Chapter 246: The Akashic Record [1]
No one would understand the feeling of luxury and flex more than Haru.
During his time on Earth, he had loved owning sports cars and private jets customized entirely according to his own taste.
He recalled the time when one particular car manufacturer created a specific segment of models exclusively for Haru to purchase. He had assumed at first that it was to win his favor, to get on his good side for business reasons.
Turns out the CEO simply wanted his hand for his daughter.
’What a cheap bastard.’ Leon cursed him again at the memory.
"Aren’t we going way too fast?!"
Ethan was pressed against the window looking down at the forest passing beneath them.
The Voltstreak was flying above the tree line at around 140 kilometres per hour. To Leon it was not anything particularly fancy. But seeing something like this exist in a fantasy world was genuinely impressive.
Evana City was an advanced civilization whose technology surpassed anything from Haru’s old world in ways that were still revealing themselves.
Leon looked down at the passing trees from the window.
It was indeed fast. But not at full capacity. He could tell that much just from the sound of the boosters.
"Miss Irene," he said, "is this really the fastest that Evana’s finest air vehicle can go?"
Irene glanced at him from the driver’s seat. He was sitting directly beside her. She kept one hand steady on the curved steering wheel, and then she grinned, the same grin from earlier that had nothing to prove.
She pushed the lever all the way forward.
"Better close your eyes," she said. "Or you might cry."
The moment she said that, everyone inside Irene’s flying car was pushed back deep into their cushioned seats as the vehicle surged forward.
Cyan clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.
"I did not survive pirates and a whirlpool in the ocean to die in a flying box!!"
Ethan felt the jerk but steadied himself quickly. Even at this speed he could follow the forest passing beneath them without much effort.
His eyes were calm, as he tracked everything with caution.
Leon whistled.
Not because of the speed they were moving, but because of what he saw ahead of him.
Through the front window, for the first time outside of a computer screen, Evana City came into view.
It was enormous. A city spread across more than fifty kilometres of land, built upward as much as outward. Buildings of forty stories or more rose in clusters, their surfaces made of glass and polished metal, their tops were pointed and angular, catching the light in a way that made the whole skyline look like it was built to be seen from the sky.
Flying vehicles similar to the Voltstreak moved in disciplined streams in and out of the city, following invisible lanes. Massive ships the size of floating islands were anchored at specific zones above the city.
Neon signs and holographic projections covered entire building faces. Delivery drones and surveillance units moved through the spaces between coordinated patterns.
It was a city that did not waste a single metre of its own air.
Then Leon’s eyes fell on the centre of the city.
A pyramid structure, white in colour and enormous in size, rising above everything around it. The top was capped in metallic gold that caught the light and held it differently from everything else in the skyline.
Leon knew exactly what it was.
The heart of Evana City. The past, present and future. The central brain of everything the city ran on. The place where all of Evana’s data and technology was stored and processed. The thing that automated the drones and most of the city’s systems. The thing the prism in Ethan’s hand had been pointing toward since the moment it was created.
And the thing Dreamweaver had wanted above everything else. Which he didn’t get his hands on, and placed the entire City under his spell for over two whole centuries.
"The Akashic Record," Leon muttered.
At that, even Cyan opened his eyes.
He took one breath. Then he just kept on staring at it.
The fairy tale city from the old stories, the civilization that was supposed to have perished centuries ago, was standing in front of him fully operational, lit up and moving and completely alive.
From her side of the vehicle, Irene glanced at Leon’s face.
She caught it for only a moment. That look in Leon’s eyes. The shiny golden gaze going wide, the child underneath all the calculator composure.
She looked away before he noticed her looking. Then she cleared her throat quietly.
"Is this your first time seeing the city?"
"Hm?" Leon looked at her. "It indeed is."
"Mhmmm..." She hummed, then asked, "Leon, was it?"
Leon glanced at her briefly. "Apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Leon Valentine."
He paused and then added, "thank you for the ride, Detective Irene."
She giggled lightly, bringing her fingers near her lips. For some reason she found Leon’s way of addressing her a little too formal.
"You can drop the honorifics. Just Irene is fine."
If Leon had to ignore the loop, then she was someone only three to five years older than him. But if Leon had to take the actual state of Evana into account, she would be over two centuries old.
"Alright." Leon agreed.
To him, right now everything felt strangely natural.
It was hard to put into words. But from the moment Leon had entered Evana, he had been feeling a quiet pull toward it. As if something that had been empty for a very long time had finally settled into place.
From the back seat Ethan asked, "Miss Irene, are you a private detective or do you work under the royal family here?"
"Private," she said, slowing the vehicle slightly. "My father had a detective agency here in Evana. After he passed away from an illness, the responsibility of running it shifted to me."
Leon listened quietly.
In the game, Ethan had never truly interacted with any detective agency in the city. Leon found it interesting that one existed here at all. And from the way Irene had spoken earlier, she clearly had a considerable reputation among the royals.
"Ah." Leon noticed something and turned to her. "Irene, why do you live outside the city? Do you not like it here?"
Irene looked ahead and sighed.
"I actually want to live in the city. But..."
The Voltstreak slowed further as they drifted toward the entrance. A massive metallic gate came into view, flanked on both sides by guards in modern military uniforms standing at attention.
As her vehicle hovered near the gate, every one of the military men turned toward the car at once. Leon noticed it immediately. Some of them gritted their teeth. Others shifted their expressions to something flat and sour, the kind of look that was not quite hostile enough to act on but made no effort to hide itself either.
The vehicle passed through the gate slowly and pulled onto the road stretching ahead into the city.
Irene kept her eyes forward. Her expression was calm. But the smile she turned toward Leon a moment later was the kind that had been constructed rather than actual.
"You see," she said quietly. "They all do not want me here."
Leon did not know what to say to that.
"Oh wait," Irene said, her tone shifting back to something lighter. "Where do you three want to get off?"
From the back seat Ethan replied, "anywhere inside the city would do."
"Anywhere?" She pondered for a moment, then said, "how about my office then? It is at the centre of the city anyway."
Ethan gave a light nod.
Though as he said nothing further, his eyes moved to the windows.
What caught Ethan’s attention was not the modern architecture. It was the people on the ground, mainly guards in those same strange military uniforms, the ones from the gate earlier. Several of them had turned their heads as Irene’s Voltstreak passed.They were not looking at the vehicle.
They were looking at whose vehicle it was. And when they noticed who it belonged to, their face strangely shifted to annoyance.
Ethan wondered what made them act this way towards her. Strange enough, he was having doubts that this girl might have done something to upset them.
Ethan looked at Irene Adler, who was chatting with Leon at the front seat while slowly driving on the pristine road.
She was strange... there was something about her which told Ethan that she was hiding something.
And—
’What’s with her all buddy-buddy with Leon?’
They were just strangers hours ago. And not to forget how Leon was reacting when he first saw her in the forest.
’It’s funny how she and Leon have the same mysterious feeling around them.’
Ethan glanced at Leon, and then at Irene from behind.
’I wonder if they have anything in common?’
With that saying, Ethan peeked at her stats.
A translucent window appeared in front of his eyes.
He skipped the first few info on it, and read her rank.
[Mana Core: White ]
[Core Level: ★ ★★☆☆]
’A Breaker? Not surprising, and she’s just two stars away from breaking into Fate Shaper.’ He inspected her stats further, ’Huh...? What the hell?!’
[Intelligence: S+]
[Stamina: S+]
[Strength: S+]
[Speed: S-]
[Defence: S-]
[Charm: S+]
[Mana Capacity: A+]