Another World

Summary : A man found himself in another world. Can he survive and go back to his world?

Rating : T

Genre: Adventure

Disclaimer: I don't have Ar Tonelico series, its characters, anything, duh.

Chapter 37 = Interview

"Talks"

'Thoughts'

*Sound Effects*

10:00 Grand Bell Palace

The party boards down from the airship, and they gather at the throne room.

"Tell the guards to leave," Shun says.

"Guards, please leave us for a while and do not let anyone come inside," Lady Cloche commands, and the soldiers and reyvateils leave the room.

"Shun, is this really that necessary to tell everyone to leave?" Gilbert ask.

"Yes. If anyone hear this plan they'll freak out," he starts to explain. "As I said before, this world is the product of Frelia's song magic. Of course, the tower we're trying to make reappear is also Frelia's Song Magic, but she doesn't have enough energy for it."

"Okayyy...But I don't really get it..." Cocona doesn't get his idea.

"I'll just say it then. If we drop about half of the Rim, there'll be enough energy for the tower." Shun directly tells them, which mortify the whole party. "The energy used to maintain the Rim is about twice that needed for the tower. But we can't just drop the Rim. You'll get even more backlash than now."

"I remember the people's reaction to Targana after hibernation... Not a pretty sight," Gilbert recalls the past.

"That's true..." Croix adds.

"Just secretly drop it. If the tower appears, all will be forgiven," Amarie suggest.

"I can't do such a dishonest thing!"

"And no matter how we explain it, it'll look like we're trying to end the world..." Both of the maidens reject the idea. No one in the party have no idea what to do, until Lady Cloche speaks again.

"I'm going to talk to the people."

"Are you serious!?" Leglius protest.

"It'll be alright... If I tell them with sincerity, they'll understand."

"That might be true, but in our current situation, the people don't trust the Grand Bell at all. You should keep in mind that we do have quite a lot to make up for."

"I do remember it, that's why I should talk to them myself. I have to gain people's trust back, or we can't create Metafalica." Lady Cloche call the guards back. "Targana!"

A blonde man comes into the room.

"Yes, my Lady?"

"Arrange a public announcement for tomorrow."

"...May I ask what announcement you shall make?"

"You will hear it tomorrow. This is important, make sure everyone will hear it."

Targana looks to his childhood friend, indirectly ask what she wants to announce about, but Croix stay silent and only raises his shoulder.

"As you wish," he walks away. Lady Cloche then looks to Gilbert.

"How much time until they cut the connection?"

"Hans?"

"About twelve hours left," he informs both Gilbert and the rest of the party. "Could we ask her now?"

"If only Frelia is ready," Shun walks to Frelia's bedroom. Gilbert prays that she is ready, otherwise, he'll be stuck in this world forever...

000000

10:20

Gilbert enters the room after Shun sure she wants to be questioned. The rest of the party observes from behind. Hans explains the situation to her.

"...So please, share the knowledge to us, otherwise our friend won't be able to go back to our world."

"I'm sorry, I want to help, but I'm not sure if my information was enough..." Frelia shakes her head. "Where are you come from?"

"Earth."

"'Earth?'"

"It's the name of our planet."

"You come from other planet? But there's sea of plasma-"

00000

12:20

Two hours of questions and answers... Most of the questions come from Frelia, whose looks interested in this new world thing.

"...We are able to turn sounds into electronic signals for many purposes, but the idea of turning sounds itself into a power source is... unlikely, as the energy available from sounds itself are miniscule."

"As expected from a civilization that its technology are dated way before the first era," Jacqli smirks. "Have you analyze the machine itself?"

"We have, but we can't really comprehend how it works. All our attempts to replicate it results in failure."

"Could you show us the machine itself?" Frelia asks. Hans nods and turns the camera, showing the insides.

"I never see such design before..."

00000

14.20

Another two hours past. Hans keeps asking questions, milking every information that he could get from Frelia.

"Hey, uh... Can I leave now Cro? I don't understand what they are talking about..." Cocona stands up from the corner of the room.

"I think she's right..." Gilbert supports her statement. "Do you mind if we leave for now?"

"Fine by me. Shun, you don't mind to tell him when we're done?"

"I don't mind, but don't make yourself hard to find by wandering to somewhere else." He agrees. The party then walks out from the room, but Gilbert stops before his feet even touch the hall floor.

"Billy, could you send my computer in my room to here? I don't care if I couldn't get the power for it, just... send it in, okay?"

Billy nods and walks out from the room.

"He says yes. We'll inform you when we're done," Hans then talks to Frelia again. "Now, you said that all things on the planet exist because this 'Dynamic D-Waves' from the planet. What about things from other planet that come into this planet?"

"They will keep exist from the love of-"

00000

Gilbert massages his own forehead. What are they talking about? Are they even talking about the teleportation device anymore?

"Where's Jacqli and Shun?" Gilbert notices that there's one person missing from the party.

"They're still in my room," Cloche sighs. "I'm sorry that we can't help much..."

"You guys already helped me by allowing my friends to gather information from Lady Frelia. "Now it depends on my friends. If they can't replicate the device after all our effort... Well... To be honest, I don't think they can do it with their current technology..."

"Then please live with us as a citizen of Pastalia. Although this is not your homeworld, please accept the land as your new home."

"I appreciate your offer, but..." Gilbert shakes his head, and tries to change the topic. "Speaking of which, we're going to dro-"

Croix puts a finger on his mouth, signaling him to stay quiet.

"...I mean about the land that we'll... excavate. Some of them are populated, right? How about those people?"

"...While you do have a point, we can't discuss it here. Let's go back to the throne room."

00000

"...We need to make the sacrifice too Luca, just like how we expect people to sacrifice their land."

"I understand, but I don't know what to say to Mom..."

"I'll be with you; We'll tell her together," she pats her sister. "Let's get some rest, we have nothing left to discuss for now."

00000

15:30 Croix House

"Hey, Gilbert..." Croix calls him once he enters his house.

"Yes?"

"Do you really have to store those box?" He points to a mountain of boxes filled with parts from the machine which healed Gilbert back when Raki slashed his eye.

"Uh, that machine is expensive, I'm sure that they want me to store those until I could teleport those back to them... Maybe we can move those to somewhere else if we need more room, but where?"

"There's a lot of room in the palace, but we'll get exhausted if have to move all those boxes without any tools..." Lady Cloche says.

"Uhm... How about my house? It's a bit far from here, but its closer than the palace." Laura suggests.

"If you don't mind, then I think we can agree with that."

"Uh Cro, if we can use Laura's house, why don't we stay there and leave those boxes in our house?" Cocona asks.

"Shun will have a hard time to find us if we stay there. Lady Cloche, please stay here just in case if Shun comes when we moved these," Croix picks up one of the boxes. "Let's get started."

00000

*Creak!*

Laura unlocks the door to her house and let the heavy lifters in. The interior quite extravagant compared to Croix's or Luca's house.

"You can put it there," Laura points to a storage room. "If its full, put the rest at the living room. No one's at home since I'm going out anyway."

Slowly, the party fills the storage room with stack of boxes.

"15 more boxes to go," Gilbert stretches his muscle. Cocona groans and walks out to pick up the rest. Gilbert stops when something catches his attention. He grabs a photo frame: He can see Laura, with both of her parents behind her. They all smiled...

*Bzztt!*

Somehow... He remembers his first human kill... A photo... A reyvateil and her boyfriend...

*Tap!*

"Gilbert?"

Laura's voice snaps him back from his mind.

"Laura... They are your parents, aren't they?" Gilbert gives the photo to her.

"...Yes," she opens the frame and takes the photo. She looks sad... "Go ahead Gilbert, I'll... tidying up some rooms."

He nods and walks out from the house. Maybe she needs some time alone...

00000

After some hauling, they finally managed to move all the boxes to Laura's house.

"That's the last box," Croix puts the last box on the ground. "Let's head back."

"Wait, where's Laura?" Cocona notices someone's missing.

"She said she wants to tidying up some rooms. You guys go ahead, I'll check her," tells Gilbert. Croix and the others heads out from Laura's house.

"Don't do anything 'strange' to her, okay?" Amarie jokes and runs out. Gilbert chuckles and opens each room. He finds her in the main bedroom. She's sitting on the bed, looking at a photo album.

"Laura?"

"Wha-wha-wha!?" His sounds startles her. "Oh... sorry, I didn't noticed when you come in. Have you moved all the boxes?"

"Yes. Thanks for letting us using your house, carrying those to the palace will worn us out," Gilbert peeks at the album. "What's that?"

"I found my parents photo album in one of the cupboard."

Gilbert looks to each photo. All of them are pictures when Laura's parents were young.

"Do you miss your parents?"

"... I would be lying if I say no," she slowly put her left hand over him. "Do you have a plan where to stay after the situation is stable? I mean, we have to wait until your friends able to finish the teleporter, right?"

"Honestly, I don't know... Maybe I'll ask Croix to lend a room for me."

"If you want, you can live here... I'll ask Lady Cloche to give you a plate." Laura presses his right hand.

"Live here? You mean, inside your house?"

"Yep."

"Don't you worry about what people will thought about us if we living together?"

"Why? We're lovers, I don't think anyone will think ill about us if we live together..." She slowly hugs him. "Besides, don't you think you'll create more misunderstanding if you stay with Croix? You know, like what Jacqli said earlier in Etna..."

"Okay, okay...You do have a point there. " He sighs. "You mentioned something about 'plate.' What's that?"

"Plate? Oh, I mean this," Laura takes out her necklace and shows him. It's more look like a dog-tag that soldiers back in earth has, albeit bigger, like a credit card. "You need this if you want to live in Pastalia, and they have to be renewed at least once a month-."

"GILBEEERRTT! LAURAAAAA!" A girl calls them from the outside. They both walks out and finds both Luca and Cocona outside. "Shun called you to the palace!"

'Finally. I hope Billy have some good news...'

END OF CHAPTER 37