Chapter 71

I had been staring at the map in front of me for what felt like hours. I finally managed to remember to look up maps, but what I found was highly disappointing. For some reason, even in a city as large as Choska, the library didn’t have much in terms of maps covering the whole world. They had plenty of them covering the county and its neighbors, but it had naught that covered the kingdom, or even the duchy I was currently in.

I had picked the most expansive and detailed map I could find but it was still lacking in the kind of information I was looking for. I wanted to know the overall lay of the world. But then again, it wasn’t so bad to start small and build up on that.

The map showed land from edge to edge covered in what I assumed was a forest, with clearings for farmland around the cities and towns. Roads and rivers crisscrossed each other as they connected the towns and cities all over the map. There were no large water bodies of any kind in the map. No lakes, seas or oceans. It gave the impression that I was smack dab in the middle of a continent.

The map didn’t have a scale, so it was hard to tell just how large the counties were but given the time it had taken me to move from Yange to Sjuma, and then to Choska, it was safe to assume the map covered an area of close to four hundred kilometers from edge to edge. And there were lots of towns and cities in it, especially on the eastern edge. The less populated western edge was where the town of Yange was located while Choska was in the middle of it. From what I had gathered, the Duchies would be held further east, near the edge, in the largest city in the map, Makndre.

I had hoped that I would finally have enough information to stop relying too much on other people. I just didn’t feel comfortable going around asking people, even if we were close, about everything. Maybe I should start looking for an atlas. Did they have those? I wondered as I tried to cram all the names of cities and rivers and roads in the map. And failed, again.

I slumped down on the desk I was using, hoping that my throbbing head would ease away. Why was it so hard to remember some stupid names for stupid cities? Laying my head on my hand for comfort that the hard desk couldn’t offer, I realized that it was burning hot. It reminded me of how hot my laptop in college used to get whenever I played what was considered heavy games. It was then I realized that I had what could be considered an approximation of a computer in my head.

‘Clare, do you have a map of Mesily?’ I asked with glee.

‘No.’

That simple answered shuttered the little hope that had begun to blossom.

‘How could you not? You are like a supercomputer with all information about the Realm of Mesily. A map of the place should be an easy thing for you,’ I complained.

‘Maybe someone forgot to upload it,’ Clare replied flatly.

I couldn’t even think of anything to say to that. Just… the nerve they had. It had to be a joke. Why would anyone need to upload a map of the place? Wasn’t it all knowing? The System, that is.

‘How do you even gather information about Mesily?’ I decided to ask instead.

‘I do not.’

‘Then how do you, or the System, know things about Mesily?’

‘I just do.’

‘Shouldn’t you know everything then? How can you know about the species and their relationship, and not about the cities they build or the layout of the land?’

‘Species are part of the nature of things. Cities come and go.’

‘As do species. There must be some that have gone extinct before.’

‘They always come back, one way or another.’

‘What!? How? I …’ I just couldn’t comprehend what that exactly meant. With the little knowledge of evolution I had, I had a hard time figuring out how that would even work. Just thinking about it was increasing the degree of headache I was going through. Maybe talking with Clare hadn’t been the best idea. Then another thought struck me.

‘Clare, have humans gone extinct before?’

‘Yes.’

‘How?’

‘They all died.’

‘I get that. How did they die? What killed them?’

‘Catastrophes, wars, diseases, famines... to name a few.’

‘They were exterminated!?’ I asked in surprise. The others Clare had stated I could understand, and see happening, but war? That was a hard one to swallow. Clare didn’t say anything to that, maybe they didn’t deem it necessary to state the obvious. I decided to ask another question.

‘Are there species that have never gone extinct?’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

‘Yes.’

‘Which ones?’ I asked exasperatedly. Did I really have to ask for elaboration on each question? It was really beginning to irritate me a little. Okay, maybe not a little.

‘Dwarves, Elves and Fairies.’

‘Even the Animus?’ I had expected them to be one of the few species that never truly went extinct. What with how diverse they were.

‘The Animus as a species has never gone extinct, but all the subspecies have gone extinct at one point in time.’

I wanted to dig deeper into the whole species death and rebirth, but I had had enough surprises for the day. I wondered how long I had remaining before my time in the library ran out.

‘Clare, time?’

‘1536hrs.’

Mesily! I am soo so late. How could I have forgotten. I chastised myself as I quickly gathered what little belonged to me and made my way out of the library in a near dash. I was so focused on meeting up with the others that I ended up colliding with someone just outside the library, and we went down in a tangle of limbs.

It took several seconds for us to untangle from each. I quickly gathered my things and profusely apologized to the other person. As I meant to leave, I realized that the other person was familiar. And against my better judgement, I studied them a little more than I normally would have.

“You’re are Monty,” I said in recognition.

“Yes,” he replied simply.

“I’m—” I began but he cut me off before I could introduce myself.

“Hartie, my opponent for the semi-finals.”

Given how my quarterfinals had gone, I was of a mind to try and have a conversation with him. But I had other prior engagements that I was already late for, and I really didn’t like being late for anything. Especially if I made a promise.

“Again, I’m sorry about that,” I apologized again.

“No problem. It’s nothing really,” he said, waving off my apology.

With that sorted, I resumed my walk, albeit at a much slower pace. As much as it bothered me, I couldn’t afford to be involved in a collision again. The next person might not be as forgiving.

“I heard you were really good.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard that. I had been so focused in not colliding with other people that it came as a surprise when someone talked to me. Looking to my left, I found that Monty had somehow kept up with me. For a moment I entertained the thought of picking up the pace just to try and get rid of him. But then thought better of it, and grunted in acknowledge as I maintained my vigil.

I hadn’t asked much about him, especially not his fighting capabilities. I had just assumed since he made it to the semifinals, then he had to be really good. Or really lucky. I wasn’t even sure which one I was. The only thing I knew about him was his name and that he fought with a sword.

“What were you reading about in the library? I usually go to brush up my Skills, but with the matches, I haven’t had the time to visit,” he said as we took a corner, deftly avoiding a few passersby.

I wondered where exactly he was going, or if he was just following me around. I wouldn’t like that one bit. Realizing I hadn’t said anything, I quickly replied, “Maps.”

“Already planning ahead,” he said with a light chuckle, “I don’t know if I should be afraid or not.”

“It’s my first time outside my town, I was just curious,” I quickly replied. The idea that I could be presumptuous of my victory was revolting. I didn’t like coming off as someone who thought they had already won, even if that was the case. Not that it was in the current situation.

We walked in silence for a while before he said something that made me wish I had just run away from him in the first place.

“With the way things are going currently, I think it’s better for a nation to become a republic rather than stay as a monarchy. I mean, in the long run, republics are better off than monarchies. What do you think?”

Politics, why did it have to be politics.

I raked my brain for anything to say that wouldn’t raise any arguments from him. I didn’t know how strongly he felt about his own opinions on the matter, the best course of action would be to extract myself from the situation.

“I don’t really care,” I said, hopeful that he would take that and change the subject to something else.

His silence had me thinking I had successfully avoided an argument, but one look at him and I realized that I had said the wrong thing. Maybe taking one side might have been better.

“What do you mean you don’t care? This affects our lives, all our lives.”

“Does it?” I asked him, berating myself with how clipped a tone I had used. “For me, it doesn’t matter who is at the top, my life will go on largely unaffected.”

“What if the one top, as you say, enacts laws that directly affect your life. That’s what leaders do, they make decisions that more often than not end up affecting the common populace. If made to choose, which would you prefer?”

He really was pushing too much. Couldn’t he tell that I wasn’t interested in having a conversation on the topic? How is it a choice if I’m being forced to choose?

“Well, in that case, I prefer monarchies,” I said.

There was no way I wouldn’t. I was from old earth where there were few monarchies left, and most of those were mere ceremonial titles at best. If I was being honest, I dreamt of being a gallant prince, part of a dynastic family that ruled over large swaths of land. It’s not that I wanted people worshipping me, or that I wanted to rule people. No, my reason was simple. There were things I wanted to do in life and I could only accomplish them if I had both the resources and power afforded a monarch. Wealth alone was not enough. After all, laws could be passed that prevented me from exercising my deep dark desires.

“Monarchies are most always oppressive to the common people. Don’t you care about the wellbeing of the people?”

I had heard that there were kingdoms and empires in Mesily, I just assumed that most, if not all, people were okay with monarchies. How had I somehow gotten myself entangled in a political debate with one of the few people against them?

Had he forgotten the first thing I said to him? Pity, but I wasn’t going to repeat myself for him. “But not always.”

How had I not arrived yet? Was something messing with my sense of direction and making me walk around in circles? Or was it my current unwanted companion? Was there even a Skill that could do that?

“You’re betting on the slim chances that a benevolent leader will ascend to the throne. What about when a malevolent one ascends? He would bring all that down, plunging the kingdom into ruin. You would risk that?”

They. He shouldn’t have assumed the leader would be male, but I didn’t voice that. Instead, I said, “Even elected leaders can plunge a region into ruin.”

“But that rarely happens. Being elected means the majority of the populace agree he is competent enough to do what’s best for the nation.”

“Just because majority of people agree on something doesn’t make it the better choice.”

“I beg to differ—”

I didn’t feel like maintaining the conversation. Thankfully, we had made it to the Jibane Arena and I sighted Artina and the others emerging from the exit; I really was too late but it didn’t matter. I took that chance and quickly excused myself and rushed to them. I might have used [Fast Dash], that’s how much I wanted to get away from him.

I should have just agreed with him from the get go, that would have saved me a lot of trouble.