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Sorey pov
After coming out of the forest, it is a large grassland. The sun at noon shines the green grass everywhere and shines brightly. The front is a stone bridge that connects to the city and is covered with pavements of bricks and tiles, once carefully calculated and constructed by workers, it still under the regular maintenance to sustain its strength to support all the traffic.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg35C0N1ssd
The lake under the bridge glinted in the sun, now the city standing on top of the beautiful Lake Perniya is blessed in the lake's glory shines. The rings of stone arch structures on the bridge are guiding the road to the spectacular city of lake, and the brilliance of the city is framed in the arch.
The old path we now stepping on meandered down from the sparse forests connected us to our destination.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOknNOKhLU
The city is stacked by white blocks and its great city wall, it is welcoming us with grand bridge and arch. What makes it different from my time is that there is a bunch of high-rise buildings located in the center in the city which seems covered a high proportion in the city as saw from far outside and it cast a large shadow to the city. The structure in the city may proceed a great change under those years.
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We approached the place of identification, it is no longer a simple outdoor space for people to line up but a two-storey building with air-conditioners. The inspectors are separated with the immigrants by the glass of the counter, the security is much stronger than the ancient time.
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Holding the fake passport, we pass the check counter and pass through the great arch.
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The view framed by the grand arch, the grand road continues with some stalls and passengers. I would like to walk around the city but Velvet said we better find an inn and a doctor first.
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“500galds per night for a room please!” The innkeeper stated in joy when he sees there are customers coming to him.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5eE8q7zVw
That a surprisingly high price without a meal, I wonder what wrong in the city and the point is our budget is enough for staying one night only, then we will have no money for the following travel, not to mention the doctor.
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“Maybe we work here again instead of paying them the money………..” work is always enough to see how the people like in a place.
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“I think so, but you are hurt, so you better stay and rest.” Velvet agreed with my suggestion but she planned to work alone.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRDV8Rbdm8
“What? No, I can't let you work all alone for it.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVXmfGHCUXQ
“If you are injured now, you should rest.” She instructed seriously.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHIXbYISR3
“How about we found a seraph to heal, then I may be fully healed at a fast rate and go help,” I suggested insisting on helping.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTc5RaNbGHj
“ In any way, I will suggest you rest. Look, you fight hard against the werewolf, so it is my turn to help.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡerCDrm9IgE
“But!”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7dwRS5BI6
“......How about you walk around the city to see what can we get. That helps a lot.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42gHsL1i89
“......”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXpqdTm99v
“You can't work when you are injured anyway.” she scoffed.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyiKpxIBcDz
“....Okay, got it.....Just don't overwork yourself.” I took the offer finally, Velvet is too stubborn to persuade and she is certainly a workaholic.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOeR7gzXDET
“Don't worry. I won't.” Every time she said this but ended up overworking.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtfmXTI41y
“..... sometimes I think you really are a piece of work like someone.” She added with a whispering sentence that I can't hear clearly.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjwrgtSfIr
“Huh? Did you say something?”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡddKQfMKULp
“No, nothing.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXJqjq05Ns
I agreed to Velvet’s suggestion and walked around in the city while Velvet is serving as a waitress in the inn for a day.
I walked to the outermost part of the city to see the lake, now I see the low level of malevolence in the city that the lake reflect the sunlight to shine in a beautiful way, there are no hellions on the streets, unlike the time I first arrived 500 years ago.
There are layers of the extended rings I see before I reach the city center, the outermost part is seemingly the suburban area with villages of farmland, they plant the foods for the city. The part next to it is the 3-storey buildings I once familiar with, they are constructed with the unchanged style in my time, like the gothic-style-imitating tower and arch. The streets views change to a large extent in these 500 years, the streets and roads are widened to become Avenue and Boulevard that to be broad enough to provide two-way traffic of vehicles and pedestrian, they also lead a clear way to the landmark. Normally, the castle should be important enough to be the landmark, but instead the high towers of modern buildings with groups of industrial buildings surrounding them be the view captured.
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The giant water wheel is still working to form the water fountain but may not work for the electricity in the city.
I see the people walking on the street are usually rich people or middle-class by their clothing, but I barely see any poor people, is the city really that good? Maybe not, I see no one smile on the street, everyone walks with a troubled expression, I wonder why. I tried to seek a smile from the city, to find one to prove there is still happiness exist. I see smile while some customer is talking to the shop keepers, they are complaining about the situation in society and talking about their family but they are smiling while chatting. Also, I find a smile on children faces, at least the adults don't want their children to be unhappy to live, they try to make them happy and seek the way to become happy. Maybe it is stressful to live in the city, but as long as there is still a smile exist, I believe happiness will spread.
Walking around the city, I found much-segregated communities that they are segregated from outside with fences and they have their own facility inside, those facilities outside the fence appeared to be in poor conditions and there are slums extended from some structure to ruin the regularity of the street.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡps6KxrVsI7
“Hey, younger, want to buy a unit? Take one.” I am stuffed with a flyer while looking at the buildings by someone who is sending flyers. Before I refuse, he already went away.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5frYDqqykc
The flyer is about the sales unit, I guess they think I want to buy a flat as I keep watching the buildings. The flyer exaggerates the font of the content of numbers, I think they are the dimensions and the price of the unit. Unfortunately, the unit used is not the same as my time, so I can't get the size from it, but I get it from the photos included on it. My only comment to the unit is it is extremely small, and I can't understand why is that so expensive. I throw away the flyer and go to see the shops around, still, the objects are normally expensive. The good thing is that none of the shops is really necessary for us to buy a thing, but Velvet said she has no weapon, so maybe I should find the weapon shop for her, strange that I see none of the shops is selling weapon except the one selling kitchenware.
I went back to the inn with nothing bought finally and Velvet has earned enough for us to stay one and a half day. We left our package and go to the sanctuary. The line is really long that it occupy half the width of a street, but it is not the line to pray, it is the line to get a place to sleep. Under the high speed of development, the material price grows very fast that not every people can keep up with it, many of them have not enough money to rent a unit, so they come to get a free room in the sanctuary for a night.
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I should know that thing never go that ideal. We got inside the sanctuary and see a little girl is talking to Uno, maybe she can see seraphim. I am glad that Uno is still blessing Ladylake.
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“Hi, Uno, how are you?”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRdJLT4jjL5
“Oh, Sorey! Good to see you, it has been a time!” I actually surprised he still remember me after all those years, seems that they have no issue of the fading in memories like humans.
“Yes, I just woke up several months ago, seem you know some people who have resonance?” It is rare to see people having resonance, so I ask of the situation in the present.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJcltYbNbPe
“Actually the number of people who has resonance has increased but I heard that the number of seraphim is decreasing.”
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“Good to hear the people with resonance increased but why is the seraphim number decrease?”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZbjcoZYUT
“I don’t know and may you introduce the lady please?” I then just notice I forgot about Velvet, she just stood beside me and heard our conversation. She insisted to go with me until I get healed before I going anywhere alone. Like a caring sister and I appreciate her kindness.
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“Oh, sorry Velvet! I just got excited...Uno, this is Velvet, a friend I knew and traveled with after I woke up. Velvet, this is Uno, the Seraphim I requested to bless Ladylake when I was a Shepherd.”
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“Nice to meet you Velvet.”
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“Nice to meet you, Uno. May I ask you about the giant tower we see from the outside?” Although she never says it on our way, she concerned about the tower like me.
“That...I don’t know much about that place, I sense a barrier is there blocking my sense and I heard the poor people all live in there. However, some poor people beg aid from us because they don’t want to be related to that place. I have a feeling that malevolence concentrated in that place and I can’t do much with it, it is nearly a miracle that the city is in low malevolence. ”Uno stated the status of the city.
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Maybe reality stranger than fiction and it is crueler than my imagination. I feel sorry for the poor people who have to live in the tower. The government just approved the ineffective policy to the country, like the time of Alisha, People can’t really rely on the government.
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“My prayers warned me not to go there as no one came out from there after came in.”
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“....Got it.” Velvet looked shocked by this, who can imagine such a dangerous place is inside a metropolis center.
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“ If Alisha was still alive, it would not be like this.”
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“Yes. The girl worked really hard after being the queen, she also is the squire of the Shepherd at the same time, this helped control the district malevolence. Now, most of the government members are from the vote of people. This originally should be good for the country. However, it delays the proposed policies from practice. Since without more than half of the votes, the agreement cannot be achieved, the policy keep suspended. The is a say that someone would like to control the voting trend by bribes.” Uno started to state some political problem in the government that leading the situation.
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“Excuse me, who is Alisha?” Velvet questioned.
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“Oh sorry again, she is my dear friend who invites me to the Sacred Blade Festival after I met her and rescued her in a ruins.” I apologized and introduced Alisha to Velvet.
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“In a ruin?! Hard to believe you make friends in a ruin. Harder to believe you met a female in a ruin.” Velvet teased.
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“Oh, we just like exploring ruins! You see we may see the world history and architecture development in the ruins…..”
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“Oh….save it……” Velvet looked annoyed but still smiling.
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After asking the healing from Uno, we went back to the inn and plan what the next spot. Although Velvet is annoyed by everything about ruins, she seems interested in my friends. Well, people will not hate hearing story right?
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“She was a really responsible princess that trying to tackle all the things seriously as she could. She treats herself as a knight and truly works for her people, she never stops learning and improving herself while being the knight and princess at the same time, thus the knights following her has high loyalty to her.” I talked about Alisha to Velvet.
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“Sound like someone I knew……..”
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“May I know?”
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“She called Eleanor, she is a crybaby exorcist who cries for others unfortunate, a really serious person and she is always strict to herself to be a proper exorcist since she always wants to help others. Although I forced her to become my companion, she finds her own creed and become truly by my side later. Even I ask if she wants to leave for a few times, she confirmed not to leave. I requested her to take care of Laphicet. I suppose she became the Shepherd after I have gone. The thing I am uncertain about is her soulmate. In my journey, she kept rejecting every marriage proposal to her, because she put her happiness behind the happiness of people.”
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“Hehe, I never thought about that, but I think she may find one in the last.” To think that Velvet will concern someone to this extent, she is a very caring person to me and it is interesting to hear her talking about her imagination of other’s love life.
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“Yeah, because all you care are those ruins.” She teased again and I am not going to deny.
“Well, you know, ruins is fun!”
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“Yeah, yeah, I know you a weird one.”
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A.N.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xjNE51eb4
A shorter chapter…...I am not good at describing locations, but I try to learn from others……The city landscape and map are totally changed by my hands but I am too lazy to draw it out.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbRnTmXk2Ho
I admit I have written the city to be a really bad city, after writing all the bad things I learned from the cities in the history lesson in it....14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡATqWTAr6Or
....seems that I enter a loop of [“Hi, ___, how are you?” “Oh, Sorey! Good to see you, it has been a time!”] in every reunion…..sorry for that..and I am not clear about Uno characteristic, he is more like just stating the setting. Since I didn’t play the game when I write, so don’t relate the price with the price in the game, although I have taken a rough reference. Price always changes along time!14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozYPo22n6j
