Charlotte looked at the map again once the speed was constant, memorizing the places they were going to be traveling to.
"We are in Roraillevante and going to Anvillery now, I guess... One or two hours of travel? It doesn't appear that much." She mused after doing her math and comparing the distance.
"No, it will take us more than three hours." Gut disillusioned her.
"Why? There's only around a hundred and twenty kilometers betwee the two."
"Yeah, but the most difficult thing is to get out of this city, the jam and any kind of accident means we would be stuck for a long time."
"Oh, right. I'm not used to travel by car, you know?"
"I can see it, heh."
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Going out of the city took them almost three hours as Gut had never gone by car, even with apps that helped with directions, it was cumbersome going out of it. Once out of the city, they took the highway to Anvillery, stopping in the middle to have some lunch, three servings for Charlotte, as per the norm.
Once in Anvillery, Charlotte asked if they could sightsee the city, receiving a positive answer, they would be staying the night anyway.
They went to the city's plaza, looked at the monuments and entered the walls. All the while, she was seated in the wheelchair pushed by Gut. They had a local dish from Charmevory, as they shared the same roots as Igny. The main language spoken in this part of Igny was gerciesse, the spoken language of the Union of Charmevory. It was one of the five languages Charlotte was proficient in, so there wasn't much of a problem while communicating. They taught gerciesse in the school, though, it was mandatory as the two were in the Lurian Alliance.
The next day they continued their travel to Paversia.
Stopping from time to time to eat, sightsee a city or by the military to check on things and warn them of dangerous places and individuals they might encounter en route, they traveled the road.
The city of Serquille also had walls and a plaza, of which Charlotte toured with delight. It also had an old castle that was off limits, something she found appalling. "How could they close it to tourists!" She kept on bugging Gut all day after being told that.
She wanted to go to the big Cathedral in there, too, but the day was already over and they had to go away the next day.
On Thignon, the biggest city of Igny and most populated one, wasn't a plaza, something that left Charlotte wondering. There was a castle and its walls that were allowed to the public. She marveled at the impressiveness of the castle. It had so many rooms and halls, she could get easily get lost in them, with no way of escaping, she told Gut.
They couldn't enter the Cathedral either, there wasn't enough time to do it all.
They took three days to get to Memouviles, Igny's capital. Though more modern looking, she wondered why Thignon wasn't the capital but Memouviles was. Gut told her that in Memouviles were so many conflicting powers and thugs, making it a bad international symbol. Thignon was made for the purpose to be the capital, to make it seem impressive to the world, boasting of its technological superiority.
There was a castle and walls surrounding the city. Though all of them artificial, to make it look ancient to the incautious ones who didn't know better.
The Cathedral, though, was magnificent, and Charlotte loved how colorfull and awe-inspiring it was. Almost all of Igny followed the same religion as in Gercia, a monotheistic religion, the Oamere Faith. It followed the teachings of Kilbel, the son of The Creator. In few words, the sun was Him, the two moons his protectors and Kibel his messenger who had shared nine commandments with the ignorant folk of the past.
Charlotte was an atheist, so she didn't think much of religion, what she knew of was the effort the people of the past had made building this Cathedral. She appreciated and valued the constructs of men above anything else, she was an inventor, after all. She had created the first of her seven machines, and had no plans on stopping soon. She had made that decision for some time now.
The next and final part of the drive was the hardest, the road was neglected and with many holes, making it a chore for Charlotte's still weak body. She could walk already but only for some minutes before being out of fuel. She had tried to hurry up her recovery, but it had only been seven days since she 'woke up'.
She wasn't idle, though. She had made some progress within the External Projection. She now had made four schools, as per the game she played. The earth, which was only gathering dust and moving them around. The water, which was almost the same as earth but with water particles, it was harder as she had to be selective of what she gathered and what not. In a place dry enough, she couldn't do anything at all.
The third, fire, was done after her second day in the car. She had asked Gut to buy her a lighter and within the colorless space made Prism record and try to simulate its process without the lighter. It was harder than the time she had with water as there was needed a spark to successfully make it, not before selecting the oxygen and the volatile ones, making them stay put before the spark. They also needed to be continuously called in as the fire consumed them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The hardest, though, was lighting. She needed to make two points apart have their electrical properties oposite, and make the air between them have an electrical resistance low enough for electricity to be produced. Even then, as the electric charge was used, she needed to keep a constant input or movement of electrons. Something she didn't do but Prism did, she still wasn't sure about going that small of a size. Prism said that it was fine, but she didn't want to risk it yet.
Before getting to Desnoy, they were stopped twice. Once by the military, telling them that the road was insecure. And the other time by some crazy dude that almost crashed with their car. After stopping the car, Gut went to see if everything was okay, the crazy dude took out a gun.
Gut reacted instantaneously. He stepped right as he turned his body slightly, out of the gun's barrel line of fire and thrusted his right hand to the gun. He then lifted the gun up, the man following as he didn't want to let go of it and shooting at the sky. The man was then hit hard on his stomach, finally letting go of the weapon.
After being beaten by Gut, the man started puking on the spot and said incomprehensible things neither Charlotte nor Gut understood. Gut then approached the man again and hit him on the neck, making him fall unconscious. Putting the man under the tree he had crawled out from, Gut saw there were some comunicating devices.
Shaking his head, he destroyed everything related to technology, leaving only the food and medicines intact and made his way back to the vehicle.
Once inside and driving again, Charlotte asked after some minutes of silence:
"Hey, what's wrong with that man?" She said without looking away from her gaming device.
She was startled by the sudden fight and fire of the gun, but kept herself quiet, lest the man tried to do something to her, even if Gut was there, it was better to remain put and safe.
"I believe he is being backed by some insurrection force, I told you before there are many of those in Igny." He answered without looking away from the road.
"Yeah, I was scared for a second... I never thought some beggar looking guy would have a gun."
"They are the lot you need to be more cautious about. Even if they do not have a gun, they would resort to anything and not care about the consequences."
"I see..." She finally looked away from her game and out of the window.
She had also been getting used to guns, Gut had made it so. Saying that she needed some personal protection if anything went wrong. She could already load her personal weapon without trembling fingers, and disassemble and reassemble it to give it some maintenance. She had always been good while building things so there was no problem on that regard.
The hardest and what she had more difficulty was firing it. She couldn't aim well and her vision turned hazy every time she wanted to. Even if she wanted to, her subconscious still refused to do it.
"Hey," she started after looking out of the window for however long, " have you killed before?"
Gut looked at her for a split second, wondering how to answer that kind of question. He decided to be truthful with her, it wouldn't do her any good otherwise. Looking to the road again, he answered.
"Yeah." He said without much emotion.
"Heh, " she found it funny, that it could be said so casual, so sympathetic even, as if it was a normal thing in the world, "how was it?"
"The worst." He spoke with a commanding tone, wanting to finish the talk.
She did it no heed, though. "Tell me, please? I want to be ready, too."
She sighed after not getting an answer. It's not that easy, then.
They slept on the road that night, on the back most seats of the vehicle. The seats could be used as beds, she realized for the first time. They were on the sides of the car, a blank space in the middle of it. While they were seats, if one accommodated them right, they would still be comfy enough. The middle seats could also be bent to make more space, to put their heads on.
"We will be arriving at Desnoy tomorrow morning, after two more hours of travel. There are some provisions we need first so we shall sleep there too." He said as he finished getting ready their beds.
Charlotte nodded and tried to sleep promptly, something she couldn't do for an hour, she kept on thinking about killing someone. She fell asleep without getting an answer to her questions.
On Desnoy, they toured its ancient citadel, something remaining from time immemorial. Old but well-maintained houses and roads paved with stone, she felt she was in a middle aged town, or a renaissance one at most. There was no castle but the burg was beautiful even then. After getting the provisions they lacked and resting the night, they continued their travel.
Narmaisesses and Bartempierris were nothing much either, they had no Cathedrals or big plaza to speak of. Only an old citadel or tiny castle.
Bartempierris was little, housing less than a hundred thousand populace, the general people of the town were gentle and charismatic, though there were some thugs that needed to be teached their private lesson, Gut's pleasure.
Narmaisesses had way more people, being one of the most populated cities of Igny with over a million and a half. It was a portuary city and one of the principal stops of the north. Though the road was dangerous, the sea route was well guarded, a mystery at first for Charlotte. She was told that Paversia was already close, and needed regulations with whatever was imported or exported. That allowed for the sea routes to be monitored constantly and be safer. To the normal sea routes, that is. If one deviated for more than a nautic mile, they would encounter modern pirates and military ships from different governments, in the worst case being shot down by either of them.
They went to the port to see things and buy whatever caught their attention. They also bought some fish to eat that night, not raw, she wasn't into that kind of thing, even if one of her favorite countries did so. Once finished, they went to a hotel to stay the night. Charlotte could already move normally, but without exerting her body too much. If she did any kind of sharp movement, she would still feel the pain it entailed.
That night after having everything ready, she received an answer from White Prism. Charlotte had asked her to see if she could remember the way the things were at the moment she was born, finally receiving a positive answer. After asking if she could reproduce it, she said it would require a lot of energy, not getting discouraged by that, Charlotte then asked if she could modify something that was similar but in a different way, the answer was yes but that she needed to have a precise understanding of it. And that is what she was doing during the travel time. They had been on the road for 8 days now. Meaning that only in 8 days she was able to get a full understanding of it, of the memory disks Charlotte had lost that day, of the information of the blueprints and the materials needed to make another machine.
The next morning, Charlotte asked Gut if they could stay in the city until she recovered so there wouldn't be any worry once she was left alone in Paversia, he assented.