Having said our farewells to Yin and Yue at the border, we begin moving up the path to cross over the mountain where we first entered from. After about half a day of walking, we eventually reach the split the four-way split of the path, with each split leading to one of the three nations and the last going up the mountain towards the Mountain Lord's dwelling. We had originally wanted to set up camp here for the night, but to our surprise, there was already a few people camping out here, and they're familiar faces too, the trio from the Manor of Erudition.
Although they don't notice us right away due to the twilight, as we walk closer, Boshi see us and calls out, "hey, it's the Dragon and her friends, what brings you lot all the way out here?"
"We could be asking you the same question," I say.
"That's, well, stuff happened," Boshi says as she turns her head away.
"Are you serious, that's what happened!? That's absurd!" Aurelia asks with a dumbfounded expression.
Boshi, Gyosu, and Hakase, all look at us with a questioning gaze as they hadn't even said anything, to which I say, "ignore the mind reader, what happened?"
"Wanted... in... Zhongyang... explosion... to big...*yawn*," Hakase says, ending with a big yawn.
"I'll explain since Hakase would take to long," Gyosu says while inviting us to take a seat around the campfire, "after you left the city, Hakase and Boshi got really into developing better and more destructive bombs, from here I think you can tell where this is going. One of the experiments they were trying was to compress the bomb and make it as small as possible while giving it as much destructive force as a large bomb. The ones that Hakase gave you before you left was actually one of the prototypes."
"Yeah, those things were deceptively powerful, I liked them and way actually hoping to get more at some point," I say.
"I have... better ones... I can... show you... later..."
"Alight, but I want to hear what happened next, although I think I've got a good idea of what you did," I say.
Continuing from where he left off, Gyosu says, "A little after you had left, Hakase had found an unusual metal when looking for new materials to use, the metal seemed to have ill effects if people stuck around it for too long and we never really found a use for it so we put stored it away some with a few seals to make sure the strange waves of energy it produced didn't harm anyone. But Miss Sleepyhead came up with the idea to use it to make a new bomb, and while I don't know the exact specifics behind what she did, she succeeded in making the most destructive bomb I've ever seen. After it was done, she was disappointed that she couldn't make it a small and handheld bomb. To make a long story short, some accidents happened and a small number of Zhongyang's districts have turned into a wasteland that can't sustain life, just a small number... eight to be precise. Now we're wanted in Zhongyang, making us wanted criminal in every area over Shengdi, so we are trying to leave and see if we can find a place to settle in the lands beyond the mountains."
"Hey, our resident know it all Aurelia, is what Hakase made a--"
"Indeed, it's exactly what your thinking. By nothing more than an accident, Hakase made a nuclear bomb. I checked and I'm not sure if even she knows what it is she did, honestly, her head is a mess and near impossible to read. I've heard there's a thin line between genius and insanity, and if her mind is any indicator, Hakase definitely lives up to the saying," then turning towards Hakase's group, Aurelia says, "Since your looking for a place to stay, I would offer you a place in my Empire, but, you three are honestly too much of a risk for me to let you live freely within my territory. Simply put you're too dangerous and I will kick you out if I find you living in Lausiel."
"That's fair, and to be honest, with all the problems we caused, I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of Zhongyang earlier," Boshi says.
"Do you have any suggestions as to where we could go?" Gyosu asks.
"Why not come to Talonia with us? There is plenty of empty space on the steppes so even if you destroy parts of the land, most people won't care too much," I suggest.
"Milla's going to get a headache after hearing this one, but I don't think she'd disagree either. On the contrary, she would probably be rather welcoming towards someone she can put to good use. What will likely happen is that you would be asked to help with some things within your area of expertise every so often and in return, you'll be given an area to live and have free reign in your experiments. I can't say for certain, but the result will likely be along those lines if you come to seek refuge with us in Talonia," Lia explains.
"That's similar... to our... arrangement in... Zhongyang... but with more... freedom...."
"Yeah, we basically had the same agreement when we were allowed to stay in Zhongyang, but one of the conditions was a restriction on what we could do within the city. Not that we actually followed them though," Boshi says.
"This works out rather well since we were going to Talonia right now as well. You can just follow along with us and decide if you want to stay there or not," Aurelia says.
"Uhh, there was a place I wanted to stop by on the way back," I say.
"If it's on the way, was there a need to ask about it, Teacher?" Wanjing asks.
"Yeah, it's on the way back, but its actual location is... difficult to get to. I wanted to pick up the Gravity Root that's supposedly somewhere in the hadal zone of the deep sea."