Chapter 94

William usually took everything with a grain of salt, healthy questions, or stubborn beliefs. Especially these things about organizations and politics came to him as if they were different languages. Sure, he heard stories about former lands and places but didn't know the real value of these stories. It was like learning about a neighbor passing without knowing him one bit.

Outside knew a portion of the history, and while some people figured or guessed the rest, faked, tricked, or made up, some parts were true. Most of this sounded complicated thanks to destruction and lack of communication, so when Ellie described them from one hell of a strong background, he wasn't sure how to think about his known history.

It seemed he was a frog stuck in a well. Only when Ellie branched out to lighter topics, did William calmed and realize what he was missing. A breath. He doubted books would be better than her, so there might be some point in seminars if there were people like her.

“The world is big, but Darks are bigger. That's the answer.” William said. “Safe places want to survive and don't have the manpower to care for everything and everyone. That's what Outside is. Just scraps. There are some dramas where resources, safety, and people are limited. Isn't Emblem Academy the same? It might be a powerhouse, but it isn't alone. What is even the Federation? A Paradise? I don't know about that when I see it.”

“I mean... it is fine, but the A-academy?!” Ellie said in a huffed yet forced voice. She wanted to shout. “What do you know about the Academy? I am curious before going in that direction because it isn't something I want to touch. It isn't as if it's appropriate, but Heidi and this library have a rather sensitive relationship with the Academy. That place is my favorite secret that one ought to take into their hearts and mind,” She proudly said and whispered the latest sentence.

“What I know can't be counted as anything after hearing you talk. I heard it is the best place where the most talented Walkers go and where the most powerful Walkers flock under many banners. It is like a collective force without any nations in sight, yet it is a nation in its own right. They have some common goals, even if it isn't like that. I think.”

Ellie liked his answers. “I can't really say it batter. Academy is a complicated land, so what is it? Is that your choice? Do you know where you want to go as a Walker?”

“Won't there be a lot of organizations or worries about it in the Examination? Before that, I don't know. It isn't about military alone unless you joked around.”

“I didn't.” She nodded, kept leaning, and whispered a secret. “I have seen the Examination and Forced Awakening once. I got there because of this job. It is intense but classified, hidden, yet still public in a way. The general public has no idea there is something so insane like Emblem Accelerator. Then, there is a collective effort to examine future generations and train them. Ever since I've seen that stuff, I learned a lot and learned how Walkers live. They are intense and interesting for a reason. Their Emblem is their whole universe. Big. Vast. Like sky and stars.”

William glanced at his arm and was shocked and doubtful by her sudden reveals. What was Emblem Accelerator? What was this effort? “I don't trust that...”

“And I don't want to see that place and sight ever again. They are in their world and I am fine with watching them from faaaaar away.” Ellie chuckled and leaned back in her seat.

By this point, William recognized there was something fishy with this Examination. Ellie talked as if she knew he understood it, which was wrong. Because of some lack of context, some words she described weren't in his imagination. Alas, there was no point in questioning it. Examination didn't seem like a bad thing, even if it sounded confusing.

“Fear it, Ellie. That is the first normal response that comes out of your mouth because Emblems are worth fearing. Walkers and Darks even more.” William chuckled as well.

“Well, excuse me. I am just a city girl who grew up in heaven, right?”

“I am not judging you. If you are over with this talk, can we go up? You spent a long time on these organizations or whatnot, and I won't decide on any place because I don't know them or myself. Perhaps some things will change in these six weeks.”

“Fine. Sure. Oh, don't forget. I talked for myself! The Examination is what is important, and who knew that someone even listened to my voice? How odd. I thought I was sitting alone. Strange.”

“How strange indeed.” William nodded. “So, what about the Emblem Academy? You sound like a fan, but you don't want to talk about it. Why?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Feeling his curious gaze, this time Ellie felt weird. “Emblem Academy is a bit off limits.”

“It is quite famous Outside. Surprisingly famous, in fact.”

“More than the Divisions of the Federation?” Ellie asked in shock.

“I don’t know about that. I definitely heard about the Academy much sooner than about specific Divisions, or does it even matter what was first? Divisions are there, but it is all Walkers anyway.”

Ellie fell into a storm of thoughts and didn't want to talk about the Academy for a couple of reasons. “I will keep this topic for tomorrow. How about calling it a day after the next floor before going home?” Ellie suggested. She planned to revisit some documents and look through some stuff first. She also had to visit Burton tonight because of his previous summon.

Academy was enigmatic. She didn't know a lot about it herself to openly talk facts as if she knew them by heart. It was competent and detached from the rest of the world, and not even this library had a lot of documents about it.

She will ask Burton about it, or she might dig for some secrets tonight on her own. Either way, she wanted to have an excuse to do it. William was perfect for that.

Bits on the upper floors won't satisfy her with her clearance, as there were many secrets and topics only Walkers could know, and Academy was like the depth of an unknown iceberg. Then, there was William with his finest lockpicking tool in the world, so Ellie planned to not be polite about him.

William agreed with her and moved out of this floor. They walked through the seminar hallway, right back to the gallery on the walls, and elevated balcony.

The culture floor was next and it was Ellie's favorite floor by a mile.

***

Soon, an open door revealed yet another unique space. Clear and wide, the ceiling was as tall as others, but there were some closed rooms visible from the entrance, which made this place different and not full of bookshelves. There were a few dozen of rows and it wasn't about the books alone. By some miracle, this place had not only them.

“Fascinating isn’t it?” Ellie asked and was thrilled to shock William's clueless brain with fantasies and stories from the former world. That's what the culture floor was about. It was an entertainment floor with no apparent education and William didn't know that.

“What is with the word culture? Is it for learning, or is this about something else?”

“It is something from waaay back, I think. A lot of fun activities went into passing some time quicker, better, or for fun. See those?” Ellie said importantly and almost grabbed his hand to drag him away. She remembered his previous voice and only patted his back and pointed somewhere. Either way, he followed her until he saw a row of machines he only heard about.

These were computers. Screens flickering with light, colors, and pictures moved or showed still, flickering, or moving images.

A brand new word was before him, or should it be called old instead? They looked far below the current century, and even the previous one might find them lacking.

Technology—let alone science itself—was a very complicated topic because the world froze when the Dawn happened and the advancement of humanity was less than possible. It was getting lower year by year because people couldn't cope with the living conditions. It was humanity who created the whole terms after their advancing history and cultures.

Technology was supposed to be a great and collective sense of wonder, discovery, and research that should've elevated humanity to another level. Go to the stars, they dreamed. Go beyond this world, they thought. Technology itself was a combination of many fields that had been ongoing for centuries. That's what growth and people were about and it changed significantly in the twentieth century when advancements increased.

Humans were unconventional and creative beings. Let alone a century ago, science and technology had their supporting concepts even in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Electricity was one of the greatest discoveries of that time, followed by many other things that made the previous century a joke.

In greater schemes, it was like opening a gate with endless possibilities. Or a Pandora's box.

William wasn't that fortunate to get familiar with science because he never had it in mind. He wasn't talented. He had no mind or time for that. True, some curiosity about Enginists was fitting considering he was a young boy, but his fate was different. He had no talent for being someone very clever. Outside was just built different, touching the premise of what was possible and not.

Survival. Food. Killing. They led to bad or better tomorrows. That's what William knew for years before turning ten. Then, things changed for the worse until they became better.

In that sense, what was Ellie showing on this floor? He comprehended it due to the recent years alone. Some of the compact and important pieces of technology were slowly being incorporated back into the society of camps. It was mostly about people and safety, with many good reasons.

Places that had a significant backup of the Federation had management, skill, and time to care for such things. Factories, machinery, tools, and the right mindset gave camps this chance. Enginists and Machinists came out of it next. Camps had a lot of people to make them run and making them stay that way was also crucial.

They were an important piece to the Federation's survival, and they had to happen. It was a compromise that Walkers decided on more than thirty years ago.

William saw, read, and heard about various technologies, so he wasn't shocked to see functional computers. He was more intrigued by what was around him, but Ellie pestered him and insisted on guiding him toward a small and important corner.

“Those aren't televisions, right? I know this much. We have electricity and some bare-bone technology Outside like radios and some rare screens and stuff. But this is... different.” William asserted his truth and held Ellie back by his acts as if he was unsure about them.

For some reason, Ellie was glad to talk about this since she didn't know at what level some camps were. There were shifts every year in the Federation, so camps must be the same. They were, but not in the way Ellie expected.