In a way, it felt almost anti-climatic for Yuki and yet also immensely dramatic to see the view stretched out before him. He was under the city, something that he never even considered a possibility. ‘An underground city with the poor, it feels like a cliché development, but this is supposed to be a fantasy setting. Atlantis is more of a high fantasy setting, but this makes it feel more low fantasy. With all of the conflict between the two different classes it’s a much darker setting. I feel like I’m in some dystopian setting rather than a fantasy one. Such a mixed-up genre…but this is reality.’

The Capital continued to meet his expectations and then promptly invert them to something completely different. The scale of the underground matched much of that with the visible city above. Buildings or supports obstructed much of his view of the city, but it gave him a clear sense of the size. The neighborhood he stood in was merely a small part of the massive structure. Everywhere he looked things looked old and run down, but patched up. It felt like things wanted to fall about, but something wouldn’t allow it to happen. Everything was against its will.

Yuki had so many questions about it. He tilted his head over to Ayumi, who actually seemed a little lost. It seemed that the view held her entranced as well. However, the look in her eyes was quite a bit different from the one in Yuki’s eyes. “Ayumi?” he opened, stretching his hand out to touch her hand.

Snapping a little back to reality, she shook off her thoughts. “Sorry, I was just a little lost in thought.” She looked over at Yuki. He was very close, staring in concern.

‘It’s unlike her to so freely admit that, but she’s back in her hometown. She must have old memories coming back, though down here seems a little odd since her life was above ground.’ Despite learning so much about her in the last few days, Yuki still didn’t feel like he knew her. It still felt like a wall was between them. “What sort of thoughts?”

“It’s nothing.” She pushed off from the ledge and started down the street. “Let’s get going. Now that we’re in the Capital, we just need to sneak into the palace.”

Yuki smiled a little happy to see the normal Ayumi back. She stared at him for a moment, giving him a ‘What are you smiling at?’ sort of look. It only made him grin wider. “Nothing.”

“Right…”

Chapter 239 – Morning without the Sun

Following the road only took them so far. Ayumi dragged them off the main street into extremely narrow passages between ruined homes, still used to live in. He guessed being underground shelter from the elements took on a different meaning.

Just as he passed through the housing-Yuki sandwich something grabbed his pant leg. He looked down to see a young man in rags sitting. “Spare a brass?” It caught him a little off-guard that he didn’t have a response. He had seen others like him begging for money. They seemed to be everywhere.

“Well…I-I-um…” He fumbled around his clothes as though looking for loose change, though he knew that he didn’t have any on him. They could all beg however much they wanted, but it made no difference.

Ayumi came back grabbing him by his arm. “We don’t have time to waste.” She dragged him away from the man. Her hand held onto him until they were out of sight.

“Th-thanks.” Yuki caught up to her and discovered a scarf around her neck and part of her face. He looked a little confused by it. “What’s with the scarf?”

“Low profile.”

“Doesn’t that make you stand out more?” He sighed a little remembering the reason. The identity of the Captain of the Royal Guard was a highly visible position according to Ayumi. Though he wondered if anyone down in the underground actually would recognize her. “What’s with the Haruo level briefness?”

However, he didn’t have time for an answer as two kids ran past him. They lightly brushed up against playing with each other. Both went up the narrow street. Yuki started to walk away with Ayumi when a rock hit him in the back of the head. “The hell hit me?” He turned around having to dodge another one.

It was the two kids. They were sticking their tongues out at him and yelling. “What the hell is this?”

“Why don’t you have money on you?!”

“Huh?” Yuki patted himself realizing that they just pick pocketed him. “You’re the one’s stealing! And you have the nerve to complain about not having anything to steal!”

“All rich people have fat purses!”

“Rich? Do I look rich? I’m just a teenager!”

“You ain’t dressed like us! So you have to have something on you!”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

His expression went flat, unable to believe that he was in a yelling match with thieves over not having something to steal. He wondered how he got into such a situation. “It’ll tell you not to judge people by their appearance! I’m just as poor as you!”

“Not likely! We actually have money!”

Now they were getting arrogant with him. He couldn’t believe it. “That you stole!”

“Still counts!”

Ayumi tugged on Yuki to get him moving. “Enough use of your Field to yell at street thieves. They deploy agents down here too. We don’t need them picking up your Field.”

“Right.”

An hour passed by wandering around the city. Yuki started to think they wouldn’t get out of the underground slums. The entire place felt like a labyrinth. Guidance from Ayumi made him thankful for having her along. He never would have made it anywhere without her. In fact, he was worried about losing sight of her, keeping close the entire time.

Still, he wondered about the history. The city’s appearance was old beyond any sort of measure he could come up with. Guessing seemed like a bad idea. “Hey Ayumi, what happened here?”

“What do you mean?” She kept moving forward, not allowing for a break. The distance they had to their goal was so small in comparison. She couldn’t let it go.

“You don’t just build something like this. The Capital looked like it had plenty of room to expand. So why is there such a massive underground? I could understand some ruins or old passages from long forgotten days, but this exceeds any sort of scale like that. People live here.”

“This used to be the Capital.”

She didn’t really explain anything with such an answer. All it did was fuel more ideas for him. He had too many stories in his head to develop ideas from. He needed something straight from her. “The Capital? What are you saying?”

“We call this the Old Capital.”

“The Old Capital? You make it sound like this used to be where everyone lived and then you moved. Did something happen?”

“You’re close. In reality, this is the third Capital.”

“Third?” Suddenly, his mind started to piece everything together. All of his guesses finally got narrowed down. He understood better what was going on now. “Which means there was a First and Second and what I saw on the surface was the Fourth? There some accident?”

“Correct. There have been four Capitals, each new one built on top of the old one. If you go even further down you’ll find the ruins of the ancient Capital. Some people still live there, but it’s mostly a den of criminals where only the military enter.”

“Taking the word ‘underground’ a little too literally, aren’t we?” For his joke, she tossed back a piercing gaze. Yuki quickly clammed up on his humor, returning to a serious tone. “What caused you to have to do that? This place looks too civilized to have been a natural disaster or war. Did a MP user do it?”

Ayumi didn’t answer immediately. It seemed she needed time to think about an answer. “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. It was disaster, fire and bad construction that destroyed the old cities. We built the top of the ruins each time. It’s impossible to see anymore, but the Capital is actually built on slightly higher ground because it is built on top of the old.

“It was through our power though that we helped with the rebuilding. Over time, each new Capital continues to push down the older parts until you have what you see now. Layers of ruins stacked on top of itself. Most were destroyed when it happened leaving only parts of buildings behind. But these ruins are more than a millennia old. In that time, people have settled here and built a new city.”

“Sounds rather incredible.” Images filled Yuki’s mind of their history. The more details he received the more elaborate the picture became. However, he came to a sticking point for him. “How come people live down here? It’s not as though you’re hurting for space above and with the power you possess it would be simple to make new homes for everyone.”

Ayumi came to a stop suddenly. Her gaze changed away from their goal and back to the slums. “Life is rarely equal or fair. The truth is that using your power requires orders or government permission, especially for something like construction. You can’t just do whatever you want.”

“But all of these people.”

“Can you imagine what sort of chaos we’d have if everyone with power was free to use it however they wanted? That’s why they are all in military service and under the government’s control.”

“So these people just go homeless?”

“They’ve found a life. They have their pride still.”

“Pride?!”

“They have a home they built with their own hands, not relying on anyone.”

Yuki had trouble agreeing with her. All of the stories he heard from her past painted a terrible picture of Atlantis. Everyone struggled or lived in fear. Those with power had no future or freedom. Those without power lived in fear. How could they live in such a state? Yet they did find a life, as she said. They even seemed fairly content with their situation. ‘It doesn’t seem right. Even like this. Is this really freedom and pride?’

Her eyes narrowed watching Yuki’s reaction. Grabbing his hand, she snapped Yuki out of his thoughts. “Come on, we still have a ways to go. You can’t try to impress your Japanese values on these people. Think of it like different worlds, this is life and you can’t sit in judgment of the way things run.”

“Ok.”

“Good, we’re getting close to being under the palace.” Ayumi pointed out a heavily fortified wall that ran through the entire underground from ground to ceiling. It was a massive structure with no windows. It almost seemed as if the palace was truly above it, then what they saw was the foundation stretching down for countless meters. “It’s still a bit away, so I’ll entertain everyone with another flashback.”

“Hey! You’re breaking the fourth wall!” complained Yuki. He jumped out in front of her. “And you’re stealing my gimmick! This is out of character for you. I’m the one that should be saying such things.”

“Fine. I’ll do it normally.” She motioned over to him like handing off something invisible.

He threw his fist into the air for excitement. “The next chapter will finally see the final piece of Ayumi’s mysterious past! Look forward to it!”

Ayumi’s face went a little flat watching his enthusiasm over it. “Feel better?”

“Yeah.” He wiped off the sweat from his forehead actually appearing relieved.

“I think you overdid it. I was only leaning on it a little, I think you destroyed it.”

“Never like that wall to begin with. On a more serious note…” Yuki flicked his index fingers back over to Ayumi passing the scene back to her (he is enjoying this too much).

Clearing her throat, Ayumi pulled things back into the correct tone. “This also used to be my home as well,” she declared as if it was nothing.

Yuki grimaced hearing her reply. “Sounds too forced. You need a better transition.”

“I’ll try to work on that,” she replied in a non-committal tone. Her gaze turned briefly down to the lower city from the bridge they walked. Below her, countless homes painted the ground. The whole place brought back memories for her. She tried to avoid them as much as she could, but nostalgia won out in the end. Thoughts of the time alone in the slums came back to her. Her life before he found her. When she was barely even a child, no longer a baby. The harsh reality she spoke of she knew too well.