Lumie built up some courage, "W-why are you here venerable fallen?" She said with a tint of rage.
'oh. Apprehensive reaction I see. I should ask her how me being a fallen actually helps them and if there's an academy, verification test and certificate or if there is another social program.
"Hey, lumie." Her eyes shuddered and heart seethed with rage at my remark. I noticed this expression and tried to brush past it, "Do you know if there is some sort of social program for the fallen that I need to join?" She didn't respond.
We stared at each other on the cool porch for what felt like hours before I felt I had to say something, "Lumie-" I was cut off by a foul sound. "DONTCALLMETHAT!" that foul sound was Lumie, screaming angrily at me.
after she screamed her expression dropped, her eyes widened and her hands clutched her mouth as if holding on to dear life.
Then she fell to her knees and spoke softly, "Please. Please don't hurt us. I'm sorry for screaming. Please don't enact vengeance on us, I didn't mean to, my mother doesn't deserve it."
I was startled, "I'm a moral human being too. I'm going to hurt you or your mother for lashing out." She responded "You're not?" I affirmed "Of course I won't. There's no reason to. After all, one can't just go around beating and killing people for redundant reasons such as that. Eventually it will catch up to the one in question."
"So-I-uma-" Lumie stuttered, I interrupted, "So, it's fine, don't stress about things, espiscaly something as inconsequential and understandable as that, you can relax."
It seems that the name 'lumie' or at least me calling her that causes a mental breakdown of sorts, so i'll try to avoid it.
"So, is there an academy or other social system for fallen?" I asked, Lumie decided to respond, "There is an academy for each of the empires, but it's not a traditional academy, actually it's hard to even call it an academy. There's no real classes, it's hard to explain. You'll see when you go there."
"When am I going there?" I asked, puzzledly. "Roughly speaking, any time now." Lumie said, then added, "They have a device of sorts to detect your 'falling' or maybe it's another fallen, I don't know, but what is true is that every time a fallen has fallen to this plane their empire's respective academy has been there to greet them in less than 24 hours."
That's kind of disturbing. How would they even know? Can they track me anywhere or just where I first appeared? Although with what I know of this world already, Lumie seems right. It's more likely this is a person rather than an item.
Should I just wait for them to get here? I mean, I don't see anything else I could really learn without questioning Lumie or Runia directly, and they don't really seem to be in the best of states now. I also want to leave them with a good impression of me.
Though, it would be boring just sitting here for a few hours. Oh, I know what I can do! I struck up conversation, "You were talking about leonard caelum earlie-" I was cut off, "Yeah! I was! He's just the best! At everything! He once killed a bloodline of demons by stopping the flow of their blood! He created the floating megacity Issaraeus with his authority! He has even saved the entire solar system by stopping the time around a near black hole!"
This might be the biggest glaze in history. Demons? How was that not brought up earlier? Bloodline, she said that he eradicated a demon 'bloodline' by stopping the flow of their blood, does that mean he can stop all relative copies of the same material? A floating city? Does his ability have no time limits?
Most importantly, a black hole? Does stasis have no range limits, could he just freeze the entire universe. Actually that doesn't seem that far fetched, when I was using the guilty earlier, I didn't feel any sense of exhaustion.
Also, black hole? These people know about black holes? Then what about the sun!
"Hey, uh, that thing in the sk-" I was interrupted by a voice from the house. Although I didn't recognize it. Lumie left, and encouraged me to follow her. We went from the porch to the living room. There sat a childlike man with a rapier on his waist with a white tuxedo in a black tie. Upon seeing me he stood up, bowed and greeted me.
"It is a pleasurable encounter to meet your venerable existence, patriarch valentine. My name is Amberosia, and I will be your guide, teacher, consultant, servant, and butler. Do you have any imperative questions?"
"Are we going to the academy immediately?" I asked, "Whatever suits your interests, honorable fallen." he responded, I asked a second question, "Do I have money at my disposal?" Amber responded, "Yes of course! Every fallen starts off with the equal equivalent of 7,119,500,000 yuan, 1,000,000,000 US dollars, 150,446,073,000 yen, as it has been described by fallen before you."
I made a decision, "Alright, then can you use up to 45% of that amount to renovate this cabin into a full-blown woodland-style mansion?" Amber's eyes lit up, "Of course, venerable fallen, consider it done!"
I grimaced slightly, "You can call me vanitas, amber." Amber's face took up a shocked expression, "Oh, yes, of course, venerable vanitas."
You could have dropped the venerable, but maybe you should keep it, after all, not showing the utmost respect to me at all given points of the day is no big deal, but I can feel that this atmosphere of 'venerability' causes toxic entitlement, so venerable not being put next to someone's name might make them liable to crash out.
But enough with that sentiment, I should go now, after all it seems that Lumie and Runia are in a good-er mood, so going now would be for the best, "We can go now, amber." He responded gleefully, "Ah, yes, everything is in order then. That's perfect! We'll head to the city of Hearth now! By using this."
Amber pulled a gold and black pocket watch and chain from his interior tuxedo pocket, and clicked it open. I was initially shocked, I expected a clock hand but instead I saw a map with hundreds of lines with dots going to a single point, originating from all directions.
Amber started to explain, "This is a contraption called a clockwork transporter, and it 'teleports' the target to any point the lines intersect to for as long as the target is in the location of a dot, and it does this by reversing or speeding up the 'time' of your location relative to the planet! It functions on the principle that the world is rotating, and being on any one of these dots means that your location, if sped up or reversed, will eventually be the same location as Hearth City!"
That's a confusing way to put it, but I think I understand. It uses selective time travel to traverse large distances instantly, simply because the planet's spinning.
He then gave it to me, "Here" He said, "It's quite simple to use, if you are at a teleportation point, it will glow green, then you twist the top knob of the watch clockwise causing the next point on your line to glow yellow and pressing down on the top knob will initiate 'teleportation' to whatever dot is yellow, and of course to go backwards on your line twist the knob counterclockwise.
Oh, and make sure to hold my hand or shoulder to take me with you."
I looked at the clockwork device, I twisted the top knob clockwise 4 times, making the yellow dot appear in the point labeled: Hearth City, and then while holding Amber's shoulder pressed down on the top knob.
At first, nothing seemed to happen but then I realized the wall clock wasn't moving, soon after Lumie and Runia's figures became convoluted and stretched sideways, with the wall behind them stretching into my position and then going past me.
The position, shape, and size of the evergreens before me merged into one as they flew past me. It was almost as if everything else was moving while I was standing still. I saw mountains, I passed them, I saw other towns and villages and passed them too.
My point of view soon curved, as I felt the world around me deaccelerating, while my surroundings were still blurry, I could make out the stones at my feet. Not long after that, the blurriness faded to the sound of a loud bell and a cacophony of playful laughter.