Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age - Chapter 133

With the deal settled, Stacy stood from the couch and walked towards the balcony.

“So, uhm, don’t tell Patricia or anyone else what we discussed today, alright?” Stacy said.

One nodded and waved his hand, a gesture saying that he was done with her shenanigans and would like her to get the hell out.

Stacy smiled before jumping into the darkness of the night.

One walked towards the balcony and perched over. Looking down on the city below. Stacy’s presence was completely erased, not even his thermal scanner or his xray vision could see where she went.

But with the stunning revelation that Patricia was an elf with a magic seal, One needed to be careful.

If the Imperials themselves didn’t want whatever the thing was being sealed inside Patricia set loose, it could only mean that it was powerful and could not be controlled.

“Oh wait,” One suddenly realized.

For the first time, he actually forgot to ask someone an important question.

Where do elves usually live? He thought.

And then an uncomfortable ȧssumption came to him. What if Patricia was the only one of her kind? The last elf in an otherwise overly human and beastmen world.

“That can’t be right,” One whispered.

Wait, why am I even concerned? He thought.

It was unusual for him to be concerned for something so trivial to him like an elf who was the last of her kind.

“As long as she is of use to me, I shouldn’t be bothered if she’s the last,” One whispered to

himself.

The desk was made of fine wood, although it was designed as if it was a luxurious desk, for One, whose standards were too advanced, found the desk appalling. It had too many designs on its surface that made it hard to fully use the desk for writing, drawing, even putting your hand on it was a hassle and was uncomfortable.

Luckily, One did not need comfort.

But the desk was still an inefficient mess for what he was about to do.

He opened one of the drawers and found several pieces of paper, a quill, and a small jar of black ink.

One could instinctively write, he didn’t need to learn it. He figured it had something to do with his past, maybe he was a writer of sorts who loved to write back then before all hell went loose.

He placed a piece of paper over the desk, placed the jar of ink on the right and opened it. He then dipped the tip of the quill into the ink and began writing on the paper.

“On this day…” He wrote the first paragraph.

He was exposed to the writings of the officials that once resided here before the revolution and tried his best to mimic their style of writing and the structure and wording.

What he was writing was a proposal of sorts. It was a proposal to force the other villages to move into the Fortress City and give them manual labor to compensate for their forced migration.

One’s plan was to expand the Fortress City beyond its walls and the fields.

The Fortress City was bordered by some plains to the west and the forest of death to the east. One planned on cutting down the forest to the east to make extra farmland since he planned on expanding the Fortress City to the western plains.

To achieve this, he wanted to recall all the villages under the jurisdiction of the Fortress City to increase the size of its population and the workforce.

Messengers had already been dispatched to the villages a day after the coronation to announce that they were now under the kingship of Wog of the Kingdom of Wog.

So far, the villages seemed to accept Wog’s rule.

Although his plans were logical and sought to improve the realm in the long run of things, One knew that he was dealing with humans who, with the lack of a better term, were blind buffoons who couldn’t see what the future would be if they just stick with his plans.

Although he could dispatch a sizable force to each village, it would lessen the chances of them fighting back but was also the least efficient way to do things.

One needed the villages back as soon as possible. He and his Fortress City had 2 weeks before the Imperial Army led by Lord Toris and the so called Archmage Lecter.

“Oh for goodness sake,” One noticed his folly.

“I forgot to ask Stacy about Lecter,” One whispered and scratched his head.

One sighed and continued writing down his proposal. He had decided that he’d just send a large enough force one at a time for each age starting from the nearest one to the west.

He also decided to increase the force once it would start journeying towards the eastern villages due to the fear of monsters attacking.

But One himself was yet to encounter a magical beast. When he, Wog and Patricia traversed the forest, it was surprisingly empty. No birds, wild animals, or magical beasts. Just a lot of grass, insects, and pesky mosquitoes.

Despite looking like a rainforest, it lacked animals that would normally live in it.

One knew something was definitely wrong but his hands were tied for now.

“Yours truly, Ben,” One finished writing his proposal.

He then rolled up the paper and then wrapped the body around with a small rope. He then placed the proposal inside one of the drawers.

He stood up from the desk and came back to the balcony to check on the city.

Everything was peaceful.

He was informed of prȯstɨtutės taking advantage of the soldiers during the night but that was before he arrived. After the revolution, prȯstɨtutės seemingly vanished.

If One saw anything unheard of being committed inside the barracks’, however, he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them from his balcony.