NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29
Anyway, have an extra chapter!
Argul felt a bit bad about leaving the mana zone with Aina again and even offered the slime to stay behind, but it always came back to her. It was super cute, though she wondered why it was so obsessed with her, after all she wasn’t that great a person.
She had also tried to get some tech from the soldiers to do some experiments, but they sadly didn’t want to give her anything to play with. Well, except for that one jerk that would have given her his lighter for a round in bed. If she remembered it right his name was Oliver and he had the longest tentacles of the bunch.
There was no way Argul would do something like that. Her body was hers and hers alone. The only person she would ever offer such a thing was someone she loved, that also loved her.
Not to misunderstand Argul had nothing against people who enjoyed sexual acts, but she herself just couldn’t enjoy it that way. It was just the way she thought of her body and she would not change that.
One thing was sure though, Argul had come to dislike Oliver for devaluing her body in such a way and made sure he knew by slapping him in the face.
The journey to the next village was relatively uneventful after that. She had left her domain alone for that time, giving it some time to grow and acclimate to the new plants and animals.
They had to hurry along to get to the settlement before the mana zone and Argul was slowly getting annoyed by the pressure it created on her. It wasn’t something she enjoyed doing, walking that is.
What she really wanted was to keep the level of technology that currently existed and to find someone who could explain to her how a damn computer worked. Argul thought she could do enchantments in a similar way and that sounded a lot more promising than inventing runes. She liked the idea of enchanting being something mathematical a lot more than weird feeling mumbo jumbo.
Keeping the current level of technology would also solve her walking problem. Argul salivated a bit at the thought of a mana car. Developing something like that would be super fun!
They reached the next village after 5 days, not even half a day before the mana zone would spread there. Argul had no idea when a village became a town, but considering there were a lot of houses there the term village sounded a bit questionable. If she had to guess there were around 700 houses, which Argul translated roughly into a population of 2100 people.
The most noticeable thing for her though were the military presence and the animals. The village seemed to have created a, for modern standards, crude housing area for them. There were stalls for horses, barns for pigs and cows and some smaller, quite cute houses for chickens.
She even got a glimpse of a cat and really wanted to pet it, but it ran away from Argul, leaving her disappointed self behind.
Their arrival caused the start of a flurry of action. The six soldiers were immediately checked by the army and it was made sure that they were well. Some of the medics even tried to find a trace of mana using their current devices, but they didn’t have any luck.
Argul could only shake her head at that. Mana wasn’t like radioactivity or any other kind of radiation, so of course they would have to develop new sensing devices beforehand and that just wasn’t worth it for the short time they could use it until mana made them wonky again.
A lot of people were also leaving the village and were headed to the west. They used the cars that were here and took a lot of things with them that Argul wouldn’t have minded having herself. She was pretty sure she had seen a car packed to the brim with chips and similar snack food. She could understand, one had to set priorities.
There was another curious thing about the people that were leaving and Argul turned to Alyra for confirmation. “Is it just me or are all the people running away looking at us angrily?”
Alyra shook her head and sighed. “Nope, they do look at us like that.”
Argul scratched her head in thought. “But that makes no sense…”
She cocked her head. “Shouldn’t the military working with us show them that it’s not our fault?”
That the people were blaming them was obvious and honestly something Argul had anticipated. It was bound to happen as refugees always get blamed for one thing or the other, but she had thought it would be less people and less obvious.
Alyra just shrugged her foxy shoulders. “It should, yes. Might have something to do with the problem the army has.”
Argul nodded. That might be it and in that case it might be worthwhile asking for Arthur’s opinion.
The guy was standing a bit away with Mia and it looked like he was explaining something to her. Argul walked over to them and saw Arthur holding something small in his hand. He made a jerky gesture. “See? If you do it like that, most of the doors are open for you.”
He nodded sagely to himself. “That trick helped me out a lot in my younger years.”
Argul squinted at him. Did he just…? She growled at Arthur. “Arthur, what are you teaching my niece?”
Arthur and Mia both turned around surprised and Arthur paled. Mia on the other hand brightened up a lot and started to run to Argul, ready for a hug. “You finally called me niece auntie!”
Argul hugged Mia protectively and glared at Arthur. He seemed to search for an answer and cleared his throat. “Important survival skills?”
Argul huffed and glared a bit more. Seriously, men!
She had all but forgotten what she had even come to Arthur for. After a few seconds she realized what she had called Mia, blushed and looked away from Arthur. She had called her niece like it was the most natural thing to do for her and she thought of it as super embarrassing.
Going by Mia’s reaction she really liked it and Mia had called her auntie for a while now anyway. It always made Argul a bit happier if Mia did that and she was sure Mia was aware or else she wouldn’t use it to get extra tail scratches and a second story before going to bed.
Alyra moved over to them carrying their bags in her mouth. It was a bit difficult to understand her because of this. “If you are done with your happy family moment, we have a camp to build.”
Argul let go of Mia and turned to Alyra. “Don’t we get to sleep inside the houses? They are mostly empty anyways.”
Alyra put down the bags and shook her head. “Nope. Trevor did all the organizing and we are not allowed to enter any houses as they are not ours, though we will still get something nice to eat.”
Argul could only sigh. Humans can get randomly teleported somewhere and be threatened to mutate into something weird, but won't let the ones who could help into their houses..
Honestly Argul could understand it. If they managed the whole integration stuff then the people could just come back, but that didn’t stop her from complaining about having to sleep in a tent again.
They took their stuff and followed the group of already integrated people to the spot they were allowed to camp on.
Argul watched as the military began to carry the people who had decided to stay away. They still had to move out because the mana zone still spread a bit too fast. Trevor was currently planning the process in which they would bring people back and teach them mana manipulation.
Once Trevor came back they all gathered to listen to how things would transpire from now on. He clasped his hands and smiled at them. “Ok, so here is the plan. We will divide our group into three smaller groups that rotate between resting, teaching and integrating. The integration team will have to move constantly during their shift, so they will rest after that.”
That sounded exhausting indeed.
Trevor continued. “The system will change once we have more people, so you don’t have to worry about always being on the night shift. The military will pay us with food and support us with everything we need to ensure the survival of as many people as possible.”
He looked around. “Any questions?”
Argul raised her hand and Trevor indicated for her to speak. “I do have Mia I need to care about too and right now there wouldn’t be the time for that.”
Trevor nodded. “I actually took you out of the teaching rotation.”
Argul raised an eyebrow and people were about to protest, but Trevor held up his hand and interrupted them. “I know it might sound unfair, but she already taught us how to do it without ever wanting something in return as mana and magic seems to be her passion.”
There were still a few who grumbled about it being unfair, but nobody voiced their complaints out loud.
Trevor faced Argul and smiled. “I am also well aware that you do not want too much attention and if you start teaching again people will turn into scholars and call you Argul the wise.”
Argul blushed a bit. She just liked mana and magic okay?!
Trevor ignored her. “Considering that you already care about Mia, families with kids or kids under the age of 13 will come to you to be integrated. Seeing you with a child around will help to sooth their worries a bit.”
Argul nodded, still a bit embarrassed. Doing it that way was actually pretty smart and more thought through than she would have guessed.
After that a few minor problems were solved by Trevor and Argul somewhat shyly asked him if he could organize her some device she could use to experiment with. It had to be something a bit more aggressive or Argul wouldn’t know where to start looking for the problem between mana and the current technology, though something like an electrical lighter should work quite well.
Trevor told her that he would look for something and then went back to managing things.
Argul was all in all happy with the situation. She might not see Alyra and Arthur all that often for some time, but the girl was already big and would likely look out for Arthur in her own way.
Argul chased Mia back to their tents and Arthur made the holy dish venerated by all who know what is good and have not been cursed by fate. Jokes aside, they had spaghetti bolognese for dinner.
