71 Phase 60: Conversations

"I don't get it!" Colin fumed at Satrox, who was holding his sides too hard to jump in surprise. "It's not funny!"

Satrox couldn't hold it in any more. He burst out laughing until he had to lean on the wall for support.

Colin just gave him a scowl. For some reason, that made Satrox laugh even more.

"What?" Colin demanded.

"Oh, dear… how did this happen…? Wait. Don't tell me. I already know." Satrox gasped. "Colin, really, what's wrong?"

"You're laughing too hard." Colin growled.

"Sorry, sorry…" Satrox wiped tears from his eyes. "But you two get along so well together. You obviously like each other already. What's wrong with that?"

"Satrox, I'm not even twelve years old yet. I'm too young for that sort of thing." Colin protested.

"Are you?" Satrox thought about it. "I didn't know there was an age limit."

"Well, there {should} be!" Colin said. "I can't deal with this on top of everything else!"

"Can you deal with everything else {without} it?" Satrox asked, pointedly. "You two get a lot of support from each other. If you suddenly stopped talking to her entirely, how would you feel?"

Colin shivered. He just stood there, saying nothing, and shivered.

"See?" Satrox said.

Colin pounded his head on the wall. "Why did I say that…? {Why} did I go and…"

The announcement came over the speakers, as well as through their Traveler Watches, which also included their phones. "Our flight is boarding. We better go."

Relieved to have something to do other than blush and feel very embarrassed, Colin almost ran towards the boarding site. "Can we talk about what we need to do, now?"

"Sure." Satrox said, catching his breath. "What do you want to know?"

"Where are we going, exactly?" Colin questioned.

"We're going to the Lamico Continent." Satrox said, blinking. "Surely you remember {that} much!"

"I mean, what city? Which part of the Continent?" Colin asked.

Satrox showed him a map. "As you can see, there's pretty much only one airport, and it's right next to Lamico city itself, the capital of the whole continent."

.

Map image:

https://imgur.com/IqfMMSo

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Colin frowned. "Wait. Didn't you say we had twenty tournaments on the Lamico Continent?'

"Yep."

"But I only count ten towns, villages and cities." Colin said.

"Lamico City itself has five different Tournaments held monthly." Satrox explained. "Port Rachel has two. Then there's the five Dungeon Tournaments."

"Dungeons?" Colin stared.

Satrox pointed them out. "The Northern Ruins, the Thorny Bushes, the Deep Desert, the Creepy Mines and the Dark Forest. These will be the toughest tournaments you'll face, but your chances are actually better because they're Team Tournaments. We can invite Zoe and whoever else wants to come, or hire some local help. As long as you stay back, you should be able to make it through completely unharmed."

"What about this one?" Colin pointed.

"Lost Paradise?" Satrox laughed. "Don't even think of going there. You're almost definitely going to die."

Satrox briefed Colin on what sort of Tournaments to expect. There were quite a few, ranging from standard Singles, Duos and Teams to Highest Kill Counts and Strongest Wild Defeated (for the Dungeon Tournaments). Some Tournaments used tricky terrain, others insisted on only Direct attacks, others only on Long-Range attacks.

"It's a small continent, but don't take it lightly." Satrox warned him. "This place is actually small enough to be called an island, but it wields enough power to insist on the title of a 'continent'. Prizes are rich. Expect serious competition."

Colin had one more question. "Why is the eastern side all desert?"

"That's because of the Fire Seas season." Satrox said. "When it starts, everything on the east side gets burnt, and the soil itself is covered in salt. Nothing grows on the east side. It makes for some great pictures, though."

They arrived at the door connecting to their Transport.

"Have a nice day. Please support the Lamico Protectorate." A robot next to the door said.

"Have a nice day. Please support the Lamico Republic." The one next to it said, with a similar smile.

"Safe travels." A third one behind them added. "Please support the Lamico Union."

Colin felt that something was up with those three. He glanced around suspiciously only to realize something even weirder.

He and Satrox were the only two passengers on this flight.

"Satrox." He hissed urgently. "Something's wrong!"

"What?" Satrox asked, calmly heading in.

"We're the only two passengers!"

"So?" Satrox didn't seem surprised.

"Maybe the flight's a trap or something!"

Satrox shook his head. "It's not a trap, Colin. The Lamico Continent is having some trouble lately. Lots of people want to get out of there, only Knights like us want to head in. And most of our Knights are busy here, clearing out the Frenzieds."

"Trouble…? What sort of trouble?" Colin asked.

"Civil war." Satrox answered.

The doors behind them closed.

***

{As if I didn't have enough to worry about already!} Colin almost groaned. {My best friend wants to be my girlfriend, my Comrades could destroy entire continents if they went Frenzied, Jijin wants me to tame him 100 Wilds, Lynn wants me to do a Quest that can kill me, the Order of Justice wants me to win every Tournament on the Lamico continent, and I'm really going there just to get away from the Green Men who want to kidnap me and wipe my memory, and now the Lamico continent itself is going through civil war!}

"It's not all that bad." Satrox said, seeing Colin's face. "The civil war really is quite civil recently, and it's our doing."

"What do you mean?" Colin asked.

"Since it began, Lord Geoffrey and most of our Knights moved to stop the fighting within the cities and towns. It was our biggest concern until the Green Men Sieges. In that time, we managed to get the leaders of each faction to agree to keep fighting a kilometer away from populated areas. We even got them to leave the airport alone, but we couldn't stop them from blockading the roads from territory to territory. There's fighting, but at least they're being polite."

"But haven't most of the Knights shifted to deal with the Frenzieds?"

"Yes. We have." Satrox said. "I'm hoping the factions on Lamico will still be polite, but who knows? We still have a few busy knights on the continent, but I suspect you and I will be asked to help from time to time. We are Justice Knights ourselves, after all."

{Goodness… I nearly invited Katrin to join me in the center of a civil war…}

"There are three big factions and two small ones." Satrox continued. "As you've already heard, there's the Protectorate, the Republic, and the Union. The Protectorate holds the seaport, the towns and village north-west of Lamico City. Between Joseph Town's irrigated fields, and the fishing industries of the other three settlements, the Protectorate controls the most of the food production of the Continent. They also have the strongest military."

Colin thought about that. {Is this really Nakama World? A world where Travelers go on a wonderful journey with their Comrades? How did a world for kids end up like this?}

"The Republic holds the towns east of Lamico; Windy Plains and Silverveins. Windy Plains is rich; it's got animal farms, food processing industries and a whole lot of tourism, especially during the Fire Seas seasons. Silverveins is even richer; they mine precious metals and gems. They hire the most mercenaries."

"Food and military strength verses money and mercenaries…" Colin shook his head.

"The Union has the southern towns of Lamico." Satrox continued. "Floras, Lakeside, and Riverfork. They live off the forest and the lakes, with a few small farms for added supply. The thing is, Floras is the only source of common ores in the region. Lakeside's the biggest source of wood. They control the metal and wood, the hydroelectric power supply, and most of the vehicle industry. They have the best equipped forces. Not to mention the ability to cut off Silverveins from shipment by river."

Colin groaned. "They all have their own advantages."

"Exactly." Satrox nodded. "So far, the Protectorate's been trying to take the Republic's Windy Plains and starve Silverveins into surrender. The Republic's been trying to break through the Union's blockade of the ferry at Riverfork. The Union's been trying to keep full control of all wood supplies by attacking the lumberjacks from the Protectorate's Benjamin Town."

"What about Lamico City itself?" Colin asked. "Who controls that?"

Satrox laughed softly.

"{We} do."

***

Satrox was watching Colin very carefully.

Colin looked grim. Very grim.

{Incredible. He actually understands. Why would Colin understand such things? How did he learn it?}

"What about the fifth faction?" Colin asked then. "You mentioned two small factions; I'm assuming we're one of them. What's the fifth?"

The {fifth… }

"The Lamico Underground." Satrox said. "They're the Black Market, basically. They're selling the goods of each faction to the others at steep prices. They were just a bunch of smugglers at first, but they got rich very quickly and they're growing stronger at an unbelievable rate."

"That's… bad." Colin said. "What's the war over, anyway?"

"Power and money." Satrox told him. "Rival families wanting to dominate the others. Different idealogies. It's a war of greed and selfishness."

"So… what do you plan to do?" Colin questioned. "What should we do?"

"End it." Satrox figured.

"How?"

"The easiest answer…" Satrox said, "is to destroy the Underground. If we take {them} out, then nobody else would be able to do any fighting. They'd all end up at peace simply because they're all stuck and making big losses for nothing."

"Oh." Colin settled back. "So it's going to be investigations and detective work most of the time."

"Probably." Satrox mused. "You seem to understand all this very well. Where did you learn these things?"

Colin froze.

Satrox watched him. Colin seemed to be staring into thin air. He shook his head, and stared at his right hand.

There was a diamond shaped scar on the back of it, just above the wrist. Did it mean something?

{This is going nowhere. Colin isn't going to answer me.}

"Hey, Colin. What's your family like?" Satrox asked, changing the subject.

Colin shook himself. "Why?"

"Just asking." Satrox said. "Talking about war is not a cheerful topic, is it?"

Colin settled down. "There's five of us in the family. Dad's a professor who teaches at two different colleges. Mom loves gardening; she sells some of the best flowers around. I've got an elder sister, Kate, studying at Lunar Colony. Then there's my younger sister, Gracie, who's really irritating."

"Your dad's a professor?" Satrox mused. "What does he teach?"

"Terran history." Colin answered. "And some psychology."

{Ah. So that explains it.} "What about you?"

"Me? I'm just a student." Colin said. "I'm almost twelve. What do you expect?"

"What about sports? Clubs?" Satrox asked.

"Nothing much. Just a bit of Gravball." Colin answered. "I play as a batter."

{That doesn't explain his familiarity with his staff. Hitting gravballs across a magnetic net to the other side of the court doesn't account for knowing how to use a staff in combat.}

"What about you?" Colin asked right back.

"I tried joining the fencing club." Satrox said, thinking back. "They were trying to teach me the Mina-style of swordsmanship. I got bored and became a librarian."

Satrox was watching Colin. He noticed Colin's flicker of recognition at the name of the sword style. {Not quite just a Gravball batter, are you?}

But Colin said nothing. He just looked out the window. Colin's already stressed out. {Now isn't a good time to push him. Maybe after a tournament win, when he's happy.}

"Let's talk about Comrades." Satrox suggested. "How are their techniques doing?"

{That} topic lasted them all the rest of the way.