๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
I finished my drawing after about 6 hours. The drawing was as big as the sketchbook itself and it was highly detailed.
Alice was now in the front of the carriage and is using her steel-toe eagles to scout ahead and Freya was now sleeping in the back next to me while I was drawing. After finishing my drawing, I also went to sleep
When I woke up, the carriage seems to have been stopped. Freya, Astoria, and Alice weren't in the carriage but instead were outside, setting up camp for the night.
Instead of joining them, I decided to stay in the carriage and draw instead.
I decided to take the first watch, then Freya for the second, Alice for the third, and lastly Astoria.
In the middle of the night, the three women were already sleeping in the back of the carriage which was already cramped for three people, I continued drawing during my watch, this time I was making the background for my previous characters while guarding the carriage against any potential enemies.
A giant crater for the burning figure with the phoenix behind it, a haunted forest for the spearwoman that looks like Alice, and many more.
After a while, Freya awakens to take her shift and meet me who was keeping an ear out for enemies which meant I also noticed Freya.
"Good evening."
"Even.ing." I brokenly responded without looking at her.
Freya takes a seat next to Himura looking at his drawings, It felt weird whenever someone is watching me but I didn't let it show.
"Hey, this might be selfish of me, but could you draw me as well?" Freya said a bit forcefully.
"...I don't mind," I responded, walking a few steps away from her before sitting again at a distance.
Freya although surprised for a moment, took a position in front of me.
"Do any po.sition you feel n.atural in." I said while turning a new page on my sketchbook.
Freya was sitting at the root of the overgrown tree and next to her was her staff and long brunette hair behind her. Freya's legs were side by side with her hands clasped together and resting on her thighs.
After silently confirming that it was her pose, I broke her pose down into simple lines in shapes, making construction lines here and then lightly sketching out her face, upper body, and lower body.
During that, I carefully observed Freya and soon found herself turning a bit red because of my serious staring. She could feel what part of her, I was staring at which in turn reddened her face more as I gazed upon her chest area.
I then looked at her more seriously as I drew the details, the place where the shadow should be in her body, proper values of shading, and tiny detail in her clothes, staff, and face.
This took about 5 hours which was enough time for Alice to wake up but she only silently watches me draw Freya.
After an hour or two I finally finished the background art of her which was just the tree she was sitting at.
"A-amazing!" Alice commented, marveling at my skill when it comes to art.
I also showed the portrait to Freya who also had the same reaction. "With such details, people would pay a lot for these!" Freya said as she observes the details of the drawing.
While still expressionless, I felt happy on the inside for someone recognizing my talent that most people in my former world found useless in the "Real World".
"Tha.nk you," I said as I carefully tear the page and gave it to Freya. Of course, she accepted it, folding it small enough to fit in a waterproofed compartment in her adventurer pack on her waist.
"I hav.en't slept in a w.hile so I'll g.o sle.ep for a b.it."
"Alright good night, Himura."
"Good night, Himura," Alice said with a bit of envy which no one noticed.
As I enter the back of the carriage, I found Astoria using the sleeping bag as more of a pillow instead of sleeping in it. It seems she either can't fit in it or it was too hot for her.
I took off my jacket and also grabs the unused sleeping bag and use it as a pillow as well before laying down next to Astoria. Sometimes doing this still felt weird because I was a guy, but because of Astoria's tomboyish attitude, I felt comfortable doing this now without any hesitation.
While laying down, I looked at my reddened hand before closing my eyes.
When I woke up, the carriage was already moving with Freya and Astoria in the front while Alice was next to me, sleeping.
"Morning, Himura." Astoria greeted.
"*yawn* murninn." My throat was dry so I drank my half-empty waterskin before speaking again.
"How long till we get there?"
"It's about half a day more so around the afternoon I think. Also, have your breakfast, we already had ours."
"I see...alrig.ht."
I crawled to the front and opened one of the compartments where all of the food is stored and ate one of the rations while staring at the distance.
We soon arrived at an orange metallic gate which is more like a hole in the metallic wall but a gate nonetheless. As we were about to enter two beings stopped us.
""HALT."" Two beings with identical voices stopped us. When we tried to look at who it was, there was only two identical metallic figure that looked like robots.
In my viewpoint, I could see that these things were made by attaching each of their bodies that are probably split into sections.
Every now and then, they would release some sort of steam as if they were trying to cool off. The three looked impressed and confused about how it's doing that and I concluded that the city of creation was in a steampunk era with magic whereas Bellken was more in a fantasy medieval-era with a bit more modern items probably due to the influence of Kliyer as its neighboring country.
""We are called. "artificials" we are. Not alive and. Are only tasked. To guard this. Gate.""
The artificials explained that they were given these voices to avoid being mistaken for an actual living being. These voices cannot be changed by law and even if a rouge artificials managed to change it, they can identify it by their pause every 3 words and their speed of voice which is set at a fixed speed.
After their simple explanation, they asked us for a permit to enter the city. Freya pulls something in her pack which was a small card with words written on it.
"This is a. Adventurers travel permit. This only has. 3 months before. It expires, please. Update it at. Our nearest adventurer. Guild." One of the artificials who was holding the permit said.
The other artificial then added. "This can be. Permanent if you. Are a merchant. Or a government. Official."
After that, we were given some sort of pamphlet about the tourist attraction spots and other interesting things about Kliyer.
The first one I found interesting was the three research towers which have about 50 floors around the city. The first tower was for residential-related research, it researches and makes things beneficial for the common people such as cheaper but more secure homes to avoid infiltration of criminal and natural disasters and also the healthcare system.
The second tower was for industry-related research like automating factories, improving machinery, and anything that increased production and research.
Lastly the third was for military-related research, this tower only has 20 floors and the other 30 were underground for an easier time when guarding.
This tower focuses on making lethal weapons enough to match against gods and any kind of threat there is.
Currently, the first 20 floors of all of the towers are open to the public, though many don't really come there frequently.
The second page was about the entire city layout. The entire city was a giant square that had a smaller square and an even smaller square inside of it. Looking at the size, Astoria estimated that it was twice as big as Bellken
The outer square is where most people live with a commercial district in between. The corner of the walls are towers which no one can access the top because the top had a giant ballista called the "Dragon Fender mk.2" and it was named that because it was their most effective weapon against an 8-star being called a dragon but these days it is more used as intimidation for the people who think they can invade this city.
The ballista had a giant bolt which was more shaped like a lance and was bigger and longer than two houses and it was surrounded both a smaller repeater crossbow with automatic reloading which can be both used manually or put into auto-detection.
How they do it was redacted to avoid other countries from finding it out and to avoid criminals to recreate it.
The middle square wall is where government buildings, the adventurers guild, and most commercial districts are.
The corner of these walls had an even taller tower with the same turrets as before. This is also where the first two towers are located.
And lastly, the very center is where most military buildings and the military research tower are. The corner of these has the highest towers which also had these ballistae.
instead of there being a castle, there was instead a very sturdy tower where the leader of these countries resides.
And the last page was about a place on the second wall called the Library of Piltu, It was a wide building that easily took up about 9% of the land inside of the wall. The library of Piltu is a library where all of the things this country and discovered over 196 years ever since its founding. The second floor was apparently more secure not to protect the things inside of it but so that it can protect the outside because the madman of Kliyer also known as Likru lives and researches there. It was thanks to him that artificials were created in the first place but apparently most of his theories had a tendency to explode which is the reason for the second floor being more secure than the very core of the city itself.
It seems it caught the attention of Alice and me since I also wanted to go there to find more information about this world.
So while we were going to the middle wall to find an inn. After paying for the inn's fees, we split into two groups for tomorrow.
The first was Astoria and Freya, they wanted to see what kind of weapons this city has to offer while Alice and I wanted to go to the Library of Piltu for tomorrow.
As for the day after that, Astoria suggested that they explore together as a party to make it more fun. In total, we plan to stay until we are ready to move however they limit themselves to 1 month just in case.
Originally, it was supposed today that we split up and go to their planned destination but Astoria complained about not being able to drink so after getting four rooms at our inn, we immediately headed to the adventurers guild.
The inside was a bit more different than Bellken's adventurer guild. Firstly the second floor was apparently, only a meeting room instead of a room where you can sleep in. The first floor had a bigger bar, and the waiter was an artificials.
After entering, without question, Astoria bought everyone drinks which put the guild into a roar even though its still afternoon not only because of the free drinks but because we were recognized by them but they didn't tell us the reason for it was because we were called "The most troublesome party" by the adventurers of Bellken.
I also joined after a while and only myself slightly drunk since I kept diluting my alcohol to be sober enough to drag Astoria since it's been an unwritten rule that it was my job to drag the drunk Astoria to her room.
We returned to their inn around 10 PM, Alice who apparently had a great tolerance to alcohol was guiding Freya who also got drunk for some reason and I who was slightly drunk is currently carrying The sleeping Astoria.
I practically threw her into her bed before he also heads to his room and sleep for tomorrow. I yawn as I eventually fall asleep.