1 Month Later
The young prodigy awoke from his slumber. Numa sat up on his bed and took a look around his room. He was staying inside one of the new housing districts near Prana. The room was well-designed with everything an individual would need from a wardrobe to a work desk with a chair. Numerous drawings and notes that the boy had made were plastered on the wall. Numa looked at his room's mirror to find a half-awoken boy with messy hair.
"I shouldn't have stayed up studying," Numa muttered as he rubbed his face. "But today is the first-day children my age are released from their therapy and can go to school."
He slapped his cheeks and stared at the mirror. "I have not met them for years. I wonder if some of them would still recognise me..."
The boy had stayed up late to review some of the materials he had learned. Numa had been feeling a sort of guilt from being the only Osmanian child above the age of five that was not taken by the Hydarians but rather hidden by the villagers of Ohm. He was not allowed to meet the kidnapped children after they were brought back as the adults had told him that they were traumatized and in need of specialised care before they would be released into society. To make up for it, he wondered if he could help the children adapt to the new school curriculum. He was in awe of Manusya's leadership, and he was going to see if he could follow in his footsteps.
Numa had been staying in this new house for the past month or so. He was initially insistent on staying with Manusya, but the latter told him that he was going to be a lot busier with the government and told Numa to fill his own time. The boy was dejected but understood that he should not be a burden to the Aksha. Thus, Manusya gave him a house to stay in. The houses were now installed with proper sewage systems and all the other miscellaneous additional features like air conditioning. Numa had been spoiled by the comfort that this house could bring. There was also one other advantage of owning your own house...
"Numa!" The voice of an old man called him from the first floor of the house. "Come down, boy! Your breakfast is ready!"
"Coming, Elder Van!" Numa shouted.
Elder Vanir had left his post in Ohm to live with Numa. He was the boy's guardian in the village, and the concept of village elders was starting to become obsolete as different tribes and villages were starting to intermingle with one another. In the future, this great city would have every one of them living next to each other, and the barriers between tribes would be broken down.
Numa ran downstairs to the dining table located near the kitchen. The two of them had taken great care to decorate the house's interior with their personality and flair. There were artwork and wooden sculptures specific to the village of Ohm—which were mostly depictions of the Flame Deer that was prominent near the village.
"What's for breakfast?" Numa asked as he sat down.
"Rice and fried eggs!" Elder Vanir said as he set down wooden plates on the table.
"Rice! they go well with anything," Numa exclaimed.
Manusya had discovered that the spaceship still had some remaining seeds of plants in the cryo chambers. He had been introducing some Earth crops to the Osmanian farmlands. The plant life on this planet was surely born from the ones on Earth after the spaceship terraformed the lands, but it had evolved for millennia and the abundance of aether in the atmosphere had shifted the trajectory of the evolution of all flora and fauna. Thus, the seeds that Manusya introduced were truly the purest and progenitor forms of the plants.
The two of them ate together in silence. It was rude to speak while you ate in Osmanian culture. After the two of them finished their meal, Elder Vanir looked at the boy.
"So you will go to school today?" Elder Vanir asked.
"Well, to be more specific, I will be going to one week of school today! The Aksha has this magical device you put in your head that transports you into another realm where you can experience another reality. Time also moves differently there! so one week in that world is only three hours in our world. That's the limit for a single day at least! And since the device is limited in numbers, we are all taking turns between the military using it, the adults using it, the—" The boy started a rapid-fire explanation.
"Stop stop stop!" Elder Vanir shouted as he waved his hands. "I do not understand all these new 'technology' things that I have been hearing about. It's something that you youngsters will be more familiar with."
Elder Vanir looked around the house with a smile. "I'm just happy we can have such an incredible house for ourselves. Hearing about the promises laid in the constitution, my hope for Osma is rejuvenated." He looked at the boy smiling. "You are our future. I know you are close with the Aksha, you must promise to serve him well."
Numa sighed. "I get it!" he got up from his table and walked to the front door. As he opened the door, there was a piece of paper folded on the ground.
"Oh!" Numa grabbed the paper. "It's the newspaper!" He tossed it to Elder Vanir who caught it excitingly.
"Now this thing I certainly like! To know what is going on around the new city and the different villages every morning like this, Aksha's wisdom is once again proven by the creation of this thing." Elder Vanir unfolded the piece of paper, black and white photos and words were printed on it.
"Can you even read it, Elder Van? They just introduced the alphabet..." Manusya smirked.
"You rascal!" Elder Van scrunched the paper in anger. "I may be old and out of touch, but I managed to learn the alphabet without going into that other world you were talking about! I'm a fast learner!"
Numa laughed. "Alright alright!" he walked outside. "See you later!" he closed the door behind him.
Numa looked at the rows and rows of houses in this new neighbourhood. The Osmanians had perfected the workflow for the mass production of the houses with the help of robots and nano printers, houses were being completed nearly every day and they truly accelerated the development of the districts. Now, other essential buildings such as the central government building were being constructed.
"Good morning, Numa!" A middle-aged neighbour greeted him.
"Good morning, uncle! Are you going to work?" Numa asked.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Yes! My aptitude test recently showed that I am fit to work under the Seat of Sustenance, they assigned me as the Head of Food Distribution! I'm heading to the lifetree." He replied.
"Congratulations! Then, I must get going to the school." Numa said while smiling.
The two parted ways and Numa started walking. The roads were finished and have truly completed the look of a neighbourhood. Streetlights had also been installed to illuminate the dark environments at night. And one could still hear the insects of the forest chirping and greeting the new dawn. Manusya's ambition was to create a green and sustainable city that would co-exist with nature. In the future, the city would be a majestic sight coupled with the serene beauty of the natural environment blended into it.
Numa saw his neighbours heading to work on this fine morning and he greeted every one of them. Numa also saw some children who had been returned to their families walking towards the school. They all seemed...reserved and quiet. Some showed signs of happiness in their eyes after being freed from their imprisonment in the fortress, but a hint of trauma could be seen on their faces. Numa refrained from greeting any of that children and walked towards the school, which was located near the neighbourhood for ease of access.
Numa and the other children approached the school. This first school was a larger version of what a house looked like from the exterior. It did not look like it would even have space for classrooms or places for children to play around in. But this was because the real school would be conducted inside the Chrono VR. A lot of the processes of this new society were inside a virtual environment. In the future, Convocation had planned to have more things built and held in the real world. But for now, to accelerate the education and development of the Osmanian intellect, virtual reality was used.
A kind Osmanian woman stood outside of the school and greeted the children. When she noticed Numa, she smiled brightly.
"Numa! Our prodigy." The woman ruffled the boy's head and whispered in the boy's ears. "Good luck today. Please be kind to your juniors."
Numa frowned but nodded. He knew that he would be ahead of everyone by a lot, but he wanted to experience living and playing with children his age. It was also important to make connections with the next generation. Numa and hundreds of children entered a large open space where sofas were prepared in rows. Numa took a seat and put on the Chrono VR helmet that was attached to the seat.
Within a few seconds, Numa was transported into another environment entirely. Something that was beyond any scale he had seen before. The school inside this virtual environment was truly enormous. The main building seemed as tall as a mountain, and one could see a vast forest surrounding the school. Various facilities could also be seen with signs pointing towards each one, like swimming pools or gyms. It was the ultimate academy out of fiction. The other children had used virtual reality before, their therapy process was in VR, where they indulged themselves in playing and coming to terms with their trauma. But seeing this new school they were going to attend, their eyes still went wide with awe and surprise.
"Hey, you!" A voice called out behind Numa.
The boy turned around to see a group of children in front of him.
"Me?" Numa pointed at himself.
"We heard you are the boy who did not get taken by the Hydarians." The boy who was the leader of the pack said.
"Y-yes," Numa said, the boy's tone was harsh, he sensed something wrong.
A girl next to the boy came forward. "We heard you are the closest person to the Aksha and educated by him personally, huh?" The girl asked with a rough tone.
'Are they going to bully me?' Numa thought in his head. He had predicted the possibility of such a thing happening since he was the only person who did not suffer as the other children did.
All of the children bowed down to him. Numa jumped back in surprise. "Please take us under your wing!" All the children said in unison.
Numa smiled awkwardly. He did not know what was happening.
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"—That's all for today's meeting." Manusya closed the files in front of him and picked them up as he stood up from his seat.
The rest of the Convocation members also stood up, bowed to Manusya and walked out of the door politely. They were inside the hole underneath the life tree that was constructed to be the temporary government building. The Convocation just had their weekly meeting where they discussed the state of affairs in their respective department.
"It seems all the populace have been assigned to jobs now," Evui said, she was the only convocation member who remained. "The Seat of Education has done a fine job in providing the educational curriculum for the adult Osmanians. It seems some promising individuals were interested in becoming scholars as well," she said.
"Yes, the construction of a university and the establishment of the academia is on our list. Anyway, sorry Evui, I have somewhere I need to be." Manusya replied.
She nodded. "Of course, Aksha. Then, I will see you tomorrow." Evui walked out of the meeting room.
With everyone gone, Manusya sat back down in his seat. The professionalism in his face melted into a tired, worried look. Something was on his mind. With the AR interface inside his eye, Manusya brought up an X-Ray of his own body. The picture was focused on one particular part near his heart. To be more specific, there were two hearts, one normal and one smaller.
"Why do I have this organ..." Manusya muttered.
The man's worry stemmed from the inquiry he made a few days ago. With some of the workload lessening gradually, he was able to refocus his attention on some side matters. More specifically, he was wondering if he could utilize aether himself and perform magic. Erectus had stored some of the dead bodies of Hydarians that the Ohm hunters felled in the fortress attack, one of those bodies belonged to Esteban q'Saul, the Hydarian Baron he killed. He still had some complicated feelings about killing another human being like that, but that was not the main focus of his inquiry. He was finally able to analyse why the humans of this world were capable of weaving aether from dissecting that body. The result shocked him.
The new humans of this planet had evolved an entirely new organ that was located near the heart, a sort of second heart that seems to be the organ that would store and utilize aether. It was odd, but since animals and plants also evolved, Manusya thought it only made sense that humans would as well. But what shocked him was that after examining his own body, he had the same organ inside of him.
"This is just impossible. I have been asleep in the cryosleep for tens of thousands of years. The humans who developed those organs were born with them due to their ancestors' evolution. One could not just suddenly have that organ, you must be born with it. Why in the hell do I have it?" Manusya said to himself.
This was a question that continuously eluded his logic and reasoning. It was completely impossible. He was the perfect preservation of the previous human through the cryosleep, it was impossible that he had the organ that the new humans evolve to have.
He ruffled his air and slumped on the table. "I can't make sense of this. I can't concentrate on anything else." This discovery was haunting his very fibre of being.
Manusya leaned on his chair and looked at the ceiling, which was essentially the life tree.
"There's only one possibility..." Manusya muttered.
Sapien. The missing artificial intelligence must know something about this, but it had been missing for who knew how long. But there was hope, another discovery that Manusya made in his interaction with Gavrin in Hydaria possessed another revelation.
"The prominent religion of the continent, Yupiefism, worshipping the goddess Seykpien...they must be the answer to where the AI is," Manusya said to himself.
The name was too similar to Sapien and the Osmanian goddess of life, Suwe'pien. But unlike the Osmanian polytheistic seven gods, Yupiefism worshipped only one god, Seykpien, the god of creation.
"What the hell did you do, Sapien..." Manusya sighed, his mind was in disarray. "But this changes things. It seems I will have to accelerate my plan for the secret trading agreement with Gavrin," he muttered, noting his conversation with Gavrin last month about establishing a hidden trading network between Gavrin's town and Osma.
"There's one more person that might know something. The Druids, or rather, Mata." He scratched his chin in deep thought. The Druid leader had avoided his questioning so far about how she was able to predict his coming.
"If I were to trust her and have her be a part of the new Convocation, I can't let this secret stay buried. She must tell me the truth. Or else." Manusya said as he furrowed his brows in anger. He sighed and tried to calm down.
Manusya stood up from his chair and picked up his files. "Well, that's for later. I have to go to the military demonstration General Ahmi is conducting today," he said as he left the room.