Chapter 37
The Goddess of Wisdom didn't know how to feel about this town. Even though she finally has reached a town of considerable size.
Well in this nation standards. Almost...around 50 thousand people? Even then it's her wild guest. She barely read anything on these small nations. Which appear and disappear in a hundred years or so. Depending on the whims of bigger nations.
Border changes and such means nothing to a God. However, this is not about the nation but this town. From her casual observation, she understood that this town was built here because of a Nuclear Power plant not far from here.
In other words, it was built here to support the workers which were brough from Russia. Because simply put the people in this place speak Russian even though it's not the main language and secondary doesn't even exist…
'Quite weird place this is…' She said that as she observed people speaking not far from her. The Goddess made herself invisible. As her appearance would cause quite a bit of stir in such a small community…
Now, that she was here she needs to find a way to communicate with this guy. She could just use Serafall Leviathan which according to some sources from the Underworld has some connection to him.
But, that is quite boring for her because she has not done anything similar to this for centuries. Especially she wants to use this opportunity to learn more about him herself instead of using other people sources.
Eventually, after thinking for a bit she decided to look for the highest concentration of magic in this small country. Even that, however, is quite difficult, because the magic saturation is already extremely high in this place.
If this is to continue for several hundred years, then there is a possibility of people being born with unique magics or even a birth of a deity…
'I should ask him how he does this. Did he install some sort of magic generators all over the nation? What for? Is the barrier related in some way?' With a frown, she looked around. She has so many questions she wants to get answers to!
Eventually, her eyes ended up on a large advertisement. That moment her blue eyes widened because she saw the poster there morph!
Into letters!
'What on…'
[Welcome Goddess to my little backyard!]
[I hope you like the stay here]
[I know you looking for me. So, here is a hint. Find a town that was named for a woman who befriended a wolf]
After she read that, the letter disappeared and she saw the whole thing return to a normal advertisement, which shows discounts in the local supermarket.
"..."
"..."
"..."
A few moments later she started laughing. It lasted for a few minutes.
Before calming down. She cleaned off some tears from her eyes.
"This is new! This is so new! When was the last time I played according to human rules!? Very well! Let's play this game!" She chuckled to herself. There was a bright smile on her face.
She can already guess the rules for this. Because for obvious reason the humans around her place were gone…
This shows the insane control he has for this population. This means she has to use her wits to read up on some of the history of this nation. Myths and such. She knows that Baltic tribes were quite isolationist and they developed separately not related to the slavs who are surrounding the majority of East Europe.
"Well let's start with the map…"
~~~~~~Marcus~~~~~~
Well, let's see how good is Athena with this. My hometown changed its town name quite a bit ago and it's not that well-known thing. Because of the difficulty to pronounce… from 'Wolfgirl town' to 'Highgirl town'... Very original… honestly… my naming sense is much better… probably…
Well, the 'high' part is from 'highlands'… it's probably better naming sense than that small village calling itself 'Switzerland' for no apparent reason…
This should give me a day or maybe two… well… this will give me some understanding of how good the Goddess of Wisdom is with obscure culture in Europe.
As funny as it is there are several Wolf myths in my birth country. So it will be interesting to see how quickly she will cross-reference this…and find the town I am living in.
"So. You only now decided to tell me that ATHENA is in the country!?" Serafall snapped me out of my thoughts as she looked at me with her big blue eyes.
"What of it? ARTEMIS is in this TOWN and she is right now cleaning the 'dust' of the armours in the living room…" I said with an eye roll.
"Yes. The difference is that Artemis is an autonomous element from the Greek Pantheon while Athena is permanently sitting in the council. One is attending meetings from time to time, the other one is always there. This means that she is here on a mission…" She explained the Olympian politics for a bit before explaining what the Warfare Goddess is doing here.
"I already knew that this will happen when I pulled Artemis into my net and took her for myself. Your concern and pointing it out is quite pointless…" I said with a sigh before looking at my house in front of me.
For a second I looked around. One of the pleasures of living in such a barely populated place is that there is barely any traffic. The downside is that the road is quite shitty… According to grampa when he was still alive the idiots in the government decided to lay it down in the middle of freezing winter when it was around -27 Celsius.
Their excuse is that it was paid for it so they have to do it…
Honestly, I would run for Mayor role just to fix the roads so that I could drive my custom cars without any discomforts…
"Right… silly me… and she is in the town? I thought she is in the base?" She asked curiously now thinking that the Maid Goddess was in the town.
"Right… she is in The Base. It seem I am classifying that place as if it is part of my town."
Serafall snorted for a second.
"Isn't it build around 80 kilometres away from here? That's like the distance to the capital… I am pretty sure not even New York has that kind of range…" She said with an amused tone.
"I guess so. I mean I enter my garage all the time so it doesn't feel that I leave the town." I said with a shrug.
"I am pretty sure you are the only person in the world who has a railway network in its basement." She said that with an eye roll.
"So, technically that means that the Base is still in the town? Same with the processing facility and the rest?" I asked her, this was quite curious, does it still part of my town or not?
"...No… I don't think so, and I am responsible for diplomacy, not the technicalities…" She said with another eye roll.
"Well, whatever… now stand back for a bit…" I motioned her to stand back as I pulled out one of the new gadgets I have prepared.
Since my request was quite abrupt she was confused but still followed my request.
I walked over and put a squire metallic item on the fence, which separates the neighbours from my home. Then I walked to the other side where the fence separating the road from my home. In other words I just something on both sides of the driveway end.
To take extra precautions I put another one of these so that no one could see from the road's side.
"So...um...what are those and why are you making me stand on side like this?" She somewhat awkwardly asked me.
I smirked for a bit before walking to her side. Then I used my psionic interface which activated the items. For a second white walls appeared before it just disappeared.
"What… are those...are something like holographic walls?"
"Indeed. A picture is taken from the inside before it's shown on the outside. Meaning that no one will know what I am going to do inside of this… though the batteries only last 2 hours." I said with a sigh about the batteries.
"Hmm? Not perpetual energy? How come?" She was somewhat shocked that it was not eternal…
"Because these are gadgets for the Hunt girls," I said with a shrug.
"Ohhh...OHH… I am kind of jealous that they are going to be like spies and stuff! With gadgets which you going to create!" For a second she went into an overexcited nerdy expression. Like some gamer who finally saw her game coming out which she has been waiting for years.
"Indeed. I could make you join some of their mission. Prepare some skin-tight suits and gadgets." I said that with a sagely nod.
She just giggled, before testing the holographic wall. She lifted her hand and it just disappeared… it looked like it was cut off.
"That's… cool in a creepy way… you could install these things in horror houses!" Serafall said that as she took a step forward completely and half of her body just disappeared… that moment the hologram slightly wiggled. Showing that it's not that stable.
"Most likely in future. When we going to open an amusement park or something like that, it will be largely in use over there. However, this can't be a hard light hologram because those use quite a bit of power. Any of known battery technologies could not even hold it for an hour before it runs out of juice." I explained to her as I enter into another side of the holographic wall.
"I see… so you only would use current known technologies for these?" She asked for confirmation as she walked after me.
"Indeed. Even they are built to self destruct. Well, more like the hologram technology will melt if it's picked up by any other than the hunt girls."
"Hoh~~~ so, meticulous! I like that! Its sounds like you are a secret boss who has an army of spies!" She said with a knowing look continuing the role of someone who likes the secret agent stuff…
"Kinda? I don't want holograms to fall to other countries instead of me selling it myself." I said with a shrug. Honestly, I am not giving away tech without getting something out of it.
"Hmm… not that you need money… you can print that yourself… honestly, there is very little that anyone can offer to you… which means that the technological gap is going only to increase…" She said that as she concluded the result of my future actions herself.
"Most likely. I will leave these debates to people who care. For now, I have more important things to do." As I said that I walked towards the garage doors and pulled out my keys. Unlocking the doors moments later I opened them and I saw the dusty BMW which was not touched for years now.
For a second I sighed in disappointment to myself for leaving it like that for so long. That's why I am going to fix it myself!
Pocketing my backpack and the school jacket into the storage ring I rolled up my sleeves and went forward. Opening the car's doors and moving towards the handbrakes I released them and then went back to the front of the car.
After the brakes are released I quite easily pulled the car out of the garage and towards the end of the driveway. That moment a section of driveway not far from the garage started to lower. I quickly walked to the back of the car and started to pull it into the workshop downstairs. Once there once again I pulled the handbrakes.
"Aurora started the scanning of the car, I will be back quick…" As I said that, I went up and started collecting my gadgets by that point the driveway was closed so no one would have seen the entrance to the underground...not that there was anyone. Still one should never take such unnecessary chances.
When I entered the garage I left another gadget in place in the middle of it. This one however is slightly different from the rest because it has a connection to the energy network via a cable.
Once it was in place I walked out of the garage and activate it via my Psionic interface. A moment later hard light hologram manifested and I could see the image of the totalled car.
Then I closed the doors. And walked behind the garage where the stairs are located. The hatch is automatic and it only responds to a selected few people.
Before long I was back in the workshop. Looking around for a bit I realised that some time has passed since I worked here.
"Aurora the scan is complete?"
[Yes. Do you wish to see the result?] The female voice asked me.
"Is it just me but is Quinella sounding strange?" Serafall asked me from the side as she was sitting in the couch area.
"That because it's Aurora and not Quinella. My assistant took Confiscator and flew to Vampire country." I said with a shrug.
"You let an A.I. do all that?" Serafall for second was baffled. I looked weirdly at her for a bit…
"...Right… You don't know. I doubt you check the main logs anyway. But, Quinella yesterday became a full-fledged human being. Well, not any regular human being but what she classifies as 'perfect' human." I said with a shrug. A hologram appeared in front of me I saw the scan of the car.
Honestly, this brings back the days when I used to do this back in my previous life. Buying a complete reck and then fixing it and then pumping it up with technology of my design…
Should I do it this as well? Transformer protocol? The space motion technomancy. Perpetual energy core? Remould the frame with the Sacred Gear alloy… so many choices...
"Hmm, let's see how far I can take this before Athena finds me…" I grinned silly seeing that the car's engine is 50% completely broke and need complete change, 30% of it needs repairs and only 20% are in an okay-ish state. In other words, it is better just to change the engine completely instead of fixing it.
But, doing that is just utterly boring! I looked at Serafall, wanting to tell how dead is this dead car, but she was spacing out silly…
'Right...I guess Quinella's coming to life part quite shook her.'
Shrugging to myself… I was about to start ripping the engine off. Then I realised that doing things in school uniform it's quite uncomfortable…
"I should change first… and get something to eat before starting with this," I said to myself before walking toward the back of the workshop where the kitchen is, and the living space...
~~~~~~Barracks~~~~~~
Carmilla had no idea how to feel just left out of things. After her disastrous seduction attempt, she was left to her devices. In heart of someone else territory. Well, she used that time to get some understanding with that she is dealing wirh.
And, damn, she was utterly blown away! The silver-haired vampire queen has grasped some of the scale of things Marcus does…
One of the earliest projects of his was the creation of perpetual energy! This alone is nuts! She might not be big on science or whatever. But endless energy solves alot of problems and opens alot of doors!
Even a single one of these Diamond Core Hearts could be enough to solve the worlds issues of energy! But this guy has over thirty of those and it's increasing!
As she mentioned before this thing was one of the earliest inventions. Because of the endless energy, Marcus easily solved the issue of transmutation. Those assembly lines use an enormous amount of energy. By regular being standards. But Marcus has perpetual energy and Aurora which control the flow of energy to maximise the effect and lower the amount of energy it takes.
With endless energy and the most powerful alchemy she has ever seen it's no wonder that he so rapidly build up his power base!
Just by checking the technology, technomancy, the possibilities were endless…
The Vampire Queen was wondering if those maids realised how much power those Entertainment Domes use? Or even grasp the amount of energy is flowing toward the testing room?
The amount of zeros she saw was utterly baffling! the session where Marcus fought superman alone could power the whole planet for a year…
That is how much the room had to take because the moon was destroyed and the amount of force both were throwing at each other was monumental…
"Having fun? Only Le Fay read those… honestly, it baffles me how little everyone cares about our Master's capabilities."
Carmilla stiffed for a bit hearing an arrogant female tone, her eyes went to the side and she looked at the new arrival.
Unlike the last time… This time her vampire senses were telling her that this girl was the real deal, and made from flesh and blood… And alot of power...
"Quinella."
"The one, and the same. We meet in person this time." The silver-haired assistant walked over into the room the Vampire Queen was given she had to share with unlucky Elmenhilde Karnstein.
The girl just followed her Queen and now she ended up in this situation…
The pair of vampire eyes were on the assistant who just walked into the room. She was dressed in S.P.B.A. uniform. However, it was not blue and silver. But instead, she dressed in white and gold. Showing of colours of Solomon which her Master has inherited. This time however her clothes were not sexualised, no mini skirt, instead she looked like a proper female officer with a knee-length skirt.
The simple reason for this is that Marcus is not coming with her.
"So, that project is done then?" Carmilla asked with a somewhat nervous tone. If this project is complete then it mean that Marcus Goldman can make perfectly engineered life. Another sci-fi trope is no longer a sci-fi...but, reality
"Indeed." The silver head assistant nodded at the question, that moment the holographic window which was in front of the Vampire Queen switched to showing something different it was the Biological Assistant Quinella project with status being complete.
The Vampire beauty looked at the window for a bit. She remembers checking this not long ago...and now it was done and the project result itself was in front of her radiating more power than she has…
While the younger vampire girl just looked at the pair interacting. She already understood what was going on. Just like her Queen, she read through the stuff she was able to. As Aurora suggested to learn about their 'Protector'.
And learn they did. Simply put they won't be getting out of this protection scheme. The Vampires were permanently added to the fold. While Carmilla wanted it to be temporary because she understood Marcus character to some extent or she thought she did with her reading on him. The man is interested in his research, inventions and the Queen to some extent. So she used that. But, she was wrong because her faction is going to be permanently added.
Simply put… she forgot that her kin can be observed and their powers studied…
"So… are we returning to Vampire countries?" Carmilla asked as she closed the window, last time they spoke the Assistant of their Master said that they will be working 'together' what does this mean Carmilla has not figured out yet.
The Vampire Queen can't see Quinella taking some advice from her. Unless Marcus told the Silver-haired assistant to listen to her.
"We are. I have permission to use the Confiscator. The Airship has 4 assembly lines. It will help establish a proper base. Before it can spread out through the countries." The Military uniform dresses woman said sharply.
"I assume...you going to 'modernize' the countries?" The older Vampire asked as she got up on her feet ready to walk.
"Indeed. This is more or less to see how we can adjust my Creator's inventions for public use. As by my and Blonde devil's one prediction, our Master will going to end up taking over the country himself. It is either through his dislike for nagging, as no doubt this country and the rest of the world will nag for his technology once the shops are open, or he will grow an interest to experiment with government types." Quinella said with a not caring shrug.
"So...we going to test on my people?" Camilla asked with raised eyebrow.
"Don't look too bothered by this. We won't be drugging them or anything like that. We going to use the point system as permanent currency. With Assembly Lines, we can run the countries...forever. The problem is how to get those points and things like that. We can iron the details out when we are in person there and the system is up and running."
After hearing the clarification Carmilla relaxed. This sounds not that dangerous. This is more like a test out new things. On country size scale… if her memory serves her right there was no such thing before.
Well, there were some small scale tests but this is different altogether. Switching money out to something else and using alchemy as the bedrock for everything. This means natural resources are meaningless. They can even recycle waste, organic waste, plastic and other things… they have alot of bones in their castles...
However such massive change to society as a whole. Simply put it becomes borderline utopia. Yet, it comes with its own set of bad things…
Well, Vampires in general don't need many things but they can make their cattle tamer…
Still… though she want to see how this will change as several hundred-year-old being she is interested in new things like this.
"Still, though… I don't see him ruling. I can't see someone like him sitting in parliament and discussing...politics… maybe if it was 18 century France when Absolute Monarchy existed but that is me stretching things already." Carmilla pointed out something she can't see happen she only spend a small amount of time with the man. But, she already has a clear image of his personality.
"I know. I did multiple simulations of this. And the only thing I came up with our Master is Totalitarian Technocracy." Quinella casually said with a shrug.
"... Excuse me… but what is... Technocracy?" The Vampire Queen asked.
"Imagine a massive science club running a country. More or less everything will be on research and science study. Because of Assembly lines. The majority of industries will cease to exist. The concept of farmlands, fishing, and things like that will be pointless. Instead studying vegetation will take over. This will increase the amount of forest there are in the country.
While this sounds amazing and even beautiful that we will give back much of the land back to nature. We should not forget alot of things like decadence will increase. As well as things like Entertainment Dome will make people obsessed with fantasy worlds instead of real life.
That's why it will be totalitarian… the more we give the more we expect…"
As Quinella was explaining to her the Vampire Queen started to see the image of this… dysfunctional... Utopia? With many things losing their needs new things will develop…
Well, now that she can see how this is going to happen she can at least say that she can see him...ruling… well ruling is not the word. More like tyrannically telling what to do… and if they are not following his orders well... the points are going to be stripped…
'Yes, sounds about right…'
~~~~~~Athena~~~~~~
The first thing the Goddess of Wisdom did was to see the map of the country. Learning the language was quite easy. Well for a Goddess that is. Because the people here have quite absurd and very difficult language. She picked it up from a few people who spoke it.
Once she got it down she started reading the maps. Eventually, she did stumbled upon a Town that has some connection to the word 'girl'.
However, she won't go to rush there just be because the word match. After all, it could be a girls name the city is named after that she needs to look for it.
So, for that, she decided to go to the best place to learn and that is the library.
Thankfully finding it is not that difficult...however… she was in a town dominated by the Russian majority… alot of literature was in Russian and is about Russia… not something she has an interest in at this specific moment.
However, she was able to find some history and myth related books to the place she is right now.
Her powers. Work like sixth sense. An intuition where to look for what. That's how she easily finds stuff in her humongous library.
The thing about her place is that she should get new books for her library. Especially since she glossed over quite a bit of minor cultures. And focused on big ones. Now because of that, she is wasting time with this little game.
However, on a different side of things, she is enjoying playing little games like that.
Walking around for a bit she eventually stumbled on books she was looking for.
With several books in hand, she went over and found a place to sit. Before long she started reading.
If anyone saw her read. Then they would think that she is just skimming through pages. Because she was flipping one after another in every second or two…
If that didn't freak one out then the pages moving on their own would.
Reading one then a second and finally a third book she was done.
She walked back and placed the books in their place before leaving the library…
'There are few myths about the wolves in this place. The most famous one is the Grand Duke having a dream about a metal howling wolf. After the dream, the man consulted with the shaman or the druid of their loose religion on nature and decided to build the true capital there. Well, I quite honestly forgot that these people still had Paganism even in the late 14 century…'
Thinking for a bit she realised that this might going to be a problem these towns were built way before the Biblical God faction influenced them. Meaning some of the stuff was most likely passed down verbally…
Because... honestly, she did not find anything about a girl meeting a wolf in any sense… there were more stories about maneater wolves than befriending one.
In the end, this might be because she was in quite a new city compared to the rest. Build in the early 1950 while others were built in 1400 or even earlier…
Meaning that she needs to get deeper in the country instead of mingling in this borderline border town...
Sighting with annoyance she realised that she is going to be a tourist here. Her senses are useless in this country because of the high amount of magic in the air. None of her powers are good for tracking. Unlike Artemis.
So… this means she will be using a bus… to get deeper into the country.
'That man… this is embarrassing! He knew this! so, he set it up on purpose! Most likely set this up based on his experience of capturing Artemis!' The brown-haired goddess frowned even more before deciding to suck it up and do it. As she was in not so friendly territory where she can throw her temper tantrums.
And so she ended up looking for the bus station. The main one, where buses go between cities. Honestly, it was so small she spend hours walking around in the town looking for it.
The other issue with this was that there are very few buses and she will spend hours waiting for one…
By this point, she just wanted to bang her head into a wall!
~~~~~~Marcus~~~~~~
"Oh girls you finally here!" My gaze went to the side as I saw my maid trio walk over. Should I call them the hunter trio? Hmm…
Anyway! They finally arrived at my garage!
"Yes. We were quite perplexed that you did not go to The Base after your school activities…" Artemis said while sighing.
"Yeah, I decided to do some things about my car, and wait until she arrives at this town," I explained to them as I motioned with my finger at the screen.
Artemis eyes alongside the other two opened wide when they saw Athena herself sitting in the waiting room...in a bus station…
"You know what I find funny? She could easily get a phone and use the GPS to the next city or just use the roads… but I guess just running from city to city can be exhausting…" I said with a shrug. Honestly, deities are weird. They are powerful but they have their sense of comfort? Don't act upon certain things…
"Master… phones don't have GPS… The ones in the newest cars are barely functioning either …" Serafall said from the side as she is looking at Athena on the screen. She had complex look on her face.
"Only your phones have it. I think you giving too much credit to the current human technological level." The black-haired devil said with a sigh.
"Right… damn… I forgot to check up on the stuff they have at the moment!" I said with realisation. I haven't checked what regular people did the past couple of years!
"Don't worry… you didn't miss anything of note. Only a few good animes came out. Apart from that…" She shrugged at me while saying that.
I nodded at her looked at the screen. I should name this show 'The Woes of Goddess of Wisdom in Unknown Lands!'
My gaze then went to the trio of the arrivals. The most pale of them was Artemis as she realised that the Goddess of Wisdom was in my lands.