A good hour later and the pair were ready to travel. Margatroid had the same outfit from the morning, but with a low cut pair of black shoes over thin white stockings. Glavus had redonned his lorica and cloak, but still opting to keep his galea on his belt. His balteus was over his shoulder, suspending his gladius' scabbard over his left side. It seemed that she was going to lead him to where he needed to go. "Guide" and "protect" she had said. Although at first he would have doubted whether a single woman could protect even herself, after seeing her control all those dolls, he wasn't really sure of anything in this land any more. He could be walking right into the lair of some blood-sucking strix for all he knew!

Right before they stopped off, the door opened one last time as two dolls brought out a small leather satchel which Margatroid took and wore across her body. She gave him a slight smile and they were off.

On the beaten path, the world was completely different from the hellish forest he had navigated the night before. Wildflowers grew by the roadside, giving a pleasent sight to travelers, while the gentle singing of the local birds eased Glavus' heart. The sun was soft here, despite sparing no effort in illuminating every detail of the environment. Even without even faint clouds to block the sun, his eyes were not strained as he took in the landscape around him as they finally left the forest.

Perhaps a mile away, down a gradual but noticeable incline, sat several noticeable landmarks. The most obvious were the lone mountain—albeit with a few minor sub-peaks around it—and the small forest surrounding most of it and traveling roughly a quarter up its height. A small lake sat at the edge of the forest, and from it, a small sized river, or rather large creek, flowed to the south into terrain he couldn't see past from his position.

But the most interesting was the large villa. It was several floors tall, with pointed roofs and had a tower in the center. He began wondering who could have owned that. There were no fields around it, growing crops that provided or at least augmented the owner's source of wealth. In fact, the entire property was walled off with flat green vegetation covering the entire grounds with ornate stone paths constructed within, a faniful display of abject wealth and power.

They eventually drew closer to the villa. He could see the details of the lake. It was remarkably clear and he could see several feet down into its depths as their path trailed along its shore. He had just noticed something extremely out of place as they got further and further along the shore.

Random patches of grass and flowers were covered in a fine frost, despite the day's temperate weather. There were even several frogs encased in chunks of ice, which dotted the small clearing randomly.

"Yameru! Fuhō shin'nyū o yamero!"

The voice came from above him. He looked up. A shape, high up in the air and masked by the sun, floated lazily in the sky. A cloud flew by, blocking the sun, and as the flying creature was revealed, he realized it wasn't as far up as he first believed. It was just small, the size of a child. A very small child, he added in his head.

Margatroid sighed as if she was bored. "Idō shite kudasai, watashi wa doko ka ni iru."

The creature pouted. She crossed her arms and turned her head away, proving a quiet "Hmph!"

Margatroid took a step forwards and was met by the dirt exploding around her.

Glavus stepped back, his jaw dropping in surprise. He searched for the small creature in the air, but she had flown around in a big circle and stopped a couple acti away, right in front of the pair. She held her hands out which began to glow within a light blue mist. Wide-eyed, Glavus grabbed his guide around her waist and dove out of the way into cover as foot-long icicles began flying towards the pair. He landed in the ditch first, Margatroid on top, while the icicles flew over the crest like arrows.

It was some kind of ice nymph, Glavus realized, although she seemed rather immature. Usually, in legends at least, they were in the shape of full grown women. This one, instead, had a short blue and white dress with a large bow on the back of her hair, both of which were also shades of blue. She had wings made of ice shards, although they were not attached but were floating in the general shape.

Rather than stay down, Margatroid gave him an annoyed look and stood straight up. Are you crazy!? he yelled in his head, reaching out to pull her back into cover. She all but slapped his hand away, instead reaching into her satchel and pulling out a handful of dolls. To his amazement they flew in the air from her hand into a circular formation around her.

The nymph laughed, not with a voice of hate or evil, but like a child playing with her friends. He poked his head up and, seeing the area was safe, slowly got back up to his full height. The nymph did another motion with her hands and mist began forming, gradually growing into a cloud as large as the creature herself. It was suddenly shot out towards Margatroid.

The grass where Margatroid was standing was frozen in place in an instant. But the dollmaker simply hopped back a couple of feet to dodge and unleashed an attack of her own. Each doll began moving in a gigantic circle a dozen cubits in diameter as they unleashed glowing bolts of light. The nymph was able to dodge for a while, shooting back with the occasional icicle, but was soon hit with several of Margatroid's missiles. Rather than react, the fairy simply disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Glavus got back up on his feet in exasperation, confusion, and emotional exhaustion. He held his hands out in a universally obvious 'what the Hell?' gesture. Margatroid looked back with an extraordinarily smug smile.

The dollmaker continued on the path around the lake with Glavus in tow. The multi-story villa became larger and larger, and the outer wall came into clearer detail. Glavus took everything in, from the evenly sized and laid bricks to the thick ivy growing on some sections. In the center of the wall was a wrought iron gate with finely decorated shapes, with vines curling and twisting up into spikes and curves at the upper edge.

Guarding the gate was a peculiar woman sporting an exotic dress and green cap with a star prominently displayed in the middle. Margatroid came up to the woman and the two had a quick conversation in their native tongue. They seemed friendly enough, however, and the guardwoman unlocked the gate for the pair.

Glavus noticed her features as he walked past. She had reddish-brown hair with a braid going down one side of her face. Her eyes told of a far eastern ancestry, eyes he had heard of silk traders from beyond the Indus bearing. A magnificient bearded serpent was embroidered into her green dress in fine gold thread. She gave him a warm smile and a wave of her hand which Glavus hesitently returned.

The path before him led him past rows of tediously manicured flowers, each a different shade complimenting te previous lot. It was really quite beautiful, and the garden did much to help him relax. It helped him forget the forest, the Germanics, all the fear and stress of the past thre years of his life, fighting with his comrades every day through Gaul just to die forgotten and alone in a dark forest.

The massive dark wooden front doors of the villa were opened as the two began to climb the couple of stairs that lead up to the entrance. A thin woman stood inside the doorway. Her blue dress and white apron were immaculate, their bright and clear colors contrasting with the earthy and textured tones of te exterior architecture. Thin, white stockings ran up her legs from low-cut and polished leather shoes. Her face was framed by two braids of her silver hair, which was contained by a frilly white headband which finished the ensemble.

She bowed in greeting, hardly reacting to him, as if she greeted foreign soldiers as a day job. She straightened out and motioned the two inside. The Roman took in the impressive architecture as he walked in. Decorative columns lined the painted walls while polished granite made up the floors, with rich rugs covering the primary avenues of movement. Seemingly perfectly paintings were spaced across the walls of various figures he did not recognize. Wooden stairs led up to a balcony floor from the center of the room, although the servant did not lead them up.

Instead they went left. The room they entered had a massive waist-height table as a centerpiece. Plushly cushioned armless chairs surrounded the table with a candle between each along the table's center. Massive windows illuminated the room, and an eyeful of a view of the nearby lake and forest greeted him as he peered outwards.

Here the servant pulled two seats out, motioning for him to sit. He nodded in thanks and took the seat, taking in the sight around him. The walls were evenly painted a clean white. A fireplace at the end was unlit and perfectly clean, with dark gray stones forming a mantle. An opulent silk tablecloth covered the table, which shimmered in the sunlight as he moved his exact point of view.

He heard the Germanics coming from behind him as the sound of steel being struck rang throughout the room. His sword was out in an instant. The clang of armor against armor, sword against sword consumed his mind as he...

He saw one of a group of girl servants lay flat on the ground, with a pile of dirty trays and dishes stop bouncing and vibrating on the hardwood floor in front of her. She quickly panicked and shot up to all-fours, quickly trying to pick up all the tiny shattered ceramic and glass shards that were strewn across the floor.

The feeling of the servant's hand on his shoulder brought him out of it in an instant. He turned his head to look at her. The girl's gray eyes were as serious as ever. Of course they were. Here he was, as a guest, drawing his sword at one of her subordinates.

The little creatures were quietly picking up their mess with a small broom and dust pan. One had even produced a mop and bucket. Some, however, were taking furtive glances in his direction. He saw the teary-eyed fear plastered on their faces.

He quietly re-sheathed it and sat down in the previously offered seat. His stomach churned and his ears burned. He stared without focus, yet ever intensely, at the tablecloth in front of him. It wasn't until a finely extravagant cup of wine was placed in front of him and brought his mind to the present that he noticed his fists were clenched, his knuckles white.

He forced himself to relax. The barbarians were gone. He was simply in a foreign mansion, in a previously unknown land full of magical beings that could kill him if they wanted so. But, they hadn't, he thought. They hadn't!

Glavus tried the wine. It was quite good, he had to admit. And the wine filling his belly did take some of the stress with it, like any good, undiluted wine should. The servant simply sat there, studying him. It was almost unnerving. "Thank you," he said, trying to break the tension. She nodded in response, but didn't say much else. Well, he did just pull his weapon on one of her coworkers.

Several more moments passed by. He continued to sip on his glass, but she hardly moved from her position. Her expression had softened slightly, a slight frown making itself known on her small face, while her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

He blinked and something seemed off. She was in the same space, the same pose, even. But she was shifted slightly, her hands sitting slightly different in her lap, her head tilted slightly differently. "The mistress will see you shortly," she said suddenly in perfect Latin, almost causing Glavus to jump out of his seat.

The Legionary fortunately did not jump out of his seat.

As if at the servant's word the door to an upper balcony opened. Out stepped a little girl, looking no older than fifteen years of age, dressed in a silky, frilly red dress that had several ribbons tied around it. She daintily leaned against the railing, a good fifteen feet above the floor. She regarded him with idle curiosity, a slight frown on her face as she took in the sight of the soldier, her head tilting slightly to the side in thought. Although he'd since seen enough 'litte girls' that could kill him easily that he knew to tread lightly.

He stood up in acknowledgement of her entrance.

"Tell me, Roman, do you believe in vampires?"

Latin? She must be well-traveled, then, as young as she appeared to be. She was this far away from the Roman Empire but was familiar enough to not only recognize who he was on sight, but could speak Latin fluently.

"My people do not have tales of vampires," Glavus answered.

"Vampires are creatures born of evil," she explained, "who are the result of men becoming that of demons of Hell. We subsist off the life of human beings by drinking their blood."

They stared each other down. Her scarlet eyes did not fit in with her young figure, nor did the confident expression she wore. She slowly drummed her finger tips on the railing, and with her other hand she rested her chin.

"You should know, human, that I have not murdered one person in my life, although at times I have been forced to take... less than courteous methods to feed." She straightened her back, wrapping her hands around each other at her waist, before continuing. "But know this. We are not the same. My new life was not fully my choice, but that doesn't change what I am and what you are."

She stopped speaking for several seconds, continuing to study him. He subtly shifted his weight under her eye. Perhaps if this was his first encounter with the creatures in this new land he would be frozen, unable to react, but by then he had learned to stay calm, as panicking never helped. But despite being unnerved he could still keep his head about him.

"But do not fret. I am forbidden from attacking humans here," the vampire said. "When I first arrived here the native youkai and I had some... debates, but we've since figured things out."

He nodded in... understanding? Acceptance. That was really his only choice now. He would be dead if this 'vampire' wished. With that she about-faced and exited back through the door behind her, just as quickly as she first came in.

It wasn't until several minutes later until he was joined by another woman of the mansion, who entered through one of several smaller back doors to the dining room. She was simply dressed, although it would seem not by necessity. The silk of her light purple dress shimmered in the light of the sun, which as he noticed just as she walked into it, only reached a couple feet high onto the walls, stopping well short of the vampire's balcony.

"Good morning, Roman," the woman in purple said, giving a slight bow. "My name is Patchouli Knowledge. I am the librarian of the mansion, and magical advisor to Mistress Remilia."

Glavus was a bit more calm this time. Maybe there were just a bunch of magicians here, he thought. That's just how it is. Probably. "Glavus Carissimus Felix. You can speak Latin?"

Knowledge nodded in affirmation. "Of course. Latin is used in many forms of western magic. It's practically the official language of the field," she explained. "Although, of course, barely anyone here speaks Latin. Even," she said, motioning towards the dollmaker, "among Magicians."

"And your mistress?"

"She is over five hundred years old," the librarian answered as if explaining things to a child. "She knows several languages."

Glavus paused in thought. Every instinct he had told him to thank her hospitality, turn tail, and run. Of course, while there was a sizeable human population nearby, he had no idea where it was. He was likely disposed towards running into more monsters, and maybe the next wouldn't be a juvenile like the one from the previous night.

"Would it be possible for your magics to help in this matter?" Glavus asked. He would need to get on their good side. Logically to him, that was the best course for survival.

"Unfortunately, no. I am first and foremost an Elemental Magician. The body and mind are not my strong suite. Even so, the human mind is not a book that you simply write in. To implant a new language into your brain is hardly plausible, even in theory."

Well of course it wouldn't be that easy. Like anyone stranded in any other part of the world, he would have to properly learn the local language and culture. At the very least, he should try to-

"This is where I come in," a soft voice said from behind the Roman, sending a cold shock down his spine. He twirled around out of his seat, knocking his empty glass over as he turned to face the voice. To his terror, a split was being torn from the air as if a knife were to cut open a distended belly. A pitch black space, darker than the deepest forest on a moonless night, was rent into reality. A dozen eyes opened from the nothingness, unnatural red pupils staring at everywhere simultaneously, but as he tried to look at each, they were never quite in the center of his view. They were shifting, never standing still, as new ones appeared and others receded. Each had the look of pure evil, of greed and inhuman malice.

At first, a single stockinged leg of a woman stepped through from the wrong perspective, coming from the interior edge of the opening and meeting the ground facing away from him. Gradually the rest of the being arrived in reality. She was clothed in a slightly pink northern style dress. A thin purple tabbard hung over her shoulders bearing strange designs he had never seen before, and long blonde hair reaching down to her waist. She slowly spun on her heels, revealing her face to him as the wound in reality sealed behind her.

She was terribly human. Every movement, expression, and twitch was deliberate. She had a gentle smile which betrayed almost grandmotherly affection, although she herself looked no older than thirty. But her eyes, a deep and vibrant purple, betrayed a deep cunning unmatched by any man he had seen before.

"It's rather simple for me," the woman explained. "I am not restricted to elemental magic. It's just a matter of removing the language barrier from your mind."

Glavus took a step back. First that monster, then the dollmaker, now this? He wanted to reach for his weapon. Luckily, though, he was frozen in fear before he offended that monster.

The woman's smile reformed into a slight frown as her finger came to rest on her chin in though, elbow supported by her other hand. "Hm? Is this how you greet gods in your culture?"

Something kicked his knees out from behind him with enough force to bring him to the ground. He allowed the rest of his body to follow, catching himself with his hands on the ground. He kept his head low, not even daring to look at her feet. All he could hope for was for that goddess to not kill him where he was.

She moved to the side and walked around him, inspecting him. He caught a glimpse of one of those tears in the air where she was standing, but it soon seamlessly disappeared. Instead of the eyes, this time, it was the space immediately behind him.

"My, my, a genuine Roman," she observed. "Lorica segmentata, Mainz pattern gladius, you're just a walking museum! You're the first one I've actually seen myself, you see."

Glavus gradually heard her footsteps as she came around. Eventually she reached back to the front of him. "You can look now, Legionary."

He slowly raised his head. She was bent forwards slightly, hands resting on her knees, and the smile she first wore had returned. Wore, Glavus thought. She wore expressions as masks.

The goddess was tapping a small stick on her chin in a similar post to before. "So, how did you come here, human?"

"I was in the forest," he began. "I was being chased by Germanic barbarians. I escaped by crawling into a burrow-"

The goddess interrupted him. "So you got here by hiding during a battle?"

He shook his head quickly, afraid that she would view him as a coward... and judge him accordingly. "No, we were ambushed, they killed half of us in seconds before we were even able to respond!"

She narrowed her eyes but allowed him to continue.

"Two others got away at first, but we had to fight through a line of archers. They slowed us down until-"

The sword exited the front of Marius' chest, pushing aside the strips of his armor. He fell forwards onto his hands and knees before the brute stomped on his back, forcing him into the muddy forest floor. He raised his sword and-

Glavus took a breath. "Until the other two were killed. I was able to escape into the thicker woods and avoid them. I found an animal burrow as it got dark. When I awoke, I was in the nearby forest and found my way to Alice Margatroid's house."

The goddess paced another small circle in front of him as he gave his tale, deep in thought. When she decided she had thought enough. "Yakumo Yukari," she said.

At her word, he felt a slight tingle in the back of his head, but it did not linger.

"There, now what may be said in Japanese, you will hear in Latin. Just be aware, you won't understand the native language here, it will be as if everyone is speaking Latin," she explained. Squaring herself up with the soldier, she took in the sight of him up and down. "I would advise attempting to learn the language on your own if you wish to live here."

"Thank you, my goddess," he replied. What a wonderful gift! All his fear and unease seemed to evaporate in an instant, but he still held some reserves about her. For every good tale of divinity in his native Pantheon, there was one of bad.

Yukari Yakumo left as logically disgusting as she had arrived, although this time Glavus withheld his gaze. Once he felt he was safe, he got back up to his feet, brushing himself off in the process. He looked around at the women in the room. Margatroid had an expression of shock, it seemed, coverng her mouth with one hand with arched eyebrows.

Knowledge, meanwhile, sighed and rubbed her temples with her finger tips.

The villa's head servant led them back to the entrance, although the dollmaker had elected to stay. She had business with the residents of the villa, if Glavus recalled correctly, after all. The servant, who had later introduced herself as Sakuya Izayoi, had volunteered to lead him to some "human village."

"Oh, Margatroid," Glavus said, turning before he reached the front door. "Please pass onto your husband I appreciate your hospitality. You saved my life."

Alice chuckled in embarrassment. "Oh, I'm not... I'm not married."

"You're what."

AN: This chapter felt like a bunch of scenes I wrote and then jammed together... it kinda is. Although I had to shuffle and change them as I welded them together. There could probably be more movement fleshed out rather than exposition-through-conversation but screw it, I'd rather get a new chapter out than not at all.

Yes, I realize the humor in a battle hardened Roman Legionary taking cover from Cirno. To be fair if this wasn't his first day in Gensokyo he would know all he'd have to do is throw his sword at her and he'd win. Understand that he's an unpowered outsider, especially before Spell Card rules. Every dangerous youkai around has no reservations about just him.

Also I, once again, had to break this chapter up to not make it extremely long (even then, it's still pretty big). Changes to the last chapter are mostly relegated to names. For example, he is polite from an ancient Roman perspective by referring to them by their 'nomen' rather than their 'praenomen'