Ariel:
“Hey, Sam, what do you know about Dina?”
Sam:
“Only that she’s one of the three holy spirits that helps the hero on their journey to defeat the demon lord.”
Ariel:
“Hmmm… I get the feeling I need to learn more about this, not just Dina, but Fenix also. I’m fairly certain the woman who greeted us was a Fenix clone.”
Sam:
“You mean it wasn’t just a representative, but Fenix herself spoke to you?”
Ariel:
“Yeah. It didn’t sound like she was planning to simply leave me alone either.”
Sam:
“Do we need to run?”
Ariel:
“No, from her attitude, I think she’s just playing with me. The risk of staying shouldn’t be too high, and leaving too soon might annoy her. Playing along is probably the safest option.”
Sam:
“Well, if it’s knowledge you seek, perhaps you should start with the academy?”
Ariel:
“There’s an academy here?”
Sam:
“It’s pretty famous. The biggest magic school, and library: The Claude Academy.”
Ariel:
“That does sound like a promising place to look for information. Let’s see if we can gain entrance to the library.”
---
… this city is large, very large. I won’t say I got lost, but I think I might’ve if I hadn’t made myself a mini-map feature and mapping ability. After hours of wandering, there is still plenty of unexplored territory on my map.
Ariel:
“Geeze, let’s take a break and have a meal.”
Sam:
“I thought you didn’t need to eat?”
Ariel:
“I don’t, I’m just getting mentally worn down from trying to make sense of everything. I still enjoy relaxing and snacking. This city is much larger than Fen Ger’s place.”
Sam:
“Well, this is the biggest city in this land.”
Ariel:
“Maybe we should look for a place to stay before it gets too late, and plan on spending more than just today exploring.”
Sam:
“Will probably take at least another day to finish mapping the city, and even then it’d just be the places commoners can go.”
Ariel:
“Thinking about my past life, the biggest place I can remember exploring on foot was a theme park. This place is clearly bigger. I can’t remember ever travelling enough on foot to get a feel for how large the cities were like this. Pretty sure they got bigger than this city though.”
Sam:
“What do you remember of those cities?”
Ariel:
“Mostly just really tall buildings, tens of stories high. City streets filled with vehicles… and bad air. Those vehicles dirtied the air and made it smell bad.”
Sam:
“Tens of stories? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more than ten stories tall or so, and those were the towers on Gerland Castle.”
Ariel:
“Gerland? That’s the name of Fen Ger’s castle?”
Sam:
“Yeah, since the lord is Fen Ger, people began calling the place Gerland, and so the castle is Gerland Castle.”
Ariel:
“Let’s stop for a bite over there, that restaurant looks good.”
Sam:
“Sure.”
---
“Hey, Sam, what do you know about Dina?”
Sam:
“Only that she’s one of the three holy spirits that helps the hero on their journey to defeat the demon lord.”
Ariel:
“Hmmm… I get the feeling I need to learn more about this, not just Dina, but Fenix also. I’m fairly certain the woman who greeted us was a Fenix clone.”
Sam:
“You mean it wasn’t just a representative, but Fenix herself spoke to you?”
Ariel:
“Yeah. It didn’t sound like she was planning to simply leave me alone either.”
Sam:
“Do we need to run?”
Ariel:
“No, from her attitude, I think she’s just playing with me. The risk of staying shouldn’t be too high, and leaving too soon might annoy her. Playing along is probably the safest option.”
Sam:
“Well, if it’s knowledge you seek, perhaps you should start with the academy?”
Ariel:
“There’s an academy here?”
Sam:
“It’s pretty famous. The biggest magic school, and library: The Claude Academy.”
Ariel:
“That does sound like a promising place to look for information. Let’s see if we can gain entrance to the library.”
---
… this city is large, very large. I won’t say I got lost, but I think I might’ve if I hadn’t made myself a mini-map feature and mapping ability. After hours of wandering, there is still plenty of unexplored territory on my map.
Ariel:
“Geeze, let’s take a break and have a meal.”
Sam:
“I thought you didn’t need to eat?”
Ariel:
“I don’t, I’m just getting mentally worn down from trying to make sense of everything. I still enjoy relaxing and snacking. This city is much larger than Fen Ger’s place.”
Sam:
“Well, this is the biggest city in this land.”
Ariel:
“Maybe we should look for a place to stay before it gets too late, and plan on spending more than just today exploring.”
Sam:
“Will probably take at least another day to finish mapping the city, and even then it’d just be the places commoners can go.”
Ariel:
“Thinking about my past life, the biggest place I can remember exploring on foot was a theme park. This place is clearly bigger. I can’t remember ever travelling enough on foot to get a feel for how large the cities were like this. Pretty sure they got bigger than this city though.”
Sam:
“What do you remember of those cities?”
Ariel:
“Mostly just really tall buildings, tens of stories high. City streets filled with vehicles… and bad air. Those vehicles dirtied the air and made it smell bad.”
Sam:
“Tens of stories? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more than ten stories tall or so, and those were the towers on Gerland Castle.”
Ariel:
“Gerland? That’s the name of Fen Ger’s castle?”
Sam:
“Yeah, since the lord is Fen Ger, people began calling the place Gerland, and so the castle is Gerland Castle.”
Ariel:
“Let’s stop for a bite over there, that restaurant looks good.”
Sam:
“Sure.”
---
Conversing over dinner:
Sam:
“Speaking of food, why did you only offer milk and baths for free in Gerland? You could’ve made a lot of other things available too.”
Ariel:
“I wanted to avoid putting the restaurants and food carts out of business. The milk is sufficient to ensure no one starves or lacks for nutrients, and the baths provide cleanliness and healing. Neither compete directly with any of the services offered elsewhere in that town. I don’t want anyone to lose their livelihoods because of me.”
Sam:
“I see. I hadn’t even thought about that.”
Ariel:
“I don’t simply want to help people in need, I want to improve lives. That requires paying attention to how people live so I can properly support them, and not get in the way.”
Sam:
“Is that why we are exploring the town and not heading straight for the library?”
Ariel:
“That’s part of it, though I also just have an urge to properly fill out the map of the town. Always gotta explore everywhere in games.”
Sam:
“Games? What do games have to do with this?”
Ariel:
“Ah, sorry, that was a reference to my past life. It’s kinda hard to explain when none of the technology exists yet here. Maybe someday I’ll be able to see it develop in this world too.”
Sam:
“You already introduced amazing food, are you going to introduce technology too?”
Ariel:
“Well, I already introduced toilets… but yeah, I want to share a lot of my old world’s knowledge with this world, so the people of this world can recreate many of the awesome things I remember from my old world.”
Sam:
“Pretty sure most people would just want it all for themselves and not worry about sharing with others.”
Ariel:
“Well…”
Sam:
“You like sharing with others when you’re happy, right?”
Ariel:
“Yeah. It makes me happier if I can see others enjoying things as much as I do.”
Sam:
“I think you’re the only one I’ve met who’d say that about strangers”
Ariel:
“Yeah, I guess I’m weird. I like to think there must be others who feel like I do, but I don’t see much evidence of it. I wish I could remember my past life better, somehow I think I would understand these things better if I could.”
Sam:
“Is your past life why you feel that way?”
Ariel:
“No, it’s not that, it’s… I think I spent a lot of time in my past life figuring it all out. My memory is full of holes now though.” *sigh* “Only thing I remember clearly about it, is that it’s best to keep moving forward and not worry too much. So that’s what I intend to do.”
…
Focus on what I can do, not on what I can’t. That’s what I learned to do.
Focus on what I can do, not on what I can’t. That’s what I learned to do.
