Shuren leaned back in her chair, the leather creaking softly as she maintained her gaze. With a smooth motion, she slid open the drawer next to her desk. Assad watched intently as she retrieved a brand-new pack of cigarettes, still in its plastic wrap.
With a flick of her thumb, she popped it open, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it in one fluid motion. The flame flickered in her eyes for a moment before she took a deep drag, exhaling a slow, lazy cloud of smoke that floated up toward the ceiling.
Assad couldn't help but wonder.
'How many does she even have? Doesn't smoking that much harm you? Damage your lungs? Something like that?'
Before he could rein in his thoughts, they blared loudly in his mind.
Shuren raised an eyebrow, wearing that same bored, unimpressed look she always had when someone asked a dumb question.
"No, it won't," she replied dryly, tapping the ash into the tray. "My lungs will be just fine."
Assad froze; this flaw of his was really starting to irritate him. It felt like a right to think things through in his head for future strategies or whatever, but now he couldn't, all because of this annoying quirk.
Shuren took another drag and casually added, "By the way, I have twelve packs stocked up. Should last me about three months. So don't worry about my health, Doctor Assad."
"Yea sure It's my job as your doctor, happy to help." Assad said with a sweat on his face.
"Anyway, better give me your first question or your chance will decrease,"Shuren said.
Assad froze for a second but then stood calm, time to think about his first question. It's pretty obvious what it should be? But is it the best choice wasting other good questions like that. There is no other choice he has to ask for it
Assad straightened up, clearing his throat.
"Alright… Here's my first question. Can you give me a brief history of the Empire? Or at least the key things I need to know about this world?"
Shuren paused mid-breath, lowering her cigarette as she stared at him, caught between disbelief and irritation.
"I knew it," she muttered under her breath.
Assad blinked in confusion. "…Huh?"
Shuren jabbed her cigarette at him like it was a teacher's pointer.
"You look and sound just like a planetary history grad on his first job, so of course your first question is some massive request like 'the entire history of the Empire.'"
She leaned back, groaning dramatically as if she already regretted allowing him those free three questions. Flicking ash into the tray, she finally leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk.
"Okay, listen up. I'm not going to give you the full library version that would take two months and fourteen cigarettes. I'll share the crucial bits of the stuff that'll keep you alive. But before I dive in, you better sit up straight and pay attention. Because once I say this? I'm not repeating it."
Assad quickly straightened himself, sitting up like a soldier.
"Good. Now let me give you the condensed version of the world you're so eager to learn about."
Shuren let out a long, tired sigh, then took a deep breath… rolled her eyes up to the ceiling… exhaled like she was trying to blow out her very soul… and then rolled her eyes back down to their usual spot.
"Where the heck do I even start?"
She rummaged through her drawer, fished out a crumpled piece of paper, slapped it onto the desk, and grabbed a pen.
"Alright. Let's kick things off here."
She drew a big circle, then a slightly smaller one inside it, and finally a tiny one in the center. All three circles were crooked and uneven honestly, even a six-year-old could do better than that.
Assad tilted his head. "Uh… is that a?"
"Don't you dare judge my drawing," she shot back immediately.
She tapped the paper with her pen.
"First off, this is the Ruikha Empire, a massive landmass. It's big, but I wouldn't exactly call it 'country-sized.' Think of it as 'walk for six months and still be in the same province' big. Now, you might be wondering, is Shuren sure of the exact size? Heck no. I'm not a cartographer. But I do know it's big enough that if you don't have a way to fly, teleport, ride a beast, or scream your way across the continent, you'll probably end up dying of dehydration halfway through."
Assad blinked. "Uh—right…"
Shuren then points at the third circle which is the largest of the child drawings of hers.
"Now here is the Wall May which is where we live but Kurayamiya is at the left side of the circle almost close to the gateway to the outside. Here is where the common folk live whatever you see either mostly the poor doing their best to gain money or people like us the Sweepers who do detective type jobs for money."
Assad nodded in understanding, he wants more of this information it might help him so he has to listen closely.
"Next this medium size circle is called Wall Yorna, if I remember clearly this is where all the nobles live."
"Wait nobles?" Assad asked.
"Yes nobles, I know you might be thinking greedy bastards who hate on the commoners and everything else,well yea you're right and wrong at the same time." Shuren added.
Assad tilted his head in confusion, Shuren saw this and palms her face as if she is a disappointed mother seeing their son fail at doing the easiest thing in existence.
"Oh my gosh your such an idiot, the nobles in Wall Yorna are those types but only a few of them not all of them and it's all thanks to the founding emperor but I'll talk about him later."
Assad nodded like he is signaling to Shuren to keep on going with the bed time story seeing his eyes of curiosity this makes Shuren wonder why would someone from outside the wall and from a dangerous place 64th get so interested in world history. Maybe the thing that she has been thinking or speculating to herself the entire time might actually be true.
"Okay and last is this small one here it;s name is Wall Riso is where the royal family lives and I think the other political people there as well that I'm not that sure of maybe because it's been three years since I even went to the capital yeah not sure." Shuren said
"So in each city there is a wall blocking it but I don't see them, especially Wall May the one we are in, why is that?" Assad asked.
"That's because they are invincible to outsiders like you. Only true people who were born and raised in the empire can see them as they are each called the glass curtain, if you want a sick name for them." Shuren added, as ash from her cigarette falls on the tray.
"That hurt but totally makes sense." Assad said.
Shuren inhales the last part of her cigarette and then takes out another one the lesson is far from over.