History Is Rich

"..." Ciemnosc looked around everywhere as soon as he stepped out, though there was no walls nor a protective array at the perimeter of this section of the mountain, with one of the largest platform surpassing those and any other Creature-renting services' platforms, there was no actual platform pathway to help anyone come up to this point while there was indeed a few warnings of how vip this place is.

Basically for any student, to come here was the same as courting death, and being a teacher or a higher-ranked staff of the academy didn’t make it any better. In a way, if wanted to, this place could become an illegal party with tons of diabolical acts happening, and only if this Tini and the so-called Old Brother invited them in could even the headmaster get in. According to the information given to Ciemnosc by the Rocaloi Academy, even, he could only get here if he was invited; not if he gained access in any other way other than by being invited by certain 2 vip people - making him wonder about it and now here he was.

Only…

“Wow! Right? You were gonna wow right- just like- just now, right?!” Tini hopped a bit, her hands into a grasped, intertwined fingers stance as she stopped Ciemnosc in his tracks, who was calmly taking in the sight of the buildings on this platform.

On one side of it, to the west, there were the 2 buildings with each pair having a different kind of style while there was a large wide gap in between them. There were only 4 buildings while the 2 differently styled buildings were very large, compared to the entire platform, which was second only to some buildings that are very important for important business of the academy and for emergencies and stuff. They still only occupied ⅕ of the entire platform.

“Mmhmm… But why does it not have a name?” Ciemnosc nodded by compromise, stepped forwards and away from the bright-eyed Tini who followed his body wherever it went with her body turning around and her eyes as if stuck on him.

“We just don’t wanna, we call it ‘workshop’. That’s it~.” Tini said, walking towards the northeast of the platform, where the buildings with floral designs and vines-like images everywhere were making this platform’s most colorful and beautiful image compared to the other 2 buildings towards the south of the platform.

There were ‘peaceful’ floral designs on the other 2 buildings with a somber green color as its only color. From those 2 pairs of buildings one seemed to be rather tranquil and more ‘soft’, possibly used for spending the night around as well. While the other was quite tall itself, and seemed to be used for any ‘heavy stuff’ that Tini and that ‘Older Brother’ are focused on in whatever great Craftsmaking profession there to be.

“Workshop, I see. These are yours, I suppose.” Ciemnosc spoke, his voice calm as he made Tini feel good just hearing him, or anyone who did for that matter. She turned around while still walking, backwards this time, and nodded at him before starting to talk with her right arm and hand then pointing at her own 2 buildings before turning around to walk normally again and do the same with her left arm and hand.

“Our buildings are the same all the time, though we can change them however we want, and that is even adding more buildings and the like. As you can see, building buildings isn’t the academy’s forte, and since the mobilization of so many of our powerhouse and important matters to the mountain - the academy has had only these 4 buildings since a loooong time ago.”

Tini looked at Ciemnosc, proud of her history lessons and having her first student, perhaps. Ciemnosc looked at her as she brought him over to the center, where a small totem-wall-like thingie remained standing in solitude for a long time, and that was something Ciemnosc himself had seen and sensed but ignored since it seemed just like a monument.

While dragging him from her 2 buildings to the middle like a dear puppy, Tini also began explaining a little more to their new member, breaking the ‘tradition’ of only 2 remaining the ‘leaders’ of this workshop.

“These buildings are not only old, but they are also pretty much history from our eminences, it was these eminences who built them!” Tini spoke, her eyes never shining so bright. “When the academy was just being built down below, and because even back then, our academy has had major headaches finding people good in the building - our 2 eminences built these 2 for themselves.”

“I know they seem little, but trust me Ciemnosc, they are mooore than enough for me and for Older Brother. The work we do isn’t always heavy, obviously. But when we do something really important, at least to ourselves, and with the academy funding us, we can even take the whole day for months of just coming up and down the floors of our buildings. And when you think about it, they seem too big even for 200 people to be in at the same time, now imagine only me.”

“It feels really lonely, especially those times, I sometimes don’t feel like I’m in or part of the academy because of that…” Tini said and her eyes went a little low as she did, her steps walking forth and her right hand’s grasp on his left wrist softening up a lot. Ciemnosc looked on, his eyes going from their hand-wrist connection before his eyes lifted their gaze from there to her slightly lowered head and chin sinking down.

“I can work something around.” Saying this, Tini seemed to wake up, she pouted and didn’t seem to take it for real as it wasn’t the first time someone offered their services to build more on this platform, but it just never improved and never fitted in with the platform and the other platforms…

“...” Ciemnosc didn’t put any attention to it and just focused on the monument that barely had some inches of thickness for it to be able to maintain itself without any help from columns or at least an array.

“Hee,” covered with a mantle that hid its whole appearance, the monument seemed to be the figure of a person or various, while the base of the monument was as if a large pike went through the platform but the latter didn’t have anything sticking out from below. When Ciemnosc tried to see if it was attached to the mountain, hidden within the platform itself, his Spirit Sense lost the ‘base’ of this pike sticking from below the monument.

Rustle- swash.

Tini picked a corner of the mantle, light-dull brown color- Ciemnosc immediately got to see what it was that this monument did for Tini to be so full of joy at sharing with someone else that is new to the academy and the workshop.

“Tadaa~,” Tini raised her arms high while Ciemnosc’s eyes were all over the monument, feeling somewhat weirdly familiar with it.

The monument consisted of simply 2 people, one male and the other female; they had appearances that were really unique and Ciemnosc felt as if he had already somewhat imagined these images before, just that he had not seen them before in the slightest.

One male and one female; the female had black hair, somewhat ‘alive’ as the monument seemed to be especially good in describing such with just a solid, rocky appearance and not a single word for explanation or connotation added. She had a very obvious and ‘wide’ pale white layer of hair hanging from her hairline on her forehead on the left side to the left side of her head, though it seemed perfectly capable of just hiding half her face as well.

She had a serious and not severely beautiful but enchanting face, it was a really serious kind though as if her eyes that were already small along the rest of her face were just hereditary from a successful tyrant who fucked the most brain dead gorgeous angel in the entire world and then this beauty as the monument itself was given birth to.

And unlike any other self-important statues Ciemnosc had seen and also read about before - this one seemed so real! Not only with his sensation of somehow ‘knowing’ their images, but also in the same way that her hair and whole body seemed to move and be more than just a rock polished so well into a well defined monument. Which, even if it was, the time would have corroded it already even with the best arrays in existence and it was just the same even if the best items were used.

All in all, it somehow gave Ciemnosc the certainty that this was the real image of a person and just needed flesh and bones— besides many other things —to be truly ‘alive’. Yet, it did not lose its purpose. To just give that image to whoever saw it.

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

She wore ‘loose’ robes that could’ve been murky, colorless green, or swamp green for that matter, they seemed to easily flutter even if there wasn’t wind, but there was also a kind of ‘ultra power’ in her that made her look as if she was charging to whoever was in front or generally in front of the monument where she was facing.

And even with Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense, he couldn’t visualize the rest of the monument on his own. He had to actually step around in order to see the rest. And when he did, it was beyond magical. Her back’s robes were fluttering, but from the back, it looked more like a dress, while she was also being supported by the male’s left forearm and hand on her lower back - not for need, but for actual support.

‘A couple?’ Ciemnosc thought as he went back to the front after giving the lady a ton of looks, enough for him to visualize for a long time. Standing right beside Tini, she had a look that easily exposed how she saw Ciemnosc’s actions to be doubtful. What was the big thing about the monument other than ‘that’ which he didn’t even know yet? Aiyoh…

In Ciemnosc’s eyes, the male was another person, from which the monument could only be called with something like ‘2 eminences monument’; he saw a clearly ordinarily looking and much older person than the female monument part. He already had white hair, and it was a lot but still in the ‘short’ length for males spectrum that made him look just right.

“She is my ancestor, Lady Calisneia. She made it clear in her records for her descendants to never call her something old, like legend, ancestor, history, or even madam, and that was even when she was married to him,” Tini said, voice clear and with a tone of filial love.

“!!” Ciemnosc’s mind thundered however, and he also didn’t hide it as he turned to face Tini, who looked back at him with her side eyes just as if she was waiting for him to have this reaction. She made an effort to not smile, which she did manage to endure, and then began explaining after clearing her little throat already.

“She is indeed the author of the Mirror of Equinox, the ‘foremother’ of all alchemy enthusiasts that have long since gone extinct over the world, and only fanatics remain. Except for me, her successor and descendant from long long ago.” Tini calmly said, her words continuing as she pointed with her right hand to the other person, the male part of the monument.

“He is her husband, Esplendo. Mhm, mhm, I know…” Tini didn’t even bother trying to look at Ciemnosc directly to know he was having another such reaction, she continued craftily, the prideful young girl. “The author of the Redecorating an Entirely Lost Heart, the book that somehow made it into Lady Calisneia’s hand close to her deathbed when suffering from the world. And thanks to it, she actually not only managed to survive but also breakthrough from realm to realm until only she could be called the one to have reached the peak!”

Tini looked at Lady Calisneia’s figure on the monument and thought hard about it. But he still couldn’t connect the fact that she was possibly the most powerful in the entire world forever. And just like her story, all of this, her records of being such a person not just in alchemy but also in cultivation - were all lost forever.

“I know~,” Tini had a prideful smile, which she vaguely tried to resist before starting to debrief Ciemnosc and cool his brain off. “The major organizations traveled all around the world to search for records about Lady Calisneia. They only found alchemy recipes and completely ‘unheard of’ defective methods and ideals that they had to get rid of them. I’m sure you still got to know a very small part of her story, am I right?”

“...” Ciemnosc didn’t respond and only looked deep towards Lady Calisneia’s monument. Tini followed his gaze and then stood right shoulder to his left shoulder before continuing once she made herself at ease. “The few ancestors of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect that were okay at Craftsmaking were cowards from the academy.”

“However, back then, the academy had to take a long time in order to start all over again. While the major organizations mistook our academy back then as just another, a new emerging force that tried to not ‘pay the rent’ to become their little pets to send to death when warring.” Tini’s voice became unmistakably but unheard of - cold, her eyes as well, even somewhat lost as she continued on and on.

“Lady Calisneia was injured at those times. She didn’t just disappear or meet with a tragic death at the hands of nature. Nature may redeem, but it doesn’t take away like they do.” Tini said, this time, viciousness was present in her whole self and not just through her throat.

“Them? As in all people? Like anyone living within nature?” Ciemnosc commented while still fully focused on Lady Calisneia’s image. From which Tini responded by looking at him with fully opened eyes, still shining but now shining differently as they fell on him. With a breath coming into her lungs, she spat out slightly, “Yeah…”

“Ahem,” after a little bit of this ‘break’, Tini cleared her throat and resumed her explanation. “She healed with Esplendo’s unknown help back then, who was already being recruited. Back then, she took several tens of years to come back. But in that journey back to power and to the could've-be-founders of the academy, she became so powerful to the point she could finally begin to understand the truths behind this array.”

“You thought you were the only one who wanted to know everything about this array? Heh,” Tini looked once again with side eyes at Ciemnosc to her right, her appearance too seductively cute, which Ciemnosc gave a good glance without shame before returning all his focus to the pair of incredible people as monuments…

“From then on- ahem it gets a bit boring, let me shorten it for you.” Tini cutely cleared and massaged her throat, resuming right after. “Ah yeah~. Afterwards, when Lady Calisneia finds her way back, only to not only not finds the academy becoming only ashes and rubble, but that there was even a much larger amount of people moving around and behaving as if they were already an organization than when she least visited that place.”

“In the end, Lady Calisneia and Esplendo studied together for a few more hundreds of years until he perished, as even when he was also way above the Obsidiafying realm back then, he had nowhere near as long a lifespan as she did. During those years… Lady Calisneia finally decided to marry him, which created the situation of now where I and Older Brother are their descendants.”

“Oh, don’t worry. We don’t make any kind of ‘following the tradition’, so we don’t have both: incest and the occasional reunion of their bloodline. Though there were quite some who got together, those are rare experiences through the generations of these few hundreds of thousands of years.” Tini said, blushing a little as she talked about the obvious and ‘reassured’ Ciemnosc.

“When Lady Calisneia married Esplendo, it was only in thanks to the ‘kind act’ of saving her life, without him knowing, hee hee.” Tini shook her head as if she couldn’t believe such a thing, but was still incredible nonetheless. She went on still. “They ended up having a son and a daughter, from then on, the son always seems to have a great connection with all flora, while the daughter seems to be the ‘goddess’ of alchemy!”

“And when studying together, their learning from each other increases to the point that it becomes better after several generations. As of right now, at least 10,000 generations of such had gone by, we don’t put a number but math is math, and those are the numbers when doing a little math. Still, though… we are horrible architects, hahaha…”

“...” Ciemnosc didn’t laugh with her, even though she had such lovable laughter, and her eyes narrowed enchantingly. He looked at her with a grin though. And that seemed like it was enough for her to continue laughing a bit and a bit more each time. It was just a little grin though.

“From then on, even if the son from before had a daughter, she would actually not have an herb and plants connection but an alchemy genius instead. The same with the other party, if the daughter of before had a son, he wouldn’t have alchemy genius but a flora connection instead. It’s magical, really even more when considering how it is always a son and daughter every other new generation. My father was great at flora, and aunty - Older Brother’s mother was the alchemy genius of the past generation.”

“Oh,” Tini raised her hands, gesturing for Ciemnosc to stop even if Ciemnosc wasn’t going to speak up right now to ask. “And before you question me. The parents of the new generation of the 2 eminences’ descendants usually have children only when they are middle-aged, about 1,700 years old more or less. Others do so even when being just a few hundred years before their deathbed time comes…”

“But my parents had me before suffering deviation while cultivating together, I was a baby when I watched them push me away, sliding through this very platform with Older Brother picking me up and driving me away…” Tini said, suddenly falling silent, dropping a kind of silence that was like metal suddenly crashing down at someone from the skies and without mercy…

“Sniff, sniff… Older Brother is a good brother, his parents passed away a thousand years ago, and he can only give birth with the saved-up seed that the academy asks from all male descendants of the 2 eminences when being a youngster as he couldn’t find a partner. But he has become one of the most incredible flora geniuses of the academy’s history in return, I just think he is lonely too since he spends most of his time researching and studying.”

“I said,” Ciemnosc tapped her right shoulder with his left palm, “I can help with that, just let me show you in a few days. I’ve got some free spare time until things start moving out there.”

“Oh… thank you, Cici. I’ll be glad to receive your help then, oh and good luck out there, don’t get killed okay?” Tini responded, her small tears now gone as her slightly red-flushed face looked back at him in gratitude even if his architectural skill were also meeeeh.

“Oh, about that, I’m also gonna train you and that ‘Older Brother’ whenever I return from missions. I think. There might be times when you’ll need such. You are all after all completely new to the art of even battling to the death, let alone survival or war.” Ciemnosc said, and he could already see the horror on Tini’s face as he mentioned training cultivation perks. Bwhahahahaaa!

…