The Reincarnation of Alysara - Chapter 232:

I spend the rest of the day learning the Human language. I heard a lot over the last three days from Lin and today from the meeting, so now I am using my improved memory to go over every word I heard. There’s still a lot I don’t know. For example, they could have formal and informal speech, different ways to greet each other, pitch accents, and much more, so I’m still not at the point where I can speak fluently.

In the morning, I am visited by Lin and Jordan. They are casually dressed, like working-class men on their day off.

“We want you to see our city without the bias of obvious Oathbound Knights,” Jordan explains. “If we were to parade you around, people will act differently and formally, but we don’t want to show you that; we want to show you the real city, the good and the bad.”

That or they know I can see the difference, so they can’t hide it.

“Thank you for being genuine,” I give a little bow.

“I will be your guide, and Lin will translate. We can start the tour with the palace.”

We start the tour by walking around the halls and visit public areas such as the Throne Room, the Judgment Hall, and the courtyard. The Judgment Hall is the place where Oathbound or even the Emperor himself, judges the crimes of people, acting as a grand court. Simple crimes are handled by normal courthouses.

The palace is a luxurious place filled with exotic plants and decorations. There are murals on some of the walls and ceilings, decorative items, and statues of notable Oathbound with a plaque that describes their feats. Going by the contents of most of them, it is usually a post-mortem award for a self-sacrificial deed.

Most murals depict a historical event, from battles to diplomatic meetings between the Emperor and another kingdom.

“Everything here is contributed by an Oathbound,” Jordan explains. “The Emperor won’t use our citizens’ hard-earned taxes for vain treasures, so instead, talented Oathbound painted the murals, made each vase, curtain, and rug, and went out to foreign lands for exotic plants.”

After having passed a long hall of statues, of which it seems like many are still being worked on, Jordan gives an explanation.

“This happened not too long ago. You may even remember the world notifications. Perhaps the worst tragedy to befall the Oathbound. If it weren’t for the lives of our brothers and sisters given that day, it would have been worse for hundreds of thousands, if not more, all across the Empire.”

I wonder if I should tell them the consequences their fights have on the Nexus? Any sudden avalanche of mana will result in storms for the Nexus. Fights between legendary beings are just one example but blooming forests can also generate a lot of mana based on the primary forest mana type, which is usually, but not always, nature mana. Erupting volcanoes may explain fire mana storms, but I suspect a lot of that, and other mana types, come from vegetation going through growth periods and releasing a lot of mana at once.

I’ll tell them later; I don’t want them to think I am blaming them. While the storm did result from their battles, they probably didn’t know, and even if they did, they had little choice.

“This serves to remind us that Oathbound will always die in violence,” Jordan says, turning away from the statues and continuing down the hall. “Immortality can be cruel sometimes. Knowing that you have the opportunity for a peaceful end is comforting, but we do not know when ours will come, and worse, if our sacrifice is even worth it.”

“Don’t mind him,” Lin says, “Let our problems be our own.”

We continue walking down the hall in silence to our next destination, a place with lounging people of several races. There are Fylox, the people similar to the Lunaley and Kayafe, Loprae, people with tall bunny-like ears, a single Klar, who has tough armadillo-like plates on his back but with the physique of a gorilla, and lastly, humans.

“This is the main lounge where the Palace’s servants rest during breaks and after work hours. Those doors over there lead to their individual rooms.” Jordan points to the doors on opposite sides of the rooms. The doors lead to side wings, each capable of housing around fifty one-person rooms between two floors.

The lounge itself is a large two-story building that has luxurious sofas, games, a snack bar, and even an enchanted music recorder.

“No one is forced to work here; they apply since it is a well-paying and prestigious job, but they do require [Mana Toxicity Tolerance] training. Some families have served through many generations and have been some of the best workers we’ve ever had.”

I get some strange looks from the servants, but no one approaches since I am being escorted by two Oathbound.

“This is Alysara,” Jordan introduces me. “She is an important guest invited by the Emperor himself, so please make her feel welcome whenever you see her.”

Jordan leads me out of the servants’ quarters, letting the servants talk amongst themselves with sudden energy. At the end of the hall, we exit to the garden where gardeners tend to the plants and servants take a relaxing stroll on their time off. 

It’s nowhere near as impressive as Helikan’s park, but it is well-maintained. Brick paths have been laid down in a soft winding manner to allow one to walk along and not see the end of the path. Flowers, shrubs, and trees surround the paths, and the canopy provides ample shade to make the path feel more like a floral tunnel than a natural park.

Beyond the garden, close to the edge of the palace grounds, is a large dome, where many small, fairy-like people fly around and play or sip nectar from massive flowers.

“This is the Faerin habitat. They are quite content to stay in, as they prefer the forest environment. We are trying to integrate them as citizens, but it’s not going so well.”

“Why not?” I ask.

Jordan sighs. “They are quite belligerent. You see, they excrete honey, so we thought that to help people accept them, we would sell the honey to people. It’s still a commodity enjoyed by many, but the problem is with the Fearin. It might be better to see for yourself rather than to take our word.” 

Jordan leads me inside the dome, where several Faerin swoop by, and a sprinkle of dust drifts down.

“Haha! The shit eaters are here!” The Faerin taunts in a strange chattering language.

“Ooh! There’s someone new!” That Faerin blows a raspberry while hovering a meter in front of me.

“Faerin dust is a strong irritant,” Jordan says as he sneezes. “I’ve mostly gotten used to it, but as you can see, this behavior is not acceptable. We’d have riots in just a few days. We’ve tried everything to try and tame their behavior, but it seems like they have some strange mental connection with each other, a type of collective consciousness they can tap into. We don’t know the range, if any, but the main colony, where we found them, is quite far away.”

“You kidnapped them?” I ask, stifling my accusatory tone.

“They don’t look after their young, presumably because they are connected to the collective consciousness. In fact, they encouraged us to take some of their eggs and flower seeds. The flowers they feed from are highly adaptive, and if it weren’t for this dome, they would have taken over the city by now. In hindsight, they probably wanted us to spread them to new lands.”

“Faerin are hunted by many inhabitants of the Forest of Illusions, and their flowers are burned on sight,” Lin interjects. “The Faerin and their flowers are, as best as we can describe, invasive. The flowers kill other nearby plants and are resilient to drought, heat, and cold. Faerin have been observed to spread the seeds as far as they can, which only adds to their problems. In a way, we have given them a place to live should their original home be destroyed.”

“It wasn’t until a few years after we brought them here that we found out what a problem they were. It was only after building this dome to keep them in check that they started acting this way; before, they were quite nice and cordial.” Jordan says, shooing away a group of Faerin dive-bombing him with powder.

The Faerin actually sound like a massive problem; an invasive species that will destroy ecologies and are cunning enough to trick others into unknowingly spreading them. The flowers don’t have any mind Bonds, so they are behaving entirely symbiotically, though it may be possible that the flowers share in the collective consciousness.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jordan says, quickly escaping the Faerin dome.

After that, we tour the bustling city. The streets are wide enough for two-way carriage traffic. Large manors and other establishments for the wealthy sprawl around the Palace. Servants walk through the streets on errands, but otherwise, the streets around the Palace and upper class are fairly empty. The streets get busier and busier as we walk to the middle-class areas, and the buildings get taller with separate apartments and other ways to compact spaces such as having living spaces on the second floor with a shop on the first; not too dissimilar to how Runalymo build their shop-houses.

“Our largest cities have populations in the millions, and making enough room for them has driven the need to build our cities taller,” Jordan motions to the buildings around us. “It’s a difficult task, since many houses and other buildings need to be torn down and rebuilt. Simply adding more onto a house can compromise the foundations and collapse the building.”

A million people? I did note the cities are built tall, but either I am bad at estimating how many people there are, or I am so used to living in a small community I underestimated how many people can be crammed into cities.

I also never tried estimating exactly how many people there are, so my mental skills never activated to help me realize just how many humans there are. 

“How do you feed that many people?” I ask, ignoring the strange looks from people.

I suppose I look very foreign with my large ears and many long tails, also the way I am dressed, which is unusually modest for the Nexus but something one would expect from Lunaley. The former can easily be explained with racial evolutions, and my clothing can be easily explained as a product of an eccentric tailor.

“Skills and spells,” Lin says, “Isn’t it the same for you?”

“Us Runalymo have the ability to partially sustain ourselves on mana. As for me, I can live on mana alone.”

“Makes sense,” Lin nods.

“Your kind may not have need for a lot of farming,” Jordan says, “but for us Humans, it takes the majority of the population to produce enough food for everybody. It gets even more demanding when the land becomes infertile, requiring effort from more powerful casters, nature or earth Bonded mages to restore.”

I suppose crop rotation was never invented since the lands can be restored through Bonds and spells.

“How many times a year do you harvest?”

With spells and Bonds crops can grow faster, plus nature mana in general helps plants grow.

“On average, four times a year. Some more powerful farmers can harvest five or even six times a year, but that’s about the max for a non-legendary being,”

“Legendary beings are too valuable to waste on farming; no kingdom in their right mind would do that,” Lin adds. “Sure, they can grow years worth of food in a single season, but unless one is expecting a siege, they are better trained to defend the kingdom.”

Well, I suppose they count as weapons of mass destruction, a good war deterrent. Considering what I am capable of, and I’m not even Legendary yet, I’d have to agree that a Legendary being is better off doing things the average person can’t.

After talking about farming we decide to visit some shops to see how humans interact with other races, and I have to admit, everyone seems to be treated well. That is, until one wealthy looking old man enters the smithy we are in.

“Out of the way!” the man shoves me to the side as he approaches the Loprae clerk. “Uhg! Can’t get proper service nowadays. Get me the smith!”

The Loprae, a humanoid with long bunny-like ears, doesn’t even react and simply goes into the workshop to get the smith. It’s clearly not his first time with this type of customer.

“Here’s your order, Tony,” The smith says, placing a box of what looks to be horseshoes on the counter.

“Thank you, Charles; the Antims wear them down so fast.”

“Why don’t you just get them enchanted? They will last longer.” Charles asks.

“That’s at least four enchantments per Antim; it will cost way too much money. It’s cheaper to smelt down the old worn-out ones and buy new ones.”

“Ah! Well, I’ve got another order, so I’ll let you go. Are you two going to make an order?”  Charles says, before turning his attention to Jordan and Lin, ignoring me.

“Nope, just window shopping. We’ll be on our way,” Jordan replies. 

With that, we leave the smith’s shop, but Jodan and Lin appear to be angered by the encounter.

“We have to tread a fine line,” Jordan says, letting out his anger with a breath. “At what point do we step in? Do we try to ‘re-educate’ people like Tony and Charles? If it’s for a good cause, is depriving people of free will worth it? The Emperor doesn’t think so. We indoctrinate people from a young age, to guide them in a better path, but we never resort to worse methods.”

“You may hear bad things about us from people outside the Empire,” Lin adds. “They say we kidnap people and put them in camps. And while that isn’t always wrong, it’s not the full picture. We do our best to have other races willing to incorporate in Human society, but the difficulties lie in the fact that we aren’t always granted the luxury of time.”

“He’s right,” Jordan agrees. “It’s a harsh world, and many times we are forced to capture and relocate a village because of dangers. Natural disasters are rare, but sometimes a village is brought in harm’s way. More common are Dwarf raids and other, more powerful beings wandering too close.”

“Can’t you deal with those, though? I don’t see why you need to ‘capture’ an entire population,” I ask. 

Jordan and Lin are transparent about their actions, so I should at least keep an open mind.

“We could, yes. And in many cases, we do. But sometimes that would just bring more trouble.” Jordan answers. “If a dwarven raiding party goes missing, they may just send in an army, and in that case, it gets even worse for the local inhabitants. It’s better for the Dwarves to find nothing than to ask why one of their parties never came back. It doesn’t help that exaggerated rumors have ruined our image. More people fear us now when we want to build good relations. This slows our efforts down, which makes it more likely that something bad will come along and force our hand.”

“Us Oathbound are immortal,” Lin says. “We have time to go slow, build relations and trust, so why would we waste time with that if we just intended to kidnap them?”

“But do you release the people you relocate?” I ask.

“Eventually, yes, but we will use the chance to show the amenities and quality of life our society has to offer before that. Usually, some are willing to stay, but they may have incompatible beliefs, temperaments, or behaviors. That’s where the ‘camps’ come in. We build them a new village to reside in where they can be properly integrated.”

“So, not ‘camps’, but designated settlements made to make integration seamless?” I summarize.

“Yes. The Emperor learned early on that you can’t just move other races in. Even if they are willing and eager, the citizens may not be so. As we said, certain temperaments and behaviors are incompatible and will build resentment among the people already in the city, which is very counterproductive. We can’t ask our people to change for others, especially when they are a very small minority.”

“After the mission, can I visit one of those settlements?” I ask.

“Of course! We have nothing to hide.” Jordan says.

Well, except for the cursed beings in their basement.

“So, tell me about the Emperor. How long has he ruled?”

“Since the beginning of the Empire. Well, I guess it was a more simple Kingdom back then. That was ten thousand years ago,” Jordan answers. “He grew up in the previous kingdoms, ruled by several Barbarian Kings. He went on a long journey with his friends before eventually coming back as a Legendary being and slaying the Barbarian Kings and uniting the lands under his rule.”

Yup, that’s Kayafe’s companion; there’s little room for any doubt. I should let her know I found him.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Clone POV

“What can you do?” I wonder aloud, holding my fluffy fox familiar in front of me.

I haven’t really had a lot of time to investigate it, but apparently, it can become really powerful. I can recall it, and conjure it at will; I can even summon it through my clones.

My familiar wiggles out of my arms, falling to the floor, and with a cute yip, beauty essence flows out of it, wrapping it and forming illusory flames. The wood beneath its feet singes, showing that it can use my Bond at full power.

I’m surprised at its quick response to my question, even though it wasn’t directed at it.

“Undo your illusion,” I give it an order as I mend the floor, so my house doesn’t burn down.

The familiar yips again and disperses its almost real flames. 

“Hmm…” I hum, thinking. “Can you do a backflip?”

The familiar has never seen someone do a backflip before, so the concept should be foreign to it, but it does so without hesitation.

So it seems to share my knowledge.

“What is nine hundred eighty-four times seven? Nine thousand eight hundred eighty-eight?” I indicate with my right hand, “Or six thousand eight hundred eighty-eight?” I indicate with my left hand.

The familiar tilts its head and shifts its eyes up as if thinking, and after a minute, it boops its nose to my left hand.

It’s smart.

“Can you get the twins?” I ask. 

The familiar yips again and runs out of my house, coming back several minutes later with the twins in tow.

It’s smart enough to communicate to the twins to follow it.

“Aly!” The twins tackle hug me, their tails wagging. Cuteness essence leaking out as I recognize [Acting] in play.

Suspicious.

They were here just last night; why are they acting like they haven’t seen my clone in weeks?

“You’re not trying to get out of chores, are you?” I ask in an accusatory tone.

“Eek!” Yafel lets out a squeak, her tail freezing. “N-no…”

“Now that I think about it, it’s house cleaning day, isn’t it?”

Yafe looks down, fidgeting.

I sigh.

“Help them clean,” I say to my familiar.

It yips and runs out of the house again.

“Once you’re done, you can play with it, alright?”

“Thanks, Aly!”

The twins start to run out the door, but I stop them. 

“Wait! Here is your money from selling the mana thread you made.” I toss them a pouch of money, the pearls inside jostling audibly.

Yafel catches it and runs back home.

My familiar is a Bond Skill, so it can use my Bond; this should make it more powerful than the normal Skill version, but is that really the case? The best way to find out is for it to fight alongside me. The next time I go into the Dungeon, I’ll bring it along.