Chapter 9: Anecdote Broadcast (III)

"Placement." I replied, regardless of my reluctance to partake in the conversation.

"Ah yes!" His squint eyes gleamed with excitement before realising the current setting and reverted back. "Placement is what feels weird."

"Quit playing with words, ya bastards. Explain in clear—oh shit, it makes sense." Michael suddenly came to a realisation. "If the worlds really were divided into two back then, why is that one frontier right in the middle of Helsinki?!"

About time he realised it as well. The room seemed to erupt as everyone started to argue about it. 

As they were talking, I turned my neck back, facing Astrid. She simply raised a brow at me. 

"What do you think about it?"

Her eyes widened, and then looked around before frowning. "Are you seriously asking me?"

"Is there anything wrong with asking you?" 

She looked around nervously before settling her sky-like eyes on me. "No- I mean, I was just made aware that everything I saw in anime was not wrong. Honestly, I am having a mid-life crisis right now."

"You're 15, Astrid."

"16."

"Not yet."

"Ughh-" She grumbled. As I kept looking at her, she let out a resigned sigh. "–I don't knowwwww… maybe like some areas having denser Arcanum amount-"

As she was about to finish her sentence, Dotun slammed his fist on the table. 

"That's right! Of course! Why didn't I think of it before?" He spoke with the excitement of a mad scientist. The small congregation of nanites extended from his arms and latched itself on the table before the small floating screens that carried pictures—most likely being projected from his memories—changed into a huge floating blue screen. 

Clicking on some random things a few times—which were not exactly random. It was just that I was too dumb to understand what this crazy life form was doing—two globes appeared on the screen. 

"Voila. This is it." He spoke, placing one hand on his waist while he gave Astrid a thumbs up with the other. "You're a genius, uhhh—"

"Ehm, Astrid." 

"Yes. You're a genius, Astrid!" 

I have not seen this peculiar creature get this excited ever before. It's uncanny. It almost makes my bones go cold. Also why does he need to know her name again? Didn't he meet her two years ago? Well I guess nothing catches his eye other than smart people who can be of help to his many researches. 

"Thank yo– Wait, what did I do again?" 

"Oh please, don't be modest. You solved our dilemma in a second. No wonder this fu- Arthur won't replace you with a practical guard. It all makes sense!"

"H-Huh!?" She looked at me desperately, stumbling over her words. The look in her eyes was pleading for something. 

There seems to be a very steep misunderstanding. Not that I am going to clear it. If anything–

"You're right. She has a knack for such things."

"That's what I am saying!"

—I am going to fan this misunderstanding. 

Why?

Well, I don't know. I am just bored and I don't think my life is going to get exciting any time soon. Unless I make it spicy myself. Which my lazy self would never. 

"I see." Maria hummed to herself. 

I have no idea what she suddenly "sees" but I will pretend I never heard her say that to herself. She'd most likely cringe over it if I told her that.

"That does seem like a plausible theory. And I can't really find an argument to it." Yuki agreed as well. 

"No objections here as well." Zara raised her hand. 

"Well I have no argument saying it's wrong. However, I have a question. If the two worlds were once the same and they're integrating back, how come they're replacing landmass? Shouldn't they just magically integrate with each other? Something is fishy, the more you think more about it." Trisha added her own thoughts. "What do you think, Finn?" She turned her head towards the usually cheerful boy who had been quiet since the beginning. 

Looking up with droopy eyes that had red streaks into it, he shrugged before looking back down. "I am blank. Cant think."

"Sorry…" Trisha's voice trailed off, apologising. 

"Dumb girl. Can't ya see he's mourning." Michael raised his voice, his sudden utterance making Trisha flinch for a flying second before a frown formed on her face. 

"Oh yeah? And letting him sulk and blame himself as he falls deeper and deeper into guilt is a better idea, right, Mr. Know-it-all?"

"Oh shut up with the theatrics." Michael waved her off like swatting away a bug. "Talking to you suffocates my breath. Begone with your ugly thoughts and looks. And opinions."

"Michael. You might want to choose your words carefully when you talk to my sister." Zara suddenly stood up from her seat. 

"Woah, shit really is going down!" With a hushed, yet somewhat… excited? Whisper, Astrid spoke. 

This girl… 

"Or what, huh? Two twigs don't make a stronger twig. I'll fucking snap you in half before you know it. Pipe down."

Dotun and Finn looked at the two sisters with a worry-filled gaze and then at Michael. However, they didn't talk to stop it. The guards were on edge as well, thinking a scuffle is bound to happen. 

Well, I guess this is good for a change of pace as well. It's been a long time since I have seen Michael… or well, anyone fight. All I need right now is a cup of coffee and I will be living my drea—- NOOO. The sun is gone. 

I hope these three kill each other as compensation for making me miss my lovely sunlight.

Damn it!

"Michael!" Zara stood up, her chair skidding against the carpet and then falling backwards. 

Her guard behind her tensed up. 

Maria cast one look back at me. 

Don't look at me like that. I am not going to stop them. 

Shrugging with my shoulders, I closed my eyes and looked the other way. Let's pretend I never saw her asking me to stop the fight. 

"Zara." Trisha called out from behind her sister. "No fighting, remember?"

"I am sorry from his side. Please calm down." Finn added, standing between the two. 

Michael was still confidently sitting in his chair, his legs wide open while smiling, as if mocking her in every imaginable way. "Say whatever you want, I am sorry to absolutely nobody. Y'all can go fuck yourselves."

Looking away, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, her chest rising upwards as she did. "Stupid grease gobbler." 

"Heh. Children these days." He shook his head, like a disappointed parent. 

Zara didn't react to it. I think the joke flew above her head but from what I can see, he was clearly mocking her chest that was no different than a wall. It was quite obvious since the person saying this was Michael. 

I mean, putting bias aside, she really was flat enough that placing your head over her chest might result in a crack or two to your cranium. 

Totally opposite to her own twin sister. Nevermind those things. 

"Can we please stop fighting for just a few minutes? We were just getting to the important part!" Maria raised her voice. 

"Oh shut up granny—" 

Michael was about to talk but the little nanites extended from Dotun's hand and latched on to his lips, zipping them close. 

"Sorry my dear friend, but we are in the middle of a breakthrough. Please, shut up. For the sake of everything that's holy to you." Dotun seemed frustrated. 

Makes sense. Mad scientists like him are quite sensitive during breakthroughs. 

Michael effortlessly ripped the machine apart and then threw it to the ground as the nanites gave out a dying buzz before shutting down. 

"Whatever. Wrap it up."

"I— We would. If you were to stay silent."

"Yeah, yeah, Dexter. I got it."

Why do I think I've heard that name before? 

Oh well. Nevermind. I don't have a good memory anyways. Thinking too much over it might burn me out. 

Dotun turned around and faced Astrid once again, flashing his teeth in a wide glee. "Oh, so where were we?" Scratching his head once, he looked back at the hovering screen. "Ah, yes! Arcanum amount fluctuations. What do you think about it?"

I looked back at her. Underneath the few freckles was a rosy tint of red lining her porcelain skin, embarrassed out of her mind as her gaze darted from Dotun to me and then back at him. She scowled at me, motioning with her irises to help her out of this situation. 

"He asked you something, Astrid. You were talking about something."

"I can't believe you've been oppressing such a smart human." Dotun said dramatically. "Give her the permission to talk."

"Uhhh–" Whoopsie. Looks like he got the wrong idea from my teasing. "—I…" 

I was about to talk when Astrid spoke up for the first time. 

"Arthur is not like that." Compared to the previous meek and embarrassed voice, her words came out confident backed with a sharp gaze. 

Makes me shed a tear hearing someone talk good about me. 

"Oh? I am sorry for assuming." He backed away, however, despite the respect he was giving Astrid—which was mostly because of a misunderstanding—his patience was also reaching its breaking point.

"Would you mind expanding on what you said earlier?" He asked, his brow twitching. "If you do, we can adjourn this meeting for today." He continued, taking a step towards us. 

Pulling the extra tucked away chairs, he placed it beside me and directed his arm towards it. "Have a seat." He said as he walked away to his original spot. 

Astrid walked in front of me and then sat on the chair that was placed just between me and Maria. Tucking her skirt gracefully, she sat down and jerked her head backwards once, making the single ponytail on her left side sway a few times, whereas the rest of her hair was resting on her other shoulder.

"Time to bullshit my way out of this." She whispered to herself. 

"Pardon?" Dotun snapped in her direction, almost like she was a fountain of knowledge and not a single word that left her lips was to be left unrecorded. 

"Eh—-- I- I didn't mean that. Actually— I did…" Stammering on her words, she continued to awkwardly fidget with her thumbs. 

Oh yeah… I just remembered. She's really anti-social. 

(Oopsie number 2)

"She said she's really tired and wants it to be over soon." I replied in her stead. "Or else she'd forget whatever theory she had in mind."

"Ohhhh… well I won't take much of your time then. Just share your thoughts on whatever you said a while ago."

Astrid turned her head towards me and while everyone was looking at her. 

Well, well, well… this is a rather serious situation now that I look at it. 

They'd pounce on her if they knew she was just blabbering nonsense. 

"Eep–!"Slipping one hand behind her back, I gently patted her a few times. I could feel the sleek outline of her body, despite the thick cream-coloured sweater she was wearing on top of her white coloured shirt of which collars were poking out from the top of the sweater. 

Although she did squeal a little, no one really noted what I was doing. A spark jolted between my fingers, raising goosebumps all over my body. Transferring it seamlessly through the layers of insulant clothing, I somehow made it make contact with her body. 

It was a seed. 

A small seed of an idea. 

In the matter of a few seconds, Astrid suddenly started talking. 

"Those frontiers... since the terminology used so far in scriptures was "stripped away" rather than just being magically separated, it's possible that in the process of mending itself back, some areas are too damaged to be joined back. This perhaps might be caused by some space distortion in that region which was later filled in with the Patron Gods' divinity. So those places from Eden are finding their place inside our land, however, that is already lost while they "stripped" Earth away from Eden. So instead of mending back, it's fighting for domination. Addition of landmass in some, and subtraction in some."

She said it one fell swoop.