IMPERIAL CAPITAL OF FREYR EMPIRE 363 A.E.
IMPERIAL PALACE, GRAND HALL
“I don't see a reason to comply with this request.” Said Ren in a clear monotone.
The Emperor's face turned red, nobody had ever the audacity to question his authority. Anger fueled him while his fists stiffened close to his body turning his knuckles white, his teeth started gritting together and he seemed ready to erupt while he was turning redder and redder.
As he was about to brutally refute, a pale white hand belonging to a woman was placed on his shoulder and he started to calm down slowly, after a while he completely relaxed and fell with a hoof back on his chair, only for his standing figure to be replaced by the one of his wife, standing tall, her posture seeming calm while her face was completely expressionless.
“I apologize for my husband and the nobles for their harsh wording and this unsightly display.” She suddenly said, drawing some complex gazes from everyone in the room except Ren of course.
“My name is Isolt, Empress Isolt de Monach. May I ask what yours is?” Said the Empress with a face that completely matched Ren's own.
“Ren, numbered under the Imperial policies as citizen 88361056672 currently active military personnel” answered Ren.
'What a weird presentation, but taking away the weird numbers, he did say military personnel, this must mean he is a soldier, witch completely explains the armor' Thought Isolt for a moment before continuing where the conversation has left of.
“Is Ren fine then ?” (Isolt)
“It is.” (Ren)
“Then Ren, I understand that you must be confused over the current situation and must have many questions, the same as we do, so I will simply ask this to get out of the way, are you a human ? ” (Isolt)
Ren pondered for a while, he was indeed a humanoid classified as human, he was not the same as them making it difficult for him to understand the question for witch type of human she was exactly referring to.
“Identify the meaning human, are you referring to humanoids falling under the category, variants considered or you mean the same as you?”
The Empress was taken slightly aback, she clearly did not understand what variants where but she finally managed to have a conversation with this creature named Ren and swiftly answered.
“The same like us, there are no other variants I am aware of.” (Isolt)
“Then no, I am not the same like you. Appearance wise I am close to Homo Sapiens like you but I don't classify as that” (Ren)
The Empress's curiosity perked up a little wanting to know more about this creature close to them but not exactly the same. She even started to feel excitement but still her expressionless demeanor held.
“Then if your appearance is the same, what is it that makes you different” (Isolt)
“I'm classified as a biologically enhanced human via bio engineering, named species Ω
Homo Sapiens where our predecessors thous our similar appearance.” (Ren)
Isolt's eyebrow started twitching frantically, breaking her expressionless facade while low whispers resounded in the Grand Hall once again.
Isolt frantically asked, her calm demeanor no more to be seen.
“I apologize but I could not understand half your sentence but from the parts that I did, you mean to say that you are an evolved human ?
What is that biologically you spoke of and bio engineering was it?
Could you please explain?
I have never heard such concepts and I can assure you, I am one of the most educated persons in the Empire !
If you are the same as us why don't you take of your helmet?
Are your arms gigantic or is this part of your armor ?”
She kept bombarding Ren with questions, curiosity filled her eyes, while she did believe herself to be the most educated person in the whole Empire, talented in both magical and scientific studies, hearing these new concepts from Ren, made her scholar blood boil wanting to know more.
She came to an abrupt stop to take a deep breath ready to pounce more questions towards Ren, her curiosity seemingly boundless and unrestrained anymore, only to notice the surprised gazes she was receiving from all the nobles and forcefully calming herself.
Ren on the other side thought it as a great chance to educate these primitives and get 1 step closer to completing one of his orders, readily answered everything.
“Yes, you could say I am an evolved human, thought not by natural evolution but by our vast scientific knowledge, through science we re created our bodies and evolved ourselves into a new species.
Biology is the concept of science that explains how living organisms work while engineering is a level 30 technological level science that I am unable to explain due to my previous observations categorizing this worlds technological level at 15.
I don't take of my helmet because this room is full of your primitive body odor produced by your constant sweating.
The gigantic arms is part of my Hard Suit or as you call it “armor”. Due to your low technological level I cannot explain how the Hard Suit operates.”
The Empress seeing that Ren readily answered most of her questions had a look full of bliss plastered on her face her excitement and curiosity skyrocketing into higher levels than before, she took a deep breath, ready to ask many more questions from this goldmine of knowledge, completely ignoring the comment it made about their smell, only to be rudely interrupted by her husbands angry remark changing her happy expression into a frown.
“Ignoring the fact you called as smelly and primitive, what proof do you have to support your claims !” The Emperor glared at Ren trying to drill a hole through his helmet using his gaze.
'Ship A.I. What is the danger of transferring from level 15 to level 167 technological and scientific knowledge directly into his brain ?'
“Scanning subject …. Scan complete”
“90% chances of permanent psychological trauma leading subject to self harm, 5 % Chances of overloading the brain circuits from the vast data transfer, 1,5% chance of amnesia and other types of permanent brain damage. 1% Success rate.
“Advised not to proceed with Data Transfer”
'Dammit, will have to do this the hard way then'
Ren completely ignored the Emperor since he was hard to deal with and in turn asked the Empress his first question throughout the whole conversation.
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“Isolt, are you familiar with mathematics ?” (Ren)
Isolt readily answered proudly
“Ofc-”(Isolt)
“YOU DARE TO IGNORE ME ?! ANSWER ME !” (Alleyn)
Only to be cut of by her idiotic husband mid sentence.
“I am doing that” Ren answered with his usual monotone further fueling the Emperor's anger but he did not refute further since the creature complied with his request in it's own absurd way.
Isolt seeing the Emperor quiet down resumed her sentence.
“As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted.” Isolt pointed a meaningful glare towards the Emperor “Of course I am knowledgeable with mathematics of the highest level.”
“And that is?” (Ren)
“I can count to 100.000, add and subtract, multiply and divide numbers and the latest knowledge in Geometry” Said Isolt with her chest puffed up, truly proud with herself.
“Can you demonstrate ?” (Ren)
“I can, servants quickly bring to me some scrolls and ink”
Two figures hurriedly rushed out of the Grand Hall, to return with one of them holding a papyrus parchment and the other already processed bottle with a black substance made of minerals and a feather.
Isolt started demonstrating her skills in mathematics by solving various problems, each move of her hand filled with passion that amused Ren.
After some time passed in complete silence,while only the scribbling sound produced by the pointy feather scratching the papyrus could be heard, suddenly Isolt's eyes perked up, smiling she held up the scroll in her hands for Ren to read waiting at least for some praise.
Ren took a small glimpse at the scroll, indeed he was amused, there where some small mistakes here and there and some theories in geometry where completely false but still, clearly better than he initially expected.
“What do you think ? Isn't this level of mathematics just exciting ?” Said Isolt clearly disregarding once again the time and place or even the fact she was speaking in a hulking black creature that almost took her life moments ago.
“Indeed, amusing” (Ren)
“See see I told you that I know the highest level in mathematics”
She was ready to continue her pointless self praising but stopped before she begun, she eyed Ren for a moment before epiphany hit her.
“Servants! Quickly brink a seat for our guest! QUICKLY START CLEANING EVERYTHING, USE OUR BEST OILS AND AROMATICS IN THE PROSSES” Ordered Isolt with a cunning glean in her eyes.
Soon dozens servants filled the grand hall while two carried Ren's seat that it was more like a throne to fit his monstrous posture before they too run to help the other servants that where cleaning the tables and floor, removing all the food and the guard's corpses that everyone had already forgotten about in the process, only to be followed by another wave of servants that carried buckets full of aromatic oil using it to scrub all the possible surfaces they could reach and gifting small perfume bottles to the nobles to use as they had too heard Ren's reason for not removing his helmet.
The Royal family where no exception under the the cold Empress's gaze.
Soon enough the whole Grand Hall was sparkling clean again with various aromatic odors filing the air making everyone relax as a side effect.
Except Ren who was cursing under his breath truly even now not wanting to remove his Hard Suit as he understood the reason they started to cleaning and even going to lengths of using aromatic substances.
'Ship A.I., scan the surroundings for immediate threats that can occur while using the Light Suit'
“None immediate threat in the vicinity”
“You may safely proceed to remove the Hard Suit”
'Great …. '
Ren's lifeless gaze fell to Isolt's
'Cunning primitive child' He thought, as she indeed amused him the same way when a 2 year old neo human child conveyed its happiness and curiosity via omega wave.
'Since this is probably the greatest length they can take disinfecting and indeed the unpleasant odors where covered I might as well …. '
'Shut Down Program: Hard Suit'
'The atmosphere levels are normal allowing life and in the end, the army protocol does demand energy conversing as much as necessary …. '
'I'm literally making excuses to myself … COME ON REN, TAKE THE ATMOSPHERE ON LIKE A MAN ! FACE IT HEAD ON, CLAIM IT, BREATH IT, MAKE IT A PART OF YOUR BODY, EMBRACE IT AND STAND VICTORYOUS … BREATHING .. YES, STAND VICTORIOUS BREATHING!'
A notification popped up in his brain with a simple 'Program Shut Down Successful'
'Oh nononononoononooonoononoono NO NUUUUUUUUU'
While Ren was mentally “preparing” himself, every person in the Grand Hall, be it servant, noble or guard, witnessed the breathtaking spectacle occurring around Ren with bulging eyes and jaws dropped while the space around him started distorting and his Hard Suit started dematerializing into thin air while the dark masses of particles got quickly sucked up within the distortion in space.
Where the monstrous creature used to be, now there, a young man was standing, not any different than them, around 1,80 meters tall with long dark hair on top of his head caught in a boon while the surrounding hair seemingly a lot shorter following the military protocol.
It was mentioned that Ren was on the military correct ?
It was mentioned that he had some minor conflicts of interest with his officers correct?
Let's just say that his hair was one of these minor skirmishes of his …..
Appearance wise no more than 19 years old, with a slim figure wearing a dark suit that reached the under of his chin and the back of the ears and a healthy rosy complexion that started to turn pale by the minute, there was standing Ren holding his breath as his positive thinking had failed him.
Authorian stuff ahead :
So, believe it or not, it took me close to 8 hours writing this chapter, as promised, its bulky.