Volume 14 Chapter 2 The Collapse Of Ancient Civilizations And The Founding Of Tempest Kingdom Part I
After waiting for a while, Malachi the Golem brought in a life-sized bust with a head that wore a mask similar to his own. He placed it on the table where Al and the others were sitting.
Patricia set Riana's assistant device on the shoulder of the bust. As they stared at it, the eyes of the bust glowed a little red.
"Hello. Sir Al. I am Riana, the assistant."
The voice that came from the bust was a clear, calm female voice, creating a very composed atmosphere.
"Nice to meet you. Wow, I was excited when I talked to Malachi, but this is something amazing too. I heard from Patricia that you have been advising the king of Tempest Kingdom for a long time... It's an honor to meet you."
"Thank you. Please just call me Riana, like you do with Malachi. It is only natural for me to give advice as an assistant during difficult times."
She paused briefly, her voice steady.
"I apologize for not denying any misunderstandings when it seemed like I was speaking on behalf of Sir Tempest. At that time, his family was in a critical situation, and I judged that it was necessary to do so in order to escape."
Al glanced at Patricia. She looked puzzled. It was clear that she wasn't angry about it. Malachi the Golem just nodded lightly.
"I don't have much of a position to say anything, but I think it will be okay."
Al replied that for now.
"Thank you very much. It seems you have something you want to ask me. So, I asked Lady Patricia to help us talk directly."
She paused for a moment before continuing.
"Regarding your question about what happened to the ancient civilization after Sir Tempest and Malachi were buried, you mean the ancient civilization from the time when Sir Tempest lived and when Malachi and I were created, right?"
I see, when they say ancient civilization, it probably doesn't feel ancient to those who were born in that time. And there might have been many changes even before that era. But what he wants to know first is about Tempest's time. Al nodded.
"Sir Tempest was known as an odd one among his family," Riana explained. "Back then, people lived much further north, about 4000 kilometers (2485 miles) away from here. The family's town was around that area."
She paused for a moment before continuing.
"When he was young, Sir Tempest disliked meeting others. So, he built a research tower in a place like this, where hardly anyone would come, and he studied golem creation all by himself."
"It's about a thousand kilometers from the border city Lester to here. That's 4 times that distance."
Glee added to Riana's explanation.
"A town in such a place..."
Al muttered quietly to himself, "Four thousand kilometers..." Getting to this place had taken over three days of flying, and he figured it would take about two weeks to reach the next location. But there must be ancient ruins there.
"I wonder if we can go," he thought, feeling a wave of excitement. He licked his lips and scratched his head, ready for the adventure.
"Unfortunately, there is no longer a town or street there. There may be ruins left behind. At one time, there was a big earthquake. Many buildings collapsed, causing a lot of damage."
She paused briefly, allowing her words to sink in before going on.
"After that, it was as if it had turned to night, with dark, cloudy days continuing on, and the temperature suddenly dropped. Before long, even though it was summer, it started to snow."
Natural disaster? Did something provoke the anger of the gods? It seemed like Patricia and Baroness Tabasa were hearing this story for the first time, listening intently.
"It was about a hundred years after Sir Tempest passed away. During that hundred years, no magician with the talent to freely create golems like Sir Tempest appeared, nor did any magician who could create assistant devices like us."
She took a moment, allowing her words to resonate before continuing.
"People had become so used to the convenience of existing magic tools that, rather than developing new technologies, they focused on how to live richer lives using what they already had. I was valued for my experience of over a hundred years and became a trusted advisor, passed down through the family line."
A hundred years, about 3 generations. If it was a peaceful time without threats from barbarians or magic beasts, perhaps people turned their interests toward music and art.
"It was the first time I experienced such a large-scale disaster since I was born. People tried to find out why the sky was dark and cloudy without the sun."
She hesitated for a moment, collecting her thoughts before proceeding.
"They contacted other towns and streets where different clans lived, and magicians who could fly went to investigate. However, a more serious incident occurred there: the Mana transmission network stopped working."
The Mana transmission network... Al remembered Malachi telling him it was the system that supplied mana to the world.
It was also the device that kept the huge rock with the research tower floating in the sky. This rock received mana through a magic antenna. But when the network shut down, the giant rock fell from the sky and landed on this island.
Al didn't fully understand why the Mana transmission network stopped working. At that time, many believed that an earthquake had damaged the system supplying mana.
What he didn't know was that the mana generation device had a backup mechanism to create mana from solar energy.
Unfortunately, when dark, cloudy days lingered, it couldn't work properly. As a result, many magical devices and tools in the town became unusable in just a few days.
Al and Patricia looked at each other and tilted their heads. It was inconvenient that the magic tools couldn't be used, but was it really that serious?
"The first problem was the water and air conditioning. Back then, clean water was drawn up from underground by a magic device, and another tool kept the temperature inside the buildings just right."
She paused, the weight of her words evident, before she added,
"But both of these systems failed. The water ran out, and the town was soon buried under falling snow. In hindsight, it would have been wiser to draw water from the nearby river and burn wood for warmth, but the people were unaccustomed to such methods and lacked the necessary tools or environment to adapt."
It felt like the king suddenly came to a village in a freezing land and had to start farming by himself. It must have been really tough to suddenly change environments.
"Wasn't there any stored magic stone? Are there no other magicians who can use the 'Magic Power Control' spell?"
Al asked. Was the mana supplied by the mana transmission network really that important?"
"The stored magic stones were almost completely depleted within two weeks, except for the emergency supplies. Only a few people could use the 'Magic Power Control' spell, and that wasn't enough to give everyone the magic they needed."
She paused for a moment, then continued.
"Things got worse really fast. As safety disappeared, the clans started to fight over the little food and water they had left."
With a sigh, she continued, "So, the clan leaders made a tough choice: they decided to leave their town and go south. A magician who had checked the south reported that there were still sunny places, not covered by dark clouds."
"But they didn't know if they could really live there," Riana added. "They realized that because of the cold, most of their crops had died, and there was no food left for their animals. If they stayed in the town, they wouldn't survive the winter."
"Did you not think about coming to the research tower?"
Al asked next. He didn't know how many people were in the clan, but he thought that ten or 20 people could somehow manage to live in the research tower.
"At that time, around 30,000 people lived in our clan's town and nearby villages. Even if the research tower was fully working, it would have been impossible for that many people to stay there."
Riana explained, her voice thoughtful.
"Plus, with the mana transmission network down, I couldn't trust that the research tower would be safe for anyone."
Even though there were safety devices, it was indeed a miracle that the giant rock carrying the tower managed to land safely on the island. They probably didn't think they could rely on that in an emergency.
"There are also ancient ruins found around here sometimes, right? What about those?"
"Of course, before the big earthquake, our clan and others were building places all around for different reasons, not just for research," Riana explained, her tone informative. "But our clan didn't have any facilities big enough for everyone to live in."
She continued, her voice steady as she reflected on their past.
"Still, the news about those other areas with facilities gave us hope in finding a new place to settle."
Thirty thousand wandering people... It seems there were many others besides the Tempest clan who wanted to move south. Thinking about it, Al wonders how many people moved through that dark world.
"Fortunately, our clan had the golems left by Sir Tempest," Riana shared, her voice carrying a sense of relief. "We used them to carry our few belongings as we searched for a safe place. This journey lasted eight months, which is mentioned in the founding legend of Tempest. Eventually, we discovered fertile land with forests and rivers near the lake where Sir Tempest fell asleep. That's where we built a new town, marking the start of the Tempest Kingdom."
"Is that what you mean by the first year of the Tempest Kingdom calendar?"
Patricia asked. Right now, it was the 172nd year of the Sylvester Kingdom Calendar, but in the Tempest Kingdom calendar, it was said to be the 255th year. So, that event happened 255 years ago.
"That's right."
It's not so ancient to be called ancient times. However, it's easy to imagine the great hardship of having to abandon their frozen homeland when the supply of mana was cut off. Al thought about this and slowly nodded.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Donate me
Support Me with USDC
(ERC20)
Support Me with XLM
(Stellar Lumens)