Chapter 64: History

Chapter 64: History

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

- George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905, 2nd Era)

“Boring.” Erec sighed, leaning on his desk as he stared at the history book in front of him. In principle, this sort of stuff should’ve been beyond compelling. It was a compilation of exploration logs and conflicts between 205-255, fifty years of Knights forging into the wastes, making discoveries, and writing reports.

Only, there were two problems.

The first problem was that the writing of Dame Jasmin was beyond stale; her descriptions and summations lacked any emotion. The matter-of-fact and dense structure of the text made forcing his eyes through its content like holding a hundred-pound weight over his head for ten minutes. It made him want to tear his eyes out. That, alone, was egregious and insulting.

What was worse and left him confused, at least one of the locations described in the text correlated to a spot marked on the android’s map. Dame Juliana described it as a ‘rusted park with tracks and rotten wood stalls.’ Nothing special to it. No mention of a ‘population center.’ He questioned if that was a lie with what he knew.

Or if the population came later, for whatever reason. But he didn’t understand what safety such a place would provide.

The information made him doubt the accuracy of the report or this book, and that distrust spread to the rest of the text.

Erec flipped to another page; this section was particularly rough as it dived deeper into the western expeditions; his eyes glazed.

[Turn back the page.]

“Why?”The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

[Humor me.]

Erec turned back the section, scanning the words. It detailed Sir Pompey’s journey westward—one of the furthest ones, with a bit of a north bearing. The android’s map hadn’t included details about where Sir Pompey claimed to go, at least that Erec could recall.

Dame Juliana summarized his discovery of a massive canyon, the bottom of which seemed to be filled with a yellow-hued fog. Without wanting to test his, at the time, limited respiratory air converter, he decided it to be a fine enough discovery. He returned shortly after months of travel and made the report.

From what Erec saw, it wasn’t anything exciting. Another Knight later confirmed its existence and cautioned avoiding it, citing the fog to have unnaturally acidic properties.

“Why did you want me to go back?”

[This is what was known as the ‘Great Canyons,’ I find it intriguing to consider and process what might’ve occurred.]

“...That’s not all there is to it, is there?”

[Nonsense, buckeroo. Get back to your studying. I expect their tactics against the Mill-Draggers on the return journey to be on your exam.]

Erec slammed the book closed, his eyes burning a hole into its surface. That resentment—not even having his own body and choices to himself, with those artificial eyes always hanging over his shoulder, pulling its shady shit whenever it saw fit. It never really provided any answers. No. He couldn’t keep going like this, couldn’t keep going on letting it cling to him and use him.

“You got lonely?”

[Don’t be ridiculous. It’s simple conjecture that the absence of humans led to the exasperation of some hidden subroutine. My directives don’t allow me to intentionally modify my own software.]

Erec stared at the book on the ground. “Why are you so interested in that textbook, VAL? Why did you mention something about that expedition where they found the canyon? I want the truth, this time. If you lie—I...” He didn’t know what he’d do.

[There are Vortex Industries facilities further toward the west coast. I’ve been trying to determine an ideal route to take to reach a particular one in California. There’s research there that poses a potential answer to a query I’ve been trying to analyze.]

“And? I suppose that research is ‘above my clearance?’”

[After displaying that recording to you, have you wondered where your Goddess came from?]

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

Classes were halved, though many instructors shifted the coursework to the Initiates. They forced the students to do independent research accompanied by challenging assignments to compensate.

Necessity was king. Over the first week back in classes, the military sent forces to the Academy to conduct joint military exercises. They didn’t have Armor. Their knowledge and Virtues were, on average, below the higher-level Knights.

That only made them ideal training companions for the initiates. It was vital to learn to operate within their Order while complementing the military units on a battlefield. In a way, Erec quickly came to know that most military units treasured their support.

The power disparity between the average Knight and soldier wasn’t to say that all of them were weak. No, the higher echelons of the military were often composed of Knights who’d held a high ranking in their Order. These Knights eventually retired to a domestic military career.

Garin explained to Erec that the army was directly tied to the throne's power. This chain of command afforded certain luxuries and political connections otherwise unavailable to a Knight.

There was also a rumor that circulated as he trained. Apparently, the Unbroken General would take to the field at the royal family's request to lead the hunt against the White Stag.

The soldiers spoke his name in awe. He was the last one to slay a Cataclysm-Level threat, after all. Though, the Grandmasters and a couple of Master Knights should be capable of the same feat, or so Erec theorized.

Truthfully, nobody knew what the White Stag was capable of. Especially in direct conflict. Its threat level was determined by hypothesis and the association of being capable of opening a Rift; that potential alone meant it might free a Cataclysm-Level or worse. And do so near the wall before there was any time to respond.

More than once, Erec fell asleep with that dream pouring through his head—of the monster letting loose creatures that tore apart every man, woman, and child in the Kingdom.

So, he prepared. He worked his body more and trained his mind as it allowed, refraining from incorporating Fury until two weeks passed.

During one of his military drills with the Third Centuria, Gwen tracked him down.

They were to report to Boldwick’s office with Dame Robin. A place the man scarcely left since they’d returned from the expedition.

Erec bid the soldiers farewell and made his way to the office, scared of what he might find inside.