The musty scent of aged parchment filled the air.
Kaito wandered through the endless rows of bookshelves, taking in the vast collection of ancient texts housed within the Great Library of the Academic District.
He was impressed by how much material they had managed to amass in such a short span of time.
Ah, the Great Library. No wonder these beetles became so intelligent. On second thought, half of these books are probably about the best ways to ferment shit.
I don’t know, let’s find out.
His fingers traced over the leather spines as he passed, stopping to pull out a particularly old tome.
If you want we could scan every book into my database, and you would have the information readily available at any time. It would be like having that thing from Earth where people talk about everything, but you and I will be the only redditors.
O…kay. Really?
Yeah sure, just flip the pages of that book really fast, then put it away.
Kaito read the title, ‘The Complete History of the Stratum Nation,’ then flipped through the pages swiftly as Karen instructed, scanning the contents before sliding the book back into place.
Okay, Karen. Tell me about the Stratum Nation.
[Searching database...]
The Stratum Nation wasn’t just a place, it was a caravan of twenty-seven immortal giants roaming the world. Each giant was like a moving city, with landscapes and wildlife on their backs. And the citizens of Stratum were gnomes, tiny little fellows with a knack for dentistry. They lived in the giants’ mouths (talk about affordable housing, right? Free dental care in exchange for a room with a saliva view.)
But one day, an audacious gnome (let’s call him ‘Dr. Molar’) decided to pull the ultimate prank. This gnome hid in the nether regions of a male giant, waiting for just the right moment. And then, during a close encounter of the giant kind, he leaped into action, inseminating a female giant. The result? A new race was born - the ‘Gnomants’, half giant, half gnome. (Imagine a creature with the strength of a giant but the size of a gnome, and a bizarre obsession with teeth.)
They became the ultimate dental warriors, roaming the lands, offering both protection and root canals. The Stratum Nation became known as ‘The City that Cleanses’ - both in terms of safety and dental hygiene. The Gnomants’ legacy? (Let’s just say, they left a bite mark in history!)
Is that true? I’ve seen similar things in other worlds, but that doesn’t seem to fit this one.
Why would I lie after I just wasted precious memory storing that dumb book? And how can that not seem true when we are in an underground, victorian-era library managed by human-beetle-like things?
Okay, Karen, that kind of makes sense. I guess.
He chuckled softly to himself as he continued his leisurely stroll down the aisles. Hearing his laugh, Zenith turned and regarded him curiously.
“What happened, did you read that entire book or something?”
Kaito flashed her a sly grin.
“Maybe.”
Zenith laughed and gave him a playful shove. “Oh stop messing with me.”
Kaito simply continued to smile enigmatically, offering no further response as the two carried on exploring the vast sea of literature contained within the hallowed halls of the Great Library.
▬▬ι════════ﺤ
Next on the list was the Academic District’s Crystal Labs, an area Zenith hadn’t seen, but one that she was eager to visit.
The towering spires of the district’s buildings cast long shadows across their path. As they approached the Crystal Labs, Zenith craned her neck to take in the impressive glass-domed structure.
Inside, beetles in long robes bustled around tables lined with glowing crystals and vials of colorful liquid. The one that stood out the most was a female dark green-hued megnacus guardus standing at the center, watching over the controlled chaos.
She moved briskly as they entered.
“Welcome. Master Kaito, Mayor Zenith, I’m honored to have you in the lab. I’m Elytra. As you can see, we are in the midst of a very delicate experiment involving mana crystals.”
Zenith’s eyes got bigger and bigger as she drifted closer to the dance of light within a nearby crystal. An unconscious finger moved towards it as the researcher was aligning it, causing it to emit a burst of magical energy.
Though magic came naturally to her, its academic applications fascinated her. When she was young, her grandfather taught her almost all she knew about magic in the castle’s workshop. Now, she had a laboratory ten—no, a hundred times more advanced beneath her new home.
“Elytra, how are you able to control the energy release?”
“That’s a great question, Mayor. By altering their alignment, we can regulate when and how they discharge their power. However, we’re still trying to understand the magical properties of these crystals. ”
“My grandfather was developing something similar. If possible, I would like to work on this research with you. This will one day help keep Calmo and even Daiyudura safe.”
After saying those words, she caught a glimpse of Kaito giving her a big goofy grin and realized how corny she sounded.
“We would be honored to receive your contributions, Mayor.”
‘BOOM’
The sound made Zenith jump and punch the crystal sitting in front of her.
It shattered into hundreds of shards that sparkled beautifully across the floor.
She jerked her hand back, eyes wide with shock.
The researcher, who had been manipulating the crystal, froze in place. Ever so slowly, his head tilted upwards towards Zenith, his eyes wider than hers.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! It was just so sudden, the noise surprised me—”
She covered her mouth, shoulders shaking, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at her clumsiness.
While the researcher continued to gaze at his pile of crystal shards, she felt an impossible force restraining her forearms. Zenith instinctively tried to pull away but could not move a muscle. The grip was uncompromisingly strong, like Nozian steel bands trapping her in place, but not painful or aggressive.
Her heart calmed once she realized who it was.
“Zee, are you alright?”
But before she could answer, a charred smell distracted her. She whirled around to see plumes of gray smoke billowing from the far side of the room. When the beetle researcher noticed it too, his mouth dropped and the shards he’d collected fell from his claws.
Zenith could hardly believe what she was seeing.
The colors around them rapidly faded to shades of gray.
A panicked beetle rushed to the exit and Elytra snapped her arms up.
“STOP! Our IDM is tethered to this room.”
Panting, the beetle withdrew his claw from the door.
“Everyone take a deep breath. We can’t leave the lab until we’ve restabilized the magical energy. We’ve prepared for scenarios like these. So let’s think it through!”
Zenith loved Elytra’s enthusiasm, but she was certain Kaito would fix it, so she turned to him.
“Can I…solve this problem with you?” Zenith asked, but she felt...mute. Her voice carried no sound.
Kaito?
The words died on her lips. He was silent too, regarding the monochrome scene with an inscrutable look.
The next second, she noticed something: it wasn’t only the room, everyone was losing their color—Kaito, herself, and all the megnac beetles in the room.
Zenith felt weird, empty even, like she was in a void, and none of her actions produced any reactions.
After a long moment, she tugged at Kaito’s white shirt, the corner of his mouth ticked up and he gave Zenith a slight nod.
Then Kaito began moving his arms slowly and deliberately through the air. He stretched out his fingers, turning his hands this way and that, as if manipulating an invisible brush.
Each motion sent waves of magical energy in the form of color. It looked like incorporeal fluid. Emerald green showed up on the far wall as he pretended to draw on it from afar. And blue swirled above him where he had traced arcs with his hands.
Kaito was coloring the very air around them with invisible paint. Zenith could scarcely believe her eyes. How was he doing this? She had never seen magic like it before.
It was a splendid pantomime. I can do it too, Zenith told herself.
She began waving her arms, mimicking Kaito’s movements. But try as she might, no colors appeared. She made sure her motions were infused with IDM, but not even a hint of a hue emerged.
Come on Zenith Daiyu II, what’s your magic missing? Color coding, emotional resonance, tattoo dynamics, mana flow cycles, what’s the correct combination? I certainly don’t have time for any conversion rituals.
Kaito, with a smile as always, took her hand in his own. He gestured for her to move in tandem with him and guided her movements. And it worked!
It was effortless.
Where their hands passed, golden yellow spilled out, warming the cold, colorless space.
The researchers watched, holding the exact same bewildered expression that Albus held at the underground farm of the Agricultural District.
None of them understood how Kaito was managing to restore the hues that had been leeched away by the accident. But Zenith didn’t care about the how or why. She was simply delighted to be part of the solution and to be solving problems Kaito’s way.
The musty scent of aged parchment filled the air.
Kaito wandered through the endless rows of bookshelves, taking in the vast collection of ancient texts housed within the Great Library of the Academic District.
He was impressed by how much material they had managed to amass in such a short span of time.
Ah, the Great Library. No wonder these beetles became so intelligent. On second thought, half of these books are probably about the best ways to ferment shit.
I don’t know, let’s find out.
His fingers traced over the leather spines as he passed, stopping to pull out a particularly old tome.
If you want we could scan every book into my database, and you would have the information readily available at any time. It would be like having that thing from Earth where people talk about everything, but you and I will be the only redditors.
O…kay. Really?
Yeah sure, just flip the pages of that book really fast, then put it away.
Kaito read the title, ‘The Complete History of the Stratum Nation,’ then flipped through the pages swiftly as Karen instructed, scanning the contents before sliding the book back into place.
Okay, Karen. Tell me about the Stratum Nation.
[Searching database...]
The Stratum Nation wasn’t just a place, it was a caravan of twenty-seven immortal giants roaming the world. Each giant was like a moving city, with landscapes and wildlife on their backs. And the citizens of Stratum were gnomes, tiny little fellows with a knack for dentistry. They lived in the giants’ mouths (talk about affordable housing, right? Free dental care in exchange for a room with a saliva view.)
But one day, an audacious gnome (let’s call him ‘Dr. Molar’) decided to pull the ultimate prank. This gnome hid in the nether regions of a male giant, waiting for just the right moment. And then, during a close encounter of the giant kind, he leaped into action, inseminating a female giant. The result? A new race was born - the ‘Gnomants’, half giant, half gnome. (Imagine a creature with the strength of a giant but the size of a gnome, and a bizarre obsession with teeth.)
They became the ultimate dental warriors, roaming the lands, offering both protection and root canals. The Stratum Nation became known as ‘The City that Cleanses’ - both in terms of safety and dental hygiene. The Gnomants’ legacy? (Let’s just say, they left a bite mark in history!)
Is that true? I’ve seen similar things in other worlds, but that doesn’t seem to fit this one.
Why would I lie after I just wasted precious memory storing that dumb book? And how can that not seem true when we are in an underground, victorian-era library managed by human-beetle-like things?
Okay, Karen, that kind of makes sense. I guess.
He chuckled softly to himself as he continued his leisurely stroll down the aisles. Hearing his laugh, Zenith turned and regarded him curiously.
“What happened, did you read that entire book or something?”
Kaito flashed her a sly grin.
“Maybe.”
Zenith laughed and gave him a playful shove. “Oh stop messing with me.”
Kaito simply continued to smile enigmatically, offering no further response as the two carried on exploring the vast sea of literature contained within the hallowed halls of the Great Library.
▬▬ι════════ﺤ
Next on the list was the Academic District’s Crystal Labs, an area Zenith hadn’t seen, but one that she was eager to visit.
The towering spires of the district’s buildings cast long shadows across their path. As they approached the Crystal Labs, Zenith craned her neck to take in the impressive glass-domed structure.
Inside, beetles in long robes bustled around tables lined with glowing crystals and vials of colorful liquid. The one that stood out the most was a female dark green-hued megnacus guardus standing at the center, watching over the controlled chaos.
She moved briskly as they entered.
“Welcome. Master Kaito, Mayor Zenith, I’m honored to have you in the lab. I’m Elytra. As you can see, we are in the midst of a very delicate experiment involving mana crystals.”
Zenith’s eyes got bigger and bigger as she drifted closer to the dance of light within a nearby crystal. An unconscious finger moved towards it as the researcher was aligning it, causing it to emit a burst of magical energy.
Though magic came naturally to her, its academic applications fascinated her. When she was young, her grandfather taught her almost all she knew about magic in the castle’s workshop. Now, she had a laboratory ten—no, a hundred times more advanced beneath her new home.
“Elytra, how are you able to control the energy release?”
“That’s a great question, Mayor. By altering their alignment, we can regulate when and how they discharge their power. However, we’re still trying to understand the magical properties of these crystals. ”
“My grandfather was developing something similar. If possible, I would like to work on this research with you. This will one day help keep Calmo and even Daiyudura safe.”
After saying those words, she caught a glimpse of Kaito giving her a big goofy grin and realized how corny she sounded.
“We would be honored to receive your contributions, Mayor.”
‘BOOM’
The sound made Zenith jump and punch the crystal sitting in front of her.
It shattered into hundreds of shards that sparkled beautifully across the floor.
She jerked her hand back, eyes wide with shock.
The researcher, who had been manipulating the crystal, froze in place. Ever so slowly, his head tilted upwards towards Zenith, his eyes wider than hers.
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! It was just so sudden, the noise surprised me—”
She covered her mouth, shoulders shaking, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at her clumsiness.
While the researcher continued to gaze at his pile of crystal shards, she felt an impossible force restraining her forearms. Zenith instinctively tried to pull away but could not move a muscle. The grip was uncompromisingly strong, like Nozian steel bands trapping her in place, but not painful or aggressive.
Her heart calmed once she realized who it was.
“Zee, are you alright?”
But before she could answer, a charred smell distracted her. She whirled around to see plumes of gray smoke billowing from the far side of the room. When the beetle researcher noticed it too, his mouth dropped and the shards he’d collected fell from his claws.
Zenith could hardly believe what she was seeing.
The colors around them rapidly faded to shades of gray.
A panicked beetle rushed to the exit and Elytra snapped her arms up.
“STOP! Our IDM is tethered to this room.”
Panting, the beetle withdrew his claw from the door.
“Everyone take a deep breath. We can’t leave the lab until we’ve restabilized the magical energy. We’ve prepared for scenarios like these. So let’s think it through!”
Zenith loved Elytra’s enthusiasm, but she was certain Kaito would fix it, so she turned to him.
“Can I…solve this problem with you?” Zenith asked, but she felt...mute. Her voice carried no sound.
Kaito?
The words died on her lips. He was silent too, regarding the monochrome scene with an inscrutable look.
The next second, she noticed something: it wasn’t only the room, everyone was losing their color—Kaito, herself, and all the megnac beetles in the room.
Zenith felt weird, empty even, like she was in a void, and none of her actions produced any reactions.
After a long moment, she tugged at Kaito’s white shirt, the corner of his mouth ticked up and he gave Zenith a slight nod.
Then Kaito began moving his arms slowly and deliberately through the air. He stretched out his fingers, turning his hands this way and that, as if manipulating an invisible brush.
Each motion sent waves of magical energy in the form of color. It looked like incorporeal fluid. Emerald green showed up on the far wall as he pretended to draw on it from afar. And blue swirled above him where he had traced arcs with his hands.
Kaito was coloring the very air around them with invisible paint. Zenith could scarcely believe her eyes. How was he doing this? She had never seen magic like it before.
It was a splendid pantomime. I can do it too, Zenith told herself.
She began waving her arms, mimicking Kaito’s movements. But try as she might, no colors appeared. She made sure her motions were infused with IDM, but not even a hint of a hue emerged.
Come on Zenith Daiyu II, what’s your magic missing? Color coding, emotional resonance, tattoo dynamics, mana flow cycles, what’s the correct combination? I certainly don’t have time for any conversion rituals.
Kaito, with a smile as always, took her hand in his own. He gestured for her to move in tandem with him and guided her movements. And it worked!
It was effortless.
Where their hands passed, golden yellow spilled out, warming the cold, colorless space.
The researchers watched, holding the exact same bewildered expression that Albus held at the underground farm of the Agricultural District.
None of them understood how Kaito was managing to restore the hues that had been leeched away by the accident. But Zenith didn’t care about the how or why. She was simply delighted to be part of the solution and to be solving problems Kaito’s way.
