Chapter 17: The Kingdom of Sloth
A week of travelling. One might hear this and think of how grueling and tiring such a travel could be. But the forest dweller was honestly surprised to find it passing by so quickly. From practicing his newly learned wind spell, to camping with his friends and going sightseeing in any small villages they came across. He didn't even realize how close to Grandgold he was getting.
From the perspective of the people bellow, he was but a dot in the blue sky. It then turns into a green blur as he lowers himself to the ground, his destination in the horizon.
'Has it really been a week...?' He asked as he finished his landing, transitioning into a brisk walk.
'Time passes faster when one is having fun' A calm voice softly answers in his mind.
'Yeah! Like that one time I was choosing between eating grapes or that vegetable soup you made! I didn't even realize I spent the entire day doing that!' His fairy friend cheerfully chimes.
'That's... well, I supposed we could use that as an example.'
He smiles at this, nodding along as they continue to talk about random stuff the Spirit of Wind would bring up.
...
...
...
As he got closer, the purplette eventually saw a bizarre sight ahead.
There's a 20-foot-tall Golem girl watching over the Kingdom's entrance.
At least...he thinks so?
"Hmm?" He blinked, looking back at the rocky monster worriedly. For some reason, her presence is hard to grasp. It's like her soul barely has any consciousness or will of her own.
'Is that girl even awake? I've never seen a Golem like her before...'
'Maybe she's sleeping on her job? Oh! I know. Let's play a prank on her~!'
'No.'
'That'll wake her up!'
'No.'
'Aww...'
Walking up to her, he softly asked. "Excuse me... miss Golem, are you alright?"
A whirring sound came from her as she lowered her head to appraised him. The movement stiff and cumbersome, like a machine as opposed to living beings.
"UNRECOGNIZABLE VISITOR..."
Hearing her speak, he was reminded of Bii, a friend he made in the Plansect Village. The difference is that while their speaking manner is the same, Bii has her own unique personalities and quirks underneath her mask of indifference.
"STATE YOUR NAME AND BUSINESS IN GRANDGOLD..."
"Ah, well..." Fiddling with the edge of his brown cape, he ponders on how to approach this.
The choose wasn't his however, as two men in full armor approach them in a lazy gait.
"Hey now, what's with the hold up?" One of them said, looking over the scene uninterestedly.
The other one next to him sighs and gestures his hand towards the Golem girl. "A new visitor wanted to enters the Kingdom. This monster probably wanted to check his identities first..."
"Oh, That's it? I thought she's broken or something."
"Welp, let's make this quick then." They both turns to a very confused forest dweller.
"Say, boy." He started, "Tell us your name and why you're here..."
'Why are they...' Oh right, he shook himself out of his confusion and try not to make their job any harder than necessaries.
Steadying his voice, he introduces himself.
"My name is Luka, just Luka. I'm here as a traveler wanting to see what this Kingdom has to offers and I-"
"Got it." One of them cuts him off.
"You can come in now." Nodded the other as they went back to their stations next to the entrance.
"WELCOME TO GRANDGOLD..."
After her monotone welcome, the golem proceeds to ignores him like the guards.
...
Wait, what?
perplexed by this, Luka calls out to them.
"W-wait! What about the registration proses?"
"Huh? We already ask you enough. What do you mean?"
In a show of complete incompetent, he waves Luka's question away and continues to laze around with his coworkers.
It flusters him how careless they are. How can they be so confident in their assessment of the situation?
A lot of mistakes could happen if they continue on like this...
===0===
There's a disturbance in the air.
Something doesn't feel right with this Kingdom. And with how uncomfortable both him and Sylph felt when they enter through the gate, the feeling only grows.
'The air here is awful...'
It really doesn't help that all around him are monsters being ordered around like slaves. A glance to his right was met with a group of Ant girls carrying packages and furniture for a shop owner, up ahead was an artificial monster promoting and working in a restaurant that only has human customers. Not only that, but he also saw another Golem girl fixing a broken bridge further ahead. All the while, the human workers were happily getting drunk on the side.
So far, everything he has seen is only making him more and more worried.
Spotting one Ant girl looking over a child playing with her friends, he went over to ask her some questions.
"Um, excuse me, miss?"
Blankly looking back at him, she replies in a monotonous voice.
"WATCHING OVER CHILD. CANNOT DO OTHER JOBS UNLESS PARENT IS PRESENT..."
Unlike the Slime girl who look after the children in Grand Noah, she's only doing this because she was ordered to, not as a job.
"I'm not here to give you an order... I just wanted to ask something."
"SIMPLE ORDER IS ALLOWED. WHAT ARE YOUR QUESTIONS...?"
He wilted a bit at that.
"Well... why are the monsters here following orders from humans?" He starts off.
"QUEEN ANT'S ORDER IS TO OBEY HUMANS. ARTIFICIAL MONSTERS DON'T HAVE FREE WILL..."
Oh.
So that's what happened...
"...Where's the Queen?"
At this, she actually looks conflicted.
"WE DON'T KNOW..."
Luka stay with her for a bit more after that.
===0===
The Automata girl stares at him as he serves her a cup of tea.
"I do not need to eat..."
His eyes widened before letting out a soft laugh.
"That make sense... sorry, I should have asked first."
No customer had ever apologized to her before. This young man continues to puzzles the artificial monster. First by rejecting her sexual services, then by making her sit across from him in the room he booked.
A contradiction has been formed, yet he seems fine with that.
He asked the doll about her name, if she has a favorite color, what she wanted to do in the future, and if she ever had any friends. A compilation of illogical questions to ask her considering she doesn't have any thoughts of her own...
Although, an even bigger illogical feeling is bubbling inside of her as they continue their strange yet calming conversations. As it starts to get dark, she saw him distractedly fiddling with the table spoon in his hand. His heterochromatic eyes blankly starring down on the table as if he's having a debate with himself.
He got up, leaving her with some coins and gave her a polite smile.
"It's been lovely, miss Coppelia..."
The young man then excuse himself and proceeds to left the room through the window.
...
...
...
Is every human outside the Kingdom this strange?
No. That's not it.
She surmised that regardless of his origins, the young man is strange person in general.
===0===
"Your Majesty, is something the matter?"
As another boring day passes, the man leisurely took his time eating his finely served dinner and was about to head to bed when something from the corner of his sight caught his attention.
The King of Grandgold raised an eyebrow as he found nothing unusual outside the window.
"It's nothing. Must've been my imagination..." He replies to his servant, an Automata created specifically to be a perfect maid.
She analyzes where he was looking before asking. "Do you need briefing of today's affairs?"
Lazily waving his hand, the King yawns and make his way to his bedchamber.
"No, no... I'll leave the paperwork to the Ant girls as usual. Maybe tomorrow an adventurer would come and I could ask him for exiting stories. I'll have to wake up early not to miss it."
Dismissed, the doll bow to the careless royalty and open the door for him.
As he walks to his room whoever, the King couldn't help but feel as though he's being watched.
===0===
'What do you guys think...?'
High on top of the castle's roof, a figure covered in shadows is contemplating his next move. After seeing the way people of this Kingdom are treating monsters as nothing but slaves (not even mentioning their artificial monsters), the consequence of such actions then resulting in a wide spread laziness among the citizen and the people in charge; Luka couldn't stop the grimace in his face.
Even disregarding the moral wrongness of it all, if this continues, it would give birth to a Kingdom of sloth, one where everything is handled by leaving the problems to someone else.
When push comes to shove, it would no doubt crumbles to the ground.
'We have no obligations to aid them...' Undine pointed out, her normally calm voice taking a firm tone. 'If their slothful nature resulted in their ruined, it would be poetic justice...'
He understands where she's coming from, after all, her home was contaminated by humans too lazy and selfish to care about their environment. But on the other hand...
Wasn't he also a victim of slothfulness?
If it weren't for his friend supporting him, if Alma Elma didn't find him, if the wind didn't encourage him to go on a journey... would he had ever left his safe heaven?
'What do you want to do, Luka?' Sylph reminds him.
Down below, a sharply dressed man is leaving a heavily guarded room. Wiping the sweat of his forehead, the man looks about ready to call it a day and head back to his home.
Getting up, Luka took one step forward and let himself fall.
Swoosh.
Before the man could close the door behind him, a sudden gust of wind came and the man scramble to protect his research papers from flying off.
"Ah! Why did the wind pick up all of a sudden!?"
Unbeknown to him, by the time he finishes his words, the forest dweller had already slipped pass him and is making his way through the laboratory underneath the Grandgold Castle.
The first step in getting better is by acknowledging the problem exist.
Luka has made his choice, if he could change then so could the people of this Kingdom!
===0===
Following his instinct, the purplette venture through the long maze of corridors and make his way to strongest point of, well, how does he explain it? It's like the starting point of the 'wrongness' in the air.
The more and more he proceeds, pass the cabinets full of lab equipment and documents, the feeling of restrictions grew to uncomfortable levels. By the time he reached a strangely designed door, he knew it has got to be the place he's looking for.
Entering the flow, he spots the small whirlpool that appears and drive Iris through it.
Psshhh.
"!?" As the strange metal door split apart, the sounds of pressurize wind that accompanies it surprised him.
How fascinating, he didn't know doors like this exited…
Getting back in track, he enters the room to find-
"Whoa…"
A room as big as an entire field greeted him. He could see glass pillars filled with fluids encasing artificial monsters to his right. A bunch of items he had never seen before stored to his left, with blueprints and notes displayed on the white metal walls. But by a large margin, the most shocking thing of all is the Queen Ant sealed inside a barrier of light right in the middle of the room.
Compare to the average Ant girl, the Queen seems taller with a golden crown on her head and a white caplet on her back. There's also an aura of power and wisdom he could feel coming from her despite the monster being sealed.
It's mind boggling how any of the thing he's seeing is even real. How could the people here make such an advanced technology to a point where they could do this to a Queen class monster?
'I don't like this place…my head hurts…'
Hearing that from his fairy friend, the purplette throws his questions aside and focus on the presence.
"Hold on, buddy." Walking forward, he looks around for any way to deactivate the machine.
'Be careful, Luka. That machine is giving me a bad feeling…'
Heeding Undine's advice, Luka closes his eyes in concentration, focusing on his options.
There are those documents he could use the wind to read through. But he doubt that he would be able to understand how to operate such an advanced technology in such a short timespan.
He could brute force his way through the barrier with his techniques. But that would alerted everyone outside of his presence.
He begin to grew restless, he needed to act now.
But how?
As his thoughts continues to think of a solution, his magic instinctively gathered to his eyes, an unfamiliar sensation greeted him.
[Eyes of control]
Luka's eyes shines brightly as he look towards the machine trapping Queen Ant.
He blinked, confused as to what had happened as the light disappeared.
"What was that…?" Did he just use eye magic?
He doesn't even remember practicing that! It just happened without thinking!
The barrier of light suddenly disappeared, freeing the Queen class monster from her seal as she falls to the cold floor. As dumbfounded as he was, Luka still went over to check on her conditions.
"Queen Ant! Are you alright?" Responding to his concern, the wind – now no longer restricted by the strange machine – begin to surround the unconscious monster.
'Alright! I'm back to full energy! How about you, Deeny?'
'How worrisome, to think there exist a technology capable of weakening us to such extend...'
Luka was worried too, but as of now he has to prioritize on helping Queen Ant. He'll check on the documents and blueprints later after all of this has been dealt with.
Taking full advantage of his connection to the wind, the forest dweller added a little of his own magic and rejuvenates the royal monster back to consciousness.
"May you be free... and may it be swift..."
[Ventus melody]
It's the same spell he uses on himself back when he fought a certain Succubus in Natalia Port. Only this time he has a name for it, and instead of making him faster, he focused on restoring her energy.
Her pale-yellow eyes slowly opens as she groggily pushes herself off the floor. It took her a couple seconds to registered his presence, and when she does the royal monster were understandably very startled.
===0===
Her whole body felt lethargic as she struggles to lift herself up.
So tired she is, that when a pair of gentle hands help her stable herself, it took a bit for her to realize it wasn't one of her daughters.
"..." She stared, his heterochromatic eyes appraising her for any injuries.
This human... did he free her from that accursed contraption?
The fogs in her head clears as she remembered everything that has happened.
That's right, she was the current ruling Queen Ant. Everything was going well for her and her daughters as their communities thrives. That is until she was sealed and-
"!?"
Red hot anger courses through her as she comes to the realization.
"HOW DARE!"
Those humans...if they so much as harm even a hair on one of them!
"They weren't hurt, Your Majesty..."
Before her killing intent could leaked outside the laboratory, the human in front of her spoke out to her.
Her furious gaze met his calm ones, remembering his previous action, she refrained from attacking and instead orders him to elaborate on his words.
Unwaveringly keeping his eyes on hers, he explained.
"Your daughters. The people of this Kingdom use them to do their chores and work, I won't denied that. But they're not going out of their way to be cruel to them... if anything, they are too lazy to do that..."
Her eye narrowed dangerously.
"And why should I believe your words, human?"
"I check." He simply answers.
It took her off guard, how ridiculous...
"You check? All 25,000 of them?"
"Yes."
===0===
"..."
"..."
By this point, Queen Ant looks about ready to jump him. Knowing that nothing good would come from them fighting each other, Luka summons Sylph's power.
The royal monster's eyes widened as she witnesses the verdant wind around him.
"I use my connection to the wind to see if any monsters were in harm before coming here...at worst, they were exhausted, but not one of their lives is in danger..."
"Your Majesty, you have a connection to them all, right? You can check and see if I'm lying or not."
From the way her eyes focused he could tell she's doing so. After that, he could feel her pressure lessening a bit.
"Even so, I simply could not overlook the way my children were taken advantage of."
The forest dweller could feel the air changing, she must've sent out a new order to her daughters through her connection.
He nodded, understanding her righteous anger.
Walking closer to him, Queen Ant held his face in her arms. Not wanting to anger her any further, he let it happen.
Looking deeply into his heterochromatic eyes, with a warm - almost motherly voice, she gave him an offer. "For you... who have freed me, I'll give you the courtesy of being able of asking me for any wish you might have."
Thrilled to hear this, Luka states his wish.
The royal monster's eyes widened in surprise as her expectation were dashed.
Most men would have no doubt ask to mate with her, yet the forest dweller only wish for her to give him 10 minutes of time.
"What is it for...?" She asked.
"This is the first step... next came the understanding of where the problem came from..."
"You are... very unusual."
===0===
Trying his best to navigate through the chaos outside, Luka made his way to the King of the Grandgold Kingdom.
His rescue and meeting with the Queen of Ants wentwell, all things consider.
'You would have to stop her from draining you dry if it weren't for her offer to grand you a wish. That's not what I'd call 'well' Luka.' Undine chided.
'Yeah! Then I would have been an aunt of 25,000 nieces!' Sylph pauses. 'Wait, on second thought, that sounds awesome!'
Trying his best not to let his mind wander to that scenario, a blushing red Luka rushes towards the bedchamber of the King.
It's a good thing they all seems to ignore him, or this would be a lot more stressful.
'The Queen's work, no doubt.' Said the Water Spirit.
Before he could respond, a tall woman wearing a white lab coat stood in his way. He tries to sidestep her, but when she intercepts him again, her crimson eyes set on his, he knew something was wrong.
A normal researcher wouldn't be able to perceived him running at top speed like her.
"Excuse me, miss. Do you mind moving aside?"
"How fascinating..."
He could have sworn he saw something wing-like growing behind her before she vanishes into thin air.
"..."
That was... very unnerving, but he should hurry.
===0===
One, very messy and nail-biting conversation later, he could finally catch his breath.
It took him 1 minute to find the King, 3 minutes to explained to him how bad the situation is, 5 minutes to convinced Queen Ant that two wrong doesn't make a right and for the King to let go of his old ways and learned from his mistake.
The last minute is for the King - now stepping up for his Kingdom - to bow and swore to Queen Ant that something like this would never happen again.
She accepted his apologies after thinking it through, and even offers to vouch for him as he explains the situation to his and her people.
It was pretty awkward when they leave the underground laboratory to find Ant girls overthrowing the Kingdom with blank expressions only for them to unceremoniously stopped as Queen Ant order them to.
"FOR THE QUEEN!"
"GATHERING SUITABLE MALES..."
Clearing her throat, she spoke out.
"My daughters, we won't be overthrowing the Kingdom. You all can stop now."
The resounding "OKAY." across the whole Kingdom both impress and startle him.
===0===
Shuffles. Shuffles.
"I'm curious..." She spoke to him, dusting some dust from her hands.
The sounds of items being moves stopped for a moment.
"Hmm?" With his back turns to her, Luka hummed for her to continue.
"You could have left."
"...I could."
"Despite your reserve nature, you didn't..."
"It's not right."
"Their actions, or you leaving?"
He shook his head at that.
"More like the lack of one by them."
"Pardon my words," She fixes her glasses. "but seeing them become so slothful, did it hit too close to home for you?"
...
He finally turns toher, a solemn look on his face.
"It did..."
By the time they were done sorting through the notes and blueprints left by the researchers in the underground laboratory, it had already gotten dark. Cogita suggest getting some rest before continuing their journeys.
Luka agrees, trying his best to not be seen by the people of Grandgold. As much as he's willing to help people, he was still not used to them. Especially when they all flocked to him and started calling him hero and such...
"You're getting better."
That gave him a pause, a glance to his right shows him the sight of his librarian friend giving him a soft, genuine smile.
"You were running back at Plansect Village. You weren't now..."
Ah. She's right, he supposed.
His embarrassment momentarily forgotten; he repays her smile with his own.
"Oh dear."
It was bright enough to have her worried about actually buying a real pair of glasses.
Both of her juniors came out, and they enjoyed their time on a much less restricted Grandgold. All thanks to her friend almost starting a revolution overnight.
===0===
He was a bit disappointed to find no trace of the woman from that night. He tries asking around, but the most he could get is people saying they remember thered-haired woman giving them the technologies to sealed Queen Ant and leaving soon after.
No name, or clear motives as to why she's doing all of this. Even the wind only gave vague information about her. Bringer of fire, the curious one.
The way her eyes dissect him as soon as they met...
It unsettles him how she didn't even hesitate to views him as a lab rat.
Using the wind, he translated the information of the documents inside his mind. The forest dweller could count on one hand how much many times he was so absorbed in a subject and this is by far the most intrigue he has ever been.
She may be an ominous person, but the technologies she had given these people were nothing to scoff at. Calling it cutting edge wouldn't do it justice. It's in a different league of its own.
Unfortunately, he suspects she must've rendered them all unusable on purpose. So that he wouldn't be able to find any more about her.
If only he knew how to fix such advance machines without making it worse. Luka would have loved to use a 'Computer' as they called it.
===0===
"Where are you headed next, Luka?" Ask the King.
He was a shock to hear the man request for Luka to recount his journey to him. But after some convincing from him, and Queen Ant even joining in, he relent.
For someone trying to be unnoticed, telling two royalties all about his journey is quit the irony, isn't it? Luka was unsure if he was doing a great job, but the way they would pay attention to everything he said is reassuring enough.
He ended up finding storytelling as a new hobby.
"Well... I was thinking about giving Succubus Village a visit next, but..."
"Understandable, considering your past experience with them."
"Yeah..."
The King then suggests for him to go to the Safina region and how it should be around the time for the Princess's birthday. Hearing that, Luka couldn't help but remember his own birthday on the coming month.
He would always hold a celebration with his fairy friend whenever the time would come. Though, since it's just the two of them, it did make him feel a little sad...
'Oh, I know! Why don't we invite everyone this time, Luka?'
He perked up at that.
'Everyone...?'
'Yeah! It'll be the best birthday party ever!'
'If you wanted to, that is.' Undine was quick to be the voice of reason.
A party with everyone...
He was charmed by the idea.
===0===
After making sure that everything is going well and the people of Grandgold were truly regretful of their actions, the forest dweller decided to continue on his journey.
This time he decided to go to the Gold Volcano to see if Sylph's other friends, 'Mandy' wanted to joint them.
From what he remembers reading in 'The Four Animists' about her, she is the Spirit of Fire and the one who prefers to live in the core of a living volcano southwest from here.
Even the thought of going to such a place worries him. But since he has a connection with both Sylph and Undine, he figures he could keep himself from overheating.
'This... accursed volcano... how unbearable...'
Although, by the way Undine is currently a puddle in his mind, the purplette would have to just rely on his fairy friend's power for now. Forming a barrier of wind all around him, Luka keep the temperature stable as best he can.
'Are you girls alright?'He worriedly asks.
Far from her fellow spirit, the hyper little bundle of joy is as energetic as ever.
'Yup! Don't worry about it, buddy! I'll keep mister temperature from being mean to us, you just focus on flying to Mandy!'
He could feel a wave of confusions from the tired Undine.
'Sylph... how are you...doing that...?'
'Hmm~?'
Before they could continue, Luka felt a strong presence coming closer, invading his airstream by force.
Predicting her path with the flow, he easily avoided her attempt at grabbing him by the legs.
"You dodge that!?" Shock evident on her face, the young Wyvern girl shows herself.
Frowning in disappointment, Luka berates the inexperience monster on her actions, much to her further confusion.
"You shouldn't attack someone like that... what if you got yourself hurt?"
Huffing fire from her mouth, the Wyvern vehemently refutes his words.
"That won't hurt me! I'm aiming to be the strongest!"
Luka couldn't help but find it cute instead of intimidating.
She smirked. "I got you now, human! When it comes to aerial battle, Wyvern are the strongest!"
"..." He almost felt bad for her.
===0===
After several soul-crushing minute of failing to catch her 'prey' in her most advantages battleground, the young monster's world view is utterly destroyed.
"This isn't fair! Why can't I catch you!" Almost in tears, she shouted out.
Instead of answering, Luka simply direct his airstream spell downward, catching his pursuing opponent off guard and dragging her to the ground.
Crash!
"Ouch! My tail..."
Looking up, she saw the silhouette of a person pointing their sword at her before music notes started showing up.
"Wha-! Hey! What is..." Her eyes got heavier as she struggles to stand.
Thud.
The bag of jerky falls on top of her head as she succumbs to her slumber.
"ZzZzZzzz..."
===0===
As wild and destructive the land around him is, the forest dweller couldn't help but marvel at how magnificent the view is. The giant, imposing volcano in the middle letting off an aura of power as the land arounds it glowed bright red due to the wave of lava coming from the crack on the earth below.
It's like looking at a painting, only he's in it and the heat is starting to get to him.
"Better find her quick..." He wipes the sweat off his face as the wind gathered around him.
Further ahead, a Dragon girl caught him with her enhanced sight. Licking her lips in hunger, she was about to leap towards him when the monster saw him entering a running stance towards her direction.
"...?"
It was right there that the air decided to explode.
===0===
BOOM!
"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow, the loud booming sound couple with sensing someone coming closer intriguing the Fire Spirit.
The fact she can hear that noise from inside the volcano is already telling enough, but she still wanted to see for herself is this person is worthy of her power or not.
"Excuse me, madam...?"
She did a double take.
"You're here already!?"
END OF CHAPTER
Author's note: A bit short this time compare to my usual chapter, but down worry. Next chapter is going to be heat (Pun very intended).
