"A-Are you okay?!", asked Terich to the two girls in front of her.
Sniff~ Sniff~
"Y-Yeah... Sniff~ It's just... You are a really good storyteller Terich."
"Th-Thank you, but I didn't write this..."
"Yeah, but still, you were amazing. I could just see myself between the people who used to be here.", said Amy while wiping her eyes.
"Yeah. That was quite an emotional story. I almost cried as well.", said Noah and turned towards Corvin.
"Oh, we have an emotionless rock here.", he added.
"What? I don't have to cry to find the story emotional! I am just curious about what happened after all this."
"..."
"Don't look at me like that. This happened so much time ago. Me crying isn't going to change anything."
"Right. Whatever.", said Noah and wiped the wet corners of his eyes.
Corvin turned back to Terich and asked.
"What happened after that? When did the people come back to these lands?"
"Well, the Fucapitria was defeated but the damage was already done to this city. The Thamjul people migrated to every corner of the Ale-an lands and slowly assimilated into the Ale-An culture around them. That's why these lands are called Aleanakib, it's a loanword from the Thamjul language which means 'the place where the Ale-An lives'."
"Oh, they spoke a different language?"
"Yes. It was lost to time while they lived in the ancient Ale-An kingdoms, but there are some words that were adopted into the Alea-rin language. The dialect we speak in the Buthaldi Kingdom is the one with the most loanwords from it."
"Because you are the descendants of the Thamjul..."
"Yes."
"... It's sad that an entire culture was erased because of a monster...", said Corvin dejectedly.
"Oh, your people had it much worse. Almost all ancient cultures of the Altus Empire were erased by the Fucapitria. Your first Emperor and Empress had to work a lot to create a functioning empire. It's not a very happy thought but because all those cultures were erased, the Altus Empire was able to spread and become strong easily without internal struggles hindering it.", said Terich.
"That's why we are one of the strongest empires in the world? But still, I wonder how it would have looked like if the effect of those ancient cultures were more than just a few dialects with small differences."
"..."
"Well, whatever. Let's continue exploring this city."
"Alright."
*****
"What? They are still after me?!", asked Janeen to the man wearing white clothes who was kneeling in front of her.
"Yes. They are gathering a big search party to look for you. Your mother's debt is a lot. I am afraid I would lose my life easily if I were to stand against them."
"Sigh! What can I do..."
Janeen suddenly turned towards the piece of SAM she separated yesterday and asked.
"That thing created a compass for me, right? Can't you just create gold so I can just pay this stupid debt?"
The small copy of SAM talked in a monotone voice.
"Positive. However, object will be deleted after a certain amount of time."
"Doesn't matter. I just need them to delete the debt from their records. Create it now."
SAM nodded robotically and held out it's hand. It's palm faintly glowed yellow and a sizable ingot of gold formed on it. Janeen took the ingot and threw the heavy ingot towards the man wearing white.
"Take this and bring it to them. They can keep all of it but in exchange, they shouldn't bother me anymore. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Also, you can stop following my orders after that."
"Yes."
The man in white didn't make an expression and left the room. Janeen was left alone with the copy of SAM.
"Right... Now, I have to think about what to do about that boy. You can't hurt him, can you?", she asked.
"Negative. Directly hurting a user is not authorized."
"Hm... Can you do anything else other than harming him?"
"Positive. It is possible to quarantine a user. Owner then can hurt him herself."
"Okay... So, you just need to capture him. Then, let's do it now!"
Janeen got up from her seat and walked towards the door. The copy didn't follow her. When she realized this, she turned back and asked.
"What? You aren't coming?"
"Positive. Owner needs to follow quarantine procedures first."
"What do I need to do?"
"...Negative."
"Negative?"
"This information isn't allowed to be shared with the owner. SAM_2 will compete it automatically."
"O-Okay? I don't know what you mean but... How long will it take?"
"Unpredictable."
"....Why?"
"It should take less than a week. Might take even less than that."
"Oh. That's good, isn't it. While you do whatever that is, help me learn how to fight."
"Owner doesn't need to fight once the target is under quarantine."
"Yeah, but still. Just help me how to fight."
"Owner won't be able to train enough in a week."
"Is there really nothing for me to do?"
"Negative. There is one thing the owner needs to do."
"What is it?"
"Others will fight for owner."
"What?"
"Using owner's power."
"...I need to use my power to make someone fight him?"
"Positive."
"...Okay..."
*****
After visiting the ancient city, Corvin and his friends got back to their inn.
"Ahh... There is nothing better than laying on a soft bed after a day of walking around.", said Corvin as he threw himself to the bed when he returned. Then, he slowly lifted himself and got off the bed while grumbling.
"No, I need to work on the roads first."
He walked over to the wooden table and took out his notes from his bag. As he was thinking about where to start from, he heard a noise.
Knock! Knock!
"Corvin?"
"Oh, Amy? What happened?"
"Can I come in?"
"Yeah."
The door slowly opened and Amy slowly entered the room. Her hair was slightly damp and she was wearing a similar dress to what she was wearing while visiting the ancient city. Corvin stared at her questioningly, and she pulled out a jar filled with a dark liquid from her bag and brought it to his table.
"Hm? What's this?"
"Oh, this is a sample from the asphalt the king sent me."
"Oh, great. Do you know how to work on it?"
"...This isn't the asphalt I know. This one is slightly different."
"?"
"It's like, there is more to it? Actually, they call it stone oil here and it is more runny an-"
A chair flew next to Corvin and he patted on it while talking to Amy.
"Why are you standing there? Sit down here."
"Oh, um. Thank you."
Amy sat down next to Corvin and started to explain what was in her mind. A sweet scent of flowers flowed into his nose and Corvin had to focus on work harder to stop his mind from wandering to places he didn't want it to wander yet.
After a busy night of working, Amy and Corvin found a way to reliably separate asphalt from the stone oil. The next two days passed fast as, Corvin, Amy and Clair worked on designing a machine that could produce asphalt as much as they needed.
"Whew.... This sure is a giant, huh?"
"Right. Good job, Noah. Drawing something like this is tiring isn't it?"
"Don't even talk about it. But it's also satisfying when the thing I drew is built. The bigger, the better the feeling is."
"Right? Oh, actually, let's ask the king to visit the stone oil deposits if we can. I want to see if there are any ways to gather more of it to build roads all over both the Empire and this kingdom, maybe even more."
"You are quite ambitious aren't you? But, let's do that tomorrow, I really want to lie down and sleep right now."
At Noah's words, the others nodded their heads and went to sleep in their rooms. Corvin, left alone in his room, laid down on the bed and fell asleep quickly.