Generis

21. The Duke and Tuendu

Tuendu.

Tuendu was, by far, the most developed nation in the whole of Generis. Being directly to the north of Fifth Point for hundreds of miles, and only connected with two bridges, the journey was extremely tedious and mind-numbing. Alice could barely stay awake in the carriage journey, because apart from the huge act she had to pull just for the driver to listen to her, the rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful.

As for how she knew how developed the nation was, Alice worked that out the second she set foot in Tuendu. She could see the crystal spires stretching towards the sky when she walked towards the border's gate. Two guards at the border blocked her path with golden spears that were sharp enough to skewer her in the blink of an eye. The guard on the right had long blond hair plaited in a single braid down his back, the other one was tan, with a black Caesar cut and striking blue eyes. She had her fair share of being stopped by guards, and always found a way to smart-talk them, so why did these ones render her silent? Alice peered on their name tags: 'Toyin' for the left, and 'Izanami' for the right one. But she didn't get a chance to discover deeper; Toyin had began to speak.

"Entry not permitted," He declared, looking straight ahead, "Your records are not found in Tuendu's live population count. State your name, age, and reason for entry in said order."

Alice blinked. She didn't expect for Tuendu to be so... law-abiding. She didn't get a chance to get a word in because Izanami started speaking.

"Name?"

Alice paused for a moment, before replying, "Alice."

"Last name?"

"Uh... Alice..?"

"Age?"

"Eight..?"

He eyed her, "Eight?"

"...teen..?"

He shook his head and moved on, "Reason for entry?"

"King Delarus sent me."

He didn't, obviously, but Alice knew that eventually, a situation like this would happen. And in situations like this, his well-known name was the easiest scapegoat from trouble.

Thank goodness he didn't pester her anymore. Izanami gestured his spear and pointed to what looked like a massive glass box of a building, absent of any windows whatsoever, "Head straight there and claim a Temporary Permit from the HPM. Do not try to avert our gaze without getting a Temporary Permit first, or you will be exterminated on sight. Have a good evening, ma'am."

Alice had already paled in horror, unblinking and just staring in disbelief. Was this normal? She hoped not, otherwise she'd definitely get herself killed in the first few minutes of her being here. She curtesy-ed hastily and skittered off, heading to the building marked "The Permit Office". She noticed that the place was rather empty, and even emptier inside the office, save for a brunette woman behind a desk. She had deathly pale skin, but her face was obscured by long, layered curls. The white desk matched the white walls, and, if not for the black floors and walls, which gave the illusion that she was falling if she stared at it for too long, the room would've looked like an isolation centre. There was a small metal plate, engraved with the name "Mānaris", which was presumably the woman's name. Her hair was covering all but her full, red lips and below, so that's where Alice looked at when she spoke.

"Hi, I am—"

"Alice. I have heard." She drawled, leaning forward. Alice noticed her dark blue acrylic nails gripping the edges of the desk, "Step forward, let me do a closer analysis for your permit."

She raised a brow, but stepped forward anyways. Mānaris reached over and slapped her hard across the face, sending her reeling against the wall, and slammed that same hand on a small piece of parchment on the desk in a single move. She hummed quietly to herself, and when Alice stumbled awake from her temporary daze, she saw Mānaris' palm glowing a faint pink before it dimmed. She held up the parchment, stamped with an exact image of her face, along with her name, age, and the words "Temporary Permit" in a bold black at the bottom of the page.