Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

"How is their living environment?" Malin asked.

"They don’t need a pot for fluid food," Mars replied succinctly, hitting the nail on the head.

This made Malin feel better, and he abandoned the idea of setting fire to everything. Instead, he opened the gate wide and waved to the little ones.

So the little Rat-men rushed over with carts and jars, and the leading Rat-man bowed deeply in front of Malin, almost touching his feet: "Thank you, mighty sir."

"Are you locals or did you come from the Western Human World?" Malin inquired.

"Locals. Why do you ask that question, sir?" The little one was somewhat surprised. Malin smiled and waved his hand, so the little one didn’t ask further but immediately joined the festive Sequence.

"Is this how fresh goods come into the black market?" Malin looked at Mars.

"There are countless black markets in this world, just as this city has several. They should belong to the outer city area, meaning beyond District 12’s black markets. The Dead Eye group’s black market is responsible for Districts 4 to 11. And in District 3, the black market has a nicer name: supermarket," Mars replied without turning back. "In the era you lived in, ancestor, it must have been when Northernism surged in the Western Human World. Everyone says that was the first time Northernism stepped to the forefront of human civilization. That era had the original Council of Eleven. People exhausted themselves in order to pass on the flame of civilization... And now? Mega-corporations have their own private armies; they rule like emperors in city-states far from civilization. Some sects of the Temple Knights are plotting within them to drag the entire city back to the dark Destruction Era... How dare they? Don’t they know that if they bring back the Deity, Chaos will also return?"

As the listener, Malin walked along the street with him, knowing what his descendant was lamenting: "You think too highly of the past, child. In the Council of Eleven, there were the most loyal Northernists, as well as Nobles who joined for revenge, and there were naive ones who sincerely hoped for the continuity of civilization... What I did was simply save the world together with others who shared my vision. I don’t know what those people would think if they saw what it has become now, but I do know that I am very happy. Child, do you know? Humans have once again become the masters of this world. Didn’t you say you are reconquering this planet and the universe that encompasses it? For me, that’s enough."