’s a bit hard to understand what it represents.

The well fresco is beautiful in its ability to express emotion, it really makes me feel the pain of the artist. It’s maybe a commemorative monument of some past battle. I turn around to ask Choco why it is destroyed but see him staring at one of the destroyed faces. His face is hard, his jaw completely locked, his fists closed, his expression cold with anger in his eyes.

“Choco are you alright?”

He turns and goes to the healer's house and sarcastically says. “Comes she needs to see you.”

Already at the door Choco knocks and opens it immediately. I run to him and enter the main room where a blue bird woman is meditating on a comfortable pillow.

Choco closes the door behind him saying “I will see you this evening” so quick that I didn’t even see his back.

With the door close the noise of the kids playing outside ends, the silence is a bit awkward. “Nice to meet you Bardane and thank you for healing me and saving my life.”

She does not answer and continue to meditate, eyes close. I sit down on one of the many pillows in front of her. I should feel angry or insulted that she does not return the greeting but it’s the opposite. There is a small fountain in the room and the sound of the water in this silence is calming me. I find this stillness more respectful than insulting. As I relax my breathing naturally copies Bardane’s. I notice that on the ground in front of each pillow is hidden a cup of hot herbal tea. I drink and continue to relax, captivated under Bardane respiration.

“Welcome Litchi, I am happy to see that you are well.” Her voice is melodious, soft but confident.

“I sorry to ask you this, but can you tell me your journey to our village, and from where did you arrive? I want to know you, tell me everything please.”

Fully relaxed I start to talk about myself, and I tell her everything. I tell her about my cruel family, my lonely moments, my wonderful sisters, and friends. I tell her about my job and this cursed Royal Road chapter. Then I recount the story of a girl transported in the nightmarish forest, a fantasy world where magic only exists to seal her flesh. Finally, I tell her about the stare of the monkey.

The more I talk the more I became mentally exhausted. Suddenly the death run in the forest and even visiting this strange village became too much. It became harder to continue, I just want to stop and forget, I want to cry, but I continue to talk.

After telling her everything something cracks in me and I start to cry. As I cry, I continue to tell her about my fears, I lost my sisters, my friends, my world, I can’t stop to talk. Tenderly she hugs me and caresses my back and slowly I relax.

“Litchi, I am terribly sorry for you but things will be better now. Many were in the same situation as you and found happiness in the village. You can do it too; you will be accepted here as you are. You cross the forest you merit to be happy with us, ok.”

With those words, I instantly feel better. Yes, why not live in this small utopia? I recall the happiness of the villagers, the laughing of the kids.

But a small part of me remembers the distorted faces of the well’s fresco.

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