Starting To Change The World Part 2
It wasn't a surprise for Kiran that the queen wanted to meet him.
The problem was that, while with Alfonse and Sharena he knew he could be as he wanted, in front of a queen it wouldn't be so.. casual..
At least Anna explained to him that his tactician clothes were enough formal for a meeting like that.
The doors of a room were opened by two soldiers, then, Kiran was able to see the queen and her sons sitting in three thrones, Alfonse and Sharena's mother was in the middle of the two. He walked towards them, admiring the decoration of the room.
"Sit down, please" the woman spoke.
"Ah?.. aah! yeah yeah, sorry." Kiran responded as he sat on a chair that a soldier brought for him.
"So, first of all, I need to say that I'm very grateful for what you have done for me... Kiran, right?." She smiled.
"Uuh... yeah... jeje... and well... as I said to Anna time ago... I had two choices.. to help you... or do not help you... I would have preferred that I had another way to wake you up but... well... I'm sorry about your hand.."
"It is okay, you did what you had to do, so, accordingly with what my sons have told me.. you're the Great Hero of the legend.. aren't you?"
"Guess I am... I mean, I'm the one who owns the Breidablik." he answered as he showed to her the gun.
"You're younger than I had imagined you would be," she commented.
"Actually, now I think about it.. how old are you?." Alfonse asked.
"Um.. well... to answer that needs some math.. your calendar is different from mine... my calendar has three hundred sixty-five days... yours only three hundred...so.. making a rule of three... em... seventeen multiplied by three hundred sixty-five divided by three hundred... I'm twenty point sixty-eight years old..."
"Uh.. right... I think I get it.." Alfonse was confused.
"Wow.. you're older than us.." Sharena scratched her hair with her finger.
"How old are you?."
"I'm nineteen years old," Alfonse said.
"And I'm seventeen years old." his sister answered.
"Using my calendar..." Kiran stayed silent for a while. "Alfonse is fifteen point sixty-one years old... and Sharena is thirteen point ninety-seven years old. (Y eso sin considerar días y meses.. así que no es muy preciso (Well, that's without considering days and months, so those ages aren't very precise.))"
"Interesting.." the queen said. "As I was saying, it is an honor to meet you sr Kiran, my name is Henriette."
"The honor is mine too, queen Henriette, also, it is a pleasure to live in this world... mmmh... eem...eem..." Kiran crossed his arms at the same time he used his index finger to scratch his skin.
"Is there something you want to say?" The queen used her hand to give him a signal of: you can continue.
"Actually... yes... I wonder if you happen to know more things about my gun." he pointed to Breidablik.
"Gun?"
"The Breidablik." Alfonse clarified. "Kiran knew how to use it because in his world they use weapons like that, and they are called guns." Alfonse explained it as he remembered it.
"Yeah, well... the point is.. until now I've only discovered what the ammo of this thing is," Kiran said as he pulled out the orb he got from Merric. "The Breidablik works with things like this, but I have no idea what they are or where to get the.m.. or why Embla has them." no to mention perhaps explaining why they looked like materias... and perhaps making them work as materias.
"I'm afraid that I don't know... but I'll tell you what I know."
"Well... I'm all ears." Kiran nodded.
"First of all, I'll tell you the legend that has been transmitted from generation to generation since Askr was founded." the queen closed her eyes and raised her index finger.
"I always loved listening to it." Sharena commented.
"Ssshhh." Kiran did that sound.
"Oh, sorry... jeje."
Once she was sure nobody would interrupt her, Henriette began to speak. "When the multiverse falls into cruel clutches... when its inhabitants are in sorrow.. then, by the power of the legendary relic known as "The Breidablik", an ultimate hero from an unknown world will appear. Using the relic, this hero will summon other heroes to help him with their mission."
A little more interesting than your average prophecy or legend from a fantasy story "I see."
"The problem is that we don't know about those objects... we have a book that contains information of the Breidablik that was sealed away in the temple with the relic, but we cannot understand what is written on it."
"May I... see the book?" he may not understand the thing, but it was better than nothing.
The woman ordered a soldier to bring the book, once he returned, she showed him the book.
"It is supposed to be written in the ancient Askarian language, but nobody can understand it..." she explained as the soldier handed the book to Kiran.
"I've tried, but I can understand almost nothing," commented the prince.
Kiran opened the book.
"Ah!..."
"What?!" asked the three of them.
Kiran ignored them as he started to read.
"The Breidablik is a weapon I created using magic and a strange technology that I discovered, I don't know where this very advanced technology came from, but it has multiple applications never seen before which I tried to replicate... but the more I learned what these things could do the more fear I felt. I fear that this technology might be used for evil, but at the same time, it could be used to save the world. After thinking about it for months, I've created the Breidablik with an appearance similar to those strange objects, but with a different purpose. This weapon is able to open gates like the gates that my family can generate with the difference that the portals are generated by tiny orbs. Those orbs create a copy of themselves in another section of space-time and when somebody touches them the portal is generated." Kiran had stopped paying attention to the royal family as he read with interest all that information while nodding slowly.
"... You can read it..." Sharena claimed with surprise.
"Yeah, it is written in Spanish." Kiran turned the page.
"Spanish?..." the queen asked.
"My mother tongue..." as weird as that was, that was what Kiran's eyes displayed.
"Weird..." Alfonse commented.
"Yeah, well, let me take notes," Kiran said as he pulled out a notebook from his coat. "Umm... somebody could get me a quill?... please."
"Here." The queen gave him a quill after the soldier brought one.
While Kiran was writing, Alfonse noticed something.
"Uuuum... what's that other language?" he said as he saw what was written in Kiran's notebook.
"Um... Alfonse... it is Spanish.. the same language that appears here.." Kiran pointed to the book of Breidablik.
"Uuuum... no..." the prince negated with his head.
"No?" Kiran narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Actually..." Henriette spoke. "Alfonse is right... those symbols are very different..."
"What? but... I see the same language in both books..." Kiran looked at one book, then to his notebook, then back to the book, then again at his notebook.
"I agree with them, Kiran... your words are very different from what is written in our book," Sharena explained.
"Write something." Kiran requested.
Kiran got even more confused as he saw Sharena making a very strange letter... but then, when he blinked, the letter was now an L.
Sharena continued writing more things, and every time he blinked, all the letters changed.
Then, he got to understand why these people talked English...
"OOOOOOOOOOOH! vale! eso lo explica...(that explains it)" he stood up with a smile.
"Um..."
"Before you make another question, I got a theory." he then walked around.
"When I saw you writing, in the beginning, the words were different from the ones I know, but when I blinked, they were transformed into the ones I know. Due to that... I suppose that, somehow, I got the ability to translate your languages into my ones."
"Translate?" Sharena asked.
"Yeah, I hear you talking in English, and I see your words as if they were written in English, and the Ancient Askarian language as if it was Spanish."
"Uuuuh... I think I get it." Henriette responded.
"Also, at the same time, somehow, my words are translated into your ones. It explains why I can understand you and why you can understand me, even though that we are from different planets, I guess that it is an effect of the summoning process."
"Who would have known it?" Henriette added.
"That explains a lot." Alfonse commented, rubbing his chin.
"Maybe it is explained in this book... actually.." Kiran read more. He did not find what he was looking for... but something even more interesting. "Awesome... here the author explains what materials we need to create more orbs..." Kiran smiled. "I'll read this thing later," Kiran said as he sat again.
"Well... what we were talking about?... ah!... right!" the queen's smile turned again into a very heartwarming one. "You saved my life, so, is there something I could do to reward you?" Henriette asked.
"Being honest... I want money..." he then placed his hands in a defensive position. "I mean!, it would be very useful for a goal I have on mind." he wasn't just going to waste such a good opportunity to get budget for his science.
"Is that objective... that thing called... what was its name?" she asked her daughter.
"Telescope."
"That thing." she nodded.
"For the telescope, I already have Anna's financing, I was thinking about getting more glass for other things." who knows if what he had collected was enough for everything he wanted... after all, if he made a mistake he would need more material.
"For example?" the queen rubbed her chin.
"First of all... I need to explain to you what bacteria is."
Kiran spent some time explaining how the diseases were the product of tiny beings, and how he also was planning to build the opposite of the telescope, a microscope. Then, he explained what was the immunologic system and how it protected the body by creating white blood cells, then, finally, he was able to explain what he wanted to do.
"So, if I got a bacterial culture, I could try to find a cure... I'm not a doctor but at least I can try. At the same time, if I isolated another bacterial culture and let them die, well, I may create a vaccine... at least the versions most simple to create..." the first vaccines were only the ones that bacteria allowed to create... the more complex an organism was, the harder it would be to create a vaccine that was effective at teaching the immune system how to kill the real thing.
"What's the difference between a cure and a vaccine?" the queen asked.
"Well, a cure kills the bacteria, but a vaccine prevents its effects. Have you heard something like: what does not kill you, makes you stronger?... well, a vaccine is made of dead bacterias or debilitated ones. When you insert them into your body, even though they are dead or are unable to do anything, antibodies are generated since the immune system still studies the thing. So, when a version of the bacterias that are alive enters your body, the immunological system is better prepared to fight them. Using vaccines, many diseases are no longer, we destroyed them." although some of them still resisted, waiting for a mutation to cause a pandemic again...
Sharena started to clap "Amazing!"
"Indeed." her mother nodded.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you're the smartest hero of them all!" Sharena claimed with such a smile on her face.
"What?..." Kiran was a non-believer... but even then he thought that claiming was some kind of "blasphemy"
"While I usually would have doubts about it... I guess you are... indeed, the smartest one." Alfonse nodded.
"Uuuh... no!... I mean.. in my world there are smarter people than me..." he could name at least ten examples right there.
"No matter, I'll give you the money." the queen smiled.
"Oh... thanks... actually... I really need to create vaccines... my life and the other heroes' lives depend on it." who knows what could happen if he wasted much time.
"Why?" she questioned.
Kiran also explained that the bacterias were different depending on which world and period of time they were.
"I see..." The queen rubbed her chin.
"Due to that... it would be necessary to check the health of all the heroes, to ensure that we don't get a contamination of foreign bacteria." he shrugged.
"Well, how much money you need?"
"Mmmmh... being honest... I don't know..." he laughed nervously. "I mean, first I need to calculate it."
"You can come to find me when you have calculated it, I'll be here." Henriette nodded.
"Thanks.. well... it's not like I wanna leave, it is just that.. well... I have other things to do... so." he gulped.
"It's fine, you can leave."
With her permission, Kiran stood up and bowed.
"Thanks, queen Henriette."
"So..." Henriette spoke. "He said that he is from another planet.. what does that mean?"
"Well... basically it means that even though he looks like a human just like any of us... he's not... and he's not even a manakete..." Alfonse explained.
"Mmmmh..."
Did you think I had forgotten about the bacterias? je, well, the answer is: no.
Time for answers!
1.-No. I didn't know that the first papers were made of animals... it is kinda scary I guess.. well... we kill animals every year to produce food so...
2.-Well. that girl is not Lute, even though that I'm gonna put in this history heroes that aren't in the game yet, I don't know lute very well... but I can consider her.
3.-It is curious that you mention Mark... actually, to do not make this more cliche, I have something more interesting in mind... let's going to say that.. Mark and Kiran will meet each other, and with that Lyn will meet again to Mark.. but.. in a very strange way.
By the way, I'm not pretty sure who will be the next hero summoned... I guess Ephraim would be a good option.
As I always ask.. is there something I should change in the writing?
Chapter 11 updated.
