Chapter 9: Stupid Logic
Five days, 17 hours, 46 minutes, and 9 seconds remaining
Desmend stared at the countdown. The time was flying by until he reached another Aucrulethen tech research point.
The debrief-scolding of Tangerine took an hour but was very educational.
If he tried to reinvent gunpowder, again, the woman would smack him on the head. Also, gunpowder is pretty useless here. Or maybe it was because his usually kind priestess broke a bloody wall with her small fist.
He honestly wished Eliza would kill him right then and there.
Right now, he is riding in a carriage on a road that Desmend is not even sure if you can call a well-trodden path to the college in the dwarven capital, Aurarock. The carriage bounces up and down every time the wheels pass over the bumpy road, and the hard wooden chair does some severe damage to his ass.
If going by foot, it would apparently take around two months to walk to the Aurarock. The Great Keptira River flowed through the forest, up to its source in a mountain range that held the settlement they sought.
"I know... I was pretty crazy last week, but do you have to glare at me?" Desmend asked Eliza, who was crossing her arms with a deep frown on her face.
"I don't think she is going to answer you, mate," Harry said.
"SOOOO, Harry... it's been ten days since we left the territory. When are we going to arrive? Besides, isn't there a limit to how long we can leave the affairs of the territory? Let's go home. I can always send a messenger instead,"
he said to Harry, who was sitting next to him on a fluffy cushion, wondering where he got it from, with a ray of hope. The smirking was not welcome, though.
"Chosen One." The brunette's non-chipper voice caught his attention. "Don't worry. I'm sure my sister will be fine without you. Besides, the long journey isn't so bad after a good night's sleep, is it?"
"You can sleep in this environment as long as you have those fluffy cushions, but I can't sleep without them! The vibrations are terrible, the floor is hard, and I'm so tired! Where did you get those fluffy cushions? It's not something a person like you can get her hands on! Aren't you half-dwarf?"
"Chosen One, do you forget who controls the finances of the Aurarock's workers guild?"
"Are you embezzling?" Desmend analyzed.
"I'm just kidding... I would never... embezzle anything."
You're definitely not kidding!
"Well, since we've passed through the Duke of Wraitharm domain, we're already under the direct control of the Wraitharm clan, so perhaps we'll arrive today or tomorrow?"
"The city of dwarves that pledge their serves with us," Desmend remembered the dwarven history. Like in games and movies, these dwarves live underground, or in their words. A Thaig is a dwarven term used for their underground settlements.
Aurarock is unique because it also has a surface city and has the most technological advances for the kingdom. Which reminded him...
The technology in this world was kinda all over the place. The 'iron man' armour thing should have clued him in on that. On earth, technology had moved from labourers to the water wheel and windmills, to the steam engines, and then on to the combustion engines.
Then the with inventions like the lift, propulsion systems, and understanding of how the world works. All the earth's histories are built on technologies built on top of other technologies that had laid the groundwork for them.
In this world, there were mysterious creatures, Vespa, and magic. If you wanted to fly through the sky, you just ride a wyvern or levitate spell.
The people of this world skipped past the concept of lift and prolusion system and just went flying. Desmend can say the same for guns, bullets, TNT, and certain inventions that can improve quality of life.
Desmend earlier tried to research automobiles in the Pinnacle's tech tree, but it's counterintuitive since they had giant tamed beasts that could haul as much as a South Dakota Non-Interstate Roads 171,000 lbs / 77,564 kgs semi-truck.
Why build something that requires content maintenance when you can just train one in three or four weeks? As many as you want since they only eat grass.
Their ships are pulled by massive aquatic beasts that can repel any number of projectiles back on earth. So, no guns.
The street maps had lightmoss in them, which stored sunlight energy during the day and was phosphorescent at night, keeping the town lit. They did not need electrical power since they could grow it.
The list went on and on in this world; even without science, many things could be done with magic.
Magic made his science and engineering skills useless outside of making a very awesome Javelin. This world made no sense.
Desmend pointed his head out of the carriage to prove his thought, saw the enormous mountains in the distance, and could already see a city with a massive gate into Yamir Mountains.
Aurarock had a dormitory, several restaurants, and all sorts of shops. Javelin repair shops were also gathered there, including lodging for related personnel, forming a sizeable college-like city. Because Aurarock was the nation's top academic facility, its size exceeded that of the kingdom's capital itself. This is the city where Eliza's mother used to hail from...
"Are you happy going back to your mother's home city, Liz?" Desmend warmly smiled at the stoic girl.
She narrowed her eyes at him.
Oh, come on!! Why does that good boy smile only work for Arthur instead of him?
"Yes... I'm quite happy to visit... though you need to present yourself to the dwarven duke."
During the hours of yelling at him, Desmend noticed that Eliza occasionally paused between words when talking with motionless demeanour, rarely ever smiling, not even at his jokes... It takes a great will not to laugh at those lame jokes.
It's hard to get a read on Eliza.
The sunset beyond the walls that surrounded the city and night engulfed the institute city. Apart from a selected few, most of the shops had closed for the day, and only a handful of people were still wandering the streets. Finally, the entire city fell into a peaceful silence.
A tall figure ran along a path formed by the rooftops of the buildings. The figure was dressed in black that was difficult to see in the dark, moving like the wind along the roof.
"Stop right there, Your Majesty!!"
"Eliza, do you love the view from here!?" Desmend motioned the view of the city on the rooftops.
"Why are you running away!!"
"Because you are chasing me!!"
"I'm chasing you because you ran away!!"
He is running because despite being their king, there were specific methods that Desmend needed to do before he could even see the dwarven duke. It involved paperwork... In triplicate
So, he ran away on the spot and left Harry and Eliza to do it for him.
Desmend D. Dylan used to be an incredible young kid. Even when he was little, he was capable of many things, reading on an 11th-grade level, processing multiple things at once, solving puzzles and riddles that challenged many, proficient in tinkering, fixing, his brilliant out-of-the-box thinking, ability to talk, lie or charm his way out of (or into) anything, charisma, figuring out how things worked, a semi-photographic memory, and able to go toe-to-toe with some of the state's-even the nation's-greatest gamers. His only problem is that he didn't really apply it to schoolwork as easily as he did with gaming or reading.
That and a high metabolism along with Asperger Syndrome, meaning he had a minor case of autism. Desmend temporarily fixed this with Concerta, which he took daily. But ever since he was summoned, he no longer has access to medication. Becoming a white-collar criminal helped with social problems. Still, it made him 'exotic' in certain parts of his personality when he was off his meds.
"Get back right now...! You can't... Even use Vespa yet!"
"See you later... Cute Dwarf!"
Now the King of Aucrulethen Kingdom was running, Eliza chasing. Their game of tag continued until sundown…
"Caught you!"
"Argh!!"
Eliza tackled the king on top of a rooftop near a dark alleyway, but something unexpected happened. "Eh? What are you two doing?" A girly voice came from across them.
A stern voice followed: "Why are you on top of him?"
"... I never seen a human like you before?"
The questions from both parties overlapped with each other. Desmend and Eliza looked at the dwarven children. They remained silent for quite a while. They had met someone at a place normally devoid of people, so it was understandable to be cautious.
Moreover, one of them was dressed in black with his hood up, a suspicious outfit. Desmend observed the other party. The weak starlight made visibility low, but he could see that they were a boy and girl pair about eight years old.
Seeing a way out from Eliza, pausing impassioned and stoic rebuking, Desmend introduced himself. "Evening, I am Desmend D. Dylan, in the middle of having rooftop coitus. And you are?"
"Huh? Would you look at that Eliza can blush?" Desmend thought as he looked at the very red face of the Vespa instructor and workers guild master who might kill him when she gets over her shock.
Meh... It was worth it.