Once they arrived in the city, they immediately went to the Warp Station.
But...
"Sorry, the station is currently under maintenance."
They couldn't depart right away because it had a technical issue after being used continuously since last week.
Something like this had always happened from time to time, but the peak was when the tournament was held.
Without a choice, the trio decided to spend some days in the city while waiting for the station to return to service.
"Haaaahhh... why is the technology so underdeveloped in this region?"
The slow development progress didn't occur only in the Salhju region but the whole of Aetheris.
The reason was that the emperor prioritized his territory first, which was justified. Although the emperor's homeland development had reached above the threshold, there were still other regions within the empire's main continent.
If we were to order their priority, it would be like this:
The emperor's homeland > the other six ruling houses's territory > Chrysantheus > the other vassals in Aetheris.
Unfortunately, even if the time finally came to focus on Chrysantheus's development progress, it would be limited to the capital only, meaning if Salhju wanted to progress, they would have to work their asses off.
But how could a small region like Salhju do it? All they had was only a baron and his city.
"Hey," Alphonso called Eliana. "What's life like in the empire? Was it convenient with technology and everything? I heard they have a device that lets us play games and communicate with others through it with no delay. Is that true?"
"My life there was... fine, I guess. I don't know about the convenience of the technology since I never had a chance to touch it, but all my friends said so. And the device you referred to is called a M-Phone... if I'm not wrong."
"What? You never touch the convenient technology at all, even when you're living there?"
Eliana scratched her cheek.
"Well, I don't have time for such things. I'm too focused on school and my education rather than playing with a distracting device like an M-Phone."
"Ah, so that's why you take the librarian position and bury yourself in the books?"
"S-so what?!"
Niveus stared at Alphonso and Eliana.
Those two were the characters he put all his effort into designing.
One could say those two were his favorites among the romance options characters.
But meeting and talking directly with Alphonso made him realize how annoying he was, just like many players had expressed within the forum. Although, it was because they didn't know his backstory.
It was not like he had no backstory in the game, but reaching that part was so difficult. No more than a hundred players could get into Alphonso's secret route instead of his normal route, and most of them found it by pure luck.
Still, even if people would suddenly view Alphonso differently after knowing his backstory, it wasn't the case for Niveus. Even if he knew it, he just couldn't stand his character in reality.
As for Eliana, she was lying about her life in the empire being fine. She also lied about how she never had a chance to get into technology because of studying.
Niveus leaned in his chair, eyes closed, his mind drifting through a sea of thoughts.
The city buzzed with life around them, contrasting with the icy wilderness they had just left behind.
'Hey, Nono.'
["What's up, Niveus?"]
As soon as Niveus called Nono, her voice immediately echoed in his mind.
'I have asked you so many things, but I forgot the most important one. Where does the Ice Witch reside?'
["Ice Witch..."] Nono muttered. ["She is in the place where you came from, Tundra. She has gone into eternal sleep, only awakening when her dearest one calls or is in danger."]
'Her dearest one?' Niveus mused. He blocked the connection to Nono for a while before continuing. 'She must mean the protagonist from the comic.'
'Wait! Does that mean the white realm the protagonist was trapped in was a part of this world? And beyond that, there must be Chrysantheus somewhere.'
It was just a wild guess and mix-matching of some fragmented information into a new narrative.
But if it was true, then whoever combined the game and the comic, blending them into a new world, must be a genius. However, more questions lingered in Niveus's mind.
'Why am I reincarnated into this world? Did whoever created this world feel guilty because they stole the idea from my works?'
'And why am I never meeting them even once, be it in my dream or showing me a sign of their existence? At least, that kind of thing should have happened, right?'
Too many questions. And Niveus had a feeling that even if one of them got answered, it would just raise new questions as if it were math.
"Hey," Alphonso's voice cut through his thoughts. "You've been awfully quiet. What's on your mind? Oh, I know. You must be worried about your face, huh?"
Niveus opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling for a moment.
"Just thinking about how different reality is from what we expect."
Alphonso raised an eyebrow. "Deep thoughts for a simple city visit."
Niveus glanced at him, deciding to change the subject.
"Anyone have an idea what to do while we wait for the Warp Station to be fixed?"
Rolling his eyes, Alphonso scoffed. "What? So you're just bored?"
"Yes, I'm so bored. So, what's the plan now?"
Alphonso shrugged. "We could explore the city, see what's new. Or we could find a place to relax. I'd say I can go and do anything. It's not like my opinion is important."
Eliana looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't mind visiting the library here. Maybe I can find something useful or at least pass the time."
"Looks like everyone isn't on the same page," Niveus commented.
"Like I said, I'm up for anything. But if I go to the library, I might as well use the time for sleep."
Looking at Niveus, Eliana asked him what he wanted to do.
"Hmm... I want to mingle with people."
At that word, Eliana and Alphonso were shocked to the core.
Their reactions might have been uninterested and went with just "Oh." However, it was different when the person who said it was Niveus.
Niveus Albus. The very person who didn't want to know and didn't care about anyone in the fortress. That Niveus now suddenly wanted to socialize with other people?!
"W-who are you?!"
"Give us back our Niveus?!"
Frowning his eyes, Niveus stared at the pair.
"F*ck you, guys."