Chapter 293: People from Crimson
Five days later, in the dead of the quiet night, Kaelen was deep in a sound sleep when he was suddenly awakened by an invisible vibration transmitted straight from deep within his sea of consciousness.
That vibration was not violent at all; it was only gentle as if someone was lightly plucking a string tied at the very end of the distant horizon. However, that fragile string was tied directly to the spatial coordinate point he had personally and carefully placed a few days ago, so the moment he sensed the anomaly, he immediately snapped his eyes open.
Kaelen turned to shake the shoulder of the person lying beside him: "Sane, wake up quickly. Our people have arrived."
Sane was sleeping soundly. He was shaken forcefully a few times by his mate, so he frowned, mumbling a grumble in his throat that sounded vaguely like "that bunch ruining the middle of the night." But before he could finish his grumble, he was suddenly completely awake. He sprang up with the speed of light, hurriedly grabbed the thick coat draped over the head of the bed, and wrapped it carefully around Kaelen. Just a blink of an eye later, the figures of the two had vanished without a trace from the quiet bedroom.
At the wasteland in the West of the city, four Department of Public Security personnel assigned to stand guard were sitting huddled around a small fire to keep warm. These past few days on night duty, no sensational incidents had occurred. Every night there was only the sound of the wind whistling through the withered grass. They had begun to feel this empty land-guarding mission was idle to the point of being boring.
Then the fire blazing brightly before them suddenly lay completely flat on the ground.
It was not because of being hit by the wind, but both the fire and the surrounding weeds were flattened to the ground by a wave of invisible oppressive force. One soldier among them raised his head to look, then just sat there frozen like a wooden log, his mouth gaping unable to close. The other three teammates hurriedly followed his gaze, then sequentially turned into stone exactly like that.
The quiet night sky above the wasteland was rippling.
It rippled continuously exactly like a quiet lake surface when someone throws a large rock into it. Ring after ring of spatial waves spread out. The night starlight amidst those waves was distorted by an attractive force into long streaks of light. Then, straight from the center of those turbulent waves, a silver metal object slowly emerged from the void.
It had a very large size, so large its shadow completely obscured a starry sky patch. Its body was elongated, and the two ends were designed to taper. The metal surface was smooth to the point of being unable to find a single welding seam. Its overall shape looked exactly like a giant seed having just fallen from the universe.
It landed on the ground extremely slowly without emitting any roaring sound of an engine. There was only the wind pressure blowing downward getting stronger by the moment, blowing so hard the grass on the entire wasteland lay flat forming a perfect concentric circle.
A male Public Security staff member trembled so much he dropped his spear in his hand. His two knees gave way, dropping to kneel. He tightly clasped his two hands before his chest, muttering prayers: "Lord Holy Son manifesting to protect us, please Lord Holy Son protect me..."
The second soldier was so scared he curled his legs intending to turn around fleeing for his life. But he had only run exactly three steps before he suddenly remembered in his head the Department of Public Security had an ironclad rule: arbitrarily abandoning a guard post without an order would result in half a month’s salary being entirely deducted. Consequently, the guy quietly returned to his original spot. His two rows of teeth chattered trembling violently as he stood hiding beside his colleagues.
Right when this soldier group was in extreme panic, Kaelen and Sane suddenly appeared right beside the dying fire.
The four Public Security staff members saw the two Lords appear, it was like a drowning person grabbing a lifebuoy. They sighed in relief in unison. Kaelen stepped forward lightly patting the kneeling soldier’s shoulder. He gently told him to stand up, also instructing all four to just stay quietly at this spot observing, no need to be panicked.
The giant silver seed touched the ground as lightly as an autumn falling leaf. A few hydraulic supporting legs extended from its belly, planting deep into the ground to anchor. Then, one side of the ship’s body split open forming a door, and a long metal staircase slowly lowered touching the ground.
The first person stepping down the stairs was a Beastman possessing an extremely massive physique. His body was plump. His belly bulged out as round as a water jar. His face exuded a gentle, benevolent aura. He had just set foot on the final stair when he raised his eyes and saw the two people waiting by the fire. His footsteps halted. His two eye sockets immediately turned red.
"Priest Kaelen! Chief Sane!"
Bertram called out loudly while waddling over like a child. Arriving at the spot, his two knees dropped to kneel on the ground. His round fat belly bounced forcefully once. He did not hesitate to reach out his two hands tightly hugging Kaelen’s legs, bursting into tears "hu hu":
"Waa waa waa, ten years already! It has been exactly ten whole years, Lord Priest!"
Kaelen was caught between tears and laughter by this situation. He hurriedly leaned down to pull him up. However, Bertram belonged to the White Elephant clan, possessing a naturally strong constitution from birth. His whole body was heavy, solid muscle mass. Kaelen pulled forever but his body still refused to budge. Ultimately, he had to cast his eyes requesting Sane to grab his collar dragging this fat guy to stand up straight.
"Bertram, everyone has safely crossed over here already. You do not need to kneel crying anymore now." Kaelen gently comforted.
"How can I not kneel!" Bertram used his entire fat arm to wipe across the cascading tears: "For a whole ten years you all went missing without a trace, without a single bit of news returning. All the people on the continent thought you all had..."
He spoke to this point and his throat choked up bitterly, unable to utter the next ominous words.
Kaelen also did not know what words to use to explain that disconnected time period. He only knew to reach out his hand patting his arm, which was as big as a house pillar, to reassure him.
Right behind Bertram, a White Rabbit clan young man with a skinny body draped in an ash-gray cloak also just leisurely stepped down. He walked while grumbling annoyedly: "Uncle, cry softer. The whole ship heard your high-pitched voice already."
That young man was named Milo, Draven’s student. He walked straight to Kaelen. He bowed greeting very quickly once, then without any hesitation held his wrist taking a pulse. After finishing taking the pulse to examine, he stepped back one step. He used an expert gaze to sweep across Kaelen’s complexion once, then abruptly turned to Sane. He cleared his throat saying:
"My teacher instructed me, arriving here the first thing is taking a pulse to examine the Priest. Teacher also added, if seeing the Priest getting thinner, I must turn to ask the Chief how the Chief took care of the Priest staying beside him this half year." He paused for a moment, trying to maintain a serious expression: "Chief, the Priest truly got thinner."
Sane opened his mouth intending to argue back. However, thinking back he realized he truly had no excuse to defend this matter. He swallowed his words keeping his mouth shut.
Kaelen heard that and burst out laughing. Ten years passed and Draven was still the same. A person not present here still had a way to scold people through a student’s mouth. He laughed for a while, suddenly feeling his nose sting with emotion.
At this time, the stream of people stepping down from the ship’s body became more crowded by the moment. There were strong White Elephant clan workers heavily carrying wooden chests as big as a human body. There were Golden Bull clan workers carrying bulging fabric sacks of supplies on their backs. There were a few agile White Rabbit clan people hugging compact leather chests containing medical supplies to their chests.
There were also Avian clan people flapping their large wings flying circling the ship’s body to carefully check the cargo unloading tie-downs. Anyone stepping down to the foot of the stairs also stopped for a beat. They respectfully looked at Kaelen and Sane once before bowing greeting, then silently followed the guidance toward the gathering area.
Bertram regained his composure, standing neatly beside reporting the situation, but his voice was still a bit choked up:
"Priest, on this trip we brought a total of two thousand people, gathering all elite professions. From wall builders, carpenters, weapon blacksmiths, weavers, down to those understanding how to dig irrigation canals, workers knowing how to make white paper, teachers teaching writing, teachers teaching math.
Milo personally led a team of thirty skilled healers. The logistical supplies brought along were prepared sufficiently for a very long time, from shelter tents, daily living tools down to educational books, absolutely no need to touch a single bit of resources here."
He paused for a moment, then added: "Exactly as the Priest instructed, among these two thousand selected people there is absolutely no one possessing Divine Energy. Healer Draven was very angry, relentlessly demanding to come over here at all costs. Chief Edward had to deploy an entire guard squad standing guard at the ship’s door to hold him back."
Kaelen thought of that chaotic scene, and could not hold back laughing out loud one more time.
"As for this spaceship, it must be dispatched to return to the Continent right tonight." Bertram raised his head looking at the silver metal machine. His tone was visibly somewhat regretful: "Its energy core part contains precious Divine Energy personally poured in by Uncle Wofu. Starting it running one trip consumes quite a lot. Chief Edward instructed very carefully to absolutely not let it lay its corpse here in this world for too long."
Less than an hour of high-intensity work passed. All people and goods had been safely unloaded onto the ground. The metal stairs were folded up. The side door closed tightly completely. The few hydraulic supporting legs also quickly retracted into the ship’s belly.
The silver seed started again, slowly flying up into the mid-air. Reaching mid-air, the sky space rippled turbulently one more time. The ship slowly sank into the center of those waves, exactly like a heavy pebble sinking into the surface of an autumn lake. The ship’s body sank wherever its figure vanished there.
Two thousand people from Crimson stood in the middle of the wasteland raising their eyes following it until the night sky flattened out again as if nothing had ever happened. Then they all rolled up their sleeves in unison, enthusiastically starting the camp pitching work.
The first priority task they did was erecting a protective fence ring. Thick wooden planks had been pre-sawn and cut from home into right-sized pieces. One edge of the plank had a mortise carved out, the other edge had a tenon carved out. The workers just continued assembling them matching into each other like that without wasting effort using a single binding string or a single iron nail.
The strongest White Elephant clan workers each carried two large planks on their shoulders, while the Golden Bull clan workers went ahead driving iron stakes deep into the ground making fixed supporting legs. Within a mere two hours, a solid wooden fence ring taller than a person’s head had completely enclosed enclosing a large land patch.
Inside the protective fence layer, tents sprang up closely packed together as fast as mushrooms growing after rain. A few White Rabbit clan nurses agilely hung up lighting magic stone lamps. The gentle light immediately radiated clearly illuminating all the internal pathways.
The medical tent area was prioritized to be pitched separately in a quiet corner. The logistics warehouse area was located in another safe corner. The teaching area was personally chosen by Bertram placing it right in the center position of the camp, because according to his explanation, it was the place containing the most important sprouts.
Kaelen clasped his hands standing observing for a while, feeling extremely satisfied with the military style of the Crimson people. Then he called Bertram, Milo and a few team captains heading the groups over. He seriously instructed exactly one sentence:
"Everyone just comfortably use the furniture and supplies brought from Crimson over internally within the camp. But when going out guiding transmitting professions to the locals, everyone must teach according to manual methods the people here have the ability to do themselves."
Bertram heard the instruction then burst into a hearty laugh "ha ha". His round fat belly bounced forcefully following the laughing rhythm: "Ha ha, back then the Priest holding our hands pointing out work teaching us how to make fired bricks was exactly identical to that. You strictly forced us to personally knead the clay with our feet, personally stack the kiln, then watch the fire for three days and three nights without closing our eyes for a single minute. But thanks to that hardship, once it was finished, from then on every one of us could personally step out doing the profession."
Milo standing beside wonderingly asked: "Lord Priest, then how do we handle the medicine source? Dying patients cannot lie waiting until people finish learning how to make the medicine themselves."
"You all just take our stuff out to use for emergency medicine." Kaelen calmly answered: "But wherever you use it, you must tell people to instruct them how to recognize the medicine plants’ shapes in nature, how to harvest in the right season, how to dry and preserve up to there. Absolutely do not let them develop a dependency mentality."
Milo uttered a "yes", having no reasoning to argue further.
By the time the sky was nearing early dawn, Bertram finally slapped his forehead remembering an extremely important matter. He hurriedly reached into the chest of his coat taking out a tiny wooden box, carefully carved with patterns. Inside the box’s velvet lining was a flat, thin magic stone piece, as big as a palm, the top surface polished smooth like a looking mirror.
"Priest, this is the sound wave messaging machine personally researched and made by Uncle Ignis. He repeatedly instructed to hand it directly to you upon arriving."
Kaelen reached out to receive the stone slab, curiously flipping it back and forth examining it. He had just lightly touched his fingertip on the stone surface when it immediately lit up brightly. A few familiar small text lines appeared clearly.
[Papa, Daddy, has everyone crossing over there arrived safely? – Ignis]
Below that inquiring text line was a tiny bright dash keeping blinking flashing and turning off continuously waiting. Kaelen hesitated for a long time, the corners of his eyes tearing up. Ultimately he used exactly one index finger, clumsily typing each single letter. He typed so slowly that Sane standing beside crossing his arms looking also had to be impatient on behalf of that progress.
[Everyone has arrived, Papa and Daddy are at their place here. – Papa]
The message had already been sent pressing the button but waiting forever still not seeing any reacting movement from the other end. The small bright dash at the corner of the stone screen kept blinking continuously, sometimes bright sometimes off, sometimes flickering only half-bright due to spatial signal interference. Only when the Eastern sky brightened with the first sunlight streak of the day did the stone slab surface vibrate and light up brightly again.
[That is so great! Ignis said the signal transmitting back and forth between these two sides of the world is very weak, definitely must upgrade improving the transceiver part more. Ah right, did fat Uncle Bertram cry meeting you two fathers? – Finnick]
Sane cast a glance at the screen, nonchalantly opening his mouth answering on behalf of Kaelen who was busy smiling: "Crying noisily."
Bertram saw Chief Sane looking at him meaningfully once then delivering a verdict, knowing he was badmouthing him. He awkwardly scratched his head.
The sun gradually rose high. A new day began again. But today, the entire Lyra city was buzzing discussing noisily.
A few Public Security personnel having the duty to guard the empty land last night had just changed shifts walking back arriving at their alleys, not even having time to open their mouths recounting when the story had been distorted spreading throughout all the streets and wards.
The old horse carriage driver at the West gate swore upon his life and death with his drinking buddies that he woke up urinating in the middle of last night, having witnessed with his own eyes a giant shooting star as big as an entire building crashing heavily down onto the wasteland.
Several housewives sitting washing clothes around the Dyer street well put their heads together whispering. One person firmly insisted she heard the howling screaming wind sound by her ears all last night while her house windows still remained shut silently. Another person argued back fiercely insisting she saw with her own eyes early in the morning that the wasteland not a single ghost visited on a normal day suddenly sprouted a tightly enclosed wooden fence ring, inside crowded entirely with completely unfamiliar people.
The idle children in the city eagerly invited each other climbing straddling onto the West city wall to look down to see the situation clearly. But they had only climbed halfway when they were blown whistles chasing them straight down by the Public Security soldiers.
The citizens buzzed discussing to their heart’s content. Ultimately both the intellectual class and the commoners came to exactly one firm conclusion: the wasteland suddenly sprouted two thousand more people from nowhere, while asking the guards completely no one saw that army walking through the city gate. Then it was definitely ten out of ten that the Lord Holy Son last night had just performed magic summoning heavenly troops and myriad horses descending to the mortal realm again.
By the time Kaelen and Sane walked back arriving at their house door, the sun had already risen as high as a pole. The two had to stay awake an entire whole night handling work. Normally they should climb onto the bed sleeping catching up to regain their strength now. But Kaelen still alertly sat down by the tea table, carefully opening the cloth bundle Bertram had just secretly handed to him before leaving.
Inside the wrapping cloth layer was a thick stack of handwritten letters. Every single child of his neatly wrote a letter entrusting their feelings.
Eldest brother Edward’s letter had neatly written handwriting proper to the utmost. The opening was always words inquiring about the parents’ health following exactly the standard template. The end of the letter part even professionally Roman-numbered every single work item needing to be reported.
Oliver’s letter romantically clipped in a few pressed dried wildflowers. The paper stroke still lingered with the faint fragrance of grass and trees. Men of few words Orion’s letter had an entire large piece of paper only writing exactly three short lines.
Scientist Ignis’s letter was the thickest in the stack. Inside it was entirely extremely meticulous recording text lines about how to use the magic stone messaging machine, accompanied by an endlessly long list of technical signal errors that could occur during the usage process.
As for youngest son Sunlight’s letter, alas, from the first line all the way to the final line was entirely whining wailing lamentation words. The boy whined that dictator eldest brother Edward did not let him follow exploring. Whining that he also wanted to cross over to this side of the world to play. Whining that at home everyone ganged up bullying him.
Kaelen smiled radiantly wherever he read. Reading to Sunlight’s final letter he smiled to the point of tearing up because of the youngest son’s messiness.
Sane sat on the chair beside him, on his face showing an indifferent cold expression as if the contents of these sappy letters had nothing to do with his life.
However, if Kaelen paid close attention for a bit he would see, Finnick’s letter had been picked up by him muttering reading over and over to the second time already.