Cultural Exchange

First, I want to thank all of my readers for their encouragement and support. You have made this possible.

Second, I must apologize to those who have sent me feedback messages; I haven't been able to answer because my lazy brother shares my mail account instead of making his own and erased many of them thinking they were spam.

Third, thanks again to my editor SexyGeek for his help in shaping up the story and the characters, as well as his attention to my grammar. I make many mistakes just by losing concentration.

Fourth, this chapter was going to be much longer than the first, but I decided to cut it. Good news are that all the events for third chapter are already outlined and if nothing fails too much it would be released soon.

That's all, enjoy my work. It's what makes me happy.

*****

I was sitting naked in the bed of the master bedroom of the guest house I had been assigned. I was trying to remember as much as I could from the moment of the announcement in the Hall of Shields until now.

I was stupefied due to the shock and was more or less working on auto-pilot. I remember that Errom (would I need to call him "father in law" from now on?) called for a servant and sent word to the welcome party that the program had changed. I can't remember clearly how it had changed, just that he ordered another servant to lead me to the guest house that would be mine until I married Ralya and became master of all her possessions.

I arrived, calmer and owner of myself, at a two-story house supposed to be near the training field where all kinds of warriors were trained every day. It seemed that once a Mountain Elf had passed his or her coming of age, they were tested both in physical abilities and magical potential to know which could be the most suitable class for each one.

Unlike in role playing games from my world, the classes could be as varied as the quantity of people: a Knight could learn Battle Cries and become a Juggernaut, or learn Holy Support magic and become a Paladin or even find a Witch to teach him Dark Magic Curses and become a Dark Knight. And that was just the beginning; remember how Ralya mixed Martial Arts with Shamanism.

The door to the house was opened by a maid who received instructions from the servant. Then he bowed to me and stood there looking at me almost without blinking. I stood there, awkwardly between the looks of the maid and the servant until the young boy finally asked, "Can I do anything else for you, Sir?"

The I understood that he was expecting any further instructions from me or my permission to leave, like the waiters in high class restaurants. "No, thank you. You can leave, and sorry for keeping you waiting." He bowed and left trotting in the direction of the Hall. A little late I understood that maybe he was also expecting some kind of tip.

There we were, the maid and me. Now that I was calmer I had the chance to observe her and I noticed she was the oldest female Mountain Elf I had seen up to that moment. Her hair was a tone of sand brown bordering blonde, with a little white in the temples like Errom. Her eyes were clear brown, and even though her black dress with white apron covered her whole figure, it was obvious she was still attractive.

"Please my Lord, come in. We have much to do if you wish to have some rest before the celebrations." The smile she had when she said that was sweet and bright.

"P-please, you don't have to call me that. I have just arrived in this world and I'm barely the owner of my hunting knife and the clothes I'm wearing." Anyone from my world, save for rich people, should be able to understand my awkwardness at the way she was treating me. Add to that the fact that she had a motherly aura that made me feel a little bad if I were to treat her like a servant, even though she was.

She covered her mouth with the tip of her right-hand fingers before chuckling and answering amused, "Hu-hu, you are a better person than I had expected, and funnier. But please, do not worry about little me. During the next nine days until your wedding you will be living here, which means that during the next nine days you will be my Master. As I have been instructed, Master will become part of the Elven nobility, so you must start getting accustomed to being served. But oh, goddess, I'm making Master wait in the middle of the street, even when it was silly me the one who said that we may hurry. Please, forgive me and welcome to your home, Master." Being called "master" four times in just one burst of speech started to confuse me. It was like soldiers in the army, finishing almost every sentence to their superiors with "Sir".

The entrance door led directly to a small reception hall with a dark, oval carpet with a low coffee table that had two velvet benches for three people each. At the opposite side there was an L-shaped bookshelf taking the corner by a door and in front of me there was the stairs to the second floor. All the furniture, as well as the railing of the stairs and the balustrade of the second floor where made in the same cream colored wood with a shiny lacquered finish.

"By the way, Master, my name is Merita. Excuse me for not introducing myself even though I tend to talk so much, hu-hu. The schedule for today starts right now with a bath, a lunch and maybe a little sleep before you get dressed to wait for the carriage that will take you to the Arena for the first of the activities in the list of your welcome and engagement party. I must say I have seen Van'Ralya run around this city since she was a kid, and she has become an astounding woman: beautiful, wise and with a great sense of duty to her people. You are very lucky to have her, but take good care of her or we will take care of you, hu-hu."

I don't know what was scarier, her threat or the fact that she had said it without her bright smile changing in the least. "Rest assured that I don't want to make her unhappy," I said frowning and with an angry tone of voice. Even I was a little surprised at how much her comment had annoyed me. "If you don't mind, I prefer to have lunch before the bath. The bath will relax me, that way I'll have more chances to fall asleep."

Merita nodded her head and bowed down bending her knees a little to make the gesture deeper. Her tone of voice and attitude changed. "Please, forgive my surpassing my boundaries, Master. Also, you don't have to ask for my convenience to do anything: you order and I will follow within reason to the best of my abilities. Please make yourself comfortable while I go prepare your meal. I will call you to the dining room when everything is ready."

She left the room without almost making a noise and I was left alone in the room to wait for her return. I was glad to notice that the linguistic treatment I had received before leaving the earth not only included speaking and listening, but also writing: I was able to understand the titles of the books in the bookshelf. For the titles I could suppose most of them were poetry and historical texts. It would have been great to find my first book of magic.

I patted my trousers to clean them a bit before sitting on one of the benches by the coffee table and I was starting to feel drowsy when Merita knocked the door, entered the room and bowed before informing me, "The lunch is served, Master. Please, follow me."

"Merita, it is true that you have gone a little too far, but you don't have to act so distant," I said while standing up. "I am going to need you explaining me some things before going to rest and I'd prefer it if you would go back to a more cheerful tone."

At that she smiled broadly again and said, "Yes, Master. Never fear. I will inform you of everything you may need to ask me. I can tell you about the noble families and about important people of the city. I don't know much about politics, but I can tell you about the gossip that runs around: who gets out of his house late at night and who comes later than expected from their trips, hu-hu. For example, did you know that some of the houses that offered daughters to be your mate secretly hate you? It's just that their greed lets them ignore that before the fact that they could get their hands on an ambassador from the other world. Van'Silna was the second in the list after Van'Ralya, but her brother promised to kill you if you put a finger on her, and don't think that was because he cared for his sister, no. He just hated you without knowledge. He was always so cruel with the poor cute girl. Only because Van'Elam's mother died of illness and his father took Van'Silna's mother as a replacement. And also..."

I don't know which was worse, having her acting "business only" or letting her free to chat as much as she wanted.

"Wait a second, are you using 'Van' to refer to all of them? I thought that was used for people with important positions," I took my chance to cut her a little before she gave me a headache.

"Oh, 'Sol' and 'Sal' are only used among peers. We, the lowly commoners have to address all of you Nobles using the more respectful 'Van'. The same way people of the same status can give permission to someone close to drop the honorifics, we can be allowed to use the less formal ways of treatment in private. It can take a lifetime of service and deep trust to be allowed by your Master to speak with him without honorifics in private. But we can't forget our place and take those liberties in public or we would whipped, hu-hu." I was again flabbergasted at how she could laugh at such grim things.

The dining hall had a dark table for around ten people, with wide windows at the left and a wall with three shields at regular intervals to the right. Instead of being of naked gray stone like in the reception hall, here the walls were soft and painted from halfway up to the top, leaving the lower half of the same clear wood as the hall.

At the head of the table there was a service prepared with a bottle of water and a glass. Noticing the direction of my eyes, Merita said, "I'm sorry, Master, but according to the orders I have received I can't serve you wine or any stronger drink with this meal. Yuan'Errom has ordered that you stay sharp for the celebrations. We don't want you walking around drunk to stumble and fall or make any other show, right? Hu-hu. My, I remember that business meeting when a young merchant insisted on testing by himself the Dwarven Beer. He got so drunk that he went to a dancer girl and..."

I had to interrupt her again. "Don't worry, I don't really like wine, and don't use to have alcohol with my meals, either. If you had served it, I would have asked you to bring water."

After the water glass and bottle, the first thing I noticed with no little relief was the familiar shapes of a table knife, fork and spoon. Seeing how much this place looked like what was considered medieval or even older like the Viking towns, some part of me had started to expect that I would be forced to eat with my hands without having at least a napkin.

The next thing I looked down at was the food that had been served: a wide clay bowl with salad and a simple dish consisting of two steaks of clear meat and something that looked like potato mash, but a little green in color and a slight smell of something familiar that I couldn't identify just yet. Noticing my look, Merita informed me of the menu. "This meal consists of an Orchard Salad and a main dish of Genga breast with a tuber paste that has onion mixed in for flavor. When you are ready for the dessert, let me tell you it is a mixture of fruits with syrup."

"I'm surprised at how much this food resembles that of my world, except for some ingredients. But..." I doubted a little before telling her, "It's a little awkward for me to be eating with you standing by my side. Would it be possible for you to join me or something?"

Her eyes widened and for a moment she stuttered before regaining her composure and answering, "Forgive my rudeness once again, Master. I have already had an early lunch, but even with that I am by no means allowed to share table with the Master of this house. I will retire myself to make sure the preparations for your bath are ready. Please, ring the bell by your right hand when you are ready for me to serve your dessert."

With that, she left the dining room through what I supposed would be the door to the kitchen and left me alone with no other thing to do but eat my lunch. The salad had lettuce, tomato, onion and cucumber, but they were harder than those I was accustomed. After a few tastes, I thought it would be due to them being raised in the harsh climate of the mountain. Also, as Ralya had told me, the Genga meat tasted like chicken, but from my personal experience I discovered it had a texture more similar to pork.

It took me some minutes to realize why I was feeling uncomfortable during the lunch, as if I lacked something. That something was noise. Through my whole life I have always had my meals with the T.V or the radio as background, even when I wasn't really paying them attention. The only days I haven't done so it was because of a failure in the energy supply or something like that. Yesterday I didn't notice because I was in company, but now that I was completely alone it depressed me. I started to regret a little having sent Merita out, so I called her back with the bell.

It took her several minutes to come back, and when she did, she rapidly excused herself saying she had been busy preparing the bath without even stopping on her way to the kitchen. When she presented the dessert I took the chance to stop her for a little talk. "You have needed to rush yourself to come here, are you the only one working at this house?" As I listened to her answer I tasted the first piece of fruit from my dish. The acid fruit made a strange contrast with the caramel flavor of the syrup, but it didn't taste bad at all.

"Yes, I am the only one in charge of this house as of now. All of my children proved themselves and got married long ago, and my... husband, as you Humans say, died in battle ten years ago while he was serving as a common Man of Arms. That's why most of the maids in noble houses are widows like me. We can't be Bonded again, so we are usually taken as 'one use' bed partners by unmarried young nobles. Or even by the Master of the house whenever they get tired of their wives."

I dropped my spoon with its content before turning to look at her. "You are ordered to have sex..." I thought for a second she wouldn't understand the word and I changed it, "intercourse without your consent? Isn't that just a crime?" I left my dish aside as the turn in the conversation had disgusted me and made me lose my appetite.

Merita took my dish while explaining, "It is not a crime because we are not forced by word or action. It's just that after losing our mates we never get to feel the same ever again and don't care much about those things anymore. But even so, we are women and we keep having desires, the difference is that the world of emotions we felt with our partner fades and we are left alone with physical pleasure instead of the fulfilling sensation of being one in soul and body with your chosen one." She stopped at the door to give me a playful wink and say with a husky, seductive tone, "So as long as you are my Master, you can call me any night you feel lonely. I promise I'll be discreet. Hu-hu." I stared at her in amazement as she gave me an arch look and slipped out the door.

I stood up to stretch my muscles and get ready to be guided to the bath while mulling over what she had just told me. Even if she was not actively forced, the prospect of losing her job or something worse could be enough to get her to do anything. In my book, bedding a woman who doesn't really desire to have sex with me amounts to prostitution or maybe even rape.

The bath was in a corner of the backyard covered by its own section of roof. It consisted of a round stone structure that supported the bath itself while leaving the center hollow to light a fire to heat the water. Inside the bathtub, made of metal, there was a wooden floor to protect against contact with the hot metal and a small bank at each side, so it was prepared for two people to bathe together.

Even though the weather was warm, there was a fresh breeze to it that made necessary to heat the bathing water so the fire was lit and I noticed a metallic smell that surely came from the hot bathtub.

I was starting to get naked when I noticed that Merita's presence hadn't disappeared, so I turned to her with my shirt in my left hand to ask, "Do you need something?" trying to control my tone to hide my annoyance and embarrassment.

She tilted her head and smiled. "Hu-hu. No, Master. I am here in case

you

need something. For example, I have to retrieve your clothes for the wash. That shirt could use some stitching to the neck, too. Also, you can ask me if you need or desire for me to wash you, hu-hu." The glint in her eyes and her smile suggested that there was more to this invitation than the simple fulfillment of duty.

"Truly sad will be the day when I can't wash my own body." I was starting to get really nervous. Since I was six years old or so I haven't bathed or taken a shower in company. Even when in High School I used to wait for everyone to leave before having a very fast shower. I feel a little uncomfortable not only letting other people see me naked, but also seeing my naked reflection in the mirror. The only times when I haven't cared have been when I was in a relationship, especially my last girlfriend. We lived together for a time and a few times in summer I even walked around the house totally "au natural" as they say in the French territories.

Merita licked her lips before saying, "Well, that sad day is today. I don't think you are able to wash your right side and your back with that bruise in your left arm. Please Master, why so shy?"

I had no choice but surrender. I really had a bruise in my left arm where the shield had hit me when I fought the Orcs. It would go away by itself in a few days, but for now it hurt a little and I couldn't make some moves, so I ordered Merita to turn around while I finished taking off the rest of my clothes and covered myself with one of the towels and asked her to be fast and let me alone to finish.

"Please Master, sit in that stool. This will also serve for you to know how we usually bathe around these parts." She explained me at the same time she was doing it. "The bath is fuller than needed so you can take some buckets of hot water out of it to start the bath and to rinse you when you finish." With that she poured a bucket from the tub all over me before soaking a towel and start rubbing soap over it to start scrubbing my back and around my right arm, the parts I was supposed to not be able to wash because of the bruise. The soap had a good scent, but the towel had little rough touch to it.

"We normally clean ourselves outside and enter the tub to relax and enjoy the benefits of the mineral water of the mountains. Inside there is another room prepared with a base like this one, so we can move the bath in or out, but we only take our baths indoor during winter or the rainy season. Also, let me clarify that the walls of the backyard are purposefully build with height enough to keep away the peeping toms, hu-hu."

"Aside from the part of bathing in the backyard, in my world there's a country named Japan where they follow almost the exact same process. When I finish washing am I also supposed to enter the bathtub and count to one hundred when I'm in to the neck?"

"Well, I don't know about the count, but it is true that you shouldn't stay too much time inside. The water is hot enough to give you heat-stroke if you stay too long. Well, this is a job done. Do you really want me to leave you alone, Master?" She said pouting her mouth a little.